Governor Rick Snyder's chief of staff Dennis Muchmore told his boss that the high levels of lead in Flint, Michigan water was the "real responsibility" of the local government officials. Muchmore noted in a September 25 email that former state treasurer Andy Dillon had signed off on Flint's plans to build a water pipeline from Lake Huron, necessitating a temporary switch to the Flint River. In his State of the State speech, Governor Snyder apologized for any state complicity in lead getting into the Flint water supply. A day after giving the speech, Snyder released more than 270 pages on the matter.
When CBS Evening News anchor Scott Walker conducted a lengthy interview with Governor Snyder, Snyder exhibited his lack of knowledge about the leaded water problem: he didn't know how many Flint children had ingested lead; he didn't know how the affected victims would be treated; and he didn't know the extent of the problem. Walker asked a number of tough, pertinent questions, but to my mind, he didn't ask the crucial question of when Snyder became aware of the problem and what steps did he then take.
Although the Republican leadership in Michigan has tried to foist some responsibility for the water problem to the Flint city council, the Flint area's representative in Congress has said that the emergency manager in Flint had 100 percent responsibility for anything that happened in the governance of Flint. The GOP-dominated state legislature and the Snyder administration have made a fetish of appointing emergency managers for cities that they, collectively believe, can't be properly governed locally. This is a paradoxical position to take for a political party that professes to believe that the government closest to the people governs best.
In a referendum, Michigan voters threw out the emergency manager system. Undaunted by this public rejection, the Michigan legislature wrote an even tougher law to restore the emergency manager system. The legislature appropriated $1 million to fund emergency managers, because appropriations are not subject to referendums in Michigan. Governor Snyder and his legislative GOP allies seem to have been students in Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's School of Devious Governmental Management, which specifies that when you run for election you don't tell the citizens what nefarious things you will do when elected and if you are repudiated subsequently by the state's residents, you simply rewrite the offending legislation to achieve the same result.
The toxic Flint River corroded lead pipes, causing lead to be mixed in the water. The problem could have been avoided by putting chemicals in the river. The Michigan environmental department didn't do this, raising the prospect of criminal liability among high state officials, all the way up to the governor.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
Monday, January 25, 2016
Eyewitness Testimony and Natural-Gas Leaks
I. Eyewitness Testimony Is Highly Unreliable
Eyewitness testimony continues to be used widely and many criminal cases hinge on it exclusively. "Since 1989, a hundred and eighty people have been exonerated of sexual-assault charges in the U.S. Nearly three-quarters of those wrongful convictions relied, in whole or in part, on a mistaken identification by an eyewitness." "Since 2001, DNA testing in Texas has led to more than forty exonerations, a greater number than in any other state. Misleading or inaccurate eyewitness identification was a factor in a vast majority of overturned convictions in those cases." [1] Most law enforcement agencies in Texas had no written policies regarding eyewitness lineups; officers simply relied on old habits.
Tim Cole was convicted of a rape in a Texas court and after he died in prison while being treated for a medical condition, tested DNA evidence excluded him as the rapist. The exoneration of Cole so traumatized the raped victim that she trembled in fear after she worked up the courage to visit Tim Cole's mother.
Tim Cole's tragic conviction and death in prison has led to two changes in Texas law: one is the creation of an advisory panel to recommend how eyewitness testimony should be handled and a second increases the monetary relief for exonerated. Then-Governor Rick Perry acknowledged Judge Charlie Baird's ruling and granted Cole the first posthumous pardon in Texas history.
What should be done in regard to eyewitness lineups? In 1998, Gary Wells, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, was the principal author of a paper suggesting some reforms. Lineups should be "blind," a standard borrowed from scientific experiments. The officer administering the lineup should know nothing about the case, so as to avoid unconsciously influencing the proceedings. In photographic lineups, images should be presented sequentially rather than simultaneously, allowing witnesses to compare each image against their memory, instead of choosing from a group. And witnesses should be told that a lineup may not include the perpetrator. According to Wells, a witnesses's confidence at the moment of identification is far more accurate than a reconstructed assertion at trial, weeks or months later. [2]
II. Natural Gas Leaks Are a Disaster for the Planet
The natural-gas leak ongoing since October, 2015 near Porter Ranch, a suburb of Los Angeles, California, is a harbinger of more such disasters to come. To this point, the leak has cost $12 million in market value, caused 2,292 families to relocate, and led to 4,683 applications to relocate. Besides the monetary cost and the effect on nearby residents, there is an enormous effect on climate warming: one day of the leak warms the climate at a rate equivalent to driving more than 4.5 million cars for a day, or to put it in bovine terms, the ; methane released each day has the same warming effect as 2.2 million cows belching in one day. [3]
The leak at the 60-year-old Aliso Canyon storage facility is a harbinger of other potential leaks. There are more than 400 natural-gas storage facilities fashioned out of former mines and other underground formations that together store some 3.6 cubic feet of natural gas. Regular maintenance at these storage facilities is a rarity, much as this nation is unwilling to rebuild its crumbling infrastructure.
Recent research has suggested that "natural-gas-gathering facilities alone leak 100 billion cubic feet of methane each year -- more gas that the entire country burns in a day." [4]
ADDENDUMS:
*Oxfam has concluded that 62 people own as much wealth as the the 3.5 billion people at the bottom half of the world's income scale.
*The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the national governmental deficit will rise by $544 billion in 2016. It attributes the increase to the extension of tax cuts last year. Revenues should rise by 4% but spending will increase by 6%. The new deficit will be added to the $18 trillion debt load.
*The nutritional quality of U.S. school lunches has increased 29% since 2012, thanks to the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. [5]
Footnotes
[1] Paul Kix, "Recognition,: The New Yorker, January 18, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Justin Worland, "The ongoing California natural-gas leak is a disaster for the planet," Time, January 25, 2016.
[4] Ibid.
[5] "Digits," Time, January 18, 2016.
Eyewitness testimony continues to be used widely and many criminal cases hinge on it exclusively. "Since 1989, a hundred and eighty people have been exonerated of sexual-assault charges in the U.S. Nearly three-quarters of those wrongful convictions relied, in whole or in part, on a mistaken identification by an eyewitness." "Since 2001, DNA testing in Texas has led to more than forty exonerations, a greater number than in any other state. Misleading or inaccurate eyewitness identification was a factor in a vast majority of overturned convictions in those cases." [1] Most law enforcement agencies in Texas had no written policies regarding eyewitness lineups; officers simply relied on old habits.
Tim Cole was convicted of a rape in a Texas court and after he died in prison while being treated for a medical condition, tested DNA evidence excluded him as the rapist. The exoneration of Cole so traumatized the raped victim that she trembled in fear after she worked up the courage to visit Tim Cole's mother.
Tim Cole's tragic conviction and death in prison has led to two changes in Texas law: one is the creation of an advisory panel to recommend how eyewitness testimony should be handled and a second increases the monetary relief for exonerated. Then-Governor Rick Perry acknowledged Judge Charlie Baird's ruling and granted Cole the first posthumous pardon in Texas history.
What should be done in regard to eyewitness lineups? In 1998, Gary Wells, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, was the principal author of a paper suggesting some reforms. Lineups should be "blind," a standard borrowed from scientific experiments. The officer administering the lineup should know nothing about the case, so as to avoid unconsciously influencing the proceedings. In photographic lineups, images should be presented sequentially rather than simultaneously, allowing witnesses to compare each image against their memory, instead of choosing from a group. And witnesses should be told that a lineup may not include the perpetrator. According to Wells, a witnesses's confidence at the moment of identification is far more accurate than a reconstructed assertion at trial, weeks or months later. [2]
II. Natural Gas Leaks Are a Disaster for the Planet
The natural-gas leak ongoing since October, 2015 near Porter Ranch, a suburb of Los Angeles, California, is a harbinger of more such disasters to come. To this point, the leak has cost $12 million in market value, caused 2,292 families to relocate, and led to 4,683 applications to relocate. Besides the monetary cost and the effect on nearby residents, there is an enormous effect on climate warming: one day of the leak warms the climate at a rate equivalent to driving more than 4.5 million cars for a day, or to put it in bovine terms, the ; methane released each day has the same warming effect as 2.2 million cows belching in one day. [3]
The leak at the 60-year-old Aliso Canyon storage facility is a harbinger of other potential leaks. There are more than 400 natural-gas storage facilities fashioned out of former mines and other underground formations that together store some 3.6 cubic feet of natural gas. Regular maintenance at these storage facilities is a rarity, much as this nation is unwilling to rebuild its crumbling infrastructure.
