Restaurant Workers and Sexual Harassment
"When the federal government began creating job protections during the New Deal era, Congress explicitly excluded jobs associated with women and black people: domestic and farm work." [1]
Fifty-two percent of female restaurant workers report sexual harassment on the job, according to the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United. The ROC United survey fond that restaurant workers who depend on tips and live in states that exempt tipped workers from standard minimum-wage rules are far more likely to report sexual harassment. Women workers in those states are also three times as likely to report being asked by management to make their outfits sexier.
There are as many people in food services alone (roughly 12 million) as there are in all forms of manufacturing. [2]
Addicted While Pregnant
"In Pennsylvania overall, the number of pregnant women hospitalized for substance abuse has more than doubled from 2000 to 2015; in 2015, 4,600 pregnant women were hospitalized because of a drug problem." "The last thing anyone should want to do is deter pregnant women from seeking medical care or drug treatment. But criminalizing their drug use will cause addicted women to stay away from the very people who can help them, lest they end up under arrest. That doesn't help anyone." [3]
Seven states already have statutes criminalizing self-induced abortions, and another 18 have laws on the books that can be used to prosecute women who terminate their own pregnancies. "Drug dependency is a medical condition -- not a crime. Pregnant women do not experience drug dependency because they want to harm their fetuses or because they don't care about their children."
The National Association for Pregnant Women adds that: "There is also a general lack of available substance use disorder in Pennsylvania, especially in Butler County and especially for pregnant women."
Crosshairs of Police Violence
"Over the course of the past three years, the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired protests across the country against police violence." "In each city, SWAT teams equipped with tea gas, armored vehicles and rifles patrolled the streets, and protesters were subject to mass arrests and police brutality. In Ferguson, 10 days of protesting led to 150 arrests -- 80 percent of them for 'failure to disperse.' Nearly 200 protesters were arrested in Baton Rouge." [4]
It was in 1997 that the Department of Defense began to supply surplus military equipment to police departments across the country. A 2014 report by the ACLU found that 42 percent of those visited by SWAT teams to execute a search warrant were black, and another 12 percent were Latinos. In other words, more than half were people of color.
According to a 2009 study, 9.1 percent of black Americans experienced post-traumatic disorder, compared with 6.8 percent of white Americans. The American Heart Association has found that nearly 43 percent of black American adults have high blood pressure, compared with just over 33 percent of white non-Hispanic adults. Today, black men are six times more likely to be incarcerated than white men, and black women more than twice as likely as white women. Black men are three times more likely than white men to die at the hands of law enforcement. [5]
Footnotes
[1] Kai Wright, "Safety in Numbers," The Nation, November 20/27, 2017.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Katha Pollitt, "Addicted While Pregnant," The Nation, December 18/25, 2017.
[4] Collier Meyerson, "When Protesting Police Violence Puts You in the Crosshairs," The Nation, December 18/25, 2017.
[5] Ibid.
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Playing the Numbers Game
50% - Amount of produce thrown away in the U.S. every year.
8% - Greenhouse emissions accounted for by global food waste --more than the output of the entire European Union.
$1,600 - Amount the average family of four in the U.S. spends each year on food they end up throwing out.
$940B - Estimated annual cost of food waste globally. (Source: The Nation, October 30, 2017.)
50 - Average daily number of workers nationwide who are sexually assaulted on the job, according to the Department of Justice.
80% - Proportion of women farm workers in California's Central Valley who experienced sexual harassment on the job, according to a 2010 survey.
14,900 - Estimated number of sexual assaults in the military in 2016, according to the Pentagon; only 6,172 of these assaults were reported. (Source: The Nation, November 13, 2017.)
32% - Number of college men who said they would "force a woman into sexual intercourse" if they were assured there would be no consequences.
60% - Number of rapes and sexual assaults against inmates that are committed by prison staff.
200K - Number of untested rape kits across the country.
19K - Number of rape kits that remain untested in Texas -- among the highest in the country. (Source: The Nation, November 20/27, 2017.)
400 - Average number of plastic bags used each year by a person living in California before the state voted in 2016 to ban single-use bags.
8M - Tons of plastic that enter the ocean each year; 60 to 80 percent of all marine litter is plastic.
2050 - Year when there will be more plastic than fish in the earth's oceans, if current trends continue.
85% - Amount by which plastic-bag use has decreased in England after it required all stores to levy a 5-pence-per-bag charge starting in 2015. (Source: The Nation, December 18/25, 2017.)
$68.1 billion - The cost this year of the mortgage-interest deduction.
72.6% - Benefits going to the richest one-fifth.
1.2% - Benefits going to the poorest two-fifths.
1 in 4 - families who qualify for rental assistance actually receive it. (Source: The Nation, December 18/25, 2017.)
ADDENDUMS:
*The ridiculously low minimum wage is the reason that the restaurant industry, with 14 million workers, remains the lowest-paying sector of the U.S. economy despite being one of the fastest-growing. Moreover, more than two-thirds of tipped workers are women. (Source: Saru Jayaraman, "The Other NRA," The Nation, November 13, 2017.)
*A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that only 20 of the 700 proposals introduced in Congress since 1999 have come up for a vote.
*A Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows that 60% will blame the Trump administration and congressional Republicans for future problems with the Affordable Care Act. 73% of Republicans would blame the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.
*The World Inequality Lab has found that from 1980 to 2014 in the U.S., the post-tax growth of income percentile was 4% for the bottom 4%; 40% for the middle; 113% for the top 10%; 194% for the top 1%; 423% for the top 0.01%; and 616% for the top 0.001%.
8% - Greenhouse emissions accounted for by global food waste --more than the output of the entire European Union.
$1,600 - Amount the average family of four in the U.S. spends each year on food they end up throwing out.
$940B - Estimated annual cost of food waste globally. (Source: The Nation, October 30, 2017.)
50 - Average daily number of workers nationwide who are sexually assaulted on the job, according to the Department of Justice.
80% - Proportion of women farm workers in California's Central Valley who experienced sexual harassment on the job, according to a 2010 survey.
14,900 - Estimated number of sexual assaults in the military in 2016, according to the Pentagon; only 6,172 of these assaults were reported. (Source: The Nation, November 13, 2017.)
32% - Number of college men who said they would "force a woman into sexual intercourse" if they were assured there would be no consequences.
60% - Number of rapes and sexual assaults against inmates that are committed by prison staff.
200K - Number of untested rape kits across the country.
19K - Number of rape kits that remain untested in Texas -- among the highest in the country. (Source: The Nation, November 20/27, 2017.)
400 - Average number of plastic bags used each year by a person living in California before the state voted in 2016 to ban single-use bags.
8M - Tons of plastic that enter the ocean each year; 60 to 80 percent of all marine litter is plastic.
2050 - Year when there will be more plastic than fish in the earth's oceans, if current trends continue.
85% - Amount by which plastic-bag use has decreased in England after it required all stores to levy a 5-pence-per-bag charge starting in 2015. (Source: The Nation, December 18/25, 2017.)
$68.1 billion - The cost this year of the mortgage-interest deduction.
72.6% - Benefits going to the richest one-fifth.
1.2% - Benefits going to the poorest two-fifths.
1 in 4 - families who qualify for rental assistance actually receive it. (Source: The Nation, December 18/25, 2017.)
ADDENDUMS:
*The ridiculously low minimum wage is the reason that the restaurant industry, with 14 million workers, remains the lowest-paying sector of the U.S. economy despite being one of the fastest-growing. Moreover, more than two-thirds of tipped workers are women. (Source: Saru Jayaraman, "The Other NRA," The Nation, November 13, 2017.)
*A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that only 20 of the 700 proposals introduced in Congress since 1999 have come up for a vote.
*A Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows that 60% will blame the Trump administration and congressional Republicans for future problems with the Affordable Care Act. 73% of Republicans would blame the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.
*The World Inequality Lab has found that from 1980 to 2014 in the U.S., the post-tax growth of income percentile was 4% for the bottom 4%; 40% for the middle; 113% for the top 10%; 194% for the top 1%; 423% for the top 0.01%; and 616% for the top 0.001%.
Monday, December 25, 2017
Trump's Handling of Tax Bill Much Less Than "Exquisite"
House Speaker Paul Ryan's description of President Trump's handling of the GOP tax bill as "exquisite" strips that word of any realistic meaning. Trump has repeatedly called the tax plan "the biggest in history;" however, as measured by percentage of GDP it is eighth. He had until recently called the plan "a middle-class tax cut," while most of the benefits go to wealthy individuals and profitable corporations. He has claimed that workers will have an annual income increase of anywhere from $4,000 to $9,000. This latter claim came from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, citing an economist who recently said he had calculated an increase of a more pedestrian $800. Perhaps Trump's most ludicrous claim is that he says that the tax plan -- labeled the Tax and Jobs Act of 2017 -- "will cost me a fortune." Some media sources have demurred from the task of estimating how much benefit will accrue to Trump, because he has not released his tax returns; others, however, including Democratic lawmakers, have gone back to this released 2005 federal income tax form and calculated an annual windfall of $11 million. This windfall is predicated primarily on the reduction of the top marginal tax rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent and the increase in the income exempted from the alternative minimum tax (ATM). Trump will also benefit from the more generous treatment of business income. Trump's heirs will be enriched by the doubling of the monetary worth of inherited assets that can be exempted from taxation.
In addition to the exaggerated claims and outright lies that President Trump has issued about the tax plan before its enactment, he has made two very damaging statements and one of lesser significance since the enactment of the Tax and Jobs Act of 2017. He has called the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent the "most important factor" in the new law, thereby seriously damaging the prevailing GOP claim that it is a middle-class tax cut. He has also said that Obamacare has been repealed in the new law. What the new tax plan has eliminated is the individual mandate: All other provisions of Obamacare -- the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- have been retained. By saying the ACA is dead, Trump has shifted to the Republican Party the responsibility for the millions who will become uninsured; and the premium increases that will result from the millions of healthy people, mostly young, who will decide to not purchase health insurance until they are hit by a bus, are seriously injured in a vehicle accident, or are diagnosed as having an expensive-to-treat medical condition.
The less significant but still damaging statement Trump has made is to downgrade the need to advertise the benefits of the new taxation structure. He thinks the tax cuts will sell themselves as people see less money being withheld from their checks for their work. To the extent that the GOP and their financial backers restrict their advertising to appease their leader, the less effective they might be to reverse current strong public opposition, assuming that to even be possible.
Democratic pollster Nick Gousevitch says the GOP can't win with a "tax cuts for everybody" argument, when they get a small cut and people who are already rich get huge cuts. Polling consistently shows that strong majorities favor taxing wealthy people and profitable corporations more if more revenue is needed to operate government.
Historically, political parties and their leaders have not benefited from prior major tax cuts. The Republican Party lost seats in Congress after major tax cuts in the 1980s. Barack Obama did not politically benefit from the fact that workers saw nearly a $700 increase in annual pay for a reduction in the FICA tax that finances Social Security. For the Bush II tax cuts in the early 1980s, the percentage who thought the rich benefited the most went from 55 percent in April 2001 to 60 percent in October 2004.
The Democratic Party will be spending heavily in 2018 to show how the new tax law is heavily skewed toward the wealthy; also, we should expect to see photos of GOP lawmakers up for reelection enthusiastically cheering for their party leader. A progressive group plans to double its media spending to $10 million for 2018 to defeat GOP supporters of the tax legislation.
I also will predict that the hastily approved roughly 1,000-page bill will be found to have many errors that will raise problems with its enactment. Claims of tax simplification, reform and being able to file one's return on a postcard have been superseded by a new tax structure with many new complexities added.
In addition to the exaggerated claims and outright lies that President Trump has issued about the tax plan before its enactment, he has made two very damaging statements and one of lesser significance since the enactment of the Tax and Jobs Act of 2017. He has called the reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35 to 21 percent the "most important factor" in the new law, thereby seriously damaging the prevailing GOP claim that it is a middle-class tax cut. He has also said that Obamacare has been repealed in the new law. What the new tax plan has eliminated is the individual mandate: All other provisions of Obamacare -- the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- have been retained. By saying the ACA is dead, Trump has shifted to the Republican Party the responsibility for the millions who will become uninsured; and the premium increases that will result from the millions of healthy people, mostly young, who will decide to not purchase health insurance until they are hit by a bus, are seriously injured in a vehicle accident, or are diagnosed as having an expensive-to-treat medical condition.
The less significant but still damaging statement Trump has made is to downgrade the need to advertise the benefits of the new taxation structure. He thinks the tax cuts will sell themselves as people see less money being withheld from their checks for their work. To the extent that the GOP and their financial backers restrict their advertising to appease their leader, the less effective they might be to reverse current strong public opposition, assuming that to even be possible.
Democratic pollster Nick Gousevitch says the GOP can't win with a "tax cuts for everybody" argument, when they get a small cut and people who are already rich get huge cuts. Polling consistently shows that strong majorities favor taxing wealthy people and profitable corporations more if more revenue is needed to operate government.
Historically, political parties and their leaders have not benefited from prior major tax cuts. The Republican Party lost seats in Congress after major tax cuts in the 1980s. Barack Obama did not politically benefit from the fact that workers saw nearly a $700 increase in annual pay for a reduction in the FICA tax that finances Social Security. For the Bush II tax cuts in the early 1980s, the percentage who thought the rich benefited the most went from 55 percent in April 2001 to 60 percent in October 2004.
The Democratic Party will be spending heavily in 2018 to show how the new tax law is heavily skewed toward the wealthy; also, we should expect to see photos of GOP lawmakers up for reelection enthusiastically cheering for their party leader. A progressive group plans to double its media spending to $10 million for 2018 to defeat GOP supporters of the tax legislation.
I also will predict that the hastily approved roughly 1,000-page bill will be found to have many errors that will raise problems with its enactment. Claims of tax simplification, reform and being able to file one's return on a postcard have been superseded by a new tax structure with many new complexities added.
Trump's Denigration of African Americans
African Americans Are Special Target of Trump's Ire
President Trump called Rep. Fredericka Wilson (D-FL) "wacky" in a tweet. He accused the three African American women listening in on a condolence call of lying. He asked a reporter named April if she could set up a meeting with the Black Caucus, likely thinking that since she was black, she would have a special link to the group. Then there was the black reporter with ESPN, who called Trump a white supremist, and both Trump and press secretary Sanders called for her firing. When Trump urged pro football owners to fire protesting players, it is notable that most of the those protesting have been African Americans. And now, the aforementioned April has not been invited to the White House Christmas party, even though she is part of the White House press corps.
Electing Outsiders
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said:"The American people voted to elect an outsider who is capable of implementing real, positive, and needed change -- instead of a lifelong politician beholden to special interests." "If they were interested in continuing decades of costly mistakes, another establishment politician more concerned with putting politics over people would have won." A White House source slammed the Bush II and Obama legacies: "If one presidential candidate can dissemble a political party, it speaks volumes about how strong a legacy its past two presidents really had."
George H.W. Bush has fired back by calling Trump a "blowhard" and his son, George W., has said that Trump "doesn't know what it means to be president." Former House Speaker John Boehner has declared that Trump is "not a Republican."
Gun Deaths Rise
The Associated Press reports that roughly two/thirds of gun deaths are suicides and those have been increasing for about ten years. The firearms death rate rose to 12 deaths per 100,000 people last year, up from 11 per 100,000 in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, the same source reports more than 38,000 gun deaths last year, up from about 36,000 in 2015 and about 33,500 each year between 2011 and 2014.
Accidents kill a youngster under age 18 on an average of every other day, based on a joint study by the Associated Press and USA Today. The study went deeper than prior studies. Deaths and injuries have spiked for those under age 5. Nearly ninety 3-year-olds were killed or injured in shootings, the vast majority self-inflicted. The death rate spikes again for ages 15-17, when victims are most often fatally shot by other children.
Republican lawmakers and their leader in the White House seem to be determined to protect the rights of violent offenders, domestic abusers, and unstable miscreants to own whatever guns they want. They are also blocking regulation of the "bump stock" accessories. In February, President Trump signed a bill rolling back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with a mental illness to purchase a gun.
Environmental Nominee Has Some Quaint Views
Kathleen Hartnett White is President Trump's nominee to be the head of the Council on Environmental Quality, and she believes carbon dioxide is harmless "plant food"; equates belief in climate change to "paganism"; and calls solar and wind power "unreliable and parasitic."
She has said that coal use in the 1800s actually ended slavery in the United States, because "fossil fuels dissolved the economic justification for slavery." When in her confirmation hearing, Sen. Jeff Markley (D-OR) asked her if she believed carbon dioxide levels have increased dramatically, White answered "no."
Evangelicals Warm to Moore
A JMC analytics poll found that 37 percent of evangelicals surveyed said the allegations of sexual abuse against Roy Moore make them more likely to vote for him, and 28 percent said it makes them less likely. 34 percent said it makes no difference. In all, including those who are evangelicals and those not, 29 percent said it would make them more likely and 38 percent said it would make them less likely. The poll was conducted November 9-11.
ADDENDUM:
*The Economic Policy Institute has calculated that approximately 1.8 million veterans -- or one in five -- would get a raise if Congress raised the minimum wage to $15 by 2024. Nearly two/thirds are age 40 or older.
President Trump called Rep. Fredericka Wilson (D-FL) "wacky" in a tweet. He accused the three African American women listening in on a condolence call of lying. He asked a reporter named April if she could set up a meeting with the Black Caucus, likely thinking that since she was black, she would have a special link to the group. Then there was the black reporter with ESPN, who called Trump a white supremist, and both Trump and press secretary Sanders called for her firing. When Trump urged pro football owners to fire protesting players, it is notable that most of the those protesting have been African Americans. And now, the aforementioned April has not been invited to the White House Christmas party, even though she is part of the White House press corps.
Electing Outsiders
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said:"The American people voted to elect an outsider who is capable of implementing real, positive, and needed change -- instead of a lifelong politician beholden to special interests." "If they were interested in continuing decades of costly mistakes, another establishment politician more concerned with putting politics over people would have won." A White House source slammed the Bush II and Obama legacies: "If one presidential candidate can dissemble a political party, it speaks volumes about how strong a legacy its past two presidents really had."
