Helen H. Moore's Blog, page 185

Social media may be messing with your perception of time

(Credit: erikreis/iStockphoto)

Have you ever spiraled so deep into a Facebook debate or an Instagram feed that you suddenly find yourself, 45 minutes or an hour later, wondering where the time has gone? It���s an unsettling feeling that can leave social media users existentially questioning how they make use of their leisure time. If it���s happened to you, you���re not alone. A new studies show that people��addicted to social media may have a distorted sense��of time.

Psychologists have just begun to explore the ways in which our addiction to technology negatively impacts our society and health: it��hurts our social skills��and��weakens our democracy,��not to mention its impact on our eyesight and attention spans. But a distorted sense of time, as presented in the��Journal of Psychiatric Research, is a new one.

Scientists in the study tested nearly 300 university students, who were given a half hour to complete a survey. During that time, they were prevented from using social media. The individuals who reported to spend more time using social media per day said the survey and their short-term separation from Facebook felt longer. People who use social media less said the survey and social media hiatus felt short. Creepy, no?

As study author Ofir Turel of the University of Southern California and California State University at Fullerton says, distorting time is a common feature of addiction in general. ���Distortion of time perception is a hallmark feature of many addictive and problematic behaviors. For example, ���addicted��� video gamers perceive their sessions to be shorter than they actually are; heavy smokers think that the between-cigarettes time interval is longer than it actually is; and obese people perceive that the between-meals time intervals are longer than they actually are.���

The study could help therapists working with patients who suffer from such addictions. ���The take away for therapists is that time distortion tests may be added to the battery of techniques they use for trying to diagnose individuals as needing therapy, and perhaps even as part of the solution.���

The study doesn���t specify how many hours per day on social media could lead to an addiction, but these results could leave you questioning your own online habits.

The Trump White House offers America government by spoiled brats

Ivanka Trump; Donald Trump; Jared Kushner (Credit: AP/Getty/Shutterstock/Salon)

He hadn���t been in office for two months when the spoiled brat in chief threw his first temper tantrum. It was a Saturday morning, and Donald Trump was spending the weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, when he woke up and, without consulting political advisers or lawyers, tweeted this at 6:35 a.m.: ���Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ���wires tapped��� in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!��� What precipitated this petulant little burst of pique? Well, two days earlier, his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had just recused himself from any investigation into whether the Russians had meddled in the 2016 election, and Trump was mad as hell about it.

In order to follow our spoiled brat in chief down this particular rabbit hole, let���s go back and recall what we knew on March 4, 2016. Did we know there was a formal FBI investigation into ties between Russians and the campaign of Donald Trump on that date? No, we didn���t. Did we know about all of the meetings Attorney General Sessions had had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak? No, we didn���t. Sessions would ���remember��� his meetings with Kislyak later, and he still hasn���t ���remembered��� that he discussed the Trump campaign with the Russian Ambassador, as the Washington Post reported last year. Did we know that there had been other contacts between Trump���s people and Russians during the campaign and transition? Did we know, for example, about the meeting between Don Jr., Jared Kushner, and Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and four Russians at Trump Tower back in June of 2016? No we didn���t. Did we know that Kushner had had no fewer than two meetings with Russian Ambassador Kislyak in Trump Tower during the transition before Trump took office? No, we didn���t. Did we know that Kushner had met with Sergey Gorkov, buddy of Vladimir Putin and head of the Vnesheconombank, the Russian state owned bank currently sanctioned from doing business in the United States? No, we didn���t know that, either.

Then who did know all of this stuff way back on Saturday morning, March 4, at Mar-a-Lago? Oh, that���s right. The spoiled brat in chief knew, which is probably why he threw his little tantrum with his thumbs and tweeted himself down a rabbit hole that would lead to FBI Director James Comey appearing before the House Intelligence Committee about two weeks later and testifying that he knew of no evidence whatsoever that President Obama had had Trump���s ���wires tapped,��� but, oh, by the way, just in case you���re wondering, the FBI had had a criminal and foreign intelligence investigation of the Trump campaign going for over nine months.

This little jewel of information led eventually to Trump firing FBI Director Comey, and after that, to the appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Prosecutor, in charge of the investigation into ties between Trump and his campaign and Russians who sought to influence our elections in 2016. This is the nightmare confronting the spoiled brat in chief today, as he wakes up every morning and hears that another of his top people has been questioned by Special Prosecutor Mueller and his team.

See, that���s the problem with being a spoiled brat. Something happens that you don���t like ��� say, you find out that your attorney general has recused himself from the investigation into Russian meddling ��� and you���re all pissed off, so you decide to throw up a smoke screen to call attention away from your problems and put them magically on your predecessor, and then whamo! The whole goddamn thing blows up in your face! The next thing you know, the FBI is running around Washington questioning everyone who had anything to do with your campaign, and they���re indicting them for crimes and getting them to plead guilty and cooperate with the investigation, and they���re even calling in the Attorney General of the United States and questioning him in the Russia investigation, because while Sessions might have recused himself from overseeing the investigation, he couldn���t recuse himself from being either one of its subjects or targets.

