Ken Scott Baron Podcast

This video cast topic is an update on the roots of mass incarceration and the Broken Justice system.

Slavery

I know that our viewers understand that the first enslaved people were sold in Jamestown, in 1619. This started centuries of oppression of people at the margins.

And you know that America and the White House were built by slaves. And that white Americans profited from forced Black labor.

Jim Crow

In 1865, slavery ended, but oppression did not. Enter the so called “Jim Crow” era which effectively legalized segregation in all aspects of American life, for the next 100 years and brought terror against Black people, intended to maintain the status quo.

It wasn’t until the 1960s, with the passage of the Voting Rights and Fair Housing acts that the Jim Crow era officially ended.

In the housing boom of the 1950s, as white America began building wealth in the suburbs, Black people, were deliberately and systematically shut out, a method called “redlining”.While the law made redlining illegal, racism in the mortgage industry didn’t go away.

Similarly, the end of slavery didn’t stop former slaveholders from thinking of Black people as slaves. The 13th Amendment outlawed slavery, but left a loophole known as “except as punishment for crime.” States throughout the former Confederacy immediately began drafting laws guaranteed to lead to the arrest of Black people. The roots of today’s mass incarceration are in those laws.

There’s a direct line from slavery to the fact that the average Black family has only 10 % for every dollar held by the average white family. And, while blacks are only 13% of the overall population, they make up 40% of the prison population

Slavery’s impact is felt every single day by African Americans.

The results of a national research by the Open Society Institute,, say that most Americans believe the country’s criminal justice system comprises an ineffective, purely punitive approach to crime.

Mass Incarceration

Americans want to attack the causes of crime rather than the symptoms;

A shift has primarily come in the attitudes of those groups that traditionally favored a punitive approach to criminal justice. (remember the War on Drugs?).Today, a solid majority of every demographic group—including men, whites, and people with less than a college degree—support an approach dealing with the causes of crime.

Budget Shortfalls and Prison Spending

42 of the 50 states are running budget deficits. Given a choice of six budget areas that could be reduced to help states balance the budget, the public places spending on prisons at the top of their list, tied with transportation.

Americans would take the budget ax to prisons much more quickly than to childcare for working families, security against terrorism, education and job training, or healthcare. Hispanics and blue-collar workers are among the strongest supporters of cutbacks in prison spending

The War on Drugs

Many nonviolent offenders are receiving prison sentences that are counterproductive and unduly harsh.

Americans describe drug abuse as a medical problem that should be handled mainly through counseling and treatment.

According to the research, Americans believe that today’s prisons are no more than "warehouses," providing little or no rehabilitation or reentry programs, that instead simply store criminals for a period of time and then dump them back on the street, no different than when they were first incarcerated.

Changing Views on Mandatory Sentencing

The public has now turned against previously popular mandatory sentences, such as "three strikes" provisions.

Prevention is Nation’s #1 Criminal Justice Goal

Americans see prevention as the most important function of the criminal justice system, and also the function that is most sorely lacking. Several groups rank after-school activities ahead of values...

The NABWMT Media committee wishes you and yours the best over the holidays and in 2020.

We celebrate our commitment to bring our members, friends and allies the best media presence to enhance our statement of purpose. In our final video cast of the year we note our achievements of 2019.

We launched our upgraded NA aural Podcasts midyear to include some video presentations to make our messages more visual. This podcast is designed to reflect the urgency of our times. 22 podcasts were made during 2019.

We are in a very difficult and threatening times and events are undermining and attacking our values in our country and lives. We have an administration that has removed or rolled back historic gains in laws protecting the communities of color, queer people and hurting many at the margins. Never before have our right to vote been so overtly and forcibly suppressed and gerrymandered. Our committee will continue to keep you all updated.

Meanwhile we were happy to work with the B. CHAMBERS FUND organizers which recognizes LGBTQ students for their scholastic achievement and making a significant impact in their communities. Since the fund’s inception, nearly $20,000 have been awarded.

