Stephan: This is very dangerous territory for a democracy, and it is arising principally because the Republicans in Congress have simply decided that national wellbeing is not an interest of theirs.
one in five in U.S. think government is the nation’s top problem
Immigration, which was at top of list last month, slips from 22% to 16%
Economic issues continue to rank low on list of top problems
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Twenty-one percent of Americans name some aspect of government that dissatisfies them as the most important U.S. problem, replacing immigration at the top spot in Gallup’s monthly measure of the question. (emphasis added)
Government Leadership, Immigration Dominate List of Top Problems
What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?
Twenty-two percent had named immigration as the most important problem in July amid the political furor resulting from the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents who crossed into the country illegally. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in late June to end this practice. Still, 16% of Americans currently consider immigration the nation’s biggest problem. The drop from July to this month occurred slightly more among Republicans (from 35% […]
Stephan: We have as president a man who thinks himself a king. How many homeless people could have been housed for what has been spent of Trump and his family? How many hungry children could have been fed?
Donald Trump on the phone in Air Force One Credit: Shealah Craighead
Defense One reported that over the past 14 months, the Defense Department has spent tens of millions of dollars contracting aircraft monolith Boeing to “refurbish” the interiors of two backup Air Force One planes that are frequently used by the vice president and cabinet officials.
The most recent contract, as first reported by the Washington Examiner, is for more than $16 million to create an “appearance more commensurate with [the] presidential section” of Air Force One on the twin-engine 757. According to the Pentagon, the latest Boeing contract will include “upgraded interior elements,” “refurbished interior elements” and “painting and cleaning.”
This isn’t the first of such contracts the DOD has taken out with Boeing. Defense One noted that on June 30, 2017, the Pentagon awarded the corporation nearly $18 million for “engineering support services for […]
Stephan: Today, as I was doing my morning pass through the 80 some publications I check each day, I came across five stories of police thuggery that just stopped me in my tracks. Then, when I went through my morning emails I discovered readers had sent me four more stories, none were duplicates, nine in all. I have been thinking about those nine stories all day, and have decided to dedicate today's issue to this trend.
What I have been thinking about is this: What is it about American society that police thuggery has become such a major deal? There is nowhere else in the developed nations of the world where you see this kind of behavior. Are American police stupider, more callous, less competent than police in the law enforcement agencies of other nation? This sort of behavior has to start at the top, and be condoned, or it would not be happening. I was once told by the Deputy Chief of Police of the LAPD, that 15% of police are thugs and bullies. Another 15% are heroes, everything a community could ask their police to be. The other 70% go with the flow, if they are with bullies they bully, if they are with a hero, they become heroic. That may be true but we are seeing a level of thuggery in America that should not exist, that we as citizens should not tolerate. That the police themselves should not tolerate.
I want to be clear: Communities need police, policing is demanding work, and officers frequently meet with people behaving very badly. Everyone should recognize that. The point I am making is that other developed democracies have police but they do not have the problems that plague the U.S. What is the difference, and why can't America seem to do as well as other countries?
Stephan: This is such a disgusting story, it makes me very angry. This is just out and out incompetence and thuggery. All of these police officers and the chief of police should immediately be fired.
87 year old grandmother’s mug shot
CHATSWORTH, GEORGIA — A Georgia police chief said an officer was justified in using a Taser to stun an 87-year-old woman after she didn’t obey commands to drop a knife in her hand.
Martha Al-Bishara was charged with criminal trespass and obstructing an officer Friday, when police held her at gunpoint before bringing her to the ground with a jolt from the electrified prongs of a stun gun.
Relatives said Al-Bishara doesn’t speak English and was merely out cutting dandelions with a kitchen knife near her home in Chatsworth, about 85 miles north of Atlanta.
“An 87-year-old woman with a knife still has the ability to hurt an officer,” Chatsworth Police Chief Josh Etheridge told the Daily Citizen-News of Dalton.
“There was no anger, there was no malice in this,” Etheridge said. “In my opinion, it was the lowest use of force we could have used to simply stop that threat at the time.”
Stephan: From this very disturbing fact-based report, "there’s a growing amount of indisputable evidence showing the U.S. really does have a serious law enforcement problem. Police committed roughly 8% of all U.S. homicides involving adult male victims between 2012 and 2018, according to new study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
Police violence against black people and other people of color is a forefront issue in 2018 America. It’s a source of protests and strong political movements — or utter denial, depending on who you ask. President Donald Trump has openly mocked the issue, telling officers in Long Island to “please don’t be too nice” to suspected gang members. He also joked that police should not protect cuffed suspects’ heads from hitting the top of the police car as they’re lowered into the backseat.
In sum, Trump fails to acknowledge police violence and has even been dubbed “the brutality president.”
But now, there’s a growing amount of indisputable evidence showing the U.S. really does have a serious law enforcement problem. Police committed roughly 8% of all U.S. homicides involving adult male victims between 2012 and 2018, according to new study published in the American Journal of Public Health. (emphasis added)
That’s nearly three men killed every day over the course of 6.1 years. And yes, black men were at a disproportionately high risk.
![Chatsworth [...]
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Police violence against black people and other people of color is a forefront issue in 2018 America. It’s a source of protests and strong political movements — or utter denial, depending on who you ask. President Donald Trump has openly mocked the issue, telling officers in Long Island to “please don’t be too nice” to suspected gang members. He also joked that police should not protect cuffed suspects’ heads from hitting the top of the police car as they’re lowered into the backseat.
