That too. “Justice, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Some see an innocent victim. Others will see evil incarnate getting exactly what's deserved.” ― Emily Thorne
a lot of those incarcerated in those numbers are not violent felon, a plethora of drug cases. were the racist, yes i said racist sentencing policies of crack cocaine vs powder are imbalanced. Not to mention the Reagan contra scandal which a by product of this was pushing crack cocaine to be sold in the black communities to fund buying weapons. Which the media largely swept under the rug. But yes you are right many are self inflicted and carry no excuse of crimes committed.
I never really understood that distinction, either. But cocaine use has plummeted in this country and is no longer the prime drug-crime problem, so maybe this can be remedied. Heroin, pharmaceutical drugs, and meth are the biggest problems today and they are equal-opportunity incarceration factors. Lots of white folks in prison, too.
ISIS was created by Bush and an Administration of Reagan-era advisors, not that I give a shit. ISIS can run the Middle East for all I care. That's their problem, not America's. I wouldn't' waste a bomb on them. Then he proceeded to slash tax revenue while increasing spending on the military tripling the deficit. Then, as if that wasn't enough he added a new cabinet level position with the obligatory department that follows in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Like you, Reagan was all hot air and substance. The number of Federal employees rose under Reagan and didn't drop until Clinton was President. Even though he wanted reduce Social Security and Medicare, he pushed for a $168 billion dollar bailout instead after trying to privatize it. Then he raised taxes on corporations, something not even Obama has tried to do. In fact, he signed off on tax increases every year he was President except the last. He also granted amnesty to like 3 million immigrants. Shit, Reagan makes Obama look like Barry Goldwater. Thank goodness Bill Clinton was elected and un-fucked our country. It seems like every time a liberal gets elected, they're in place just barely long enough to correct the Republican's fuck ups. Maybe we can get another liberal elected this time around and actually get out ahead of the next Republican term for once.
Reagan was a great "idea". He would have made a great king, but he was a shitty President unless you're wealthy and white.
I do not doubt that you have interpreted Masterminds original post that way but, in fact, it is to show guys like you that Obama's presidency has been on par with other President's whom we have historically considered successful.
You conveniently ignore the fact that african american politicions including Jesse Jackson and other prominant religous were pushing for the stiffer sentences because of the epidemic of crack that was sweeping through black neighborhoods mostly distributed and sold by black gangs. The reason given AT THE TIME was that while both crack and powder were bad...crack was MUCH more associated with violence than powder...particularily the violence sweepoing the poorer black areas of towns.
Reagan was very good in many ways and very bad in others. On the whole, I think his virtues outweighed his faults. His greatest virtue was that he was not enslaved to his right-wing ideology. His rhetoric was extremely conservative, but he actually presided as a moderate. He not only worked out compromises with his democratic congress to get things done, but he changed his direction if things went badly. He made huge tax cuts right off the bat that got us into a hole and he ended up raising taxes a dozen times before his administration was over. He made a huge mistake by going into Lebanon but he got out when he saw how it was going and did not get bogged down in the quagmire that still exists.