And now comes word that Special Prosecutor Mueller���s investigators have questioned former FBI Director Comey, as well. See what happens with spoiled brats? They think everyone should bow down before them and do their bidding, and so spoiled brats do stuff like take FBI Directors aside and ask them to go easy on people like Michael Flynn, and spoiled brats have FBI Directors over to the White House for private dinners and ask them to pledge their ���loyalty,��� and then when spoiled brats aren���t happy with the way that people like FBI Directors act, they fire them, using people like attorneys general to do the firing. And what do you know, but attorney generals and FBI directors end up being questioned by investigators working for the Special Prosecutor about stuff like obstruction of justice. Man, it���s hard for spoiled brats when they stop being the sole rulers of their private companies and start being subject to the exigencies of running a government under stuff like the rule of law.

That whole rule of law thing is a pain in the ass, isn���t it? Look what happens to spoiled brats when they up and decide they���re going to do something typically uninformed and impulsive. Let���s say the spoiled brat in chief wakes up one morning and he doesn���t consult with his lawyers or the Pentagon or anybody, and he and reaches for his phone and gets on Twitter and tweets, ���After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.��� What happens? Federal court judges strike down the ban imposed by the spoiled brat in chief, and then appeals courts refuse to overturn the ruling of the original judges, and before you know it, it���s January 1, 2018, and transgender Americans can enlist to serve in the military, and transgender troops already serving can continue their service without having to hide their identity from their fellow troops.

The other thing spoiled brats in chief do is appoint their spoiled brat offspring and spoiled brat in laws to important positions they have absolutely no qualifications for. So we���re treated to delightful little surprises like spoiled brat daughter Ivanka sitting in for the spoiled brat in chief at the G-20 summit, sitting right next to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was caught on camera with a what-the-hell-is-this look on her face. And then there was the spoiled brat son-in-law meeting with important foreign officials in the White House and having access to the president���s top secret security briefings, even though he has never qualified for a top secret security clearance. The New Yorker reported this week that U.S. intelligence officials back in December briefed ���a wider circle of officials��� in the government that ���a member of the president���s family��� was the target of a Chinese intelligence operation intended to influence American policy. ���It was not clear if that family member was Kushner or someone else,��� said the New Yorker report, which is titled ���Soft Target��� and features a cartoon drawing of the spoiled brat son-in-law.

Now why would the Chinese figure they might be able to influence someone so prominently placed in the White House? Could it be because the spoiled brat son-in-law is such a know-it-all that he failed to take the advice of senior officials from the Department of State and have foreign policy experts and note-takers on hand when he conducted meetings with people like the Russian Ambassador and Russian bankers in Trump Tower, and the Chinese Ambassador at his office in the White House?

Why, yes! That might be it!

So is it surprising that, according to the New Yorker, national security wiretaps on Chinese and Russian communications have picked up reports from their ambassadors back to their bosses in Beijing and Moscow, and those reports include stuff about the spoiled brat son-in-law talking to these foreign officials not just about important business that Russia or China might have with the United States, but business that his own company has with both countries?

Are you kidding? We���re talking about government by spoiled brats here! Spoiled brats do what they want, when they want to do it, and they don���t care what the experts say, or what the lawyers say, or what the eventual ramifications of their actions might be, because they want to get their way, no questions asked! They���re spoiled brats, damnit!

“Waco”: An incomplete view of the humanity behind the story

Taylor Kitsch in "Waco" (Credit: Paramount Network)

People usually aren���t open to reconsidering the validity or humanity of cult leaders, especially those associated with the deaths of their followers. As such, Taylor Kitsch���s portrayal of Branch Davidian leader David Koresh immediately feels unsettling. Kitsch���s impression of Koresh is dead on, and he easily accesses his charismatic subject���s even manner and Texas drawl, packaged it in the scruffy facial hair of a rock n��� roll rebel.

Kitsch���s presentation is so unnervingly amiable in the opening episodes of ���Waco,��� the six-episode limited series debuting Wednesday at 10 p.m. on the Paramount Network (formerly known as Spike TV), that it would be easy to see him as a stand-up guy. You know, just one who claims to be the Messiah and has a bunch of illegal guns. No big whoop.

The larger point of this is, we get why followers at the Mount Carmel Center hang on every word of his sermons, following his lead in terms of how to raise their children. Kitsch makes Koresh so charming, in fact, that as the series strolls on by Koresh���s declaration of sexual dominion over his followers, which includes polygamy and a sexual relationship his wife���s younger sister �����one that began when she was 12 �����a person almost doesn���t notice. Almost.

Skimming the treatment Koresh���s manipulative dark side in ���Waco,��� a story that puts the humanity of the Branch Davidians and that of Koresh at its forefront feels��. . . weird. ��And this is but one of several niggling oversights in a story that begs for a new consideration.

