President Trump has said that the U.S. needs a Space Force as a sixth component of its military force structure to ensure "American dominance in space." Among the problems associated with Trump's proposal is that the U.S. Air Force already has a Space Command (AFSPC), and there is an Outer Space Treaty that prohibits introducing war fighting into outer space.
The Space Command has its headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. The command supports U.S.military operation worldwide, through the use of many different types of satellites, launch and cyber operations. It has over 30,000 military and civilian employees. The main mission is to keep the global world of GPS satellites peaceful.
The Outer Space Treaty was signed on January 27, 1967, and ratified by the United States on October 10, 1967. The Treaty was designed to bar the use of outer space for military purposes. Although it has 17 articles, the core substance is found in Article IV. First, it forbids placing in orbit around the earth, installing on the moon or any other celestial body, or otherwise stationing in outer space, a nuclear or any other weapons of mass destruction. Second, it limits the use of the moon and other celestial bodies exclusively to peaceful purposes, and expressly forbids their use for establishing military bases, installing, fortifying, or testing weapons of any kind, or conducting military maneuvers.
Currently, there is no guidance for how a war or armed conflict might happen in space, or what a "war fighting domain" might look like. A Space Force would create a new bureaucracy, further swell an already bloated Pentagon budget, possibly cause other nations to place weapons in space, and lead to the abrogation of an international treaty designed to keep outer space peaceful.
A poll that came out shortly after President Trump had announced his intention to create a Space Force showed that 57 percent favored its creation. It has long been the case that any candidate for national office who calls for a significant cut in the Pentagon's budget finds it difficult to be elected. Nations and even civilizations -- consider the Roman Empire -- that devote a considerable amount of their resources to build their armed forces, end up in the dustbin of history.
Friday, August 31, 2018
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Anti-Abortion Zealots, NRA Legal Protection, and New Mexico Environmental Matters
#"For years, anti-abortion zealots have done their best to make normal life hell for red-state abortion providers and their patients: picketing their homes, sending -- and sometimes fulfilling -- death threats, leafleting neighbors, following their children about." "No matter how vulgar, gross, threatening, cruel, illegal, or insane, the right becomes, it's always the left that is warned against piping up too loudly." [1]
#Thanks to lobbying by the National Rifle Association, federal law prohibits the National Tracing Center from using a searchable database to identify the owners of guns seized at crime scenes. Whose privacy is being protected there?" [2]
#"Right now, if families in Eastern New Mexico want to go solar, they have to pay their electric utility, Southwestern Public Service SPS), an average of $28 monthly in fees that other customers don't have to pay." "Earlier this year, SPS filed with the Public Regulation Commission (PRC) to raise Rate 59 once again as part of its newest rate case." In late June, a PRC hearing examiner recommended that Rate 59 be cancelled, along with another charge that discourages residential and business solar. [3]
#"Holtec has a controversial plan to store up to 100,000 tons of the nation's most dangerous nuclear-reactor waste for as long as 120 years in the ground between Hobbs and Carlsbad." "Holtec plans to transport canisters of irradiated reactor fuel rods from around the country and store them slightly underground and partly above the surface in New Mexico." [4]
#" Initial estimates are that industry has requested for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to lease more than 55,000 acres of additional Greater Chaco public land, which is already 91 percent leased out to oil and gas." [5] Chaco is a cliff into which Indians long ago cut livable openings.
#The Trump administration has said that the emissions standards set to take effect for cars built from 2021 to 2026 are unreasonable for both economic and safety reasons. The EPA and the Department of Transportation are proposing to freeze standards at their proposed 2020 level. The proposal would produce an average of 37 miles per gallon, versus the Obama standard of 54.5 miles per gallon.
Monday, August 20, 2018
Omarosa's Damaging Audio Recordings
Whatever one might think about the ethical and legal implications of Omarosa Manigault Newman recording members of the White House staff, campaign workers for Trump and President Trump himself, she has inflicted real damage on the Trump presidency. It started with Omarosa releasing the tape of chief of staff John Kelly telling her she was fired, and then Trump expressing his total ignorance of how the firing came about. Trump said he would "love" to have her stay in her job.
What these two recordings reveal is that Trump either doesn't have control over his own staff on matters that are important to him, or he ordered the firing and is lying to Omarosa to placate her, and avoid nasty recriminations from her. Then there is the matter of how Omarosa was able to do recordings in areas that were subject to high levels of security.
The audio of Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump negotiating payment to Omorosa upon leaving her senior adviser position with the Trump administration is curious, to say the least. Lara has no official position in the administration, so the only reason she is arranging employment terms with Omarosa is apparently because she is part of the extended Trump family.
Lara asks Omarosa if $15,000 a month would be satisfactory to her, as it would equal her salary as a senior adviser. For that generous payment, she wouldn't need to do hardly anything, except that if she is called on to help Trump at any point, she will be expected to be positive in her response. I note here that $180,000 a year is more than three times what half of U.S. households have in income. Also, the public has learned through this published audio that the former personal bodyguard to Trump is also being paid $15,000 a month. Since he is not doing any duties for Trump, the thin cover story is that he may be on hold for a future position in President Trump's possible campaign for reelection.
It is unclear as to who is funding what seem to be "hush" payments. Is it the taxpayer? Is it the Trump Organization? Is it the campaign contributors? Is it from the Michael Cohen slush fund?
The tape made by Omarosa of herself and three others discussing whether or not Donald Trump used the "N" word in a take-out tape from "The Apprentice" reality show is burdened by story changes by two of the other three participants.
#Katrina Pierson originally said that the phone conversation never took place, but later changed her story to say that she was just humoring Omarosa, and trying to placate her, because Omarosa was obsessed by the taping.
#Pierson and Lynne Patton later put out a joint statement claiming that there were "multiple" conversations about the tape in question.
#Pierson says: "He said. No. He said it." --"it" meaning using the "N' word -- but "He is embarrassed by it."
# Pierson is heard at another point saying they should "maybe try to find a way to spin it."
#Patton says she discussed the tape with Donald Trump and he asked her: "How do you think I should handle it?"
#The story of the call gets muddied up by the claim that the call was actually about whether of not the Republican pollster, Frank Luntz, ever heard Trump use the "N" word.
Omarosa Manigault Newman has succeeded in unhinging President Trump. He has gone from praising her to the skies, to calling her a "crazed, crying low-life," and even "a dog." He has framed the hiring of Omarosa as a magnanimous act on his part in giving a chance to this "crazed, crying low-life," and she blew it. Besides his harsh denigration of a person he once held in high esteem, Trump has opened a window into his bad judgment.
