Full site / Mobile. To Top or End. See News & 2022 & Categories.
| CNN. Europe is facing 700,000 more Covid deaths by March 1, 2022, WHO says.. [18]. "If 95% of people wore masks, WHO estimated that more than 160,000 fatalities [in Europe] would be avoided by spring." See map and table of world vaccination rates by country. Click tabs below map. Packed, maskless rallies and marches are Covid super-spreader events. Any mask helps slow the spread. And: Nearly half a million Europeans aged 60 and over saved by Covid-19 jabs – study. And: USA. Republican sheep most likely to die. Pro-Trump counties now have far higher COVID death rates. Misinformation is to blame. "Counties that went heavily for Donald Trump have seen much lower vaccination rates and much higher death rates from COVID ... The vast majority of deaths since May [2021], around 150,000, have occurred among the unvaccinated". US Republican sheep are also most likely to support cannabis prohibition. |
Table top
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See videos too. For more photos see: Flat list of event graphics and photos. Alphabetical order by city. There are many more images there than are shown below. Click Full site for images below.
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News. Sources. GMM Facebook. US Republicans. Their cannabis war! [23]. Ballotpedia: marijuana and minimum wage. US minimum wage has 35% less buying power than in 1969. [24]. Global billionaires gained $5.5 trillion during pandemic. [25]. Hunger. [26][27]. $70 billion to end global pandemic. [28]. Tax the rich! End drug war! 28 Nov 2021: Around 9% of towns, villages have opted out of recreational marijuana law in New York. "It appears there is not a major wave of opt-outs sweeping across the state".   Philippines. Proposed bill to produce and export medical cannabis.  Tax the rich! End drug war! The drug war is a control tool of the Republican Party. Nov 2021: 40 under 40 Outstanding BIPOC leaders in Drug Policy - SSDP. BIPOC stands for "Black, Indigenous, and People of Color". SSDP = Students for Sensible Drug Policy.   Putin's prisons in Russia. Almost as bad as Syria's torture death camps.  
10 Nov 2021: Senator Warren presses Biden on pardons for nonviolent cannabis convictions. Article: The letter cites the Democratic primary debate in November 2019, during which Biden laid out his views on marijuana reform. "Number one, I think we should decriminalize marijuana, period," Biden said at the time. "And I think everyone — anyone who has a record should be let out of jail, their records expunged, be completely zeroed out."
5 Nov 2021: Australia. Mathias Cormann calls for fossil fuel subsidies to be abolished. And: World spends $423 billion a year to subsidize fossil fuels.
4 Nov: 5 more drug convictions tied to corrupt Chicago cop vacated. 110 convictions vacated so far. Ongoing investigation into more cops. Prison terms already served by some cops.
2 Nov 2021: Judge throws out man’s guilty plea after bodycam footage reveals New York City cop planting cannabis in cupholder of car of a couple of color. Racist prosecutors delayed releasing footage. Cop had done this before. Calls for prosecuting the cop.   28 Oct: Here’s how Biden’s Build Back Better framework would tax the rich. [39]. "The IRS would hire enforcement agents trained to pursue wealthy tax evaders, ... It estimates these measures would raise $400 billion over 10 years."
25 Oct 2021: BBC UK. Minimum wage for 23 and above to rise to £9.50 an hour ($13 an hour). [45]. "Independent experts maintain there has been little or no evidence of job losses as a result of rising minimum wage levels."  
 21 Oct 2021: New York employers are banned from testing most workers for marijuana.
 
20 Oct 2021: Costa Rica congress approves legalization of marijuana for medicinal use. [51].  
13 Oct 2021: Inside The Digital Campaign That May Allow Italy To Decriminalize Cannabis.
  He is a con man for the rich. Repeal Trump's tax cuts for the rich.
2 Oct 2021: "I Am Not A Baby-Making Machine": Thousands March For Abortion Rights In Protest Of Texas's New Law. [58][59]. The many photos and hundreds of rallies across the nation are great. Makes me miss having hundreds of global cannabis marches. Taliban Republicans may be crushed in the 2022 midterm elections due to this. That would be great for cannabis reform, too. 
13 Sep: Inside Italy’s Push To Decriminalize Recreational Cannabis. [63]. 8 Sep: Selfie of a couple Italian legislators making progress on cannabis. [64]. Wikipedia: Cannabis in Italy.  7 Sep: Poll: Republican Voters Support Florida's Governor DeSantis, But Overall Popularity Declines. Another science-hating, prohibitionist Taliban Republican sinks below 50% approval in the polls.
3 Sep 2021: Malaysia. Sentenced to death on Sep 3, 2021 for 299 grams of cannabis.
  25 Aug 2021: Snoop Dogg Advocates For Marijuana Use In Sports On Jimmy Kimmel Live! Special Edition Hosted By Stephen A. Smith.
17 Aug 2021: Nearly Half of U.S. Adults Have Tried Marijuana. "The percentage of U.S. adults who say they have tried marijuana has ticked up to 49%, the highest Gallup has measured to date. More than 50 years ago, just 4% said they had tried the drug".   Wikipedia: United States drug overdose death rates and totals over time. US drug overdose numbers: Over 99,000 died in 12 month period ending Mar 31, 2021. Contrast with Portugal at around 30 to 50 deaths per year. [72][73]. Portugal decriminalized all drugs in 2001. [74].