And just as exciting the NABWMT was the fortunate benefactor of The Ken Pavlick Bequest  which a select committee used this Fund is to ensure the robust and vibrant development of the NABWMT 2020 through 2030. The Media Committee developed the web portals to attract younger (under 35), first timers, and “returning” (after 10 years), attendees to the Convention.

Within The NA Media Committee we started a program to help our members and allies to vote for the candidate of their choice in the midterm 2018 elections. We did this to emphasize our collective values. Working with our consultants, we developed a 2020 program to tell all that we believe that no life is worth less or more than any other life based upon race, sex, sexual orientation, gender or gender expression, color, age, or geographic origin. This program led to the development of a phone banking methodology to contact our  members with voting information for the 2020 General Election. Our main website hosts a voter guide.

In the social media arena, we curated over 13,000 members of our main Facebook page providing careful oversight. Likewise, our fledgling political action Facebook was developed to provide a space for education on the state of our values.

in accordance with our Standing rules which state, in part, that “The NABWMT will publish an electronic publication at least quarterly that shall contain news of the organization..” we provided a notable upgrade with digital online access of our Q-Vision newsletter.

The media committee hosted or assisted online presences of information for California, Arizona, Wisconsin and of course that nation at large with our main site: nabwmt.org.

We still support Email Blasts by Mail Chimp where our audience allowed us to exceed sector average “opens” at 28%.

Finally we are grateful for the support of many people this year. First, the NA co chairs Scott and Gavin, who are great boosters of our work. We recognize also, fellow Media Committee member Mark and Media consultants Irwin, Tim. Steve, Mack, Kirk, and many more including the NA Board members. Our work is made possible by you all.

We wish you all a great holiday season and a value driven 2020

Ken and Demetrius

THE MERCURY NEWS

A video allegedly posted by two UC Berkeley students in which one of them makes racist, homophobic and misogynist comments has sparked an outcry online and triggered swift condemnation from the university.

The video shows a male student sitting on a bed in what appears to be a dorm room while another male asks questions off-camera. Using racial slurs and profanity-laced comments, the student claims to hate African-Americans.

When the off-camera individual asks why the other student “thinks black people are so bad,” the student on the bed responds, “They’re f—–g black, do I need a reason?” The student on the bed then starts saying African-Americans, women and LGBTQ individuals shouldn’t have rights before the video abruptly ends.

THE GUARDIAN

Burnley Soccer Club in England have confirmed that a 13-year-old supporter was ejected from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium following an alleged racist gesture towards Son Heung-min during a Premier League weekend blighted by a number of alleged racist and discriminatory incidents.

Burnley said in a statement that the alleged abuse by the supporter, who was accompanied by a guardian at Saturday’s game, is being investigated by the Metropolitan police, assisted by Lancashire police and the two clubs. In addition, two Wolves Soccer supporters arrested for homophobic abuse at a Brighton game.

CBS NEWS

RICHMOND, Va. — A commission Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam tasked with researching racist laws from the state’s past recommended that dozens be repealed in order to purge the state’s books of discriminatory language.

While most of the pieces of legislation are outdated and “have no legal effect,” they are still enshrined in law, the nine-member commission of attorneys, judges, scholars and community leaders wrote in an interim report.

“The Commission believes that such vestiges of Virginia’s segregationist past should no longer have official status,” said the report, which urged repeal of the laws in the legislative session that starts in January.

These racist laws include measures that helped enforce the state’s strategy of “Massive Resistance” to federally mandated school integration, instituted a poll tax intended to keep black Virginians from voting, mandated racially segregated transportation and prohibited interracial marriage.

THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

The Council of Europe’s anti-racism body, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) co-organized a round table in Skopje on 14 November 2019 to discuss the follow-up given by the authorities to the recommendations of the ECRI 2016 report on North Macedonia, including the efforts to combat hate speech in the country in the framework of good practices and European standards.