What these two recordings reveal is that Trump either doesn't have control over his own staff on matters that are important to him, or he ordered the firing and is lying to Omarosa to placate her, and avoid nasty recriminations from her. Then there is the matter of how Omarosa was able to do recordings in areas that were subject to high levels of security.
The audio of Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump negotiating payment to Omorosa upon leaving her senior adviser position with the Trump administration is curious, to say the least. Lara has no official position in the administration, so the only reason she is arranging employment terms with Omarosa is apparently because she is part of the extended Trump family.
Lara asks Omarosa if $15,000 a month would be satisfactory to her, as it would equal her salary as a senior adviser. For that generous payment, she wouldn't need to do hardly anything, except that if she is called on to help Trump at any point, she will be expected to be positive in her response. I note here that $180,000 a year is more than three times what half of U.S. households have in income. Also, the public has learned through this published audio that the former personal bodyguard to Trump is also being paid $15,000 a month. Since he is not doing any duties for Trump, the thin cover story is that he may be on hold for a future position in President Trump's possible campaign for reelection.
It is unclear as to who is funding what seem to be "hush" payments. Is it the taxpayer? Is it the Trump Organization? Is it the campaign contributors? Is it from the Michael Cohen slush fund?
The tape made by Omarosa of herself and three others discussing whether or not Donald Trump used the "N" word in a take-out tape from "The Apprentice" reality show is burdened by story changes by two of the other three participants.
#Katrina Pierson originally said that the phone conversation never took place, but later changed her story to say that she was just humoring Omarosa, and trying to placate her, because Omarosa was obsessed by the taping.
#Pierson and Lynne Patton later put out a joint statement claiming that there were "multiple" conversations about the tape in question.
#Pierson says: "He said. No. He said it." --"it" meaning using the "N' word -- but "He is embarrassed by it."
# Pierson is heard at another point saying they should "maybe try to find a way to spin it."
#Patton says she discussed the tape with Donald Trump and he asked her: "How do you think I should handle it?"
#The story of the call gets muddied up by the claim that the call was actually about whether of not the Republican pollster, Frank Luntz, ever heard Trump use the "N" word.
Omarosa Manigault Newman has succeeded in unhinging President Trump. He has gone from praising her to the skies, to calling her a "crazed, crying low-life," and even "a dog." He has framed the hiring of Omarosa as a magnanimous act on his part in giving a chance to this "crazed, crying low-life," and she blew it. Besides his harsh denigration of a person he once held in high esteem, Trump has opened a window into his bad judgment.
Friday, August 17, 2018
Trump Watch on the Environment and Excessive Housing Costs
Trump Watch on Environment
The EPA is poised to roll back the Obama-era efficiency standards. The agency threatens to revoke California's waiver under the Clean Air Act, which allow it to require cleaner cars.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke denies that his department censors science. A National Park Service report on how it will deal with climate change omits all references to human causation.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't want to give threatened species as much protection as endangered ones.
The Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program wins multiple court rulings: Now the BLM must disclose the climate impacts of fossil fuel development in the Powder River Basin; the Trump administration can't overturn the ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic without judicial review; and the administration can't delay increased penalties for automakers who violate fuel-economy standards.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry calls moving away from fossil fuels "immoral."
The Bureau of Land Management blames a "breakdown of technology" for its failure to note 42,000 public comments in support of protections for the greater sage-grouse.
"I really don't know" if humans cause climate change, says the head of the EPA's scientific advisory board.
Down for the Count
"Twenty percent of Californians live in hard-to-count areas like Fresno, where more than a quarter of all households failed to mail back their 2010 census forms, including a third of Latinos and African Americans."
"After the 2010 census failed to count 1.5 million US residents of color, the government might have been expected to devote more resources to ensure an accurate count. Instead, in 2012 Congress told the Census Bureau,over the Obama White House's objections, to spend less money on the 2020 census than it had in 2010, despite inflation and the fact that the population was projected to grow by 25 million, After Trump took office, Congress cut the bureau's budget by another 10 percent and gave it no additional funding for 2018, even though the census typically receives a major cash infusion at this juncture to prepare for the decennial count." [1]
Excessive Housing Costs
"In Rochester ]New York] a midsize postindustrial city on Lake Ontario's southern shore, evidence of the [housing] crisis is everywhere. During the 2016-17 school year, the city school district reported that 8.8 percent of its students -- roughly 2,500 children -- were homeless at some point. Last year, some 3,510 eviction warrants were issued. More than 50 percent of tenants in the city are rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. And while Rochester stands out as the fifth-poorest city in the country, it is no anomaly." [2]
"On any given night, more than half a million homeless men, women, and children sleep on the streets or in shelters. In 2016 alone, according to research by the scholar Matthew Desmond, roughly 900,000 households were subject to eviction judgments. The same year, more than 11 million households spent at least 50 percent of their income, and another 9.8 million spent more than 30 percent, on rent. Nearly half of the nation's 43 million renting households, then, live with the crushing weight of excessive housing costs." [3]
ADDENDUM:
*The Pentagon is the only agency that cannot be audited or predict realistically when it will do so. The Pentagon admits the problem and agrees it has a duty to pass an audit. The Pentagon's Office of the Comptroller wrote in 2008: "Our financial problems are pervasive and well documented."
Footnotes:
[1] "Down for the Count," Mother Jones, May/June 2018.
[2] Jimmy Tobias, "The Way Home," The Nation, June 18/25, 2018.
[3] Ibid.
The EPA is poised to roll back the Obama-era efficiency standards. The agency threatens to revoke California's waiver under the Clean Air Act, which allow it to require cleaner cars.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke denies that his department censors science. A National Park Service report on how it will deal with climate change omits all references to human causation.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn't want to give threatened species as much protection as endangered ones.
The Sierra Club's Environmental Law Program wins multiple court rulings: Now the BLM must disclose the climate impacts of fossil fuel development in the Powder River Basin; the Trump administration can't overturn the ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling in the Arctic without judicial review; and the administration can't delay increased penalties for automakers who violate fuel-economy standards.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry calls moving away from fossil fuels "immoral."
The Bureau of Land Management blames a "breakdown of technology" for its failure to note 42,000 public comments in support of protections for the greater sage-grouse.
"I really don't know" if humans cause climate change, says the head of the EPA's scientific advisory board.
Down for the Count
"Twenty percent of Californians live in hard-to-count areas like Fresno, where more than a quarter of all households failed to mail back their 2010 census forms, including a third of Latinos and African Americans."
