*Accelerating the Nuke-Arms Race - Although Barack Obama made a speech in the Middle East early in his presidency in which he proclaimed a goal of eliminating nuclear weapons from the world, as Amy Goodman puts it: "You cannot preach abstinence, in terms of nuclear weapons, from the biggest bar stool in the room." The modernization program for nuclear weapons is projected to cost $1 trillion over the course of thirty years-plus, after deployment in about 2035, of a new nuclear weapons-equipped submarine fleet and a long-range bomber capable of carrying nuclear warheads. "As with his pledge to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, his pledge to move the U.S. toward nuclear disarmament seems to have been abandoned." [1]
*90% Cut in Nuclear Arsenal - Three high-ranking U.S. military officers, including Air Force Colonel B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Plans and Policy Division, recommended keeping only 311 nuclear weapons. Their recommendation was based on the explosive power which former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamera calculated would destroy the Soviet Union as a functioning entity.
In 2012, a Russian proposal to cut 1,950 active warheads was killed by two U.S. senators from Montana, who wanted to save Malstrom AFB. The "ICBM Coalition," composed of ten U.S. senators wants to keep all ICBM sites in their states immune from elimination. [2]
*Leahy Law - In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and ten House representatives wrote: "There have been a disturbing number of reports of possible gross violations of human rights by security forces in Israel and Egypt -- incidents that may have involved recipients, or potential recipients, of US military assistance. We urge you to determine if these reports are credible and to inform us of your findings."
The Leahy Law restricts foreign forces from receiving U.S. military assistance if there is credible evidence that they have committed a gross human rights violation and their government has failed to make them accountable. The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) explains: The congressional letter expresses concern that Israel and Egypt are not being subjected to the same level of rigorous monitoring applied to other aid recipients. Congressional oversight and a uniform system of monitoring are crucial to ensure that all recipients of U.S. aid are treated fairly and that U.S. foreign aid does not make the United States complicit in human rights violations."
*Eviction a Cause, Not a Condition of Poverty - In a review of a book by Matthew Desmond, the Nation magazine raises the question of whether eviction from one's home is a cause, not a condition of poverty. Desmond writes that eviction of renters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin wasn't a daily event, it was an hourly one. In a city with less than 105,000 renter households, 16,000 adults and children were being evicted every year, amounting to one in eight renters between 2009 and 2011. The movers were noticeably ubiguitous in black neighborhoods, where female renters were nine times as likely to be forced out of their homes as women in poor white neighborhoods. "In fact, just 15 percent of poor renters live in public housing; the rest must navigate the private market, where the demand for affordable housing is so great that the average rent in desolate slums is only marginally less than in middle-class neighborhoods, even for decrepit units with moldering walls and broken appliances." [3]
Matthew Desmond notes that tax benefits for middle-class and affluent homeowners exceeded $171 billion in 2008. He says that figure dwarfs the estimated $22.5 billion needed to give every poor renter in the country a housing voucher.
*Med Pot in New Mexico
"The big secret about medical marijuana is that those with a serious illness who don't have the means to get their cannabis card are still subject to arrest if they seek relief on the black market." "To get on the medical cannabis program, you have to get documentation from your doctor proving that you have an approved diagnosis. Then you have to pay around $150 to a medical marijuana doctor, who will fill out your paper work and hand you an envelope to mail to Santa Fe. Then you wait to see if your card arrives." [4]
The current New Mexico state limit of 450 plants per producer limits availability, which drives up prices. Colorado is less stringent and its medical prices are as much as $5 less per gram.
Footnotes
[1] Amy Goodman, "Obama accelerates nuke-arms race," The Albuquerque Journal, April 16, 2016.
[2] John LaForge, "Voices of Reason vs. the Doomsday Lobby," peaceworker. org, April 29, 2016.
[3] Eyal Press, "Will a New Book Change How We Think About Poverty?" The Nation, April 25/May 2, 2016.
[4] Tom O'Connell, "With Med Pot Legal, why Buy in the Street?" ABQ Free Press, April 6-19, 2016.
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