Welcome once again to $27 Quotes — a weekly place where you can sit back, relax, enjoy some inspiring quotes and good music, and (most importantly) spend time gazing at a picture or two of foresterbob’s cat Noble Fur.
Oops. I accidentally published before I finished editing. Shows how late I’m running on things! Apologies to anyone who saw what first went up and went, “Huh?”
Anyway, here is another edition of $27 Quotes for progressive quote-lovers to enjoy. Quotes (and music) coming right up...
Let’s start with tonight’s title quote — or, rather, with some of the text which accompanies tonight’s title quote:
The United States is experiencing a major human tragedy. We have more people in jail than any other country on earth, including Communist China, an authoritarian country four times our size. The U.S. has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet we incarcerate about a quarter of its prisoners — some 2.2 million people.
There are many ways that we must go forward to address this tragedy. One of them is to end the existence of the private for-profit prison industry which now makes millions from the incarceration of Americans. These private prisons interfere with the administration of justice. And they’re driving inmate populations skyward by corrupting the political process.
No one, in my view, should be allowed to profit from putting more people behind bars — whether they’re inmates in jail or immigrants held in detention centers. In fact, I believe that private prisons shouldn’t be allowed to exist at all, which is why I’ve introduced legislation to eliminate them...
Because of where this quote appeared, there is no copyright or fair-use problem with my quoting large chunks of it here. So I’m going to quote another important section, about the racial injustice of a private for-profit prison system:
For-profit prisons harm minorities
The prison crisis has disproportionately harmed minorities. If current trends persist, one in four black males born today can expect to be imprisoned during their lifetime. Tragically, 69 percent of African-American men who drop out of high school will end up in jail, according to the most recent statistics.
The Department of Justice found that black motorists were three times more likely than their white counterparts to be searched during a traffic stop. African Americans are twice as likely to be arrested, and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with police. Further, African Americans are imprisoned at six times the rate of whites.
And l’m going to quote still another important section:
For-profit prisons abuse prisoners
The horror stories from for-profit prisons are plentiful. Here are a few examples:
- Rat-infested food was served to inmates by a private vendor in Michigan, and other rotten or spoiled food items were served in that state and elsewhere. The same vendor reportedly underfed Michigan inmates.
- Privately-run prisons in Mississippi have two to three times the rate of violent assault as publicly run facilities.
- A private prison vendor has reportedly used juvenile offenders in Florida to subdue other young prisoners. “It’s the Lord of the Flies,” said Broward County’s chief assistant public defender. “The children are used by staff members to inflict harm on other children.”
- Nurses at a private prison chain in California threatened to strike over the inadequate health care, which one described as “unsafe,” and there have even been reported incidents of patient abuse.
Another important section deals with the abuse of immigrants in private for-profit detention centers. Here’s part of what that sections says:
For-profit prisons victimize immigrants.
Immigrants have also been victimized by corporate prison greed. As the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) notes in in an in-depth report, “The criminalization of immigration … enriches the private prison industry” by segregating most of the resulting inmates into one of thirteen privately-run “Criminal Alien Requirement” (CAR) prisons...
For-profit prisons profit from abuse and mistreatment.
As the ACLU notes, the bidding process for private immigration centers provides “incentives that keep facilities overcrowded and place excessive numbers of prisoners in isolated confinement.” It also reports inadequate medical care, abusive treatment, and “severely overcrowded and squalid living conditions.”
By now many of you have probably guessed who said this. But have you guessed where and when it was said? I suspect the answer to one of those 3 questions will surprise you.
I’ll provide the answers, and a link so you can read the whole thing, a little a lot farther down the page. It’s something which is well worth reading in its entirety. But first, here’s a little music, and then some more quotes to read and enjoy, while you ponder the questions of who said that, where they said it, and when they said it.
This music interlude is dedicated to Donald Trump (and the unfortunately many other people, left as well as right, who emulate his style):
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“I Have A Plan for That...”
… and it’s not just Elizabeth Warren that applies to in tonight’s edition. Coming up: plans from several different people for addressing the important problems we face.
One area very much in need of action is the abusive way immigrants are being treated:
The vast majority of people who are coming over the border are fleeing violence, crime, life threatening situations. They're not criminals. They're just like everybody who comes to America to try to make a better life for themselves and their children. The conditions that we're all reading about in these holding camps in Texas and southern New Mexico, are absolutely horrific. It's embarrassing that this is how we are greeting people...
~ Pramila Jayapal
Forcing asylum seekers to wait for months or years in Mexico as their cases are processed is cruel and dangerous. This program should be ended immediately.
~ Pramila Jayapal
Of course, Pramila Jayapal is not the only one speaking out clearly and strongly about this situation:
At least three children held in U.S. custody have already died of the flu. This is cruel and inhumane — and it will lead to more preventable deaths.
~ Elizabeth Warren
Trump's immigration agenda is cruel, racist and a stain on this nation. America cannot be about locking up families, including children, at the border indefinitely.