The story behind ���Waco��� has the benefit of distance, additional evidence and fuller accounts by witnesses and survivors, solidified by a hindsight that affirms the gravity of the mistakes made during that 51-day siege in 1993.

The only solid point ���Waco��� establishes in its opening episodes is that regardless of how unsavory Koresh was, the tens of followers in his compound, including women, children and infants, did not deserve to be showered with bullets by trained agents wielding assault rifles.

That said, the extent of the danger the Branch Davidians posed to the government and the communities around them isn���t firmly established either.

Much of what the public knows about the Branch Davidians and the Waco standoff is informed by documentaries, scripted made-for-TV movies based on media accounts, and official versions provided by agents working for the ATF and the FBI, along with any number of conspiracy theories as to what actually transpired at the compound.

Any narrative that has been long dominated by questionable ���official��� accounts bulldozing the perspective of an unsympathetic party is going to contend with these problems. And when that dislikable character is a cult leader whose name is invoked in the same company as men such as Jim Jones and Charles Manson, the challenges become manifold.

���Waco��� calls upon history fresh enough to enable the splicing of actual news footage into the scripted recreation of events. That also makes it ripe for a true-crime treatment that adds a veneer of dramatic flourish and familial stakes where previous versions barely penciled in the personalities of the men, women and children living inside Mount Carmel.

���Waco��� executive producers and co-creators John Erick Dowdle and Drew Dowdle were inspired by the accounts of survivor David Thibodeau whose book ���A Place Called Waco: A Survivor���s Story��� provides much of the insider���s view of Koresh and the Branch Davidians, and Gary Noesner���s�� biography ���Stalling for Time: My Life as an FBI Hostage Negotiator.��� Together to compose a portrait of two sides equally zealous in their beliefs, driven by egos that resulted in the deaths of 82 of Koresh���s followers and four ATF agents.

Rory Culkin portrays Thibodeau as an impressionable, itinerant agnostic swept into Koresh���s fold by his generosity and passionate belief.�� As ���Waco��� presents Thibodeau, he���s more of an open-hearted and pliant witness than a true believer.

Tension within the community only rears its head when Judy Schneider (Andrea Riseborough), wife to Koresh���s right-hand man Steve (Paul Sparks), announces she���s pregnant with Koresh���s child. It���s the stuff of soap opera, but it doesn���t get a chance to fully play out; soon after Judy���s babe is in her arms, federal agents are knocking at Mount Carmel���s front door.

Recent history marks the Waco siege as one of three seminal events that fueled the modern white separatist and white supremacist movement: The bungled federal assault on Randy Weaver���s compound in Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco motivated Timothy McVeigh to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, which still stands today as the deadliest act of domestic terrorism committed on American soil.

Ruby Ridge and Waco also have been reframed as terrifying cautionary tales of federal overreach and inappropriate use of militarized force, and ���Waco��� does little to disabuse us of that thought. Rather, the Dowdles take on more arduous and potentially interesting task of recreating the events from the perspectives of those who lived inside of the compound.

Where ���Waco��� falls short is in telling us how and why these people �����all of whom are portrayed as friendly and normal, save for the part where married men vow to be celibate and agree that only Koresh is allowed to have sex, including with their wives �����came to be under Koresh���s thrall. That���s an important part of this history: How, exactly, do people seemingly sound of mind come to surrender their lives to a man whose main accomplishment in life was to memorize the Bible?

For that matter, how did Koresh rise to the leadership of a sect that pre-dated him? Those chapters of the break away sect of the Branch Davidians��� history exist, and it would have been added much more context to the story to have included them. ���Waco��� doesn���t venture to answer these questions.

Instead, the first three of its six episodes flex and strain to ensure that the viewer sees there are good people on both sides, but on the side that has more firepower, the government, resides a man with a more gung-ho viewpoint of the situation, not to mention more firepower.

Though Kitsch���s impersonation of Koresh makes ���Waco��� worth sticking with, Michael Shannon matches that dynamism in his portrayal of Noesner, a man who witnessed the terrible mistakes made at Ruby Ridge and strives, unsuccessfully, to make sure they���re not repeated. Shannon���s and Kitch���s standout performances benefit from ample material they���re given to work with. They receive noticeably meatier development than other members of the cast, including Melissa Benoist (as Koresh���s first wife Rachel), Shea Whigham and John Leguizamo, who bring fire to their roles even as they���re relegated to the edges of the tale.

With a broader examination of this story these characters could have been given more opportunity to flesh out some of the story���s glossed over complexities, such as why Rachel agreed to allow her husband to take her younger sister as his second wife. Or in the case of Whigham���s FBI tactical commander, what feeds his emphasis on lethal force, even after he���s witnessed that strategy go wrong at a high cost.

As an opening salvo for a rebranded network seeking to get noticed, ���Waco��� works well enough. Taking us back to that explosive last stand does make for gripping action with deadly stakes. But while those elements lend themselves to creating watchable television, the larger effort is still an insufficient pass at a story begging for a fuller accounting and deeper context.

