R. Stone's Offenses; Bounties for Killing; and Nutritious Food in Africa

 #Roger Stone's Offenses - First, there is the nature of the offenses that Roger Stone committed. He lied to Congress repeatedly to obstruct the investigation into the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia. But his lies were not only numerous, they were obvious. He claimed to have no written communications about WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, yet he had many such communications. He claimed to have no written communications with his intermediary to WikiLeaks, yet there were hundreds of such records. He said he never discussed his conversation with his intermediary with anyone in the Trump camp, yet he did so on a number of occasions. To tell such blatant lies,and expose himself to prosecutors,raises a question as to whether he was doing so with the belief that he would not be punished for these actions and, if so, why he thought that was the case.

Second, revealed sections of the Mueller report show that the Special Counsel's obstruction investigation specifically included Trump's behavior towards Stone. The report shows there was good reason for Trump to be concerned about Stone's testimony. In written answers to the Special Counsel, Trump claimed:"I do not recall discussing WikiLeaks with individuals associated  with my campaign." Yet there were several witnesses who had said Trump was told of Stone's access to WikiLeaks,and at least one said he had witnessed a call between Trump and Stone on the very topic.

Shortly after submitting written answers, Trump criticized witnesses who testify about the illegal conduct of others, saying that "this flipping stuff is terrible" and noting that Stone did not flip on him and that was "very brave." Trump went on to publicly praise Stone's "guts" for not testifying against him. At the same time, Stone's public comments made clear he was aware of Trump's written answers and thus the legal risk they posed to Trump.

#In the case of Russia paying bounties to the Taliban for killing U.S. soldiers, President Trump has claimed that he was not informed about the payments, yet the briefing to him has been pinned down to February 27, 2020; however, the information had been available in 2019. Since intelligence briefings are made available to a number of high officials in the Trump administration, anyone of which could have informed Trump about this crucial information of bounties being paid. 

Another excuse for Trump not taking action against Russia after he learned about the bounty payments is that since the intelligence agencies were not unanimous is their assessment of the reliability of the evidence garnered, it didn't "rise to the level of" taking action. This argument is much the same as used in the impeachment trial that Trump's  "quid pro quo" with Ukraine's president didn't "rise to the level of" convicting Trump. Historians will probably indict this generation for embracing "rising to the level of" as the rationale for allowing powerful people to break the law with impunity. President Trump has broken many laws, and he has demonstrated many times that he will continue to break the campaign finance law -- John Bolton added China's leader to those leaders who have been solicited for help in Trump's reelection campaign. 

#Nutritious Food in Southern Africa

45M - Number of people in southern Africa who lack sufficient access to nutritious food -- up nearly 10 percent from 2019.

8.4M - Children  who are expected to suffer from acute malnutrition across southern Africa this year, some 2.3 million of them will require lifesaving treatment.

820M - Number of people worldwide who suffered from hunger in 2018 -- up from 784 million in 2015.

60% - Share of food-insecure people who are women or girls.

2B - People who are unable to access safe, nutritious and sufficient food year-round.

132M - Additional people who could become chronically hungry this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. (Source: The Nation, August 24/31, 2002.)

ADDENDUMS:

*What the GOP lawmakers were saying in the impeachment trial is that impeachment can't be considered serious or fair without direct fact witnesses,and there can be no direct fact witnesses because President Trump contends he has every right to deny their appearance.

*The 14th Amendment specifies that representatives be apportioned "counting the whole number of persons in each State." Neither it nor the Constitution specifies that only citizens must be counted.

Unearned Credit on Unemployment Rates

President Trump has continued to make the claim that he has done more for African Americans than any other president. He even has dropped the qualifier than maybe President Lincoln did more,as he did in the Rose Garden shortly after George Floyd's funeral. A major component of that claim is the contention that he has lowered the African American unemployment rate to the lowest in U.S.history. He has made similar claims for the Hispanic and women's unemployment rate, and the women's workplace participation rate. 

After the unemployment figures were released for December 2017, Trump tweeted: "Black American unemployment has reached an all-time low in the history of our country. It's the best  -- best we've ever had." "Unemployment rates among African American, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans have all reached all-time lows." "Somebody please inform Jay-Z that because of my policies, Black unemployment has just been reported to be at the LOWEST RATE EVER RECORDED!"

Following the financial meltdown culminating in October 2008, the African American unemployment rate rose to 16% in December 2010. It had fallen to 7.8% in December 2016. At the end of 2017, it had dropped to 6.8%. Therefore, out of a total drop of 9.2% over 7 years, President Trump contributed 1% to it.

Much the same happened with the Hispanic unemployment rate. The rate peaked at 13.7% in August 2009, and had been reduced to 5.9% in December 2016. It was then reduced to 4.9% in December 2017 when Trump made his claim that it was the lowest Hispanic unemployment rate in U.S. history. Thus, out of a total drop of 8.8%, only 1% of it occurred in Trump's first year in office. 

The women's unemployment rate fell from 8.7% in October 2010 to  4.7% in January 2017. President Trump lowered the rate to 3.7% in July 2019.  It is the case that in a little over 6 years under the  Obama presidency, the rate was reduced by 4%, and Trump reduced it by an additional 1% in his first 2 and a half years in office.

The women's workplace participation rate is measured from January through November every year. Trump claimed that the 863,000 women who comprised the 2017 workplace participation rate was the highest in U.S. history. The 863,000 figure was an average 34% lower than the number of women who joined the workforce in 2015 and 2016. The workplace total was the smallest since 2012, and below the historic norm for the past 54-year period.

FactCheck.org has done a survey of women's workplace participation over a 54-year period, and has found that in only five years did the participation rate decline from the previous year, all occurring during a recession or in the year following a recession. FactCheck.org placed the women's participation rate in 2017 as the 33rd highest in that 54-year period.

It is notable that President Trump didn't create a single policy or program specifically designed to lower the unemployment rate for African Americans, Hispanics, or women, nor did he do the same for the women's workplace participation rate.

Trump: 99% of Virus Cases "Totally Harmless"

#President Trump said in early July that 99% of confirmed coronavirus cases are "totally harmless." 
He was just picking a percentage out of the air. Deaths alone comprised about 4.4% of the total as of early July. Those who must be hospitalized are another part of the total. Workers who are paid by the hour --especially those who live from paycheck to paycheck --lose wages while being quarantined. 

