It has always been a struggle to determine what Donald Trump is proposing, as he changes his positions so often that it difficult to square what he says one day with what he said the day or months before. A classic illustration of how quickly Trump changes positions on issues came when in the course of a day, a woman who has an abortion should suffer a penalty translated to that same person being a "victim."
The initial attempt for a surrogate to offer a way to interpret Trump probably came when spokeswoman Hope Hicks said that what Trump says should not be taken literally, but figuratively. Very recently, a surrogate was trying to explain why Trump has not held a news conference since July 2016, when Trump had blasted Hillary Clinton for not holding press conferences. The surrogate started out by arguing that Donald Trump was a very precise person, who gathers his facts together before giving them out to the public. The interviewer then said that the Trump campaign had previously advised the public to take Trump seriously, not literally The surrogate replied that it was figuratively, not literally, but his own advice was to take him "symbolically."
Kellyanne Conway, the new special adviser to Donald Trump, has had to twist herself into a pretzel many times while trying to explain away what Trump was saying since she joined his campaign team. I believe it was during the six-day period beginning with August 20, when Trump was debating with himself about whether he was softening or hardening his position on immigration, that Kellyanne finally had enough of trying to explain Trump's position, and simply advised everyone to "stay tuned."
An excerpted video of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow interview of Kellyanne provides an insight into Kellyanne's spin technique in defending the indefensible regarding Donald Trump:
Maddow started the segment by playing a big lie in Donald Trump's post-election stump speech:
"How about when a major anchor who hosted a debate started crying when she realized we won," Donald Trump said lyingly. "No, tell me this isn't true."
Rachel Marrow corrected the record.
"We know from the number of times he's told that story that he is talking about Martha Raddatz," Maddow said to Conway. "Martha Raddatz did not, in fact, cry on election night. She did not say, 'No tell me this isn't true.' There were no tears streaming down her face. What I am bothered by is the way he is singling her out. Not just with wrong information but singling her out. Is this how even a reporter like Martha Raddatz is going to be treated by this president?"
"No. And I would have updates, but they are privately held," Conway said. "We've been discussing this with ABC News. I've talked to the president of ABC News directly, and I have talked to the president-elect. And look, we all have enormous respect for Martha Raddatz as a journalist. ... I would like to broaden the conversation if I may in terms of..."
Rachel did not allow her to spin away.
"But wait. Are we going to get an apology from the president-elect on that?" Maddow forcefully asked. "He is telling a story about her that is not true and telling it to great effect and having people jeer her. Will he correct this?"
"So apologies like this are not made publicly necessarily," Kellyanne responded.
"But the accusation was made publicly," said Maddow.
"So the accusation was made by a number of people," Kellyanne said. "I am just telling you I've got an update to what you presented there. That's all I will say. And it will make you happy."
"Just to stay specific to Martha Raddatz here," Maddow said. "He did say something about her publicly that isn't true and until he corrects it publicly, the people who heard him say it will continue to believe a untrue thing about a woman who doesn't deserve it. I will just make that case to you."
What has spoken to me most forcefully about the smallness of Kellyanne Conway's character is her characterization as "magnanimous," Donald Trump's post-election announcement that he will not seek a special prosecutor for Hillary Clinton. Trump spent an entire campaign trying to criminalize Clinton. There is that indelible image of him leaving his podium in one of the debates, looming over Clinton, and telling her that one of the first things he would do if elected president would be to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her criminal behavior. And what criminal behavior is Trump alluding to?
Benghazi was an obsessive Republican vendetta against Clinton, in which multiple investigations found no evidence of criminal behavior. Giving well-paid speeches to Wall Street was likely a mistake in judgment but was not in any way criminal behavior. Her use of a private email server while secretary of state was extensively investigated by the FBI and no laws were found to be broken. Although quid pro quos were alleged in the operation of the Clinton Foundation, no smoking guns were found to have been fired. When a quid pro quo seemed to have been found by CBS News in an exchange of emails between an FBI agent and a member of Clinton's staff, anchor Scott Pelley had to appear the next night, and, like a whipped puppy, disavow the previous night's contention. If, however, statutes of limitations had not protected Donald Trump from sexual assault charges and business practices that may have exceeded lawful bounds, then we may have had a story with legs.
ADDENDUMS:
*The Pentagon has buried a study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste, fearing slashing of its budget. The Pentagon is spending about a quarter of its budget on overhead and core business operations, such as accounting, human resources, logistics and property management.
*Donald Trump wants to cancel a contract with Boeing to build a new Air Force One, saying it will cost over $4 billion. Boeing has a $170 million contract to design a replacement. If the contract with Boeing is canceled, the most logical manufacturer to build a new Air Force One is Airbus of France.
*In the presidential campaign, Donald Trump stated of intelligence agents: "I won't use them, because they've made such bad decisions."
Friday, December 30, 2016
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Rise of he Surveillance State
October 2001: Six weeks after 9/11, President Bush signs the USA Patriot Act, which weakens protections against government collection of Americans' communications and personal records.
February 2002: The New York Times reveals that the Pentagon is "developing technologies to give federal officials instant access to vast new surveillance and information analysis systems." Following an outcry from civil libertarians, the Total Information Awareness program is eventually shut down.
March 2004: White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and chief of staff Andrew Card corner Attorney General John Ashcroft in his hospital room, pressuring him to extend the National Security Agency's secret warrantless wiretapping program. The program will be revealed to the public a year and a half later by the New York Times.
March 2006: The Patriot Act is reauthorized.
May 2006: USA Today reports the NSA has been tracking millions of Americans' phone calls with the help of major telecom companies. A few weeks later a former AT&T technician reveals that the company let the NSA tap into its fiber-optic lines in 2002, enabling it to broadly monitor internet and phone traffic in the United States.
September 2007: Microsoft becomes the first major internet firm to cooperate with the NSA's PRISM program, allowing the NSA to collect data on search history, email, file transfers, and live chats. Over the next few years, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and others become part of the program, which won't be revealed to the public until 2013.
July 2008: Bush signs the FISA Amendments Act, which retroactively codifies the warrantless wiretapping program and compels telecoms and internet firms to give the government access to private communications if one party is "reasonably believed" to be outside the United States. It also gives retroactive immunity to telecoms that handed over customers' private data without a warrant.
January 2009: Google begins giving user data to the NSA under the PRISM program.
June 2009: A federal judge upholds the FISA provision giving telecoms retroactive immunity. The same day, Facebook starts participating in the PRISM program.
March 2010: A federal judge rules that the NSA warrantless wiretapping program is illegal, the second time the program has been found unlawful in federal court. Like the earlier ruling, the decision is later overturned on a technicality.
May 2011: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who as a member of he intelligence committee has access to classified materials, warns: "When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry."
April-May 2112: A part of a leak investigation, the Department of Justice secretly obtains two months of phone records from multiple Associated Press offices and reporters. The AP's top executive calls it a "massive and unprecedented intrusion into the newsgathering process."
July 2012: In a letter to Wyden, the Office of Director of National intelligence (DNI) acknowledges that some NSA activities have "circumvented the spirit of the law." It also concedes that a federal judge determined some NSA activities to be in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
December 2012: Obama signs a five-year extension of the FISA Act. Amendments that would provide more oversight of mass surveillance are defeated in the Senate.
March 2013: Wyden asks DNI chief James Clapper in a congressional hearing if the NSA collects any information on millions of Americans. Clapper says no.
June 2013: Citing leaked documents from national contractor Edward Snowden, the Guardian reports the NSA has been collecting millions of Verizon customers' call data. A day later, the Guardian and the Washington Post reveal the existence of PRISM. Questions about the revelations, Clapper admits that he lied in his congressional testimony.
August 15, 2303: Based on more Snowden documents, the Post reports that the NSA has "broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year" since 2008, Wyden and Mark Udall (D-COLO.) say the reported violations are "just the tip of a larger iceberg."
August 29, 2013: The Post publishes details of the United States' $52.6 billion intelligence "black budget," more that $18 billion of which is dedicated to CIA and NSA data collection and analysis operations.
September 5, 2013: The New York Times, the Guardian, and Propublica report that the NSA has engineered ways to crack the average person's "everyday communications in the Internet age."
September 9, 2013: Der Spiegel reports that the NSA has the ability to bypass security features of iPhones, Android devices, and BlackBerrys, allowing it to access users' contacts, location data, photos, and possibly credit card numbers and passwords. (Source: AJ Vicens, "Rise of the Surveillance State," Mother Jones, November/December 2013.)
February 2002: The New York Times reveals that the Pentagon is "developing technologies to give federal officials instant access to vast new surveillance and information analysis systems." Following an outcry from civil libertarians, the Total Information Awareness program is eventually shut down.
March 2004: White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and chief of staff Andrew Card corner Attorney General John Ashcroft in his hospital room, pressuring him to extend the National Security Agency's secret warrantless wiretapping program. The program will be revealed to the public a year and a half later by the New York Times.
March 2006: The Patriot Act is reauthorized.
May 2006: USA Today reports the NSA has been tracking millions of Americans' phone calls with the help of major telecom companies. A few weeks later a former AT&T technician reveals that the company let the NSA tap into its fiber-optic lines in 2002, enabling it to broadly monitor internet and phone traffic in the United States.
September 2007: Microsoft becomes the first major internet firm to cooperate with the NSA's PRISM program, allowing the NSA to collect data on search history, email, file transfers, and live chats. Over the next few years, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and others become part of the program, which won't be revealed to the public until 2013.
July 2008: Bush signs the FISA Amendments Act, which retroactively codifies the warrantless wiretapping program and compels telecoms and internet firms to give the government access to private communications if one party is "reasonably believed" to be outside the United States. It also gives retroactive immunity to telecoms that handed over customers' private data without a warrant.
January 2009: Google begins giving user data to the NSA under the PRISM program.
June 2009: A federal judge upholds the FISA provision giving telecoms retroactive immunity. The same day, Facebook starts participating in the PRISM program.
March 2010: A federal judge rules that the NSA warrantless wiretapping program is illegal, the second time the program has been found unlawful in federal court. Like the earlier ruling, the decision is later overturned on a technicality.
May 2011: Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who as a member of he intelligence committee has access to classified materials, warns: "When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry."
April-May 2112: A part of a leak investigation, the Department of Justice secretly obtains two months of phone records from multiple Associated Press offices and reporters. The AP's top executive calls it a "massive and unprecedented intrusion into the newsgathering process."
July 2012: In a letter to Wyden, the Office of Director of National intelligence (DNI) acknowledges that some NSA activities have "circumvented the spirit of the law." It also concedes that a federal judge determined some NSA activities to be in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
December 2012: Obama signs a five-year extension of the FISA Act. Amendments that would provide more oversight of mass surveillance are defeated in the Senate.
March 2013: Wyden asks DNI chief James Clapper in a congressional hearing if the NSA collects any information on millions of Americans. Clapper says no.
June 2013: Citing leaked documents from national contractor Edward Snowden, the Guardian reports the NSA has been collecting millions of Verizon customers' call data. A day later, the Guardian and the Washington Post reveal the existence of PRISM. Questions about the revelations, Clapper admits that he lied in his congressional testimony.
August 15, 2303: Based on more Snowden documents, the Post reports that the NSA has "broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year" since 2008, Wyden and Mark Udall (D-COLO.) say the reported violations are "just the tip of a larger iceberg."
August 29, 2013: The Post publishes details of the United States' $52.6 billion intelligence "black budget," more that $18 billion of which is dedicated to CIA and NSA data collection and analysis operations.
September 5, 2013: The New York Times, the Guardian, and Propublica report that the NSA has engineered ways to crack the average person's "everyday communications in the Internet age."
September 9, 2013: Der Spiegel reports that the NSA has the ability to bypass security features of iPhones, Android devices, and BlackBerrys, allowing it to access users' contacts, location data, photos, and possibly credit card numbers and passwords. (Source: AJ Vicens, "Rise of the Surveillance State," Mother Jones, November/December 2013.)
Thursday, December 1, 2016
The Contemptuous Media Assault on Hillary Clinton
Harvard's Shorenstein Center's study of the media coverage of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton found that in 2015 Trump received far more "good press" than "bad press; also, in 2015, the GOP race received twice the coverage of the Democratic race. In 11 of the 12 months in 2015, Clinton's "bad news" outpaced her "good news," usually by a "wide margin." From January 1 through December 31, 2015, only 28% of Clinton's media coverage revolved around her stance on key issues and 84% was negative. In contrast, 43% of Trump's coverage was negative.
The Shorenstein Center also found that Hillary Clinton's coverage was "substantially more negative" than that of Bernie Sanders, although Sanders got "much less" coverage than Clinton.
Hillary's e-mails were deemed important by the media but it didn't help news consumers make sense of the issue, what harm was caused and how her e-mails compared with those of other high elected officials.
Thomas Patterson of the Los Angeles Times found in his analysis that 91% of the Clinton e-mail-related news reports were negative in tone.
Since I watched both CBS and ABC evening news virtually every night during the presidential campaign, it was very clear to me that their reporters had instructions to root through that day's release of Clinton e-mails and find one or two that were damaging to Clinton. Even when the e-mails were not damaging when seriously examined, they were handled, as Thomas Patterson notes, in a negative tone. One example of this occurred when CBS's anchor, Scott Pelley, ran a clip supposedly exposing a quid pro quo between a F.B.I. official and a Clinton staffer, a dog-whipped Pelley had to retract the report the following evening.
A classic of the negative spin applied to coverage of Hillary Clinton was when CBS did a negative piece on Donald Trump and then did the teaser: "But it wasn't such a good day for Hillary Clinton either." Zounds! I thought. Hold the presses! Another damaging Hillary e-mail. No, the news was of a poll showing Hillary with an unfavorable rating of 59%. And what was Trump's unfavorable rating in the same poll? It was 60%.
Jeffrey Toobin nails down Donald Trump in one economical sentence; then relates faults of Hillary Clinton; followed by a description of how the deck was stacked against Hillary. "Trump is a serial liar, a shady businessman, a bigot, and a self-proclaimed abuser of women; Clinton has a sometimes unsteady relationship with the truth and a faulty devotion to information security. Media attention focused almost exclusively on these traits, rather than on, say, what either might actually do as president. That was followed by a cascade of leaks from the F.B.I., which was a rich irony, since the whole controversy supposedly involved Clinton's inability to keep secrets."
Toobin describes the letter from F.B.I. Director James Comey, informing relevant committees of Congress of an investigation of Anthony Weiner's e-mails, a third party not involved in national security matters, "as a much appreciated gift to the Trump campaign." Toobin says the letter was "outrageous for many reasons, starting with the fact that Comey violated Department of Justice policy by sending it. As a rule, prosecutors and investigators are supposed to refrain from offering updates on pending investigations."
"As Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee put it, 'Assuming she wins and the investigation comes forward, and it looks like an indictment is pending, at that point in time, under the Constitution, the House of Representatives would engage in an impeachment trial." Jeffrey Toobin concludes: "A politics based on pursuit and accusation, rather than on reason and compromise, will address none of these problems." (Source: Jeffrey Toobin, "Another Round," The New Yorker, November 14, 2016.)
The Shorenstein Center also found that Hillary Clinton's coverage was "substantially more negative" than that of Bernie Sanders, although Sanders got "much less" coverage than Clinton.
Hillary's e-mails were deemed important by the media but it didn't help news consumers make sense of the issue, what harm was caused and how her e-mails compared with those of other high elected officials.
Thomas Patterson of the Los Angeles Times found in his analysis that 91% of the Clinton e-mail-related news reports were negative in tone.
Since I watched both CBS and ABC evening news virtually every night during the presidential campaign, it was very clear to me that their reporters had instructions to root through that day's release of Clinton e-mails and find one or two that were damaging to Clinton. Even when the e-mails were not damaging when seriously examined, they were handled, as Thomas Patterson notes, in a negative tone. One example of this occurred when CBS's anchor, Scott Pelley, ran a clip supposedly exposing a quid pro quo between a F.B.I. official and a Clinton staffer, a dog-whipped Pelley had to retract the report the following evening.
A classic of the negative spin applied to coverage of Hillary Clinton was when CBS did a negative piece on Donald Trump and then did the teaser: "But it wasn't such a good day for Hillary Clinton either." Zounds! I thought. Hold the presses! Another damaging Hillary e-mail. No, the news was of a poll showing Hillary with an unfavorable rating of 59%. And what was Trump's unfavorable rating in the same poll? It was 60%.
Jeffrey Toobin nails down Donald Trump in one economical sentence; then relates faults of Hillary Clinton; followed by a description of how the deck was stacked against Hillary. "Trump is a serial liar, a shady businessman, a bigot, and a self-proclaimed abuser of women; Clinton has a sometimes unsteady relationship with the truth and a faulty devotion to information security. Media attention focused almost exclusively on these traits, rather than on, say, what either might actually do as president. That was followed by a cascade of leaks from the F.B.I., which was a rich irony, since the whole controversy supposedly involved Clinton's inability to keep secrets."
Toobin describes the letter from F.B.I. Director James Comey, informing relevant committees of Congress of an investigation of Anthony Weiner's e-mails, a third party not involved in national security matters, "as a much appreciated gift to the Trump campaign." Toobin says the letter was "outrageous for many reasons, starting with the fact that Comey violated Department of Justice policy by sending it. As a rule, prosecutors and investigators are supposed to refrain from offering updates on pending investigations."
"As Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee put it, 'Assuming she wins and the investigation comes forward, and it looks like an indictment is pending, at that point in time, under the Constitution, the House of Representatives would engage in an impeachment trial." Jeffrey Toobin concludes: "A politics based on pursuit and accusation, rather than on reason and compromise, will address none of these problems." (Source: Jeffrey Toobin, "Another Round," The New Yorker, November 14, 2016.)