Stop calling all cops heroes: Baltimore police corruption case isn’t shocking to me

(Credit: Getty/Drew Angerer/Salon)

Hate to say I told you so ��� but I told you so.

Let me take it��back to the beginning. Back to when I watched my late brother and his homeboys separate the money into multiple piles. They sold crack, heroin and cocaine, exactly in that order. I rarely saw their drugs but I always ��� always ��� saw the money.

The first pile was my brother’s. He was stashing that ��� as the boss, it was only right that he took first dibs. The second pile went to the lieutenants; they���d take their cut out and use the rest to pay the workers. Pile three was for product re-up, supplies and everything else you need to run a dope shop. And pile��four got stuffed into a��manila envelope and wrapped tight with rubber bands. They called that the��“taxes.�����Of course they��weren’t actually paying��taxes��on their income or sales to��the government, and��they weren’t setting aside contributions to a retirement plan. Their��“taxes” went straight to the cops.

Yes, cops take money from drug dealers. Cops rape. Cops lie in their reports. Cops beat people. Cops sell drugs. Cops threaten citizens. Cops intimidate other cops. Cops are gang-affiliated; they���ll snatch a blunt out of your hand and smoke it, hide extra guns in the dope house, aim their pistol at you for fun, plant drugs on you, make you sell drugs for them or with them, make you rob and steal, and then expect to be called “hero” no matter what they’ve done. Politicians from every side����� from those as progressive as Obama��to those as racist as Trump ��� break their necks to co-sign their hero status.

Earning a badge after applying for a job and completing a couple of months of training doesn���t automatically make you a hero. People need to get this through their thick skulls ��� and finally, in Baltimore at least, they are.

Detective Maurice Ward, one of��six detectives��from Baltimore���s disgraced Gun Trace Task Force who��pleaded guilty��to racketeering charges, testified��in court on Tuesday. From the Baltimore Sun’s report:

The video opens with a group of Baltimore police officers prying open a safe, revealing thick stacks of cash held together by two rubber bands each.

They call to their sergeant, Wayne Jenkins, who instructs the group not to touch anything and to keep the camera rolling ��� he wanted this one done by the book.

Except, Detective Maurice Ward testified Tuesday, the officers already had pocketed half the $200,000 they found inside the safe before the recording started, after taking a man���s keys during a traffic stop and entering his home without a warrant. It was one of many illegal tactics Ward said��the officers used as they chased guns and drugs across the city while skimming proceeds for themselves.

Critics of��the police department��have��been trying to call attention to corruption��for years, but no one listened. Now Ward, one of their own, is spilling the beans. Finally,��people have��to pay attention.

To hear Maurice Ward tell it, vaunted BPD Spec Enforcement units he worked on (VCID, GTTF, etc)got guns/drugs by:
– stopping/chasing people for no reason
– profiling certain cars
– doing "Sneak n Peaks" — entering property to look for drugs/cash b4 getting search warrant

— Jayne Miller (@jemillerwbal) January 24, 2018

Eight Baltimore city police officers were indicted last year.��Four, including Ward,��are expected to testify. Their stories stretch far beyond overtime fraud, dipping into the deepest elements of criminal activity.

According to Ward, officers kept BB guns with them�����in case we accidentally hit somebody or got into a shootout, so we could plant them,” and tampered��with criminal cases,��even��lying to��the wife of a man they had locked up and stolen from, accusing him of infidelity��so she would cut off her support. They planned robberies, drank alcohol on the job as they profiled African Americans, and still saw themselves as heroes. “Abuse of power” is an understatement here.

In court Fed prosecutor showed jury in BPD corruption trial duffle bag carried by Fmr BPD Gun Squad Sgt Wayne Jenkins that held black masks, ski masks, and a BB gun for "planting" in case squad had a bad shooting

— Jayne Miller (@jemillerwbal) January 23, 2018

More from testimony..fmr BPD Gun Squad Sgt Wayne Jenkins said to make up a story that drug dealer he stole from got a woman pregnant to get the dealer's wife to stop supporting the dealer. Left a note to such an effect at wife's house

— Jayne Miller (@jemillerwbal) January 23, 2018

The case of slain homicide detective Sean Suiter in still unsolved, like��so many��other murder cases in Baltimore. Suiter was also set to testify against the Gun Trace Task Force. He was murdered back in November while investigating a murder with his partner, who claims to have little��to no information about what happened����, even though he drove Suiter to the hospital after he was hit. Who knows what type of information Suiter would have released?

Better yet, some of the cops on the disgraced Gun Trace Task Force are 15-plus-year��veterans with histories of misconduct. What if they��had been indicted before Freddie Gray���s killing in 2015?��How might��a case like this��have changed public perception around Gray’s death? Even though they stopped Gray for no reason and then he died while in their custody, people still saw them, at worst, as heroes��who made a mistake. Because if all cops are heroes, those cops��couldn’t have done anything intentionally malicious to cause Freddie Gray’s death, right?