Recent research has suggested that "natural-gas-gathering facilities alone leak 100 billion cubic feet of methane each year -- more gas that the entire country burns in a day." [4]
ADDENDUMS:
*Oxfam has concluded that 62 people own as much wealth as the the 3.5 billion people at the bottom half of the world's income scale.
*The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the national governmental deficit will rise by $544 billion in 2016. It attributes the increase to the extension of tax cuts last year. Revenues should rise by 4% but spending will increase by 6%. The new deficit will be added to the $18 trillion debt load.
*The nutritional quality of U.S. school lunches has increased 29% since 2012, thanks to the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. [5]
Footnotes
[1] Paul Kix, "Recognition,: The New Yorker, January 18, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Justin Worland, "The ongoing California natural-gas leak is a disaster for the planet," Time, January 25, 2016.
[4] Ibid.
[5] "Digits," Time, January 18, 2016.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Short Subjects That Help Define Our World
1.) Conflating Terrorism and Drugs
There is a little known provision in the 2006 Patriot Act that established a new crime, known as narco-terrorism, committed by violent offenders who had one and in terrorism and the other in the drug trade. Russell Hanks, a U.S. diplomat, called the legislative action "the manipulation of weak-minded people, in weak countries, in order to pad arrest records." One investigator said that narco-terrorism had become an "expedient way for the Drug Enforcement Administration to justify its existence." [1]
These cases. when brought to trial, rely almost exclusively on evidence gleaned from sting operations and has fueled skepticism among counter-terrorism and national-security officials about the extent to which terrorists engage in the drug trade.
2.) Black Lives Matter and the Free Speech "Fallacy"
"A movement rooted in the rejection of police violence diversified, launching campaigns to combat a broad range of perceived injustices, from gender inequality toe the minimum wage to housing and education policy." "As the movement began to branch out from purely honoring the victims of police brutality to raising awareness about perceived injustices in all sorts of social systems, that name [Black Lives Matter] attracted new groups of allies." St. Louis law professor Justin Hansford says it was "the emphasis on gender, identity and social inequality [that] helps explain why Black Lives Matter's agendas are spreading to college campuses." [2]
Success has created a new set of challenges and charges. Wesleyan University's student government slashed funding for the school newspaper after it published a column critical of Black Lives Matter. At Smith College, a group associated with Black Lives Matter barred members of the media from attending unless they pledged solidarity. [3]
There is a broader dimension to what one Time reporter calls the "fallacy of 'free speech'." "The campus revolts just keep coming, as students go to ever greater lengths to defend their rights not to be upset." This has gone to school administrators' labeling texts with 'trigger warnings' to help students "avoid having to read about difficult topics like racism or rape." [4]
3;) Education Won't Cure Inequality
"First of all, education has not proven to be the poverty cure-all that many hoped it would be. In face, the United States has already increased educational attainment levels substantially over the past four decades, but poverty rates and inequality have not noticeably fallen." "The share of poor Americans with high school and college degrees has risen steadily. But poverty rates have increased throughout the nation." "Graduation rates for U.S. college students remain fairly low; a vast increase in the number of students entering college would probably send those rates even lower." [5]
4.) Work-Life Balance
"Work-life balance is a perpetually hot topic, with 40% of full-time Americans workers logging more than 50 work hours, according to a 2014 Gallup poll." "People who work 11-hour days or longer are 67% more likely to develop heart disease than those who work seven or eight hours a day." [6]
5.) Gun Rights Trump Gun Control
A November 2015 Washington Post-ABC News poll found that only 46% think that new gun laws to reduce gun violence are more important than protecting gun rights -- down from 52 % in 2013. But upwards of 85% support expanding background checks for the four in ten gun sales that occur online or at gun shows.
Since Sandy Hook, six states: Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, New York, Washington and Oregon have expanded background checks. [7]
6.) Young Boy Fatally Shot
The 6-year-old killed by what are called "city marshals" in Marksville, Louisiana was hit by five bullets, mostly in the head. After the boy's father stepped out of the car, a total of 18 bullets were fired. The father was standing with his arms upraised, caught by the released video.
There is a little known provision in the 2006 Patriot Act that established a new crime, known as narco-terrorism, committed by violent offenders who had one and in terrorism and the other in the drug trade. Russell Hanks, a U.S. diplomat, called the legislative action "the manipulation of weak-minded people, in weak countries, in order to pad arrest records." One investigator said that narco-terrorism had become an "expedient way for the Drug Enforcement Administration to justify its existence." [1]
These cases. when brought to trial, rely almost exclusively on evidence gleaned from sting operations and has fueled skepticism among counter-terrorism and national-security officials about the extent to which terrorists engage in the drug trade.
2.) Black Lives Matter and the Free Speech "Fallacy"
"A movement rooted in the rejection of police violence diversified, launching campaigns to combat a broad range of perceived injustices, from gender inequality toe the minimum wage to housing and education policy." "As the movement began to branch out from purely honoring the victims of police brutality to raising awareness about perceived injustices in all sorts of social systems, that name [Black Lives Matter] attracted new groups of allies." St. Louis law professor Justin Hansford says it was "the emphasis on gender, identity and social inequality [that] helps explain why Black Lives Matter's agendas are spreading to college campuses." [2]
Success has created a new set of challenges and charges. Wesleyan University's student government slashed funding for the school newspaper after it published a column critical of Black Lives Matter. At Smith College, a group associated with Black Lives Matter barred members of the media from attending unless they pledged solidarity. [3]
There is a broader dimension to what one Time reporter calls the "fallacy of 'free speech'." "The campus revolts just keep coming, as students go to ever greater lengths to defend their rights not to be upset." This has gone to school administrators' labeling texts with 'trigger warnings' to help students "avoid having to read about difficult topics like racism or rape." [4]
3;) Education Won't Cure Inequality
"First of all, education has not proven to be the poverty cure-all that many hoped it would be. In face, the United States has already increased educational attainment levels substantially over the past four decades, but poverty rates and inequality have not noticeably fallen." "The share of poor Americans with high school and college degrees has risen steadily. But poverty rates have increased throughout the nation." "Graduation rates for U.S. college students remain fairly low; a vast increase in the number of students entering college would probably send those rates even lower." [5]
4.) Work-Life Balance
"Work-life balance is a perpetually hot topic, with 40% of full-time Americans workers logging more than 50 work hours, according to a 2014 Gallup poll." "People who work 11-hour days or longer are 67% more likely to develop heart disease than those who work seven or eight hours a day." [6]
5.) Gun Rights Trump Gun Control
A November 2015 Washington Post-ABC News poll found that only 46% think that new gun laws to reduce gun violence are more important than protecting gun rights -- down from 52 % in 2013. But upwards of 85% support expanding background checks for the four in ten gun sales that occur online or at gun shows.
Since Sandy Hook, six states: Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, New York, Washington and Oregon have expanded background checks. [7]
6.) Young Boy Fatally Shot
The 6-year-old killed by what are called "city marshals" in Marksville, Louisiana was hit by five bullets, mostly in the head. After the boy's father stepped out of the car, a total of 18 bullets were fired. The father was standing with his arms upraised, caught by the released video.
The FBI's Portland Problem
The FBI's Portland Problem
Nerly 15 years after Somali-born American citizen, Sheikh Mohamed Kariye's initial arrest, both he and his Portland community continues to be the subject of intense interest from the government's counter-terrorism apparatus. In July 2015, prosecutors moved to strip Kariye of his citizenship, claiming that he lied to immigration authorities about his alleged prior affiliation with terrorist groups. Since then, Kariye has ping-ponged among institutions which have been trying to deport him to Somalia, without success thus far.
"Dig beneath the surface of the government's portrait of Kariye; however, and it's possible to see him as a case study in the way that domestic counterterrorism operations since 9/11 have singled out Muslims for intensive surveillance and selective prosecution, based on things they've said, people they've known, and things they would do in the future." As-Saber is one of the largest mosques in the Pacific Northwest. and those who attend the mosque have been subjected to intense surveillance. The mosque's leader is on a no-fly list and his his daily actions are closely watched by counterterrorism agents.[1]
Some 47,000 people are on the no-fly list, a subset of a larger watch list of "known or suspected terrorists," called the Terrorist Screening Database. According to documents obtained by The Intercept, the U.S. government acknowledges that more than 40 percent of those on the watch list have " no recognized terrorist affiliation." Marc Sager, a former CIA officer, [says] "More fundamentally, the government's predictive judgments are necessarily unreliable and the risk of error associated with them is extremely high." [2]
Footnotes
[1] Zoe Carpenter, "The FBI's :Portland Problem," The Nation, January 4, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
Nerly 15 years after Somali-born American citizen, Sheikh Mohamed Kariye's initial arrest, both he and his Portland community continues to be the subject of intense interest from the government's counter-terrorism apparatus. In July 2015, prosecutors moved to strip Kariye of his citizenship, claiming that he lied to immigration authorities about his alleged prior affiliation with terrorist groups. Since then, Kariye has ping-ponged among institutions which have been trying to deport him to Somalia, without success thus far.
