Oh beautiful for spacious skies.
In our first topic of the day, GQ’s Marc Ambinder is reporting that should President Obama win a second term, he’ll pivot to the Drug War.
Even from the beginning of the Drug War, it’s been about race. Drugs like marijuana were criminalized due to their association with black jazz musicians in the 30s and 40s. In the 80s, Reagan pushed a 100:1 sentencing discrepancy between crack (primarily used by African-Americans) and cocaine (primarily used by yuppie whites). The Drug War is the primary reason HIV and AIDS are still spreading. Now, it’s about class. What crack was to the lower class black community in the 80s and 90s, meth is to the lower class white community today. Now we’re locking people up in Appalachia, and the South, and the Midwest, and people are starting to notice.
The sooner we accept that the Drug War was a failure of epic proportions, the sooner we can start cleaning up the damage it’s caused.
In some leftover news from the weekend, in a report from ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum, Mitt Romney’s campaign has revealed it’s media strategy: ignore journalists and pander to right-wing conspiracy websites.
The relationship the right has with the mainstream media is like the one an abusive boyfriend has with his girlfriend. He beats her, calls her worthless, screams and yells at her, etc., but she keeps coming back. I feel like we need to have an intervention or call the cops or something, because the screams are becoming way too loud to ignore.
In news across the pond, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has announced an inquiry into the LIBOR scandal currently overwhelming British (and almost assuredly soon-to-be American) banks. Here’s a liveblog from The Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow.
If there is a God, and He is a just and loving God, He would strike down the bankers for their terrific arrogance and utter indifference to the suffering of their fellow man. I wish we had a politician with the stones to do this here.
Finally, a tremendous look at class inequality in America from GQ’s Jon Ronson, titled “Amber Waves of Green”. I highly recommend reading the whole article.
