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Two little blue penguins arrive at their nests at Caroline Bay in Timaru, New Zealand, in November 2020. (Sanka Vidanagama/NurPhoto via AP)
The world’s smallest penguin species — called little blue penguins, fairy penguins or kororā — are about a foot tall and weigh about two pounds. Their feathers are pale blue, even indigo, and they love to eat tiny fish like anchovies and sardines. They’re small, but noisy.
“On the first day 75 dead penguins over a distance of 10 kilometers and then day two, walking north, counted them again, that morning I counted 71,” resident Vaughn Turner told local public broadcaster RNZ. “The third day, I counted about 59 dead birds.”
The die-offs are not completely unusual, according to New Zealand’s Department of Conservation. Every year, starting around November, members of the species wash up on shores, dead, sick or injured. “Some level of mortality is natural and to be expected,” the department wrote in a report last year.
Still, the abundant deaths are leading scientists and conservation experts to ask, how much is normal? And, will it get worse?
Antarctic penguin turns up in New Zealand after swimming nearly 2,000 miles off course
Mass die-offs of the penguins — meaning 1,000 or more washed up — used to be a “once in a decade” event, the department said. In 1974, for example, 4,737 penguins washed up; and 11 years later, 5,386 did.
But climate change is probably making it a lot worse for the penguins — as sea surface temperatures increase and marine heat waves and storms become more frequent.
“We may expect to see a corresponding increase in the amount of mass die-offs of penguin and other sea creatures,” said the department report.
Less than a third of all chicks typically survive to adulthood, based on studies in the South Island.
The Department of Conservation’s Graeme Taylor said that tests of some dead kororā indicated starvation and hypothermia — especially in baby penguins that have neither the strength nor the endurance to search for food in deep ocean waters.
“They’re just skin and bone,” Taylor said to RNZ. “They’ve got no fat on their body which they need.”
“In the past, you might have had a lot of good years followed by one bad year where a lot of birds die, but then they rebound in those good years,” Taylor told the outlet. “But if we start to see the balance tipping towards more bad years versus good years, then they’re just not going to be able to recover.”
While the penguin species was once common on the mainland coast, now they are largely found on more remote islands — far from threats and disturbances from humans, dogs and introduced predators.
Environmentalists for more than a year have protested a construction zone at a marina development in Waiheke Island, off the coast of Auckland in northern New Zealand, which they said was disturbing kororā habitats. | 2022-06-14T22:27:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amid rising sea temperatures, hundreds of little penguins are washing up dead on New Zealand shores - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/14/penguin-new-zealand-death-climate-change/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/14/penguin-new-zealand-death-climate-change/ |
Republicans collide in key primaries as Trump’s pull tested in S.C.
Tuesday’s vote across four states serving as the latest checkpoint of attitudes in the Republican Party and the ability of the former president to steer its direction.
Competing wings of the Republican Party collided across the country Tuesday, with a pair of congressional Republicans in South Carolina trying to survive against primary challengers backed by former president Donald Trump.
Rep. Tom Rice, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump last year, and Rep. Nancy Mace, who drew Trump’s ire after voting to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, were the latest Republicans drawn into electoral conflict with the ex-president. To win the primary outright and avoid a June 28 runoff, candidates needed to win a majority.
Late Tuesday evening, Mace led Trump-backed challenger Katie Arrington 52.7 percent to 45.5 percent, with the Associated Press estimating about 66 percent of the vote tallied. Trump-endorsed candidate Russell Fry was leading with 50 percent to Rice’s 24.8 percent, with an estimated 73 percent of the vote counted.
Tuesday’s vote across four states — Nevada, North Dakota, Maine and South Carolina — served as the latest checkpoint of the attitudes in the Republican Party and the ability of the former president to steer its direction. Democrats were also settling intraparty contests of their own. Meanwhile, voters from both parties in South Texas were casting ballots in a special election that served in part as a measure of Republicans’ ability to make further inroads with Latino voters on traditionally Democratic turf.
Trump-backed candidates have posted a spotty record in primaries this year, including decisive statewide defeats in Georgia last month and gubernatorial losses in Nebraska and Idaho. Trump has found more success in Senate races, including in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where his endorsed candidates have prevailed.
Tuesday’s races unfolded against the backdrop of a congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack’s first public hearings last Thursday and this past Monday. Some of the GOP candidates on the ballot have sought to baselessly discredit the election or played a more direct role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
The former president’s influence faced a test in a closely watched gubernatorial primary in Nevada, which pitted Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, who has Trump’s support, against Joey Gilbert, a lawyer and former boxer backed by the state Republican Party who has touted his presence in Washington during the attack on the Capitol.
Gilbert was also recorded on video just outside the Capitol building and has baselessly questioned whether Biden won his state.
Of the 10 GOP House members who voted to impeach Trump over incitement of insurrection after the attack on the Capitol, only six have opted to seek reelection. Rice is the second to face voters in the primaries so far this year, and he has defended his vote. The other is Rep. David G. Valadao (R-Calif.), who is hoping to advance to November’s election from the June 7 all-party primary in his state. Votes are still being tallied there.
Mace voted against both of Trump’s impeachments but drew the former president’s anger by supporting Vice President Mike Pence’s position that he lacked constitutional authority to overturn the 2020 election.
Against Rice, Trump earlier this year endorsed Fry, a state representative. Opposing Mace, he opted to back Arrington, a former state representative who won the GOP nomination for the seat in 2018 by defeating incumbent Republican Mark Sanford. In the general election, she lost to Democrat Joe Cunningham, who flipped the seat from red to blue for the first time in decades.
Mace won the support of at least one important Trump associate in the state, Nikki Haley, the former United Nations ambassador under Trump who campaigned for Mace — a move that angered the former president. Haley, who served as South Carolina governor before entering the Trump administration, is seen as a potential 2024 presidential candidate.
Mace has also sought to stress her support for Trump, once posting video that brought her ridicule in which she stood outside Trump Tower and identified herself as “one of his earliest supporters.”
“Tom Rice just went too far,” said Roland Kennedy, who cast his ballot in Florence County. “His answer to why he voted to impeach just kind of made me sick to my stomach.” On a debate stage in May, Rice provided a graphic retelling of his experience on Jan. 6. “I saw the bomb squads defusing bombs,” Rice said on the debate stage. “I smelled the tear gas.”
But the former president wasn’t on the minds of all GOP voters. Luder and Dale Messervy, of Charleston, said they cast ballots for Trump in 2016 and 2020. The pair, who are retired, supported Mace.
“We were huge Trump fans, but the shine is gone,” says the 76-year-old Luder. “We loved all of his policies, pretty much, but his ego and personality just is off-putting, so we’ve moved on.”
The couple braved a heat index exceeding 110 degrees to vote for the incumbent Mace at James Island Charter High School.
“She had the gumption to do what she did about the January 6 situation, which I thought was bold and brave,” says Luder of Mace, who condemned Trump’s role in the event at the Capitol.
Other primaries were also on the minds of strategists in both parties.
In Texas’s 34th Congressional District, a special election to fill the seat vacated by Democrat Filemon Vela, who left Congress to work for a lobbying firm, grabbed the attention of Republican officials, who were hoping to flip it to red from blue.
Mayra Flores, who was born in Mexico, was seen heading into Tuesday as the leading GOP contender, Democrats who were vying for the seat included Dan Sanchez, a former Cameron County commissioner, and Rene Coronado, a government worker.
Late Tuesday evening, with the Associated Press estimating 70 percent of the voted counted, Flores was leading Sanchez, 50.9 percent to 43.5 percent.
In order to avoid a runoff, one candidate will need to win the majority of votes. Because of redistricting, elections will be held under different lines in November, making possible Republican gains potentially short-lived.
In the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Nevada, Trump-backed Adam Laxalt, a former attorney general in the state, faced off with Afghanistan veteran Sam Brown, among other candidates. Trump recently held a tele-town hall for Laxalt and noted that June 14 — the state’s primary day — is his birthday. “Give me Adam as a birthday present,” Trump urged voters, according to the Nevada Independent.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), seen as potentially vulnerable in November, was hoping to advance from her own primary.
Democratic voters in Nevada also offered views about the direction of their party in a U.S. House race in which Rep. Dina Titus was fighting off a liberal challenger, Amy Vilela. Vilela was a 2020 state co-chair for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign and earned his endorsement in the primary.
In the Republican primary for Nevada secretary of state, Jim Marchant, who lost a congressional race in 2020, has been leading a national effort among far-right candidates for secretary of state. He launched a group called America First SOS Coalition that backs candidates for “aggressive voter roll clean-up,” among other changes.
Another top candidate for secretary of state is wealthy businessman Jesse Haw, who is self-funding and pledges on his website to "make the necessary changes to create a safe and secure environment for elections in Nevada.” Cisco Aguilar, an attorney and founder of a sports-technology company called Blueprint Sports, ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.
In Maine, former governor Paul LePage has been mounting a comeback and was unopposed in his bid to be the GOP nominee for his old job. Democrat Janet Mills was unopposed on the other side. The AP projected both would advance to the November election.
In Maine’s U.S. House races, former congressman Bruce Poliquin and Liz Caruso, a local elected official in the town of Caratunk, were vying in the 2nd Congressional District’s GOP primary. Rep. Jared Golden (D), who is among the most vulnerable Democrats, was unopposed in his primary.
Sam Spence in Mullins, S.C., contributed to this report. Scott Clement contributed to this report.
McMaster projected to win GOP nomination for South Carolina governor
2:09 AMRice in precarious position as Trump-endorsed challenger leads count
2:01 AMFlores, Sanchez locked in tight race in Texas special election
1:48 AMEx-Maine governor, running unchallenged, secures GOP nomination for old office
1:44 AMSen. Tim Scott looks to November — and possibly beyond | 2022-06-15T02:59:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Republicans collide in key primaries as Trump’s pull tested in S.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/14/trump-mace-rice-south-carolina/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/14/trump-mace-rice-south-carolina/ |
Shakira Austin takes another leap forward as the Mystics halt the Mercury
Fans at Entertainment and Sports Arena cheer Mystics center Shakira Austin as she exited Tuesday night. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)
As she checked out of the game late in the fourth quarter Tuesday night, Shakira Austin strolled toward the bench as the crowd at Entertainment and Sports Arena erupted. For the first time since joining the Washington Mystics, the rookie had a moment completely to herself, and applause rained down amid a standing ovation.
Natasha Cloud took a few steps toward the stands behind the basket and waved her arms to keep the cheers coming as everyone in the building took a moment to appreciate what they had just witnessed.
Austin had 16 points and 10 rebounds as the Mystics avenged Sunday’s overtime loss to the Phoenix Mercury with an 83-65 victory Tuesday. The No. 3 draft pick led the Mystics in both categories and did it while battling former WNBA MVP — and ex-Mystics standout — Tina Charles for much of the night.
“It was dope,” Austin said of the moment. “I try not to get too excited about it. Enjoy the moment, but it’s really exciting. I just wanted to take on the challenge. [Alysha Clark] had mentioned it last game — just to step up to the plate. ... And I really just wanted to be able to shut it down.”
Austin walked into the postgame media session with two large bags of ice on her knees and proclaimed, “I’m tired!” She battled for 26 minutes and, at one point, had Charles so frustrated that she hacked the youngster after Austin forced another miss.
The most impressive moment of Austin’s night may have been when she caught the ball outside the three-point line, quickly turned and saw Charles squared up to defend. That’s not a typical area for the 6-foot-5 center to be handling the ball, but she didn’t look uncomfortable. Without hesitation, Austin took two dribbles to turn the corner on Charles and banked in a running half-hook.
The rookie took on a WNBA legend and wasn’t intimidated in the slightest.
“She has no fear,” Coach Mike Thibault said. “She just doesn’t. We interviewed her for the draft, and she was looking forward to all these players to play against because they were people she had looked up to. ... She’s tried to steal from parts of their games, and she wants to go test herself against them.”
Cloud added: “She’s a dog. She’s a dog. … She is going to have respect for who you are, but she don’t care at the end of the day. She knows who she is, too.”
The Mystics (10-6) used an 11-0 run early in the third quarter to take a 17-point lead and held off multiple rallies from there. Ariel Atkins finished with 13 points, Clark added 11, and Elizabeth Williams chipped in 10 off the bench as the Mystics found the answers two days after Thibault lamented the “missed opportunity” in their loss to Phoenix.
Diamond DeShields scored a game-high 21 points for the Mercury (5-9), and Charles ended up with 19 on 7-for-14 shooting.
Last time out: Mystics lament a ‘wasted opportunity’ in an overtime loss to the Mercury
Delle Donne returns
Elena Delle Donne was back in the Mystics’ starting lineup and said her recent absences were “nothing to freak out about.” She missed Wednesday’s win over Chicago, had a scheduled rest day as the Mystics beat Minnesota on Friday and was a last-minute scratch before Sunday’s loss. The official report has been lower back tightness.
“I needed like a little bit of a reset,” Delle Donne said. “Get back into the weight room, lock into some things. I’m feeling a lot better now. It’s an exploratory season. We knew there would be some different things that we’d be working through. It is what it is. Nothing to freak out about.”
The two-time MVP explained that before warmups against Chicago she could feel that her hips were “off”; the muscles started tensing up during the game, so it was time to “shut it down.” Over the past three years, Delle Donne has gotten very in tune with her body and can identify little things — such as a need to push off more from the inside of her foot.
Thibault said a decision hasn’t been made on whether Delle Donne will play Thursday at New York, but the original plan was to sit her and play her at home Sunday against Connecticut.
Cloud’s streak
Cloud pushed her franchise record of consecutive games with five-plus assists to 18. That is the fifth-longest run in WNBA history. On Tuesday, she had a season-high 10 to go with six points. She said her shot is a bit off, so her goal is to put her teammates in a successful position.
“I’m just being me,” she said. “Everyone keeps talking about this record, but I don’t think about it. I don’t necessarily care about it. I’m just trying to be who I need to be every single night.” | 2022-06-15T02:59:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Shakira Austin powers Mystics past Mercury - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/14/shakira-austin-mystics-mercury/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/14/shakira-austin-mystics-mercury/ |
Los Angeles Dodgers’ Walker Buehler pitches against the San Francisco Giants during the first inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Friday, June 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler had bone spurs removed from his right elbow in a procedure unrelated to the flexor strain that has sidelined him. | 2022-06-15T02:59:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dodgers' Buehler has bone spurs removed, unrelated to strain - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/dodgers-buehler-has-bone-spurs-removed-unrelated-to-strain/2022/06/14/f2fb0010-ec49-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/dodgers-buehler-has-bone-spurs-removed-unrelated-to-strain/2022/06/14/f2fb0010-ec49-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
Transcript: ‘Capehart’ with Robin Thede
MR. CAPEHART: Good afternoon, and welcome to the Capehart podcast and Washington Post Live. I am Jonathan Capehart, Associate Editor at The Washington Post.
From Black Lady Courtroom, to Dr. Hadassah Olayinka Ali-Youngman Pre-Ph.D.; to one of the most hilarious games of Scrabble you will ever see, HBO's "A Black Lady Sketch Show" is one of the best comedy shows and one of my favorite shows on television, and it was just renewed for a fourth season. My guest today is the writer, producer, star, and groundbreaking brain behind it. She was the first Black woman to serve as head writer of a late-night talk show and the White House Correspondents' Dinner. She also headlined her own late-night show. She is Robin Thede. Welcome to "Capehart" on Washington Post Live.
MS. THEDE: Thank you so much. I truly feel like my funeral couldn't do any better for an intro or a retrospective. So, thank you so much. You made me sound very cool.
MR. CAPEHART: Well, you are welcome. It is such a thrill to be able to talk to you and to have you on because I'm not joking, your show is one of my favorite shows on television. And I was doing my own show on MSNBC and we were talking about something legal, and I had three Black women on the screen, two of whom I knew were lawyers, and I quickly looked up to see if the third was a lawyer, and Sophia Nelson was indeed a lawyer, and I said, oh, my God--on air, I said this, hold up, I've got my own Black Lady Courtroom right here on television. So, that's what we call them behind the scenes.
But before we get into all that, we got to talk about "A Black Lady Sketch Show." It's the first series of its kind, entirely written by, directed by, and starring Black women. And you told The Post, "I just want to keep playing with the boundaries and breaking them."
MS. THEDE: Yeah.
MR. CAPEHART: Talk about what you see as the most groundbreaking aspect of "A Black Lady Sketch Show."
MS. THEDE: You know, I think the groundbreaking aspect is that it exists, you know, and that it took this long for it to exist. I think, you know, we premiered in 2019, and there had never been anything like this before on American television, and I think that in and of itself is groundbreaking.
But beyond that, I think it's one of the most beautiful sketch shows in history. I set out to make a very cinematic sketch show. It's kind of like 50 short films in 6 episodes. And we shoot everything entirely on location. We don't build stages. We bring in, God, 30 to 40 guest stars or more every season in just 6 episodes. It's jam-packed; it's dense. The joke density is hilarious. Like, at this point, every other line or every line is a joke. You have to really rewind to catch things.
MR. CAPEHART: Oh, I do.
MS. THEDE: Yeah, so, I think that is groundbreaking, just in the way that we're presenting sketch. And I think that we've proven--even though this show is specific, it's universally funny, you know? And even if you don't understand all the jokes, you'll either come away educated, but you're definitely going to come away laughing.
MR. CAPEHART: Well, that is for sure, because there is so much Black culture just jammed into the show, overall, but into every sketch. For instance, in Black Lady Courtroom, when the judge looks up, and I think it was either the judge or you, playing the lawyer, you look around the courtroom and you say, "What in the baby hair?" When I heard that, I howled because you have to be Black--only Black people know what baby hair is.
MS. THEDE: Well, now the Kardashians know what it is, because now they--you know, they're down--
MR. CAPEHART: Oh, yeah, [audio distortion]--
MS. THEDE: But yes, yes, it's true. We definitely started that and that is definitely our thing. And so, yeah, I think Yvette Nicole Brown, who was Emmy-nominated for her Judge Harper role on the show, she says--when she comes in, she says, "Won't he do it?" you know, and just also a very Black church-raised--and then, yeah, I come in and say, "What in the baby hair?" And then, in the second part, I say, "What in the Murrays?" So, I think, yeah, that's always a fun game for us to play.
MR. CAPEHART: Right. All right, so can we just go back--go back to something that you mentioned, I was going to bring up later on, and that is, like, how you do the show, that it's not your typical sketch show. It's not like "Saturday Night Live." It's not even like your holy grail, "In Living Color," that you do do each sketch like it's--I think you said a mini movie.
MR. CAPEHART: Isn't that expensive? Why do it that way? Couldn't you do it an easier way?
MS. THEDE: Yeah, I think for me, when I set out to make this show--this is the seventh sketch show I've been on as a writer/performer, but the first one I created. And so, for me I kind of--I think sketch can look really cheap, and that doesn't mean it's not funny, but I think that because it is hard to reinvent the wheel, right, you're creating a new world with new characters every time you have a new sketch, it does get expensive.
Luckily, we have the belief and trust and financial support of HBO. So, you know, I think that they have been extremely generous, even though we're still technically like a small budget show. We're not "Game of Thrones," but we definitely have been generously supported by HBO to make this beautiful show.
I also am a master at making a small budget look expensive, and I have a really good team, directors, DP, line--my line producer, Linda Morel, this amazing woman who--you know, we work together with every line item in that budget to really eke out as much as we can. And cameras are great. We shoot on ALEXA Minis, for those tech heads who want to know that. And those cameras are really versatile and it's all about using lighting in a way that's going to make things look incredible, but still be able to shoot one to two sketches a day. You know, we don't spend multiple days shooting sketches; we've got to crank them out every day, so--because we have a pretty condensed shooting schedule. We shoot the whole season in maybe 34-35 days. So, it's not a lot of time. And that's how we keep costs down, too.
But we also try to, like, have our locations be in a similar area. So, we're shooting at one house. Maybe we can shoot the kitchen, the living room, and the backyard at that one location and kind of crank it out. So, we're really smart. We block shoot, which means we shoot everything--not in chronological order. We shoot everything--like, you know, we shoot out a location. So, to kind of eke as much out of it as we can. We're just really smart about it. There are other shows that have higher budgets that don't look as cinematic as ours. And that's no shade to other shows; it's just that I, throughout my career, have learned to take a dollar and stretch it, and then, of course, obviously have backing from HBO to make sure that the show looks as good as it does. So, it's a combination of both.
MR. CAPEHART: Wait, so we have to talk about something else that I'm sure costs a lot of money, and I don't mean to have this whole conversation be about the cost of everything, but hair. Hair is huge on your show.
MR. CAPEHART: You told The Hollywood Reporter something I don't think anyone knows or appreciates, and by anyone, I mean me.
MR. CAPEHART: You said, quote, "Our hair team does not repeat a look, throughout hundreds"--
MS. THEDE: Correct.
MR. CAPEHART: --"of characters every season."
MS. THEDE: That's right.
MR. CAPEHART: So, Robin, that means the 36 sketches in the 6 episodes for season 3 featured 148 separate hair styles that were created for the main cast guest stars and background actors.
Why is hair so important and an integral investment for the show?
MS. THEDE: It's critical. Black women's hair--like, some people only watch this show--they don't even like comedy. They're just watching it to get hairstyle suggestions.
The head of our hair department, Shavonne Brown--who did my hair today, too, she is utterly unbelievable. I'm literally--I am campaigning harder for her and all of our glam squads to get Emmy nominations than I am for myself. Like, I like--I'm like, you don't understand the magic they have to pull through. Every season has been that way. In our first two seasons, Nikki Wright, who works on "Black Panther" and all these amazing projects; and then, season three and into season four, Shavonne Brown. We have literally had these hair geniuses that have come through and created iconic looks. If you look at the sketch, like, The Last Supper, or, The Resurrection, you have these women who are disciplettes and they're--you know, it's these biblical sketches. They create lock wigs--like, dreadlock wigs and afro wigs and all these things, by hand, each one of them, just for the background.
MR. CAPEHART: Wow.
MS. THEDE: And it can be up to 50 different wigs. So, the 148, I think that's actually a misquote. The 148 is for the main cast and the guest stars only. There are hundreds of styles for the background players.
MR. CAPEHART: Oh, the background folks.
MS. THEDE: And it's only like six of these women. It's not like--there's not like--and really, we only carry probably four in a day, but we have barbers for the men that come. You know, I know Black men on sets oftentimes have issues with getting their hair cut properly. For Black women who come, they come in the trailer and they're like, oh, thank God, because there's just wigs everywhere and these women are like--you know, they're all Black women creating these looks. So, it's just really important because I think in the history, in this business, when we get on set, you know, they're not people who look like us traditionally and they don't--they aren't familiar with our hair textures and how to work with wigs and weaves and extensions and ponytails, or even just natural hair. And we do all of it.
MR. CAPEHART: Right. And to that point, The Hollywood Reporter reports, the hair department used 92 wigs for the main cast and 115 for background plus 30 packs of synthetic braiding hair, 20 bundles of human hair, and 12 ponytails.
MS. THEDE: There you go. Okay, that's the breakdown. That sounds right. That sounds right. Yeah, because a lot of background will wear their own hair. But then, they're also styling the background's hair. So, there's hundreds of background players they have to style, also, just their own natural hair. So, that's just wigs and weaves and ponytails and braiding hair. It's not talking about actually styling the hair, too, on hundreds of people a season. It's really incredible. I am so proud of them. It really is the magic of the show, and it's gotten better every season. And definitely, every season, when I'm going through my budget, I'm allocating more to hair, more to hair, more to hair, [audio distortion] and wardrobe, too.
But like, you know, the hair is our crown. It's where so much magic comes from. Also, because we're a small cast, right? There was only four of us. There were five of us in season two; there were four of us in seasons one and three. But it's a small cast. We don't have, you know, 30 people on the cast. So, we have to look different every time we come on screen, radically different, so much so that a wig can change that--the hair and the makeup can change that so radically. So, yeah, that's such a testament to their work.
MR. CAPEHART: All right. So, let's--
MS. THEDE: But we work [audio distortion] a character--like, my character, Salina Duplass, from season two, she has a massive receding hairline. I was, like, can you make a wig where I'm bald in front but have hair in the back? They're like, yeah. You know, I mean, it's like--so, it really helps create our characters--or Skye with her jean jacket character, is this kind of orange, bowl cut, crazy moving hair that really speaks to who she is as a character. So, it really helps us get in and do our best work.
MR. CAPEHART: And so, we have to talk--let's talk about some of the characters. And one of my favorites as I mentioned in the intro, and I was glad to see it spelled out, because it's hard to hear when she says it, Dr.--
MS. THEDE: You did really well. I'm proud of you.
MR. CAPEHART: But can you do--do the introduction--when she introduces herself, Dr. Hadassah.
MS. THEDE: Yeah. I'm Dr. Hadassah Olayinka Ali-Youngman, Pre-Ph.D.
MR. CAPEHART: It's the "Pre-Ph.D." part that gets me every time, and she is in, like, full Mother Africa dashiki head wrap--well, they're not dreads. They're cord--like, long--
MS. THEDE: She has, like, sister locks, but they're blond, yeah.
MR. CAPEHART: Right, yes, they are blond. The inspiration for Dr. Hadassah?
MS. THEDE: I think I've known so many people like her over the years. I think we all have known so many people like her over the years. There are these people in our families, whether it's your aunt, your uncle, you know, somebody you went to school with, somebody you worked with, just these conspiracy theory folks who swear that they're all about education and educating others, while they're kind of lacking their own education or proper education.
So, but every now and then--you know, Dr. Hadassah is, though, I try every now and then to have her be right, because I want people to be like, now, wait a minute. What she said kind of makes sense, every now and then, every now and then. You know, so, she's not wrong all the time, but you know, even a broken clock is right twice a day. She's really fun to play. She definitely has become one of the standout characters of the series, but I didn't anticipate that when we first met her in the writers' room. But it's just interesting, you never know how things are going to take off. I didn't know Black Lady Courtroom was going to be so iconic, either, but I'm so happy that it is.
MR. CAPEHART: Right, but you know, I just forgot, we actually have a clip of Dr. Hadassah to play. Watch this.
MR. CAPEHART: [Laughs] That gets to what you were just saying, there is some truth in that. UPN was the Blackest network on television, with all the Black shows, and then--right?
MS. THEDE: And then what happened? It became the CW, and it was all about "Veronica Mars"--I mean, "Gossip Girl"--and you know, all those shows that I love, too. But yeah, it's like, all the Black people--you know, "Homeboys in Outer Space," they all disappeared. They all disappeared.
MR. CAPEHART: They disappeared.
MS. THEDE: What happened?
MR. CAPEHART: So, let's talk about another character, and Trinity is a character that I love. This is Ashley Nicole Black's spy character named Trinity, who's able to solve crimes simply because people treat her as if she is invisible. And being overlooked and discounted is a reality for many Black women. April Ryan, White House Journalist, I interviewed her on my podcast. She told the story of a time when Mrs. Obama, as First Lady of the United States, walked outside the White House with no disguise or anything, and nobody noticed her, as a way of talking about the invisibility of Black women.
Talk about the importance of Trinity.
MS. THEDE: Yeah, and I think this character that Ashley has created--shout out to Ashley Nicole Black. It's her birthday tomorrow. Give her love on social media. But she is a genius writer and a genius performer.
And she came in season one with this character, and she said, basically she's the CIA's top agent, not only because she's great at what she does, but because she's invisible, because she's just a normal looking plus-size Black woman. And I think we can't discount what, you know, larger size Black women in this world have to deal with, but also when you have the trifecta of being, you know, not a glamorous movie star, you're plus-sized, and your Black, all of those things render you invisible to some degree in society.
And I think that her commentary is so sharp in the series, and it's so brilliant and it's so funny, but so poignant. And I love the fact that she made her so good at her job that the invisibility just allowed her to, you know, take it to the highest level. But it's such a great, biting commentary on society and how we treat people and how we other people and how we literally just ignore a large segment of the population, and I know she's made a lot of people feel seen.
MR. CAPEHART: Yeah, and I'm not even a Black woman, but as a Black person, I totally get that. I mean, that segment, that sketch always resonates with me.
You know, The New York Times said that with each episode--or I'm sorry, with each season, "A Black Lady Sketch Show" has become, quote, "less interested in lampooning the world than creating its own."
So, I wonder--
MS. THEDE: That's great.
MR. CAPEHART: --how has the show evolved from exaggerating the absurdities that Black women deal with to bringing audiences into the world they live in?
MS. THEDE: Well, we are calling it the BLCU, which is the Black Lady Cinematic Universe. We now have our own. We created this cadre of characters who have come back season after season, or skipped seasons. But now going into season four, we know that we have this multiverse to work with, right? So, there's different levels where, yes, it's not the end of the world anymore, but spoiler alert, if you haven't seen the finale, it is a world in which Dr. Hadassah was elected president, although briefly.
So, it's not the normal world that you and I know. And so, in this cinematic universe, basically, characters started to meet. You mentioned Slurred Words, which was the Scrabble game. That was a sketch where none of our core cast was in it. And then, after that, we had a sketch called Fatal Distraction where Trinity actually meets my character, Octavia, who had never been in a sketch before, and they meet and team up in this Black Lady Cinematic Universe. So, what's going to happen now, Avengers-style, is that all of these characters we know in Dr. Hadassah's mind-controlled world can interact.
And so, I'm really excited, like, for those of us--for those of our audience who have been on the journey with us for three seasons, but even people who haven't. You're still going to be able to jump in at any point and get the comedy out of it, but we're rewarding the people who have been with us from just what seemed like lampooning to now creating our own universe, which was always my intention. And I'm so lucky that HBO gave me the bandwidth to do that over multiple seasons.
MR. CAPEHART: Another thing that makes "A Black Lady Sketch Show" so fun to watch is the roster of guest stars who you have come on the show.
Just I was watching the scene--the sketch where Nicole comes with her girlfriend and she comes out--and Vanessa Williams is her mother, and she's screaming about, "Oh, my God, that's disgusting"--there's a spider behind her.
MS. THEDE: Oh, Ashley, yeah, yeah, yeah.
MR. CAPEHART: Ashley--sorry, Ashley--
MS. THEDE: [Audio distortion], yeah.
MR. CAPEHART: Yes, yes. And so, Vanessa Williams you've had on; Ava DuVernay, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Michael Ealy, just to name a few of the people who have been on the show.
How hard is it to convince--there's her seeing the spider. How hard is it to convince them to come on "A Black Lady Sketch Show"? Is it even hard?
MS. THEDE: Oh, no, it's not hard. I think--you know, I mean, listen, I have people now who are threatening me with bodily injury if they don't get on the show, because they've been asking me for years. And I'm like, I only have six episodes, people.
But no, I think I've been in this business a long time, despite being very young. So, I've garnered a lot--as a writer and as a producer and also on camera, but mostly as a writer I've gained a lot of fans because I've worked with people behind the scenes. And so, it feels like, to people in their homes, they might be kind of just getting to know me in the past couple years, but I'm really entrenched, especially in the comedy world.
But I don't know, like, Vanessa Williams and I did a movie together years ago--we've done two movies together, actually. And so, you know, just through the smallness of the Black community in the smallness of Hollywood, we all--you know, I just know a lot of folks. And so, I just texted Vanessa Williams, and was like, when are you back from London? I know you're doing a show. You want to come do this sketch? And I sent her the sketch, and she was like, yeah.
I mean, that's kind of how it happens. Lance Reddick, though, we got through casting through our amazing season three casting director, Vicki Thomas, she was like, Lance wants to do a sketch. And I was like, I love him. I loved him on "The Wire;" I loved him on "Fringe." And he was so goofy--he was in that sketch with Vanessa. And he's so silly and goofy and we've become friends. I love him.
And so, it all just kind of comes together. But I have to give kudos to Angela Bassett who was the first guest star we booked season one, who we called cold, our casting office, and I wrote her a letter. And she said, yeah, I'm going to do it, because no one thinks I can be funny. And you know, she'd never been kind of asked to do anything like this before. So, once we had her, it was like any guest star we would call, we'd be like, well Angela Bassett's doing the show, so you might want to do it. So, you know, that's--I think it's become a prestige moment for actors who want to come and flex their comedy chops. They know we don't punch down. We're not going to make them look stupid. Everyone is going to be funny.
Ava DuVernay was like, Robin, I'm only doing this for you. You've got 40 minutes. Like, let's make it happen. And we did, and she was fantastic, and she was like just so game and like--she's not a performer or a comedian. Like, the fact that she came to do that was such an honor for us and such a testament to the comradery in this community and how much people believe in this show, and they've always been so cool. We've had literally well over a hundred guest stars in 18 episodes of television and they have all been stellar, stellar, truly.
MR. CAPEHART: Can we talk about you for a minute? How--
MS. THEDE: Sure.
MR. CAPEHART: How are you--how are you doing all of this? You're writing; you're starring; you're acting; you're the showrunner; you're the EP. You're doing all of these things. In the profile in our paper in The Washington Post, the writer said you get by on four hours of sleep. How do you do it all?
MS. THEDE: Yeah, not a lot of sleep. Look, I think I spent a lot of years in this business being very broke and very bored and very not in demand. And so, I think it's just like, yo, when the time happens, I'm not going to waste a moment of it.
And people are like, what do you do for selfcare? I don't know, maybe make an Emmy Award-winning sketch show? I don't know. But yeah, I have, like, a big overall deal. I have a production company. We have, like, a dozen or more projects in development. Like, there's so much more going on beyond just making the sketch show, but the sketch show takes up my entire year. I mean, you know, it is a lot, but I love working with writers. I love my cast. Oh, my God, I love my cast. I love being on set. I love shooting the show. I love the public being able to see it once it's out. This is my gift to Black women. It's for everyone to enjoy, but it is my specific gift for Black women in the Black community.
And it's my invitation to those who are not in our community to come see what we think authentically. We don't represent every Black person or every Black woman, but we are representing an authentic take. And I think that that's what makes me so excited, because I feel like so many times our comedy is watered down or it has to be explained. And HBO said, don't explain. Just do you. And you know, they've been such incredible partners, and continue to be such incredible partners.
So, how do I do it? I have a lot of support. I have assistants who help. I have people who care about me and who make sure that I eat, because I won't and then I have just incredible people who take care of me, and I try to do the same for them and it's my joy, though, to give people work. It's my joy that hundreds of people get to pass through this show in some way or another every season and earn money from it, but also earn a credit from it, that they leave here better than when they came.
