Discover Top Posts Tagged with #ellen2k16

Gun control and Police Brutality

Ellen DeGeneres is for gun control. Washington DC's low murder rate of 80.6 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Arlington, VA's high murder rate of 1.6 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control. Many departments don’t provide adequate training in nonviolent solutions. This is particularly obvious when it comes to dealing with family pets. “Police kill family dog” is practically its own subgenre of police brutality reports, and most of these cases—like the story of the Minnesota children who were made to sit, handcuffed, next to their dead and bleeding pet—are all too preventable. Some police departments have begun to train their officers to deal more appropriately with pets, but Thomas Aveni of the Police Policy Studies Council, a police consulting firm, says it’s still extremely rare. In the absence of this training, police are less likely to view violence as a last resort. Standards for what constitutes brutality vary widely and consequences for misconduct are minimal. In central New Jersey, for instance, 99 percent of police brutality complaints are never investigated. Nor can that be explained away as stereotypical New Jersey corruption. Only one out of every three accused cops are convicted nationwide, while the conviction rate for civilians is literally double that. In Chicago, the numbers are even more skewed: There were 10,000 abuse complaints filed against the Chicago PD between 2002 and 2004, and just 19 of them ”resulted in meaningful disciplinary action.” On a national level, upwards of 95 percent of police misconduct cases referred for federal prosecution are declined by prosecutors because, as reported in USA Today, juries “are conditioned to believe cops, and victims’ credibility is often challenged.” Failure to remedy this police/civilian double standard cultivates an abuse-friendly legal environment. Police themselves say misconduct is remarkably widespread. A Department of Justice study revealed that a whopping 84 percent of police officers report that they have seen colleagues use excessive force on civilians, and 61 percent admit they don’t always report “even serious criminal violations that involve abuse of authority by fellow officers.” When people are becoming scared of the law that is "supposed" to protect us, it really is a huge problem.

#gun control #police brutality #issue statements #ellen2k16

Legalization of Marijuana

Ellen DeGeneres believes legalizing marijuana can have major economic benefits and she fully supports it. Harry Anslinger testified in hearings on the subject that the hemp plant needed to be banned because it had a violent “effect on the degenerate races.” This specifically referred to Mexican immigrants who had entered the country, seeking jobs during the Great Depression. The immorality of marijuana use can only be based on one set of moral beliefs. Prohibition has enormous social costs. The deleterious effects of prohibition run from wasted resources to ruined lives. Police devote thousands of hours to arresting, booking and imprisoning marijuana smokers, many of whom are otherwise law-abiding. The most unfortunate of these arrestees have spent over a decade in prison, in some cases for nothing more than possession of cannabis for personal use. The drug war isn't just a failure. It's a spectacular failure. According to a handy summation New York Times: "Despite billions spent on measures from spraying coco fields high in the Andes to jailing local dealers in Miami or Washington, a gram of cocaine cost about 16 percent less last year than it did in 2001." Cannabis has legitimate medical effects. The narrative of cannabis as a harmful drug has been dominant for so long, that many people had trouble accepting the plant’s demonstrated medicinal effects. Opinions on medical marijuana have shifted dramatically in the last two decades: this year, a slew of mostly conservative states passed laws permitting epilepsy patients to use strains of cannabis high in CBD. These states joined 23 others with broader medical marijuana laws. While the federal government still lists cannabis as a Schedule I drug, meaning it does not acknowledge any legitimate medical use, the states clearly disagree.

There is reason even for people who oppose the use of marijuana to support its legalization: legal substances can be controlled in ways illegal ones cannot. Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. American history has a good analog for cannabis prohibition: alcohol prohibition. With both, use of the substance did not stop, laws were selectively enforced and violent gangs made staggering profits filling a market law-abiding merchants could no longer touch. In the end, despite alcohol’s costs to bodily health, and the alarming effects it can have on behavior, it was determined, rightly, that criminalizing alcohol did more harm than good. Marijuana is less addictive than tobacco or alcohol, and compares favorably to those drugs on nearly every health metric.