The event was held in co-operation with the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy of North Macedonia and with the support of the European Union (EU) in the framework of the joint European Union and Council of Europe program “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey II”.

The event was opened by Ms Gjulten Mustafova, Head of the Equal Opportunity Department in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, who stated that the concept of equal opportunities was part of the government program and that fighting discrimination was a priority for the government and all ministries. “There is a new law on preventing discrimination and in the future, we need to focus on developing further measures for implementing it”, she said.

CHANNEL NEWS ASIA

Australia's airline, Qantas, said it stood ready to offer legal assistance to a member of its flight crew named in a racism accusation by Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am on social media.

The US singer had taken a flight to Sydney,

It's time to review the state of LGBT people around the world. I am prompted to do this when I read that the US ambassador to Zambia, Daniel Foote, has said he has been threatened over his comments on the sentencing of a gay couple causing a deepening a diplomatic row. It is disturbing to hear this, especially when there are bad comments on our diplomatic core in our impeachment hearings.

Ambassador Foote said he was "horrified" by the jailing of Japhet Chataba and Steven Samba.

A judge quashed an appeal against their conviction last week, sentencing them both to 15 years in prison.

Same-sex relationships are outlawed in Zambia, where British colonial-era laws on homosexuality still apply.

Mr Foote implored the Zambian government to review the case and its homosexuality laws, but has since faced a backlash for doing so.

On Monday Zambian President Edgar Lungu rebuked the ambassador, saying his government will complain to the Trump administration. The president's outrage was echoed by Zambian Foreign Minister Joseph Malanji, who said Mr Foote's remarks were "tantamount to questioning the Zambian constitution".

Mr Foote, US ambassador since December 2017, responded to the furore in a press statement on Monday.

The career diplomat said he had cancelled scheduled appearances at World Aids Day events on Tuesday "because of threats made against me" on social media.

He said: "I was shocked at the venom and hate directed at me and my country, largely in the name of 'Christian' values, by a small minority of Zambians," Mr Foote said.

He denied accusations that his comments amounted to interference in Zambia's judiciary and constitutional affairs.

"It is up to Zambian citizens and the courts to decide if your laws correspond to your constitution, but your constitution itself provides every person the right to freedom and expression of conscience and belief," he said.

"I expressed my belief about a law and a harsh sentencing I don't agree with. I didn't interfere in internal affairs."In turn, Mr Foote accused President Lungu of interfering in judicial affairs through statements "rejecting homosexual rights".

In an interview with Sky News, Mr Lungu mounted a combative defense of Zambia's homosexuality laws.

"Even animals don't do it, so why should we be forced to do it?... because we want to be seen to be smart, civilized and advanced and so on," he said.

The US Administration has remained shamefully silent on human rights abuses against LGBTQ people around the globe. This has ben tracked by the Human Rights Coalition (HRC) who:

Repeatedly called on the White House and the State Department to demand U.S. leaders condemn atrocities and human rights violations being committed.

Organized a visit with a survivor of the anti-LGBTQ crackdown in Chechnya to Washington to demand that the U.S. take action to stop the violence and open its doors to the victims.

They have repeatedly called upon the administration to welcome LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers.

They called on the U.S. not to extend trade preferences for Tanzania until the Tanzanian government take concrete steps to improve the human rights situation for LGBTQ people and others.

HRC has condemned the State Department’s new "Commission on Unalienable Rights", which aims to narrow the scope of human rights - to the likely detriment of LGBTQ human rights.

Meanwhile, A gay homeowner who previously took the Hong Kong government to court over a rule that prevented him from living with his husband has mounted a second legal challenge, this time over inheritance in case he dies without a will.

Edgar Ng Hon-lam applied for a judicial review over the marriage provisions in two ordinances on intestacy and financial provision f...

