Scary (And Sad)

Political Cartoon is by Monte Wolverton at cagle.com.

We Must Be Concerned About The System

GOP Poverty Plan

Youth Vote Favors Democrats According To A New Poll

Much has been discussed and written about the youth vote in the coming election. Will young voters go to the polls or stay home on November 6th? Who will they vote for? What do they think of the issues?

This new poll helps to answer those questions.

It is the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics Poll. They questioned a national sample of 2,003 18 to 29 year-olds between October 3rd and 17th. The poll has a margin of error of 3.18 points.

Life Or Muerte

Political Cartoon is by Lalo Alcaraz

Open Letter From Jewish Leaders Should Be From All Of Us

(Cartoon image is by David Fitzsimmons in the Arizona Daily Star.)

After the tragedy in Pittsburgh, Trump didn't even suspend his political hate speech for one day. He did however say he might go to Pittsburgh. I hope he doesn't, because he is likely to try and turn it into another self-serving political event.

Many others feel the same way. After hearing he might go to Pittsburg, 11 Jewish leaders penned an open letter to Trump -- a letter that has now been signed by over 36,000 people. That letter, which was read outside the White House on the day after the shooting, is printed below.

Personally, I would take it further. Decent people around the country should make it clear that Trump is not welcome in their cities either -- until he apologizes for his odious behavior and learns to act like a decent human.

Here is the letter from Bend The Arc:

President Trump:

Yesterday, a gunman slaughtered 11 Americans during Shabbat morning services. We mourn with the victims’ families and pray for the wounded. Here in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, we express gratitude for the first responders and for the outpouring of support from our neighbors near and far. We are committed to healing as a community while we recommit ourselves to repairing our nation.

For the past three years your words and your policies have emboldened a growing white nationalist movement. You yourself called the murderer evil, but yesterday’s violence is the direct culmination of your influence.  

President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism.

Our Jewish community is not the only group you have targeted.  You have also deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. Yesterday’s massacre is not the first act of terror you incited against a minority group in our country.  

President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you stop targeting and endangering all minorities.

The murderer’s last public statement invoked the compassionate work of the Jewish refugee service HIAS at the end of a week in which you spread lies and sowed fear about migrant families in Central America. He killed Jews in order to undermine the efforts of all those who find shared humanity with immigrants and refugees.

President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you cease your assault on immigrants and refugees.

The Torah teaches that every human being is made b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God.

This means all of us.

In our neighbors, Americans, and people worldwide who have reached out to give our community strength, there we find the image of God.  While we cannot speak for all Pittsburghers, or even all Jewish Pittsburghers, we know we speak for a diverse and unified group when we say:

President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you commit yourself to compassionate, democratic policies that recognize the dignity of all of us.

Signed,

Bend the Arc: Pittsburgh Steering Committee

A Real Scare

Political Cartoon is by Ed Wexler at cagle.com.

Genetics Tells Us That Race Is A False Concept

In his campaign, Donald Trump promised to be a "uniter". After being sworn into office, he has done just the opposite of that. He has divided this country along racial (and ethnicity and political) lines. He has given racists and white supremacists the idea that this countries leader agrees with them. That has brought them back into public view, and encouraged them to act on their sick beliefs.

In just the last few days, we have seen these haters target Blacks and Jews for death. It is time for decent Americans of all colors (but especially whites) to step forward and drive this evil from our society.

Race is a false concept. It doesn't exist. It was invented by whites to justify colonialism, slavery, and theft of land and resources. It was exported to the Americas, where it found a fertile breeding ground (especially in the United States). It has done enough damage in this country (and in others), and it is time to put this false concept into the trash bin of history.

The following is from The American Journal of Human Genetics in an article published on October 19th:

The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) is alarmed to see a societal resurgence of groups rejecting the value of genetic diversity and using discredited or distorted genetic concepts to bolster bogus claims of white supremacy. ASHG denounces this misuse of genetics to feed racist ideologies. In public dialog, our research community should be clear about genetic knowledge related to ancestry and genomic diversity. To that end, ASHG affirms the following:

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  Genetics demonstrates that humans cannot be divided into biologically distinct subcategories. Although there are clear observable correlations between variation in the human genome and how individuals identify by race, the study of human genetics challenges the traditional concept of different races of humans as biologically separate and distinct. This is validated by many decades of research, including recent examples.

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  Most human genetic variation is distributed as a gradient, so distinct boundaries between population groups cannot be accurately assigned. There is considerable genetic overlap among members of different populations. Such patterns of genome variation are explained by patterns of migration and mixing of different populations throughout human history.

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   In this way, genetics exposes the concept of “racial purity” as scientifically meaningless.
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  It follows that there can be no genetics-based support for claiming one group as superior to another. Although a person’s genetics influences their phenotypic characteristics, and self-identified race might be influenced by physical appearance, race itself is a social construct. Any attempt to use genetics to rank populations demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of genetics.
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  The past decade has seen the emergence of strategies for assessing an individual’s genetic ancestry. Such analyses

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   are providing increasingly accurate ways of helping to define individuals’ ancestral origins and enabling new ways to explore and discuss ancestries that move us beyond blunt definitions of self-identified race.

Through its support for research at the leading edge of human genetics, ASHG will continue to advance scientific knowledge and debunk genetics-based arguments promoting racial supremacy. ASHG also encourages all society members to be active as citizens in political, policy, and social advocacy organizations that reflect their values. This is a perfect complement to their scientific contributions to this debate through ASHG.

ASHG will continue to foster dialog in the field on the impact, value, and implications of diversity and ancestry within the research agenda, including through ASHG’s primary forums for scientific debate and discussion: The American Journal of Human Genetics and the ASHG Annual Meeting. Recognizing that the invocation of genetics to promote racist ideologies is one of many factors causing racism to persist, ASHG will focus in the public arena on contributing new fundamental knowledge to the societal dialog about ancestry, supporting greater diversity in research, continuing to engage the field and public to build genetic literacy, and addressing misconceptions of genetics and ancestry.

Removing The Threat

Political Cartoon is by Clay Bennett in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Have You Noticed ?

NOT The Tolerant Left

Dems Still Hold Solid Lead With Only Days To Go

These charts are from RealClearPolitics. The top chart shows the latest generic ballot polling. The second shows the history of the generic ballot polling for this election. Currently the Democrats hold a 7.6 point lead in the average of the most recent polls (Democrats 49.5% to Republicans 41.9%).

The Bet

Political Cartoon is by Jeff Koterba in the Omaha World-Herald.

First Week Of Texas Early Voting Far Stronger Than 2014

These 15 largest counties contain about 65% of the total registered voters in the state of Texas (which has 254 counties). The top chart shows the total number of voters who voted in the first week of early voting in Texas. Note that the numbers easily eclipse the number of early voter in the first week of 2014 (the last midterm election).

The second chart shows the percentage of registered voters in each county who voted in that first week of early voting, compared to the percentage in the first week from 2014.

The numbers in both charts are from the office of the Texas Secretary of State.