I���m happy that��the narrative is finally changing. Oppressed black citizens of Baltimore and all over the country have been talking about corruption within��police departments for years, but nobody listens to black citizens. Everybody listens to the feds, though. Now, these guys will finally end up where they’ve belonged for years: in prison.

Hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.

Rick Perry: By exporting fossil fuels, the US is “exporting freedom”

Rick Perry (Credit: Getty/Drew Angerer)

In an interview on Fox Business’s ���Mornings with Maria�����from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Energy Secretary Rick Perry touted the idea that the Trump administration���s energy agenda is spreading ���freedom��� around the world.

���The United States is not just exporting energy, we���re exporting freedom,��� Perry said in the interview, referring to exports of fossil fuels like oil and coal. ���We���re exporting to our allies in Europe the opportunity to truly have a choice of where do you buy your energy from. That���s freedom. And that kind of freedom is priceless.���

If exporting energy means exporting “freedom” to Perry, one wonders why oil-rich authoritarian states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar aren’t bastions of freedom.

Perry��went on to say to��our allies that America’s energy exports come with a ���no-strings attached��� relationship.

���The United States isn���t about controlling a country with this energy. It���s about literally freeing up our allies around the world, letting them know that we���re going to be there for them. There���s no strings attached when you buy American [liquid natural gas]. So that���s world-changing.���

In what seemed like a barb aimed at OPEC, Perry also invited worldwide competition ��� but requested fair subsidies.

���You want to compete against the United States? Bring it. But don���t subsidize in a way that is unfair. Don���t get into the market and try to gobble all the market, and then all of the sudden, after you���ve choked everybody else out of the market, guess what, prices go up,” he said.

In June 2017, the Trump administration publicly announced its push to make America ���energy dominant,��� which is part of what Perry lauded in the ���Mornings with Maria��� interview.

���President Trump wants America to achieve energy dominance by utilizing our abundant resources for good, both here and abroad,��� Perry said in a June press briefing. ���And an energy-dominant America means self-reliant, it means a secure nation, free from the geopolitical turmoil of other nations who seek to use energy as an economic weapon.���

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, America���s fossil fuel production will reach a record-high level in 2018���and is on track to set a record in 2019.

Earlier this week, Trump announced��that the administration��plans on issuing tariffs on solar panels���a move that��could set back the renewable energy industry, and exemplifies the administration’s head-in-the-sand stance on climate change and��rah-rah��feelings about��fossil fuels. According to NASA research, burning fossil fuels is��a major contributor to the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, a primary cause of climate change.

Most alarming��about Perry���s disconcerting pro-fossil fuel rhetoric is that it once again��bucks the conventional wisdom on a��major world initiative, the Paris Climate Agreement, which was created to develop a global��solution to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions����� in other words, to stop humanity’s march towards ruining the planet through a climate apocalypse. Like his superiors, Perry is intent on marching faster towards doomsday.

Reviving the myth of “American carnage”: What Jeff Sessions gets wrong about crime

Jeff Sessions (Credit: AP/Shutterstock/Photo montage by Salon)

On Tuesday, USA Today published an editorial by Attorney General Jeff Sessions��in which he claimed that President Donald Trump had kept his inaugural promise to stop the “American carnage” of violent crime. One Harvard professor,��however,��is not��buying the propaganda from America’s top cop.

In the op-ed, Sessions insisted that policies implemented by Trump and himself had caused a decline in violent crime throughout the United States. “We have placed trust in our prosecutors again, and we���re restoring respect for law enforcement,” Sessions wrote. “We have invested in new resources and put in place smarter policies based on sound research.”

He added, “Ensuring every neighborhood in America is safe again will take time, but we are already starting to see results.”

Sessions then proceeded to take credit for the decline in the number of police officers killed, increasing the number of cases brought against violent criminals and causing a decline in violent crimes and murder rates.

“In 2017, we brought cases against more violent criminals than in any year in decades. We charged the most federal firearm prosecutions in a decade,” Sessions wrote. “We convicted nearly 500 human traffickers and 1,200 gang��members,��and helped our international allies arrest about��4,000 MS-13 members. We also arrested and charged hundreds of people suspected with contributing to the ongoing opioid crisis.”

Thomas Abt, a��Senior Research Fellow��with the Center for International Development at��Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, was having none of it.

1/ This op-ed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions audaciously claims credit for stopping so-called American Carnage. Wrong wrong wrong. Read on.https://t.co/6cmONvVbkS

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

2/ "I was a federal prosecutor… Working closely with our law enforcement partners, we learned together what worked and what didn���t, and departments developed innovative new policing and other strategies." Really, Jeff? Really?

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

3/ Sessions claims to be on the front lines of the war against crime, yet doesn't mention a single program. Why? Because if he did, it would be obvious that either (a) that program didn't actually work or (b) he had nothing to do with it.