"After the 2010 census failed to count 1.5 million US residents of color, the government might have been expected to devote more resources to ensure an accurate count. Instead, in 2012 Congress told the Census Bureau,over the Obama White House's objections, to spend less money on the 2020 census than it had in 2010, despite inflation and the fact that the population was projected to grow by 25 million, After Trump took office, Congress cut the bureau's budget by another 10 percent and gave it no additional funding for 2018, even though the census typically receives a major cash infusion at this juncture to prepare for the decennial count." [1]
Excessive Housing Costs
"In Rochester ]New York] a midsize postindustrial city on Lake Ontario's southern shore, evidence of the [housing] crisis is everywhere. During the 2016-17 school year, the city school district reported that 8.8 percent of its students -- roughly 2,500 children -- were homeless at some point. Last year, some 3,510 eviction warrants were issued. More than 50 percent of tenants in the city are rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs. And while Rochester stands out as the fifth-poorest city in the country, it is no anomaly." [2]
"On any given night, more than half a million homeless men, women, and children sleep on the streets or in shelters. In 2016 alone, according to research by the scholar Matthew Desmond, roughly 900,000 households were subject to eviction judgments. The same year, more than 11 million households spent at least 50 percent of their income, and another 9.8 million spent more than 30 percent, on rent. Nearly half of the nation's 43 million renting households, then, live with the crushing weight of excessive housing costs." [3]
ADDENDUM:
*The Pentagon is the only agency that cannot be audited or predict realistically when it will do so. The Pentagon admits the problem and agrees it has a duty to pass an audit. The Pentagon's Office of the Comptroller wrote in 2008: "Our financial problems are pervasive and well documented."
Footnotes:
[1] "Down for the Count," Mother Jones, May/June 2018.
[2] Jimmy Tobias, "The Way Home," The Nation, June 18/25, 2018.
[3] Ibid.
Thursday, August 16, 2018
Snapshots of Police Planting Drugs, Public Housing, Civil Commitment, and Immigrant Crime
Chicago Policeman Planting Drugs
The Chicago Police Department has been known for consistently failing to address officers' misconduct. Even after receiving at least 25 complaints about Sergeant Ronald Watts, including allegations that Watts and his team had planted drugs on people, the department allowed them to continue working in the Ida B. Wells public housing complex. "Watts' officers at times planted such large quantities of drugs on Wells' residents that they were charged with a Class X felony, the highest-level felony after first-degree murder." [1]
As of early June, Chicago prosecutors had thrown out 32 convictions of people who were arrested by Watts and his team. Given that the Watts team was involved in about 500 felony convictions between 2004 and 2012, critics are contending that all of these convictions should be overturned.
Cairo, Il. Public Housing
Cairo, Illinois had a higher percentage of residents living in public housing than any other city in Illinois, and some of these projects were nearly as racially segregated as they were 40 years ago. "Nationally, more than 10,000 public housing units are lost each year to decay," and the "capital project backlog for existing buildings is growing by more than $3 billion a year." [2]
The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that housing discrimination could exist even when it wasn't explicitly intentional. In January 2018, the Department of Urban Housing and Development (HUD) suspended, until 2020, implementation of the order requiring communities to devise plans to proactively remedy segregation. In April, HUD proposed new work requirements, and suggested raising the minimum rate of payment for residents of public housing and recipients of Section 8 vouchers -- in some cases tripling it. (I believe this payment increase may have recently been withdrawn.) If Ben Carson's vision of HUD were enacted, it is estimated that the budget cuts would move 200,000 families off Section 8 assistance, which helps tenants cover rent at privately-owned buildings.
Civil Commitment
Civil commitment allows states to confine people who have not been convicted -- or even accused -- of a crime -- if a judge decides they pose an imminent danger to themselves or others. For an opiate addiction, specialists say that tapering down the dose over five to seven days in the shortest period that's humane. The fly in the ointment is that patients whose tolerance as been lowered by a few days of detox are at a heightened risk of overdose if they return to using. Detox symptoms, including nausea, dehydration, and intense stomach pain can be dangerous and even life-threatening if untreated. [3]
Section 35 of Massachusetts' law -- enacted in 1970 -- allows a family member, law enforcement officer, or a medical professional to petition a judge to have someone committed for up to 90 days.
Undocumented Immigrant Crime
Supporters of the Trump theory of crime rely on data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which covers violent crimes handled by the federal court system, few of which involve murder. Almost all of the murder cases are handled at the local or state level.
The American Immigration Council points out that from 1990 to 2013, when the number of undocumented immigrants tripled from 3.5 million to 11.2 million, violent crime rates dropped 48 percent nationwide. Although the report acknowledges that one can't draw broad conclusions, since undocumented immigrants make up a small percentage of the population, the study looked at incarceration rates for males between 18 and 39 years old -- most crimes of violence are committed by males in that age group. Only 1.6 percent of foreign-born males were incarcerated, compared to 3.3 percent of the native-born. Even the anti-immigrant Center for Immigrant Studies says: "There's no evidence that immigrants are either more or less likely to commit crimes than anyone else in the population."
The Chicago Police Department has been known for consistently failing to address officers' misconduct. Even after receiving at least 25 complaints about Sergeant Ronald Watts, including allegations that Watts and his team had planted drugs on people, the department allowed them to continue working in the Ida B. Wells public housing complex. "Watts' officers at times planted such large quantities of drugs on Wells' residents that they were charged with a Class X felony, the highest-level felony after first-degree murder." [1]
As of early June, Chicago prosecutors had thrown out 32 convictions of people who were arrested by Watts and his team. Given that the Watts team was involved in about 500 felony convictions between 2004 and 2012, critics are contending that all of these convictions should be overturned.
Cairo, Il. Public Housing
Cairo, Illinois had a higher percentage of residents living in public housing than any other city in Illinois, and some of these projects were nearly as racially segregated as they were 40 years ago. "Nationally, more than 10,000 public housing units are lost each year to decay," and the "capital project backlog for existing buildings is growing by more than $3 billion a year." [2]
The U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that housing discrimination could exist even when it wasn't explicitly intentional. In January 2018, the Department of Urban Housing and Development (HUD) suspended, until 2020, implementation of the order requiring communities to devise plans to proactively remedy segregation. In April, HUD proposed new work requirements, and suggested raising the minimum rate of payment for residents of public housing and recipients of Section 8 vouchers -- in some cases tripling it. (I believe this payment increase may have recently been withdrawn.) If Ben Carson's vision of HUD were enacted, it is estimated that the budget cuts would move 200,000 families off Section 8 assistance, which helps tenants cover rent at privately-owned buildings.
