057 The Erickson Report for July 7-20

 

057 The Erickson Report for July 7-20

This episode of The Erickson Report focuses on three recent and one upcoming case before of the Supreme Court that reflect and reveal aspects of the slow-motion coup that threatens our future as a civil society and a free people. The issues are the practical ability of any federal regulation of any sort to exist, the ability to put any regulations on guns, the ability to maintain a separation of church and state, and even the ability to vote for president.

If that sounds over-dramatic, watch the episode.

The Erickson Report is news and informed commentary from a member of the radical nonviolent left (and a proud member of "the 'woke' mob"). As what's known as advocacy journalism, it uses facts and logic while never pretending it is neutral on or indifferent to the topics it addresses. Your host, Larry Erickson, is a veteran of 50 years of political activism in both "the streets and the suites" and looks with this show to both inform and inspire action.

Questions and other reactions are welcome by email at whoviating at aol dot com.

Footnote: I realize the episode is a week late. I do apologize. We do try to keep a bi-weekly schedule, but sometimes, well, we fail. Again, my apologies and I hope you'll find this show was worth the wait.

SOURCES:

Re federal regulation
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/30/-supreme-court-says-epa-lacks-authority-on-climate-standards-for-power-plants.html
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/06/21/right-wing-supreme-court-readies-help-destroy-planet
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/21907/were-firearms-prohibited-in-dodge-city-kansas-in-the-1870s

Re regulations on guns
https://www.democracynow.org/2022/6/24/supreme_court_new_york_state_concealed
https://www.wbur.org/npr/1102995474/supreme-court-opinion-guns
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senators-aim-quick-passage-bill-providing-security-family-members-supr-rcna28000
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/06/roe-overturned-supreme-court-samuel-alito-opinion/661386/

Re separation of church and state
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-supreme-court-takes-aim-separation-church-state-2022-06-28/
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/06/27/supreme-court-takes-wrecking-ball-separation-church-and-state-prayer-ruling
https://www.vox.com/2022/6/27/23184848/supreme-court-kennedy-bremerton-school-football-coach-prayer-neil-gorsuch
https://www.rawstory.com/lied-gorsuch-blasted-after-photos-expose-his-claims-in-high-school-coach-praying-case-are-a-flat-out-knowing-lie/

Re vote for president
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/07/01/beware-supreme-court-laying-groundwork-pre-rig-2024-election

The Erickson Report - Page 2: Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages

Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages

Next up, a new feature that's a redesigned and somewhat revamped version of popular features f rom the old show, a feature now called Two Weeks of Stupid: Clowns and Outrages

Going chronologically, first up is May 11, the day when a new poll from CivicScience, a Pittsburgh-based market research firm, was released. They had polled more than 3600 Americans on the issue of mathematics instruction.

In response to one question, 56% of the respondents said Arabic numerals should not be taught in American schools; 29% said they should be part of the curriculum; while 16% offered no opinion.

And if you don't get why that is some Clown combination of ignorance and bigotry, these are Arabic numerals: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9.

And before you start going "Oh those stupid right wingers again," know that when respondents were sorted into three categories, GOPper, Democrat, and Independent, not one of those three showed a majority in favor.

Here are a couple of cases where you can't tell if it should be Clown or Outrage, so I'll leave it to you. I report, you decide.

Andrew Napolitano

On May 16 on "Fox and Friends," Andrew Napolitano, who is Fox News' Senior Judicial Analyst, said that tossing out Roe is no big deal because if you want an abortion, you just go to New Jersey or New York "where infanticide is legal."

During legislative debate on May 17, Missouri state representative. and former cop Barry Hovis said “most of my rapes [during his time as a cop] were not the gentlemen jumping out of the bushes that nobody had ever met. That was one or two times out of a hundred. Most of them were date rapes or consensual rapes.”

Later that day, Hovis said he intended to say “date rapes or consensual or rape.” Which in contact actually makes no more sense than the original statement.

The reporter who covered the story noted that Hovis did not correct himself at the time despite, according to a witness, "A lot of 'What?'s ringing around the chamber."

Here's an oldie but a goodie for you: On May 20, NPR reported on a 40-year-old California law that requires public school teachers on extended sick leave to pay for their own substitute teachers - an amount that can easily mean half their paycheck.

The law is finally getting some overdue attention - and of course there are those who say changing it is a bad idea because, of course, it only makes sense that the cost of a substitute can't be borne by the budget of the entire district but must be dumped on the back of a single sick individual.

Ben Carson

Here's the Clown you knew: On May 21, during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, HUD Secretary and man perpetually in REM sleep Ben Carson couldn't describe basic terms related to the agency.

For one, he thought that REO, which stands for "real estate owned," which is what happens when a property goes into foreclosure, referred to Oreos, the cookie/

You've heard about that; why it's here is that he didn't even have the self-awareness to be embarrassed or ashamed by his cluelessness about the agency he heads. After the hearing, he tweeted that he planned to send a member of the committee a box of Oreos.

Ben Carson is a classic Clown: He's not stupid - he was a famed brain surgeon, he's not stupid - but it's clear he's lazy and just doesn't give a damn as long as he gets his check and doing nothing for it.

Meanwhile, the Tweetie-Pie administration -

By the way, I call him "Tweetie-Pie" because of his love of tweeting. I used to call him TheRump because he's so obviously an ass, but this seems even more appropriate as he gets more cartoonish every day.

Anyway, the Tweetie-Pie administration continues its attack transgender rights.

On May 22, HUD announced it intends to reverse the requirement that operators of homeless shelters receiving department funding have to “provide equal access ... in accordance with an individual’s gender identity.” The change would allow shelters to segregate transgender people and to consider a person’s biology when determining if they will be admitted to the shelter in the first place.

Then on May 24, Health and Human Services published a proposal to remove a section of the Affordable Care Act that defined discrimination “on the basis of sex” to include gender identity. The change would make it acceptable under law for healthcare providers to refuse care to transgender patients and for for insurance companies to refuse to cover them.

Also on May 24, Alabama was amending its marriage law to let bigots off the hook.

Under existing state law, couples are required to obtain a marriage license from a probate judge and hold a ceremony to “solemnize” the union. Under the new law, the solemnization requirement is eliminated and it is the responsibility of couples themselves to record their own union.Probate judges then would simply pass those records along to a state office.

In other words, this is being done so that bigot judges can say they have no part in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples and bigot ministers can refuse to do a ceremony.

Here's a deep outrage that can be filed under the heading "We Are Not Alone," that is, we are not the only nation with problems: On May 25, Felix Klein, Germany’s commissioner on anti-Semitism warned German Jews that in the face of last year's 20% rise in anti-Semitic crimes, it could be dangerous for Jews to wear kippahs, the traditional skullcaps also known as yarmulkes, in public. He had already cautioned against wearing kippahs while visiting big cities.