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Some Takes on Donald Trump's Misogyny and the Threats He Poses
I. Donald Trump's Misogyny Defined
1.) "We picked a President whose ex-wife once testified that he ripped out her hair and raped her, a man who's been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by almost two dozen women, a man whose own words corroborate his accuser's claims." (Jia Tolentino, in the November 21, 2016 The New Yorker.)
2.) "Trump's descriptions and treatment of women didn't seem to bother them." One woman told the reporter, Peter Hessler: "I'm a strong enough woman." Hessler writes that he "often heard similar comments from female Trump supporters -- in their eyes, it was a show of strength to ignore the candidate's crudeness and transgressions, because only the weak would react with outrage." (Peter Hessler in the November 21, 2016 The New Yorker.)
There are at least two problems with this approach: a.) a number of strong women did come out to no discernible effect; and b.) a number of women are afraid to come out, because they will not be believed or even savagely attacked.
3.) A woman named Reem Razek said: "When I saw the women who were defending him after the pussy-grabbing comments, it reminded me so much of the women in the Muslim Brotherhood who'd defend bad things that the Brotherhood guys did. They'd say, 'Men and women are different, and we have to accept that we're the weaker sex." "I think a lot of women struggle with the Stockholm-syndrome thing." ( In the November 21, 2016 The New Yorker.)
4.) "There are dozens of reasons why Trump won, but misogyny was a big part of it." "As "Vok" reported, one of the biggest predictors of Trump support was 'hostile sexism...'" "Those white women, like the rest of us, now live in a country where the public humiliation of women has the White House seal of approval." "Repressing women in the name of purifying a decadent culture is always part of the package, as it was in the fascist states of the 1930s." (Katha Pollitt, in the December 5/12, 2016 The Nation.)
II. Some Foreign Policy and Domestic Threats Trump Poses
1.) A recruitment video released in January by Al Shabaab, the East African militant group allied with Al Qaeda, showed Trump calling for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.: the video warned, "Tomorrow, it will be a land of religious discrimination and concentration camps."
2.) A Gift to Iran
Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has called Trump's vow to kill the Iran nuclear deal "a gift to Iran." "The hard-line forces in Iran are looking for a way in which this deal can unravel, but they won't be blamed for it." "This would be their ideal solution.The Iranians would say, 'You've abrogated your end , so we're going to reconstitute our nuclear program.'"
3.) The Economist Intelligence Unit, an economic-and-geopolitical-analysis firm, has ranked the prospect of a Trump victory on its top-ten risks to the global economy.
4.) Anthony Karydakis, the chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak, an asset manager, has warned that a Trump victory is now generally regarded as "a major destabilizing development for financial markets." Karydakis added: "If he ever even alludes to renegotiating the debt, we will have a downgrade of U.S. debt, and that event will cause a massive exodus of foreign investors from the U.S. Treasury market."
5.) The American Action Forum, a conservative Washington think tank, ran budget projections of Trump's plan: raids on farms, restaurants, factories, and construction sites would require more than ninety thousand"'apprehension personnel" -- six times the number of special agents in the F.B.I. Beds for captured men, women and children would reach 348,831, nearly triple the detention space required for the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War.
The report estimated the total cost at six hundred billion dollars, which it judged financially imprudent.
1.) "We picked a President whose ex-wife once testified that he ripped out her hair and raped her, a man who's been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by almost two dozen women, a man whose own words corroborate his accuser's claims." (Jia Tolentino, in the November 21, 2016 The New Yorker.)
2.) "Trump's descriptions and treatment of women didn't seem to bother them." One woman told the reporter, Peter Hessler: "I'm a strong enough woman." Hessler writes that he "often heard similar comments from female Trump supporters -- in their eyes, it was a show of strength to ignore the candidate's crudeness and transgressions, because only the weak would react with outrage." (Peter Hessler in the November 21, 2016 The New Yorker.)
There are at least two problems with this approach: a.) a number of strong women did come out to no discernible effect; and b.) a number of women are afraid to come out, because they will not be believed or even savagely attacked.
3.) A woman named Reem Razek said: "When I saw the women who were defending him after the pussy-grabbing comments, it reminded me so much of the women in the Muslim Brotherhood who'd defend bad things that the Brotherhood guys did. They'd say, 'Men and women are different, and we have to accept that we're the weaker sex." "I think a lot of women struggle with the Stockholm-syndrome thing." ( In the November 21, 2016 The New Yorker.)
4.) "There are dozens of reasons why Trump won, but misogyny was a big part of it." "As "Vok" reported, one of the biggest predictors of Trump support was 'hostile sexism...'" "Those white women, like the rest of us, now live in a country where the public humiliation of women has the White House seal of approval." "Repressing women in the name of purifying a decadent culture is always part of the package, as it was in the fascist states of the 1930s." (Katha Pollitt, in the December 5/12, 2016 The Nation.)
II. Some Foreign Policy and Domestic Threats Trump Poses
1.) A recruitment video released in January by Al Shabaab, the East African militant group allied with Al Qaeda, showed Trump calling for a ban on Muslims entering the U.S.: the video warned, "Tomorrow, it will be a land of religious discrimination and concentration camps."
2.) A Gift to Iran
Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has called Trump's vow to kill the Iran nuclear deal "a gift to Iran." "The hard-line forces in Iran are looking for a way in which this deal can unravel, but they won't be blamed for it." "This would be their ideal solution.The Iranians would say, 'You've abrogated your end , so we're going to reconstitute our nuclear program.'"
3.) The Economist Intelligence Unit, an economic-and-geopolitical-analysis firm, has ranked the prospect of a Trump victory on its top-ten risks to the global economy.
4.) Anthony Karydakis, the chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak, an asset manager, has warned that a Trump victory is now generally regarded as "a major destabilizing development for financial markets." Karydakis added: "If he ever even alludes to renegotiating the debt, we will have a downgrade of U.S. debt, and that event will cause a massive exodus of foreign investors from the U.S. Treasury market."
5.) The American Action Forum, a conservative Washington think tank, ran budget projections of Trump's plan: raids on farms, restaurants, factories, and construction sites would require more than ninety thousand"'apprehension personnel" -- six times the number of special agents in the F.B.I. Beds for captured men, women and children would reach 348,831, nearly triple the detention space required for the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War.
The report estimated the total cost at six hundred billion dollars, which it judged financially imprudent.
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Will Trump Get to Zero on Honoring Campaign Pldges?
There is now a question if Donald Trump will repudiate all of his campaign pledges. He is ripping them up at a very fast pace. Then will Trump start restoring these pledges, as former supporters start to rebel, or circumstances arise that he finds conducive to going back to them? We are not yet into the Trump presidency and already the following pledges have been abandoned.
1.) Waterboarding
According to CNN, Foreign Affairs Intelligence Committee chair Mich Rogers (R-Mich.) has said that Trump's waterboarding remarks were just "campaign talk." Yesterday, Trump told the New York Times that he has changed his mind on waterboarding. What changed his mind? The retired general that he might appoint to be defense secretary told him that you can get better information by building trust -- he said he could do it with "a cigarette and a couple of beers." Trump could have gotten this point of view long ago by talking to any of the top attorneys in the armed services, who vigorously opposed the torture regime under George W. Bush, even at the risk of ending their careers. Or Trump could have talked to Senator McCain.
2.) Mexico Paying for the Wall
Newt Gingrich has said that Trump "may not spend very much time to get Mexico to pay for it [the Wall] but it was a "great campaign device."
3.) The Iran Nuclear Deal
Mike Pence said in the campaign, along with Trump himself, that Trump will "rip up the Iran deal." But Trump adviser Walid Phares told the BBC on or about November 11, 2016: "He will take the agreement, review it, send it to Congress, demand that Iranians to restore (sic) [a] few issues or change [a] few issues."
4.) A Special Prosecutor for Hillary
When asked post-election on appointing a special prosecutor for Hillary Clinton for alleged wrongdoing, Trump responded: "It's something I haven't given a lot of thought, because I want to solve health care, jobs, border control, tax reform." Yesterday, Trump confirmed that Hillary has been through a lot and he didn't want to divide the country. Kellyanne Conway said that Hillary "needed time to heal." Heal from what? Her evil? Her loss of the election?
It is hard to erase that iconic image of Trump leaving his podium in the presidential debate, hovering over a seated Hillary and telling her that if he is elected president he will quickly appoint a special prosecutor to look into her possible criminal behavior.
5.) Entitlement Programs
Donald Trump has promised not to touch entitlement programs; however, when Rep. Paul Ryan said post-election that he would consider cutting Medicare, turning it into a "premium support" model, which would involve doling out federal private insurance, rather than the current single-payer model, Trump has remained silent.
6.) 45% Tax on China
In January 2016, Donald Trump told the New York Times that he would slap a 45% tax on China if it devalued the Chinese yuan -- Trump had made the same promise on several other occasions. Trump's senior policy adviser, Wilbur Ross, has denied, post-election, that Trump had ever made such a claim. Ross said that Trump would "threaten" China with a 45% tariff if it devalued the yuan by 45%. This is a distinction without a difference.
7.) The Wall
Donald Trump originally proposed to build a 2,000 -mile wall between the United States and Mexico. In the October 30, 2015 GOP debate, Trump sprang a big surprise by saying that the wall needed to be only 1,000 miles long. The only explanation that Trump gave for cutting the wall in half was that the natural terrain eliminated the need for a longer wall. It is obvious that Donald Trump didn't arrange for an aerial or ground survey to check the natural terrain.
The only description of any specificity that Trump has made for the type of wall construction is that it would be made of concrete and reinforced steel -- called rebar for short. The Trump camp has revealed post-election that some undetermined length of the wall will be made of fencing. A structural engineer consulted by the media company, Univision, has said that a fenced wall can easily be breached.
Univision's structural engineer has ruled out all other types of wall construction, except for concrete. Because concrete poured on site in a hot, dry climate tends to have adverse chemical reactions, he recommends precast concrete as the best choice. He told Univision that a wall 1,954 miles long, five feet underground and twenty feet high would use three times the concrete needed to build the Hoover Dam. Thus, Trump's 1,000-mile wall would use one and a half times the concrete. Two and one-half billion pounds of rebar wold also be needed.
The Washington Post has listed 76 promises that Trump made in the presidential campaign. Breaking 76 promises is a big order but Donald Trump is off to a strong start.
1.) Waterboarding
According to CNN, Foreign Affairs Intelligence Committee chair Mich Rogers (R-Mich.) has said that Trump's waterboarding remarks were just "campaign talk." Yesterday, Trump told the New York Times that he has changed his mind on waterboarding. What changed his mind? The retired general that he might appoint to be defense secretary told him that you can get better information by building trust -- he said he could do it with "a cigarette and a couple of beers." Trump could have gotten this point of view long ago by talking to any of the top attorneys in the armed services, who vigorously opposed the torture regime under George W. Bush, even at the risk of ending their careers. Or Trump could have talked to Senator McCain.
2.) Mexico Paying for the Wall
Newt Gingrich has said that Trump "may not spend very much time to get Mexico to pay for it [the Wall] but it was a "great campaign device."
3.) The Iran Nuclear Deal
Mike Pence said in the campaign, along with Trump himself, that Trump will "rip up the Iran deal." But Trump adviser Walid Phares told the BBC on or about November 11, 2016: "He will take the agreement, review it, send it to Congress, demand that Iranians to restore (sic) [a] few issues or change [a] few issues."
4.) A Special Prosecutor for Hillary
When asked post-election on appointing a special prosecutor for Hillary Clinton for alleged wrongdoing, Trump responded: "It's something I haven't given a lot of thought, because I want to solve health care, jobs, border control, tax reform." Yesterday, Trump confirmed that Hillary has been through a lot and he didn't want to divide the country. Kellyanne Conway said that Hillary "needed time to heal." Heal from what? Her evil? Her loss of the election?
It is hard to erase that iconic image of Trump leaving his podium in the presidential debate, hovering over a seated Hillary and telling her that if he is elected president he will quickly appoint a special prosecutor to look into her possible criminal behavior.
5.) Entitlement Programs
Donald Trump has promised not to touch entitlement programs; however, when Rep. Paul Ryan said post-election that he would consider cutting Medicare, turning it into a "premium support" model, which would involve doling out federal private insurance, rather than the current single-payer model, Trump has remained silent.
6.) 45% Tax on China
In January 2016, Donald Trump told the New York Times that he would slap a 45% tax on China if it devalued the Chinese yuan -- Trump had made the same promise on several other occasions. Trump's senior policy adviser, Wilbur Ross, has denied, post-election, that Trump had ever made such a claim. Ross said that Trump would "threaten" China with a 45% tariff if it devalued the yuan by 45%. This is a distinction without a difference.
7.) The Wall
Donald Trump originally proposed to build a 2,000 -mile wall between the United States and Mexico. In the October 30, 2015 GOP debate, Trump sprang a big surprise by saying that the wall needed to be only 1,000 miles long. The only explanation that Trump gave for cutting the wall in half was that the natural terrain eliminated the need for a longer wall. It is obvious that Donald Trump didn't arrange for an aerial or ground survey to check the natural terrain.
The only description of any specificity that Trump has made for the type of wall construction is that it would be made of concrete and reinforced steel -- called rebar for short. The Trump camp has revealed post-election that some undetermined length of the wall will be made of fencing. A structural engineer consulted by the media company, Univision, has said that a fenced wall can easily be breached.
Univision's structural engineer has ruled out all other types of wall construction, except for concrete. Because concrete poured on site in a hot, dry climate tends to have adverse chemical reactions, he recommends precast concrete as the best choice. He told Univision that a wall 1,954 miles long, five feet underground and twenty feet high would use three times the concrete needed to build the Hoover Dam. Thus, Trump's 1,000-mile wall would use one and a half times the concrete. Two and one-half billion pounds of rebar wold also be needed.
The Washington Post has listed 76 promises that Trump made in the presidential campaign. Breaking 76 promises is a big order but Donald Trump is off to a strong start.
Will Trump Get to Zero on Campaign Pledges?
The Washington Post had identified 76 campaign pledges made by Donald Trump. Will he get to zero on them?
Friday, November 18, 2016
Mindboggling Big Military (concluded) and the Militia Movement
The last blog presented some of the most costly weapons-related items on the Pentagon's shopping list. The continuation of that list focuses almost exclusively on the non-lethal items needed to sustain the modern U.S. military. The list is taken from the special report found in the January/February 2014 issue of Mother Jones magazine.
I. An Itemized Pentagon Budget (2012 figures)
$21.6 Billion - Petroleum and oil
$4.0 Billion - Dairy and eggs
$2.5 Billion - Nuclear reactors
$2.5 Billion - Drugs and pharmaceuticals
$1.2 Billion - Meat, poultry, and fish
$978 Million - Small-arms ammunition
$834 Million - Night-vision equipment
$783 Million - Fruit and vegetables
$738 Million - Bakery and cereal products
$554 Million - Nonalcoholic beverages
$547 Million - Land mines
$413 Million - Small arms
$294 Million - Sugar, confectionery, and nuts
$260 Million - Composite food packages (MRES)
$226 Million - Soap, toothpaste, and shaving preparations
$152 Million - Footwear
$103 Million - Bulk explosives
$102 Million - Live animals (not for food)
$86 Million - Bolts and screws
$85 Million - Soups and bouillons
$85 Million - Tobacco products
$73 Million - Coffee, tea, and cocoa
$26 Million - Grenades
$18 Million - Underwear and nightwear
$16 Million - Badges and insignia
$1 Million - Blood and blood products
II. A Well-Regulated Militia
This history of militias in the United States is found in: "Patriot Games," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.
1776: General George Washington gripes about the militiamen among his forces, "whose behavior and want of discipline has done great injury to the other troops."
1787: Constitutional Convention delegates clash over whether the militia should come under national control. As a compromise, the Constitution grants the federal government the power to call up the militia but leaves the appointment of officers to the states. The Second Amendment emphasizes that a "well-regulated Militia" is "necessary to the security of a free state."
1831: As mandatory militia duty becomes unpopular, states begin to abolish it. By the 1840s, many states set up an "organized" militia with actual responsibilities and an "unorganized" militia that exists in name only.
1903: The Militia Act of 1903 (also known as the Dick Act) beefs up state militias with federal funding and gives the feds the power to review state militias.
1916: The National Guard, which evolved from the organized militia, becomes part of the Army.
1971: William Potter Gale, a white supremacist and anti-Semite activist, forms a proto-"patriot" group called Posse Comitatus (Latin for "power of the country"), which purports that the highest level of authority is the county government. Gale says sheriffs who violate the Constitution should be taken to a "populated intersection" and "hung there by their neck." The group spreads across the West and Midwest by the 1980s.
1976: Congress passes the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, kicking off the Sagebrush Rebellion, which seeks to establish state and local control over public lands in the West.
1983: Posse Comitatus member Gordon Kahl murders two federal marshals trying to arrest him in North Dakota. He's later killed in a shootout, during which he kills a sheriff.
1990: President George H.W. Bush welcomes "a new world order," popularizing a phrase that conspiracy theorists equate with the coming of a global totalitarian government.
1992: White supremacist Randy Weaver surrenders after his wife, his son, and a US marshal are killed during a standoff at his cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The event energizes the far-right "patriot" movement, which includes armed militias.
1993: Federal firearms agents attempt to raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. The ensuing battle kills four agents and six Davidians. A 51-day siege ends when the FBI sprays tear gas in the building, which bursts into flames, leaving 76 people dead.
1994: Responding to the Brady Bill's mandatory five-day waiting period for handgun sales, Michigan Militia leader Norman Olson tells the New York Times, "We are ceasing to be a republic...When people sense danger, they will come together to defend themselves. That is what's happening."