As a member of the National Association of Black and White Men Together, I am always checking in with Democratic Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg, an out gay man. So how is he doing?

Let’s look at the latest poll. According to a Quinnipiac national poll former Vice President Joe Biden has retaken the lead while Senator Elizabeth Warren's numbers have plummeted, . Biden receives 24 percent of the vote among Democratic voters and independent voters who lean Democratic, while Buttigieg gets 16 percent, Warren receives 14 percent, and Sen. Bernie Sanders gets 13 percent.

As another point, In an October 24 poll, Warren received 28 percent, Biden had 21 percent, Sanders was at 15 percent, and Buttigieg got 10 percent.

The Quinnipiac poll said “Biden is back on top of the pack but Buttigieg has broken into the top tier, apparently at the expense of Warren”.

Meanwhile ,An October focus group of black voters in South Carolina commissioned by Pete Buttigieg’s campaign found that the candidate’s sexual orientation may be one of the reasons he has struggled to gain support among African Americans there. Of course, as a gay man this raised my hackles, I had hoped his candidacy would be judged by his policies and values. His polling is doing well and fundraising is good, so let him seek to be the country’s first gay presidential nominee.

As of 2019 according to Wikipedia, all 50 states have been served by openly LGBT elected politicians in some capacity.There has been one openly bisexual state governor (Kate Brown);One openly gay person (Jared Polis) was elected governor after coming out as gay.

No openly gay person ever served on the Supreme Court of the United States or served as a Cabinet Secretary.

incidentally, there is speculation that President James Buchanan may have been gay or bisexual, President Abraham Lincoln may have been gay or bisexual.

Buttigieg has struggled to make inroads with black voters. Among black voters in South Carolina, he received less than 1 percent support in a Fox News poll released this month.

According to NPR: “Fairly or not, African-Americans have become the public face of resistance to same-sex marriage, owing to their religious beliefs and the outspoken opposition of many black pastors.

Yet the presence of gays and lesbians in black churches is common. And the fact that they often hold leadership positions in their congregations is the worst kept secret in black America”.

Buttigieg’s focus group shows the challenges he faces. Beyond that, participants also told researchers they were concerned about Buttigieg’s political inexperience, low name recognition and relative youth. Nearly all of the voters said they were considering voting for former vice president Joe Biden.

The report said other participants suggested that while “they personally didn’t have a problem” with Buttigieg being gay, they feared Republicans would use it against him in the general election. Others worried it would make it harder for him to interact with foreign leaders.

Buttigieg knows this, and his campaign maintains its low poll numbers with black voters is largely a problem of name recognition and pointed to ramped-up efforts the mayor has made in South Carolina in recent months.

He has released his Douglass Plan Plan to “Empower Black America.” And perhaps this may help, but may be not enough to overcome these perceptions of some Black folks.

Buttigieg has also faced criticism from black voters during his tenure as mayor which led to complaints on Black events and missteps. And before he became mayor of South Bend, Ind. in 2012, a recently resurfaced video showed he reaches out to a tea party racist group, saying he believes “we might find that we have a lot in common.”

Black voters are not a monolith or vote strictly according to skin color. They are shaped by geographical location, gender and generation.

Unemployment is near a five-decade low, workforce participation is at the highest level in six years and Federal Reserve Chairman recently called the labor market “strong.”

The Brookings Institute showed that  “demographics of low-wage workers span race, gender and geography”. They add that “for 53 million Americans stuck in low-wage jobs, the road out is hard”

The median wage for those workers is $10.22 an hour and their annual pay is $17,950.

In addition, the site moveforhunger.org reports that homelessness adds to the drag on the economy: “A family with a full-time worker making minimum wage could not afford rent for a two bedroom apartment anywhere in the U.S. Poverty is the other major factor that contributes to the homelessness epidemic.

A lack of employment opportunities, combined with a decline in public assistance leaves low-income families just an illness or accident away from being put out on the streets.