On May 26, in a remarkable and quite typical Clown case of lack of self-awareness, White House principal deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley claimed Democrats receive “complicit” and “compliant” treatment from the news media "in a slant that makes everything negative no matter how positive the subject matter may be.”

I usually ignore Tweetie-Pie for the Clown category because he's such an easy target that it seems unfair to others, but I couldn't let this one pass:

Sebastian Gorka

On May 28, during his trip to Japan, Tweetie-Pie claimed he did Joe Biden a favor by calling him a “low IQ individual” because Kim Jong Un had called him a “low IQ idiot.”

In that spirit, I promise that the next time someone calls Tweetie-Pie - or T-P for short, also quite appropriate - an imbecile, I'll do him a favor and call him a moron.

The Clowns keep coming:

On May 29, after Robert Mueller's presser, right-wing blowhard and all-around creepy person Sebastian Gorka said Mueller wasn't qualified to park a car. Here are Gorka's own qualifications in that area. (He also got an expired meter ticket for the latter one.)

On the other hand, here is a real Outrage: The European Union and EU-member states had donated two classrooms to be used in the West Bank for Palestinian children in grades 1-6.

In October the Israeli Civil Administration, which is in charge of policy in the occupied territories, seized and dismantled the schools. The EU missions in the West Bank called for the immediate reconstruction of the classrooms.

Israel not only ignored that call, on May 31 it emerged that in what can only be considered a deliberately cruel move, Israel is auctioning off the stolen classrooms, not only denying Palestinian children access to an education but looking to profit off doing it.

The auction is expected to be held in the week or so.

Oh, but don't forget: BDS is anti-Semitic. Just ask Israel.

Also on May 31was the mass murder in Virginia Beach. The best summation of the meaning was delivered quite unintentionally by CNN, which opened it's report by saying, quote,

At least 12 people were killed Friday after a gunman opened fire at a municipal building in Virginia Beach. The attack was the deadliest mass shooting in the US since November.

I'll leave you with this, an oft-reprised headline from The Onion:

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

Finally for now: On June 1 Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin admonished Catholics in not to support or attend any LGBTQ Pride Month commemorations in June, warning that such events promote a “culture” and “activities” that are “especially harmful for children."

This from a bishop of a church with a long and demonstrated history of child sexual abuse that was actively covered up by the church hierarchy - including in a diocese in Pennsylvania where Thomas Tobin served as an auxiliary bishop.

By the way, Pride Month is particularly significant this year because it marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in Manhattan, and if you don't know about that event, look it up.

28.3 - Net neutrality under serious threat

Net neutrality under serious threat

Some warnings

This is something I have talked about in the past but not very recently, but it is of particular importance now: Net neutrality.

If you were online any time on Wednesday, July 12, you may have come across warning screens like those shown here. That's because July 12 was a day of action to defend Net neutrality.

At least 234 websites representing corporations, activist groups, and plain folks spent the day trying to alert anyone who came by to the serious risk that Net neutrality may be killed off. Some of the nation's largest tech companies - such as Microsoft and Google - and some of the biggest online sites - such as Twitter, Snapchat, Netflix, Facebook, and Amazon - took part.

Net neutrality, simply, is the idea that internet service providers (ISPs) treat everyone's data equally; a bit is a bit is a bit and every bit is the same as every other bit - whether that's a bit from an email from your mother, an episode of House of Cards on Netflix, a bank transfer, the day's news on your favorite newspaper's website, or whatever. It means that outfits such as Comcast, AT&T, or Verizon don’t get to say that this data is sent more quickly than that data because those sending this data paid us extra money so all those who waiting for that data will just have to wait and watch the spiral or whatever go around and around. Assuming, of course, that data isn't for a site that has been blocked entirely for failing to come up with enough cash.

Put another way, it's the principle that a handful of giant corporations, riding on the back of technology actually developed by the federal government and some universities, can't manipulate the market - the market in this case being those companies and individuals who use the Internet - can't manipulate the market to line their pockets.

And if the business about "treating all data equally" still isn't clear, think of it this way: It's how your telephone works. All telephone calls are treated the same.

And for obvious reasons, outfits like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon hate the idea of Net neutrality and have been campaigning, lobbying, and suing against it for years.

Despite some short-term legal victories, they failed. Due to a massive public outpouring of support for Net neutrality, in February 2015, the FCC voted to reclassify broadband service providers as "common carriers" under title II, meaning in effect they are regarded as public utilities, giving the FCC the ability to set rates, open up access to competitors, and more closely regulate the industry - and, most importantly here, to enshrine Net neutrality as law as part of those regulations.

So what's the problem? The problem, in two words, is Ajit Pai. He is the new chair of the FCC whose only work experience outside of government was as general counsel for Verizon and he is full-out for repealing the 2015 regulations, leaving us at the mercy of the corporate overlords for who he used to work. He introduced a rule to do exactly that which is now in the period for public comments.

It is that proposed rollback of the 2015 rules that was the target of the day of action on July 12.

Net neutrality is, to be quite blunt, the spiritual heart, the philosophical core, of the Internet. It is the operating principle on which the Net was founded when it was just a federal agency and a handful of universities and on which it has grown. In fact, it is what enabled it to grow, the fact that it was equally open, and open on an equal basis, to all participants, not just an elite handful of technocrats and technophiles. Yes, of course, it started that way, it started all technocrats and technophiles, but that principle of neutrality insured it was not going to stay that way.

And people know it. In fact, Net neutrality is overwhelmingly popular among Americans.

According to a recent survey from Politico and Morning Consult, 60% of Americans support the current rules and only 17% want to change them.

According to a poll done for Freedman Consulting, the figure is even higher: 77% support keeping the existing Net neutrality rules in place. In both polls, the support was bipartisan, with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents registering similar levels of support.

You want more evidence of how popular Net neutrality is? That July 12 day of action generated an astounding two million comments to the FCC backing it.

It's so popular, in fact, that Pai finds it necessary to claim that he supports "the principle" of net neutrality. He does that without being really clear about what that means and without laying out any means to enforce it except by proposing to turn enforcement over to the Federal Trade Commission - which lacks the authority to make rules and unless Congress proposes an entirely new law - something Pai knows as well as you ain't gonna happen anytime soon - could only enforce vague "principles" and then only on a case-by-case basis in response to a complaint, that is, after something has already gone wrong.

Pai has also, notably, frequently referred to the "open" Internet as if that was supposed to be synonymous with Net neutrality, but it isn't.