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

4/ "Congress enacted important bipartisan legal reforms that gave prosecutors and law enforcement new tools to take criminals, gangs, guns & deadly drugs off of our streets. We went to work, and the results were transformational. Crime in America began to decline." OM freaking G.

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

5/ Sessions links to a 1991 Sentencing Commission report on mandatory minimums as support for this statement, but is simply no evidence of what effect, if any, federal mandatory minimums have had on crime.

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

6/ Criminologists generally agree that increased incarceration played a part in the great crime decline, but (a) it was a relatively modest role that was (b) played overwhelmingly by state and local, not federal, law enforcement.

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

7/ The research is also clear that deterrence depends more on the certainty and swiftness of punishment than on its severity. Criminals are more worried about getting caught than about being sentenced, so longer prison terms don't always mean lower crime.

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

Abt was particularly dismissive of Sessions’ attempt to confuse readers into mistaking mere statistics with concrete accomplishments.

8/ "In 2017, we brought cases against more violent criminals than in any year in decades. We charged the most federal firearm prosecutions in a decade. We convicted…" Blah blah blah. He's talking about outputs, not outcomes.

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

9/ Increased arrests, convictions, and sentences are not the same thing as reduced murders, robberies, and other forms of crime. One does not necessarily lead to the other.

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

10/ Here's the kicker: "In the first six months of last year, the increase in the murder rate slowed and violent crime actually went down… Our strategy… has proven to work." I can't even.

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

The “strategy” in question is worth quoting in full.��“Our strategy at this department of concentrating on the most violent criminals, taking down violent gang networks, prioritizing gun prosecutions, and supporting our state, local��and tribal law enforcement partners has proven��to work,” Sessions wrote.

11/ Jeff, you guys didn't even start nominating US Attorneys until JUNE. You had (and still do) high-level vacancies all over DOJ. Your team wasn't even on the field, and yet you're claiming victory?!

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

12/ To be clear, I support targeted enforcement strategies to fight gangs, guns, and drugs. I also believe federal prosecutors can play an important role in supporting those strategies. But this op-ed's claims are just laughable, or would be if the stakes weren't so high.

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

13/ Sessions and Trump are #CrimeDinosaurs, peddling out-of-date tough-on-crime policies that went extinct years ago. Effective crime-fighting today is highly targeted, balances enforcement with prevention, and uses reliable research and data. Get with the program guys.

— Thomas Abt (@Abt_Thomas) January 24, 2018

“In his op-ed, Attorney General Sessions makes several unremarkable claims regarding violent crime. He describes its rise and fall, the terrible consequences of violence for poor communities of color, and the necessity of targeted enforcement in order to get gangs and guns off the street,” Abt told Salon in an email. “What is remarkable, and mistaken, is Sessions��� claim that he, as a U.S. Attorney in the 90s or as U.S. Attorney General today, deserves any significant share of the credit for improvements in public safety. There���s simply no evidence to support such a self-serving statement.”

Democratic mayors decline White House invite, anger Trump

(Credit: Getty/Win McNamee)

The Justice Department ramped up its fight with so-called sanctuary cities just as the White House hosted a group of municipal executives from around the country, leading to a boycott by several Democratic mayors.

The Department of Justice sent a letter to 23 jurisdictions across the United States on Wednesday ��� including the three largest cities, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago ��� accusing them of potentially violating federal law and threatening subpoenas. It demanded records “that could show whether each jurisdiction is unlawfully restricting information sharing by its law enforcement officers with federal immigration authorities.”

As a result of the threats, Democratic New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio abruptly canceled Wednesday’s meeting with President Donald Trump in which he would join over 100 mayors from across the country to discuss plans about infrastructure.

I will NOT be attending today���s meeting at the White House after @realDonaldTrump���s Department of Justice decided to renew their racist assault on our immigrant communities. It doesn���t make us safer and it violates America���s core values.

— Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) January 24, 2018

Other Democratic mayors, like New Orleans’ Mitch Landrieu, also declined to attend Wednesday’s event at the White House, citing the administration’s targeting of sanctuary cities.

When Trump noticed their absence, according to pool reports, he lashed out.

“Remember I used to say, ‘What do you have to lose?'”��Trump asked. “And people said, ‘I don’t know if that’s a nice thing to say. I said, ‘Of course, it is. For 100 years, the Democratic mayors have a done a terrible ��� I mean, they’ve done some bad work.”

His attorney general, Jeff Sessions, continued the rhetorical fight in a statement.��“Protecting criminal aliens from federal immigration authorities defies common sense and undermines the rule of law,” Sessions said. “Enough is enough.”

The same 23 jurisdictions were contacted last year by the department over the same concerns, but Wednesday’s letter is a clear escalation in threats. “If these jurisdictions fail to respond to our request, fail to respond completely or fail to respond in a timely manner, we will exercise our lawful authorities and issue subpoenas for the information,” a Justice Department official said, Reuters reported.

