Republican-NRA-led drug war, mandatory minimum sentences, and handguns

Full site / Mobile. To Top or End. Click Full site for site navigation links at top. Mobile has three-line hamburger menu. 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. [17]

Canadian single-payer healthcare vs US healthcare. And: Canada has far fewer handguns.

Country	Median wealth per adult. 2018. US dollars	Healthcare cost per person. US dollars PPP. 2019	Murder rate per 100,000. 2019
Canada	$106,342	$5.418	1.8
USA	$61,667	$11,072	5.0

Country	Life expectancy. 2019	Under-5 mortality rate per 1000 live births. 2019	Maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births. 2017
Canada	82.3 years	4.9	10
USA	78.9 years	6.5	19

Portugal's drug decriminalization. 2.3.4. Based on single-payer, universal healthcare. 2. 72,000 drug overdose deaths per year in the US. Well below 100 in Portugal. 92,000 is latest US total.

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Featured photos

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. Mexico City. May 4, 2019. See: Source. [1]. Cape Town, South Africa. May 5, 2018. See source, with more photos. Sao Paulo, Brazil. May 26, 2018. See source. Part of "Green May" (many cities) [2][3][4] in Brazil. See another 2018 photo. See video showing massive crowd (from 1 minute on, especially the time lapse video). Sao Paulo, Brazil. May 6, 2017. See source. Cape Town, South Africa. May 7, 2016. See source. Athens, Greece. May 9, 2015. See source, and more photos. Medellin, Colombia. May 3, 2014. See source. See more photos: 2013 May 4. Also: 2011 May 7. (b, c.) Buenos Aires, Argentina. May 3, 2014. See source. [5]. See also: 2012 May 5 photo. Buenos Aires, Argentina. May 4, 2013. See source. [6]. See street-level crowd shot. Medellin, Colombia. May 5, 2012. See more photos: a, b, c. Sao Paulo, Brazil. May 19, 2012. See another photo. Toronto, Canada. May 2, 2009. Toronto, Canada. May 6, 2006. May 8, 2004 in Madrid, Spain. Million Joint March (La Marcha del Millón de Porros en Madrid, Mayo 2004). See source. [7]. For more info and photos: [8][9][10]. May 4, 2002 in Paris, France in front of the Hotel de Ville. See a source. [11]. To Top. Or Table top. Or News. Or Home. Return to top.

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Share links: sentencing - sentences - NRA - handguns. This article was written by Timeshifter.

See also: End drug war with universal healthcare. And: Canadian single-payer healthcare versus US healthcare. And: Vote out most Republicans and their cannabis war. And: Canada's murder rate is 1/3 the US rate. Handguns per household by country.

• Wikipedia: List of countries by homicide rate.

Republican/NRA-led drug war

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Timeline: A Crackdown Chronology. Mother Jones. "1995: 24 states now have [NRA's] 3-strikes laws on the books. Drug offenders soon make up 25% of the total prison population, with 10 times as many 3rd-strikers serving time for drug possession as for 2nd-degree murder."

Jeff Sessions and the Conservative Nostalgia for Harsh Sentencing. A new Republican bill would slap nonviolent criminals with 15-year mandatory minimum sentences. August 15, 2018. By Manuel Madrid. American Prospect.

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.

At least $55 million in 2016. Much more if internet ads, member mobilization, field operations, and sham issue ads are counted. Data source. [73].

See source.

Republicans support domestic violence

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"the presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide by 500%." This quote is from the article below:

5 Apr 2019: 157 Republicans Just Opposed Renewing The Violence Against Women Act. On HuffPost.

Israel dismisses NRA claims

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Israel dismisses NRA’s claims about guns laws. 2012. The Times of Israel. And: Israel’s gun control laws can make the US safer, too. Feb. 15, 2018. New York Post.

Israel has a LOW rate of civilian gun ownership. Only 6.7 guns per 100 residents. Lower than many European countries. Far lower than the USA at 120 guns per 100 residents. See Wikipedia: Estimated number of civilian guns per capita by country. Israel also has a low homicide rate. See Wikipedia: List of countries by intentional homicide rate. And: Key Gun Violence Statistics* | Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

NRA's part in the drug war

The elephant is the mascot of the Republican Brownshirts. See: Holy War on Drugs, Republican-led mass incarceration. Share link.

