June 26, 2024 · 8:54 am

True Crime Stories and Republican Lies

Image showing decrease in violent crime is from FBI Quarterly Crime Report comparing first quarter of 2024 with first quarter of 2023. 

Crime is falling in the United States. Crime rose during the Trump presidency. Crime has fallen in every year of Biden’s presidency. 

Homicides are falling. 

Violent crime is falling. 

Crime is falling in big cities. Crime is falling in blue states. Crime is falling across the country.

Republicans, following Trump’s lead, continue to lie about crime in the United States. Americans continue to believe those lies.  

One example: Trump claimed that “murders & violent crime hit unimaginable records” in New York City. That’s a lie, reports NBC:

“However, major crimes in New York City are down this year by 2.3%, according to police department data comparing year-to-date figures to the same period in 2023.

“Those figures for last year were also far below the highs from recent decades. In 1990, more than 527,000 major crimes were reported, compared to more than 126,000 last year, according to New York police data — a drop of more than 75%.” 

And it’s not just New York City. The Brennan Center for Justice reported:

“Drawing on data from 38 cities across the country, the Council on Criminal Justice reported that homicide declined by 10 percent in 2023. It also noted declines in assaults, gun assaults, burglary, and larceny, but a sharp spike in motor vehicle thefts.

“Similarly, Jeff Asher, a researcher and expert in data on crime and public safety, studied murder data from 175 cities and found a 7 percent decline in murders through December 7, 2023, compared to 2022. These cities are from across the country and include jurisdictions led by Republicans and Democrats alike.

“A murder decline of this magnitude would be historic; the sharpest one-year drop on record occurred in 1996 when the number of murders nationwide fell by a little more than 9 percent compared to 1995.” 

Trump’s latest lies target migrants, just as his first campaign announcement did. There is no migrant crime wave. Migrants are more law-abiding than U.S. citizens. Again, the Brennan Center for Justice analyzes data and focuses on facts: 

“In the past few months, politicians and certain media outlets have latched on to a narrative that recent immigrants, especially undocumented ones, are causing spikes in crime. Instead of gathering data and examining the issue empirically, they are making this broad assertion based on highly publicized individual incidents of crime by undocumented immigrants. …

“Substantial research has assessed the relationship between immigration and crime. Numerous studies show that immigration is not linked to higher levels of crime, but rather the opposite. Studies have also examined the impact of the concentration of immigrants in a community on crime patterns, finding that immigration is associated with lower crime rates and an increase in structural factors — such as social connection and economic opportunity — that are linked to neighborhood safety.”

Republican lies continue to convince Americans. Polls show almost two-thirds of Americans extremely worried about crime, with 77 percent believing the lie that crime is increasing. 

Instead of just reporting Republican lies, it’s time for the media to call them out as lies—every single time these lies are told. 

Want more on this subject? Check out Judd Legum’s excellent analysis in “Why so many Americans have misconceptions about crime trends.” He documents specific, recent lies about Chicago and Detroit by Trump and Republican Senator Tim Scott–and media failure to adequately rebut these easily disproven lies.

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May 29, 2024 · 9:37 pm

No Red Lines

New York Times headline

“America’s Monster” the New York Times reporters named him. Abdul Raziq, the warlord, kidnapper, torturer, murderer was our “model partner” in Afghanistan. He fought the Taliban—successfully—by imposing his own reign of terror. 

“Sometimes we asked Raziq about incidents of alleged human rights abuses, and when we got answers we would be like, ‘Whoa, I hope we didn’t implicate ourselves in a war crime just by hearing about it,’” said Henry Ensher, a State Department official who held multiple posts on Afghanistan, including as the top civilian representative in Kandahar in 2010 and 2011, when he worked with Raziq.

“We knew what we were doing, but we didn’t think we had a choice,” Ensher said.” 