1995: A truck bomb destroys the Oklahoma City federal building, killing 168 people, including 19 children. Bomber Timothy McVeigh had attended militia meetings. Militia members testify in Congress to defend their movement, but within a decade the number of militia groups drops from 441 to 35, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
2005: The Minuteman Project monitors the US-Mexican border, putting a media-friendly face on earlier militia efforts to catch undocumented immigrants.
2008: Following the election of President Barack Obama, the number of militia groups surges from 42 to 127 in one year. Mike Vanderboegh promotes the idea of the three percenters, named after the claim that only 3 percent of colonists were the backbone of he American Revolution.
2009: The Department of Homeland Security warns of an increase in right-wing extremism. After a fierce backlash from conservatives, it withdraws the report. Montana attorney and Army veteran Stewart Rhodes launches the Oath Keepers, a militia group that focuses on recruiting military members, police officers, and first responders.
I. An Itemized Pentagon Budget (2012 figures)
$21.6 Billion - Petroleum and oil
$4.0 Billion - Dairy and eggs
$2.5 Billion - Nuclear reactors
$2.5 Billion - Drugs and pharmaceuticals
$1.2 Billion - Meat, poultry, and fish
$978 Million - Small-arms ammunition
$834 Million - Night-vision equipment
$783 Million - Fruit and vegetables
$738 Million - Bakery and cereal products
$554 Million - Nonalcoholic beverages
$547 Million - Land mines
$413 Million - Small arms
$294 Million - Sugar, confectionery, and nuts
$260 Million - Composite food packages (MRES)
$226 Million - Soap, toothpaste, and shaving preparations
$152 Million - Footwear
$103 Million - Bulk explosives
$102 Million - Live animals (not for food)
$86 Million - Bolts and screws
$85 Million - Soups and bouillons
$85 Million - Tobacco products
$73 Million - Coffee, tea, and cocoa
$26 Million - Grenades
$18 Million - Underwear and nightwear
$16 Million - Badges and insignia
$1 Million - Blood and blood products
II. A Well-Regulated Militia
This history of militias in the United States is found in: "Patriot Games," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.
1776: General George Washington gripes about the militiamen among his forces, "whose behavior and want of discipline has done great injury to the other troops."
1787: Constitutional Convention delegates clash over whether the militia should come under national control. As a compromise, the Constitution grants the federal government the power to call up the militia but leaves the appointment of officers to the states. The Second Amendment emphasizes that a "well-regulated Militia" is "necessary to the security of a free state."
1831: As mandatory militia duty becomes unpopular, states begin to abolish it. By the 1840s, many states set up an "organized" militia with actual responsibilities and an "unorganized" militia that exists in name only.
1903: The Militia Act of 1903 (also known as the Dick Act) beefs up state militias with federal funding and gives the feds the power to review state militias.
1916: The National Guard, which evolved from the organized militia, becomes part of the Army.
1971: William Potter Gale, a white supremacist and anti-Semite activist, forms a proto-"patriot" group called Posse Comitatus (Latin for "power of the country"), which purports that the highest level of authority is the county government. Gale says sheriffs who violate the Constitution should be taken to a "populated intersection" and "hung there by their neck." The group spreads across the West and Midwest by the 1980s.
1976: Congress passes the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, kicking off the Sagebrush Rebellion, which seeks to establish state and local control over public lands in the West.
1983: Posse Comitatus member Gordon Kahl murders two federal marshals trying to arrest him in North Dakota. He's later killed in a shootout, during which he kills a sheriff.
1990: President George H.W. Bush welcomes "a new world order," popularizing a phrase that conspiracy theorists equate with the coming of a global totalitarian government.
1992: White supremacist Randy Weaver surrenders after his wife, his son, and a US marshal are killed during a standoff at his cabin in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The event energizes the far-right "patriot" movement, which includes armed militias.
1993: Federal firearms agents attempt to raid the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. The ensuing battle kills four agents and six Davidians. A 51-day siege ends when the FBI sprays tear gas in the building, which bursts into flames, leaving 76 people dead.
1994: Responding to the Brady Bill's mandatory five-day waiting period for handgun sales, Michigan Militia leader Norman Olson tells the New York Times, "We are ceasing to be a republic...When people sense danger, they will come together to defend themselves. That is what's happening."
1995: A truck bomb destroys the Oklahoma City federal building, killing 168 people, including 19 children. Bomber Timothy McVeigh had attended militia meetings. Militia members testify in Congress to defend their movement, but within a decade the number of militia groups drops from 441 to 35, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
2005: The Minuteman Project monitors the US-Mexican border, putting a media-friendly face on earlier militia efforts to catch undocumented immigrants.
2008: Following the election of President Barack Obama, the number of militia groups surges from 42 to 127 in one year. Mike Vanderboegh promotes the idea of the three percenters, named after the claim that only 3 percent of colonists were the backbone of he American Revolution.
2009: The Department of Homeland Security warns of an increase in right-wing extremism. After a fierce backlash from conservatives, it withdraws the report. Montana attorney and Army veteran Stewart Rhodes launches the Oath Keepers, a militia group that focuses on recruiting military members, police officers, and first responders.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Mindboggling Big Military (cont.)
I. Where Does the Pentagon's Money Go?
The answer is that we don't know, because the Pentagon's books are such a mess that they can't even be audited, despite a 1997 requirement that federal agencies submit to annual audits.
The Government Accountability Office notes that the Pentagon has "serious financial management problems" that makes its financial statements "inauditable." The Pentagon's financial operations occupy one-fifth of the GAO's list of federal programs with a high risk to waste, fraud, or inefficiency.
Critics also contend that the Pentagon cooks its books by using unorthodox accounting methods that make its budgetary needs seem more urgent. The agency insists it will "achieve audit readiness" by 2117.
1997 - First time the Pentagon was required to be audited.
2017 - When the Pentagon says it will be ready for an audit.
II. Ways to Save a Few Billion
Here are 10 ideas for major cuts from an array of defense wonks, from the libertarian Cato Institute and the liberal Center for American Progress to the conservative American Enterprise Institute. A complete list of ideas can be found at motherjones.com/pentagon.
Proposal
Get rid of all ICBMs and nuclear bombers (but keep nuclear-armed submarines).
Estimated Savings - $20 billion/year
Retire two of the Navy's 11 aircraft carrier groups.
Estimated Savings - $50 billion through 2020
Cut the size of the Army and Marines to pre-9/11 levels.
Estimated Savings - At least $80 billion over 10 years
Slow down or cancel the F-35 fighter jet program.
Estimated savings - At least $4 billion/year
Downsize military headquarters that grew after 9/11/
Estimated Savings - $8 billion/year
Cancel the troubled V-22 Osprey tiltrotor and use helicopters instead.
Estimated Savings - At least $1.2 billion
Modify supplemental Medicare benefits for veterans.
Estimated Savings - $40 billion over 10 years
Scale back purchases of littoral combat ships.
Estimated Savings - $2 billion in 2013
Cap spending on military contractors below 2012 levels.
Estimated Savings - $2.9 billion/year
Retire the Cold War-era B-1 bomber.
Estimated Savings - $3.7 billions over 5 years.
III. An Itemized Pentagon Budget (2012 figures)
The Pentagon handed $361 billion to contractors in 2012. Some items on its shopping list:
$32.6 Billion - Planes and helicopters
$10.4 Billion - Guided Missiles
$5.2 Billion - Combat/assault vehicles
$3.9 Billion - Amphibious assault ships
$3.6 Billion - Space Vehicles
$3.4 Billion - Submarines
$2.2 Billion - Combat ships and landing vessels
$2.2 Billion - Unmanned aircraft and drones
$1.5 Billion - Aircraft carriers
$1.0 Billion - Bombs
All of the above information comes from the special report on the military found in the January/February 2014 issue of Mother Jones. Although the information is two years old, it does provide a comprehensive look at the Pentagon's role in U.S. society.
The answer is that we don't know, because the Pentagon's books are such a mess that they can't even be audited, despite a 1997 requirement that federal agencies submit to annual audits.
The Government Accountability Office notes that the Pentagon has "serious financial management problems" that makes its financial statements "inauditable." The Pentagon's financial operations occupy one-fifth of the GAO's list of federal programs with a high risk to waste, fraud, or inefficiency.
Critics also contend that the Pentagon cooks its books by using unorthodox accounting methods that make its budgetary needs seem more urgent. The agency insists it will "achieve audit readiness" by 2117.
1997 - First time the Pentagon was required to be audited.
2017 - When the Pentagon says it will be ready for an audit.
II. Ways to Save a Few Billion
Here are 10 ideas for major cuts from an array of defense wonks, from the libertarian Cato Institute and the liberal Center for American Progress to the conservative American Enterprise Institute. A complete list of ideas can be found at motherjones.com/pentagon.
Proposal
Get rid of all ICBMs and nuclear bombers (but keep nuclear-armed submarines).
Estimated Savings - $20 billion/year
Retire two of the Navy's 11 aircraft carrier groups.
Estimated Savings - $50 billion through 2020
Cut the size of the Army and Marines to pre-9/11 levels.
Estimated Savings - At least $80 billion over 10 years
Slow down or cancel the F-35 fighter jet program.
Estimated savings - At least $4 billion/year
Downsize military headquarters that grew after 9/11/
Estimated Savings - $8 billion/year
Cancel the troubled V-22 Osprey tiltrotor and use helicopters instead.
Estimated Savings - At least $1.2 billion
Modify supplemental Medicare benefits for veterans.
Estimated Savings - $40 billion over 10 years
Scale back purchases of littoral combat ships.
Estimated Savings - $2 billion in 2013
Cap spending on military contractors below 2012 levels.
Estimated Savings - $2.9 billion/year
Retire the Cold War-era B-1 bomber.
Estimated Savings - $3.7 billions over 5 years.
III. An Itemized Pentagon Budget (2012 figures)
The Pentagon handed $361 billion to contractors in 2012. Some items on its shopping list:
$32.6 Billion - Planes and helicopters
$10.4 Billion - Guided Missiles
$5.2 Billion - Combat/assault vehicles
$3.9 Billion - Amphibious assault ships
$3.6 Billion - Space Vehicles
$3.4 Billion - Submarines
$2.2 Billion - Combat ships and landing vessels
$2.2 Billion - Unmanned aircraft and drones
$1.5 Billion - Aircraft carriers
$1.0 Billion - Bombs
All of the above information comes from the special report on the military found in the January/February 2014 issue of Mother Jones. Although the information is two years old, it does provide a comprehensive look at the Pentagon's role in U.S. society.
Monday, November 14, 2016
Nuke Near Misses and a Mind-Bogglingly Big Military (cont.)
This is the last in a series of posts on nuclear near missiles occurring from 1961 through 2014; also, this post continues Mother Jones magazines's detailed dissection of the Pentagon.
I. Continuing the List of Nuke Near Misses
2007: Six fully armed nukes go missing from Minot Air Force Base for 36 hours.
May 2008: A fire in a Minuteman III silo goes unnoticed for five days.
Oct. 2008: The Air Force pledges to "sustain, modernize, and recapitalize" its nuclear capability.
Feb. 2010: A nuclear munitions crew at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico is decertified for failing safety inspections.
Oct. 2010: A computer glitch cuts off communications to 50 Minuteman III missiles for more than an hour.
2011: The reforms the Air Force initiated in 2008 are backfiring, notes an official report, "creating a climate of distrust."
July 2012: An 82-year-old nun and two accomplices break into a weapon-grade uranium facility in Tennessee -- she is sentenced to 35 months in prison for a breach that exposed "troubling displays of ineptitude."
Dec. 2012: A decertified missileer is placed on launch duty at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
April 2013: At Minot, 17 missileers have to surrender their launch authority due to performance and attitude problems.
Aug. 2013: The missile wing at Malmstrom fails its safety and security inspections; an investigation into drug use finds evidence that officers are cheating on proficiency tests.
Oct. 2013: The Air Force's ICBM commander is removed following his "inappropriate behavior" on a state trip to Russia.
Nov. 2013: RAND report: US missileers are suffering from burnout.
2014: Nine officers at Malmstrom are stripped of their commands and their CO resigns. The Air Force announces changes intended to discourage cheating and improve morale. (Source of this list: "That Time We Almost Nuked North Carolina," Mother Jones, January/February 2014.)
II. The Missing Peace Dividend
Defense spending (in billions of 2013 dollars) dropped sharply after earlier conflicts. But not this time.
Defense spending soared to $1,100 (billion) in World War II (1941-45); however, by 1948 it had dropped to a little under $100 (billion).
After the Korean War (1950-53) it had increased to about $475 (billion) and within about two years, defense spending had dropped to about $375 (billion).
The Vietnam War (1965-75) increased defense spending to about $575 (billion) but by 1975 it had dropped to about $375 (billion).
The Reagan military buildup (1981-89) jumped defense spending to about $600 (billion) and by 1998 it had declined to about $375 (billion).
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (2001-13) increased military spending to about $750 (billion) and haves dropped very little in percentage terms since then. Strictly speaking, we have at least 5,000 Special Forces troops fighting a different war in Iraq and will have about 8,000 troops in Afghanistan through 2017 at least.
We now have what amounts to a permanent standing army.
III. We're the World's 800-Pound Gorilla
The United States, with under five percent of the world's population, accounts for nearly 40 percent of global military spending. The FY 2017 Pentagon budget is nine times the corresponding budget of Russia and three times the current budget of China.
The National Priorities Project does an annual pie chart on discretionary spending, with the spending for the various activities of government sectioned off as slices. For the last few years, the Pentagon's slice of the pie has varied between 54 to 55 percent. Given that president-elect Trump has called the military "a disaster" and has promised a major buildup, it is reasonable to believe that the Pentagon's share of the pie will increase at least into the low sixties.
IV. The U.S. Paid for Two Wars with Credit
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost $1.5 trillion (through 2013), that is about twice the cost of the Vietnam war in inflation-adjusted dollars. And that's just the "supplemental" military spending passed by Congress for the wars -- the regular Pentagon budget also grew nearly 45 percent between 2001 and 2010.
The funds to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan came entirely from borrowing, contributing nearly 20 percent to the national debt accrued between 2001 and 2012.
Contributing significantly to the militarization of the United States, the Pentagon follows a doctrine of Total Spectrum Dominance, a doctrine that means the U.S. must have superiority over every nation in every aspect of military warfare.
V. The Wartime Wage Gap
According to the special section on the military in the January/February 2014 issue of Mother Jones magazine -- from which much of the material for this post has been obtained -- while the number of Americans in uniform increased three percent during the past decade, the annual cost per person doubled to around $115,000. "Congress approved multiple raises during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but a look at base pay rates (what soldiers earn before add-ons like housing allowances and combat pay) shows that wartime wages didn't trickle down the chain of command. Some of that can be explained by 'brass creep' -- the swelling ranks of generals and admirals who earn high salaries and retire with cushy pensions."
I. Continuing the List of Nuke Near Misses
2007: Six fully armed nukes go missing from Minot Air Force Base for 36 hours.
May 2008: A fire in a Minuteman III silo goes unnoticed for five days.
Oct. 2008: The Air Force pledges to "sustain, modernize, and recapitalize" its nuclear capability.
Feb. 2010: A nuclear munitions crew at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico is decertified for failing safety inspections.
Oct. 2010: A computer glitch cuts off communications to 50 Minuteman III missiles for more than an hour.
2011: The reforms the Air Force initiated in 2008 are backfiring, notes an official report, "creating a climate of distrust."
July 2012: An 82-year-old nun and two accomplices break into a weapon-grade uranium facility in Tennessee -- she is sentenced to 35 months in prison for a breach that exposed "troubling displays of ineptitude."
Dec. 2012: A decertified missileer is placed on launch duty at Malmstrom Air Force Base.
April 2013: At Minot, 17 missileers have to surrender their launch authority due to performance and attitude problems.
Aug. 2013: The missile wing at Malmstrom fails its safety and security inspections; an investigation into drug use finds evidence that officers are cheating on proficiency tests.
Oct. 2013: The Air Force's ICBM commander is removed following his "inappropriate behavior" on a state trip to Russia.
Nov. 2013: RAND report: US missileers are suffering from burnout.
2014: Nine officers at Malmstrom are stripped of their commands and their CO resigns. The Air Force announces changes intended to discourage cheating and improve morale. (Source of this list: "That Time We Almost Nuked North Carolina," Mother Jones, January/February 2014.)
II. The Missing Peace Dividend
Defense spending (in billions of 2013 dollars) dropped sharply after earlier conflicts. But not this time.
Defense spending soared to $1,100 (billion) in World War II (1941-45); however, by 1948 it had dropped to a little under $100 (billion).
After the Korean War (1950-53) it had increased to about $475 (billion) and within about two years, defense spending had dropped to about $375 (billion).
The Vietnam War (1965-75) increased defense spending to about $575 (billion) but by 1975 it had dropped to about $375 (billion).
The Reagan military buildup (1981-89) jumped defense spending to about $600 (billion) and by 1998 it had declined to about $375 (billion).
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (2001-13) increased military spending to about $750 (billion) and haves dropped very little in percentage terms since then. Strictly speaking, we have at least 5,000 Special Forces troops fighting a different war in Iraq and will have about 8,000 troops in Afghanistan through 2017 at least.
We now have what amounts to a permanent standing army.
III. We're the World's 800-Pound Gorilla
The United States, with under five percent of the world's population, accounts for nearly 40 percent of global military spending. The FY 2017 Pentagon budget is nine times the corresponding budget of Russia and three times the current budget of China.
The National Priorities Project does an annual pie chart on discretionary spending, with the spending for the various activities of government sectioned off as slices. For the last few years, the Pentagon's slice of the pie has varied between 54 to 55 percent. Given that president-elect Trump has called the military "a disaster" and has promised a major buildup, it is reasonable to believe that the Pentagon's share of the pie will increase at least into the low sixties.
