Some of the harshest judgments on the legacy of Justice Antonin Scalia have come from the pens of Jeffrey Toobin and Katha Pollitt. Toobin says of Scalia that he "devoted his professional life to making the United States a less fair, less tolerant, and less admirable democracy." "Scalia represents a perfect model for everything that President Obama should avoid is a successor." "Scalia helped gut the Voting Rights Act, overturn McCain-Feingold and other campaign-finance rules, and, in his last official act, block President Obama's climate-change regulations." "The public wants diversity, not intolerance; more marriages and fewer executions; less money in politics, not more." [1]
Katha Pollitt describes Justice Scalia as a justice set in cement. "He was in the minority voting against the Affordable Care Act and same-sex marriage, and in favor of people being executed for crimes they committed as children. In his world, women would be barred from the Virginia Military Institute (and who knows where else), Roe v. Wade would be long overturned, and Miranda warnings would be history. The list goes on and on."
Katha Pollitt continues: "Today, his writings on gay rights sound like the ravings of a radio shock jock: In his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which struck down that state's anti-sodomy law, he wrote of 'the homosexual agenda.' Over the years he compared homosexuality to murder, polygamy, bestiality, child abuse, prostitution, the 'recreational use of heroin,' and 'working more than 60 hours a week in a bakery.' "
"His [Scalia's] racism could be breathtaking: The Voting Rights Act was 'a racial entitlement'; black students might do better at 'a slower-track school.' His final vote, issued just four days before his death, was to join yet another 5-4 majority to thwart President Obama's Clean Power Plan -- even as the country finally accepts the fact of climate change. Citizens United has produced an uproar in both parties, leading directly to insurgent campaigns by Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump." [2]
Another contributor to The Nation magazine refers back to Scalia's dissent in Romer v. Evans, a 1996 case concerning discrimination against LGBTQ people, Scalia wrote: 'It is our moral heritage that one should not hate any human being or class of human beings.' "But in the same dissent, he attacked same-sex attraction as 'reprehensible' and compared it to 'murder,' 'polygamy,' and 'cruelty to animals. ' [3]
ADDENDUMS:
*"Many corporate CEOs now earn more than 300 times the pay of average workers, up from 30 [times] only a generation ago." Executive pay accounts for roughly 40 percent of the income growth enjoyed by America's top 1 and 0.1 percent from 1977 to 2005. [4]
*"Student debt now tops $1.3 trillion, and the burden weighs heaviest on black and Latino students. Young, low-income African-American families are twice as likely to have student debt as their white counterparts." "Taxing the wealth of our richest 1 percent at a mere 1 percent would raise some $280 billion annually." [5]
*A recent Center for Effective Government and Institute for Policy Studies report states that 100 major corporate CEOs have individual savings equaling the savings of 41 percent of American families. Another finding was that nearly 70 percent over 65 will need at least three years of long-term care.
*Overall, 42 percent of U.S. workers make less than $15 an hour; but according to the National Employment Law Project, 54 percent of African-Americans earn less than that. "Between 1983 and 2007, the Center for Economic and Policy Research reports, the share of black workers represented by a union fell by 16 percent. The decline for white workers was only about half that: 8.7 percent." "Recent polling shows that about 87 percent of low-wage black workers approve of labor unions, a level of support almost 20 percent higher than among white workers." [6]
*"Wealthy Americans pay just $23.80 in federal income tax on every $100 of their 'capital-gains' income." The income of ordinary Americans, by contrast, can face a tax rate as high as 39.6 percent. "In other words, the capital-gains tax preference shears about $160,000 off their tax bill." [7]
*The Nobel Prize-winning economist James Heckman has calculated that public investment in early-childhood programs generate a 7 to 10 percent return to society.
*According to a recent Institute for Policy Studies report, the billionaires on the Forbes 400 list now, own about as much wealth as the entire U.S. African-American population, plus more than a third of the U.S. Latino population combined.
*Our nation's 20 richest individuals -- a group small enough to fit in a single Gulfstream jet -- have more wealth than the bottom half of the entire U.S. population. [8]
Footnotes
[1] Jeffrey Toobin, "Looking Back," The New Yorker, February 29, 2016.
[2] Katha Pollitt, "The Justice Set in Cement," The Nation, March 7, 2016.
[3] Natalie Pattillo, "Homophobe Supreme," The Nation, March 7, 2016.
[4]; [5]; [6]; [7]; and [8] The Nation, March 7, 2016.
Monday, March 14, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Limiting Gun Control; Wrongful Convictions; and Juvenile Justice Developments
I. Curtailing Gun Research and Limiting Restrictions on Gun Permits
In 1996, Congress amended an appropriations bill to the effect that "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control." Additionally, in 2011 Congress imposed similar restrictions on the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) research, after a study funded by the N.I.H. showed that, on average, "guns did not protect those who purchased them from being shot in an assault." [1]
In 2007, Missouri eliminated a decades-old system under which every handgun buyer had to obtain a permit and undergo a background check. Researchers at John Hopkins University found that the firearms homicide rate increased by thirty-four percent in the first year after the repeal and remained significantly higher than it had been, while the rate of homicides committed with other weapons did not change.
II. Updating Factors in Wrongful Convictions
The most common factor in wrongful convictions is mistaken eyewitness identification. Following behind in order of frequency are the involvement of scientific fraud or junk science; suppression of evidence by police or prosecutors; and false confessions. This most recent rendering of wrongful conviction factors gives much more weight to scientific manipulation and suppression of evidence than previous studies have shown. "With the exception of DNA evidence (which emerged from biology, not criminology). forensic tests are laughably unscientific, no independent entity exists to establish that such tests are reliable before their results are admissible as evidence." [2]
Fingerprint evidence was once thought to be the gold standard of forensic evidence; however, when a test was given to a gathering of fingerprint identification experts, they differed significantly in the conclusions reached. These experts don't agree on the number of points of agreement that must be present to make a positive identification. Hair evidence, which has been the single most important factor in convicting many people of serious crimes, is considered to be so unreliable that some legal jurisdictions ban its use in trials. More recently, ballistics evidence has come under scrutiny, because bullets fired from the same gun don't all bear the same conclusive markings.