I tell my staff, my crew, my writers, my actors, I say, you were likely underestimated wherever you were before this, and that stops now. And I think that's how I want them to treat me. I want them to hold me accountable to do my best work. And look, I'm a very demanding boss. There's no secret about that. But I think the proof is in the pudding in what we're creating. And it was no small feat to be able to do something that no one else in history had done before. And so, I don't take that lightly. And I know that if it wasn't me, it could have been one of a dozen other Black women who are equally or more talented than I am. So, I just don't take it lightly.
So, how do I do it? I wake up every day and realize the privilege that I have to be in this position and I just try not to waste it.
MR. CAPEHART: I'm going to get you on one more before we run out of time, and that is this, in an op-ed for Popsugar, whose headline I have to sort of clean up.
MS. THEDE: Say it! Say it!
MR. CAPEHART: If I say it, will you hire me, because I'll get fired?
MS. THEDE: [Audio distortion] get fired. All right, you abbreviate it.
MR. CAPEHART: No, no, so the headline is, "Eff Humility, Brag on Your Stuff,"--that's the cleaned-up word. You wrote, "It's taken a lifetime of self-work and reflection to figure out that being proud of myself is wonderful and totally fine."
So, Robin Thede, what does it mean for Black women in particular to celebrate their accomplishments?
MS. THEDE: Absolutely. I think it's so critical. I think that in this world, especially with social media, and all of that--not to sound too trite about it. But I think we think if you're not winning Emmys or you're not CEO of a company, then your hustle isn't hard enough, right? You're not doing enough to be where you're supposed to be, but that's not true. It's just not true. I think, you know, I have a really good friend who literally rose to the c-suite of her company, and she's like, yeah, but I'm not the top. And I was like, ma'am, if you don't come with me to brunch so I can buy you a mimosa and celebrate you and love on you, like, we're not celebrating--but similarly, if you get your very first job, you get an internship, you get whatever, it's all a step in your success, and it's all to be celebrated.
I think we're taught, for those of us who, like, were in church a lot, or grew up with relatives from the South or whatever, like I had, who were kind of like, women should be--not hidden, but women shouldn't be bragging, right? You should be humble. You should be, you know, like, oh, yes, it's fine. I'm like, no. Like, eff that. Like, be really proud of everything that you've done at every stage.
You know, don't be too good for a job, but at the same time, enjoy what you have in front of you and do a really great job. And then, move on when you're ready to move on. But I think for me I just find too many women making themselves small and too many women downplaying their accomplishments because they're not, you know, oh, I didn't win an Oscar. It's like, well, that's not for everybody. That doesn't mean what you're doing isn't changing the world. You're changing the world. Like, stop having these like--I don't know, these unrealistic goals of what success is. I think we keep pushing the bar away when we have had so much success.
The last thing I'll say is the bar of measurement that I always use is I say, think about your six-year-old self. Would she be in awe of where you are, because I know mine would be. And she would have been ten years ago, even when I wasn't doing "A Black Lady Sketch Show" and that show wasn't winning Emmys. Like, she would have been so proud of me and so blown away by what I had done, even before people knew who I was or I was on TV.
So, I challenge people to look at it that way, and if your six-year-old would have bragged about it, you should, too.
MR. CAPEHART: That is so terrific. I'm going to steal that. Actually, I will give you credit. I will give you credit.
You write more to the point--in that piece, you write, "Pride doesn't require a big personality-altering life change, either. We can make small shifts in how we treat ourselves so that others will respond in kind."
Emmy-nominated producer, writer, and actor of the Emmy Award-winning HBO series, "A Black Lady Sketch Show" she created, Robin Thede. Thank you so much for coming to "Capehart" on Washington Post Live.
MS. THEDE: It's such a pleasure. Thank you so much.
MR. CAPEHART: It's wonderful to see you. Thank you. I could--can we keep talking? [Laughs]
And thank you for joining us to check out what interviews we have coming up. Go to WashingtonPostLive.com.
Once again, I'm Jonathan Capehart, Associate Editor at The Washington Post. Thank you for watching Capehart at Washington Post Live. | 2022-06-15T03:00:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: ‘Capehart’ with Robin Thede - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/14/transcript-capehart-with-robin-thede/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/06/14/transcript-capehart-with-robin-thede/ |
“I choose my own schedule,” said Brooks Koepka, “regardless what tour I play.” (AP Photo/Matt York)
The emergence of the LIV Golf Invitational Series and the big names it has lured from the PGA Tour have been the talk of the golf world for weeks, if not months. It has been no different this week at the site of the U.S. Open, but at least one very big name is tired of being asked about it.
“I’m trying to focus on the U.S. Open, man,” Brooks Koepka told reporters on Tuesday. “I legitimately don’t get it. I’m tired of the conversations. I’m tired of all this stuff.
“Y’all are throwing a black cloud on the U.S. Open. I think that sucks.”
Koepka has previously been willing to share some pointed opinions on the Saudi-funded venture and those interested in signing up for it, but he hasn’t been heard from recently on the enormously disruptive effect LIV Golf has had on the top levels of his sport. That’s in part because Koepka has been largely off the golfing grid since March while recovering from a number of injuries and preparing for a marriage to longtime girlfriend Jena Sims that took place earlier this month. The only competitive rounds of late for the two-time U.S. Open winner and four-time major champion have come at the Masters and the PGA Championship.
“Look, golf’s great and I love it,” the 32-year-old Koepka said Tuesday, “but at the same time I’ve got other stuff I’ve got to do. The wedding was a big, big thing, but just taking care of my body, make sure I’m 100 percent right. … Now that it’s over with, we can go play golf.”
Before he plays golf later this week at The Country Club in the Boston suburbs, though, Koepka had a date with the media. As with players such as Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and especially Phil Mickelson, Koepka was peppered with a number of questions about the schism between the PGA Tour, of which he is still a member, and its new, deep-pocketed rival.
Noting that “LIV’s trying to make a big push for golf,” Koepka discussed the fact that his younger brother, Chase Koepka, joined the Saudi-backed circuit while he has remained with the PGA Tour.
On why he was staying with the PGA Tour and if that was a “permanent decision,” Koepka replied: “There’s been no other option to this point, so where else are you going to go?”
When a reporter suggested “LIV,” he said, “I mean, as of last week, that’s it. I wasn’t playing last week, so I’m here at the U.S. Open, I’m ready to play the U.S. Open.
“I think it kind of sucks, too, you are all throwing this black cloud over the U.S. Open,” Koepka continued. “It’s one of my favorite events. I don’t know why you guys keep doing that, but the more legs you give [LIV Golf], the more you keep talking about it.”
Mickelson, who returned from his own layoff to join LIV, said Monday that the decision “allows me to do things that are off the golf course I’ve always wanted to do,” such as spending more time with his family. Whereas the PGA Tour has almost a year-round calendar, LIV Golf’s first season is composed of just eight highly lucrative events.
However, Koepka indicated Tuesday that he had issues with even that level of commitment. Asked if being able to play relatively few events and still compete in majors seemed attractive, he pointed to his current ability to “play as little as I want.”
“I choose my own schedule,” Koepka said, “regardless what tour I play.”
Jenkins: Golf has done so very much good — for Phil Mickelson and his pals
Koepka and some other superstars would soon be reported to have received massive offers from the Saudis, who hired golfing great Greg Norman to get their venture off the ground. In February, however, published comments from Mickelson about the new tour caused a huge backlash that caused top players to pledge loyalty to the PGA Tour. That, in turn, led McIlroy to proclaim that LIV Golf was “dead in the water,” but Koepka offered what would prove to be a more prescient assessment.
“Everyone talks about money,” Koepka told reporters in February. “[The Saudis have] enough of it, so I don’t see it backing down. They can just double up, and they’ll figure it out. They’ll get their guys. Somebody will sell out and go to it.”
Asked Tuesday if there was a dollar figure that would compel him to join others on the LIV Golf series, Koepka claimed he hadn’t “given it that much thought” and chided reporters for dwelling on the topic rather than focusing on the U.S. Open.
Koepka wasn’t the only prominent player at the tournament to express unhappiness with the degree to which LIV Golf was dominating the conversation. Two-time major winner Collin Morikawa described it as “a big distraction.”
Recognizing that Koepka was “on to something,” Morikawa declared, “We’re here to win the U.S. Open, and we’re here to play and beat everyone else in this field, this great field, and that’s what it’s about.”
“I think when you wake up,” he continued, “and I’m texting my agent or I’m texting my friend about, ‘Hey, did you hear about this,' or, 'I’m getting news about this,’ it’s fun, it’s exciting, because it is gossip. Who doesn’t like gossip, right? But it also becomes a distraction, and you don’t want to be focused on this or that. You want to be focused on playing golf.”
The 25-year-old Morikawa, who has also remained with the PGA Tour, acknowledged it was “upsetting” to him that the state of the game had reached this point.
“All I dreamed about was playing on the PGA Tour,” he said, “making putts to win tournaments, winning majors, and for me it’s just, how do I get back to focusing on that? … It is an extra distraction on thinking about this, thinking about that, and worrying about who is going to ask what.” | 2022-06-15T03:25:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Brooks Koepka says LIV Golf questions cast ‘black cloud’ over U.S. Open - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/14/brooks-koepka-us-open-liv-golf/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/14/brooks-koepka-us-open-liv-golf/ |
The case for and against Biden visiting Saudi Arabia
“We do not believe that dictators should be invited,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing. She was referring to the U.S. decision not to include the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua at the Summit of Americas, hosted in Los Angeles last week. The absence of these left-leaning autocrats led to a de facto boycott of the proceedings by a number of other prominent hemispheric politicians, including the Mexican president. But the Biden administration, which has from its first day in office cast itself as a global champion of democracy, stuck to its stated principles.
Fast forward a week and Jean-Pierre delivered a rather different statement. She confirmed Tuesday that President Biden will embark of a four-day trip to the Middle East in the middle of July that would include a stop in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, on the invitation of King Salman, where Biden will also meet leaders of eight other Arab countries. Biden “looks forward to this important visit to Saudi Arabia, which has been a strategic partner of the United States for nearly eight decades,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
There’s nothing particularly new or startling about the United States maintaining double standards in its approach to international politics. But the White House’s outreach to Riyadh has provoked a fair amount of whiplash in Washington. After all, on the campaign trail, Biden pledged to make the kingdom a “pariah” because of its grim human rights record; his campaign spokesman lambasted the Trump administration’s habit of “giving blank checks to dictators and authoritarians around the world.”
Once in power, Biden put ties with the Saudis in deep freeze. His administration suspended weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, an act of tacit disapproval of the way the Gulf monarchies had conducted the ruinous war in Yemen. And he shunned contact with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who U.S. intelligence has linked with the plot that led to the abduction and grisly murder of Saudi dissident (and Post contributor) Jamal Khashoggi.
Biden visit to Saudi Arabia reverses his vow to make it a ‘pariah’
That was then — whatever tough-minded, values-driven approach the Biden administration took after taking office has now melted away. The arm deals were already moved through last year. A flurry of senior U.S. officials have called on Riyadh in recent months, not least as Biden’s approval ratings keep dropping amid rampant inflation and a surge in oil prices. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has somewhat moderated its positions, mending fences with neighbor Qatar and stepping up negotiations with Yemen’s Houthi rebels after acceding to a new U.N.-brokered truce this year. When Biden goes to Saudi Arabia, he is almost certain to meet the crown prince, who, after all, may rule the kingdom for decades to come.
That encounter will underscore, as The Post’s David Ignatius put it, how Prince Mohammed simply “got away with it.” The Post’s editorial board urged Biden to use the moment to speak publicly about Saudi rights abuses and call for the release of a number of de facto political prisoners in Saudi jails. An open letter from a coalition of rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the Project for Middle East Democracy, declared that “a visit by the U.S. president … should not come without tangible progress to alleviate some of the most egregious rights violations.”
But the White House in its recent messaging has said next to nothing about its political differences with Riyadh. Instead, the Biden administration appears to be taking a realpolitik turn, aiming for a “reset” with a historic ally at a time of geopolitical turbulence.
The war in Ukraine and the rise in global oil prices have only underscored oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s geopolitical centrality. U.S. attempts to return Iran to compliance with the nuclear deal wrecked by the Trump administration are foundering and Biden will need to work more closely with Riyadh and its Arab allies in preparing for a spike in tensions with Tehran. The Middle East Institute’s Brian Katulis described next month’s trip as a necessary “doubling down on the effort to put diplomacy first in the Middle East and deepen America’s extensive network of partnerships across the region.”
“Like it or not, Saudi Arabia remains the second-largest oil-producing country on planet Earth and a key player in the global economy — even more so since the war in Ukraine helped send energy prices soaring,” wrote Andrew Exum, a former Pentagon official in the Obama administration. He added: “Biden, for his part, is sacrificing his values today in the interests of something we haven’t seen much of in the past two decades: realism.”
Other analysts argued that shunning the Saudis would only be counterproductive. “For Biden, the core strategic interest that must be addressed is ensuring that Saudi Arabia continues to orient its policies toward the United States, rather than hedge its bets by leaning toward Russia and China,” wrote Daniel Shapiro, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, and Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Biden's Saudi Arabia problem after release of Khashoggi report
Yet other experts contend that Riyadh doesn’t have as much leverage as some in Washington believe it does. Former CIA official Douglas London wrote that, no matter Prince Mohammed’s irritation with Western censure, “there’s no evidence” that he “is prepared to incur the enormous costs of converting the kingdom’s well-integrated and U.S.-dependent military infrastructure over to Russian (or Chinese) weapons systems.”
There are also real questions about how much Saudi Arabia can actually do to bring down prices at the pump in the United States. “The thing is, there isn’t much more oil in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to really significantly change the market,” Daniel Yergin, energy expert and vice chairman at S&P Global Inc., said in a recent Bloomberg News television interview. “The supply situation is so razor thin.”
And more broadly, there are doubts over the political dividends that Biden can secure on his trip: He is unlikely to preside over the settling of a meaningful peace in Yemen, will only be pushing along his predecessor’s agenda by nudging the Saudis and Israelis toward full normalization and faces potential humiliation in greeting a Saudi crown prince he once vowed to hold fully accountable.
“If he follows through on his plans to visit Riyadh, Biden will be making a bad deal: exchanging near-certain reputational damage for the mere possibility of modest triumphs,” wrote Dalia Dassa Kaye in Foreign Affairs. “It is a visit that should never have been planned.” | 2022-06-15T04:32:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The case for and against Biden visiting Saudi Arabia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/biden-saudi-arabia-why-prince-mohammed-salman/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/biden-saudi-arabia-why-prince-mohammed-salman/ |
Crimea was seized without a fight from a weak, panicked Ukrainian leadership. Its management — at least initially — was left to local pro-Russian politicians and managers, with rather woeful results. Crimean officials put in charge of administering the federal program, which allocated 1.37 trillion rubles ($23.9 billion at the current exchange rate) between 2015 and 2025 to some 900 projects on the peninsula, have invariably ended up in jail. Now that Moscow’s generous aid — 10 billion rubles a year for the city of Sevastopol and 20 billion rubles for Crimea — is beginning to shrink, the Kremlin wants tighter control over how it is spent.The statelets recognized by Russia and few others have been managed at arm’s length; they have received enough resources not to starve but generally have been told to fend for themselves economically, which they mostly have done with the help of smuggling and other non-transparent schemes. In the process, they have enriched some lower-level Russian officials sent by the Kremlin to supervise the locals. These freewheeling ways would hardly be possible had the statelets been part of Russia, where Putin’s “vertical of power” is designed to extract results from officials in exchange for finite personal enrichment opportunities.
In an only-in-Russia twist, the person who’s offering himself as point man for the effort is a protege and disciple of the Russian politician who spearheaded opposition to Russia’s depredations on Ukraine in 2014. Kiriyenko’s first high-level federal government job, in the administration of Boris Yeltsin, was arranged by none other than Boris Nemtsov, murdered by contract killers a year after the Crimea annexation. Unlike Nemtsov, who turned into a fiery opposition leader under Putin, Kiriyenko toed the line and received important appointments, at one point heading up Russia’s nuclear program. He is Putin’s domestic policy czar now. And in recent weeks, he also has been made responsible for the conquered parts of Ukraine. His trip to the region last month was highly publicized, and his protege Vitaly Khotsenko was recently appointed prime minister of the “Donetsk People’s Republic.”Kiriyenko’s ideas about running the conquered regions include the use of the government’s “substitute bench” that he has built over several years through a system of competitions and training programs for bureaucrats. Alumni of these programs are being offered ambitious projects in eastern and southern Ukraine as a chance to jump-start their careers and prevent the kind of rampant thievery by the local cadre that Crimea has seen. Putin has always had a weakness for bureaucrats able to run their domains on a system of key performance indicators. Kiriyenko is trying to show this is possible in the occupied territories.Another Kiriyenko idea stems from Soviet times: patronage, or shefstvo, of Russsian regional chiefs over the war-ravaged towns of occupied Ukraine. In times of natural and man-made disasters, the Soviet Union’s big cities and republics often took charge of various aspects of the rebuilding effort, creating the impression of decentralized, compassionate aid campaigns. Now, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has committed to use Moscow’s budget for the rebuilding of Donetsk and Luhansk, eastern Ukraine’s biggest cities. St. Petersburg has been called on to restore Mariupol, where at least two-thirds of building have been damaged and where thousands of people are buried in the yards of high-rise apartment blocks. Other regions, including those with major infrastructural problems of their own, have been given smaller projects. For example, Penza, where garbage cannot be removed from some towns because of bad roads, has sent construction machinery to eastern Ukraine.
Europe’s New Era of Cooperation Might Not Last Long: Clive Crook
• Turkey and NATO Prove the Anna Karenina Principle of Alliances: Andreas Kluth | 2022-06-15T06:02:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Putin Prepares to Declare Himself a Conqueror - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/putin-prepares-to-declare-himself-a-conqueror/2022/06/15/d5a3a07a-ec68-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/putin-prepares-to-declare-himself-a-conqueror/2022/06/15/d5a3a07a-ec68-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
FILE - Lew Worsham, left, takes a good look at the putter that Sam Snead, right, used to sink a 20-foot putt on the last hole to force a playoff in the U.S. Open golf tournament June 14, 1947, at St. Louis Country Club in Ladue, Mo. This is the 75-year anniversary of Worsham winning the U.S. Open. (AP Photo/File) (Uncredited/AP)
BROOKLINE, Mass. — A capsule look at key anniversaries for this year’s U.S. Open championship at The Country Club outside Boston on June 16-19: | 2022-06-15T06:02:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | US OPEN '22: Key US Open moments looking at the last century - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/golf/us-open-22-key-us-open-moments-looking-at-the-last-century/2022/06/15/ac8bb640-ec6e-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/golf/us-open-22-key-us-open-moments-looking-at-the-last-century/2022/06/15/ac8bb640-ec6e-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
Lyric Li
Zhu Aitao visits her alma mater, Leeds University, in England in 2019 on her last international trip before the pandemic. (Zhu Aitao)
By most accounts, Zhu Aitao has it all. Now she is ready to leave it all behind.
The 35-year-old, originally from China’s Shandong province, lives in the richest district of Beijing with her husband — her high school sweetheart — and their two young children. They own their home and two cars, a BMW and a Lexus. They both have stable jobs: Zhu manages public relations at a multinational auto company, while her husband writes for a government-owned journal.
“I feel like I’m having an emotional breakdown,” she said. “I feel powerless. It’s like an overbearing father telling you that this is all for your own sake. You just need to listen. Don’t ask questions.”
Zhu is one of a growing number of Chinese urban professionals subscribing to a new school of thought known as runxue, the study of how to “run” away from their home country. For many like Zhu, it is not just about China’s severe “zero covid” policy, but what the future looks like in a society where politics — upholding the top leader’s policies no matter the cost — trumps science and the well-being of residents whose day-to-day lives are subject to ever more state interference.
“It’s migration driven by a sense of disillusion,” said Xiang Biao, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany focusing on migration. “People are not running away from the virus. People are running away from such top-down measures and disregard of individuals’ feelings and dignity.”
Inquiries into emigrating have surged since chaotic lockdown measures were imposed in April on China’s most populous city, Shanghai, where residents struggled to feed themselves and watched family members die after being unable to get medical attention for non-covid emergencies. The term runxue, or “the science of running,” soon gained momentum online among disaffected residents in Shanghai and dozens of other Chinese cities under some form of lockdown.
On April 3, when a senior Chinese official visited Shanghai and ordered “unswerving” adherence to zero covid, searches for “emigration” on the social media platform WeChat surged more than 400 percent from a day earlier and again by almost 500 percent on May 17 as restrictions continued. Searches for requirements for immigrating to Canada and Malaysia, as well as the question “good immigration destinations,” increased twentyfold between the end of March and early April, according to Baidu data.
Watching from afar, Luna Liu, a PhD candidate in England at the University of London who is originally from Tianjin, posted on the forum Douban that she would give free advice to anyone hoping to move to Britain. She now has appointments booked until November, with a half-dozen people still on a waiting list.
“I can feel that many of those I spoke to had illusions about the system at home. After the lockdown of Shanghai, those illusions were shattered. They realized that if they want to live freely, they have to get out of there,” Liu said.
Shanghai’s covid siege: Food shortages, talking robots, starving animals
While runxue has not triggered a mass migration, it is the latest example of deeper pessimism in China amid slowing growth, historic levels of youth unemployment, an increasingly prohibitive political environment and uncertainty over China’s openness as the country turns increasingly inward.
A joke often seen online is that stressed-out urbanites have three options. They can continue to struggle in the rat race of Chinese society, making little progress in an approach known as neijuan, or “involution,” the process of turning inward in a self-defeating competition with others. Others may choose to opt out of a life of striving and instead tangping, or “lie flat.” Now, those with means can choose to emigrate, or “run.”
Young Chinese take a stand against pressures of modern life — by lying down
“This is definitely not a normal phenomenon, nor is it something that would be widely talked about in a healthy society,” said Li Nuo, 45, from Hebei province, who obtained permanent residency in Japan last year and now runs an e-commerce company in Osaka. Recently, he has been helping friends and family trying to leave China.
“If China is really as powerful and great as it claims, why are so many people willing to send themselves into exile, and why do so many young people have no sense of security? What this says is that this society is sick,” he said.
Foreign passports and green cards have long been the privilege of China’s wealthiest families, often seeking better educational opportunities for their children. Now, more middle-class families and young people are also looking for a way out.
Joy Zhou, 23, who works at a nongovernmental organization in Beijing, plans to move to Canada in the next year or two to study and hopes to establish permanent residency there. Zhou started thinking about moving abroad last year to experience living in a new cultural environment. Now, she feels a sense of urgency.
“Leaving is not just about the pandemic. I don’t identify with about 80 percent of mainstream social values here,” she said, noting her concern about women’s rights, the treatment of workers and increasingly limited freedom of speech in China. “This system is without a doubt backwards. People seem to have learned to cope with living in an unreasonable system, but will our lives ever become better?”
While many talk about leaving, few will actually make the leap, according to Julia Jing, a consultant at Pacific Overseas Group in Beijing, which offers immigration advice. She said the company received more inquires in the first four months of this year than in the whole of 2021.
Jing said that while there are more overseas opportunities for Chinese tech entrepreneurs and specialists at a time when domestic firms are laying off workers, residents also have to consider things like care for elderly parents, language barriers or the possibility that border controls will prevent them from returning home indefinitely.
Still, internet users, both older and younger, post extensive and detailed articles about the logistics and technicalities of emigrating despite the fact that they are unlikely to act on such advice. Discussing the possibility of emigrating becomes both a form of fantasy and a way to vent.
“People feel that runxue is a way for them not just to imagine a different life. It’s a way to imagine their autonomy,” said Xiang, of the Max Planck Institute. “It’s a way to express anger, powerlessness and disillusion.”
Stranded in their own homes: Portraits of Shanghai’s lockdown
Official attitudes toward emigration, once seen as a betrayal of socialist ideology during the early years of the People’s Republic of China, have loosened over the years. Waves of emigration include students, contract laborers, activists and other migrants in the 1980s and 1990s. Authorities further opened up applications from regular citizens for passports, which for years were limited to officials, and by mid-2019, about 13 percent of the mainland population had them, according to government data.
Now, as authorities work to attract talent and prevent a brain drain in the face of a shrinking and aging population, some worry that emigration will once again become politicized. Over the past two years, authorities have issued fewer passports and restricted outbound travel in the name of covid measures.
Last year, China issued 630,000 passports, compared with an average of 10.8 million annually from 2002 to 2017. In May, the National Immigration Administration said it would continue to “strictly restrict the nonessential departures” of Chinese citizens.
On social media, internet users have posted accounts of their passports being taken by employers or foreign residency cards and passports getting cut up by border officials. The immigration authority in May denied that passports had been halted or that residency certificates had been invalidated.
China shuts down talk of covid hardship; users strike back
While censors do not appear to be heavily moderating the online discussion of runxue, authorities are likely to be concerned about an ideology that promotes abandoning the country. On WeChat, some articles on runxue were blocked for “violating relevant laws.” Internet users on GitHub said some Weibo and WeChat accounts posting immigration tips had been shuttered. On the search engine Baidu, data for search volume on terms related to emigration is no longer available to the public.
“It’s not only what people do that shapes society. It’s also where people imagine their future or a good life to be. Runxue says that people imagine the good life to be somewhere else, and that says a lot about Chinese society today,” said Heidi Ostbo Haugen, a professor of China studies at the University of Oslo.
“They are always ready to leave, and that does something to how you live your life here and now,” she said.
For Zhu, the public relations manager in Beijing, the biggest obstacle to leaving is her husband, a traditional man for whom moving to Beijing from their hometown in Shandong was already a big request. Recently, she nervously broached the subject of moving with him. He did not immediately say no.
In the meantime, she tries to stay busy to avoid focusing on things like her children spending their childhood under pandemic restrictions, something that causes her insomnia.
“I just try to fill my work and life as much as possible. While I don’t like the current policy, who knows if it will get worse tomorrow?”
Kuo reported from Taipei and Li from Seoul. | 2022-06-15T06:58:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Zero covid’ and lockdowns in China have many dreaming of leaving - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/china-pandemic-zero-covid-migration-runxue/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/china-pandemic-zero-covid-migration-runxue/ |
Teen killed in double shooting in Southeast, D.C. police say
Baltimore youth was reportedly slain on Wheeler Road
A 17-year-old from Baltimore was killed in a double shooting Monday evening in the Congress Heights area of Southeast Washington, D.C. police said.
Xavier Spruill was shot in the 3400 block of Wheeler Road SE and died at a hospital, police said.
A second victim was being treated at a hospital for wounds that did not appear life-threatening, police said. Officer Sean Hickman, a D.C. police spokesman, said the second victim was a man.
The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m., according to a statement issued Tuesday by police.
The site includes two- and three-story residential buildings, as well as an Eagle Academy Public Charter School campus.
Monday’s fatal shooting occurred about a half-mile from the scene of a double shooting Sunday night in which one person died. | 2022-06-15T09:00:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Teenager fatally shot in Southeast, police say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/teenager-shot-killed-southeast-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/teenager-shot-killed-southeast-dc/ |
VÄRMDÖ, SWEDEN - JUNE 11: The patch of a Swedish Amphibious Battalion soldier is shown during the Baltic Operations NATO military drills (Baltops 22) on June 11, 2022 in the Stockholm archipelago, the 30,000 islands, islets and rocks off Sweden’s eastern coastline. Fourteen NATO allies and two NATO partner nations, Finland and Sweden, are participating in the exercise with more than 45 ships, 75 aircraft and 7,500 personnel. (Photo by Jonas Gratzer/Getty Images) (Photographer: Jonas Gratzer/Getty Images Europe)
Is there life after empire? I pondered the question last week at the Engelsberg Seminar, a gathering of academics, journalists and policy makers held in a disused ironworks two hours by car from Stockholm. Sweden once controlled vast stretches of northern Europe. It then contented itself, after a series of military defeats, to a more modest existence as a small neutral power with a healthy welfare state.
It has been a pretty nice existence. Sweden boasts the world’s 20th-highest per capita income. It pairs a robust capitalist economy with generous social-welfare provisions. The country is famous for high levels of social capital and domestic cohesion, which enabled a remarkably light-touch approach to managing the Covid pandemic, with day-to-day life continuing largely as usual. Corruption and crime are low, even though the latter is rising.
Sweden tacitly recognized as much during the Cold War, when it was neutral in theory but never in practice. The country developed deep intelligence cooperation with the US and NATO; it allowed Western forces to quietly use Swedish facilities and developed a high degree of interoperability with them. Sweden even reportedly enjoyed loose security guarantees — an “invisible alliance,” as one journalist later put it — from Washington and NATO. | 2022-06-15T09:04:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sweden’s Faux Neutrality Couldn’t Survive Putin’s Ukraine War - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/swedens-faux-neutrality-couldnt-survive-putins-ukraine-war/2022/06/15/f7caecf8-ec81-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/swedens-faux-neutrality-couldnt-survive-putins-ukraine-war/2022/06/15/f7caecf8-ec81-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
In this photo released by China’s Xinhua News Agency, water flows out from a gate of the Shuikou Hydropower Station in southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Monday, June 13, 2022. Heavy rain in China has claimed several lives this week and forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people. (Lin Shanchuan/Xinhua via AP) | 2022-06-15T09:05:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 6 dead in China as rain triggers landslides, house collapse - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/6-dead-in-china-as-rain-triggers-landslides-house-collapse/2022/06/15/2ca30662-ec83-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/6-dead-in-china-as-rain-triggers-landslides-house-collapse/2022/06/15/2ca30662-ec83-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
We’re still not in a recession despite the stock market drop
The markets are down over 20 percent since the start of the year — but that isn’t a predictor that a recession is coming
Perspective by Allan Sloan
A phone conversation near the New York Stock Exchange on June 14. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)
The stock market isn’t predicting a recession.
Yes, stocks are tanking. But no, that doesn’t mean that a recession is coming anytime soon.
So take a deep breath, tune out the noise emanating from many “market experts,” and calm down.
If you’ve got a major part of your assets in stocks, it’s easy to freak out as you watch your net worth decline by serious amounts day after day after day.
But we need to put things in perspective.
As of Tuesday’s market close, the S&P 500 is down 22 percent from its peak on Jan. 3.
However, the S&P is still up 67 percent from its bottom on March 23, 2020, two months after the first confirmed coronavirus case in the United States and 10 days after President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices.
Even more significantly, the S&P is up 10 percent from what had been its all-time high, on Feb. 19, 2020.
This means that no matter how bad you feel, if you’ve had your money in the market continuously, you’re still better off now than you were at the 2020 peak. And I’m not even including the two years of dividends that you’ve gotten.
At the 2020 peak, people were bursting with confidence and wondering how much higher stocks would go and how much richer they would get. Then, a bit more than a month later as the country shut down, the S&P was down 34 percent, sending people into despair.
After which a combination of Federal Reserve rate cuts and federal government stimulus spending restored investor confidence and reduced the financial markets’ fear of the coronavirus, and everything turned around. The S&P rose a total of 18 percent in the three days after the March market bottom, and generally kept going up.
Early this year, stocks began to drift down slowly, and then began to plunge, begetting fear and panic and leading to dire predictions of what lies ahead.
If you’ve been around financial markets for a long time — I’ve been watching them for 40 years or so — you realize that in the long run, the market is rational. But in the short run, anything can happen — and often does.
Trying to find a rational reason for what the market is doing on a given day — or during a given hour — can lead you down a rabbit hole.
The vast majority of stock trading is based on algorithms — mathematical formulas — and consists of computers making massive trades with other computers.
The pattern seems to be that stocks keep going down because they’re going down, or they keep going up because they’re going up. Rationality? Forget about it. There’s no connection between the market’s daily moves and the real economy.
The computers aren’t thinking — they’re trading. Human beings try to divine reasons for the market movement, which make for interesting stories but not necessarily accurate ones.
How low will stocks go? Nobody knows.
And there’s absolutely no reason to think that a falling stock market is an accurate predictor of anything. As the late great economist Paul Samuelson once quipped in a 1966 Newsweek column, the stock market had predicted nine of the past five recessions.
By the way, a recession isn’t — as many people think — a decline in the U.S. gross domestic product (adjusted for inflation) for two consecutive quarters. Rather, a recession is a significant decline across the economy.
To quote the National Bureau of Economic Research, whose wonderfully named Business Cycle Dating Committee decides when a recession has begun or ended, “The NBER does not define a recession in terms of two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP. Rather, a recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales.”
The committee typically waits months — or sometimes a year or more — to declare that a recession has begun or ended.
I don’t know where either the stock market or the U.S. economy goes from here. | 2022-06-15T09:35:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A stock market drop doesn't predict a recession - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/stock-market-drop-recession-fears/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/stock-market-drop-recession-fears/ |
A picture dated June 2, and obtained from Egypt's Suez Canal Authority, shows a tugboat pulling an Energean Floating production storage and offloading ship along Egypt's Suez Canal. (-/AFP/Getty Images)
TEL AVIV — Israel, Egypt, and the European Union signed on Wednesday a trilateral natural gas deal in Cairo as Europe scrambles to cobble together an energy strategy to replace the Russian supplies it has relied on for decades.
The deal, whose details have not yet been made public, will enable Israel to send its natural gas through already existing pipelines to Egyptian ports, where it can be liquefied and pressurized and then exported to Europe.
“This will contribute to our energy security. And we are building infrastructure fit for renewables — the energy of the future,” tweeted Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday, the European Commission president, from Cairo. She attached a photo of Egyptian, Israeli and European energy ministers signing the contract.
Israel in recent weeks promised to accelerate its oil output as demand grows and prices soar, especially as Europe, previously the largest client of Russian energy, is planning stockpile supplies that have been disrupted or are set to be banned due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“With the beginning of this war and the attempt of Russia to blackmail us through energy, by deliberately cutting off the energy supplies, we decided to cut off and to get rid of the dependency on Russian fossil fuels, and to move away from Russia and diversify to trustworthy suppliers,” said von der Leyen in a news conference in Jerusalem Tuesday night. “It is an outstanding step bringing our energy cooperation to the next level.” | 2022-06-15T09:35:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Israel, Egypt, E.U. sign gas deal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/israel-gas-europe-export-turkey/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/israel-gas-europe-export-turkey/ |
With some sleep wrecked already, the PGA Tour sails toward the storm
Ben Strauss
Two-time major champion Collin Morikawa on the challenge presented by the LIV Golf Series: “We don’t want to be worrying about this a year or two years down the road.” (Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
BROOKLINE, Mass. — In an age when pro golfers have grown increasingly distant from their audiences, two-time major winner Justin Thomas took listeners right smack into his middle-of-the-nights Monday. In a news conference ahead of this week’s U.S. Open, he talked of having “tossed and turned and lost a lot of sleep last week thinking about what could potentially happen” to the tour of his lifelong dreams.