"Dig beneath the surface of the government's portrait of Kariye; however, and it's possible to see him as a case study in the way that domestic counterterrorism operations since 9/11 have singled out Muslims for intensive surveillance and selective prosecution, based on things they've said, people they've known, and things they would do in the future." As-Saber is one of the largest mosques in the Pacific Northwest. and those who attend the mosque have been subjected to intense surveillance. The mosque's leader is on a no-fly list and his his daily actions are closely watched by counterterrorism agents.[1]
Some 47,000 people are on the no-fly list, a subset of a larger watch list of "known or suspected terrorists," called the Terrorist Screening Database. According to documents obtained by The Intercept, the U.S. government acknowledges that more than 40 percent of those on the watch list have " no recognized terrorist affiliation." Marc Sager, a former CIA officer, [says] "More fundamentally, the government's predictive judgments are necessarily unreliable and the risk of error associated with them is extremely high." [2]
Footnotes
[1] Zoe Carpenter, "The FBI's :Portland Problem," The Nation, January 4, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
Volkswagen's Blood Crimes and Polling on Cuba
I. The Blood Crimes of Volkswagen
The records from a British war-crimes tribunal held in Helmstedt in 1946 that tried several of Volkswagen's employees for killing by willful neglect, show that Volkswagen executives -- not Nazi officials -- oversaw the murder of hundreds of infants. Its executives were killers. In a letter dated January 11, 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered the Reichsfuhrer-SS ad the head of the German police to provide the workforce from the concentration camps to Volkswagen plant at Wolfsburg and Ruhen. He ordered that it be done "immediately."
According to historical records, as early as June 1940, Volkswagen had already begun using forced labor. "Because of the scarcity of men as the war dragged on, many of the g Polish and Russian women -- an estimated 1,500 Poles and 4,000 to 5,000 Russians -- whom the Nazis had brought to the factory." "The death tolls mounted with as many as 30 children dying every month -- until he end, when the number of deaths rose to 60 in the worst months." [1]
"The dead infants weren't really buried. They were wrapped in toilet paper and stacked in the nursery's bathroom, where they would sometimes lie for days before being carted away by an undertaker." [2]
Volkswagen has never issued taken responsibility for the deaths at Wolfsburg and Ruhen, agreed to compensate the mothers for their losses, or even offer an expression of sympathy.
II. Polling on Cuba
A Pew poll taken in January 2015, shortly after the breakthrough in relations between the United States and Cuba, found that 66 percent of registered voters supported lifting the embargo; after the official restoration of diplomatic ties in July 2015, a CBS News survey showed that 81 percent of Americans -- including 71 percent of Republicans -- supported lifting all sanctions on travel.
The State Department estimates that in the first five months of 2015, some 51,458 U.S/. citizens traveled to Cuba, a 30 percent increase over the same period in 2014. [3]
Footnotes
[1] Neal Gabler, "Suffer the Little Children: The Blood Crimes of Volkswagen," The Nation, January 4, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Peter Kornbluh, "17D Plus One," The Nation, January 4, 2016.
The records from a British war-crimes tribunal held in Helmstedt in 1946 that tried several of Volkswagen's employees for killing by willful neglect, show that Volkswagen executives -- not Nazi officials -- oversaw the murder of hundreds of infants. Its executives were killers. In a letter dated January 11, 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered the Reichsfuhrer-SS ad the head of the German police to provide the workforce from the concentration camps to Volkswagen plant at Wolfsburg and Ruhen. He ordered that it be done "immediately."
According to historical records, as early as June 1940, Volkswagen had already begun using forced labor. "Because of the scarcity of men as the war dragged on, many of the g Polish and Russian women -- an estimated 1,500 Poles and 4,000 to 5,000 Russians -- whom the Nazis had brought to the factory." "The death tolls mounted with as many as 30 children dying every month -- until he end, when the number of deaths rose to 60 in the worst months." [1]
"The dead infants weren't really buried. They were wrapped in toilet paper and stacked in the nursery's bathroom, where they would sometimes lie for days before being carted away by an undertaker." [2]
Volkswagen has never issued taken responsibility for the deaths at Wolfsburg and Ruhen, agreed to compensate the mothers for their losses, or even offer an expression of sympathy.
II. Polling on Cuba
A Pew poll taken in January 2015, shortly after the breakthrough in relations between the United States and Cuba, found that 66 percent of registered voters supported lifting the embargo; after the official restoration of diplomatic ties in July 2015, a CBS News survey showed that 81 percent of Americans -- including 71 percent of Republicans -- supported lifting all sanctions on travel.
The State Department estimates that in the first five months of 2015, some 51,458 U.S/. citizens traveled to Cuba, a 30 percent increase over the same period in 2014. [3]
Footnotes
[1] Neal Gabler, "Suffer the Little Children: The Blood Crimes of Volkswagen," The Nation, January 4, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Peter Kornbluh, "17D Plus One," The Nation, January 4, 2016.
Friday, January 22, 2016
Planned Parenthood and Poverty, Infrastrcture Spending and More
I. PP Clinic Shooting and a Doctored Video
Ruth Marcus, a Washington Post columnist, has made the case that Republicans "deserve some blame" for the shooting at Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. Republican politicians who fueled the overwrought and underreported controversy over selling body parts have some measure of responsibility." Marcus adds: ""This, [the video on selling body parts] is, literally, a manufactured issue, cobbled together from doctored videotape and overheated accusations. The organization's activities have been so mischaracterized, and the practice of providing fetal tissue so overblown and so manipulated by lawmakers and politicians, (sic) that blame for the ensuing violence falls more heavily on them." [1]
The federal government funded fetal remains for research purposes to the tune of $76 million in 2014. Stopping such funding will impede research on diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Down syndrome.
II. Defunding Planned Parenthood Will Increase Poverty
1. Poor women are six times more likely to have an unplanned birth than well-off women, partly because healthcare is expensive.
2. Planned Parenthood serves mostly poor women: 79% have incomes at or below 150% of the poverty line and 75% go there for contraception.
3. Without contraception and abortion access, poor women fall deeper into poverty, starting the whole cycle over. Women denied an abortion are three times more likely to fall into poverty. [2]
III. Clinton and Sanders on Infrastructure Spending
Hillary Clinton would increase infrastructure spending by $275 billion, with $250 billion coming from direct public funding and $25 billion coming from the creation of an infrastructure bank. Bernie Sanders has proposed spending which is much more in line with the estimate of the civil engineer's association of the need to spend at least $3 trillion spread over a four-year period.
During the 1980s, civil engineers were proposing spending of $1 trillion to bring the nation's infrastructure to their standards. Even accounting for inflation, the fact that the most recent estimate of $3 trillion is a reflection that, except for the building and repair of highways, which has a separate revenue stream,. the U.S. has hugely neglected its bridges, water pipes, sewer lines, filtration plants, fuel lines, repair of city streets and other rebuilding needs that will make for a more productive and safer society.
ADDENDUMS:
* Alabama loses its fight to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood clinics and agrees to pay $51,000 in legal fees.
*The Hill publication reports that 73 more companies back President Obama's climate agenda.
*By December 2014 at the latest, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office knew about the dash-cam video of the fatal shooting of a teenager named McDonald, according to NBC Chicago. This disclosure should help the cause of the many Chicagoans who are demanding the resignation of Mayor Emanuel.
*In a 2010 poll, 30% of respondents said there was a racial problem in the United States. Early in 2015, a similar poll found 50% saying there was a racial problem. A December 2015 PBS/Marist poll found 60% believing there was a racial problem. There is no evidence for the cause or causes for this doubling of those who see racism as a problem, yet it is hard to not identify law enforcement as a major cause, given the many instances of excessive use of force, the code of silence among fellow officers and the failure of the judicial system to punish officers who engaged in gross misconduct, ranging from killing unarmed citizens on down.