There have been several notable cases in which lab technicians had been deliberately falsifying evidence for years before being found out. Even the FBI's forensics laboratory came under withering fire after the whistleblower, Dr. Whitehorse, who worked in the lab for years, cited instances of evidence being doctored to fit a prosecutor's theory of a case.
III. Some Good News for Incarcerated Juveniles
In January of this year, President Obama announced a ban on the practice of holding juvenile inmates in solitary confinement. He also will expand treatment for the mentally ill and increase the amount of time that inmates in solitary confinement spend outside their cells. His order, overall, is expected to affect about 10,000 inmates in federal prisons. The administration hopes that state prison officials will follow suit.
Research suggests that solitary confinement has the potential to lead to devastating, lasting psychological consequences. It has been linked to depression, alienation, withdrawal, a reduced ability to interact with others, and the potential for violent crime.
The second good news for juvenile inmates also came in January, when the U.S. Supreme Court strengthened a previous ruling that banned life without parole sentences for juveniles. The Court declared that the ban should be applied retroactively, meaning that more than 2,000 prisoners who are doing time in prison with no possibility of ever coming up for parole now have at least have a chance of winning release some day. [3]
Footnotes
[1] Margaret Talbot, "Obama's Gun Gambit," The New Yorker, January 18, 2016.
[2] Kathryn Schulz, "Dead Certainty," The New Yorker, January 25, 2016.
[3] Diane Dimond, "Changes bring some justice for juveniles," The Albuquerque Journal, January 30. 2016.
In 1996, Congress amended an appropriations bill to the effect that "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control." Additionally, in 2011 Congress imposed similar restrictions on the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) research, after a study funded by the N.I.H. showed that, on average, "guns did not protect those who purchased them from being shot in an assault." [1]
In 2007, Missouri eliminated a decades-old system under which every handgun buyer had to obtain a permit and undergo a background check. Researchers at John Hopkins University found that the firearms homicide rate increased by thirty-four percent in the first year after the repeal and remained significantly higher than it had been, while the rate of homicides committed with other weapons did not change.
II. Updating Factors in Wrongful Convictions
The most common factor in wrongful convictions is mistaken eyewitness identification. Following behind in order of frequency are the involvement of scientific fraud or junk science; suppression of evidence by police or prosecutors; and false confessions. This most recent rendering of wrongful conviction factors gives much more weight to scientific manipulation and suppression of evidence than previous studies have shown. "With the exception of DNA evidence (which emerged from biology, not criminology). forensic tests are laughably unscientific, no independent entity exists to establish that such tests are reliable before their results are admissible as evidence." [2]
Fingerprint evidence was once thought to be the gold standard of forensic evidence; however, when a test was given to a gathering of fingerprint identification experts, they differed significantly in the conclusions reached. These experts don't agree on the number of points of agreement that must be present to make a positive identification. Hair evidence, which has been the single most important factor in convicting many people of serious crimes, is considered to be so unreliable that some legal jurisdictions ban its use in trials. More recently, ballistics evidence has come under scrutiny, because bullets fired from the same gun don't all bear the same conclusive markings.
There have been several notable cases in which lab technicians had been deliberately falsifying evidence for years before being found out. Even the FBI's forensics laboratory came under withering fire after the whistleblower, Dr. Whitehorse, who worked in the lab for years, cited instances of evidence being doctored to fit a prosecutor's theory of a case.
III. Some Good News for Incarcerated Juveniles
In January of this year, President Obama announced a ban on the practice of holding juvenile inmates in solitary confinement. He also will expand treatment for the mentally ill and increase the amount of time that inmates in solitary confinement spend outside their cells. His order, overall, is expected to affect about 10,000 inmates in federal prisons. The administration hopes that state prison officials will follow suit.
Research suggests that solitary confinement has the potential to lead to devastating, lasting psychological consequences. It has been linked to depression, alienation, withdrawal, a reduced ability to interact with others, and the potential for violent crime.
The second good news for juvenile inmates also came in January, when the U.S. Supreme Court strengthened a previous ruling that banned life without parole sentences for juveniles. The Court declared that the ban should be applied retroactively, meaning that more than 2,000 prisoners who are doing time in prison with no possibility of ever coming up for parole now have at least have a chance of winning release some day. [3]
Footnotes
[1] Margaret Talbot, "Obama's Gun Gambit," The New Yorker, January 18, 2016.
[2] Kathryn Schulz, "Dead Certainty," The New Yorker, January 25, 2016.
[3] Diane Dimond, "Changes bring some justice for juveniles," The Albuquerque Journal, January 30. 2016.
Friday, March 11, 2016
Michigan: the Possible Outlier; Trump's Wise Moves
I. The Michigan Primary: a Possible Gross Misinterpretation
The media is going overboard with an interpretation that Bernie Sanders' poll-defying win over Hillary Clinton in Michigan is a possible game-changer, as all polling put Hillary far ahead. There is some reason to believe that the polls might not have been as far off as conventional wisdom now holds. A woman who called in to a talk show said she voted for Hillary but when she checked in with her woman friends, she learned that because they had talked over reports of John Kasich surging, and felt that he might be able to defeat Trump or hold him to a narrow victory. Given that Hillary seemed assured of victory, it is at least possible that tens of thousands who would have voted for Hillary, may have crossed over into the Republican primary and strategically voted for one of Trump's opponents. Of course, some may have voted for Trump, because he was their preferred Republican candidate.
The contention that a large number of Hillary supporters may have crossed over to meddle in the Republican primary doesn't rest on the experience of a single caller to a talk show. Hillary Clinton carried the African American vote by a margin of 65 to 30 percent in the Michigan primary; however, given that Hillary had been carrying that vote by a ratio of about 4 to 1, and carried that margin on the same day in Louisiana, it suggests that there may have been a large number of African American cross-overs. The fact that Hillary had been far more active and aggressive in condemning the lead poisoning of Flint children, her African American standing should have increased, not decreased. There have been efforts to explain disparate African American voting in Louisiana and Michigan on the same day by claiming that there is a fundamental difference between Northern and Southern African Americans; but there has been no evidence presented to support that claim.