 8 Aug 2021: Study suggests cannabis can induce a psychedelic-like “oceanic” experience. Further study needed to see if this helps relieve depression. 30 July: This article may be premature in saying it helps depression. See: Actual study.  Debt in America: An Interactive Map. 29% of all adults. 24% of whites. 39% of people of color. See the map there, and above. See the astonishing percentages of adults with debt in collection. By county. Especially in the South. The South has been greatly impoverished by low Republican minimum wages, lack of expanded Medicaid, unfair bankruptcy laws, massive evictions (past and upcoming).
27 July 2021: Ohio. Legalized recreational marijuana could return to 2022 ballot.
  See source and comments. 19 July 2021: Marijuana no longer seized at airport checkpoints in New York state. 7 July 2021: Nevada Declares Marijuana Not Performance Enhancing—Legalizes Cannabis Use For MMA Athletes. "The Nevada state Athletic Commission voted Wednesday to lift its longtime ban on athletes using marijuana, opening the door for boxers and mixed-martial artists competing on the sport’s biggest stage to freely and openly use cannabis."   2 July: Seth Rogen, Other Celebrities Denounce Sha’Carri Richardson’s Olympics Suspension: ‘If Weed Made You Fast, I’d Be FloJo’. Thinking that’s rooted in hatred. [76][77][78].   22 and 29 May 2021: Grenoble and Paris, France. CannaParade and Marche Mondiale du Cannabis. World Cannabis March. [79][80][81][82][83].   14 May 2021: Billionaires worldwide gained $5 trillion in one year. Wealth inequality at levels not seen since just before the Great Depression. Republican tax cuts for the rich. Record low inflation-adjusted US federal minimum wage.
1 May 2021: Shoutwiki: New York City. See 2021 section. Cannabis Parade and Rally. 420 links too. 29 Apr 2021: He Fought for Decades to Make Marijuana Legal. Now What?. By Colin Moynihan. About Dana Beal. From New York Times.   April 20. AOC and Earl Blumenauer wore pot leaf masks at the Capitol.
23 Apr 2021: Five States Where Republicans Are Trying to Block Marijuana Legalization.   15 Apr 2021: Nationwide Poll: More Americans Than Ever Before (69%) Say That Marijuana Should Be Legal.
  9 Apr 2021: Nikki Fried: Florida Republicans declare war on medical marijuana | Opinion. "House Bill 1455, put forward by [Republican] Representative Roach (ironic, right?), declares war on Florida’s medical marijuana program and patients."
New York City. Looks like we legalized marijuana just in time:   US Republicans Voted Often to Kill Coverage of Pre-Existing Conditions. [91][92][93]. Medicare spends less than 2 percent on bureaucracy. 1.4% to be exact. See chart. We need Medicare for All. Nearly a third of our health care dollars go for something other than health care. Health insurance companies, for example. See also: See: More News. And: Cannabis is safer. CannabisVoter.info - Click your state to see which anti-cannabis Republicans to vote out.
The drug war is a control tool of the Republican Party. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Henrik Vanger: "Isn't it interesting how fascists always steal the word 'freedom'?" Real democracy is ranked-choice voting (instant-runoff). And: Remove Presidential veto power. 2022 Global Cannabis March and 420 map. Event links: 2022 talk. & Main talk. This news feed may have long lapses. Full site / Mobile. To Top or End. See News & 2022 & Categories. |
Top
Contents
- 1 Table top
- 2 Top
- 3 Drug-related crime
- 4 Imprisoned for drug-related crime
- 5 How it happened
- 6 Drug-related homicides
- 7 Minor parole and probation violations
- 8 Cash bail. Innocent people in jail
- 9 Drugs and probation violations
- 10 Parole violations and drugs
- 11 Sentence length. Incarceration rate
- 12 Mandatory minimum sentences
- 13 Life for pot
- 14 Nixon and Reagan. War on Drugs
- 15 Bush. Huge drug war escalation
- 16 Propaganda of incarceration nations
- 17 Welcome to America
- 18 Site navigation
- 19 Cannabis is safer.
- 20 Nixon's racist drug war
- 21 The forever drug war
- 22 US Republican states
- 23 Today's far-right Republicans
- 24 $70 billion to end pandemic
- 25 GOP taxes screw middle class
- 26 Republican filibuster equals
- 26.1 US voter suppression
- 26.2 High US taxes on poor
- 26.3 And on US middle class
- 26.4 Low US minimum wage
- 26.5 High wealth inequality
- 26.6 High income inequality
- 26.7 Low quality of life
- 26.8 High household debt
- 26.9 High US medical debt
- 26.10 High student loan debt
- 26.11 Punitive bankruptcy law
- 26.12 Stagnant US wages
- 26.13 Racist law enforcement
- 26.14 Poorly rated healthcare
- 26.15 No universal healthcare
- 27 Single payer costs less
- 28 Portugal's drug decrim equals
- 29 50 drug overdose deaths yearly
- 30 Vs 100,000 yearly US deaths
- 31 President Eisenhower. 1953:
- 32 His 91% top marginal tax rate
- 33 Equaled prosperity for more.