As an honors graduate of a top-10 business school, two-time major winner Collin Morikawa looked into the future and spotted . . . murk. “It’s so tough because Justin is right,” he said. “We don’t want to be worrying about this a year or two years down the road.”
With one of the rarer perspectives going, former 15-year PGA Tour player and current capital-management whiz Joe Ogilvie saw newborn rival LIV Golf as doing a Netflix on the PGA Tour. Netflix “shot a money cannon through Hollywood,” Ogilvie wrote in a tweet last month, which “also unbundled the TV/cable package.” This looks like an unbundling time, he surmised.
“The PGA Tour is in a pickle,” he wrote.
So far, LIV Golf has held one event near London last weekend. Nineteen of the world’s top 100 players either played in that or have confirmed they’ll play in others, swathed in the cushiness such as the $2.125 million Hennie du Plessis got for finishing second, or the $120,000 Andy Ogletree got for finishing 48th among 48. Seventeen players got suspensions from the PGA Tour as Commissioner Jay Monahan started grappling with the threat.
John Feinstein: Golf is splintering, and almost everyone’s to blame
“I feel for Jay Monahan,” said Jon Rahm, the defending U.S. Open champion ranked No. 2 in the world. “If you see his time as a commissioner, he had to deal with covid and now this.”
The PGA Tour announced lucrative new TV deals in 2020. Those agreements, with NBC and CBS, are for nine years and, according to reports, worth more than $650 million per year. The tour also inked a separate broadcast deal with streaming service ESPN Plus.
The pain could spread beyond the Tour’s broadcast partners. The Washington Post reached out to eight title sponsors of PGA Tour events, including John Deere, Charles Schwab, Travelers, Wells Fargo and AT&T. None responded to requests for comments on whether prominent golfers leaving the PGA Tour would impact their sponsorships.
The first U.S.-based LIV Golf event outside Portland, Ore., will compete directly with the John Deere Classic, a traditional stop on the PGA Tour in Illinois. Clair Peterson, the tournament’s executive director, said he viewed the LIV circuit as a greater long-term problem, potentially, than short-term, because he is always scrambling for top players to attend.
“We don’t feel it’s going to affect us immediately,” he said. “We’re certainly watching with interest, but we’ve had players come and go. We had Tiger Woods in 1996, and he never made it back.”
He added: “This is such volatile business, quite honestly. Each year has different challenges and hurdles — change of venue, different field, weather. We’re used to being faced with and getting past hurdles. This is certainly a big hurdle, but we have a lot of experience.”
Peterson said he had not had any conversations with the PGA Tour about LIV Golf.
Michael Hausfeld, the lawyer who represented college athletes in a successful federal antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, said the legal questions at play were separate from the moral questions and that he believed golfers had a strong antitrust case against the PGA Tour.
“The PGA [Tour] has crossed a line, legally, because they’ve basically decided that no player with whom they contract can play outside of their contracts,” he said. “Those players are foreclosed from participating in the sport for other potential competitor organizations. That’s an antitrust violation.”
Hausfeld said players banned from the tour had two legal courses of action. They could ask a court for an injunction to allow them to continue competing on the tour, but they also could ask for monetary damages. The banned players could, for example, tally the money they’ve earned over the past five years and say they are now prohibited from the opportunity to earn that amount over the next five years. With the number of golfers who have joined the LIV circuit and U.S. law mandating that all antitrust damages be tripled, the PGA Tour could have significant liability, Hausfeld said.
Amid the fresh noise and the ravenous public appetite for it, the PGA Tour clings to invaluable strengths, some outlined Tuesday as Rahm, 27, offered his customary wealth of insight. He said he frets most about the Ryder Cup, should some stars wind up barred. He wondered how extensive the damage can be when the LIV circuit has 48-man tournaments but the world has “other hundreds” of boffo players. He mentioned the age factor of LIV Golf’s freshman class, with its 13 players over 35 and two so far under 30, including 28-year-old 2020 U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau.
“For a lot of people, I’m not going to lie,” Rahm said, “those next three, four years are worth basically their retirement plan they’re giving them. It’s a very nice compensation to then retire and sail off into the sunset. If that’s what you want, that’s fine.”
As for the young, McIlroy said, “I just think for a lot of the guys that are going to play [in LIV Golf] that are younger, sort of similar age to me [33] or a little younger than me, it seems quite short-term thinking, and they’re not really looking at the big picture. Again, I’ve just tried to sort of see this with a wider lens from the start.”
That wider lens focuses on appreciating Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and the tour they built, which McIlroy emphasizes, and legacies, which Woods stressed last month at the PGA Championship.
“There’s meaning when you win the Memorial Championship,” Rahm said. “There’s meaning when you win Arnold Palmer’s event at Bay Hill.”
He added: “Shotgun three days to me is not a golf tournament. No cut. It’s that simple. I want to play against the best in the world in a format that’s been going on for hundreds of years.”
He watched some of the LIV event online, “and to me the only thing they had to talk about is the fact that if Charl Schwartzel won he was going to make $4.7 million, right?” He noted that nobody ever talks purses when speaking of Seve Ballesteros or Nicklaus or golf lore.
Rahm and his wife, Kelley, had a chat: “We started talking about it, and we’re like, ‘Will our lifestyle change if I got $400 million?’ No, it will not change one bit.”
Such sentiments have held on so far for the entire top 10 and 19 of the top 20 — excepting Dustin Johnson, ranked No. 16 — but for how long? Not even a stellar student three years out of the University of California’s Haas School of Business would guess.
“Some guys that have resigned, I think, that have joined LIV, have fully grasped the idea that they’re okay without playing [the PGA Tour], and they’re at peace,” said Morikawa, ranked No. 7. “Everyone else isn’t at peace. Some guys want to come back. Some guys maybe want to join. We don’t want to go, and we want [the distraction] to end. There are so many things up in the air that you’re not really at peace because you don’t know what the world is going to bring you the next day. I guess that’s life, right?” | 2022-06-15T09:48:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | With some sleep wrecked already, the PGA Tour sails toward the storm - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/pga-tour-liv-golf-discord/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/pga-tour-liv-golf-discord/ |
In Chicago, there’s no unseeing the world Cézanne left us
The first major U.S. exhibition of the painter’s works in more than a quarter century amplifies his radicality
Review by Philip Kennicott
Paul Cézanne's “Still Life with Apples,” 1893-1894. (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)
CHICAGO — For a moment, I thought I saw a human figure hiding in one of the most austere watercolors on view in the Art Institute of Chicago’s magnificent survey of Paul Cézanne’s extraordinary career. The small, enigmatic painting, “Road in Provence,” was made around 1885, and is as spare as a haiku, rendering the sky, trees and road receding into the distance with the most minimal gestures. As I glanced at it a second time, from a distance, it also seemed to suggest a nude figure, sitting cross-legged on the ground, a headless torso and limbs stolidly rooted to the earth.
It’s no surprise that Cézanne sometimes invites what is technically known as pareidolia, the tendency to read into patterns and interpret visual stimuli, even when there is no intentional meaning present. This is what we do when we lie on our backs and watch the clouds form castles in the sky, and it’s hard to avoid when looking at some of Cézanne’s most daring works.
Throughout this comprehensive exhibition, the first major overview of the painter in North America in more than a quarter century, viewers can marvel at just how little information Cézanne gives the viewer even in paintings that leave no doubt about what they depict, including the time of day and the weather. And how often that information seems to break the most basic rules of visual representation. There are, of course, the famous distortions to three-dimensional space, the tabletops that don’t align, the chair rails and molding that are wildly askew. And there are the games with color, the white fabrics that are never white, yet seem to blaze with the preternatural whiteness of sheets bleached and dried in the southern sun.
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But this show, organized with the Tate Modern in London, is big enough — with some 120 paintings, watercolors and drawings — that an even larger sense of Cézanne’s radicality emerges. In his most daring work, things always seem to bleed into something else, clothing and wallpaper blend together, peasant men become aristocrats, sky and horizon intrude on one another, the paint and the thing painted are captured in a liminal state of becoming and receding.
In one of the most evocative juxtapositions in the show, we see a still life by Cézanne, and Paul Gauguin’s depiction of that painting in the background of his 1890 “Woman in Front of a Still Life by Cézanne.” Except the Cézanne isn’t really background, nor is it obviously a painting hanging on the wall. Rather, it morphs into the space that Gauguin is depicting, as if he wants to call out and emphasize this particular power of Cézanne, to break down the mental distinction between the thing and its representation.
It’s a surprise to learn that this is the first major U.S. Cézanne exhibition in more than two decades, because Cézanne seems ever present. The adulation for the artist, especially among painters, sometimes feels reflexive, making it difficult to see his work afresh. The Chicago exhibition foregrounds the usual things that excite Cézanne’s admirers, especially his role as patron saint of the 20th century and abstraction. The exhibition begins with a gallery of five landscapes, representing his work over the arc of his career, and ends with a room of images of women bathing, including the National Gallery of London’s “Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses),” which sets the stage for (or perhaps steals the thunder of) Picasso and Matisse.
But while Cézanne’s flirtation with and flights into abstraction are ever present — and with them the invitation to pareidolia — the show also reminds us how grounded the painter was in actual things. An extensive display of his still life works underscores his almost obsessive devotion not just to fruit and crockery, but to a very particular collection of bottles, vases and platters, which come to seem like family members dressed up in costumes for some rustic game of charades. Keep your eye on a green jar with an unfinished terracotta base. When it recurs in the 1893-1894 “Still Life with a Ginger Jar and Eggplants,” its rough bottom half is hidden by a decorously placed melon, which feels like a private joke of some sort, an inner-circle gibe that might reduce a family to giggles, while remaining indecipherable to everyone else.
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein famously proposed the idea of a “family resemblance” to think through a persistent philosophical problem, how we know that one thing is like another when no single common feature links them. In fact, there may be multiple, shifting similarities and affinities, which we can’t define or analyze except to note that there is sometimes a family resemblance among things. This is the world that Cézanne seems to live in, where every apple may be radically different from its neighbors, every tree unique in its serpentine dance in the forest shadows, yet all things inarguably very much alike and related to each other in ways that defy easy explication.
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The family resemblance idea also captures something essential about how we read paintings and images. Once your mind settles on an interpretation of the visual data, it is almost impossible to unsee. As soon as you say, “he resembles his father,” the father’s face is forever imprinted on his son. As soon as you say, “that’s an apple,” the cluster of brushstrokes on the canvas remain irrefragably an apple. By painting the same things again and again, including his beloved Montagne Sainte-Victoire and the Arc Valley, Cézanne invites us to experience and reexperience that key moment, when the mind issues its declaration of what it sees. If we could somehow extend that moment, savor its tipping point between uncertainty and certainty, we might learn something essential about the world, and our imposition of meaning upon it.
That is, perhaps, why pareidolia is so intoxicating, because it makes us conscious of how meager and how fanciful the evidence we use to resolve the world into meaningful pictures. It also excites us because we can communicate it to others. You may think that cloud looks more like a dinosaur than the Krak des Chevaliers, but once I walk you through my interpretation, you may see a castle in Syria as clearly as I do.
The things represented in Cézanne’s paintings function much more like clouds and pareidolia than they do photographs of actual things. And maybe that’s so obvious it doesn’t bear repeating. But it is exciting to experience it, over and over. Right now, outside my window, the trees were painted by Cézanne, and there’s no way I can unsee that.
Cezanne Through Sept. 5 at the Art Institute of Chicago through Sept. 5. artic.edu. | 2022-06-15T10:36:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In Chicago, a comprehensive survey of the art of Paul Cezanne - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/15/paul-cezanne-chicago-art-institute/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/15/paul-cezanne-chicago-art-institute/ |
The Boro in Tysons gets expansion approval for residential development
Three buildings with 543 market-rate and workforce residential units are coming to the Boro, in Tysons, Va. (The Meridian Group)
The Boro, a neighborhood central to the reinvention of Tysons, Va., into a walkable, transit-oriented development, continues to grow and received approval in May from the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission to expand.
This final phase of the development plan adds approximately 610,000 square feet of residential development to the area and consists of three buildings with 543 market-rate and workforce residential units. The development is a joint venture of the Meridian Group, a real estate investment and development firm, and Akridge, a commercial real estate company and investor and developer in the D.C. region.
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The Boro, a mixed-use neighborhood with retail shops, restaurants, offices, condos and apartments, is centered around Boro Park, a gathering place for the community that hosts many open-air events. The new residential buildings, designed by SK+I Architecture with Mahan Rykiel, RD Jones and Vika Engineering, will include outdoor spaces for residents, club rooms and fitness centers.
In addition to the residential space, the plan calls for 36,000 square feet of retail space, one-third of which is already leased. A new public park to be called Allsboro Park will have more than one acre of public space and outdoor dining areas for future restaurants. The park will connect Greensboro Drive to Broad Street and will include public art, gathering spaces, gardens and seating areas. A pickleball court will be included in the park.
Construction on the new section of the Boro is expected to begin later this year and to be substantially completed in 2025.
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Current residential options in the Boro include condos in the Verse that are priced from $1.4 million to $1.5 million, and apartments in the Rise and Bolden buildings. Rents in those buildings range from $2,256 to $4,199 for one- and two-bedroom apartments.
For updates and information, visit theborotysons.com. | 2022-06-15T10:36:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Boro in Tysons gets expansion approval for residential development - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/boro-tysons-gets-expansion-approval-residential-development/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/boro-tysons-gets-expansion-approval-residential-development/ |
Water sensors can help you maintain a dry basement
A garden hose directs water being pumped out of a flooded basement after heavy rain. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Climate change is causing a big divide in the United States: The eastern half of the country is getting a lot wetter and the western half is getting a lot drier. If you’re a homeowner, and you live east of Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, you’ve probably spent some time thinking about how to prevent water infiltration.
Keeping your basement dry is one of the most important things a homeowner can do. Damp basements are breeding grounds for mold and other health hazards.
We live in a house that was built in the 1880s, although we’ve fixed it up and added onto it in the nearly 30 years we’ve lived here. Over the past several years, Sam placed several electronic water sensors around the house. Some of these sensors are in places where you might expect to see a water problem: near the sump pump pit and water heater, under the air-conditioning unit and beneath the kitchen sink.
The water sensors he installed are manufactured by SimpleSence and Moen. They each cost around $50, but are slightly discounted in multipacks. The installation of these items is pretty simple. On the other hand, it’s hugely frustrating if the software does not cooperate.
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There are pluses and minuses to each system. It took several attempts to get the SimpleSence Original Water Leak and Freeze Detector to work. The Moen Smart Leak Detector setup was easier. The Moen detector uses a CR123A battery while the SimpleSence uses AAA batteries. The Moen detector batteries need to be replaced every six months or so, while the SimpleSence detectors seem to last longer. Battery life can vary depending on a variety of factors, but if you install these detectors in hard-to-reach places, remember to change the batteries twice per year.
Both the Moen and the SimpleSence detectors are WiFi enabled and connect to your smartphone through a downloadable app. Both apps work pretty well and let you know the battery level for your device. That’s important, since you’ll want to replace the batteries before they die.
Sam also installed a water alarm by the Watchdog, which is available for $15 at many retailers. This device sounds an alarm when it senses water, but is not WiFi based. The Watchdog uses one 9-volt battery, which seems to last several years. Unfortunately, you have to test the device to find out whether the batteries are still good.
When any of the devices sense the presence of water, they sound an alarm. The alarms on the SimpleSence and the Moen devices aren’t loud enough to get your attention. On the other hand, you can hear the Watchdog loud and clear from at least one floor away. The big advantage to the Moen and SimpleSence detectors is that they send messages to your phone alerting you of leaks.
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Sump pumps have a life span of about 10 years, and they always seem to fail during a big storm. (Have you noticed that the dishwasher and disposal in your sink will typically fail the morning of Thanksgiving or Christmas?) Sam’s sump pump failed during a big rainstorm. The SimpleSence alarm alerted Sam to the leak, but he was away from the house at a business meeting, so there wasn’t much he could do about it. By the time he returned home, he had forgotten about the text message. Luckily, the Watchdog alarm was still beeping.
Fortunately, he was able to get the sump pump replaced without any damage to the home. The alarms prevented a larger problem that might have gone unnoticed for several days, or even weeks, as the sump pump is located under the basement stairs.
None of these devices will let you know the size of the problem, whether you have a few drops leaking out of a failing elbow pipe or something much more significant. They only let you know that they have sensed water. The text messages and beeping are your clues to check things out quickly.
The truth is, any of these devices are useful tools that will warn you of water issues. And, you should seriously consider buying one if you live in an area that’s getting wetter by the year. At $50 per device, the WiFi-enabled devices may be too expensive for some, particularly if you want to install several devices in your home. The non-Internet devices are quite affordable, but if you can’t hear the beeping (because you’re not home when the leak starts), you could lose valuable time.
It turned out that both of the batteries in the sump pump had died. Sam caught the leaking before any significant damage had occurred to the finished part of the basement. A quick call to the plumber, and we had two new sump pumps installed before lunch and a dry basement before dinner. | 2022-06-15T10:36:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Water sensors can help you maintain a dry basement - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/water-sensors-can-help-you-maintain-dry-basement/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/water-sensors-can-help-you-maintain-dry-basement/ |
Jerome Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, May 4, 2022. The Federal Reserve today raised interest rates by the steepest increment since 2000 and decided to start shrinking its massive balance sheet. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
While the market chatter in the run-up to Wednesday’s Federal Reserve interest rate decision has understandably focused on whether the increase will be 50 or 75 basis points, the critical issue in play is a broader one. For its sake and that of both the domestic and global economy, the central bank desperately needs to regain control of the inflation narrative.
The persistent failure to do so in the past 12 months is turning the perception of the Fed from the world’s most powerful central bank — long respected for its ability to anchor global financial stability — to an institution that too closely resembles an emerging-market bank that lacks credibility and inadvertently contributes to undue financial volatility. Regaining control of the inflation narrative is critical to the Fed’s policy effectiveness, its reputation and its political independence. The longer this takes, the greater the negative effects on economic well-being and social equity in the US, and the larger the negative spillovers for the rest of the world.
The evidence of the Fed’s loss of control has multiplied uncomfortably in recent weeks.
Once again, its forecasts for inflation, one of its dual mandates, have been off. Meanwhile, longer-term inflationary expectations have deviated further from the Fed’s 2% target, with the University of Michigan’s measure for the next five to 10 years reaching a multidecade high of 3.3%. With that, even the part of the market on which the Fed has the most influence, typified by the two-year Treasury note yield, has been subject to eye-popping large and disorderly moves up that are frightening for one of the most critical segments of global financial markets.
Just as worrisome is the Fed’s misplayed attempt at precision. Its signaling of two 50-basis-point increases a few weeks ago first led markets to contemplate a September pause in the rate cycle. That thinking was then firmly displaced by speculation about an immediate 75-basis-point increase on a journey to a terminal rate well above anything mentioned by the Fed.
That caused yet more undue volatility in markets; and with that comes greater distancing for the Fed from the “first best” policy response and a deepening of a lose-lose policy dilemma that is largely of its own creation — that is, slam on the policy brakes to fight inflation at the cost of a consequential risk of recession or tap the brakes more gently and risk persistently high inflation well into 2023.
The notion of a central bank consistently chasing inflationary developments, running out of good policy options and, in the process, intensifying economic and financial volatility would not be uncommon in a developing country lacking institutional credibility and maturity. It is highly unusual, and particularly distressing, for the central bank that is at the center of the international monetary system.
The result is an amplification of the adverse spillover effects for the rest of the world, putting at considerable risk financial stability in some of the countries at the periphery of the global system. At home, it undermines economic prosperity and adds to the considerable pressures already being faced by the most vulnerable segments of the population.
Fortunately, the urgency of regaining control clarifies the immediate steps that the Fed must take.
First, it needs to share its analysis of why it has repeatedly misread inflation for so long and how it has now improved its forecasting capabilities. Without this, the Fed will continue to find it difficult to convince markets that it has a handle on inflation, leading to a further de-anchoring of inflationary expectations.
Second, the Fed needs to show that it is serious about tackling inflation, not just in words but in actions. Having so mishandled the run-up to this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, it has no choice but to raise the target for the fed funds rate by 75 basis points, thereby undermining its own forward policy guidance of 50 basis points signaled just last month and doing something that Fed Chair Jerome Powell had ruled out.
Third, in raising 75 basis points, it must also credibly convey the notion that this is part of a journey, and it must avoid repeating the mistake of spurious precision — an unforced error that it has made a couple of times in the last few months.
Notwithstanding the fact that it operates in a more difficult context because of the weaker regional economy and the risk of “spread fragmentation,” the European Central Bank has recently taken some important steps in this regard. The longer the Fed delays in doing the same, the more markets will revise upward inflation expectations and the scale and speed of the rate-increase cycle. The result of that, should it materialize, will be the current US stagflation baseline giving way to recession; and, once again as economic insecurity increases because of both higher prices and more uncertain income prospects, the most vulnerable segments of the population will be hit hardest.
I warned a year ago that, in insisting that inflation was “transitory,” the Fed was risking one of its biggest policy mistakes whose consequences would be felt beyond the US economy. Since then, it has been like watching a bad dream play out in stages. I hope that the Fed will use this week’s FOMC meeting to break out of the problematic policy regime it has placed itself in, thereby avoiding yet more undue damage to economic well-being, prospects and social equity. | 2022-06-15T10:36:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Federal Reserve Must Do More Than Raise Rates by 75 Points - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/federal-reserve-must-do-more-than-raise-rates-by-75-points/2022/06/15/bd332f22-ec92-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/federal-reserve-must-do-more-than-raise-rates-by-75-points/2022/06/15/bd332f22-ec92-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
Torn from his first love in the Korean War, strangers just helped them reunite
Duane Mann learned that his former girlfriend had named a son after him.
Peggy Yamaguchi Sedenquist, 91, reunites with Duane Mann, 91, who had been searching for her for 70 years. The two dated for about a year during the Korean War when Mann — who was in the Navy — was stationed in Japan. (Brian Mann)
It was her dance moves that initially got his attention. Then it was her smile and her quick wit. He’d never met anyone like her.
During the Korean War in 1953, Duane Mann — a 22-year-old sailor from Iowa, then stationed in Japan — fell in love for the first time.
Her name was Peggy Yamaguchi, and to him, she was perfect.
“She was such a pretty girl, and so sensitive and kind,” recalled Mann, now 91, who managed an aviation supply warehouse in Yokosuka before transferring to an air base in Tokyo. “We had so much fun.”
The pair met at a military officers’ club, where Yamaguchi worked in the hat check room, and Mann was hired as a mechanic and sergeant-at-arms in his off hours. Yamaguchi took English lessons, and she helped translate conversations between service members and locals.
There was a live band at the club, and one evening after work, “Peggy and I, we started to dance,” Mann said.
“And my word,” he continued, “this girl could really dance.”
They began meeting daily, often until they were the only ones left at the club, dancing to Elvis Presley and Tony Bennett.
“People would just stand and watch us,” Mann said. “Holding her in my arms, I just kept falling deeper and deeper.”
About a year later, their romance came to an abrupt halt when the Navy sent Mann back to the United States sooner than expected.
“The Korean War was over, and the military was bloated, so to save money they started discharging people early,” he explained.
At the time, Yamaguchi, then 22, was pregnant with their child. The young couple came up with a plan: Mann would go back to Iowa, collect the money he had saved in his bank account there — which he put in his father’s name, in case he was killed in the war — and bring his new love back to America.
“I wanted to marry her,” Mann said.
His plan fell through when he arrived in his hometown of Pisgah, Iowa, and discovered that his father had spent all of his savings.
“Every bit of it,” he said. “If I would have known that I didn’t have any money, I would have never gone home.”
While he struggled to find a solution, the couple stayed in touch through letters, and Mann began working at a highway construction company — the highest-paying job he could find.
After a month of correspondence, Yamaguchi stopped replying. Mann later learned why: His mother intercepted and burned Yamaguchi’s letters, as she did not approve of their relationship, he said.
“She didn’t want me to marry a Japanese girl,” Mann explained, adding that his sister snuck him one last letter from Yamaguchi, which arrived a few months later. It said she had lost their baby and married a member of the U.S. Air Force from Wisconsin. “I was devastated.”
A strong sense of guilt swelled up inside Mann. It lingered for seven decades.
“I was worried she thought I abandoned her,” said Mann, who is widowed.
As he moved through life — starting a successful produce business, getting married twice and fathering six children — Yamaguchi never left his mind.
To this day, he has kept two photos of her tucked in his wallet. He tried to track her down, he said, but he never had any luck.
“I wanted her to know that I wouldn’t abandon her,” Mann said.
In a last-ditch effort to find her, Mann posted a plea on Facebook on May 1, sharing a photo he’d taken of her along with the whole story, writing that he carried “a very heavy heart because of what all happened.”
Friends, strangers and internet sleuths weighed in with suggestions. A local news channel, KETV7, picked up the story, spreading Mann’s plea even further.
That’s when a young woman in Vancouver caught wind of Mann’s plight.
“I couldn’t get it off my mind,” said Theresa Wong, 23, who works at the History Channel. “Duane has clearly been looking for closure for seven decades. I can’t imagine how that must weigh on a person.”
She decided to join the search, and soon, “I had her name, the names of her relatives. It all came together very quickly,” she said.
Wong typed in “Peggy Yamaguchi” on newspapers.com, hoping to find a marriage announcement of some sort. A promising article, with the headline “Tokyo Bride Likes Life in Escanaba,” appeared.
“It seemed to line up with everything,” Wong said.
She shared her findings with KETV7, and the station then had a married name and address in Michigan to go on. A reporter contacted Yamaguchi’s son, Rich Sedenquist.
At first, Sedenquist, 66, was puzzled by the message, but once he showed his 91-year-old mother, Peggy Yamaguchi Sedenquist, old photos of Mann, she said, “I remember him.”
Yamaguchi Sedenquist had mostly suppressed memories of Mann, but suddenly, the dancing felt like yesterday, she said. She described her then-boyfriend as “nice-looking, tall, and very honest.”
When she learned Mann was searching for her, “I was very surprised,” Yamaguchi Sedenquist said from her home in Escanaba, where she raised her three sons and still lives with the husband she married in 1955.
Contrary to Mann’s fear, Yamaguchi Sedenquist did not harbor any resentment, she said. When he left Japan, “it was hard,” she recalled, but given that he was in the military, “when he had to go, he had to go.”
Knowing she was alive, Mann was adamant about meeting Yamaguchi Sedenquist in person. Mann’s eldest son, Brian Mann, 63, joined him for the journey.
Growing up, Brian Mann and his siblings had heard stories about his father’s long-lost love, and supported his efforts to reunite with her.
As the father and son drove about 14 hours from Iowa to Michigan for the June 1 meeting, the elder Mann was filled with anxious anticipation. “Do you think she’ll let me hug her?” he asked timidly.
The second he saw Yamaguchi Sedenquist, his worries subsided.
“She got up and gave me a hug, and I got a lot of kisses on the cheek,” Mann said.
The first thing Yamaguchi Sedenquist said to Mann was: “Do you remember the dancing?”
They spent hours reminiscing, and Mann learned that Yamaguchi Sedenquist named one of her sons after him. Her eldest child, Mike, was given the middle name Duane.
“That was really a thrill,” said Mann, who now lives in Woodbine, Iowa.
“It was a special experience,” said Yamaguchi Sedenquist, adding that she assured Mann that she never felt abandoned by him.
Their families also met, and everyone hit it off.
“I had some preconception of what I thought it was going to be like, and it went way beyond what I thought,” said Brian Mann.
“It was wonderful,” echoed Rich Sedenquist. “They are very good people.”
“I just hope I can hang on for another year or two and get to know them better,” added Mann.
What he wanted above anything, though, was to explain what had happened. After seven decades, he finally did.
“I’m at peace with it now,” Mann said.
Still, “I would love to dance with her again,” he continued, “just one more time.” | 2022-06-15T10:36:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Torn from his first love in the Korean War, strangers just helped them reunite - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/15/korean-war-love-peggy-yamaguchi/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/06/15/korean-war-love-peggy-yamaguchi/ |
Bernhard Goetz and the roots of Kyle Rittenhouse’s celebrity on the right
Why vigilante violence appeals politically
Perspective by Pia Beumer
Pia Beumer is a history PhD candidate at Erfurt University in Germany and currently a Fulbright grantee at Temple University, Philadelphia. Her research focuses on 20th century U.S. history, masculinity and armed self-defense.
Kyle Rittenhouse waves to cheering fans as he appears at a panel discussion at a Turning Point USA America Fest event on Dec. 20, 2021. (Ross D. Franklin/AP)
The celebrity treatment that conservatives are giving Kyle Rittenhouse, acquitted of all charges in the shooting deaths of two in Kenosha, Wis., in 2020, epitomizes the right’s long history of embracing vigilante violence. Rittenhouse has become a regular guest at events run by the conservative organization Turning Point USA, where he was most recently lionized as a desirable bachelor standing “strong in opposition from culture and evil.”
Vigilantes have long held such wide appeal to the right because they allow conservatives to stress their own victimization and cultivate a siege mentality, which rallies their troops to defeat political opponents. In the process, they dress racist arguments in a seemingly colorblind plea for armed self-defense. Nowhere was this clearer than in the 1984 case of Bernhard Goetz.
In the mid-to-late 1960s, many White Americans began to see liberals as the enemy. These voters were tired of rising crime rates, liberal courts that they believed let criminals off the hook and back onto the street, and a government that seemed indifferent to their own struggles in life. White men, especially, resented the liberal social transformations accomplished by the Black and women’s rights movements.
The state of cities contributed to this anger as crime increased, riots erupted and personal finances depleted during the late 1960s and 1970s.
New York City seemed to be at the epicenter of this urban decay. Faced with the two-headed monster of inflated social spending and dwindling local tax revenue and federal contributions, the city edged toward bankruptcy in 1975. Many conservatives blamed minorities, who they saw as undeserving and dependent on social services paid by their tax dollars. New York City’s failures, writes historian Kim Phillips-Fein, fueled “the antigovernment ethos that was already gaining momentum nationally during the 1970s.”
White Americans’ anger helped propel President Ronald Reagan into office, prevented ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and eventually spawned the war on drugs.
It was in this context that Goetz became a hero on the right. On Dec. 22, 1984, the 37-year-old White electronics engineer shot and severely injured four Black teenagers — Barry Allen, James Ramseur, Darrell Cabey and Troy Canty — on the New York City subway after one of them asked him for five dollars. With nowhere to escape, three of the four 18- to 19-year-olds were struck by Goetz’s Smith & Wesson .38. Goetz then approached Cabey, who was lying face down on the ground, and said, “You seem to be doing alright, here’s another,” before he fired his last shot into the teenager’s back, severing his spinal cord.
The shooting and trial hit a nerve with the White Americans who believed their safety and financial security were under siege. The perceived decrease of public safety, as well as the seemingly indifferent government, took center stage during Goetz’s trial and fanned his widespread support from the public.
After the shooting, Goetz fled New York — blind to the fact that within hours he would be hailed nationally by tabloids and a galvanized public as the “subway vigilante.” Nine days after the shooting, he turned himself in at a police station in Concord, N.H. With his lanky posture and mousy appearance, to many Goetz embodied the image of an abused White man who would not take it any longer. By taking matters into his own hands to maintain law and order, many argued, Goetz emerged as the embodiment of White American masculinity, who stood in stark contrast to the effeminate liberal state.
The way Goetz fit into this role transformed him into a popular hero, earning frequent comparisons to actor Charles Bronson’s character in the 1974 vigilante movie “Death Wish.” In the movie, New York City architect Paul Kersey avenges his wife’s murder and the rape of his daughter by killing villains to restore law and order.
The four teenagers, in turn, fell prey to racist assumptions about Black criminality — the very ideas that fueled the disastrous war on drugs in the ensuing years. Many Americans never really entertained the possibility that they might have been innocent victims. Conversely, many of Goetz’s supporters sympathized and identified with him on the basis of a shared sense of victimhood.
As fear of crime and victimization increased in the years leading up to the Goetz shooting, so too did enthusiasm for gun ownership. Americans found release in the rising number of neighborhood watch groups as well as the massive growth of the National Rifle Association.
Prosecutors charged Goetz with attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and firearm possession. He claimed self-defense and a majority-White and male jury acquitted him of all charges except illegal gun possession.
The trial opened the floodgates for a heated debate over the right of armed self-defense and vigilantism that, in the minds of many commentators, sprouted from racialized fears of crime. Conservative columnist Patrick Buchanan, a former speechwriter for President Richard M. Nixon who later became Reagan’s communications director, called the public support for Goetz “a sign of moral health.” By contrast, Les Payne, the Black editor of Newsday, pointed out that Goetz had “struck a blow for white manhood.”
The Reagan years had fueled a belief among many White men that liberal forces were neutering them and their power. They saw this attack as driving the decline of American society more broadly.
In a news conference two weeks after the shooting, Reagan broadly denounced vigilantism as the breakdown of civilization. Yet he also voiced compassion for those “who are constantly threatened by crime and feel that law and order is not particularly protecting them.” Americans should not blame the police for rising crime rates, the president believed, but rather a “judicial system that got overzealous in protecting the criminals’ rights and forgot about the victim.”
Similarly, Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) explained in a New York Times op-ed that support for the gunman was rooted in shared fears and frustration. “We are living in fear. We are the oppressed,” he sympathized. Instead of Goetz, he suggested, the four teenagers “who tried to harass him” should have stood trial.
Fanning public fears of violent crime while conjuring victimhood — with both concepts being deeply racialized — politicians such as D’Amato and Reagan created the fertile ground on which vigilante justice and violence could flourish.
This brand of rhetoric, with its dual emphasis on self-reliance and the sanctity of victims’ rights, encouraged White Americans to arm themselves as a strategy for assuming responsibility and compensating for a negligent state. By fueling the narrative that the state was failing Americans — while actively participating in slashing social programs — these politicians also found a way to successfully unite White Americans behind their cause of smaller, but more harshly punitive, government.