We are now learning that hospitalized patients suffer after-effects, the most vivid being scarring of the lungs. This scarring can reduce the person's life span, and reduce the life's quality. Medical experts are beginning to test if other organs of the body are being adversely affected, especially problems with the heart. A patient who  spent time on a ventilator told the press that weeks after returning home he still feels psychological problems from the experience. We could add to the list of those harmed by the coronavirus, the stress level of those health care workers who are caring for those struck by the virus.

Trump's 99% contention is causing major problems for high officials in the administration. They seem to be deathly afraid to challenge what he says or does, no matter how indefensible. FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn faced this problem when asked to endorse of reject Trump/s contention. Hahn refused to endorse, saying only that that the coronavirus was a big problem.  

#President Trump is associating himself more-and-more with "white supremacy." He retweeted a loud cry of "white power" coming from a man riding in a golf cart. His press secretary said he didn't hear the call, which was loudly and clearly shouted. 

#In a tweet, Trump said that Nascar had its lowest rating after banning the Confederate flag. The only recent polling I've seen shows an 8% increase in Nascar's popularity. Trump's press secretary, who will not tolerate any blemish on her boss's character, claimed that Trump doesn't have a position on the Confederate flag.

#Trump had tweeted that Bubba Wallace, the only African American driver in Nascar, should apologize for the noose incident in which a looped rope was found in his Nascar garage. Wallace didn't find the rope, nor did he make any claim that it was a hate crime directed against him. So he had nothing to apologize for.

#Trump said well over a month ago that he will put pressure on the nation's governors so that all public schools will open in the fall. Trump's pressure campaign violates long-held GOP dogma that the governments closest to the people govern best -- Ronald Reagan made this a mantra. In his speech accepting the GOP nomination for the presidency, Trump said he's the only one who can fix the nation's problems. As a fixer, he is a giant failure. 

President Trump's one size fits all policy doesn't account for virus "hot spots" where schools are located doesn't provide for another approach, such as online learning, or a combination of online and in-school learning. He also pays no mind to the possibility that students may bring home an infection contracted in school.

# President Trump has a very poor record in following through on his threats, and he takes credit for actions done by others: 1.) He threatened to lift restrictions on church openings, and then did nothing as the governors maintained their restrictions; 2.) He vowed to bring the military in to stop the protesters, and the only thing that happened on that front was that the 82nd Airborne stayed briefly in Washington D.C. before leaving; 3.) He took credit for ordering the National Guards around the nation to stop arson and looting; however, the state governors have control over their National Guard units and 4.) I previously wrote that Trump took full credit for bringing the unemployment rates of African Americans, Hispanics, and women to historic lows. In all three cases, all but 1% of the rate reductions     since the financial meltdown culminating in October 2008 took place, occurred while Barack Obama was president -- it wasn't until July 2019 that Trump lowered the women's rate to 3.7% from the 4.7% he had inherited from Obama.

ADDENDUMS:

* U.S. military spending dwarfs that of China at $228 billion,and Russia at $69.4 billion.

*A U. Mass/Amherst study found that $1 billion spent on the military created 8,555 jobs; the same amount spent on public transit created 19,795 jobs.

*On July 10th, Trump threatened the tax-exempt status of, and funding for universities and colleges, claiming that "too many" schools are driven by "radical left indoctrination."

*Mitt Romney tweeted that "it is unprecedented, historic corruption [when] an American president commutes the sentence for a person convicted by a jury, lying to shield that very president."

Trump Just "Kidding"

 I. Trump Just "Kidding"

I. Trump Just "Kidding"

When Peter Navarro,who functions as President Trump's trade adviser, went on a Sunday talk show, he said it was obvious that Trump was "kidding" when he had informed his staff to slow down testing for the coronavirus. Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany also said it was obvious that her boss was kidding. It was the general consensus in the White House that Trump was not serious about reducing testing when he had bragged about the U.S. far outpacing the rest of the world in its testing for exposure to the virus.

McEnany had told the press that she would never lie to them; however, she did not say that she wouldn't pass on her boss's lies. She didn't practice due diligence in assuring herself what her boss's position would be,and thus she and all those in the Trump camp who adopted the "kidding" line were double crossed when Trump said he never kids.

Trump had previously gone along with efforts to label as a "joke" a statement he  had made that generated a firestorm of criticism. One of the most notable was when he said that if Hillary Clinton became president,maybe a Second Amendment zealot would take her down.

II. Executive Order Double Talk

President Trump's executive order on toppling statues and monuments uses much the same language as existing law. His threat to mandate ten-year sentences is a very harsh one,especially if it can be applied based on "intent." Many protesters were trying to pull down the statue of Confederate General Andrew Jackson sitting on a horse. If all of them are identified, convicted, and given ten-year sentences, it will be a steep cost to taxpayers.

Trump's executive order on social media actually changes existing law. GOP lawmakers who raised holy hell about President Obama's executive orders,are largely silent when Trump either changes existing law,or copies existing law.

III. Hillary Comparisons Are Flawed

Opinion makers and the media,in general are comparing where Hillary Clinton was at the  same point in her campaign with where Joe Biden is. This comparison is very flawed, as Hilary was hated by a broad segment of voters; also, her use of a private mail server while she was secretary of state, and her highly compensated speeches to Wall Street firms were dragging her down. Burned into my memory is the poll taken around the time she first ran for the presidency, in which 49% of respondents said they would never vote for Hillary if she again ran for the presidency. 

Joe Biden, in part because of the tragedies he has suffered, has a huge empathy gap over Trump. He has also handled both the police reform and pandemic issues far better than Trump.

IV. Nothing Is Breaking Right for Trump

Nothing is breaking right for Trump: his North Korea policy is in shambles, and he has even worsened relations between North and South Korea; Iran hasn't had a rebellion and is now closer to having a nuclear weapons capability than before Trump took office; relations with the EU are probably the worst for a good long time; a hyped peace treaty in Afghanistan looks to be a bygone; Maduro is still in office in Ecuador, and when Trump says all options are open in Ecuador that  means the use of nuclear weapons is on the table; he gave the advantage to Russia and Turkey in the Middle East when he pulled out U.S troops without a coordinated plan with the Pentagon; he has taken no action on intelligence findings that Russia was paying bounties on Coalition troops in Afghanistan,including U.S. troops, and he has significantly increased the budgetary deficit in a major break with Republican orthodoxy.

ADDENDUMS:

1. For the second year in a row, Iceland will not hunt any whales. Its commercial whaling industry may be at an end.

2. In the absence of tourists, poachers are slaughtering wildlife in African parks  and wildlife reserves. Sources for 1. and 2.:  Sierra, July/April 2020.)