Ajit Pai

Back in 2015, at the time the FCC was acting, a former chair of the commission, Michael Powell, who was even more overtly pro-corporate than Pai is, also referred to "open Internet principles," which he defined as "freedom to access content, to run applications, to attach devices, and to obtain service plan information" - "freedoms," which I noted at the time, did not include the freedom to access content on an equal basis without being throttled or otherwise hindered because the site I was trying to access couldn't afford the big bucks that some other site could. In other words, did not include the freedom that was at the very heart of the issue.

Now we have another pro-corporate chair mouthing the same platitudes about an "open" Internet. Extreme caution is called for.

Especially because Pai has defended his desire to service the corporations with some pretty bizarre arguments which would cause most folks' jaws to drop were we not in the age of TheRump.

For example, he has said "we cannot stick with regulations from the Great Depression that were meant to micromanage Ma Bell." I'll just say that the notion that Bell Telephone was "micromanaged" will come as a shock to anyone old enough to remember that the Bell System was broken up in 1984 because it was an illegal monopoly actively stifling competition - or, for that matter, anyone old enough to remember Lily Tomlin.

He also claimed that strong Net neutrality rules in the US would give dictators an excuse to tighten their grip over the Internet in their countries - which I frankly think shouldn't even require a response beyond "Whut?"

And he said that the 2015 rules were established based on "hypothetical harms and hysterical prophecies of doom."

That does require a response, and it's that the fact is, we had already seen those harms. There was nothing hypothetical about them. In 2014, during negotiations over access, Comcast throttled Netflix, slowing transmission speeds by nearly 30% until Netflix agreed to come up with the cash for a so-called "paid peering" deal. That deal and others like it were scuttled by the 2015 regulations, but it doesn't change the fact that the supposedly "hypothetical" harms, paying for access and being throttled when you don't, have already happened.

We have, that is, already seen what will happen if net neutrality goes by the boards. It won't happen all at once, of course, they know better than to spark a backlash even bigger than the actual current proposal to undo Net neutrality, which has gotten over 5 million comments, the vast majority of them negative. But it is what they are after and it is what they will do if not stopped.

The period for public comment on the proposed rule - which again, is to undo the 2015 rules securing Net neutrality - runs through July 18. If there is still time, you might want to drop the FCC a line.

Oh, and if you're wondering why you haven't heard more about this? Part of the reason could be that NBC, CNBC, and MSNBC are all owned by Comcast.

28.1 - Good News: Florida court declares state "Stand Your Ground" Law unconstitutional

Good News: Florida court declares state "Stand Your Ground" Law unconstitutional

Starting out the week, as we always like to, with some Good News, we see that on July 3, a state circuit judge in Florida ruled that the state's updated "stand your ground" law is unconstitutional. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch found that the amended law exceeded legislative authority and effectively ignored guidelines already set down by the state Supreme Court.

Since it's sometimes unclear what these laws are, a brief and oversimplified explanation: Traditionally, people who felt their lives were in danger from some threat had a "duty to retreat" - that is, a duty to leave the situation, to back down from a confrontation - before they could legally use lethal force and claim self-defense. In other words, in order to claim self-defense as a defense against a charge of killing someone, you had to show that you could not have defended yourself by simply leaving the situation. Exceptions were made for places such as your own home; that is, you did not have a duty to retreat from your own home.

"Stand your ground" laws, at bottom, remove the "duty to retreat" and you can use lethal force if you feel you are at risk of imminent death or great bodily harm. The Florida "stand your ground" law, passed in 2005, specifically gave people the right to "shoot first" in such cases and allowed judges to dismiss charges on the grounds of a "reasonable" claim of self-defense.

The predictable result was that the average annual number of "justifiable homicides" in Florida tripled over the ensuing five years. And in fact a study published last fall in the journal "JAMA Internal Medicine" (JAMA of course being the "Journal of the American Medical Association," likely the nation's leading medical journal) found a connection with an overall increase in homicides in the state in the years following the law's passage: a 24% increase in the monthly homicide rate and a 32% increase in the monthly rate for homicides involving guns.

In 2015, the Florida Supreme Court stiffened the requirements of the law, saying that defendants had to prove in pretrial hearings that they were defending themselves in order to avoid prosecution.

So what did Florida do? The legislature, with the support of Gov. Voldemort and at the urging of the Nutzoid Rabbit-brains of America, otherwise known as the NRA, simply re-wrote the law to put the burden on prosecutors to prove with "clear and convincing" evidence that the defendant was not acting in self-defense.

It was that requirement that Judge Hirsch found an unconstitutional breach of the authority of the state supreme court.

This doesn't undo the law, obviously, and it is still possible his decision will be overturned - but anything that puts limits or the brakes on the sort of pumped-up wild West fantasizing driving these sorts of bills and the deaths that result from them is Good News.

Quick Footnote: Prosecutors in Florida were vehemently against the updated law because they believed it made it easier for defendants to get away from murder, as in fact the record clearly shows it does. Isn't it interesting how the right-wingers are all about supporting the police and supporting law enforcement and being against crime - until it involves something desired by the gun nuts, as this was, at which point the opinions of cops and prosecutors and so on no longer count?

27.2 - Good News: EPA can't delay methane leak rule

Good News: EPA can't delay methane leak rule

Another bit of Good News, this one on the environment.

On July 3, a three judge panel of the Court of Appeals for Washington, DC, ruled that EPA administrator Scott Pruitt had overstepped his authority in trying to delay implementation of an Obama-era rule requiring oil and gas companies to monitor and reduce methane leaks.

Pruitt had announced in April that he would delay by 90 days the deadline for oil and gas companies to follow the rule, so that the agency could reconsider the measure. He then said in June that he was going to extend that delay for an additional two years.

Scott P-U-itt

In a split decision, the court disagreed with Pruitt’s contention that industry groups had not had sufficient opportunity to comment before the 2016 rule was enacted and also said that he had no authority to make the “unreasonable,” “arbitrary,” and “capricious” decision to delay the rule from taking effect.

The reason the decision is important is that methane is by volume about 20 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide is and environmental groups contend that actual methane emissions from leaks and intentional venting at fossil-fuel operations are far greater than what is now reported.

Environment-hater and fossil-fuel-industry-lapdog Scott P-U-itt has been trying as hard as he can to undo the gains of the past several decades. This time, at least, he got smacked down hard. And that is Good News.

25.5 - For the Record: a variety of short items

For the Record: a variety of short items

With our occasional feature called For the Record, we cover several topics briefly, not taking a lot of time on any of them, but we did want to make sure they at least got mentioned.

