The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results ~ Albert Einstein

Did you know the state of California spends $11.7 b, 11% of the annual budget on incarceration? Which is chimerical at best, because legislators, and many people think that the more money you spend on locking people up, the more you’re deterring crime, but evidence suggests that that’s not close to being true. To be honest, there are exceptions to the rule, but in the vast majority of cases all you’re doing is setting people up for a life of crime

The current California criminal justice system as it currently exists, is highly dysfunctional, and inefficient, as far as rehabilitation goes, and also from a budgetary standpoint.

For instance, did you know that California has among the harshest criminal laws in the country, and that there is no evidence that suggests longer sentences deter crime?

Did you know that there are more black people incarcerated right now, than were imprisoned in South Africa during apartheid? And that there are more black people incarcerated right now than were enslaved in 1850?

Leaving aside the fact that if we had a single payer healthcare system (an immediate minimum of 30% in savings per household), and amending Prop 13 and AB 80 to close corporate property tax loopholes — reforming the correctional system is the easiest, most efficient way to save money at a statewide level.

Thursday evening I attended a public forum on the state budget process, and how to make the Ca correctional system more efficient, sponsored by State Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, the ACLU of Northern California, and the local chapter of the ACLU. I walked in late (parking was tough), so I just caught the last few moments of Assemblyman Dickinson’s opening comments. His comments are above

Then David Moss and Caitlyn O’Neil, of the ACLU-NC began their presentation. They played a short film bio of David Moss’ travails against drug addiction. Mr. Moss had been arrested 14 times for drug related offenses, which cost the state in excess of $10k per arrest. After the 14th time, a judge in Auburn Ca, asked him why he’d been arrested so many times, Mr. Moss replied that he was an addict. The judge then ordered him into a treatment program, which was a total cost of $7k. Now, I’m not a math wiz or anything, but 7k seems like a much more financially-conservative, prudent, and also a more efficient way of allocating taxpayer dollars than 140k +. And guess what? … He’s been out of trouble ever since.

Did you know that that it costs more money to house a prisoner than it is to educate someone at a UC? You could send two students to UCLA, and still have money left over, for what we spend per prisoner

Did you know that if low level prop offenses were changed from felony to a misdemeanor it would save $30m per year? Taxpayers would save $63m per year if the penalty for being in possession of a small amount of drugs was changed from a felony to a misdemeanor? That we would save $80m per year eliminate criminal penalties for marijuana use?

That’s $174m per year … what else could we spend that on? (not rhetorical)

Did you know that 70% of all people currently housed in cnty jails are in pre-trial and have not been convicted of a crime, and that it costs $100 per day to house them?

Did you know that California has the largest Death Row in the country? And it costs the state $184m per year, and each death row inmate costs $100k more per prisoner than if they were sentenced to life without parole?

Did you know that California at one time was the leader in educating its citizens from pre-school through college, and now ranks dead last in student to teacher ratio? (PDF – California Budget Project Report)

Did you know that just since 2008 California has cut $15 billion from health and social safety net programs

Don’t you think it’s time to do something about the schools to prison pipeline?

California once led the US, and for that matter, the world, in educating its citizens, and in its infrastructure. Not only of physical civil works projects, but in imagining, then creating new and better realities. It was at the forefront in new and exciting discoveries, and from that, industries. The California dream was really an intellectual dynamism born from creativity of what we wanted the greater good and future to be.

I think we can do that again

The above video is from a different event, but gives much of the same info as I have below

This weekend former National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn was here in Sacramento for a panel discussion about drones during the California Democratic convention at the California Democratic Party Progressive Caucus meeting on Saturday. I didn’t make it downtown for the panel discussion, but she graciously accepted an invitation to a Sunday morning potluck brunch discussion on drones. I made a point to get myself to this.

I’m not a professional writer or anything, and I write slower than I type ;-) and I missed some things while taking my notes, so hopefully I won’t misrepresent anything that was said, too badly.

I got there a little late, so it was fortunate that they hadn’t started yet. I filled up a plate, and sat down with a group of people I didn’t know, except for Jeanne Keltner who was on my right. We had a pretty good general discussion at our table about Syria and R2P (responsibility to protect), and the overall policy toward the Middle East, and war in general. On my left was a gentleman, whom I didn’t recognize, and his wife. They were getting into some pretty good detail, and I thought to myself, “hey, I like how these two think,” everyone at the table actually. The conversation pretty much revolved around the same issues that are spoken of here at FDL. Foreign policy, to domestic policy, to monetary policy.

