Here And There with Dave Marash

Kleptocracy, crime organized by a state to benefit its leaders and his or her friends and family, is a global phenomenon, but few kleptocracies can match the series of ripoffs of the citizens of the DRC, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. John Dell'Osso, senior investigator for The Sentinal, led a team probing how billions of dollars were misspent. Up to $15 billion had been stolen by President Mobuto Sese Seko before he was run out of the country. But what came next was more of the same.

When the lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic hit the supply chain for food, customers who wanted organic, home-grown vegetables in Los Angeles had a problem. Dean Kuipers of The Nation wrote about how he and his wife tried to create a solution.  It wasn't easy, but he says, it worked. And not just for the green-hungry customers, but for the farmers at the front end of the supply chain.  And when the lockdowns started to unlock..solutions had to be reconsidered.

The billions of dollars in Federal money from the bi-partisan infrastructure bill passed last November are about to be released.  The 3 guiding principles seem to be -- get it out fast, use it most effectively and distribute it most equitably. Worthy goals, but John C. Austin of the University of Michigan and the Brookings Institution says there are conflicts to solve first. Efficient use of the money may direct it to communities that need it least. 

 Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin give each other figurative gold medals at the Winter Olympics and a big lump of coal to the United States and President Biden.  Are their beefs legit, or just cover for dreams of ever-expanding Chinese and Russian power and influence. Rajan Menon of the City University of New York has been thinking and writing about what Washington should do. Interesting answers about important questions.

Oil spills across the world, increasing global warming is it spreads, but Chris McGreal of The Guardian and The Nation reports, ExxonMobil says legal actions against the company should stop at the Texas State Line. If you can't gaslight the legal system, their strategy suggests, at least you can forestall the Day of Judgment. Petro-kings call on the tides to stop. Didn't work for Ireland's Cuchulain, but hey. 

A great untold story of nuclear espionage. Dave Lindorff of The Nation on how one brother -- America's top designer of ballistic missiles -- protected his younger sibling -- who gave the Russians huge secrets about the atomic bomb being built at Los Alamos. Imagine the frustration of FBI Director J Edgar Hoover as he watched both brothers keep their freedom. The spy left the country long after his damage had been done, the other brother's value to Americn kept paying off for decades. 

The MDC, the Metropolitan Detention Center in Albuquerque is like most jails full of innocent people awaiting trial. Much too full, reports Austin Fisher of Source NM, for a shrinking staff of correction officers to handle. It's become something of a death trap, in part because of unfilled gaps in medical and mental health care.  Making the crises worse ... dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and a cyberattack that put everyone into lockdown. Inmates can't shower, get mail, meet with their lawyers or leave their cells for more than half an hour a day. 

A woman is jailed for littering a sidewalk. She's one of very many, She dies in detox at Albuquerque's Metropolitan Detention Center. She's one of several. Cecilia Nowell of The Nation on the policies that overfill a city/county lock-up with more prisoners than it can handle and the tragic consequences.

If it ain't broke," the old saying goes, "don't fix it."Unless your intent isn't fixing but shattering something that works, like America's system of free and fair elections. Matt Vasilogambros of the Stateline news service says in dozens of states, Republicans are changing the rules and terrorizing election officials in support of Donald Trump's Big lie, the so-called "Steal." They've even upgraded the old abuse of Gerrymandering.