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."
Thursday, August 31, 2017
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.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Some Short Subjects to Mostly Burden One's Mind
I. Environmental Protection
*A 2016 poll by Colorado's College's State of the Rockies Project found that 76 percent of Republicans in Western states -- and nearly 80 percent of all registered voters in Western states --support common-sense rules that cut natural-gas waste on public lands.
*A federal appeals court in Washington D.C. blocked EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, allowing EPA methane standards to go forward. The court ruled that the agency illegally implemented a 90-day stay of the rule, while opening a two-year study, intending to essentially remove the rule.
*On June 27, Pruitt started the process to repeal the Clean Water Act, putting the sources of drinking water for more than 117 million Americans at risk and increasing threats to streams and wetlands that filter pollution and provide habitat for wildlife. (Source: Rachel Corn, "EPA move endangers drinking water," Rio Grande Sierran, July/August/September 2017).
*The EPA dismissed at least half of its Board of Scientific Counselors with the intent of replacing the scientist members with industry representatives. (Source: Phil Carter, "States will suffer from EPA cuts," Rio Grande Sierran, July/August/September 2017).
*Over 1,800 tons of highly-radioactive waste is being stored at San Onofre, a shuttered nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast between Los Angeles and San Diego.
II. The Business of Business
*Nearly half the country has $0 invested in the stock market. Most families with incomes over $100,000 have at least some money in the stock market.
*"And corporate profits are at record levels as a percentage of GDP, but revenues from corporate taxes are lower than the industrial-world average as a percentage of federal income." (Source: Robert Borosage).
*A June survey by Hart Research for Americans for Tax Fairness found that only 16 percent of respondents supported lower corporate tax rates.
*By 1920, there were 925,000 black-owned farms, representing about 14 percent of all farms in the United States. By 1975, just 45,000 black-owned farms remained." "Today, African Americans comprise less than two percent of the nation's farmers and one percent of its rural landowners." (Source: Leah Douglas, "Stolen Birthright," The Nation, July 17/24, 2017).
*A 2001 report from the U.S. Agricultural Census estimated that about 80 percent of black-owned farmland had disappeared in the South since 1969. Approximately half of that land was lost through partition sales.
III. Miscellaneous
*When Trump said that prosecutors should be looking at Hillary Clinton's 33,000 missing emails, the West Virginia crowd shouted "Lock her up!"
*In a tweet, Trump claimed that Hillary sold uranium to angry Russians.
*According to Prison Policy Initiatives, 74 percent of jails banned in-person visits when they implemented video visitation.
*President Trump told Mexican President Nieto: "I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den." Hillary won New Hampshire.
*A 2016 poll by Colorado's College's State of the Rockies Project found that 76 percent of Republicans in Western states -- and nearly 80 percent of all registered voters in Western states --support common-sense rules that cut natural-gas waste on public lands.
*A federal appeals court in Washington D.C. blocked EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, allowing EPA methane standards to go forward. The court ruled that the agency illegally implemented a 90-day stay of the rule, while opening a two-year study, intending to essentially remove the rule.
*On June 27, Pruitt started the process to repeal the Clean Water Act, putting the sources of drinking water for more than 117 million Americans at risk and increasing threats to streams and wetlands that filter pollution and provide habitat for wildlife. (Source: Rachel Corn, "EPA move endangers drinking water," Rio Grande Sierran, July/August/September 2017).
*The EPA dismissed at least half of its Board of Scientific Counselors with the intent of replacing the scientist members with industry representatives. (Source: Phil Carter, "States will suffer from EPA cuts," Rio Grande Sierran, July/August/September 2017).
*Over 1,800 tons of highly-radioactive waste is being stored at San Onofre, a shuttered nuclear power plant on the Pacific coast between Los Angeles and San Diego.
II. The Business of Business
*Nearly half the country has $0 invested in the stock market. Most families with incomes over $100,000 have at least some money in the stock market.
*"And corporate profits are at record levels as a percentage of GDP, but revenues from corporate taxes are lower than the industrial-world average as a percentage of federal income." (Source: Robert Borosage).
*A June survey by Hart Research for Americans for Tax Fairness found that only 16 percent of respondents supported lower corporate tax rates.