*Although the U.S. Congress won't touch gun control with a 10-foot pole, 18 states have passed tougher gun buyer background check laws and nine states have adopted laws to keep guns out of the hands of known domestic abusers. The Connecticut governor's move to bar anyone whose name appears on the government's terrorist watch list from buying a gun is being considered by several other states. [3]
Footnotes
[1] Ruth Marcus, "Republican politicians deserve some blame for the Planned Parenthood shooting," The Washington Post, December 1, 2015.
[2] Bryce Covert and Mike Konczal, "Born, Not Free," The Nation, January 11/18, 2015.
[3] Diane Dimond, "States doing what Congress won't on gun control laws," The Albuquerque Journal, January 9, 2016.
Ruth Marcus, a Washington Post columnist, has made the case that Republicans "deserve some blame" for the shooting at Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado. Republican politicians who fueled the overwrought and underreported controversy over selling body parts have some measure of responsibility." Marcus adds: ""This, [the video on selling body parts] is, literally, a manufactured issue, cobbled together from doctored videotape and overheated accusations. The organization's activities have been so mischaracterized, and the practice of providing fetal tissue so overblown and so manipulated by lawmakers and politicians, (sic) that blame for the ensuing violence falls more heavily on them." [1]
The federal government funded fetal remains for research purposes to the tune of $76 million in 2014. Stopping such funding will impede research on diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Down syndrome.
II. Defunding Planned Parenthood Will Increase Poverty
1. Poor women are six times more likely to have an unplanned birth than well-off women, partly because healthcare is expensive.
2. Planned Parenthood serves mostly poor women: 79% have incomes at or below 150% of the poverty line and 75% go there for contraception.
3. Without contraception and abortion access, poor women fall deeper into poverty, starting the whole cycle over. Women denied an abortion are three times more likely to fall into poverty. [2]
III. Clinton and Sanders on Infrastructure Spending
Hillary Clinton would increase infrastructure spending by $275 billion, with $250 billion coming from direct public funding and $25 billion coming from the creation of an infrastructure bank. Bernie Sanders has proposed spending which is much more in line with the estimate of the civil engineer's association of the need to spend at least $3 trillion spread over a four-year period.
During the 1980s, civil engineers were proposing spending of $1 trillion to bring the nation's infrastructure to their standards. Even accounting for inflation, the fact that the most recent estimate of $3 trillion is a reflection that, except for the building and repair of highways, which has a separate revenue stream,. the U.S. has hugely neglected its bridges, water pipes, sewer lines, filtration plants, fuel lines, repair of city streets and other rebuilding needs that will make for a more productive and safer society.
ADDENDUMS:
* Alabama loses its fight to cut off Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood clinics and agrees to pay $51,000 in legal fees.
*The Hill publication reports that 73 more companies back President Obama's climate agenda.
*By December 2014 at the latest, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office knew about the dash-cam video of the fatal shooting of a teenager named McDonald, according to NBC Chicago. This disclosure should help the cause of the many Chicagoans who are demanding the resignation of Mayor Emanuel.
*In a 2010 poll, 30% of respondents said there was a racial problem in the United States. Early in 2015, a similar poll found 50% saying there was a racial problem. A December 2015 PBS/Marist poll found 60% believing there was a racial problem. There is no evidence for the cause or causes for this doubling of those who see racism as a problem, yet it is hard to not identify law enforcement as a major cause, given the many instances of excessive use of force, the code of silence among fellow officers and the failure of the judicial system to punish officers who engaged in gross misconduct, ranging from killing unarmed citizens on down.
*Although the U.S. Congress won't touch gun control with a 10-foot pole, 18 states have passed tougher gun buyer background check laws and nine states have adopted laws to keep guns out of the hands of known domestic abusers. The Connecticut governor's move to bar anyone whose name appears on the government's terrorist watch list from buying a gun is being considered by several other states. [3]
Footnotes
[1] Ruth Marcus, "Republican politicians deserve some blame for the Planned Parenthood shooting," The Washington Post, December 1, 2015.
[2] Bryce Covert and Mike Konczal, "Born, Not Free," The Nation, January 11/18, 2015.
[3] Diane Dimond, "States doing what Congress won't on gun control laws," The Albuquerque Journal, January 9, 2016.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Fear Defining U.S., The Inversion Threat, and the Friedrichs Case Threatt
I. Fear Defining the U.S.
As Stephen Kinzer recently wrote in the Boston Globe, "Fear is becoming part of our daily lives. Yet it is not justified by reality. The true terror threat inside the United States is a fraction of what many Americans want to believe." We are rapidly becoming, in Kinzer's words, "the United States of Panic!"
"The brain ;is capable of detecting a threat, processing it, and initiating a response without our ever becoming consciously aware of the grizzly bear lurking just beyond the trees." "The feeling of fear occurs when a threat detected by our non-conscious systems and rises to the level of consciousness." "Fear, as an emotion, is considerably less useful to an organism's survival than the system that identifies and responds to threats in the first place." [1]
The relevance of what has been written above is that fear of an outside threat is responsible for a large share of our national government budget being spent on building and maintaining our national security state, with the Pentagon getting the lion's share of that spending. On the domestic front, an inordinate amount of state and local spending is devoted to dealing with our fear of crime and the attendant high cost of incarceration.
I. The Inversion Threat
Inversion is the practice of U.S.-chartered corporations fleeing the United States to establish their headquarters in other countries to take advantage of lower corporate taxes. Inversion, at one time, was exceeding rare, as according to the Congressional Research Service, there was just one in the nineteen eighties, whereas there have been more than fifty in the past decade.
Two features of U.S. tax policy make inversion attractive: a relatively high corporate tax rate and what's called a worldwide global tax system -- U.S. corporations have to pay that tax in all their global income. U.S. corporations are estimated to be holding more than $2 trillion abroad. "Since so much of what comprises earned income remains abroad and untaxable, we raise only a small amount of revenue from our global system. At the same time, the fact that these foreign earnings are in exile encourages inversions, so companies can get access to all that locked-up cash and a lower tax rate thereafter." "Investing abroad is more attractive and easier than ever before, and capital is more mobile." [2]
The drug giant Pfizer is the most recent example of a U.S. corporation in the process of establishing its headquarters overseas -- in Ireland in this case. More than 60 percent of Pfizer's income comes from abroad and most of its employees work abroad as well. [3]
There is a crucial fallacy in the general assumption that US.-based corporation pay a higher corporate income tax than corporations chartered in the rest of the countries defined as developed. The reason for this is that U.S. corporations get many tax breaks that are not given to corporations based in the rest of the developed world.
III. The Friedrichs Case Threat
The 1997 Abood v. Detroit Board of Education Supreme Court ruling provided the bedrock constitutional analysis and recommended structure for public sector unionism for nearly 40 years. Its reversal would trigger an earthquake in the U.S. labor relations. If the Friedrichs case now before the U.S. Supreme Court were to exempt workers who don't want to join a union from any obligation to pay union dues or fees, it would create a massive free-rider problem for unions that would kill their capacity to represent their union members. Why pay for something when you can get its services for free? Such a ruling would unravel tens of thousands of contracts governing public sector unions.
U.S. labor law already requires that any union certified as the collective bargaining representative of a group of workers must equally represent and service all of those workers -- dues-paying members and non-paying non-members alike. This compromise, which places an obligation on unions to represent all workers in the unionized company but allows the union to deduct fees form the paychecks of non-members, has served the nation satisfactory for a good long time, may be overturned by a Supreme Court often characterized by ruling on ideological considerations.
The Abood ruling has been upheld in at least five subsequent rulings, although in the last ruling, Justice Samuel Alito expressed a wish to revisit Abood.
Footnotes
[1] Simon Wolfe Taylor, "Fear Itself," The Nation, January 11/18, 2016.
[2] James Surwiecki, "Why Firms Are Fleeing," The New Yorker, January 11, 2016.
[3] Ibid.
[4] The Friedrichs Threat," The Nation, January 25/February 1, 2016.
As Stephen Kinzer recently wrote in the Boston Globe, "Fear is becoming part of our daily lives. Yet it is not justified by reality. The true terror threat inside the United States is a fraction of what many Americans want to believe." We are rapidly becoming, in Kinzer's words, "the United States of Panic!"