- 34 Republican President Lincoln
- 35 Created first progressive
- 36 US federal income tax.
- 37 Thomas Paine on the poor
- 38 Overpopulation = Warming
- 39 Categories
- Share links: drugwar, massincarceration, and majority. This article was written by Timeshifter. See charts and maps. See also: Drug War, mandatory minimum sentencing, handguns. And: Republican-led drug war.
| How the war on drugs affected incarceration rates. By Lauren Carroll, July 10th, 2016. Politifact.
The war on drugs led to "a 500 percent increase in incarceration in our country, disproportionately affecting poor and disproportionately affecting minorities." — Cory Booker on Sunday, July 10, 2016 in an interview on "Meet the Press".  |
Incarceration Nation.. By Fareed Zakaria, Time magazine, April 02, 2012. "America's War on Drugs Drives High Incarceration Rates."
Mass imprisonment of drug users driving global epidemics of HIV, hepatitis, and tuberculosis. 14 July 2016. The Lancet. "In parts of Europe, over a third of inmates inject drugs (38%), in Australia (55%) it is more than half. This is in stark contrast with injecting drug use in the general population (0.3% in EU and 0.2% in Australia)." Many users steal in order to get money for drugs. Thus they end up in jail in high numbers, contributing to mass incarceration.
| Drug war + Trickle-down Reaganomics, = mass incarceration and mass control. |
| See article: Trickle-down economics plus drug war. |
| The majority of people incarcerated in prisons and jails in the USA are in due to drug-related offenses, crimes to get money for drugs, or drug-related parole or probation violations. Wikipedia: Drug-related crime. The number of inmates in the USA has increased almost 5 times over since 1980. It peaked in 2008. Obama's Democrat landslide in 2008 turned the incarceration rate around. But the USA still has the highest incarceration rate of any nation (b c). The cost of the U.S. drug war is at least 1.5 trillion dollars. Cannabis is safer! Share link. |
- See also: Drug war charts and maps. And: Brutality and the drug war.
Emphasis added to the quotes.
- Prisons & Drug Offenders | Drug War Facts.
- Drugs and Crime Facts. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics: "In 2004, 17% of state prisoners and 18% of federal inmates said they committed their current offense to obtain money for drugs. In 2002 about a quarter of convicted property and drug offenders in local jails had committed their crimes to get money for drugs, compared to 5% of violent and public order offenders. Among state prisoners in 2004 the pattern was similar, with property (30%) and drug offenders (26%) more likely to commit their crimes for drug money than violent (10%) and public-order offenders (7%). In federal prisons property offenders (11%) were less than half as likely as drug offenders (25%) to report drug money as a motive in their offenses."
Let us not forget about the astronomical increase in the number of correctional officers, too. 469,500 in 2012. See: Correctional Officers : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. US incarceration peaked in 2008.
489,000 in 2013 (see chart below). For drug offenses alone.
Need to add in drug-related burglary, robbery, murder, etc..
All to get drug money, defend turf, etc..
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Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008.
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USA: Peak of 7.3 million people in 2007 under adult correctional supervision: On probation or parole, or incarcerated in jail or prison. About 3.2% of the U.S. adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults. More info here. See template.
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In 2009 26.4% of those in federal and state prisons, or on probation or parole, were in due to drug offenses. Jail numbers are not included below. 
How it happened
Chart below covers prison inmates only. See also: timeline combining prison and jail inmates.
Chart source: The Score: Why Prisons Thrive Even When Budgets Shrink. In The Nation. By Mike Konczal and Bryce Covert, September 24, 2014. Quote below from article (emphasis added):
Explosion in incarcerations since the 1980s. Under the "war on drugs," aggressive policing drove up the percentage of those in state prisons for drug offenses from 6.4 percent in 1980 to 22 percent in 1990. More minor drug charges made it easier for prosecutors to push felony charges by citing a defendant’s prior record. These convictions triggered harsh sentences under new guidelines like California’s "three strikes" law, passed during the same period. The enforcement of these punitive new laws was, and remains, racist: according to the ACLU, black people are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites, though they are equally likely to use. This, in turn, makes black people vulnerable to the rest of the criminal-justice system.
See also: commons:File:U.S. incarceration rates 1925 onwards.png.
| The drug war is a big cause of the high US incarceration rate. Also, the rest of the developed world has much lower rates of handgun ownership, and much lower murder rates. They never reached the levels of violence the USA did due to handguns and drug war. So they never had the clamoring of the far-right National Rifle Association (NRA) demanding mandatory minimum sentencing. Canada and Europe have long had much lower incarceration rates, better healthcare, and far fewer and shorter sentences for marijuana offenses. |
U.S. statistics for drug-related homicides are very inadequate.
- Drug Related Crime [95]. March, 2000 article. Office of National Drug Control Policy. Article quote (emphasis added):
Why Statistics on Drug-Related Crime are Difficult To Interpret: Homicide as an Example. ... The FBI does not include as drug-related a murder that occurs during a robbery or a burglary committed by someone under the influence of drugs or a murder that occurs during a robbery committed to obtain money to buy drugs. In these cases, the homicide is recorded by its relationship to the most serious offense only, and robbery and burglary are more serious than drug trafficking in the FBI offense classification and in most State laws. Thus, current FBI homicide information may not categorize a large number of drug-related murders as so related.