So after about twenty minutes a woman got up in front of the room and started the introduction, about the founding and history of the NLG, and Marjorie Cohn. After about two or three minutes I began to wonder when Marjorie came into the room. And, slow as I am, it took another thirty seconds or so to figure out that she was the smart woman to my left.

This isn’t a dictation, so I’m only going to hit on the high points that I was able to catch. Go ahead and correct me if I’m wrong about any of the details and fill in the holes. All mistakes are mine, not hers

She talked about how the Obama (maybe Bush too?) Administration have tried to use the AUMF as a justification for the use of drones. But if you read the AUMF it’s not that open ended. The Bush Administration tried to insert language into — I forget the law — to extend the authorization to these type of actions, which was rejected.

She talked about how there’s precedent for holding lawyers accountable for giving advice on what turns out to be crimes against humanity, or something similar, can‘t remember her exact words. Coincidently, she talked about how if you take John Yoo’s class at UC Berkeley, you have to agree to non-disclosure about any controversial discussions in his class.

And how the US Gov is bound to international agreements through the Supremacy Clause, such as the ICCPR. She talked about Terror Tuesday’s, and Obama’s choosing who lives, and who dies. And, the Disposition Matrix and targeted killings

She talked a little about Bradley Manning, and that even Nixon didn’t go after whistleblowers the way Obama has. She didn’t mention this, but, Obama has prosecuted more people under The Espionage Act than all other presidents combined since it became law, ninety or so years ago.

She talked about how in the rest of the world there’s a real, genuine thing called The Mobilization of Shame where policy is actually changed because of the movements of the people against government policy.

She mentioned an op-ed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu where he excoriates Americans for raising an uproar against domestic drone use, while lacking the empathy for people the US has killed in the rest of the world.

She mentioned how Winston Churchill wanted to execute Nazi war criminals immediately, and how Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson argued that that would set a precedent, and would pass a poisoned chalice to future generations

To pass these defendants a poisoned chalice is to put it to our own lips as well

Nuremberg Prosecutor and Supreme Court Justice, Robert Jackson

There was a Q and A at the end, and a gentleman made an excellent point when he mentioned that he felt that the increasing use of drones would lead to perpetual war.

Again, any specific facts that are wrong are mistakes made by me. I was very impressed with her, her husband, and all who attended, for their deep knowledge of this subject, and the many other subjects discussed

This is a slow boil stream of consciousness rant. I might be wrong on some specifics, but the general tone is based on truth. This diary is an observation, because our system is screwed, and I don’t know how to fix it. But the first step in fixing it, is recognizing the problem

We have two major political parties in this country. And I have a few different observations of them, and the people within them

One way of looking at them, is the superficial-bumper-sticker-talk-show way of describing them, which is, the Daddy party (Republicans), and the Mommy party (Democrats). IMHO, that’s not true. I think for the most part, a more accurate way of describing the modern day versions of them, is the addict party (Republicans), and the codependent party (Democrats). Click the two links and look at the common characteristics. Go ahead and click, I’ll wait … finished? For the most part, and in a generalized sense (there’ll always be exceptions) it’s true isn’t it?

Let’s just take the first of addictive behavior

1. The person becomes obsessed (constantly thinks of) the object, activity, or substance.

Right. Let’s just remember the Republican mantra, “entitlement reform”. Now, let’s combine that, with one characteristic of codependency

People-pleasing. It’s fine to want to please someone you care about, but codependents usually don’t think they have a choice. Saying “No” causes them anxiety. Some codependents have a hard time saying “No” to anyone. They go out of their way and sacrifice their own needs to accommodate other people.

Sound familiar? Now, think of Zero’s Social Security slashing budget proposal. Or, his preemptive cave to big pharma during the healthcare debate

The addict (Republican) party doesn’t care about the end result, they’re just obsessed. And the codependents (Democrats) can’t say no. The Democrats can’t say no, so they’ve devolved into a slightly less dysfunctional version of the Republicans. They’re addicted to the addict. They encourage and enable the addict to further both addictions

Pick a subject, any subject. War. Civil Rights. Economics. Foreign policy. Domestic policy. Environment. Food safety. Corporate welfare vs the Social Compact. On the major issues that effect the majority in the general population, name one subject where they’re (both major parties) not euphemistically telling us to ‘go f#ck ourselves’. They’re not saying those exact words, but the meaning is crystal clear. And if you don’t see it, I think you’re self delusional. Yea, sure, there are marginal issues (not trying to demean their importance) that they agree to disagree on, but for the most part they (the two parties) agree on – what in the rest of the world – would be far right conservative points of view. That’s just the plain fact of the matter, and they count on people getting caught up in the marginal dangly shiny key outrages of the day to not see what’s really going on.