Remember, more jobs were created in the last 32 months of the Obama Administration than the first 32 months of the Trump Administration. But, not all new jobs are good, high-paying positions.

Analysis conducted by Bloomberg News at the end of Trump's second year in office found that his economy ranked sixth among the last seven presidents, based on fourteen metrics of economic activity and financial performance.

A better rate is called the “real” unemployment rate, and it uses a broader definition of unemployment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics includes these three categories:

People who haven't looked for work in the past four weeks, but have looked within the past year. This category also includes:

Discouraged workers are those who have given up looking for work.

Part-time workers who would like a full-time job.

In October 2019, the real unemployment rate was 7.0%,  almost double the widely reported unemployment rate of 3.6%. 

Women and minority groups are more likely to earn low wages. Black workers are 32% more likely to earn low wages than whites, and Latinos are 41% more likely.

What do the main candidates for president say about work and jobs?

Biden supports a $15 federal minimum wage,

Booker would mandate that companies buying their own shares must also pay out to their own employees a sum equal to the lesser of either the total value of the buyback or 50 percent of all profits beyond $250 million.

Buttigieg wants to make sure domestic workers and farmworkers are covered by US labor laws. He promises paid parental leave, a $15 minimum hourly wage (indexed to wage growth).

Sanders aim to strengthen union membership, punish employers who engage in union-busting practices, and raise wages and benefits.

More policies on these candidates and more are at our site: nabwmt.org/voter-guide

**************Credits: LA Times, Brookings Institute, moveforhunger.org,  Bloomberg News 

Democratic enthusiasm was on show November 5th., and the main issues were health care, education, gerrymandering, and guns.

Democrat Andy Beshear appears to have beat Republican incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin in the Kentucky governor’s race. This is  a state President Donald Trump won by 30 percent in 2016. ******Sources: Vox, Politico, and Washington Post

In this podcast Tim Springer from Minnesota tells about his activism and reviews the book called "One Person No Vote" by Carol Anderson.

Let's talk about the three states that could determine the fate of the Democratic candidates for the presidency: Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire. A total of 16 electoral votes of the 538 available. It seems that is where all the action is.

Each party in Iowa sponsors a local neighborhood meeting in January. The meetings, called "caucuses," are open to any voter who wants to support that party. At the caucus party members discuss political issues and candidates. They also elect representatives called “delegates” to the county convention. The same discussions occur at the county conventions, and the county convention elects delegates to the state convention. At the state level the convention selects delegates to the national convention. Quite convoluted!

So, what is important  to Iowans? According to the Des Moines Register Republican poll respondents are seeking discussion of fiscal and defense matters. Republican poll respondents are seeking discussion of fiscal and defense matters. Ninety percent or higher say they want candidates to spend "a lot" of time talking about the budget deficit, national defense, taxes and terrorist groups such as the Islamic State, or ISIL.

"The U.S. looks like a weak power to all these foreign countries," Republican poll respondent said. These new candidates need to lay out how they're going to handle that. No one wants to overstep, but we need to clean things up."

Democrats, conversely, are far more interested in hearing about domestic policy. Energy (92%) and income inequality (90%) top the list of issues that Democrats say candidates should spend a lot of time discussing.

Just one issue ranks in the top five for likely caucus attendees from both parties: job creation.

These differences illustrate a fundamental disagreement between the parties over the role of government. While Democrats believe government can and should address social and economic issues, Republicans are less confident about its ability to solve such problems and focus instead on limiting taxes and spending while maintaining national defense.

"What you're seeing in the Iowa data here is simply a reflection of the agendas of the leadership," Manza said. "It's the voters following the leaders — the rhetoric of the leaders and the policy priorities of the leaders."

Especially wide divergences emerge on a few issues.

90% of Democrats want to hear candidates talk about income inequality — making it the No. 2 issue. For likely Republican, though, income inequality ranks 19th out of the 20 issues tested by the poll, with 36% of respondents saying they wish candidates would devote a lot of time talking about it.

