XL Pipeline
Candidate Trump said that the Keystone XL pipeline, which would transport tar-sands oil from Canada to refineries in Texas, would boost energy independence, put Americans to work, and be built with U.S. steel. The truth is that the Keystone oil would be sold on the global market, create almost no permanent jobs in the United States, and rely on foreign steel. On March 28, Trump issued executive orders aimed at undoing other key elements of President Obama's climate record: the Clean Power Plan; a moratorium on new coal leases; restrictions on methane emissions; and a requirement that federal agencies consider the social cost of climate damages in their decision-making. [1]
Robert Murray, the CEO of Murray Energy, is skeptical of Trump's claim that he can bring back the coal industry. In an interview with the Guardian, Murray said that government regulations aren't what killed the industry; it was increased automation of coal mining and competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy.
Contrary to President Trump trying to do away with measures to lessen global warming and switch from a fossil-fuel to a renewable energy future, China is going in an opposite direction. The Chinese Premier announced at the annual National People's Congress on March 5 that China was canceling 50 gigawatts -- roughly equivalent to 50 large power plants -- of coal-fired electricity production. Fully one-sixth of China's coal-fired power capacity may be either shut down, or in the case of planned capacity, not get built, according to Zhang Chun, a senior researcher at the independent publication, "chinadialogue."
China's decision to scale back on coal could strand $1 trillion worth of assets, according to a study by the Smith School of Energy and the Environment at Oxford University. There is a strong consensus among the world's climate scientists that only one-third of the world's remaining coal, gas and gas reserves can be burned while still limiting the increase in temperature to two degrees Celsius.
Ferguson Cops
The Ferguson Police Department in Missouri routinely issues orders that have no legal basis and then arrests civilians who refuse those orders for 'failing to comply.' "It's a neat little circular bit of authoritarian reasoning." "This great land of ours was founded by men who, to borrow a phrase, refused to comply, who not only resisted lawful orders but rebelled against the government that issued them." "In fact, smuggling was so embedded in colonial society that British officers complained they couldn't find anyone to enforce the law who wasn't somehow connected to it." "Between 1710 and 1760, as the population of the colonies quintupled to over 15 million, the total number of customs agents rose from 37 to 50." [2]
"Like the customs officers who interdicted smugglers to bring in traffic, the police in Ferguson were ordered to write tickets to bring in money. That kind of law enforcement had nothing to do with public safety or welfare, and the public knew it." "In 2009, in a city of just 21,000, there were 24,000 traffic cases in the Ferguson municipal court, and by October 31, 2014, that figure had grown to 53,000." "By 2015, fines and fees would make up more than one-fifth of the city of Ferguson's total revenues." "But for subjects of authoritarian rule, humiliation is the permanent state of existence." [3]
Jeff Sessions' Tectonic Shift
"Attorney General Jeff Sessions is leading the Justice Department through a tectonic shift, threatening more deportations and [bringing back] the decades-old failed 'War on Drugs.' " "Before long, right-wing groups like the Heritage Foundation began referring to 'The Ferguson Effect' claiming consent decrees or any other types of judicial or civilian oversight of police actually increases crime by tying the hands of law enforcement. This argument has no basis in fact." [4]
The statute that governs these investigations and consent decrees is the Law Enforcement Misconduct Statute, 142 U.S.C. 1414, was enacted as part of the 1994 crime bill as a result of the Rodney King assault and the acquittal of those officers in the first trial. Shereilyn Ifill, the president and director-general of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said: "[It] authorizes the attorney general to investigate unconstitutional policing, to engage in these consent decrees. To the extent that he [Sessions] is a law-and-order attorney general this is the law he's willing to completely ignore."
Footnotes
[1] Mark Hertsgaard, "Climate's Trump Card," The Nation, April 17, 2017.
[2] Chris Hayes, "Policing the Colony," The Nation, April 17, 2017.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan, "Sessions' review on consent decrees alarming," The Albuquerque Journal, April 15, 2017.
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Arkansas's Drug Lust to Legally Kill
Killing Drugs Dry Up
Arkansas was in a big rush to kill eight men on Death Row before the end of April, because the drug midazolarn, part of a three-drug killing cocktail, would not be available anymore. Midazolarn is the first of the drugs in Arkansas's death mix. The European Union has banned companies in Europe from selling execution drugs since 2011.
Those languishing on America's Death Rows are generally poor, disproportionately of color, and most likely to have been found guilty of a crime that had a white victim. They are incapable of mounting the type of vigorous defense wealthier defendants can.
Damien Echols knows Arkansas's Death Row all too well: He spent more than 18 years on it after he and two companions were convicted of killing young boys. After improved DNA testing became available years later, he and his two co-defendants were freed in 2011.
In a related development, the McKesson Corporation claimed that the Arkansas Department of Corrections deceived them in order to acquire a bromide, another of the lethal drugs in the state's execution cocktail. [1]
Consent Decrees Under Fire
As much as anyone in the Trump administration, Jeff Sessions seems eager to eradicate any trace of Barack Obama's tenure. According to the Washington Post, "Sessions will work on new policies with a veteran federal prosecutor named Steven H. Cook, who is a long-time enthusiast of the kind of severe drug-war penalties that provoked the mass incarceration crisis in the first place."