Sounds like an earlier statement, attributed to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “He may be a son-of-a-bitch, but he’s our son-of-a-bitch.” That statement was supposed to refer to, among others, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo and Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza. Trujillo and Somoza were both backed by the United States and both massacred their own people without compunction. As did Alfredo Cristiani in El Salvador and Efraín Rios Montt in Guatemala, also U.S. allies.

We still back monsters, sending them aid and weapons, lending them legitimacy and recognition.

Before he was elected, President Biden said he would ostracize Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). The crown prince was undeniably responsible for the brutal assassination of U.S. resident and Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. After becoming president, Biden met with MBS, fist-bumped him for the photographers, and counts Saudi Arabia as a close ally. 

Now his administration proposes even closer ties with, and more weapons for, the Saudi regime, as an incentive for Saudi Arabia to normalize relations with Israel. 

Which brings us to Bibi Netanyahu, currently waging war without limit or end in sight. On Sunday (May 26), Israel bombed a refugee tent camp in Rafah, killing at least 45 people. About half were women and children, some burned alive. The bomb came from the United States.  Two days later, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, visiting Israel, signed an artillery shell, inscribing it “Finish them!” The Biden administration continues to send weapons, as Israel’s bloody attack failed to cross its “red line.”

Of course not. If the United States counted Abdul Raziq as our man in Afghanistan, if Biden can fist-bump the mastermind of Khashoggi’s assassination, surely we cannot balk at Netanyahu’s unlimited war. To do so would not be in the proud U.S. tradition of support for a long line of monsters.

How much blood is needed to draw a red line?

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April 15, 2024 · 5:31 pm

Tax Day: Who Pays, Who Evades

Fotolia image

The lower your income, the more likely you are to pay your fair share of taxes–or even more than your fair share. Billionaires and big corporations still manage to evade taxes and Republicans in Congress continue to block funding for auditing them. Also: contrary to Republican propaganda, immigrants pay more than their share of taxes.

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April 13, 2024 · 9:24 am

ICYMI: Turning up the heat on workers; Gun-runner to the world; Russians and Republicans; Starve the children

This image is part of an amazing series created and generously shared by Ricardo Levins Morales for this time of crisis. Check out the whole series at his studio https://www.rlmartstudio.com

One good news note this week— A federal judge slapped down Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his buddy Elon Musk, granting a preliminary injunction against his subpoena of Media Matters. The judge’s 40-page opinion details the chilling effect of Paxton’s actions, as both Media Matters and the individual journalist who reported on Musk/Twitter/X pulled back from that reporting in fear of further legal harassment. The judge finds that Paxton’s actions are retaliatory and in violation of the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of the press.  

Turning up the heat on workers— Florida laws protect high school athletes from the physical dangers of high heat and humidity during outdoor activity, but give no such protection to outdoor workers. Florida forbids local governments from protecting workers from the heat, under a new law signed last week by Governor Ron DeSantis. 

The Florida legislature and governor decided to protect employers from regulation after Miami-Dade county tried to protect workers from the heat. Miami-Dade county is home to 300,000 of the state’s two million outdoor workers. Last year, Miami saw a 46-day stretch of above-100-degree heat index readings. NPR reported:

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April 6, 2024 · 4:52 pm

ICYMI: Killing the news; Pinocchio politics; Trump’s foreign adventures; “Kevlar Ken” Paxton

Killing the news: Sadly, the newspaper where I first wrote about 60 years ago became one of the latest victims of a vulture hedge fund. The Litchfield Independent Review will end its almost-150-year run this month, alone with the Hutchinson Leader and seven other Minnesota local newspapers. They are not alone. Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism reports on the devastating losses of small-town newspapers over the past two decades:

“Since 2005, the country has lost almost a third of its newspapers — 2,886 — and today has only 6,005 survivors, including 4,792 weeklies, or nondailies, that are often the sole source of news and information in their communities. North and South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota lost the most newspapers per capita between 2005 and 2023. All but a handful were weeklies.”

NPR reported a couple of years ago on what happens when hedge fund “investors” buy newspapers. Alden is the hedge fund that acquired and is now closing these nine Minnesota newspapers, and also owns the St. Paul Pioneer Press.   