"The brain ;is capable of detecting a threat, processing it, and initiating a response without our ever becoming consciously aware of the grizzly bear lurking just beyond the trees." "The feeling of fear occurs when a threat detected by our non-conscious systems and rises to the level of consciousness." "Fear, as an emotion, is considerably less useful to an organism's survival than the system that identifies and responds to threats in the first place." [1]
The relevance of what has been written above is that fear of an outside threat is responsible for a large share of our national government budget being spent on building and maintaining our national security state, with the Pentagon getting the lion's share of that spending. On the domestic front, an inordinate amount of state and local spending is devoted to dealing with our fear of crime and the attendant high cost of incarceration.
I. The Inversion Threat
Inversion is the practice of U.S.-chartered corporations fleeing the United States to establish their headquarters in other countries to take advantage of lower corporate taxes. Inversion, at one time, was exceeding rare, as according to the Congressional Research Service, there was just one in the nineteen eighties, whereas there have been more than fifty in the past decade.
Two features of U.S. tax policy make inversion attractive: a relatively high corporate tax rate and what's called a worldwide global tax system -- U.S. corporations have to pay that tax in all their global income. U.S. corporations are estimated to be holding more than $2 trillion abroad. "Since so much of what comprises earned income remains abroad and untaxable, we raise only a small amount of revenue from our global system. At the same time, the fact that these foreign earnings are in exile encourages inversions, so companies can get access to all that locked-up cash and a lower tax rate thereafter." "Investing abroad is more attractive and easier than ever before, and capital is more mobile." [2]
The drug giant Pfizer is the most recent example of a U.S. corporation in the process of establishing its headquarters overseas -- in Ireland in this case. More than 60 percent of Pfizer's income comes from abroad and most of its employees work abroad as well. [3]
There is a crucial fallacy in the general assumption that US.-based corporation pay a higher corporate income tax than corporations chartered in the rest of the countries defined as developed. The reason for this is that U.S. corporations get many tax breaks that are not given to corporations based in the rest of the developed world.
III. The Friedrichs Case Threat
The 1997 Abood v. Detroit Board of Education Supreme Court ruling provided the bedrock constitutional analysis and recommended structure for public sector unionism for nearly 40 years. Its reversal would trigger an earthquake in the U.S. labor relations. If the Friedrichs case now before the U.S. Supreme Court were to exempt workers who don't want to join a union from any obligation to pay union dues or fees, it would create a massive free-rider problem for unions that would kill their capacity to represent their union members. Why pay for something when you can get its services for free? Such a ruling would unravel tens of thousands of contracts governing public sector unions.
U.S. labor law already requires that any union certified as the collective bargaining representative of a group of workers must equally represent and service all of those workers -- dues-paying members and non-paying non-members alike. This compromise, which places an obligation on unions to represent all workers in the unionized company but allows the union to deduct fees form the paychecks of non-members, has served the nation satisfactory for a good long time, may be overturned by a Supreme Court often characterized by ruling on ideological considerations.
The Abood ruling has been upheld in at least five subsequent rulings, although in the last ruling, Justice Samuel Alito expressed a wish to revisit Abood.
Footnotes
[1] Simon Wolfe Taylor, "Fear Itself," The Nation, January 11/18, 2016.
[2] James Surwiecki, "Why Firms Are Fleeing," The New Yorker, January 11, 2016.
[3] Ibid.
[4] The Friedrichs Threat," The Nation, January 25/February 1, 2016.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Takes on Diverse Subjects
I. Elevating Terrorists to the Status They Aspire
Professor Juan Cole counsels everyone to stop using the language of. war. "The language of war elevates terrorists to the status to which they aspire: that of 'legitimate combatants.' " "A 'war' om terror that characterizes, for example, all Syrian refugees as potential combatants thus plays right into the hands of [designated terrorists], who aim to sharpen the contradictions between Muslims and those of Christian heritage." [1]
II. Use Total Population to Draw Legislative Districts
"If states adopt the current voting-age population instead of total population for drawing legislative districts, a staggering 55 percent of Latinos --those who are under 18 or non-citizens -- wouldn't be counted, according to a brief filed by by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, as well as 45 percent of Asian-Americans and 30 percent of African-Americans." People of color make up 37 percent of the U.S. population but hold only 10 percent of elected seats; Latinos and Asian-Americans are 22 percent of the population but hold only 2 percent of elected offices. In eleven states there is not a single Latino or Asian-American state legislator. [2]
Total population has always been the easiest and most accurate metric to use when drawing district lines, experts say; going by voting-age population is unreliable; also, the Census Bureau doesn't ask people their citizenship status.
III. "Collecting It All" May Not Be So Wise
The National Security Agency's (NSA) failure to thwart the Paris plot or the San Bernardino mass shooting suggests that its approach of "collecting it all" may simply be drowning the NSA in data without identifying those who actually warrant suspicion. When he took office, New York City police Commissioner Bill Bratton ended the New York Police Department's controversial program of monitoring mosques and Muslim businesses, and he recently explained that "not a single piece of actionable intelligence ever came out of the unit in its years of existence." [3]
IV. A Banner Year for Transgender People Has a Dark Side
"[Bruce] Jenner's rebirth as Caitlyn was the most visible high point of a banner year for the transgender community. The Secretary of Defense called the ban on transgender people's open military service 'outdated' and directed that the policy be reviewed. A measure to add nondiscrimination protection for LGBT people to the Civil Rights Act was introduced in Congress with nearly 200 co-sponsors." "These came as the LGBT rights movement has been advancing at a speed unthinkable just a decade ago." "[An] estimated 0.5% of Americans are transgender." [4]
There is, however, a dark side to this bright picture: at least 21 transgender women were murdered in the United States in 2015; in addition, transgender people continue to suffer poverty, unemployment, homelessness, family rejection and harassment at much higher rates than the general public.
V. Waging War on Wombs
Casey Shehl was charged with "knowingly, recklessly, intentionally" causing James (her fetus) to be exposed to controlled substances in the womb -- a felony punishable, in her case -- by up to 10 years in prison. Casey is one of at least 31 women arrested in Etowah County since 2013 for running afoul of Alabama's "chemical endangerment of a child" statute, the country's toughest criminal law on prenatal drug use.The law treats prenatal drug abuse as a form of child abuse and the penalties are exceptionally stiff. A woman accused of using drugs during pregnancy can face 1 to 10 years in prison if the baby suffers no ill effects; 10 to 20 years if the baby shows signs of exposure or harm; and 10 to 99 years if the baby dies. Casey Shehl also risks losing custody of all her children, not just her newborn. [5]
The statute invites overreach and even abuse. It does not distinguish between an addict and a stressed-out single mom who takes a harmless dose of an anti-anxiety medication.
Since the "crack baby" panic of the 1980s, authorities in at least 44 other states have sought to hold women criminally accountable fro abusing drugs while pregnant, often by linking laws against child abuse, and drug distribution and trafficking. In decisions made in 2013 and 2014, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the meth law statute could be used to prosecute mothers -- not just from the time that the fetus is viable (around 22 weeks) but from the earliest stages of pregnancy. [6]
It is not a stretch to conclude that these drugs in the womb statutes are part of the effort to dismantle Roe v. Wade.
Footnotes
[1] Juan Cole, "No Cause for War," The Nation, December 14, 2015.
[2] Ari Berman, "Voting Rights Besieged," The Nation, December 14, 2015.
[3] "Scoundrel Time," The Nation, December 21/28, 2015.
[4] Katy Steinmetz, "Caitlyn Jenner," Time, December 21, 2015.
[5] Nina Martin, "Its War on Wombs," Mother Jones, January/February 2016.
[6] Ibid.
Professor Juan Cole counsels everyone to stop using the language of. war. "The language of war elevates terrorists to the status to which they aspire: that of 'legitimate combatants.' " "A 'war' om terror that characterizes, for example, all Syrian refugees as potential combatants thus plays right into the hands of [designated terrorists], who aim to sharpen the contradictions between Muslims and those of Christian heritage." [1]
II. Use Total Population to Draw Legislative Districts
"If states adopt the current voting-age population instead of total population for drawing legislative districts, a staggering 55 percent of Latinos --those who are under 18 or non-citizens -- wouldn't be counted, according to a brief filed by by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, as well as 45 percent of Asian-Americans and 30 percent of African-Americans." People of color make up 37 percent of the U.S. population but hold only 10 percent of elected seats; Latinos and Asian-Americans are 22 percent of the population but hold only 2 percent of elected offices. In eleven states there is not a single Latino or Asian-American state legislator. [2]
Total population has always been the easiest and most accurate metric to use when drawing district lines, experts say; going by voting-age population is unreliable; also, the Census Bureau doesn't ask people their citizenship status.