Return to top. See also: Life for pot. And: Republican-led drug war. And: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate.

See main sections below:

• NRA demonization of drug users.
• NRA CrimeStrike campaign.

Scaring crazy people into not being crazy, and not killing large numbers of people. That is what the NRA believes long long mandatory minimum sentences are going to do. It hasn't happened. A better idea is universal background checks, and preventing crazy people, violent people, wife beaters, and child abusers from getting legal firearms in the first place. It is important to note that not all classes of the mentally divergent have a higher risk of violence or suicide. So some of the higher functioning ones could be allowed to have guns.

Most inmates are incarcerated due to the drug war.

The Big House That Wayne LaPierre Built. "In 1993 [NRA's] CrimeStrike spent $90,000 to put on the ballot in Washington state a new kind of sentencing law called 'Three strikes and you're out', ... Within just a few years, 23 states had enacted variations of the three-strikes statutes."

Backed by NRA CrimeStrike, the nation's first "Three Strikes and You're Out" law was enacted by ballot initiative in Washington state in 1993, sending a shock-wave reverberating through legislatures in 21 states and the U.S. Congress over the next two years. ... In California, however, the Three Strikes language was very broad -- with any of 500 felonies counting as a possible third strike to trigger a 25-to-life sentence -- plus it included a doubling of the prison term for a second strike.

Above quote (emphasis added) from: Getting Tough on Crime: The History and Political Context of Sentencing Reform Developments Leading to the Passage of the 1994 Crime Act. Published in Sentencing and Society: International Perspectives. Edited by Cyrus Tata and Neil Hutton. Ashgate Publishing Limited, Hampshire, England, 2002.

CNN: Study: 3 federal laws could reduce gun deaths by more than 90%. 10 Mar 2016. You mean we didn't need those NRA-championed mandatory minimums, and an incarcerated nation?

NRA demonization of drug users

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The National Rifle Association (NRA) has often demonized drugs as a way to distract clueless Americans from restricting handgun ownership, and high-capacity magazines, as Canada does.

Households with handguns: Canada: 3%. USA: 22%.

Country	Murder rate per 100,000. 2019
Canada	1.8
USA	5.0

• NRA Ad Envisions War Between Defenseless Middle Class And Drug Cartels With High-Capacity Magazines. By Aviva Shen on Feb 15, 2013. ThinkProgress.
  

Hey, angry white male Republican voters! Lighten up, dudes. Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine. Jesus healed using cannabis [15]. Stop worshiping Ronald 6 Wilson 6 Reagan 6, and "Just Say No", and the NRA's mandatory minimums.

The mandatory minimum sentencing laws at the federal level, and in many states, apply to marijuana possession above a certain amount, or growing above a certain number of plants. For more charts of all federal mandatory minimums (not just for marijuana and other drug offenses), see these pages.

The "truth-in-sentencing" (mandatory minimum sentencing) and "Two and Three Strikes" laws apply to many nonviolent criminals. At both the federal and state level. See history farther down of the NRA's state-by-state CrimeStrike campaign. With help from ALEC and Corrections Corporation of America.

• Federal Judge Quits, Calls Judicial System Unjust. June 25, 2003. 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." 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 site.

Timeline of mandatory minimum sentencing (does not include jail inmates):

Irony of racists disliking long sentences

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Washington Post: Oregon dispute arises from small fires and mandatory minimum sentencing. Jan. 4, 2016 article. Irony of white Oregon militias opposing mandatory minimum sentences championed by racist NRA Republicans to target black drug users. And: The Big Lie in the War Against Drugs. "two enemies: the antiwar Left, and Black people."

Americans are against mandatory minimums

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Above chart from here: Here’s how much Americans hate mandatory minimum sentences. By Christopher Ingraham. October 1, 2015. Washington Post.

Papa Bush doubles down on War on Drugs

Number incarcerated in the USA peaked in 2008. 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.

Return to top. Share link: Papa Bush.

• 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.
• USA. Drug offenders constitute half of federal prisoners. See chart. See articles: [74][75][76].
• See: The U.S. Drug War. Republicans lead.

Life for pot

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See main article: USA. Life for pot. See also: Number of marijuana prisoners in the USA.