“Research shows that when local newspapers disappear or are dramatically gutted, communities tend to see lower voter turnout, increased polarization, a general erosion of civic engagement and an environment in which misinformation and conspiracy theories can spread more easily. …

“Coppins describes Alden as a specific type of firm: a “vulture hedge fund.” It has figured out how to make a profit by driving newspapers into the ground, he says, since Alden’s aim is not to make them into long-term sustainable businesses but rather maximize profits quickly to show it has made a winning investment.”

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March 31, 2024 · 2:13 pm

Lies, Damn Lies, and Democracy

Some rights reserved by Free Press Pics

Homegrown political lies grow in the soil of racism, fertilized by liberal application of stupidity. Such was the anti-immigrant lie spread loud and wide by Michigan legislator Rep. Matt Maddock (R) who denounced the arrival of “illegal invaders” landing at a Michigan airport. But the dark-skinned people he saw and instantly hated on were not immigrants: they were the Gonzaga University basketball team, arriving in Detroit to play in a March Madness Sweet 16 game. The Hill reported:

“Happening right now. Three busses just loaded up with illegal invaders at Detroit Metro. Anyone have any idea where they’re headed with their police escort?” Maddock wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.”

Even after widespread exposure of his lie, Maddock refused to retract it, instead spewing more anti-immigrant hate.

Such stupid slanders flourish on social media, alongside more sophisticated propaganda from Russian government-connected actors. 

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March 29, 2024 · 1:53 pm

Honoring the Legacy of Cesar Chavez

Cesar Chavez mural photo by James Rojas, published under Creative Commons license

Marching on picket lines, fasting for justice, calling a grape boycott that galvanized supporters across the country, never stopping and never failing, Cesar Chavez led the struggle for farmworkers’ rights in the 1960s. As the head of the United Farm Workers (UFW), he denounced employers who denied just wages, access to bathrooms, and unemployment benefits, while requiring long hours in scorching heat and subjecting workers to pesticide poisoning in the fields.  While field work remains difficult and physically arduous, the UFW’s advocacy got legal protection for farm workers who previously had none. 

Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. was a friend of Cesar Chavez and supported his organizing work with farm workers. Running for president in 1968, RFK visited Chavez as he ended one of his fasts for farmworker justice. His widow, Ethel Kennedy, visited Chavez in 1988 during another of his fasts. 

President Joe Biden has a bust of Cesar Chavez in the Oval Office. Cesar Chavez’s granddaughter, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, serves as his campaign manager. 

In 2014, President Barack Obama proclaimed Cesar Chavez’s March 31 birthday as Cesar Chavez Day.

“The values Cesar Chavez lived by guide us still. As we push to fix a broken immigration system, protect the right to unionize, advance social justice for young men of color, and build ladders of opportunity for every American to climb, we recall his resilience through setbacks, his refusal to scale back his dreams. When we organize against income inequality and fight to raise the minimum wage — because no one who works full time should have to live in poverty — we draw strength from his vision and example. 

While not an official federal holiday, Cesar Chavez day is marked in Minnesota law and by many other state and local governments. 

This year, an attack on Cesar Chavez’s memory marks the weekend. Robert Kennedy, Jr. is exploiting Chavez’s memory and the long friendship between the Chavez and Kennedy families. He uses Chavez’s image and name in advertising his campaign, to the shock and horror of the Chavez family, including his sons, Paul and Fernando Chavez, and grandchildren Andres Chavez and Julie Chavez Rodriguez. 

This weekend, the Chavez family will announce their endorsement of Joe Biden for president. In that, they take the same stand as dozens of Kennedy family members who have denounced Robert Kennedy, Jr.’s candidacy as a betrayal of his father and family’s political legacy. 

The Los Angeles Times reported: 

“Chavez family members said they fear that in a close contest, any support for Kennedy could help Republican Donald Trump regain the White House. 

“’I’m kind of horrified and saddened about that,’ said Fernando Chavez, who added that he hasn’t stayed in touch with Kennedy Jr. since they worked together decades ago.