When I viewed on television the exit questions that were being asked, I didn't see any that asked if the voter had engaged in cross-over voting. We don't have any empirical evidence about the extent of cross-over voting in Michigan.
Future primaries will give a better reading if Bernie Sanders's victory in Michigan has been exaggerated.
II. Donald Trump's Closing Smart Moves
In the mode of giving the devil his due, Donald Trump has made some smart moves in the past week of so. He made nice to Megan Kelly in the debate that Fox hosted, thereby lessening the negative impact that his characterization of Kelly had created. He made a specific and unequivocal disavowal of accepting the support of David Duke or the KKK. He has cleaned up his vulgar language at rallies, although he still encourages rough treatment of protesters. In the March 10th debate, Trump said he would not touch Social Security. He avoided the trap of calling for an increase in benefits, because that would have labeled him as a politician who makes big promises he can't fulfill. His position will likely trump that of Marco Rubio in voter reaction, who advocated an increase in the Social Security retirement age to 70 years old.
Ben Carson's endorsement of Donald Trump today very likely had its genesis in Trump coming to his defense when the Ted Cruz campaign falsely told primary voters that Carson had ended his campaign. This claim, coming on the eve, or the day of, a primary election, was designed to bring Carson's evangelical supporters into Cruz's fold. Moreover, after Carson left the race, Trump was the only one of the remaining Republican candidates to praise Carson for the race he ran. Perhaps, Carson is angling for a post in a possible Trump administration, or he may have endorsed Trump out of gratitude for Trump coming to his defense and complimenting him when he, Carson, left the race.
The Stephanie Miller Show ridiculed the notion that many African American voters might vote for Trump based on Carson's endorsement. Carson, however, has many fervent white voters, sufficient numbers of which, following his endorsement, may give Trump a victory in a closely contested primary race.
ADDENDUMS:
*George Packer observes that since the advent of the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucus, no one has been elected President without winning one or the other, except Bill Clinton. Packer contends that we now have "a reading of the American political temperature. What we've learned is that it's burning a lot hotter at the grass roots than either party's leadership seems capable of understanding." "Sanders' persistently surprising popularity shows that the Democratic establishment grasped the deep alienation of its voters no better than its Republican counterparts did." (Source: George Packer, "Living on the Edge," The New Yorker, February 8/15, 2016.)
*Jill Lapore, also writing in The New Yorker, makes an analysis that has similarities to what George Packer has said. "None of the candidates, not even the party favorites, are campaigning on behalf of their party; most are campaigning to crash it." "The party system, like just about every other old-line industry and institution is struggling to survive a communications revolution." "Today, Twitter has more than three hundred million users and two out of three Americans own smartphones." "The G.O.P. and the Democratic Party are reeling in the disequilibrium created by the latest communications revolution, the membership careening out of the party leader's control." "It's unlikely, but not impossible, that the accelerating and atomizing forces of this latest communications revolution will bring about the end of the party system and the beginning of a new and wobblier political institution." (Source: Jill Lapore, "The Party Crashers," The New Yorker, February 22, 2016.)
*Justice Samuel Alito agrees with Senator Mitch McConnell on not appointing a Supreme Court justice in 2015. He told a Georgetown Law School gathering that there is no constitutional provision on the size of the Court. This is a very tenuous reading of the Constitution; also, it reeks of a political motivation. Moreover, the Constitution reads that the President shall appoint a nominee to fill a vacancy and six justices have been appointed and confirmed in the last year of a President's term.
*Only 3% of Americans have paid family leave. Only 3% of Fortune 500 companies are run by women.
*Governor John Kasich signed a bill on February 24th, repealing all state funding for Planned Parenthood.
*For the second time, twelve churches and faith-based institutions have submitted cases of extrajudicial killings by Israeli forces to the U.S. Department of State. The use of U.S.-supplied weapons and equipment in military force conducted outside the borders of Israel violates what is labeled the Leahy Law.
The media is going overboard with an interpretation that Bernie Sanders' poll-defying win over Hillary Clinton in Michigan is a possible game-changer, as all polling put Hillary far ahead. There is some reason to believe that the polls might not have been as far off as conventional wisdom now holds. A woman who called in to a talk show said she voted for Hillary but when she checked in with her woman friends, she learned that because they had talked over reports of John Kasich surging, and felt that he might be able to defeat Trump or hold him to a narrow victory. Given that Hillary seemed assured of victory, it is at least possible that tens of thousands who would have voted for Hillary, may have crossed over into the Republican primary and strategically voted for one of Trump's opponents. Of course, some may have voted for Trump, because he was their preferred Republican candidate.
The contention that a large number of Hillary supporters may have crossed over to meddle in the Republican primary doesn't rest on the experience of a single caller to a talk show. Hillary Clinton carried the African American vote by a margin of 65 to 30 percent in the Michigan primary; however, given that Hillary had been carrying that vote by a ratio of about 4 to 1, and carried that margin on the same day in Louisiana, it suggests that there may have been a large number of African American cross-overs. The fact that Hillary had been far more active and aggressive in condemning the lead poisoning of Flint children, her African American standing should have increased, not decreased. There have been efforts to explain disparate African American voting in Louisiana and Michigan on the same day by claiming that there is a fundamental difference between Northern and Southern African Americans; but there has been no evidence presented to support that claim.
When I viewed on television the exit questions that were being asked, I didn't see any that asked if the voter had engaged in cross-over voting. We don't have any empirical evidence about the extent of cross-over voting in Michigan.
Future primaries will give a better reading if Bernie Sanders's victory in Michigan has been exaggerated.