George H.W. Bush has fired back by calling Trump a "blowhard" and his son, George W., has said that Trump "doesn't know what it means to be president." Former House Speaker John Boehner has declared that Trump is "not a Republican."
Gun Deaths Rise
The Associated Press reports that roughly two/thirds of gun deaths are suicides and those have been increasing for about ten years. The firearms death rate rose to 12 deaths per 100,000 people last year, up from 11 per 100,000 in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, the same source reports more than 38,000 gun deaths last year, up from about 36,000 in 2015 and about 33,500 each year between 2011 and 2014.
Accidents kill a youngster under age 18 on an average of every other day, based on a joint study by the Associated Press and USA Today. The study went deeper than prior studies. Deaths and injuries have spiked for those under age 5. Nearly ninety 3-year-olds were killed or injured in shootings, the vast majority self-inflicted. The death rate spikes again for ages 15-17, when victims are most often fatally shot by other children.
Republican lawmakers and their leader in the White House seem to be determined to protect the rights of violent offenders, domestic abusers, and unstable miscreants to own whatever guns they want. They are also blocking regulation of the "bump stock" accessories. In February, President Trump signed a bill rolling back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with a mental illness to purchase a gun.
Environmental Nominee Has Some Quaint Views
Kathleen Hartnett White is President Trump's nominee to be the head of the Council on Environmental Quality, and she believes carbon dioxide is harmless "plant food"; equates belief in climate change to "paganism"; and calls solar and wind power "unreliable and parasitic."
She has said that coal use in the 1800s actually ended slavery in the United States, because "fossil fuels dissolved the economic justification for slavery." When in her confirmation hearing, Sen. Jeff Markley (D-OR) asked her if she believed carbon dioxide levels have increased dramatically, White answered "no."
Evangelicals Warm to Moore
A JMC analytics poll found that 37 percent of evangelicals surveyed said the allegations of sexual abuse against Roy Moore make them more likely to vote for him, and 28 percent said it makes them less likely. 34 percent said it makes no difference. In all, including those who are evangelicals and those not, 29 percent said it would make them more likely and 38 percent said it would make them less likely. The poll was conducted November 9-11.
ADDENDUM:
*The Economic Policy Institute has calculated that approximately 1.8 million veterans -- or one in five -- would get a raise if Congress raised the minimum wage to $15 by 2024. Nearly two/thirds are age 40 or older.
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
Highlighting Wisconsin's Voter Suppression
Three years after the state of Wisconsin passed its voter ID law, U.S. District Judge James Peterson blocked it, noting that 9 percent of all registered voters did not have the required forms of IDs. Black voters were about 50 percent likelier than whites to lack these required IDs. Judge Peterson found that 85 percent of those denied IDs by the Department of Motor Vehicles were black or Latino. After the November 2016 election, 11 percent of those surveyed in Milwaukee County and Dane County on why they didn't cast a ballot "cited the voter ID law and said they didn't have an acceptable ID;" of those, more than half said the law was the "main reason" they didn't vote. Hillary Clinton carried the city of Milwaukee by 77 to 18 percent; however, she was greatly hurt by the fact that almost 41,000 fewer people voted in 2016 than in 2012. [1]
An analysis by Media Matters for America found that only 8.9 percent of TV news segments on voting rights from July 2016 to June 2017 "discussed the impact voter suppression laws had on the 2016 election, while more than 70 percent were about Trump's false claims of voter fraud and noncitizen voting."
There have been a number of studies made of the effects of voter suppression actions. A post-November 2016 election study by Priorities USA found that turnout decreased by 1.3% in the three states that adopted stricter voting laws but increased by 1.3% in states where state ID laws did not change. Wisconsin's turnout dropped 3.3% -- an estimated 200,000 fewer voters. The Government Accountability Office found that stricter ID laws in Kansas and Tennessee had decreased turnout by roughly 2 to 3%, with the largest drops among black, young and new voters. According to a comprehensive study by MIT political scientist Charles Stewart, an estimated 16 million people -- 12 percent of all voters -- encountered at least one problem voting in November 2016. Researchers estimate that nationwide, there were more than one million lost votes in the November 2016 election, because of things like strict ID laws, long lines at polls, and difficulty registering. Trump won the electoral college vote by 78,000 combined votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. [2]
Turning again to Wisconsin: "The voter ID law was one of the 33 election changes passed in Wisconsin after [Scott] Walker took office, and it dovetailed with his signature push to dismantle unions, taking away his opponents' most effective organizing tool." [3]
Footnotes
[1] Ari Berman, "Rigged," Mother Jones, November/December 2017.
[2] Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffrey, "Less hot air, more sunlight," Mother Jones, November/December 2017.
[3] Berman.
An analysis by Media Matters for America found that only 8.9 percent of TV news segments on voting rights from July 2016 to June 2017 "discussed the impact voter suppression laws had on the 2016 election, while more than 70 percent were about Trump's false claims of voter fraud and noncitizen voting."
There have been a number of studies made of the effects of voter suppression actions. A post-November 2016 election study by Priorities USA found that turnout decreased by 1.3% in the three states that adopted stricter voting laws but increased by 1.3% in states where state ID laws did not change. Wisconsin's turnout dropped 3.3% -- an estimated 200,000 fewer voters. The Government Accountability Office found that stricter ID laws in Kansas and Tennessee had decreased turnout by roughly 2 to 3%, with the largest drops among black, young and new voters. According to a comprehensive study by MIT political scientist Charles Stewart, an estimated 16 million people -- 12 percent of all voters -- encountered at least one problem voting in November 2016. Researchers estimate that nationwide, there were more than one million lost votes in the November 2016 election, because of things like strict ID laws, long lines at polls, and difficulty registering. Trump won the electoral college vote by 78,000 combined votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. [2]
Turning again to Wisconsin: "The voter ID law was one of the 33 election changes passed in Wisconsin after [Scott] Walker took office, and it dovetailed with his signature push to dismantle unions, taking away his opponents' most effective organizing tool." [3]
Footnotes
[1] Ari Berman, "Rigged," Mother Jones, November/December 2017.
[2] Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffrey, "Less hot air, more sunlight," Mother Jones, November/December 2017.
[3] Berman.
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Trump's Sexual Abuse Twists Supporters Into Pretzels
Sexual Abuse Pretzel Twisting
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said, in essence, that it is better to support a sexual abuser who denies his molestation than to support one who admits his sexual abuse, apologizes for it, and in the case of Sen. Al Franken, even welcomes a Senate ethics investigation. Franken's unwelcome sexual advance pales in comparison to the allegations made against Donald Trump and aspiring U.S. senator Roy Moore. The allegations made against Roy Moore now involve nine women and one is a claim that Moore sexually violated a 14-year-old. The allegations against Moore are buttressed by a signed yearbook -- under some dispute as to authenticity -- and the statements made by two policemen who patrolled the mall, and two workers inside the mall, that Moore was known for cruising the mall to try to pick up teenage girls.
The number of women who have accused Donald Trump of unwelcome sexual advances varying in severity, varies in media accounts; however, MSNBC has put up 15 pictures and names, and has even posted portions of their statements -- I'm not sure if that number includes the 13-year-old who has accused Trump of rape, but has withdrawn her criminal complaint due to claimed death threats. It also may not include the woman who is currently suing Trump for his behavior toward her on "The Apprentice" show. She is asking for an apology only, not money. Nonetheless, Trump has said all these women are liars, as are the five people who they told their stories to at the times of the incidents. If we include the three African American women who disputed Trump's account of the condolence call in the death of Sgt. La David Johnson, that makes 23 people who are liars and Trump the only truth-teller. During the campaign, Donald Trump promised he would shortly produce the proof that the women were lying, and later said he would also sue them. Neither promise has been fulfilled.
Sen. Franken's self-accepted improper sexual behavior consists of one woman's description of him putting his tongue in her mouth and the picture of Franken with his hands cupped over the same woman's covered breasts. Strengthening the case that this is a planned skit at a USO shoe in 2006 is the fact that Franken is smiling at the camera, and to the left of the woman is a man also sitting in a chair with his eyes closed. Nonetheless, Franken has accepted his behavior as very improper and has apologized, both publicly and in a letter.
What spokesperson Sanders is saying is that if you admit to no wrongdoing, no wrongdoing was done. President Trump has said that if the women are telling the truth about Roy Moore, he will weigh in with a further statement about his position on Moore. Another White House spokesperson has said that since Trump is not campaigning for Moore, that indicates his disapproval. Trying to read tea leaves about Trump doesn't cut the cake. What is needed is whether or not Trump believes that Roy Moore should exit the campaign.
What has been revealed in this whole Roy Moore matter is how far the Republicans have departed from Sen. John McCain's "regular order." They refused to even have a hearing on President Obama's nominee for a Supreme Court justice; they tried to ram through ACA repeal and replace with virtually no committee hearings in either the Senate or the House; they amended their repeal and replace bill in the White House with only Trump and two lawmakers present; and they are now trying to ram through a major tax cut bill with as little consideration as possible.
In regard to Roy Moore, the GOP has: 1. Tried to have the Alabama governor change the date of the special election; 2. Do a write-in campaign with either Luther Strange or Jeff Sessions; and 3. Have Sen. Luther Strange resign now and do a special election to pick a successor. Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt has even suggested just cancelling the election in Alabama. It is an open question if the U.S. governmental structure can survive the many norms for it that the GOP is trying to destroy.
Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said, in essence, that it is better to support a sexual abuser who denies his molestation than to support one who admits his sexual abuse, apologizes for it, and in the case of Sen. Al Franken, even welcomes a Senate ethics investigation. Franken's unwelcome sexual advance pales in comparison to the allegations made against Donald Trump and aspiring U.S. senator Roy Moore. The allegations made against Roy Moore now involve nine women and one is a claim that Moore sexually violated a 14-year-old. The allegations against Moore are buttressed by a signed yearbook -- under some dispute as to authenticity -- and the statements made by two policemen who patrolled the mall, and two workers inside the mall, that Moore was known for cruising the mall to try to pick up teenage girls.
The number of women who have accused Donald Trump of unwelcome sexual advances varying in severity, varies in media accounts; however, MSNBC has put up 15 pictures and names, and has even posted portions of their statements -- I'm not sure if that number includes the 13-year-old who has accused Trump of rape, but has withdrawn her criminal complaint due to claimed death threats. It also may not include the woman who is currently suing Trump for his behavior toward her on "The Apprentice" show. She is asking for an apology only, not money. Nonetheless, Trump has said all these women are liars, as are the five people who they told their stories to at the times of the incidents. If we include the three African American women who disputed Trump's account of the condolence call in the death of Sgt. La David Johnson, that makes 23 people who are liars and Trump the only truth-teller. During the campaign, Donald Trump promised he would shortly produce the proof that the women were lying, and later said he would also sue them. Neither promise has been fulfilled.
Sen. Franken's self-accepted improper sexual behavior consists of one woman's description of him putting his tongue in her mouth and the picture of Franken with his hands cupped over the same woman's covered breasts. Strengthening the case that this is a planned skit at a USO shoe in 2006 is the fact that Franken is smiling at the camera, and to the left of the woman is a man also sitting in a chair with his eyes closed. Nonetheless, Franken has accepted his behavior as very improper and has apologized, both publicly and in a letter.
What spokesperson Sanders is saying is that if you admit to no wrongdoing, no wrongdoing was done. President Trump has said that if the women are telling the truth about Roy Moore, he will weigh in with a further statement about his position on Moore. Another White House spokesperson has said that since Trump is not campaigning for Moore, that indicates his disapproval. Trying to read tea leaves about Trump doesn't cut the cake. What is needed is whether or not Trump believes that Roy Moore should exit the campaign.
What has been revealed in this whole Roy Moore matter is how far the Republicans have departed from Sen. John McCain's "regular order." They refused to even have a hearing on President Obama's nominee for a Supreme Court justice; they tried to ram through ACA repeal and replace with virtually no committee hearings in either the Senate or the House; they amended their repeal and replace bill in the White House with only Trump and two lawmakers present; and they are now trying to ram through a major tax cut bill with as little consideration as possible.
In regard to Roy Moore, the GOP has: 1. Tried to have the Alabama governor change the date of the special election; 2. Do a write-in campaign with either Luther Strange or Jeff Sessions; and 3. Have Sen. Luther Strange resign now and do a special election to pick a successor. Conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt has even suggested just cancelling the election in Alabama. It is an open question if the U.S. governmental structure can survive the many norms for it that the GOP is trying to destroy.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
President Trump's Lonely Position on Iranian Deal
Trump's Lonely Position on Iranian Nuclear Deal
President Trump's decision to decertify the Iranian nuclear deal after certifying it twice before makes no sense, since nothing material has changed since he last certified it. He has provided no evidence as to why Iranian compliance has suddenly ended. Internationally, China, France, Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom -- the countries that signed the deal, along with the United States -- have not found Iranian noncompliance. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which monitors the deal, over 80 nuclear policy experts, and the European Union, which had a representative in the negotiations to achieve the deal, are all agreed that Iran is in compliance. Even in the United States, opponents of decertification include Secretary of Defense James Mattis, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command, and Rep. Ed Royce, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Daniel Coats, Director of National Intelligence, stated in the May 2017 Worldwide Threat Assessment, that the JCPOA has "enhanced the transparency of Iran's nuclear activities" and "extended the amount of time Iran would need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon from a few months to about a year."
The IAEA has certified that Iran has eliminated 98 percent of its enriched uranium, 2/3s of its centrifuges -- 13,000 dismantled -- and poured concrete into the core of its Arak reactor. Iran has also shipped out more than 11 tons of low-enriched uranium. Moreover, it has kept its commitment to enrich uranium up to only 3.67 percent.
If the United States were to completely withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, it would not only encourage the worst elements in Iranian politics; it would also undermine U.S. relations with Russia, China, and European countries just when their cooperation is needed to pressure North Korea. As for Kim Jong-un, if he believes that the U.S. is rash enough to initiate a first strike, he may accelerate his missile and nuclear-bomb tests and deployments.
We should not give up on the possibility that nuclear weapons can be eliminated from the face of the earth, as not only have 122 nations signed a resolution to eliminate all nukes, but since the fall of the Berlin wall, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine, Kazakistan and Belarus have voluntarily given up their nuclear weapons or abandoned advanced programs.
GOP Wants Hillary Clinton's Scalp on Uranium Sale
As is almost certainly a ploy to shift attention away from the investigation of the Trump presidential campaign's collusion or conspiracy with Russia to torpedo Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, the GOP has belatedly launched a campaign to criminally implicate her in the sale by Uranium One of uranium to Rosaton, Russia's nuclear energy agency. The sale was approved by nine government agencies and signed by President Obama. Hillary had no direct role in approving the sale.
The sale is, of course, meant to convey an impression that the U.S. made a major contribution to Russia's nuclear weapons program. The uranium mine owned by Uranium One represents only 2.3 percent of all U.S. production; also, the 1,126 tons produced by the United States represents a small part of the world's 62,266 tons of uranium.
President Trump's decision to decertify the Iranian nuclear deal after certifying it twice before makes no sense, since nothing material has changed since he last certified it. He has provided no evidence as to why Iranian compliance has suddenly ended. Internationally, China, France, Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom -- the countries that signed the deal, along with the United States -- have not found Iranian noncompliance. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which monitors the deal, over 80 nuclear policy experts, and the European Union, which had a representative in the negotiations to achieve the deal, are all agreed that Iran is in compliance. Even in the United States, opponents of decertification include Secretary of Defense James Mattis, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command, and Rep. Ed Royce, the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Daniel Coats, Director of National Intelligence, stated in the May 2017 Worldwide Threat Assessment, that the JCPOA has "enhanced the transparency of Iran's nuclear activities" and "extended the amount of time Iran would need to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon from a few months to about a year."
The IAEA has certified that Iran has eliminated 98 percent of its enriched uranium, 2/3s of its centrifuges -- 13,000 dismantled -- and poured concrete into the core of its Arak reactor. Iran has also shipped out more than 11 tons of low-enriched uranium. Moreover, it has kept its commitment to enrich uranium up to only 3.67 percent.
If the United States were to completely withdraw from the Iranian nuclear deal, it would not only encourage the worst elements in Iranian politics; it would also undermine U.S. relations with Russia, China, and European countries just when their cooperation is needed to pressure North Korea. As for Kim Jong-un, if he believes that the U.S. is rash enough to initiate a first strike, he may accelerate his missile and nuclear-bomb tests and deployments.
We should not give up on the possibility that nuclear weapons can be eliminated from the face of the earth, as not only have 122 nations signed a resolution to eliminate all nukes, but since the fall of the Berlin wall, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine, Kazakistan and Belarus have voluntarily given up their nuclear weapons or abandoned advanced programs.
GOP Wants Hillary Clinton's Scalp on Uranium Sale
As is almost certainly a ploy to shift attention away from the investigation of the Trump presidential campaign's collusion or conspiracy with Russia to torpedo Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, the GOP has belatedly launched a campaign to criminally implicate her in the sale by Uranium One of uranium to Rosaton, Russia's nuclear energy agency. The sale was approved by nine government agencies and signed by President Obama. Hillary had no direct role in approving the sale.
The sale is, of course, meant to convey an impression that the U.S. made a major contribution to Russia's nuclear weapons program. The uranium mine owned by Uranium One represents only 2.3 percent of all U.S. production; also, the 1,126 tons produced by the United States represents a small part of the world's 62,266 tons of uranium.
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Failing Morals, Escalated Airstrikes, and a Kids Drop Dead Approach
Failing Morals
With Harvard rescinding its fellowship for whistle-blower Chelsea Manning -- and with former Trump aides Sean Spicer and Corey Lewandowski starting theirs -- here's a brief who's who of the controversial former government officials now employed by elite universities:
Harold Koh returned to his professorship at Yale in 2013 after spending nearly four years as the legal adviser to the State Department, where he provided the rationale for President Obama's use of drone strikes and for U.S. support of anti-Gadhafi forces in the Libyan civil war.