1. So For the Record: On June 12, TheRump had his first full cabinet meeting. It started with His High Orangeness praising himself and all he has supposedly accomplished and then it went around the room with everybody introducing themselves (which is reasonable) and then going on about how gloriosky it's just so double-fudge sundae with marshmallow and a cherry wonderful to be working for Donald J. TheRump, starting with Mike Pence saying it is "the greatest privilege of my life" to be TheRump's coat-holder and proceeding through Chief of Staff Reince Priebus thanking TheRump for "the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda." As all the while, His Orangeness sat there soaking it all up, totally and completely pleased with himself and nodding approvingly.

Chris Cillizza of CNN called it "the weirdest Cabinet meeting ever." New York Times reporter Julie Davis said on twitter "Never have seen a Cabinet meeting photo op quite like that one," an opinion echoed by CNN's Jake Tapper. TheWeek.com called it "bizarre."

The presidency of Donald TheRump increasingly looks less like a presidency and more like a personality cult. Which is probably why he gets along with dictators so well.

2. For the Record: In May, in that one month, three 15-year-old unarmed black boys were killed by police in separate incidents in Texas, Connecticut, and California. In at least two of those cases, initial police accounts of the incident proved to be outright lies.

Overall, as of June 14, at least 548 people have been killed by police in 2017.

3. For the Record: Last fall, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put in place a rule under which nursing homes that receive federal funding - which is most of them - could not include so-called mandatory arbitration clauses in their contracts. In other words, residents and their family members were given back the right to sue.

Now, under TheRump, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have a proposed rule that would rescind the previous rule and once again make forced arbitration, a method which almost never works to the benefit of consumers, the industry standard.

4. Next, I recently have referred to how we are instituting militarism as national policy, including TheRump's statement "We have given [the military] total authorization" and the push for a major shift in strategy in Afghanistan.

So For the Record: on June 14 Reuters reported that TheRump had given War Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan, opening the door to a new "surge" - a resurgent surge, we could call it -  in US forces there.

5. You undoubtedly know about the gunman who shot up a group of Republican lawmakers who were practicing for an annual charity baseball game, wounding House Majority Whip Steve Scalise - who at last report is in critical condition - and at least four others before being killed.

You also have undoubtedly heard about how the shooter, one James Hodgkinson, was some real liberal and a Bernie Sanders supporter.

So I want this noted, For the Record: I predict that you will not find one single GOPper, one single wingnut, one single person on the entire right half of the US political spectrum who will describe this guy as what they always describe right-wing shooters as, "a lone wacko" and that instead they will claim he is "emblematic of the violence of the left."

6. For the Record: Two top Michigan health officials have been criminally charged for their roles in the handling of the Flint water crisis.

The state' Chief Medical Executive Eden Wells was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to police and state Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Twelve people died of Legionnaires' disease as a result of the decision made by the unelected Emergency Manager of Flint, appointed by Governor Rick Snidelywhiplash, to switch the city's water supply from Detroit to the Flint River in April 2014.

By the way, the water in Flint still isn't fit to drink.

7. Finally, just a quick pretty much personal note. I grew up in New Jersey and in a lot of ways it still feels like home, so it is with genuine satisfaction that I can say this:

For the Record, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, Gov. Chris Christie has the lowest approval rating of any New Jersey governor in the 20-year history of the poll.

Eighty-one percent disapprove of the job Christie is doing; only 15 percent approve.

21.2 - The USPS is under attack again

The USPS is under attack again

Oh lord, they are at it again. And while you may not think this is worth the time I'm going to spend on it, it's important because it's about continuing a basic government service and revealing about the right-wing approach to government and governing.

The GAO, the Government Accountability Office, just reported to Congress that there are major programs receiving scant attention that are draining the Treasury and that could pose long-term challenges to the nation's fiscal stability.

One of three they highlighted was the US Postal Service, the USPS, still popularly called the post office.

And so we have face another chorus of how the Postal Service is on the brink of financial collapse, of fiscal disaster, of crushing bankruptcy; it's on the edge, the precipice, of utter failure and ruin, a chorus that has continued almost unbroken for a decade or more.

I've said all this a few times before, but apparently is needs repeating particularly because you need to realize that despite the claims to the contrary, all of this is not about preserving the Postal Service, it's about destroying the Postal Service.

What is bizarre about this right at the top is that while the USPS is a quasi-governmental agency and yes has been running significant deficits for the last decade, it is not "draining the Treasury" and poses no challenge "the nation's fiscal stability" because the USPS does not get a single penny from the federal government. Not one. It's operations are entirely, entirely, self-funded through the sale of postage and other services. The last time the Postal Service received any subsidy from the government was in 1982.

Which is part of the problem because starting in 1971 with the establishment of the USPS, the agency was essentially cast adrift, left to sink or swim - even as Congress continued and continues to have significant authority over the operations of the agency.

And what has Congress done with that authority? Well, for one thing, it banned the Postal Service from raising the cost of postage beyond the inflation rate.

Why is that a problem? Because in basic capitalist economics, a business has two ways to increase revenue: increase the amount of business you do or raise the price of each unit of that total business. The idea is that a business will keep tweaking those two - price per unit versus number of units - to find the combination that maximizes income.

But the Postal Service, by law, cannot use one of those options. Which means the only way it can increase its real revenue (and actually improve and expand service) is to increase its volume of business - and do it even as a continuing chorus of voices from right-wingers in Congress call for what they say are "cost-cutting measures," such as an end to Saturday deliveries and closing regional mail-processing plants (which will slow transit times), measures that would very likely decrease that volume and so make matters worse. Which maybe is the point.

What else has Congress done with that authority? Here's a big one: In 2006, Congress mandated that the Postal Service fully fund retiree health benefits for future retirees out to 75 years in the future and had to do it within 10 years at a cost of over $5.5 billion per year. Put another way, Congress in essence was requiring of the USPS that within 10 years it be able to fully fund health care benefits for future retirees who hadn't even been born yet.

Opponents of the Postal Service claim that the provision really only requires such funding for current employees, not future ones, but considering that by this requirement, the very day that the USPS hires someone they are supposed to ensure that their retirement health benefits are already fully funded, no pay-as-you-go, no building up an account over time, that is truly a distinction without a difference.

That demand is a requirement for a level of guarantee, a task taken on by, no other agency, corporation, or organization in or out of government in the US. And it remains a major reason for the agency's financial struggles: That GAO report said that

In fiscal year 2016, when USPS was required to make $13 billion in retiree health and pension payments, it made $7 billion in payments - mainly due to not making a required retiree health payment of $5.8 billion.

That is, the agency could have made the required payments - except for that inane retiree health plan requirement.