II. Donald Trump's Closing Smart Moves
In the mode of giving the devil his due, Donald Trump has made some smart moves in the past week of so. He made nice to Megan Kelly in the debate that Fox hosted, thereby lessening the negative impact that his characterization of Kelly had created. He made a specific and unequivocal disavowal of accepting the support of David Duke or the KKK. He has cleaned up his vulgar language at rallies, although he still encourages rough treatment of protesters. In the March 10th debate, Trump said he would not touch Social Security. He avoided the trap of calling for an increase in benefits, because that would have labeled him as a politician who makes big promises he can't fulfill. His position will likely trump that of Marco Rubio in voter reaction, who advocated an increase in the Social Security retirement age to 70 years old.
Ben Carson's endorsement of Donald Trump today very likely had its genesis in Trump coming to his defense when the Ted Cruz campaign falsely told primary voters that Carson had ended his campaign. This claim, coming on the eve, or the day of, a primary election, was designed to bring Carson's evangelical supporters into Cruz's fold. Moreover, after Carson left the race, Trump was the only one of the remaining Republican candidates to praise Carson for the race he ran. Perhaps, Carson is angling for a post in a possible Trump administration, or he may have endorsed Trump out of gratitude for Trump coming to his defense and complimenting him when he, Carson, left the race.
The Stephanie Miller Show ridiculed the notion that many African American voters might vote for Trump based on Carson's endorsement. Carson, however, has many fervent white voters, sufficient numbers of which, following his endorsement, may give Trump a victory in a closely contested primary race.
ADDENDUMS:
*George Packer observes that since the advent of the New Hampshire primary and the Iowa caucus, no one has been elected President without winning one or the other, except Bill Clinton. Packer contends that we now have "a reading of the American political temperature. What we've learned is that it's burning a lot hotter at the grass roots than either party's leadership seems capable of understanding." "Sanders' persistently surprising popularity shows that the Democratic establishment grasped the deep alienation of its voters no better than its Republican counterparts did." (Source: George Packer, "Living on the Edge," The New Yorker, February 8/15, 2016.)
*Jill Lapore, also writing in The New Yorker, makes an analysis that has similarities to what George Packer has said. "None of the candidates, not even the party favorites, are campaigning on behalf of their party; most are campaigning to crash it." "The party system, like just about every other old-line industry and institution is struggling to survive a communications revolution." "Today, Twitter has more than three hundred million users and two out of three Americans own smartphones." "The G.O.P. and the Democratic Party are reeling in the disequilibrium created by the latest communications revolution, the membership careening out of the party leader's control." "It's unlikely, but not impossible, that the accelerating and atomizing forces of this latest communications revolution will bring about the end of the party system and the beginning of a new and wobblier political institution." (Source: Jill Lapore, "The Party Crashers," The New Yorker, February 22, 2016.)
*Justice Samuel Alito agrees with Senator Mitch McConnell on not appointing a Supreme Court justice in 2015. He told a Georgetown Law School gathering that there is no constitutional provision on the size of the Court. This is a very tenuous reading of the Constitution; also, it reeks of a political motivation. Moreover, the Constitution reads that the President shall appoint a nominee to fill a vacancy and six justices have been appointed and confirmed in the last year of a President's term.
*Only 3% of Americans have paid family leave. Only 3% of Fortune 500 companies are run by women.
*Governor John Kasich signed a bill on February 24th, repealing all state funding for Planned Parenthood.
*For the second time, twelve churches and faith-based institutions have submitted cases of extrajudicial killings by Israeli forces to the U.S. Department of State. The use of U.S.-supplied weapons and equipment in military force conducted outside the borders of Israel violates what is labeled the Leahy Law.
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Some Graphic Looks at U.S. Life
I. Lifers Who Committed Their Crimes as Kids, by Race
Mother Jones did a graph of thirteen states that have 25 or more cases of juveniles serving life sentences -- California and Florida were excluded because they didn't provide racial data. The graph is broken down into categories of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian/Native American and Other. The breakdown below will show percentages of white juveniles serving life sentences, followed by percentages of black juveniles.
Arkansas: 30 - 70 --- Georgia: 15-77 --- 15-69 --- Louisiana: 18-82 --- Michigan: 26-70 --- Mississippi: 30-70 --- Nebraska: 48-46 --- North Carolina: 12-75 --- Pennsylvania: 22-66 --- South Carolina: 25-65.
Two states have significant numbers of Hispanics serving life sentences for crimes committed as juveniles. Arizona: 41-16-40 and Colorado: 33-30-22.
There are two things that are particularly significant about these graphic breakdowns: 1.) Fifteen states have twenty-five or more cases; and 2.) In the thirteen states graphed, whites are the dominant population, yet in all but three states, the percentage of blacks serving life sentences greatly exceeds whites serving life sentences.
Given that the graph is divided into ten percent increments, I have tried to approximate percentages as closely as possible. (Source: Mother Jones, January/February 2016.)
II. Market for Subprime Auto Loans Dwarfs that of Subprime Credit Cards
Although high interest rates on credit cards receives far more media coverage than interest on auto loans, the market for subprime auto loans greatly exceeds that for subprime credit cards. All auto loans exceeded $500 billion in value for 2014, versus close to $350 billion for credit cards. Regarding subprime loans. the comparative amounts were $98 billion versus $13 billion. Subprime is defined as a credit score of below 620. (Source: Equifax.)
Another Mother Jones graph shows that subprime (defined as deep subprime) interest rates have risen from sixteen percent in 2008 to twenty percent in 2015. (Source: Experian.) Total interest on a 60-month, $25,000 used car loan [second quarter of 2015] was close to $15,000 for a deep subprime loan and close to $12,000 for a subprime loan. (Sources: Experian, Banknote.) The graphs can be seen in Mother Jones, March/April 2016.
III. Campaign Donations by the Adelsons
Casino owner Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have been major donors to conservative Republican candidates for at least the past decade. Dark money (spending that doesn't have to be disclosed) has accounted for more than one-third of the Adelsons' known political giving over the past decade. The Adelson's political giving spiked to about $22 million in 2008 and slightly over $150 million in 2012. (Sources: Center for Responsive Politics, the New York Times, and Huffington Post.) The political spending graph can be found in "High Stakes," Mother Jones, March/April 2016.
