Today’s comic by Mark Fiore is The Revolver:
What’s coming up on Sunday Kos:
- Are we a democracy or are we a monarchy, by Ian Reifowitz
- We must take back our wealth from the super-rich methodically before it is too late, by Egberto Willies
- I used to be a "centrist" Democrat, by Frank Vyan Walton
- Rich guy says taxing rich guys is wrong, by Mark E Andersen
- The 2020 Trump strategy, and why scandal is our own worst enemy, by David Akadjian
- I’m a billionaire and I’m running for president, by Jon Perr
- Here's our ultimate Democratic wishlist for Senate in 2020. Who's on yours? by Steve Singiser
- The 2020 electorate will be more diverse than ever, by Sher Watts Spooner
- I refuse to honor George Washington, and other 'founders' who enslaved, and sold human beings, by Denise Oliver Velez
• Cost of phone calls from Illinois’ jails 50 times more than from its prisons:
When you’re thrown behind bars, not much is more important than a phone call. And while a lot of attention has been paid to the exorbitant rates and hidden fees of phone calls from federal and state prisons, the cost of calling from city and county jails remains largely unchecked, preventing many prisoners—the majority of whom are pre-trial—from communicating with loved ones or lawyers.
According to a new report this week from the nonprofit research organization Prison Policy Initiative, the average cost of a phone call from jail is over three times as much as one from prison. In some states, it’s much higher than that: In Michigan, a 15-minute call from jail could cost as much as $22, whereas that call from state prison would come out to just under $2.50. In Illinois, a typical jail call is over 50 times more expensive than a call from state prison.
• Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation tried to save the Ninth Ward of New Orleans after Katrina: It built 109 new homes there. But many are flawed in design, construction, and materials, one so bad it had to be demolished. One publication said, “Make It Right seems to have made it blight.” What happened?
MIDDAY TWEET
• Group of engineers and scientists propose building solar, wind, natural gas, and water infrastructure instead of a wall on southern border:
Here’s an idea: Instead of an endless, inert wall along the U.S.–Mexico border, line the boundary with 2,000 miles of natural gas, solar and wind power plants. Use some of the energy to desalinate water from the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean and ship it through pipelines to thirsty towns, businesses and new farms along the entire border zone. Hire hundreds of thousands of people from both countries to build and run it all. Companies would make money and provide security to safeguard their assets. A contentious, costly no-man’s-land would be transformed into a corridor of opportunity. [...]
The idea is more than a pipe dream. A consortium of 27 engineers and scientists from a dozen U.S. universities has developed a plan. Last week they delivered it to three U.S. representatives and one senator. “Let’s put the best scientists and engineers together to create a new way to deal with migration, trafficking—and access to water. These are regions of severe drought,” says Luciano Castillo, a professor of energy and power at Purdue University who leads the group. “Water supply is a huge future issue for all the states along the border in both countries.”
• Andrew McCabe’s new book portrays Jefferson B. Sessions III as incompetent racist: While that description is a mild one by progressive standards, it’s always good to hear some details. Former FBI Deputy Director McCabe described several interactions with then-Attorney General Sessions, citing him saying: “Back in the old days, he said, you all only hired Irishmen. They were drunks but they could be trusted. Not like all those new people with nose rings and tattoos.”
• Economic Policy Institute analyzes the Raise the Wage Act of 2019. By raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024, 40 million American workers would get a pay boost. And it would disproportionately increase the wages of all black workers by 38.1 percent and 23.2 percent of all white workers. African Americans would benefit more because they are more likely to be employed in jobs currently paying less than the proposed new minimum wage and less likely to work in states or regions that have passed a state minimum wage higher than the current federal minimum:
Just as black workers were significantly overrepresented in the industrial sectors originally excluded from [federal] minimum wage coverage [in 1938], black workers today are significantly overrepresented in states that have not raised their minimum wages as the purchasing power of the federal minimum has eroded. In both instances, these were intentional policy decisions rooted—at least in part—in indifference if not outright hostility toward black workers.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Hey, kids! Stay in school! Or don't. Whatever. YouTubers are making a mint chewing food on camera. A real Harvard law prof has declared the Constitution unconstitutional. And Armando joins us in witnessing the "national emergency" trainwreck.