Civil Commitment
Civil commitment allows states to confine people who have not been convicted -- or even accused -- of a crime -- if a judge decides they pose an imminent danger to themselves or others. For an opiate addiction, specialists say that tapering down the dose over five to seven days in the shortest period that's humane. The fly in the ointment is that patients whose tolerance as been lowered by a few days of detox are at a heightened risk of overdose if they return to using. Detox symptoms, including nausea, dehydration, and intense stomach pain can be dangerous and even life-threatening if untreated. [3]
Section 35 of Massachusetts' law -- enacted in 1970 -- allows a family member, law enforcement officer, or a medical professional to petition a judge to have someone committed for up to 90 days.
Undocumented Immigrant Crime
Supporters of the Trump theory of crime rely on data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which covers violent crimes handled by the federal court system, few of which involve murder. Almost all of the murder cases are handled at the local or state level.
The American Immigration Council points out that from 1990 to 2013, when the number of undocumented immigrants tripled from 3.5 million to 11.2 million, violent crime rates dropped 48 percent nationwide. Although the report acknowledges that one can't draw broad conclusions, since undocumented immigrants make up a small percentage of the population, the study looked at incarceration rates for males between 18 and 39 years old -- most crimes of violence are committed by males in that age group. Only 1.6 percent of foreign-born males were incarcerated, compared to 3.3 percent of the native-born. Even the anti-immigrant Center for Immigrant Studies says: "There's no evidence that immigrants are either more or less likely to commit crimes than anyone else in the population."
Monday, August 13, 2018
Clinton/Obama Welfare and Financial Regulation Policy
"When in the mid-1970s, the United States suffered the twin problems of high inflation and high unemployment -- or stagflation -- these anti-New Dealers pounced. Blaming the problem on New Deal structure, they insisted that only deregulation, union-busting, and tight money would restore growth and stabilize prices." Aid to Families With dependent Children was changed from a "federal entitlement program to a state block grant, built in several new eligibility requirements, and capped spending." Michael Tomasky said that while benefits "were slashed dramatically in some states, in others, the results were tolerable and sometimes were good." "In reality, the overall result was an increase in extreme poverty of roughly 150 percent." [1]
"Today, the replacement welfare program helps few poor families." "Clinton was no exception -- in some cases, his policy amounted to top-down class war. In particular, he cemented the idea that antitrust law should mostly be abandoned as a bipartisan consensus." "He [Clinton] signed broad financial deregulation in 1994 and again in 1999, both times resulting in a wave of consolidation across the industry. Wall Street got huge -- and hugely profitable -- soaring to a peak of around 40 percent of corporate profits after the second round of deregulation." "But unlike the Clinton presidency, Obama's strain of New Democracy politics implemented in the wake of the 2008 crash, did not deliver the economic goods as advertised. Both output and job growth were pathetically weak after the immediate crisis and remained so throughout."
"The Justice Department leveled wrist-slap fines for things like market rigging and even money laundering for the drug cartels. Worst of all, it did almost nothing to halt the systematic mortgage fraud that swept the nation after the financial crisis, as banks foreclosed on millions of people with blatantly forged documents." "Obama's top priority was to protect the gigantic, top-heavy financial system at all costs. Banks weren't compelled to absorb the losses from the burst housing bubble, which was pushed onto homeowners instead."
"The president's [Obama's] signature health-care reforms shared a similar defect. In order to make it attractive to the economic elite, Obama negotiated by preemptively buying off well-heeled interest groups, from medical providers to insurance companies."
"Instead of being politically advantageous to triangulate between the interests of upper-class-friendly neoliberalism and the Democrats' traditional working-class base, it became a huge liability." "In similar circumstances, the Obama Democrats -- following the basic formula of Clintonism -- rescued the banks with gobs of public money. They did not return to vigorous antitrust enforcement. They largely stood outside while financial criminals plowed a ragged hole through the rule of law. The Dodd-Frank financial-reform bill, though it did very laudable things, did not meaningfully restrain Wall Street's power. (And many of its key regulations were effectively slow-walked by Obama's regulatory czar.)"
Growth "since the 1970s has largely been middling to poor, with the brief exception of the late '90s tech boom -- and even that didn't hold a candle to the explosive boom of the 1960s. Then too, regulation by state agencies was merely replaced by even worse and less accountable regulation by monopolist corporations."
Footnote:
[1] Ryan Cooper, "Somewhere in Between," The Nation, March 12, 2018.
"Today, the replacement welfare program helps few poor families." "Clinton was no exception -- in some cases, his policy amounted to top-down class war. In particular, he cemented the idea that antitrust law should mostly be abandoned as a bipartisan consensus." "He [Clinton] signed broad financial deregulation in 1994 and again in 1999, both times resulting in a wave of consolidation across the industry. Wall Street got huge -- and hugely profitable -- soaring to a peak of around 40 percent of corporate profits after the second round of deregulation." "But unlike the Clinton presidency, Obama's strain of New Democracy politics implemented in the wake of the 2008 crash, did not deliver the economic goods as advertised. Both output and job growth were pathetically weak after the immediate crisis and remained so throughout."
"The Justice Department leveled wrist-slap fines for things like market rigging and even money laundering for the drug cartels. Worst of all, it did almost nothing to halt the systematic mortgage fraud that swept the nation after the financial crisis, as banks foreclosed on millions of people with blatantly forged documents." "Obama's top priority was to protect the gigantic, top-heavy financial system at all costs. Banks weren't compelled to absorb the losses from the burst housing bubble, which was pushed onto homeowners instead."
"The president's [Obama's] signature health-care reforms shared a similar defect. In order to make it attractive to the economic elite, Obama negotiated by preemptively buying off well-heeled interest groups, from medical providers to insurance companies."
"Instead of being politically advantageous to triangulate between the interests of upper-class-friendly neoliberalism and the Democrats' traditional working-class base, it became a huge liability." "In similar circumstances, the Obama Democrats -- following the basic formula of Clintonism -- rescued the banks with gobs of public money. They did not return to vigorous antitrust enforcement. They largely stood outside while financial criminals plowed a ragged hole through the rule of law. The Dodd-Frank financial-reform bill, though it did very laudable things, did not meaningfully restrain Wall Street's power. (And many of its key regulations were effectively slow-walked by Obama's regulatory czar.)"
Growth "since the 1970s has largely been middling to poor, with the brief exception of the late '90s tech boom -- and even that didn't hold a candle to the explosive boom of the 1960s. Then too, regulation by state agencies was merely replaced by even worse and less accountable regulation by monopolist corporations."