Then you have the individuals

My unscientific, and just an average guy, way of looking at people is that everyone is basically the same person today as they were at twelve or fourteen. There are differences in your like and dislikes, but, I think the vast majority of people have the same characteristics, now as then.

The same people who did their homework, and worked hard in school, are the same people who do an honest days work, and help others, today.

Then, on the other hand, there were the people who cheated off of other’s papers, and used and bullied those around them. They’re corporate executives and national politicians of today. I think the higher they go in political and corporate circles the more sociopathic they are.

What’s the answer? I don’t have a clue, but, we need to get the majority of the population recognize the exact nature of the problem before we can solve it

Dunno how accurate this is because I’m not a musician, but pretty cool

The discovery and refinement of pi was a result of a collaboration over centuries from the Babylonians, to Archimedes, to Tsu Chung-Chi, to Leonardo … on through today

Why do you need pi? You can use pi to find the area of a circle … π r ² … 3.14 times the radius squared.

7 Numbers That Are Just as Cool as Pi. From the number one, to Euler’s Number, to Tau, and Phi (the golden ratio)

Spew alert! Put down all beverages before clicking

I know you’re supposed to have content, but, a description would just get in the way. And, it’s in Russian, but that doesn’t matter. I don’t know a word of Russian

I have a few minutes, and thought I’d post something positive to kind of wash away all the negative, and give us a fresh perspective on things. First off the great Carl Sagan with his seminal essay Pale Blue Dot

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O.k. a N.E.O. is a Near Earth Object and that includes asteroids like 2012 DA14, which was discovered in … drumroll … 2012. Evidently, astronomers aren’t very creative in naming objects in the sky, like they were thousands of years ago ;-) Anyway, 2012 DA14 will pass us within 27,000 km’s, which about twice our own diameter.

Oh noes!!!111

Not really. Watch

More at Bad Astronomy
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So, I’m scrolling through Bad Astronomy and see this video

At about 1:50, that looks like ripples in a pond, seen from below, to me. One of the links given is this one, that says it’s from the shockwave of hypersonic flight. To me, my first thought was what happens when supersonic jets do high speed passes which causes the pressure to drop around the plane which causes a cone-like within the vortex, called the Prandtl-Glauert singularity

Now, check out this video for an example of that

The video is from the Enron tapes of two traders colluding to defraud the electricity market in California

Just what we’ve suspected seems to have been confirmed. From Kevin G. Hall of McClatchy

West Coast gasoline price spikes in May and October were widely blamed on refinery outages, but new research to be released at a California hearing Thursday shows that refiners continued to produce gasoline in periods when the public was told the contrary.

The information, shared exclusively with McClatchy, comes from Oregon-based McCullough Research, which combed through thousands of pages of environmental documents to conclude that refineries were in fact operating during supposed outages and maintenance shutdowns.

The two primary malefactors were Shell, and Chevron

Specifically, the report alleges that in May, at a time when Royal Dutch Shell’s Martinez, Calif., plant was reported to be down for maintenance for two weeks, it appears to have been making gasoline for at least half that time. That conclusion is reached from state environmental documents showing nitrogen oxide emissions had returned to normal at the refinery a full week before it was reported to have come back on line.

Similarly, Chevron’s Richmond, Calif., refinery was reported down for maintenance for two weeks in May, but emissions data suggests the refinery never ceased operation.

The report doesn’t prove collusion, but it certainly calls into question their motives, if not pure unadulterated greed by the few extortionist suppliers of gasoline.

The hearing will be held by the state’s Senate Select Committee on Bay Area Transportation. And though California is the focus, the conclusions carry national implications, especially because they highlight how little real information on pricing is publicly available, or even available to regulators.

“It certainly does not prove collusion among the principal suppliers, since specific data by refineries is difficult to procure,” McCullough’s report said. “However, the data does suggest the need for an investigation on a refinery-by-refinery level.”

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/11/14/174662/california-refineries-operated.html