III. "Collecting It All" May Not Be So Wise
The National Security Agency's (NSA) failure to thwart the Paris plot or the San Bernardino mass shooting suggests that its approach of "collecting it all" may simply be drowning the NSA in data without identifying those who actually warrant suspicion. When he took office, New York City police Commissioner Bill Bratton ended the New York Police Department's controversial program of monitoring mosques and Muslim businesses, and he recently explained that "not a single piece of actionable intelligence ever came out of the unit in its years of existence." [3]
IV. A Banner Year for Transgender People Has a Dark Side
"[Bruce] Jenner's rebirth as Caitlyn was the most visible high point of a banner year for the transgender community. The Secretary of Defense called the ban on transgender people's open military service 'outdated' and directed that the policy be reviewed. A measure to add nondiscrimination protection for LGBT people to the Civil Rights Act was introduced in Congress with nearly 200 co-sponsors." "These came as the LGBT rights movement has been advancing at a speed unthinkable just a decade ago." "[An] estimated 0.5% of Americans are transgender." [4]
There is, however, a dark side to this bright picture: at least 21 transgender women were murdered in the United States in 2015; in addition, transgender people continue to suffer poverty, unemployment, homelessness, family rejection and harassment at much higher rates than the general public.
V. Waging War on Wombs
Casey Shehl was charged with "knowingly, recklessly, intentionally" causing James (her fetus) to be exposed to controlled substances in the womb -- a felony punishable, in her case -- by up to 10 years in prison. Casey is one of at least 31 women arrested in Etowah County since 2013 for running afoul of Alabama's "chemical endangerment of a child" statute, the country's toughest criminal law on prenatal drug use.The law treats prenatal drug abuse as a form of child abuse and the penalties are exceptionally stiff. A woman accused of using drugs during pregnancy can face 1 to 10 years in prison if the baby suffers no ill effects; 10 to 20 years if the baby shows signs of exposure or harm; and 10 to 99 years if the baby dies. Casey Shehl also risks losing custody of all her children, not just her newborn. [5]
The statute invites overreach and even abuse. It does not distinguish between an addict and a stressed-out single mom who takes a harmless dose of an anti-anxiety medication.
Since the "crack baby" panic of the 1980s, authorities in at least 44 other states have sought to hold women criminally accountable fro abusing drugs while pregnant, often by linking laws against child abuse, and drug distribution and trafficking. In decisions made in 2013 and 2014, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that the meth law statute could be used to prosecute mothers -- not just from the time that the fetus is viable (around 22 weeks) but from the earliest stages of pregnancy. [6]
It is not a stretch to conclude that these drugs in the womb statutes are part of the effort to dismantle Roe v. Wade.
Footnotes
[1] Juan Cole, "No Cause for War," The Nation, December 14, 2015.
[2] Ari Berman, "Voting Rights Besieged," The Nation, December 14, 2015.
[3] "Scoundrel Time," The Nation, December 21/28, 2015.
[4] Katy Steinmetz, "Caitlyn Jenner," Time, December 21, 2015.
[5] Nina Martin, "Its War on Wombs," Mother Jones, January/February 2016.
[6] Ibid.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Drone Operations People Speak and Palestinians Besieged
I. The Drone Operations People Speak
The Guardian newspaper interviewed several people involved in drone operations in the war on terror. Michael Hass, a former senior airman in the Air Force, described children as "fun-size terrorists" and likened killing them to "cutting the grass before it grows too long." He described widespread alcohol and drug use among those who pilot the drones from a great distance. There have been earlier reports of drone pilots having psychiatric problems due to killing by remote control, in addition to the reality that they are considered to rank below those who actually fly warplanes.
Former Air Force Staff Sergeant Brandon Bryant said: "We kill four and create 10 [militants]." Clin Westmorelnad told the Guardian that "in the short-term, drones are good at killing people, but in the long-term they're not effective."
This past October, the Guardian published a cache of classified documents leaked by a government whistleblower that showed how the program killed people based on unreliable intelligence, and that the vast majority of people killed in a multi-year Afghan campaign were not the intended targets. The military, by default, labeled non-targets killed in the campaign as enemies rather than civilians.
. II. Palestinians Besieged
"In 2010, more than 800,000 Palestinians had been imprisoned by Israel, including 8,000 children under the age of 18 arrested since 2000. As of November 2015, there were 5,621 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails." "In fact, most Palestinians are confined to one or two towns or villages in the West Bank, and the majority cannot go to Jerusalem [1]
Israeli Prime ;Minister Benjamin Natanyahu announced that his government would undertake more stringent measures to suppress Palestinian protests, including the use of live rounds against demonstrators and the immediate demolition of homes of those resident belonging to Palestinians involved in violence.
Diana Butto and Nadia Hijab advocate that the UN Security Council should authorize a similar protective force for Palestine, with the clearly expressed mission of bringing freedom to Palestinians. They say: "While a political solution remains elusive at present, an international protection force will ensure that lives are placed above politics. Such a force would not only protect Palestinians but could address security issues for all concerned until a just and lasting peace arrangement can be reached."
ADDENDUMS:
*"A Bain study of 1,000 people found that more women than men just starting out in their jobs aspired to reach senior management. Over time, however, the level of women's ambition dropped by 60 percent, while the men's remain unchanged." "Various studies have found that women are not rewarded for pushing to advance or to get more pay -- they are, in fact, penalized." "Women start by leaning in, but quickly realize that what they're leaning into is the immovable wall of structural sexism." [2]
*Given the conflicting medical advise about how often to test for the presence of a serious medical problem -- especially cancer -- now comes a request to turn down the dial on testing. PSA screening is being discouraged because it causes many men to be diagnosed with prostrate cancer that are not destined to ever bother them. Therefore, as the relevant data comes in, the target size should be adjusted so that the number of patients told they will need intervention more closely approximates the number that can be expected to develop serious cancer. There are harms to screening that happen here and now: false alarms, biopsy complications, overdiagnosis, treatment and treatment complications all occurring soon after testing. [3]
*The six largest financial institutions have assets equivalent to nearly 60 percent of U.S. GDP, issue 35 percent of mortgages and issue more than two-thirds of all credit cards. [4]
Footnotes
[1] Diana Butto and Nadia Hijab, "Palestine Besieged," The Nation, November 9, 2015.
[2] Bryce Covert and Mike Koncjal, "Blocked Ambitions," The Nation, November 16, 2015.
[3] H. Gilbert Welch, "Turn the dial back when diagnosing cancer," The Albuquerque Journal, November 28, 2015.
[4] Bernie Sanders' November 2015 Newsletter.
The Guardian newspaper interviewed several people involved in drone operations in the war on terror. Michael Hass, a former senior airman in the Air Force, described children as "fun-size terrorists" and likened killing them to "cutting the grass before it grows too long." He described widespread alcohol and drug use among those who pilot the drones from a great distance. There have been earlier reports of drone pilots having psychiatric problems due to killing by remote control, in addition to the reality that they are considered to rank below those who actually fly warplanes.
Former Air Force Staff Sergeant Brandon Bryant said: "We kill four and create 10 [militants]." Clin Westmorelnad told the Guardian that "in the short-term, drones are good at killing people, but in the long-term they're not effective."
This past October, the Guardian published a cache of classified documents leaked by a government whistleblower that showed how the program killed people based on unreliable intelligence, and that the vast majority of people killed in a multi-year Afghan campaign were not the intended targets. The military, by default, labeled non-targets killed in the campaign as enemies rather than civilians.
. II. Palestinians Besieged
"In 2010, more than 800,000 Palestinians had been imprisoned by Israel, including 8,000 children under the age of 18 arrested since 2000. As of November 2015, there were 5,621 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails." "In fact, most Palestinians are confined to one or two towns or villages in the West Bank, and the majority cannot go to Jerusalem [1]
Israeli Prime ;Minister Benjamin Natanyahu announced that his government would undertake more stringent measures to suppress Palestinian protests, including the use of live rounds against demonstrators and the immediate demolition of homes of those resident belonging to Palestinians involved in violence.
Diana Butto and Nadia Hijab advocate that the UN Security Council should authorize a similar protective force for Palestine, with the clearly expressed mission of bringing freedom to Palestinians. They say: "While a political solution remains elusive at present, an international protection force will ensure that lives are placed above politics. Such a force would not only protect Palestinians but could address security issues for all concerned until a just and lasting peace arrangement can be reached."