IV. The U.S. Paid for Two Wars with Credit
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost $1.5 trillion (through 2013), that is about twice the cost of the Vietnam war in inflation-adjusted dollars. And that's just the "supplemental" military spending passed by Congress for the wars -- the regular Pentagon budget also grew nearly 45 percent between 2001 and 2010.
The funds to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan came entirely from borrowing, contributing nearly 20 percent to the national debt accrued between 2001 and 2012.
Contributing significantly to the militarization of the United States, the Pentagon follows a doctrine of Total Spectrum Dominance, a doctrine that means the U.S. must have superiority over every nation in every aspect of military warfare.
V. The Wartime Wage Gap
According to the special section on the military in the January/February 2014 issue of Mother Jones magazine -- from which much of the material for this post has been obtained -- while the number of Americans in uniform increased three percent during the past decade, the annual cost per person doubled to around $115,000. "Congress approved multiple raises during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but a look at base pay rates (what soldiers earn before add-ons like housing allowances and combat pay) shows that wartime wages didn't trickle down the chain of command. Some of that can be explained by 'brass creep' -- the swelling ranks of generals and admirals who earn high salaries and retire with cushy pensions."
Friday, November 11, 2016
Nuke Near Misses and a Mind-Bogglingly Big Military (cont.)
I. Terrifying Nuke Near Misses
This is a continuation of nuclear near misses following the release of two H-bombs from a B-52 flying over North Carolina.
1965: Fire in a Titan II silo kills 53 people in Arkansas
1966: A bomber laden with nukes breaks apart in midair showering a Spanish town with radioactive debris.
1968: The crash of a B-52 in Greenland spreads radioactive parts over three square miles.
1970: A Sandia National Laboratory safety expert demonstrates how "failsafe" nukes could detonate under extreme heat and stress.
1977: One of President Carter's military advisers is stunned by a briefing on the nation's nuclear war plan: "The president would be left with two or three meaningless choices that he might have to make within 10 minutes."
1979: A technician uploads a war games simulation to NORAD's computers, which signal a massive Soviet nuclear launch. Officials prepare for war. A false alarm is declared only after ground radars fail to detect any missiles and the first strikes never materialize. A flawed computer chip creates two similar scares the following year.
1980: A maintenance error causes the explosion of a Titan II missile in Arkansas, killing one, injuring 21, and hurling the warhead 200 yards.
1984: President Reagan in a radio sound check: "I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
1995: The launch of a Norwegian weather rocket convinces the Kremlin that Russia is under attack by the United States. President Boris Yeltsin nearly orders a retaliatory strike.
2003: Half of the Air Force's nuclear weapons units fail safety inspections, despite a three-day notice.
2006: Minuteman III nose cone assemblies are shipped to Taiwan, where they sit for two years before the Air Force acknowledges the error.
Another post carrying this listing of nuclear near misses through 2014 will follow.
II. A Mind-Bogglingly Big Military
This post continues a series of posts on the cost, spread and reach of the Pentagon. The information in this post goes back to the excellent eight-page special on military spending found in the January/February 2014 issue of Mother Jones.
"The $3.7 trillion federal budget breaks down into mandatory spending -- benefits guaranteed the American people, such as Social Security and Medicare -- and discretionary spending -- programs that, at least in theory, can be cut. In 2013, more than half of all discretionary spending (and one-fifth of total spending) went to defense, including the Pentagon, veterans' benefits, and the nuclear weapons arsenal." The National Priorities Project does an annual pie chart of discretionary spending, and for the most recent fiscal year, the Pentagon budget consumes 54% of discretionary spending.
The Mother Jones breakdown of spending for FY 2013 uses circles: Mandatory spending in red; Discretionary spending in orange; and Classified spending in black. The letters M, D and C will be used to distinguish among Mandatory, Discretionary and Classified spending.
1. Social Security (M) - $813 billion.
2. Defense (D) - $652 billion.
3. Medicare (M) - $504 billion.
4. TANF and income security (M) - $392 billion.
5. Medicaid (M) - $267 billion.
6. Net interest on debt (M) - $223 billion.
7. Veterans (D) - $140 billion.
8. SNAP and food assistance (M) - $105 billion.
9. Transportation (D) - $91 billion.
10. Education (D) - $74 billion.
11. Homeland security (D) - $55 billion.
12. CIA, NSA, and "black budget" (C) - $53 billion.
13. Housing assistance (D) - $44 billion.
14. Natural resources and environment (D) - $35 billion.
15. Science, technology, and space (D) - $31 billion.
16. Community and regional development (D) - $27 billion.
17. International aid (D) - $26 billion.
18. Farm subsidies (M) - $22 billion.
19. Energy (D) - $10 billion.
20. Children's health insurance (M) - $10 billion.
The next posts on this subject will deal with broader aspects of military spending and will be followed by individualized spending items.
This is a continuation of nuclear near misses following the release of two H-bombs from a B-52 flying over North Carolina.
1965: Fire in a Titan II silo kills 53 people in Arkansas
1966: A bomber laden with nukes breaks apart in midair showering a Spanish town with radioactive debris.
1968: The crash of a B-52 in Greenland spreads radioactive parts over three square miles.
1970: A Sandia National Laboratory safety expert demonstrates how "failsafe" nukes could detonate under extreme heat and stress.
1977: One of President Carter's military advisers is stunned by a briefing on the nation's nuclear war plan: "The president would be left with two or three meaningless choices that he might have to make within 10 minutes."
1979: A technician uploads a war games simulation to NORAD's computers, which signal a massive Soviet nuclear launch. Officials prepare for war. A false alarm is declared only after ground radars fail to detect any missiles and the first strikes never materialize. A flawed computer chip creates two similar scares the following year.
1980: A maintenance error causes the explosion of a Titan II missile in Arkansas, killing one, injuring 21, and hurling the warhead 200 yards.
1984: President Reagan in a radio sound check: "I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."
1995: The launch of a Norwegian weather rocket convinces the Kremlin that Russia is under attack by the United States. President Boris Yeltsin nearly orders a retaliatory strike.
2003: Half of the Air Force's nuclear weapons units fail safety inspections, despite a three-day notice.
2006: Minuteman III nose cone assemblies are shipped to Taiwan, where they sit for two years before the Air Force acknowledges the error.
Another post carrying this listing of nuclear near misses through 2014 will follow.
II. A Mind-Bogglingly Big Military
This post continues a series of posts on the cost, spread and reach of the Pentagon. The information in this post goes back to the excellent eight-page special on military spending found in the January/February 2014 issue of Mother Jones.
"The $3.7 trillion federal budget breaks down into mandatory spending -- benefits guaranteed the American people, such as Social Security and Medicare -- and discretionary spending -- programs that, at least in theory, can be cut. In 2013, more than half of all discretionary spending (and one-fifth of total spending) went to defense, including the Pentagon, veterans' benefits, and the nuclear weapons arsenal." The National Priorities Project does an annual pie chart of discretionary spending, and for the most recent fiscal year, the Pentagon budget consumes 54% of discretionary spending.
The Mother Jones breakdown of spending for FY 2013 uses circles: Mandatory spending in red; Discretionary spending in orange; and Classified spending in black. The letters M, D and C will be used to distinguish among Mandatory, Discretionary and Classified spending.
1. Social Security (M) - $813 billion.
2. Defense (D) - $652 billion.
3. Medicare (M) - $504 billion.
4. TANF and income security (M) - $392 billion.
5. Medicaid (M) - $267 billion.
6. Net interest on debt (M) - $223 billion.
7. Veterans (D) - $140 billion.
8. SNAP and food assistance (M) - $105 billion.
9. Transportation (D) - $91 billion.
10. Education (D) - $74 billion.
11. Homeland security (D) - $55 billion.
12. CIA, NSA, and "black budget" (C) - $53 billion.
13. Housing assistance (D) - $44 billion.
14. Natural resources and environment (D) - $35 billion.
15. Science, technology, and space (D) - $31 billion.
16. Community and regional development (D) - $27 billion.
17. International aid (D) - $26 billion.
18. Farm subsidies (M) - $22 billion.
19. Energy (D) - $10 billion.
20. Children's health insurance (M) - $10 billion.
The next posts on this subject will deal with broader aspects of military spending and will be followed by individualized spending items.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
A Timeline for the "Lock Her Up!" Anti-Hillary Campaign; Voter Surrpression
1.) A Timeline for the "Lock Her Up!" anti-Hillary Campaign
2015
September: 'Infowars' debuts its "Hillary for Prison" T-shirt. "I'm proud of it," says Alex Jones.
December" Donald Trump tweets an image of a supporter in a "Hillary for Prison" T-shirt.
2016
June 2: Trump tells a rally in San Jose, California, "Hillary Clinton has to go to jail. She has to go to jail...She's guilty as hell."
June 11: An electronic road sign on Interstate 30 outside Dallas is hacked to read "Hillary for Prison."
July 16: A plane pulling an 'Infowars'-branded "Hillary for Prison" banner flies over Cleveland.
July 18: Colorado Senate candidate Darryl Glenn tells the Republican National Convention, "We know [Clinton] enjoys her pantsuits, but...what she deserves is a bright orange jumpsuit." Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn urges on the chanting crowd: "Lock her up, that's right. Yep, that's right: Lock her up!"
July 19: In his RNC speech, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie puts Clinton on trial. As the crowd shouts, "Lock her up!" he responds, "We'll get there."
July 20: "'Lock her up.' I love that," Florida Attorney General General Pam Bondi quips during her RNC speech. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker tells attendees, "Hillary Clinton is the ultimate liberal Washington insider. If she were any more on the inside, she'd be in prison." Google searches for "Hillary for Prison" peak.
July 30: At a town parade in Iowa, children throw water balloons at a "Hillary for Prison" float while a man in a Hillary mask and an orange jumpsuit dances inside a cage.
Early August: Conservative media buzzes with the story of a Mississippi boy who wore a "Hillary for Prison" T-shirt to provoke his liberal teacher.
September: Trump's campaign website sells "Hillary for Prison" pins -- three for $6. (Source: "Jail Bait," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.)
2.) Chief Justice Roberts Rolls Back Voting Rights
"In 2013, when Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. issued the most far-reaching Supreme Court decision on voting rights in the 21st century, he finally succeeded in gutting a civil rights law he has been fighting his entire career. For three decades, Roberts has argued that the United States has become colorblind to the point where aggressive intervention is no longer necessary -- and this case, Shelby County v. Holder, was the pinnacle of that crusade."
Echoing former justice William Rehnquist, for whom he once clerked, "Roberts has long insisted the United States has achieved a postracial, colorblind society, a point he emphasized in his 2013 majority opinion in [Shelby]." The Voting Rights Act had required that jurisdictions with a long history of voting discrimination submit any changes in voting procedure to the DoJ for "preclearance" to ensure the changes didn't have a discriminatory impact. Preclearance had blocked more than 700 discriminatory voting changes between 1982 and 2006 alone.
In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made the case that offending states had not grown colorblind. "She recounted how federal investigators had secretly recorded Alabama officials referring to African Americans as 'Aborigines' and openly plotting to block a ballot initiative they thought would increase African American turnout, as 'every black, every illiterate,' would be 'bused [to the polls] on HUD financed buses.'"
"After the 5-4 Shelby decision, states passed a torrent of new voting restrictions that overwhelmingly affected minorities. On the day the decision was handed down, Texas announced that the only two forms of state voter identification it would accept were a driver's license or a gun license -- a measure the DoJ had previously blocked. Georgia moved some municipal elections in predominantly minority areas from November to May, depressing turnout by nearly 20 percent in one instance. Alabama implemented a strict voter ID law -- and then shut down driver's license offices in every country where more than 75 percent of voters were African American. Perhaps the most blatant was North Carolina's omnibus voting law. Passed shortly after the Shelby decision, the law imposed strict ID requirements, limited the registration window, and dramatically cut early voting during times traditionally used by African Americans."
"Lower-court decisions rejecting the Roberts orthodoxy haven't fallen along ideological lines, either. The very conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Texas' harsh voter ID law. A George W. Bush appointee wrote the majority opinion. 'The lower courts are coalescing around a broad view of the Voting Rights Act's prohibitions on discriminatory results,' says David Gans, a civil rights expert at the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center."
When the Supreme Court blocked North Carolina's voting law, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that he personally would have allowed most of the laws to take effect.
Despite lower court decisions blocking certain provisions of restrictive voting laws in Texas, North Carolina and Wisconsin, 14 states now have new voting restrictions that didn't exist in 2012. (Source: Stephanie Mencimer, "Colorblind Justice," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.)
2015
September: 'Infowars' debuts its "Hillary for Prison" T-shirt. "I'm proud of it," says Alex Jones.
December" Donald Trump tweets an image of a supporter in a "Hillary for Prison" T-shirt.
2016
June 2: Trump tells a rally in San Jose, California, "Hillary Clinton has to go to jail. She has to go to jail...She's guilty as hell."
June 11: An electronic road sign on Interstate 30 outside Dallas is hacked to read "Hillary for Prison."
July 16: A plane pulling an 'Infowars'-branded "Hillary for Prison" banner flies over Cleveland.
July 18: Colorado Senate candidate Darryl Glenn tells the Republican National Convention, "We know [Clinton] enjoys her pantsuits, but...what she deserves is a bright orange jumpsuit." Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn urges on the chanting crowd: "Lock her up, that's right. Yep, that's right: Lock her up!"
July 19: In his RNC speech, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie puts Clinton on trial. As the crowd shouts, "Lock her up!" he responds, "We'll get there."
July 20: "'Lock her up.' I love that," Florida Attorney General General Pam Bondi quips during her RNC speech. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker tells attendees, "Hillary Clinton is the ultimate liberal Washington insider. If she were any more on the inside, she'd be in prison." Google searches for "Hillary for Prison" peak.
July 30: At a town parade in Iowa, children throw water balloons at a "Hillary for Prison" float while a man in a Hillary mask and an orange jumpsuit dances inside a cage.
Early August: Conservative media buzzes with the story of a Mississippi boy who wore a "Hillary for Prison" T-shirt to provoke his liberal teacher.
September: Trump's campaign website sells "Hillary for Prison" pins -- three for $6. (Source: "Jail Bait," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.)
2.) Chief Justice Roberts Rolls Back Voting Rights
"In 2013, when Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. issued the most far-reaching Supreme Court decision on voting rights in the 21st century, he finally succeeded in gutting a civil rights law he has been fighting his entire career. For three decades, Roberts has argued that the United States has become colorblind to the point where aggressive intervention is no longer necessary -- and this case, Shelby County v. Holder, was the pinnacle of that crusade."
Echoing former justice William Rehnquist, for whom he once clerked, "Roberts has long insisted the United States has achieved a postracial, colorblind society, a point he emphasized in his 2013 majority opinion in [Shelby]." The Voting Rights Act had required that jurisdictions with a long history of voting discrimination submit any changes in voting procedure to the DoJ for "preclearance" to ensure the changes didn't have a discriminatory impact. Preclearance had blocked more than 700 discriminatory voting changes between 1982 and 2006 alone.
In her dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made the case that offending states had not grown colorblind. "She recounted how federal investigators had secretly recorded Alabama officials referring to African Americans as 'Aborigines' and openly plotting to block a ballot initiative they thought would increase African American turnout, as 'every black, every illiterate,' would be 'bused [to the polls] on HUD financed buses.'"
"After the 5-4 Shelby decision, states passed a torrent of new voting restrictions that overwhelmingly affected minorities. On the day the decision was handed down, Texas announced that the only two forms of state voter identification it would accept were a driver's license or a gun license -- a measure the DoJ had previously blocked. Georgia moved some municipal elections in predominantly minority areas from November to May, depressing turnout by nearly 20 percent in one instance. Alabama implemented a strict voter ID law -- and then shut down driver's license offices in every country where more than 75 percent of voters were African American. Perhaps the most blatant was North Carolina's omnibus voting law. Passed shortly after the Shelby decision, the law imposed strict ID requirements, limited the registration window, and dramatically cut early voting during times traditionally used by African Americans."
"Lower-court decisions rejecting the Roberts orthodoxy haven't fallen along ideological lines, either. The very conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Texas' harsh voter ID law. A George W. Bush appointee wrote the majority opinion. 'The lower courts are coalescing around a broad view of the Voting Rights Act's prohibitions on discriminatory results,' says David Gans, a civil rights expert at the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center."
When the Supreme Court blocked North Carolina's voting law, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that he personally would have allowed most of the laws to take effect.
Despite lower court decisions blocking certain provisions of restrictive voting laws in Texas, North Carolina and Wisconsin, 14 states now have new voting restrictions that didn't exist in 2012. (Source: Stephanie Mencimer, "Colorblind Justice," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.)
Tuesday, November 8, 2016
Rev. Barber's Fusion Movement in North Carolina
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II said that "we sketched a list of 14 justice 'tribes' in North Carolina: folks committed to public schools, a redress for black and poor women forcibly sterilized in state institutions, the public funding of elections, affordable housing and better funding for historically black colleges and universities. We had people battling discrimination in hiring, the death penalty, and the glaring injustice of our criminal-justice system." [1]
"Fusion history teaches us to see strength in coalition. Much like the First and Second Reconstructions, the forces fighting us on voting rights, educational equality, and racial disparities in the criminal-justice system are the same ones behind the attacks on LGBRQ rights. The advocates for huge tax cuts for the wealthy and greater burdens on everyone else are the same ones pursuing a new Jim Crow through voter-suppression bills and race-based redistricting. They are the forces refusing to expand Medicaid and driving the resegregation of our public schools."
