Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Justice Department seeks to defend Trump in E. Jean Carroll lawsuit relating to rape allegation
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/justice-department-trump-e-jean-carroll-rape-allegation
The court papers aim to shift the New York case into federal court and to substitute the U.S. for Trump as the defendant. That means the federal government, rather than Trump himself, might have to pay damages if any are awarded.
Justice Department wants to defend Trump in E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/08/politics/e-jean-carroll-trump-lawsuit/index.html
The US Justice Department, in an extraordinary move on Tuesday, asked to take over the defense of President Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit filed against him by E. Jean Carroll, a woman who has accused Trump of sexual assault.
Tuesday, September 8, 2020
The 37 most absurd lines from Donald Trump's Labor Day 'news conference'
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/08/politics/donald-trump-labor-day-press-conference/index.html
17. "I'm not saying the military is in love with me. The soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren't because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy."
Trump visibly distressed over Atlantic story fallout from claims he disparaged the military
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/08/politics/trump-military-fallout/index.html
It was a relatively quiet weekend at the White House until Trump decided he wanted to hold a Labor Day news conference. Just as aides believed the story was quieting down, Trump accused top Pentagon military leaders of being beholden to defense contractors, an astonishing comment from the President as he's trying to bolster support with those people. Trump had been privately upset that more of the top brass at the Pentagon had not defended him in the wake of The Atlantic's story and some saw this as a response to that.
Antisemitism in 21st-century France
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_21st-century_France#2015_to_present
At the beginning of the 21st century, antisemitism in France rose sharply during the unrest of the Second Intifada in Israel and the Palestinian territories, as it did in other European nations.[6] In addition, a significant proportion of the second-generation Muslim immigrant population in France began to identify with the Palestinian cause, with some also identifying with radical Islamism.[7][8][9] In the early 2000s, a critical debate on the nature of antisemitism in France accompanied denunciation of it in relation to the situation in the Middle East and to Islam. Divisions developed among anti-racist groups.[6][10][11]
Donald Trump set to fall back on xenophobia with re-election plan in tatters
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/26/donald-trump-xenophobia-re-election-campaign-2020
Donald Trump had been intending to run a re-election campaign based on a strong economy and a socialist opponent. Both have vanished in the past month. But the US president still has his ultimate weapon: xenophobia.
Ethnicity, Crime, and Immigration in France
France has the largest Muslim and Jewish populations in Europe and a long immigration tradition. Official data do not recognize race, ethnicity, or religion as fundamental characteristics of people. For a long time crime data ignored foreigners and non-French immigrants as distinct groups. They are significantly overrepresented among criminal suspects in custody and in prison, though this varies by offense and according to status; an important proportion have violated immigration laws and are not a threat to society. Their overrepresentation may result from lack of fixed residence and the possibility they will not turn up if summoned by a judge. Research on this issue is scant. It is unclear whether disparities represent invidious bias or result from socio-economic disadvantages or differences in records of past criminality. Xenophobia among the broad French public, after declining substantially, is on the rise again, in great part due to the recent economic crisis.
Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2019
There were 671 victims of homicide in the year ending March 2019, 33 fewer (5%) than the previous year, the first fall since the year ending March 2015.
- Just under three-quarters (475 or 71%) of all homicide victims in the year ending March 2019 were from the White ethnic group.3 This was a decrease of 33 victims (from 508) compared with the year ending March 2018.
There were 97 Black victims in the last year, accounting for 14% of all victims. This is an increase of four homicides compared with the previous year and the highest number of Black victims since 2001 to 2002 (106).
Race and crime in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States
In the United States, the relationship between race and crime has been a topic of public controversy and scholarly debate for more than a century.[1] Crime rates vary significantly between racial groups. Most homicide victims in the United States are of the same race as the perpetrator.
Academic research indicates that the over-representation of some racial minorities in the criminal justice system can in part be explained by socioeconomic factors, such as poverty, exposure to poor neighborhoods, poor access to public education, poor access to early childhood education, and exposure to harmful chemicals (such as lead) and pollution.[2][3] Racial housing segregation has also been linked to racial disparities in crime rates, as blacks have historically and to the present been prevented from moving into prosperous low-crime areas through actions of the government (such as redlining) and private actors.[4][5][6] Various explanations within criminology have been proposed to excuse racial disparities in crime rates, including conflict theory, strain theory, general strain theory, social disorganization theory, macrostructural opportunity theory, social control theory, and subcultural theory.
Research also indicates that there is extensive racial and ethnic discrimination by police and the judicial system.[7][8][9][10] A substantial academic literature has compared police searches (showing that contraband is found at higher rates in whites who are stopped), bail decisions (showing that whites with the same bail decision as blacks commit more pre-trial violations), and sentencing (showing that blacks are more harshly sentenced by juries and judges than whites when the underlying facts and circumstances of the cases are similar), providing valid causal inferences of racial discrimination.[11][12][13][14] Studies have documented patterns of racial discrimination, as well as patterns of police brutality and disregard for the constitutional rights of African-Americans, by police departments in various American cities, including Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.[15][16][17][18][19]
Fact check: Misleading bar graph presents distorted interpretation of black and white murder rates
If you’re a white person in 2013, Nuzzo explained, your chances of being murdered by another white person are approximately 11 in a million, and your chances of being murdered by a black person are two in a million. Meanwhile, if you’re a black person in 2013, your chances of being murdered by another black person are 56 in a million, and your chances of being murdered by a white person are five in a million.
Trump says Pentagon chiefs are accommodating weapons makers
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/07/trump-disparages-pentagon-chiefs-409528
President Donald Trump on Monday accused the United States’ military leadership of being beholden to arms manufacturers, in an attack on his own administration only days after reports that he had mocked fallen soldiers.
Speaking at a combative White House news conference, Trump said leaders at the Pentagon probably weren’t “in love with me” because “they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”