- Drugs and Crime Facts. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Has drug-related homicide chart from 1987-2007, with rates of 3.9% to 7.4% for drug-related homicides. "The Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported that in 2007, 3.9% of the 14,831 homicides in which circumstances were known were narcotics related. Murders that occurred specifically during a narcotics felony, such as drug trafficking or manufacturing, are considered drug related."
- OPED: War Won't Solve the Drug Problem. July 15, 1999. Washington Post. By Rob Stewart, of the Drug Policy Foundation. "In 1988, just over half of the murders in the city [New York City] were 'drug-related.' But once the researchers examined the circumstances of the murders, they discovered that the clear majority, 74 percent, were results of the drug trade, not drug use (14 percent) or the need to get money for drugs (4 percent)."
- The 50 Most Violent Cities In The World. (On one page). Nov. 10, 2014. By Pamela Engel and Christina Sterbenz. Business Insider. "US cities also made the list, led by Detroit at No. 24 and New Orleans at No. 26." And Baltimore at 36, St. Louis at 45.
Minor parole and probation violations
20 Jun 2019: One-quarter of state prison admissions are for minor parole and probation violations, report finds. The Washington Post.
Cash bail. Innocent people in jail
- The Bail Trap. By Nick Pinto. Aug. 13, 2015. New York Times.
Drugs and probation violations
- Probation and Bail Violations :: Providence Probation Attorney Joseph Lamy. From the article:
| Another difficulty for defendants charged with a probation violation is that the condition “to keep the peace and be of good behavior” is ambiguous and open to interpretation. For example, you are arrested for marijuana possession and are also charged with a violation of probation. Even if the marijuana possession charges are dismissed, you may very likely be found to have violated probation. Why? Because a judge can be “reasonably satisfied” that you were not of good behavior if you were even near drugs or someone who had drugs or involved in any incident that caused the police to be called. |
Parole violations and drugs
16.1% of parole violators returned to state prisons in 1997 for drug related violations; for failing drug tests, possession of drugs, failing to report for drug testing, failing to report for alcohol or drug treatment. Info is from Table 21 (below) of the PDF for this report: Trends in State Parole, 1990-2000. NCJ 184735. October 2001. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
See image info.
Sentence length. Incarceration rate
| Federal mandatory minimum sentencing charts. |
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First mandatory minimums chart below is from an older FAMM report, "Correcting Course: Lessons from the 1970s Repeal of Mandatory Minimum Sentences". FAMM is Families Against Mandatory Minimums. [96]. See Wikipedia: Mandatory minimums. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 increased the amounts of crack cocaine required to trigger 5 and 10 year sentences. [97]. See revised charts since then. Share link to this page. For charts of all federal mandatory minimums (not just for drug offenses), go here. Later chart with revisions, such as the amount of crack cocaine required for various sentences: |
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American Exception. Inmate Count in US Dwarfs Other Nations'. April 22, 2008. New York Times. Page 1, section A, front page. Archive. From the article (emphasis added):
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November Coalition graph. Some Congressmen and police who prosecuted the War on Drugs now believe it caused a large increase in the United States incarceration rate. See Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and larger chart with sources. See template. Incarceration peaked in 2008. |
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- 2003. Federal Judge Quits, Calls Judicial System Unjust. Associated Press (AP) story, National Public Radio interview, and Judge John S. Martin's statement. "The result, he said, is a slew of lengthy prison sentences for low-level drug dealers 'who society failed at every step.' ... While many judges have criticized sentencing guidelines, it is unusual for a judge to publicly cite the frustrations of the job in stepping down." -June 25 2003 AP story. See also: Let Judges Do Their Jobs. By Hon. John S. Martin Jr..
- Dissenting Opinions of Judges, Federal Drug Sentencing, Mandatory Minimum Sentences. A list of many articles by judges. At November Coalition.
Mandatory minimum sentences
| Some people don't know that the National Rifle Association had a large part in causing the huge increase in the U.S. incarceration rate. The NRA strongly lobbied state-by-state for mandatory minimum sentences (also known as "Truth in Sentencing"), and "Two and Three Strikes" laws. Mandatory-minimum sentences, and long sentences in general (compared to other nations), are the root cause of the astronomical US incarceration rate according to a New York Times article. The majority of people incarcerated in the U.S. are in prison or jail due to drug-related offenses, crimes to get money for drugs, or drug-related parole or probation violations. |
See Wikipedia: Mandatory sentencing. See also this page. Mandatory Minimum sentencing is often used for non-violent crimes such as drug possession. It is a modern-day way to create concentration camps for drug-using "undesirables." Sentences that usually do not allow parole until at least around 80% of the sentence served. Federal laws, and most states, have mandatory minimums. The majority of U.S. prisoners are in due to the drug war in some way or another.
See Wikipedia: War on Drugs, and Wikipedia: Sentencing Reform Act.
Life for pot
- See main article: USA. Life for pot. See also: Number of marijuana prisoners in the USA.