3. Catastrophic bushfires in Australia burn an area larger than Tunisia. A billion animals may have perished, leaving some species on the brink of extinction. Smoke from the fires reaches Argentina, 6,000 miles away.

4. Greenland's ice sheet is melting seven times faster than in the 1900s. 

5. Oxygen levels in some tropical oceans have dropped by as much as 40 percent in the past 50 years. Waters off California are acidifying twice as fast as the global average.

6. Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States dropped by 2.1 percent in 2019, driven almost entirely by an 18 percent drop in the use of coal,which saved more than 26,000 lives between 2005 and 2016.

7. The Netherlands high court says that the government must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent by the end of 2020. (Sources for 3. through 7.: Sierra, March/April 2020.)

 

Catching Up on Trump's Lies

 President Trump had Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Oval Office on the  same day that the Articles of Impeachment were unveiled in Congress. It is unclear as to who invited Lavrov to the Oval Office, as the White House announced the visit only a day before he came, and Russia had previously made known the visit. Nonetheless, the optics were bad, as Lavrov and the Russian ambassador to the United States were in the White House shortly after James Comey was fired as the FBI director. It was in that earlier meeting that Trump said the firing of Comey "lifted a cloud" from himself.

Trump has said that he warned Lavrov not to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election; however, when Lavrov was asked by a reporter if Trump made the warning, he answered that elections were not discussed. Of course, Lavrov could be lying, but Trump has a much greater penchant for lying.

When Trump made his Thanksgiving visit to the U.S.troops in Afghanistan, he said the talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government would resume soon. Both the Taliban and the Afghan government denied that talks were imminent. Trump also described the prior negotiation as being between the Afghan government and the Taliban, when the government had previously been left out, at least until an agreement had been reached.

At the conclusion of the meeting for the G-7 last year, Trump said he got the NATO nations there to pony up another $530 billion in their defense budgets. No such meeting to increase defense budgets was held; also, the NATO leaders have legislatures that must approve any increases in defense spending. The goal for the NATO countries to commit 2 percent of their GDPs to defense sending was set years ago, and remains the goal.

President Trump has described world leaders as laughing behind their backs at former president Barack Obama. Even if that were true,Trump received similar treatment by four world leaders scoffing at Trump. England's Boris Johnson, France's Emmanuel Macron, Canada's Justin Trudeau, and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, were in a group, when Johnson asked Macron: "Is that why you were late?" -- Macron had been challenged by Trump earlier in the day. Macron chimed in with: "He [Trump] was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top. You just watched his teams' jaws drop to the floor." The four of them then dissolved in laughter.

Earlier in the day, Trump had asked Macron if he would like to receive some "ISIS fighters." Macron replied: "Let's get serious."

 

President Trump's Misinformation on Children's Virus Immunity, and More Trump Misdeeds

 I. Children's Virus Immunity

President Trump has been spreading the word that children have a "virtual"
immunity to Covid-19. At one point, he even put in a qualifier that indicated that he wanted to go beyond "virtually," but he couldn't get to a position of absolute immunity. More than 97,000 kids in the U.S. were infected in the last two weeks in July. At least 338,000 children have been infected since the pandemic began.These figures are from the America Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association.

A South Korean study found that pre-teens and teens starting at age 10, have about the same capacity to spread the virus as do adults. We also know that those under the age of 10 are increasingly becoming infected, in line with the downward trend in the ages of those becoming infected.

II. Trump's Faltering School Reopenings

Trump has been conducting a long-running effort to get all public schools to open, regardless of the level of Covid-19 infections and deaths in the areas surrounding the schools. It hasn't  been any secret that Trump wants as many children in K-12 schools as possible, as it will free-up their parents to go to jobs. Trump is desperate to get the unemployment rate to go down by any means necessary. Health care experts are warning that in areas with high virus infection rates, it might be advisable to start with online learning, and then switch to in-school teaching when the infection rate drops below a certain level.

The picture of students jamming a Georgia hallway, with sharp-eyed observers being able to detect only four students wearing masks has been widely publicized. Subsequently, six students and three staff members tested positive. Within the past two weeks, there were 2,000 students, teachers, and non-teaching staff under quarantine due to infected children or adults. More recently, more schools have closed or locked-down due to virus infections.

The scene has shifted to colleges and universities, with some students who violated community spread or mask-wearing rules being sent home. Notre Dame and North Carolina State, I believe, are switching to on-line education.

III. In-Mail Voting Ire

If here is anything hat has fed the ire of President Trump more fiercely than school openings, it is his crusades against in-mail voting. He has created a vision of millions of in-mail ballots coming in from all over the world, or found in heaps on he ground. Trump,himself, votes by mail, and he likes Florida's mail ballot system, because it has a Republican governor.

The most comprehensive study of fraudulent voting, whether it be by mil-in voting or in a voting booth, has been done by the Brennan Center, which found that the rate of voter fraud was .0000 before a  digit over 0 appears. A former New Mexico Republican Secretary of State shared Trump's views on voter fraud. Somehow she managed to get the New Mexico State Police to do a voter fraud study. When the results came in showing two "possible" cases of fraud, the secretary said: "Even one case of fraud is not acceptable."

The emerging scandal engulfing Trump is the sabotage of the Unites States Postal Service by his hand-picked postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, a long-time donor for Trump. DeJoy has eliminated overtime, fired some 23 supervisors or managers, and tore out some of the mail-sorting machines around the country -- an Iowa postal manager blew the whistle when DeJoy took out one of the mail-sorting machines in Iowa. Some of these mail-sorting machines have been reported as being destroyed. Why destroy these highly efficient machines if your stated objective is to cut costs?

The extent to which DeJoy is willing to go to  screw up the postal service is illustrated by the action of removing t blue mail collection boxes nationwide. A picture showing an open-back truck crammed with blue collection boxes exposed the diabolical plot in Oregon.  Montana became a focal point when a long list of the locations of these collection boxes on television. The major candidates for high office wrote letters of protest to DeJoy. Removing revenue-producing boxes doesn't make any sense.

Louis DeJoy and the board of governors chair are scheduled to testify before a U.S. House committee. Speaker Pelosi has said that DeJoy has told her by phone that he doesn't intend to end what he describes as cost-cutting actions.

Environmental Victories

 I. Environmental Victories

A court ordered Trump's EPA to finalize a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which can harm the developing brains of children. The agency refused and so the legal battle will continue. 

The NRDC lawsuit blocked the Interior Department's climate-weakening plan to offer up 80 billion tons of coal for leasing on pubic lands in Montana and Wyoming.