Jeff Mizanskey 2015 Sep 1

• Life in prison for selling marijuana: Meet the people new pot laws forgot. MSNBC. 8 Sep 2015. [77][78]. "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. [79]. And: Grandpa Doing Life Without Parole. [80][81]. Nazi Republican prosecutor.
• Saudi Arabia beheads 4 for pot. [82][83][84][85]. Religious Right: Supported Life for Pot. [86][87][88]. 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! [89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96].

Buried Alive. Non-violent drug sentencing

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• Buried Alive. "The Buried Alive Project works to raise awareness and help eliminate life without parole sentences for federal drug offenses through transformative legislation and litigation."
• Non-violent drug sentencing has left thousands of people buried alive in prison. By Sharon Grigsby. Dallas Morning News. Feb. 21, 2018.

NRA CrimeStrike campaign

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He is Howard J. Wooldridge. See Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and Facebook pages worldwide. Wikipedia: LEAP. Share link.

The NRA must not be proud of their original CrimeStrike program. At the time of this writing, the NRA website (nra.org) does not mention their original CrimeStrike program. See this search of their website for "CrimeStrike". It only finds a television program.

Fortunately, Google finds the history of CrimeStrike elsewhere:

• Google Books: "CrimeStrike".
• Google Scholar: "CrimeStrike".

Getting Tough on Crime: The History and Political Context of Sentencing Reform Developments Leading to the Passage of the 1994 Crime Act. Published in Sentencing and Society: International Perspectives. Edited by Cyrus Tata and Neil Hutton. Ashgate Publishing Limited, Hampshire, England, 2002. Quote (emphasis added):

At the start of the Clinton administration in 1993 (and in the face of Clinton's strong expressions of support for gun control) the National Rifle Association announced it would launch a national campaign to get tough on criminals (Balz 1993). This was seen by many as a ploy to divert support away from Democratic gun control initiatives. NRA CrimeStrike -- a division of the National Rifle Association which had been founded in 1991 to "focus on the failures of America's criminal justice system" was then headed by Steve Twist, a close associate of Bob Corbin, the former Arizona Attorney General who had served as President of the NRA. According to its internet advertisements, NRA CrimeStrike has worked to pass "truth in sentencing" laws in Arizona, Mississippi, and Virginia; and "Three Strikes and You're Out" laws in Washington, California, Delaware, Georgia, North Carolina, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. ... Backed by NRA CrimeStrike, the nation's first "Three Strikes and You're Out" law was enacted by ballot initiative in Washington state in 1993, sending a shock-wave reverberating through legislatures in 21 states and the U.S. Congress over the next two years. ... In California, however, the Three Strikes language was very broad -- with any of 500 felonies counting as a possible third strike to trigger a 25-to-life sentence -- plus it included a doubling of the prison term for a second strike.

The book chapter discussed above mentions this NRA report from the early 1990s: CrimeStrike Special Report: Elements for an Effective Criminal Justice System. Author: CrimeStrike, A Division of the NRA.

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. "I Was Wrong About the War on Drugs – It's a Failure". By Bob Barr (former Republican, former federal prosecutor, and former Congressman). June 11, 2008. AlterNet. "The solution to the failed drug war". By Jack A. Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). Sept. 13, 2008. Boston Globe.

Showing Holes. By Peter H. Stone. Mother Jones. January/February 1994 Issue. Quote from article (emphasis added):

The NRA also made the major blunder of taking on Joseph McNamara, the well-known former head of the San Jose, California, police department. The NRA ran an ad, headlined "So You Want Legalized Drugs in America?", that distorted McNamara's beliefs and angered many law enforcement officials. CrimeStrike, which combines state lobbying with national advertising and direct-mail blitzes, appears to have been launched partly to woo back the police community. It is also aimed at diverting public attention from gun-control measures and focusing it on NRA-backed campaigns to pass tougher sentencing laws and build more prisons in several states. This past election season [1993], CrimeStrike succeeded in pushing initiatives through in Washington and Texas.

NRA and Charlton Heston Criticize Safety Valve. DRCNet Activist Guide, Issue: #2, August 1994. Quote (emphasis added):

In a highly dishonest advertisement by the National Rifle Association on CNN last Tuesday, actor Charlton Heston criticized the Crime Bill, claiming that it would let 10,000 drug dealers back out on the streets.

