America has never discriminated on the basis of race (which does not exist) but on the basis of racism (which most certainly does.)
[…] A phrase like “mass incarceration” obviates the fact that “mass incarceration” is mostly localized in black neighborhoods. In Chicago during the ’90s, there was no overlap between the incarceration rates of black and white neighborhoods. The most incarcerated white neighborhoods in Chicago are still better off than the least incarcerated black neighborhoods. The most incarcerated black neighborhood in Chicago is 40 times worse than the most incarcerated white neighborhood.

Perhaps black people are for reasons of culture or genetics 40 times more criminal than white people. Or perhaps there is something more elegant at work

via This Town Needs a Better Class of Racist – Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic.

Note: In wake of this whole Donald Sterling, one thing the players who are members of the NBA Players Union should learn is that they do have some power and they specific ways they can exercise it.

Moreover, MICT isn’t the only method of tracking mail. In July 2013, the New York Times published an article on Leslie James Pickering, a former spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front member who was being tracked via "mail covers," the predecessor to MICT.

via Sorry Jimmy Carter, the Government Monitors Snail Mail Too | Motherboard.

Thomas Friedman in NYTimes.com:

I don’t like Keystone. Extracting oil from tar sands leads to even higher carbon emissions than drilling and devastates the landscape. But, if approval is the price for a truly transformational clean energy policy, I’m in. You’re not going to move the vested interests without a trade, but it has to be a smart trade.

Yes he’s talking about grand bargains. Going to kick the football with Lucy? Good luck with that Charlie Brown.

According to Madoff, there were “constant” confrontations with senior JPMorgan executives over a period of about 10 years. Madoff claims that the bank ultimately never cut ties with him because he brought in too much profit for the bank.

via Bernie Madoff: ‘JPMorgan knew’ – MJ Lee – POLITICO.com.

For what it’s worth.

U.S. 'Deeply Concerned' With Turkey's Move To Block Twitter: “The United States is deeply concerned that the Turkish government has blocked its citizens’ access to basic communication tools,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. “We oppose this restriction on the Turkish people’s access to information, which undermines their ability to exercise freedoms of expression and association and runs contrary to the principles of open governance that are critical to democratic governance and the universal rights that the United States stands for around the world.”

I always wondered this when buying $1 body wash at Dollar General:

Last year, New York magazine investigated how thieves were stealing laundry detergent to sell for drug money. One Safeway reported losing up to $15,000 a month in stolen detergent. Who would have expected the city’s underground economy to intersect with its legitimate economy thanks to such utterly boring products? [Priceonomics]

via Why Do Drug Stores Put Soap Under Lock and Key?.

Body Washes, soaps and clothing detergent are all being secured in stores now.

Netflix Reed Hastings wants to put an end to school boards and replace public schools with charters:

Hastings suggests that the “stable governance” of charter schools leads to stable schools, but, alas, big changes occur in charter schools. Let’s look at Rocketship, on whose unofficial board of advisers Hastings sits. Rocketship became known — and won $2 million from the Obama administration to help it grow — with a “blended learning” model that is designed to incorporate traditional classroom settings with a computer “Learning Lab” for students. The idea behind the lab was that students could learn basic lessons in math and reading while teachers could work with students on more complicated material. Part of the attraction, too, was that the computers would cost less than hiring more teachers. But get this: Last year Rocketship realized it had to revamp its fabulous “Learning Lab” because it wasn’t working very well. The charter network’s Web site says it is still piloting ”flexible learning spaces at some of our schools — spaces that will allow our teachers be even more effective and students to learn even more.”

What he’s arguing for is less governance, not better schools. Here’s the real story, public schools are more than fine outside of school districts in impoverished, urban areas. In fact they are pretty damn good:

About education. And unlike other folks who parachute into the ed debates with the usual silver bullets (more charter schools! higher standards! fewer teachers unions!), he [movie maker M. Night Shyamalan] actually diagnoses the problem correctly:

You know how everyone says America is behind in education, compared to all the countries? Technically, right now, we’re a little bit behind Poland and a little bit ahead of Liechtenstein, right? So that’s where we land in the list, right? So that’s actually not the truth. The truth is actually bizarrely black and white, literally, which is, if you pulled out the inner-city schools — just pull out the inner-city, low-income schools, just pull that group out of the United States, put them to the side — and just took every other public school in the United States, we lead the world in public-school education by a lot.

And what’s interesting is, we always think about Finland, right? Well, Finland, obviously, is mainly white kids, right? They teach their white kids really well. But guess what, we teach our white kids even better. We beat everyone. Our white kids are getting taught the best public-school education on the planet. Those are the facts.

It’s like we own 10 buildings, and 3 are on fire. So the Hastings solution is to turn the fire hose on all ten houses. The idea of public school systems is not broken. The countries we are “losing” too implement public schools. It has been perpetually improving and adapting in middle class and wealthy school districts across the country for decades. It’s the ability to deliver quality education in impoverished areas that is the issue. Wanting to get 90% of kids in the nation into charters is a corporate growth strategy, not an academic development strategy.