IV. The Decarbonization of California
The information provided in I.-III. should be described as troublesome in nature. This section gives the graphic information about California's plummeting carbon emissions. The graph displays trends in GDP, population, emissions and emissions per capita from 2000 through 2013. Measured from 0% in 2000 to the respective percentages in 2013, GDP increased by just under 25%; the population has increased by about 13%; emissions have fallen by about 3%; and emissions per capita have fallen by about 13%.
If we look at Average Monthly Household Energy Use (in kilowatt hours), California weights in at 562, versus 911 for the entire United States. (Sources: California Air Resources Board, US Energy Information Administration.)
Mother Jones did a graph of thirteen states that have 25 or more cases of juveniles serving life sentences -- California and Florida were excluded because they didn't provide racial data. The graph is broken down into categories of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian/Native American and Other. The breakdown below will show percentages of white juveniles serving life sentences, followed by percentages of black juveniles.
Arkansas: 30 - 70 --- Georgia: 15-77 --- 15-69 --- Louisiana: 18-82 --- Michigan: 26-70 --- Mississippi: 30-70 --- Nebraska: 48-46 --- North Carolina: 12-75 --- Pennsylvania: 22-66 --- South Carolina: 25-65.
Two states have significant numbers of Hispanics serving life sentences for crimes committed as juveniles. Arizona: 41-16-40 and Colorado: 33-30-22.
There are two things that are particularly significant about these graphic breakdowns: 1.) Fifteen states have twenty-five or more cases; and 2.) In the thirteen states graphed, whites are the dominant population, yet in all but three states, the percentage of blacks serving life sentences greatly exceeds whites serving life sentences.
Given that the graph is divided into ten percent increments, I have tried to approximate percentages as closely as possible. (Source: Mother Jones, January/February 2016.)
II. Market for Subprime Auto Loans Dwarfs that of Subprime Credit Cards
Although high interest rates on credit cards receives far more media coverage than interest on auto loans, the market for subprime auto loans greatly exceeds that for subprime credit cards. All auto loans exceeded $500 billion in value for 2014, versus close to $350 billion for credit cards. Regarding subprime loans. the comparative amounts were $98 billion versus $13 billion. Subprime is defined as a credit score of below 620. (Source: Equifax.)
Another Mother Jones graph shows that subprime (defined as deep subprime) interest rates have risen from sixteen percent in 2008 to twenty percent in 2015. (Source: Experian.) Total interest on a 60-month, $25,000 used car loan [second quarter of 2015] was close to $15,000 for a deep subprime loan and close to $12,000 for a subprime loan. (Sources: Experian, Banknote.) The graphs can be seen in Mother Jones, March/April 2016.
III. Campaign Donations by the Adelsons
Casino owner Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam, have been major donors to conservative Republican candidates for at least the past decade. Dark money (spending that doesn't have to be disclosed) has accounted for more than one-third of the Adelsons' known political giving over the past decade. The Adelson's political giving spiked to about $22 million in 2008 and slightly over $150 million in 2012. (Sources: Center for Responsive Politics, the New York Times, and Huffington Post.) The political spending graph can be found in "High Stakes," Mother Jones, March/April 2016.
IV. The Decarbonization of California
The information provided in I.-III. should be described as troublesome in nature. This section gives the graphic information about California's plummeting carbon emissions. The graph displays trends in GDP, population, emissions and emissions per capita from 2000 through 2013. Measured from 0% in 2000 to the respective percentages in 2013, GDP increased by just under 25%; the population has increased by about 13%; emissions have fallen by about 3%; and emissions per capita have fallen by about 13%.
If we look at Average Monthly Household Energy Use (in kilowatt hours), California weights in at 562, versus 911 for the entire United States. (Sources: California Air Resources Board, US Energy Information Administration.)
Monday, March 7, 2016
Inadequate Medical Care in Immigrant Detention Facilities
Federal agencies have quietly gone about the business of recasting the relationship between criminal justice and immigration enforcement. These changes have done about as much to bloat the federal prison population as has the War on Drugs; they have also helped make Latinos the largest facial or ethnic group sentenced in federal custody. [1]
Facilities to hold immigrants -- eleven of which are the only privately run prisons in the federal criminal justice system -- have a high incidence of inadequate medical care. Of the seventy-seven facilities that provided enough information to render a judgment, researchers found that eighteen contained indications of inadequate medical care. In one of the privately run prisons, named Reeves, the Department of Justice inspector general, Michael Horowitz, released a study showing that Reeve's medical contractor at the time, Correctional Health Companies, had failed to meet contractual staffing obligations in the medical unit for at least thirty-four of the thirty-seven months from 2010 to 2013. [2]
Regarding privately run prisons generally, Richard Kreitner, who regularly looks back at The Nation magazine's historical coverage, has rendered a judgment on privately run prisons. "For the state to abdicate its power of punishment to the lowest corporate bidder, will seal off prisons more completely from constitutional and popular controls." "The expansion of immigrant detention has enabled private corporations to reap increasing profits from both the failure of US immigration policy and the violence and misery in Central America that drives people across borders."
ADDENDUMS:
*A number of on-demand workers have filed lawsuits alleging that after all their expenses are considered, they weren't even earning minimum wage. Both Republican and Democratic policymakers fear that the erosion of the old social contract between employers and workers could place a large burden on state and local welfare care budgets if those new-economy jobs don't last. [3]
*"The restaurant industry is the second largest employer in the U.S., providing jobs for nearly 11 million Americans. It's also one of the fastest-growing industries; revenues have risen every year since 2010." "Tipped workers in full-service restaurants are twice as likely to receive government assistance as workers in other sectors of American industry, a financial burden that costs taxpayers some $9.5 billion every year." [4]
Footnotes
[1] Seth Freed Wessler, "Separate, Unequal, and, Deadly," The Nation, February 15, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Sana Jayarenan, "The Hidden Cost of Waiting Tables,"
Katy Steinmetz, "The Way We Work," Time, January 18, 2016.