The NRA Strikes Back. By Chris Bryson, In These Times, March 17, 1997, pp. 18-19. Click "full page" link for full-size pages. Quote (emphasis added):

the NRA formed CrimeStrike in 1991 as a division of its lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action. ... CrimeStrike logged its first victory in November 1993 when it backed Washington state's "Three Strikes and You're Out" initiative, the nation's first. ... That success was rapidly followed by similar victories in California and Virginia, where NRA lobbyists again provided essential money and manpower to "three strikes" campaigns. In Virginia and Mississippi, according to CrimeStrike state legislative affairs director Susan Misiora, the NRA was "instrumental" in passing truth-in-sentencing measures which lengthened average prison sentences.

When Misery Means Profit: Immigration Enforcement, the Prison Industry and ALEC. 2011 article by AZ resists ALEC. See Wikipedia: American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Article quote (emphasis added):

In the early 1990s, the NRA, an ALEC member, initiated a campaign called CrimeStrike designed to win passage of ALEC’s “Truth in Sentencing Act” and “Habitual Violent Offender Incarceration Act” in state legislatures. Between 1993 and 1995, truth-in-sentencing laws were adopted by twenty states and by 1998 ALEC could declare victory as truth-in-sentencing bills had become law in 40 states. In addition, 25 states now have three-strikes laws similar to ALEC’s model legislation. Of course, the result of this legislation is predictable and well documented: during the 1990s, prison construction boomed, the incarceration rate doubled driven by a prison population expansion of one-half million people and private jailers secured lucrative new contracts to house thousands of inmates from overcrowded public facilities.

$228 billion total in 2007 according to BJS data. $36 billion in 1982 (not adjusted for inflation). Detailed yearly costs timeline is here (scroll down). See inflation-adjusted chart. BJS is U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. The majority of prisoners are incarcerated due to the drug war. See drug war charts and maps. State prisons averaged $31,286 per inmate in 2010. See: Costs of U.S. drug war.

Not for Praise, but for Principle. August 18, 1995. An address to the 17th Annual NRA National Shooting Coaches and Instructors Conference. By Thomas C. Wyld, Director, PR & Communications, National Rifle Association. Institute for Legislative Action. Fairfax, Virginia. Quote (emphasis added):

That's why, in the first six months of this year alone, NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, through its CrimeStrike Division, has worked toward criminal justice reform and victims' rights in fifteen states -- from "Three Strikes You're Out" in Vermont to the "Hard Time for Armed Crime" Initiative in Washington state. Think about that. Criminal justice reform. And victims' rights. In fifteen states. In just six months. By one citizens' group. Yours. The National Rifle Association. NRA is working for -- and passing -- Two and Three Strikes laws to ensure that repeat offenders are kept behind bars for life. NRA is working for -- and passing -- truth-in-sentencing to require violent criminals to serve eighty-five percent of sentences imposed.

Corporate Con Game. June 21, 2010. By Beau Hodai, In These Times. Quote (emphasis added):

In the early '90s, the ALEC's Criminal Justice Task Force was co-chaired by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the country's largest private prison company. During those years, the National Rifle Association (NRA), another task force member (and the current task force co-chair), initiated a campaign to introduce two pieces of ALEC-inspired legislation at the state and federal level: the so-called "truth-in-sentencing" and "three-strikes-you're-out" laws. Truth-in-sentencing called for all violent offenders to serve 85 percent of their sentences before being eligible for release. Three strikes called for mandatory life imprisonment for a third felony conviction. The NRA campaign, dubbed "CrimeStrike,"...

10 Myths of Gun Control. March 1996, NRA Institute for Legislative Action. Quote (emphasis added):

NRA is meeting that challenge with its CrimeStrike division, established to advance real solutions to the crime problem while protecting the rights of all honest citizens. Working in states across the nation, CrimeStrike has worked for passage of "truth in sentencing laws" which require that criminals actually serve at least 85% of time sentenced, "Victim's Bill of Rights" constitutional amendments, and "Three Strikes You're Out" laws.

Disenfranchised from voting, college, jobs

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This racist drug war is triply hard. People convicted of misdemeanor cannabis offenses, and other drug offenses, are blocked from getting much college financial aid. Drug convictions of all kinds can block job opportunities. And worst of all felons can be blocked permanently from voting. It is the epitome of Nixon's drug war racism and the "Southern strategy". See Wikipedia: Felony disenfranchisement. See map of U.S. felony disenfranchisement laws by state. See news.

2nd Amendment supported slave patrols

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Just like the NRA uses the second amendment to support mandatory minimum sentences to fight the racist drug war.