A California court  rejected Monsanto's latest effort to remove glyphosate,used in its Roundup weed killer, from the state's public list of cancer-causing chemicals.

Carmakers who disregard climate-saving fuel economy standards will face stiff penalties, thanks to a NRDC-led court victory over Trump's Department of Transportation.

NRDC's courtroom victory blocked President Trump from reversing President Obama's ban on  offshore drilling across vast swaths of the U.S. Arctic and the Atlantic Ocean.

It's the law: California,the world's fifth-largest economy, guided by decades of  NRDC climate advocacy, committed to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045.

II. Policing Costs

170% - Increase in  the cost of policing in the US from 1977 to 2017.

$7.4B - Value of equipment that has flowed from the Pentagon to police departments since 1997.

41% - Share of the Oakland, California general fund dedicated to police expenditures.

$220M - Amount paid by New York City taxpayers to settle legal issues involving the NYPD in fiscal year 2019. 

809K - Number of police officers and detectives in the US in 2018.

616K - Number of middle school teachers in the US in 2018.

5 cents - Amount that Chicago spends on its Department of Family and Support Services for every dollar earmarked for the police. (Source: The Nation, April 10/17, 2020.)

III. Nursing Homes - 

1.5M - Number of people in the US who are cared for in nursing homes.

54K - Minimum number of nursing home residents and employees who have died from Covid-19 in the US, as of June 30.

24 - Number of states in which the majority of Covid-19 deaths are linked to nursing homes.

$13 - Median hourly pay of a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home.

70% - Share of nursing homes in the US that are for-profit. (Source: The Nation, July 27/August 2020.)

ADDENDUMS: 

*In the past year, Human Rights Watch has tracked more than 1,000 public reports of torture, kidnapping, and murder of asylum seekers sent to Mexico. 

*According to the May/June issue of the "Sierra" magazine, dairy products account for less than 2% of greenhouse gas emissions, and agriculture as a whole accounts for about 9%. "In comparison, transportation, electricity generation, and industry account for about 80% of greenhouse  gases." "The real culprit is fossil fuels."

*"Still the pandemic may be causing as much trouble for the fossil fuel industry as our campaign hopes to with the demand for oil cratering. It's clear that these companies have no future. The divestment campaign that, over a decade, had enlisted $14 trillion in investments and portfolios, and the climate fight has a new head of steam" (Bill McKibben, "Force the  Spring," "Sierra," May/June 2020.)

*"Trump's reluctance to funding the Postal Service and vote by mail alternatives can be overcome if congressional Democrats play hardball in stimulus negotiations. Democracy advocates must tell House Democrats that funding for safe and fair elections cannot be compromised away." (Source: John Nichols, "Democracy Dies in Dysfunction," The Nation, June 1/8, 2020.)

Greenhouse Gas, Energy, Wilderness, Fracking, Meatpacking, and BLM

 #Greenhouse Gas Producers - "Dairy products account for less than 2% of U.S. greenhouse emissions,and agriculture accounts for about 9%. In comparison, transportation, electricity generation,and industry account for about 80 %. The real culprit is fossil fuels." (Source The New Yorker, March 30, 2020.)

#Most Motivated Voters - "Research by the Environmental Voter Project found that voters who view climate and the environment as the top priorities are the most motivated to vote," "[More] than 130 cities and seven states would commit to transitioning to 100% clean energy." (Source: Michael Bruce, "Last Best Chance," The New Yorker, March 30, 2020.)

#Energy Efficiency - "Twenty-five % of Detroit's low-income households spend more than 15%  of their income on energy, which is more than four times the city median." (Source: Krista Karlone, "Energy Efficiency for All," The New Yorker, March 30, 2020.)

#Bag Carrier of Coronavirus - "On February 28, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, posted to its website: "Whether reusable bag could become significant carriers of the coronavirus remains to be seen, but there are good reasons to fear that they will harbor other equally dangerous bacteria and viruses transmitted from carrying meat and produce." "By March 18, the Plastics Industry Association requested that the Department of Health and Human Services endorse the idea that 'single-use plastic products are the most sanitary choice when it comes to any applications,' according to Politico." 

#Sweeping Wilderness Legislation - "Last year, Congress passed sweeping legislation that, among other things, made permanent the Land and Water Conservation Fund; established more than 700,000 acres of new federal wilderness; and authorized the 'Every Kid Outdoors' program, which gives fourth graders and their families free admission to national parks." "Some 836 million acres -- nearly one in three acres across the territory of the United States -- are owed by the public." 

#Fracking and Coal Industries Devastated - Many of the rollbacks and revisions jammed through cover of Covid-19 by EPA administrator (and former coal lobbyist) Andrew Wheeler, have been intended to prop up the dying coal industry. "This glut,combined with the price war between Russia ad Saudi Arabia had devastated the U.S. fracking industry. Similarly, reduced demand for nonresidential electricity has kayoed the already staggering coal industry." Source: Paul Rauber, "Under Cover of COVID," Sierra, July/August 2020.) 

#Meatpackers Suffer - "In rural America, especially in the Midwest and Great Plains, meatpacking plants became some of the most significant COVID-19 hot spots." [As of late June], more than 1,000 cases had been lined to a single Smithfield pork packing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota." "In recent years, meatpackers have pushed for loosening of government oversight to allow production lines to move faster, yielding more meat and greater profits, with less inspection from the Department of Agriculture, and less oversight of work conditions by OSHA."  Kim Cordova, president of OFCW, Local 7,believes that: "Once it became apparent that many people were testing positive, they just stopped testing. They don't want the world to know how many are sick in that plant." "By the end of April, public health officials in Nebraska connected 237 cases of COVID-19 directly to the Grand Island plant, and Hall County, where the plant resides, accounted for nearly 40 percent of the state's cases." "Alas, the response from those who dictate labor conditions has been the opposite. As capacity to slaughter and butcher cattle and hogs dropped by more than 20 percent between the beginning and end of April, and prices started to climb."

#BLM Chrges Ahead - "The Bureau of Land Management has charged ahead with a minimal 10-day comment period for its planned May release of thousands of acres of public land in southeast New Mexico." "More than 45,000 acres of public land in Southeastern New Mexico's Permian Basin still up for sale and more fracking." (Source: Miya King-Flaerty, "BLM charges ahead," Rio Grande Sierran, May/June 2020.) 

ADDENDUMS:

*Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar rebuked ousted federal vaccine official Rick Bright about his coronavirus response, saying his allegations "do not hold water." "Everything he is complaining about was achieved. Everything he talked about was done." Bright had warned about the "darkest winter in modern history."