Since 1994, seventy police and sheriff's departments have come under investigation; forty-one entered into reform agreements, including consent decrees." "The Justice Department found no systematic abuse in twenty-four of its investigations, and declined to pursue oversight." What this shows is that the Justice Department has not been willy-nilly investigating law enforcement agencies, but, nonetheless, found serious misconduct in well over half of those agencies investigated. Sessions is against consent decrees, because he contends that they undermine morale in police departments and tar officers with the misdeeds of a few rogues. The problem is that a them-against-us culture produces a Blue Wall of Silence by which officers will not bring to light misdeeds of fellow officers. [2]
"From 2012 through 2015, the Chicago Police Department paid out two hundred and ten million dollars to settle more than six hundred lawsuits, many of them alleging misconduct." Chicago's mayor, Rahm Emanuel, said: "We're on the road to reform. We're not getting off." [3] Just a few months ago, Donald Trump threatened to "send in the feds" to fix Chicago's crime problem. To the hypocrisies of his presidency we may add this one: the dangers in Chicago are compounded by his Attorney General's refusal to do just that. If Obama's proposed criminal justice reforms do not survive the Trump era, the problems they sought to address certainly will.
Big-Tent Feminism
"Like it or not, abortion rights are at tremendous risk right now. A political movement that doesn't defend them and promotes instead some vague notion of 'unity' is bound to be weak too to the women who are the movement's strongest activists. After all, nothing prevents anti-abortion women from being active in other feminist and progressive causes." [4]
"If you demand that every girl and woman who becomes pregnant bear a child no matter the consequences to herself, and if you call on the government to back that up through criminal law, there isn't a lot left to the ideals of equality and self-determination that is fundamental to feminism." "I just don't see how restricting and criminalizing abortion, bullying women on their way into the clinic, and pushing lies -- that abortion will give you breast cancer, make you infertile, or lead to a life's worth of misery -- are compatible with respecting other women's right to make their own moral decisions in an area where people disagree strongly and probably always will."
Footnotes
[1] Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan, "Arkansas's mass executions facing mass challenge," The Albuquerque Journal, April 22, 2017.
[2] Jelani Cobb, "Reversal of Justice," The New Yorker, April 24, 2017.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Katha Pollitt, "Too-Big-Tent Feminism," The Nation, March 27, 2017.
Arkansas was in a big rush to kill eight men on Death Row before the end of April, because the drug midazolarn, part of a three-drug killing cocktail, would not be available anymore. Midazolarn is the first of the drugs in Arkansas's death mix. The European Union has banned companies in Europe from selling execution drugs since 2011.
Those languishing on America's Death Rows are generally poor, disproportionately of color, and most likely to have been found guilty of a crime that had a white victim. They are incapable of mounting the type of vigorous defense wealthier defendants can.
Damien Echols knows Arkansas's Death Row all too well: He spent more than 18 years on it after he and two companions were convicted of killing young boys. After improved DNA testing became available years later, he and his two co-defendants were freed in 2011.
In a related development, the McKesson Corporation claimed that the Arkansas Department of Corrections deceived them in order to acquire a bromide, another of the lethal drugs in the state's execution cocktail. [1]
Consent Decrees Under Fire
As much as anyone in the Trump administration, Jeff Sessions seems eager to eradicate any trace of Barack Obama's tenure. According to the Washington Post, "Sessions will work on new policies with a veteran federal prosecutor named Steven H. Cook, who is a long-time enthusiast of the kind of severe drug-war penalties that provoked the mass incarceration crisis in the first place."
Since 1994, seventy police and sheriff's departments have come under investigation; forty-one entered into reform agreements, including consent decrees." "The Justice Department found no systematic abuse in twenty-four of its investigations, and declined to pursue oversight." What this shows is that the Justice Department has not been willy-nilly investigating law enforcement agencies, but, nonetheless, found serious misconduct in well over half of those agencies investigated. Sessions is against consent decrees, because he contends that they undermine morale in police departments and tar officers with the misdeeds of a few rogues. The problem is that a them-against-us culture produces a Blue Wall of Silence by which officers will not bring to light misdeeds of fellow officers. [2]
"From 2012 through 2015, the Chicago Police Department paid out two hundred and ten million dollars to settle more than six hundred lawsuits, many of them alleging misconduct." Chicago's mayor, Rahm Emanuel, said: "We're on the road to reform. We're not getting off." [3] Just a few months ago, Donald Trump threatened to "send in the feds" to fix Chicago's crime problem. To the hypocrisies of his presidency we may add this one: the dangers in Chicago are compounded by his Attorney General's refusal to do just that. If Obama's proposed criminal justice reforms do not survive the Trump era, the problems they sought to address certainly will.
Big-Tent Feminism
"Like it or not, abortion rights are at tremendous risk right now. A political movement that doesn't defend them and promotes instead some vague notion of 'unity' is bound to be weak too to the women who are the movement's strongest activists. After all, nothing prevents anti-abortion women from being active in other feminist and progressive causes." [4]
"If you demand that every girl and woman who becomes pregnant bear a child no matter the consequences to herself, and if you call on the government to back that up through criminal law, there isn't a lot left to the ideals of equality and self-determination that is fundamental to feminism." "I just don't see how restricting and criminalizing abortion, bullying women on their way into the clinic, and pushing lies -- that abortion will give you breast cancer, make you infertile, or lead to a life's worth of misery -- are compatible with respecting other women's right to make their own moral decisions in an area where people disagree strongly and probably always will."