Footnote:
[1] Ryan Cooper, "Somewhere in Between," The Nation, March 12, 2018.
Friday, August 10, 2018
Tax Bill Flaws; Immigration a Good Thing; and Rural Hospital Closings
Tax Bill Flaws
Average hourly wages have actually gone down, after adjusting for inflation, since the GOP tax bill went into effect. The tax bill subsidizes corporations in their outsourcing of operations and jobs offshore. Harley-Davidson announced the layoff of 800 workers at a plant in Kansas City, the opening of a new factory in Thailand, and a plan to buy back 15 million shares currently valued at $700 million. (Source: Damen Silvers, policy director and special counsel at the AFL-CEO.)
The Congressional Budget Office has recalculated the ten-year budgetary deficit increase at $1.9 to $2.3 trillion. The tax law will also raise health insurance premiums for working families and cause 3 million people to lose health coverage in the next year. There is a general consensus among tax-monitoring organizations that by 2027, 83 percent of the tax savings will go to the top 1 percent of taxpayers.
Immigration: a Good Thing
A Gallup poll published on June 21 shows 75 percent think immigration is a good thing for the U.S., up from 71 percent last year. Just 19 percent think immigration is a bad thing. A total of 84 percent said "legal" immigration is a good thing. Only 29 percent say immigration should be decreased.
A Pew Research Center poll released on June 20 found Democrats to have a 14-point advantage over Republicans when registered voters were asked which party would better handle immigration.
A senior Customs and Border Protection official told the Washington Post that the agency would freeze criminal referrals for migrant parents with children, while Department of Justice officials were saying the the "zero tolerance" policy remained in effect. Under an order from a federal district judge in California in 1997, children must generally be moved to an approved facility for minors within 20 days.
Rural Hospital Closings
Since 2010, more than 80 rural hospitals have shuttered across the country, according to the Rural Health Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Nationally, more than a third of rural hospitals are at risk of closure, and 41 percent are operating in the red.
According to U.S. census data from 2016, 46 percent of the country's rural population uses a form of government insurance, compared with 36 percent of the urban population. But the situation is significantly worse in the 18 states that have not joined the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, most of them largely rural. According to a recent study from the Colorado School of Public Health, hospitals in states that did not expand Medicaid are six times more likely to close than hospitals in states that did.
Average hourly wages have actually gone down, after adjusting for inflation, since the GOP tax bill went into effect. The tax bill subsidizes corporations in their outsourcing of operations and jobs offshore. Harley-Davidson announced the layoff of 800 workers at a plant in Kansas City, the opening of a new factory in Thailand, and a plan to buy back 15 million shares currently valued at $700 million. (Source: Damen Silvers, policy director and special counsel at the AFL-CEO.)
The Congressional Budget Office has recalculated the ten-year budgetary deficit increase at $1.9 to $2.3 trillion. The tax law will also raise health insurance premiums for working families and cause 3 million people to lose health coverage in the next year. There is a general consensus among tax-monitoring organizations that by 2027, 83 percent of the tax savings will go to the top 1 percent of taxpayers.
Immigration: a Good Thing
A Gallup poll published on June 21 shows 75 percent think immigration is a good thing for the U.S., up from 71 percent last year. Just 19 percent think immigration is a bad thing. A total of 84 percent said "legal" immigration is a good thing. Only 29 percent say immigration should be decreased.
A Pew Research Center poll released on June 20 found Democrats to have a 14-point advantage over Republicans when registered voters were asked which party would better handle immigration.
A senior Customs and Border Protection official told the Washington Post that the agency would freeze criminal referrals for migrant parents with children, while Department of Justice officials were saying the the "zero tolerance" policy remained in effect. Under an order from a federal district judge in California in 1997, children must generally be moved to an approved facility for minors within 20 days.
Rural Hospital Closings
Since 2010, more than 80 rural hospitals have shuttered across the country, according to the Rural Health Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Nationally, more than a third of rural hospitals are at risk of closure, and 41 percent are operating in the red.
According to U.S. census data from 2016, 46 percent of the country's rural population uses a form of government insurance, compared with 36 percent of the urban population. But the situation is significantly worse in the 18 states that have not joined the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, most of them largely rural. According to a recent study from the Colorado School of Public Health, hospitals in states that did not expand Medicaid are six times more likely to close than hospitals in states that did.
Thursday, August 9, 2018
President Trump Claims June 9, 2016 Meeting Was Legal
The June 9, 2016 meeting in Trump Tower didn't become "breaking news" until July 2017, when The New York Times found a reference to it in one the several amendments that Jared Kushner made to his national security form. The Times gave Donald Trump Jr. a heads up so that he could publicly acknowledge the meeting before the Times broke the story. Jr. then proceeded to give one of what proved to be several versions of what happened at the meeting. Subsequently, when Fox show host Shawn Hannity asked Jr. if he told his father about the meeting, Jr. said he did not, because "nothing happened."
In spite of the claim that "nothing happened," President Trump felt the matter important enough to call a meeting abroad Air Force One to put out a statement, creating a cover story that the June 9 meeting was about adoption. Trump's lead lawyer at the time, Jay Sekulow, publicly declared that Donald Trump Jr. was the author of the statement. Jr. was actually not at the meeting, but he was on the phone to Hope Hicks, President Trump's long-time spokesperson. After it had became accepted fact that President Trump dictated the statement, Sekulow had to sheepishly admit that he had "bad information." Note here that when Rudy Guiliani initially said that Michael Cohen was an "honorable man," who had done nothing wrong, and later called him a pathological liar after Cohen became a serious threat to the president, Guiliani used the Sekulow claim of having "bad information."
After the claim that the June 9 meeting was solely about abortion became increasingly difficult to sustain, President Trump shifted to claiming that the meeting was about getting opposition research about a political opponent, and "everybody" would have "taken the meeting." Within the past two weeks, President Trump has, in effect, thrown his "wonderful" son under the bus by claiming that the meeting was a legal effort to get political opposition research. Jr. had taken the meeting, even though it had been presented as providing "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, with official government backing. There is a law that makes it illegal to conspire with a foreign government in a political campaign. President Trump has put his son in serious legal jeopardy.
ADDENDUMS:
*Hope Hicks was photographed getting into Air Force One on President Trump's flight to hold a campaign event for an endangered candidate for the U.S. House from Ohio's 12th District. One interpretation of this is that Trump and Hicks will be trying to get their stories straight in regard to any future legal action against Trump.