Facilities to hold immigrants -- eleven of which are the only privately run prisons in the federal criminal justice system -- have a high incidence of inadequate medical care. Of the seventy-seven facilities that provided enough information to render a judgment, researchers found that eighteen contained indications of inadequate medical care. In one of the privately run prisons, named Reeves, the Department of Justice inspector general, Michael Horowitz, released a study showing that Reeve's medical contractor at the time, Correctional Health Companies, had failed to meet contractual staffing obligations in the medical unit for at least thirty-four of the thirty-seven months from 2010 to 2013. [2]
Regarding privately run prisons generally, Richard Kreitner, who regularly looks back at The Nation magazine's historical coverage, has rendered a judgment on privately run prisons. "For the state to abdicate its power of punishment to the lowest corporate bidder, will seal off prisons more completely from constitutional and popular controls." "The expansion of immigrant detention has enabled private corporations to reap increasing profits from both the failure of US immigration policy and the violence and misery in Central America that drives people across borders."
ADDENDUMS:
*A number of on-demand workers have filed lawsuits alleging that after all their expenses are considered, they weren't even earning minimum wage. Both Republican and Democratic policymakers fear that the erosion of the old social contract between employers and workers could place a large burden on state and local welfare care budgets if those new-economy jobs don't last. [3]
*"The restaurant industry is the second largest employer in the U.S., providing jobs for nearly 11 million Americans. It's also one of the fastest-growing industries; revenues have risen every year since 2010." "Tipped workers in full-service restaurants are twice as likely to receive government assistance as workers in other sectors of American industry, a financial burden that costs taxpayers some $9.5 billion every year." [4]
Footnotes
[1] Seth Freed Wessler, "Separate, Unequal, and, Deadly," The Nation, February 15, 2016.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Sana Jayarenan, "The Hidden Cost of Waiting Tables,"
Katy Steinmetz, "The Way We Work," Time, January 18, 2016.
Sunday, March 6, 2016
Nukes Aren't Fool Proof and a Further Look at the NRA
I. The U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Is Far From Fool Proof
When on November 25, 2015 the nuclear-powered Trident submarine USS Georgia ran aground in Kings Bay, Georgia, the terrified 160-member crew was thrown around, not knowing the cause of blaring alarms. Just like that, a $2 billion investment had been severely compromised. Near Pectz, Colorado, three Minuteman missile launch officers were fired after a recently disclosed accident that left one missile with at least $1.8 million in damages. The late disclosure violated the Air Force's own regulations that such accidents must be timely made public.[1]
In Eric Schlosser's book, entitled "Command and Control", he interweaves an account of serious problems at a Titan missile site near Damascus, Arkansas, with other near-catastrophic disasters that have happened in the nuclear weapons age. The incident near Damascus involved a series of malfunctions, including dangerously low readings for the oxidizer used in the missile and leaking fuel, which formed a cloud over the missile site. Such cloud particles at their lowest threat to health level can cause breathing problems, but more serious medical problems could occur, even to the point of death. Such a cloud formed from a mixture of missile fuel and water is considered to be carcinogenic.
Two of the most bizarre instances of alarms being triggered of a Soviet first-strike missile attack involved a full moon and a flight of geese; also, a Norwegian-launched missile veering off course toward Russia caused immediate fears that Russian authorities might interpret it as a U.S. ICBM attack.
Does the U.S. really need over 7,000 nuclear warheads, arrayed to be launched from the land, sea and air? Former Pentagon chief William Perry said on December 3, 2015, that: "Nuclear weapons no longer provide for our security, they endanger it." He said land-based missiles "aren't necessary." "They're destabilizing," and are liable to be launched on "bad information and would be the most likely cause of an accidental nuclear war." Paul Nitz, a personal adviser to President Ronald Reagan, has said: "I see no compelling reason why we should not unilaterally get rid of our nuclear weapons. To maintain then is costly and adds nothing to our security." General James Kowalski, a retired three-star general and Deputy Commander of Strat Com, which oversees the ICBMs, recalling a string of scandals, accidents and staff firings in December 2014, said: "The greatest threat to my force is an accident. The greatest threat to my force is doing something stupid." (sic) General James Cartwright, a retired four-star general of the Marine Corps, issued a report in 2012, signed by Senator Chuck Hagel (later Secretary of Defense) that recommended getting rid of the land-based missiles. (The staff firings referred to above as occurring in December 2014, were of missile launch officers cheating on exams or otherwise contributing to bad morale at the missile-launch sites.)
II. The NRA's Fear Factor and Its Focus on Selling
The NRA is chiefly feared because it speaks to those voters who will cast their ballots based on the gun issue alone -- a unity of purpose that gun control proponents lack.
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005 essentially blocks federal lawsuits brought by municipalities trying to hold gun manufacturers accountable for the bloodshed their products helped create.
"The purity of the organization's [NRA] goal -- a commitment to individual freedom -- is also a little tainted by the sheer amount of selling the NRA does. Members are bombarded with commercial solicitations for auto and home insurance, as well as insurance in case they're killed in a hunting mishap." [2]
Some 500,000 guns are stolen every year. Yet the NRA and the gun industry have not supported rules requiring gun owners to report when their weapons go missing -- let alone laws that might limit the sheer volume of guns out there to be lost or stolen. A bill to limit gun sales to one customer per month died in the Massachusetts legislature.
Footnotes
[1] Seth Freed Wessler, "Separate, Unequal, and Deadly," The Nation, February 15, 2016.
[2] Jarrett Murphy, "The NRA's Real Firepower," The Nation, September 10, 2012.