• The Second Amendment was ratified to preserve slavery. By Thom Hartmann, AlterNet. 22 Feb 2018. The Raw Story.

Shoulda Robbed a Bank

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Drug Sentences Driving Federal Prison Population Growth, Government Report Finds. By Phillip Smith, Sept. 13, 2012. StoptheDrugWar.org - A comment:

What I saw during my 5 years in Federal Prison. by UndertheRadar (not verified), September 20, 2012, 12:33pm. I stayed 5 years in Federal Prison for a marijuana offense. While I was there, I watched armed bank robbers come and go in as little as 17 months. One lad was in for armed Post Office robbery with a sawed off shotgun...his stay, 20 months. When I went to the parole board after 3 years 'behind the wall,' I pointed this out to the panel members. Their response, "You must understand that yours was a very serious offense." I laughed about that for 2 more years (as I still sat in prison), then wrote my book: Shoulda Robbed a Bank. When I was in, the entire Federal Prison population was just over 28,000. Drug offenders made up 53% of that number. I see today that population has risen to over 218,000. Prison is big business. It used to be called 'slavery.' Please read Shoulda Robbed a Bank. I need the money... It's available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

• Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Smashwords (multiple formats). See more info from the author, Hugh Yonn.

People incarcerated for drug offences

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See main article: People in prisons and jails in the USA for drug-related crime. And: Number of marijuana prisoners in the USA. And: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate. And: The U.S. Drug War. Republicans lead.

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..

• 

  The Sentencing Project News - Drug Policy.

• Obama helped turn around the Reagan-Bush War on Pot, mandatory minimums, mass incarceration. See: US incarceration peaked in 2008.

• 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.

• 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.

  Source: Prisons & Drug Offenders. Drug War Facts.

More articles and links

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Truth in sentencing:

• Google search: truth in sentencing.
• Google search: mandatory minimum.
• Google search: three strikes laws.
• Truth in Sentencing Laws | eHow.com.

See Google News: mandatory minimum. And sorted by date.

• Holder's Legacy: Steering Away From the Drug War and Mass Incarceration. 25 Sept 2014. Huffington Post. [97][98].
• The head of the DEA is still quite fond of mandatory minimum sentences. 19 Sept 2014. Vox. Useful charts, too.
• DEA Chief Michele Leonhart Struggles To Explain Position On Drug Sentencing Reform. 18 Sept 2014. Huffington Post.
• Federal Agency Approves Early Release Of Some 46,000 Drug Prisoners. 18 July 2014. ThinkProgress. More info: [99] [100].
• Drug Offenders Constitute Half of Federal Prisoners: A Chart. 11 March 2014. By FAMM. [101] [102].
• Attorney General Eric Holder Slams U.S. Mass Incarceration At Security Ministers Conference in Medellín, Colombia. 22 Nov 2013. Drug Policy Alliance.
• How Eric Holder Bypassed Congress To Reform America's Draconian Drug Sentencing. By Erin Fuchs. 12 August 2013. Business Insider.
• Special Series: The Legacy And Future Of Mass Incarceration. February 2013. NPR, National Public Radio. Working with Prison Time: 40 years of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, a service of NCPR: North Country Public Radio.
• GUEST OPINION: Elderly prisoners pose little risk, big cost - Fall River, MA - The Herald News. By Vanita Gupta. 15 June 2012.

GOP wants easy way to buy silencers

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• GOP Lawmakers Want To Make Gun Silencers Cheaper, Easier To Buy. 23 Oct 2015. By Nick Wing. Huffington Post.
• Gunmakers and the NRA Bet Big on Silencers. What Could Go Wrong? 19 Mar 2013. By Stephanie Mencimer. Mother Jones.
• Silencers: The NRA’s latest big lie. 30 Dec 2012. By Alexander Zaitchik. Salon.

More cops, more guns, more jails

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See: Drug war causes high U.S. incarceration rate.

Whatever good the NRA has done is far outweighed by its part in creating an incarceration nation. See Drug war charts and maps. See Wikipedia: Mandatory minimum sentencing, and Two and Three Strikes laws. On the day of the Mayan apocalypse, Dec. 21, 2012, the NRA marched in: "LaPierre announced that former Rep. Asa Hutchinson [ex-DEA chief], R-Ark., will lead an NRA program that will develop a model security plan for schools that relies on armed volunteers." Many of them trained and indoctrinated by the NRA. NRA Press Conference: Wayne LaPierre Calls For Armed Police Officers At Every School. Huffington Post, Dec. 21, 2012.