Rev. Barber says" "Over the past decade here in North Carolina, we have witnesses the power of moral dissent to challenge the forces of injustice. Our adversaries have hijacked the concept of morality and shifted it to such personal matters as abortion and homosexuality." But Barber has warned that "progressives and liberals must learn not to throw away the moral high ground and walk away from religious discourse."
"When Republicans spent $30 million to take control of state legislatures in 2010, we saw their plan in action: Here in North Carolina, they defunded state government through a flat tax that increased the burden on poor people while giving the wealthiest a windfall; denied federally funded healthcare to half a million people; rejected federal unemployment benefits for 170,000 workers and their families; made dramatic cuts to public education; deregulated industries with a demonstrated record of environmental abuse; proposed a constitutional amendment to deny equal protection to gay and lesbian citizens; and passed the worst voter-suppression bill that America has seen in half a century."
Footnote
[1] Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, "The Progressive Moral Imperative," The Nation, February 8, 2016.
"Fusion history teaches us to see strength in coalition. Much like the First and Second Reconstructions, the forces fighting us on voting rights, educational equality, and racial disparities in the criminal-justice system are the same ones behind the attacks on LGBRQ rights. The advocates for huge tax cuts for the wealthy and greater burdens on everyone else are the same ones pursuing a new Jim Crow through voter-suppression bills and race-based redistricting. They are the forces refusing to expand Medicaid and driving the resegregation of our public schools."
Rev. Barber says" "Over the past decade here in North Carolina, we have witnesses the power of moral dissent to challenge the forces of injustice. Our adversaries have hijacked the concept of morality and shifted it to such personal matters as abortion and homosexuality." But Barber has warned that "progressives and liberals must learn not to throw away the moral high ground and walk away from religious discourse."
"When Republicans spent $30 million to take control of state legislatures in 2010, we saw their plan in action: Here in North Carolina, they defunded state government through a flat tax that increased the burden on poor people while giving the wealthiest a windfall; denied federally funded healthcare to half a million people; rejected federal unemployment benefits for 170,000 workers and their families; made dramatic cuts to public education; deregulated industries with a demonstrated record of environmental abuse; proposed a constitutional amendment to deny equal protection to gay and lesbian citizens; and passed the worst voter-suppression bill that America has seen in half a century."
Footnote
[1] Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, "The Progressive Moral Imperative," The Nation, February 8, 2016.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Trump Closes With Big Lie, and Pollsters Not Making Sense
I. Trump Closes With a Big Lie
On Friday, November 4, a story broke on at least Fox News that Hillary Clinton was going to be indicted for Clinton Foundation misdeeds. Donald Trump picked up on the story and begin telling his supporters that Clinton was going to be indicted and she would be spending the next few months fighting the indictment. While he was doing this, Fox News reported that the story was false and apologized for the "mistake." Yet three hours after the correction was made, Donald Trump was telling a rally that Hillary would be indicted. The following day Trump was still telling his supporters the same lie. I haven't been able to find any media condemnation of this contemptible behavior.
Also this past weekend, a Trump rally was disrupted when someone with an anti-Trump sign was accosted by Trump supporters and a melee broke out. Someone apparently shouted, "He's got a gun," and Trump was hustled off the stage by the Secret Service. During the commotion that followed, a reporter was beaten up. Although pro-gun zealots contend that guns help troublesome situations from developing and stop them when they do, apparently, in this situation, the report of a gun being present caused fear and apprehension, escalating the melee.
Kellyann Conway, Trump's campaign manager, blamed the melee on a Clinton infiltrator, but blaming Clinton for everything bad that happens should by now be recognized as the ravings of a demented person. The person who stirred up the audience with his sign was likely a NeverTrump individual.
II. Pollsters Not Making Sense
The presidential race in Florida is still being treated as being basically tied 45 to 45%, yet this claim is wildly inconsistent with the early voting. A total of 565,000 Hispanics have voted and when you include the Hispanics who have requested absentee ballots the total comes to 911,000 Hispanic votes. A Latino tracking firm has found that 83% of Hispanics support Clinton and 17% support Trump. If we assume a more modest 80-20 ratio, Clinton has a 546,600 vote lead over Trump.
564,000 African Americans have early voted, not counting yesterday's total. If Clinton got 90% of that total and Trump got 10%, Clinton gains 451,200 votes. Adding 546,600 and 451,200 equals a 997,800 vote lead for Clinton. Donald Trump will need to overcome almost a million vote lead in tomorrow's voting.
In Ohio, a survey of early voting gives Clinton a lead of 48% to 41%. Clinton's early voting advantage among women is 55 to 32% and Trump's advantage among men is 53 to 39%, meaning that Clinton should have a sizable lead after early voting. More women than men vote in national elections.
ADDENDUM:
*Of the nation's 100 largest newspapers, 57 have endorsed Clinton and two have endorsed Trump.
On Friday, November 4, a story broke on at least Fox News that Hillary Clinton was going to be indicted for Clinton Foundation misdeeds. Donald Trump picked up on the story and begin telling his supporters that Clinton was going to be indicted and she would be spending the next few months fighting the indictment. While he was doing this, Fox News reported that the story was false and apologized for the "mistake." Yet three hours after the correction was made, Donald Trump was telling a rally that Hillary would be indicted. The following day Trump was still telling his supporters the same lie. I haven't been able to find any media condemnation of this contemptible behavior.
Also this past weekend, a Trump rally was disrupted when someone with an anti-Trump sign was accosted by Trump supporters and a melee broke out. Someone apparently shouted, "He's got a gun," and Trump was hustled off the stage by the Secret Service. During the commotion that followed, a reporter was beaten up. Although pro-gun zealots contend that guns help troublesome situations from developing and stop them when they do, apparently, in this situation, the report of a gun being present caused fear and apprehension, escalating the melee.
Kellyann Conway, Trump's campaign manager, blamed the melee on a Clinton infiltrator, but blaming Clinton for everything bad that happens should by now be recognized as the ravings of a demented person. The person who stirred up the audience with his sign was likely a NeverTrump individual.
II. Pollsters Not Making Sense
The presidential race in Florida is still being treated as being basically tied 45 to 45%, yet this claim is wildly inconsistent with the early voting. A total of 565,000 Hispanics have voted and when you include the Hispanics who have requested absentee ballots the total comes to 911,000 Hispanic votes. A Latino tracking firm has found that 83% of Hispanics support Clinton and 17% support Trump. If we assume a more modest 80-20 ratio, Clinton has a 546,600 vote lead over Trump.
564,000 African Americans have early voted, not counting yesterday's total. If Clinton got 90% of that total and Trump got 10%, Clinton gains 451,200 votes. Adding 546,600 and 451,200 equals a 997,800 vote lead for Clinton. Donald Trump will need to overcome almost a million vote lead in tomorrow's voting.
In Ohio, a survey of early voting gives Clinton a lead of 48% to 41%. Clinton's early voting advantage among women is 55 to 32% and Trump's advantage among men is 53 to 39%, meaning that Clinton should have a sizable lead after early voting. More women than men vote in national elections.
ADDENDUM:
*Of the nation's 100 largest newspapers, 57 have endorsed Clinton and two have endorsed Trump.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Numbers and Percentages on Firearms, Prisoner Population, Depression and Welfare Reform
1) Gun Violence
11,364 - Gun deaths in 2016, as of October.
50% - Percentage of Americans affected by gun violence each day who are black men.
2,919 - Teens and children who have been killed or injured by guns as of October 2016.
1.4M - US firearm deaths from 1968 to 2011, compared with the number of US military deaths (1.2 million) in every armed conflict from the Revolutionary War to the invasion of Iraq. (Source: The Nation, November 7, 2016).
2) Prisoner Population
There are 2.2 million Americans in prisons and local jails. Many received long sentences for drug crimes.
191,476 - Number of federal prisoners. 46% of federal prisoners are drug offenders. More than a third of them had no or minimal criminal history.
Drug-Offender Sentencing - The average prison sentence for federal drug offenders is 11 years and 4 months.
Sentences imposed for drug offenses (2012)
1 year or less - 1%; 1-5 years - 22%; 5-10 years - 31%; 10-20 years; 34%; 20+ years - 13%.
Clemency Count
President Obama has commuted 774 sentences during his presidency, including those of 266 individuals serving life sentences.
Commutations by most recent 2-term presidents
13 - Reagan; 61 - Clinton; 11 - G.W. Bush; 774 - Obama (Source: Time, November 7, 2016).
3) Depression by the Numbers
3 million - Adolescents ages 12 to 17 in the U.S. who had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. This number has increased over time. In 2006, it was 7.9% and increased to 12.5% in 2015.
Depression experience by gender
Female - 19.5%; Male - 5.8%.
Anxiety by the numbers
6.3 million teens ages 13 to 18 who have had an anxiety disorder. That number represents 25% of he population in that age group in 2015.
Anxiety by gender
Female - 30.1%; Male - 20.3%. (Source: Time, November 7, 2016).
4) Welfare Reform
"In 1998, shortly after welfare reform, 65 percent of TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] spending went directly to cash benefits for poor families; today, that number has dropped to just over a quarter."
"Since 1996, the share of single mothers with neither income nor cash benefits has risen from 12 to 20 percent. Meanwhile, the number of families in deep poverty has grown from 2.7 million to 3 million."
The number of families living on $2 a day has risen 159% since 1996.
Less cash goes directly into poor people's pockets: in 1998 it was 65%; in 2014 it was 26%.
Percentage of poor families with kids getting benefits: in 1996 it was 68%; in 2014 it was 23%.
(Source: The Nation, October 10, 2016).
Welfare as we knew it
"When the 1996 welfare reform law created the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, nearly 80 percent of its funding went to the traditional elements of welfare -- cash assistance, promoting work, and child care. Today, states spend nearly half their TANF funding on unrelated areas, including, as Marketplace has reported, crisis pregnancy centers and college scholarships for upper-middle-class kids." (Sources: Mother Jones, November/December 2016, Marketplace, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities).
5) Anti-Militia Laws
"Forty states have laws that limit or prohibit private military groups or paramilitary training; however, there is no record of these laws being invoked." (Source: Mother Jones, November/December 2016).
6) Google's Tax-Avoidance Journey
"Apple just received a rap on the knuckles from the European Commission for its tax-avoidance scheme ... but the company is far from alone in hiding and hoarding its profits. Google, Apple's Silicon valley neighbor, has an even more labyrinthine web of tax havens at its disposal. Follow Google's peripatetic 'intangible capital' on its worldwide journey:"
*"Google US transfers 'intangible capital' to Ireland Limited, registered in Ireland.
*Ireland Limited, for Irish tax reasons, technically resides in Bermuda, where its 'mind and management' are supposedly located.
*Ireland Limited licenses Google technology to affiliates in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. For example, Google France pays royalties to Ireland Limited in order to use Google tech.
*Ireland Limited then takes the profits from these royalty payments and transfers them to Google BV, a shell company in the Netherlands. This transfer is tax-free because both Ireland and the Netherlands are members of the European Union.
Google BV pays it all back to Ireland Limited (which is technically located in Bermuda, remember?)
*In Bermuda, the corporate tax rate is a big, fat O percent. End result: Google's effective tax rate on foreign profits is in the single digits because it all happens in Bermuda. Ah, paradise..." (Source: Julia Mead, "How to Make a Double Irish Dutch Sandwich, The Nation, November 7, 2016).
11,364 - Gun deaths in 2016, as of October.
50% - Percentage of Americans affected by gun violence each day who are black men.
2,919 - Teens and children who have been killed or injured by guns as of October 2016.
1.4M - US firearm deaths from 1968 to 2011, compared with the number of US military deaths (1.2 million) in every armed conflict from the Revolutionary War to the invasion of Iraq. (Source: The Nation, November 7, 2016).
2) Prisoner Population
There are 2.2 million Americans in prisons and local jails. Many received long sentences for drug crimes.
191,476 - Number of federal prisoners. 46% of federal prisoners are drug offenders. More than a third of them had no or minimal criminal history.
Drug-Offender Sentencing - The average prison sentence for federal drug offenders is 11 years and 4 months.
Sentences imposed for drug offenses (2012)
1 year or less - 1%; 1-5 years - 22%; 5-10 years - 31%; 10-20 years; 34%; 20+ years - 13%.
Clemency Count
President Obama has commuted 774 sentences during his presidency, including those of 266 individuals serving life sentences.
Commutations by most recent 2-term presidents
13 - Reagan; 61 - Clinton; 11 - G.W. Bush; 774 - Obama (Source: Time, November 7, 2016).
3) Depression by the Numbers
3 million - Adolescents ages 12 to 17 in the U.S. who had at least one major depressive episode in the past year. This number has increased over time. In 2006, it was 7.9% and increased to 12.5% in 2015.
Depression experience by gender
Female - 19.5%; Male - 5.8%.
Anxiety by the numbers
6.3 million teens ages 13 to 18 who have had an anxiety disorder. That number represents 25% of he population in that age group in 2015.
Anxiety by gender
Female - 30.1%; Male - 20.3%. (Source: Time, November 7, 2016).
4) Welfare Reform
"In 1998, shortly after welfare reform, 65 percent of TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] spending went directly to cash benefits for poor families; today, that number has dropped to just over a quarter."
"Since 1996, the share of single mothers with neither income nor cash benefits has risen from 12 to 20 percent. Meanwhile, the number of families in deep poverty has grown from 2.7 million to 3 million."
The number of families living on $2 a day has risen 159% since 1996.
Less cash goes directly into poor people's pockets: in 1998 it was 65%; in 2014 it was 26%.
Percentage of poor families with kids getting benefits: in 1996 it was 68%; in 2014 it was 23%.
(Source: The Nation, October 10, 2016).
Welfare as we knew it
"When the 1996 welfare reform law created the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, nearly 80 percent of its funding went to the traditional elements of welfare -- cash assistance, promoting work, and child care. Today, states spend nearly half their TANF funding on unrelated areas, including, as Marketplace has reported, crisis pregnancy centers and college scholarships for upper-middle-class kids." (Sources: Mother Jones, November/December 2016, Marketplace, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities).
5) Anti-Militia Laws
"Forty states have laws that limit or prohibit private military groups or paramilitary training; however, there is no record of these laws being invoked." (Source: Mother Jones, November/December 2016).
6) Google's Tax-Avoidance Journey
"Apple just received a rap on the knuckles from the European Commission for its tax-avoidance scheme ... but the company is far from alone in hiding and hoarding its profits. Google, Apple's Silicon valley neighbor, has an even more labyrinthine web of tax havens at its disposal. Follow Google's peripatetic 'intangible capital' on its worldwide journey:"
*"Google US transfers 'intangible capital' to Ireland Limited, registered in Ireland.
*Ireland Limited, for Irish tax reasons, technically resides in Bermuda, where its 'mind and management' are supposedly located.
*Ireland Limited licenses Google technology to affiliates in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. For example, Google France pays royalties to Ireland Limited in order to use Google tech.
*Ireland Limited then takes the profits from these royalty payments and transfers them to Google BV, a shell company in the Netherlands. This transfer is tax-free because both Ireland and the Netherlands are members of the European Union.
Google BV pays it all back to Ireland Limited (which is technically located in Bermuda, remember?)
*In Bermuda, the corporate tax rate is a big, fat O percent. End result: Google's effective tax rate on foreign profits is in the single digits because it all happens in Bermuda. Ah, paradise..." (Source: Julia Mead, "How to Make a Double Irish Dutch Sandwich, The Nation, November 7, 2016).
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
A State-by-State Breakdown of Firearms Possession
A Percentage Breakdown of Households Possessing Firearms State-by-State
Alaska - 61.7 Utah - 31.9
Arkansas - 57.9 Georgia - 31.6
Idaho - 56.9 Oklahoma - 31.2
West Virginia - 54.2 Virginia - 29.3
Wyoming - 53.8 Vermont - 28.8
Montana - 52.3 North Carolina - 28.7
New Mexico - 49.9 Washington - 27.7
Alabama - 48.9 Pennsylvania - 27.1
North Dakota - 47.9 Missouri - 27.1
Hawaii - 45.1 Oregon - 26.6
Louisiana - 44.5 Illinois - 26.2
South Carolina - 44.4 Massachusetts - 22.6
Mississippi - 42.8 Maine - 22.6
Kentucky - 42.4 Maryland - 20.7
Tennessee - 39.4 California - 20.1
Nevada - 37.5 Nebraska - 19.8
Minnesota - 36.7 Ohio - 19.6
Texas - 35.7 Connecticut - 16.6
South Dakota - 35.0 New Hampshire - 14.4
Wisconsin - 34.7 New Jersey - 11.3
Colorado - 34.3 New York - 10.3
Iowa - 33.8 Rhode Island - 5.8
Indiana - 33.8 Delaware - 5.2
Florida - 32.5
Arizona - 32.3 Michigan - 34.7
Kansas - 32.2 DC - 25.9
Michigan was inadvertently left out of the sequence.
One of the striking features of this percentages of firearms by state households is that of the states with the highest percentages of firearms in households, only two, West Virginia and Alabama, are east of the Mississippi River. No northeast state is in the top 30, with Vermont coming in at 31 and Massachusetts at 38. The six states with the lowest percentages of firearms are all located in the northeast.
FBI indexes of violent crime annually show the northeast states as having the lowest levels of violent crime in the nation; therefore, there is a seeming correlation between firearms percentages and rates of violent crime.
Th four states that are usually put in the Deep South -- Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina -- all rank among the 13 states with the highest percentages of firearms possession. If we include Georgia as a Deep South state, all five of these states are in the top 30. In FBI statistics on violent crime rates, the South consistently ranks as the region with the highest rates.
Four of the seven states with the highest percentages of firearms possession are in the far West -- Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and New Mexico -- and that my be due to sparse population concentrations and plenty of hunting territory.