“Fernando and others pointed how badly farmworkers were hit by COVID-19, partly fueled by rampant disinformation among Latinos about the vaccine’s efficacy. The Cesar Chavez Foundation worked to vaccinate farmworkers, Andres Chavez said, and Kennedy Jr.’s views on vaccines horrified him.” 

As we remember Cesar Chavez this weekend, the words of President Obama’s 2014 proclamation resonate with today’s challenges:

“Throughout his lifelong struggle, Cesar Chavez never forgot who he was fighting for. “What [the growers] don’t know,” he said, “is that it’s not bananas or grapes or lettuce. It’s people.” Today, let us honor Cesar Chavez and those who marched with him by meeting our obligations to one another. I encourage Americans to make this a national day of service and education by speaking out, organizing, and participating in service projects to improve lives in their communities. Let us remember that when we lift each other up, when we speak with one voice, we have the power to build a better world.”

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March 23, 2024 · 5:34 pm

ICYMI: Senatorial Islamophobia, Women’s History Month, Prior Authorization, Social Security

The first Muslim nominee for a seat on the federal appeals court: Adeel Mangi’s nomination looks like it is going down, defeated by Republican lies and Democratic cowardice. Republicans promote an Islamophobic smear campaign. Senator Catherine Cortez MaSto (C-NV) cited a separate smear, which was thoroughly debunked by Timothy K. Lewis, a former Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge who was appointed by George H.W. Bush: 

“Her decision is, respectfully, rooted in the same kinds of baseless lies and smears that the religious claims against Mr. Mangi were based, associating him with terrorists and antisemites and so forth, none of which is true. And the record clearly demonstrates that.

“The same is true here. The organization that we are talking about is a group that reached out to Mr. Mangi to ask for pro bono services on behalf of an inmate who had been murdered in the New York prison system. And this was not even a criminal case. It was a civil lawsuit that he brought.

“He achieved a landmark settlement on behalf of the family that not only helped the prisoner’s family, but also helped the prison and, in doing so, helped prison guards, because the cameras were installed throughout the prison.

“This is honorable work. This is the kind of work that we value, we encourage in our profession.”

Happy women’s history month? Maybe not. Lyz reminds us about when girls lose their dreams. Yes, still. 

“When do we lose those things and passions that make us happy? Research says it starts as early as kindergarten. That’s when young girls begin to think of themselves as less smart and capable than boys. This doesn’t come about by accident. History books are less likely to tell the stories of women. Parents are more likely to think their sons are gifted and talented than their daughters. Google search results from parents reveal they are concerned about their sons’ intelligence and about their daughters’ weight.  …

“Let me just lay it out.

Prior Authorization: I know I’m not alone: hundreds of thousands of people struggle with prior authorization every day. For me, it’s trying to get prescriptions for family members, sometimes over and over again. I know prior authorization is not required every month—but the insurance company professes not to know. 

Others have worse struggles, as detailed in the New York Times: 

“Should your insurance company be allowed to stop you from getting a treatment — even if your doctor says it’s necessary?

“Doctors are often required to get insurance permission before providing medical care. This process is called prior authorization and it can be used by profit-seeking insurance companies to create intentional barriers between patients and the health care they need.

“At best, it’s just a minor bureaucratic headache. At worst, people have died.

“Prior authorization has been around for decades, but doctors say its use has increased in recent years and now rank it as one of the top issues in health care.” 

An NPR report continues: 

“More than 90% of doctors say their patients have had to delay their health care because of prior authorization, according to a 2022 survey by the American Medical Association. A third of the doctors in that survey say the delay led to serious problems for their patients, like a life-threatening event, or hospitalization.

“Shah recalled one of her patients, who had a history of endometrial cancer and had been trying to find out the status of the cancer for months. The insurance company denied prior authorization for medical imaging. This patient ended up in intensive care with a life threatening blood clot, and got the medical imaging, which also showed that the cancer had spread.” 