*By 1920, there were 925,000 black-owned farms, representing about 14 percent of all farms in the United States. By 1975, just 45,000 black-owned farms remained." "Today, African Americans comprise less than two percent of the nation's farmers and one percent of its rural landowners." (Source: Leah Douglas, "Stolen Birthright," The Nation, July 17/24, 2017).
*A 2001 report from the U.S. Agricultural Census estimated that about 80 percent of black-owned farmland had disappeared in the South since 1969. Approximately half of that land was lost through partition sales.
III. Miscellaneous
*When Trump said that prosecutors should be looking at Hillary Clinton's 33,000 missing emails, the West Virginia crowd shouted "Lock her up!"
*In a tweet, Trump claimed that Hillary sold uranium to angry Russians.
*According to Prison Policy Initiatives, 74 percent of jails banned in-person visits when they implemented video visitation.
*President Trump told Mexican President Nieto: "I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den." Hillary won New Hampshire.
Monday, August 7, 2017
Trump Voters Verge on Cult Worship
Public Policy Polling did a survey in July 2017 that found disturbing signs that Trump voters verge on cult worship:
#Only 45% of Trump voters believe Donald Trump Jr. had a meeting with Russians about information that might be harmful to Hillary Clinton., even though Donald Jr. admitted it. 32% say the meeting didn't happen and 24% say they're just not sure.
#72% of Trump voters consider the Russia story overall to be "fake news." Only 14% disagree.
#Only 24% of Trump voters even want an investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. 64% are opposed to an investigation.
#Only 26% of Trump voters admit that Russia wanted Trump to win the election. 44% claim Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to win, and 31% said they they'e not sure one way or the other.
#Even if there was an investigation and it found that the Trump campaign did collude with Russia to aid his campaign, 77%f his supporters think he should still say in office to just 15% who believe he should resign.
During the election campaign, Donald Trump said that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. 45% of Trump voters in the PPP survey say they would still approve of him if he shot someone.
The PPP survey asked all respondents to indicate who they trust more: Trump or various media organizations. Trump lost in every match up:
The voters say they trust NBC and ABC each more than him, 56/38. They say they trust CBS more than him, 56/39. They say they trust the New York Times more than him, 55/38. They say they trust CNN more than him, 54/39. And they say they trust the Washington Post more than him, 53/38.
Although the media sources cited show the media well ahead on a percentage basis, the fact that nearly four in ten respondents trust Trump more is disturbing, given Trump's penchant for lying.
ADDENDUMS:
*"Below ground, the practice of "long-wall" mining, which removes an entire coal seam, can crack buildings' foundations and damage springs and wells, destroying water supplies." (Source: Eliza Griswold, "Undermined," The New Yorker, July 3, 2017).
*"Undermined streams can vanish entirely, and companies are legally permitted to repair them by pumping water through a hose set in the dry stream bed." (Source: Griswold).
*In June, the Pennsylvania senate passed a bill to exempt underground mining from state clean-water regulations.
*Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a $696.5 billion defense policy bill: $621.5 billion for the Pentagon's base budget and Energy Department nuclear programs, and $75 billion for war funding, known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget.
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Dwindling Tiger Population and G20 Meetings
Dwindling Tiger Population
"Only a century ago, an estimated 100,000 tigers prowled the planet -- some 40,000 in India alone. Then intense hunting and habitat loss devastated tiger populations, and by 1970, fewer that 25,000 remained worldwide. In India, fewer than 2,000 survived." India has expanded its wildlife sanctuary system from just ten national parks to more than 100, to the point that there are over 600 protected areas in the country, including 50 tiger preserves. [1]
The creation of protected areas resulted in protests against displacement of tribal people and eventually resulted in the passage of the Forests Rights Act (FRA). The FRA guarantees the rights of "traditional forest dwellers" to live on and use the lands they've relied upon for generations, even within national parks.
While tiger numbers in India are on the rise, poaching remains a big concern, with twice as many tigers poached in 2016, as in 2015. Poachers feed a multimillion-dollar market in tiger-based Chinese medicines and luxury products.
There is a debate among conservationists, with some maintaining that the only real hope for saving India's tigers is to keep people out of the less than five percent of land that has been set aside for wildlife habitat.
Trump/Putin Meeting Discrepancies
There are a number of discrepancies that have arisen about the meetings between Trump and Putin at the G20 summit. The major problem revolves around the issue of Russia meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump has said that the first time the issue came up, about 20 to 25 minutes was spent in discussing it. Trump then said the issue came up "in a totally different way" and Putin said that Russia absolutely did not meddle in the election. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the issue came up several times.