To top it all off and to show just how transparent the actual goal is - that goal being to destroy the USPS because it is proof that a government agency can do its job well, in this case deliver the mail, over the long haul and do it while having a workforce with a strong union - a few years ago it was discovered that due to a massive accounting screw-up, the USPS had overpaid into worker pension funds to the tune of $50-75 billion. A proposal was made in Congress to allow the USPS to shift the excess funds - not, as some have falsely claimed, to "borrow against that account" but to shift the excess - into the fund for future retiree's health benefits to cover the shortfall. Note first that the Postal Service needs Congressional approval simply to shift funds from one account to another. Note next that the proposal was rejected with the inane claim that it constituted a "bailout."

Face it: Mail is a bargain. You can mail a one-ounce letter, about three sheets - that's six pages of text - anywhere is the US, you could send one from Key West to Point Barrow, from Bangor to Honolulu, for 49¢ - an amount that otherwise might get you half a candy bar.

And when I say anywhere, I do mean anywhere. The USPS is legally required to provide universal service and it makes deliveries to 150 million individual addresses nationwide every week. It has to make mail service available to everywhere - you may have to travel a bit to get to a post box or to where a whole group of mailboxes stand at the end of some rural byway, but mail must be available to everyone. Even if you are way out in the country, even if you are in some neighborhood deemed "too dangerous" for services like taxis, the mail still must be available. That is a requirement which does not exist for the Postal Service's private competitors like UPS and FedEx. They don’t have to do that: They think your address is too inconvenient or otherwise not profitable, they just don't do it. In fact, both those corporations sometimes pay the USPS to deliver packages for them.

Which means, in turn, that there are millions and millions of people who need, who rely on, the USPS's services, including poorer people, folks in rural areas outside the usual delivery areas, people who use post offices boxes, and many more, including some small-scale entrepreneurs who often find that the USPS is the cheapest way to ship goods. (Speaking of which, if you're the type to sneer "I don't need the Postal Service, I use email," then tell you what, next time you go online and order a t-shirt, see if they can email it to you.)

Which means in its own turn that the people who do not depend on the USPS tend to be the rich, the powerful, the connected: people who for their own selfish reasons often are more concerned - despite their smiling, lying assurances to the contrary - with bringing the system down than with preserving it.

Finally, as for the entire issue of "deficits," think of it this way: Some years ago, someone noted that the very concept that a basic modern-world governmental service like a postal system could be "running a deficit" is absurd: By that definition, they said, the Pentagon is running a yearly "deficit" of over $580 billion.

9.3 - Not Good News: internet consumer protection rules under attack

Not Good News: internet consumer protection rules under attack

Okay, more Not Good News, something I bet more of you will be interested in than the suffering in South Sudan. Which was very likely a very unfair thing to say but I said it anyway.

Anyway. Tom Wheeler, who surprised many with his pro-consumer leadership, is set to leave his position as chair of the FCC. Drooling at the prospect of TheRump becoming president and a shift in power at the FCC, the mega telecomms - including Comcast, Charter and Cox - are rushing to call on the agency to undo the historic win for consumer privacy achieved last fall.

Those rules are meant to keep Internet providers from abusing the data they collect on their customers as they use the Internet. Your Web browsing history, your geolocation logs, even the content of your emails are all available to your IP and when combined with your health and financial information, that is an enormous source of potential advertising revenue as well as the money to be made by selling that personal information to marketers and data brokers who will in turn sell it to others, spreading that personal information even more widely.

The FCC restricted the ability of IPs to amass, use, and share that information. And that is what the telecomms want to undo as their first strike in undoing the gains that have been made not only in privacy but in net neutrality.

Meanwhile, reports say that TheRump has asked Rupert Murdoch to make suggestions as to who should be the new chair of the FCC.

These sort of efforts have been blocked before and perhaps they will be again, but it will be an uphill battle. We could be, without hyperbole, facing the end of the Internet as we have known it.

What's Left #9

What's Left
for the week of January 12-18, 2017

This week:

Not Good News: bumblebee listed as endangered
https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-lists-first-bumble-bee-species-endangered-212930972.html
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/6045/20140215/ignores-petition-list-rusty-patched-bumblebee-endangered-species.htm

Not Good News: civil war in South Sudan continues
http://worldpress.org/link.cfm?http://www.sudantribune.com/spip.php?article61350
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/01/1404-bad-news-south-sudan.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/01/1416-update-south-sudan.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/09/2184-more-tragedy-still-hope-in-south.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/03/2416-not-good-news-un-excoriates-south.html

Not Good News: internet consumer protection rules under attack
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/01/04/its-begun-cable-companies-are-pushing-to-repeal-obama-era-internet-privacy-rules/
http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/4/14167832/donald-trump-rupert-murdoch-fcc-chair-net-neutrality
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCQTyheuvU4

Clown Award: Kellyanne Conway
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/01/07/nypd-captain-suggests-unsolved-rape-cases-are-not-a-trend-that/21649689/
http://gawker.com/5938849/a-recent-history-of-republicans-talking-about-rape
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/conway-trump-heart
http://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2015/11/26/donald-trump-mocks-reporter-with-disability-berman-sot-ac.cnn

Outrage of the Week: TheRump considering panel desired by anti-vaxxers
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/12/1844-footnote-invalid-immunization-fears.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2015/04/2006-clown-award-robert-f-kennedy-jr.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiomersal_controversy
https://theoutline.com/post/870/trump-kennedy-anti-vaccine-meeting-wont-make-america-great
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/01/10/the-facts-about-vaccines-autism-and-robert-f-kennedy-jr-s-conspiracy-theory/
https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/data.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2017/01/what_unites_trump_and_rfk_jr_is_a_scary_denial_that_they_re_anti_vaxxers.html
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/11/30/vaccine_skeptic_andrew_wakefield_is_excited_about_donald_trump_s_presidency.html
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/trump-meets-anti-vaccine-activist-after-raising-fringe-theory-trail-n705296
http://www.npr.org/2017/01/10/509185540/despite-the-facts-trump-once-again-embraces-vaccine-skeptics

Outrage of the Year 2016: Democratic Party presidential race
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/02/2364-rare-and-potentially-my-only.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/04/2455-what-now-for-progressives.html
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/04/after-new-york-win-clinton-campaign-says-bernie-sanders-attacks-help-republicans
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/06/2485-disqualifying-change-by.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/06/2492-part-2-issues-that-wont-be.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/36-democrats-refusing-to-recognize.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/22-but-we-have-to-carry-on-as-best-as.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/11/34-importance-of-continuing-protest.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/45-excuses-for-failures-of-democrats.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/12/58-latest-clintonite-excuses-for-losing.html