The right’s strategic embrace of colorblindness — promising the end of racial discrimination while eventually just covering up racial appeals behind seemingly race-neutral terms — prevented conservatives from blatantly cheering for Goetz. However, the New Right’s subtle victims’ rights rhetoric created a framework for vigilante violence and tough-on-crime politics that continue to resonate today.
When the then 17-year-old Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and wounded another during the protests in Kenosha in 2020, it didn’t take long for Republicans to laud him. Some members of the GOP offered him internships in Congress while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed Rittenhouse did “what we should want citizens to do in such a situation: step forward to defend the community against mob violence.”
Goetz and Rittenhouse emerged as political causes célèbres. Right-wing conservatives vehemently supported both men, even raising funds for their legal defenses. They’ve done so because they recognized that the narrative of the vigilante hero serves as a political strategy to appeal to White Americans. Empathizing with Whites’ perceived victimhood while endorsing armed self-defense creates a sense of unity between Republicans and their aggrieved base. This rhetoric channels that grievance into campaigns and policy battles as well as a shared sense of identity.
It also, however, fuels the very sentiments that fan the flames of vigilantism. Stoking gun enthusiasm among their base while opposing any restrictions on firearms, conservative politicians have contributed to the devastating epidemic of gun violence plaguing America, all in the name of political gain. | 2022-06-15T10:36:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Bernhard Goetz and the roots of Kyle Rittenhouse’s celebrity on the right - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/15/bernhard-goetz-roots-kyle-rittenhouses-celebrity-right/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/15/bernhard-goetz-roots-kyle-rittenhouses-celebrity-right/ |
The secessionist roots of the Jan. 6 insurrection
Southern secessionists in 1860 had similar arguments to those of the pro-Trump rioters who stormed the Capitol.
Perspective by Elizabeth R. Varon
Elizabeth R. Varon is Langbourne M. Williams professor of American history at the University of Virginia and author of "Armies of Deliverance: A New History of the Civil War."
A supporter of President Donald Trump holds a Confederate flag outside the Senate chamber after breaching the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 6, 2021. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
In an interview ahead of the House Jan. 6 Select Committee hearings, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), stressed the “extraordinary and unprecedented” nature of the 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. “You really have to go back to the Civil War to understand anything like it, but of course, there, you know, the Confederates never denied that Abraham Lincoln had actually won the election. They just wanted to secede from the Union.” Raskin is partially right — Southern secessionists emphasized the sway Lincoln’s antislavery Republican Party had over the Northern electorate as proof that the North was irredeemably radical and that disunion was a necessity.
But the story of Southern secession provides illuminating evidence that the Jan. 6 insurgency was, indeed, precedented, rooted in long-standing efforts to preempt, delegitimize and suppress Black voting.
Aware that roughly 90 percent of Black voters supported Joe Biden in 2020, former president Donald Trump tried, through his “Stop the Steal” movement, to invalidate and suppress votes in African American population centers; he maintained, in effect, that “Black people ha[d] no right to vote him out of office,” as Eugene Robinson succinctly put it. More than 150 years ago, Southern secessionists laid the groundwork for such arguments by maintaining that Blacks had no right to vote Lincoln into office.
Secessionists rallied White Southerners to their banner by warning that Republican rule would bring about a dystopia of racial equality, race war, race mixing, race competition — and Black voting. After the Republicans imposed emancipation, Southern Whites would be “degraded to a position of equality with free negroes,” forced to “stand side by side with them at the polls,” as Alabama secessionist Stephen F. Hale put it, in a frequently sounded alarm.
Moreover, secessionists argued that Lincoln’s election was constitutionally invalid because some Northern Black people had been permitted to exercise their franchise, voting for the Republican ticket in defiance of the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision (1857) that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens.
The most influential expression of this view was a speech by Georgia secessionist Thomas R.R. Cobb on Nov. 12, 1860, delivered just a few days after Lincoln won the electoral college on the strength of Northern votes. Cobb claimed that Lincoln’s election violated the “spirit of the Constitution.” “This Union was formed by white men,” he noted, “for the protection and happiness of their race.” The Founders did give each state the power to declare who should vote, but they assumed that only citizens — Whites — would exercise that power. “Yet to elect Abraham Lincoln, the right of suffrage was extended to free negroes in Vermont, Massachusetts, Ohio, New York and other Northern States, although the Supreme Court has declared them not to be citizens of this nation,” Cobb frothed. Alluding to the resistance and flight by enslaved people, Cobb intoned, “Our slaves are first stolen from our midst on underground Railroads, and then voted at Northern ballot-boxes to select rulers for you and me.”
This argument resonated widely across the South during the tumultuous secession winter and spring of 1860-1861, during which Deep South and then Upper South states left the Union and formed the Confederacy. Secessionists repeatedly claimed that there was massive voter fraud in Ohio where “fourteen thousand negroes” supposedly cast illicit ballots for Lincoln, augmented by additional “half breeds, mulattoes and all other branches of the negro race.” A Georgia paper put it even more succinctly a few weeks after the presidential contest: “It is stated upon good authority that negro votes in the State of Ohio carried the State for Lincoln.” The author demanded in the same breath that no one should be allowed to take a seat in Congress who was “elected by free negroes.”
The argument that Black votes had swung the presidential electoral results was false. African Americans made up less than 2 percent of the population in the free states in 1860 and their voting was sharply limited. Only in five states — Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont — could Black men vote without significant restrictions.
The hostility to Black suffrage was widespread. Northern Whites were the source of the rumor that 14,000 African American ballots were cast illegally for the Republicans. Absent any actual evidence, the rumor spread, appearing in articles by Northern and Southern Democrats alike that claimed that Ohio had fallen “under Negro rule.”
Northern Democrats used the story to discredit Republican candidates and warn against further enfranchisement of Black people. Southern secessionists went further still and argued that Black voting delegitimized the Union itself. To them, the prospect of Black participation, should the Republicans free and enfranchise the majorities of enslaved people in many Southern plantation districts, was an existential threat. “We are often asked if it is really true that 15,000 negroes voted for Lincoln in Ohio,” secessionist editors in South Carolina asked rhetorically, rounding the number of voters up for effect. “We have the plainest evidence in the world that they did,” they insisted, citing Northern Democratic press accounts. And so, they concluded: “It is time that the latent spark of manliness and pride in the Anglo-Saxon blood of the South should be kindled, so that it may wrap the Union in ruins.”
Of course, secessionists did not feel obliged to provide proof of the alleged illegality or corrupting effects of Black votes. It was enough to assert, as a meeting of voters in Jasper County, Ga., did in December 1860, that Lincoln’s ascendance had been “procured in part by a violation of the Elective franchise, in permitting negro suffrage.” This “contravention of the constitutional rights of Georgia and the South,” they resolved, was “just and sufficient” grounds for secession. A correspondent to the Charleston Courier, in the seedbed of disunion, pushed a similar argument. If Lincoln had been “elected by fraud, corruption and free negro votes,” the writer suggested, “no power on earth ought to be able to secure his inauguration, and the people have a right to say he is not their President.”
Broadly condemning the North for “progressive fanaticism,” secessionists in Washington County, Ga., insisted that Lincoln’s election was tantamount to “negro rule,” as they could see “no difference between the submission to a negro ruler and one elected by negro suffrage.”
The election deniers of 2020 need not be aware of this rather obscure history to be shaped by it. It is no coincidence that Confederate flags were conspicuous in the Jan. 6 mob or that the rioters were 95 percent White. Trump’s message to his followers on Jan. 6 — that “you’re the real people, you’re the people that built this nation” — echoes Thomas R.R. Cobb’s message that Union was “formed by white men … for the protection and happiness of their race.” The shared premise of these noxious claims is that White people’s citizenship, and their votes, count for more than Black people’s. Unless this centuries-old “big lie” is rebutted, Jan. 6 will serve as the precedent for future attacks on legitimate elections. | 2022-06-15T10:37:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The secessionist roots of the Jan. 6 insurrection - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/15/secessionist-roots-jan-6-insurrection/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/15/secessionist-roots-jan-6-insurrection/ |
Live updates:Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Ukraine takes painful losses in east to we...
The social divisions of Russia’s imperial age still hamper opposition today
Analysis by Tomila Lankina
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, tours a new exhibition in Moscow on June 9 dubbed “Peter the Great: The Birth of the Empire” and dedicated to the 350th anniversary of Czar Peter the Great's birth. (Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week praised Peter the Great’s expansionary goals, with a nod to Russian imperial nostalgia. The concept of restoring Russia’s imperial legacy has figured prominently in Putin’s justification for his war on Ukraine.
But the legacy of Russia’s imperial period is critical for Putin’s war effort in other ways, as well. Weighing how Russians view the war, Putin can count on societal divides that have been around since the Czarist era. These are divides that not even the Soviet regime, hard as it tried, could break down. And these divides explain Putin’s pro-war majority, but also help explain the stiff antiwar resistance among Russia’s urban intelligentsia.
What does history tell us?
Present-day social divisions in Russia go back to the Czarist era, which divided society into groups called sosloviya or “estates.” These social partitions survived the communist experiment and help explain why only a small minority of Russians are now in a position to challenge Putin and the war.
In Czarist Russia, most citizens were ascribed to an estate by birth, through service to the state, or through marriage — giving them different rights. Hereditary aristocrats and other nobles, who made up just 1.5 percent of the population, enjoyed rights superior to those of other groups. The next category of relatively free citizens, comprising 0.5 percent of the population, was the clergy. Residents of Russia’s towns and cities made up another roughly 11 percent of the population. Wealthy merchants were at the top of the urban hierarchy. There were also urbanites called meshchane who primarily engaged in small trades or occupied middling professions — and in practice remained poor.
Imperial Russia was a very unequal society. Those formally classed as peasants, nearly 80 percent of the population, remained at the very bottom of the social hierarchy. Serfs in particular were deprived of many rights of citizenship that others enjoyed, such as the right to own property and trade in towns, and access to credit — and exemption from corporal punishment.
Why these divisions continue to matter
On the eve of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, most peasants remained illiterate, and secondary schools were expensive and out of reach. While Russia embarked on progressive changes during the second-half of the 19th century that finally freed serfs — years after feudalism had ended in Europe — these improvements did not include universal public schooling.
As late as 1917, literacy statistics mirrored the hierarchy of the sosloviya. Among nobles, 90 percent were literate, as were 95 percent of Russia’s clergy. Of the merchants and other urbanites, 64 percent were literate. The literacy rate of Russian peasants stood at 32 percent. Schools training jurists, doctors, teachers and engineers continued to focus on educating the sons and daughters of aristocrats, the clergy and the urban bourgeoisie.
The myth of Soviet equality
Contrary to its propaganda, the Soviet Union preserved the deep divisions in Czarist society. The Soviet regime even inadvertently consolidated the chasm between the highly educated classes and illiterate peasantry by relying on those educated in the imperial period to advance toward the goal of rapid economic modernization.
When Joseph Stalin ordered a census in 1937, the results pertaining to demography and education, among other revelations, shocked Soviet leaders. After hectic discussions about falsifying the data, the Kremlin classified the census as “top secret.”
Widespread illiteracy — and the failure of Soviet education policy — was the big secret. For instance, the census revealed that nearly half of women ages 40 to 44 were illiterate; only 4.3 percent of the population had completed high school, and only 0.6 percent held a university degree.
The Soviets conserved czarist social divisions in other ways. Agricultural collectivization forced peasants to flee to cities in the 1930s. To stem the exodus, the Soviets imposed restrictions on population movement. In a form of neo-serfdom, collective farmworkers needed special permission to move to cities. Many joined the factory workforce when restrictions on movement eased in the 1960s but kept one foot in villages, much like seasonal peasant laborers did under the czars.
Even as urbanization soared, reaching 66 percent by 1990, demographer Anatoliy Vishnevskiy argues, “one could not contend that Soviet society became a solidly and overwhelmingly urban society.” Among those 60, only 15 to 17 percent had been born in cities.
It’s true that many peasants joined the ranks of white-collar employees during the Soviet period. But these new urbanites often attended un-prestigious teacher training or nursing colleges and joined low-paid occupations. Industrial and workplace dependencies made people vulnerable to political pressures to conform with the communist system.
These historical divisions explain patterns of support for Putin’s war in Ukraine
That political pressure still exists. Russia’s dynastic intelligentsia — that is, Russians who can trace their roots to more privileged estates during Czarist times — continue to colonize elite professions that give more autonomy. Meanwhile, Russians from villages and small towns have far fewer opportunities to gain upward mobility.
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Many join the public-sector workforce. Their reliance on government jobs, in turn, makes them less likely to challenge the regime, as political scientist Bryn Rosenfeld writes. And since the invasion of Ukraine, public employees have faced sharp pressures to conform and mobilize other Russians to support the war. This group has featured prominently in Putin’s pro-war rallies.
Enablers of autocracies hail from a variety of backgrounds. But Russian localities that before the 1917 Russian Revolution had a higher share of educated estates, and especially educated urbanites engaged in trades and occupying the modern professions, are more likely to feature active citizenry who also demand free media today, my research with Alexander Libman shows.
Thanks to these historical legacies, few Russians have both the professional autonomy to challenge the regime and the intellectual training to scrutinize the Kremlin’s false propaganda narratives. But as in Czarist times, a sizable minority of engaged citizens continues to challenge the war and autocracy, whether as emigres abroad, or risking their lives in Russia. These educated professionals, artists, writers and other intelligentsia are often the descendants of Russia’s educated estates.
Tomila Lankina is professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is the author of “The Estate Origins of Democracy in Russia: From Imperial Bourgeoisie to Post-Communist Middle Class” (Cambridge University Press, 2022). | 2022-06-15T10:37:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why don't more Russians question Putin's invasion of Ukraine? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/putins-iron-grip-russia-is-legacy-empire/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/putins-iron-grip-russia-is-legacy-empire/ |
Richard Sherman joins Amazon’s ‘Thursday Night Football’ studio team
“I’ve got something in the tank,” Richard Sherman said. “But right now I’m really excited and focused on this Amazon opportunity.” (Alex Brandon/AP)
As a player, Richard Sherman could walk the walk for the most part, and he could certainly talk the talk. It remains to be seen if the cornerback has walked away from the field, but he is set to put his gift of gab to good use.
Amazon announced Tuesday that the 34-year-old had agreed to become the latest member of its “Thursday Night Football” studio team. He will join Hall of Fame tight end Tony Gonzalez in providing analysis for the online platform’s pregame, halftime and postgame shows.
“I’m beyond excited to start this journey with Prime Video and be part of this incredible crew they are assembling,” Sherman said in a statement. “It’s going to be the start of something truly special.”
A five-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time all-pro honoree, Sherman was a fifth-round pick out of Stanford in 2011 who defied the odds by quickly emerging as a key cog in the Seattle Seahawks’ “Legion of Boom” secondary. After helping the team win a Super Bowl and go to another over seven years in Seattle, Sherman revived his career with the San Francisco 49ers before spending the 2021 season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
As for a possible return to the NFL, Sherman said Tuesday on NFL Network that he was “still leaving that door open as long as I can.”
“I’m obviously going to keep training and staying in shape, but you’ve got to take the opportunities when they’re there,” he said, “and this is an amazing opportunity with Amazon, so I couldn’t pass it up. But I’m going to leave that door open. If somebody wants to call in late December and needs some help, I’m happy to help.”
In the meantime, Sherman will add more star power to an on-air crew already studded with big names. Providing play-by-play during the games, to be exclusively streamed on Amazon Prime Video, will be Al Michaels. The 77-year-old sports broadcasting legend is coming over from NBC, with which he spent 16 seasons as the voice of “Sunday Night Football” and called 11 Super Bowls. Joining Michaels in the booth will be Kirk Herbstreit, an analyst associated with college football from his quarter-century with ESPN; he will remain with that network while also lending his talents to Amazon. (The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post.)
The presence of Herbstreit and, in particular, Michaels could lend some heft to the Thursday night games, which have long been viewed by many fans as marked by underwhelming matchups and uninspired play. The latter issue can be explained in part by the fact that teams have relatively little time to rest and prepare for them, a predicament memorably criticized in 2016 by none other than Sherman.
“It’s just an absolute poopfest,” the outspoken cornerback said then to reporters when his Seahawks had one such short turnaround. “It’s terrible. We played [Sunday], got home about 1 o’clock in the morning, something like that, on Monday and then you’ve got to play again [on Thursday].
“Congratulations, NFL, you did it again. But they have been doing it all season, so I guess we are the last ones to get the middle finger.”
Sherman, who served as the Seahawks’ player representative with the NFL Players Association that year, added at the time that the league was “hypocritical” for paying lip service to issues of player safety while putting “players in tremendous danger” by forcing them to play on Thursdays.
On Tuesday, Sherman acknowledged those misgivings while looking forward to his new role.
“Thursday nights have always been exciting,” he said (via NFL.com). “Obviously, I haven’t always been a fan of them, [but] I’m excited to call from this side.”
“I’ve got something in the tank,” Sherman added. “But right now I’m really excited and focused on this Amazon opportunity. It’s the first time you get to talk the game, get to feel the atmosphere. … I think the more informed and educated the fans are, the better the experience is.” | 2022-06-15T10:38:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Richard Sherman joins Amazon’s ‘Thursday Night Football’ studio team - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/richard-sherman-joins-amazons-thursday-night-football-studio-team/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/richard-sherman-joins-amazons-thursday-night-football-studio-team/ |
For Colombia’s candidates, WhatsApp mockery can be good publicity
Youthful, first-time campaign workers help run Colombian presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernández's social media operation in Bucaramanga. (Fernanda Pineda for The Washington Post)
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — The memes flood the group chats throughout the day. One politician gives a mischievous wink. Another slaps a city council member in the face. A third flounders in a debate; the text reads that he “inspires nothing.”
Stickers, the photos or animations that flash across the messaging service WhatsApp, have become the language of Colombia’s highly contentious elections this year. With a photo or video and a simple app, anyone can create and send one. And in a country where voters are fed up with politics and politicians, the stickers have become a cathartic way to mock the candidates and capture the most absurd moments in Colombia’s you-can’t-make-this-stuff-up presidential campaign.
On June 19, Colombians will vote in the final round of what has been an election cycle unlike any other, marked by violence, death threats against candidates, scandals and preemptive accusations of fraud. The choice is between two unusual candidates promising radical change. One, Sen. Gustavo Petro, is a former guerrilla who would be the country’s first leftist president. The other, businessman Rodolfo Hernández, is an unfiltered populist known for insulting his own employees.
“This campaign produces a lot of anxiety. It’s pulling families apart, it’s causing unnecessary tension in workplaces, in group chats, among friends,” said Sergio Guzmán, director of the consulting firm Colombia Risk Analysis and the creator of at least 300 political stickers. “We need something we can collectively make fun of.”
The stickers have become so popular that the campaigns themselves are embracing them, in some cases to mock their own candidates.
That’s especially true for Hernández, the 77-year-old former mayor who has claimed the title of “TikTok King” for his quirky, at times bizarre videos on the platform. His social media team is made up of mostly 20-somethings working on their first campaign, according to spokeswoman Luisa Fernanda Olejua.
One widely circulated sticker of Hernández, created by his own campaign, shows him mouthing the words “relocos, papi,” roughly “crazy, daddy.” Another shows him on a swing, saying “weee.” Others play off his tough, straight-talking personality — using vulgar slang from his home department of Santander.
(Video: The Washington Post)
Danny Miranda, creative director for Hernández’s campaign, said the TikToks and WhatsApp stickers cater to an audience that’s tired of traditional political messages and campaign rhetoric. They’re looking to have fun, to laugh, to see a candidate that doesn’t take himself so seriously.
But by sharing the videos and stickers of Hernández — even if they’re making fun of him — Colombians are giving him publicity.
“When the content gets back to us from an aunt or a relative, that’s when you know it worked,” Miranda said.
Cristina Vélez, director of the nonprofit Linterna Verde, which researches online public opinion, said the “meme-ification” of Hernández has drawn in people who would otherwise not be paying attention to politics. The stickers are a part of that strategy, one that could be replicated in political campaigns globally.
“It’s a new way to knock on the door of people who had the door shut,” Vélez said. “He says, ‘Look, I’ll entertain you — let me in.’”
The approach has forced other campaigns to do the same, though with less success. Petro’s campaign also makes stickers, but they look more like traditional campaign materials. Giovanny Abadía, a member of Petro’s communications team, said many are aimed at capturing Petro’s message of the “politics of love.”
For Guzmán, creating and sharing stickers has been a way to relieve the anxiety of analyzing a tense and unpredictable election cycle. But they’ve become so popular that he’s started making WhatsApp groups with hundreds of people solely to circulate them.
Some are simply photos and direct quotations from politicians, such as the time a right-wing senator was recorded saying “we either win the elections or we all go to crap." Others sound like something a politician might say, such as the stickers of Hernández smiling and telling a rival to shove his government program up his rectum.
There’s Petro appearing to pray in a church, despite having said he doesn’t practice Catholic rituals. “Pretend to pray, pretend to pray, pretend to pray,” the sticker says. There’s Hernández’s gun-trotting mother, 97, who speaks of having slapped her son until he bled and having fired shots at her husband during a fight. In the sticker, a photo taken for El Pais by Carlos Buitrago, she smiles as she aims her revolver toward the camera: “Values are taught in the home,” the text reads.
Over the weekend, a TikTok influencer released a video of a shirtless Hernández wearing sunglasses and a gold chain and cross around his neck. The video zooms in on his bare chest, then shows him walking with two younger women by his side to a 50 Cent song. (While the campaign did not share the video, it gave the TikTok user access to the candidate for the filming). Within hours, Guzmán had made a sticker of the cross on Hernández’s chest, with the words “Someone get me out of here.”
For Evelin Mosquera Ceballos, a 28-year-old lawyer from Cali, Guzmán’s stickers have kept her up-to-date on the latest shock or scandal. Each time she gets one, she searches the web for an explanation. It’s been both informative and entertaining in an election cycle in which she’s unhappy with both options for president. She says she’s supporting Petro because he’s the “least worst option.”
It’s a coping mechanism familiar to many Colombians: “You laugh so you don’t cry.”
On Wednesday night, Mosquera saw a video of Hernández’s wife standing next to him as he spoke to reporters. To combat the drug trade, Hernández suggested the government should just give drugs to people struggling with addiction.
The changing expression on Socorro Oliveros’s face mirrored the progression of emotions of many others watching: Surprise. Confusion. Exasperation. A blank stare.
Mosquera couldn’t resist. The next day, she created a sticker. | 2022-06-15T10:38:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Colombia election: WhatsApp stickers mock, support Petro, Rodolfo - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/colombia-election-whatsapp-stickers-rodolfo-petro/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/colombia-election-whatsapp-stickers-rodolfo-petro/ |
5 countries hit hard by the grain crisis in Ukraine
Russia’s war in Ukraine has raised global food prices, with developing countries bearing the brunt of the impact
The wreckage of a Russian missile sits in a wheat field near Soledar, eastern Ukraine, on June 6. (Bernat Armangue/AP)
Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports and the ripple effects of Western sanctions on Moscow have driven up global food prices, raised fears of looming grain shortages and exacerbated concerns about rising hunger around the world.
Ukraine and Russia produce about a third of the wheat traded in global markets, and about a quarter of the world’s barley, according to the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Exports from the two countries — which also include sunflower oil and corn to feed livestock — account for about 12 percent of total calories traded in the world.
The war could affect at least three wheat harvests in Ukraine, the country’s agriculture minister, Mykola Solskyi, said Tuesday in an interview with Reuters, with last year’s harvest still stuck at Black Sea ports and nowhere to store the incoming crops.
Ukraine’s wheat harvest, which feeds the world, can’t leave the country
U.S. and European officials have accused Russia of weaponizing food and called for the reopening of Ukraine’s ports. The crisis comes as climate disasters, conflict and economic strain from the coronavirus pandemic were already causing hunger to worsen in many countries, particularly in Africa and the Middle East.
The war in Ukraine could push up the number of people facing acute food insecurity by 47 million this year, according to the United Nations.
Some places are already feeling the effects of the grain crisis. Here are five countries to watch.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, depends heavily on imported grain. Wheat makes up a large portion of the diet, but only 1 percent of the wheat consumed annually is produced domestically.
About 43 percent of Nigerians live below the poverty line. Malnutrition and food insecurity have stunted the growth of more than a third of children under 5, according to government statistics from 2018.
The war in Ukraine has compounded other factors fueling hunger in Nigeria, including an insurgency in the northeast and a below-average rainfall forecast in the country’s Middle Belt and southern regions.
Nigeria was among a handful of nations ranked at the highest alert level in the latest U.N. “Hunger Hotspots” report. This year, the number of people in Nigeria included under the “emergency” category in the international food insecurity classification system is projected to reach nearly 1.2 million between June and August.
“Africa has no control over production or logistics chains and is totally at the mercy of the situation,” Senegalese President Macky Sall, chair of the African Union, said ahead of a trip to Russia this month to seek a resolution to the crisis.
Sall later warned in an interview with France 24 that famine could destabilize the continent.
Somalia and Ethiopia
Somalia and Ethiopia, located in the Horn of Africa, are dealing with a lethal intersection of climate change, conflict and rising food prices.
Along with Kenya, the countries are in the midst of their worst drought in four decades. The World Food Program warned that 20 million people in the region could go hungry because of drought by the end of the year.
49 million people face famine as Ukraine war, climate disasters intensify
Because of the “very severe climactic conditions,” countries in the Horn of Africa needed to import more food than usual this year, David Laborde, senior research fellow at IFPRI, said. But Somalia relies on Russia and Ukraine for more than 90 percent of its wheat imports.
Domestic conflicts are further complicating access to food. In Somalia, fighting between the government and al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants continues to drive displacement. In Ethiopia, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has been battling rebels from the northern Tigray region since 2020. More than 9 million people have required food aid because of the war, according to the United Nations, and hundreds of thousands were on the brink of famine during some periods.
The war in Ukraine contributed to a surge in food prices in Ethiopia this spring, with aid groups reporting a “massive shortage” of bread and oil.
Somalia and Ethiopia also fall under the United Nations’ highest alert category — Phase 5 of the Integrated Phase Classification — where some populations are “identified or projected to experience starvation or death.”
More than 80,000 people in Somalia could face these conditions this year, according to U.N. projections. Children are already dying of malnutrition, and nearly 2 million across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia need treatment urgently.
UNICEF, the U.N. children’s fund, has warned that the Ukraine conflict is hampering its ability to respond. The cost of therapeutic food the agency uses to treat children with severe acute malnutrition is expected to rise by 16 percent globally over the next six months, UNICEF’s deputy regional director for eastern and southern Africa, Rania Dagash, said this month.
The Middle East and North Africa region is particularly affected by the conflict because of its proximity to the Black Sea, Corinne Fleischer, the World Food Program’s regional director, told The Washington Post.
The coronavirus pandemic caused hunger in the region to rise by 25 percent. “We’re expecting another 10 to 12 percent rise, because those people who are at risk now get higher prices, and that’s going to make them dependent on receiving food aid,” she said.
Supply issues and high food prices caused by the war could be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back for many, many people in the region,” Fleischer said.
Egypt is the world’s largest importer of wheat. Russia and Ukraine together supplied more than 80 percent of the country’s wheat imports before the war, so it was immediately affected by supply disruptions.
Traditional “baladi” flatbread is the backbone of the Egyptian diet, and the government subsidizes bread for more than 70 million of Egypt’s approximately 102 million people.
Famine isn’t a concern in Egypt, Laborde said. Instead, worries revolve around the cost for the government to “maintain their social safety net programs and to avoid some kind of political instability,” he said.
High food prices were among the economic woes that contributed to the outbreak of the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions. And price increases affecting bread and other goods in Egypt in the 1970s sparked riots that prompted the government to quickly reverse course.
“Conflict drives hunger, and hunger feeds conflict,” Fleischer said.
To stave off discontent, the government has looked for new wheat suppliers, ordered Egyptian farmers to harvest their wheat ahead of schedule and sought funds from Saudi Arabia and the IMF to help bankroll its bread subsidies, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The government has kept bread subsidies in place but added stricter conditions for eligibility to curb spending. It also put limits on the amount vendors can charge for unsubsidized baladi bread, according to the Journal — so bakeries and bread sellers are bearing the brunt of the rising global wheat prices.
Tunisia among countries seeing major economic consequences from war in Ukraine
The World Food Program was already providing food for 13 million people in Yemen, where a long civil war has driven up food and fuel prices and caused a widespread hunger crisis.
Both his children were dying. Yemen’s crisis forced him to choose only one to save.
The agency typically buys half of the wheat for its global food assistance from Ukraine. At a time when more people around the world require aid, the cost of providing it has gone up, leaving the agency with significant budget shortfalls. WFP announced Tuesday that it was suspending part of its food aid in South Sudan after funding ran out.
“We’re now having to decide which children eat, which children don’t eat, which children live, which children die,” WFP Executive Director David Beasley told The Post last month. The program already had to cut food rations for 8 million people in Yemen before Russia invaded Ukraine. Now, Fleischer said, the agency fears that it will have to cut more.
As part of the Ukraine aid bill lawmakers passed in May, the United States allocated $5 billion to address global food shortages stemming from the war.
Still, for some people in countries vulnerable to famine and mired in conflict, the effects of the war in Ukraine could make the difference between life and death.
“You can survive up to the point where you cannot,” Laborde said. | 2022-06-15T11:10:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 5 countries hit hard by the Russia-Ukraine grain crisis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/ukraine-war-russia-grain-food-crisis-world-hunger/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/ukraine-war-russia-grain-food-crisis-world-hunger/ |
Umi is coming to the Howard Theatre. (Eddie Mandell)
Singer Tierra Umi Wilson — who performs as Umi — has already released three EPs’ worth of sensitive and contemplative new wave R&B songs. The Seattle native’s 2022 debut album, “Forest in the City,” is full of her honest lyrics, with vulnerable reflections and big picture realizations that sound like they’re coming from a seasoned pen. On “Sorry,” Umi apologizes for many things and many times to herself, singing such lines as, “I’m sorry I never trust my gut / I’m sorry I’m always runnin’ my mouth too much.” The song has a light-handed percussion, allowing her voice’s serene quality to have its moment. Wilson’s 2020 EP, “Introspection,” was a clear indication of what was to come from this burgeoning singer. On “Where I Wander,” she sings, “Open waters, open waters / where I wonder / clear the chakras, send me higher.” She’s calling for open-mindedness to make it through a fractured relationship. Wilson effortlessly goes from a more brisk cadence to hitting higher, sweeter notes — leading the way through the wreckage with her voice. June 18 at 8 p.m. at Howard Theatre, 620 T St. NW. thehowardtheatre.com. $60.
Ambar Lucid
Ambar Lucid opens her 2020 “Garden of Lucid” album with enticing, welcoming words that make listeners wonder what they’re getting into: “Welcome to the garden / please don’t be disheartened / once you perceive insincerity.” The 21-year-old New Jersey native, whose real name is Ambar Cruz, lives in the dreamier, moodier side of R&B. Much of her music could be a soundtrack to a movie that takes place in a dark green, mystical forest. “Questioning My Mind,” in which Cruz wonders how a relationship broke down, even features faraway bird chirps. On this song, like many others, Cruz slips seamlessly between English and Spanish. Cruz is not following a pre-drawn path when it comes to mixing languages in her music: She sings in Spanish in between English thoughts, words and sentences. “Fantasmas” starts off with a hearty guitar and Cruz’s dazzling voice pulled back and softer. Then the chorus hits and she puts the power back in her voice to sing the haunting line, “Mil fantasmas gritan en calma,” or “One thousand ghosts scream calmly.” June 20 at 7 p.m. at Songbyrd, 540 Penn St. NE. songbyrddc.com. $18-$20. Proof of vaccination required.
Arlie
Arlie is an indie pop band from Nashville that makes sunny pop songs that are still grounded in something real. The song “Poppin,” off its debut album “Break the Curse,” is a great example of what this band does best. It features a cheerful guitar and effortless drums that scream “summer jam.” Yet with lyrics like “you could crush me at any moment,” the song does that classic pop music thing of making someone’s misery something fun to dance to. The titular track leans more into the sincere, using slightly echoing vocals in the beginning to give a psychedelic feel. It’s a song about internal battle with such lyrics as, “But there’s only one way out / honest with myself somehow.” By the end of the song, the intense drums feel like the singer’s racing mind with a guitar rushing to catch up. It sounds like the chaos of knowing what your struggle is but still finding yourself stuck. June 21 at 8 p.m. at DC9, 1940 Ninth St NW. dc9.club. $15-$18. Proof of vaccination required.
Trumpeter Jaimie Branch and drummer Jason Nazary make up the jazzy, electroacoustic duo Anteloper. Along with their main instruments, Branch and Nazary bring in synths and sequencers to create their version of this free-flowing jazz. Their first album, “Kudu,” released in 2018, is only five songs, but at 49 minutes long, it offers plenty of time for the musical moments that linger, and Branch and Nazary each have time with their respective instruments to sink into the songs. Its nine-minute opener, “Oryx,” is anything but static as Branch’s trumpet rages in increments, taking small but impactful steps, as the drums play sporadically. All the while, analog-like synth sounds are sprinkled in. By the second half of the song, the drums have become vigorous while the horn takes a smoother ride to the melody. Their 2020 project “Tour Beats Vol. 1” follows the same path as their previous work. It’s much shorter this time, just four songs and 22 minutes long, but the duo still makes bold choices, wrapping EDM sensibilities with an acoustic foundation. Branch’s trumpet is fluttering echoes by the second half of the opener, “Bubble Under.” With the snares hopping, the horn eventually fades slowly out, sounding like a memory you are recalling by the end. June 21 at 7 p.m. at Rhizome DC, 6950 Maple St. NW. rhizomedc.org. $15-$20. Proof of vaccination required. | 2022-06-15T11:28:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 4 concerts to catch in D.C.: June 17-23 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/15/concerts-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/15/concerts-dc/ |
Scottish leader threatens independence vote, draws rebuke from Boris Johnson
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, right, and Green Party co-leader Patrick Harvie hold a news conference in Edinburgh on June 14 on a possible second referendum on Scottish independence. (Russell Cheyne/AFP/Getty Images)
LONDON — Nationalist lawmakers in Scotland have re-fired the starting gun on independence and set up a potential clash with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, saying they will make plans to hold another public referendum on breaking away from the United Kingdom.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon outlined proposals for a “refreshed case for independence” on Tuesday, launching the first of several policy papers that make the argument for the country’s devolved Parliament to hold a vote — possibly without the consent of the British government, which London says is legally required.