Footnotes
[1] Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan, "Arkansas's mass executions facing mass challenge," The Albuquerque Journal, April 22, 2017.
[2] Jelani Cobb, "Reversal of Justice," The New Yorker, April 24, 2017.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Katha Pollitt, "Too-Big-Tent Feminism," The Nation, March 27, 2017.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
The ICWA Under Attack and Labor Union Decline
The ICWA Under Attack
The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) requires that before private and public agencies place Native American children in foster care or with an adoptive family, they try to keep nuclear families together, or, if that fails, to place children with the extended family, their tribe, or a member of another tribe. The Goldwater Institute is now trying, in the Washburn case, to overturn the ICWA. Many tribal members fear that if Goldwater is successful, it could undermine the legal scaffolding of Native American self-determination. [1]
"From the mid-1800s into the 1970s, tens of thousands of Native American children were taken from their homes, sometimes forcibly, and sent to government-run boarding schools, often hundreds of miles away. Intended to "kill the Indian...save the man," the schools prohibited students from speaking Native languages, or practicing tribal ceremonies." "Studies have found that when Native youth are connected to their culture and feel pride about it, they're more likely to have better grades and to attend college." "A 2011 investigation by National Public Radio found that 32 states were in violation of the IWCA." [2]
Declining Union Membership
"From its mid-20th-century peak in which about 35 percent of workers were in a union, organized labor has seen its numbers shrink to about 11 percent of all workers and around 6 percent in the private sector -- the lowest figures since the early 20th century, before industrial labor took off in the United States." "Moreover, the automation of countless jobs over the last several decades has led to fewer full-time positions, thus marginalizing the role that collective bargaining can play in creating a more equal America." Only about 8 percent of U.S. jobs today are in manufacturing, compared with about 24 percent in 1960. The 700,000 coal-mining jobs that existed a century ago have dwindled to 50,000 today, and the 650,000 steel jobs in the early 1950s are down to less than 150,000. [3]
Recognizing that recreating the large labor unions of the past is not a feasible undertaking, Jane McAlevey, a labor union reformer, has proposed three models for progressive political activism today: advocacy, mobilizing and organizing. She and other labor reform leaders trying to resurrect labor unions as a force in the nation, have suggested that the new organizing fights, like the one in Seattle, be intensely local, not national. Andy Stern, former president of SEIU, and Eli Lehrer have proposed seeking state waivers in order to experiment with wage and hour rules, union organizational structure, and benefit provisions. The SEIU has put issues related to gender, reproductive rights and racial justice at the center of its programs.
ADDENDUM:
*A University of New Mexico economist has calculated that 250,000 New Mexicans could lose their health insurance coverage if the GOP's AHCA bill was enacted into law. The state could lose 31,792 jobs by 2026 through the enactment of the AHCA.
Footnotes
[1] Rebecca Clarran, "Our Children Have a Bounty on Their Heads," The Nation, April 24/May 1, 2017.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Rich Yeselson, "At Labor's Crossroads," The Nation, March 27, 2017.
The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) requires that before private and public agencies place Native American children in foster care or with an adoptive family, they try to keep nuclear families together, or, if that fails, to place children with the extended family, their tribe, or a member of another tribe. The Goldwater Institute is now trying, in the Washburn case, to overturn the ICWA. Many tribal members fear that if Goldwater is successful, it could undermine the legal scaffolding of Native American self-determination. [1]
"From the mid-1800s into the 1970s, tens of thousands of Native American children were taken from their homes, sometimes forcibly, and sent to government-run boarding schools, often hundreds of miles away. Intended to "kill the Indian...save the man," the schools prohibited students from speaking Native languages, or practicing tribal ceremonies." "Studies have found that when Native youth are connected to their culture and feel pride about it, they're more likely to have better grades and to attend college." "A 2011 investigation by National Public Radio found that 32 states were in violation of the IWCA." [2]
Declining Union Membership
"From its mid-20th-century peak in which about 35 percent of workers were in a union, organized labor has seen its numbers shrink to about 11 percent of all workers and around 6 percent in the private sector -- the lowest figures since the early 20th century, before industrial labor took off in the United States." "Moreover, the automation of countless jobs over the last several decades has led to fewer full-time positions, thus marginalizing the role that collective bargaining can play in creating a more equal America." Only about 8 percent of U.S. jobs today are in manufacturing, compared with about 24 percent in 1960. The 700,000 coal-mining jobs that existed a century ago have dwindled to 50,000 today, and the 650,000 steel jobs in the early 1950s are down to less than 150,000. [3]
Recognizing that recreating the large labor unions of the past is not a feasible undertaking, Jane McAlevey, a labor union reformer, has proposed three models for progressive political activism today: advocacy, mobilizing and organizing. She and other labor reform leaders trying to resurrect labor unions as a force in the nation, have suggested that the new organizing fights, like the one in Seattle, be intensely local, not national. Andy Stern, former president of SEIU, and Eli Lehrer have proposed seeking state waivers in order to experiment with wage and hour rules, union organizational structure, and benefit provisions. The SEIU has put issues related to gender, reproductive rights and racial justice at the center of its programs.