When on November 25, 2015 the nuclear-powered Trident submarine USS Georgia ran aground in Kings Bay, Georgia, the terrified 160-member crew was thrown around, not knowing the cause of blaring alarms. Just like that, a $2 billion investment had been severely compromised. Near Pectz, Colorado, three Minuteman missile launch officers were fired after a recently disclosed accident that left one missile with at least $1.8 million in damages. The late disclosure violated the Air Force's own regulations that such accidents must be timely made public.[1]
In Eric Schlosser's book, entitled "Command and Control", he interweaves an account of serious problems at a Titan missile site near Damascus, Arkansas, with other near-catastrophic disasters that have happened in the nuclear weapons age. The incident near Damascus involved a series of malfunctions, including dangerously low readings for the oxidizer used in the missile and leaking fuel, which formed a cloud over the missile site. Such cloud particles at their lowest threat to health level can cause breathing problems, but more serious medical problems could occur, even to the point of death. Such a cloud formed from a mixture of missile fuel and water is considered to be carcinogenic.
Two of the most bizarre instances of alarms being triggered of a Soviet first-strike missile attack involved a full moon and a flight of geese; also, a Norwegian-launched missile veering off course toward Russia caused immediate fears that Russian authorities might interpret it as a U.S. ICBM attack.
Does the U.S. really need over 7,000 nuclear warheads, arrayed to be launched from the land, sea and air? Former Pentagon chief William Perry said on December 3, 2015, that: "Nuclear weapons no longer provide for our security, they endanger it." He said land-based missiles "aren't necessary." "They're destabilizing," and are liable to be launched on "bad information and would be the most likely cause of an accidental nuclear war." Paul Nitz, a personal adviser to President Ronald Reagan, has said: "I see no compelling reason why we should not unilaterally get rid of our nuclear weapons. To maintain then is costly and adds nothing to our security." General James Kowalski, a retired three-star general and Deputy Commander of Strat Com, which oversees the ICBMs, recalling a string of scandals, accidents and staff firings in December 2014, said: "The greatest threat to my force is an accident. The greatest threat to my force is doing something stupid." (sic) General James Cartwright, a retired four-star general of the Marine Corps, issued a report in 2012, signed by Senator Chuck Hagel (later Secretary of Defense) that recommended getting rid of the land-based missiles. (The staff firings referred to above as occurring in December 2014, were of missile launch officers cheating on exams or otherwise contributing to bad morale at the missile-launch sites.)
II. The NRA's Fear Factor and Its Focus on Selling
The NRA is chiefly feared because it speaks to those voters who will cast their ballots based on the gun issue alone -- a unity of purpose that gun control proponents lack.
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005 essentially blocks federal lawsuits brought by municipalities trying to hold gun manufacturers accountable for the bloodshed their products helped create.
"The purity of the organization's [NRA] goal -- a commitment to individual freedom -- is also a little tainted by the sheer amount of selling the NRA does. Members are bombarded with commercial solicitations for auto and home insurance, as well as insurance in case they're killed in a hunting mishap." [2]
Some 500,000 guns are stolen every year. Yet the NRA and the gun industry have not supported rules requiring gun owners to report when their weapons go missing -- let alone laws that might limit the sheer volume of guns out there to be lost or stolen. A bill to limit gun sales to one customer per month died in the Massachusetts legislature.
Footnotes
[1] Seth Freed Wessler, "Separate, Unequal, and Deadly," The Nation, February 15, 2016.
[2] Jarrett Murphy, "The NRA's Real Firepower," The Nation, September 10, 2012.
Friday, March 4, 2016
Short Subjects That Cast Light on Our Variegated World
*An Israeli cabinet minister told Defense News that the Obama package of military aid would jump $40 billion over the 10-year period beginning in 2018.
*Israel's nuclear-armed submarine fleet in the Mediterranean threatens the Middle East and Europe. The Dolphine class subs carry sixteen torpedoes and SLCMs. The cruise missiles have a range of 1,500 km (930 mi.).
*The United States recently unveiled an autonomous marine drone, given the mouth-filling name of the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel. The drone will use radar to detect other vessels in the water.
*Charles Branas and others, in a 2009 study, found that "individuals in possession of a gun were 4.46 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not in possession."
*More than a third of people shot by Los Angeles police last year had documented signs of mental illness, nearly triple the number from the year before, according to a lengthy review by LAPD officials. Most of the thirty-eight people shot by LAPD officers in 2015 were Latinos; however, eight of the thirty-eight people -- or 21 percent -- struck down by police gunfire in 2015 were African American, who make up 9 percent of the city's population.
* Ohio Governor John Kasich recently signed a bill repealing all state funding for Planned Parenthood. The new law will prevent the state health department from providing any money for Planned Parenthood programs.
*Justice Samuel Alito has crassly entered the political arena by supporting Senate Republican vows to give no consideration to any Supreme Court Obama appointee. He told a Georgetown Law School gathering that there is no constitutional provision on the size of the Court.
*Recent polling shows that one in four Republicans in Mississippi and one in five in Alabama, believe that interracial marriage should be illegal, while closer to two-thirds in both states don't believe in evolution..
*Corporate profits are the highest ever measured, while workers' wages are the lowest as a percentage of GDP. Paul Klugman looks to an age of "stagnant living standards for most Americans... reinforced by a set of 'headwinds'; a rising inequality, a plateau in education levels, and worse."
*The LA Times of April 29, 2014 referenced a study showing that more than four percent of Death Row inmates were wrongfully convicted; furthermore, in 2014, the U.S. executed more people than any other country on earth, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, Iraq and China.
**Progressive Breakfast points out that "we are a nation of Flints. Lead poisoning is a pervasive problem for our inner cities, where some children have higher levels of lead contamination than those in Flint." In Washington DC's Stadium-Armory neighborhood, lead levels in the soil were found o be ten times higher than the accepted standards of other developed countries. Baltimore has high levels of lead in some areas of the city. Eighteen cities in Pennsylvania and eleven in New Jersey have areas of lead concentration elevated above those found thus far in Flint children.