*Both Rudy Guilani and Sarah Huckabee Sanders made much of President Trump using "shall" not "must" when he tweeted that A.G. Sessions fire Mueller.
*In an unusual move, the Department of Justice admitted that Trump lied to Congress when he said in a February 28, 2017 speech the "the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came from outside the country."
*Trump proposes short-term health insurance policies good for 12 months at a time, subject to renewal. They won't need to cover pre-existing conditions and certain of the coverage provisions found in the Affordable Care Act.
In spite of the claim that "nothing happened," President Trump felt the matter important enough to call a meeting abroad Air Force One to put out a statement, creating a cover story that the June 9 meeting was about adoption. Trump's lead lawyer at the time, Jay Sekulow, publicly declared that Donald Trump Jr. was the author of the statement. Jr. was actually not at the meeting, but he was on the phone to Hope Hicks, President Trump's long-time spokesperson. After it had became accepted fact that President Trump dictated the statement, Sekulow had to sheepishly admit that he had "bad information." Note here that when Rudy Guiliani initially said that Michael Cohen was an "honorable man," who had done nothing wrong, and later called him a pathological liar after Cohen became a serious threat to the president, Guiliani used the Sekulow claim of having "bad information."
After the claim that the June 9 meeting was solely about abortion became increasingly difficult to sustain, President Trump shifted to claiming that the meeting was about getting opposition research about a political opponent, and "everybody" would have "taken the meeting." Within the past two weeks, President Trump has, in effect, thrown his "wonderful" son under the bus by claiming that the meeting was a legal effort to get political opposition research. Jr. had taken the meeting, even though it had been presented as providing "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, with official government backing. There is a law that makes it illegal to conspire with a foreign government in a political campaign. President Trump has put his son in serious legal jeopardy.
ADDENDUMS:
*Hope Hicks was photographed getting into Air Force One on President Trump's flight to hold a campaign event for an endangered candidate for the U.S. House from Ohio's 12th District. One interpretation of this is that Trump and Hicks will be trying to get their stories straight in regard to any future legal action against Trump.
*Both Rudy Guilani and Sarah Huckabee Sanders made much of President Trump using "shall" not "must" when he tweeted that A.G. Sessions fire Mueller.
*In an unusual move, the Department of Justice admitted that Trump lied to Congress when he said in a February 28, 2017 speech the "the vast majority of individuals convicted of terrorism and terrorism-related offenses since 9/11 came from outside the country."
*Trump proposes short-term health insurance policies good for 12 months at a time, subject to renewal. They won't need to cover pre-existing conditions and certain of the coverage provisions found in the Affordable Care Act.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Donald Trump Jr's Calls to a Blocked Number
The principals in a series of emails and phone calls made in early June 2016 are as follows: Rob Goldstone, music publicist for Emin Agalarov, the pop star son of the Russian oligarch, Aras Agalarov, and Donald Trump Jr.
After getting an email from Goldstone, saying that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, Don Trump Jr emailed back that if what Goldstone said was true, he, Don Jr, said he would "love it." Goldstone told Don Jr that he should talk to Emin to arrange a meeting. Minutes after talking to Emin on June 6, Don Jr placed a 4-minute call to a blocked number. Later, Don Jr called Emin again scheduling a meeting for June 9, and then placed a 11-minute call to a blocked number. After the June 9 meeting ended, Don Jr placed a 3-minute call to a blocked number.
After the first two calls to a blocked number, Donald Trump, made a televised statement, saying he was going to make a "major speech" in the following week about "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons...and I think you're going to find it very, very interesting." Trump did not make that speech in the following week. what seems likely here is that Trump had expected dirt on Hillary Clinton, but when dirt did not materialize, he had to scrap the speech.
We know that Donald Trump had a blocked phone number. Even if Don Jr had blocked numbers from more than one person, who was he most likely to call? His father had described himself as "the decider;" also, Don Jr would raise his esteem with his father if he could supply him with very useful campaign material.
Besides the timing and sequence of Don Jr's calls, there are other reasons to believe that Donald Trump knew about the June 9, 2016 meeting, either in advance, or shortly after it happened. Aras Agalarov had secured the venue for the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013. Aras's son, Emin, and Rob Goldstone had both known Donald Trump since 2013. Donald Trump was in his office one floor above where the meeting between high officials of the Trump campaign and five Russians was taking place. Wouldn't Emin and/or Rob want to say hello to Donald?
There was also a chance encounter between Ivanka Trump and two of the Russians who had been in the meeting. As Natalia Velesnitskaya, the Russian lawyer linked to the Russian government, and Rivat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist, left the Trump Tower, they exchanged "pleasantries" with Ivanka outside the elevator on the Fifth Ave skyscraper. If Ivanka had known about Velesnitskaya before the encounter, or if either of the two had identified themselves as Russians, is that the sort of thing that Ivanka might want to have a talk with her father?
After getting an email from Goldstone, saying that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, Don Trump Jr emailed back that if what Goldstone said was true, he, Don Jr, said he would "love it." Goldstone told Don Jr that he should talk to Emin to arrange a meeting. Minutes after talking to Emin on June 6, Don Jr placed a 4-minute call to a blocked number. Later, Don Jr called Emin again scheduling a meeting for June 9, and then placed a 11-minute call to a blocked number. After the June 9 meeting ended, Don Jr placed a 3-minute call to a blocked number.
After the first two calls to a blocked number, Donald Trump, made a televised statement, saying he was going to make a "major speech" in the following week about "all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons...and I think you're going to find it very, very interesting." Trump did not make that speech in the following week. what seems likely here is that Trump had expected dirt on Hillary Clinton, but when dirt did not materialize, he had to scrap the speech.
We know that Donald Trump had a blocked phone number. Even if Don Jr had blocked numbers from more than one person, who was he most likely to call? His father had described himself as "the decider;" also, Don Jr would raise his esteem with his father if he could supply him with very useful campaign material.
Besides the timing and sequence of Don Jr's calls, there are other reasons to believe that Donald Trump knew about the June 9, 2016 meeting, either in advance, or shortly after it happened. Aras Agalarov had secured the venue for the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013. Aras's son, Emin, and Rob Goldstone had both known Donald Trump since 2013. Donald Trump was in his office one floor above where the meeting between high officials of the Trump campaign and five Russians was taking place. Wouldn't Emin and/or Rob want to say hello to Donald?
There was also a chance encounter between Ivanka Trump and two of the Russians who had been in the meeting. As Natalia Velesnitskaya, the Russian lawyer linked to the Russian government, and Rivat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist, left the Trump Tower, they exchanged "pleasantries" with Ivanka outside the elevator on the Fifth Ave skyscraper. If Ivanka had known about Velesnitskaya before the encounter, or if either of the two had identified themselves as Russians, is that the sort of thing that Ivanka might want to have a talk with her father?