ADDENDUM:
*A University of New Mexico economist has calculated that 250,000 New Mexicans could lose their health insurance coverage if the GOP's AHCA bill was enacted into law. The state could lose 31,792 jobs by 2026 through the enactment of the AHCA.
Footnotes
[1] Rebecca Clarran, "Our Children Have a Bounty on Their Heads," The Nation, April 24/May 1, 2017.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Rich Yeselson, "At Labor's Crossroads," The Nation, March 27, 2017.
Monday, May 8, 2017
Daddy's Girl
Ivanka Trump
"[The] Trump manipulation machine wants us to think that Ivanka is really his women's-rights representative." "In other words, Ivanka is a wholly owned subsidiary of 'My Father,' as she almost religiously called him at the Republican convention."
"Ivanka is like the token black or Latino employee of the 1970s -- the one exceptional person who is hired and then used to prove that everything is fine for everyone else of their kind, when patently it is not." "Women -- so many of whom are underpaid, undervalued, disregarded and abused -- shouldn't think that they can put their fate into the hands of someone who, no matter hard she's worked in her father's company, has no clue of what struggle really means. The fact that Ivanka is supposedly guiding women's policy shows just how little -- not how much -- My Father cares about it." [1]
The proposal (six weeks of maternal leave), that Ivanka supposedly sold to her father, is unclear, as it seems to exclude half of same-sex mothers (only a birth mother can receive the benefit), all unmarried mothers, all mothers of adopted infants, and certainly all fathers, whether in heterosexual or same-sex marriages.
Jeff Sessions: Foe of Consent Decrees
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is re-negotiating the consent decree struck between the Justice Department and the city of Baltimore. The decree includes a community oversight task force, an independent federal monitor, and the requirement that officers receive instructions about implicit bias. He has asked his subordinates to review agreements with other police departments to be sure that they accomplish such goals as boosting morale and the recruitment of police. A memo from Sessions states flatly: "It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies."
When city and town elected officials sign consent decrees, they are agreeing that their police departments have fallen well short of standards expected of them. These officials then agree to a set of remedies to fix the problems. What Sessions is doing will allow these problems to fester, further driving a wedge between communities and those they have expected to serve and protect.
Destroying Our Democracy
"After a month in office, Donald Trump has already proved himself unable to discharge his duties; the disability isn't laziness or inattention. It expresses itself in paranoid rants, non-stop feuds carried out in public, and impulsive acts that can only damage his government and himself." "The notion that at some point, Trump would start behaving 'Presidential' was always a fantasy." [2]
Senator John Coryn (R-TX), the Republican whip, made it plain: Trump can go on being Trump "as long as we're able to get things done." Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) explained: "We'll never even get started with doing the things we need to do, like repealing Obamacare, if we're spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans."
"An authoritarian and erratic leader, a chaotic presidency, a supine legislature, a resistant permanent bureaucracy, street demonstrations, fear abroad: this is what illiberal regimes look like. If Trump were more rational and more competent, he might have a chance of destroying our democracy." [3]
Unequal at Birth
"Each year in the United States, more than 23,000 infants die before reaching their first birthday. Across the United States, black infants die at a rate that's more than twice as high as that of white infants." [4]
One study found that black women living in poorer neighborhoods were more likely to have low-birth-weight infants, regardless of their own socioeconomic status. The more segregated cities have greater black/white infant-mortality disparities; women whose babies are born severely underweight are more likely to report experiences of discrimination.
When it comes to the practice of discrimination, the state of Wisconsin stands out as being unique, as it locks up more of its black men than any other state in the country. Last year, the state stripped hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from Milwaukee's home-visiting program. Wisconsin Republicans have also fought efforts to increase the minimum wage, which could have a positive effect on the infant-mortality rate. [5]
Footnotes
[1] Amy Wilentz, "This Particular Daddy's Girl," The Nation, February 20, 2017.
[2] George Packer, "Official Duties," The New Yorker, February 27, 2017.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Zoe Carpenter, "Black Births Matter," The Nation, March 6, 2017.
[5] Ibid.
"[The] Trump manipulation machine wants us to think that Ivanka is really his women's-rights representative." "In other words, Ivanka is a wholly owned subsidiary of 'My Father,' as she almost religiously called him at the Republican convention."
"Ivanka is like the token black or Latino employee of the 1970s -- the one exceptional person who is hired and then used to prove that everything is fine for everyone else of their kind, when patently it is not." "Women -- so many of whom are underpaid, undervalued, disregarded and abused -- shouldn't think that they can put their fate into the hands of someone who, no matter hard she's worked in her father's company, has no clue of what struggle really means. The fact that Ivanka is supposedly guiding women's policy shows just how little -- not how much -- My Father cares about it." [1]
The proposal (six weeks of maternal leave), that Ivanka supposedly sold to her father, is unclear, as it seems to exclude half of same-sex mothers (only a birth mother can receive the benefit), all unmarried mothers, all mothers of adopted infants, and certainly all fathers, whether in heterosexual or same-sex marriages.
