Midday open thread: Three SoCal counties skew the death penalty; small debts matter to black lives

Today’s comic by Ruben Bolling is Senior citizens of Counter-Earth, in kick-butt gear: 

What’s coming up on Sunday Kos …

• Another way to visualize gerrymandering—measuring the competitiveness of state legislatures, by Steve Singiser
• Don't suffer internet trolls gladly, by Denise Oliver Velez
• Trump, guns and bitter, by Jon Perr
• It sucks to be a woman in the United States, by Susan Grigsby
• The revolutionary conflict of our civilization is being televised, by Frank Vyan Walton
• Liberals must be the glue to Donald Trump’s ‘divide and conquer’ spoils, by Egberto Willies

• A deadly disparity in justice. Three counties account for California’s nationwide lead in death sentences:

Capital punishment is fading away across much of America. There were only 28 executions this year, the fewest since 1991, and 24 of them were in just three states, Texas, Missouri and Georgia.

California hasn’t executed anyone since January 2006, and with the legal logjam, there’s no telling if or when that will change.

But no matter, a small slice of California keeps sending more people to death row, year after year.

• 2016 debuts in the Eastern Hemisphere:

• Politwoops will soon again be focusing on statements public officials make on line.

• Wealth gap makes small debts matter so much to black lives:

If you are black, you’re far more likely to see your electricity cut, more likely to be sued over a debt, and more likely to land in jail because of a parking ticket.

It is not unreasonable to attribute these perils to discrimination. But there’s no question that the main reason small financial problems can have such a disproportionate effect on black families is that, for largely historical reasons rooted in racism, they have far smaller financial reserves to fall back on than white families.

• 14 cops who killed people in 2015 walked even though most of those they shot were unarmed.

• Climate data suggest the worst is yet to come for the drought-ridden southwestern Great Plains:

Farmers will need to prepare for even more erosion and less water in the future. A group of scientists predicted that man-made climate change will bring a historic drought to the Great Plains in the second half of the 21st century. They published their results in the journal Science Advances in early 2015. The recent rains were brought by El Niño, a weather pattern caused by warming Pacific Ocean waters, but these short-term weather changes are different from the long-term drying climate, which can still be punctuated by rainy periods.

• Bill Cosby’s supporters stand up for him on social media:

While activists and many in the mainstream media cheered the news that Bill Cosby had been criminally charged with sexual assault on Wednesday, fans of the comedian doubled down in their defense of him on social media.

Taking to Facebook pages with names like “We Stand with Cosby” and “Bill Cosby is innocent until proven guilty,” they vented their anger at 30-year-old Andrea Constand, the alleged victim whose case has resurfaced 10 years after she filed a civil suit accusing Cosby of sexually assaulting her. They railed against the other women—gold-diggers, they say—who have come forward with stories of sexual abuse decades after it allegedly occurred; at the biased media for declaring him guilty; at anyone who challenges their fevered conviction that he is innocent.

•On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: wrapping up for the year, with Greg Dworkin’s headline and horse race roundup, and Armando’s predictions for the elections, issues, and the presidential term to come. Year-end GunFAIL: Five people accidentally shot in the homes of cops, just since Christmas!

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