*Trump has ousted the IG for the State Department, Steve A. Linick, H and H Services IG, Christi Griman, Pentagon IG, Glenn Fine, and the IG for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson. 

*Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell contends that Trump has the power to fire anyone in the Executive Branch.

*President Obama refused to request Team Trump's known Russia ties,and insisted that any action be done "by the  book." Apparently, "Obamagate" means doing the right thing.

Barr's Disastrous Hearing

Barr's Disastrous Hearing 

During his appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General William Barr gave plenty of evidence that he is wholly unsuited for that office.

#Rep Eric Stalwell (D-Cal.) asked Barr if he had  ever intervened to help someone else get a reduced sentence -- beside Roger Stone. Barr: "Not that I recall." Stalwell reminded Barr that during his confirmation hearing, he said that a president swapping a pardon to silence a witness would be a crime, and Barr said it would be a crime, and he "would do something about it." Barr: "Yes, I said that." Trump denied in his written statement to the Special Counsel that he had talked to Stone about WikiLeaks. Barr agreed that if Trump had lied under oath, it would be a crime.

Stalwell  referred to November 28, 2018, after Trump submitted his written answers to the Special Counsel, in which Trump criticized "flipping," and said Stone was very brave for not cooperating with prosecutors. On December 3, 2018, Trump complimented Stone for having the "guts" not  to testify against him.

Stalwell noted that on July 10 of this year, Stone told a reporter that: "That I had 29 or 30 conversations  with Trump during the campaign period. Stone had also vowed that he wouldn't play Judas.

#Barr:  He didn't know about the ultra-right storming the Michigan Capitol with some carrying rifles, and making threats against the life of the Governor, and even threatened to cut off her head. The lawmaker who asked the question noted that Barr was very selective about the kinds of massed violence that he supported.

#When Barr said U.S. troops were protecting the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon,  the armed U.S. government troops ranged far from the courthouse. It is clear that Trump wants chaos to occur, and Barr is his henchman.

#Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) asked Barr whether it would be appropriate for the president to solicit or accept foreign assistance in an election. Barr answered: "It depends on what kind of assistance." Cicilline said he was referring to "any kind." Barr then answered: "No, its not appropriate." The fact that Barr would even raise a question about the assistance suggests that he was hoping that Cicilline wouldn't have the right-on follow-up reply.

#Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La,) asked Barr if he believes the election will be rigged. Barr responded that: "I have no reason to think it will." This was a rare instance of Barr contradicting his boss, President Trump.

#When House Judiciary Committee Chair, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), asked Barr if he had discussed the upcoming election with Trump, Barr answered that politics gets discussed at Cabinet meetings,but he won't discuss his talks with Trump. Nadler told him that he wasn't asking for content, he just wanted to know if the election was discussed.

#Barr professed ignorance that Michael Cohen was sent back to prison. This is something that Barr should have known about. Barr had show an ignorance about happenings that it would seem he should have had knowledge about.

#Barr should have been asked why he was "upset"and"surprised" when he earned that Trump had told Ukraine's president that he could talk to Rudy Giuliani or Barr about Rudy's unique foreign policy path. Either Trump or Barr was lying. Barr's reaction strongly suggests that Trump didn't have Barr's permission to ensnare him with Giuliani's strange foreign policy mission.

#Barr told the committee that he doesn't read Trump's tweets; however, he once said  Trump's tweets were making it harder for him to do his DoJ work.

#Barr said that Trump's friends don't deserve to be treated more harshly than other people.

Getting away from the Judiciary Committee hearing, both Pompeo and Barr professed ignorance about whether Trump could change the election date, which he previously claimed he had the right to do. Pompeo said maybe the Commerce Department could do it. Barr said he had never studied the matter. 

Socially Distant; By the Numbers; and Environmental Victories

I. Socially Distant

Percent who say that they are concerned about a coronavirus outbreak in their area. More than 80% of Democrats expressed concern, in contrast to fewer than 40% of Republicans.  

A. Percent who think Trump's covid-19 policy is not taking the risks seriously enough: Democrats - 79%; Republicans -  12%.

B. Percent who think the federal government should be responsible for ramping up testing: Democrats - 72%; Republicans - 33%.

C. Percent who think a stay-at-home order is a violation of constitutional rights: Democrats - 6%; Republicans - 42%.

D. Percent who say they will get vaccinated when coronavirus vaccine is available: Democrats - 70%; Republicans - 47%. (For sources, visit motherjones.com/red-blue.)

II. DACA On My Mind

5 - Number of Supreme Court justices who ruled on June 18 that the Trump administration may not act immediately to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

650K - Approximate number of DACA recipients in the US.

7 - Average age of DACA recipients when they came to the US.

200K - DACA recipients who are essential workers in healthcare, education, food, and other industries.

256K - Children who are US citizens and have at least one parent enrolled in DACA. (Source: The Nation, July 13/20, 2020.)

III. Nursing Home Numbers

1.5M - Number of people in the US who are cared for in nursing homes.

54K - Minimum number of nursing home residents and employees who have died from covid-19 in the US, as of June 30.

24% - Share of nursing home workers who were tested or presumed positive for covid-19 in New York state from March to early June.

24 - Number of states in which the majority of covid-19 deaths are linked to nursing homes.

$13 - Median hourly pay of a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home.

70% - Share of nursing homes in the  US that are for-profit. (Source: The Nation, July 27/August 3, 2020.)

IV. Policing By the Numbers

170% - Increase in the cost of policing in the US from 1977 to 2017.

$7.4B - Value of equipment that has flowed from the Pentagon to police departments since 1997.

41% - Share of the Oakland, California general fund dedicated to police expenditures.

$220M - Amount paid New York City taxpayers to settle legal issues involving the NYPD in fiscal year 2019.

809K - Number of police officers and detectives in the US in 2018.

616K - Number of middle school teachers in the US in 2018.

5 Cents - Amount that Chicago spends on its Department of Family and Support Services for every dollar earmarked for the police. (Source: The Nation, August 10/17, 2020.)

V. Environmental Victories

#A court ordered Trump's EPA to finalize a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which can harm the developing brains of children. The agency refused and so the  legal battle will continue.

#The NRDC lawsuit blocked the Interior Department's climate-weakening plan to offer up 80 billion tons of coal for leasing on public lands in Montana and Wyoming.

#A California court rejected Monsanto's latest effort to remove glyphosate, used in its Roundup weed killer, from the state's public list of cancer-causing chemicals.

