I. Wisconsin Vote Results
"A University of Wisconsin study found that, in 2016, nearly 17,000 residents of Dane and Milwaukee counties were discouraged by the law [photo ID] from voting -- but in retrospect, Trump's victory may have paved the way for Walker's [Scott] defeat in 2018." "In 2014, Walker defeated Democrat Mary Burke, 53 to 46 percent, among white-college educated voters; in 2018, he lost among the same voters by 52 to 47 percent." "Walker got most of the Trump vote, but in an election where a significant part of the electorate had been alienated by Trump, an identification with the president ensured Walker's defeat." [1]
II. The Price of Austerity in England
"Since 2010. UNISON [a public-sector union] estimates the cost of living has increased by 27.6 percent [in England]. During that time, however, county employees received only 5.5 percent in wage increases, translating into a huge decline in living standards for workers who weren't paid much to begin with." [2]
"From 2009-10 to today, the foundation [Resolution Foundation] estimates, spending on day-to-day public services has fallen by 9 percent. As a percentage of GDP, such government spending has fallen by 23 percent..." "Resolution estimates that since 2010, per-person spending on housing and communities has decreased by 55 percent, and spending on transport by a whopping 77 percent."
III. The War Machine
"While it's notable that support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has waned, polls show that Americans have consistently preferred diplomacy to military 'solutions,' both before and even shortly after the 9/11 attack. Nonetheless, US soldiers and mercenaries are currently active in 80 countries -- nearly half the planet." [3]
Both Seymour Melman and George McGovern took notice of this disconnect between belief and practice, and they proposed a plan that through comprehensive government planning, defense workers could be retrained and defense companies shifted to commercial manufacturing. They both believed that local communities thrive if they are no longer exclusively dependent on the defense industry; and that federal investment in civilian work would provide unemployed defense workers with opportunities to address environmental problems like pollution, and to contribute their labor to "peaceful uses."
IV. Plastic Leaks
"No one knows exactly how much plastic leaks into the oceans every year, but one dump truck load per minute -- 8 million tons per year -- is a midrange estimate. Plastic waste usually begins its journey on land, where only 9 percent of it is recycled ." [4]
"Across Texas in recent years, more than 5,000 miles of pipeline have been laid down to carry oil, gas and natural-gas liquids (which includes ethane) from the Permian Basin and the Eagle Ford Shale to the coasts, where dozens of new petrochemical projects are in the works."
According to the International Energy Agency, the single largest source of plastic demand is packaging.
V. ICE Monitoring Projects
"While it is not known whether the [ICE] spreadsheet was a stand-alone document or part of an ongoing effort to monitor protests -- or how it fits into HSI's mission of investigating 'cross-border criminal activity' -- it provides evidence that ICE, for a brief period at least, has kept track on left-leaning political events in New York City." "ICE's spreadsheet isn't the only evidence that the agency has been heavily attuned to left-leaning political activity in New York, [more evidence] comes after immigrant rights groups filed a federal lawsuit against the agency in February 2018." [5]
VI. Calling Out Israel
Phillis Bennis, a well-known writer on peace and justice issues, concedes that in the Beltway, "the illusion persisted that Congress's annual gift of $3.8 billion of our tax money to the Israeli military could not be questioned; that Washington must shield Israeli officials from international accountability for their war crimes; and that criticizing Israel or its supporters is political suicide." She believes that "those days are over." [6]
Footnotes:
[1] John B. Judis, "What Happened to Wisconsin?" The Nation, April 1, 2019.
[2] Sasha Abremsky, "The Price of Austerity," The Nation, April 1, 2019.
[3] Peter Christian & G. Michael Brenes, "From the War Machine to the Green Dream," The Nation, April 1, 2019.
[4] The Nation, April 1, 2019.
[5] Jimmy Tobias, "Exclusive: ICE'd Over," The Nation, April 1, 2019.
[6] Phillis Bennis, "Calling Out the Israel Lobby," The Nation, Apri1 1, 2019.
