Monday, June 22, 2020

Tom Petty's trashy family


Kat's "Kat's Korner: Bob brings it all back home one more time" went up Sunday as did  Isaiah's  THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "War Criminal John Bolton Wants To Share."

johnboltonwantstoshare

That's hilarious so is Tom Petty's hateful little family.  If you missed it, they stopped fighting with each other over the dead man's money long enough, on Saturday, to whine that Donald Trump used "I Won't Back Down" at his campaign rally.  This has prompted them to pretend they wrote the song, they didn't.  They try to say Tom did -- he co-wrote it with the guy from ELO. 

More to the point, Trump legally had the right to play the song.  As CBS NEWS notes, "Forcing the Trump campaign to stop using music can be tricky, however, due to blanket licensing agreements often signed by artists which allow venues to play their music."

Too bad.

But since Tom's family wants to get political, how about they talk the confederate flag?

Confederate flag on 1985 tour ...
nydailynews.com
Tom Petty Regretted Flying the Confederate Flag During a 1985 Tour




Tom Petty wished he hadn't used Confederate flag on 1985 tour: 'It ...



Southern Accents | Photo Reserve, Inc.




From 2015, TMZ:


Music legend Tom Petty regrets using the Confederate flag at concerts and performances in his past, apologizing for doing so in a new and very honest article, out today.
Petty writes in Rolling Stone about his concern over the meaning behind the flag:
“The Confederate flag was the wallpaper of the South when I was a kid growing up in Gainesville, Florida. I always knew it had to do with the Civil War, but the South had adopted it as its logo. I was pretty ignorant of what it actually meant. It was on a flagpole in front of the courthouse and I often saw it in Western movies. I just honestly didn’t give it much thought, though I should have.”
Petty copped to using the flag in his work, though he realized very quickly why it was such a problem:
Now, to be clear, I like Tom Petty's music.  I'm not all that concerned with what some dead man used as a prop.  I think it was stupid to promote that flag but it's not anything I'm going to lose sleep over.  He's dead.  But this should be the same attitude with regards to "I Won't Back Down."

His greedy family needs to get over themselves.  They didn't write anything.  Their hero slept around, did drugs, promoted the Confederate flag, has no African-American band members, etc., etc.  So maybe hop off the high horse and go away.

Better yet, get back to fighting over money that you never earned but believe you're entitled to.  FORBES last year:


It's been almost a year and a half since singer-songwriter Tom Petty died of an accidental drug overdose at age 66, on October 2, 2017. Since then, the tension between his widow, Dana York Petty, and his two daughters from Petty's prior marriage has been brewing until it exploded. In recent new court filings, Dana calls the actions of Tom Petty's daughters, Adria Robin Petty and Annakim Violette, "abusive" and "erratic."  They in turn accuse Dana of "gross mismanagement" costing them $5 million or more.


Keep screaming for that money!  You didn't make it!  But your greedy whores so keep screaming and take a breath every now and then to surface in the media while pretending you're morally superior to other golddiggers.



Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Monday, June 22, 2020.  Iraq remains leaderless as the jobs just don't exist and as Turkey continues is reign of terror on Iraq.

Where are the jobs?  In the global economy, that's a question for everyone but it's especially a question in Iraq where you graduate from a university only to find . . . no jobs.  This is one of the realities that put protesters in the street last fall.  

Months later -- three months shy of a year -- nothing has been done.

And now the economy is in ever more jeopardy.  AFP reports:

Iraq's economy could reach irreversible lows within the next year unless urgent reform measures are adopted, its finance minister warned in an exclusive interview with AFP on Monday.
"Reform is inevitable," said Ali Allawi, who has been tasked with stabilising Iraq's economy following an oil price crash that saw state revenues slashed by half.
"If we do not amend the situation throughout the next year, we may face shocks we cannot fix." 


Iraq's economy is projected to shrink by 10% in 2020 following a dramatic drop in oil prices from over $50 per barrel to about $20.
Opec's second-biggest oil producer relies almost exclusively on its crude exports to fund its budget, which includes a bloated public sector and broad state subsidies.

We'll note this thread.  Noor is a doctor who graduated last year:

when every nation and government salute their white army, we see the Iraqi government deprives the right of the newly graduated doctors! A year has passed without employment! And instead of supporting them, the government has asked them to volunteer! @leloveluck @SimonaFoltyn



Meanwhile, more than 2000 newly trained medics have been asked to volunteer their services until a state budget is approved for their labour. This at a time when infections among frontline doctors are rising fast.