• Armed guards, many of them indoctrinated and trained by the NRA.

Canada versus USA

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See also: End drug war with universal healthcare. And: Canadian single-payer healthcare versus US healthcare. And: Canada's murder rate is 1/3 the US rate. Handguns per household by country.

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):

Still, it is the length of sentences that truly distinguishes American prison policy. Indeed, the mere number of sentences imposed here would not place the United States at the top of the incarceration lists. If lists were compiled based on annual admissions to prison per capita, several European countries would outpace the United States. But American prison stays are much longer, so the total incarceration rate is higher. ... "Rises and falls in Canada's crime rate have closely paralleled America's for 40 years," Mr. Tonry wrote last year. "But its imprisonment rate has remained stable."

Wikipedia: Danny Zuker. His Twitter feed. Canada has a much lower rate of handgun ownership than the USA. See chart. Much lower incarceration and murder rates too.

New York Times: "Rises and falls in Canada's crime rate have closely paralleled America's for 40 years," Mr. Tonry wrote last year. "But its imprisonment rate has remained stable." [103] [104]. April 22, 2008.

Youtube video. Pot and Politics: Chris Bennett at Occupy Vancouver (15 Oct 2011). The Harperization of the Drug War in Canada (one minute into video). Speech discusses Prime Minister Stephen Harper's attempts at slavish imitation of the U.S. drug war and mandatory minimum sentencing.

See source article. By The Huffington Post. See image info. [16].

Finland's open prisons

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Listen to the audio too.

• In Finland's 'open prisons,' inmates have the keys. April 15, 2015. Reporter Rae Ellen Bichell. Public Radio International. From the article (emphasis added):

"By the end of this period of 'decarceration,' Finland had one of the lowest rates of imprisonment on the continent. Lappi-Seppälä says crime didn’t increase as a result. 'The lesson from Finland was that it was perfectly possible to drop the use of imprisonment [by two-thirds,]' he says, 'and that did not disturb the crime trend development in Finland.' What did work was a gradual reintroduction into normal life, the kind that the open prisons offer. About a third of Finnish inmates are housed in open prison, and Finland’s Criminal Sanctions Agency says inmates who go through open prisons are less likely to be arrested again. The reoffending rate drops almost 20 percent. Open prisons also cost less."

Germany's kinder and safer prisons

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Germany has much lower incarceration and murder rates than in the USA.

• German Prisons Are Kinder, Gentler, and Safer Than the Ones in America. July 10, 2015 by Maurice Chammah. Vice magazine. From the article:

"Inmates live in rooms and sleep in beds, not on concrete or steel slabs with thin padding. They have privacy—correctional officers knock before entering. Prisoners wear their own clothes, and can decorate their space as they wish. They cook their own meals, are paid more for their work, and have opportunities to visit family, learn skills, and gain education. ... There is little to no violence—including in communal kitchens where there are knives and other potentially dangerous implements. And the maximum time inmates spend in any kind of punitive solitary is eight hours. ... In Germany, prosecutors and judges are not elected. As career civil servants, they are insulated from public opinion."

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Cannabis is safer.

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USA. The state of the nation.

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, Republican-led mass 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. [105]. 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. [106][107][108][109][110].

See longer article: Cannabis is safer.

• Imagine if Mitt Romney had been elected President in 2012 instead of Obama.

• Obama on marijuana legalization. [111]. "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. [112][113][114].

• Obama administration asks Supreme Court to reject lawsuit filed by Republican governments in Oklahoma and Nebraska to stop legal marijuana in Colorado [115]. 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. [116]. Attorney General Eric Holder (2009-2015) under President Obama. 25 Sep 2014.

Vote out most US Republicans and their cannabis war.

Register and vote for cannabis.

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.

USA. The state of the nation.

News: Americans want universal healthcare and progressive taxation. Democratic Presidents Roosevelt and Truman worked for both. Roosevelt and Truman, followed by Eisenhower, a progressive Republican, had steep progressive taxation where the prosperous middle class paid less taxes as a percent of their income, because the rich paid more. All 3 Presidents increased the minimum wage, [117], which pushed up middle class wages too. Under Trump, inflation-adjusted wages declined [118].