- Life in prison for selling marijuana: Meet the people new pot laws forgot. MSNBC. 8 Sep 2015. [98][99]. "At least 67 people are in prison right now, sentenced to die there for selling marijuana". And: LifeForPot.com. And: POW420.com also lists some cannabis lifers. Facebook: Life for Pot. And: Life In Prison For Pot And Other Travesties Of Marijuana Prohibition. 4 Sept. 2014. Forbes.
- Jeff Mizanskey, life without parole: Missouri man freed after spending two decades in prison for marijuana charge. 1 Sep 2015. Guardian. [100]. And: Grandpa Doing Life Without Parole. [101][102]. Nazi Republican prosecutor.
- Saudi Arabia beheads 4 for pot. [103][104][105][106]. Religious Right: Supported Life for Pot. [107][108][109]. Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich proposed a law that would execute people for 2 ounces of marijuana.
- Life for Pot Prisoner Larry Duke Released! [110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117].
Cannabis arrests
Sources for marijuana arrest numbers by year:
- Commons:File:US Cannabis Arrests.svg - see sources and data table below the timeline chart.
- Percent distribution of arrests for drug abuse violations. By type of drug, United States, 1982-2009. Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics Online.
- See also: Wikimedia Commons:Category:Cannabis arrest statistics.
http://norml.org/share/marijuana_arrests_chart.gif
http://www.norml.org/share/marijuana_arrests_chart500_short.gif
Nixon and Reagan. War on Drugs
Nancy and Ronald 6 Wilson 6 Reagan 6 riding the drug war Beast in 1986. Note Nancy's "Just Say NO" sign. Larger image.
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Drug War Invented by Nixon to Extend His Power. By Fintan O'Toole. Aug. 13, 1999. Irish Times.
In June 1971 Richard Nixon declared a "War on Drugs."
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| Tricky Dick Nixon (above) has won his drug war! The Prison-Industrial Complex. A Nixonian "enemies list" that almost everyone is on at some time. |
Bush. Huge drug war escalation
- 2nd nationwide televised Bush speech on drugs on September 12, 1989: Quote from speech:
Some think there won't be room for them in jail. We'll make room. We're almost doubling prison space. Some think there aren't enough prosecutors. We'll hire them, with the largest increase in Federal prosecutors in history.
- Life sentence for buying weed? 25th anniversary of Papa Bush's War on Drugs escalation speech on September 5, 1989. The first prime time address of his presidency. Result: Life for pot.
Propaganda of incarceration nations
- Reagan's war on cannabis is where the U.S. incarceration nation began. Number of marijuana prisoners in the USA: 40,000+ in 2011. All drug offenses: 489,000 in 2013.
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Ronald Reagan, 1980 campaign speech: "Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion that marijuana, pot, grass whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States, and we haven't begun to find out all of the ill effects, but they are permanent ill effects. The loss of memory for example." -
Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008.
Propaganda of incarceration nations. Reaganism is about drug war, code-word racism, hate radio, mass incarceration, and above all, trickle-down economics (Reaganomics).
| Drug war + Trickle-down Reaganomics, = mass incarceration and mass control. |
| See article: Trickle-down economics plus drug war. |
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Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan of the USA. The "Just Say No" campaign.
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Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union.
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See Wikimedia Commons: Category:Government propaganda. Note the "glorious mission" or "glorious war" nature of much propaganda. Like the Republican-led Holy War, the "War on Drugs". See Wikipedia: War on Drugs. It is really a war on some drug users. This particular glorious war was reinvigorated by the cult leaders, Ronald and Nancy Reagan. The B-movie actor Ronald (6) Wilson (6) Reagan (6) is still worshiped like a God (or idol) by some segments of the Republican Party.
Welcome to America
| "Welcome to America, home to 5% of the world's people & 25% of the world's prisoners." NAACP, ACLU File Lawsuit Against City of Philadelphia for Rejecting Criminal Justice Reform Ad. Article by NAACP. Lawsuit filed October 19, 2011 during the period of the Occupy movement. Also see the ad banner article by Courthouse News Service. The drug war and prisons are big business, and a big part of how the 1% controls the 99%. See Facebook comments about the banner. The Republican Party leads the racist drug war.
Incarceration peaked in the USA in 2008. <<--See that article for sources, stats, and charts for the banner. Most inmates are incarcerated due to the drug war.   Image info. See billboard and stats. |
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| Chart below is from a July 2000 report: |
  From this July 2000 report: Poor Prescription: The Costs of Imprisoning Drug Offenders in the United States. From the report: "Nearly one in four persons (23.7%) imprisoned in the United States is currently imprisoned for a drug offense. The number of persons behind bars for drug offenses (458,131) is roughly the same as the entire prison and jail population in 1980 (474,368)." |
- See home page.
Full site / Mobile. To Top or End. See News & 2022 & Categories.
Cannabis is safer.
Return to top. See article: Cannabis is safer.
Vote out most US Republicans and their cannabis war.