*Israel's nuclear-armed submarine fleet in the Mediterranean threatens the Middle East and Europe. The Dolphine class subs carry sixteen torpedoes and SLCMs. The cruise missiles have a range of 1,500 km (930 mi.).
*The United States recently unveiled an autonomous marine drone, given the mouth-filling name of the Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel. The drone will use radar to detect other vessels in the water.
*Charles Branas and others, in a 2009 study, found that "individuals in possession of a gun were 4.46 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not in possession."
*More than a third of people shot by Los Angeles police last year had documented signs of mental illness, nearly triple the number from the year before, according to a lengthy review by LAPD officials. Most of the thirty-eight people shot by LAPD officers in 2015 were Latinos; however, eight of the thirty-eight people -- or 21 percent -- struck down by police gunfire in 2015 were African American, who make up 9 percent of the city's population.
* Ohio Governor John Kasich recently signed a bill repealing all state funding for Planned Parenthood. The new law will prevent the state health department from providing any money for Planned Parenthood programs.
*Justice Samuel Alito has crassly entered the political arena by supporting Senate Republican vows to give no consideration to any Supreme Court Obama appointee. He told a Georgetown Law School gathering that there is no constitutional provision on the size of the Court.
*Recent polling shows that one in four Republicans in Mississippi and one in five in Alabama, believe that interracial marriage should be illegal, while closer to two-thirds in both states don't believe in evolution..
*Corporate profits are the highest ever measured, while workers' wages are the lowest as a percentage of GDP. Paul Klugman looks to an age of "stagnant living standards for most Americans... reinforced by a set of 'headwinds'; a rising inequality, a plateau in education levels, and worse."
*The LA Times of April 29, 2014 referenced a study showing that more than four percent of Death Row inmates were wrongfully convicted; furthermore, in 2014, the U.S. executed more people than any other country on earth, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, Iraq and China.
**Progressive Breakfast points out that "we are a nation of Flints. Lead poisoning is a pervasive problem for our inner cities, where some children have higher levels of lead contamination than those in Flint." In Washington DC's Stadium-Armory neighborhood, lead levels in the soil were found o be ten times higher than the accepted standards of other developed countries. Baltimore has high levels of lead in some areas of the city. Eighteen cities in Pennsylvania and eleven in New Jersey have areas of lead concentration elevated above those found thus far in Flint children.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
What Did Gov. Snyder Know and When Did He Know It?
During the Watergate hearings on President Richard Nixon, Senator Howard Baker asked the oft-quoted question of what did Nixon know and when did he know it. Much the same question could be asked of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder about the contamination of the water in Flint, Michigan. A trove of released emails has helped establish that there were a number of early warnings which the Snyder administration either didn't acknowledge nor take any action.
The liberal group Progress Michigan released emails showing high-ranking state officials knew about an increase in Legionnaires disease in Gennesee County -- where Flint is located -- possibly linked to contaminated water about a year before Snyder said he knew about the outbreak.
Mother Jones reported that Michigan officials were trucking clean water to a state building in Flint in January 2015, long before they acknowledged to residents that the city had a water contamination problem.
Governor's Snyder's then-chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, acknowledged the administration's deplorable response in a July 2015 email, writing; "These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a state we're just not sympathizing with their plight.)."
Despite these earlier warnings of a serious problem in Flint, coupled with other emails being exchanged in the high levels of state government about water contamination in Flint, Gov. Snyder denied knowing about elevated lead levels in Flint children until October 2015, when the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that Dr. Hanna-Attisha had found high levels of lead in Flint children.
Gov. Snyder used his January 2016 State of the State address to announce that he was seeking $28 million in state funds -- more recently announced as $30 million -- for Flint while offering a belated apology. "Government failed you." Snyder said. "I am sorry, and I will fix it." Snyder has blamed all levels of government for the contamination of Flint's water; however, since 2011, Flint has been run by a series of unelected emergency managers appointed by Snyder. These managers have complete power to supersede any actions taken by local elected officials. It was emergency manager Ed Kurtz who signed the contract to set in motion using the Flint River as the primary source for municipal water.
Activist and film maker, Michael Moore, has said of his home city: "In order to save a few million dollars, the manager and the governor's office came up with the bright idea to unhook the city water supply from Lake Huron and tap into the Flint River." "And when the governor found out, he kept quiet and let the poor of Flint continue drinking the poison."
The liberal group Progress Michigan released emails showing high-ranking state officials knew about an increase in Legionnaires disease in Gennesee County -- where Flint is located -- possibly linked to contaminated water about a year before Snyder said he knew about the outbreak.
Mother Jones reported that Michigan officials were trucking clean water to a state building in Flint in January 2015, long before they acknowledged to residents that the city had a water contamination problem.
Governor's Snyder's then-chief of staff, Dennis Muchmore, acknowledged the administration's deplorable response in a July 2015 email, writing; "These folks are scared and worried about the health impacts and they are basically getting blown off by us (as a state we're just not sympathizing with their plight.)."
Despite these earlier warnings of a serious problem in Flint, coupled with other emails being exchanged in the high levels of state government about water contamination in Flint, Gov. Snyder denied knowing about elevated lead levels in Flint children until October 2015, when the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that Dr. Hanna-Attisha had found high levels of lead in Flint children.
Gov. Snyder used his January 2016 State of the State address to announce that he was seeking $28 million in state funds -- more recently announced as $30 million -- for Flint while offering a belated apology. "Government failed you." Snyder said. "I am sorry, and I will fix it." Snyder has blamed all levels of government for the contamination of Flint's water; however, since 2011, Flint has been run by a series of unelected emergency managers appointed by Snyder. These managers have complete power to supersede any actions taken by local elected officials. It was emergency manager Ed Kurtz who signed the contract to set in motion using the Flint River as the primary source for municipal water.
Activist and film maker, Michael Moore, has said of his home city: "In order to save a few million dollars, the manager and the governor's office came up with the bright idea to unhook the city water supply from Lake Huron and tap into the Flint River." "And when the governor found out, he kept quiet and let the poor of Flint continue drinking the poison."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)