John Brennan, former CIA director, became a distinguished fellow at Fordham University in 2017 after developing the U.S. government's targeted-killing program and supporting the torture policies of the George W. Bush era.
John Yoo went back to his professorship at UC Berkley after co-authoring the so-called torture memos, which sought to justify the Bush administration's use of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques.
John Negroponte continues as the Brady-Johnson Distinguished Practitioner in Grand Strategy at Yale, despite the fact that, as U.S. ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s, he coordinated support for the Nicaraguan death squads known as contras. (Source: The Nation, October 16, 2017.)
Air Strikes
The American airstrikes against ISIS in Libya in late December marked a milestone for Donald Trump in eight months as president: he has attacked all seven countries that Barack Obama had bombed over the previous eight years. Here's a look at how President Trump ramped up America's wars in 2017:
2,566 - Air strikes in Afghanistan are more than double the total in Obama's last two years.
7,817 - Air strikes in Syria are more than double the number in 2016.
105 - Air strikes in Yemen are two-thirds of the total from 2002 to 2016.
16 - Air strikes in Somalia are more than any previous year. (Source: The Nation, November 6, 2017.)
GOP to Poor Kids: Drop Dead
Now that Congress has missed the December 30 deadline to renew funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, kids across the country stand to lose coverage as states burn through their remaining money. CHIP, a 20-year-old program, currently provides health insurance to about 9 million children from low-and middle-income families.
The Senate bill to fix the problem has sailed through committee and is expected to pass. The House effort has hit a roadblock, since the Democrats want to extend CHIP but object to the GOP's attempt to fund the program by raising premiums on higher-income Medicare recipients and by siphoning money from the Affordable Care Act.
Earlier this year, a nonpartisan report estimated that unless Congress renews CHIP funding, three states and the District of Columbia will exhaust their funds by the end of 2017. Minnesota, which was projected to run out earliest, received $3.6 million in emergency funding while Congress hemmed and hawed; however, this infusion is only about 2 percent of the state's annual CHIP budget. Another 27 states will run out by March 2018, and every state but Wyoming will be dry by the end of June. The absence of federal funding will make it incumbent on individual states to figure out how to cover the needs of these children. (Source: The Nation, November 6, 2017.)
With Harvard rescinding its fellowship for whistle-blower Chelsea Manning -- and with former Trump aides Sean Spicer and Corey Lewandowski starting theirs -- here's a brief who's who of the controversial former government officials now employed by elite universities:
Harold Koh returned to his professorship at Yale in 2013 after spending nearly four years as the legal adviser to the State Department, where he provided the rationale for President Obama's use of drone strikes and for U.S. support of anti-Gadhafi forces in the Libyan civil war.
John Brennan, former CIA director, became a distinguished fellow at Fordham University in 2017 after developing the U.S. government's targeted-killing program and supporting the torture policies of the George W. Bush era.
John Yoo went back to his professorship at UC Berkley after co-authoring the so-called torture memos, which sought to justify the Bush administration's use of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques.
John Negroponte continues as the Brady-Johnson Distinguished Practitioner in Grand Strategy at Yale, despite the fact that, as U.S. ambassador to Honduras in the 1980s, he coordinated support for the Nicaraguan death squads known as contras. (Source: The Nation, October 16, 2017.)
Air Strikes
The American airstrikes against ISIS in Libya in late December marked a milestone for Donald Trump in eight months as president: he has attacked all seven countries that Barack Obama had bombed over the previous eight years. Here's a look at how President Trump ramped up America's wars in 2017:
2,566 - Air strikes in Afghanistan are more than double the total in Obama's last two years.
7,817 - Air strikes in Syria are more than double the number in 2016.
105 - Air strikes in Yemen are two-thirds of the total from 2002 to 2016.
16 - Air strikes in Somalia are more than any previous year. (Source: The Nation, November 6, 2017.)
GOP to Poor Kids: Drop Dead
Now that Congress has missed the December 30 deadline to renew funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program, kids across the country stand to lose coverage as states burn through their remaining money. CHIP, a 20-year-old program, currently provides health insurance to about 9 million children from low-and middle-income families.
The Senate bill to fix the problem has sailed through committee and is expected to pass. The House effort has hit a roadblock, since the Democrats want to extend CHIP but object to the GOP's attempt to fund the program by raising premiums on higher-income Medicare recipients and by siphoning money from the Affordable Care Act.
Earlier this year, a nonpartisan report estimated that unless Congress renews CHIP funding, three states and the District of Columbia will exhaust their funds by the end of 2017. Minnesota, which was projected to run out earliest, received $3.6 million in emergency funding while Congress hemmed and hawed; however, this infusion is only about 2 percent of the state's annual CHIP budget. Another 27 states will run out by March 2018, and every state but Wyoming will be dry by the end of June. The absence of federal funding will make it incumbent on individual states to figure out how to cover the needs of these children. (Source: The Nation, November 6, 2017.)
Monday, October 30, 2017
Deconstruction and Delay
#"President Donald Trump says the United States now aims for 'energy dominance' -- i.e., drilling for oil and gas offshore and on public lands, exporting more gas and coal, and boosting nuclear power.
#The EPA moves to repeal the Clean Water Rule, a.k.a. 'Waters of the U.S.,' which protects the drinking water for millions of Americans.
#EPA Administer Scott Pruitt denies a petition to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide manufactured by Dow Chemical Com;any that has been shown to harm children's brains, even in minute doses.
#After the EPA is sued by 15 states and numerous public health and environmental organizations (including the Sierra Club), Pruitt abruptly reverses his attempt to delay new rules, limiting atmospheric ozone, the main component of smog.
Polluter fines drop 60 percent from the amounts levied by the past three administrations at this point in their first year.
#The EPA has paid more than twice as much on a personal-security detail for Pruitt in his first three months as it did for his past two predecessors. Several EPA agents who have previously investigated and prosecuted environmental crimes have been reassigned to serve as Pruitt's bodyguards.
#Joel Clement, a climate scientist at the Interior Department, is reassigned to an accounting job, processing lease payments from oil companies.
#Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski votes not to proceed with a debate on repealing Obamacare. Afterward, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke calls for her and fellow senator Dan Sullivan, reportedly warning them that energy and development projects in Alaska might suffer as a result.
#The Department of Homeland Security waives environmental and other laws in order to start construction on President Trump's border wall. ]1]
Firearms Factoids
93 - Average number of Americans killed with guns every day.
50 - Women shot dead by an intimate partner in the U.S. in a typical month.
12M - Estimated number of AR-15 assault rifles in the U.S.
50% - Percentage of the world's guns owned by Americans, who make up 5 percent of the world's population.
$8B - Size of the U.S. firearms industry. [2]
The Thin White Line
"Police departments, along with correction departments and even the military, are being infiltrated by racist organizations. One Philadelphia cop, outed after a photo of his tattoos -- including a apparent Nazi 'Party Eagle' beneath the word 'Fatherland' -- showed up on social media." [3]
"However alarming the trend may be, it is not a recent one. Beginning in the Reconstruction era, white supremacists found a home in law enforcement, with many local police forces in the South run by officers affiliated or sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan." Recently, "at least three Florida police officers over a five-year period were found to have been involved with the Klan.
Across the country, police leaders have repeatedly failed to remove avowed racists from their ranks -- even after they have been exposed. When Philadelphia police refused to fire the cop with the Nazi tattoo, the department explained: 'As long as you'e not violating public trust, it's very difficult to police.' " [3]
Political Protest Worse Than Treason
In regard to National Football League players kneeling or raising a fist during the playing of the National Anthem, President Trump tweeted: "The NFL has all sorts of rules and regulations. The only way out for them is to set a rule that you can't kneel during our National Anthem!" To President Trump, keeling in sorrow -- at police brutality -- is both a sign of disrespect for the rules of the game and a desecration of the American flag.
"The first concern is that executive power is being used to interfere in contract relations between private parties. " "Trump's tweeted injunction, moreover, was deployed by a head of state against citizens whose political views he doesn't like." One "shouldn't have to give up basic civil rights in deference to a service or employment contract." [4]
President Trump has repeatedly equated "taking a knee" with desecration of the American flag. "Of course, the Supreme Court has ruled more than once that disrespecting or outright destroying the flag isn't a punishable offense -- and expatriation has been deemed 'cruel and unusual punishment' even for wartime desertion." [5]
Footnotes
[1] Paul Rauber, "Deconstruction and Delay," Sierra, November/December 2017.
[2] Sarah Aziza, "DC By the Numbers," The Nation, October 23, 2017.
[3] Elizabeth Adetibe, "The Thin White Line," The Nation, October 23, 2017.
[4] Patricia J.Williams, "Citizenship on Its Knees," The Nation, October 23, 2017.
[5] Ibid.
#The EPA moves to repeal the Clean Water Rule, a.k.a. 'Waters of the U.S.,' which protects the drinking water for millions of Americans.
#EPA Administer Scott Pruitt denies a petition to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide manufactured by Dow Chemical Com;any that has been shown to harm children's brains, even in minute doses.
#After the EPA is sued by 15 states and numerous public health and environmental organizations (including the Sierra Club), Pruitt abruptly reverses his attempt to delay new rules, limiting atmospheric ozone, the main component of smog.
Polluter fines drop 60 percent from the amounts levied by the past three administrations at this point in their first year.
#The EPA has paid more than twice as much on a personal-security detail for Pruitt in his first three months as it did for his past two predecessors. Several EPA agents who have previously investigated and prosecuted environmental crimes have been reassigned to serve as Pruitt's bodyguards.
#Joel Clement, a climate scientist at the Interior Department, is reassigned to an accounting job, processing lease payments from oil companies.
#Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski votes not to proceed with a debate on repealing Obamacare. Afterward, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke calls for her and fellow senator Dan Sullivan, reportedly warning them that energy and development projects in Alaska might suffer as a result.
#The Department of Homeland Security waives environmental and other laws in order to start construction on President Trump's border wall. ]1]
Firearms Factoids
93 - Average number of Americans killed with guns every day.
50 - Women shot dead by an intimate partner in the U.S. in a typical month.
12M - Estimated number of AR-15 assault rifles in the U.S.
50% - Percentage of the world's guns owned by Americans, who make up 5 percent of the world's population.
$8B - Size of the U.S. firearms industry. [2]
The Thin White Line
"Police departments, along with correction departments and even the military, are being infiltrated by racist organizations. One Philadelphia cop, outed after a photo of his tattoos -- including a apparent Nazi 'Party Eagle' beneath the word 'Fatherland' -- showed up on social media." [3]
"However alarming the trend may be, it is not a recent one. Beginning in the Reconstruction era, white supremacists found a home in law enforcement, with many local police forces in the South run by officers affiliated or sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan." Recently, "at least three Florida police officers over a five-year period were found to have been involved with the Klan.
Across the country, police leaders have repeatedly failed to remove avowed racists from their ranks -- even after they have been exposed. When Philadelphia police refused to fire the cop with the Nazi tattoo, the department explained: 'As long as you'e not violating public trust, it's very difficult to police.' " [3]
Political Protest Worse Than Treason
In regard to National Football League players kneeling or raising a fist during the playing of the National Anthem, President Trump tweeted: "The NFL has all sorts of rules and regulations. The only way out for them is to set a rule that you can't kneel during our National Anthem!" To President Trump, keeling in sorrow -- at police brutality -- is both a sign of disrespect for the rules of the game and a desecration of the American flag.
"The first concern is that executive power is being used to interfere in contract relations between private parties. " "Trump's tweeted injunction, moreover, was deployed by a head of state against citizens whose political views he doesn't like." One "shouldn't have to give up basic civil rights in deference to a service or employment contract." [4]
President Trump has repeatedly equated "taking a knee" with desecration of the American flag. "Of course, the Supreme Court has ruled more than once that disrespecting or outright destroying the flag isn't a punishable offense -- and expatriation has been deemed 'cruel and unusual punishment' even for wartime desertion." [5]
Footnotes
[1] Paul Rauber, "Deconstruction and Delay," Sierra, November/December 2017.
[2] Sarah Aziza, "DC By the Numbers," The Nation, October 23, 2017.
[3] Elizabeth Adetibe, "The Thin White Line," The Nation, October 23, 2017.
[4] Patricia J.Williams, "Citizenship on Its Knees," The Nation, October 23, 2017.
[5] Ibid.
Sunday, October 8, 2017
A Roundup of Happenings of Some Note
*The Trump administration announced it is rolling back an Obamacare rule mandating employers to cover the costs of birth control for women. The new Trump rule includes "any employer, including colleges, universities and health insurance companies," freeing them of following the existing rule. Employers will not have to file anything with the government.
The Kaiser Family Foundation found that the number of women paying out of their pockets for birth control plummeted 21% to just 4% since the Obamacare rule went into effect. The Guttmacher Institute found that Obamacare reduced the unintended pregnancy rate roughly 10% in just three years. The abortion rate is at its lowest point since the procedure became legal nationwide in 1973.
*The Department of Homeland Security says more than 100,000 DACA recipients have applied to renew their work permits ahead of the deadline. The deadline was October 5. The City University of New York had a program to get as many of the renewals done as possible.
*The House Homeland Security Committee approved a border security bill that includes $10 billion for a border wall.
*As the ongoing battle over monuments to Confederate luminaries reveals, the dislodging of tribal symbols comes hard. As it is with the Dixie flag, so now it is with the gun and its accouterments.
*Michigan State Police director Kriste Kibbey Etue called African American athletes in the National Football league "Anti-American degenerates." She has apologized and will probably keep her job.
*U.S. House budget cuts Medicare by nearly $500 billion and Medicaid by up to $1.5 trillion; also, it raises the eligibility age for Medicare to 67.
*Trump October 5 tweet: "Why isn't the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up - FAKE!"
Trump October 6 tweet: "Ralph Northam, who is running for Governor of Virginia, is fighting for the violent MS-13 killer gangs & sanctuary cities. Vote Ed Gillespie!"
*Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump moved their personal accounts to computers run by the Trump Organization on either September 26th or 27th. The actions more closely intertwine the Trump administration with Trump's private businesses.
*The Office of Special Counsel has concluded that Nikki Haley violated the Hatch Act by retweeting one of Trump's campaign endorsements.It is the second time that a top Trump aide has run afoul of the Hatch Act. The repost supported Republican House candidate Ralph Norman.
*The Republican National Committee has paid out about $230,000 to Trump lawyers and nearly $200,000 to cover Donald Trump Jr.'s legal bills.
*CNN reported that Michigan and Wisconsin were specifically targeted in a number of Russia-linked Facebook ads. One quarter of the 3,000 Russian-bought ads were targeted to specific geographic locations.
*Mike Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers, blasted congressional leaders behind closed doors at an RNC event, held for wealthy donors. He wanted them to get behind Trump's legislative priorities. Thus far, Trump's legislative priorities have been so bad that he can't get them approved by a GOP-dominated Congress.
The Kaiser Family Foundation found that the number of women paying out of their pockets for birth control plummeted 21% to just 4% since the Obamacare rule went into effect. The Guttmacher Institute found that Obamacare reduced the unintended pregnancy rate roughly 10% in just three years. The abortion rate is at its lowest point since the procedure became legal nationwide in 1973.
*The Department of Homeland Security says more than 100,000 DACA recipients have applied to renew their work permits ahead of the deadline. The deadline was October 5. The City University of New York had a program to get as many of the renewals done as possible.
*The House Homeland Security Committee approved a border security bill that includes $10 billion for a border wall.
*As the ongoing battle over monuments to Confederate luminaries reveals, the dislodging of tribal symbols comes hard. As it is with the Dixie flag, so now it is with the gun and its accouterments.
*Michigan State Police director Kriste Kibbey Etue called African American athletes in the National Football league "Anti-American degenerates." She has apologized and will probably keep her job.
*U.S. House budget cuts Medicare by nearly $500 billion and Medicaid by up to $1.5 trillion; also, it raises the eligibility age for Medicare to 67.
*Trump October 5 tweet: "Why isn't the Senate Intel Committee looking into the Fake News Networks in OUR country to see why so much of our news is just made up - FAKE!"
Trump October 6 tweet: "Ralph Northam, who is running for Governor of Virginia, is fighting for the violent MS-13 killer gangs & sanctuary cities. Vote Ed Gillespie!"
*Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump moved their personal accounts to computers run by the Trump Organization on either September 26th or 27th. The actions more closely intertwine the Trump administration with Trump's private businesses.
*The Office of Special Counsel has concluded that Nikki Haley violated the Hatch Act by retweeting one of Trump's campaign endorsements.It is the second time that a top Trump aide has run afoul of the Hatch Act. The repost supported Republican House candidate Ralph Norman.
*The Republican National Committee has paid out about $230,000 to Trump lawyers and nearly $200,000 to cover Donald Trump Jr.'s legal bills.
*CNN reported that Michigan and Wisconsin were specifically targeted in a number of Russia-linked Facebook ads. One quarter of the 3,000 Russian-bought ads were targeted to specific geographic locations.
*Mike Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers, blasted congressional leaders behind closed doors at an RNC event, held for wealthy donors. He wanted them to get behind Trump's legislative priorities. Thus far, Trump's legislative priorities have been so bad that he can't get them approved by a GOP-dominated Congress.
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Yemen War Resolution
Peace Action, the nation's largest grassroots peace and justice organization, released the following statement on the Yemen war resolution, introduced by Representatives Ro Khanna (D-CA), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Mark Pocan (D-WI), and Walter Jones (R-NC). The resolution invokes the War Powers Act with a bipartisan bill (H.Con.Res. 81) to end the Saudi war in Yemen.
"For two and a half years, the U.S. has been fueling Yemen's civil war with military support to Saudi Arabia for an intervention that was never debated or authorized by Congress. Most American taxpayers don't realize they've been footing the bill for mid-air refuelings of Saudi coalition warplanes that regularly bomb civilian targets in Yemen. With U.S. support, the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen has helped give rise to one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes ever, and this resolution offers a chance to end that support.
