https://archive.is/Tm40W
Workers Vanguard No. 1096 23 September 2016
California Propositions: Yes on 62, No on 66!
Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!
Last year, the United States ranked fifth in the world in the number of people executed at the hands of the state, coming in just behind Saudi Arabia. While the medieval rulers of that country behead the accused in a public square, America’s capitalist rulers prefer the more “humane” method of lethal injection, perpetrated out of public view in prison death chambers. Last year, the Supreme Court rejected a suit brought by three death row inmates in Oklahoma against the state’s use of a drug that is the chemical equivalent of being burned alive. Arguing that the inmates had failed to come up with an “available and preferable” means of being put to death, the Court’s majority decision written by Justice Samuel Alito concluded:
“While most humans wish to die a painless death, many do not have that good fortune. Holding that the Eighth Amendment demands the elimination of essentially all risk of pain would effectively outlaw the death penalty altogether.”
Indeed, the purpose of the death penalty is to inflict cruel and unusual punishment as a statement of the ultimate authority of the state and its monopoly on the means of violence. A barbaric legacy of medieval torture, its endurance in the United States is rooted in the origins of American capitalism, which was built on the hideously brutalized labor of black chattel slaves.
The profits that were wrung out of the slave trade and plantation labor were maintained through terror and murder. After the defeat of the Southern slavocracy in the Civil War and the dismantling of Radical Reconstruction by the Northern bourgeoisie, Jim Crow segregation was enforced by lynch mobs. By the 1930s, such extralegal murder was increasingly supplanted by state-sanctioned executions. Black men and women accounted for over two-thirds of those put to death between 1930 and 1967, when amid the mass struggles of the civil rights movement a de facto moratorium on capital punishment was temporarily imposed. Today, more than 40 percent of those on death row are black.
As Marxists, we oppose the death penalty on principle—for the guilty as well as the innocent. We do not accord the state the right to determine who lives and who dies. Our opposition to capital punishment extends as well to China, North Korea and the other bureaucratically deformed workers states, where execution is
... keep reading on reddit ➡I'd like to have a discussion regarding how you voted for the propositions on the ballot, I'm sure there are some voters are still undecided and it's always good to get a few different viewpoints.
I'm going to post a summary of the propositions from voter's edge and ballotpedia in the OP before posting my own views in a separate post to be impartial. Please visit the links for each proposition for more detailed information regarding the pros, cons, and current situation of the law on the issue. Feel free to post a list of your own viewpoints on propositions and how you'll be voting. There's a lot of nuance and gray areas in the many propositions this year so discussions like this can help a lot.
Please put how you're voting for each proposition and why
Prop. 51 — Bonds for School Facilities
Authorizes $9 billion in general obligation bonds for new construction and modernization of K-12 public school facilities; charter schools and vocational education facilities; and California Community Colleges facilities
The way it is now
The state of California helps school districts and community college districts pay for construction projects. Districts can apply for state money, but usually have to contribute some of the money themselves. The state usually pays 50 to 60 percent of school construction costs. Money for these projects is separate from money used to hire teachers or pay for educational programs. Since 1998, state bonds have provided a total of $36 billion for K-12 facilities and $4 billion for community college facilities.
What if it passes?
Allow the state to sell $9 billion in new bonds for educational facilities. $7 billion would be marked for K-12 public school facilities and $2 billion for community college facilities. School districts could apply for funds to buy land, repair old buildings or construct new facilities. The money from Prop 51 could not be used to hire teachers or pay for educational programs.
Budget effect
The total cost to pay off the bonds plus interest would be $17.6 billion. Payments of about $500 million would be made each year for about 35 years
[Prop. 52 — Private Hospital Fees for Medi-Cal Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute](http://votersedge.kpcc.org/en/ca/ballot/election/area/42/measures/measu
... keep reading on reddit ➡
https://archive.is/Tm40W
Workers Vanguard No. 1096 23 September 2016
California Propositions: Yes on 62, No on 66!
Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!
Last year, the United States ranked fifth in the world in the number of people executed at the hands of the state, coming in just behind Saudi Arabia. While the medieval rulers of that country behead the accused in a public square, America’s capitalist rulers prefer the more “humane” method of lethal injection, perpetrated out of public view in prison death chambers. Last year, the Supreme Court rejected a suit brought by three death row inmates in Oklahoma against the state’s use of a drug that is the chemical equivalent of being burned alive. Arguing that the inmates had failed to come up with an “available and preferable” means of being put to death, the Court’s majority decision written by Justice Samuel Alito concluded:
“While most humans wish to die a painless death, many do not have that good fortune. Holding that the Eighth Amendment demands the elimination of essentially all risk of pain would effectively outlaw the death penalty altogether.”
