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Editorials/Columns
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America Deserves What It Gets
hen the presidential
race took off last year no one could have told me that a curmudgeon like Bernie Sanders would be giving Hillary Clinton a run for her money down the stretch or that an over-the-top billionaire like Donald Trump would be the republican front-runner. But, as it turned out, the competi- tion for the Oval Office had a few surprises up its sleeve that
I doubt anyone saw coming. Granted, the fight Sanders has put up isn't as implausible considering the amount of bag- gage and controversy Clinton brings to the table. But Trump's ascendency to the top of his ticket is simply unbe-
lievable.
I will be the first to admit
that I was one of those critics who thought for sure that Trump's circus would have imploded 6 months ago. Now, with his consistent showing of Teflon like impenetrability in the wake of all his screw-ups, I'm seriously beginning to wonder if it's not a stretch to believe that he could win the whole damn thing?
AsmuchasIhateto,Ifeel forced to take my hat off to the guy, if nothing else, Trump has proven to me that, he's, in-
deed, the best con..er.. I mean salesman I've ever seen.
Say what you will about his arrogance, crassness and ex- treme inappropriateness, somehow he's been able to trick half of the people, who live inside of the most powerful nation on Earth, into believing that he's the most qualified in- dividual for the job of Com- mander-In-Chief.
Even though he has zero experience in the political spectrum, has brutally of- fended a large segment of the population he hopes to repre- sent and has condoned vio- lence at his rallies against individuals who oppose his candidacy, for some reason he's still viewed by many re- publican voters as the best available option.
On top of all that, Trump has also managed to gain the endorsement of radical, right- winged, white supremacists as well as moderate Black Repub- licans by convincing them both that he has each of their best interests at heart, a seemingly impossible task that, in a sane world, couldn't remotely be ex- plained.
What is even crazier is the fact that, in spite of his enor- mous popularity and momen-
tum, his own party continues to hate him. Not only do they see him as uncontrollable, they have no faith in his ability to defeat Clinton (his most likely opponent) in the general elec- tion.
Their angst has led the Re- publican smear machine to use every weapon at their disposal in a last ditch attempt to sink his campaign. The irony being that, if they fail, Clinton or Sanders could ultimately use all of the ammunition dis- pensed to finish the job.
If I wasn't alive to see this transpiring for myself I would swear that it was all a part of a well-written movie script. And, at times, I'm still not sure if that isn't the case?
However it turns out though, whether the process gets exposed as a "selection" rather than an election, there will be no denying that it was, arguably, one of the most in- triguing races for the presi- dency in history. And if, by some incredible set of circum- stances, Trump finds a way to make it to the finish line as a victor there is no doubt in my mind that, going forward, Americans will be perceived across the globe as the biggest fools on the planet who ab- solutely deserve whatever hap- pens next.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Company. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: therealcbarr2@ yahoo.com.
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C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
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30 Days Before November 8th
e, at the Sentinel Bulletin take this opportunity
to congratulate the Black men and women in Tampa-Hillsborough County who voted during the Florida Presidential primary. But we must remind you that less than half of your fellow citizens of voting age did not exercise their Constitutional, blood-stained right. No doubt, many had legitimate reasons for not voting. But the rest had no reason at all other than the fact that they were muscle-bound by their own time- honored self-pity.
In order to vote during the next presidential election, a person must have registered at least 30 days before November 8th. If not, his or her uncast vote may well be what sends us back to the plantation. With that in mind, this is what we advise: Anyone eligible, who has not reg- istered to vote at least 30 days before November 8th, and who has no excuse should not eat at your table, sleep in your bed, share your friendship or be part of your fu- ture.
Yes, times have gotten that bad. And though we do not subscribe your telling your relatives for whom they should vote, we do advise you share with them the rea- sons for your voting choice.
The Business Of Incarceration:
Severing The Prison To Profits Pipeline
Can America Recover From Job Loss Overseas?
ccording to certain economists, America has lost ap-
proximately 3.2 million jobs to China over the past 15 years, and Presidential candidates claim they are going to bring such jobs back to America, one way or the other. Indeed, according to the U. S. Department of Commerce, U. S. multinational companies that employ a fifth of all American workers cut their workforce during the 2000’s by 2.9 million.
Overseas outsourcing has expanded to the extent that 51,000 American manufacturing plants closed between 1998 and 2008. So, if you’re wondering why you can’t find a job, wonder no longer.
Large corporations such as Apple, Inc., and Nike sub- contract all of its manufacturing to independently owned and operated foreign countries. Yet, Americans continue to buy Apple electronics and Nike footwear with abandon, unaware or not caring that these companies are providing jobs for the citizens of foreign countries. Of course, these companies are not alone and labor costs are the driving forces for corporations to outsource jobs.
A massive change in America’s tax code would have to take place in order for U.S. companies to relocate jobs back to America. Given the history of Congress’s refusal to support President Obama’s plan to stop allowing com- panies to get tax breaks for expenses incurred in moving jobs overseas, we doubt seriously if many of the compa- nies currently outsourcing jobs in foreign countries would be returning to America anytime soon.
MARC H. MORIAL
President and CEO National Urban League
“Jails and prisons are the complement of schools; so many less as you have of the latter, so many more must you have of the former.” –
Horace Mann, “Report of the Superintend- ent of Public Instruction of the Commonwealth of Pennsylva- nia,” 1881
merica is addicted to in-
carceration.
No nation holds as many
people behind bars as the United States of America, and the numbers tell it all. The United States imprisons 716 people for every 100,000 resi- dents. That is more than any other country on this planet. Our nation has the largest prison population in the world—both in terms of the ac- tual number of inmates and as a percentage of the country’s pop- ulation. While the United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, we lock up almost 25 percent of the world’s
total prison population. Well- meaning people will differ on the question of whether or not America’s war on crime has truly benefitted the American taxpayer, but because numbers don’t lie, we cannot question the fact that our criminal justice obsession with retribution— versus rehabilitation—has prof- ited private prison operators in our nation’s sprawling prison industrial complex to the tune of billions of dollars.
The country’s two largest pri- vate prison operators, Correc- tions Corporation of America and GEO Group, recently posted their earnings. Com- bined, the two for-profit prison companies collected $361 mil- lion in profits last year.
According to In the Public Interest, a research and policy center, CCA made $3,356 in profit for every person they in- carcerated and GEO Group made $2,135. Incarcerating Americans at the staggering rate of one in every 110 adults has become a profitable busi- ness that promotes the bottom lines of CEOs, but fails to pro- mote effective public safety
strategy.
Research has shown that in-
vesting in social programs and education—resources that can help keep people out of jail in the first place—is far more ef- fective at improving public safety than investing in incar- ceration. Policies that promote prison over education, incarcer- ation over mental health serv- ices and jail over job services comes at the long-term cost of our collective well-being and safety.
Over the past four decades, state spending on corrections has outpaced funding for public education, with states spending three times as much on prisons than schools.
Private prisons—which began cropping up as an alter- native for cash-strapped states attempting to save money by outsourcing the building and running of prisons to private companies—are incentivized to keep cells full at the lowest pos- sible cost, not to keep cells empty.
When every occupied bed represents a broken family, communities torn apart, dimin- ished future job prospects, a po- tential loss of voting rights and the increased risk of returning to crime, our nation’s over-re- liance on jails to combat our en- trenched social ills—and the taxpayer money that keeps the system thriving—should be re- routed into education and the social institutions that serve the public good and are aligned with public safety goals.
FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A
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