"Besides the U.S. supporting what exerts call war crimes by Saudi Arabia, Riyadh's actions are making Americans less safe by strengthening Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
"This privileged resolution will force members of Congress to go on record, many for the first time, on the question of whether or not we should be backing a coalition that's demonstrated an intractable disregard for human rights and the most basic laws of war. To vote for continuing U.S. support is to vote for more indiscriminate bombings of schools, marketplaces, and hospitals in one of the world's poorest nations, and at the expense of American taxpayers and U.S. national security interests. This is another push for Congress to take back its Constitutional authority to declare war, that for political expediency it has handed over to the President. Voters will be watching."
ADDENDUMS:
*Article 2, paragraph 4 of the UN Charter reads: "All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations." When President Trump vowed to bring about the total destruction of North Korea in his UN speech, he was violating the UN Charter.
*Trump said on Alabama radio's "Rick and Bubba Show" that: "They [GOP senators] pander and grandstand."
*A CBS poll taken last month found that only 29% approve of Trump's handling of healthcare, while 62% disapprove.
*Trump tweet: "The booing at the NFL football game last night, when the entire Dallas team dropped to its knees, was the loudest I have ever heard. Great anger."
*Trump September 24 tweet: "Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N.. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer."
*President Trump has decided to allow the resettlement of no more than 45,000 refugees next year. There are more than 22 million refugees in the world.
"For two and a half years, the U.S. has been fueling Yemen's civil war with military support to Saudi Arabia for an intervention that was never debated or authorized by Congress. Most American taxpayers don't realize they've been footing the bill for mid-air refuelings of Saudi coalition warplanes that regularly bomb civilian targets in Yemen. With U.S. support, the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen has helped give rise to one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes ever, and this resolution offers a chance to end that support.
"Besides the U.S. supporting what exerts call war crimes by Saudi Arabia, Riyadh's actions are making Americans less safe by strengthening Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
"This privileged resolution will force members of Congress to go on record, many for the first time, on the question of whether or not we should be backing a coalition that's demonstrated an intractable disregard for human rights and the most basic laws of war. To vote for continuing U.S. support is to vote for more indiscriminate bombings of schools, marketplaces, and hospitals in one of the world's poorest nations, and at the expense of American taxpayers and U.S. national security interests. This is another push for Congress to take back its Constitutional authority to declare war, that for political expediency it has handed over to the President. Voters will be watching."
ADDENDUMS:
*Article 2, paragraph 4 of the UN Charter reads: "All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations." When President Trump vowed to bring about the total destruction of North Korea in his UN speech, he was violating the UN Charter.
*Trump said on Alabama radio's "Rick and Bubba Show" that: "They [GOP senators] pander and grandstand."
*A CBS poll taken last month found that only 29% approve of Trump's handling of healthcare, while 62% disapprove.
*Trump tweet: "The booing at the NFL football game last night, when the entire Dallas team dropped to its knees, was the loudest I have ever heard. Great anger."
*Trump September 24 tweet: "Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N.. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won't be around much longer."
*President Trump has decided to allow the resettlement of no more than 45,000 refugees next year. There are more than 22 million refugees in the world.
Friday, September 22, 2017
A Compendium of Graham-Cassidy Flaws
Reports are that many U.S. Senators will be voting on Graham-Cassidy without knowing what is in the bill. Following is a handy-dandy compendium of what is in the bill and what are some likely outcomes:
1.) A line in the G-C bill says that it "intends to maintain access to adequate and affordable health insurance for individuals with preexisting conditions." Healthcare analysts and industry groups contend that significant leeway is given to DHHS and states to determine the definition of "adequate and affordable." The Center for American Progress, using data that the Centers for Medicine and Medicaid Services (CMS) employs to calculate transfers between insurers based on enrollees' expected costs -- the risk adjustment program -- and applied to a 40-year-old, finds that asthma would draw a premium surcharge of $4,340; $5,600 for diabetes; $17,320 for pregnancy; $26,580 for rheumatoid arthritis; and $142,650 for metastatic cancer.
The waiver provision is similar to the so-called "MacArthur amendment" in the House-passed repeal bill, of which the CBO found that states accounting for 1/6th of the nation's population would choose to let insurers charge higher premiums based on health status; also, states accounting for half the nation's population would choose to let insurers exclude essential health benefits.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has said of G-C: "The bill contains provisions that would allow states to waive key consumer protections, as well as undermine safeguards for those with pre-existing medical conditions."
2.) The states would be allowed to let insurers exclude essential health benefits. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, before the ACA introduced the requirement that all plans cover a defined set of basic services, 75% of individual market plans excluded maternity coverage; 45% excluded substance use treatment, and 38% excluded mental health care.
Allowing insurers to exclude basic service coverage should mean a significant rise in the millions now considered to be under-insured.
3.) States will be allowed to remove the protections that prevented insurance companies from putting lifetime caps on how much they spend on someone.
4.) The cap on federal Medicaid funding will cause states to cut back on traditional Medicaid funding.
5.)Insurers are not compensated for the reductions they must make in deductibles and other cost-sharing for low-income enrollees.
6.) There is no provision for revoking funding to a state if it fails to meet its commitments.
7.) The entire block-grant program depends on private insured participation. Insurers would face 50 different state regulatory and financing systems.
8.) Those states that have not accepted ACA funding and have not set up a system of exchanges, would be hard-pressed to put together a coverage program over the next two years. Medical organizations are saying that passage of G-C would destabilize the insurance markets.
9.) The elimination of the individual mandate removes the incentive for healthy people to purchase insurance, causing insurers to hike premiums and deductibles in order to survive economically.
10.) The fact that federal Medicaid funding goes only through 2026 under the G-C, means that a future Congress could fund Medicaid at a lower level or even end it.
11.) Limiting ourselves to the state of Georgia, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute estimates that about 400,000 Georgians receive marketplace subsidies. Nearly 1.8 million Georgians, or 29% of the state's population, carry a preexisting condition. The consulting firm Avelere Health says Georgia will lose $48 billion in federal funding from 2020 to 2036 if G-C becomes law.
1.) A line in the G-C bill says that it "intends to maintain access to adequate and affordable health insurance for individuals with preexisting conditions." Healthcare analysts and industry groups contend that significant leeway is given to DHHS and states to determine the definition of "adequate and affordable." The Center for American Progress, using data that the Centers for Medicine and Medicaid Services (CMS) employs to calculate transfers between insurers based on enrollees' expected costs -- the risk adjustment program -- and applied to a 40-year-old, finds that asthma would draw a premium surcharge of $4,340; $5,600 for diabetes; $17,320 for pregnancy; $26,580 for rheumatoid arthritis; and $142,650 for metastatic cancer.
The waiver provision is similar to the so-called "MacArthur amendment" in the House-passed repeal bill, of which the CBO found that states accounting for 1/6th of the nation's population would choose to let insurers charge higher premiums based on health status; also, states accounting for half the nation's population would choose to let insurers exclude essential health benefits.
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has said of G-C: "The bill contains provisions that would allow states to waive key consumer protections, as well as undermine safeguards for those with pre-existing medical conditions."
2.) The states would be allowed to let insurers exclude essential health benefits. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, before the ACA introduced the requirement that all plans cover a defined set of basic services, 75% of individual market plans excluded maternity coverage; 45% excluded substance use treatment, and 38% excluded mental health care.
Allowing insurers to exclude basic service coverage should mean a significant rise in the millions now considered to be under-insured.
3.) States will be allowed to remove the protections that prevented insurance companies from putting lifetime caps on how much they spend on someone.
4.) The cap on federal Medicaid funding will cause states to cut back on traditional Medicaid funding.
5.)Insurers are not compensated for the reductions they must make in deductibles and other cost-sharing for low-income enrollees.
6.) There is no provision for revoking funding to a state if it fails to meet its commitments.
7.) The entire block-grant program depends on private insured participation. Insurers would face 50 different state regulatory and financing systems.
8.) Those states that have not accepted ACA funding and have not set up a system of exchanges, would be hard-pressed to put together a coverage program over the next two years. Medical organizations are saying that passage of G-C would destabilize the insurance markets.
9.) The elimination of the individual mandate removes the incentive for healthy people to purchase insurance, causing insurers to hike premiums and deductibles in order to survive economically.
10.) The fact that federal Medicaid funding goes only through 2026 under the G-C, means that a future Congress could fund Medicaid at a lower level or even end it.
11.) Limiting ourselves to the state of Georgia, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute estimates that about 400,000 Georgians receive marketplace subsidies. Nearly 1.8 million Georgians, or 29% of the state's population, carry a preexisting condition. The consulting firm Avelere Health says Georgia will lose $48 billion in federal funding from 2020 to 2036 if G-C becomes law.
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Trump Legal Setbacks: Real and Potential
The judiciary seems to be the only branch of the government that can put any meaningfully restraint on President Donald Trump; although an argument can be made that despite their numerical weakness, Democratic lawmakers have been able to wrest policy victories from the GOP and Trump.
The Trump administration has suffered losses in two recent court decisions.
#U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber has ruled that Attorney General Jeff Sessions cannot withhold public safety grant money to sanctuary cities. Judge Leinenweber said that the city of Chicago has shown a "likelihood of success" in arguing that Sessions exceeded his authority with the new conditions.
#The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management must provide more data to support its argument that coal makes no net contribution to climate change after it's burned in power plants.
#When Sarah Hucklebee Sanders advocated the firing by ESPN of a reporter who labeled Trump as a white supremist, she may have broken a law. 18 U.S. Code #227 makes it a crime to wrongfully influence "a private entity's employment decisions by a Member of Congress or an officer or an employee of the legislative or executive branch." The penalty could be imprisonment for up to fifteen years. (The law includes the President).
Sanders also advocated the firing of former FBI Director James Comey. Since Comey could be a witness in the investigation of Russian meddling in U.S. affairs, this could be considered to be a case of witness intimidation and/or obstruction of justice. If President Trump put her up to it, he could be subject to prosecution.
#President Trump retweeted a video showing Trump or a stand-in for him hitting a golf ball that hits Hillary Clinton in the back and knocks her down. Tweeters have lambasted him on several grounds, but the best one to me labels his retweet as "juvenile." It is disconcerting to have a juvenile as president.
#On September 17, Trump tweeted: "I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man was doing." He also wrote: "Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!" Few North Koreans own cars, and private travel inside the isolated country is extremely restricted. Also, the last two rounds of U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea did not include an oil embargo after China objected.
#Sam Clovis, a non-scientist nominated to be the chief scientist of the Department of Agriculture, has called climate change, "junk science."
*In June 2017, there were some 225,000 open construction jobs in the U.S., up 31 percent from June 2016. Houston must find places to stay for the tens of thousands of construction workers needed and will need to pay then above-market wages, because it will need to lure them away from existing jobs.
*A Tulane and University of California, Berkeley, found that some 100,000 Hispanic workers thronged into the Gulf Coast region in the wake of Katrina, many of them undocumented.
#Word is leaking out of the White House that President Trump may soften his position on the Paris Agreement on climate change. It is a grave mistake for anyone to get too excited because Trump has adopted a position on an issue dear to one's heart. Wait awhile and Trump may adopt a position completely opposite to the earlier one. Consider that early this year Trump assured Dreamers that he has a "great heart" and they could "rest easy" regarding any chance their status might be changed. Then he delighted his hard-core supporters by putting an end to DACA. That was followed by his sending to Congress the task of constructing a solution. That was followed by his "deal" with the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to, at least, not deport the Dreamers. Although Trump had effectively agreed to let the Dreamers continue to live in the United States as before, "Amnesty Don" tried to extricate himself from his conundrum by saying that he had not embraced amnesty nor a path to citizenship.
#The appalling cruelty of President Trump and GOP lawmakers is illustrated by: 1. Approximately 690,000 dreamers -- 800,000 is the most publicized number but apparently 110,000 Dreamers have forfeited that status -- have been forced to live a life of anxiety, wondering if they will be deported, or, at least, lose their work permits; and 2. GOP lawmakers have kept tens of millions of those insured under the Affordable Care Act in fear of losing their coverage by offering variant after variant of demon health care bills.
It is also worthy of mention in these measurements of cruel disregard that President Trump has kept 11 million undocumented immigrants on tenterhooks and many sleepless nights, as they worry about being deported, or family members, relatives or friends being deported, while they stay behind.
The Trump administration has suffered losses in two recent court decisions.
#U.S. District Judge Harry D. Leinenweber has ruled that Attorney General Jeff Sessions cannot withhold public safety grant money to sanctuary cities. Judge Leinenweber said that the city of Chicago has shown a "likelihood of success" in arguing that Sessions exceeded his authority with the new conditions.
#The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management must provide more data to support its argument that coal makes no net contribution to climate change after it's burned in power plants.
#When Sarah Hucklebee Sanders advocated the firing by ESPN of a reporter who labeled Trump as a white supremist, she may have broken a law. 18 U.S. Code #227 makes it a crime to wrongfully influence "a private entity's employment decisions by a Member of Congress or an officer or an employee of the legislative or executive branch." The penalty could be imprisonment for up to fifteen years. (The law includes the President).
Sanders also advocated the firing of former FBI Director James Comey. Since Comey could be a witness in the investigation of Russian meddling in U.S. affairs, this could be considered to be a case of witness intimidation and/or obstruction of justice. If President Trump put her up to it, he could be subject to prosecution.
#President Trump retweeted a video showing Trump or a stand-in for him hitting a golf ball that hits Hillary Clinton in the back and knocks her down. Tweeters have lambasted him on several grounds, but the best one to me labels his retweet as "juvenile." It is disconcerting to have a juvenile as president.
#On September 17, Trump tweeted: "I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man was doing." He also wrote: "Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!" Few North Koreans own cars, and private travel inside the isolated country is extremely restricted. Also, the last two rounds of U.N. sanctions imposed on North Korea did not include an oil embargo after China objected.
#Sam Clovis, a non-scientist nominated to be the chief scientist of the Department of Agriculture, has called climate change, "junk science."
*In June 2017, there were some 225,000 open construction jobs in the U.S., up 31 percent from June 2016. Houston must find places to stay for the tens of thousands of construction workers needed and will need to pay then above-market wages, because it will need to lure them away from existing jobs.
*A Tulane and University of California, Berkeley, found that some 100,000 Hispanic workers thronged into the Gulf Coast region in the wake of Katrina, many of them undocumented.
#Word is leaking out of the White House that President Trump may soften his position on the Paris Agreement on climate change. It is a grave mistake for anyone to get too excited because Trump has adopted a position on an issue dear to one's heart. Wait awhile and Trump may adopt a position completely opposite to the earlier one. Consider that early this year Trump assured Dreamers that he has a "great heart" and they could "rest easy" regarding any chance their status might be changed. Then he delighted his hard-core supporters by putting an end to DACA. That was followed by his sending to Congress the task of constructing a solution. That was followed by his "deal" with the Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to, at least, not deport the Dreamers. Although Trump had effectively agreed to let the Dreamers continue to live in the United States as before, "Amnesty Don" tried to extricate himself from his conundrum by saying that he had not embraced amnesty nor a path to citizenship.
#The appalling cruelty of President Trump and GOP lawmakers is illustrated by: 1. Approximately 690,000 dreamers -- 800,000 is the most publicized number but apparently 110,000 Dreamers have forfeited that status -- have been forced to live a life of anxiety, wondering if they will be deported, or, at least, lose their work permits; and 2. GOP lawmakers have kept tens of millions of those insured under the Affordable Care Act in fear of losing their coverage by offering variant after variant of demon health care bills.
It is also worthy of mention in these measurements of cruel disregard that President Trump has kept 11 million undocumented immigrants on tenterhooks and many sleepless nights, as they worry about being deported, or family members, relatives or friends being deported, while they stay behind.
Friday, September 15, 2017
Continuation of Excerpts From the Book Authored by Donald Jeffries
p. 40 - Only 3 percent of students at the top 146 colleges come for families in the bottom income quartile. Only 10 percent come from the bottom half.
p. 48 - A study by former Sen. Tom Coburn found that 4,000 millionaires paid no federal income tax in 2011.
p. 57 - Based on a February 2012 survey by the Salvation Army, some 27 percent of Americans think the poor are lazy and 43 percent said they believed "people living in poverty can always find a job if they really want to work."
p. 98 - The Institute for College Access and Success estimates that the number of college graduates in the U.S. working minimum wage jobs has risen by nearly 71 percent over the past decade.
p. 111 - Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman, with a net worth of $1.7 billion, was paid over $15 million in 2012, while her company was eliminating nearly 30,000 jobs.
p. 113 - The Urban Institute said in 2010 that 3.5 million Americans, or about 1 percent of the population, had been homeless for a significant period of time.
p. 148 - CBS News reported on April 5, 2013 that "Roughly a third of U.S. states today jail people for not paying off their debts, from court-related fines and fees to credit cards and car loans." The Georgia-based Judicial Corrections Services, a private probation firm, piles additional fees on top of the defendant's debts.
p. 163 - Oil Change International estimates that the federal government provides the oil companies with as much as a trillion dollars in annual subsidies.
p. 172 - Bankruptcy has long been a tool that the rich employ, and the laws are such that it invariably works to their benefit.
p. 218 - Recent Social Security statistics show that 51 percent of American workers made less than $28,851 in 2014 and 40 percent made less than $20,000. In 2014, 71 percent made less than $50,000.
p. 219 - The 2016 Oxfam report revealed that the richest 62 individuals in the world possess as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity.
p. 220 - An AP 2013 study found that: "Four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives."