Friday, April 26, 2019
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Disappearing Plants and Animals; and Fossil Fuel Demise
I. Disappearing Plants and Animals
This past October, the World Wildlife Fund announced that the populations of thousands of vertebrate species around the world have declined by an average of 60 percent since 1970. Plants and animals are disappearing at rates comparable to past mass extinctions. "Forty-five years later, the ESA remains the best and most effective law for wildlife conservation in the world." "The power of the ESA is that it safeguards not only the 1,618 domestic species currently listed but also their habitats." [1]
II. Ending California's Oil Patch
"According to the latest assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, humans have a maximum 2 years to lower emissions of greenhouse gases or face irreversible climate disruption of an existential order." "If you're sincere about holding global temperature rise below 1.5C, you can't just reduce the consumption of fossil fuels. You have to cut production too. That would come as a shock to the more than 200 oil companies that operate in California, and pump $111 billion into its economy each year (which is 2.7 percent of its gross domestic product.)" [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*Sealing the border with Mexico, the third-largest trading partner of the U.S., would disrupt supply chains for major automakers, trigger swift increases for grocery shoppers, and invite lawsuits against the federal government, according to trade specialists and business executives.
*According to a 2018 UN report, the migrant-smuggling industry was worth $5.7 billion worldwide in 2016. Since the U.S. remains the top destination for migrants, the North American market is the crown jewel of the global smuggling trade.
*Several authorities on Russian foreign policy believe that President Vladimer Putin "considers it strategically useful to weaken European alliances, and is happy to cause uncertainty and tumult in Britain, which has been at odds with Russia on a range of issues." Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee, believes that there were parallels and interactions in abundance between the apparent Russian efforts to influence Brexit, and the well-documented, and possibly decisive, Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. election. [3]
*Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has warned the White House not to oust any more top immigration officials.
*Trump has called CNN host Don Lemon the "dumbest man on television."
*The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of active-duty service members for law enforcement within the U.S., unless they are specifically authorized by Congress.
*Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, who oversaw family separations and teargassing of children, has been promoted as acting DHS secretary.
*A Hill-Harris X poll released on April 15, found only 18 percent saying they paid less in taxes in 2018, compared to 2017.
*Politico reported on April 15 that two of Trump's lawyers have essentially threatened to sue the firm Mazare USA, if it decides to comply with a House Oversight Committee request for ten years of audits and financial records.
*The Interior Department's internal watchdog has opened an investigation into ethics complaints against the agency's newly installed secretary, David Bernhardt. Several charges relate to his lobbying activities, and one involves his intervention to block the release of a scientific report showing the harmful effects of a chemical pesticide on certain endangered species.
Footnotes:
[1] Rachel Nawer, "What the World Knows," Sierra, March/April, 2019.
[2] Judith Lewis Merrit, "The End of California's Oil Patch" Sierra, March/April 2019.
[3] Al Caesar, "Bad Boy," The New Yorker, March 25, 2019.
This past October, the World Wildlife Fund announced that the populations of thousands of vertebrate species around the world have declined by an average of 60 percent since 1970. Plants and animals are disappearing at rates comparable to past mass extinctions. "Forty-five years later, the ESA remains the best and most effective law for wildlife conservation in the world." "The power of the ESA is that it safeguards not only the 1,618 domestic species currently listed but also their habitats." [1]
II. Ending California's Oil Patch
"According to the latest assessments by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, humans have a maximum 2 years to lower emissions of greenhouse gases or face irreversible climate disruption of an existential order." "If you're sincere about holding global temperature rise below 1.5C, you can't just reduce the consumption of fossil fuels. You have to cut production too. That would come as a shock to the more than 200 oil companies that operate in California, and pump $111 billion into its economy each year (which is 2.7 percent of its gross domestic product.)" [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*Sealing the border with Mexico, the third-largest trading partner of the U.S., would disrupt supply chains for major automakers, trigger swift increases for grocery shoppers, and invite lawsuits against the federal government, according to trade specialists and business executives.
*According to a 2018 UN report, the migrant-smuggling industry was worth $5.7 billion worldwide in 2016. Since the U.S. remains the top destination for migrants, the North American market is the crown jewel of the global smuggling trade.
*Several authorities on Russian foreign policy believe that President Vladimer Putin "considers it strategically useful to weaken European alliances, and is happy to cause uncertainty and tumult in Britain, which has been at odds with Russia on a range of issues." Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee, believes that there were parallels and interactions in abundance between the apparent Russian efforts to influence Brexit, and the well-documented, and possibly decisive, Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. election. [3]
*Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has warned the White House not to oust any more top immigration officials.
*Trump has called CNN host Don Lemon the "dumbest man on television."
*The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of active-duty service members for law enforcement within the U.S., unless they are specifically authorized by Congress.
*Border Patrol Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, who oversaw family separations and teargassing of children, has been promoted as acting DHS secretary.
*A Hill-Harris X poll released on April 15, found only 18 percent saying they paid less in taxes in 2018, compared to 2017.