So what can we do ?we are prisoners in our country we are doctors without jobs and documents We can not work out side Iraq because we don’t have documents and we can’t work in Iraq because the government can not hire us due to the financial problems


And the protest over the lack of jobs continues.  NRT Tweets:

Protesters briefly block major road in Sulaimani to demand KRG pay salaries, create job opportunities Security forces fire tear gas to disperse demonstrators nrttv.com/En/News.aspx?i
#NRTnews #Iraq #TwitterKurds #Sulaimani
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1:00 AM · Jun 22, 2020


The lack of jobs is only one of the many problems facing Iraq currently.  Among other problems?  Turkey is terrorizing the people of Iraq in the north.  They are bombing Iraq, they have sent soldiers on the ground into Iraq.  Friday, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom issued the following:

USCIRF Condemns Turkish Military Operations in Northern Iraq
Calls on Turkish President to Cease Air Strikes and Violence Targeting Civilian Areas
Washington, DC – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) condemned Turkey’s latest round of air strikes and ground operations (“Operation Claw-Eagle” and “Operation Claw-Tiger”) near civilian areas in northern Iraq, calling on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to order an immediate end to these actions.
USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin said, “USCIRF calls on Turkey to immediately cease its brutal airstrikes in Sinjar, Iraq and to withdraw any ground troops—who represent a dangerous escalation of violence in an already-fragile area. These actions are particularly threatening to hundreds of traumatized Yazidi families attempting to return to Sinjar and to other civilians in northern Iraq—none of whom deserve to be placed in harm’s way by a NATO ally.”
The Turkish government claims that these actions, representing the most recent in a series of similar operations in the Sinjar area since 2017, are ostensibly targeting Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) positions. However, these indiscriminate operations have taken place just days after 200 families arrived in Sinjar after six years in a refugee camp in Dohuk, Iraq. It also was in close proximity to towns and camps in which displaced Yazidi families have taken refuge since the 2014 genocide by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
“Turkey’s operations in Iraq and northeastern Syria make it clear that regional ambitions—not domestic security—are driving its actions today, and it cannot be allowed to do so with impunity,” USCIRF Vice Chair Tony Perkins stated. “We call upon the administration to utilize all diplomatic and economic leverage to protect vulnerable religious minorities in northern Iraq—as well as neighboring northeastern Syria—from Turkey’s indiscriminate military operations.”
Since 1984, Turkey has waged an intermittent war against the PKK, an organization of Kurdish separatists that the U.S. has designated as a terrorist group. The Turkish military has frequently targeted purported PKK positions—or those of groups directly or indirectly tied to the PKK—in neighboring Iraq and Syria. In this massive campaign, Turkey has claimed to strike over 500 militants in areas where there is no indication of attacks planned or occurring against Turkey. Once again, Turkey is showing their disregard for vulnerable religious and ethnic minorities who live in, or have been displaced to, those same areas.
In its 2020 Annual Report, USCIRF recommended the State Department include Turkey on its Special Watch List “for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.”
###
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal government entity established by the U.S. Congress to monitor, analyze, and report on threats to religious freedom abroad. USCIRF makes foreign policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress intended to deter religious persecution and promote freedom of religion and belief. To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at media@uscirf.gov or Danielle Ashbahian at dashbahian@uscirf.gov.


USCIRF joins the Arab League, the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia who have all condemned the actions of the Turkish government.  Christian Peaemaker Teams Tweets:


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4:03 PM


Saturday,  ARAB NEWS reported:

There was growing anger in the Arab world on Saturday at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “military adventurism” in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Ankara claims to be targeting Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants with Operation Claw-Eagle, its first official air and land offensive on Iraqi soil. It attacked Sinjar, the Qandil mountains, Karajak, Zap and Hakurk with aerial and ground operations involving F-16 fighter jets, missile launchers, heavy artillery and special forces units.
Baghdad condemned the invasion, and the Turkish ambassador to Iraq was summoned to the Foreign Ministry twice in two days to explain his country’s conduct. The envoy was handed a note of protest, in which Iraq accused Turkey of “violations of Iraqi sovereignty by bombing and attacking targets within our international borders.”
The UAE also criticized the Turkish attack, and Saudi Arabia condemned Turkish and Iranian aggression on Iraqi land, offering its support for Baghdad in measures to preserve its sovereignty, security and stability.
The criticism reflects growing Arab suspicion of Turkey’s wider regional ambitions, analyst Bill Park told Arab News.
 “The Arab reaction needs to be seen in this wider context — Turkey’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood, its unwillingness to confront Iran, its meddling in Syria, its military relationship with Qatar and indeed Somalia, the stance it has taken in Libya and its approach to energy exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean,” said Park, a visiting research fellow at King’s College, London.
“This incursion will only feed those suspicions. Turkey is quite friendless now in the Arab world.”


