Tag: incarceration

The Flaw in the Progressive Stance on Guns + AOC Suggests Checking Juvenile Criminal Records To Be Able To Buy A Gun Could Be Racist

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The flaw in the progressive stance on guns

Fulminating at congressional inaction in the face of spree killers may be satisfying and even necessary. But it is unlikely to persuade them to change the law. Continuing to insist on new rules while shying away from enforcing existing ones, meanwhile, burns credibility with conservative voters, who see a left that’s eager to penalize their hobby and reluctant to punish criminals.

Considerable progress against gun violence is politically and logistically feasible with more quality-of-life policing and vigorous prosecution of illegal gun possession — and the increased levels of incarceration both would require. If progressives want to make guns harder to get but don’t want to prosecute those who have guns illegally, then … it’s almost as if they’re inviting a future in which only outlaws will have guns.

Related:

AOC Suggests Checking Juvenile Criminal Records To Be Able To Buy A Gun Could Be Racist

The racial politics of gun control

Gun control’s racist reality: The liberal argument against giving police more power

THE (REALLY, REALLY) RACIST HISTORY OF GUN CONTROL IN AMERICA

The Racist Origin of America’s Gun Control Laws

Marksman who is Asian American says gun control laws are racist, puts Asians at risk

The Problem with Juneteenth

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist | 15 Jun 2022

Juneteenth was a people’s holiday with deep meaning for the descendants of enslaved people. But the declaration of an official federal holiday has turned it into an opportunity for corporate exploiters and cynical politicians to show pretend concern for Black people. At best Juneteenth provides a history lesson and an opportunity for much needed political education.

The Problem with Juneteenth

America Is Headed for Class Warfare + More

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Nothing has revealed the class divide in the U.S. quite like runaway inflation and skyrocketing gas prices. But in addition to the economic impact the staggering incompetence of the Biden administration is having on the working class, there is a political one; it’s undeniably driving working class voters even further from the Democrats and toward the GOP.

America Is Headed for Class Warfare

Related:

“Workers aren’t getting bailed out like the billionaires”: Detroit workers livid over surging gas prices

“It’s just really hard to live”: Chicago workers describe impact of surging food and gas prices

Progressive Red-Baiting is Still Red-Baiting

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Progressive Red-Baiting is Still Red-Baiting

Interesting stats:

It’s also worth noting that Kunce’s recurring implication that China is driving the buying up of small farms is entirely untrue. Missouri, like a dozen other states, banned foreign-owned corporations from buying farmland in 1978 but lifted the cap from 0% to 1% in 2013, which is what allowed Chinese-owned Smithfield Foods to buy up the pork land in question. China-based corporations are not even a top four foreign owner of Missouri farmland, with Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, and Italy taking the top spots, according to a 2019 federal report. Estimates vary, but the most highly cited number of Chinese farmland ownership in Missouri is 40,000 acres out of 350,000 foreign owned acres, or about 11 percent of all foreign owned land and 0.01% of total Missouri farmland.

China is a very small player in “foreign ownership” of U.S. farmland in general, yet mysteriously, almost exclusively who Kunce talks about when discussing the issue. According to the conservative think tank CSIS, “Canadian investors hold the largest share of [U.S. farmland], at 29 percent, with the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, and the United Kingdom collectively owning another 33 percent. The remaining 38 percent is held by entities from almost a hundred other countries. Although Congress has become increasingly concerned about Chinese land purchases, investors from China currently own only a small fraction of this land, at 191,652 acres (0.05 percent of the total).” Another 2019 federal report puts the number at less than 0.02 percent, less than Cayman Islands.

US Influence and Neoliberalism are the Main Causes of Migration From Central America

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

US Influence and Neoliberalism are the Main Causes of Migration From Central America (Opens in YouTube)

In this episode of The Source, we interview Alejandra Mejía, who is Chief Editor of Migrant Roots Media. We talk about the ‘Policy Report: An Analysis of the Biden-Harris Administration Plan for Central America’ by Migrant Roots Media. We examine in what way the $4 billion strategy for Central America of the Biden administration “bolsters a neoliberal development plan”. We also discuss whether this approach is different from the one of the previous administrations – both Democrats and Republicans. Finally, we also talk about Kamala Harris’ first international trip as Vice President to Guatemala and Mexico and what came out of that visit.

Link to Report.

Alejandra Mejía is Chief Editor of Migrant Roots Media, an independent media platform which seeks to unearth the root causes of global migration. She received her BA in Comparative Literature and Latinx Studies from Williams College in 2017 and is currently an Assistant Editor at Duke University Press where she acquires books in Latinx History. Her politics and devotion to migrant justice are largely informed by her lived experiences as a working-class Central American immigrant in the United States.

Source: acTVism Munich