*Politico reported on April 15 that two of Trump's lawyers have essentially threatened to sue the firm Mazare USA, if it decides to comply with a House Oversight Committee request for ten years of audits and financial records.
*The Interior Department's internal watchdog has opened an investigation into ethics complaints against the agency's newly installed secretary, David Bernhardt. Several charges relate to his lobbying activities, and one involves his intervention to block the release of a scientific report showing the harmful effects of a chemical pesticide on certain endangered species.
Footnotes:
[1] Rachel Nawer, "What the World Knows," Sierra, March/April, 2019.
[2] Judith Lewis Merrit, "The End of California's Oil Patch" Sierra, March/April 2019.
[3] Al Caesar, "Bad Boy," The New Yorker, March 25, 2019.
Monday, April 15, 2019
Mandatory Teenager Life Sentences and Other Prison Matters
I. Teenager Life Sentences
The Supreme Court rulings that took place between 2010 and 2016, have banned mandatory life-without-parole for teenagers, giving thousands of juvenile lifers around the country the chance of release. At the time of the rulings, more than 70 percent of juvenile lifers were people of color, with most being African Americans. [1]
The number of states banning life without parole for children in all cases, not just in mandatory sentencing schemes have more than quadrupled to 21 since 2012. About 1,700 of the 2,800 locked up have been resentenced, and 400, one in seven, have been freed.
According to Samantha Michaels's study, published in Mother Jones, adolescents who experience the highest rates of trauma are 100 times more likely to commit murder than the general population.
II. Hell's Kitchen
Prisoners are 6.4 more likely to be sickened from spoiled or contaminated food than people on the outside, as determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prison food can damage prisoners' long-term wellness. According to an analysis by the Prison Policy Institute, after staffing, health care is the public prison system's largest expense, setting government agencies back $12.3 billion a year.
III. Private Prisons
128K - People incarcerated in private prisons in the United States in 2016, or about 8.5 percent of the total US prison population.
120% - Increase in the use of private prisons since 2000.
73% - Immigrant detainees held in privately owned facilities.
$4.16B - Combined 2018 revenue of the GEO Group and CoreCivic, the two largest private-prison companies.
$135K - Amount that the private-prison industry contributed to the Democratic Party in the 2018 election cycle.
$1.1M - Amount that the industry contributed to the Republican Party in the 2018 election cycle. [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*There are more than 3,000 jails in the United States. According to a study released in 2017 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly half the people held in jail suffer from some kind of mental disorder.
*The rate of parole approvals across five field offices dropped from 92 percent between 2011 and 2013 to less than 4 percent between February and September 2017, even though the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that oversees ICE, claimed its parole policy had not changed. [3]
*A second federal judge has blocked a citizenship question from appearing on the 2020 Census.
*The Mueller probe cost $25 million through last fall. Trump's 21 visits to Mar-a-Lago have cost well over $60 million. Trump has earned $400,000 in revenue.
*The New American Economy group says in New York, 80 percent of limo and taxi drivers are immigrants, while in California, more than 75 percent of agricultural workers are immigrants.
*Trump has tweeted that "Airplanes are becoming too complex to fly." He had taken credit for 2017 being the safest year on record in commercial aviation.
Footnotes:
[1] Samantha Michaels, "Life After Life," Mother Jones, March/April 2019.
[2] Noah Flora, "By the Numbers," The Nation, April 15, 2019.
[3] Noah Savard, "Get in Line," Mother Jones, March/April 2019.
The Supreme Court rulings that took place between 2010 and 2016, have banned mandatory life-without-parole for teenagers, giving thousands of juvenile lifers around the country the chance of release. At the time of the rulings, more than 70 percent of juvenile lifers were people of color, with most being African Americans. [1]
The number of states banning life without parole for children in all cases, not just in mandatory sentencing schemes have more than quadrupled to 21 since 2012. About 1,700 of the 2,800 locked up have been resentenced, and 400, one in seven, have been freed.
According to Samantha Michaels's study, published in Mother Jones, adolescents who experience the highest rates of trauma are 100 times more likely to commit murder than the general population.
II. Hell's Kitchen
Prisoners are 6.4 more likely to be sickened from spoiled or contaminated food than people on the outside, as determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prison food can damage prisoners' long-term wellness. According to an analysis by the Prison Policy Institute, after staffing, health care is the public prison system's largest expense, setting government agencies back $12.3 billion a year.
III. Private Prisons
128K - People incarcerated in private prisons in the United States in 2016, or about 8.5 percent of the total US prison population.