“Scotland under Westminster control is being held back,” Sturgeon told reporters. “For Scotland, independence will put the levers that determine success into our own hands.”
The last Scottish independence referendum was held in 2014, when the majority of Scots (55 percent) voted to stay in the U.K.
However, Sturgeon’s pro-independence Scottish National Party won a majority in Scotland’s Parliament in 2021 and rules with Green Party support.
“The people of Scotland elected a Scottish Parliament with a decisive majority in favor of both independence and the right to choose. The Scottish Parliament therefore has an indisputable democratic mandate, and we intend to honor that,” she told reporters in Edinburgh.
U.K. cancels flight to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda after court challenges
The United Kingdom’s divorce from the European Union has also been a game changer, Sturgeon argues. Scotland voted overwhelmingly against Brexit, 62 percent to 38 percent, during the 2016 vote, which she said left Scotland at a “critical juncture.”
The Scottish National Party has previously said it wants to hold a new vote on independence by the end of 2023.
Johnson staunchly opposes another referendum and said Tuesday that an independence “decision was taken by the Scottish people only a few years ago, in recent memory. I think we should respect that.”
He said all governments across the U.K. should focus on the cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing impact of the coronavirus pandemic, urging Sturgeon and other lawmakers to “focus on the things that people really want us to deal with.”
Why Britain’s plan to scrap part of the Brexit deal is so controversial
Sturgeon acknowledged that Johnson’s government would probably contest any effort by the Scottish Parliament to call for a binding referendum without a special order granted by Westminster, but she said that would not deter lawmakers.
“Democracy within the rule of law is how differences of political or constitutional opinion should always be resolved,” she said. “If we are to uphold democracy here in Scotland, we must forge a way forward. … However, we must do so in a lawful manner.”
Such a vote could break up the more than 300-year-old union between Scotland and England. Wales and Northern Ireland also have smaller, devolved parliaments within the U.K. They legislate on matters such as education and health care but rely on Westminster for most funding and other major functions, such as defense.
John Curtice, a leading Scottish pollster and a politics professor at the University of Strathclyde, told the BBC on Tuesday that opinion polls were basically “divided down the middle.”
“If you take the last half dozen polls, they on average point to Yes 48, No 52,” he said on the question of independence. “Both sides need to campaign, because at the moment neither side in the argument can be sure of winning.”
Some Scottish newspapers accused Sturgeon on Wednesday of bowing to pressure to “appease her political base,” while opposition lawmakers there called her announcement a distraction.
“The same old speech from Nicola Sturgeon,” said the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Anas Sarwar. “It’s her taking us back to the politics of the past, focusing on division and strife and trying to pit Scot versus Scot.” | 2022-06-15T11:37:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon proposes independence vote again - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/scotland-independence-referendum-nicola-sturgeon/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/scotland-independence-referendum-nicola-sturgeon/ |
Klay Thompson lookalike banned after fooling security at Warriors’ arena
YouTube prankster Dawson Gurley said he played basketball on the Warriors’ home court for about 10 minutes.
Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors dribbles during the third quarter of Game Two of the 2022 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics at Chase Center on June 05, 2022, in San Francisco. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Basketball superstar Klay Thompson arrived at San Francisco’s Chase Center arena Monday, breezed past security and started shooting baskets before that night’s NBA Finals Game 5.
On his way to the court, an employee encouraged Thompson about the upcoming contest, in which getting a W over the Boston Celtics would put Thompson and his fellow Golden State Warriors within one victory of winning their fourth championship in eight years.
“We got this,” Thompson responded.
All of that would have been unremarkable — except for the fact that the man who slipped past security wasn’t Klay Thompson.
Dawson Gurley, who’s achieved internet fame as “Fake Klay Thompson,” reprised his years-long shtick on Monday afternoon to infiltrate multiple layers of security at Chase Center and hoop it up on the Warriors’ home floor for about 10 minutes. Security then uncovered the subterfuge and kicked him out of the arena. The apparently successful stunt constitutes a major security breach of one of the most successful sports franchises in recent years, one that boasts some of the brightest stars in the sports world, including Thompson and Stephen Curry.
Gurley’s antics earned him indefinite bans from Chase Center and all future NBA games. In a letter, the Warriors’ vice president of security accused him of deliberately deceiving arena workers by pretending to be a Warriors employee. The letter said Gurley could also face criminal charges for trespassing.
Gurley did not respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post on Tuesday but said on Twitter that he wasn’t granting media interviews.
Although the Golden State Warriors did not respond to several messages from The Post, the team told SFGATE in a statement that someone “falsely impersonated a Warriors player in a deliberate attempt to access unauthorized areas within Chase Center. These actions have resulted in an indefinite ban from both Chase Center and Kaiser Permanente Arena,” in nearby Santa Cruz where the Warriors’ G League team plays its games.
Gurley, who’s 29 and 6-foot-4, has been impersonating Thompson for years. The Kansas native took up basketball at the age of 4 and played for the nationally ranked Olathe East Hawks in high school but ended his career when the only opportunity to continue it was at a community college, he told Bleacher Report for a 2017 article.
Instead, Gurley embarked on a career as YouTube prankster shortly after graduating, according to the Bleacher Report, and has steadily grown his account to about 8.2 million followers. Many of his videos document non-basketball related pranks in which Gurley, for example, gives people free Android phones in front of an Apple store or steals from fast food workers’ tip jars and then gives them $1,000 when they object.
But impersonating Thompson has been Gurley’s claim to fame, making him a Warriors fan favorite during the team’s previous championship runs in 2015, 2017 and 2018. He even got a shout-out from head coach Steve Kerr, who in 2017 told reporters that, when he caught a glimpse of Gurley, he thought, “Klay, you have a few extra burgers last night, what happened?”
On Tuesday, Gurley posted to his YouTube channel a video of his Game 5 escapade, which has been viewed more than 1.3 million times as of early Wednesday. It opens showing that Gurley entered Chase Center through a door marked “Media & Team Member Entrance.” He then put his water bottle and phone in a plastic bin and cleared a metal detector before cruising through a turnstile and past multiple security guards.
After winding through multiple hallways, he emerged on the court of the arena, which can seat more than 18,000 fans. In the video, he attacks the rim, drains jump shots and buries multiple three-pointers, the shot that earned Thompson a spot alongside Curry as one of the “Splash Brothers.” After an impressive shoot around, Gurley capped it off by somehow air balling a layup.
Then the video cuts to “The Day Before.” Clad in boxers and an NBA Finals hat, Gurley opened a hotel room door to let in a barber. Using a photo of Thompson on his cellphone, the barber sculpted Gurley’s facial hair to look like the basketball superstar, who ended up scoring 21 points on Monday to help the Warriors defeat the Celtics 104-94 and take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series.
At first, Gurley seemed to chafe at being barred from watching the Warriors play in person. He said on Twitter that he’d spent $10,000 on tickets that weren’t being refunded, all because of someone else’s failure to screen visitors. Gurley said he did everything security asked and never claimed to be Thompson, although he was waring a Warriors hoodie, basketball shorts, and a gold headband like the one Thompson usually sports. “Why should I be banned because their security is incompetent?”
Then, Gurley said he wasn’t mad and understood why the Warriors banished him. Was it worth it to lose $10,000 in tickets and get banned from Chase Center for life?
“Absolutely,” Gurley said on Twitter. “I was an NBA player for 10 minutes bro.”
After security escorted him out of the arena, Gurley roamed the outdoor sections of the Chase Center complex. As he was doing so, a man Gurley identified as the vice president of security served him with the ban letter. “Everybody loves your enthusiasm but you just can’t deceive other employees," the man tells Gurley.
At other times, fans stopped Gurley. Some thought he was Thompson. Others knew he was an impersonator. All wanted photos.
One woman, who thought he was Thompson, told him she was working at the Oakland hospital pediatric ward when he came to visit patients. She was one of the fans, if not the only fan, Gurley came clean to.
“Just so you know, I’m not actually Klay,” Gurley told her.
“You’re not?” the woman asked.
“I’m not.”
Then, a spark of recognition. “You’re the impersonator?”
“Yes,” Gurley said.
Without hesitation, she pushed ahead, undeterred.
“Well that doesn’t matter. Let’s do it,” she said, cozying up to Gurley for the photo she intended to take with a superstar.
“Oh my god,” she said, “this is awesome.” | 2022-06-15T11:45:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Klay Thompson impersonator sneaks into Chase Center - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/15/fake-klay-thompson/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/15/fake-klay-thompson/ |
If a recession is inevitable, here are some financial moves you can make to prepare
(Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters)
The stock market is taking investors on a roller-coaster ride with terrifying drops. Even if you haven’t looked lately, you know that the value of your retirement account is down. Cryptocurrencies are crashing, not surprisingly.
You remember the Great Recession and how harsh it was for so many. So telling you to “calm down” or that “this too shall pass” doesn’t address the anxiety you’re feeling about your financial well-being.
It’s okay that you don’t feel things are okay.
On average, recessions last 11 months, according to Lindsey Bell, chief markets and money strategist for Ally. The shortest recession on record is the 2020 pandemic-induced recession, which lasted just three months.
1. Don’t be afraid of a bear market. You may not even know what a bear market is but you’re primed to be petrified of one.
This week, the S&P 500 index slid into a bear market, which is defined as a 20 percent drop from a recent high.
Focus on companies that have strong balance sheets, strong cash flow, and products that consumers are using and need, he suggested.
“Health-care and consumer-staples companies have often done well in recessionary environments because people need their products regardless of the economic environment,” said Christine Benz, director of personal finance for Morningstar.
Although stocks are taking a beating right now, historically they recover well after a recession. If you don’t have exposure to stocks, you miss the eventual recovery.
In the long run, slow and steady stock-buying easily beats trying to time market dips, experts say
2. Don’t try to time the market. A lot of folks may want to get out of the stock market or reduce what they’re investing until things get better. That is the definition of trying to time the market. It’s impossible to know the best time to get out and when to jump back in.
“One of the things we always coach investors and advisers to do is when you’re in the throes of either a recession or in a bear market, you don’t want to make outsized allocation adjustments until the dust settles,” Saglimbene said. “If you’re properly diversified, you’re weathering the storm. The worst thing an investor could do right now is to try to time the market bottom.”
3. Get rid of your credit card debt. Now. “Job number one for anyone with a credit card is to pay off their balances as soon as possible,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree. “When a recession may be on the way and interest rates are rising rapidly, it’s even more important.”
One way to tackle the debt is to get a low-interest personal loan or sign up for a balance-transfer credit card. You can dig out of the debt a lot faster if you transfer high-interest debt to a credit card with a 0 percent rate.
Balance transfer credit cards can be a good deal — for some people
If you can’t qualify for a 0 percent credit card, call your current credit issuer and ask for an interest rate reduction, Schulz suggested. “About 70 percent of people who asked for one in the last year got one,” Schulz said. “But far too few people ask.”
4. Stockpile savings. Save while you have the extra money because a recession can quickly change your circumstances.
Younger workers may have more flexibility in their lifestyle to get a roommate — or two — or switch career paths to take advantage of new job opportunities. So their emergency reserves can run closer to that three to six months’ worth of living expenses recommendation, she said.
Here’s why it may be time to break up with your bank
5. Establish a backup to your emergency fund. In addition to having a recession rainy-day fund, Benz recommends figuring out where you might go for additional funds if you needed them in a pinch.
6. Don’t underestimate the power of having bonds in your retirement portfolio. Typically when stocks are down, bonds balance out your stock holdings. But bond prices have been hit as well.
“In other words, don’t throw them overboard because they’re not performing well right now,” she said. “They’re an essential portfolio ingredient, especially for people who are in or getting close to retirement.”
Stock markets are turbulent, again. Here’s what experts say you should and shouldn’t do.
7. Get a side gig. Many employers are begging for workers.
There are a record number of job openings, with the unemployment rate at 3.6 percent. The economy saw job gains in transportation, warehousing, leisure and hospitality, education, health services, and government, according to the Labor Department.
Even if you don’t need the money right now, it may be a good time to get a second job or find work in the gig economy to boost your income and savings. Now’s the time to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. | 2022-06-15T12:07:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How to protect yourself whether a recession is coming or not - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/7-tips-on-how-to-survive-a-recession/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/7-tips-on-how-to-survive-a-recession/ |
Bellevue is getting noticed for all the right reasons
The neighborhood, which straddles Southeast and Southwest Washington, is experiencing new development
By Nina Zafar
Bellevue, a neighborhood that straddles Southeast and Southwest Washington, is highly residential, with modest semi-detached homes. Many have large yards, which add to the quiet, suburban feel of the area. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
When D.C. residents think of Ward 8, Anacostia tends to come to mind first because of its storied history and thriving arts community. But near the Maryland border, at Ward 8′s southernmost tip, is another neighborhood called Bellevue. Though lesser known than Anacostia, the neighborhood, which straddles Southeast and Southwest Washington, is highly residential, with modest semi-detached homes. Many have large yards, which add to the quiet, suburban feel of the area.
Sheila Dunn moved to Bellevue as a child in 1980. She says there was a fair bit of crime and substance abuse problems in those early days. She recalls her father and other concerned citizens in the community banning together to protect the streets by forming an “orange hats” coalition. The volunteer group, whose members wore hard-to-miss orange hats, had an organic conception. In areas where drug dealers had set up shop on street corners, the members of the neighborhood watch armed with video cameras recorded the activity and mingled with the dealers. The drug activity moved farther away block by block until it was eventually driven out.
“They were fed up with these people endangering their kids. They virtually made this neighborhood what it is now,” Dunn says. “Growing up, I had a very safe childhood. We played outside, and there was no fear.”
In the same way that the “orange hats” were community advocates, that spirit of camaraderie trickled down to individual residents. Dunn says parents could feel safe letting their kids play together outside because there was always a set of eyes on them, even if it wasn’t the parents themselves.
“Neighbors knew each other and watched out for each other’s kids, too. If Mrs. Brown across the street saw you doing something you weren’t supposed to do, you best believe she’d say something to you, and then when you got home, your parents would get at you, too, because Mrs. Brown already told them what’s going on. That’s the kind of place Bellevue was and is.”
Monique Diop is an ANC commissioner for Bellevue. She had lived in the Fort Totten neighborhood before moving to Bellevue in 2014 because of rising rents in Northwest Washington. She says when she told people she was moving to Bellevue, they asked her why she’d ever move to Ward 8.
“I’m not a native Washingtonian, so for me, it was like, well, D.C. is D.C. It didn’t matter to me at all,” Diop says. “There are bad apples everywhere. My friends tell me about all the crime and other stuff happening in upper Northwest. When it comes down to it, this is a safe, nice place to live. There are a lot of people here working to make sure good things happen for this area.”
And good things are happening. The William O. Lockridge/Bellevue Neighborhood Library, an architectural centerpiece in the neighborhood, reopened in 2012 after a complete renovation. More recently, a Good Food Market opened in the center of Bellevue’s developing business corridor on South Capitol Street. The 225,000-square-foot development includes a Community of Hope primary-care clinic and 190 affordable and permanent supportive housing units.
“Good Food Markets was just the beginning of potential development opportunities in Ward 8 that will create more jobs for Washingtonians and improve food access. We want to continue to provide affordable housing that allows families to grow in place and complements the architecture and history of an already vibrant community,” John Falcicchio, deputy mayor for planning and economic development, wrote in an email.
According to the mayor’s office, two new housing complexes are in the works — The Flats at South Cap at 3836-3840 South Capitol St. and South Place Apartments at 3812 South Capitol St. Both buildings are in the underwriting phase, so a timeline for completion is not yet available.
Diop says residents have been waiting several years for much-needed renovations to the recreation center within Fort Greble Park. Located at Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Elmira Street SE, the Fort Greble Recreation Center includes a community garden, three basketball courts, a multisport court, a multipurpose athletic field, a playground and a splash pad. The Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) says that it has set aside $2 million in funding to modernize the existing center and that it is actively working with a design-build team on the project. Because the Department of General Services is in negotiations with the contractor, no timeline for completion is available. Additionally, in response to community demand for a dog park east of the river, $750,000 will fund the first dog park in Ward 8, at Oxon Run Park. Planning and design will begin after October this year.
Bald Eagle Recreation Center, also within Bellevue, offers a bevy of programs such as summer camps, boxing, cheer and dance, and activities for seniors. The DPR is in the planning stages of a $500,000 investment to improve the existing athletic field at Bald Eagle. The renovation will begin in November.
Living there: Bellevue is bound by Second and Xenia Street SW to the west, the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE and South Capitol Street to the north, First Street SE to the east and Joliet Street to the south. Two large green spaces, Fort Greble Park and Oxon Run Park, sit on the west and east sides of the neighborhood, respectively.
According to Chris Chambers, a real estate agent with The ONE Street Company, 20 homes have sold in Bellevue in the past six months. These range from a one-bedroom, one-bathroom condo for $42,000 to a five-bedroom, four-bathroom renovated rowhouse for $540,000. Four properties are for sale, which include a three-bedroom, two-bathroom townhouse offered at $479,900 and a two-bedroom, two-bathroom detached house offered at $579,500. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,200 per month.
Schools: Patterson and Leckie Elementary, Hart Middle, Ballou High.
Transportation: The closest Metro stations are Congress Heights, which is about two miles away, and Southern Avenue, which is also about two miles away. Both stations are on the Green Line. Several Metro bus lines serve the neighborhood. | 2022-06-15T12:07:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Neighborhood profile: Bellevue in Washington, D.C. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/where-we-live-bellevue/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/where-we-live-bellevue/ |
Conservationists are demanding the Forest Service drop its plans to log mature trees. The agency is plowing ahead.
Trees charred by a fire stand in the foreground of the North Sister and Middle Sister peaks in Melakwa in the Willamette National Forest near McKenzie Bridge, Ore., in 2017. (Andy Nelson/The Register-Guard/AP)
Not far from the town of McKenzie Bridge, Oregon, on the western slope of the Cascades, stand towering groves of trees that have survived more than a century of wind, fire, insects and disease. To Jerry Franklin, long-considered one of the foremost authorities on old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest, this landscape of mature Douglas-fir and western hemlock is thriving and, most significantly, removing ever-more carbon from the atmosphere.
That is not what the Forest Service sees. Too many trees in this corner of the Williamette National Forest are competing for water and sunlight, and some are dying, agency officials say.
Now, the service is preparing to auction off these woodlands as early as next year as part of a timber sale, called Flat Country, that targets nearly 4,500 acres. Conservation groups that have analyzed the project say the vast majority of the lumber the agency intends to cut would come from stands of trees ranging in age from 80 to 150 years old.
The agency’s plans present one of the earliest tests of the Biden administration’s commitment to protecting America’s older forests as part of its fight against climate change. Biden faces a choice of backing the Forest Service’s desire to hold the sale or siding with conservationists to demand a reappraisal of a controversial logging project.
Earlier this year, Biden signed an executive order directing the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to inventory mature and old-growth forests nationwide and to craft policies that protect them from wildfire and other threats. The order did not define an “old” forest or explicitly ban logging. But conservationists saw it as an indication that the administration was serious about preserving trees that play an essential role in forestalling the worst effects of climate change. They applauded the order and waited for the Forest Service to call off the sale.
That hasn’t happened. So far, the agency has shown no sign of backing down from plans first proposed under the Trump administration. Critics of the logging project are crying betrayal.
“It’s totally in opposition to what that executive order calls for,” Franklin said. “There is no ecological justification for what they’re doing.”
By his reckoning, the project would result in more older, natural forest being harvested than has been cut in western Oregon’s national forests in the last 15 years. Once logged, it could be decades before the forest regains the ability to store as much carbon as it holds today, he said. The area may also be susceptible to more extreme flooding, Franklin said, as without the trees’ massive canopy, snowfall will quickly melt.
But the Forest Service argues that it must hold the auctions to provide a steady supply of timber to sawmills and to meet its annual harvesting goals. In a document explaining their decision, agency officials wrote that the project would benefit the forest by reducing its density, giving remaining trees more room to grow.document explaining their decision, agency officials wrote that the project would benefit the forest by reducing its density, giving remaining trees more room to grow.
The president’s executive order “does not stop forestry activity,” Wade Muehlhof, a Forest Service spokesman, wrote in an email.
The White House has not made its position on the dispute clear, at least publicly. A spokesperson for the White House Council on Environmental Quality declined to say whether the Flat Country sale is allowed under Biden’s order.
Though there is no agreed-upon definition of mature or old-growth forests, there is scientific consensus on the importance of protecting older trees. As they age, trees become critical carbon sinks, meaning they absorb more carbon dioxide than they release into the atmosphere. Forests that reach the old-growth stage, a term often used to describe trees over 150 years old, collectively store billions of tons of carbon dioxide in their trunks, branches and roots.
Timber sales on national forests in the Pacific Northwest and northern California are more tightly regulated than anywhere else in the country because of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan. The truce reached between loggers and environmentalists during the Clinton administration stopped the extensive logging of old-growth forests that had ushered in the decline of the northern spotted owl. But as part of the compromise, the government agreed to set aside some forest land for logging. The Flat Country project is within that area.
Lawsuits and the threat of public backlash have, for years, made the Forest Service reluctant to log mature forests, which have many of the same characteristics as old-growth. After the compromise plan, the agency shifted its focus to thinning out the dense tree plantations that replaced natural forests lost to fire or clearcutting.
To its critics, Flat Country is a worrisome test case — a sign that the agency is displaying a new willingness to cut down older trees that are well on their way to becoming old-growth in the future.
But to the timber industry, this is what the Northwest Forest Plan intended.
“This is one of the first projects in about 25 years that implements the Northwest Forest Plan,” said Travis Joseph, president of the American Forest Resource Council, a timber industry group. “The Forest Service is allowed under the law to manage some acres for wood production and that’s what this project does."
“Our rejoinder has been, 'Well, just because the Northwest Forest Plan says you can, doesn’t mean you should,” said Susan Jane Brown, an attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center, a conservation group. “You’ve got the world-renowned experts on old-growth forests telling the agencies this is a bad idea.”
Franklin and Brown have walked through the woods targeted for cutting with Forest Service employees, pointing out its value as wildlife habitat. They and other advocates have urged the agency to drop all the trees over 80 years old from the project, reducing its footprint to just over 1,000 acres of younger forest. But the Forest Service rejected this proposal, noting that it would yield 14 million board feet of timber, a small fraction of the 102 million board feet it plans to harvest from the Willamette.
Franklin, who was involved in drafting the Northwest Forest Plan, said the agency has failed to consider the latest science on mature forests’ value as wildlife habitat and as a climate safety net.
“They really feel is this is the right thing to do, and more than that, it’s what the Northwest Forest Plan called for,” Franklin said. “Well, times have changed. And we’ve learned a lot more and we value these mature and old forests more than we did previously.”
In eastern Oregon, a different fight is unfolding between environmentalists and the Forest Service over the agency’s decision to end the so-called 21-inch rule.
This policy, which had been in place for more than two decades, barred loggers from felling trees more than 21 inches in diameter. The service revised the rule in the final days of the Trump administration, ending the prohibition and giving forest managers more leeway to decide which trees could be cut in eastern Oregon and Southeast Washington.
The new policy has divided environmentalists. Some, like Franklin, advocated for the change and see it as necessary to managing forests that have become overgrown, partly because of decades of federal policy that mandated extinguishing wildfires as soon as they started. Under the previous rule, forest managers complained that it was difficult to remove fire-prone species like Grand fir and White fir that grow quickly. Meanwhile, slower-growing but more fire-resistant trees like Ponderosa pines were vulnerable to being cut.
But others have condemned the decision. On Tuesday, six conservation groups sued the agency, alleging that it violated the National Environmental Protection Act and seeking to prevent it from using the new rule.
Jared Kennedy, interim director of the conservation group Greater Hells Canyon Council, which is a party to the lawsuit, said that while the 21-inch rule wasn’t perfect, it was an “enforceable standard." The Forest Service faces constant pressure from the timber industry to log the biggest, most commercially valuable trees, Kennedy said. Without the diameter limits, he worries that each regional forester will apply the guidelines differently, opening up the possibility of mature and old-growth trees being cut down.
“What we’re hearing now is the Forest Service saying, ‘Trust us,’" Kennedy said. “But we don’t have that history. We’ve seen them cut trees under the guise of them being diseased. We’ve seen long-established trees felled and removed. That trust has not been lived up to.”
In the middle of the current tug of war between the service and environmentalists are several logging and thinning projects planned under the new rule, most of which are still in the proposal stage. They include projects in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest, the Fremont-Winema National Forest and the Umatilla National Forest. | 2022-06-15T12:08:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Oregon logging project tests Biden's pledge to protect old trees - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/15/biden-logging-forests/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/15/biden-logging-forests/ |
Colin Greene, previously the acting director of the state's Rappahannock-Rapidan Health District, is now commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health. ( Culpeper Star-Exponent)
In five months on the job, Virginia’s chief public health official Colin Greene has rejected the state-recognized declaration that racism is a public health crisis and downplayed the role of racism in health disparities, leaving some fearful for their jobs.
The head of the office that helps vulnerable mothers and their babies said a run-in with Greene left her and her team traumatized, ashamed and uncertain the programs they shepherded through a pandemic could continue under the new administration. She said he gaslighted staffers and reduced one to tears.
Greene said he wants staff to be accountable for their work and, doubting the well-established link between structural racism and health disparities, plans to create an investigative unit within the department of health to “start fresh” on, for example, reasons for high rates of Black maternal and infant mortality.
His approach dovetails with efforts by the administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to reverse work done under governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat, to acknowledge and address all forms of racism, including rescinding policies intended to further diversity, equity and inclusion in schools.
Greene’s philosophical opposition to considering racism as a scientific variable in public health runs counter to a groundswell of experts embracing the need to confront root causes of health disparities, while the nation grapples with a legacy of racist policies.
Greene maintains that racism is a “politically charged” word that will alienate White people and undermine the state Department of Health’s mission to protect the health and well-being of all Virginians, about 40 percent of whom identify as something other than White.
“If you say racism, you’re blaming White people,” Greene said. “Enough of the world thinks that’s what you’re saying that you’ve lost a big piece of your audience. The fact that there are people teaching about Whiteness in schools in a very negative way doesn’t help.”
Flouting CDC, Youngkin health chief wants to help Virginia move on from covid
In a follow-up interview not long after the mass shooting in Uvalde, Tex., he expanded on his concerns. “It’s not just the word racism,” he said. “For example, when people use the term ‘gun violence,’ I have a problem with that one, too. … Gun violence is, frankly, a Democratic talking point. When you use that term, every Republican in the room is going to walk out,” he said.
Greene’s objections to frank talk of racism stretch back years before Youngkin picked him for the top job, to when he was a local health director in rural northwestern Virginia, documents obtained by The Washington Post through the state’s open records law show.
Racism in public health
Greene came to Richmond ready to enforce Youngkin’s order making mask mandates optional in schools and ready to refocus the agency on boosting vaccinations in rural Virginia, where rates lagged among a conservative, mostly White population.
A 63-year-old retired Army physician, Greene said his views on race were shaped in part by 30 years in the most diverse branch of the military, an institution the Associated Press reported last year leaves some servicemembers with no recourse for the discrimination they endure.
“While it was far from perfect, it was an organization where a person’s success was based on their dedication, their abilities and, quite honestly, the quality of their work and the content of their character.” he said.
Greene said as a local health director living on a farm in Loudoun County, that state coronavirus messaging should appeal to rural residents who were hit hard by the pandemic. Youngkin addressed the concern with an ad campaign and visits to Southwest Virginia.
It was not the first time Greene had questioned agency choices. In 2019, emails show, he received a staff-wide message from his predecessor, M. Norman Oliver, after a photo surfaced on then-governor Northam’s medical school yearbook page depicting a person in a Ku Klux Klan costume and a person in Blackface.
Read Oliver's memo to staff after blackface scandal
Oliver, who studied health inequities and the racial discrimination as a longtime professor at the University of Virginia, said the photo was especially offensive to African Americans and that healing requires “an open, frank, and honest discussion about racism.” His research showed a majority of White people and a number of African Americans “are implicitly, this is, unconsciously pro-white and anti-black,” he said.
In response, Greene emailed Oliver saying that as the leader of a large organization, he should know that his “apparent blanket condemnation of the white race,” was “extremely demoralizing to many on my staff.”
Read Greene's response to Oliver's memo
Greene added, “For those of us who try to give our best for you each day, it was a real slap in the face.”
In a recent interview, Greene expanded on his views, saying he associates the word racism with overt displays of violence, such as, “fire hoses, police dogs and Alabama sheriffs.”
Public health experts say acknowledging that systemic or structural racism exists is the first step to addressing systems that perpetuate health inequities.
“To not address it is a dereliction of duty for those of us who are committed to not just public health, but health care specifically,” Oliver said in a recent interview.
Regina Davis Moss, associate executive director of public health policy and practice for the American Public Health Association, noted that since the early 2000s, research by David R. Williams, a professor of public health and African and African American studies at Harvard University, has shown how discrimination harms health.
She also pointed to research that shows Black Americans’ health deteriorates more rapidly than other groups’ because they bear a heavier allostatic load, the cumulative wear and tear on the body in response to stressors, known as “weathering.” The effect impacts pregnancy outcomes as well as diabetes, heart disease, blood pressure and asthma, she said.
Greene said he has read about allostatic load, calling it “entirely subjective.”
Studies have also demonstrated a link between stress, such as the stress of daily discrimination, and degradation of telomeres, sequences of DNA at the end of chromosomes, Davis Moss said. Another study by the same lead researcher found Black women had shorter telomeres than White women, suggesting an environmental cause.
Yet as health commissioner, Greene said the department should not consider racism as a scientific metric. In his view, it can’t be measured the way, for example, poverty or food access can.
Greene in February directed staff to remove an online presentation of department priorities, including a desire to “Explore and eliminate drivers of structural and institutional racism within” the office that runs programs to improve maternal and child health.
He later apologized to Vanessa Walker Harris — director of that office, the Office of Family Health Services, and a Johns Hopkins-educated physician with whom he would later clash — for making the change while she was away, saying he was “practicing urgent damage control with a legislator.” Greene, through a spokeswoman, said he couldn’t recall the name of the lawmaker.
Greene complained to staff in April when the American Public Health Association’s annual awareness week for national public health, the 1915 brainchild of Booker T. Washington that started as National Negro Health Week, featured a day dedicated to understanding racism as a public health crisis.
“America’s been dealing with racism as long as I’ve been alive and it’ll continue dealing with it after I’m gone I suspect, so it’s not a crisis,” he said in an interview.
Greene replaced it with “I am public health,” a website celebrating the public health worker.
Read Greene 'standing firm' on National Public Health Week
He called the new campaign a “positive message, a message everyone can get on board with, a message that’s not going to get anyone angry or offended.”
At least 240 governments and agencies, including the Virginia General Assembly, have declared racism a public health crisis, according to a tracker maintained by the American Public Health Association.
Asked about Greene’s approach to the job, Youngkin said through a spokesperson that while racism exists in the health care system, he is focused on seeking “ways to improve health outcomes for all Virginians.”
Jatia Wrighten, a political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies race and state legislatures, said the language Greene uses is important.
“You take away racism and we really don’t have to consider what it means and the people who suffered because of it,” she said. “That is dangerous but also effective for someone with his type of power.”
A ‘tense’ meeting
Greene said he learned Black infants die at much higher rates than White infants when he was hired as a local health director in 2017 and received a report that showed 12.2 percent of Black infants per 1,000 live births died in 2013, compared to 5.2 percent of white infants. The Black infant mortality rate has improved somewhat since then, but the grim statistic drives the work of a team that gathered on March 17, in the agency’s Richmond headquarters.
Walker Harris convened the meeting to tell Greene about a federal grant that funds services for women, children and their families, but quickly realized they were at odds.
“The meeting was traumatic. It was tense and challenging,” she said during an hour-long interview in the same conference room where the meeting took place. She wore a pin that she said gives her strength: a mug shot of Rosa Parks taken in 1955, when Parks’s arrest triggered the Montgomery bus boycott.
Greene dismissed her team’s definitions of racism and questioned the well-established link between racism and negative health outcomes for Black mothers and their babies, Walker Harris said. When it was over, one staffer was crying.
“We acknowledge the impact of racism on health outcomes and that it’s important to do so to impact health disparities. It’s a factor along with many other factors,” she said in the interview.
Greene said in the meeting and later in interviews that he had not yet seen compelling evidence that racism was a factor in the poor health outcomes for Black mothers and their babies.
Asked if racism was behind the disparities, he said, “I don’t know that for sure. I will say that intuitively, in my gut, I suspect that it is. If you’re going to be intellectually honest, you don’t start with that assumption, you start with no assumptions and then you go back and look at causes and that’s what I want everyone to do. I want to start fresh on this.”
Before the meeting, Walker Harris shared with Greene six pages of citations on maternal health and maternal mortality, explaining reasons for the stark disparity in health outcomes.
Read Walker Harris's email to Greene
The first in the list, a 2020 article in the Journal of Women’s Health, argues that in addition to conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, social determinants of health should consider structural inequities, such as racism, “as a cause of inequities in maternal health outcomes, as many of the social and political structures and policies in the United States were born out of racism, classism, and gender oppression.”
In the meeting, Greene also raised the issue of sickle cell anemia — a genetic disorder related to one’s ancestry, not skin color — and suggested a genetic link to Black maternal mortality.
“The research is clear it’s not a genetic basis that is the cause of these disparities [for mothers and infants],” Walker Harris said in the interview. “I told him I would not participate in that false equivalence and his bringing up sickle cell in the conversation.”
Walker Harris said she was frustrated with his questioning and that by casting doubt on science that forms the basis of much of her and her team’s work, he was “gaslighting” them.
Greene agreed the March meeting was tense and said he did not know someone had cried.
“The only thing that really struck me was how angry Dr. Walker Harris appeared to be,” he said in one of three times he described her as “angry” during an hour-long interview, invoking a stereotype of Black women. (Greene later said he was not aware of the stereotype.)
Asked about this characterization, Walker Harris reiterated that she was frustrated, but said anger would have been a reasonable response that would not have undermined her work.