The issue fits the mold of the Trump administration’s widespread crackdowns on immigrants in pursuit of hardline conservative policies. The acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently suggested politicians who oppose the Trump administration’s policies on sanctuary cities should be charged with crimes and prosecuted. Many of the department’s policies also align with Trump’s campaign promises, such as cutting federal funds.

Sessions noted in the statement that those cities stand to lose federal funding if they were found to have violated the statute. Most of the jurisdictions have already said they have followed the law, and sanctuary city advocates argue that it strengthens relations with local law enforcement, Reuters reported.

Under Trump federal immigration sweeps have skyrocketed, and undocumented immigrants who are noncriminals have been swept up at an alarming rate.

Meryl Streep signs up for “Big Little Lies” season 2 because sometimes good things happen

Meryl Streep accepts the Cecil B. DeMille Award during the 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards show in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 8, 2017. (Credit: Reuters/Paul Drinkwater)

Narratively speaking, we didn’t��need��a second season of the beautiful, award-winning yoga-pants-and-murder HBO series “Big Little Lies.”��Indeed, the show had already exhausted its source material (Liane Moriarty’s eponymous book) and it was only ever billed as a limited series. And yet, it turns out we’re getting more of this very good thing. Moreover, the second season of the show, starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern and Shailene Woodley, will further spoil us by adding national treasure Meryl Streep to its already deep and talented cast when it returns in 2019.

In her return to HBO �����she��had a significant role in the network’s 2003 adaptation of “Angels in America” ��� Streep will reportedly play��the mother-in-law of��Nicole Kidman���s character and mother of Alexander Skarsg��rd’s character. In another surprise bit of casting, Skarsg��rd will return at some point during the season’s second run, despite his character’s death (yeah, spoilers).

It’s an interesting move, and not just because Streep ��� one of America’s most honored actors, man or woman ��� has a very shallow history on the small screen. In the fast rise of the #MeToo movement and the industry response best typified by the “Time’s Up” initiative, Streep has been somewhat of an outspoken and unifying figure����� despite her long history and previous��support for disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein. Regardless of some pointed questions asked by critics ��� Rose McGowan included ��� she’s at least considered a central figure in the top-tier industry response to the crises brought to the fore by #MeToo.

Though it was never intended to be so, “Big��Little Lies” itself has become attached to that Hollywood reaction as well, primarily for its sometimes brutal and graphic depictions of domestic abuse. As well, stars Witherspoon, Kidman, Dern, Woodley, Skarsg��rd and Zo�� Kravitz have all either been��instrumental to the development of the “Time’s Up” movement, or have at least spoken up��about the issues it addresses. It’s not too much to frame Streep’s attachment to the series, which dives deep into issues of woman’s identity, self worth, rape, trauma and gender power imbalances, as somewhat of a meeting of the minds.

The three-time Oscar winner joins a show that has already collected eight Emmy Awards and four Golden Globes (Kidman and��Skarsg��rd each took home both an Emmy and a Globe for their respective roles). While the ratings were good, if not great, for the expensive series co-produced by��Witherspoon, the fact that HBO has brought it to full series and funded Streep’s casting shows how much faith the network has in the title.

Despite the fact that “Big Little Lies” has collected a great number of positive reviews and industry awards, it still has some difficult ground to navigate in its second season. Critics have, quite fairly, noted its lack of racial inclusiveness ��� Kravitz is its sole major non-white cast member ��� and its concentration on uber-wealthy coastal elites (all but one of the central characters appear to be multimillionaires or are married to multimillionaires). Certainly, series creator David E. Kelly and Witherspoon will have another season to address these racial and class issues ��� one that will be brightened by Streep’s presence.

How Elon Musk, CEO of multiple unprofitable companies, could become world’s richest man

Elon Musk (Credit: AP/Stephan Savoia)

Entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk made headlines again this week ��� not��because of his net worth��or his nonviable��space travel goals, but because of��a new compensation plan that some experts believe might��make him the world’s richest person in the��coming��years.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has been known to be an unconventional business man, and while it���s been unclear what his future is with Tesla Motors, his new Tesla compensation plan revealed on Tuesday��is designed to incentivize him in an ���all or nothing��� way.

Here are the details of the compensation plan: As Tesla CEO, Musk will only be paid if he achieves a series of milestones, including achieving a market valuation of $650 billion in ten years. The company���s valuation goal starts at $100 billion and increases in $50 billion increments. Currently, Tesla���s market cap is at $59.4 billion.

Tesla also established various revenue and adjusted profit goals. Upon hitting all of the goals outlined, Musk would receive 1.69 million shares of the company, which could be worth billions.��The New York Times��described the compensation plan as the ���most radical in corporate history.��� Tesla calls it a ���10-year CEO performance award.���

���Elon will receive no guaranteed compensation of any kind ��� no salary, no cash bonuses, and no equity that vests simply by the passage of time,��� the��company’s��press release explains. ���Instead, Elon���s only compensation will be a 100% at-risk performance award, which ensures that he will be compensated only if Tesla and all of its shareholders do extraordinarily well.���

The announcement also highlights that Musk���s compensation ���is tied to the success of everyone at Tesla.”