120% - Increase in the use of private prisons since 2000.
73% - Immigrant detainees held in privately owned facilities.
$4.16B - Combined 2018 revenue of the GEO Group and CoreCivic, the two largest private-prison companies.
$135K - Amount that the private-prison industry contributed to the Democratic Party in the 2018 election cycle.
$1.1M - Amount that the industry contributed to the Republican Party in the 2018 election cycle. [2]
ADDENDUMS:
*There are more than 3,000 jails in the United States. According to a study released in 2017 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly half the people held in jail suffer from some kind of mental disorder.
*The rate of parole approvals across five field offices dropped from 92 percent between 2011 and 2013 to less than 4 percent between February and September 2017, even though the Department of Homeland Security, the agency that oversees ICE, claimed its parole policy had not changed. [3]
*A second federal judge has blocked a citizenship question from appearing on the 2020 Census.
*The Mueller probe cost $25 million through last fall. Trump's 21 visits to Mar-a-Lago have cost well over $60 million. Trump has earned $400,000 in revenue.
*The New American Economy group says in New York, 80 percent of limo and taxi drivers are immigrants, while in California, more than 75 percent of agricultural workers are immigrants.
*Trump has tweeted that "Airplanes are becoming too complex to fly." He had taken credit for 2017 being the safest year on record in commercial aviation.
Footnotes:
[1] Samantha Michaels, "Life After Life," Mother Jones, March/April 2019.
[2] Noah Flora, "By the Numbers," The Nation, April 15, 2019.
[3] Noah Savard, "Get in Line," Mother Jones, March/April 2019.
Sunday, April 7, 2019
Border Apprehension Numbers, and Nuclear Weapons Menacing Again
I. Border Apprehensions By the Numbers
279K - Number of unaccompanied minors apprehended at the US-Mexican border.
2,737 - Minimum estimated number of children separated from their parents at the border since 2017.
4,556 - Number of reports made to the Office of Refugee Resettlement alleging the sexual abuse of immigrant minors while in US custody since November 2014.
105.1 F - Highest temperature recorded in 2018 in Tornillo, Texas, the site of the nation's largest tent city for detained immigrant youth.
O - Number of staffers at the Tornillo detention facility (out of 2,100) who underwent FBI background checks after the Trump administration waived the requirement. [1]
II. Nuclear Weapons Menacing Again
Professor Michael T. Klare says that the Pentagon plan to overhaul the U.S. nuclear arsenal is as costly as it is dangerous. He says that military officials claim the existing nuclear weapons force has become obsolete and inflexible, and thus unable to wreak catastrophic retribution, they argue, we need to replace our current atomic weapons with even more terrifying ones. " 'To remain effective [s a deterrent force], explained then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis in February 2018, 'we must recapitalize our Cold War legacy nuclear forces.' "
These policy-makers believe that vast stores of doomsday bombs and missiles allow the United States to threaten and intimidate countries that either lack such weapons or rely on the U.S. for its "nuclear umbrella."
Not only does the new Nuclear Posture Review envision the replacement of all existing weapons with more capable systems; it also authorizes the acquisition of several new types of "low-yield" munitions, supposedly intended for use against conventional forces.
"More to the point, the Pentagon has steadily improved the accuracy, durability, and destructive capacity of its own arsenal during this period, at a cost of many billions of dollars -- spending some $7 billion, for example, on upgrades to the Minuteman III ICBM , and another $15 billion on improved variants of the Trident D5 SLBM."
Professor Klare cites the 400 silo-based Minuteman III ICBMs, the up to 280 multiple-warhead Trident II D5 SLBMs, and the 20 B-2 stealth bombers, and states that: "Under the Pentagon's current plans, every one of these systems will be replaced over the next few decades, at massive taxpayer expense."
"Aside from its lack of strategic relevance, the administration's plans to acquire new low-yield weapons is troubling because it suggests an intent to make nuclear weapons more 'usable' -- if not in practice then as a coercive tool."
Klare then asks where is the money going? "If Congress approves the Pentagon's full request for strategic nuclear-weapons replacement, this will involve:
#A new ICBM to replace all Minuteman IIIs, currently identified as the 'ground-based strategic deterrent.' The Air Force expects to purchase more than 600 of these new missiles (400 for active deployment, the rest for tests and spares). Total cost: More than $140 billion.