Jeff Sessions: Foe of Consent Decrees
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is re-negotiating the consent decree struck between the Justice Department and the city of Baltimore. The decree includes a community oversight task force, an independent federal monitor, and the requirement that officers receive instructions about implicit bias. He has asked his subordinates to review agreements with other police departments to be sure that they accomplish such goals as boosting morale and the recruitment of police. A memo from Sessions states flatly: "It is not the responsibility of the federal government to manage non-federal law enforcement agencies."
When city and town elected officials sign consent decrees, they are agreeing that their police departments have fallen well short of standards expected of them. These officials then agree to a set of remedies to fix the problems. What Sessions is doing will allow these problems to fester, further driving a wedge between communities and those they have expected to serve and protect.
Destroying Our Democracy
"After a month in office, Donald Trump has already proved himself unable to discharge his duties; the disability isn't laziness or inattention. It expresses itself in paranoid rants, non-stop feuds carried out in public, and impulsive acts that can only damage his government and himself." "The notion that at some point, Trump would start behaving 'Presidential' was always a fantasy." [2]
Senator John Coryn (R-TX), the Republican whip, made it plain: Trump can go on being Trump "as long as we're able to get things done." Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) explained: "We'll never even get started with doing the things we need to do, like repealing Obamacare, if we're spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans."
"An authoritarian and erratic leader, a chaotic presidency, a supine legislature, a resistant permanent bureaucracy, street demonstrations, fear abroad: this is what illiberal regimes look like. If Trump were more rational and more competent, he might have a chance of destroying our democracy." [3]
Unequal at Birth
"Each year in the United States, more than 23,000 infants die before reaching their first birthday. Across the United States, black infants die at a rate that's more than twice as high as that of white infants." [4]
One study found that black women living in poorer neighborhoods were more likely to have low-birth-weight infants, regardless of their own socioeconomic status. The more segregated cities have greater black/white infant-mortality disparities; women whose babies are born severely underweight are more likely to report experiences of discrimination.
When it comes to the practice of discrimination, the state of Wisconsin stands out as being unique, as it locks up more of its black men than any other state in the country. Last year, the state stripped hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from Milwaukee's home-visiting program. Wisconsin Republicans have also fought efforts to increase the minimum wage, which could have a positive effect on the infant-mortality rate. [5]
Footnotes
[1] Amy Wilentz, "This Particular Daddy's Girl," The Nation, February 20, 2017.
[2] George Packer, "Official Duties," The New Yorker, February 27, 2017.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Zoe Carpenter, "Black Births Matter," The Nation, March 6, 2017.
[5] Ibid.
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Transgender Bathroom Use and More
Transgender Bathroom Use
Lawmakers in more than a dozen states -- most famously in North Carolina -- have introduced bills that would require transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding to the sex they were assigned at birth rather than with their gender identity at the present time. In February, the Trump administration sided with those states, telling schools they could go back to blocking trans kids from using bathrooms based on their current identity. [1]
HB2, the transgender bathroom law in North Carolina, may cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. This could be an underestimation of the law's true costs, as the AP was conservative in its estimations of if HB2 was the principal reason a company pulled out.
Noise Pollution
The World Health Organization describes noise pollution as a environmental health burden "second only to air pollution." European Union data shows that 40 percent of the EU's population is exposed to unhealthy noise levels. There is a social injustice component to a chronic overexposure to noise, as low-income children, for example, attend louder schools. Patients are misdiagnosed more often in dangerously noisy hospitals. Silence is at risk of becoming a rich person's plaything.
U.S. Military as Giant Polluter
The U.S. military is likely the "largest organizational user of petroleum in the world," according to a congressional report released in December 2012. Beyond its immediate carbon footprint --difficult to measure -- the U.S.military has placed countless countries under the thumb of oil giants. In 2007, the Brookings Institute found that the U.S.Department of Defense uses more energy than 100 nations.
The U.S. military is exempt from any required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
ADDENDUMS:
* According to a 2014 study conducted by 5 Gyres [Institute] and a team of international scientists, 5.25 trillion particles of plastic, weighing approximately 268,940 tons, pollute the world's oceans.
*Dozens of companies currently get waivers that allow them to avoid following "Buy America" provisions. Trump could revoke the waivers any time he wants.
*Iran Nuclear Deal
The Trump administration has confirmed that Iran has continued to comply with the Iran nuclear deal; however, the National Security Council will lead any interagency review of whether easing economic sanctions as part of the accord "is vital to the national security interests of the U.S."
Iran has reduced its uranium stockpile by 98 percent and removed two/thirds of its centrifuges. A unilateral withdrawal would create diplomatic chaos with the other powers that signed the accord and the European Union, which had a representative at the negotiations.
Lawmakers in more than a dozen states -- most famously in North Carolina -- have introduced bills that would require transgender people to use public restrooms corresponding to the sex they were assigned at birth rather than with their gender identity at the present time. In February, the Trump administration sided with those states, telling schools they could go back to blocking trans kids from using bathrooms based on their current identity. [1]
HB2, the transgender bathroom law in North Carolina, may cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. This could be an underestimation of the law's true costs, as the AP was conservative in its estimations of if HB2 was the principal reason a company pulled out.