The Turkish government insists that they are targeting and killing the PKK.    Aaron Hess (International Socialist Review) described the PKK in 2008, "The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these are now at risk."  We'll note this Tweet:

#Turkey’s actions, including airstrikes in northern Iraq, potentially threaten local genocide against #Kurds and #Christians, just as they did to #Armenians


Iraqi military delegation arrived in Duhok province on Monday to investigate the aftermath of this week's Turkish military operations in the area. Iraq condemns Turkey's deadly intervention of protesters in Duhok
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2:43 PM


The Turkish government lies and insists that they are attacking the PKK but it is civilians they are attacking and terrorizing.





















The airstrikes in northern Iraq now target areas where coexistence has existed between Christians and Kurds, raining down bombs where children play in their parents' yards. A source told local media that airstrikes have damaged property.
Turkey’s airstrikes have been killing civilians every year over the last several years. Seven were killed in 2017, and in 2019 airstrikes and a protest led to one death. Beekeepers and farmers have also been killed. Over the weekend, mourners gathered in Amedi after several men were killed. “We can’t do anything, no one does anything for us,” the father of a victim said. Christians say they are being terrorized by the bombings, according to reports at Rudaw.
There have been protests against the airstrikes in the town of Shilzade. So far, the UN and other human rights groups do not appear to have taken any notice of the attacks. US diplomats do not visit the area despite American claims that it cares about Christian and other minorities in the Middle East. Western diplomats also don’t seem to show any interest. Iraq’s government has complained to Turkey about the airstrikes over the years and the increase of Turkish bases in northern Iraq, but Baghdad is unable to do anything about it.  





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Sunday, June 21, 2020

Integrity, BLINDSPOT, no more new movies

This is from Bruce E. Levin's piece at COUNTERPUNCH:

 After Bernie quit and endorsed Biden, his national spokeswoman Briahna Joy Gray—valuing her integrity more than her political career—tweeted: “With the utmost respect for Bernie Sanders, who is an incredible human being & a genuine inspiration, I don’t endorse Joe Biden. I supported Bernie Sanders because he backed ideas like #MedicareForAll, cancelling ALL student debt, & a wealth tax. Biden supports none of those.”
There have been times in U.S. history when the rank and file in labor unions have been told by gutless or corrupt union leadership to cave to management demands but they refused to comply, defying both their union leadership and management. It’s called a wildcat strike. That’s what my father and thousands of other postal workers did in 1970, as one postal worker put it, “standing 10 feet tall instead of groveling in the dust.” And they won.
Gene Debs, Ralph Nader, and Briahna Joy Gray weren’t ready to grovel in the dust, and those of us who have any energy should consider expending it supporting courageous people like them, as well as maintaining our own integrity and helping one another from becoming too broken to fight.


Integrity is in short supply these days.  I'm tired of the Noam Chomskys telling us to vote for Joe Biden.  Go back to ratting out people to the CIA, Noam.  No one needs you. 
 
Let's do Idiot of the Week: Tom Petty's family.  Their panties are in a wad that Donald Trump had "I Won't Back Down" played over the loudspeakers at his rally.

It's political speech, assholes.  Take your tender snowflake side and shove it your asses, you stupid pieces of trash.

I will never vote for Donald Trump.

I will also never support these idiot bastards who think they can determine which politician uses their music at the rallies.  Either say, "I don't want anyone using it," or shut the f**k up.  I'm sick of you.  It's political speech, you pieces of trash.

When you bitch and moan, you're just bitching and moaning about democracy -- f**k off.