Footnote: Russian "hacking"
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/russian-government-hackers-do-not-appear-to-have-targeted-vermont-utility-say-people-close-to-investigation/2017/01/02/70c25956-d12c-11e6-945a-76f69a399dd5_story.html
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/01/05/russia-cyber-attacks-are-major-threat-congress-probe-hears/21648476/
http://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/01/06/us-intelligence-report-putin-ordered-a-hacking-campaign-to-har/21649595/
https://soundcloud.com/war_college/the-kremlin-had-a-plan-donald
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-intercepts-capture-senior-russian-officials-celebrating-trump-win/2017/01/05/d7099406-d355-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html?postshare=2211483657557606&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.ff07e992b361
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/the-nsa-uses-powerful-toolbox-in-effort-to-spy-on-global-networks-a-940969.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/13/the-long-history-of-the-u-s-interfering-with-elections-elsewhere/?utm_term=.b2f193660bbe
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-us-intervention-foreign-elections-20161213-story.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-us-has-been-meddling-in-other-countries-elections-for-a-century-it-doesnt-feel-good_us_57983b85e4b02d5d5ed382bd

3.1 - Good News: pushback against forced arbitration

Good News: pushback against forced arbitration

We'll start quickly with something just for the sheer fun of it.

Among those who are to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 22 is Vin Scully, honored for his 67-year career as a baseball announcer, which I mention here because I can still in my head hear him do radio play-by-play for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s.

Okay, on to more serious things.

First under that category is something that was actually done a bit ago; the first week of October, in fact, but I'm bringing it up now both because it's a federal regulation that is going into effect on November 28, which makes it time relevant, and because it's on a topic I've been meaning to talk about, one which happily is getting some more attention.

The issue is what's called forced arbitration. Arbitration is described as an alternative method of resolving disputes in which instead of going to court, two parties present their sides of a complaint to an arbitrator. Ideally, the arbitrator decides the rules, weighs the facts and arguments, and impartially resolves the dispute. Think Judge Judy without the snide condescension and the chosen-for-TV melodrama.

Arbitration was initially intended for use by businesses looking to avoid the possibility of a long and expensive legal battle. It was a mechanism to resolve disputes between forces that were at least more or less equal and one to which both parties had to freely agree.

Increasingly, however, it's being used by corporations to force consumers and employees to surrender some of their legal rights as a condition of buying a product, using a service, or getting or keeping a job. Increasingly, purchase agreements for things such as insurance, home-building, car loans, car leases, credit cards, retirement accounts, investment accounts, computer software, and more as well as employee contracts contain provisions - usually buried in the small print in the hope no one will notice - requiring that the consumer or employee submit any dispute to binding arbitration and waive their right to sue or join a class action suit or to appeal the results of the arbitration, arbitration which occurs at a place of the corporation's choosing using an arbitration firm acceptable to the corporation - that is, one likely to rule in its favor, as they do 93% of the time.

What's more, unlike a court decision, the results are not public, so there is no public record that a complaint against the corporation even arose - and consumers can even wind up under gag orders banning them from discussing the case publicly.

Put simply, instead of being a tool for use between equals, arbitration, as forced arbitration, has been twisted into a weapon for use by the powerful against the non-powerful, for use by the corporations against the rest of us, to keep us silenced and subservient in the face of their power.

If you want a particular and recent example, here's one: Wells Fargo, one of the nation's largest banks, committed systematic and deliberate fraud against account holders. At least 3,500 Wells Fargo employees, at the instigation of senior management, opened approximately 1.5 million bank accounts and approximately 565,000 credit cards without the consent of their customers and then charged them fees for the fraudulently-opened accounts. Since 2013, customers have been trying to sue Wells Fargo, both through class action and as individuals only to have the corporation used the forced arbitration provisions for the original, legitimate accounts to force them all of those people into individual, private, forced arbitration on each of the fraudulent accounts.

So what's the good news? There is some pushback.

In August, the Obama administration completed a two-year rule-making process that declares that federal government contractors with contracts of $1 million or more cannot impose forced arbitration on employees if the dispute arises under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act or over claims of sexual assault or sexual harassment. That regulation is now in force.

Next, the CFPB, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is in the midst of a rule-making that would ban forced arbitration provisions from blocking participation in class-action suits, a move that has gotten widespread support, with much of that support arguing that the rule should have gone further.

Finally and most recently, and the one that brought all this up, as part of a comprehensive review of the the requirements that Long-Term Care facilities must meet to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid announced final a rule barring forced arbitration requirements at nursing homes that accept federal funds.

The rule was announced on October 4 and goes into effect on November 28.

And all that is Good News.

This doesn't mean that this won't come under the baleful glare of those surrounding The Great Orange One as they "review the regulations" and of course he himself is even more a product of the corporate world than many of the entourage. But forced arbitration is enormously unpopular among that segment of the public that is aware of it to the point that even TheRump and his cronies may be hesitant to so obviously flout their base.

Left Side of the Aisle #259

Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of September 8-15, 2016

This week:

Good News: Massachusetts moves against unsafe guns
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/07/20/mass-attorney-general-says-she-crack-down-assault-weapons/8xmuDyW6DR1tkt7mBNncRK/story.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-06/a-new-legal-assault-on-firearm-makers-some-guns-may-be-dangerous?cmpid=google&google_editors_picks=true
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/08/31/healey-launches-gun-safety-investigation/EqmsKiAIeweTWxbuk0NKNO/story.html

Clown Award: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fn36l_z3WY
http://reason.com/blog/2016/09/01/9th-circuit-says-medical-marijuana-cardh
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/increased-access-cannabis-associated-reductions-violent-crimes
http://www.msnbc.com/all/does-marijuana-lower-the-crime-rate
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/25/marijuana-study_n_5711217.html
https://www.weedsta.com/articles/study-finds-marijuana-does-not-lead-to-violent-behavior

Update: phasing private prisons out of the federal system
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/08/2582-good-news-federal-private-prisons.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2016/08/2583-not-good-news-phaseout-does-not.html
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-immigration-detention-20160906-snap-story.html?track=lat-pick
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2004/10/in-case-you-missed-it.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2005/06/so-do-tell-whats-been-going-on-while-i_27.html
http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/08/31/profit-pipeline-company-claims-public-benefit-seizing-private-lands-pennsylvania
https://theintercept.com/2016/06/27/private-prison-trump-clinton/
http://www.sfexaminer.com/wheres-pen-gov-brown/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison#In_the_United_States

More media failure
http://www.ktnv.com/news/las-vegas-man-facing-charges-after-posting-threatening-youtube-video
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/conspiracy-theorist-charged-threatening-terror-attack-article-1.2767259
https://www.youtube.com/user/FisherOfPeople
http://www.care2.com/causes/clinton-explains-exactly-how-trump-is-peddling-hate-in-alt-right-speech.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Transfer_Protocol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet_newsgroup

And Another Thing: dogs understand language
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/08/30/confirmed-your-dog-really-does-get-you/

255.3 - Footnote: Sam Brownback is a big loser

Footnote: Sam Brownback is a big loser

Oh and by the way - those primaries in Kansas on August 2? In them a whole string of real right-wing types aligned with reactionary Gov. Sam Brownback - about 12 - went to to ignoble defeat at the hands of more moderate GOPpers.

