I. Gender-Based Violence
Republican legislators are not known for their enlightened approach to gender-based violence, witnessed by the fact that 160 GOP lawmakers voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act in 2013. And now, many GOP lawmakers are claiming that sexual assaults would increase if trans people were allowed to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
9 - The number of states that have active bills to ban trans folks from using public bathrooms that fit with their gender identity.
3 - The number of Republican officials who have been arrested for bathroom harassment in recent years.
0 - The number of trans people who have been arrested.
224 - The number of cities and counties that have prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. (Source: Natalie Pattillo, "Behind Closed Doors," The Nation, May 9/16, 2016).
II. Despotism's Budding Prospects
1. Donald Trump
The Republican presidential candidate, who has endorsed killing the families of suspected terrorists and condoned physical violence against protesters at his rallies, has only recently fallen behind Hillary Clinton in national polling.
2. Jair Bolsonaro
"An army paratrooper in the days of Brazil's military dictatorship, the Social Christian Party congressman celebrates torture while denouncing immigrants ('the scum of the world') and gays. He will likely run for president in 2018 with the backing of the Brazilian elite."
3. Marine Le Pen
"After scrubbing her National Front Party clean of Anti-Semitism, if not of Islamophobia, Le Pen will run for president next year on a platform calling for an end to the 'Anglo-Saxon multiculturalism' whose 'first victims are white male heterosexuals.' "
4. Recep Tayyip Erdogan
"Erdogan has persecuted journalists and critics, launched a renewed war against the Kurds, and ignored unfavorable election results." Having survived an attempted coup, he is now putting in jeopardy the civil liberties of many thousands of Turkish citizens. (Source: "Despotism's Budding Prospects," The Nation, June 6/13, 2016).
III. Paid Family Leave
"The United States lags behind the rest of the world in providing paid family leave in a study of 185 countries, only two besides the United States failed to ensure that new mothers get paid time off from work; the United States was also one of very few countries that doesn't extend paid leave to fathers."
"Still, even in California, women are twice as likely to take leave as men. After all, Californians who take time off don't receive full pay. The typical benefit is 55 percent of their usual weekly salary, capped at about $1,000 a week."
The Family and Medical Leave Act allows 12 weeks without pay. Some states give partial pay; therefore, the lowest-paid spouse takes the leave -- usually mom.
In Sweden. parental leave offers 480 days off with 390 at 80% salary. At first, men didn't take it. Now they do -- or lose benefits.
Swedish mothers' incomes have been found to rise 7 percent for every month of leave their husbands take. (Source: Bryce Covert and Mike Konczal, "Equality Is in the Details," The Nation, May 9/16, 2016).
IV. Turning Post Offices Into Banks
Payday lenders cost $2,400 in fees and interest each year for an average family. If the United States Postal Service were to offer debit cards, savings accounts, and small-dollar loans, it could save the average underbanked family more than $2,000 a year.
Nearly one in three households needs access to traditional banking. 35 million households are unbanked or underbanked. 12 million households use payday loans.
About 40% of post offices are in "banking deserts."
If postal banking were instituted, "the flow of money out of millions of Americans' pockets and into predatory lenders' coffers may someday be stanched." (Source: Bryce Covert and Mike Konczal, "A Friendlier Lender," The Nation. July 4/11, 2016).
V. Farm Antibiotic Use
Measured from a base point of 2009, U.S. meat production has remained relatively constant, yet antibiotic use in animals had increased by about 23% in 2014.
Measured from a global perspective, and comparing farm antibiotic use in thousands of tons from 2010 to projected use in 2030, China leads the world in both 2010 use and projected 2030 use. China used about 15 thousand tons of farm antibiotics in 2010 and is projected to use about 32 tons in 2030. The United States used about 8 thousand tons in 2010 and is projected to use about 12 thousand tons in 2030. Germany will use about the same tonnage in 2030 as it did in 2010. (Source: USDA, FDA, National Academy of Sciences).
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