ADDENDUMS:
*"A Bain study of 1,000 people found that more women than men just starting out in their jobs aspired to reach senior management. Over time, however, the level of women's ambition dropped by 60 percent, while the men's remain unchanged." "Various studies have found that women are not rewarded for pushing to advance or to get more pay -- they are, in fact, penalized." "Women start by leaning in, but quickly realize that what they're leaning into is the immovable wall of structural sexism." [2]
*Given the conflicting medical advise about how often to test for the presence of a serious medical problem -- especially cancer -- now comes a request to turn down the dial on testing. PSA screening is being discouraged because it causes many men to be diagnosed with prostrate cancer that are not destined to ever bother them. Therefore, as the relevant data comes in, the target size should be adjusted so that the number of patients told they will need intervention more closely approximates the number that can be expected to develop serious cancer. There are harms to screening that happen here and now: false alarms, biopsy complications, overdiagnosis, treatment and treatment complications all occurring soon after testing. [3]
*The six largest financial institutions have assets equivalent to nearly 60 percent of U.S. GDP, issue 35 percent of mortgages and issue more than two-thirds of all credit cards. [4]
Footnotes
[1] Diana Butto and Nadia Hijab, "Palestine Besieged," The Nation, November 9, 2015.
[2] Bryce Covert and Mike Koncjal, "Blocked Ambitions," The Nation, November 16, 2015.
[3] H. Gilbert Welch, "Turn the dial back when diagnosing cancer," The Albuquerque Journal, November 28, 2015.
[4] Bernie Sanders' November 2015 Newsletter.
Monday, January 4, 2016
Stopping the Saudi War
Amnesty International reported in early October 2015 that Saudi Arabia was guilty of committing war crimes in Yemen. The Saudis were using arms purchased from the United States and the U.S. was poised to resupply the Saudis. Saudi Arabia's military spokesman Ahmad al-Asiri made a public declaration on May 8, 2015 that the northern cities of Sa'da and Marram in Yemen had been designated as "military targets loyal to the Huthi militias." He warned that "operations will cover the whole area of these two cities and thus we reiterate our call to stay away from these groups, and leave the areas under Huthi control or where the Huthi are sheltering."
International laws of war forbid the targeting of civilian structures, as well as the "collective punishment" of civilians populations. Amnesty researchers found extensive damage in Sa'da and airstrikes on civilian homes in villagers around Sa'da city had killed and injured hundreds. These same researchers found that Saudi Arabia had used internationally banned cluster bombs, which scatter hundreds of smaller bombs over a wide area. A joint report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs counted 2,682 deaths and injuries had resulted from air bombardment from late March to the end of July 2015.
Saudi Arabia has imposed a tight blockage on Yemen. Article 6 of the Arms trade Treaty forbids the transfer of arms and ammunition to a party in an armed conflict if it [the sending nation] has knowledge that the weaponry will be used for "attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which it is a party." The U.S action in supplying weaponry to Saudi Arabia runs counter to the Leahy Law -- named after Senator Patrick Leahy -- which forbids military sales to forces that are engaged in gross violation of human rights.
ADDENDUMS:
*"The comparison between Obama's wary analysis and the often slapdash, half-baked proposals of GOP candidates at the debate [December 15] was striking. Obama appears to recognize that there's a missing link in the strategy -- the lack of a Sunni ground force that can reliably clear and hold the Islamic States's heartland in Syria and Iraq." "Underlying Obama's policy analysis is a view that America must get out of the business of trying to govern the Middle East." (Source: David Ignatius, "Obama prefers small footprint," The Albuquerque Journal, December 19, 2015).
*One of the reasons that the Middle East is so bedeviling to policy-makers is that there are perhaps as many risks resulting from action or from inaction. President Obama's relative caution during the Arab Spring resulted ultimately in a military dictatorship in Egypt and a general collapse of the democratic uprisings in almost every Middle East nation in which they took place. On the other hand, Obama involving the U.S. in a no-fly zone and helping run down Libya's leader has resulted in chaos in Libya, because there there was no stable alternative political force. Obama's failure to arm Assad's opposition forces relatively early in Syria's civil war, when it appeared the opposition had Assad on the run, may have been a major mistake; however, yet again, it may have led to even greater chaos or put in power an even worse alternative from the U.S. perspective. Also, as Steve Coll pointed out in his commentary in the November 30, 2015 The New Yorker, U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan eliminated the immediate threat or removed the current leader, but they did not resolve "the targeted country's underlying instability or assured durable international security."
*Jennifer Moore has done a very valuable service in why demonizing Muslims is wrong in moral terms, the Bill of Rights, international law and in creating a more dangerous world. "It is wrong to marginalize Muslims, in part because such attitudes intensify the very dangers they purport to alleviate. Simply put, Islamophobia feeds ISIS-inspired terrorism." "Freedom of religion, along with the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, form a secular trinity of core values, equally offended by the arbitrary exclusion of persons on the basis of persons or on the basis of religious affiliation."
"The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the United States and countries around the world, protects freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and the principle of non-discrimination." "Americans are Muslims, as we are agnostics, atheists, and members of a rainbow spectrum of faiths and spiritual communities." "When we demonize Muslims, we destroy ourselves." "Embracing Muslims as part of our political community is to acknowledge and nurture the health of our democracy and the vibrancy of our global society." (Source: Jenifer Moore, "Demonizing Muslims only benefits IS," The Albuquerque Journal, December 19, 2015).
International laws of war forbid the targeting of civilian structures, as well as the "collective punishment" of civilians populations. Amnesty researchers found extensive damage in Sa'da and airstrikes on civilian homes in villagers around Sa'da city had killed and injured hundreds. These same researchers found that Saudi Arabia had used internationally banned cluster bombs, which scatter hundreds of smaller bombs over a wide area. A joint report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs counted 2,682 deaths and injuries had resulted from air bombardment from late March to the end of July 2015.
Saudi Arabia has imposed a tight blockage on Yemen. Article 6 of the Arms trade Treaty forbids the transfer of arms and ammunition to a party in an armed conflict if it [the sending nation] has knowledge that the weaponry will be used for "attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which it is a party." The U.S action in supplying weaponry to Saudi Arabia runs counter to the Leahy Law -- named after Senator Patrick Leahy -- which forbids military sales to forces that are engaged in gross violation of human rights.
ADDENDUMS:
*"The comparison between Obama's wary analysis and the often slapdash, half-baked proposals of GOP candidates at the debate [December 15] was striking. Obama appears to recognize that there's a missing link in the strategy -- the lack of a Sunni ground force that can reliably clear and hold the Islamic States's heartland in Syria and Iraq." "Underlying Obama's policy analysis is a view that America must get out of the business of trying to govern the Middle East." (Source: David Ignatius, "Obama prefers small footprint," The Albuquerque Journal, December 19, 2015).
*One of the reasons that the Middle East is so bedeviling to policy-makers is that there are perhaps as many risks resulting from action or from inaction. President Obama's relative caution during the Arab Spring resulted ultimately in a military dictatorship in Egypt and a general collapse of the democratic uprisings in almost every Middle East nation in which they took place. On the other hand, Obama involving the U.S. in a no-fly zone and helping run down Libya's leader has resulted in chaos in Libya, because there there was no stable alternative political force. Obama's failure to arm Assad's opposition forces relatively early in Syria's civil war, when it appeared the opposition had Assad on the run, may have been a major mistake; however, yet again, it may have led to even greater chaos or put in power an even worse alternative from the U.S. perspective. Also, as Steve Coll pointed out in his commentary in the November 30, 2015 The New Yorker, U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan eliminated the immediate threat or removed the current leader, but they did not resolve "the targeted country's underlying instability or assured durable international security."
*Jennifer Moore has done a very valuable service in why demonizing Muslims is wrong in moral terms, the Bill of Rights, international law and in creating a more dangerous world. "It is wrong to marginalize Muslims, in part because such attitudes intensify the very dangers they purport to alleviate. Simply put, Islamophobia feeds ISIS-inspired terrorism." "Freedom of religion, along with the equal protection and due process clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, form a secular trinity of core values, equally offended by the arbitrary exclusion of persons on the basis of persons or on the basis of religious affiliation."