ADDENDUM:
* Mexico has pulled back from its offer of aid to the U.S. after the U.S. snubbed it for aid for the damage caused by the massive earthquake and Hurricane Katia, when it hit the Gulf states of Veracruz. The Mexican government noted that the U.S. embassy had taken nine days to respond to its formal offer.
p. 48 - A study by former Sen. Tom Coburn found that 4,000 millionaires paid no federal income tax in 2011.
p. 57 - Based on a February 2012 survey by the Salvation Army, some 27 percent of Americans think the poor are lazy and 43 percent said they believed "people living in poverty can always find a job if they really want to work."
p. 98 - The Institute for College Access and Success estimates that the number of college graduates in the U.S. working minimum wage jobs has risen by nearly 71 percent over the past decade.
p. 111 - Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman, with a net worth of $1.7 billion, was paid over $15 million in 2012, while her company was eliminating nearly 30,000 jobs.
p. 113 - The Urban Institute said in 2010 that 3.5 million Americans, or about 1 percent of the population, had been homeless for a significant period of time.
p. 148 - CBS News reported on April 5, 2013 that "Roughly a third of U.S. states today jail people for not paying off their debts, from court-related fines and fees to credit cards and car loans." The Georgia-based Judicial Corrections Services, a private probation firm, piles additional fees on top of the defendant's debts.
p. 163 - Oil Change International estimates that the federal government provides the oil companies with as much as a trillion dollars in annual subsidies.
p. 172 - Bankruptcy has long been a tool that the rich employ, and the laws are such that it invariably works to their benefit.
p. 218 - Recent Social Security statistics show that 51 percent of American workers made less than $28,851 in 2014 and 40 percent made less than $20,000. In 2014, 71 percent made less than $50,000.
p. 219 - The 2016 Oxfam report revealed that the richest 62 individuals in the world possess as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity.
p. 220 - An AP 2013 study found that: "Four out of five U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives."
ADDENDUM:
* Mexico has pulled back from its offer of aid to the U.S. after the U.S. snubbed it for aid for the damage caused by the massive earthquake and Hurricane Katia, when it hit the Gulf states of Veracruz. The Mexican government noted that the U.S. embassy had taken nine days to respond to its formal offer.
Thursday, September 14, 2017
A Fact-Filled Look at U.S. Economic Conditions
Donald Jeffries has written a book filled with facts and figures to illustrate how the richest have survived in the United States. Since the book lends itself to a summary of information, I will not use word-for-word quotations.. These are selective excerpts of what I feel is important information.
The book reference is: Donald Jeffries, "Survival of the Richest" (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2017).
p. xiii - A 2013 survey from Bankrate found that 76 percent of Americans are now officially living paycheck-to-paycheck. The survey found that only one-fourth possess enough money in savings to cover at least six months of expenses, cushion the loss of a job or unexpected illness, or deal with an emergency. 50 percent had less than three months of savings and 27 percent had no savings at all. A 2015 survey from GoBanking Rates found that 62 percent had less than $1,000 in savings.
In an article in the March 1, 2013 Minimum Wage Union Workers of America blog, after adjusting for inflation, 90 percent of Americans were earning less than what minimum wage workers made in 1950. When factoring in the productivity rate, the minimum wage should have been $28.56 per hour in 2010.
p. xv - The Census Bureau says 146 million Americans are either poor or low-income. The wealthiest 1 percent have more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined. U.S. families with a head of household under age 30 have a 37 percent poverty rate.
p. xvi - The wealthiest 10 percent control 76 percent of the wealth and the top 50 percent control 99 percent.
p. 5 - By 2016, 'average' salary of major league baseball players was $4.4 million a year; an 'average' of $5.2 million for NBA players; an 'average' of $2.5 million for NHL players; and an 'average' of $2.1 million for NFL players.
p. 6- According to the Credit Swiss Global Wealth Databook, by the end of 2013, 75.4 percent of all wealth in the U.S. belonged to the richest 10 percent, and the bottom 90 percent owned only 24.6 percent of aggregate wealth.
p. 7 - Lloyd C. Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, received over $70 million in compensation in 2008, and his company received $10 billion in the bailout. J.P. Moran Chase's James S. Dimon earned nearly $28 million, while his company had received $25 billion in the bailout. Nine banks awarded bonuses of nearly $33 billion in 2008, and six of the nine paid out more in bonuses than they earned in profits.
p. 8 - Citigroup, which received 25 percent of the bailout money going to the nine banks, paid $98.9 million in compensation to Andrew Hall, head of their energy-trading unit.
p. 9 - GE, which paid no tax in 2010, paid an average of just 1/8th of a percent in taxes between 2002 and 2011.
By 2015, the ratio of CEO pay to worker pay was 204 to 1.
p. 12 - A Pew poll found that 43 percent of Americans born in the bottom fifth of the economic ladder never move up at all, and 70 percent never reach the middle rung.
The top 1 percent own half of all stocks in the country, while the bottom 50 percent own .5 percent of them, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. The 1 percent has only 5 percent of the collective personal debt.
p. 17 - Over 90 percent of small businesses have yearly revenues of less than $250,000. "Small Business Trends" reports that the "typical new business" in the U.S. is no longer in business five years after being founded. A 2014 study by Barclays found that only 21 percent of millionaires in the U.S. cited a business deal or profit as their source of wealth, versus 40 percent from around the world. The Wall Street Journal researched 60 big U.S. corporations and said they were keeping over 40 percent of their annual profits out of the country.
p. 18 - At a May 2013 Senate hearing, Apple revealed it had paid only 2 percent tax on its estimated $74 billion in profits.
p. 22 - Average compensation for a board of directors member at S & P 500 companies had risen to $276,667 by 2015.
I will continue with these excerpts from Donald Jeffries's book in my next blog.
The book reference is: Donald Jeffries, "Survival of the Richest" (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2017).
p. xiii - A 2013 survey from Bankrate found that 76 percent of Americans are now officially living paycheck-to-paycheck. The survey found that only one-fourth possess enough money in savings to cover at least six months of expenses, cushion the loss of a job or unexpected illness, or deal with an emergency. 50 percent had less than three months of savings and 27 percent had no savings at all. A 2015 survey from GoBanking Rates found that 62 percent had less than $1,000 in savings.
In an article in the March 1, 2013 Minimum Wage Union Workers of America blog, after adjusting for inflation, 90 percent of Americans were earning less than what minimum wage workers made in 1950. When factoring in the productivity rate, the minimum wage should have been $28.56 per hour in 2010.
p. xv - The Census Bureau says 146 million Americans are either poor or low-income. The wealthiest 1 percent have more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined. U.S. families with a head of household under age 30 have a 37 percent poverty rate.
p. xvi - The wealthiest 10 percent control 76 percent of the wealth and the top 50 percent control 99 percent.
p. 5 - By 2016, 'average' salary of major league baseball players was $4.4 million a year; an 'average' of $5.2 million for NBA players; an 'average' of $2.5 million for NHL players; and an 'average' of $2.1 million for NFL players.
p. 6- According to the Credit Swiss Global Wealth Databook, by the end of 2013, 75.4 percent of all wealth in the U.S. belonged to the richest 10 percent, and the bottom 90 percent owned only 24.6 percent of aggregate wealth.
p. 7 - Lloyd C. Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, received over $70 million in compensation in 2008, and his company received $10 billion in the bailout. J.P. Moran Chase's James S. Dimon earned nearly $28 million, while his company had received $25 billion in the bailout. Nine banks awarded bonuses of nearly $33 billion in 2008, and six of the nine paid out more in bonuses than they earned in profits.
p. 8 - Citigroup, which received 25 percent of the bailout money going to the nine banks, paid $98.9 million in compensation to Andrew Hall, head of their energy-trading unit.
p. 9 - GE, which paid no tax in 2010, paid an average of just 1/8th of a percent in taxes between 2002 and 2011.
By 2015, the ratio of CEO pay to worker pay was 204 to 1.
p. 12 - A Pew poll found that 43 percent of Americans born in the bottom fifth of the economic ladder never move up at all, and 70 percent never reach the middle rung.
The top 1 percent own half of all stocks in the country, while the bottom 50 percent own .5 percent of them, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. The 1 percent has only 5 percent of the collective personal debt.
p. 17 - Over 90 percent of small businesses have yearly revenues of less than $250,000. "Small Business Trends" reports that the "typical new business" in the U.S. is no longer in business five years after being founded. A 2014 study by Barclays found that only 21 percent of millionaires in the U.S. cited a business deal or profit as their source of wealth, versus 40 percent from around the world. The Wall Street Journal researched 60 big U.S. corporations and said they were keeping over 40 percent of their annual profits out of the country.
p. 18 - At a May 2013 Senate hearing, Apple revealed it had paid only 2 percent tax on its estimated $74 billion in profits.
p. 22 - Average compensation for a board of directors member at S & P 500 companies had risen to $276,667 by 2015.
I will continue with these excerpts from Donald Jeffries's book in my next blog.
Wednesday, September 13, 2017
The Fruits of Betsy DeVos
Betsy DeVos's heart must be beating harder as she learns about what is happening in Florida's school districts. DeVos has little regard for traditional public schools, nor does she have experience with public education. What most activates her heart are vouchers to private schools, and, especially, religious education.
In Florida, school districts will be required for the first time to send a portion of local tax revenues to charter schools; also, the law gives charter schools the flexibility to open multiple schools each year. The law funds a new initiative, called Schools of Hope, that transfers the lowest-performing public schools to charter school management companies.
Miami-Dade Schools may see a quarter of a billion dollars of its funds transferred to charter schools. [1]
Florida's statewide voucher program, called a tax credit scholarship, cost state taxpayers over $600 million in the first ten years of operation, from 2002-2012, according to Fund Education Now, a state-based public school advocacy group. Much of that money may have been wasted, as more than 300 charter schools in Florida have failed due to poor performance.
80 percent of parents who use the vouchers send their children to religious schools. Only 25 percent of those using these vouchers transfer their children out of the lowest-performing schools. [2]
Florida ranks 41st on school funding, according to the Education Law Center and Rutgers Graduate School of Education.
ADDENDUMS:
*Steve Bannon told CBS's Charlie Rose that the Catholic Church and bishops "have been terrible about" undocumented immigrants. He suggested they were unable "to come to grips with the problems in the church" because they rely on undocumented immigrants to fill the churches and have an economic interest in "unlimited illegal immigration."
*President Trump may next attack those in "temporary protected status," a provision of immigration law that allows the government to grant temporary work authorizations and protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants from certain countries where life remains dangerous.
*DAMAC Properties, a Trump Organization partner, signed a $32 million contract with the Middle East subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation.
*President Trump asked for deep cuts to the National Institutes of Health; however, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bipartisan bill providing $36.1 billion for the health institutes.
*An audit by the inspector general of the Interior Department found that $84 million was improperly spent to help develop California's plans to build two giant tunnels to ship Northern California's water to Southern California. California's water districts, and not federal taxpayers, were supposed to bear the costs of the $16 billion project.
*The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that the Graham-Cassidy bill that would convert Obamacare into block grants for states, would result in a 34 percent cut in spending, compared to Obamacare over ten years. This cut would be mostly in Medicaid funding.
Footnotes
[1] Jeff Bryant, "Like Her Boss, Betsy DeVos Makes a Disaster All About Herself," Our Future.org, September 5, 2017.
[2] Ibid.
In Florida, school districts will be required for the first time to send a portion of local tax revenues to charter schools; also, the law gives charter schools the flexibility to open multiple schools each year. The law funds a new initiative, called Schools of Hope, that transfers the lowest-performing public schools to charter school management companies.
Miami-Dade Schools may see a quarter of a billion dollars of its funds transferred to charter schools. [1]
Florida's statewide voucher program, called a tax credit scholarship, cost state taxpayers over $600 million in the first ten years of operation, from 2002-2012, according to Fund Education Now, a state-based public school advocacy group. Much of that money may have been wasted, as more than 300 charter schools in Florida have failed due to poor performance.
80 percent of parents who use the vouchers send their children to religious schools. Only 25 percent of those using these vouchers transfer their children out of the lowest-performing schools. [2]
Florida ranks 41st on school funding, according to the Education Law Center and Rutgers Graduate School of Education.
ADDENDUMS:
*Steve Bannon told CBS's Charlie Rose that the Catholic Church and bishops "have been terrible about" undocumented immigrants. He suggested they were unable "to come to grips with the problems in the church" because they rely on undocumented immigrants to fill the churches and have an economic interest in "unlimited illegal immigration."
*President Trump may next attack those in "temporary protected status," a provision of immigration law that allows the government to grant temporary work authorizations and protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants from certain countries where life remains dangerous.
*DAMAC Properties, a Trump Organization partner, signed a $32 million contract with the Middle East subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation.
*President Trump asked for deep cuts to the National Institutes of Health; however, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a bipartisan bill providing $36.1 billion for the health institutes.
*An audit by the inspector general of the Interior Department found that $84 million was improperly spent to help develop California's plans to build two giant tunnels to ship Northern California's water to Southern California. California's water districts, and not federal taxpayers, were supposed to bear the costs of the $16 billion project.
*The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says that the Graham-Cassidy bill that would convert Obamacare into block grants for states, would result in a 34 percent cut in spending, compared to Obamacare over ten years. This cut would be mostly in Medicaid funding.
Footnotes
[1] Jeff Bryant, "Like Her Boss, Betsy DeVos Makes a Disaster All About Herself," Our Future.org, September 5, 2017.
[2] Ibid.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
DACA Decision Deferred to Congress
President Trump made ending DACA one of the first things he would do if elected president. He dithered for more than six months before partially fulfilling his promise; however, he didn't have the gumption to announce his decision on DACA by himself but farmed it out to the attorney general. He then handed the hot potato over to Congress, and then, as with many other issues, he gave no guidance as to how Congress should work out the details. Conveniently, Trump will have Congress to blame if nothing constructive is done.
Trump said he had a "love for these people and, hopefully, now Congress will be able to help them, nor do it properly." By saying that, Trump made a tacit admission that he couldn't help them, nor do it properly.
Trump's handing off DACA to Congress comes with a major caveat: If Congress can't do the job with DACA, Trump will revisit the issue. Trump has given no indication of what he means by "revisit" and thus has created uncertainty in Congress. If Congress decides to allow the Dreamers to stay in the United States and/or provides a legal path to citizenship, Trump can either sign the bill and break a crucial campaign promise, or veto it and risk an override.
President Trump has shown extreme cruelty in his treatment of the DACA matter by telling Dreamers early this year that they can "rest easy" about their status. Now he has put them in a very anxious state about what might happen to them some six months into the future. Trump's harsh rhetoric in the campaign about the harm Dreamers were causing to the country and the subsequent anxiety he has raised among them is a far remove from expressions of love. When you have denigrated whole categories of people, how can you be perceived as credible when you say you love everyone in a large category of people?
Most economists believe that reducing immigration will significantly hurt economic growth for years. Deporting the Dreamers will reduce GDP and reduce FICA taxes that fund Social Security. Dreamers are too young to receive Social Security benefits, with the possible exception of disability payments. The Center for American Progress reports that 87 percent of beneficiaries are using their work permits and 83 percent of those in school are also working.
Conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin has, I believe, the most succinct and accurate reaction to Trump's DACA decision: "Some in the media take seriously the notion that he is 'conflicted' or 'wrestling' with the [DACA] decision, as though Trump was engaged in a great moral debate." "That would be a first for Trump, who counts only winners and losers, never bothering with moral principles or democratic norms. The debate, if there is one, is over whether to disappoint his rabid anti-immigrant base or to, as is his inclination, double down on a losing hand."
Rep. Ideana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) tweeted: "After teasing #Dreamers for months with the tale of his 'great heart,' slams down on them. Some 'heart.' "
ADDEDNDUM:
*The recent statement by Sarah Hucklebee Sanders that President Trump will donate $1 million of his "personal" money to Harvey relief may not be accurate. Sanders cannot say whether the donation will come from Trump personally or will come from his foundation. Foundation funding has a restriction against "self-serving" distributions and Trump would be violating that provision if he doesn't make the donation with a personal check.
Trump said he had a "love for these people and, hopefully, now Congress will be able to help them, nor do it properly." By saying that, Trump made a tacit admission that he couldn't help them, nor do it properly.
Trump's handing off DACA to Congress comes with a major caveat: If Congress can't do the job with DACA, Trump will revisit the issue. Trump has given no indication of what he means by "revisit" and thus has created uncertainty in Congress. If Congress decides to allow the Dreamers to stay in the United States and/or provides a legal path to citizenship, Trump can either sign the bill and break a crucial campaign promise, or veto it and risk an override.
President Trump has shown extreme cruelty in his treatment of the DACA matter by telling Dreamers early this year that they can "rest easy" about their status. Now he has put them in a very anxious state about what might happen to them some six months into the future. Trump's harsh rhetoric in the campaign about the harm Dreamers were causing to the country and the subsequent anxiety he has raised among them is a far remove from expressions of love. When you have denigrated whole categories of people, how can you be perceived as credible when you say you love everyone in a large category of people?
Most economists believe that reducing immigration will significantly hurt economic growth for years. Deporting the Dreamers will reduce GDP and reduce FICA taxes that fund Social Security. Dreamers are too young to receive Social Security benefits, with the possible exception of disability payments. The Center for American Progress reports that 87 percent of beneficiaries are using their work permits and 83 percent of those in school are also working.
Conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin has, I believe, the most succinct and accurate reaction to Trump's DACA decision: "Some in the media take seriously the notion that he is 'conflicted' or 'wrestling' with the [DACA] decision, as though Trump was engaged in a great moral debate." "That would be a first for Trump, who counts only winners and losers, never bothering with moral principles or democratic norms. The debate, if there is one, is over whether to disappoint his rabid anti-immigrant base or to, as is his inclination, double down on a losing hand."
Rep. Ideana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) tweeted: "After teasing #Dreamers for months with the tale of his 'great heart,' slams down on them. Some 'heart.' "
ADDEDNDUM:
*The recent statement by Sarah Hucklebee Sanders that President Trump will donate $1 million of his "personal" money to Harvey relief may not be accurate. Sanders cannot say whether the donation will come from Trump personally or will come from his foundation. Foundation funding has a restriction against "self-serving" distributions and Trump would be violating that provision if he doesn't make the donation with a personal check.
Tuesday, September 5, 2017
The Ballyhooed Foxcomm Deal
The Foxcomm deal with the Wisconsin government has been much ballyhooed; however, it contains within it significant problems. Foxcomm will get $1.35 billion for building a factory complex that will employ 3,000 workers. "Incentives" for Foxcomm could hit $3 billion -- with $2.85 billion in taxpayer cash and another $150 million in various tax breaks -- if Foxcomm ends up employing 13,000 workers. The deal could work out to cost taxpayers $500,000 per job or as much as $1 million per job. Foxcomm has promised an average salary of $53,000 but that would apply to only the first 3,000 workers and would mix in highly paid managerial positions with assembly-line workers.