Noise Pollution
The World Health Organization describes noise pollution as a environmental health burden "second only to air pollution." European Union data shows that 40 percent of the EU's population is exposed to unhealthy noise levels. There is a social injustice component to a chronic overexposure to noise, as low-income children, for example, attend louder schools. Patients are misdiagnosed more often in dangerously noisy hospitals. Silence is at risk of becoming a rich person's plaything.
U.S. Military as Giant Polluter
The U.S. military is likely the "largest organizational user of petroleum in the world," according to a congressional report released in December 2012. Beyond its immediate carbon footprint --difficult to measure -- the U.S.military has placed countless countries under the thumb of oil giants. In 2007, the Brookings Institute found that the U.S.Department of Defense uses more energy than 100 nations.
The U.S. military is exempt from any required reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
ADDENDUMS:
* According to a 2014 study conducted by 5 Gyres [Institute] and a team of international scientists, 5.25 trillion particles of plastic, weighing approximately 268,940 tons, pollute the world's oceans.
*Dozens of companies currently get waivers that allow them to avoid following "Buy America" provisions. Trump could revoke the waivers any time he wants.
*Iran Nuclear Deal
The Trump administration has confirmed that Iran has continued to comply with the Iran nuclear deal; however, the National Security Council will lead any interagency review of whether easing economic sanctions as part of the accord "is vital to the national security interests of the U.S."
Iran has reduced its uranium stockpile by 98 percent and removed two/thirds of its centrifuges. A unilateral withdrawal would create diplomatic chaos with the other powers that signed the accord and the European Union, which had a representative at the negotiations.
Friday, May 5, 2017
Trump on Israel, Policy Theft, and Sessions' Crime Plan
Trump on Israel
On February 15, the Washington Post editorial board said that by President Trump saying he could live with a single state for the Israelis and Palestinians, he had made the "already slim prospects for an accord even more remote -- and increased the chances that one of the relatively few peaceful corners of the region will return to conflict." Palestinians say a single state would have to grant them equal rights, including full voting rights.
Most Israelis who favor a single state imagine an apartheid-like system in which Palestinians would live in areas with local autonomy, but without either sovereignty or the same democratic rights as Jews.
President Trump has embraced a diplomatic approach in which Israel would develop closer ties with Arab Sunni states who would help broker a settlement with the Palestinians. But Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan will never support a deal in which Palestinians do not have full political rights. In 2002, Saudi Arabia proposed relations with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from occupied territories; it was adopted by the Arab League but didn't go anywhere.
Trump's plea to Israel to stop settlement building for a "little bit" of time will not move the peace process along unless and until he imposes a penalty on Israel, such as cutting off funding.
Trump Stealing From Obama
Trump has taken credit for the placement of a THAAD missile defense battery in South Korea. Obama reached a deal with South Korea last July. Similarly, Trump has taken credit for a reduction in the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The announcement of the cost reductions took place on December 19, 2016, well before Trump took office. Richard Aboulafia, analyst with the aerospace consulting firm, Teal Group, said there is no evidence of any additional cost savings as a result of Trump's actions.
Trump has also taken credit for a $12 billion decline in the national debt. The debt normally fluctuates; furthermore, Trump had made no changes in spending policy nor tax cuts. Trump's planned large tax cuts and proposed spending increases, if enacted, will drive up the debt a lot.
Trump's credit theft seems to have no bounds. He has taken credit for $20 billion of investments in the Gulf Coast and the Gulf Coast region. ExxonMobil says the investments actually started in 2013 and are continuing.
Sessions' Crime Reduction Plan
Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to reduce crime by federalizing prosecutors who deal with violent crime at the state and local level. Jeffrey Fagan, professor of law at Columbia University and senior research scholar at Yale Law School, says that "What offenders respond to is the treat of being caught and punished, not the severity of the punishment." He cites a deterrence effort between federal and local authorities launched in 1997 in Richmond, Virginia, called Project Exile. "It was not terribly effective," he says.
ADDENDUMS:
*Conservatives are upset with EPA head, Scott Pruitt, because he hasn't acted to overturn the 2009 Endangerment finding that greenhouse gases are a threat and can be regulated. They want to remove the legal obligation under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide, removing a key tool that environmentalists are counting on to keep Obama's policies like the Clean Power Plan in place. Pruitt apparently believes that to try to remove it would be a significant lift and he might also be labeled as anti-science.
*Trump has said that Hillary Clinton shouldn't have run for the presidency because she was under FBI investigation. Since President Trump is under FBI investigation, we await his resignation.
On February 15, the Washington Post editorial board said that by President Trump saying he could live with a single state for the Israelis and Palestinians, he had made the "already slim prospects for an accord even more remote -- and increased the chances that one of the relatively few peaceful corners of the region will return to conflict." Palestinians say a single state would have to grant them equal rights, including full voting rights.
Most Israelis who favor a single state imagine an apartheid-like system in which Palestinians would live in areas with local autonomy, but without either sovereignty or the same democratic rights as Jews.
President Trump has embraced a diplomatic approach in which Israel would develop closer ties with Arab Sunni states who would help broker a settlement with the Palestinians. But Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan will never support a deal in which Palestinians do not have full political rights. In 2002, Saudi Arabia proposed relations with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from occupied territories; it was adopted by the Arab League but didn't go anywhere.