Social Security: BlueSky quote of the week from Robert Reich on Social Security and tax cuts for the rich:

“Trump wants to cut Social Security so he can give another giant tax cut to the rich. Biden wants to save Social Security by having the rich — who have become far richer over the past several decades — pay more Social Security taxes. The contrast couldn’t be more important.”

Remember—in 2024, you pay Social Security taxes of 6.2 percent on the first $168,600 of your income. For someone earning $168,600, that is a total of $10,453.20. For someone earning $168 million in 2024, the total Social Security tax is—$10,453.20. As Reich posts:

“Inequality has jeopardized the future of Social Security. As the rich have gotten richer, more and more of their income has escaped the cap on the Social Security payroll tax. We should be focused on fixing this by scrapping the cap, not cutting benefits. Hello?”

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March 17, 2024 · 9:44 am

ICYMI: U.S. billionaires, low taxes, TikTok, and more

I wasn’t sure whether the rates in this meme were accurate, but it turns out they are either exact or very close. The United States has a lower tax rate (37 percent), and many loopholes that further shelter billionaires from taxes. 

A couple of reports document what my dad always knew: the most wealthy and powerful corporations and individuals still get rich off all the rest of us. Robert Reich sums it up on BlueSky:

5 years of exec pay: 

Tesla: $2.5 billion 

T-Mobile: $675 million 

Netflix: $652 million 

Ford: $355 million 

5 years of federal income taxes paid: 

Tesla: $0 ($1M refund) 

T-Mobile: $0 ($80M refund) 

Netflix: $236 million 

Ford: $121 million 

Anyone else see the problem here?

Reich’s quick summary comes from “More for Them, Less for Us: Corporations That Pay Their Executives More Than Uncle Sam,” a detailed study published in March 2024 by the Institute for Policy Studies. In the bullet-pointed summary of its findings:

  • 35 major U.S. corporations — including famous names like Ford, Netflix and Tesla — paid less in federal income taxes between 2018 and 2022 than they paid their top five executives. All 35 were cumulatively profitable over that five-year span.
  • Among these 35 corporations, the total compensation reported for named executive officers over this five-year period was $9.5 billion. Their combined federal income tax bills came to a negative $1.8 billion — that is, rather than paying taxes, they received refunds.
  • An additional 29 profitable corporations paid their top executives more than they paid in federal income taxes in at least two of the five years of the study period.
  • 18 corporations in the study — despite reporting net profits over the five-year span — paid $0 in federal income taxes. Actually, except in one case, all paid less than zero because they got refunds. These 18 corporations that paid $0 in federal income taxes found the resources to lavish their executives with a cumulative $5.3 billion in pay packages.
  • The 64 firms in the study posted cumulative pre-tax domestic profits of $657 billion between 2018 to 2022, yet paid an average effective federal tax rate of just 2.8% (the statutory rate is 21%) while paying their executives over $15 billion.
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March 9, 2024 · 9:36 am

ICYMI: U.S. Guns for Mexican Cartels; Republican Hate Candidate; Cyber Attacks from Russia and BlackCat

U.S. Guns for Mexican Cartels U.S. Customs and Border Protection caught 1,171 guns being illegally smuggled into Mexico in 2023—but that’s only a small fraction of the number of U.S. guns arming Mexican drug cartels. Mexican officials seize thousands of guns inside the country at crime scenes every year. The vast majority of those guns come from the United States. 

“Data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives indicates that between 2017 and 2022, nearly 124,000 guns were recovered at crime scenes in Mexico and subsequently traced. Sixty-eight percent of those guns — more than 83,000 — came from the United States.”  