Both President Putin and the Russian foreign minister contended that Trump accepted the denial and dropped the issue, whereas Trump has not accepted the Russian denial of meddling, nor has he or Tillerson challenged it.
The other discrepancy concerns the length of the meeting that occurred during the G20 dinner. Other sources have been saying that Putin and Trump met once more for about an hour; however, Trump describes that meeting as lasting about 15 minutes. Trump said that "Russian adoptions" was included as a topic, which he said was "interesting," because it was "part of the conversation that Don had in that meeting" (referring to the June 2016 meeting).
ADDENDUMS:
*The Government Ethics office warned that a top Trump administration ethics officer may have violated the very ethics rules he is required to enforce by allowing billionaire investor Carl Icahn -- who has frequently advised Trump -- to skirt financial disclosure requirements.
*Approximately half of American jobs could be replaced by automation in the coming years, and roughly one in four are at risk of being lost to foreign competition, according to a study recently published by Ball State University. "The negative long-term impacts of displacement have been found to be worse for low-skilled, less-educated workers, who are likely to work in more vulnerable jobs."
Footnote
[1] Michael Bananav, "The Tiger Watchers," Sierra, July/August 2017.
"Only a century ago, an estimated 100,000 tigers prowled the planet -- some 40,000 in India alone. Then intense hunting and habitat loss devastated tiger populations, and by 1970, fewer that 25,000 remained worldwide. In India, fewer than 2,000 survived." India has expanded its wildlife sanctuary system from just ten national parks to more than 100, to the point that there are over 600 protected areas in the country, including 50 tiger preserves. [1]
The creation of protected areas resulted in protests against displacement of tribal people and eventually resulted in the passage of the Forests Rights Act (FRA). The FRA guarantees the rights of "traditional forest dwellers" to live on and use the lands they've relied upon for generations, even within national parks.
While tiger numbers in India are on the rise, poaching remains a big concern, with twice as many tigers poached in 2016, as in 2015. Poachers feed a multimillion-dollar market in tiger-based Chinese medicines and luxury products.
There is a debate among conservationists, with some maintaining that the only real hope for saving India's tigers is to keep people out of the less than five percent of land that has been set aside for wildlife habitat.
Trump/Putin Meeting Discrepancies
There are a number of discrepancies that have arisen about the meetings between Trump and Putin at the G20 summit. The major problem revolves around the issue of Russia meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump has said that the first time the issue came up, about 20 to 25 minutes was spent in discussing it. Trump then said the issue came up "in a totally different way" and Putin said that Russia absolutely did not meddle in the election. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the issue came up several times.
Both President Putin and the Russian foreign minister contended that Trump accepted the denial and dropped the issue, whereas Trump has not accepted the Russian denial of meddling, nor has he or Tillerson challenged it.
The other discrepancy concerns the length of the meeting that occurred during the G20 dinner. Other sources have been saying that Putin and Trump met once more for about an hour; however, Trump describes that meeting as lasting about 15 minutes. Trump said that "Russian adoptions" was included as a topic, which he said was "interesting," because it was "part of the conversation that Don had in that meeting" (referring to the June 2016 meeting).
ADDENDUMS:
*The Government Ethics office warned that a top Trump administration ethics officer may have violated the very ethics rules he is required to enforce by allowing billionaire investor Carl Icahn -- who has frequently advised Trump -- to skirt financial disclosure requirements.
*Approximately half of American jobs could be replaced by automation in the coming years, and roughly one in four are at risk of being lost to foreign competition, according to a study recently published by Ball State University. "The negative long-term impacts of displacement have been found to be worse for low-skilled, less-educated workers, who are likely to work in more vulnerable jobs."
Footnote
[1] Michael Bananav, "The Tiger Watchers," Sierra, July/August 2017.
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
The Boy Scout Speech and More
"The Boy Scout Speech
President Trump's speech to tens of thousands of Boy Scouts gathered at a jamboree in West Virginia drew "sincere apologies" from the Scouts' chief executive, Michael Surbaugh. Surbaugh extended his "sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree."