Later that day, Walker Harris sent Greene an email saying his “questioning of structural racism’s impact on health outcomes despite robust scientific, public health and social science literature was traumatic for our team.” She added, “ … your comments regarding focusing on measurable outcomes seemed to shame us and disregard the fact that our work is data driven … Altogether, we are fearful for our continued role at VDH and fearful for the work we’ve diligently stewarded even amidst a pandemic.”
Read Walker Harris's email exchange with Greene, including 'traumatic' meeting and apology
Less than an hour later, Greene wrote back and apologized.
“I knew this was going to be a difficult conversation, and I spent much time thinking and praying about how best to express my concerns … perhaps not enough time,” he said in the email.
In the interview, Greene added that agency employees must be prepared to “defend their work” because science is “never done.”
Walker Harris, who has worked in public health for Virginia since 2014 and Maryland before that, said she stayed on during the Youngkin administration because she relishes the opportunity to improve the lives of all Virginians and in particular those who have been marginalized.
“I was recently reminded that we overcome through the word of our testimony,” she said, quoting a Bible verse, “and so I think the telling of the story is important.” | 2022-06-15T12:08:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Glenn Youngkin's health chief doubts racial disparities in health care - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/racial-disparities-health-care-youngkin/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/racial-disparities-health-care-youngkin/ |
When burglars broke into presidential campaign headquarters — in 1928
The Barr Building, shown in 2022, was the site of a break-in at Republican National Committee headquarters in 1928. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)
The burglars broke into the headquarters of a presidential campaign in Washington, stole private papers and bugged the phones. The break-in was front-page news across the country.
Then, after the election, everyone forgot about it.
This obviously wasn’t the famous break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building that took place 50 years ago this June 17. That burglary set off the biggest political scandal in U.S. history, resulting in the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.
This one took place in late September 1928 at the Republican National Committee headquarters, in the new Barr Building in downtown D.C.
At the time, former Republican Commerce secretary Herbert Hoover and Democratic New York Gov. Alfred E. Smith were in a fierce race to succeed Calvin Coolidge as president.
Smith, aiming to be the first Catholic president, was the target of ruthless attacks on his religion. But it was a campaign of dirty tricks on both sides. On Oct. 4, the Washington Evening Star broke the story about the theft at the RNC offices.
“Valuable campaign correspondence and other confidential data are mysteriously missing from secret files” of the RNC, reported the Star, which played a role akin to The Washington Post during Watergate in bringing the scandal to public attention. “The Star learned today the desk and personal files of Harry J. Brown, assistant director of publicity for the Republican campaign, have been rifled on two different occasions. Correspondence and campaign matter regarded as of the highest importance to the Republican cause had disappeared from Brown's desk.”
The paper said “reports of the alleged thefts came to the Star from a reliable source.” This anonymous source, an early version of Watergate’s “Deep Throat,” further “declared that private detectives had been put on duty at night at the Republican headquarters.”
News services spread the story about the mysteriously missing papers across the country. “While the exact nature of the stolen documents was not disclosed,” United Press International reported, it was said some could be “very hurtful” to Smith’s campaign if the Republicans deployed them against the Democrat.
The next day, the Star followed up with a startling new development. “Reports that telephone wires have been tapped at the Republican national headquarters caused a new sensation here today,” the paper reported. Again relying on its “reliable source,” the paper continued, “The Star learned that wiremen reputedly of the telephone company, on three occasions have been called to investigate reported tapping of confidential wires leading into the Republican campaign sanctum.”
The break-in and bugging took place at GOP headquarters on the fourth floor of the 11-story Barr Building, which had opened in 1927 at 910 17th St. NW on Farragut Square, just over a mile from the Watergate. At the time, the Barr Building was noted for having the fastest elevators in the city.
Republican committee Chairman Hubert Work publicly dismissed the theft reports, joking only that “several of the elephant statues on my desk seem to have disappeared recently,” the Star reported. Hoover said all he knew about the “mystery of the missing campaign material” was what he read in the Star. “All I can say is that none of my correspondence is missing,” Hoover said with a laugh.
But the committee took the issue seriously, bringing in two private detectives to guard the offices at night, the Star reported. However, the paper wrote, officials failed to inform them or the building’s night watchman about each other. When the detectives tried to question the watchman, “the watchman, in quite strong language, demanded to know the identity of his inquisitors or he would do some arresting himself.”
Some of the missing papers, the Star reported, were said to be photostatic copies of posters from a “nonpartisan committee” being mailed in Pennsylvania asserting that Hoover, who belonged to a Quaker sect known as Hicksites, for religious reasons wouldn’t use force to defend the United States. The committee still had a copy of a related circular and turned it over to the U.S. Post Office Department for investigation into who was behind the mailings.
On Oct. 19, the Star reported that Postmaster General Harry S. New had suspended the postmaster in Lansford, Pa., and the local assistant postmaster — the postmaster’s sister-in-law — for violating postal regulations by mailing “thousands of alleged ‘whispering campaign’ circulars against Herbert Hoover.” The circulars had been delivered to the Lansford post office for mailing, New said, by the chauffeur of local Democratic Rep. Everett Kent.
“The circulars in question, The Star has learned, cast aspersions on the patriotism of Hoover because of his membership in the Quaker Church,” the paper reported. The pamphlets declared that during the Revolutionary War, “Hicksite Quakers drove their fatted cattle past the starving soldiers at Valley Forge and sold the beef to British soldiers, laughing at the plight of Washington’s men.” The documents stated that Smith “is a member of the Roman Catholic Church, whose young men did not hide behind the skirts of religion to avoid military service but fought for their country on the battlefields of France” during World War I. The Post reported that the circular was titled “The Beacon Light.”
New said investigators found that all of the circulars were being mailed from a single post office in Lansford. Hoover backers accused Democrats of a smear campaign. The scurrilous attack on Hoover’s religion, one Southern Hoover supporter said, was designed “to arouse in Governor Smith’s behalf the very religious intolerance his supporters are publicly denouncing so vigorously.”
With those disclosures, the story disappeared from the nation’s newspapers. Unlike the five Watergate burglars, the Barr Building intruders were never caught. Unlike Deep Throat, the Star’s informer was never revealed. Hoover won a resounding victory in November. Harry Brown’s name next appeared in the papers as president of Washington’s Gridiron Club as it roasted outgoing President Coolidge.
The Republican committee break-in served as a notable historical precedent to a scandal 44 years later. But it was no Watergate. | 2022-06-15T12:08:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Before Watergate, burglars broke into Republican campaign headquarters - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/15/herbert-hoover-campaign-burglary/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/15/herbert-hoover-campaign-burglary/ |
A school made girls wear skirts. A court ruled it unconstitutional.
At a North Carolina charter school, all students follow the same curriculum. But their gender-specific uniform requirements — pants for boys, and skirts, skorts or jumpers for girls — separate them in a way a federal court on Tuesday deemed unconstitutional.
The dress code at Charter Day School in Leland, N.C., can no longer be enforced, Senior Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan wrote in a majority opinion. The school founder’s claim that the uniform rules promote chivalry “based on the view that girls are ‘fragile vessels’ deserving of ‘gentle’ treatment by boys” was determined to be discriminating against female students in the 10-6 ruling by the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
“By implementing the skirts requirement based on blatant gender stereotypes about the ‘proper place’ for girls and women in society, [the school] has acted in clear violation of the Equal Protection Clause,” Keenan wrote in the opinion.
The decision followed a seven-year effort to end the school’s skirt requirement for female students.
In 2015, Keely Burks, then a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Charter Day School, launched a petition with her friends to change the uniform policy. They ultimately collected over 100 signatures, she wrote in 2016, but the document “was taken from us by a teacher and we never got it back.”
Around the same time, a kindergartner’s mother inquired about the requirement, which she considered to be discriminatory. The school’s founder, Baker A. Mitchell, responded to her email explaining that Charter Day School was “determined to preserve chivalry and respect among young women and men” and that there was a need to “restore, and then preserve, traditional regard for peers,” according to court documents.
Burks, the kindergartner and a fourth-grader later became plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in 2016 by the American Civil Liberties Union. They alleged in the suit that being forced to wear skirts prevented them from playing freely, moving actively and feeling as if their comfort was valued as much as that of male students.
“I hope that by challenging my school’s policy, I can help other girls who want to go to school without being stereotyped or who just want to play outside or sit in class without feeling uncomfortable,” Burks wrote at the time.
A lengthy court battle followed, in which decisions about the case volleyed between federal and state courts examining whether the dress code infringed upon female students’ rights.
“No, this is not 1821 or 1921. It’s 2021,” Keenan, the judge, wrote last summer. “Women serve in combat units of our armed forces. Women walk in space and contribute their talents at the International Space Station. Women serve on our country’s Supreme Court, in Congress, and, today, a woman is Vice President of the United States.”
To determine the skirt requirement’s constitutionality, the judges considered whether the charter school was a public entity. Charter Day School argued that it was a private entity and that the Constitution’s equal protection clause — which bans discrimination — didn’t apply.
But a majority of the federal appeals court ultimately disagreed. Since the charter school receives state funding, the judges wrote, it has to follow the same civil rights laws and protections as public schools, which are prohibited from mandating dress codes that are discriminatory or censor student expression.
Aaron Streett, a lawyer representing Charter Day School, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Post. However, Streett told the Associated Press that the school is evaluating next steps, adding that the court’s opinion “limits the ability of parents to choose the best education for their children.”
For the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the ruling was celebrated — even after some graduated from the K-8 institution.
“I’m glad the girls at Charter Day School will now be able to learn, move, and play on equal terms as the boys in school,” Bonnie Peltier, the mother of a former student involved in the case, said in a news release. “In 2022, girls shouldn’t have to decide between wearing something that makes them uncomfortable or missing classroom instruction time.” | 2022-06-15T12:08:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | N.C. school's skirt policy for girls struck down by court - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/15/north-carolina-dress-code-skirts/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/15/north-carolina-dress-code-skirts/ |
Can America ‘do big things’ again? Ask the regulators and lawyers.
President Biden and adviser Mitch Landrieu, who oversees the distribution of $1.2 trillion in infrastructure funding, in a White House meeting, April 29. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
He was lieutenant governor of a red state, Louisiana, 2004-2010, and mayor of a blue city, New Orleans, 2010-2018, and since November has been President Biden’s choice to oversee implementation of the infrastructure legislation. Landrieu became mayor with much post-Katrina reconstruction remaining to be done. And Biden knows that after the 2008-2009 recession, President Barack Obama concluded that the stimulus funding for “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects proved that “there’s no such thing”: His projects had to surmount nearly 200,000 environmental approvals. Lawyer-ready, not shovel-ready.
“Everything,” Landrieu acknowledges, “is a slog.” In his first six months on his current job, he pushed $110 billion “out the door.” About half of the $1.2 trillion will fund what most people think of as infrastructure — roads, bridges, airports, ports. The other half will fund infrastructure capaciously defined — expanded access to high-speed internet, cleaning the Great Lakes, the Everglades and other waters, installing 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations (about 10 percent of what will be needed, Landrieu says), etc.
Klein says Japan, Canada and Germany build a kilometer of rail for $170 million, $254 million and $287 million, respectively. The United States: $538 million. “The problem,” he says, “isn’t government. It’s our government … Government isn’t intrinsically inefficient. It has been made inefficient.” | 2022-06-15T12:09:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Can America ‘do big things’ again? Ask the regulators and lawyers. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/mitch-landrieu-infrastructure-spending-challenge/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/mitch-landrieu-infrastructure-spending-challenge/ |
(Mark Thomas/Illustration for The Washington Post)
Dads answer: What does it mean to be a man?
To mark this Father’s Day, we asked fathers and father figures to reflect on what it means to them to be a man. What do they want their children and grandchildren to understand about being a man in today’s world? How do they see manhood changing? How different is it to be a father today than it was for their fathers?
What follows are some of the insightful, eloquent and poignant answers we received. Happy Father’s Day to those who celebrate, and we’re wishing peace and comfort to those who feel a weight on this day. Mostly, thank you.
The following excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.
To my sons and grandsons, and to my male students:
You will hear a lot about strength. Some of this will be obvious and overt. Some will come through constant, powerful cultural messages. Much of this messaging will be silly and trivial, and some will be actively harmful.
Strength is required to be good, useful and trustworthy. That should be our constant goal. In that regard, strength will manifest mostly inside of you. It involves aligning your actions with a high moral code. It means fighting any trait or inclination that would lead you to hurt or harm another — ever, in any way. It involves fighting any trait or inclination that would harm you or keep you from your fullest potential.
Real strength involves owning your actions and choices. It means working to right your mistakes, to learn and grow. This requires constant strength, and it’s an ongoing challenge, a perpetual quest for the very strongest. Strength includes building the resources to care for and help others. A truly strong man can be fully trusted by anyone in any situation — at home, at work, at a social gathering, anywhere. Work hard to be consistently gentle and caring. In my mind, if you can earn, and be worthy of, a small child’s trust, then you will be well on your way to achieving real strength.
There is another term we use for the fullest, most evolved version of a strong man: a good one.
These forms of strength are often not visible, trendy or celebrated, but they will bring you peace and fulfillment. Each time you apply strength to being good, it will build muscles of the psyche and the soul that will allow your life to soar to joyful, meaningful heights.
— Braden Bell, 50, Ashland City, Tenn.
What does it mean to be a man? I don’t know. There! I said it.
Being a man who doesn’t know isn’t the norm. How am I to mansplain if I don’t know everything? Aren’t men supposed to have all the answers? What if my son asks a deep question? Surely I ought to have some winning, fatherly gold to impart.
I’m a fatherless father. I was raised by a single mom with six kids. There are things I don’t know about being a man. I make do.
Also, I’m a gay dad raising what seems to be a straight young man. Am I qualified? Yes, but I don’t know everything about being a straight young man.
I’m oddly at peace with not knowing. My son is maturing as planned. All is seemingly well. But there will always be things I don’t know, and I shouldn’t pretend to know them. I’m still a dad. That I know.
— Casey Cavalier, 55, Ashland, Ore.
For me, as a Black father, being a man means being a provider and role model for my three kids in a world that constantly portrays negative images of Black men, but especially of Black fathers. I’m a proud stay-at-home dad with a wonderful wife who fully supports my role in the home as I take on laundry duties, cook (I throw down in the kitchen) and complete other tasks typically associated with mothers.
Fatherhood to me is about providing emotional support to my children and being present at Little League games, in the classroom as a substitute teacher, at dance recitals, at PTA meetings and at bedtime to give a good-night kiss. It’s about being supportive, loving my kids unconditionally and hoping they learn from my mistakes, so they can be great parents if they one day choose to have their own children.
— Vernon Gibbs II, 44, New Milford, N.J.
As a stay-at-home dad for the past 14 years, I have learned that no one gets to decide what my masculinity means. That’s for me to decide, and every time my teen daughter comes home from school and wants to talk about her day with me, I know exactly what my masculinity means to me. It means being there for my family every day.
It’s this example that I want all three of my children to see as they make it through their teen years. It has taken me a long time to learn that, and as an at-home dad, I often get comments about what “real men” do. I can build your deck — and bake you a lemon tart. Neither one has anything to do with my masculinity. How I care for my family does.
— Shannon Carpenter, 47, Lee’s Summit, Mo.
I was raised with the belief that men were supposed to be strong. I don’t think it’s a bad idea, but today’s men best employ their strength when holding space for their loved ones to individuate. This means working on ourselves first and understanding our own limits. I believe men have denied themselves of their own mental health in the past while powering through as protector and provider. We have ignored our limits. Becoming better at setting our own boundaries and getting in touch with our own needs allows us to model healthy behaviors and hold space for our loved ones to be individuals.
As a father of a daughter with disabilities, I have found that detaching and creating space for my daughter to safely explore her own identity has required me to be stronger than I thought possible, with strength I found through therapy, group support and lots of heavy dead lifts.
— Peter Galligan, 44, Denver
The question is: What does it mean to be a (decent) human being?
Tradition has men as the breadwinners, but women are now in many positions and careers that were once only occupied by men. Tradition pegs women as the nurturers and educators of the young, but we desperately need to encourage those functions in men.
I belong to a “senior men’s group,” which meets weekly via Zoom. We come from many nations, faiths, kinds of work and points on the political spectrum. I can’t really see anything we’d have to do differently if senior women were admitted.
What virtue applies to only one sex? What vice is desirable on the other side of the gender divide? Suckling a baby can be done only by a woman, but anyone can hold a baby bottle, kiss a scraped knee, read a book or set an example.
Vive la différence? Hm, pourquoi?
— Alexander Patico, 75, Columbia, Md.
It should simply mean to be human and to treat others as such, but, given the reality we find ourselves in, it means having the power and responsibility to speak up for those who aren’t being heard.
— Michael Marshall, 36, Auburn, Mass.
I have two teenage sons. I hope they grow up to be good men. I try to teach them that a good man is deeply optimistic about the world, but when he sees trouble, he seeks the solution. A good man does all he can to support the people he loves. When he must choose sides, a good man chooses compassion and empathy. A good man knows when he’s wrong, apologizes and attempts to change. A good man knows right from wrong but looks for the potential for good in others. Most of all, I want my sons to know themselves and always remember that a good man treats all people with kindness and respect.
— Carter Gaddis, 53, Lutz, Fla.
Being a man in today’s world means providing not only for your family but also for society, knowing full well that you will not reap those benefits. It’s taking that extra deep breath in difficult times and choosing your words wisely when your instincts say to do anything but. It’s remembering that our mistakes don’t own us and that it is through those mistakes that we learn to improve ourselves and become better versions of ourselves. All of this while remembering that being a man is recognizing the significance of the women who made us and the women who lead us in life just as much.
— Alexander Ashworth, 34, Murfreesboro, Tenn.
I’ve been a father for more than two decades, I’m raising three young men, and yet I don’t naturally identify as a father. Why is that? Perhaps it’s because, in my childhood, I saw my father as the man who had mastered all the skills and knew all the answers. I’ve never felt that way. If anything, being a father has humbled me. It regularly reminds me of the limits of my abilities. I’ve been an educator longer than I’ve been a father, and I’ve learned that I can’t mold my boys like clay into the adults I want them to become. I can nudge them, I can support them and, most importantly, I can see them for who they are. But I’ll always question whether I’m making the best choices in support of their growth. Being a father is hard work that reminds me of what it means to be human.
— Christopher Kimberly, 49, Frederick, Md.
There is no one way to “be a man.” However, all ways ought to include showing emotion, admitting when you’re wrong, respecting others (especially women), asking for forgiveness and, if you have children, telling and showing them that you love them.
— Rob Williams, 37, St. Paul, Minn.
Being a man is providing emotional and physical security for your family.
It is having your family know that you are going to do everything in your power to protect their hearts, minds and bodies. Being a man is allowing yourself to be vulnerable, so your children see that vulnerability is safe. It is being alert and aware in your surroundings, so your family knows you are going to protect them. That is what being a man is to me.
— Kyle Lawrence, 36, Memphis | 2022-06-15T12:09:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dads answer this Father's Day: What does it mean to be a man? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/06/14/fathers-day-define-modern-manhood/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/06/14/fathers-day-define-modern-manhood/ |
Boris Johnson ripped up part of his Brexit deal with Europe
The ‘Northern Ireland Protocol’ was supposed to solve Brexit’s border issue
Analysis by Henry Farrell
An anti-Brexit group protests the arrival of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Northern Ireland on May 16. (Peter Nicholls/Reuters)
After months of speculation, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government has introduced legislation to the U.K. Parliament that would allow it to overturn key elements of the “Northern Ireland Protocol.” This protocol was a key part of Britain’s Brexit deal. It was supposed to prevent the return of a customs border between Northern Ireland, which was now no longer part of the European Union, and the Republic of Ireland, which still was a member. Northern Ireland unionists hated the Protocol, and many members of the Conservative Party didn’t like it either. Now, the Conservative government has granted itself the power to change the agreement unilaterally.
If the U.K. government uses its powers under the legislation, it will be taking some big political risks. First, it will set off a major fight with the European Union, which might retaliate with trade measures that would damage the U.K. economy, which is already reeling from global uncertainty and the costs of Brexit. Second, it will damage relations with the United States too. Members of Congress have made it clear that they will block a new trade deal, which the U.K. desperately wants, if it does anything to damage peace in Northern Ireland. So why did Johnson do it? Most likely, he wanted to shore up his shaky leadership of a divided political party.
The Northern Ireland Protocol was supposed to maintain peace
For decades, Northern Ireland was torn by violence and disputes between unionists, who want it to remain part of the U.K., and nationalists, who want it to join the Republic of Ireland. The E.U. helped bring about peace in the 1990s. Both the U.K. and Ireland were members of the E.U., which minimizes internal customs control and maintains a shared market for goods and services. They didn’t need to have customs controls on the politically contentious border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, making it less relevant and visible.
All that changed when the U.K. left the E.U. and decided (after internal controversy) to withdraw from the E.U.’s market arrangements too. Suddenly, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic became relevant again. New customs barriers might make the border a target for dissident nationalist paramilitaries.
That was the problem that the Northern Ireland Protocol was supposed to fix. After hard negotiations, Britain and the E.U. agreed that Northern Ireland would remain part of the E.U.’s market arrangements. That allowed free trade with the Republic, but at the cost of complicating economic relations between Northern Ireland and the U.K. Unionists — and some British Conservatives — were unhappy, because they believed that the deal created a new invisible border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
That led to further negotiations between the E.U. and U.K. and eventually an impasse. Now, after months of signaling, the U.K. government has introduced new legislation that would allow it to unilaterally get rid of the parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol that it doesn’t like. Johnson claims that the legislation is justified by an unexpected “genuinely exceptional situation.” However, members of the U.K. government have had trouble explaining what, if anything, has happened, that wasn’t expected when Britain signed the agreement.
The U.K. is taking an enormous risk
Johnson’s legislation carries a number of political risks. Dissident Conservatives have argued that the legislation is illegal under international law (there is evidence that one of the government’s most important legal advisers agrees with them). It also risks provoking a trade war with the E.U., which is a much bigger economy than the U.K., meaning that the U.K. is likely to come off worse in a fight.
Finally, both the White House and senior U.S. politicians have said they are unhappy with the U.K. initiative. That makes it much less likely that a proposed U.K.-U.S. trade deal will be completed and get through Congress. Advocates claimed that Brexit would allow the U.K. to strike its own, better trade deals outside the E.U. Now, the U.K.’s Brexit policy is making it harder rather than easier to reach an agreement.
So why is Johnson insisting on getting the legislation through? Few British observers believe his claimed focus on the political stability of Northern Ireland and unionist discontent. After all, he was perfectly willing to throw unionists overboard to reach the initial deal with the E.U.
Instead, most point to Johnson’s political difficulties with his own party. Johnson survived a recent attempt by dissident members of Parliament to depose him as Conservative leader, but only by 211 votes to 148. His leadership is badly damaged, and may be further dented if his party loses two forthcoming by elections.
The Northern Ireland Protocol and the E.U. are detested by many of the Conservative MPs whom he wants to keep on his side. Passing the legislation may help protect his leadership of the party in the short-term, even if it hurts the British economy in years to come.
The E.U. is delaying its response
The E.U. has indicated it will begin a legal action against the U.K. sometime this week. However, it is likely to hold off on direct retaliation for the moment. A battle with the E.U. might be just what Johnson wants, allowing him to blame Brussels for the U.K.’s poor economic situation. Furthermore, it is not clear that retaliation would push the U.K. to make a deal. Johnson is likely too politically weak to shepherd any compromise through Parliament. Nor is it clear that he and his government would be more willing to honor any commitments they made than they were when they negotiated the Protocol.
The coming months are likely to see further bitter words being exchanged, but no substantial change, while everyone waits to see what happens to Johnson. His political weakness led to this legislation, but it may also prevent a new deal from emerging: No one wants to make a deal with a prime minister with a doubtful political future, who has already reneged on one agreement. | 2022-06-15T12:09:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Boris Johnson wants to destroy the Northern Ireland protocol - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/boris-johnson-just-ripped-up-his-brexit-deal-with-europe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/boris-johnson-just-ripped-up-his-brexit-deal-with-europe/ |
How to know if you’re a people-pleaser and what to do about it
By Allyson Chiu
People-pleasing can be a problematic habit that negatively affects individuals and their relationships, experts say. (iStock)
For years, Natalie Lue prioritized working hard and being perceived as “good,” often putting other people ahead of herself. “It was as natural to me as breathing,” she said. “I prided myself on being there for everybody, trying to be the best, to do the best, to put in a lot of effort.”
But that all started to change in 2005. Lue was working too much, going through a breakup and grappling with a serious immune-system disease when the realization hit her: For all the effort she expended “trying to be good, how is it that I don’t feel good?”
“A lot of the time I didn’t like myself — I actually hated myself,” said Lue, a relationship expert based in Great Britain. “I really had this fear of saying no.” That year marked the beginning of her “big awakening” to what she and other experts say can be a problematic habit that tends to negatively impact individuals and their relationships: people-pleasing.
“People-pleasing is when we suppress and repress our own needs, desires, expectations, feelings and opinions to put others ahead of ourselves so that we can gain attention, affection, validation, approval and love,” said Lue, the author of the forthcoming book, “The Joy of Saying No.” “Or we do it to avoid conflict, criticism, additional stress, disappointments, loss, rejection and … abandonment.”
“You want to be compassionate to people. You want to be mindful of people. You want to be kind and generous to people,” said Akua K. Boateng, a psychotherapist in Philadelphia who specializes in relationships. But while acting this way will likely please other people, “you don’t have to orient your experience around the pleasing.”
Trying too hard to make other people happy can come at a cost, said Amy Morin, a clinical social worker and editor in chief of Verywell Mind. For example, if you spend all day worrying about everyone else’s problems you may not have enough mental energy left to focus on achieving your goals, she said. People-pleasers also tend to be overly focused on trying to fit in with those around them, and can “forget whether those behaviors even affect their goals or line up with their values.”
What’s more, it may be difficult to establish authentic and healthy relationships, Boateng said. “When you’re a people-pleaser, you’re not typically exposing any of the intimate things about who you are that allows you to feel known by a person,” she said. “You’re just so fixated on them and what they want that you lose yourself.”
Experts say that can cause anger and resentment, leading to outbursts or passive-aggressive behaviors. “You always know you’re a people-pleaser when you say those magic words: ‘After everything I’ve done for you,’” Lue said.
She likened people-pleasers to “pressure cookers.” If you’ve fallen into the habit of people-pleasing, it’s “a matter of when, not if, you’re going to eventually lose your temper or you’re going to break down or you’re going to experience burnout.”
Having this tendency, she said, “takes a toll on our emotional, mental, physical and spiritual well-being and even our financial well-being.”
Understanding the roots of people-pleasing behaviors
Although the term people-pleasing can “have a pejorative ring to it,” understanding that you’re part of a larger system is a critical phase in human development, said Sasha Heinz, a developmental psychologist and mind-set coach.
It’s good, for instance, for a teenager to engage in some prosocial behavior, or actions intended to help other people, Heinz said. “That actually is developmentally right on target, and that’s something that we should applaud in a teenager because that’s a kid who’s evolved” from an egocentric, self-centered perspective to recognize that their actions can impact others and what they do matters.
“But when it gets dysfunctional is in adulthood when you have adults that are still in that framework thinking, ‘I am defined based on how this person views me,’” she said.
People are also often “socialized and conditioned into people-pleasing,” Lue said. Women, in particular, have long been expected to suppress their own needs and cater to others, she added, while people in minority groups may face pressures to work hard, perform and be “the model minority.”
A people-pleaser might also be motivated by fears of abandonment or having unmet needs regarding connection, community or meaning in life, Boateng said. Additionally, these behaviors could stem from being scared that you’re “not good enough,” wanting to avoid conflict or not knowing “your own values well enough,” according to Morin.
“When people don’t really know who they are, they tend to just kind of become chameleons who want to blend in with everybody around them,” Morin said.
Recognizing the common signs
Many people-pleasers see their actions as being “kindhearted, good-natured, benevolent and all those things,” Lue said. “And it’s not that we’re not. However, people-pleasers do what are often good things, but for the wrong reasons.”
One way to distinguish between behaviors is to ask yourself whether you are doing something because it reflects your values of being generous or compassionate, or whether you are doing something because of other people’s expectations, Heinz said. “The hallmark of when you know it’s people-pleasing versus ‘I’m genuinely giving because I want to,’ is resentment.”
Feeling responsible for other people’s emotions
Breaking the habit
The first step toward changing people-pleasing behaviors is awareness, experts said. “It might be a blind spot for a lot of people,” Boateng said. Once you come to that awareness, you can:
Pay attention to your behavior and your needs. Try spending a week noticing what you’re saying yes, no or maybe to, and who or what might be sources of anxiety, overwhelm, stress and guilt, Lue said.
Consider asking people close to you for “honest feedback about how they experience you,” Boateng said. It may also be beneficial to work with a therapist “to bring things to the surface,” she added.
Teletherapy works, and it is vitally needed
Make small changes that test your assumptions. Don’t start by saying “no” to everything, Lue said. She also discourages trying your first “no” on someone you’re most afraid of telling “no,” such as a parent or partner.
Instead, try to say “no” or voice your opinion in situations with lower stakes, and observe the results. “We tend to, in our heads, build up these huge fears about what’s going to happen,” Morin said.
By finding small ways to change how you would typically behave, perhaps you’ll see that “you can have a disagreement with somebody or you can express your opinion and they don’t run away,” Morin said.
Learn to take a pause. When your default is agreeing or saying yes, it’s critical to take a pause before answering, Morin said. “We need to give ourselves just a moment to think, ‘Do I really want to do this? Do I really agree with it?’ ”
Expect the change to take time. “We need to give ourselves a bit of grace and have a bit of patience with ourselves,” Lue said, “and use recognition of where we have people-pleased to make a better decision next time.” | 2022-06-15T12:10:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Signs of a people-pleaser and how to stop being one - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/06/15/people-pleaser-personality-psychology/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/06/15/people-pleaser-personality-psychology/ |
Tokyo allows same-sex partnerships, but not as legal marriage
People march with rainbow-colored and heart-shaped posters and a banner during the Tokyo Rainbow Pride parade in Tokyo's Shibuya district, May 7, 2017. (Shizuo Kambayashi/AP)
TOKYO — The Tokyo metropolitan government on Wednesday adopted legislation recognizing same-sex partnerships, which would extend some rights that apply to married heterosexual couples — but falls short of approving same-sex unions as legal marriages.
Tokyo is now the ninth of 47 Japanese prefectures to make the change. The recognition has been very slow to be adopted nationwide, amid very gradual cultural acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Japan and throughout Asia.
Japan is the only country in the Group of Seven largest economies not to recognize same-sex marriages. Taiwan is the only Asian nation or territory to legalize them.
Japan’s failure to recognize same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, court rules
Still, the policy change is noteworthy in Japan’s largest prefecture of 14 million residents, and home to the nation’s capital. It also reflects the gradually changing attitudes toward the LGBT community. A poll by Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun last year found 65 percent of respondents supported same-sex marriage, up from 41 percent in 2015.
So far, 16 of 62 municipalities within Tokyo had already adopted the change, with the Shibuya district in 2015 becoming the first. The policy will now apply across the capital.
Activists called it a welcome first step, and noted that there is still a long way to go until they can enjoy full rights equal to heterosexual married couples.
“I feel that my identity is finally being recognized after 40 years," said Fumino Sugiyama, transgender activist and co-chair of Tokyo Rainbow Pride who serves as Shibuya’s LGBT adviser.
The change means that beginning in November, same-sex couples who register their partnership with their local government will have certain rights previously denied to them, including the right to live in public housing together and visit their partner in hospitals. They can register their partnership online without visiting an office, to stay anonymous, and also list their children in their registration.
These rights will now apply to partnerships of people 18 years and above, and at least one person must be living or commuting to Tokyo for work or school.
Social attitudes have kept many in the community largely invisible, fearing to come out to their loved ones or employers. Many in Japan’s LGBT community face discriminatory comments at work, surveys show.
“There will be more of a visibility in numbers and that hopefully will influence policy. Equality is marriage. Not this. But it’s a step," said Olivier Fabre, of Pride House Tokyo Legacy, which advocates for LGBT equality.
Last year, the Japanese national legislature declined to pass a law protecting LGBT people from discrimination, which advocates had hoped would come in time for the Tokyo Olympics, whose theme centered on diversity and inclusion.
In an interview Wednesday, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said she hopes that the Tokyo government’s decision lays the groundwork for lasting change. She said the metropolitan government’s efforts during the Tokyo Olympics last year helped accelerate the message for greater diversity in the city.
“I think the Tokyo Olympics pushed forward and promoted the idea of diversity and inclusion, both systematically, legally, and within the feelings of the people," she said.
Kan, who goes by the single-word name and was featured in the 2019 Netflix series “Queer Eye: We’re in Japan," married his boyfriend in London last year because they could not get married in Japan.
“We are waiting every day for a day when we can both live in Japan ... there are many like us who want to live in Japan, but many didn’t have the option and had to leave,” said Kan, who was visiting Tokyo with his husband in time for the change.
“I am really happy that the partnership system will be realized. Even if we ourselves think of ourselves as family, it’s important the system and the world around us to acknowledge that as well," he said.
A post shared by Kan (@kanyonce) | 2022-06-15T12:10:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tokyo recognizes same-sex partnerships, but gay marriage is not yet legalized in Japan - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/tokyo-same-sex-japan-lgbtq/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/tokyo-same-sex-japan-lgbtq/ |
Bill Gates of Microsoft introduces his company’s latest Web browser, Internet Explorer 4.0, in San Francisco on Sept. 30, 1997. (DWAYNE NEWTON/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The tech giant Microsoft has “retired” its Internet Explorer Web browser as of Wednesday. The ubiquitous blue and white “e,” sometimes featuring a gold band, will be disappearing from computers around the world, and the internet — at least some of it — is in mourning.
Many online grew nostalgic about the Web browser that was launched in 1995 and was dominant for many years during the days of dial-up internet. Others lamented its lack of speed and said good riddance.
The decision went into effect Wednesday but was announced by Microsoft in a memo last year. “The Internet Explorer 11 desktop application will be retired and go out of support on June 15, 2022, for certain versions of Windows 10,” the company said, adding separately that it will continue to support some forms of Explorer.
In its place will be “Microsoft Edge,” a browser launched in 2015, which it said was “a faster, more secure and more modern browsing experience than Internet Explorer.” It may be a comfort to some that “Microsoft Edge has Internet Explorer mode (‘IE mode’) built in, so you can access those legacy Internet Explorer-based websites and applications straight from Microsoft Edge,” the company said.
