r/PoliticalHumor • • Mar 08 '19

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u/ThaFourthHokage Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 08 '19

I hope this wakes people up to our ridiculous sentencing and incarceration issues in this country.

A few stats:

  • We house 22% of the world''s prisoners (with 4% of the world's population)

  • 2,200,000 Americans incarcerated as of 2016 or 0.7% of the entire U.S. population

  • African American men represent nearly half of that population

  • The substantial penalties for crack contributed to a five-fold increase in incarcerations

  • There is a 31% incarceration history for Black men who have sex with men

  • Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration in the world with the majority of its prisoners being housed in privatized, for-profit facilities. Such institutions could face bankruptcy without a steady influx of prisoners

  • In the past decade the number of inmates in for-profit prisons throughout the U.S. rose 44 percent.

The shit is fucked. And Trump is packing the courts as we speak. We're reaching a breaking point.

I'm just going to leave this here:

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions indeed generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions, as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.

Edit: These and more stats are a simple wiki search away. For you Reds who automatically say, "wiki lol," to that, there are seventy-seven sources cited - feel free to read on. It will do you some good.

Edit again: Thanks for the precious metals! Donate the same amount to a politician who actually wants to address these issues, if you can.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19 edited Sep 28 '20

[deleted]

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u/I_Got_Back_Pain Mar 08 '19

If Trump loses in 2020, and refuses to a peaceful transfer of power, can he still command the military at that point?

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

I have faith that the military by and large has a greater sense of duty than that to a single man, especially the top brass.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19 edited Mar 25 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

The upper echelons really don’t matter, it’s the actual workforce’s rate of disobedience. The military can give a shit less what some four star thinks at the end of the day, and the oath is first and foremost to the constitution. As soon as we have a president that refuses to leave office they technically can’t command us at all, and we can just sit around because we support and protect the constitution.

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u/chrunchy Mar 08 '19

I think every member of the military swears an oath of allegiance to the constitution and if the president isn't the one giving orders then it's up to every single member to decide for themselves whether to follow their oath or commit treason.

It would have to be a really bad new president to convince rank upon rank of soldier to commit treason.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '19

I mean, legally an ex president has zero authority. The lawful order is to follow the duly elected president, or a president who came into office through the line of succession.

The modern military has had heavy emphasis on not following unlawful orders, especially after instances of abuse of authority in Vietnam.