Alaska - 61.7 Utah - 31.9
Arkansas - 57.9 Georgia - 31.6
Idaho - 56.9 Oklahoma - 31.2
West Virginia - 54.2 Virginia - 29.3
Wyoming - 53.8 Vermont - 28.8
Montana - 52.3 North Carolina - 28.7
New Mexico - 49.9 Washington - 27.7
Alabama - 48.9 Pennsylvania - 27.1
North Dakota - 47.9 Missouri - 27.1
Hawaii - 45.1 Oregon - 26.6
Louisiana - 44.5 Illinois - 26.2
South Carolina - 44.4 Massachusetts - 22.6
Mississippi - 42.8 Maine - 22.6
Kentucky - 42.4 Maryland - 20.7
Tennessee - 39.4 California - 20.1
Nevada - 37.5 Nebraska - 19.8
Minnesota - 36.7 Ohio - 19.6
Texas - 35.7 Connecticut - 16.6
South Dakota - 35.0 New Hampshire - 14.4
Wisconsin - 34.7 New Jersey - 11.3
Colorado - 34.3 New York - 10.3
Iowa - 33.8 Rhode Island - 5.8
Indiana - 33.8 Delaware - 5.2
Florida - 32.5
Arizona - 32.3 Michigan - 34.7
Kansas - 32.2 DC - 25.9
Michigan was inadvertently left out of the sequence.
One of the striking features of this percentages of firearms by state households is that of the states with the highest percentages of firearms in households, only two, West Virginia and Alabama, are east of the Mississippi River. No northeast state is in the top 30, with Vermont coming in at 31 and Massachusetts at 38. The six states with the lowest percentages of firearms are all located in the northeast.
FBI indexes of violent crime annually show the northeast states as having the lowest levels of violent crime in the nation; therefore, there is a seeming correlation between firearms percentages and rates of violent crime.
Th four states that are usually put in the Deep South -- Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and South Carolina -- all rank among the 13 states with the highest percentages of firearms possession. If we include Georgia as a Deep South state, all five of these states are in the top 30. In FBI statistics on violent crime rates, the South consistently ranks as the region with the highest rates.
Four of the seven states with the highest percentages of firearms possession are in the far West -- Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and New Mexico -- and that my be due to sparse population concentrations and plenty of hunting territory.
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
Vandal in Chief
Vandal in Chief
Adam Haslett says that Donald Trump is causing us to lose "whatever frayed threads of decency" still hold "American political life together." He adds that "there is so little fellow feeling left among us these days that we are compelled to seek it in our national leader." "Indeed, his (Trump's) skill is precisely this: to create an entire national theater of shame in which he induces that very emotion in his followers, on the one hand, while on the other saving them from having to acknowledge its pain by publicly shaming others instead." "His recent misogynist tirade against a former Miss Universe is just one in a series of instances in which he has figuratively offered up the bodies of women for public denunciation." "Just as physical violence monopolizes attention in real time, so theatrical and rhetorical violence is in the political spaces." [1]
"And thus we arrive at the dominant trope of the endless attempts to account for Trump's rise: the seething, racially tinged anger of the white working class." "Yes, Trump is inciting racial hatred and mainstreaming white- supremacist politics more directly than any of his Republican predecessors dared to do. But for all the attention this does and must receive, it is not that he is doing." What Trump has taken advantage of is "not so much as raw anger, but rather its more basic predicate: the shame of being lesser than."
"Operating under the delusion that Trump and Clinton are equally bad options, some anti-Trump conservatives have refused to vote, or pledged to support a third-party candidate. That some cannot testifies to just how poisonous is the partisanship in our country, to the point that even conservatives who acknowledge Trump's unfitness cannot bring themselves to admit that Clinton represents an even marginal improvement. Any conservative alert enough to have joined Never Trump must wake up and realize that it's his or her civic duty to protect he country from the ravages of a megalomaniac by voting for Hillary Clinton." [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*"Our arrogance and barbarism in maintaining the American empire has earned us the hatred of most of the world. We are not 'the golden city on the hill' but a monstrous rogue nation." [3]
*"But Trump has embraced and normalized the political fringe in unprecedented ways -- and that could have far-reaching effects." A CNN poll showed that his support among likely GOP voters nearly doubled once he started talking about the birth certificate. [4]
*Hides account for only about 3 percent of the market value of hogs and cattle, which are mainly raised for their meat. 'More than 60 percent of the world's cowhide and leather comes from developing countries." The proportion of sheepskin is even higher. [5]
Footnotes
[1] Adam Haslett, "Vandal in Chief," The Nation, October 24, 2016.
[2] James Kischick, "Danger of Trump transcends politics," Albuquerque Journal, October 22, 2016.
[3] Letter to the editor by Al Salzman, The Nation, October 24, 2016.
[4] Tim Murphy, "Conspiracy Theorist in Chief," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.
[5] Bob Schildgen, "Hey Mr. Green!" Sierra, November/December 2016.
Adam Haslett says that Donald Trump is causing us to lose "whatever frayed threads of decency" still hold "American political life together." He adds that "there is so little fellow feeling left among us these days that we are compelled to seek it in our national leader." "Indeed, his (Trump's) skill is precisely this: to create an entire national theater of shame in which he induces that very emotion in his followers, on the one hand, while on the other saving them from having to acknowledge its pain by publicly shaming others instead." "His recent misogynist tirade against a former Miss Universe is just one in a series of instances in which he has figuratively offered up the bodies of women for public denunciation." "Just as physical violence monopolizes attention in real time, so theatrical and rhetorical violence is in the political spaces." [1]
"And thus we arrive at the dominant trope of the endless attempts to account for Trump's rise: the seething, racially tinged anger of the white working class." "Yes, Trump is inciting racial hatred and mainstreaming white- supremacist politics more directly than any of his Republican predecessors dared to do. But for all the attention this does and must receive, it is not that he is doing." What Trump has taken advantage of is "not so much as raw anger, but rather its more basic predicate: the shame of being lesser than."
"Operating under the delusion that Trump and Clinton are equally bad options, some anti-Trump conservatives have refused to vote, or pledged to support a third-party candidate. That some cannot testifies to just how poisonous is the partisanship in our country, to the point that even conservatives who acknowledge Trump's unfitness cannot bring themselves to admit that Clinton represents an even marginal improvement. Any conservative alert enough to have joined Never Trump must wake up and realize that it's his or her civic duty to protect he country from the ravages of a megalomaniac by voting for Hillary Clinton." [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*"Our arrogance and barbarism in maintaining the American empire has earned us the hatred of most of the world. We are not 'the golden city on the hill' but a monstrous rogue nation." [3]
*"But Trump has embraced and normalized the political fringe in unprecedented ways -- and that could have far-reaching effects." A CNN poll showed that his support among likely GOP voters nearly doubled once he started talking about the birth certificate. [4]
*Hides account for only about 3 percent of the market value of hogs and cattle, which are mainly raised for their meat. 'More than 60 percent of the world's cowhide and leather comes from developing countries." The proportion of sheepskin is even higher. [5]
Footnotes
[1] Adam Haslett, "Vandal in Chief," The Nation, October 24, 2016.
[2] James Kischick, "Danger of Trump transcends politics," Albuquerque Journal, October 22, 2016.
[3] Letter to the editor by Al Salzman, The Nation, October 24, 2016.
[4] Tim Murphy, "Conspiracy Theorist in Chief," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.
[5] Bob Schildgen, "Hey Mr. Green!" Sierra, November/December 2016.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Cage-Free Hens and North Carolina's Ballot Box, and Gender Discrimination
1.) Cage-Free Hens
In the U.S. market, Steve Easterbrook launched McDonald's successful All Day Breakfast, removed high fructose corn syrup from the company's buns, ended the use of antibiotics in the company's chickens and embarked on a 10-year plan to liberate the birds from the cages in which they long have been confined. Chickens and eggs account for 50 percent of the items on the menu. "The terms that are important now are 'antibiotic and hormone-free,' 'natural and organic.' " "Right now only 13 million of the company's 2 billion U.S. eggs are cage-free." [1]
"Cage-free birds suffered twice the fatality rate of caged and enriched birds, according to [a] study." "Free birds also required more feed." "The egg-per-uncaged-hen average lagged because of the elevated mortality and the birds' tendency to lay eggs on the floor. Hens from enriched cages provided the most [eggs]."
"The transition to fully cage-free production will be lengthy. Henhouses have an average life span of 30 years." Constructing a cage-free henhouse tends to be three times as much as a caged version, according to estimates by United Egg Producers.
2.) Ballot Box and Bathroom Discrimination
The GOP majority in the North Carolina legislature commissioned a study into African American voting patterns and then crafted House Bill 589, which dramatically cut back ballot access in North Carolina, reducing the number of early voting days, requiring photo ID, and eliminating same-day registration, out-of-precinct voting (aimed at college students), and a preregistration program for 16-and 17- year-olds. "Black voters are three times more likely to have transportation issues than whites. They make up a disproportionate share of those lacking ID, and many of them vote on early-voting Sundays. [2]
Art Pope, the GOP's chief fundraiser, did indeed, REDMAP the state, redistricting legislative and congressional districts. Despite the GOP's lock on the Statehouse, North Carolina is still more Democratic than Republican.
Two days after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down -- by a 3-0 vote -- HB 589, the same court would rule that 28 of the North Carolina's 170 state legislative districts were unconstitutional "racial gerrymanders." "Race was the predominant factor motivating the drawing of all challenged districts," the court found, creating "one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina history."
Although Republicans like to claim that they believe that the government closest to the people governs best, they often do not honor that claimed belief. The HB2 legislation mandating bathroom use based on the gender on the birth certificate, was in response to an anti-discrimination statute that Charlotte had passed protecting trans peoples' right to use the bathroom of their choice. Critics of the General Assembly say over-and-over that hard-won victories at the local level are squashed at the state level.
ADDENDUMS:
*On November 10, 1898, a coup d' etat took place on United States soil. It was perpetrated by a gang of white-supremacist Democrats in Wilmington, North Carolina." "By the end of the day, they had killed somewhere between fourteen and sixty black men and banished twenty more, meanwhile forcing the mayor, the police chief, and the members of the board of aldermen to resign." [3]
*"Most porn is viewed on easily accessible 'tube sites,' such as YouPorn, Red Tube, X Videos, and Pornhub." "According to a recent CNBC report, seventy per cent of American online-porn access occurs during the nine-to five workday." In 2014, Pornhub alone had seventy-eight billion page views and X Videos is the fifty-sixth most popular Web site in the world." [4]
"Most performers are independent contractors who get paid per sex act." "The average career is between four and six months."
*"Since 1989, eyewitness misidentification has contributed to a seventy-one per cent rate of wrongful convictions, proved by DNA testing." The British unit (London Met's police unit of "super-recognizers") uses its record of guilty pleas as evidence of the efficacy of super-recognizers, but guilty pleas are highly unreliable indicators of actual guilt, as innocent people often plead guilty, particularly when facing charges of low-level crimes." [5]
Footnotes
[1] Beth Kowitt, "Free Bird," Fortune, September 1, 2016.
[2] Mac McClelland, "The Bathroom and the Ballot Box," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.
[3] Lauren Collins, "American Coup," The New Yorker, September 19, 2016.
[4] Katrina Forrester, "Lights. Camera. Action." The New Yorker, September 26, 2016.
[5] Letter to the editor by Karen Newirth, The New Yorker, September 26, 2016.
In the U.S. market, Steve Easterbrook launched McDonald's successful All Day Breakfast, removed high fructose corn syrup from the company's buns, ended the use of antibiotics in the company's chickens and embarked on a 10-year plan to liberate the birds from the cages in which they long have been confined. Chickens and eggs account for 50 percent of the items on the menu. "The terms that are important now are 'antibiotic and hormone-free,' 'natural and organic.' " "Right now only 13 million of the company's 2 billion U.S. eggs are cage-free." [1]
"Cage-free birds suffered twice the fatality rate of caged and enriched birds, according to [a] study." "Free birds also required more feed." "The egg-per-uncaged-hen average lagged because of the elevated mortality and the birds' tendency to lay eggs on the floor. Hens from enriched cages provided the most [eggs]."
"The transition to fully cage-free production will be lengthy. Henhouses have an average life span of 30 years." Constructing a cage-free henhouse tends to be three times as much as a caged version, according to estimates by United Egg Producers.
2.) Ballot Box and Bathroom Discrimination
The GOP majority in the North Carolina legislature commissioned a study into African American voting patterns and then crafted House Bill 589, which dramatically cut back ballot access in North Carolina, reducing the number of early voting days, requiring photo ID, and eliminating same-day registration, out-of-precinct voting (aimed at college students), and a preregistration program for 16-and 17- year-olds. "Black voters are three times more likely to have transportation issues than whites. They make up a disproportionate share of those lacking ID, and many of them vote on early-voting Sundays. [2]
Art Pope, the GOP's chief fundraiser, did indeed, REDMAP the state, redistricting legislative and congressional districts. Despite the GOP's lock on the Statehouse, North Carolina is still more Democratic than Republican.
Two days after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down -- by a 3-0 vote -- HB 589, the same court would rule that 28 of the North Carolina's 170 state legislative districts were unconstitutional "racial gerrymanders." "Race was the predominant factor motivating the drawing of all challenged districts," the court found, creating "one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina history."
Although Republicans like to claim that they believe that the government closest to the people governs best, they often do not honor that claimed belief. The HB2 legislation mandating bathroom use based on the gender on the birth certificate, was in response to an anti-discrimination statute that Charlotte had passed protecting trans peoples' right to use the bathroom of their choice. Critics of the General Assembly say over-and-over that hard-won victories at the local level are squashed at the state level.
ADDENDUMS:
*On November 10, 1898, a coup d' etat took place on United States soil. It was perpetrated by a gang of white-supremacist Democrats in Wilmington, North Carolina." "By the end of the day, they had killed somewhere between fourteen and sixty black men and banished twenty more, meanwhile forcing the mayor, the police chief, and the members of the board of aldermen to resign." [3]
*"Most porn is viewed on easily accessible 'tube sites,' such as YouPorn, Red Tube, X Videos, and Pornhub." "According to a recent CNBC report, seventy per cent of American online-porn access occurs during the nine-to five workday." In 2014, Pornhub alone had seventy-eight billion page views and X Videos is the fifty-sixth most popular Web site in the world." [4]
"Most performers are independent contractors who get paid per sex act." "The average career is between four and six months."
*"Since 1989, eyewitness misidentification has contributed to a seventy-one per cent rate of wrongful convictions, proved by DNA testing." The British unit (London Met's police unit of "super-recognizers") uses its record of guilty pleas as evidence of the efficacy of super-recognizers, but guilty pleas are highly unreliable indicators of actual guilt, as innocent people often plead guilty, particularly when facing charges of low-level crimes." [5]
Footnotes
[1] Beth Kowitt, "Free Bird," Fortune, September 1, 2016.
[2] Mac McClelland, "The Bathroom and the Ballot Box," Mother Jones, November/December 2016.
[3] Lauren Collins, "American Coup," The New Yorker, September 19, 2016.
[4] Katrina Forrester, "Lights. Camera. Action." The New Yorker, September 26, 2016.
[5] Letter to the editor by Karen Newirth, The New Yorker, September 26, 2016.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Upholding the Iran Nuclear Treaty; Illegal Trump Foundation Spending; and a Syrian Civil War Position
1) Upholding the Iran Nuclear Treaty
Twelve peace and justice organizations have joined in a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, with copies sent to all members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
The letter surges the 114th Congress to continue to maintain the United States' commitment to upholding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which has succeeded in blocking Iran's potential pathways to a nuclear weapon while averting a disastrous war.
"Second, it is important to note that the administration will retain full authority to snap back sanctions in order to respond to a potential Iranian breach of the accord with or without the extension of ISA under the authorities established by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)." ISA is the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996.
"Third, if ISA is extended beyond the date of the JCPOA's 'Transition Day,' Congress should reaffirm that the U.S. is fully committed to upholding its commitments to terminate nuclear-related sanctions on that date so long as Iran upholds its own obligations. The latest potential date for 'Termination Day' under the JCPOA is October 18, 2023." "An act of Congress will therefore be necessary to terminate nuclear-related sanctions, including ISA sanctions, and Congress should make clear that this remains its intent."
"There have been numerous efforts to undermine confidence in the JCPOA, both from Congressional opponents of the JCPOA and hardliners in Iran. Any consideration of an ISA extension must not become an opportunity for opponents of the JCPOA on either side to re-litigate or renege on the accord."
2) Trump Foundation Money Used for Political Purposes
Donald Trump appeared to use his foundation to launch his presidential campaign ambitions, according to filings analyzed by RealClearPolitics.
"From 2011 to 2014, Trump sent at least $286,000 to conservative or policy groups. The contributions corresponded to speaking engagements and endorsements as Trump cast himself as a potential presidential candidate, according to the analysis. If the contributions were solely to benefit Trump, they could be in violation of IRS laws that prohibit private foundations from self-dealing."
"Improper reporting is still a violation of tax law," charity law specialist Rosemary Fei told RealClearPolitics.
"The report pointed to other examples that appear to show Trump using his foundation to curry favor, such as Trump's foundation donating $100,000 to the Citizens United Foundation ahead of a 'cattle call' of possible Republican presidential candidates sponsored by the group, which Trump attended."
3) The U.S. True Role in Syria
Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, who has many titles but whose base is at Columbia University, has presented his position on what the U.S. role in Syria should be. He calls Syria's civil war the "most dangerous and destructive crisis on the planet." He says that President Barack Obama has "greatly compounded the dangers by hiding the US role in Syria from the American people and from world opinion. An end to the Syrian war requires an honest accounting by the US of its ongoing, often secretive role in the Syrian conflict since 2011, including who is funding, arming, training, and abetting the various sides. Such exposure would help bring to an end many countries' reckless actions."