#A new fleet of missile-carrying submarines, the 'Columbia' class, to replace the existing 'Ohio' class. At present, the Navy plans to procure 12 of the new vessels, each of which will carry 16 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Total cost: $128 billion.
#A new long-range bomber with enhanced stealth capabilities, the B-21 Raider to replace both the B-2 and the B-52. The Air Force plans to procure at least 100 B-21s, at an average cost of from $546 million to $606 million apiece (in 2016 dollars). Total cost: $97 billion.
#A new air-launched cruise missile, termed a 'long-range stand-off weapon' (LRSO), to be carried by the B-21. The Air Force plans to procure some 1,000 LRSOs, which will have greater range, accuracy, and stealth capabilities than the current aid-launched cruise missiles. Total cost: $11 billion." [2]
Footnotes:
[1] Isabel Cristo, "By the Numbers," The Nation, March 25, 2019.
[2] Michael T. Klare, "Making Nuclear Weapons Menacing Again," The Nation," April 8, 2019.
279K - Number of unaccompanied minors apprehended at the US-Mexican border.
2,737 - Minimum estimated number of children separated from their parents at the border since 2017.
4,556 - Number of reports made to the Office of Refugee Resettlement alleging the sexual abuse of immigrant minors while in US custody since November 2014.
105.1 F - Highest temperature recorded in 2018 in Tornillo, Texas, the site of the nation's largest tent city for detained immigrant youth.
O - Number of staffers at the Tornillo detention facility (out of 2,100) who underwent FBI background checks after the Trump administration waived the requirement. [1]
II. Nuclear Weapons Menacing Again
Professor Michael T. Klare says that the Pentagon plan to overhaul the U.S. nuclear arsenal is as costly as it is dangerous. He says that military officials claim the existing nuclear weapons force has become obsolete and inflexible, and thus unable to wreak catastrophic retribution, they argue, we need to replace our current atomic weapons with even more terrifying ones. " 'To remain effective [s a deterrent force], explained then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis in February 2018, 'we must recapitalize our Cold War legacy nuclear forces.' "
These policy-makers believe that vast stores of doomsday bombs and missiles allow the United States to threaten and intimidate countries that either lack such weapons or rely on the U.S. for its "nuclear umbrella."
Not only does the new Nuclear Posture Review envision the replacement of all existing weapons with more capable systems; it also authorizes the acquisition of several new types of "low-yield" munitions, supposedly intended for use against conventional forces.
"More to the point, the Pentagon has steadily improved the accuracy, durability, and destructive capacity of its own arsenal during this period, at a cost of many billions of dollars -- spending some $7 billion, for example, on upgrades to the Minuteman III ICBM , and another $15 billion on improved variants of the Trident D5 SLBM."
Professor Klare cites the 400 silo-based Minuteman III ICBMs, the up to 280 multiple-warhead Trident II D5 SLBMs, and the 20 B-2 stealth bombers, and states that: "Under the Pentagon's current plans, every one of these systems will be replaced over the next few decades, at massive taxpayer expense."
"Aside from its lack of strategic relevance, the administration's plans to acquire new low-yield weapons is troubling because it suggests an intent to make nuclear weapons more 'usable' -- if not in practice then as a coercive tool."
Klare then asks where is the money going? "If Congress approves the Pentagon's full request for strategic nuclear-weapons replacement, this will involve:
#A new ICBM to replace all Minuteman IIIs, currently identified as the 'ground-based strategic deterrent.' The Air Force expects to purchase more than 600 of these new missiles (400 for active deployment, the rest for tests and spares). Total cost: More than $140 billion.
#A new fleet of missile-carrying submarines, the 'Columbia' class, to replace the existing 'Ohio' class. At present, the Navy plans to procure 12 of the new vessels, each of which will carry 16 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Total cost: $128 billion.
#A new long-range bomber with enhanced stealth capabilities, the B-21 Raider to replace both the B-2 and the B-52. The Air Force plans to procure at least 100 B-21s, at an average cost of from $546 million to $606 million apiece (in 2016 dollars). Total cost: $97 billion.
#A new air-launched cruise missile, termed a 'long-range stand-off weapon' (LRSO), to be carried by the B-21. The Air Force plans to procure some 1,000 LRSOs, which will have greater range, accuracy, and stealth capabilities than the current aid-launched cruise missiles. Total cost: $11 billion." [2]
Footnotes:
[1] Isabel Cristo, "By the Numbers," The Nation, March 25, 2019.
[2] Michael T. Klare, "Making Nuclear Weapons Menacing Again," The Nation," April 8, 2019.
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