#Carmakers who disregard climate-saving fuel economy standards will face stiff penalties, thanks to an NRDC-led victory over Trump's Department of Transportation.

#A courtroom victory blocked President Trump from reversing President Obama's ban on offshore drilling across vast swaths of land and water. (Source: NRDC fact sheet.)

ADDENDUMS:

*Within a 25-hour period, Trump tweeted: "When the looting starts, the shooting starts," and "The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat."

*Trump has called hydroxychoroquine a preventive and curative treatment. 

*Sen, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has said: "Without sufficient explanation,it's fair to question the president's rationale for removing an inspector general. If the president has a good reason to remove an inspector general, just tell Congress what it is. Otherwise, the American people will be left speculating whether political or self interests are to blame."

*A nationwide review conducted by ABC News has identified 54 criminal cases where Trump was involved in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assaults.

*Trump has said he will brand the loosely organized Antifa movement as a terrorist organization; however, the law states that such a designation can only be applied to international organizations.

*A new study by Monmouth University found 57% of Americans believe police are more likely to use force on Black people.

Refuting Republican Claims on Tax Cut

 1; The Economy Will Be Supercharged

Since the investment boom never materialized, it's hardly a shock to lean that GDP growth didn't boom either. The growth rate increased modesty for two quarters and then dropped steadily. In the last quarter unaffected by by the coronavirus crisis, it was hardly above 2 percent. Not only didn't the tax cut usher in the growth that Republicans predicted, but growth rates started dropping soon after. Although the growth rate increased above 3% for two quarters, it dropped to just above 2% in 2019.

Although new orders for capital goods had spiked to slightly over 10% before the tax cut was passed, the new orders had steadily dropped to slightly above 2% late in 2019.

Business investment increased to a high of nearly 6% shortly after the tax cut was passed; however, it plunged to a minus 1% late in 2019.

2. The Tax Cut Will Pay For Itself

Corporate tax receipts plummeted from $240 billion on $140 in the first quarter after the tax cut was passed,  and have stayed at that level ever since.

The annual federal deficit was almost $600 billion in 2016, and had increased to about  $680 in 2017. It hit close to $1 trillion in 2019, and recent estimates have it over $1 trillion for 2020 -- pandemic spending will push it even higher.

3. Corporations Will Bring Back Profits Stashed Overseas

President Trump promised that a temporary "tax holiday" would produce a flood of repatriated earnings amounting to $4-$5 trillion -- nearly twice the amount that corporations were actually storing overseas. Repatriations to date (middle of 2020) have amounted to only $840 billion above past projections, and the total amount of repatriations in the last quarter of 2019 was only $60 billion higher than it was before the tax cut was passed. The total will never come close to the $4-$5 trillion promised.

Share buybacks have exceeded $200 billion in three of the  eight quarters of 2018 ad 2019, whereas they never reached even $150 billion in the four quarters of 2017.

Foreign direct investment had a small pop in 2018, but dropped to negative territory in late 2019.

4. Your Wages Will Skyrocket

Administration economists and Trump predicted that the average household income would increase by at least $3,000, and as high as $9,000. The average household is receiving less than $1,000 annually in tax savings.

5. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said that the tax cut was a "jobs bill." If you look at the total share of the country  with jobs -- the "employment-to-population" ratio -- nothing happened after the tax cut was passed. It had been growing since the Great Recession, and it continued growing at the same rate after the tax cut was passed, until Covis-19 hit.

6. Tax Cuts For All

President Trump had called the tax cut a middle-class cut; however, the change in after-tax income (by income level) shows that the top 1% benefited by far the most. Following are the percentage increases by income level: Working poor - 0.4%; Working class - 1.2%; Middle class - 1.6%; Upper middle - 1.9%; and Top 1% - 3.4%. In 2027, the tax rate reductions will end but the top 1% will continue to benefit from other tax breaks. 

7. But Guess What? Corporate Profits Soared

Corporate profits jumped 8% after the tax cut was passed,and they've stayed at their new, higher level ever since.  (Source: Mother Jones, July+August 2020, pages 29-31.)

Black Deaths Matter

Black people have experienced a disproportionate share of coronavirus deaths. The 15 states with the largest reported racial  disparities include several that have rushed to reopen. The first percentage for  each state will be Black percentage of population and the second will be the Black percentage of Covid-19 fatalities.

Michigan -  14% and 43%

Missouri - 12% and 39%

Kansas - 6% and 33%

Louisiana - 33% and 58%

Wisconsin - 7% and 31%

South Carolina -  27% and 48%

Alabama - 27% and 46%

Illinois - 15% and 34%

Arkansas - 16% and 35%

Georgia - 32% and 50%

Mississippi - 38% and 55%

Tennessee - 17% and 32%

North Carolina -  22% and 35%

Maryland - 31% and 43%

Kentucky - 8% and 18%

ADDENDUMS:

*In May, Trump slammed Dr. Fauci: "Look, he wants to play on all sides of the equation I was surprised by his answer, actually, because you know,it is not an acceptable  answer, especially when it comes to schools."

*China calls Trump, Pompeo, and Navarro the "lying trio."

*Trump calls Obama "grossly incompetent."

*Trump praised Henry Ford's "good bloodlines." In fact, Ford was a notorious anti-Semite.

Refuting Republican Claims on Tax Cut

1. The Economy Will Be Supercharged 

Since the investment boom never materialized, it's hardly a shock to learn that GDP growth didn't boom either. The growth rate increased modestly for two quarters,and then dropped steadily. In the last quarter unaffected by the coronavirus crisis, it was hardly above 2 percent. Not only didn't the tax cut usher in the growth that Republicans predicted, but growth rates started dropping soon after. Although the growth rate increased above 3% for two quarters, it dropped to just above 2% in 2019.

Although new orders for capital goods had spiked to slightly over 10% before the tax cut was passed, the new orders had steadily dropped to slightly above minus 2% late in 2019.

Business investment increased to a high of nearly 6% shortly after the tax cut was passed; however, it plunged to a minus 1% late in 2019.

2. The Tax Cut Will Pay For Itself

Corporate tax receipts plummeted from $240 billion to $140 billion in the first quarter after the tax cut was passed, and have stayed at that level ever since.

The annual federal deficit was almost $600 billion in 2016, and had increased to about $680 billion in 2017. It hit close to $1 trillion in 2019, and recent estimates have it over $1 trillion for 2020 -- pandemic spending will push it even higher.

