Some cops give their friends and family union-issued "courtesy cards" to help get them out of minor infractions. The cards embody everything wrong with modern policing. KW
8/28/20 by NPR
Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/111727959
Episode: https://play.podtrac.com/npr-510289/edge1.pod.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/pmoney/2020/08/20200828_pmoney_brokenrules_fm_maybe_1.mp3
When the pandemic hit, the old rules went out the window. What rules will stay broken when things go back to normal?
NSSF, the trade association for the firearm industry, updated retail survey-based estimates and concluded that nearly 5 million Americans purchased a firearm for the very first time in 2020. NSSF surveyed firearm retailers which reported that 40 percent of sales were conducted to purchasers who have never previously owned a firearm.
NSSF tracks the background checks associated with the sale of a firearm based on the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System (NICS). NSSF-adjusted NICS checks for January through July 2020 is a record 12.1 million, which is up 71.7 percent from the 7.1 million NSSF-adjusted NICS January through July 2019. This equates to nearly 5 million first-time gun owners in the first seven months of 2020.
8/7/20 by Diane Rehm
Web player: https://podcastaddict.com/episode/110784225
Episode: https://downloads.wamu.org/mp3/dr/20/08/r1200807.mp3
In a lawsuit filed this week, New York Attorney General Letitia James said a months long investigation into the National Rifle Association found extensive “fraud and abuse” and she’s calling for the powerful gun rights organization to be dissolved. Diane talks with Adam Winkler, professor of law at UCLA, about the lawsuit and what comes next.
Institutionally that may be correct, some of the abuses of the NRA executives are pretty aggregious by any accounting. Besides forcing paybacks and resignations of the executives, the NRA 501c3 could be dissolved under state law ⚖ but that doesn’t mean that gun rights advocacy would disappear – the assets of the NRA would be transferred to other gun rights advocacy groups that have a record of being more responsible to their donors.
Some of those groups are far more stronger advocates of the second amendment and are smaller and less wasteful. And people still care about their rights – if the NRA disappears other group like the National Association for Gun Rights or Shooting Sports Alliance may take up their mantle.
Honestly, the pervasive corruption of the NRA as an institution suggests maybe its time for its competitors to take up the mantle and become a more trustworthy source of advocacy and training for gun rights. Just because an institution has been all powerful for generations doesn’t mean it’s above the law or not subject to corruption. Times change and sometimes new leadership is needed.
Social security is an important program that is funded via a regressive tax that is most acutely felt by the working poor and the lower middle class. For many low end earners, the FICA is the biggest tax they’ll pay out of their paycheck.
That’s seen as tolerable of funding these programs as it means that the important program of social security and Medicare will be funded. Social security is meant to provide about a third of retirement income for most adults – but for some of bad fortune or lack of savings it’s a vital tool against extreme poverty in old age. But the regressive nature of taxes funding it are bad for the working poor.
In times of a weak economy, suspending the FICA tax would provide a modest boost to the wages of workers, but I think they’re should be something to back fill the loss of revenue to government. Maybe borrowing and bonds are appropiate but that’s just kicking the cab down the road. It risks creating an unfunded liability that could encourage politicians who oppose the social safety net and taxes to cut social security and Medicare in future years.
There is a lot attraction on the surface to making Medicare and Social Security look like programs that you pay into today for benefits tomorrow. Even if that’s not how the programs work in reality – they’re mostly pay as you go – with a promise to future generations to continue. But it’s not a great way to fund them as it puts a big tax burden on the working poor who disproportionately pay the FICA tax even if they have the most to gain from it.
I would much rather see the FICA tax replaced with progressive taxation and fees on vices and institutions that cause real harm like the fossil fuel industry. Maybe a carbon tax could be part of the solution. But I also think corporations and the wealthy should pay more in taxes to fund Medicare and Social Security and take more of it off the backs of workers.
The three memorandums and one executive order call for extending some enhanced unemployment benefits, taking steps to stop evictions, continuing the suspension of student loan repayments and deferring payroll taxes
Thirty-six years later, Democrats are still fretting about women and electability — not to mention ambition.
"I remember when Geraldine Ferraro was nominated, and it was exciting," said Karen Finney, spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. "But our country is in a different place, even though some of those same sexist and racist tropes remain."
It's true that a lot has changed.
For starters, Biden announced months ahead of time that he'd pick a woman, and there's a deeper bench of women for him to pick from. In addition, several women of color are contenders for that spot.