Excerpts from the Harper’s Index:
Factor by which more migrants with criminal records are apprehended at the Canadian rather than the Mexican border: 3
Estimated percentage of Mexican immigrants to the United States who are undocumented: 45
Of U.S. immigrants to Mexico: 95
Portion of white Americans who lived in an almost exclusively white neighborhood
in 1980: 1/3
Who do so today: 1/20
Percentage of white U.S. men who say it’s a dangerous time for men in this country: 37
Who say it’s a dangerous time for women: 32
Percentage chance that a U.S. woman who is denied an abortion will be in poverty six months later: 61
That a U.S. woman who receives an abortion will be: 45
Minimum amount the R.N.C. and the Trump campaign have spent on legal fees since the 2016 election: $16,246,687
Minimum amount the Trump Administration has spent on golfing trips: $106,000,000
Percentage change in women’s math test scores in a room that is between 80° and 90° F rather than 60° and 70° F: +27
In men’s math test scores: –7
TOP COMMENTS • HIGH IMPACT STORIES
QUOTATION
“The Cosmos extends, for all practical purposes, forever. After a brief sedentary hiatus, we are resuming our ancient nomadic way of life. Our remote descendants, safely arrayed on many worlds throughout the Solar System and beyond, will be unified by their common heritage, by their regard for their home planet, and by the knowledge that, whatever other life may be, the only humans in all the Universe come from Earth. They will gaze up and strain to find the blue dot in their skies. They will love it no less for its obscurity and fragility. They will marvel at how vulnerable the repository of all our potential once was, how perilous our infancy, how humble our beginnings, how many rivers we had to cross before we found our way.”
~~Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994)
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2012—Penn State must shut down its football program:
The report by Louis Freeh on the Penn State University pedophilia scandal finally makes clear what happened and why, and it also makes clear that there is only one clean path forward for Penn State. This scandal happened not because of one lone psychopath, or because a few well-intentioned Penn State leaders misunderstood what was happening, or did know what was happening but didn't understand how to deal with it; the Freeh report makes clear that the highest ranking authorities at Penn State did know what was happening, deliberately chose not to contact appropriate authorities, and deliberately chose to protect the perpetrator of horrific crimes rather than those subject to them, and they did it all because they wanted to protect Penn State football rather than the innocent, abused children.
This scandal and these horrors happened because the culture of football at Penn State had come to mean more to the school's leadership than did basic standards of humanity and morality, and the only way for Penn State to regain its human and moral footing is for it to shut down its football program, as a statement to the victims, the students and alumni and fans, and all humanity. When something as important as the safety and well-being of children is superseded by athletic prowess, the money it earns, and the false sense of prestige it imparts, it is time to start over, from scratch, not in the realm of athletics but in the realm of humanity and morality.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Netroots Nation a huge success and growing every day! Donald Trump a huge racist and growing every day! Greg Dworkin rounds up the news and polling (good, bad & egregious), and Armando reports on his perspective from inside the room in Philly.