3. President Trump promised that a temporary "tax holiday" would produce a flood of repatriated earnings -- amounting to $4-$5 trillion -- nearly twice the amount  that corporations were actually storing overseas. Repatriations to date (middle of 2020) have amounted to only $840 billion above normal, and the total amount of repatriations in the last quarter of 2019 was only $60 billion higher than it was before the tax cut was passed. The total will never come close to the $4-$5 trillion promised.

Share buybacks have exceeded $200 billion in three of the eight quarters of 2018 and 2019,whereas they never reached even $150 billion in the four quarters of 2017. Some companies have used tax savings to reduce debt, and enhanced bonuses have proven thus far to be a one-time thing.

Foreign direct investment had a small pop in 2018, but dropped to negative territory in late 2019.

4. Your Wages Will Skyrocket

Administration economists and President Trump himself predicted that the annual average household income would increase by at least $3,000 and as high as $9,000. The average household is receiving less than $1,000 annually in tax savings.

5. Jobs, Job, Jobs!

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that the tax cut was a "jobs bill." If you look at the total share of the country with jobs -- the "employment-to-population" ratio -- nothing happened after the tax cut passed. It had been growing since the Great Recession and it continued growing at the same rate after the tax cut was passed, until Covid-19 hit.

6. Tax Cuts For All

Contrary to rosy projections of average households getting thousands of dollars in after-tax income, change in after-tax income (by income level) has proven to be very modest. Working poor -  0.4%; Working class - 1.2%; Middle class - 1.6%; Upper middle - 1.9%; and Top 1% - 3.4%. In 2027,the tax rate reductions will end, but the top 1% will continue to benefit from other tax breaks.

8. But Guess What? Corporate Profits Soared

Corporate profits jumped 8% after the tax cut was passed, and they've stayed at their new, higher level ever since. (Source: Mother Jones, July+August 2020, pages 29-31.)

ADDENDUMS: 

* Research suggests that the richest 1% of Americans can expect to live more than a decade longer than the poorest 1% -- and that's without the pandemic. (Source: TIME, April 6-13, 2020.)

*A Federal Reserve survey found that 39% of Americans with household incomes below $40,000 lost  a job in March, compared with 13% of Americans earning over $100,000. Over a third of people who were laid off couldn't pay their bills in April.

*A Census Bureau survey found that 7% of small business owners said in late April, and early May that they had no cash on hand,and another 9.5% said that they couldn't cover more than a week of operations.

*Federal Judge Lorna G, Schofield refused to stay a case that the Trump family engaged in an illegal pyramid scheme. The lawsuit alleges the ACN Opportunity, LLC company was a "get-rich-quick" scheme that was designed to get victims to give up hundreds or millions of dollars in violation of various state laws.

*Eight billionaires have seen their wealth grow by over a billion dollars apiece during the pandemic.

*For the second year in a row, Iceland will not hunt any whales. Its commercial whaling industry may be at an end. (Source: Paul Rauber, "Up to Speed: Two Months, One Page," Sierra, July/August 2020.) 

*In the absence of tourists,poachers are slaughtering wildlife in African parks and wildlife reserves. (Source: Same as above.)

Anti-Asian Sentiment to the Gates Foundation

 I. Anti-Asian Sentiment to the Gates Foundation"

Since mid-March, STOP APPIGATE, an incident reporting center founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, has received more than 1,800 reports of a pandemic -fueled harassment or violence in 45 states and Washington, D.C." Like many Asian Americans, the article's author, Anna Purna Kambhampaty, has learned to feel a "sense of shame over the things that supposedly made us foreign: our food, our language, our haircuts, our smell, our parents." "At the same time, anti-Asian sentiment remained a reservoir of major feeling from which Americans could always draw in a time of crisis. Asian Americans still do wield enough cultural presence to make many of our fellow Americans hesitate in deploying a racist idea." "Pointing the finger at Asians in Asia, or Asians in non-Asian countries, has been a tried and true method of racism for a long time in the U.S., it dates from the 19th century." The result was white mobs lynching Chinese migrants driving en masse out of towns and  burning down Chinese towns." "The slur of the 'Chinese virus' has revealed how fragile our acceptance and inclusion was." [1] 

"Asian Americans are caught between the perception that we are inherently foreign and the temptation that we can be allied with white people in a country built on  white supremacy, and anti-Native racism runs deep in Asian American communities." Multiculturalism may make us feel good, but it will not save the American dream: reparations, economic redistribution, and defending or abolishing the police might." "The U.S. is still a country built on war and for war. "Faced with this problem, Asian Americans can be a model of apology, trying to prove an Americaness that cannot be proved." "The national poverty rate was 15.1% in 2015, while the rate for African Americans about 24.1%, and for Hmong Americans, 28.3%."

"So long as this crossbred system of white supremacy and capitalist exploitation remains in place, there will always be  someone who will write that sign: ANOTHER AMERICAN OUT OF BUSINESS [Fill in the blank], because racism always offers the temptation to blame the weak rather than the powerful." "America is built on the business of driving other businesses out of business."

II. Mormon History

"In each place, local opposition increased in tandem with the growth of the Mormon population." "During this period, the Missouri governor, Lilburn Boggs, declared in an executive order that 'the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary from the public peace.' " "Smith had continued to receive revelations about how the faithful were meant to serve God, so this new sanctuary housed new religious rituals. One of them called for posthumous deism, through which Mormons cold babtize a living person as a proxy for someone already deceased." "Smith publicly denied knowledge of polygamous marriages, and the few records of those unions which do exist refer to them as 'sealings' " [2]

"Like the Quakers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony before them, and the Rajneeshees in Oregon after them, the Mormons in Illinois came to be seen as a  danger to democracy: not a mini-America where the saints could take  refuge,but an anti-America, where social deviance threatened the moral order, and religious authorities sought too much power." "Many denominations came and went during the proliferation of faith,and fanaticism that characterized the Second Great Awakening." "It was also a vote to constrain the power of the executive branch, which Joseph Smith had wanted to strengthen,and to uphold traditional democratic principles, which Smith and his early followers had sought to undermine.

III. No Primary Medical Care in China

"By that point, the country [China] was deep into the most ambitious quarantine in history, with at least seven hundred and sixty million people confined largely to their homes." "In China, there's no comprehensive primary-care system, which is one reason that the coronavirus spiraled out of control in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province." [3]

"Masks also made it easier for people to ignore one another." "These costumes of the  quarantine, along with all the other restrictions, helped citizens inward, and people directed their energy toward      whatever space was left to them."