"BLINDSPOT and my pick for the ten scariest movies" is Stan's latest post.  He covers BLINDSPOT each week.  Season five is a huge disappointment and viewers are fleeing the show.  It's pointless and I still can't believe they killed off Reid.  Anyway, this is from CINEMA BLEND:

Television shows have varying shelf lives. Some go on for more than a decade, like Supernatural and Grey’s Anatomy, while others have only a few seasons to tell its stories. Blindspot is somewhere in the middle. The series was renewed for a fifth and final season (not too shabby!), and Sullivan Stapelton recently revealed why he was actually happy to hear the show was being cancelled.
Blindspot’s future was called into question after NBC made a schedule change while Season 4 was still airing last year. Not to mention that it’s been on the verge of getting cancelled before then. So when the network renewed the show for a shortened and final fifth season, Blindspot’s Sullivan Stapleton was thrilled because it meant NBC execs were letting the story play out in Season 5 instead of abruptly calling it quits after the major Season 4 cliffhanger. Here’s what Stapleton told Collider:
"We didn’t know whether it was gonna get renewed again. It was that funny thing where you do the season, and then you’re sitting around for a few months, just waiting to know whether you get to go back to work or not. This time, we heard that we got renewed for Season 5 and that it would be this half-season, it was great to hear that we’d get to actually finish, the way that we should. We were pre-warned that it was the last season, and that gave the writers a good chance to wrap things up, on the note that they wanted to, and not because the show had been canceled. I was really quite grateful. It was a nice way to end."

Last week, I asked whether all the movies at the theaters had showed up at AMAZON?  This week they added Kevin Bacon's horror movie YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT.  I'm guessing that they don't have much left to offer.  Why? FORD VS. FERRARI was the 'new' movie on HBO Saturday night.  HBO's been showing that film for over a month.  Now they're putting it on Saturday night -- when they're supposed to have a new movie each week?








Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Friday, June 19, 2020.  Turkey continues its invasion of Iraq, the country's prime minister remains silent even as protests mount in the streets, we look at the US presidential race, and more.



Turkey continues its invasion of Iraq -- it's bombing the country with war planes and has sent foot soldiers into the country.  The Arab League, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have all condemned the actions of the Turkish government. Another country joins them this morning.  EGYPT TODAY reports:


In a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, Egypt affirms its complete rejection of any interference affecting the sovereignty of any of the brotherly Arab states.

“Egypt stresses utter rejection of any interferences that may undermine the sovereignty of any of its brotherly Arab countries, taking into account the consequences of these actions in further fueling instability in the region, while calling on all parties to respect the sovereignty of Iraq, and to spare it any international or regional rivalries that would hinder the achievement of the aspirations of the government and people of brotherly Iraq for stability and development,” the statement read. 


The Turkish government is calling their act of terrorism Operation Tiger-Claw.


The Turkish government insists that they are battling the PKK.  Who?   Aaron Hess (International Socialist Review) described the PKK in 2008, "The PKK emerged in 1984 as a major force in response to Turkey's oppression of its Kurdish population. Since the late 1970s, Turkey has waged a relentless war of attrition that has killed tens of thousands of Kurds and driven millions from their homes. The Kurds are the world's largest stateless population -- whose main population concentration straddles Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria -- and have been the victims of imperialist wars and manipulation since the colonial period. While Turkey has granted limited rights to the Kurds in recent years in order to accommodate the European Union, which it seeks to join, even these are now at risk."


The Turkish government regularly issues statements praising themselves for killing X number of PKK.  They never acknowledge when they kill civilians.  In yesterday's snapshot, we noted Abbas Maghdid, the 30-year-old shepherd that the Turkish government killed in this week's attacks.  Today, ALJAZEERA and ASHARQ AL-AWSAT note Abbas.


Kurdish political sources said that the broad Turkish operation underway in northern Iraq could not have been possible without prior coordination and facilitation with the Kurdish parties, especially the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Masoud Barzani. The Iraqi government strongly condemned the Turkish incursions and summoned the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad, Fatih Yildiz, twice within the space of 36 hours.
The sources indicated that Kurdish authorities are looking for ways to protect their interests with some Arab countries while Turkey is circulating news that the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is receiving support from countries hostile to Ankara, and especially after reports indicating that Turkey is building military bases in northern Iraq.
Local sources said that the authorities of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq associated with Barzani are still keeping silent about the Turkish military operation, while tracking money transfers directed to support the opposition PKK.
Iraqi-Kurdish political analyst Hoshyar Malu said that “Turkey is violating international law while the Iraqi government is showing a timid reaction” regarding the first Turkish air strikes, a reaction that did not deter a ground operation.

 Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has been prime minister of Iraq since May 7th.  Though he sought media attention last week by taking reporters with him for a for-show tour of Mosul, he's remained silent on the Turkish attack.  This as the Iraqi people are being informed that they're losing jobs.  His silence only makes him look weak.  And his administration already has enough problems.  MEMO reports: 
The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq accused the Iraqi government and Shabak militia Thursday of torturing prisoners in jails in Nineveh governorate, Anadolu reports.
“Detainees in the government’s and militia’s prisons in Iraq are subjected to heinous crimes that go against human nature,” the association’s general secretariat said in a statement.
“A report issued Wednesday by the Iraqi Center for Documentation of War Crimes revealed extensive human rights violations that are systematically taking place in intelligence prisons in Nineveh governorate at the hands of intelligence agents and the militia, known as the Shabak militia,” the statement added.
There has been no comment from the Iraqi government.

"No comment" really isn't a position that indicates leadership.  Mustafa replaces a prime minister who couldn't finish his term because the Iraqi people saw him as inept.  Mustafa risks the same route currently.





The fact that protests are already being mounted should indicate to Mustafa that the time for silence has ended and he needs to make some sort of statement.

In the US, the Libertarian Party has selected their nominee for US president: Jo Jorgensen.  May 23rd, she became the party's nominee.  The always ridiculous Dean Obeidallah immediately wrote a column for CNN telling people not to vote for her.  As a Muslim, he insisted, the only choice was Joe Biden.

As a Muslim?  The Drone War is something Lying Dean never heard of?  The Iraq War?  When has Joe Biden ever done anything other than persecute Muslims?

Dean's just another whore trying to tell you who to vote for.  Your vote is your vote.  Use it as you see fit.  That includes not voting if you don't believe in the rigged process.  

Iraq War veteran Adam Kokesh was also seeking that nomination.  We'll again note his interview with Jorgensen from last week.




Gloria La Riva is another candidate for the US president.  She is the presidential nominee for both the Party for Socialism and Liberation and the Peace and Freedom Party.




That's two women who are running for the US presidency.  Meanwhile, despite vowing long ago that he would select a woman as his running mate if he got the nomination, Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden still seems unable or unwilling to choose.  Gretch The Wretch is out -- not just due to her looking the other way as police attacked civilians, but also because of her husband's abuse of office that they tried to play down as a joke.  It wasn't a joke and before Memorial Day ended, Gretch The Wretch was off the list.  Press favorite Amy Klobuchar also took a tumble -- her 'hard on crime' stance turns out to really just be, attack African-Americans.  She was notified late Wednesday that she was eliminated -- no rose from Bachelor Joe -- which is why she gave her interview yesterday pretending she'd made the decision to leave the process and consideration.   Right now, the campaign's leaning towards one of these three: Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Susan Rice.

Susan Rice is the first you can toss out.  Squinty-eyed and untrustworthy, the Biden campaign's polling suggests adding Susan to the ticket does very little.  She's a War Hawk who supported the Iraq War and is little known despite holding prominent positions.  Those who do know of her tend to hold an unfavorable position towards her.  As one of his advisors told me, "We do not have the time to run a presidential campaign and rehabilitate his running mate at the same time.  Susan buried her own career on that fateful Sunday."  He's referring to her going from chat show to chat show insisting that the attack in Benghazi was the result of a YOUTUBE video.  

The same advisor says Kamala polls better than Elizabeth.  (Stanley Greenberg has publicly stated that adding Elizabeth to the ticket would ensure victory for Joe in November.)  Elizabeth has a number of negatives which, the advisor points out, is one of the reasons she didn't end up with the presidential nomination.  Kamala is seen as more of a blank slate that voters can project upon while Elizabeth's previous baggage weighs her down.

Joe has very little to offer so he continues to tease this out.  It's the only remotely interesting thing about his dull and uninspiring campaign.



Another person who would like to be president?  Howie Hawkins.



Howie Hawkins is seeking the Green Party's presidential nomination and he's already selected his running mate: Angela Nicole Walker.  Though he is currently the presidential nominee for the Socialist Party USA, he has not secured the nomination from the Green Party.  