Monday, August 6, 2018
Selections From My Writer's Notebook
#In late June, the Iowa Supreme Court blocked a recent law that requires women to submit to a 72-hour waiting period before they can get an abortion, saying "its restrictions are not narrowly tailored to serve a compelling interest of the state."
#The U.S. Supreme Court in upholding President Trump's Muslim ban means shutting out refugees, babies, families and students from the U.S. for their religious beliefs. The ruling on "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" means that fake, anti-abortion centers can withhold medical information and cut off access to care for women seeking safe, legal abortions. The ruling that unions can be forced to represent people who refuse to pay dues makes unions weaker and corporate interests stronger. The myopia on the Muslim ban is astonishing, as Trump made it very clear that it was a Muslim ban, and it applies almost exclusively to Muslim-majority nations.
#U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood has said that only 161 documents out of 300,000 reviewed so far in the Michael Cohen case are not protected by attorney-client privilege.
#The comedian known as "Stuttering John" managed to get through to Trump on Air Force One and impersonate himself as Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), raising an issue of security, as Air force One is considered to have special security measures. Menendez, who had recently had a hung jury on corruption charges, was congratulated by Trump for fighting his investigation.
#Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has posted a series of tweets supporting the protesters in Iran and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has posted four different videos on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter encouraging Iranians to protest against the regime. Israel and the U.S. have formed a joint working group focused on internal efforts to encourage protests in Iran.
#The Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded that the "intelligence community assessment" is a "sound intelligence production." Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) has seen "no reason to dispute the conclusions of the intelligence community" that Russia colluded in the 2016 election to help Trump and denigrate Hillary Clinton.
#Under the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, more than 1,500 people were prosecuted. Historians remember the World War I crackdown on dissent as "one of the greater restrictions on civil liberties in American history." That crackdown and the internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans in World War II, help to refute the contention of many that fighting in a war increases the freedom of U.S. citizens.
#The Stoneman Douglas High School students touring the country to press for gun control were followed by members of the Utah Gun Exchange, riding in an armored vehicle that had a giant replica machine gun, a replication that is designed with a propane-powered mechanism to create realistic-sounding machine gun fire. During the March for Our Lives protest in Salt Lake City, many adult men showed up with guns.
#The "Star" newspaper did a statistical analysis showing that in 2017, Trump said about 26 words for every false word. In 2018, the count has been 14 words for every false word. Daily lies are now 5.1, up from 2.9 in 2017.
# Israel is in the process of amending its nation-state law; however, it has prompted large demonstrations by the Druze community, because it believes it doesn't give adequate protection to minority communities. It would permit judges to give priority to Israel's Jewish character in their rulings.
#Federal Judge Peter Messitte decided on July 27 that the case against Trump based on the Constitution's Emoluments Clause can proceed, finding that it is likely that Trump is taking payment from foreign governments in violation of the clause. Trump has said that the payments have been "gifts," but the judge refers to receipt "of any kind whatever." The judge said that: "Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that the President has been receiving or is potentially able to receive 'emoluments' " in violation of the Constitution.
#Donald Trump signed the Trump Foundation tax returns in four different years when they contained demonstrably false information.
#The U.S. Supreme Court in upholding President Trump's Muslim ban means shutting out refugees, babies, families and students from the U.S. for their religious beliefs. The ruling on "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" means that fake, anti-abortion centers can withhold medical information and cut off access to care for women seeking safe, legal abortions. The ruling that unions can be forced to represent people who refuse to pay dues makes unions weaker and corporate interests stronger. The myopia on the Muslim ban is astonishing, as Trump made it very clear that it was a Muslim ban, and it applies almost exclusively to Muslim-majority nations.
#U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood has said that only 161 documents out of 300,000 reviewed so far in the Michael Cohen case are not protected by attorney-client privilege.
#The comedian known as "Stuttering John" managed to get through to Trump on Air Force One and impersonate himself as Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), raising an issue of security, as Air force One is considered to have special security measures. Menendez, who had recently had a hung jury on corruption charges, was congratulated by Trump for fighting his investigation.
#Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has posted a series of tweets supporting the protesters in Iran and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has posted four different videos on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter encouraging Iranians to protest against the regime. Israel and the U.S. have formed a joint working group focused on internal efforts to encourage protests in Iran.
#The Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded that the "intelligence community assessment" is a "sound intelligence production." Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) has seen "no reason to dispute the conclusions of the intelligence community" that Russia colluded in the 2016 election to help Trump and denigrate Hillary Clinton.
#Under the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918, more than 1,500 people were prosecuted. Historians remember the World War I crackdown on dissent as "one of the greater restrictions on civil liberties in American history." That crackdown and the internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans in World War II, help to refute the contention of many that fighting in a war increases the freedom of U.S. citizens.
#The Stoneman Douglas High School students touring the country to press for gun control were followed by members of the Utah Gun Exchange, riding in an armored vehicle that had a giant replica machine gun, a replication that is designed with a propane-powered mechanism to create realistic-sounding machine gun fire. During the March for Our Lives protest in Salt Lake City, many adult men showed up with guns.
#The "Star" newspaper did a statistical analysis showing that in 2017, Trump said about 26 words for every false word. In 2018, the count has been 14 words for every false word. Daily lies are now 5.1, up from 2.9 in 2017.
# Israel is in the process of amending its nation-state law; however, it has prompted large demonstrations by the Druze community, because it believes it doesn't give adequate protection to minority communities. It would permit judges to give priority to Israel's Jewish character in their rulings.
#Federal Judge Peter Messitte decided on July 27 that the case against Trump based on the Constitution's Emoluments Clause can proceed, finding that it is likely that Trump is taking payment from foreign governments in violation of the clause. Trump has said that the payments have been "gifts," but the judge refers to receipt "of any kind whatever." The judge said that: "Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that the President has been receiving or is potentially able to receive 'emoluments' " in violation of the Constitution.
#Donald Trump signed the Trump Foundation tax returns in four different years when they contained demonstrably false information.