16 Dec 2019: Majority Of Americans Support Marijuana Legalization, Two More New Polls Show. "Voters who supported President Trump in the 2016 election expressed greater opposition to the policy than Republicans and Republican-leaning independents as a whole."
| 2 May 2019: Time to Admit It: Trump Opposed Cannabis Legalization. He opposed 3 bills for veterans’ access to medical cannabis. |
23 Feb 2019: Trump Continued to Flip-Flop on Medical Marijuana.
See: Reagan's war on cannabis. And: Holy War on Drugs, Conservative-led global incarceration.
| Ronald Reagan, 1980 campaign speech: "Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion that marijuana, pot, grass whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States, and we haven't begun to find out all of the ill effects, but they are permanent ill effects. The loss of memory for example." |
Share link: Obama.
- Obama correctly said that cannabis is safer than alcohol. See: Cannabis is safer. He also said marijuana should be treated more as a public health issue than a criminal one. And: Obama signals support for legalizing medical marijuana. [118]. See video.
- USA. 1 in 10 deaths of working-age adults are alcohol-related (disease, overdose, car crashes, falls, violence, etc). 87,798 per year, 2006 to 2010. [119][120][121][122][123].
See longer article: Cannabis is safer.
- Imagine if Mitt Romney had been elected President in 2012 instead of Obama.
- Obama on marijuana legalization. [124]. "My suspicion is that you’re gonna see other states start looking at this". The Washington Post. Jan. 22, 2015.
Above quote is from Sanjay Gupta interview of Obama on April 15, 2015. Interview aired on CNN on April 19, 2015. [125][126][127].
- Obama administration asks Supreme Court to reject lawsuit filed by Republican governments in Oklahoma and Nebraska to stop legal marijuana in Colorado [128]. December 2015.
 Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008. |
- Holder's Legacy: Steering Away From the Drug War and Mass Incarceration. [129]. Attorney General Eric Holder (2009-2015) under President Obama. 25 Sep 2014.
Register and vote for cannabis.
Nixon's racist drug war
See: Race, ethnicity, and drug war.
See: Nixon's drug war against blacks and hippies.
The forever drug war
The Republican Party has used its Drug War as a 50 year distraction. All to serve the rich. See: Republican President Nixon's drug war against blacks and hippies. See Wikipedia: War on drugs. See Race, ethnicity, and drug war. See Wikipedia: Southern Strategy - Keeping poor whites and blacks fighting against each other, instead of the real enemy, the Republican low-tax-paying rich. See Wikipedia: Nixon's Enemies List, of journalists, actors, union leaders, etc. who expose it all. A GOP playbook that has never ended, and played out yet again by billionaire Trump until he was dumped in 2020. |
US Republican states
| 7 Oct 2021: Reallocation effects of the minimum wage. "In January 2015, Germany introduced a uniform minimum wage of €8.50 [$10 an hour today]. ... boosted wages of low-wage workers, did not lower employment, and induced a reallocation toward more productive establishments." - Why do US Republicans leaders hate us? Why won't they raise the US minimum wage? |
| Minimum wage by US state and territory. Dark blue areas have a higher minimum wage than the federal rate ($7.25 per hour). For the other colors the federal rate applies. Except for "special minimum wage" that applies to 2 island territories. See source for more info. |
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| Mostly in U.S. Republican states. |
| Percent of adults with overdue debt in collections. By county. See source. |
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| US Incarceration Rates per 100,000 Inhabitants by State. Map is for sentenced state prisoners only. No Federal or local jail inmates. See source. |
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For info to continue below click Full Site link:
Today's far-right Republicans
Return to top. See: Happy alternatives to Republican-led poverty, mass incarceration, food insecurity, debt, ill health, intense concentration of wealth, endless wars.
News: Americans want universal healthcare and progressive taxation.
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11 Aug 2021: Billionaires worldwide gained $5.5 trillion during pandemic. [130]. Hunger. [131]. Wealth inequality at levels not seen since just before the Great Depression. Republican tax cuts for the rich. Record low inflation-adjusted US federal minimum wage.
$70 billion to end pandemic
- 11 Aug 2021: Article. "The world’s 2,690 global billionaires saw their combined wealth rise from $8 trillion on March 20, 2020 to $13.5 trillion as of July 31, 2021, ... The cost of vaccinating the world’s adult population was calculated as follows: two doses at $7 per dose for 5 billion people, for a total of $70 billion."
- 12 Aug 2021: One-off emergency tax on billionaires’ pandemic windfalls could fund Covid-19 jabs for all and cash grant to all unemployed workers.
Mask mandates work
29 Aug 2021: CDC: An Unvaccinated Teacher Took Off Their Mask to Read Aloud. Half the Class Got COVID.
28 Aug 2021: Do face masks work? Here are 49 scientific studies that explain why they do.
GOP taxes screw middle class
Trump signed tax law that gave 83% of benefits to the top 1%.
Republican filibuster equals
Return to top. See Wikipedia: Filibuster
- The evil history of the US Senate filibuster, or why the US no longer has simple majority rule. [132].
US voter suppression
Republicans have disenfranchised black, brown, and poor white people via "The New Jim Crow"; the drug war and mass incarceration. See: Holy War on Drugs, Conservative-led global incarceration.
Black votes matter.
High US taxes on poor
The forever war on the poor. Republican filibuster says to Americans: "Heads we win, tails you lose." Democracy? What democracy?