#legalization of marijuana #issue statements #ellen2k16

Same-Sex Marriage

Ellen DeGeneres believes marriage is a basic human right for all people. She will not stop until it is recognized and legal in all states. Marriage is internationally recognized as a human right for all people. The Supreme Court has declared marriage as a fundamental right for all citizens: “men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution." Denying people the right to marry is discriminatory and creates a second-class of citizens. On July 25, 2014 Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge Sarah Zabel ruled Florida's gay marriage ban was unconstitutional: "serves only to hurt, to discriminate, to deprive same-sex couples and their families of equal dignity, to label and treat them as second-class citizens, and to deem them unworthy of participation in one of the fundamental institutions of our society." Marriage is not only for procreation, otherwise infertile couples or couples not wishing to have children would be prevented from marrying. Ability or desire to create offspring has never been a qualification for marriage. Legal marriage is a secular institution that should not be limited by religious objections to same-sex marriage. Religious institutions can decline to marry gay and lesbian couples if they wish, but they should not dictate marriage laws for society at large.

#marriage #same-sex marriage #issue statements #ellen2k16

Abortion

Ellen DeGeneres and the Democratic Party believes and supports a woman’s right to make decisions best suited for her pregnancy and lifestyle. The Democratic Party intends to make abortion safe, legal, and refuses to discriminate abortion rights for women with an inability to pay for costs. Abortion is a personal decision, and government officials have no right to force a woman into a different moral code from her own. Choice is a fundamental, constitutional right, and by eliminating freedom of choice, the government takes away justice and allows for the opportunity for dangerous, unaided abortions. Through widely accessible and safe healthcare and education, unintended pregnancies will decline. Through previously stated tax cuts, reform, and universal healthcare, abortion clinics will be funded by the government similarly as a social program and will not be exclusionary towards age of a female.

#abortion #issue statements #ellen2k16

Health Care

Because American citizens do not deserve to go broke simply because they get sick, Ellen DeGeneres intends to provide accessible healthcare and to expand healthcare coverage. In order to make health care more accessible and affordable, the Democratic Party under Ellen DeGeneres will provide tax credits to older citizens reaching the age of retirement, and to the citizens who are currently unemployed. A tax credit is an amount of money that can be and offset against a liability, or the amount of money a taxpayer is able to subtract from the amount of tax that they owe to the government. With a reduced tax credit for individuals with low incomes or without jobs, the government intends to give those individuals an opportunity to afford and set money aside for adequate healthcare. The tax credits will promote the specific behavior of getting correctly and efficiently treated for health issues and sicknesses. By expanding healthcare coverage, children, poor families, older families, small businesses, and jobless citizens will have guaranteed access to healthcare. Affordable healthcare ends insurance company abuse and children with pre-existing conditions will no longer be discriminated by those insurance companies.

#health care #issue statements #ellen2k16

Taxes

Ellen DeGeneres will work to impose tax cuts for working families and to raise taxes for the wealthiest demographic in America in order to fund social programs. Republicans believe that the government should only raise money for the essential functions of the country, but those functions refer to big businesses and corporations. When the government raises money to fund big businesses, the businesses grow to extremes and subsequently widen the unsurpassable wealth gap. Ellen DeGeneres intends to impose tax cuts for middle and working class families while the citizens earning more than $200,000 a year will give more of their income to taxes. This strategy allows for profits created by Keynesian economics: when the government cuts taxes for the middle class and directly funds new programs for society, those programs generate new money and jobs into the economy. With the increase of money supply going to the government as a result of increased taxes for the wealthiest citizens, the government will fund social programs such as Social Security, defense and international security, Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP.

#issue statement #taxes #ellen2k16

Presidential Candidacy

Declaration of Candidacy Speech

I am announcing today my candidacy for President of the United States of America.

As a united people, I plan to lead us through hardships, security, and a path to a better America. With this powerful, responsible role as leader and companion of the American people, I will bring justice to the issues consuming and gnawing away at our great nation. With your help, support, and vote, we can all work together to end the war on terror, lessen the stifling government debt, and fight for the prosperity of justice and equality. Your little girls and boys will no longer endure sleepless, fearful nights lying awake in fear of a terrorist attack. You will no longer have to worry and stress about the financial standing of your children, and you will no longer feel ashamed to acknowledge diversity.

You, citizens of the United States of America, have a calling. I have a calling. We are being called toward the common good. Equality and justice are screaming for our help.

I am confident that through the past thirty years of my various stand-ups, television programs, films, and charity works that I have gotten to know, relate, and understand the plight of the American people. I promise that through your trust in me, your life, liberty, and happiness will be in good hands.

I am confident to bring unification and relativity to the Democratic Party by winning this election.

I hereby promise to defend and protect our glorious nation.

With the utmost confidence and respect towards you, the foundation of our country, I commence this 2016 presidential campaign.

#campaign #speech #ellen2k16