Trump's plea to Israel to stop settlement building for a "little bit" of time will not move the peace process along unless and until he imposes a penalty on Israel, such as cutting off funding.
Trump Stealing From Obama
Trump has taken credit for the placement of a THAAD missile defense battery in South Korea. Obama reached a deal with South Korea last July. Similarly, Trump has taken credit for a reduction in the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The announcement of the cost reductions took place on December 19, 2016, well before Trump took office. Richard Aboulafia, analyst with the aerospace consulting firm, Teal Group, said there is no evidence of any additional cost savings as a result of Trump's actions.
Trump has also taken credit for a $12 billion decline in the national debt. The debt normally fluctuates; furthermore, Trump had made no changes in spending policy nor tax cuts. Trump's planned large tax cuts and proposed spending increases, if enacted, will drive up the debt a lot.
Trump's credit theft seems to have no bounds. He has taken credit for $20 billion of investments in the Gulf Coast and the Gulf Coast region. ExxonMobil says the investments actually started in 2013 and are continuing.
Sessions' Crime Reduction Plan
Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to reduce crime by federalizing prosecutors who deal with violent crime at the state and local level. Jeffrey Fagan, professor of law at Columbia University and senior research scholar at Yale Law School, says that "What offenders respond to is the treat of being caught and punished, not the severity of the punishment." He cites a deterrence effort between federal and local authorities launched in 1997 in Richmond, Virginia, called Project Exile. "It was not terribly effective," he says.
ADDENDUMS:
*Conservatives are upset with EPA head, Scott Pruitt, because he hasn't acted to overturn the 2009 Endangerment finding that greenhouse gases are a threat and can be regulated. They want to remove the legal obligation under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide, removing a key tool that environmentalists are counting on to keep Obama's policies like the Clean Power Plan in place. Pruitt apparently believes that to try to remove it would be a significant lift and he might also be labeled as anti-science.
*Trump has said that Hillary Clinton shouldn't have run for the presidency because she was under FBI investigation. Since President Trump is under FBI investigation, we await his resignation.
Thursday, May 4, 2017
The Problems With the Strike on the Syrian Airstrip
This post is based on the Peace Action policy memo on the U.S. strike on a Syrian airstrip.
A summary:
#The military strike targeting a Syrian government air base violated U.S. law.
#Congress should demand the president seek authorization (AUMF) prior to any further action against the Assad government.
#The strike violated international law.
#The strike was ineffective and counterproductive.
#U.S, policy in Syria should focus on diplomacy, foreign aid and refugee resettlement.
1. The strike violated U.S. law
#Congress has not authorized the use of military force against the Syrian government.
#The War Powers Resolution Section 2(c) states:
The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce the United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.
#Clearly, none of those conditions were met.
#According to Michael Glennon, a professor of international law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and Legal Counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1977-1980, "military action against Syria exposes the United States to the risk of retaliation and involvement in a wider war. No national emergency requires that the decision to incur those risks be made by the president alone. The Constitution places that decision in the hands of Congress, not the President."
2. Congress should demand the president seek authorization prior to any further military action against the Assad government.
#The strike should not have occurred without congressional approval.
#Now that the strike has taken place, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, the president should consult with Congress prior to any further military action against the Assad government, and should cease all military action against the Assad government after a sixty-day period absent an authorization of military (AUMF) from Congress.
#Given that the military strike took place without congressional approval and was not in response to "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States," Congress should not take for granted that the president will respect the War Powers Resolution, and so must proactively reassert its constitutional jurisdiction on matters of war and peace.
#Congress should exercise its constitutional war powers and repeal the two outdated AUMFs and hold a thorough debate on the current use of U.S. military force.
3. The recent unilateral military strike violated international law.
#In international law, the use of force against a sovereign nation is only legal if the United Nations has authorized it, or if force is used in self defense.
#The U.N. Security Council made no such authorization, and the administration's justification for the strike was that it was "intended to deter the regime from using chemical weapons again," which is clearly not a claim of self defense.
#While Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pointed to the Chemical Weapons Treaty in an effort to justify the strike, nothing in the treaty authorizes the use of force in retaliation for violations of the treaty.
4. The strike was ineffective and counterproductive.
#The Syrian government's ability to launch both chemical and conventional attacks on its people have not been diminished by the strike. While U.S.missiles damaged or destroyed some jets, hangers and runways at the Shayrat aid base, Assad controls a dozen other bases.
#The strike is unlikely to deter further attacks by Syrian and Russian forces on civilian areas. Following the strike, the same town that was targeted in the chemical weapons attack was hit with conventional airstrikes, likely by either Russian or Syrian planes.
#The strike has dangerously escalated tensions with Russia. In response to the strike, Russia suspended its participation in an agreement with the U.S. meant to prevent mid-air incidents between U.S. and Russian planes, elevating the risk of confrontation.
#The strike makes the U.S. a more active participant in the Syrian civil/proxy war, which undermines the United States' ability to encourage and facilitate a diplomatic solution to the war, which is historically the only way conflicts like these end.
#The escalation of U.S. military involvement in Syria serves as a valuable recruitment tool for violent extremists, undermining our efforts to combat extremism and promote stability in the region.