When Democrats have the majority, the Republican minority uses the filibuster to block higher taxes on the rich, and to block lower taxes on the middle class and poor. When Republicans have the majority they use budget reconciliation to use their simple majority to lower taxes on the rich, and increase user fees, sales taxes, and other regressive taxation to increase taxes on the poor and middle class.
This is the whole purpose of the US Republican Party. To serve the rich. Period.
Minimum wage workers crushed while serving the Republican low-tax-paying rich:
And on US middle class
Chart below. 2017 Republican tax and individual mandate repeal bill. Yellow is for an average increase in cost for people in those groups. Higher costs hitting more people each year. Up to incomes of $75,000.
| Republican tax bill hurts the poor more than originally thought, Congressional Budget Office finds. | "By 2019, Americans earning less than $30,000 a year would be worse off under the Senate bill, CBO found. By 2021, Americans earning $40,000 or less would be net losers, and by 2027, most people earning less than $75,000 a year would be worse off. On the flip side, millionaires and those earning $100,000 to $500,000 would be big beneficiaries". |
| 2 polls: Only 29% of Americans approve of Republican tax plan. 2. | |
Low US minimum wage
Return to top. See: More inequality charts.
17 June 2019: US federal minimum wage has 35% less buying power than in 1969. 10 years since last increase. A record. CNN. [133].
 |
2 Jul 2019: There’s More Evidence That Raising the Minimum Wage Won’t Cost Jobs.
High wealth inequality
Median wealth is exactly in the middle. 50% of adults have more, and 50% have less. Wealth is all assets (money, stocks, property, etc.) minus all debts. See Wikipedia: List of countries by wealth per adult - From the 2021 publication: The average median wealth per adult for Canada ($125,688) is much higher than that of the former great nation, the USA ($79,274). It's due to Republican trickle-down voodoo economics: Giving tax cuts to the rich instead of to the middle class and poor who actually need them. Low federal minimum wage. Plus predatory mortgage loans and foreclosure. And predatory unforgivable student loans. Google News search: student debt.
Chart below. USA. 1989-2018. Top 1% Up $21 Trillion. Bottom 50% Down $900 Billion.
Republicans wasted $$-trillions on health insurance companies, and ground wars ($5.6 trillion) based on Bush/CIA WMD lies. Instead of paying higher wages, and higher minimum wages. As Canada does.
US middle-class wealth has collapsed. [134]. See chart below.
- Middle class wealth collapsing. [135]. And: Just 8 men own same wealth as half the world. See Wikipedia: Wealth in the United States.
| Median wealth per adult. Credit Suisse. 2021 report. Country links are to Wikipedia articles. Click red column headers to sort. Link. |
per adult.
US dollars
High income inequality
Timeline below of real (inflation-adjusted) average US household income by quintile and top 5 percent in 2018 dollars. Note that the bottom 60% of households (bottom 3 quintiles) have had little improvement in real income. While the top 20%, and especially the top 5 percent, have had large, even exceptional, increases in real income.
Real wages are not just flat, they are falling. 15 Jun 2018. Jeff Stein and Andrew Van Dam. Washington Post.
1 Jul 2016: Income Inequality Is At The Highest Level In American History. By Bryce Covert. ThinkProgress. "Incomes for the 99 percent have only recovered about 60 percent of what they lost. But the rich are doing great. ... They captured more than half of all the income growth in the country."
- Commons: Category: Median income. Charts, graphs, maps
Low quality of life
Germany has a much lower murder rate than the USA. Also, Germany has better health indicators, and its healthcare cost per person is half US cost (all costs, public and private).
High household debt
Return to top. See Wikipedia: Household debt.
US household debt at all time high. Chart below is from the PDF.
Total household debt. From 1st quarter 2003 through recent times.
Total Household Debt by Type:
- Click to enlarge. Timeline is by quarters.
High US medical debt
Return to top. See: Canadian single-payer universal healthcare versus US healthcare.
This doesn't happen in Canada, due to single-payer universal healthcare.
17 Jan 2019: US. 34 Devastating Stories About How People Are Still Crushed By Medical Debt. By Venessa Wong. BuzzFeed News.
High student loan debt
- Student Loan Debt by State. Map, table, and article.
- 15 July 2021: Student Loan Debt Statistics: 2021. U.S. student loan debt totals $1.6 trillion as of March 31, 2021.
One way to lower education costs is to start college earlier. Various countries are granting adult rights at earlier ages: See: Wikipedia: Age of majority (by country). Wikipedia: Voting age.
Punitive bankruptcy law
- No Fresh Start: Will States Let Debt Collectors Push Families Into Poverty In The Wake of a Pandemic? US map with state-by-state grades on the fairness of bankruptcy laws. "NCLC surveys the exemption laws of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Sadly, not one jurisdiction’s laws meet basic standards so that debtors can continue to work productively to support themselves and their families."
- Model Family Financial Protection Act. Including fairer bankruptcy and debt laws.
- Debt in America: An Interactive Map. 29% of all adults. 24% of whites. 39% of people of color. See the map there, and below. See the astonishing percentages of adults with debt in collection. By county. Especially in the South. The South has been greatly impoverished by low Republican minimum wages, lack of expanded Medicaid, unfair bankruptcy laws, massive evictions (past and upcoming).