Sunday, August 5, 2018
Victims Impact Statements and Still More
Victims Impact Statements
"Generally, defendants were not allowed counsel before the eighteenth century; most trials, in any case, lasted only about twenty minutes." [1] In the wake of the Gregg desi by the U.S. Supreme Court, the courts have required what is sometimes called the "super due process" in death-penalty cases, given the gravity of the punishment. Justice William Rehnquist insisted that: "A victim should not be a 'faceless stranger.' " Rehnquist said that "To right the balance in the sentencing phase of a capital criminal trial, courts should admit a 'quick glimpse' of the life the defendant chose to extinguish, and let prosecutors convey the loss to the victim's family and to society, which has resulted from the defendant's homicide." ( NOTE: "desi" should be "decision."
Victim-impact statements "appear to amplify the commonly held prejudice that people with darker skin are more 'death-worthy.' " These statements would "appear to advance the fundamental anti-democratic notion that the lives of the eloquent, the intelligent, the beautiful, the cherished are more worthy of the full protection of the law than others." Thirty-two states have passed victim-rights amendments; five more ballot initiatives may pass in November 2018. [2]
Sheriffs' Associations
There are roughly three thousand sheriffs in the United States in forty-seven states. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association believes that the sheriff has the final say on a law's constitutionality in his county." "To the most dogmatic there's only one way to interpret the country's founding documents: pro-gun, anti-immigrant. anti-regulation, anti-Washington." [3]
In Wolman's and Ferris's survey of sheriffs, ninety-five percent said that defending gun rights was more important than restricting access to firearms. Yet another finding of the survey was that, according to ideology, a sheriff could, for example, reject the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship and rights to former slaves.
Artificial Persons
The 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission has generated intense public opposition, as reflected in a poll that found 85 percent of Democrats, 81 percent of Independents, and 76 percent of Republicans in agreement that the case was wrongly decided. This strong majority belief is not in agreement with the reality that corporations have received constitutional protection almost since the founding of the United States. "Indeed, from 1868 to 1912, the Supreme Court heard more than 10 times as many 14th Amendment cases involving corporations as it did cases concerning African Americans." "Corporations have long since been granted constitutional rights." [4]
The legal expert, David Cole, believes that the real problem does not lie in the "Court's recognition that limiting corporate spending on political speech raises First Amendment concerns, but rather in its overly narrow conception of the permissible justifications for such limits. The problem with Citizens United is more nuanced: Its failure is not in its protection of corporate rights or its view on money as speech, but in its inability to recognize a broader set of justifications for limiting the distorting effects of concentrated wealth." [5]
I find it troublesome with David Cole not having a problem with "money as speech," as based on the one person, one vote concept, a billionaire, or a very profitable corporation -- viewed as a person -- can obviously garner much more political influence than can I, with my one vote and my much more limited dollars.
ADDENDUM:
*Canada's rollout of its new marijuana law will create a nationwide system in which weed is treated less like a narcotic and more like booze, taxed and sold mostly in state-run stores where any adult can buy. The new pot market will be grafted onto Canada's liquor distribution systems." (Alcohol sales have dropped 15 percent in U.S. counties that legalized medical marijuana.) [6]
Footnotes:
[1] Jill Lepore, "Sirens in the Night" The New Yorker, May 21, 2018.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ashley Powers, "Lone Star," The New Yorker, April 30, 2018.
[4] David Cole, "Artificial Persons," The Nation. July 2/9, 2018.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Brett Popplewell, "Canadian Bakin," Mother Jones, July/August 2018.
"Generally, defendants were not allowed counsel before the eighteenth century; most trials, in any case, lasted only about twenty minutes." [1] In the wake of the Gregg desi by the U.S. Supreme Court, the courts have required what is sometimes called the "super due process" in death-penalty cases, given the gravity of the punishment. Justice William Rehnquist insisted that: "A victim should not be a 'faceless stranger.' " Rehnquist said that "To right the balance in the sentencing phase of a capital criminal trial, courts should admit a 'quick glimpse' of the life the defendant chose to extinguish, and let prosecutors convey the loss to the victim's family and to society, which has resulted from the defendant's homicide." ( NOTE: "desi" should be "decision."
Victim-impact statements "appear to amplify the commonly held prejudice that people with darker skin are more 'death-worthy.' " These statements would "appear to advance the fundamental anti-democratic notion that the lives of the eloquent, the intelligent, the beautiful, the cherished are more worthy of the full protection of the law than others." Thirty-two states have passed victim-rights amendments; five more ballot initiatives may pass in November 2018. [2]
Sheriffs' Associations
There are roughly three thousand sheriffs in the United States in forty-seven states. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association believes that the sheriff has the final say on a law's constitutionality in his county." "To the most dogmatic there's only one way to interpret the country's founding documents: pro-gun, anti-immigrant. anti-regulation, anti-Washington." [3]
In Wolman's and Ferris's survey of sheriffs, ninety-five percent said that defending gun rights was more important than restricting access to firearms. Yet another finding of the survey was that, according to ideology, a sheriff could, for example, reject the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship and rights to former slaves.
Artificial Persons
The 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission has generated intense public opposition, as reflected in a poll that found 85 percent of Democrats, 81 percent of Independents, and 76 percent of Republicans in agreement that the case was wrongly decided. This strong majority belief is not in agreement with the reality that corporations have received constitutional protection almost since the founding of the United States. "Indeed, from 1868 to 1912, the Supreme Court heard more than 10 times as many 14th Amendment cases involving corporations as it did cases concerning African Americans." "Corporations have long since been granted constitutional rights." [4]
The legal expert, David Cole, believes that the real problem does not lie in the "Court's recognition that limiting corporate spending on political speech raises First Amendment concerns, but rather in its overly narrow conception of the permissible justifications for such limits. The problem with Citizens United is more nuanced: Its failure is not in its protection of corporate rights or its view on money as speech, but in its inability to recognize a broader set of justifications for limiting the distorting effects of concentrated wealth." [5]
I find it troublesome with David Cole not having a problem with "money as speech," as based on the one person, one vote concept, a billionaire, or a very profitable corporation -- viewed as a person -- can obviously garner much more political influence than can I, with my one vote and my much more limited dollars.
ADDENDUM:
*Canada's rollout of its new marijuana law will create a nationwide system in which weed is treated less like a narcotic and more like booze, taxed and sold mostly in state-run stores where any adult can buy. The new pot market will be grafted onto Canada's liquor distribution systems." (Alcohol sales have dropped 15 percent in U.S. counties that legalized medical marijuana.) [6]
Footnotes:
[1] Jill Lepore, "Sirens in the Night" The New Yorker, May 21, 2018.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ashley Powers, "Lone Star," The New Yorker, April 30, 2018.
[4] David Cole, "Artificial Persons," The Nation. July 2/9, 2018.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Brett Popplewell, "Canadian Bakin," Mother Jones, July/August 2018.
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