Another perk for Foxcomm is an exemption from regulations to protect Wisconsin's wetlands.
Between 1990 and 2015, a new Upjohn Institute study shows average "incentive" packages for businesses tripled in value. Upjohn researchers found that those who subsidized would likely have received the same results without the incentives.
Staying with the theme of enriching big business, Robert Borosage has thrown a lot of water on the push to drastically reduce corporate taxes. He points out that since corporate profits are at a record percentage of the GDP and revenue from corporate taxes a record low, this isn't exactly a compelling cause for corporate tax cuts. Corporations that already pay at the lower 20 percent rate Republicans are peddling, have cut, not created, jobs over the last nine years.
Borosage says that in all versions of the Trump tax plans, the richest 1 percent get one-half or more of the tax cuts. In the most recent plan, the top one-tenth of one percent get a tax break of over $1 million a year. When Borosage says all versions, he is talking about a Trump tax plan released in September 2015, a written version published in December 2015, and a change in tax rates done in the summer of 2016.
Borosage says that an estimated $2.5 trillion in corporate money, with $700 billion in taxes saved, is parked overseas. Proposals to tax that money at 5 to 10 percent will not provide the trillions of dollars that President Trump promises. The last time the U.S. offered "repatriation" of overseas profits, U.S. companies used the tax giveaways to accelerate mergers, raise dividends, and buy back their own stock.
ADDENDUM:
*U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, claims that the American people view war as the last resort; however, it is the case that the U.S. is almost constantly at war with someone. In every decade since World War II, the U.S. has militarily attacked at least one nation that hasn't attacked it. Afghanistan is not an exception, because we attacked it for providing training facilities for Al Qaeda. The U.S. was in two major wars from the fall of 2001 to December 2011; also, there is no end date for military operations in Afghanistan. Anyone age 16 or under has never known a day when the United States was not at war.
Another perk for Foxcomm is an exemption from regulations to protect Wisconsin's wetlands.
Between 1990 and 2015, a new Upjohn Institute study shows average "incentive" packages for businesses tripled in value. Upjohn researchers found that those who subsidized would likely have received the same results without the incentives.
Staying with the theme of enriching big business, Robert Borosage has thrown a lot of water on the push to drastically reduce corporate taxes. He points out that since corporate profits are at a record percentage of the GDP and revenue from corporate taxes a record low, this isn't exactly a compelling cause for corporate tax cuts. Corporations that already pay at the lower 20 percent rate Republicans are peddling, have cut, not created, jobs over the last nine years.
Borosage says that in all versions of the Trump tax plans, the richest 1 percent get one-half or more of the tax cuts. In the most recent plan, the top one-tenth of one percent get a tax break of over $1 million a year. When Borosage says all versions, he is talking about a Trump tax plan released in September 2015, a written version published in December 2015, and a change in tax rates done in the summer of 2016.
Borosage says that an estimated $2.5 trillion in corporate money, with $700 billion in taxes saved, is parked overseas. Proposals to tax that money at 5 to 10 percent will not provide the trillions of dollars that President Trump promises. The last time the U.S. offered "repatriation" of overseas profits, U.S. companies used the tax giveaways to accelerate mergers, raise dividends, and buy back their own stock.
ADDENDUM:
*U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, claims that the American people view war as the last resort; however, it is the case that the U.S. is almost constantly at war with someone. In every decade since World War II, the U.S. has militarily attacked at least one nation that hasn't attacked it. Afghanistan is not an exception, because we attacked it for providing training facilities for Al Qaeda. The U.S. was in two major wars from the fall of 2001 to December 2011; also, there is no end date for military operations in Afghanistan. Anyone age 16 or under has never known a day when the United States was not at war.
Monday, September 4, 2017
Pricey Cost Estimates
Cost estimates for Hurricane Harvey and deporting Dreamers have started to come in. The very early estimates of fixing the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey were in the $10 to $35 billion range. Then Texas Governor Greg Abbott said that Harvey was "bigger than Katrina" and he estimated an overall cost to repair the damage as being $125 billion or more. Now costs of $180 to $190 billion are being voiced and these might be just the costs to the federal government. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) is estimating a relief and rebuild cost of $1 trillion, of which the federal government would pay $80 billion. If the $1 trillion cost is proven to be accurate, it is unlikely that the federal government would pay less than 10 percent. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) is talking about three waves of spending. The $7.85 billion in Harvey spending by the Trump administration is seemingly wholly inadequate but it may be just a placeholder pending a better estimate of costs.
The "Arizona Republic" asked ICE what it would cost to deport someone who'd immigrated to the United States illegally, and learned that, on average, the agency spent $10,854 per deportee, or a total bill of over $8.5 billion. This is not the total cost of deporting the 700,000+ Dreamers, as there would be a reduction in GDP and in the financing of Social Security. When Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin with the figures yesterday, he could only reply that the economic consequences of deporting such a large number of people are very complicated.
The issue that always comes up when it comes to paying for the damages resulting from a great natural disaster, or in this case, paying to deport a large number of people, is whether or not cuts in other spending must offset the costs. As of this time there don't seem to be any lawmakers who have specifically called for offsets, however, other voices important to Republican fundraising have spoken out. The Club for Growth wants the Harvey aid to be offset; also, Dan Heller, Heritage Action's vice president, wants anything that is out of the scope of being "truly emergency in nature" to be offset. President Trump wants a stand-alone bill.
In Other News
*Senate Democrats are making a major push to defeat the nomination of Sam Clovis as USDA's under secretary for research, education and economics. Clovis has said that Barack Obama was being "given a pass because he is Black," has called Eric Holder (former attorney general) a "racist black," declared homosexuality a choice, and called progressives "race traitors" and "race traders." Clovis is not a scientist, although the position calls for a scientist.
*North Korea is claiming that it has tested, with "perfect success," a powerful hydrogen bomb that could be fitted to an ICBM. President Trump has tweeted: "South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!" The one thing not mentioned is, of course, military force. Trump keeps repeating that all options are on the table; however, one option that he has taken off the table is diplomacy. He once declared the era of "strategic patience" to be over and now has declared any talks to be of no value.
*A judge has called out Trump's Election Integrity Commission for violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) by not fully disclosing public documents prior to their first meeting. The only sanction to be imposed against the commission is that it must disclose documents to the public before its September meeting.
The "Arizona Republic" asked ICE what it would cost to deport someone who'd immigrated to the United States illegally, and learned that, on average, the agency spent $10,854 per deportee, or a total bill of over $8.5 billion. This is not the total cost of deporting the 700,000+ Dreamers, as there would be a reduction in GDP and in the financing of Social Security. When Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin with the figures yesterday, he could only reply that the economic consequences of deporting such a large number of people are very complicated.
The issue that always comes up when it comes to paying for the damages resulting from a great natural disaster, or in this case, paying to deport a large number of people, is whether or not cuts in other spending must offset the costs. As of this time there don't seem to be any lawmakers who have specifically called for offsets, however, other voices important to Republican fundraising have spoken out. The Club for Growth wants the Harvey aid to be offset; also, Dan Heller, Heritage Action's vice president, wants anything that is out of the scope of being "truly emergency in nature" to be offset. President Trump wants a stand-alone bill.
In Other News
*Senate Democrats are making a major push to defeat the nomination of Sam Clovis as USDA's under secretary for research, education and economics. Clovis has said that Barack Obama was being "given a pass because he is Black," has called Eric Holder (former attorney general) a "racist black," declared homosexuality a choice, and called progressives "race traitors" and "race traders." Clovis is not a scientist, although the position calls for a scientist.
*North Korea is claiming that it has tested, with "perfect success," a powerful hydrogen bomb that could be fitted to an ICBM. President Trump has tweeted: "South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they only understand one thing!" The one thing not mentioned is, of course, military force. Trump keeps repeating that all options are on the table; however, one option that he has taken off the table is diplomacy. He once declared the era of "strategic patience" to be over and now has declared any talks to be of no value.
*A judge has called out Trump's Election Integrity Commission for violating the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) by not fully disclosing public documents prior to their first meeting. The only sanction to be imposed against the commission is that it must disclose documents to the public before its September meeting.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Policing African Americans
Following are excerpts from: Angela J. Davis, Policing the Black Man (New York: Pantheon Books, 2017).
p. xiv - In 2011, black boys represented the greatest percent of children placed in juvenile detention -- 903 black boys per 100,000, compared to 125 black girls. Black boys were 9.3 times more likely to spend time in juvenile detention than white boys.
p. xv. - Over half the students arrested at schools in the U.S. and referred to the criminal justice system are black or Hispanic. Blacks represent 16 percent of student enrollment but represent 27 percent referred to law enforcement and 31 percent subjected to in-school arrest. African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be arrested than whites, and 49 percent of black men can be expected to be arrested at least once by age 33, compared to 44 percent for Hispanics and 38 percent of white men.
Under New York's stop-and-frisk practice, blacks and Hispanics were stopped almost 10 times their percentage of the population. Black men were 21 times more likely to be killed by police than white men. Between 2010 and 2012, black boys aged 15 through 19 were killed at the rate of 31.17 per million, vs. 1.47 per million for white boys of the same age group. African Americans killed were twice as likely to be unarmed as whites.
By the end of 2015, black men constituted 34 percent of the U.S. prison population. One in three black men born in 2001 can expect to be incarcerated in his lifetime. Data collected by the U.S. Sentencing Commission between December 2007 and 2011 revealed that black men in federal prisons received sentences 19.5 percent longer than white men sentenced for the same crime.
p. xvi - As of 2014, the national death row population was approximately 42 percent black vs. a black population of only 13.6 percent.
p. 11 - "Convict leasing, the practice of 'selling' the labor of state and local prisoners to private interests for state profit, utilized the criminal justice system for the economic exploitation and political disempowerment of black people. State legislators passed discriminatory laws, or 'Black Codes,' which created new criminal offenses such as 'vagrancy' and 'loitering.' "
p. 16 - The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) has documented more than 4,000 racial terror lynchings between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 1950 in just 12 Southern states, This is at least 800 more than previously reported.
p. 20 - More than 8 in 10 U.S. lynchings between 1899 and 1918 occurred in the South and more than 8 in 10 of the more than 1,400 executions carried out in the U.S. have been in the South.
p. 41 - A 2003 study concluded that the "police cling to an institutional definition that stresses crime control and not prevention," and police organizations "have not been radically or even significantly altered in the era of community policing and problem-oriented policing."
p. 50 - When white respondents were asked to estimate the proportion of burglaries, drug sales and juvenile crimes committed by African Americans, they underestimated by 20 to 30 percent.
p. 67 - The presence of school resource officers (SROs) has increased arrests for low-level offenses, including non-serious assaults typical of an adolescent school fight or disorderly conduct. Discipline and rule enforcement is thus relinquished to police.
p. 75 - Neither resistance nor avoidance has been particularly effective in preventing abuses and rectifying injustice against black youth.
p. 140 - Slave patrols were the first uniquely American form of policing and the first publicly funded police agencies.
p. 155 - "Understanding implicit bias is essential to identifying and eliminating racial bias in policing."
p. 195 - According to a 2015 study by the Women Donor Network, of 2,437 elected prosecutors, 95 percent were white and 79 percent were white men. Only 4 percent of all elected prosecutors were men of color. Excluding Virginia and Mississippi, only 1 percent of all elected prosecutors are African Americans.
p. 266 - The centerpiece of the Supreme Court's approach to anti-discrimination protections has been to confine the definition of illegal discrimination to those acts that are motivated by intentional racial animus.
p. 268 - The Supreme Court has created an imaginary world where discrimination does not exist unless it was consciously intended.
p. 271 - Statistics, such as using the death penalty in a discriminatory manner, are not accepted as sufficient evidence to prove discrimination.
p. 272 - Justice William Brennan called dismissal of racial disparities as "a fear of too much justice."
p. 277 - "But what constitutes 'reasonableness' should exact even more scrutiny in the context of police killings of black people, given the phenomenon of implicit bias."
p. 301 - The total penal population in the United States stands at 2.2 million, although the U.S. has just 5 percent of world population -- the U.S. has 23 percent of the world's incarcerated population.
p. 308 - A survey of 18 jurisdictions revealed that African Americans represented 39 percent of the prison population, but 47 percent of those in administrative segregation units.
p. 310 - A researcher found that incarceration was associated with a 40 percent reduction in annual earnings after release from prison.
In 2008, the Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that 3.6 percent of all minor children in the U.S. had a parent in prison of jail, up from 0.8 percent in 1980. The percentage is 11.4 for all black children.
p. 311 - In neighborhoods in Washington D.C., neighborhoods with high rates of incarceration had only 62 men for every 100 women, vs. 94 to 100 in low-incarceration neighborhoods.
p. 313 - "The causes, scope, and consequences of mass incarceration have contributed to a cycle of poverty and violence, producing a novel kind of embedded social inequality that prevents the full participation of blacks in American social and political life."
p. xiv - In 2011, black boys represented the greatest percent of children placed in juvenile detention -- 903 black boys per 100,000, compared to 125 black girls. Black boys were 9.3 times more likely to spend time in juvenile detention than white boys.
p. xv. - Over half the students arrested at schools in the U.S. and referred to the criminal justice system are black or Hispanic. Blacks represent 16 percent of student enrollment but represent 27 percent referred to law enforcement and 31 percent subjected to in-school arrest. African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be arrested than whites, and 49 percent of black men can be expected to be arrested at least once by age 33, compared to 44 percent for Hispanics and 38 percent of white men.
Under New York's stop-and-frisk practice, blacks and Hispanics were stopped almost 10 times their percentage of the population. Black men were 21 times more likely to be killed by police than white men. Between 2010 and 2012, black boys aged 15 through 19 were killed at the rate of 31.17 per million, vs. 1.47 per million for white boys of the same age group. African Americans killed were twice as likely to be unarmed as whites.
By the end of 2015, black men constituted 34 percent of the U.S. prison population. One in three black men born in 2001 can expect to be incarcerated in his lifetime. Data collected by the U.S. Sentencing Commission between December 2007 and 2011 revealed that black men in federal prisons received sentences 19.5 percent longer than white men sentenced for the same crime.
p. xvi - As of 2014, the national death row population was approximately 42 percent black vs. a black population of only 13.6 percent.
p. 11 - "Convict leasing, the practice of 'selling' the labor of state and local prisoners to private interests for state profit, utilized the criminal justice system for the economic exploitation and political disempowerment of black people. State legislators passed discriminatory laws, or 'Black Codes,' which created new criminal offenses such as 'vagrancy' and 'loitering.' "
p. 16 - The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) has documented more than 4,000 racial terror lynchings between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and 1950 in just 12 Southern states, This is at least 800 more than previously reported.
p. 20 - More than 8 in 10 U.S. lynchings between 1899 and 1918 occurred in the South and more than 8 in 10 of the more than 1,400 executions carried out in the U.S. have been in the South.
p. 41 - A 2003 study concluded that the "police cling to an institutional definition that stresses crime control and not prevention," and police organizations "have not been radically or even significantly altered in the era of community policing and problem-oriented policing."
p. 50 - When white respondents were asked to estimate the proportion of burglaries, drug sales and juvenile crimes committed by African Americans, they underestimated by 20 to 30 percent.
p. 67 - The presence of school resource officers (SROs) has increased arrests for low-level offenses, including non-serious assaults typical of an adolescent school fight or disorderly conduct. Discipline and rule enforcement is thus relinquished to police.
p. 75 - Neither resistance nor avoidance has been particularly effective in preventing abuses and rectifying injustice against black youth.
p. 140 - Slave patrols were the first uniquely American form of policing and the first publicly funded police agencies.
p. 155 - "Understanding implicit bias is essential to identifying and eliminating racial bias in policing."
p. 195 - According to a 2015 study by the Women Donor Network, of 2,437 elected prosecutors, 95 percent were white and 79 percent were white men. Only 4 percent of all elected prosecutors were men of color. Excluding Virginia and Mississippi, only 1 percent of all elected prosecutors are African Americans.
p. 266 - The centerpiece of the Supreme Court's approach to anti-discrimination protections has been to confine the definition of illegal discrimination to those acts that are motivated by intentional racial animus.
p. 268 - The Supreme Court has created an imaginary world where discrimination does not exist unless it was consciously intended.
p. 271 - Statistics, such as using the death penalty in a discriminatory manner, are not accepted as sufficient evidence to prove discrimination.
p. 272 - Justice William Brennan called dismissal of racial disparities as "a fear of too much justice."
p. 277 - "But what constitutes 'reasonableness' should exact even more scrutiny in the context of police killings of black people, given the phenomenon of implicit bias."
p. 301 - The total penal population in the United States stands at 2.2 million, although the U.S. has just 5 percent of world population -- the U.S. has 23 percent of the world's incarcerated population.
p. 308 - A survey of 18 jurisdictions revealed that African Americans represented 39 percent of the prison population, but 47 percent of those in administrative segregation units.
p. 310 - A researcher found that incarceration was associated with a 40 percent reduction in annual earnings after release from prison.
In 2008, the Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that 3.6 percent of all minor children in the U.S. had a parent in prison of jail, up from 0.8 percent in 1980. The percentage is 11.4 for all black children.
p. 311 - In neighborhoods in Washington D.C., neighborhoods with high rates of incarceration had only 62 men for every 100 women, vs. 94 to 100 in low-incarceration neighborhoods.
p. 313 - "The causes, scope, and consequences of mass incarceration have contributed to a cycle of poverty and violence, producing a novel kind of embedded social inequality that prevents the full participation of blacks in American social and political life."
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
The Two Andrew Jacksons
President Donald Trump has described Andrew Jackson as the "People's President, a man who shocked the establishment like an earthquake." Trump has even ventured the opinion that if Jackson had been the president at the time of the Civil War, it never would have happened. The reporter, Machael Kazin, has written that Jackson, like Trump, "stirred a fury of populist discontent directed at the country's financial and political elites and sought to refashion America's political geography -- transforming a so-called 'era of good feelings' into a period of heightened partisan and regional conflict." [1]
Trump has suggested that maybe in connection with taking down Confederate statues and monuments, we might consider doing the same to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, because they were both slave owners. Jackson owned more than 100 slaves and favored expanding the "peculiar institution" into Texas and beyond.
