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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[josh]

[josh]

[bambu-wisdom]

He said what he said...just his opinions.
A brave man, who paid with his life, seemingly not unexpectedly to him...and to many others.
It was 1968.

He said that if peace meant keeping his mouth shut then he didn't want it.
He gave his life for the cause...for the struggle.

[facilitatorn]

As for that struggle, nearly everything you espouse works directly against it. You embody man’s inhumanity to man and especially to woman. I’m glad you are half way around the world trapped in your burning shithole.

[barton]

Washington (CNN) — The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that a mystery company fighting a subpoena related to the Mueller investigation could file court papers asking the justices to take up its appeal under seal.
The justices also said the unnamed company's must release redacted copies for the public record, an action that means the public may soon find out more about the company and its appeal.
The court did not act on the merits of the company's request.   

[bodiddley]

The law creating MLK Day made the holiday the 3rd Monday in January, regardless of the date. The 15th is the earliest it can be.

Thanks.  I assumed it was on the Monday closest to his actual birthday.  But the US Gov't isn't too particular about that kind of thing.

I'm guessing MLK was against illegal immigration, because under racist America everyone got in line ahead of blacks -- just ask Bill Big Broonzy.  Blacks would find themselves competing with new immigrants, and such competition at the bottom would also have the effect of suppressing already low wages.

Speaking of, I saw an article on some of the privately run ICE prisons, and detainees have the option of working to earn money to buy some essentials.  The pay rate: $1 a day!  How is that allowed?  Then they get further screwed because the store that sells basics like tuna fish or toothpaste has inflated prices, basically charging double or more what a nearby store on the outside charges.   And when relatives send money to help the detainees afford the inflated prices, the private prison company skims off a whopping 10%.  The way poor people get exploited is unconscionable. 

[oilcan]

The way poor people get exploited is...capitalism.  Any amoral system (not evil, per se, just without any built-in ethical principles beyond that you shouldn't actually kill off those who would consume whatever is produced) whose fundamental principle is to concentrate capital and maximize shareholder profits will inevitably f--k over the lower classes unless there is specific regulation to prevent it.  That regulation is the duty of democratic government economic policy.  Or it was.  As people ever since MLK have been pointing out, something went wrong and it was the rich/affluent who got the protection and the subsidies.   

[REDSTATEWARD]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/20/government-shutdown-trump-tax-cuts-trumponomics

Straightforward factual piece on why Trumponomics doesn't work.  By former secretary of labor.   

Wait a minute. Barton opined earlier that economic growth was akin to a “ cancerous growth”. So if it slows down why would that be bad?
As to Reich’s assessment if the economy he has it all wrong.

Not what I "opined. "  I compared growth for its own sake, without regulations, to the philosophy of a cancer cell.   

No you didn’t.

Growth is the philosophy of a cancer cell.   I have not heard a compelling argument for growth,  when economic growth is generally accompanied by greater deterioration of the environment.  Capitalism is an amoral system.
It is not surprising you would now disown such idiocy

Didn't disown it.  The statements are consistent when growth is considered in terms of a planet where more people want more stuff and a level of consumption that is driven by an American Dream model of consumerism. 

The " American  Dream model of consumerism"?What does that even mean?  The US has cut carbon emissions and has a country that is the most sought after on the planet.
 But keep on revising your post if it makes you feel better.

[barton]

The US has cut carbon emissions...

Half-truth that ignores the need to greatly reduce fossil fuel consumption.  Short-term drops from weather fluctuation and the switch from coal to NG are not what the Paris Accord is about.  Or what climate change remediation requires. 

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/jun/18/environmental-protection-agency/are-greenhouse-emissions-down-under-donald-trump-e/

The trend towards NG was driven primarily by Obama, and is the chief factor in a small CO2 drop in the past decade.  Trump's policies, if fully implemented and allowed to play out, will reverse the drop. 

Even PolitiFacts analytic tools ignore the increased CO2 output from global-warming induced wildfires.  I don't fault them, but I know enough about the carbon cycle to know that carbon sinks don't care whether CO2 was deliberately produced or not.

[facilitatorn]

So sought after that Russia bought its right wing in 2016.

Red would rather sound ridiculous repeating rants about how consumerism would never harm the environment than see people talking about how illegal and immoral are the private prisons in which he’s so heavily invested. It’s funny. He used to be a payday loan shark kind of guy.

[whiskeypriest]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/20/government-shutdown-trump-tax-cuts-trumponomics

Straightforward factual piece on why Trumponomics doesn't work.  By former secretary of labor.   

Wait a minute. Barton opined earlier that economic growth was akin to a “ cancerous growth”. So if it slows down why would that be bad?
As to Reich’s assessment if the economy he has it all wrong.

Not what I "opined. "  I compared growth for its own sake, without regulations, to the philosophy of a cancer cell.   

No you didn’t.