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GOP taxes screw middle class

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Trump signed tax law that gave 83% of benefits to the top 1%.

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.

Chart source.

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.

US has stingiest minimum wage

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2 Jul 2019: There’s More Evidence That Raising the Minimum Wage Won’t Cost Jobs.

"The U.S. has one of the stingiest minimum wage policies of any wealthy nation." Dec. 29, 2017. Washington Post. Chart below is from the article.

Chart below. USA. Inflation-adjusted federal minimum wage over the years.

Source. See also: Wikipedia: List of minimum wages by country.

17 June 2019: US federal minimum wage has 35% less buying power than in 1969. 10 years since last increase. A record. CNN. [119].

Image graphic source and comments.

US federal minimum wage timeline below. Top line is adjusted for inflation. Middle class prosperity peaked under Truman and Roosevelt in the 1950s due to steep progressive taxation where the middle class paid less. And the minimum wage was increased. That also pushed up middle class wages.

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US has high wealth inequality

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See the median wealth by country chart:

Wikipedia: List of countries by wealth per adult - 2019 publication: The average median wealth per adult for Canada ($107,004) is much higher than that of the former great nation, the USA ($65,904). 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. 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.

• 5 Oct 2017: Nine Charts about Wealth Inequality in America (Updated).

US middle-class wealth has collapsed. [120]. See chart below. See: Income inequality and drug war. And: Wikipedia: List of countries by wealth per adult.? 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.

Middle class wealth collapsing. [121]. And: Just 8 men own same wealth as half the world. See Wikipedia: Wealth in the United States.

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• Median wealth per adult. Credit Suisse. 2019 report. Country links are to Wikipedia articles. Click red column headers to sort. Link.

  	Country	Median wealth per adult. US dollars
  1	Switzerland	227,891
  2	Australia	181,361
  3	Iceland	165,961
  4	Hong Kong	146,887
  5	Luxembourg	139,789
  6	Belgium	117,093
  7	New Zealand	116,433
  8	Japan	110,408
  9	Canada	107,004
  10	Ireland	104,842
  11	France	101,942
  12	United Kingdom	97,452
  13	Singapore	96,967
  14	Spain	95,360
  15	Austria	94,070
  16	Italy	91,889
  17	Malta	76,016
  18	South Korea	72,198
  19	Norway	70,627
  20	Taiwan	70,191
  21	Qatar	69,671
  22	United States	65,904
  23	Denmark	58,784

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US has high income inequality

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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.

Increasing income inequality over time. Chart below from:
17 Dec 2017: A Republican Tax Plan to Turbocharge Inequality, in 3 Charts. New York Times.

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

Massive US household debt

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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.

Massive 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.

Stagnant US wages

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USA. Since 2001, labor’s share of national income has suffered a sustained decline. 11 Sep 2018.

See above chart source. [122]. And source article.

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Chart below: Top 10% of earners receive 50% of all income. When capital gains are included.

Above graph source. And: Source 2.

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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."

President Eisenhower. 1953

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His 91% top marginal tax rate

Equaled prosperity for more

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Eisenhower, the 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.

Chart below. Higher average effective tax rate on the top 1 percent of US households in the 1950s (42% average effective tax rate). Total of federal, state, and local taxes. In 2014 it was 36.4%.

Chart below. Highest marginal income tax rates over time.

Above chart source. And: Source 2.

President Abraham Lincoln

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Republican president Abraham Lincoln's economically progressive message. What a contrast to today's 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: [123]. The full speech. See: Facebook image.

Overpopulation = Warming

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Overpopulation equals less greenspace, more stress, more pollution, less biodiversity, less rainforests, fewer parks, more noise, more carbon dioxide, more global warming, higher seas, more frequent hurricanes, more climate change, more drought, more climate refugees, less resources, more poverty.

Many clueless Republican leaders deny it all. They also block simple single-payer, public-option healthcare without deductibles, copays, and premiums. Something that seniors, and everybody else with health problems, needs in order to work part time as one is able. Healthcare completely separate from work and income level.

So dumbass politicians need to work on that instead of trying to incentivize more babies. And truly universal healthcare costs less since it encourages more preventive care, and doesn't need big wasteful health insurance bureaucracies. And politicians need to incentivize more hempcrete construction, so that carbon levels go down.

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