In Japan, business have warned that the change could cause headaches “for months” to come, Nikkei Asia reported, citing one Tokyo-based software developer that said it was inundated with requests for help from government agencies and financial institutions. The Japan Times also cited a poll that found 49 percent of 350 Japanese companies surveyed in March said they were still using Internet Explorer.
Amar Nadhir, Min Joo Kim and Michelle Ye Hee Lee contributed to this report. | 2022-06-15T12:51:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Internet Explorer has been 'retired' by Microsoft, ushering in the end of an era - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/internet-explorer-browser-microsoft-retired/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/15/internet-explorer-browser-microsoft-retired/ |
1 BOOK LOVERS (Berkley, $17). By Emily Henry. Two adversarial book professionals from New York keep running into each other during a small-town vacation.
7 THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN (Berkley, $17). By Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray. J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian hides her true racial identity as her stature rises in New York’s social scene.
9 PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION (Berkley, $16). By Emily Henry. Two college best friends who had a falling out reunite for one more vacation together.
10 CIRCE (Back Bay, $16.99). By Madeline Miller. This follow-up to “The Song of Achilles” is about the goddess who turns Odysseus’s men to swine.
5 THE BOMBER MAFIA (Back Bay, $18.99). By Malcolm Gladwell. How a strategy to reduce bloodshed with precision bombing in World War II was thwarted by military leaders.
6 EDUCATED (Random House, $18.99). By Tara Westover. A memoir by a woman from a survivalist family who earned a PhD at Cambridge.
8 THE RIDE OF HER LIFE (Ballantine, $18). By Elizabeth Letts. A woman with a terminal diagnosis rides across America on horseback.
10 INVISIBLE CHILD (Random House, $20). By Andrea Elliott. A journalist chronicles the life of a young woman who is caring for her siblings while living in poverty.
3 THE CATCHER IN THE RYE (Little, Brown, $9.99). By J.D. Salinger. The classic novel of teenage angst.
5 ANIMAL FARM (Signet, $9.99). By George Orwell. Animals stage a workers’ coup on a farm, then devolve into a totalitarian state, in this classic broadside against Stalinism.
8 THE HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (Del Rey, $7.99). By Douglas Adams. Just as Earth is demolished, mild-mannered Arthur Dent escapes to the galactic freeway.
10 LORD OF THE FLIES (Penguin, $11). By William Golding. The classic, unsettling tale of English schoolboys stranded on a deserted isle. | 2022-06-15T13:21:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Washington Post paperback bestsellers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/washington-post-paperback-bestsellers/2022/06/14/d3a5461a-ec0a-11ec-8881-ce66b991ccce_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/washington-post-paperback-bestsellers/2022/06/14/d3a5461a-ec0a-11ec-8881-ce66b991ccce_story.html |
Flasher reimagines its approach but keeps its punk spirit
Flasher will have a record release party at Comet Ping Pong on June 17. (Will Matsuda)
Flasher says the title track to the band’s new album, “Love Is Yours,” is all about the roller-coaster emotions of a long-term relationship, where conversations are full of “subtextual clues that offer the promise of reward if correctly decoded.”
When it was time to shoot a video for the song, guitarist Taylor Mulitz finally had the chance to bring to life an idea he’d been pitching for years: a short-form parody of the 2004 Nicolas Cage action film “National Treasure.” The video sees the song’s romantic treasure hunt as something literal, with clues hidden below packing-peanut snow and in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence.
Reminiscent of iconic spoofs such as the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage” and the Foo Fighters’ “Everlong,” the clip also gave the duo the chance to play dress-up, with drummer Emma Baker donning a wig, fake eyebrows and makeup to transform into the film’s star.
“Emma was such a good sport about it, like, no pushback whatsoever: ‘Yeah, I’ll be Nic Cage,’” Muiltz says.
“I think it’s good that I hadn’t really watched [the movie] recently before I agreed to it, because had I revisited it, I might not have gone along,” Baker says, laughing.
Portraying an actor grappling with the unbearable weight of massive talent isn’t the only new role Baker is embracing the days. When the band hits the road in support of the album, she’ll be stepping out from behind the kit to sing and play bass for the first time.
The band was forced to reimagine its modus operandi after the departure of bassist Daniel Saperstein, giving Baker the opportunity to step up her songwriting efforts. The resulting album is decidedly dancier and more mellow than their frantic, fuzzy debut, “Constant Image,” but still vital with the band’s DIY punk spirit.
“This time around, we just wanted to let it feel really intuitive,” Baker says. “There was a more natural flow and process to writing and recording these songs.”
From the archives: Flasher takes the lessons of D.C.’s punk past and charges into the future
Across 13 tracks, “Love Is Yours” toys with tempo and structure but stays focused on undeniable pop melodies, gentle vocal harmonies and lush layers of guitar, bass, synth and percussion that reveal themselves on repeat listenings.
There’s more room for reflection this time around, which could partially be a result of the album’s long gestation. After it was recorded in June 2020, the album was delayed for two years until it made sense to tour behind it. The extra time gave the pair time to experiment, refine the mix and get all the little, often-rushed elements of a record release right.
“It’s really nice that it’s finally going to be out in the world and we get to play it live,” Mulitz says. After the malaise and preoccupation of two years under a pandemic, “It finally feels like regaining a sense of self.”
June 17 at 10 p.m. at Comet Ping Pong, 5037 Connecticut Ave. NW. cometpingpong.com. $15. | 2022-06-15T13:21:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Flasher has a new record, "Love is Yours" - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/15/flasher-band-interview/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/15/flasher-band-interview/ |
A scene from Season 1 of "Squid Game," which became Netflix's most popular show ever. (Noh Juhan/Netflix)
Netflix’s hit drama “Squid Game” is being turned into a reality TV show, producers said Wednesday. Like in the series, 456 players will compete for a $4.56 million prize — although this time they won’t be killed if they lose a game.
Called “Squid Game: The Challenge,” the competition will be recorded in Britain early next year, and producers are calling on people to apply. Those selected will be taken on a “fascinating and unpredictable journey,” organizers said.
The scripted South Korean series shot to fame last year — becoming the Netflix’s most popular show ever — as millions tuned in to see debt-ridden people battle it out for a big cash prize by playing an array of childhood games at an undisclosed location. Those who lose are eliminated along the way.
There are some words and phrases that are easy for non-native speakers to miss while watching Netflix's “Squid Game.” (Video: Allie Caren, Michelle Lee/TWP)
“Real-life players will be immersed in the iconic Squid Game universe and will never know what’s coming next,” Netflix said, adding that participants would take part in a range of “heart-stopping” games.
"Win or lose, all players will leave unscathed,” reads a reassuring line on the application form, although participants are warned that the show will be an “ultimate test of character.”
The chilling show swiftly became a global phenomenon, sparking Halloween costumes, clothing, memes, merchandise and songs that sampled the words “red light … green light” — uttered by the show’s killer doll.
Dear ‘Squid Game’ fans, please stop calling the phone number shown in the series
Brandon Riegg, Netflix’s vice president of unscripted and documentary series, praised the “Squid Game” director and executive producer, Hwang Dong-hyuk, for creating a “captivating story.”
“We’re grateful for his support as we turn the fictional world into reality in this massive competition and social experiment,” Riegg said.
News of the game show came the same week Netflix confirmed that a second season of the drama is on the way and that Seong Gi-hun, the show’s main character, would return, along with other mysterious characters — although producers did not provide a release date. | 2022-06-15T13:21:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 'Squid Game: The Challenge' reality TV show coming to Netflix - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/06/15/squid-game-reality-competition-netflix/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/06/15/squid-game-reality-competition-netflix/ |
A “Sold” sign outside a new home under construction in Tucson, Arizona, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022. Sales of new U.S. homes retreated in January after a flurry of purchases at the end of 2021, indicating a jump in mortgage rates may be starting to restrain demand. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting provides the clearest sign yet that the central bank is treating inflation as a national emergency, with markets expecting a 0.75% interest-rate increase. But the Fed’s policy actions come at a hefty cost, particularly in the housing market.
With mortgage rates having breached 6%, the housing market is slowing. And while this might be an acceptable short-term price to pay in the fight against inflation, it’s going to create future supply-chain problems once inflation is under control and we’re ready for activity to pick up again.
The refinancing market is providing a glimpse of what’s to come. When mortgage rates are low, as they were from 2020 through the beginning of 2022, refinancings surge as homeowners take advantage of lower rates to secure a smaller monthly payment and take cash out of their homes. That process generates economic activity and jobs for people who assist in the transaction — loan officers, appraisers and closing attorneys — even software companies like DocuSign, as anyone who refinanced over the past couple years can attest.
But with mortgage rates north of 6%, refinancings have screeched to a halt, down more than 80% from the pandemic peak and now at their lowest level in over two decades.
This is leading to layoffs at companies operating in the mortgage sector, such as loanDepot, because there is simply not enough work to do.
Unfortunately, layoffs are spreading deeper through the housing industry. Real estate brokerage Compass said on Tuesday it was laying off 10% of its staff, followed by Redfin Corp., another brokerage, announcing job cuts as well.
There are a lot of layers to this new market. Mortgage rates below 3% didn’t make sense for the inflation and growth environment that we’ve had over the past year, and it’s possible we won’t see rates that low again. So to the extent housing and refinancing activity required sub-3% rates to be viable, it’s okay that those jobs are disappearing.
Additionally, it’s true that inflation is too high and demands a policy response, and the housing market was unsustainably hot, with home prices and mortgage rates combining to create extreme affordability challenges. So it makes sense to raise mortgage rates to help cool off both inflation and the housing market.
The concern comes when we realize there is a wave of tens of millions of millennials who will be looking to buy homes over the next decade. The housing market needs the construction of many more homes to meet that demand. If we’re already constraining economic activity so much that it’s leading to job losses, that will make it more difficult to ramp the machine back up after inflation is under control.
Those loan officers being laid off might get new jobs at banks or in other industries, and even if mortgage rates fall back to 4% in 2023 it will take lenders time to increase staffing levels to meet demand. That will keep mortgage rates higher than they otherwise would be, holding back a housing market boost that policy makers might be rooting for once inflation has been tamed.
And the same goes for other parts of the industry that are evaluating staffing levels right now in the face of sagging demand. We’ve seen how many goods need to be sourced to build a home — lumber, paint, windows, garage doors, appliances and so on. It’s no different for the labor needed for construction and to complete transactions between buyers and sellers.
Right now, inflation is arguably the first, second and third economic priority of the White House, Congress, Federal Reserve and the general public. If housing market activity in the summer of 2022 is a casualty along the way, so be it. But while higher mortgage rates and less panic buying might help relieve imbalances in the short term, it’s doing nothing to address the longer-term need for more homes. Which means that this cooling in the market now will probably make things worse in the future.
Welcome to Our Be-Careful-What-You-Wish-For Economy: Conor Sen | 2022-06-15T13:39:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Housing Market Cooldown Will Only Lead to More Dysfunction - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/housing-market-cooldown-will-only-lead-to-more-dysfunction/2022/06/15/e4ffe522-ecab-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/housing-market-cooldown-will-only-lead-to-more-dysfunction/2022/06/15/e4ffe522-ecab-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
FLORENCE, SC - MARCH 12: House of Representatives candidate Russell Fry speaks to a crowd during a rally with former U.S. President Donald Trump at the Florence Regional Airport on March 12, 2022 in Florence, South Carolina. The visit by Trump is his first rally in South Carolina since his election loss in 2020. (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images) (Photographer: Sean Rayford/Getty Images North America)
Former President Donald Trump finally had a good day in Republican primaries on Tuesday. Candidates that Trump endorsed won quite a few contested races, some with solid margins. In Nevada, Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Joe Lombardo beat the runner-up in a crowded field by about 20 percentage points, while Trump’s preferred Senate candidate, Adam Laxalt, cleared 50% of the vote, something that had mostly eluded his open-seat and challenger candidates this cycle. And Trump finally got a big one to brag about: In South Carolina, Trump-endorsed challenger Russell Fry trounced incumbent Representative Tom Rice, who had voted last year to impeach Trump and then defended that vote during his renomination campaign. Fry, too, cleared 50%, while Rice was held to only a quarter of the vote, giving Trump his revenge.If every primary had looked like these, Trump’s reputation for influence with Republican voters would be a lot stronger than it has been this year. The results this week looked good for him, no doubt.That said? One reason for his success on Tuesday was that Trump made safer picks, including in those Nevada contests. He also picked up a winner in another Nevada primary, for secretary of state, in another divided race where getting a bit more than a third of the vote was sufficient. I don’t know how much Trump’s backing mattered there, but the ideal setting for a big endorsement effect is in a primary election with lots of little-known candidates. Especially a down-ballot primary, which presumably had little media coverage. After all, there’s no question about whether most Republican voters like Trump — most voters like all their party’s politicians. So if the only thing that a voter knows about a bunch of candidates is Trump’s endorsement, it may have quite a bit of influence even if that voter isn’t seeking to help Trump. It may be only a case of some information beating none.And then back to South Carolina. While Trump did have one big win there, he also lost one, with incumbent Representative Nancy Mace of the state’s first congressional district defeating a Trump-backed challenger by about 8 percentage points. Of course, beating House incumbents in primaries isn’t easy, even in a redistricting year. Indeed, it’s perhaps of note that Mace received the same share of the vote — 53% — as the Trump-endorsed incumbent William Timmons, in the fourth district. I do wonder whether Rice, the defeated incumbent, may have been in as much trouble from a sour mood among voters as he was from breaking with Trump. Surging gas prices, high inflation and a persistent pandemic may be more of a factor in those contests than the former president.Of course, while that sour mood that may be a bit of a problem for Republican incumbents right now, it’s going to be a large problem for Democrats if it persists until November. Yesterday’s special election in south Texas to replace a resigning member of the House was unusually difficult to interpret, but it’s unlikely that Republican Mayra Flores would have flipped the seat with 51% of the vote if President Joe Biden was popular right now. The election was complicated by many factors; the seat, which had gone for Biden narrowly in 2020, is disappearing with redistricting, with the election on Tuesday only to pick someone to represent the old seat for the rest of this Congress. Because an incumbent Democrat will be shuffling over to run in the new seat — which is much better for the party than the current lines — the Democrats didn’t put a lot of effort into this contest, while Flores and the Republicans worked hard to set her up for a long-shot attempt at winning the new district in November. Still, at the very least, her victory is a reminder that if nothing changes, 2022 is apt to be a very good year indeed for Republicans.And one more thing? Nevada politics maven Jon Ralston tells us that the “GOP here is primed to nominate election deniers (or worse) for:U.S. Senate. LG. AG. SOS. Treasurer. And maybe one congressional district.” Trump or no Trump, the Republican Party is becoming a party that simply can’t accept defeat. And democracy is in trouble for as long as that’s the case. | 2022-06-15T13:39:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In Tuesday’s Primaries, a Big Day for Donald Trump - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/in-tuesdays-primaries-a-big-day-for-donald-trump/2022/06/15/ff25afa4-eca6-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/in-tuesdays-primaries-a-big-day-for-donald-trump/2022/06/15/ff25afa4-eca6-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
The number of Americans applying for Social Security Disability Insurance rose sharply during the 2000s, a phenomenon that appears to have been driven more by the job market — which was pretty weak for most of the decade, especially for those without college degrees — than by people’s health.
Lately, the job market has been quite strong, with the number and rate of job openings at all-time highs. Yet SSDI applications are (slowly) rising again, in their first sustained increase since 2009.
Social Security field offices were closed to visitors from March 2020 until this April, which the Social Security Administration said led to a decline in disability claims. So some of what we’re seeing is just catchup. But there is something else that might also be playing a role: the lingering effects of Covid-19 infections, aka Long Covid.
Given that you have to be unable to work for at least 12 months to qualify for Social Security disability and going on the program is a momentous step that effectively requires leaving the labor market, the still-new phenomenon that is Long Covid is probably not playing a big role (the Social Security Administration has said that only about 1% of recent claims mention Covid). Still, the turnaround in disability applications is at least not incompatible with a rise in long-term health problems related to the disease — and it turns out there are stronger signs of Long Covid in other employment-related data.
I started looking for them in part because I was dubious of some of the direct estimates of the scope of the phenomenon. With blood tests showing 58% of Americans infected with Covid-19 through February, studies finding that 10% or 25% or 30% or 37% or 55% of those with the disease develop long-term symptoms imply that 20 million to 100 million of us have Long Covid. An April attempt by the advocacy group Solve Long Covid Initiative to whittle that down to “disabling” cases still put the range at 7 million to 14 million, or 2.3% to 4.4% of US adults.
Given that labor-force-participation and employment rates in May were only about half a percentage point below where they were before the pandemic for prime-working-age adults (those aged 25 through 54), and above pre-pandemic levels for those aged 55 to 64, such estimates seem high. Still, dig a little deeper into the monthly Current Population Survey from which these statistics are derived and it is apparent that something new is ailing millions of Americans, even though many are staying on the job despite it.
The Census Bureau, which conducts the 60,000-household CPS on behalf of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, asks about disabilities as well as employment. The resulting estimate of the number of 16-and-older Americans with a disability is up by about two million since early 2020. It had been rising over the decade before then as the population aged, but not at nearly that fast a pace.
These two million additional disabled Americans are divided almost equally between people who are in the labor force (that is, they’re employed or actively looking for a job) and people who aren’t. Since the latter group make up the great majority of the disabled, the increase in disability among those in the labor force has been much sharper in percentage terms.
That dip in disability in spring 2020 was likely not for real: Survey response rates plummeted in the early months of the pandemic, with lower-income households seeing the biggest drop, skewing the results. What’s happened since spring 2021, though, has the look of being driven by actual changes in health status. More than a million additional Americans, representing a 19% increase from before the pandemic, are complaining of a disability while continuing to work.
What’s ailing them? The six questions that Census Bureau survey takers ask to determine disability are:
• Is anyone [in your household] deaf or does anyone have serious difficulty hearing?
• Is anyone blind or does anyone have serious difficulty seeing even when wearing glasses?
• Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does anyone have serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions?
• Does anyone have serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs?
• Does anyone have difficulty dressing or bathing?
• Because of a physical, mental, or emotional condition, does anyone have difficulty doing errands alone such as visiting a doctor’s office or shopping?
If the answer to one or more of those is yes, the person is counted as disabled. Here’s how the responses have changed over the course of the pandemic:
Having trouble concentrating, remembering or making decisions (I lopped off that last bit in the table to make it more readable) tracks well with the common Long Covid symptom known as “brain fog.” Fatigue and difficulty breathing, two other top Long Covid symptoms, are less directly addressed by the disability questions, although they might be reflected in difficulty doing errands alone and walking or climbing stairs. Hearing problems such as tinnitus have also been associated with Covid, although they aren’t near the top of the list of lingering symptoms.
The craziness of the past couple of years is another possible cause of all that brain fog, as well as of the kind of anxiety that might keep one from venturing out on errands. But another survey that the Census Bureau started conducting early in the pandemic points to a Covid connection.
Since January 2021, the online Household Pulse Survey has included a question about past Covid-19 diagnoses, and since April 2021 it has included questions similar to the first four disability queries in the CPS, albeit with multiple choice answers rather than yes-no. The percentage of respondents reporting severe problems remembering or concentrating has gone up both among those who’ve definitely had Covid and those who probably haven’t, but it’s higher and the rise has been steeper among the first group.
On the basis of the Household Pulse responses, the Census Bureau estimated that during the survey period of April 27 through May 9 of this year, 5.1 million Americans aged 18 and older had (1) a previous Covid-19 diagnosis and (2) severe difficulty with remembering or concentrating. A lot of those memory and concentration problems likely predated Covid, and big changes in response rates over time make it hard to compare estimates from the most recent Household Pulse surveys with those from spring 2021. But my back-of-the-envelope estimate(1) from the Household Pulse results is that overall about 2.2 million more US adults are complaining of severe brain-fog-like problems now than in spring 2021. The CPS-based estimate, recorded in the table above, is that there are 1.2 million more than before the pandemic.
Neither of those is 20 million, or even seven million, but it’s a lot of people and the number could keep growing. This accounting may also miss many who are suffering from fatigue, breathing or other Long Covid complaints not captured so well by the surveys. Neither the Household Pulse survey nor the CPS — including the set of pandemic-related questions added to it in May 2020 — addresses Long Covid much more directly than this. Even the Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes organized by economists Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis, which has focused on some important Covid-related topics that government surveys have not, has so far avoided health questions out of concern that, as Bloom put it in an email, they were “maybe too sensitive to include in the survey.”
Barrero, Bloom and Davis did conclude recently that what they called “Long Social Distancing,” prompted in part by concerns about catching Covid-19, is depressing the 16-and-older US labor-force participation rate by about 2.5 percentage points, which adds up to more than six million people. The Long Covid effect is probably smaller than that: In a January Brookings Institution report, jobs expert (and pizza-company executive) Katie Bach estimated on the basis of several studies that it was costing the US labor market about 1.6 million full-time equivalent workers, which seems to be in the same ballpark as what I found. That’s still enough to have an impact, especially at a time when available jobs are more plentiful than people looking for them — as Bach put, it’s equivalent to about 15% of all unfilled US jobs.
And discussing this purely in terms of how it has affected employment and labor-force participation is probably a mistake. My reading of the disability data is that the majority of people with Long Covid-like symptoms are still working, and I imagine that even most of those with debilitating cases would prefer not to check out of the labor force for good.
There do, however, seem to be a lot of Long Covid sufferers who could use some help. Which brings me back to Social Security Disability Insurance, a program that has long been criticized for disconnecting recipients from the labor market. In 2010, economists David Autor and Mark Duggan proposed a new approach that would offer:
• workplace accommodations, rehabilitation services, partial income support, and other services to workers who suffer work limitations, with the goal of enabling them to remain in employment;
• financial incentives to employers to accommodate workers who become disabled and minimize movements of workers from their payrolls onto the SSDI system
With encouragement from Congress, the Social Security Administration has been undertaking some experiments along these lines. Long Covid seems like good reason to speed up the process.
The Covid Era Has More Diabetes, Brain Fog: Raphael and Fazeli
Good Jobs Don’t Need Costly College Degrees Anymore: Conor Sen
Covid-19 Public Health Guidance Is Anyone’s Guess: Faye Flam
(1) The average share of those responding who reported severe difficulties remembering or concentrating was 5.86% in the first two Household Pulse surveys that asked the question in April and May 2021 and 6.74% in the most recent two, so I multiplied the 0.88-percentage-point increase by the Household Pulse 18-and-older population estimate of 252 million to get 2.2 million. | 2022-06-15T13:39:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Long Covid Is Showing Up in the Employment Data - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/long-covid-is-showing-up-in-the-employment-data/2022/06/15/82c3fd7e-eca3-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/long-covid-is-showing-up-in-the-employment-data/2022/06/15/82c3fd7e-eca3-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
Biden nominee would be first Latino on D.C. federal appeals court
The president has nominated Bradley Garcia, who works at the Justice Department, for a seat on the powerful Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
The E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington. (Susan Walsh/AP)
President Biden has nominated Bradley Garcia, a Department of Justice official, to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Should he be confirmed, he will be the first Latino on the powerful court.
Garcia, 35, clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan and for retired D.C. circuit judge Thomas Griffith; earlier this year he left a partnership in private appellate practice to work in the Office of Legal Counsel, a Justice Department office which advises the federal government.
Griffith, a George W. Bush appointee, said Garcia stood out among his clerks for his reserve and collegiality.
“He’s very humble,” Griffith said. “In discussions in chambers, he wouldn’t be the first one to speak; he wouldn’t even be the second. But then when he did speak, you could tell that he had been listening carefully to everyone, and it would be pretty powerful.”
Amir Ali, now executive director of the MacArthur Justice Center, sought Garcia’s help in 2019 representing a man seeking better mental health treatment in a Pennsylvania prison. A unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit sided with the prisoner.
“He really poured his heart and soul into representing this individual who had no means to hire a lawyer, let alone a lawyer of Brad’s pedigree,” said Ali, who attended law school with Garcia. “I like to think it will mean Brad will be the type of judge who leaves every litigant and lawyer leaving the court feeling that they’ve been heard, regardless of their means or place in society.”
If confirmed, Garcia would replace Judge Judith W. Rogers, a Clinton appointee who announced her intent to take senior status earlier this month.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund has repeatedly pressured Biden of to include more Latinos in his push for more diversity in the federal courts.
“The question is why does President Biden seem to believe Latinos are the only racial minority group that does not warrant, merit, or deserve such efforts to make a serious contribution to remedying historic underrepresentation,” the group wrote in May.
Biden has made three nominations to the D.C. circuit — two Black women and one Asian American. Ketanji Brown Jackson is now headed to the U.S. Supreme Court; Florence Pan and Michelle Childs, both district court judges, are awaiting Senate confirmation. | 2022-06-15T13:39:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden nominates Bradley Garcia to Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/dc-circuit-bradley-garcia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/dc-circuit-bradley-garcia/ |
The African American Civil War Memorial Museum will hold a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial’s “Spirit of Freedom” statue on June 20. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)
Last year, Congress voted to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. But Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in June 1865 when enslaved people in Texas learned they were free, 2 ½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, has long been celebrated in the Washington area, with events at museums and cultural centers and lower-key community gatherings in public parks.
Juneteenth is officially observed on June 20 this year, but festivities will be held throughout the weekend.
Live at the Library: Celebrate Juneteenth at the Library of Congress: The Library of Congress’s after-hours programming turns to Juneteenth this week, with a performance by the outstanding South Carolina band Ranky Tanky, whose Grammy-winning sound draws on funk, jazz and call-and-response gospel, all steeped in the Lowcountry’s Gullah culture. In addition to a preconcert discussion, the evening includes a display of Juneteenth- and emancipation-related items from the library’s collection, access to all exhibits, and drinks and snacks in the Great Hall. While admission to Live at the Library requires a free timed-entry pass, admission to the concert requires an additional ticket, which is also free. 5 to 8 p.m. loc.gov/events. Free.
Juneteenth weekend in the city of Bowie: A three-day celebration begins with a screening of “Hidden Figures” on Friday night at Allen Pond Park. Saturday’s Juneteenth Jubilee at Allen Pond Park, presented by the Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts, incorporates dance, poetry, live music and African drumming. The series wraps up Sunday with a morning bike ride; a Father’s Day afternoon party with music, vendors, games, a moon bounce and food; and a sunset concert starring the Proverbs reggae band. All events are free; the bike ride requires advance registration. cityofbowie.org/juneteenth.
Juneteenth: Journey to Freedom at BlackRock Center for the Arts: Montgomery County’s 25th annual Juneteenth celebration is a 12-hour, family-friendly festival that covers all the bases, from modern dance performances to a historical display from the Sandy Spring Slave Museum. Live music includes jazz and Caribbean ensembles, go-go legends Rare Essence, and an Earth, Wind and Fire tribute band. A section for film and poetry features screenings of “Black Panther” and “Soul.” There are games, food trucks, vendors, books and craft activities, plus a “Trail of Knowledge” passport for families to complete. 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. blackrockcenter.org. Free.
Annapolis Juneteenth Celebration: In 2021, the inaugural Juneteenth parade through Annapolis involved more than 2,000 participants, including floats, school marching bands and dancers. This year, organizers are planning to go even bigger. The parade sets off from the City Dock, passing the Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial, and ends at the Bates Athletic Complex on Spa Road. The festival, which begins at 2 p.m., includes two stages of entertainment: One focuses on R&B, headlined by the Chuck Brown Band and Avery Sunshine, and the Gospel Stage includes Pastor Mike Jr. and Beverly Crawford, backed by the Juneteenth Choir. The day ends with fireworks. Parking is available at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, with free shuttles to the festival. Noon to 9 p.m. theannapolisjuneteenth.org. Free.
Juneteenth at Watkins Regional Park: Organized by the Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation, this party includes music from Kindred the Family Soul, Sugar Bear and E.U., and a tribute to Maze; dance performances by Dance Place and the Taratibu Youth Association; art and history displays; poetry; arts and crafts activities; vendors; and a scavenger hunt. Noon to 5 p.m. pgparks.com/Juneteenth. Free.
Juneteenth Celebration at Frying Pan Farm Park: The Fairfax County park, which depicts farm life in the early 20th century, marks Juneteenth with storytellers, live music, crafts and food trucks. Reservations are required, and the 11 a.m. time slot is already full. 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. fairfaxcounty.gov/parks. Free.
Juneteenth at the National Archives: The two most important documents relating to Juneteenth are the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that, as of Jan. 1, 1863, “all persons held as slaves” with the Confederate States of America “are, and henceforward shall be free,” and General Order No. 3, issued by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger in Galveston, Tex., on June 19, 1865, which announced, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.” The National Archives holds original copies of both and is putting them on display from June 18 to 20, with the museum staying open until 7 p.m. all three days. A special family day on Saturday features arts and crafts and other activities from 1 to 3 p.m., while an online program Friday at 7 p.m. includes a discussion with historians and live music. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. archives.gov. Free.
‘Juneteenth: A Time of Reflection and Rejoicing’ in Alexandria: Alexandria’s Juneteenth celebrations take place over three days. Saturday is reserved for the little ones, with a story time for ages 3 to 6 at the Charles Beatley Jr. Central Library, followed by a Juneteenth Jubilee with songs, stories and activities from the engaging children’s entertainer Culture Queen. On Sunday afternoon, the Jubilee Voices perform African American spirituals and folk songs and tell stories of freedom and the Underground Railroad at the city’s Market Square. Monday brings the grand opening of the Freedom House Museum on Duke Street. Once the headquarters of the country’s largest slave traders and later a Civil War prison, the National Historic Landmark was purchased by Alexandria in 2020 and now houses three floors of exhibits examining Black history in Virginia and America. The museum is open from 1 to 5:30 p.m., with an opening ceremony at 6 p.m. at the nearby Shiloh Baptist Worship Center. alexandriava.gov/Museums. Admission to most events is free; museum entry $5 for adults, $3 for ages 5 to 12, and free for Alexandria residents.
‘Liberty Amendments’ celebration: The town of Vienna is once again using Juneteenth as the beginning of a month-long celebration of the 13th, 14th, 15th and 19th Amendments, which it refers to as the “liberty amendments.” The commemoration of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, runs from June 18-25 and includes an exhibit at the Freeman Store and Museum and self-guided walking tours of historic African American sites. A kickoff event Saturday includes African dancing and drumming; an Earth, Wind and Fire cover band; and a car show. Tuesday brings a story time, and Wednesday features a talk with local blues musician Daryl Davis, who has written a book about his efforts to discuss race with members of the Ku Klux Klan. The week ends with a festival on the town green with kids’ performers, games and activities. Locations and times vary. viennava.gov. Free.
Juneteenth Community Day at the National Museum of African American History and Culture: The African American Museum on the Mall is an obvious place to celebrate Juneteenth, but it’s going to be tough to do so in person if you haven’t already made plans. The museum’s free entry tickets are claimed a month in advance, so the only option is to log on at 8:15 a.m. and try to grab a limited number of same-day passes. Those who are successful can see the original copy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech from the 1963 March on Washington (on display in the “A Changing America” exhibition) as well as living history experiences explaining Juneteenth and the United States Colored Troops, plus family arts and crafts activities. A performance by New Orleans jazz artists Alphonso Horne and the Gotham Kings will be held in the Oprah Winfrey Theater at 3 p.m. — free, but reservations are required — and will be streamed online through the museum’s website for those who didn’t get tickets. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. nmaahc.si.edu. Free.
Celebration of Juneteenth at the African-American Civil War Memorial: The African American Civil War Memorial Museum holds a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial’s “Spirit of Freedom” statue, followed by a living history program on the plaza. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. afroamcivilwar.org. Free. | 2022-06-15T13:39:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Juneteenth festivals, concerts, family celebrations and other events in the Washington, D.C., area - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/juneteenth-celebrations-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/juneteenth-celebrations-dc/ |
David Ignatius Walsh circa 1918 or 1919. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division)
A wild tale of Nazi spies, a Brooklyn brothel and the private life of a senator
Judged solely by its exterior, 329 Pacific St. was just another Brooklyn townhouse. Located near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the three-story brick building was rented by a 55-year-old, Swedish-born naturalized citizen named Gustave Beekman.
A florist by profession known as “George” to his associates, Beekman had a lucrative side hustle. He was not technically a pimp, but the Pacific Street home functioned as something akin to a social club for men seeking sex with other men, where private rooms were available to rent by the hour. Downstairs, Beekman supplied his diverse clientele — many of whom went by feminine aliases, known to one another as, say, “Miss Newport” or “Miss Mitzie” — with copious amounts of liquor and generous spreads of roast turkeys and hams. Upstairs could be found the “sin chamber,” whose carnal activities were playfully hinted at by a “Caution: Men at Work” construction sign affixed to its door. Should money be exchanged inside, it was none of Beekman’s business.
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Before America declared war against Germany and Japan in December 1941, Beekman occasionally landed in trouble with law enforcement; he’d already been convicted of operating “disorderly” houses. But by February 1942, with the nation’s citizenry on high alert to report any form of suspicious activity to the authorities, the large numbers of sailors seen entering and exiting Beekman’s home at strange hours attracted the attention of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Establishing themselves across the street in a room on the fifth floor of Holy Family Hospital, a team of officers initiated round-the-clock surveillance of the house, taking down the license plate numbers of every car that deposited or collected a man at its front steps.
On March 14, 1942, after six weeks of observation, a combined force of plainclothes police officers and Navy intelligence agents raided the building, ripping up floorboards in search of hidden compartments and arresting Beekman along with several sailors and guests. Soon, a shocking — but also questionable — accusation would scandalize the Eastern Seaboard, cast a pall over the U.S. Senate and leave a legendary political career in tatters.
The first hint that the activities at 329 Pacific St. might reverberate beyond a Brooklyn courtroom appeared in the April 22 edition of the Lyons Den, the eponymous daily column penned by Leonard Lyons of the New York Post. “When the notorious Beekman case is prosecuted in Brooklyn’s County Court next week, it will involve one of the highest ranking legislators in the country,” Lyons revealed. For a columnist whose beat consisted mainly of gossip gleaned from the tables at Sardi’s, the Algonquin and other celebrity-heavy spots around the Great White Way, it was a rare political item, and one that, initially, no other reporter bothered to pursue.