Growth is the philosophy of a cancer cell.   I have not heard a compelling argument for growth,  when economic growth is generally accompanied by greater deterioration of the environment.  Capitalism is an amoral system.
It is not surprising you would now disown such idiocy

Didn't disown it.  The statements are consistent when growth is considered in terms of a planet where more people want more stuff and a level of consumption that is driven by an American Dream model of consumerism. 

The " American  Dream model of consumerism"?What does that even mean?  The US has cut carbon emissions and has a country that is the most sought after on the planet.
 But keep on revising your post if it makes you feel better.

A country that is most sought after on the planet? What does that.even mean? We are like Serendip, or El Dorado, or Wakanda? We are not that hard to find. Flights daily from most places, unless your idol gets his way.

[LarryBnDC]

The law creating MLK Day made the holiday the 3rd Monday in January, regardless of the date. The 15th is the earliest it can be.

Thanks.  I assumed it was on the Monday closest to his actual birthday.  But the US Gov't isn't too particular about that kind of thing.

I'm guessing MLK was against illegal immigration, because under racist America everyone got in line ahead of blacks -- just ask Bill Big Broonzy.  Blacks would find themselves competing with new immigrants, and such competition at the bottom would also have the effect of suppressing already low wages.

Speaking of, I saw an article on some of the privately run ICE prisons, and detainees have the option of working to earn money to buy some essentials.  The pay rate: $1 a day!  How is that allowed?  Then they get further screwed because the store that sells basics like tuna fish or toothpaste has inflated prices, basically charging double or more what a nearby store on the outside charges.   And when relatives send money to help the detainees afford the inflated prices, the private prison company skims off a whopping 10%.  The way poor people get exploited is unconscionable.

The real gouging is in telephone calls...

[FlyingVProd]

ACLU

Hi Tony –

Ever since we filed our class action lawsuit, Ms. L v. ICE, almost one year ago, the Trump administration keeps changing its story on family separation.

First, they said the policy didn't exist. Then they admitted to separating dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of kids, including infants and toddlers. And now, a new report says there could be thousands more than the 2,737 children that the Trump administration had previously reported. Because the government failed to track all the families it tore apart.

This policy has been a disaster from the start, and the more we learn, the worse it gets. Recently, we learned that the Trump administration wanted to specifically target parents for prosecution, hoping that the horror of family separation would deter immigration. Some officials even suggested denying the separated children's legal right to a full asylum hearing.

Here's a quick recap of what's happened since we sued last year: In June a federal judge directed the government to halt separations and to reunite children with their parents, and public outrage from activists like you forced President Trump to rescind the policy that same month. Since then, we've been fighting tooth and nail to reunite all the families – because the Trump administration refused. We even traveled to Central America to find the parents the government deported without their kids.

Though we were able to reunite many families, this crisis isn't over. Federal inspectors have found that separations are still happening, even after the court order to stop.

Tony, I know it's hard to keep up with the news about this needlessly cruel policy – especially when not even the government itself has a clear picture of how many families it separated. But you can count on us to keep fighting. We'll be back in court to make sure every single family is accounted for.

Thanks for your support,

Lee Gelernt
Deputy Director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project

--------------

I still believe that it would be a good idea to have a giant WOODSTOCK concert on our southern border to show support for our good Christian neighbors, and to help to raise money for lawyers, etc, etc, etc.

We need the Statue of Liberty to represent what we stand for as Americans, not a thirty foot wall on our southern border.

Salute,

Tony V.

[bodiddley]

The real gouging is in telephone calls...

The article mentioned that as well.
Citing $1/min phone calls to Mexico.
Whereas I can make Skype calls halfway around the world for $0.02 per minute.
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2019/01/18/world/americas/18reuters-usa-immigration-detention.html
Yeah, there's a paywall, but simply save the page after the paywall loads and you get the article in full.

That article even insinuates that the private jailer is purposely underfeeding the prisoners so that they need to buy expensive supplementary food at the company store.

And obviously there's a coercive element when the jail who controls your entire life wants the ultra-cheap labor of its inmates instead of having to hire people for real money  kitchen and cleaning staff.  More than a little ironic that the jails housing illegal immigrants use illegal immigrant labor to keep costs down and profits up, instead of hiring Americans to do the jobs. 

A repulsive system all around.  And because these people aren't officially in the US, their rights are extremely limited.  I have some stories from a few weeks doing pro bono work at an INS facility in NYC for what was then the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

[barton]

Profit incentives in prisons seems to lead towards a system akin to slavery.   I see no problem when there is voluntary labor, for prisoners who benefit from something to do and a little exercise,  and they are helping keep things nice.   In prisons where convicts have done economic harm to a person,  I could see some value in requiring some free labor and then crediting the value of that labor to a restitution program to the person harmed.   But that doesn't apply to undocumented persons whose crime seems to be desperately trying to remedy hunger and destitution, or fleeing murderous gangs.