This may not mean much; after all, what is a "moderate" Republican in the context of Kansas? Nonetheless, it does at least mean that people are tiring of and getting wise to Brownback's "Kansas experiment," which supposedly was going to prove the right-wing mantra that there is no problem that can't be cured by less government.

So it may not mean a lot - but it means something more than nothing.

Sources cited in links:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/8/2/1556083/-Kansas-Primary-Election-Sends-Brownback-Supporters-Down-In-Flames

246.4 - A new definition of chutzpah

A new definition of chutzpah

Next up, just something I had to mention. If I had a Chutzpah Award, this would be a runaway winner.

For those of you who have lead a very sheltered life, "chutzpah" is Yiddish and it refers to having monumental gall. The classic illustration is that of someone who murders their parents and then pleads for mercy on the grounds that they are an orphan.

We now have a new illustration.

Darnell Earley was the Emergency Manager appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick SnidleyWhiplash to be the overlord of the city of Flint.

Darnell Earley

One of Earley's brilliant ideas was to save a few bucks by switching the city's water supply from the Detroit city water system to the Flint River.

Soon afterward, warnings appeared in the governor's office about the quality of that water supply. Despite that, it wasn't until another year had passed before the switch was made back to the Detroit supply, a year during which the city's 100,000 residents drank water contaminated with lead, a neurotoxin - and a year during which the Michigan state Department of Environmental Quality was deliberately kept in the dark about what was happening.

Earley is under criminal investigation for his role in all this. In late April, the Detroit Free Press uncovered the fact that his legal expenses were already $75,000 and climbing at the rate of $500 per billed hour.

So what did he do? He billed the city of Flint for the money, demanding the city cover his legal costs.

Hey, I poison you, I poison your kids, what could be more natural than you having to pay to try get me off? Yeah, it's natural - if you've got a hell of a lot of chutzpah.

Sources cited in links:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/chutzpah?s=t
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2016/04/23/darnell-earley-attorney-flint-water/83382484/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/2/26/1491846/-E-mails-show-Michigan-Gov-Snyder-s-aides-warned-about-degraded-water-quality-in-Flint-early-on

244.7 - Outrage of the Week: undermining the Postal Service

Outrage of the Week: undermining the Postal Service

Now for our other regular feature, the Outrage of the Week. This one is going to require a bit of background.

A couple of times over the past five years or so I have written about the recurring attempts to undermine and ultimately do away with the US Postal Service. We have had repeated waves of claims that the USPS was on the brink of financial collapse, of fiscal disaster, of crushing bankruptcy; it's on the edge, the precipice, of utter failure and ruin.

Nearly five years ago, the New York Times was telling us that "the United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today." In the years since, the drumbeat of impeding doom and disaster has gotten both louder and softer, but it has never stopped.

You might be forgiven if you wonder how this can continue for year after year, how the agency can continue for year after year to be on the precipice without ever falling into the abyss, but that doesn't matter to the true believers in imminent catastrophe - or, more to the point, to those who want to bring on the catastrophe in order to do away with the Postal Service, turning the job over to private profit while destroying one of the biggest and strongest unions in the US, that of the postal workers.

But let's face some facts: Mail is a bargain. You can mail a one-ounce letter, about three sheets - that's six pages of text - anywhere is the US; you could send one from Key West to Point Barrow, for 49¢, an amount that otherwise might get you half a candy bar.

And when I say anywhere, I do mean anywhere. The USPS is legally required to provide universal service and it makes deliveries to over 150 million individual addresses nationwide every week. It has to make mail service available to everywhere - you may have to travel a bit to get to a post box or to where a whole group of mailboxes stand at the end of some rural byway, but mail must be available to everyone. Even if you are way out in the country, even if you are in some neighborhood deemed "too dangerous" for services like taxis, the mail still must be available. That is a requirement which does not exist for the Postal Service's private competitors like UPS and FedEx. They don’t have to do that: They think your address is too inconvenient or too risky or otherwise not profitable, they just don't do it.

At the same time, the thing is that the Postal Service is in a truly weird situation. It is a quasi-governmental agency, run independently but still subject to legal restrictions set down by Congress even though it receives no federal money, no taxpayer money at all. It's entirely funded through the sale of postage and postal services. Despite that, despite contributing not a penny to its support, Congress has a huge say in how the USPS is operated.

For example, in 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability Enhancement Act, one of those classically misnamed bits of legislation. Among other things, that bill mandated that within 10 years, that is by 2016, the Postal Service fully fund retiree health benefits for future retirees out to 75 years in the future. That is, Congress was requiring of the USPS that within 10 years it have enough money set aside to fully fund health care benefits for future retirees who hadn't even been born yet. That is a requirement of, a task taken on by, no other agency, corporation, or organization in or out of any level of government in the US. And it's costing the USPS about $5.5 billion a year, an amount significantly larger than the annual deficit that we're told has it perpetually on the edge of collapse.

Despite all that, the Postal Service has not only managed to survive, things were actually looking a little brighter: In February, the USPS was able to report that in the first quarter of FY2016, it posted a net income of $307 million, a reversal from a string of losses.

And now we come to the Outrage of the Week: Something else Congress did a while back was to ban the agency from raising the cost of postage beyond the inflation rate. Two years ago, the Postal Regulatory Commission allowed a temporary hike above that limit, raising the price of a stamp to 49 cents.

On April 10, the price of a stamp dropped back to 47 cents, a two cent drop that will save each of us almost nothing but represents a $2 billion annual loss to the Postal Service. Just at the moment the Postal Service might be beginning to see a glimmer of fiscal daylight through the surrounding darkness, that is the moment that the Postal Regulatory Commission dealt the agency a $2 billion blow by its failure or perhaps unwillingness to extend the temporary hike.

The US Postal Service has been ranked number one in overall service performance of the postal services in the 20 wealthiest nations, it has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency for six years running, and has been ranked the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation. The USPS is proof that even under ridiculous handicaps, government programs can work and work well - and that, along with the fact that it also proves that a strongly-unionized workforce can provide for its members while still maintaining a high level or service, has given a panoply of reactionaries more than enough reason to strive to make it fail.

I don't know if the Postal Regulatory Commission's failure to act is part of that effort or just the result of callous and bone-headed indifference to the impact. I do know that it is an outrage.