Increasing Tesla���s value to $650 billion would make the company one of the five largest in the country, according to the New York Times ��� meaning his stock could be worth as much as $55 billion.

���If all that happens over the next 10 years is that Tesla���s value grows by 80 or 90 percent, then my amount of compensation would be zero,��� he��told the New York Times. ���I actually see the potential for Tesla to become a trillion-dollar company within a 10-year period.���

For vesting to happen, Tesla explains Musk must ���remain as Tesla���s CEO or serve as both Executive Chairman and Chief Product Officer, in each case with all leadership ultimately reporting to him.���

As Bloomberg explains, if all goes well, Musk would become��the richest man on the planet�������sidling up alongside��Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Mark Zuckerberg, according to Bloomberg���s billionaire tracker ��� assuming the aforementioned billionaires��remain in their current spots in the wealth ranking.

Predicting��Musk’s placement at the top of the list��redefines what it��would mean to be a billionaire, and the route to get there. Note that Tesla still isn���t profitable: in the third quarter of 2017 Tesla lost��$671 million on a $3 billion total revenue. If this trend continues,��Musk��could be the richest man in the world who is leading an unprofitable company. To simplify: you don���t have to make money to become incredibly wealthy; you just need to have an idea that investors want to throw a lot of money at, and a lot of confidence that you won���t fail. Snap Inc. CEO Evan Spiegel (net worth $3.2 billion) and Twitter���s Jack Dorsey (net worth $3.3 billion) are��other notable examples of rich CEOs who head unprofitable companies.

Indeed, this pattern forms part of a trend that Silicon Valley has exhibited for quite some time: Big tech companies continue to reach the initial public offering (IPO) stage despite��lack of��profitability; Cloudera��is one recent example.

As��Salon’s Angelo Young wrote, ���once startups make their way to the public markets through initial public offerings, founder-CEOs can continue to reap billions from their company���s valuations without the companies making a dime in profit.��� Musk epitomizes that trend, it seems.

Meanwhile, the United States at large is becoming one of the most unequal first-world countries. The three richest men in the country, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, collectively hoard more wealth than half the United States ��� 160 million people.

Elton John officially retiring from the road

LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 13: Elton John performed songs from his new album Wonderful Crazy Night out February 5, as well as classic hits, on January 13th at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. (Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Island Records) (Credit: Getty/Larry Busacca)

The legendary musician Elton John announced his retirement from touring after 50 years on the road Wednesday. But before he says goodbye, though, he’ll be embarking on one last farewell outing, the “Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.”

The yellow brick road leads to… The #EltonFarewellTour!

Get tickets for Elton's final tour and watch the incredible Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour launch video at https://t.co/fEQsOiiRjO. pic.twitter.com/pyiPP3KHuN

— Elton John (@eltonofficial) January 24, 2018

The tour is an ambitious one, including 300 dates over a three-year time span.

People have questioned if John’s decision comes after��several health problems last year. In March, John was hospitalized in South America because of a potentially fatal bacterial infection that he contracted while on tour. He then had to cancel two months of shows in Las Vegas and a concert in California.

But the 70-year-old English singer, pianist and composer says it’s simply about wanting to spend time with family.��“Sir Elton said he and his husband, David Furnish, made the decision a couple of years ago so they could spend more time together and with their two young sons,” ABC Chicago reported. “His children will be 10 and 8 years old when he stops performing.”

 

John will perform at the Grammys this Sunday with Miley Cyrus, as well as host a concert Tuesday at Madison Square Concert meant to honor the icon. John’s Vegas show “The Million Dollar Piano” will conclude in May after a six-year run.

The highly decorated musician has five Grammys, an Oscar and a Golden Globe, a Tony Award and a Kennedy Center Honor. And fans on Twitter are already declaring the necessity of seeing Elton John one last time.

I MUST SEE ELTON JOHN IN CONCERT ONE MORE TIME! #EltonFarewellTour pic.twitter.com/0Rd6Kxh9eT

— Sam (@Samantha_2446) January 24, 2018

Just watched the #EltonEvent live stream. I'm /definitely/ going to have to get tickets for – at least – one of those 300 dates on the 'Farewell Yellow Brick Road' tour. I've seen Elton live once, but really want to say 'goodbye' properly on his final tour ������.

— Matthew Guillaume (@ThisIsMatthewG) January 24, 2018

https://twitter.com/GarethRhys2/statu...

@eltonofficial just announced his final world tour…must. Get. Tickets. #EltonEvent #EltonJohn #farewellyellowbrickroad

— Mary Annieeeeeeeee (@MaryAnnieSings) January 24, 2018