"During the lockdown, the Minister of Education estimated that more than two hundred million children and adolescents had been confined to their homes." "Young people, in general, suffer significant stress in China, where suicide is the leading cause of death among those aged between fifteen and thirty-five." "According to the W.H.O., by February 20th, children under the age of nineteen represented only 2.4 per cent of the  reported [coronavirus] cases in China." "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States has noted that countries that closed schools at  an early stage have not necessarily handled the epidemic better than those which didn't, and such closures likely have to be longer than four weeks to have any benefit."

"One irony of this pandemic is that,while it exposes the gaps in our social  and medical  safety nets, it also punishes people for behaving well."

IV. The Gates Foundation

There is a new model of charity in which the "most direct beneficiaries are sometime not the world's poor, but the world's wealthiest, in which the goal is to help the rich, not the needy." "Through an investigation of more that 19,000 charitable grants the Gates Foundation has made over the last two decades, 'The Nation' has uncovered close to $1 billion in tax-deductible donations to private companies." "By Bill and Melinda's Gate's estimations,they have seen donations through 2028, resulting in around $4 billion in avoided taxes.' "If Bill and Melinda Gates don't pay their full freight in taxes, the pubic has to make up the difference..." [4]

The Gates Foundation "has given money to groups that push for industry-friendly government policies and regulations..."

"Microsoft's bottom line is heavily dependent on patent protections for its software. These patent protections are widely criticized for making life-saving drugs prohibitively expensive, particularly in the developing world." "The Foundation's clearest conflict of interest may be the grants it gives to for-profit companies in which it holds investments. That's because when the rich give away their wealth, they reduce the assets that the estate tax targets."

"Gates, along with a growing chorus of billionaires,has also used his public platform to push back on a proposed wealth tax." "The Gates Foundation's investments are not an insignificant part of its charitable efforts. Its $50 billion endowment had generated $28.5 billion in investment income over the last five years. During the same period, the foundation has given away only $23.5 billion in charitable grants." "According to IRS statistics, there are around 100,000 private foundations in the United States,having close to $1 trillion in assets. However, foundations generally pay a rate of only 1 or 2 percent, and the IRS was auditing, at most, 263 foundations in 2018."

ADDENDUMS:

*There's one Republican senator or every 260,000 Wyomingites, but only one Democratic senator for every 20 million Californians. [5]

*8 billionaires have seen their wealth grow by over a billion dollars apiece during the pandemic.

*Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell contends that Trump has the power to fire anyone in the Executive Branch.

Footnotes:

[1] Anna Purna Kambhampaty, "Facing racism," TIME, July 6-13, 2020.

[2] Casey Cap, "God's Country," The New Yorker, March 30, 2020.

[3] Peter Hessler, "Life on Lockdown," The New Yorker, March 30, 2020.

[4] Tim Schwab, "Saint Bill," The Nation. Date not recorded, but near the end of March 2020.

[5] Paul Fariler, "Minority Rule," Sierra, May/June 2020.

Police Malpractice

Police Malpractice - Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Ca,) wants to change the federal legal standard on the police use of force from "reasonable" to "necessary." Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D- Mass.) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) introduced legislation to directly condemn police brutality, racial profiling and the excessive use of force. I will give my own context to the issues raised.

The practice of police officers not informing about, nor trying to stop officers from using excessive force, or committing illegal actions, goes by several names, but the one most commonly used is probably "Blue Shield." It isn't only that other police officers just stand silently by in many instances, but they join in the use of excessive force, or other illegal acts. A few examples are: 1.) The Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, which involved not only the Los Angeles police, but campus police and sheriff's deputies; 2.) The assault on a horseback rider in Orange County, California, when a hovering helicopter showed seven sheriff's deputies joining in the beating of the unhorsed rider. A homeowner had called to report that the horseman had ridden through her property; and 3.) Eric Garner was choked to death, while other New York City police officers restrained him.

James Boyd, a homeless man, became a national sensation when he refused an order to leave his position in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was seen as a menace by some foothills residents, and a large police force was in a standoff with him. The standoff was broken when two officers almost simultaneously fired their weapons. Because there were TV cameras there to catch the action, Boyd was shown shot while reaching for his backpack. It looked to me that he was preparing to leave. At no point in the televised coverage did Boyd hold anything that would represent a threat to any officer.

Based on trial testimony I heard and what I read about the trial, the police officers who gave testimony didn't find anything that the two officers on trial did wrong. Both officers were found to be not guilty. When police officers testify in trials of their fellow officers, in law enforcement circles, the word is not "testimony," it is called "testilying," because so many officers lie.

There are, of course, other ways to assess official law enforcement practices that make it more difficult to to rein in conduct that is at least questionable, or crosses the line into bad territory. When Jeff Sessions became Attorney General he discontinued the use of consent decrees. Consent decrees are one way to reduce destructive practices in law enforcement agencies. The Albuquerque Police Department was under a consent decree due to questionable fatal shootings.

Sessions also restored asset forfeiture, whereby police departments could keep some of the proceeds from stopping a vehicle that was found to be carrying illicit drugs. At a symposium in New Mexico, a few years ago, a lawyer described the practice of one police department, in which officers discussed stopping the most expensive cars, because that would increase the income to the department. This narrative seemed to have had a powerful impact on New Mexico legislators, as they eliminated the state's asset forfeiture program by virtually all legislators in both the state House and Senate voting to  kill it.

When Frank Serpico testified before the Knapp Commission about corruption in the New York City police force, the operative phrase that came out of that proceeding was not that there were "a few bad apples" in the drug enforcement division, but that "the whole apple basket was rotten."

Although I have been a life-long supporter of unions, many union contracts give police officers advantages in the judicial process that the ordinary citizen doesn't have. One of the most egregious is that officers have the right to see the charges that will be levied against them before the legal process has begun. Another provision that many union contracts have is that police officers have access to grand jury proceedings that the ordinary citizen doesn't have. When it comes to the judicial process, the police officer should basically have the same rights as the ordinary non-police citizen.

One of the most daunting obstacles reformers will have in scaling back law enforcement misconduct, is the propensity of those on jury panels to fail to convict police officers being tried for a criminal offense. One study of 10,000 cases in which officers were charged for a violation of law, only 55 were convicted. Only a handful suffered a sentence longer than 7 years. Between 2013 and 2019, 99% of police killings were not charged.

Finally, given that prosecutors are too often closely tied to local police departments to make objective decisions, "Blue" commissions headed by a prosecutor experienced in trying capital cases, and regionally located, should try fatal police shootings.