[OpsLens] Proposition 47, issued in 2014 in California, lowered criminal sentences for drug possession, theft, shoplifting, identity theft, receiving stolen property, writing bad checks, and check forgery from felony charges that can bring prison terms to misdemeanors that usually come with minimal jail sentences, if any. Since that time, the Public Policy Institute says that larcenies increased by 9 percent, and thefts from vehicles had a three-quarters increase.
Overcrowded prison systems and a seemingly racist or unfair targeting of minorities created calls for reforms, especially on nonviolent crimes like stealing and drug possession. But even the noblest of intentions have unintended consequences. The consequences from this action weren’t very hard to foresee though. In economics, when something is more expensive you get less of it and when something is cheaper you buy more of it. There is never a shopping frenzy on Black Friday because of higher prices. Human behavior is the same way; when you lower penalties for crime, you get more of it.
Moreover, these types of crimes tend to be connected and sometimes light sentences make them worse. While it is not the most effective method, drug addicts who are usually convicted for drug possession or for stealing to support their habit, often receive treatment in jail. The lack of jail time for these crimes means there is less chance of addicts receiving the help that solves the addiction, which is the root cause of their criminal behavior. Instead, the San Louis Obispo County chief probation officer reports that drug users are fueling the rise in crime, especially car thefts, to support their drug habits.
#1
My state is doing what other states seem to be doing. The warehousing of so many carries a tremendous cost. Staffing is cut to the bone. Pay overtime rather than hire new staff. Pull people in from other departments to show coverage. Now with the cutbacks in pain management what is a person to do?. Suicide and the drug of choice Heroin. Cheap and available. Maryland; my state, they hope for a new administration. Problem here is law enforcement is not supported. Costs alone are their primary concern. In Baltimore they wanted to bring in the Feds but they are controlled more than the state enforcement people. Juvenile justice is suffering here also. The prisoners are out of control because of the limits placed on officers. Living near these places gives a person a sense of disquiet.
[RedState] Turkey, a member of NATO, a one-time candidate for EU membership, and a budding Islamist dictatorship, is on the verge of a full-bore meltdown of its financial market. The Turkish lira has been staggering toward crisis for several months as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan implement the much the same decisions that one would have expected if he’d used Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as a financial advisor. Turkey had an unmanageable debt-to-GDP ratio, inflation was beginning to kick in, and Erdogan thinks raising interest rates to control inflation is the spawn of Satan. This is something they apparently teach instead of economics wherever it was that Erdogan and his lackeys went to school.
The proximate cause of the Ferrari-like acceleration of the current crisis into something that Erdogan may not be able to survive is pretty easy to understand. Erdogan blames a Turkish preacher, Fethullah Gulen, who lives in the US for a coup attempt against him in 2016. He has demanded extradition of this man and been rebuffed. To improve his bargaining position, Erdogan’s regime did what any Turkish whoremonger would have done, they arrested an American pastor, Andrew Brunson, and charged him with terrorism. Presumably, if we sent their pastor back, they will send ours home. At the NATO summit, Erdogan and Trump reached an agreement. Brunson would be sent home and Trump would prevail upon Israel to release a Turkish terrorist. Trump and Israel did their part. Erdogan reneged.
...Washington has generally tried to calm global markets in such moments, especially when investors are gripped by fear of contagion. Mr. Trump instead squeezed Ankara further, raising tariffs on Turkish steel imports to 50% and aluminum to 20%, which deepened the Turkish lira’s drop and worsened market fears that its banks could be shaken.
...Erdogan’s Turkey has virtually declared a cultural war on Europe both facilitating the flow of "refugees" from camps in Turkey into Europe and encouraging Turks in Europe to outbreed natives of their host countries. As late as the autumn of 2017, Erdogan and his henchmen were talking smack about how they didn’t give a f*** about a US alliance anyway
...Since the fall of the USSR and the rise of Erdogan, Turkey’s strategic position has become much less useful and its bad behavior much more of an issue. At present, having Turkey as an ally is presenting many more problems than opportunities. And anyways, what NATO does nowadays except encouraging certain East European countries to poke sticks at the Bear?
...One has to suspect that sanctioning two Turkish thugs and increasing tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum is only the beginning of the process. The next weeks will see massive capital flight out of Turkey as people fearing both potential sanctions and economic collapse. Nothing the Turkish government is doing is building confidence. Erdogan’s call on Friday for Turks, in a show of patriotism, to sell gold and real currency in order to buy Turkish lira was seen more as a move born of desperation than a real strategy. Recep goes full Alexandria?
...Odds are that Turkey experiences a fiscal meltdown. Between Erdogan’s fiscal policies, a lack of confidence in the ability of his government to do squat, and the fact that the US government isn’t going to help him out, it is hard to see how this doesn’t go full-metal Argentina before it is all over. I expect Turkey to go to war
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2018 8:15 Comments ||
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#4
What NATO is worried about is an American serviceman gets grabbed or whacked and Americans rise up and say "enough!" But that has never happened in any of the incidents in Afghanistan or Iraq and the one in Jordan, so maybe they worry too much?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/12/2018 8:23 Comments ||
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#5
What NATO is worried about is an American serviceman gets grabbed or whacked and Americans rise up and say "enough!"
[CNN by Brian "Tater" Stelter] THIS is why the media is hated and their papers are going the way of the dinosaur "The dirty war on the free press must end." "WE should be the only ones to guide the narrative!"
That's the idea behind an unusual editorial-writing initiative that has enlisted scores of newspapers across America.
The Boston Globe has been contacting newspaper editorial boards and proposing a "coordinated response" to President Trump's escalating "enemy of the people" rhetoric.