"The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by the United States and countries around the world, protects freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and the principle of non-discrimination." "Americans are Muslims, as we are agnostics, atheists, and members of a rainbow spectrum of faiths and spiritual communities." "When we demonize Muslims, we destroy ourselves." "Embracing Muslims as part of our political community is to acknowledge and nurture the health of our democracy and the vibrancy of our global society." (Source: Jenifer Moore, "Demonizing Muslims only benefits IS," The Albuquerque Journal, December 19, 2015).
Friday, January 1, 2016
Aging Voting Machines and Eclectic Subjects
I. Aging Voting Machines
The Gore-Bush voting debacle of 2000 caused many states and counties to ditch their old machines and opt for shiny new ones. It is know fifteen years disaster and these replacement models are becoming obsolete. The vice chair of the Federal Election Assistance Commission told the Brennan Center for Justice that: "We're getting by with Band-Aids, but I worry about a crisis with some of the older machines."
a. Forty-eight states have machines that are ten or more years old.. Almost all of those machines are no longer manufactured.
b. Some old voting machines can hold only 512 kilobytes. That's only 0.07 percent of a typical CD-ROM.
c. Machines in one Ohio county require Zip disks, which became outdated in the early 2000s.
d. The estimated cost of replacing outdated voting machines is more than $1 billion. Election officials in twenty-two states say they don't know where they'll find the money. (Source: "Crashing the Election," Mother Jones, January/February 2016).
II. Ending Life With Dignity
More and more Americans support the right of the terminally ill to end their own lives on their own terms.
a. Physician-assisted suicide is largely a West Coast .phenomenon,with Washington, Oregon and California having legalized it. Only two other states have legalized it but about fifteen states have introduced legislation or are actively considering it. (Source: Death With Dignity National Center).
b. Support for legalized physician-assisted suicide has grown since 1947. It was below forty percent in 1947 and had increased to seventy percent in 2011. Fifty percent in 2002 found physician-assisted suicide morally acceptable and that has grown to about fifty-seven percent in the most recent Gallup poll. (Source: Gallup).
c. After Brittany Maynard's struggle to have her suicide physician-assisted, support for it spiked across all age groups and political stripes. From May 2014 to May 2015, the percentage support for physician-assisted suicide increased as follows: 18 to 34 years old - +19; 35 to 54 years old - +8; 55 and older - +5; Republicans - +10; Independents - +16; and Democrats - +13. (Source: Gallup).
III. Contracts With America
a. Twenty-one million Americans work as independent contractors.
b. Twenty-nine percent of the jobs added between 2010 and 2014 were for independent contractors.
c. Ride-app drivers working more than forty hours a week report earning a yearly average of $36,580 before expenses like gas.
d. Uber has spent more than $1 million lobbying against regulations in California since 2013. It is said to have set aside at least $1 billion for future regulatory fights as it expands abroad.
e. Uber has been valued at $51 billion. (Source: Mother Jones, January/February 2016).
IV. Financing Luxury Hotels
The International Finance Corporation has sunk more than $1 billion into luxury hotels throughout the developing world, although its mission was to lift people out of poverty. The following is a sampling, based on a three-night stay:
a. TAJ EXOTICA AND VIVANTA BY TAJ CORAL REEF (Maldives)
IFC Investments: $57 million --- Room rate: $650 to $7,000 --- GOP (per capita): $8,483.
b. BALMOND PALACIO NAZARENAS AND LAS CASITAS DEL COLCA LODGE (Peru)
IFC Investment: $13 million --- Room rate: $645 to $1,090 --- GDP: $6,551.
c. HYATT REGENCY KIEV (Ukraine)
IFC Investment: $27.5 million --- Room rate: $429 to $703 --- GDP: $3,083
d. MOVENPICK AMBASSADOR HOTEL (Ghana)
IFC Investment: $26 million --- Room rate: $330 to $783 --- GDP: $1,443
e. AMANSARA SIEM REAP (Cambodia)
IFC Investment: $1.2 million --- Room rate: $1,378 to $2,081 --- GDP: $1,090
f. KABUL SERENA HOTEL (Afghanistan)
IFC Investment: $7 million --- Room rate: $356+ --- GDP: $659
g. KIGALI SERENA HOTEL AND LAKE KIVU SERENA HOTEL (Rwanda)
IFC Investment: $8.1 million --- Room rate: $180 to $360 --- GDP: $696
h. COCO OCEAN RESORT AND SPA (Gambia)
IFC Investment: $10.2 million --- Room rate: $203 to $301 --- GDP: $419 (Source: Edwin Rios, "Get a 3-Night Stay --," Mother Jones, January/February 2016).
The Gore-Bush voting debacle of 2000 caused many states and counties to ditch their old machines and opt for shiny new ones. It is know fifteen years disaster and these replacement models are becoming obsolete. The vice chair of the Federal Election Assistance Commission told the Brennan Center for Justice that: "We're getting by with Band-Aids, but I worry about a crisis with some of the older machines."
a. Forty-eight states have machines that are ten or more years old.. Almost all of those machines are no longer manufactured.
b. Some old voting machines can hold only 512 kilobytes. That's only 0.07 percent of a typical CD-ROM.
c. Machines in one Ohio county require Zip disks, which became outdated in the early 2000s.
d. The estimated cost of replacing outdated voting machines is more than $1 billion. Election officials in twenty-two states say they don't know where they'll find the money. (Source: "Crashing the Election," Mother Jones, January/February 2016).
II. Ending Life With Dignity
More and more Americans support the right of the terminally ill to end their own lives on their own terms.
a. Physician-assisted suicide is largely a West Coast .phenomenon,with Washington, Oregon and California having legalized it. Only two other states have legalized it but about fifteen states have introduced legislation or are actively considering it. (Source: Death With Dignity National Center).
b. Support for legalized physician-assisted suicide has grown since 1947. It was below forty percent in 1947 and had increased to seventy percent in 2011. Fifty percent in 2002 found physician-assisted suicide morally acceptable and that has grown to about fifty-seven percent in the most recent Gallup poll. (Source: Gallup).
c. After Brittany Maynard's struggle to have her suicide physician-assisted, support for it spiked across all age groups and political stripes. From May 2014 to May 2015, the percentage support for physician-assisted suicide increased as follows: 18 to 34 years old - +19; 35 to 54 years old - +8; 55 and older - +5; Republicans - +10; Independents - +16; and Democrats - +13. (Source: Gallup).
III. Contracts With America
a. Twenty-one million Americans work as independent contractors.
b. Twenty-nine percent of the jobs added between 2010 and 2014 were for independent contractors.
c. Ride-app drivers working more than forty hours a week report earning a yearly average of $36,580 before expenses like gas.
d. Uber has spent more than $1 million lobbying against regulations in California since 2013. It is said to have set aside at least $1 billion for future regulatory fights as it expands abroad.
e. Uber has been valued at $51 billion. (Source: Mother Jones, January/February 2016).
IV. Financing Luxury Hotels
The International Finance Corporation has sunk more than $1 billion into luxury hotels throughout the developing world, although its mission was to lift people out of poverty. The following is a sampling, based on a three-night stay:
a. TAJ EXOTICA AND VIVANTA BY TAJ CORAL REEF (Maldives)
IFC Investments: $57 million --- Room rate: $650 to $7,000 --- GOP (per capita): $8,483.
b. BALMOND PALACIO NAZARENAS AND LAS CASITAS DEL COLCA LODGE (Peru)
IFC Investment: $13 million --- Room rate: $645 to $1,090 --- GDP: $6,551.
c. HYATT REGENCY KIEV (Ukraine)
IFC Investment: $27.5 million --- Room rate: $429 to $703 --- GDP: $3,083
d. MOVENPICK AMBASSADOR HOTEL (Ghana)
IFC Investment: $26 million --- Room rate: $330 to $783 --- GDP: $1,443
e. AMANSARA SIEM REAP (Cambodia)
IFC Investment: $1.2 million --- Room rate: $1,378 to $2,081 --- GDP: $1,090
f. KABUL SERENA HOTEL (Afghanistan)
IFC Investment: $7 million --- Room rate: $356+ --- GDP: $659
g. KIGALI SERENA HOTEL AND LAKE KIVU SERENA HOTEL (Rwanda)
IFC Investment: $8.1 million --- Room rate: $180 to $360 --- GDP: $696
h. COCO OCEAN RESORT AND SPA (Gambia)
IFC Investment: $10.2 million --- Room rate: $203 to $301 --- GDP: $419 (Source: Edwin Rios, "Get a 3-Night Stay --," Mother Jones, January/February 2016).
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