We need to fundamentally overhaul our immigration system to treat those seeking asylum with humanity and dignity. When we are in the White House, on day one I will undo everything Trump has done to demonize and harm immigrants.
~ Bernie Sanders
But the reason I quoted Pramila Jayapal first, at the top of this section, is to spotlight the plan Pramila Jayapal has been promoting for dealing with this horrible situation:
We cannot stand by as this admin continues to harm people by dismantling protections so it can indefinitely detain children and families. Congress, join the fight to end zero-humanity policies like this by supporting my Dignity For Detained Immigrants Act.
~ Pramila Jayapal
If you’d like to learn more, here’s a link to the full text of the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act. And here’s a link to an analysis by the Quaker group FCNL.
[SPOILER WARNING: FCNL very much approves of Jayapal’s Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act and urges congress to pass it.]
Another important problem we have to address is climate change:
The climate crisis is the greatest challenge facing humanity. It's also our single greatest opportunity to build a just and equitable future.
We are going to create 20 million jobs and an economy that works for all.
It's time for a Green New Deal…
~ Bernie Sanders
And here's a link to Bernie Sanders' recently released Green New Deal plan for dealing with the climate crisis. It’s extremely detailed and extremely good.
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Still another important problem needing to be dealt with is the US criminal justice system:
For most of our history as a country, the United States incarcerated people at about the same rates as other western democracies do today. In the early 1970s we had the same low crime rate as today, but we now have an incarceration rate five times higher. Indeed, America is now the world’s leading jailer. We lock up more than 2 million people in America, which is more of our own people than any country on Earth. And that does not include another 5 million people who are under the supervision of the correctional system.
Hundreds of thousands of incarcerated people in America have not been convicted of a crime and are solely in jail because they can’t afford their bail. We are criminalizing poverty...
We must move away from an overly-punitive approach to public safety and start focusing on how to safeguard our communities, prevent the conditions that lead to arrests, and rehabilitate people who have made mistakes…
~ Bernie Sanders
And Bernie Sanders has a very detailed plan for dealing with the problems in our criminal justice system, the Justice and Safety for All Plan.
As is often the case, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are of very like mind on this issue:
For the exact same crimes, Black Americans are more likely than whites to be arrested, charged, wrongfully convicted, and given harsher sentences. The evidence is clear that there are structural race problems in the criminal justice system.
Our punitive system does little to keep us safer—and it is separating families and devastating entire communities. If we want real justice in this country, we have to make big, structural changes to reform the criminal justice system.
~ Elizabeth Warren
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As usual, Elizabeth Warren continues to come forward with excellent and well-thought-out plans. Here’s one of her most recent plans, for addressing a very serious problem which too many political leaders have not been talking enough about:
A nuclear arms race doesn’t make the U.S. — or the world — any safer. That’s why I’m leading 17 other senators in urging representative Jim Inhofe and senator JackReed to include 3 key nuclear weapons provisions in next year’s defense budget.
We urge keeping provisions that:
- Ban the deployment of dangerous, costly and unnecessary W76-2 low-yield nuclear warheads
- Call on the Trump admin to extend the New START treaty
- Deny funding for certain nuclear missiles to prevent an arms race following the INF Treaty collapse
The United States already has nearly 4,000 nuclear weapons in our active arsenal, & our conventional military might is overwhelming. Doubling down on more nuclear weapons while scrapping nuclear treaties undercuts our nonproliferation efforts around the world.
~ Elizabeth Warren
This next one isn’t exactly a detailed plan, but it is a good quote which I think is worth sharing and this seems like a good section to do that in…
I see Fox News is big mad about abolishing the electoral college.
So let’s talk about it.
1) If the GOP were the “silent majority” they claim, they wouldn’t be so scared of a popular vote.
They know they aren’t the majority. They rely on establishing minority rule for power.
2) This common claim about “if we don’t have the Electoral College then a handful of states will determine the presidency” is BS.
a. It’s the Electoral College itself that breaks down power by state, pop vote decentralizes it
b. The Electoral College makes it so a handful of states DO determine elections
3) Lastly, this concept that the Electoral College provides “fairness” to rural Americans over coastal states doesn’t hold any water whatsoever. First of all, virtually every state has rural communities. New York. California. Much of our states are rural.
But very importantly...
4) We do not give electoral affirmative action to any other group in America. Do Black Americans have their votes count more because they have been disenfranchised for 100s of years? Do Reservations get an electoral vote? Does Puerto Rico and US territories get them? No. They don’t.
5) The Electoral College isn’t about fairness at all; it’s about empowering some voters over others.
Every vote should be equal in America, no matter who you are or where you come from. The right thing to do is establish a Popular Vote.
~ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
All right. To help keep Noble Fur happy, here are:
Some Quickie Quotes
For decades, policies have prioritized coal corporations over coal workers.
No more. The best way to uplift coal communities is to center them in a Green New Deal -- by fully funding their pensions and investing in a Just Transition.
~ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Coal miners are not the enemy. Oil rig workers are not the enemy. Climate change is the enemy. When we pass a Green New Deal we will ensure a just transition for all workers.