In the speech, Trump criticized both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama; also, he singled out congressional Republican lawmakers who were not in lockstep with him on healthcare legislation. He indoctrinated the Scouts with his "fake media" obsession and credited the Scouts for being among the millions who voted for him, although given the ages of the Boy Scouts, any of them voting for him would have been committing voter fraud.
Contagious Indignity
"[Trump] descends from the lineage of the Know-Nothings, the doomsayers and the fabulists, the nativists and the hucksters. The thematic shift from Obama to Trump has been from 'lifting as we climb' to 'raising the drawbridge and bolting the door.' " David Remnick asks "when has any politician done so much, so quickly, to demean his office, his country, and even the language in which he attempts to speak?"
"The atmosphere of debasement and indignity in the White House it appears, is contagious. Trump's family and the aides who hastened to serve him have learned to imitate his grossest reflexes, and to hell with the contradictions." (Source: David Remnick, "Dignity and the Fourth," The New Yorker, July 10 & 17, 2017).
Healthcare Polling
A NPR/Marist/PBS News Hour poll taken early in July, found that only 17 percent of adults approved of the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). A slight majority approved of single-payer but backed off when presented with trade-offs. For instance, the percentage of approval dropped when presented with the argument that the system would "give the government too much control over health care," but rose to a strong 72 percent when presented with the premise that the system would "reduce health insurance administrative costs." Thus, how single-payer is presented makes a big difference in the percentage of approval.
A Gallup poll taken in 2016 showed 60 percent supporting a governmental responsibility to make sure that people have healthcare insurance.
Strong Approval of Trump
Many of the polls taken of President Trump's approval rating don't indicate what percentage expresses "strong approval" of him. A Washington Post/ABC News poll taken early in July found that 36 percent approved of Trump's performance but only 25 percent expressed "strong approval." 82 percent of self-identified Republicans approved of Trump, but 62 percent expressed "strong approval." 85 percent of self-identified Democrats disapproved of Trump and 75 percent expressed "strong disapproval."
Generally speaking, when questioned on individual issues, about a quarter expressed "strong approval" of his performance.
President Trump's speech to tens of thousands of Boy Scouts gathered at a jamboree in West Virginia drew "sincere apologies" from the Scouts' chief executive, Michael Surbaugh. Surbaugh extended his "sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree."
In the speech, Trump criticized both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama; also, he singled out congressional Republican lawmakers who were not in lockstep with him on healthcare legislation. He indoctrinated the Scouts with his "fake media" obsession and credited the Scouts for being among the millions who voted for him, although given the ages of the Boy Scouts, any of them voting for him would have been committing voter fraud.
Contagious Indignity
"[Trump] descends from the lineage of the Know-Nothings, the doomsayers and the fabulists, the nativists and the hucksters. The thematic shift from Obama to Trump has been from 'lifting as we climb' to 'raising the drawbridge and bolting the door.' " David Remnick asks "when has any politician done so much, so quickly, to demean his office, his country, and even the language in which he attempts to speak?"
"The atmosphere of debasement and indignity in the White House it appears, is contagious. Trump's family and the aides who hastened to serve him have learned to imitate his grossest reflexes, and to hell with the contradictions." (Source: David Remnick, "Dignity and the Fourth," The New Yorker, July 10 & 17, 2017).
Healthcare Polling
A NPR/Marist/PBS News Hour poll taken early in July, found that only 17 percent of adults approved of the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). A slight majority approved of single-payer but backed off when presented with trade-offs. For instance, the percentage of approval dropped when presented with the argument that the system would "give the government too much control over health care," but rose to a strong 72 percent when presented with the premise that the system would "reduce health insurance administrative costs." Thus, how single-payer is presented makes a big difference in the percentage of approval.
A Gallup poll taken in 2016 showed 60 percent supporting a governmental responsibility to make sure that people have healthcare insurance.
Strong Approval of Trump
Many of the polls taken of President Trump's approval rating don't indicate what percentage expresses "strong approval" of him. A Washington Post/ABC News poll taken early in July found that 36 percent approved of Trump's performance but only 25 percent expressed "strong approval." 82 percent of self-identified Republicans approved of Trump, but 62 percent expressed "strong approval." 85 percent of self-identified Democrats disapproved of Trump and 75 percent expressed "strong disapproval."
Generally speaking, when questioned on individual issues, about a quarter expressed "strong approval" of his performance.
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