5. U.S. policy in Syria should focus on diplomacy, foreign aid and refugee resettlement.
#Sustainable peace in Syria is only possible through a political solution, yet President Trump is seeking major cuts to State Department funding which would negatively impact our ability to advance a political solution.
#Humanitarian aid is a critical tool for promoting stability and alleviating human suffering in Syria, yet President Trump is seeking cuts to U.S. funding for U.N. humanitarian aid programs like the World Food programme, and cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
#Refugee resettlement is another valuable tool for promoting stability and alleviating suffering in Syria. Despite our active participation in the Syrian civil war, now even more active, President Trump has persisted in his efforts to prevent Syrian refugees from entering the United States. While the president claims empathy for the people of Syria, his policies demonstrate otherwise.
#The U.S. should support international processes to investigate the use of chemical weapons and other war crimes, which may include the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the UN, International Criminal Court or an international tribunal. The U.S. needs to strengthen and abide by the treaties meant to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
#The U.S, needs to invest more in the long-term solutions that prevent conflicts and violent extremism in the first place by supporting education, religious tolerance, poverty alleviation, civil liberties and freedom.
A summary:
#The military strike targeting a Syrian government air base violated U.S. law.
#Congress should demand the president seek authorization (AUMF) prior to any further action against the Assad government.
#The strike violated international law.
#The strike was ineffective and counterproductive.
#U.S, policy in Syria should focus on diplomacy, foreign aid and refugee resettlement.
1. The strike violated U.S. law
#Congress has not authorized the use of military force against the Syrian government.
#The War Powers Resolution Section 2(c) states:
The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce the United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.
#Clearly, none of those conditions were met.
#According to Michael Glennon, a professor of international law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and Legal Counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1977-1980, "military action against Syria exposes the United States to the risk of retaliation and involvement in a wider war. No national emergency requires that the decision to incur those risks be made by the president alone. The Constitution places that decision in the hands of Congress, not the President."
2. Congress should demand the president seek authorization prior to any further military action against the Assad government.
#The strike should not have occurred without congressional approval.
#Now that the strike has taken place, pursuant to the War Powers Resolution, the president should consult with Congress prior to any further military action against the Assad government, and should cease all military action against the Assad government after a sixty-day period absent an authorization of military (AUMF) from Congress.
#Given that the military strike took place without congressional approval and was not in response to "a national emergency created by attack upon the United States," Congress should not take for granted that the president will respect the War Powers Resolution, and so must proactively reassert its constitutional jurisdiction on matters of war and peace.
#Congress should exercise its constitutional war powers and repeal the two outdated AUMFs and hold a thorough debate on the current use of U.S. military force.
3. The recent unilateral military strike violated international law.
#In international law, the use of force against a sovereign nation is only legal if the United Nations has authorized it, or if force is used in self defense.
#The U.N. Security Council made no such authorization, and the administration's justification for the strike was that it was "intended to deter the regime from using chemical weapons again," which is clearly not a claim of self defense.
#While Secretary of State Rex Tillerson pointed to the Chemical Weapons Treaty in an effort to justify the strike, nothing in the treaty authorizes the use of force in retaliation for violations of the treaty.
4. The strike was ineffective and counterproductive.
#The Syrian government's ability to launch both chemical and conventional attacks on its people have not been diminished by the strike. While U.S.missiles damaged or destroyed some jets, hangers and runways at the Shayrat aid base, Assad controls a dozen other bases.
#The strike is unlikely to deter further attacks by Syrian and Russian forces on civilian areas. Following the strike, the same town that was targeted in the chemical weapons attack was hit with conventional airstrikes, likely by either Russian or Syrian planes.
#The strike has dangerously escalated tensions with Russia. In response to the strike, Russia suspended its participation in an agreement with the U.S. meant to prevent mid-air incidents between U.S. and Russian planes, elevating the risk of confrontation.
#The strike makes the U.S. a more active participant in the Syrian civil/proxy war, which undermines the United States' ability to encourage and facilitate a diplomatic solution to the war, which is historically the only way conflicts like these end.
#The escalation of U.S. military involvement in Syria serves as a valuable recruitment tool for violent extremists, undermining our efforts to combat extremism and promote stability in the region.
5. U.S. policy in Syria should focus on diplomacy, foreign aid and refugee resettlement.
#Sustainable peace in Syria is only possible through a political solution, yet President Trump is seeking major cuts to State Department funding which would negatively impact our ability to advance a political solution.
#Humanitarian aid is a critical tool for promoting stability and alleviating human suffering in Syria, yet President Trump is seeking cuts to U.S. funding for U.N. humanitarian aid programs like the World Food programme, and cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
#Refugee resettlement is another valuable tool for promoting stability and alleviating suffering in Syria. Despite our active participation in the Syrian civil war, now even more active, President Trump has persisted in his efforts to prevent Syrian refugees from entering the United States. While the president claims empathy for the people of Syria, his policies demonstrate otherwise.
#The U.S. should support international processes to investigate the use of chemical weapons and other war crimes, which may include the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the UN, International Criminal Court or an international tribunal. The U.S. needs to strengthen and abide by the treaties meant to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
#The U.S, needs to invest more in the long-term solutions that prevent conflicts and violent extremism in the first place by supporting education, religious tolerance, poverty alleviation, civil liberties and freedom.
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