An even wider gap between Democrats and Republicans is evident on climate change. While 81% of Democrats planning to caucus say they want to see candidates focus on it, just 18% of likely Republican voters are interested in hearing a lot about the issue.

There are areas, too, where the interests of likely caucus attendees from the two parties are more aligned. An equal percentage of Democratic and Republican respondents say candidates should talk about job creation. Likewise, discussing immigration is important.

Just 48% of GOP respondents say they want candidates to spend a lot of time talking about abortion and same-sex marriage rates even lower.

Away from Iowa, many other states delegates to the party’s national convention that nominates the presidential and vice presidential candidates are selected in a primary election. Party members go to the polls and vote for the presidential candidate of their choice. Delegates for the national convention are awarded to each candidate based on the number of votes the candidate receives in the primary election.

CNN suggests that "the influence Iowa is increasing even as the state's odds of predict...

I was just reading the remarkable book by "One Person One Vote" by Carol Anderson, which I highly recommend. Also a great article by The Center for Progress listed ways voters were under attack. So, I decided to review the ways that voter suppression has been applied recently.

During the 2018 midterm elections, voter participation was more than 10 percentage points higher than it was in the 2014 midterm elections, demonstrating Americans’ demand for change and increased enthusiasm for exercising their civic duty to vote. nearly 120 million eligible Americans did not participate.

Voter suppression against marginalized groups such as African Americans, Latinos, and more is a reoccurring problem in the United States. Some voter suppression measures actively seek to discriminate against certain groups, others result from bungling and glitches.

And voter suppression occurred in battleground states  including Georgia, Texas, Florida, and North Dakota. Even a few thousand votes can mean the difference between victory and defeat in competitive elections.

In the 2018 midterm elections, according to Anderson's book there was Voter purges, voter ID requirements, voter confusion, intimidation and harassment, long lines and much more.

The 2018 Mid terms exposed the ever expanding discrimination before and during that time. It is the duty of newly elected lawmakers at the local, state, and federal levels to enact affirmative policies that expand the franchise and make voting more convenient for all eligible Americans.

Voter registration problems

Despite efforts in some states to streamline the voter registration process registering to vote remains a significant barrier for many Americans. Finding out where and when to register, and getting paperwork, registering to vote can be confusing and hard.

Minor spelling mistakes in Georgia, disallowed 53,000 voters -70 percent of whom were black—were placed in “pending” status.Then, those with pending registration statuses were still forced to prove eligibility, including U.S. citizenship, before voting on Election Day. Michigan had voter database problems. The list goes on!

In some states, online voter registration, pioneered by Oregon, makes the voter registration process more convenient and drives voter participation because it eliminates the hassle of locating where to register, securing time off work, and finding transportation. In 2018, a lack of online voter registration proved a problem for Texans. In 2016, this was sued, however, the state’s appeal to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals prevented this from happening. Arizona had problems with poor online forms.

Voter purges continue, especially after a June 2018 U.S. Supreme Court decision that validated Ohio’s process for purging voters from voter rolls simply for not having voted in two previous elections and failing to return a mailer. Voter registrants in Cincinnati's American neighborhoods were purged for failing to vote since 2012, compared with only 4 percent of registered voters living in the surrounding suburb of Indian Hill.15  The Supreme Court gave states a stamp of approval to manipulate voter rolls and keep eligible Americans, particularly people of color, from participating in elections. A 2018 report by the Brennan Center for Justice reported that voter purges were particularly prevalent in states with histories of discriminatory voting practices.

Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp (R) purged an estimated 1.5 million people from the state voter rolls, which disproportionately affected African Americans, whose voter registrations were removed at a rate that was 1.25 times higher than for white Americans in some counties.

Strict voter ID and ballot requirements

Eleven percent of all Americans lack the kind of government-issued photo ID that these laws require,...