Indeed, the purpose of the death penalty is to inflict cruel and unusual punishment as a statement of the ultimate authority of the state and its monopoly on the means of violence. A barbaric legacy of medieval torture, its endurance in the United States is rooted in the origins of American capitalism, which was built on the hideously brutalized labor of black chattel slaves.
The profits that were wrung out of the slave trade and plantation labor were maintained through terror and murder. After the defeat of the Southern slavocracy in the Civil War and the dismantling of Radical Reconstruction by the Northern bourgeoisie, Jim Crow segregation was enforced by lynch mobs. By the 1930s, such extralegal murder was increasingly supplanted by state-sanctioned executions. Black men and women accounted for over two-thirds of those put to death between 1930 and 1967, when amid the mass struggles of the civil rights movement a de facto moratorium on capital punishment was temporarily imposed. Today, more than 40 percent of those on death row are black.
As Marxists, we oppose the death penalty on principle—for the guilty as well as the innocent. We do not accord the state the right to determine who lives and who dies. Our opposition to capital punishment extends as well to China, North Korea and the other bureaucratically deformed workers states, where execution is
... keep reading on reddit ➡https://archive.is/Tm40W
Workers Vanguard No. 1096 23 September 2016
California Propositions: Yes on 62, No on 66!
Abolish the Racist Death Penalty!
Last year, the United States ranked fifth in the world in the number of people executed at the hands of the state, coming in just behind Saudi Arabia. While the medieval rulers of that country behead the accused in a public square, America’s capitalist rulers prefer the more “humane” method of lethal injection, perpetrated out of public view in prison death chambers. Last year, the Supreme Court rejected a suit brought by three death row inmates in Oklahoma against the state’s use of a drug that is the chemical equivalent of being burned alive. Arguing that the inmates had failed to come up with an “available and preferable” means of being put to death, the Court’s majority decision written by Justice Samuel Alito concluded:
“While most humans wish to die a painless death, many do not have that good fortune. Holding that the Eighth Amendment demands the elimination of essentially all risk of pain would effectively outlaw the death penalty altogether.”
Indeed, the purpose of the death penalty is to inflict cruel and unusual punishment as a statement of the ultimate authority of the state and its monopoly on the means of violence. A barbaric legacy of medieval torture, its endurance in the United States is rooted in the origins of American capitalism, which was built on the hideously brutalized labor of black chattel slaves.
The profits that were wrung out of the slave trade and plantation labor were maintained through terror and murder. After the defeat of the Southern slavocracy in the Civil War and the dismantling of Radical Reconstruction by the Northern bourgeoisie, Jim Crow segregation was enforced by lynch mobs. By the 1930s, such extralegal murder was increasingly supplanted by state-sanctioned executions. Black men and women accounted for over two-thirds of those put to death between 1930 and 1967, when amid the mass struggles of the civil rights movement a de facto moratorium on capital punishment was temporarily imposed. Today, more than 40 percent of those on death row are black.
As Marxists, we oppose the death penalty on principle—for the guilty as well as the innocent. We do not accord the state the right to determine who lives and who dies. Our opposition to capital punishment extends as well to China, North Korea and the other bureaucratically deformed workers states, where execution is
... keep reading on reddit ➡I'd like to have a discussion regarding how you voted for the propositions on the ballot, I'm sure there are some voters are still undecided and it's always good to get a few different viewpoints.
I'm going to post a summary of the propositions from voter's edge and ballotpedia in the OP before posting my own views in a separate post to be impartial. Please visit the links for each proposition for more detailed information regarding the pros, cons, and current situation of the law on the issue. Feel free to post a list of your own viewpoints on propositions and how you'll be voting. There's a lot of nuance and gray areas in the many propositions this year so discussions like this can help a lot.
Prop. 51 — Bonds for School Facilities
Authorizes $9 billion in general obligation bonds for new construction and modernization of K-12 public school facilities; charter schools and vocational education facilities; and California Community Colleges facilities
The way it is now
The state of California helps school districts and community college districts pay for construction projects. Districts can apply for state money, but usually have to contribute some of the money themselves. The state usually pays 50 to 60 percent of school construction costs. Money for these projects is separate from money used to hire teachers or pay for educational programs. Since 1998, state bonds have provided a total of $36 billion for K-12 facilities and $4 billion for community college facilities.
What if it passes?
Allow the state to sell $9 billion in new bonds for educational facilities. $7 billion would be marked for K-12 public school facilities and $2 billion for community college facilities. School districts could apply for funds to buy land, repair old buildings or construct new facilities. The money from Prop 51 could not be used to hire teachers or pay for educational programs.
Budget effect
The total cost to pay off the bonds plus interest would be $17.6 billion. Payments of about $500 million would be made each year for about 35 years
Prop. 52 — Private Hospital Fees for Medi-Cal Initiative Constitutional Amendment and Statute
The way it is now
The Medi-Cal
... keep reading on reddit ➡