~ Bernie Sanders
Climate change isn’t just a campaign issue. It’s a global emergency. And it’s going to take world leaders and activists coming together to stop it.
~ Ilhan Omar
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If working Americans are too busy fighting with one another, we will never address the very real and deep problems our country faces — from climate change to soaring inequality to lack of quality affordable health care.
~ Ilhan Omar
Two years ago the Burmese military began a campaign that killed thousands of Rohingya and forced over 700,000 people to flee their homes. Today and every day we must stand up for the Rohingya, for reconciliation and accountability in Burma, and for human rights around the world.
~ Elizabeth Warren
Every single day of this campaign matters. As Democrats, we have to be willing to get out there and fight for our country. No more defense—we need to play offense and be the party of big, structural change.
~ Elizabeth Warren
Right now in America, working people are getting squeezed. Wages have barely budged for a generation, but the cost of housing, health care, and education is rising. It's time to level the playing field.
~ Elizabeth Warren
Thank you, Jay Inslee, for fighting every day to make sure that climate change remains a primary focus of this election. Climate change is real and it's a crisis — and I will keep fighting alongside you to take bold action before it is too late.
~ Elizabeth Warren
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Universal health care and tuition-free college aren’t radical. They already exist in other nations. Here’s what’s radical:
Allowing giant corporations like Amazon to pay nothing in federal income taxes and giving fossil fuel companies billions in subsidies to destroy the planet.
~ Bernie Sanders
Republicans who oppose our Green New Deal should explain why they don't support creating 20 million jobs and averting climate catastrophe, yet will give billions in corporate welfare to fossil fuel companies.
~ Bernie Sanders
The business model of Wells Fargo is fraud. Yet how many people at Wells Fargo are going to jail? Zero.
But if you smoke marijuana in this country, you get a criminal record. That is unacceptable.
~ Bernie Sanders
CEOs of billion-dollar companies say they want to invest in their workers and communities. Good. I have a few ideas for them:
✅ Provide a living wage of at least $15 an hour
✅ Stop union-busting and outsourcing jobs
✅ Pay your taxes, don't evade them
~ Bernie Sanders
"Medical debt" and "medical bankruptcy" should not exist in the United States of America.
Getting sick is not a crime, yet our health care system acts like it is.
Every person in this country must be able to get the care they need through Medicare for All regardless of income.
~ Bernie Sanders
Let me be blunt:
If we stick to a "middle ground" approach or half measures when it comes to the climate crisis, our children and grandchildren will not have a livable planet.
Those are the stakes of this moment.
~ Bernie Sanders
Nothing will fundamentally change unless we build a mass movement of people to win the White House and transform the country. That's what this campaign is about.
~ Bernie Sanders
Short music break for one of my favorite songs, about an English woman in the early ‘80s who was willing to go to jail if necessary to stop dangerous things her government was doing. You can read a little more about the action she was involved in here. Today in the United States we need many more people like her.
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Well, drat! There were a number of other good quotes I’d hoped to include tonight but I don’t have time to add them in (and many folks probably wouldn’t have time to read them as well as all the others if I did add them).
But before I close, I should include the who, where and when of the title quote. It’s was posted in a diary here on Daily Kos by Bernie Sanders, “We Must End For-Profit Prisons”, back in 2015.
Yes, 2015. Bernie Sanders has been working to abolish for-profit prisons, including the for-profit detention centers where immigrants are abused, for longer than most people have even been aware they existed.
Back in 2015 Bernie Sanders, Raul Grijalva, Keith Ellison and Bobby Rush introduced the Justice Is Not For Sale Act to get private prisons outlawed. They weren’t able to get the law passed but they were able to convince the Obama administration Department of Justice to agree to stop using private for-profit prisons. Unfortunately they were not able to convince the Obama adminstration Department of Homeland Security to agree to stop using private for-profit detention centers for incarcerating immigrants.
So Grijalva and Sanders tried again to convince the DHS in 2016:
A pair of liberals are pushing the Obama administration to shutter its privately run immigration detention centers.
In a Monday letter to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said the for-profit facilities should be phased out because of their poor track record when it comes to safety, efficiency and basic human rights protections.
Energized by the Justice Department's recent decision to end the agency's use of privately operated facilities, they're asking DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson to follow suit.
"Given the impact on detainees, the high cost to taxpayers and the Department of Justice's recent decision, we believe the Department of Homeland Security can and should immediately begin phasing out for-profit, privately run immigration detention centers," Sanders and Grijalva wrote.
The lawmakers have long opposed the government's reliance on for-profit prisons and detention centers, having sponsored legislation last year to ban them entirely across all agencies…
"Community-based alternatives to detention are more humane, cost-effective and provide the necessary resources to ensure undocumented immigrants comply with immigration court proceedings," they wrote...
Regrettably they were not successful in convincing the DHS of this in 2016, so here we are today. But I think it’s worth noting how far ahead of most other political figures Grijalva and Sanders were on this back then and to hope we do a better job of listening to voices like theirs in the future.