Sources cited in links:
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2011/10/mailing-it-in.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/05/1602-usps-under-fire-by-those-who-want.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/04/11/two-cent-price-cut-could-mean-2-billion-headache-for-postal-service/
http://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2012/pr12_0930rhbpayment.pdf

244.2 - Good News: Treasury cracks down on "corporate tax inversions"

Good News: Treasury cracks down on "corporate tax inversions"

Next up in Good News is a topic that has had some attention recently, it's the issue of what are known as corporate tax inversions.

In a tax inversion, a US merges with - more accurately, buys out - a smaller foreign firm. But it is portrayed as the bigger US firm being taken over by the smaller foreign one and the foreign company's address becomes the corporate address. So what had been a US firm is now claimed to be a subsidiary of a foreign firm which can lower its tax rates through internal borrowing and can more easily move non-US profits around the world and back to shareholders while avoiding U.S. taxes.

In short, it's a scam. A legal scam, but still a scam.

On April 4, credit where it's due, the Obama administration's Treasury Department released its third and most far-reaching set of rules to combat corporate inversions. Corporations and their lawyers mostly shrugged at the previous two rounds of rules, but these are being called unexpectedly aggressive and are being taken very seriously. The next day, the Amazing Mr. O renewed his call for legislation to limit corporate tax inversions, which he called one of the "most insidious tax loopholes out there."

The new regulations target "serial inverters," companies that have grown larger through repeated inversions, and make it harder to engage in what's called "earnings stripping," where US-based profits are shifted on the books to other countries to avoid US taxes.

GOPpers were quick to denounce the move; one, Rep. Charles Boustany, said "This proposal will do little to stop actual inversions."

Which is especially interesting because pharmaceutical companies Pfizer Inc. and Allergan had been working on a $160 billion merger, which would have created an Irish company, even though Pfizer would continue to operate out of New York City and Allergan - a product of multiple inversions whose corporate address is in Dublin - has its offices in Parsippany, New Jersey.

The merger was to be the biggest inversion deal ever and dodge an estimated $32 billion in US taxes. But just two days after the new rules were announced, the deal was cancelled.

Sometimes, it just works out.

Sources cited in links:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/president-obama-praises-new-inversion-rules-1459873977
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2016/04/pfizer_backs_out_of_move_to_ir.html
http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2016/04/06/allergan-pfizer-call-off-proposed-160b-merger-n2144324
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/6/1511474/-Surprise-After-Obama-crushes-tax-cheat-incentive-Pfizer-and-Allergan-call-off-their-merger

Left Side of the Aisle #244

Left Side of the Aisle
for the week of April 14-20, 2016

This week:

Good News: Wisconsin "right-to-work" law struck down
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/4/12/1514205/-Big-blow-to-Republicans-and-Scott-Walker-Right-to-Work-ruled-unconstitutional
http://www.npr.org/2015/03/11/392373328/targeting-unions-right-to-work-movement-bolstered-by-wisconsin

Good News: Treasury cracks down on "corporate tax inversions"
http://www.wsj.com/articles/president-obama-praises-new-inversion-rules-1459873977
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2016/04/pfizer_backs_out_of_move_to_ir.html
http://townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2016/04/06/allergan-pfizer-call-off-proposed-160b-merger-n2144324
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/6/1511474/-Surprise-After-Obama-crushes-tax-cheat-incentive-Pfizer-and-Allergan-call-off-their-merger

Good News: hundreds arrested in civil disobedience
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/4/12/democracy_spring_over_400_arrested_at
http://www.democracyspring.org/
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0412/Hundreds-arrested-at-US-Capitol-at-Democracy-Spring-protests
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/11/473874785/hundreds-protest-gerrymandering-campaign-finance-laws-on-capitols-steps
http://www.vice.com/read/dozens-of-senior-citizens-were-arrested-at-democracy-spring-dc-protests

Update: what "equitable sharing" spawns
http://dailysignal.com/2016/03/31/illinois-police-department-bought-motorcycles-chevy-camaro-with-nearly-1-million-seized-under-controversial-program/
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/03/30/472422503/supreme-court-feds-cant-seize-untainted-assets-needed-for-legal-fees

Clown Award: Florida Gov. Rick Scott
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-palm-jennings-update-20160411-story.html
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/8/1512817/-Rick-Scott-releases-video-ad-attacking-the-woman-who-confronted-him-on-his-job-record-at-Starbucks

Special Clown Award: Hillary Clinton and Bill de Blasio
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/04/12/hillary-clinton-and-the-mayor-of-new-york-performed-an-awkward-s/21342509/
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/bill-de-blasio-s-colored-people-s-time-joke-comes-n554756

Outrage of the Week: undermining the Postal Service
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2011/10/mailing-it-in.html
http://whoviating.blogspot.com/2014/05/1602-usps-under-fire-by-those-who-want.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/04/11/two-cent-price-cut-could-mean-2-billion-headache-for-postal-service/

Quick comment on LGBTQ rights: we are not willing to go back
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/02/17/virginia-bill-would-let-businesses-refuse-service-based-on-relig/21314258/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/4/6/1511604/-Tennessee-lawmakers-pass-bill-allowing-therapists-to-refuse-mental-health-services-to-LGBT-people
http://www.care2.com/causes/oklahoma-breaks-a-record-26-bills-filed-to-attack-lgbt-civil-rights.html
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-mississippi-law-service-denial-gays-20160405-story.html
http://www.care2.com/causes/georgias-right-to-discriminate-bill-just-got-even-worse.html
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/24/hate_is_alive_and_well_in_north_carolina_state_republicans_overturn_an_anti_discrimination_law_because_of_an_urban_legend/
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/21/1504593/-Georgia-Gov-Deal-under-immense-pressure-to-veto-anti-LGBT-religious-freedom-bill
http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2016/03/28/breaking-nathan-deal-will-veto-georgias-religious-liberty-bill/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/03/25/wrong-beyond-repair-the-worst-in-us-n-c-papers-blast-transgender-bathroom-law/
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/15060348/ncaa-monitoring-north-carolina-anti-discrimination-law
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/04/05/paypal-withdraws-planned-nc-expansion-due-anti-gay-law/82649786/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/3/29/1507598/-North-Carolina-Attorney-General-says-he-won-t-defend-the-state-s-heinous-anti-LGBTQ-law-in-court
http://abcnews.go.com/US/north-carolina-governor-signs-executive-order-addressing-concerns/story?id=38342388
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bryan-adams-missisippi-show-cancel_us_570ba19fe4b0885fb50d73bc
http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/11/mississippi-writers-protest-hb-1523-anti-lgbt