"Through occasional leaks, investigative reports, statements by other governments, and rare statements by US officials, we know that America is engaged in an active, ongoing, CIA-coordinated war both to overthrow Assad and to fight ISIS. America's allies in the anti-Assad effort include Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qater, and other countries in the region. The US has spent billions of dollars on arms, training,special operations forces, air strikes, and logistical support for the rebel forces, including international mercenaries. American allies have spent billions of dollars more. The precise sums are not reported."
Professor Sachs presents the opposing position, which is that secrecy is as it should be. "Their position is that a vote by Congress 15 years ago authorizing the use of armed force against those culpable for the 9/11 attack gives the president and military carte blanche to fight secret wars in the Middle East and Africa. Why should the US explain publicly what it is doing? That would only jeopardize the operations and strengthen the enemy. The public does not need to know."
"I subscribe to a different view: wars should be a last resort and should be constrained by democratic scrutiny. This view holds that America's secret war in Syria is illegal both under the US Constitution (which gives Congress the sole power to declare war) and under the United Nations Charter, and that America's two-sided war in Syria is a cynical and reckless gamble. The US-led efforts to topple Assad are not aimed at protecting the Syrian people, as Obama and Clinton have suggested from time to time, but are a US proxy war against Iran and Russia, in which Syria happens to be the battleground."
"The American people want security -- including the defeat of ISIS -- but they also recognize the long and disastrous history of US-led regime-change efforts, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia."
Twelve peace and justice organizations have joined in a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, with copies sent to all members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
The letter surges the 114th Congress to continue to maintain the United States' commitment to upholding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which has succeeded in blocking Iran's potential pathways to a nuclear weapon while averting a disastrous war.
"Second, it is important to note that the administration will retain full authority to snap back sanctions in order to respond to a potential Iranian breach of the accord with or without the extension of ISA under the authorities established by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)." ISA is the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996.
"Third, if ISA is extended beyond the date of the JCPOA's 'Transition Day,' Congress should reaffirm that the U.S. is fully committed to upholding its commitments to terminate nuclear-related sanctions on that date so long as Iran upholds its own obligations. The latest potential date for 'Termination Day' under the JCPOA is October 18, 2023." "An act of Congress will therefore be necessary to terminate nuclear-related sanctions, including ISA sanctions, and Congress should make clear that this remains its intent."
"There have been numerous efforts to undermine confidence in the JCPOA, both from Congressional opponents of the JCPOA and hardliners in Iran. Any consideration of an ISA extension must not become an opportunity for opponents of the JCPOA on either side to re-litigate or renege on the accord."
2) Trump Foundation Money Used for Political Purposes
Donald Trump appeared to use his foundation to launch his presidential campaign ambitions, according to filings analyzed by RealClearPolitics.
"From 2011 to 2014, Trump sent at least $286,000 to conservative or policy groups. The contributions corresponded to speaking engagements and endorsements as Trump cast himself as a potential presidential candidate, according to the analysis. If the contributions were solely to benefit Trump, they could be in violation of IRS laws that prohibit private foundations from self-dealing."
"Improper reporting is still a violation of tax law," charity law specialist Rosemary Fei told RealClearPolitics.
"The report pointed to other examples that appear to show Trump using his foundation to curry favor, such as Trump's foundation donating $100,000 to the Citizens United Foundation ahead of a 'cattle call' of possible Republican presidential candidates sponsored by the group, which Trump attended."
3) The U.S. True Role in Syria
Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, who has many titles but whose base is at Columbia University, has presented his position on what the U.S. role in Syria should be. He calls Syria's civil war the "most dangerous and destructive crisis on the planet." He says that President Barack Obama has "greatly compounded the dangers by hiding the US role in Syria from the American people and from world opinion. An end to the Syrian war requires an honest accounting by the US of its ongoing, often secretive role in the Syrian conflict since 2011, including who is funding, arming, training, and abetting the various sides. Such exposure would help bring to an end many countries' reckless actions."
"Through occasional leaks, investigative reports, statements by other governments, and rare statements by US officials, we know that America is engaged in an active, ongoing, CIA-coordinated war both to overthrow Assad and to fight ISIS. America's allies in the anti-Assad effort include Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qater, and other countries in the region. The US has spent billions of dollars on arms, training,special operations forces, air strikes, and logistical support for the rebel forces, including international mercenaries. American allies have spent billions of dollars more. The precise sums are not reported."
Professor Sachs presents the opposing position, which is that secrecy is as it should be. "Their position is that a vote by Congress 15 years ago authorizing the use of armed force against those culpable for the 9/11 attack gives the president and military carte blanche to fight secret wars in the Middle East and Africa. Why should the US explain publicly what it is doing? That would only jeopardize the operations and strengthen the enemy. The public does not need to know."
"I subscribe to a different view: wars should be a last resort and should be constrained by democratic scrutiny. This view holds that America's secret war in Syria is illegal both under the US Constitution (which gives Congress the sole power to declare war) and under the United Nations Charter, and that America's two-sided war in Syria is a cynical and reckless gamble. The US-led efforts to topple Assad are not aimed at protecting the Syrian people, as Obama and Clinton have suggested from time to time, but are a US proxy war against Iran and Russia, in which Syria happens to be the battleground."
"The American people want security -- including the defeat of ISIS -- but they also recognize the long and disastrous history of US-led regime-change efforts, including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Central America, Africa, and Southeast Asia."
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Corporate Tax Rates; ATF; For-Profit Schools; N. Korea's Nuke Testing; and Latinos Driving Growth
1) Overseas Tax Concessions
"Tax arrangements offered Apple in 1991 and 2007 were illegal, allowing the Cupertino, California firm to pay annual tax rates of 0.005% to 1% on its European profits from 2003 to 2014." Those rates are much lower than Ireland's standard corporation tax rate -- already the second lowest in the European Union at 12.5%. [1]
"American companies have an estimated $2.4 trillion stashed overseas -- in principle, American and European regulators agree on the need to squash country-specific tax loopholes and provide multinationals clearer rules." "Even as big firms have stowed cash abroad, many have borrowed money in the U.S. debt markets at low interest rates. Unfortunately most use that debt to fund share buybacks that enrich mainly the wealthiest Americans, rather than invest in job- and growth-creating research and development." [2]
2) Corporate Profits and Taxes
Since 1952, corporate profits as a share of the economy have risen from 5.5% to 8.5%, while corporate tax revenues have dropped from 5.9% to 1.9%. Deferral of taxes paid on profits earned abroad will cost the U.S. Treasury $1.3 trillion over 10 years, according to the Americans for Tax Fairness and the EPI Chartbook.
Priority should be given to closing the gaping deferral loophole.
3) ATF at Distinct Disadvantage
"More than 10 million guns are made in the United States every year, and another 5 million are imported. That's on top of the estimated 350 million already in Americans' hands." "About 370,000 times a year, law enforcement agencies ask the ATF to help them track down the origins of a gun that's been trafficked or used in a crime." Furthermore, the ATF estimates that about 50,000 firearms are illegally smuggled across state lines ever line. Then consider that there are only 2,600 ATF [Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] special agents. [3]
Currently, the ATF is only allowed to provide specific trace information when a local law enforcement agency asks for it, and only for that particular jurisdiction. The majority of weapons used in crimes comes from a tiny percentage of the nation's gun dealers. [4]
4) For-Profits Educational Crash
In August 2016, citing failure of financial responsibility and federal fraud charges, the Department of Education tightened its oversight of ITT by requiring the school to boost its cash reserves. That ultimately led to its shuttering.
For-profit schools are facing a reckoning after years of meteoric growth. In 2009, for example, for-profit schools spent 17% of their budgets on instruction and 42% on marketing or investor payouts. Although for-profit schools are still a small part of the overall educational sector, from 2010 to 2012 they took more than a quarter of federal aid subsidies and represented nearly half of all defaults. [5]
5) North Korea's Testing and Hacking
In 2016 alone, North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and 20 missile tests, and analysts believe the nation has the ability and atomic material to test another nuke at any moment.
Yu Dong-Yeol,the director of the Korea Institute of Liberal Democracy in Seoul, told a defense security conference on July 7 that Pyongyang runs 6,800 professional hackers, engaged in fraud and blackmail; also, an online gambling ring generates annual revenue of $860 million. [6]
6) Latinos Drive U.S. Economic Growth
Although it seems hard to believe, the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative says that Latinos have launched small businesses at a pace more than 60 times that of their non-Latino counterparts. Also, according to the Stanford study, Latino-owned businesses employed 2.5 million workers, a number that has likely grown since the study. [7]
According to a 2016 Pew Research poll, 59% of Americans say immigrants strengthen the country, while 33% say immigrants are a burden. These findings diverge along partisan lines, with 78% of Democrats saying they strengthen the nation and just 35% of Republicans agreeing.
ADDENDUMS:
*In a letter to the September 5, 2016 The New Yorker, Sidney Brown and Vincent Iacojins say they were participants in the documentation of cases at Guantanamo and they can confirm that the psychological effects of indefinite detention are harmful and lasting.
*President Obama has now put more acreage under protection than any other president, though the bulk of it is underwater. "In the face of climate change and sea-level rise, even creatures living in the planet's newest, largest aqueous preserve may not be preserved; as conditions shift, they may be forced to swim and slither beyond the borders." [8]
*"Clinton's flaws aren't just smaller than Trump's, they are not on the same scale. It's as if the American Presidency might suffer the same fate as the NASA orbiter that was lost because someone mixed up metric and non-metric measurements." Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy found that last year Hillary Clinton received a far higher proportion of negative coverage than any other candidate. [9]
Footnotes
[1] Rana Feroghar, "Apple's $14.5 billion tax spot ..." Time, September 12-19, 2016.
[2]Ibid.
[3] Bryan Schatz, "Outgunned and Outmanned," Mother Jones, September/October 2016.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Rana Feroghar, "What comers after for-profit colleges ..." Time, September 26, 2016.
[6] Charlie Campbell, "Kim's Last Laugh," Time, September 26, 2016.
[7] Tessa Berenson, "How Latinos Drive America's Economic Growth," Time, September 26, 2016.
[8] Elizabeth Kolbert, "Into the Wild," The New Yorker, September 12, 2016.
[9] Amy Davidson, "Upholding Standards," The New Yorker, September 19, 2016.
"Tax arrangements offered Apple in 1991 and 2007 were illegal, allowing the Cupertino, California firm to pay annual tax rates of 0.005% to 1% on its European profits from 2003 to 2014." Those rates are much lower than Ireland's standard corporation tax rate -- already the second lowest in the European Union at 12.5%. [1]
"American companies have an estimated $2.4 trillion stashed overseas -- in principle, American and European regulators agree on the need to squash country-specific tax loopholes and provide multinationals clearer rules." "Even as big firms have stowed cash abroad, many have borrowed money in the U.S. debt markets at low interest rates. Unfortunately most use that debt to fund share buybacks that enrich mainly the wealthiest Americans, rather than invest in job- and growth-creating research and development." [2]
2) Corporate Profits and Taxes
Since 1952, corporate profits as a share of the economy have risen from 5.5% to 8.5%, while corporate tax revenues have dropped from 5.9% to 1.9%. Deferral of taxes paid on profits earned abroad will cost the U.S. Treasury $1.3 trillion over 10 years, according to the Americans for Tax Fairness and the EPI Chartbook.
Priority should be given to closing the gaping deferral loophole.
3) ATF at Distinct Disadvantage
"More than 10 million guns are made in the United States every year, and another 5 million are imported. That's on top of the estimated 350 million already in Americans' hands." "About 370,000 times a year, law enforcement agencies ask the ATF to help them track down the origins of a gun that's been trafficked or used in a crime." Furthermore, the ATF estimates that about 50,000 firearms are illegally smuggled across state lines ever line. Then consider that there are only 2,600 ATF [Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms] special agents. [3]
Currently, the ATF is only allowed to provide specific trace information when a local law enforcement agency asks for it, and only for that particular jurisdiction. The majority of weapons used in crimes comes from a tiny percentage of the nation's gun dealers. [4]
4) For-Profits Educational Crash
In August 2016, citing failure of financial responsibility and federal fraud charges, the Department of Education tightened its oversight of ITT by requiring the school to boost its cash reserves. That ultimately led to its shuttering.
For-profit schools are facing a reckoning after years of meteoric growth. In 2009, for example, for-profit schools spent 17% of their budgets on instruction and 42% on marketing or investor payouts. Although for-profit schools are still a small part of the overall educational sector, from 2010 to 2012 they took more than a quarter of federal aid subsidies and represented nearly half of all defaults. [5]
5) North Korea's Testing and Hacking
In 2016 alone, North Korea has conducted two nuclear tests and 20 missile tests, and analysts believe the nation has the ability and atomic material to test another nuke at any moment.
Yu Dong-Yeol,the director of the Korea Institute of Liberal Democracy in Seoul, told a defense security conference on July 7 that Pyongyang runs 6,800 professional hackers, engaged in fraud and blackmail; also, an online gambling ring generates annual revenue of $860 million. [6]
6) Latinos Drive U.S. Economic Growth
Although it seems hard to believe, the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative says that Latinos have launched small businesses at a pace more than 60 times that of their non-Latino counterparts. Also, according to the Stanford study, Latino-owned businesses employed 2.5 million workers, a number that has likely grown since the study. [7]
According to a 2016 Pew Research poll, 59% of Americans say immigrants strengthen the country, while 33% say immigrants are a burden. These findings diverge along partisan lines, with 78% of Democrats saying they strengthen the nation and just 35% of Republicans agreeing.
ADDENDUMS:
*In a letter to the September 5, 2016 The New Yorker, Sidney Brown and Vincent Iacojins say they were participants in the documentation of cases at Guantanamo and they can confirm that the psychological effects of indefinite detention are harmful and lasting.
*President Obama has now put more acreage under protection than any other president, though the bulk of it is underwater. "In the face of climate change and sea-level rise, even creatures living in the planet's newest, largest aqueous preserve may not be preserved; as conditions shift, they may be forced to swim and slither beyond the borders." [8]
*"Clinton's flaws aren't just smaller than Trump's, they are not on the same scale. It's as if the American Presidency might suffer the same fate as the NASA orbiter that was lost because someone mixed up metric and non-metric measurements." Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy found that last year Hillary Clinton received a far higher proportion of negative coverage than any other candidate. [9]
Footnotes
[1] Rana Feroghar, "Apple's $14.5 billion tax spot ..." Time, September 12-19, 2016.
[2]Ibid.
[3] Bryan Schatz, "Outgunned and Outmanned," Mother Jones, September/October 2016.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Rana Feroghar, "What comers after for-profit colleges ..." Time, September 26, 2016.
[6] Charlie Campbell, "Kim's Last Laugh," Time, September 26, 2016.
[7] Tessa Berenson, "How Latinos Drive America's Economic Growth," Time, September 26, 2016.
[8] Elizabeth Kolbert, "Into the Wild," The New Yorker, September 12, 2016.
[9] Amy Davidson, "Upholding Standards," The New Yorker, September 19, 2016.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
1) Louisiana: The Third Poorest State
"Louisiana is the country's third-poorest state; 1 in 5 residents live in poverty. It ranks third in the proportion of residents who go hungry each year, and dead last in overall health." Louisiana leads the nation in its proportion of 'disconnected youth' -- 20 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds in 2015 were neither in school nor at work." (Nationally, the figure is 14 percent.) [1]
According to the American Cancer Society, Louisiana had the nation's second-highest incidence of cancer for men and the fifth-highest rate of male deaths from cancer.
2) Assessing the Underground Railroad
"For one thing, far from being centrally organized, the Underground Railroad was what we might today call an emergent system, it arose through the largely unrelated actions of individuals and small groups, many of them were oblivious of one another's existence." "Yet mainstream attention goes to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was established in 1816, in direct response to American racism and the institution of slavery, and played at least as crucial a role in raising money, aiding fugitives, and helping former slaves who had found their way to freedom make a new life." [2]
"Most whites faced only fines and the opprobrium of some in their community, while those who lived in anti-slavery strongholds, as many did, went about their business with near-impunity."
The Underground Railroad didn't operate below the Mason-Dixon Line at all. Aside from a few outposts in border states, the Railroad was a Northern institution. As a result, for the roughly sixty percent of America's slaves who lived in the Deep South in 1860, it was largely unknown and entirely useless. "Instead, while slavery itself was against the law in the North, upholding the institution of slavery was the law." "Outside of scattered pockets in upstate New York, Massachusetts, and the Midwest, moral opposition to slavery was not the norm above the Mason-Dixon Line." [3]
The Underground Railroad was perhaps the least popular way for slaves to seek their freedom. The historian, Eric Foner, estimates that, between 1830 and 1860, some thirty thousand fugitives passed through its network to freedom. In 1860, the number of people in bondage in the United States was nearly four million. Foner, making the best of difficult data, suggests that across the country and throughout the duration of slavery, the number of white Americans who regularly aided fugitives was in the hundreds. "In the entire history of slavery, the Underground Railroad offers one of the few narratives in which white Americans can plausibly appear as heroes." [4]
3) Affordable Care Act Problems
Aetna's decision to leave Obamacare "reflects an awkward reality: the jury-rigged, potentially compromised nature of Obamacare has made the program unstable, and unable to live up to its lofty promises." "Some thirty million Americans remain uninsured. participants in the A.C.A. marketplaces are less numerous, and sicker, than anticipated: 8.3 million fewer people enrolled through the exchanges this year than the Congressional Budget Office had projected. As a result, insurers in much of the country are fleeing the marketplaces. [5]
The Kaiser health organization estimates that between twenty and twenty-five percent of U.S. counties may have only one insurer offering coverage in 2017. "The U.S. could well end up with a two-tier insurance market in which people lucky enough to get insurance through their employers will get much better coverage and wider options than those on the individual market, even when both groups are paying the same amount in premiums." [6]
In the final analysis, if we want to make universal health insurance a reality, the government needs to do more, not less.