Kazin writes that "In the service of pursuing Jefferson's vision of the United States as an 'empire of liberty,' Jackson conquered lands occupied by people of another race and built the world's first mass political party as a coalition that preserved chattel slavery. Yet as a self-made man who railed against the well-born, he also persuaded white farmers and wage earners --both immigrant and native-born that a lack of privilege should not prevent them from thriving." "One cannot appreciate Jackson, the tough-talking populist and partisan, without understanding that his popular appeal was as much due to his defense of slavery, his years of killing Native Americans, and his simplistic grasp of economics as it was to his rhetorical defense of white workers and small farmers."
Thus, by adopting Andrew Jackson as his presidential role model, President Trump embraces both the bad and the good.
Contrasting Education Reforms
Gary Anderson, professor of educational policy and leadership at New York University, penned an article in the June 17, 2017 Albuquerque Journal, in which he chastised the Journal editorial for applauding Hannah Skandera's "accomplishments" as New Mexico's secretary of education. Skandera was no friend of unionized teachers and was an ardent proponent of high-takes testing of students and teachers. After years of being only the "acting" secretary of education, a reluctant state legislature finally removed "acting" from her title in the past year. Skandera recently resigned, with no stated reason why.
Below are Anderson's "research-based 21st-century reforms:"
#Community schools with wrap-around services, not quasi-markets and charter schools;
#Controlled choice programs that seek desegregated schools, not market-based choice that results in schools stratified by class and race;
#Restorative justice approaches to discipline that reduce suspensions, not overly punitive, zero tolerance, suspension-oriented discipline;
#Dual language programs, not English-only approaches to English language learners;
#Authentic performance-based assessments, not high-stakes paper and pencil tests; and
#Social movement unionism, allied with communities, that fight for research-based social and educational reforms, not industrial union models that focus only on bread-and-butter issues, important as those are given teachers' salaries in New Mexico.
Footnote
[1] Machael Kazin, "The Two Andrew Jacksons," The Nation, August 28/September 4, 2017.
Trump has suggested that maybe in connection with taking down Confederate statues and monuments, we might consider doing the same to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, because they were both slave owners. Jackson owned more than 100 slaves and favored expanding the "peculiar institution" into Texas and beyond.
Kazin writes that "In the service of pursuing Jefferson's vision of the United States as an 'empire of liberty,' Jackson conquered lands occupied by people of another race and built the world's first mass political party as a coalition that preserved chattel slavery. Yet as a self-made man who railed against the well-born, he also persuaded white farmers and wage earners --both immigrant and native-born that a lack of privilege should not prevent them from thriving." "One cannot appreciate Jackson, the tough-talking populist and partisan, without understanding that his popular appeal was as much due to his defense of slavery, his years of killing Native Americans, and his simplistic grasp of economics as it was to his rhetorical defense of white workers and small farmers."
Thus, by adopting Andrew Jackson as his presidential role model, President Trump embraces both the bad and the good.
Contrasting Education Reforms
Gary Anderson, professor of educational policy and leadership at New York University, penned an article in the June 17, 2017 Albuquerque Journal, in which he chastised the Journal editorial for applauding Hannah Skandera's "accomplishments" as New Mexico's secretary of education. Skandera was no friend of unionized teachers and was an ardent proponent of high-takes testing of students and teachers. After years of being only the "acting" secretary of education, a reluctant state legislature finally removed "acting" from her title in the past year. Skandera recently resigned, with no stated reason why.
Below are Anderson's "research-based 21st-century reforms:"
#Community schools with wrap-around services, not quasi-markets and charter schools;
#Controlled choice programs that seek desegregated schools, not market-based choice that results in schools stratified by class and race;
#Restorative justice approaches to discipline that reduce suspensions, not overly punitive, zero tolerance, suspension-oriented discipline;
#Dual language programs, not English-only approaches to English language learners;
#Authentic performance-based assessments, not high-stakes paper and pencil tests; and
#Social movement unionism, allied with communities, that fight for research-based social and educational reforms, not industrial union models that focus only on bread-and-butter issues, important as those are given teachers' salaries in New Mexico.
Footnote
[1] Machael Kazin, "The Two Andrew Jacksons," The Nation, August 28/September 4, 2017.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
TRUMP WATCH: So Long, Science
#Calling it "very unfair," President Trump withdraws the United States from the Paris climate accords. Among those urging him to stay in the agreement are BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell.
#Trump's appointee to the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is a prominent critic of renewable energy. His nominee for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's top scientist position is not a scientist.
#Trump signs a executive order seeking to expand oil drilling along the U.S. continental shelf. It would overturn President Barack Obama's ban on drilling in Arctic waters and on the Atlantic coast. The Sierra Club sues to block the order.
#The Trump administration's proposed budget for 2018 cuts funding for the EPA by nearly a third overall and for its enforcement arm by 40 percent; shuts down programs to clean up the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, and Puget Sound; and ends the Energy Star program, which informs consumers about the energy efficiency of appliances. It slashes research and science programs across the government, particularly those related to climate science. The budget also presumes the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling.
EPA administer Scott Pruitt claims that 50,000 coal jobs have been created under the Trump administration. The actual figure is 1,000 jobs.
#Trump proposes that his border wall be 50 feet high and outfitted with solar panels. Source: Paul Rauber, Sierra, September/October 2017).
#Sierra Club Climate-Related Impacts
#In March, wind and solar account for 10 percent of U.S. electricity generation for the first time.
#2016 had the second-biggest jump in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on record -- to nearly double the pace since 1979.
#Asked about climate change, Representative Tim Walberg (R- Mich.) replies: "If there's a real problem, He (God) can take care of it."
#Because of a decline in sea ice, polar bears's diets are shifting from seals to bird eggs.
#Tropical diseases normally associated with warm waters -- like infections of Vilrio vuinficus -- are turning up not far from the Arctic Circle.
#On June 7, 2017, renewables supply more than 50 percent of the U.K.'s electrical-power needs.
#The rate of sea level rise is nearly three times what it was prior to 1990.
#In retaliation for new U.S. duties on Canadian wood imports, Canada threatens to bar shipments of U.S. coal from British Columbia ports. (Source: Same as above).
ADDENDUMS:
*The Congressional Budget Office says that $7 billion withheld in subsidies by President Trump would expand the national debt by $194 billion in a decade; also, it could raise premiums by 20-25 percent in two years.
*According to Census Bureau data, 28.1 million Americans were uninsured in the January to March, 2017 period.
*A Monmouth poll found that 46 percent of hardcore Trump supporters are 55 or older.
#Trump's appointee to the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy is a prominent critic of renewable energy. His nominee for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's top scientist position is not a scientist.
#Trump signs a executive order seeking to expand oil drilling along the U.S. continental shelf. It would overturn President Barack Obama's ban on drilling in Arctic waters and on the Atlantic coast. The Sierra Club sues to block the order.
#The Trump administration's proposed budget for 2018 cuts funding for the EPA by nearly a third overall and for its enforcement arm by 40 percent; shuts down programs to clean up the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, and Puget Sound; and ends the Energy Star program, which informs consumers about the energy efficiency of appliances. It slashes research and science programs across the government, particularly those related to climate science. The budget also presumes the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling.
EPA administer Scott Pruitt claims that 50,000 coal jobs have been created under the Trump administration. The actual figure is 1,000 jobs.
#Trump proposes that his border wall be 50 feet high and outfitted with solar panels. Source: Paul Rauber, Sierra, September/October 2017).
#Sierra Club Climate-Related Impacts
#In March, wind and solar account for 10 percent of U.S. electricity generation for the first time.
#2016 had the second-biggest jump in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels on record -- to nearly double the pace since 1979.
#Asked about climate change, Representative Tim Walberg (R- Mich.) replies: "If there's a real problem, He (God) can take care of it."
#Because of a decline in sea ice, polar bears's diets are shifting from seals to bird eggs.
#Tropical diseases normally associated with warm waters -- like infections of Vilrio vuinficus -- are turning up not far from the Arctic Circle.
#On June 7, 2017, renewables supply more than 50 percent of the U.K.'s electrical-power needs.
#The rate of sea level rise is nearly three times what it was prior to 1990.
#In retaliation for new U.S. duties on Canadian wood imports, Canada threatens to bar shipments of U.S. coal from British Columbia ports. (Source: Same as above).
ADDENDUMS:
*The Congressional Budget Office says that $7 billion withheld in subsidies by President Trump would expand the national debt by $194 billion in a decade; also, it could raise premiums by 20-25 percent in two years.
*According to Census Bureau data, 28.1 million Americans were uninsured in the January to March, 2017 period.
*A Monmouth poll found that 46 percent of hardcore Trump supporters are 55 or older.
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Border Wall Hostile to Wildlife
Border Wall Blocks Jaguar Migration
The jaguar, among the big cats, considered to be by zookeepers, the most "unreliable" and "untamable," will be blocked from migrating from Mexico if the Trump border wall is built. 'Transborder connectivity' is an important component of jaguar recovery, and a future border wall would slice across five of the six critical habitat areas of the jaguar. "There is no recovery without connectitivity. By cleaving the landscape in two, the border wall would violate a core axiom of wildlife conservation and foreclose any future for the American jaguar. Separation is how an animal goes extinct -- first its population gets fragmented, then it winks out." "Today, most of the 60,000 or so wild jaguars in the world live in the tropics but the animal's range once included what today is the United States. Biologists say that the jaguar likely roamed a territory that stretched from Los Angeles to New Orleans." (See Jason Mark, "Migrants," Sierra, September/October 2017).
The jaguar would not be the only animal whose migration patterns would be threatened by a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The Coronado National Forest, which encompasses most of Arizona's Sky Islands, is a bioclimversity hot spot and contains more threatened or endangered species than any other national forest.
Republicans Slipping in Polls
Pollster Tony Fabrizio has found that President Trump's favorable rating among Republicans has slipped from 78 percent to 71 percent now. Speaker Ryan's favorable rating has dripped from 56 percent to 52 percent and Majority Leader McConnell's rating is at 27 percent favorable to 44 percent unfavorable.
Among Republicans, 18 percent blamed Trump for the failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, and 82 percent blamed the GOP lawmakers.
Republicans Are a Polling Outlier
The most recent Public Policy Polling firm poll has found that 45 percent of those who voted for Trump said they would prefer Jefferson Davis over Barack Obama as president. To the question of what racial group suffers the most discrimination in America, 45 percent of Trump voters said white people; 17 percent said Native Americans; 16 percent said African Americans; and 5 percent said Latinos. And what religious groups suffer the most discrimination? Trump voters said: 54 percent Christians; 22 percent Muslims; and 12 percent Jews.
ADDENDUMS:
*Department of Justice attorneys have filed a legal brief in federal court arguing that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not protect workers from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.
*The Department of Labor is trying to reverse the Obama rule to extend overtime pay to nearly 5 million people.
*President Trump's proposed cuts of 6 percent to the National Weather Service budget and 16 percent to the budget of its parent agency, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), could bring strong criticism in the wake of the damage being done by Hurricane Harvey.
*A Pew Research Center poll shows 35 percent support building the border wall and 62 percent oppose.
The jaguar, among the big cats, considered to be by zookeepers, the most "unreliable" and "untamable," will be blocked from migrating from Mexico if the Trump border wall is built. 'Transborder connectivity' is an important component of jaguar recovery, and a future border wall would slice across five of the six critical habitat areas of the jaguar. "There is no recovery without connectitivity. By cleaving the landscape in two, the border wall would violate a core axiom of wildlife conservation and foreclose any future for the American jaguar. Separation is how an animal goes extinct -- first its population gets fragmented, then it winks out." "Today, most of the 60,000 or so wild jaguars in the world live in the tropics but the animal's range once included what today is the United States. Biologists say that the jaguar likely roamed a territory that stretched from Los Angeles to New Orleans." (See Jason Mark, "Migrants," Sierra, September/October 2017).
The jaguar would not be the only animal whose migration patterns would be threatened by a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. The Coronado National Forest, which encompasses most of Arizona's Sky Islands, is a bioclimversity hot spot and contains more threatened or endangered species than any other national forest.
Republicans Slipping in Polls
Pollster Tony Fabrizio has found that President Trump's favorable rating among Republicans has slipped from 78 percent to 71 percent now. Speaker Ryan's favorable rating has dripped from 56 percent to 52 percent and Majority Leader McConnell's rating is at 27 percent favorable to 44 percent unfavorable.
Among Republicans, 18 percent blamed Trump for the failure to repeal and replace Obamacare, and 82 percent blamed the GOP lawmakers.
Republicans Are a Polling Outlier
The most recent Public Policy Polling firm poll has found that 45 percent of those who voted for Trump said they would prefer Jefferson Davis over Barack Obama as president. To the question of what racial group suffers the most discrimination in America, 45 percent of Trump voters said white people; 17 percent said Native Americans; 16 percent said African Americans; and 5 percent said Latinos. And what religious groups suffer the most discrimination? Trump voters said: 54 percent Christians; 22 percent Muslims; and 12 percent Jews.
ADDENDUMS:
*Department of Justice attorneys have filed a legal brief in federal court arguing that the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not protect workers from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.
*The Department of Labor is trying to reverse the Obama rule to extend overtime pay to nearly 5 million people.
*President Trump's proposed cuts of 6 percent to the National Weather Service budget and 16 percent to the budget of its parent agency, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), could bring strong criticism in the wake of the damage being done by Hurricane Harvey.
*A Pew Research Center poll shows 35 percent support building the border wall and 62 percent oppose.
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
ACA : Improving or Screwing It Up
Fixing or Hobbling the ACA
Outside the White House, a collapse of the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act may make some Republicans more willing to consider improving the law. To that end, Congress could permanently fund cost-sharing reductions to insurers, boost reimbursements to insurers for high-cost patients, and fix other small glitches in the law. Congress could also create a public option to boost competition in the ACA market.
A strategy to make the ACA fail would include ending the subsidies to insurers to cover premium shortfalls for low-income persons; choose not to enforce the tax penalties for people who forego insurance; and to refuse to advertise enrollment periods.
Leaving Students Behind
In the Jefferson County [Oregon] 509J School District, more than a third of all American Indian students in sixth through twelfth grades were suspended at least once during the 2015-16 school year, making them more than twice as likely to be suspended from school as their white peers. Native Americans make up one-third of the district's student population but receive nearly two-thirds of the expulsions. Last year, less than two-thirds of the tribal members who were enrolled as seniors in the 509J School District graduated. [1]
In public schools across the country, American Indian and Alaska Native students are more likely to be suspended than any other racial group, with the exception of African Americans. The suicide rate among Native teens is one and a half times higher than the national average, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Less than one percent of educators nation-wide are American Indians or Alaska Natives. [2]
Confederate Monument Building Periods
One thing that should have been learned during all the emphasis on Confederate statues and monuments is that they were not constructed and put in place as a direct result of the Civil War. There were periods in which other events and motivations drove an accelerated pace of building.
Most of the Confederate statues and monuments were built between 1890 and 1920 -- a time of lynchings, the "Lost Cause"myth, and a resurgent KKK. Another peak was achieved in the 1950-70 period -- a time of the Brown Supreme Court decision and Civil Rights activism. The peak in the building came in 1905-10 and that was primarily due to the growth of the KKK.
Defunding Planned Parenthood
In the state of Iowa, more than 4,000 patients, most of them women, will have to find new options for family planning care -- a change that will be especially hard for rural and low-income patients in the four locations where Planned Parenthood clinics closed. "The replacement plan is a fiscal double whammy: Iowa is giving up millions in federal money and plugging the hole with state taxpayer dollars -- even though it faced a major budget shortfall last year. And the costs will likely rise. in the decade it existed, the largely federally funded Iowa Planning Network helped save $265 million in Medicaid spending because of fewer births, even as the abortion rate dropped by 32 percent." [3]
Footnotes
[1] Rebecca Clarren, "Left Behind," The Nation, August 14/21, 2017.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Hannah Levintova, "If You Defend It, They Won't Come," Mother Jones, September/October 2017.
Outside the White House, a collapse of the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act may make some Republicans more willing to consider improving the law. To that end, Congress could permanently fund cost-sharing reductions to insurers, boost reimbursements to insurers for high-cost patients, and fix other small glitches in the law. Congress could also create a public option to boost competition in the ACA market.
A strategy to make the ACA fail would include ending the subsidies to insurers to cover premium shortfalls for low-income persons; choose not to enforce the tax penalties for people who forego insurance; and to refuse to advertise enrollment periods.
Leaving Students Behind
In the Jefferson County [Oregon] 509J School District, more than a third of all American Indian students in sixth through twelfth grades were suspended at least once during the 2015-16 school year, making them more than twice as likely to be suspended from school as their white peers. Native Americans make up one-third of the district's student population but receive nearly two-thirds of the expulsions. Last year, less than two-thirds of the tribal members who were enrolled as seniors in the 509J School District graduated. [1]
In public schools across the country, American Indian and Alaska Native students are more likely to be suspended than any other racial group, with the exception of African Americans. The suicide rate among Native teens is one and a half times higher than the national average, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Less than one percent of educators nation-wide are American Indians or Alaska Natives. [2]
Confederate Monument Building Periods
One thing that should have been learned during all the emphasis on Confederate statues and monuments is that they were not constructed and put in place as a direct result of the Civil War. There were periods in which other events and motivations drove an accelerated pace of building.
Most of the Confederate statues and monuments were built between 1890 and 1920 -- a time of lynchings, the "Lost Cause"myth, and a resurgent KKK. Another peak was achieved in the 1950-70 period -- a time of the Brown Supreme Court decision and Civil Rights activism. The peak in the building came in 1905-10 and that was primarily due to the growth of the KKK.