"We propose to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration's assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date," The Globe said in its pitch to fellow papers.
The effort began just a few days ago.
As of Saturday, "we have more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days," Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's deputy editorial page editor, told CNN.
The American Society of News Editors, the New England Newspaper and Press Association and other groups have helped her spread the word.
"The response has been overwhelming," Pritchard said. "We have some big newspapers, but the majority are from smaller markets, all enthusiastic about standing up to Trump's assault on journalism."
Instead of printing the exact same message, each publication will write its own editorial, Pritchard said.
That was a key part of her pitch: "The impact of Trump's assault on journalism looks different in Boise than it does in Boston," she wrote. "Our words will differ. But at least we can agree that such attacks are alarming."
Journalists have noticed an uptick in Trump's attacks against the news media in recent weeks. He has been using dehumanizing language like "enemy of the people" more often. He has also been speaking to reporters less often, limiting the chances for questions to be asked.
With Trump's words and deeds as the backdrop, some media critics have urged the White House press corps to engage in acts of solidarity. There were cheers last month when reporters in the briefing room deferred to rivals who were trying to ask follow-up questions, and when numerous outlets stood up for CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins after Collins was told she could not attend a Trump event.
The coordinated editorials may be another example of unity across the news business.
Although there's a longstanding debate about the effectiveness of newspaper editorials, there is certainly strength in numbers -- the greater the number of participants, the more readers will see the message.
Pritchard said she expects differing views from the editorials, "but the same sentiment: The importance of a free and independent press." Totes different, but expect anyone deviating from the party line to be banned
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2018 11:48 ||
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#5
"the greater the number of participants, the more readers will see the message" Many former readers have already been seeing the message - ever since Election Day 2016. Then they woke up and turned away.
#6
When the Globe moved out of the former 135 Morrissey Boulevard headquarters, my only regret was not grabbing a sawzall, cutting off the 'B' ('The Boston Globe' letters that hung off the side of the building facing the Southeast Expressway) off their wall and hanging it in my garage as a souvenir.
#8
100 editorials...will be read by possibly 250 or so people?
Posted by: Tom ||
08/12/2018 14:15 Comments ||
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#9
"Honey? Did you read my powerful editorial??"
Posted by: Frank G ||
08/12/2018 14:18 Comments ||
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#10
My History repeats itself, it was only 1931 when they published A Hundred Authors Against Einstein. The Theory that Consensus equals truth, how novel!
h/t Gates of Vienna
The United States Forest Service was originally founded to protect forests from the ravages of fire to preserve it for future generations. That thinking was abandoned in favor of the flawed "no-use movement," or the "rewilding" theory, which blames humans for the "degradation of our planet." "Rewilding the land can repair damage we’ve caused and reconnect us to the natural world," National Geographic claims.
For decades, traditional forest management was scientific and successful ‐ that is until ideological, preservationist zealots wormed their way into government and began the 40-year overhaul of sound federal forest management through abuse of the Endangered Species Act and the no-use movement.
Traditional forest management had simple guidelines: thin the forest when it becomes too difficult to walk through; too many trees in the woods will compete with one another, because the best trees will grow at a slower rate.
...In 2012, the Obama administration issued a major rewrite of all of the country’s forest rules and guidelines, adding so many rules, regulations and layers of bureaucracy, grounding all forest management to a halt. McClintock said that to even cut one tree down in the national forest, forest managers were forced to apply to the federal government for a study. The other big problem is these burdensome regulatory requirements greatly inflate the cost of forest management, McClintock said. "Between the studies and litigation, the process was endless," McClintock added.
When forest managers attempted to address public lands ravaged by disease, beetles or fires, they were met with a wall of bureaucracy. "Public lands take years’ worth of environmental review for studies," McClintock said. "By then, the timber has lost most of its commercial value. Essentially, the public land is abandoned. The laws make it cost prohibitive to salvage."
...We are now living with the result of radical environmentalism ideology ‐ that we should abandon our public lands to overpopulation, overgrowth, and in essence, benign neglect, McClintock said. "Forest fires, fueled by decades of pent up overgrowth are now increasing in their frequency and intensity and destruction."
He added, "excess timber WILL come out of the forest in one of only two ways. It is either carried out or it burns out."
#1
I think a variation on Kornbluth's Marching Morons population reduction scheme would do it. Announce that an efficient cellulostic ethanol process has been developed. Build giant incinerators and announce that states need to "send in their deadfall wood" to get in on the kickbacks, er, subsidies. There will not be a stick the size of a golf pencil left in the woods by sundown.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/12/2018 7:52 Comments ||
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#2
an efficient cellulostic ethanol process has been developed
#3
I recall talking with a fellow with the U.S. Forest Service about the 2012 about the fires in Plumas Co., Ca. He said the policy had changed regarding controlled burns as the result of pressures by environmentalists. He said the risk of such fires could be significantly reduced by controlled burns. The rank and file understood this.
#5
of the fires currently burning in CA, two arsonists have self identified
also, a lot of the land in CA that is burning is not managed by the Forest Service but instead by the US Bureau of Land Management or the various State agencies -- they may have similar policies as the Forest Service or maybe even more strict
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/12/2018 10:28 Comments ||
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#6
Two things: 1) pretty damn sure the new regs apply across all fed agencies - that was the point. 2) since 2012 CA has experienced wild fires every month of the year.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
08/12/2018 14:14 Comments ||
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#7
Given as how the environazis won't let the DOI or BLM spray for bark beetles our forests are dying out
There are about 125 million dead trees in the various forests in California caused by the bark beetle. You can go into the Sequoia National Forest and the is utter desolation and few trees
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[CNN by Brian "Tater" Stelter] 