Stagnant US wages
USA. Since 2001, labor’s share of national income has suffered a sustained decline. 11 Sep 2018.
- See above chart source. [136]. And source article.
Chart below: Top 10% of earners receive 50% of all income. When capital gains are included.
- Above graph source. And: Source 2.
| 10 Jul 2018: National (US) Pay Trends. "Since 2006, wages have risen 12.9 percent overall in the US. But when you factor in inflation, real wages' have actually fallen 9.3 percent. In other words, the income for a typical worker today buys them less than it did in 2006." |
2 Jul 2018: An Update for 2018: More Evidence That Half of Americans Are In or Near Poverty. Paul Buchheit. Common Dreams.
For most U.S. workers, real wages have barely budged in decades. 7 Aug 2018. By Drew DeSilver. Pew Research Center. Chart below is from the article. Bottom of chart says: "Data for wages of production and non-supervisory employees on private non-farm payrolls."
Top line in timeline below is hourly wages adjusted for inflation. It is flat: Bottom of chart below says: "Data for wages of production and non-supervisory employees on private non-farm payrolls."
Racist law enforcement
Return to top. See: Race, ethnicity, and drug war.
The KKK owns law enforcement today in the Republican state of Florida.
27 July 2021: Inside a KKK murder plot: Grab him up, take him to the river. "Even though three current and former Florida prison guards were exposed as klansmen, the state’s Department of Corrections says it found no reason to investigate whether other white supremacists were employed in its prisons."
Poorly rated healthcare
- 6 Aug 2021: Stunning new report ranks US dead last in health care among richest countries—despite spending the most. "The U.S. also had the highest infant mortality rate and lowest life expectancy at age 60 compared with other countries. ... The poor performance is nothing new, as the U.S. has landed in last place in all seven studies the Commonwealth Fund has released since 2004."
|
No universal healthcare
Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security all came from Democrats. You pay the taxes while healthier. Republicans prefer you die. 50% in U.S. Fear Bankruptcy Due to Major Health Event. [137]
Google search: 26,000 Americans die each year from not having health insurance.
Single payer costs less
Portugal's drug decrim equals
50 drug overdose deaths yearly
Vs 100,000 yearly US deaths
There were around 100,300 US drug overdose deaths in the year ending April 30, 2021. 275 per day. Only around 30 to 50 per year in Portugal, a country with universal healthcare, and where all drugs have been decriminalized since 2001. See: Youtube: Portugal’s Drug Laws: Decriminalisation in action. May 16, 2018 video from Australia's Special Broadcasting Service. No one has been arrested for simple possession (under the limits) since 2001.
President Eisenhower. 1953:
His 91% top marginal tax rate
Equaled prosperity for more.
Eisenhower was not a socialist. He did not support state ownership of industries and businesses.
Eisenhower, an economically progressive Republican President, had a 91% top marginal income tax rate.. He participated in one of the greatest eras of economic prosperity-for-more in the US in the 1950s.
That era had lower overall taxes on the middle class.
| There was a higher average effective tax rate on the top 1 percent of US households in the 1950s. It was 42% when totaling federal, state, and local taxes. In 2014 it was 36.4%. See chart below. |
Chart below. See: Highest US marginal income tax rates over time.
- Above chart source. And: Source 2.
Chart below. Timeline of top US federal marginal tax rate.
Republican President Lincoln
Created first progressive
US federal income tax.
Republican president Abraham Lincoln did not believe in state ownership of industries and businesses. So he was not a "socialist". Socialism was not well known at that time. See Wikipedia: Socialism.
| In the United States, the first progressive federal income tax was established by the Revenue Act of 1862. The act was signed into law by Lincoln. It replaced a flat tax. See Wikipedia: Progressive tax. |
Lincoln's economically progressive message below. What a contrast to today's far-right Republican leaders. From a message to the U.S. Congress, 3 December 1861:
"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."
More sources: [138]. The full speech. See: Facebook image.
Thomas Paine on the poor
Thomas Paine statue below in Thetford, England. See: Paine Wikiquotes. Search for "poor" within those quotes. For example:
When it shall be said in any country in the world, my poor are happy; neither ignorance nor distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive; the rational world is my friend, because I am a friend of its happiness: When these things can be said, then may the country boast of its constitution and its government.
Paine was nothing like today's Republican Party.
Overpopulation = Warming
Overpopulation equals more global warming via less greenspace removing carbon dioxide.
- Side-by-side photos. Our underwater future: What sea level rise will look like around the globe. High tide could flood 800 million people by 2060s.
- Wikipedia: List of countries by population (United Nations). Shows population increase rates.
- Wikipedia: List of sovereign states and dependencies by total fertility rate.
Many clueless Republican leaders deny it all. They also block free birth control and universal healthcare. See Wikipedia: Single payer healthcare. It costs less per person and gets better results. See:
As countries prosper, implement economic justice via increasing median wealth, and add universal healthcare; their population stabilizes. See median wealth:
And politicians need to incentivize more hempcrete construction, so that carbon dioxide levels go down.
See crowded beach below and link:
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