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Today’s comic by Jen Sorensen is Fun with ethno-nationalist dog whistles:
• Gallup: Just 47 percent say they are “extremely proud” to be Americans: For the past 18 years, the Gallup organization has asked U.S. adults how proud they are to be Americans. This year, for the first time, less than a majority say they are "extremely proud," well below the peak of 70 percent in 2003. When the “extremely proud” and “ very proud” categories are combined, 72 percent of sampled U.S. adults agree.
• Justice Anthony Kennedy opposed Native interests in most cases on which he expressed an opinion: Matthew Fletcher, who writes at the Turtle Talk blog, is professor of law at Michigan State University College of Law and director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center. He sits as the Chief Justice of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians Supreme Court and is a member of the Grand Traverse Band, located in Peshawbestown, Michigan. In examining the Supreme Court record of Justice Anthony Kennedy, Fletcher found him wanting. Most of his opinions were opposed to tribal interests as seen by Natives. In 11 cases, he favored tribal interests, but 45 times he sided with the justices who opposed those interests.
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MIDDAY TWEET
(Kruse follows with a list of 30 rancid Dixiecrats who switched.)
• Wyoming Sen. John Barasso has introduced legislation to restructure the Endangered Species Act: As you might guess, his proposed changes would weaken the 45-year-old ESA by turning over key aspects of oversight to the states. This is handy for the Republican foes of the ESA who have been eager to hamstring the protective legislation that can place obstacles in the path of extractive energy projects and other developments on critical habitat for endangered species. There are currently dozens of bills introduced by the GOP-controlled 115th Congress that would weaken or completely eliminate federal protections for specific threatened species.
Earthjustice anticipated Barrasso's legislative proposal more than a year ago. The environmental law nonprofit said that Barrasso has received substantial campaign contributions from extractive industries that wish to mine or drill land that overlaps with wildlife habitat. Citing campaign finance records, from 2011 until 2016, Barrasso received $458,466 in total campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry, plus $241,706 from the mining industry.
• Nine new wildfires break out over the weekend in drought-plagued Northern California.
• Commission recommends removing statute of Rebel President Jefferson Davis from public avenue in one-time Confederate capital of Richmond: There are numerous Confederate statues in Richmond, and the commission spent a year studying what to do with them. In some cases in the 100-page report, adding explanatory plaques was the recommended fix:
The Davis statue “is the most unabashedly Lost Cause in its design and sentiment,” the report said in a reference to an interpretation of the war that historians say romanticizes the South and de-emphasizes the role of slavery.
An inscription on the Davis monument, for instance, “styles the Confederate president as a ‘Defender of the Rights of States,'” the report noted.
• EPI: Hispanic-white wage gap has remained wide and steady:
The adjusted earnings gap between Hispanics and white men has remained relatively steady since 2000 for Hispanic men and women overall and for most of the largest subgroups by national origin. In 2017, Hispanic men made 14.9 percent less in hourly wages than comparable white men (an improvement from 17.8 percent in 2000), while Hispanic women made 33.1 percent less than comparable white men (a small improvement from 35.1 percent in 2000). In 2016, men of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban origins made 14.1 percent, 11.0 percent, and 16.9 percent less in hourly wages than comparable white men, respectively (in 2000, these pay penalties were 18.7 percent, 10.3 percent, and 16.4 percent, respectively). In 2016, women of Mexican origin made 33.5 percent less than comparable white men, a slight improvement from 36.2 percent in 2000. But women of Puerto Rican and Cuban origins experienced large drops in their pay disadvantage relative to white men, from 32.4 percent in 2000 to 24.7 percent in 2016 for Puerto Rican women, and from 39.1 percent in 2000 to 24.1 percent in 2016 for Cuban American women.
• Fewer Americans are contributing to charity but total donations are still breaking records:
Americans contributed 2.1 percent of gross domestic product to charity in 2017. That percent is about the same as it has been for the past 40 years. But the total contributions by American individuals, estates, corporations and foundations to nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and other charities came in at $410 billion in 2017, according to the Giving USA 2018 report. The percentage hasn’t changed, but the contributions showed a $20 billion increase from 2016, a 3 percent increase over 2016. But the numbers of Americans who are giving has sharply fallen even as the amounts donated by those who still contribute rose substantially.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: It’s an Armando special, today! Trump wouldn't authorize lowering flags for the latest mass shooting. And he's grifting off of stock photos. Marcy Wheeler sends up a Trump-Russia flare. Deep in debt, Trump meets with Russians, emerges flush with cash.
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