4) Child Soldiers
"The phrase 'child soldier' tends to conjure images of places like Sierra Leone, where minors were used extensively, and in other African conflicts during the nineteen-nineties. But boys and girls under the age of eighteen have been deployed in battles throughout the world." "A recent report by the Quilliam Foundation describes Islamic State propaganda videos that feature children committing murder and suggests that the group is broadcasting its willingness to flaunt international norms in a deliberate effort to seize the psychological upper hand. This is a standard feature of any curriculum in homicide: progressive exposure to violence." [7]
Child soldiers often rely on drugs to inure themselves to horror. Committing murder may mean upward mobility.
Footnotes
[1] Arlie Russell Hochschild, "No Country for White Men," Mother Jones, September/October 2016.
[2] Kathryn Schulz, "Derailed," The New Yorker, August 22, 2016.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] James Surwiecki, "Sick Business," The New Yorker, September 5, 2016.
[6]Ibid.
[7] Patrick Radden Keefe, "Young Guns," The New Yorker, September 12, 2016.
"Louisiana is the country's third-poorest state; 1 in 5 residents live in poverty. It ranks third in the proportion of residents who go hungry each year, and dead last in overall health." Louisiana leads the nation in its proportion of 'disconnected youth' -- 20 percent of 16-to-24-year-olds in 2015 were neither in school nor at work." (Nationally, the figure is 14 percent.) [1]
According to the American Cancer Society, Louisiana had the nation's second-highest incidence of cancer for men and the fifth-highest rate of male deaths from cancer.
2) Assessing the Underground Railroad
"For one thing, far from being centrally organized, the Underground Railroad was what we might today call an emergent system, it arose through the largely unrelated actions of individuals and small groups, many of them were oblivious of one another's existence." "Yet mainstream attention goes to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was established in 1816, in direct response to American racism and the institution of slavery, and played at least as crucial a role in raising money, aiding fugitives, and helping former slaves who had found their way to freedom make a new life." [2]
"Most whites faced only fines and the opprobrium of some in their community, while those who lived in anti-slavery strongholds, as many did, went about their business with near-impunity."
The Underground Railroad didn't operate below the Mason-Dixon Line at all. Aside from a few outposts in border states, the Railroad was a Northern institution. As a result, for the roughly sixty percent of America's slaves who lived in the Deep South in 1860, it was largely unknown and entirely useless. "Instead, while slavery itself was against the law in the North, upholding the institution of slavery was the law." "Outside of scattered pockets in upstate New York, Massachusetts, and the Midwest, moral opposition to slavery was not the norm above the Mason-Dixon Line." [3]
The Underground Railroad was perhaps the least popular way for slaves to seek their freedom. The historian, Eric Foner, estimates that, between 1830 and 1860, some thirty thousand fugitives passed through its network to freedom. In 1860, the number of people in bondage in the United States was nearly four million. Foner, making the best of difficult data, suggests that across the country and throughout the duration of slavery, the number of white Americans who regularly aided fugitives was in the hundreds. "In the entire history of slavery, the Underground Railroad offers one of the few narratives in which white Americans can plausibly appear as heroes." [4]
3) Affordable Care Act Problems
Aetna's decision to leave Obamacare "reflects an awkward reality: the jury-rigged, potentially compromised nature of Obamacare has made the program unstable, and unable to live up to its lofty promises." "Some thirty million Americans remain uninsured. participants in the A.C.A. marketplaces are less numerous, and sicker, than anticipated: 8.3 million fewer people enrolled through the exchanges this year than the Congressional Budget Office had projected. As a result, insurers in much of the country are fleeing the marketplaces. [5]
The Kaiser health organization estimates that between twenty and twenty-five percent of U.S. counties may have only one insurer offering coverage in 2017. "The U.S. could well end up with a two-tier insurance market in which people lucky enough to get insurance through their employers will get much better coverage and wider options than those on the individual market, even when both groups are paying the same amount in premiums." [6]
In the final analysis, if we want to make universal health insurance a reality, the government needs to do more, not less.
4) Child Soldiers
"The phrase 'child soldier' tends to conjure images of places like Sierra Leone, where minors were used extensively, and in other African conflicts during the nineteen-nineties. But boys and girls under the age of eighteen have been deployed in battles throughout the world." "A recent report by the Quilliam Foundation describes Islamic State propaganda videos that feature children committing murder and suggests that the group is broadcasting its willingness to flaunt international norms in a deliberate effort to seize the psychological upper hand. This is a standard feature of any curriculum in homicide: progressive exposure to violence." [7]
Child soldiers often rely on drugs to inure themselves to horror. Committing murder may mean upward mobility.
Footnotes
[1] Arlie Russell Hochschild, "No Country for White Men," Mother Jones, September/October 2016.
[2] Kathryn Schulz, "Derailed," The New Yorker, August 22, 2016.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] James Surwiecki, "Sick Business," The New Yorker, September 5, 2016.
[6]Ibid.
[7] Patrick Radden Keefe, "Young Guns," The New Yorker, September 12, 2016.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Topics Covering Workplace Sexism, Automation, Genocide and Fashion
1) Workplace Sexism
"One plaintiff described an environment run like a 'sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult' under former Fox chairman Roger Ailes, who resigned in July amid accusations of sexual harassment and suggestions that he fostered an atmosphere where women were judged by looks and pliability and men weren't judged at all." "Women reported being groped and propositioned by male National Park Service employees on trips into the parks, and if they rejected the advances, they were subject to verbal abuse and other kinds of bullying." "This summer, a number of fire departments are coping with allegations that the few women in their ranks are routinely bullied and harassed." Other female firefighters across the country have reported that they've had their shampoo bottles filled with urine, semen put on their bunks and holes cut in their clothing." [1]
2) Automation Bomb
"The deeper problem facing America is how to provide meaningful work and good wages for the tens of millions of truck drivers, accountants, factory workers and office clerks whose jobs will disappear in coming years because of robots, driverless vehicles and 'machine learning' systems." "Currently, only 5 percent of occupations can be entirely automated, but 60 percent of occupations could soon see machines doing 30 percent or more of the work." "The 'automation bomb' could destroy 45 percent of the work activities currently performed in the United States." The White House Council of Economic Advisers says that the density of robots per 10,000 workers is actually higher in Japan and Germany than in the United States. [2]
David Ignatius warns that politicians "need to begin thinking boldly, now, about a world where driverless vehicles replace most truck drivers' jobs, and where factories are populated by robots, not human beings.
3) American Genocide
"In the words of the United Nations Genocide convention, acts quality as genocide if they are 'committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group.' It is intent, not motive, that matters in establishing the fact of genocide.' "
Benjamin Madley, the author of An American Genocide, describes the massacre of California Indians as a 'killing machine' composed of U.S.soldiers, California militia and volunteers, slavers and mercenaries (so-called 'Indian hunters') in it for the money. The killings of Indians in California were sometimes a few at a time, sometimes massacres of 100 or more, continued year after year for roughly a quarter of a century. "For every American who died, 100 Indians perished." "Americans held Indians collectively responsible for any injury suffered by whites. And they were relentless." [3]
"Fighting Indians became a source of profit; men enlisted for the pay, and the government provided it." "Madley estimates that between 1846 and 1873, the number of California Indians -- already halved during the Spanish and Mexican periods --plunged by another 80 percent, reaching a nadir of about 30,000 people."
4) Dress Code
The Orthodox Jewish dress code conveys a notion of female-only 'modesty,' which, in turn, brings about the acceptance of the female body as the site of sexuality. Therefore, the female body must be concealed as a danger and provocation to men. "We could learn something from France about our own First Amendment, which seems to be morphing from the separation of church and state into the [making] of all sorts of religious bigotry and backwardness." "Even if you think Islamic garb -- or Orthodox wigs or fundamentalist-Mormon prairie dresses -- is a fashion prison, it doesn't follow that banning it is the path to liberation." "Why not trust Muslim women to figure all this out for themselves over time, as other immigrants from patriarchal cultures have done?" [4]
Footnotes
[1] Susanna Schrobsdorff, "A distressing summer of workplace sexism ...," Time, September 5, 2016.
[2] David Ignatius, "Superpower battlefield in new era," Albuquerque Journal, August 20, 2016.
[3] Richard White, "Rather a Hell Than a Home," The New Yorker, August 22, 2016.
[4] Katha Pollitt, "France's Cultural Panic," The New Yorker, August 22, 2016.
"One plaintiff described an environment run like a 'sex-fueled, Playboy Mansion-like cult' under former Fox chairman Roger Ailes, who resigned in July amid accusations of sexual harassment and suggestions that he fostered an atmosphere where women were judged by looks and pliability and men weren't judged at all." "Women reported being groped and propositioned by male National Park Service employees on trips into the parks, and if they rejected the advances, they were subject to verbal abuse and other kinds of bullying." "This summer, a number of fire departments are coping with allegations that the few women in their ranks are routinely bullied and harassed." Other female firefighters across the country have reported that they've had their shampoo bottles filled with urine, semen put on their bunks and holes cut in their clothing." [1]
2) Automation Bomb
"The deeper problem facing America is how to provide meaningful work and good wages for the tens of millions of truck drivers, accountants, factory workers and office clerks whose jobs will disappear in coming years because of robots, driverless vehicles and 'machine learning' systems." "Currently, only 5 percent of occupations can be entirely automated, but 60 percent of occupations could soon see machines doing 30 percent or more of the work." "The 'automation bomb' could destroy 45 percent of the work activities currently performed in the United States." The White House Council of Economic Advisers says that the density of robots per 10,000 workers is actually higher in Japan and Germany than in the United States. [2]
David Ignatius warns that politicians "need to begin thinking boldly, now, about a world where driverless vehicles replace most truck drivers' jobs, and where factories are populated by robots, not human beings.
3) American Genocide
"In the words of the United Nations Genocide convention, acts quality as genocide if they are 'committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group.' It is intent, not motive, that matters in establishing the fact of genocide.' "
Benjamin Madley, the author of An American Genocide, describes the massacre of California Indians as a 'killing machine' composed of U.S.soldiers, California militia and volunteers, slavers and mercenaries (so-called 'Indian hunters') in it for the money. The killings of Indians in California were sometimes a few at a time, sometimes massacres of 100 or more, continued year after year for roughly a quarter of a century. "For every American who died, 100 Indians perished." "Americans held Indians collectively responsible for any injury suffered by whites. And they were relentless." [3]
"Fighting Indians became a source of profit; men enlisted for the pay, and the government provided it." "Madley estimates that between 1846 and 1873, the number of California Indians -- already halved during the Spanish and Mexican periods --plunged by another 80 percent, reaching a nadir of about 30,000 people."
4) Dress Code
The Orthodox Jewish dress code conveys a notion of female-only 'modesty,' which, in turn, brings about the acceptance of the female body as the site of sexuality. Therefore, the female body must be concealed as a danger and provocation to men. "We could learn something from France about our own First Amendment, which seems to be morphing from the separation of church and state into the [making] of all sorts of religious bigotry and backwardness." "Even if you think Islamic garb -- or Orthodox wigs or fundamentalist-Mormon prairie dresses -- is a fashion prison, it doesn't follow that banning it is the path to liberation." "Why not trust Muslim women to figure all this out for themselves over time, as other immigrants from patriarchal cultures have done?" [4]
Footnotes
[1] Susanna Schrobsdorff, "A distressing summer of workplace sexism ...," Time, September 5, 2016.
[2] David Ignatius, "Superpower battlefield in new era," Albuquerque Journal, August 20, 2016.
[3] Richard White, "Rather a Hell Than a Home," The New Yorker, August 22, 2016.
[4] Katha Pollitt, "France's Cultural Panic," The New Yorker, August 22, 2016.
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Tidbits From My Writer's Notebook But Giving Donald Trump a Holiday
1) Graduation Rates - "With just 2 million residents spread across [New Mexico], the fifth-largest state in the nation, a $589 million budget shortfall, declining oil and gas revenues that are the core source of state education funding, and six-year graduation rates in the low double digits, does it make any fiscal sense to fund 32 public colleges and universities?" "A 2015 national report found that the state's college graduation rate was just 40 percent, with only Alaska (26 percent), Idaho (39 percent) and Nevada (29 percent) handing out fewer degrees per enrolled student.Six-year graduation rates range from a dismal 18 percent at New Mexico Highlands University to 49 percent at the University of New Mexico." (Source: "New Mexico can't afford so many colleges graduating so few," [editorial] Albuquerque Journal, October 1, 2016.)
2) Game Officials Shortage - "The New Mexico Activities Association is having a hard time scaring up enough officials this season to cover football, soccer and volleyball. Maybe that's because the referees, who make a pittance for working the events, don't think putting up with the abuse expressed by many fans is worth it." "Over the past seven years, the number of statewide officials who call football high school games has dropped by about 20 percent, from 423 to 340 currently." (Source: "R-E-S-P-E-C-T the referees," Albuquerque Journal, October 1, 2016.)
3) Obesity Costs - "A 2012 study in the Journal of Health Economics estimated the medical-costs of obesity in the U.S. in 2005 to have been as high as a hundred and ninety billion dollars, a figure that is steadily increasing." "Today, obesity is second only to tobacco as a killer in this country. "A study that followed up on fourteen contestants from Second 8 of "The Biggest Loser" found that all but one of the finalists had regained much or most of their original weight, and that these contestants' metabolic rates had slowed dramatically, making maintaining a healthy weight even more difficult." (Source: Rivka Galchen, "Keeping It Off," The New Yorker, September 26, 2016.)
4) Gender Identity - "Just twenty states have laws explicitly protecting people from employment and housing discrimination based on gender identity. Transphobic hate crimes tripled in the United States from 2014 to 2015, and nineteen trans Americans have been murdered this year, almost all of them African-Americans. Forty-one per cent of transgender Americans have attempted suicide, compared with five per cent of the general population." (Source: Michael Schulman, "Model Citizen," The New Yorker, September 26, 2016.)
5) Building Waste in Landfills - "The U.K. Green Building Council estimates that 15% of materials delivered to construction sites end up in landfills, the result of mismanaged scheduling and purchasing. The American Institute of Architects believes building-related waste makes up anywhere from 25% to 40% of America's solid-waste stream." (Source: Clay Dillow, "A Drone for Every Job Site," Fortune, September 15, 2016.)
6) Texas's Maternal Mortality - Texas now has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the developed world. According to a just-released report from the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, maternal mortality doubled in the state from 2011 to 2014. One cause is the opioid epidemic. Black women are 11.4 percent of all pregnant women in the state but 29 percent of those who die.
Texas is one of nineteen states that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. (Source: Katha Pollitt, "Fatal Births," The Nation, September 26/October 3, 2016.)
7) Sustainable Development Goals - Based on measures of dozens of factors, including diseases, suicide rates, road injuries, smoking, water quality, and war, the U.S. ranks 28th. More than 1,870 researchers in 124 countries complied data on 33 different indicators of progress toward the UN goals related to health. The UN has 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
2) Game Officials Shortage - "The New Mexico Activities Association is having a hard time scaring up enough officials this season to cover football, soccer and volleyball. Maybe that's because the referees, who make a pittance for working the events, don't think putting up with the abuse expressed by many fans is worth it." "Over the past seven years, the number of statewide officials who call football high school games has dropped by about 20 percent, from 423 to 340 currently." (Source: "R-E-S-P-E-C-T the referees," Albuquerque Journal, October 1, 2016.)
3) Obesity Costs - "A 2012 study in the Journal of Health Economics estimated the medical-costs of obesity in the U.S. in 2005 to have been as high as a hundred and ninety billion dollars, a figure that is steadily increasing." "Today, obesity is second only to tobacco as a killer in this country. "A study that followed up on fourteen contestants from Second 8 of "The Biggest Loser" found that all but one of the finalists had regained much or most of their original weight, and that these contestants' metabolic rates had slowed dramatically, making maintaining a healthy weight even more difficult." (Source: Rivka Galchen, "Keeping It Off," The New Yorker, September 26, 2016.)
4) Gender Identity - "Just twenty states have laws explicitly protecting people from employment and housing discrimination based on gender identity. Transphobic hate crimes tripled in the United States from 2014 to 2015, and nineteen trans Americans have been murdered this year, almost all of them African-Americans. Forty-one per cent of transgender Americans have attempted suicide, compared with five per cent of the general population." (Source: Michael Schulman, "Model Citizen," The New Yorker, September 26, 2016.)
5) Building Waste in Landfills - "The U.K. Green Building Council estimates that 15% of materials delivered to construction sites end up in landfills, the result of mismanaged scheduling and purchasing. The American Institute of Architects believes building-related waste makes up anywhere from 25% to 40% of America's solid-waste stream." (Source: Clay Dillow, "A Drone for Every Job Site," Fortune, September 15, 2016.)
6) Texas's Maternal Mortality - Texas now has the highest rate of maternal mortality in the developed world. According to a just-released report from the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, maternal mortality doubled in the state from 2011 to 2014. One cause is the opioid epidemic. Black women are 11.4 percent of all pregnant women in the state but 29 percent of those who die.
Texas is one of nineteen states that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. (Source: Katha Pollitt, "Fatal Births," The Nation, September 26/October 3, 2016.)
7) Sustainable Development Goals - Based on measures of dozens of factors, including diseases, suicide rates, road injuries, smoking, water quality, and war, the U.S. ranks 28th. More than 1,870 researchers in 124 countries complied data on 33 different indicators of progress toward the UN goals related to health. The UN has 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
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