Defunding Planned Parenthood
In the state of Iowa, more than 4,000 patients, most of them women, will have to find new options for family planning care -- a change that will be especially hard for rural and low-income patients in the four locations where Planned Parenthood clinics closed. "The replacement plan is a fiscal double whammy: Iowa is giving up millions in federal money and plugging the hole with state taxpayer dollars -- even though it faced a major budget shortfall last year. And the costs will likely rise. in the decade it existed, the largely federally funded Iowa Planning Network helped save $265 million in Medicaid spending because of fewer births, even as the abortion rate dropped by 32 percent." [3]
Footnotes
[1] Rebecca Clarren, "Left Behind," The Nation, August 14/21, 2017.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Hannah Levintova, "If You Defend It, They Won't Come," Mother Jones, September/October 2017.
Sunday, August 20, 2017
Some Leftover Items From My Writer's Notebook
Pump's Testy Call to the Australian P.M.
About the same time as Donald Trump called the Mexican President Nieto in January 2017, he made a call to the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump got embroiled over the subject of some Syrian refuges that former President Barack Obama had agreed to resettle in the United States. Trump said: "I hate taking these people." "I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go to work for the local milk people." "I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made."
Fiduciary Rule
The Labor Department disclosed an 18-month delay in the fiduciary rule that requires brokers to act in the retirement savers'best interests rather than their own. The Economic Policy Institute's Heidi Shierholz says the 18-month deferral of the deferral rule -- past the current implementation date of January 1, 2018 -- will cost Americans saving or retirement an additional $10.9 billion over the next ten years.
Corporations' Taxes Far Less Than Commonly Believed
The Economic Policy Institute's Hunter Blair says that corporations actually pay an effective tax rate ranging from 13 to 19 percent. The deferral loophole allows large multinational corporations to avoid paying their taxes indefinitely on profits they made offshore. The deferred loophole has been used to book $2.6 trillion in profits offshore.
President Trump is proposing that the deferred loophole be made permanent.
DACA Deferred
Under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children were given work permits and protected from deportation. United States District Judge Andrew Hanen blocked enforcement of DACA in 2015, in a case that ultimately resulted in a 4-4 tie in the U.S/. Supreme Court.
The Trump administration has only until September 5 to defend the program or let it expire.
Trump on Trade
Trump tweet (August 14): "The Obstructionist Democrats have given us (or not fixed) some of the worst trade deals in World History. I am changing that fast!"
President Trump ordered the top trade adviser to determine whether to investigate Chinese trade practices that force U.S. firms operating in China to turn over intellectual property. If such turnover is occurring, it could lead to stiff tariffs on Chinese goods.
DeVos Prefers Private Over Public School Funding
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has cut $9 billion from her FY 2018 budget, including a $2.3 billion cut in teacher training grants, and $1.2 billion for after-school programs that serve children in some of the nation's poorest communities, while investing $1.4 billion on new public and private school choice opportunities.
DeVos joined Attorney General Jeff Sessions in rescinding guidance directing schools to let transgender students use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
About the same time as Donald Trump called the Mexican President Nieto in January 2017, he made a call to the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Trump got embroiled over the subject of some Syrian refuges that former President Barack Obama had agreed to resettle in the United States. Trump said: "I hate taking these people." "I guarantee you they are bad. That is why they are in prison right now. They are not going to be wonderful people who go to work for the local milk people." "I think it is a horrible deal, a disgusting deal that I would have never made."
Fiduciary Rule
The Labor Department disclosed an 18-month delay in the fiduciary rule that requires brokers to act in the retirement savers'best interests rather than their own. The Economic Policy Institute's Heidi Shierholz says the 18-month deferral of the deferral rule -- past the current implementation date of January 1, 2018 -- will cost Americans saving or retirement an additional $10.9 billion over the next ten years.
Corporations' Taxes Far Less Than Commonly Believed
The Economic Policy Institute's Hunter Blair says that corporations actually pay an effective tax rate ranging from 13 to 19 percent. The deferral loophole allows large multinational corporations to avoid paying their taxes indefinitely on profits they made offshore. The deferred loophole has been used to book $2.6 trillion in profits offshore.
President Trump is proposing that the deferred loophole be made permanent.
DACA Deferred
Under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children were given work permits and protected from deportation. United States District Judge Andrew Hanen blocked enforcement of DACA in 2015, in a case that ultimately resulted in a 4-4 tie in the U.S/. Supreme Court.
The Trump administration has only until September 5 to defend the program or let it expire.
Trump on Trade
Trump tweet (August 14): "The Obstructionist Democrats have given us (or not fixed) some of the worst trade deals in World History. I am changing that fast!"
President Trump ordered the top trade adviser to determine whether to investigate Chinese trade practices that force U.S. firms operating in China to turn over intellectual property. If such turnover is occurring, it could lead to stiff tariffs on Chinese goods.
DeVos Prefers Private Over Public School Funding
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has cut $9 billion from her FY 2018 budget, including a $2.3 billion cut in teacher training grants, and $1.2 billion for after-school programs that serve children in some of the nation's poorest communities, while investing $1.4 billion on new public and private school choice opportunities.
DeVos joined Attorney General Jeff Sessions in rescinding guidance directing schools to let transgender students use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
Friday, August 18, 2017
Voter Retaliation and Suppression; Ethical Shortfalls; and Funding Problems
Trump Voters Want to Retaliate Against Enemies
"Like many parts of America that strongly supported Trump. Grand Junction, [Colorado] is a rural place with problems that have traditionally been associated with urban areas." "Far from Denver and Boulder, there are many places where an atmosphere of decline has lasted for two or more generations, leaving a profound impact on the outlook of young people."
"Trump's negative qualities, which once had been described as a means to an end, now had value of their own. The point wasn't necessarily to get things done; it was to retaliate against the media and other enemies." The reporter, Peter Hessler, said that in eight months he had never heard anyone express regret for voting for Donald Trump. [1]
The Trump Family Ethical Delinquencies
"The Republicans, the self-proclaimed party of family values, remain squarely behind a family and a Presidency whose most salient features are amorality, greed, demogoguery, deception, vulgarity, race-baiting, misogyny, and potentially -- only time and further investigation will tell -- a murky relationship with a hostile foreign government." "Meanwhile, as the Trump family consumes the nation's attention with its colossal self-absorption and ethical delinquencies, the temperature keeps rising." [2]
Voter Suppression
Ari Berman, a noted researcher of voter suppression, writes that "even though 36 states use paper ballots or electronic machines with paper backups, that paper is rarely checked thoroughly enough to ensure the returns are accurate (only a little more than half the states require even basic post election audits)." [3]
According to a new study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, twelve percent of the electorate in 2016 -- 16 million Americans -- encountered a problem voting, including long lines at polls, difficulty registering, or faulty voting machines. And as Berman points out, the November 2016 election for president was decided by just 80,000 votes in three states.
According to the Brennan Center, 99 bills to limit access to the ballot have been introduced in 31 states this year, and more than in 2015 and 2016 combined.
The Fallacy of Tax Credits
During the campaign for president, Donald Trump proposed $550 billion for rebuilding America's infrastructure, which was exactly double what Hillary Clinton was proposing. After Trump was elected, the conventional wisdom was that Trump was proposing $1 trillion in infrastructure spending. What Trump is proposing now is to provide $200 billion in tax credits, which would then leverage $1 trillion in investment over a decade.
Two regular contributors to The Nation magazine demolish the argument that the Trump scheme would work. "First, the federal government would offer tax credits to private firms like investment banks, private-equity investors, and private electric and water companies. Then these firms would use the credits to raise the rest of the money they needed to fund the upkeep of roads or the creation of new bridges. But for a private firm to have any interest in a project, it will need some way to turn a profit when the project is completed." Covert and Konczal also point out that those in remote or low-income areas, where there aren't enough people to squeeze money from, won't attract private investors. [4]
Is there any evidence to support the article's title of "Soaring Prices?" Tolls for a privatized road in Indiana more than doubled. Water rates for a New Jersey town's privatized system have climbed almost 28 percent.
As an apt illustration of how President Trump takes actions or makes proposals that directly contradict each other, Trump's FY 2018 budget cuts $206 billion from federal programs that directly fund infrastructure projects.
Cutting Payments to Insurers
If President Trump cuts payments to insurers, the Kaiser Family Foundation's Larry Levitt has said the government would need to increase tax credits for those with cost-sharing reduction policies to offset the increase in premium prices. The Foundation also forecasts an immediate premium increase of about 20 percent for those who need premium assistance. Levitt says it could cost the government about $2.3 billion more than if it had paid the insurers at the outset. It's a case of pay me now or pay me later.
Members of the National Governors Association have warned that ending the payments to insurers would destabilize the individual health insurance marketplace.
SPECIAL NOTE: Please God, if you want me to support the impeachment of President Trump, give me a sign. Blot out the sun sometime during the next week.
Footnotes
[1] Peter Hessler, "Follow the Leader," The New Yorker, July 24, 2017.
[2] David Remnick, "Things Fall Apart," The New Yorker, July 24, 2017.
[3] Ari Berman, "American Democracy Besieged," The Nation, July 31/August 7, 2017.
[4] Bryce Covert + Mike Konczal, "Soaring Prices," The Nation, July 17/24, 2017.
"Like many parts of America that strongly supported Trump. Grand Junction, [Colorado] is a rural place with problems that have traditionally been associated with urban areas." "Far from Denver and Boulder, there are many places where an atmosphere of decline has lasted for two or more generations, leaving a profound impact on the outlook of young people."
"Trump's negative qualities, which once had been described as a means to an end, now had value of their own. The point wasn't necessarily to get things done; it was to retaliate against the media and other enemies." The reporter, Peter Hessler, said that in eight months he had never heard anyone express regret for voting for Donald Trump. [1]
The Trump Family Ethical Delinquencies
"The Republicans, the self-proclaimed party of family values, remain squarely behind a family and a Presidency whose most salient features are amorality, greed, demogoguery, deception, vulgarity, race-baiting, misogyny, and potentially -- only time and further investigation will tell -- a murky relationship with a hostile foreign government." "Meanwhile, as the Trump family consumes the nation's attention with its colossal self-absorption and ethical delinquencies, the temperature keeps rising." [2]
Voter Suppression
Ari Berman, a noted researcher of voter suppression, writes that "even though 36 states use paper ballots or electronic machines with paper backups, that paper is rarely checked thoroughly enough to ensure the returns are accurate (only a little more than half the states require even basic post election audits)." [3]
According to a new study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, twelve percent of the electorate in 2016 -- 16 million Americans -- encountered a problem voting, including long lines at polls, difficulty registering, or faulty voting machines. And as Berman points out, the November 2016 election for president was decided by just 80,000 votes in three states.
According to the Brennan Center, 99 bills to limit access to the ballot have been introduced in 31 states this year, and more than in 2015 and 2016 combined.
The Fallacy of Tax Credits
During the campaign for president, Donald Trump proposed $550 billion for rebuilding America's infrastructure, which was exactly double what Hillary Clinton was proposing. After Trump was elected, the conventional wisdom was that Trump was proposing $1 trillion in infrastructure spending. What Trump is proposing now is to provide $200 billion in tax credits, which would then leverage $1 trillion in investment over a decade.
Two regular contributors to The Nation magazine demolish the argument that the Trump scheme would work. "First, the federal government would offer tax credits to private firms like investment banks, private-equity investors, and private electric and water companies. Then these firms would use the credits to raise the rest of the money they needed to fund the upkeep of roads or the creation of new bridges. But for a private firm to have any interest in a project, it will need some way to turn a profit when the project is completed." Covert and Konczal also point out that those in remote or low-income areas, where there aren't enough people to squeeze money from, won't attract private investors. [4]
Is there any evidence to support the article's title of "Soaring Prices?" Tolls for a privatized road in Indiana more than doubled. Water rates for a New Jersey town's privatized system have climbed almost 28 percent.
As an apt illustration of how President Trump takes actions or makes proposals that directly contradict each other, Trump's FY 2018 budget cuts $206 billion from federal programs that directly fund infrastructure projects.
Cutting Payments to Insurers
If President Trump cuts payments to insurers, the Kaiser Family Foundation's Larry Levitt has said the government would need to increase tax credits for those with cost-sharing reduction policies to offset the increase in premium prices. The Foundation also forecasts an immediate premium increase of about 20 percent for those who need premium assistance. Levitt says it could cost the government about $2.3 billion more than if it had paid the insurers at the outset. It's a case of pay me now or pay me later.
Members of the National Governors Association have warned that ending the payments to insurers would destabilize the individual health insurance marketplace.
SPECIAL NOTE: Please God, if you want me to support the impeachment of President Trump, give me a sign. Blot out the sun sometime during the next week.
Footnotes
[1] Peter Hessler, "Follow the Leader," The New Yorker, July 24, 2017.
[2] David Remnick, "Things Fall Apart," The New Yorker, July 24, 2017.
[3] Ari Berman, "American Democracy Besieged," The Nation, July 31/August 7, 2017.
[4] Bryce Covert + Mike Konczal, "Soaring Prices," The Nation, July 17/24, 2017.
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Trump Sees Equivalency in Charlottesville Clash
When President Trump initially commented on the clash between white supremacists and those gathered in opposition to them in Charlottesville, Virginia, he said "many sides" were responsible for the violence. Two days later, after reportedly being urged to do so by his chief of staff, Trump issued a condemnation of the alt-right, he singled out the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and white supremacists -- or white nationalists -- as being responsible for the violence. He didn't, however, disavow their support.
Yesterday, Trump came down the elevator at the Trump Tower in New York City, accompanied by high officials in his administration. What he had been expected to do by his staff was to read a short statement on a method for getting the rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure under way. Instead, Trump had come prepared to make the case for blaming the two sides for the violence that had occurred over the weekend. What he did was to essentially pull back the statement he had made the day before and go back to his Saturday statement, substituting "two sides" for "many sides."
There is much to chew over in Trump's exchanges with reporters in Trump Tower. One thing that really stuck out to me was Trump's insistence that he is different from most politicians, because he gathers all the facts before making a statement. This is about as far as one can get from the truth, as Trump is notorious for making snap judgments, such as labeling an attack as an act of international terrorism immediately upon learning of it. Trump even admitted that he didn't yet know all the facts and neither did the reporters. Perhaps, then, he should have let his Monday statement stand until more information conflicted with his earlier statement.
President Trump created a new grouping when he referred to those opposed to the white supremacists as the "alt-left." He challenged one reporter to characterize the violence of this alt-left group charging at their opponents with clubs in their hands. It was a reporter from, I believe, MSNBC, who said that almost all the white supremacists were armed and most of those protesting against them were unarmed. What can be gleaned from televised images of the conflict, the reporter's perspective seems to be accurate.
Trump also spoke of those fighting the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee quietly protesting on Friday night and he said there were "nice people" in each group. A woman who had helped to arrange a standing-only service at the nearby United Church of Christ was interviewed at length on MSNBC. She spoke of the loud chanting going on outside from the torch-bearers, hearing
"Blood and Soil," "You will not replace us," "White lives matter." Those in the church couldn't leave by the front door because of the danger outside but exited by the side and rear doors. Nonetheless, they were subjected to angry threats when they left the service.
When President Trump referred to the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee, he wondered if General Stonewall Jackson would be next. And in the next week would it be monuments to George Washington and the week after, Thomas Jefferson? Trump doesn't understand that there is a fundamental distinction among these four men: Lee and Jackson were committing treason against constituted government, while Washington and Jefferson are being honored for being giants in the formation of the new government. We can be very critical of both Washington and Jefferson for being slave owners and yet honor them for the many valuable contributions they made to the new nation.
In summary, what can be said of the impromptu meeting with the media yesterday is that President Trump elevated the status of the white supremacists, minimized the level of the violence they engaged in this past weekend, and very likely energized them to conduct more of these violence-laden gatherings in the future.
Yesterday, Trump came down the elevator at the Trump Tower in New York City, accompanied by high officials in his administration. What he had been expected to do by his staff was to read a short statement on a method for getting the rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure under way. Instead, Trump had come prepared to make the case for blaming the two sides for the violence that had occurred over the weekend. What he did was to essentially pull back the statement he had made the day before and go back to his Saturday statement, substituting "two sides" for "many sides."
There is much to chew over in Trump's exchanges with reporters in Trump Tower. One thing that really stuck out to me was Trump's insistence that he is different from most politicians, because he gathers all the facts before making a statement. This is about as far as one can get from the truth, as Trump is notorious for making snap judgments, such as labeling an attack as an act of international terrorism immediately upon learning of it. Trump even admitted that he didn't yet know all the facts and neither did the reporters. Perhaps, then, he should have let his Monday statement stand until more information conflicted with his earlier statement.
President Trump created a new grouping when he referred to those opposed to the white supremacists as the "alt-left." He challenged one reporter to characterize the violence of this alt-left group charging at their opponents with clubs in their hands. It was a reporter from, I believe, MSNBC, who said that almost all the white supremacists were armed and most of those protesting against them were unarmed. What can be gleaned from televised images of the conflict, the reporter's perspective seems to be accurate.
Trump also spoke of those fighting the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee quietly protesting on Friday night and he said there were "nice people" in each group. A woman who had helped to arrange a standing-only service at the nearby United Church of Christ was interviewed at length on MSNBC. She spoke of the loud chanting going on outside from the torch-bearers, hearing
"Blood and Soil," "You will not replace us," "White lives matter." Those in the church couldn't leave by the front door because of the danger outside but exited by the side and rear doors. Nonetheless, they were subjected to angry threats when they left the service.
When President Trump referred to the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee, he wondered if General Stonewall Jackson would be next. And in the next week would it be monuments to George Washington and the week after, Thomas Jefferson? Trump doesn't understand that there is a fundamental distinction among these four men: Lee and Jackson were committing treason against constituted government, while Washington and Jefferson are being honored for being giants in the formation of the new government. We can be very critical of both Washington and Jefferson for being slave owners and yet honor them for the many valuable contributions they made to the new nation.
In summary, what can be said of the impromptu meeting with the media yesterday is that President Trump elevated the status of the white supremacists, minimized the level of the violence they engaged in this past weekend, and very likely energized them to conduct more of these violence-laden gatherings in the future.
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