The Green Party  will hold their convention online in July (the ninth through the twelth). Hawkins leads in most polling and his only double-digit contender a month out from the convention is Dario Hunter.  Polling at less than three percent are David Rolde, Sedinam Moyowasitza-Curry, Dennis Lambert, Kent Mesplay, Jesse Ventura (who has done press but has not officially entered the race -- and has stated he will not run for the office but will consider it should the office be offered to him), Susan Buchser Lochocki and Chad Wilson.


Howie Hawkins' campaign issued the following this week:

For Immediate Release: June 18, 2020
Howie Hawkins, howie@howiehawkins.us
Angela Walker, angela@howiehawkins.us
Kevin Zeese, Press Secretary, 301-996-6582, kevin@howiehawkins.us

Hawkins and Walker Call for More Radical Changes to Policing

Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker, the leading candidates for the Green Party nomination for president and vice president, released the following statement today calling for community control of the police, large-scale federal spending to end poverty, and the decriminalization of drugs.
They say the nationwide uprising against police brutality and racism should raise these demands in order to make more fundamental changes in public safety systems than only reforming police practices and shifting some money in police budgets to social services.

Creating a Public Safety System That Really Protects and Serves

By Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker
June 18, 2020
A long menu of policing reforms has been thrust into public debate and legislative consideration by the nationwide uprising against police brutality and racism. Many of the proposed reforms of policing practices at the state, local, and federal levels are good policies.
The movement is also demanding to Defund the Police. Defunding means scaling back what police do and transferring the savings into social services, schools, housing, and community economic development. Defunding means removing police from dealing with many social problems such as homelessness, drug use, sex work, mental health crises, domestic disputes, and school discipline that are better addressed by other trained first responders, including social workers, EMTs, doctors, child protective services, therapists, and legal aid lawyers.
Reforming police practices and reallocating portions of police budgets to the provision of social services are not enough. These reforms do not shift the power to control policing to the people the police are supposed to protect and serve. These reforms do not provide enough resources to resolve the social problems that police are now sent in to contain because the system has criminalized problems like poverty, homelessness, mental health issues, and drug use. These reforms do not decriminalize personal drug use and possession, the largest single category of arrests and imprisonment in the US criminal justice system.
If we are going to truly create a public safety system that serves and protects the people, we must add three critical demands to the our menu of reforms:
1. Community Control of the Police
Police brutality will not stop as long as the police can continue to police themselves and brutalize people with impunity. We need Community Control of the Police to make the police work for the people and be held accountable for misconduct. Community control means police commissions, publicly-elected or randomly-selected like juries, with the power to hire and fire the police chief, to independently investigate and discipline police misconduct, to formulate and oversee police practices and budgets, and to negotiate police union contracts. Community control shifts the power over policing to the people and away from the police and the power structure that created the abusive policing system we now have.
2. Federal Social Investment to End Poverty and Economic Despair
Police budgets do not have enough money with reallocations to pay for the services and economic development that working-class communities of color need. Sending in cops instead of social services and economic resources has been at the center of the public austerity program of the power structure. As part of reimagining public safety, it is time to fight crime by fighting poverty instead of sending in the police for every social problem. That will require a multi-year, multi-trillion federal investment in community-controlled housing, schools, social services, and businesses in the communities of color that have been impoverished by generations of discrimination by racists who exploit these communities.
3. Decriminalize Drugs
Ending the war on drugs will take the single biggest bite out of police budgets. Drug law offenses account for 16% of all arrests and are the single biggest category of arrests. Drug offenses account for about 1 in 5 people in jail or prison, including 46% of federal prisoners. Drug abuse is a health problem, not a criminal problem. Instead of a criminal offense, we must make drug use and possession a violation that refers drug users to medical and social services.
We discuss this approach in more detail in our policy paper on Reimagining Public Safety.
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Joseph Kishore is the presidential nominee for the Socialist Equality Party and his running mate is Norissa Santa Cruz.



    



This is not the first time the candidates have been noted at this site.  We will continue to note them.  Joe Biden would probably prefer that we not note -- or at least comment -- on him.  If you have a favorite above and don't feel they got enough attention in this snapshot, grasp that this is not the only coverage at this site of the candidates.  Also grasp that with any candidate outside the duopoly, we can only do so much.  Meaning if Dario Hunter, to pick one example, isn't making videos, giving interviews, Tweeting or campaigning regularly, there's not a great deal I can do to note his campaign.




The following sites updated:

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