The cartels get guns from the United States and then send fentanyl into the United States.  Commercial traffic and returning U.S. citizens are by far the largest sources of smuggled fentanyl. Republican refusal to approve increased funding for Customs and Border Protection helps. NBC reports:

“Customs and Border Protection has spent millions on the most up-to-date high-tech scanners to spot fentanylcrossing the southern U.S. border, but many scanners are sitting in warehouses unused because Congress hasn’t appropriated funds to install them, acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller told NBC News. …

“Officers in Nogales have found fentanyl hidden inside crates of Coca-Cola, where bottles are painted black to look like liquid, sawed in half and filled with fentanyl pills; they’ve confiscated millions in fentanyl pills stuffed inside the water barrel of a commercial bus bathroom; they’ve even found fentanyl in cars carrying young children in the back in car seats. More than 95% of fentanyl seized at the border, Miller said, is actually brought into the U.S. in personal vehicles. …

“The money to install the screeners was in the supplemental funding request Republicans blocked.” 

Republican Hate Candidate in North Carolina  The Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina is Mark Robinson, who is arguably even more unhinged than Donald Trump. Robinson is a Holocaust denier, who has also called Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a communist, called LGBTQ+ people “filth”, and said the country would be better if women had never been allowed to vote. 

He’s running against Democrat Josh Stein, currently the state attorney general. The election is predicted to be close. Over at Public Media, Josh Legum details Robinson’s background and the way that corporations are funding his campaign by contributing to the Republican Governors Association: 

“Tuesday night, shortly after Robinson was declared the winner of the Republican gubernatorial primary, the Republican Governors Association posted their congratulations and said, ‘[W]e look forward to supporting him in the general election.’

“The RGA has plenty of resources because, unlike many political entities, it can accept unlimited amounts of money from corporations. This is not money that comes from corporate PACs, but funds that are transferred directly from corporate treasuries. 

“Many of the nation’s most prominent corporations have donated 6-figure sums to the RGA — money that can and will be used to help Robinson’s win.  Major corporate donors to the RGA in 2023 included Microsoft ($400,000), Alphabet (Google’s parent company) ($378,000), CVS ($300,000), Pfizer ($300,000), Amazon ($275,000), Coca-Cola ($259,287), Deloitte ($151,000), and DoorDash ($125,000).”

Long story made short: ANY contribution to the national Republican party will support hate-mongers and fascists. There’s no way to avoid it, because haters have taken over the entire party apparatus. 

 The Russians Are Coming: TechCrunch reports an ongoing attack on Microsoft by Russian hacker Midnight Blizzard, which “is believed to be a hacking group working for Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, known by its Russian initials, SVR.”

Microsoft’s corporate blog acknowledges:

“As we shared, on January 19, the security team detected this attack on our corporate email systems and immediately activated our response process. The Microsoft Threat Intelligence investigation identified the threat actor as Midnight Blizzard, the Russian state-sponsored actor also known as NOBELIUM.  …

“In recent weeks, we have seen evidence that Midnight Blizzard is using information initially exfiltrated from our corporate email systems to gain, or attempt to gain, unauthorized access.” 

And More Cyber Attacks: Meanwhile, the two-week-old cyberattack on UnitedHealth and its subsidiary ChangeHealthcare that disrupted U.S. pharmacies has expanded to target all of health care. From the New York Times:

“The hacking shut down the nation’s biggest health care payment system, causing financial chaos that affected a broad spectrum ranging from large hospitals to single-doctor practices. …

“An urgent care chain in Ohio may be forced to stop paying rent and other bills to cover salaries. In Florida, a cancer center is racing to find money for chemotherapy drugs to avoid delaying critical treatments for its patients. And in Pennsylvania, a primary care doctor is slashing expenses and pooling all of her cash — including her personal bank stash — in the hopes of staying afloat for the next two months. …

“But on March 1, a bitcoin address connected to the alleged hackers, a group known as AlphV or BlackCat, received a $22 million transaction that some security firms say was probably a ransom payment made by United to the group, according to a news article in Wired. …

“The same entity that was said to be responsible for the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline, a pipeline from Texas to New York that carried 45 percent of the East Coast’s fuel supplies, in 2021 is thought to be behind the Change assault.”

Not sure when health care payments and systems will be functioning normally again, but this hack clearly highlights the danger of corporate health care consolidation into only a few major players.  

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