Two days later, Post general counsel Morris Ernst included a tantalizing mention of the Beekman case in the weekly roundup of political intelligence — dubbed “tidbits” — that he sent to his friend, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The president, a world-class connoisseur and purveyor of gossip, devoured Ernst’s dispatches, and that week’s installment of “tidbits” contained an especially delectable morsel. “Senator Walsh’s name is going to appear, in secret probation officer reports, in connection with a scandalous criminal case in Brooklyn,” Ernst wrote. “Unless you know about the matter, or unless you are having someone else follow it up for you, I suggest that you might want me to keep in daily touch with the situation. A shocking story will develop which may be of great help to you.”
When FDR first heard that Sen. David Ignatius Walsh of Massachusetts had been implicated in this scandal, he could not have been entirely surprised. According to his biographer, Dorothy G. Wayman, Walsh, who was the first Democratic senator from Massachusetts since the Civil War, enjoyed women as “nonromantic companions,” and his unmarried status had long made him the subject of rumor. After he became the first Catholic governor of Massachusetts in 1914, one of Walsh’s constituents informed him that a bachelor was “unthinkable” in the state’s highest office because “the influence of a good woman” was a prerequisite. “Madam,” Walsh earnestly replied, “I have been under the influence of six women all my life — my mother and five sisters.” A 1929 Time magazine profile noted Walsh’s “dandified” dress of “silk shirts in bright colors” and reported, “Ironic comments are sometimes heard on the contrast between his political representation and his social activities.”
Walsh’s closest companion was the butler he took home with him from a visit to the Philippines. According to William “Fishbait” Miller, who served as House doorkeeper from 1949 to 1953 and again from 1955 until 1974, a wisecrack credited to a Boston department store owner echoed for many years within the halls of Congress: While a man could trust David Walsh to take his daughter sailing across the ocean on a yacht, he would be ill-advised to let him cross the Charles River with his son in a canoe.
The other salient fact about Walsh — as least as far as FDR was concerned — was that he was one of the Senate’s leading noninterventionists, a bothersome circumstance that his being a member of the president’s political party only exacerbated. In August 1941, while the Senate debated FDR’s request to extend the term of duty for draftees under the Selective Service Act, Walsh used his powerful perch as chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee to condemn the law as having been adopted under “false pretenses,” part of a devious effort by the president “to lead us day by day into the war.” Though Walsh, like most noninterventionists, abandoned his opposition to war after the attack on Pearl Harbor, he was, in the words of Attorney General Francis Biddle, “not sympathetic with” the president, “to put it mildly.”
While the campaign to slander FDR’s intraparty antagonist started to unfold, the president was trying to protect one of his closest advisers from the same charge. In 1940, Undersecretary of State — and Roosevelt family friend — Sumner Welles had drunkenly propositioned several Pullman porters on the presidential train. A pair of isolationist senators — Democrat Burton K. Wheeler of Montana and Henrik Shipstead of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party — got word of the incident and tried to persuade Eleanor Josephine Medill “Cissy” Patterson, publisher of the conservative Washington Times-Herald, to expose it. A vociferous opponent of the New Deal, Patterson regularly published vitriolic front-page editorials excoriating the Roosevelt administration. But the story about the undersecretary and the African American train porters was simply too prurient to print. The sexual habits of influential men, even gay ones whose peccadilloes transgressed the racial barrier, were off-limits. In the meantime, Roosevelt was also resisting pressure from his secretary of state, Cordell Hull, and former ambassador to the Soviet Union and France William C. Bullitt — both of whom despised Welles — to fire his friend.
One could not have concocted a more appetizing scandal for a populist tabloid newspaper supportive of FDR’s interventionist foreign policies than that allegedly involving Sen. David Walsh.
While FDR felt no compunction defending Welles, he evinced less sympathy for Walsh, whose chairmanship of a committee dealing with military issues made him particularly vulnerable to allegations that he could be subjected to blackmail. In the armed forces, the honorable course of action for a man found guilty of homosexuality was to shoot himself in the head, FDR supposedly told Democratic Senate Majority Leader Alben Barkley in reference to Walsh, according to Ted Morgan’s 1985 biography of FDR. (“Somebody might see Walsh and tell him that his name has been mentioned and he has been adequately and fully described,” Ernst wrote to FDR on April 29. “This tactic may lead to Walsh resigning or shooting himself.”) After learning that Walsh was about to be exposed, the president sent a giddy response to Ernst. “Keep up the tidbits,” he wrote. “They give me a real relaxation from the high ether of naval and military strategy.”
Three days later, Ernst informed the FBI that Beekman “had identified a picture of Senator David I. Walsh of Massachusetts as that of an individual who had frequented” his house. Beekman made several other claims. Walsh, he said, was escorted to Pacific Street by a man who used the alias “Madame Fox,” and had conversed there with a German who claimed “Hitler was his god.” Another German, Beekman said, who went by the name of Eric, had also visited the house.
No longer was this a matter of a U.S. senator frolicking at a male bordello: The security of the nation was now at risk. At least, according to the media outlet that would break the story.
The country’s oldest continuously published daily newspaper, the New York Post had an illustrious history. At the outset of the Roosevelt administration in 1933, J. David Stern, the crusading liberal publisher of the Philadelphia Record, purchased the Republican-supporting Post at the behest of FDR, who encouraged Stern to transform it into a champion of his policies. Six years later, Stern sold the Post to Dorothy Schiff, granddaughter of the German-born financier Jacob Schiff, who sought to deepen the paper’s New Deal bona fides by broadening its readership beyond upper-middle-class liberal professionals to the city’s diverse masses. Schiff possessed two qualities advantageous to this mission: self-described “average taste” and an enthusiasm for the president that went beyond the political. “Everything about his body — except his legs — was so strong,” Schiff remembered of the man with whom she once claimed to have carried on an affair from 1936 to 1943 (an assertion she later retracted).
Just two weeks before Leonard Lyons published his blind item predicting major political fallout from the arrest of Gustave Beekman, Schiff became the first female newspaper publisher in the history of New York City. The Post was lagging far behind its rivals in circulation, and Schiff had an ambitious agenda. Declaring, “We must popularize the paper,” she converted the Post from broadsheet to tabloid format, making it easier for working-class straphangers to read it on the subway.
One could not have concocted a more appetizing scandal for a populist tabloid newspaper supportive of Roosevelt’s interventionist foreign policies than that allegedly involving David Walsh. By launching a moralistic crusade against the isolationist senator, the Post could not only discredit one of the president’s most nettlesome critics. It could also sell a massive number of newspapers. Homosexuality, prostitution, blackmail, espionage, Nazis and a U.S. senator — the Walsh scandal had it all.
On May 1, 1942, the Post splashed the sort of blunt, attention-grabbing headline for which it would soon become notorious across its newly redesigned front page: “LINK SENATOR TO SPY NEST.” “A U.S. Senator was identified today as a frequenter of a ‘house of degradation’ in Brooklyn which was used by Nazi spies to obtain military information,” the Post reported, identifying the culprit only as “Senator X.” A large photograph of the unnamed lawmaker’s face, obscured by a white silhouette, accompanied the article. “This is starting to look like pre-collapse France,” Ernst merrily reported in that day’s “tidbits” to FDR.
Elaborating on the claims he had made to prosecutors days before, Beekman told the FBI that in September 1940, a man named George Wilbur Fox, a.k.a. “Madame Fox,” had brought a “Mr. Walsh” to a house Beekman was running at the time on Warren Street in Brooklyn. This “Mr. Walsh” visited four times over the following three months and came to the Pacific Street house eight times. Presented with photographs of 12 men, one of whom was Walsh, Beekman identified the senator as the man in question. When asked about statements he had made in his original affidavit concerning supposed espionage activities, however, Beekman, according to the agents who interviewed him, “was unable to furnish any definite information that such activities were, in fact, being carried on by these homosexuals.”
Meanwhile in Washington, the Senate cloakroom hummed with nervous agitation concerning the identity of “Senator X.” For almost a week, the Post titillated readers with a steady stream of details about the doings at 329 Pacific St., all the while withholding the name of the legislator in question. Finally, on May 6, the paper declared on its front page: “SENATOR X NAMED as DAVID I. WALSH Chairman of Senate’s Naval Affairs Committee.” Walsh’s only consolation was that, buried deep within a story identifying him as the treasonous patron of a male brothel frequented by Nazi spies, American sailors described him, as the New York Post summarized it, as a “very nice man.”
There was no term for it then, but this disclosure by the Post constituted the first “outing” in American politics. Given the once widespread societal contempt for homosexuality, one might assume that gay political scandals date back to the country’s founding. But their starting point stems from convergence of two sociopolitical forces: the modern awareness of homosexuality as an identity category and the rise of the American national security state.
It’s no coincidence that the exposure of David Walsh occurred several months into the Second World War, when the federal government began to shoulder the responsibilities of a global superpower. A culture of secrecy descended over the nation’s capital, and with it, an apprehension concerning the guardians of the nation’s secrets. About nobody was this apprehension greater than those who possessed, within themselves, the most damning secret of all.
As America instituted a vast system for collecting sensitive information, homosexuality came to be imbued with existential dangers. America’s global preeminence transformed what had been considered a private vice into a public obsession. And in the hands of journalists and politicians, the accusation of “sexual deviance” became one of the most powerful weapons in the vast arsenal of American political skulduggery.
Notably, the word “homosexual” did not appear at all in the New York Post’s coverage of the goings-on at the house on Pacific Street, nor in any contemporaneous media accounts. Hardly any outlet other than the Post even mentioned Walsh by name. Such ambiguity was characteristic of American public discourse at the time, as the term “homosexual” was rarely used outside the medical profession. Still, the media found ways of conveying just what sort of men could be found at 329 Pacific St. “The fact that he has remained a bachelor has often caused comment,” the Post observed of Walsh. The Brooklyn Eagle quoted a prosecutor who described Beekman’s home as “a place of degradation operated exclusively for men,” among them “certain men of some prominence” who entered under “feminine names.”
Not every journalist covering the story was so indirect. Shortly after Adolf Hitler ascended to the German chancellery in 1933, pro-FDR syndicated columnist Walter Winchell had written that the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was “a homo-sexualist, or as we Broadway vulgarians say — an out and out fairy.” Now, nearly a decade later, with America at war against Nazi Germany and the police raid of an alleged Nazi-homosexual brothel in New York, Winchell felt vindicated. “The ad libbers are having fun with the yarn about Brooklyn’s spy nest,” the columnist and former vaudevillian crowed, “also known as the swastika swishery.”
By linking homosexuality with Nazism, Winchell drew on a popular stereotype. Given the harsh repression that the Nazis meted out to gay men — arresting an estimated hundred thousand and sending 5,000 to 15,000 to concentration camps, where a majority were murdered, over the course of their 12-year reign — the notion that fascism was particularly attractive to homosexuals was counterintuitive, to say the least. Yet it was an idea taken quite seriously within the upper ranks of the U.S. government.
The origins of this belief predate the Third Reich and can be traced back to the Männerbund, the nationalist men’s associations founded by veterans of the First World War. Inspired by the intensely emotional bonds they forged fighting in the trenches, a group of these men, according to the historian Robert Beachy, sought “to assimilate homoeroticism to a nationalist, anti-democratic politics.” The most infamous figure to emerge from this scene was Ernst Röhm. A co-founder of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the right-wing paramilitary known as the “Brownshirts,” Röhm was unapologetic about his same-sex attraction. In 1933, a massively influential Soviet propaganda booklet accused Röhm of manipulating an impressionable young gay prostitute into burning down the Reichstag, hastening the Nazi rise to power. The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, in his acclaimed memoir of interwar Central Europe, “The World of Yesterday,” refers portentously to “secret organizations” that were “strongly under homosexual influence” as having conspired against the ill-fated Weimar Republic.
There existed “extensive homosexuality among the upper Gestapo,” John Franklin Carter, a former journalist who operated his own one-man intelligence bureau within the White House, wrote the president in a June 1941 memo, reporting on the observations of a General Motors representative recently returned from a trip to Germany. Among the dozen Gestapo officials whom the GM man had met, “all gave him the impression of homo-sexual leanings … [I]n one instance a young officer showed him with great pride a silver ring inscribed inside with the words ‘To My Darling Wilhelm from his Himmler.’ ”
Two influential wartime studies commissioned by the federal government and published in 1943 speculated at length as to the connections between homosexuality and Nazism. “Analysis of the Personality of Adolph Hitler,” by the Harvard psychologist Henry Murray, noted the “large feminine component in Hitler’s physical constitution,” “his initial identification with his mother,” his “attraction to Röhm and other domineering homosexuals,” and his “nightmares which, as described by several informants, are very suggestive of homosexual panic.” “The Mind of Adolf Hitler,” prepared by Harvard psychoanalyst Walter C. Langer, purported to substantiate the allegation that, while living in Vienna, the future German leader stayed at a gay brothel. The report goes on to speculate about whether Hitler’s Dolchstosslegende, or “stab-in-the-back” myth blaming Germany’s World War I loss on Jews and socialists, was a sign of latent homosexuality that “finds expression in imagery about being attacked from behind.”
It is a diabolical lie, absolutely without foundation,” Sen. David Walsh declared in response to the allegations. “I have never in my life been to such a place.” Despite the lack of solid evidence that Walsh had passed along any secrets to Nazi agents, the mere accusation that he had visited 329 Pacific St. at the same time as “one of the most dangerous Nazi spies in this country,” the Post averred, was sufficient grounds for his permanent “banishment from public office.” Over the next five days, the Post published no fewer than four editorials demanding the Senate open an investigation into Walsh.
FBI investigators, meanwhile, zeroed in on another theory: that the whole imbroglio was a case of mistaken identity. One of the witnesses who testified against Beekman had described having met a man at 329 Pacific St. who matched Walsh’s profile, known to him only as “Doc.” Presumably by tracing the license plate numbers of the cars that had parked outside the building, the FBI located a Dr. Harry Stone of Connecticut, who not only matched the physical description offered by the witness but, in an interview with the bureau, acknowledged that he had patronized Pacific Street under the name of “Doc.”
Three days later, following a punishing interrogation, Beekman relented and said that he had confused David Walsh with Harry Stone. With this admission in hand, the FBI promptly delivered to the president and Majority Leader Barkley a report exonerating Walsh.
Yet, before Barkley could even publicize the report, Beekman recanted his recantation. In yet another affidavit, containing what the Nation magazine termed “unprintable details,” Beekman said that the statement he had given to the FBI absolving Walsh was delivered under duress. Beekman, his lawyer declared, had been “browbeaten, persecuted, and questioned” into falsely claiming that he had mistaken the senator for another man.
On May 20, the same day that the Post published this retraction, 84 senators, including Walsh, gathered in the Senate chamber to discuss what Time dubbed “one of the worst scandals that ever affected a member of the Senate.” Following the opening prayer, Walsh quietly left the hall while Barkley, 25-page FBI report in hand, called for a point of personal privilege. Beekman, the majority leader thundered, had been convicted of “an offense too loathsome to mention in the Senate or in any group of ladies and gentlemen.” The man accusing their colleague, in other words, was gay and should be discredited on that fact alone. The FBI’s exculpation of Walsh contained details that were “disgusting and unprintable,” Barkley continued, material that “should not be in the [congressional] record.” As for Harry Stone, Barkley scoffed, he resembled the senator from Massachusetts no more “than I look like Haile Selassie.”
Thus did it transpire that, as Time observed, “one of the strangest incidents in the history of the U.S. press came to general public knowledge: a major scandal had broken and, for a fortnight, only one paper had published anything about it.” If propriety had prevented journalists and politicians from stating explicitly what crime Alben Barkley had called “too loathsome to mention,” no longer could they ignore the saga of David Walsh.
Reactions fell largely along ideological lines. Isolationist Sen. Bennett Clark, a Missouri Democrat, denounced “the old hussy who runs the New York Post” and alleged that Morris Ernst “brought the story to Washington and went to the White House with it in an attempt to interest the highest authority in Washington in an effort to smear” Walsh. Republican Sen. Gerald Nye of North Dakota, another FDR critic, spoke darkly of a “secret society” engaged “in an undertaking to gather such information as would permit the smearing of individual members of the Senate.” The most virulent attack came from the pages of the right-wing Chicago Tribune, owned by the former Army officer (and cousin of fellow Roosevelt hater Cissy Patterson) Robert “Colonel” McCormick. In a front-page story beneath the banner headline “Blast Plot to Ruin Senator,” the paper detailed “one of the most despicable attempts at character assassination that could be conceived.”
On the other side of the divide, the New Republic — tiptoeing around the veracity of the accusations — editorialized, “Whether or not the charge be true,” Walsh “would deserve defeat … because of his record in the Senate and as chairman of the Naval Affairs Committee,” namely, his “obstruction in the war effort.” And stubbornly sticking to its position was the paper that had started the whole mess. In an open letter to Attorney General Biddle, New York Post editor Ted Thackrey denounced the FBI for exonerating Walsh. The bureau, “long the pride of our Democracy,” he wrote, “has under your direction been used as though it were the counterpart of the secret police of Communist Russia or Nazi Germany.”
In the hands of journalists and politicians, the accusation of “sexual deviance” became one of the most powerful weapons in the vast arsenal of American political skulduggery.
Behind the scenes, however, Dorothy Schiff was growing nervous. That summer, she hired a private investigator, Daniel A. Doran, to conduct an independent inquiry into Beekman, Walsh and the Post investigation thereof. Over several months, Doran and his team of gumshoes fanned out across New York City, Connecticut and Massachusetts, interviewing dozens of people and compiling their findings into an exhaustive 150-page report.
As to the question of whether Walsh was gay, Doran collected a great deal of hearsay but no proof. An official with the Coordinating Committee for Democratic Action, a pro-FDR group, recommended “reliable people” who could attest to Walsh’s “meanderings in Boston.” A customer of Walsh’s tailor shop in New York said that the employees there “all knew of Mr. Walsh’s homosexual predilections,” yet when an investigator paid a visit, the proprietor “froze” and “refused to even discuss” the matter. A reporter based in the D.C. bureau of the New York Times claimed that a colleague from the New York Herald Tribune had been the subject of “improper advances” from Walsh while traveling with the senator on the presidential train in 1940. But none of this constituted evidence for what the paper had claimed.
Ultimately, Doran and his team did not have to travel any farther than the office of the Senate sergeant-at-arms to resolve the central question. Walsh’s attendance record — “very regular,” arriving at the start of every session, staying until close and answering every roll call vote — revealed that he could not have been in Brooklyn at the times alleged. The case of Senator X, Doran concluded, had been characterized by “plausible rumors or stories which by repetition had almost achieved the status of facts.” While the Post might have “had reason to believe that Senator Walsh was a visitor to Beekman’s place” at the time of its original reporting, “not a single item of legal evidence has been obtained to corroborate Mr. Beekman’s statements as to the visits of Senator Walsh.”
The Post, in other words, had committed an act of gross journalistic malpractice, one it never bothered to correct. Though Walsh did not speak publicly about the ordeal beyond his initial denial, “personally,” he confided to a friend, as relayed by Walsh’s biographer, it was “a tragic Gethsemane.” Running for reelection in 1946, he lost to Republican Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. Walsh died the following year a broken man; he never publicly commented about his sexuality.
Eight decades later, his case offers a stark example of how the politics of homosexuality differed in an earlier era. Liberals who, by contemporary standards, might have been expected to defend the privacy rights of an oppressed minority group, had led the charge to expose and ruin one of its members. Morris Ernst, in addition to working for the New York Post, served as a general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union — yet it was Ernst and his progressive allies who tried to destroy Walsh, while the reactionary publisher of the Chicago Tribune and conservative isolationist senators defended him. Homosexuality was so far removed from the traditional left-right political spectrum as to exist in a completely different universe.
Meanwhile, according to at least one columnist, the saga of Senator X wasn’t just Washington’s first outing; it would almost certainly be the last. Asserting that there had been “no parallel in the history of the Senate for the low-level viciousness of the attack” upon Walsh, George Rothwell Brown of the San Francisco Examiner confidently issued what may be, in retrospect, one of the least accurate predictions in American political history: that the use of this particular “smear as a political weapon has been dealt a death blow from which it is hardly likely it can be brought back to life.”
James Kirchick is a columnist for Tablet magazine and a writer at large for Air Mail. This article is adapted from his book “Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington,” published last month by Henry Holt and Co. | 2022-06-15T13:40:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How World War II Led to Washington’s First Outing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/15/senator-x-excerpt/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2022/06/15/senator-x-excerpt/ |
Fossil fuel leasing program undercuts Biden's climate goals, report says
Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! Today we're reading about how Jeffrey Clark, the former head of the Justice Department's environmental and natural resources division, wanted President Donald Trump to name him attorney general in a plan aimed at overturning the election. It's a wild story that includes a funny quote about environmental lawyers. But first:
The federal fossil fuel leasing program is at odds with President Biden's commitments to tackling climate change and environmental injustices, according to a report shared exclusively with The Climate 202 before its public release on Wednesday.
The report, which was written by the climate advocacy group Evergreen Action and the environmental law firm Earthjustice, offers a road map for reforming the federal oil, gas and coal leasing program in line with Biden's climate and environmental justice agenda.
The analysis comes as the fossil fuel industry and Republican lawmakers blast Biden over high gasoline prices, arguing that the administration should unleash domestic energy production to lower costs for American families.
It also comes as the Interior Department crafts a new five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing in federal waters. The much-anticipated plan will be unveiled by the end of June, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in May.
“The science shows that if we want to keep warming below 1.5 degrees [Celsius], no new fossil fuel development — including new leasing — can happen,” Lena Moffitt, chief of staff at Evergreen Action, told The Climate 202. “And the fossil fuel leasing program, as it stands, is one of the biggest de facto subsidies to the oil and gas industry that the administration has direct control over with their executive authority.”
Tyler Cherry, a spokesman for the Interior Department, declined to comment on the report.
Tapping executive authority
The extraction of oil, gas and coal on public lands has accounted for nearly a quarter of the nation's carbon emissions since 2005, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Left unchecked, federal fossil fuel production threatens Biden's goals of cutting U.S. emissions at least in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, the report says.
In addition, federal fossil fuel projects have increased pollution in communities of color and Indigenous communities, undercutting Biden's commitment to addressing historic environmental injustices, according to the report.
The authors of the analysis offer several recommendations for reforming the leasing program, including:
Provide for no new offshore leasing in the Interior Department's new five-year plan — a move the authors say is within Haaland's authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
Increase royalty rates for existing onshore leases under the Mineral Leasing Act.
Withdraw large swaths of land from fossil fuel leasing to benefit the climate and critical wildlife habitat.
Block massive onshore oil and gas projects, such as ConocoPhillips's Willow project planned for Alaska.
Establish a community council that includes representatives of Indigenous and front-line communities affected by federal fossil fuel leasing.
Reissue a full coal leasing moratorium, without exceptions.
“You don't need to pass legislation in order to reform the federal fossil fuel program,” Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife and oceans at Earthjustice, told The Climate 202. “Secretary Haaland and President Biden have the authority they need under existing law to bring that program into alignment with their own climate pledges and global climate goals.”
GOP, industry concerns
Republicans on Capitol Hill, however, have blasted what they perceive as Biden's restrictions on domestic energy production amid record gasoline prices, with the national average for a gallon of gas surpassing $5, according to AAA.
“Americans are paying more at the pump because of President Biden’s war on American energy,” Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee tweeted in May.
The GOP lawmakers noted that soon after taking office, Biden paused any new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters. (In fact, a Louisiana federal judge issued a preliminary injunction to block the leasing pause, and Biden has since outpaced his predecessor in issuing drilling permits on public lands.)
The American Petroleum Institute, a trade association for the U.S. oil and gas industry, has also criticized Interior for running “behind schedule” in issuing a new five-year leasing plan.
“With approximately 24 percent of U.S. oil production and 11 percent of U.S. natural gas production coming from federal lands and waters, a strong federal leasing program is essential to meeting consumer demand,” Frank Macchiarola, the group's senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs, said in an email to The Climate 202. “We urge the Department of the Interior to carry out their statutory obligation to hold quarterly federal onshore lease sales and to swiftly issue a new 5-year program for federal offshore leasing.”
Sen. Wyden proposes a ‘windfall’ profits tax for oil and gas companies
Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is eyeing legislation to impose a new federal tax on oil and gas companies that earn a profit margin greater than 10 percent, as Democrats and the White House try to tamp down surging energy costs amid the war in Ukraine, Nancy Cook and Laura Davison report for Bloomberg News.
The proposal, which has not yet been introduced publicly, would charge fossil fuel companies as much as 42 percent — or double the current rate — on profits that some lawmakers consider to be excessive, according to two people briefed on the plan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity before the bill is formally unveiled.
The measure would differ from the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), which is based on oil prices rather than profit margins, a Wyden aide confirmed to The Climate 202.
“Our tax code should benefit the American people, not oil executives and their wealthy shareholders,” Wyden said in a statement. “The proposal I’m developing would help reverse perverse incentives to price gouge by doubling the corporate tax rate on companies’ excess profits, eliminating egregious buybacks, and reducing accounting tricks.”
The White House has signaled interest in the plan, which would probably face united opposition from Republicans, who say the tax increase could hurt energy security or domestic efforts to boost oil supply.
“We’re not ruling that out of consideration. We’ve made that clear,” Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council, told Bloomberg of the proposal.
House passes bipartisan wildlife conservation bill
The House on Tuesday passed the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act from Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) by a vote of 231 to 190. The measure would provide about $1.4 billion in funding to states, tribes and territories for conservation as the biodiversity crisis causes the extinction of animal and plant species at an unprecedented rate.
Sixteen Republicans voted for the legislation, including Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and David B. McKinley of West Virginia, both of whom are retiring. Two Democrats — Appropriations Chair Rosa L. DeLauro and Rep. John B. Larson, both of Connecticut — opposed the measure.
In a statement to The Climate 202, DeLauro said she voted against the bill because it “has significant issues with regard to House rules and Congress’ power of the purse. As Chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, I am concerned that it provides funding on autopilot without any role for this or future Congresses to scrutinize the details and value of this massive investment.”
The Senate version of the bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). Collin O'Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, urged the Senate to swiftly pass the measure and send it to President Biden.
“Inaction is the ally of extinction — and now it’s time to act,” O'Mara said in a statement.
The Forest Service is preparing to hold a timber sale in Oregon's Williamette National Forest that targets nearly 4,500 acres, presenting an early test of the Biden administration's commitment to protecting the nation's older forests as part of its fight against climate change, The Washington Post's Anna Phillips reports.
On Earth Day, President Biden signed an executive order directing the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to craft policies to protect America's biggest and oldest trees, which can store vast quantities of carbon.
Now, Biden faces a choice of whether to carry out the timber sale, which was first proposed under President Donald Trump. So far, the administration has shown no signs of backing down, frustrating conservationists.
Yellowstone closes after record rainfall destroys roads, cuts off nearby town
All five entrances to Yellowstone National Park are closed to visitors until at least Wednesday after record rainfall created hazardous conditions, with more rain on the way, The Post's Natalie B. Compton and Jason Samenow report.
A dangerous combination of snowmelt and heavy rain caused river levels to surge, with the Yellowstone River rising six feet between Sunday and Monday to its highest level on record. Photos and video of the park uploaded to its Flickr account showed brown water running through entire sections of road that had been washed out in persistent flooding, mudslides and rockslides.
Park managers are waiting for the water to recede to assess the damage throughout the park, but the rainfall has already affected residents, visitors and wildlife in the region. In the community of Gardiner, just outside the north entrance to the park, people were left stranded as rain fell onto already flooded waterways, wiping out roads and some bridges, Deby Dixon reports for The Post.
The world’s largest trees are struggling to survive climate change — Diana Leonard for The Post
Extreme weather is tormenting every U.S. region, and it’s far from over — Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow for The Post
Power company NextEra plans to cut carbon emissions to close to nothing by 2045 — Katherine Blunt for the Wall Street Journal
Wall Street firms face W.Va. boycott over alleged fossil fuel bias — Jordan Wolman for Politico
How climate change and environmental justice are inextricably linked — Robin Rose Park for The Washington Post Magazine
40 feet long? Now that's a big fish! The whale shark is the largest fish in the ocean and can weigh up to 40 tons - and it doesn't even have teeth! https://t.co/JbuqGsGrTK #OceanMonthNOAA pic.twitter.com/FrSHgFKJG2
— NOAA's Ocean Service (@noaaocean) June 14, 2022 | 2022-06-15T13:40:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fossil fuel leasing program undercuts Biden's climate goals, report says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/fossil-fuel-leasing-program-undercuts-biden-climate-goals-report-says/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/fossil-fuel-leasing-program-undercuts-biden-climate-goals-report-says/ |
Teslas running Autopilot have been in 273 crashes in less than a year
Regulators released the first batch of data since mandating that companies such as Tesla report on serious crashes involving their driver-assistance systems.
Tesla vehicles made up nearly 70 percent of the 392 crashes involving advanced driver-assistance systems reported since last July, according to NHTSA data. (David Zalubowski/AP)
SAN FRANCISCO — Tesla vehicles running its Autopilot software have been involved in 273 reported crashes over roughly the past year, according to regulators, far more than previously known and providing concrete evidence regarding the real-world performance of its futuristic features.
The numbers, which were published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the first time Wednesday, show that Tesla vehicles made up nearly 70 percent of the 392 crashes involving advanced driver-assistance systems reported since last July. Previously, NHTSA said it had probed 42 crashes potentially involving driver assistance, 35 of which included Tesla vehicles, in a more limited data set that stretched back to 2016.
Tesla Autopilot is a suite of systems that allow drivers to cede physical control of their electric vehicles, though they must pay attention at all times. The cars can maintain speed and safe distance behind other cars, stay within their lane lines and make lane changes on highways. An expanded set of features, called the “Full Self-Driving” beta, adds the ability to maneuver city and residential streets, halting at stop signs and traffic lights, and making turns while navigating vehicles from point to point.
But some transportation safety experts have raised concerns about the technology’s safety, since it is being tested and trained on public roads with other drivers. Federal officials have targeted Tesla in recent months with an increasing number of investigations, recalls and even public admonishments directed at the company.
The new data set stems from a federal order last summer requiring automakers to report crashes involving driver assistance to assess whether the technology presented safety risks. Tesla‘s vehicles have been found to shut off the advanced driver-assistance system, Autopilot, around one second before impact, according to the regulators.
The NHTSA order required manufacturers to disclose crashes where the software was in use within 30 seconds of the crash, in part to mitigate the concern that manufacturers would hide crashes by claiming the software wasn’t in use at the time of the impact.
“These technologies hold great promise to improve safety, but we need to understand how these vehicles are performing in real-world situations,” NHTSA’s administrator, Steven Cliff, said in a call with media about the full data set from manufacturers.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla has argued that Autopilot is safer than normal driving when crash data is compared. The company has also pointed to the vast number of traffic crash deaths on U.S. roadways annually, estimated by NHTSA at 42,915 in 2021, hailing the promise of technologies like Autopilot to “reduce the frequency and severity of traffic crashes and save thousands of lives each year.”
Data pitting normal driving against Autopilot is not directly comparable because Autopilot operates largely on highways. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, however, had described Autopilot as “unequivocally safer.”
NHTSA launches probe into Tesla’s ‘phantom braking' problem
Musk said as recently as January that there had been no crashes or injuries involving the Full Self-Driving beta software, which has been rolled out to a more limited number of drivers for testing. NHTSA officials said their data was not expected to specify whether Full Self-Driving was active at the time of the crash.
Previously, regulators relied on a piecemeal collection of data from media reports, manufacturer notifications and other sporadic sources to learn about incidents involving advanced driver-assistance.
Companies such as Tesla collect more data than other automakers, which might leave them overrepresented in the data, according to experts in the systems as well as some officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the findings. Tesla also pilots much of the technology, some of which comes standard on its cars, putting it in the hands of users who become familiar with it more quickly and use it in a wider variety of situations.
Driver-assistance technology has grown in popularity as owners have sought to hand over more of the driving tasks to automated features, which do not make the cars autonomous but can offer relief from certain physical demands of driving. Automakers such as Subaru and Honda have added driver-assistance features that act as a more advanced cruise control, keeping set distances from other vehicles, maintaining speed and following marked lane lines on highways.
But none of them operate in as broad a set of conditions, such as residential and city streets, as Tesla’s systems do. NHTSA disclosed last week that Tesla’s Autopilot is on around 830,000 vehicles dating back to 2014.
Autopilot has spurred several regulatory probes, including into crashes with parked emergency vehicles and the cars’ tendency to halt for imagined hazards.
As part of its probe into crashes with parked emergency vehicles, NHTSA has said it is looking into whether Autopilot “may exacerbate human factors or behavioral safety risks.”
Autopilot has been tied to deaths in crashes in Williston and Delray Beach, Fla., as well as in Los Angeles County and Mountain View, Calif. The driver-assistance features have drawn the attention of NHTSA, which regulates motor vehicles, and the National Transportation Safety Board, an independent body charged with investigating safety incidents.
Tesla driver faces felony charges in fatal crash involving Autopilot
Federal regulators last year ordered car companies including Tesla to submit crash reports within a day of learning of any incident involving driver assistance that resulted in a death or hospitalization because of injury, or that involved a person being struck. Companies are also required to report crashes involving the technology that included an air bag deployment or cars that had to be towed.
The agency said it was collecting the data because of the “unique risks” of the emerging technology, to determine whether manufacturers are making sure their equipment is “free of defects that pose an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety.”
How U.S. regulators played mind games with Elon Musk
Carmakers and hardware-makers reported six fatalities and 46 injuries from the crashes, including five serious injuries. Regulators did not immediately make it clear which manufacturer was tied to which injury. But the total injury rate could be higher — 294 of the crashes had an “unknown” number of injuries.
One additional fatality was reported, but regulators noted it wasn’t clear if the driver-assistance technology was being used.
Honda reported 90 crashes during the same time period involving advanced driver-assistance systems, and Subaru reported 10.
Some systems appear to disable in the moments leading up to a crash, potentially allowing companies to say they were not active at the time of the incident. NHTSA is already investigating 16 incidents involving Autopilot where Tesla vehicles slammed into parked emergency vehicles. On average in those incidents, NHTSA said: “Autopilot aborted vehicle control less than one second prior to the first impact.”
Regulators also released data on crashes reported by automated driving systems, which are commonly called self-driving cars. These cars are far less common on roads, loaded with sophisticated equipment and not commercially available. A total of 130 crashes were reported, including 62 from Waymo, a sister company to Google. That report shows no fatalities and one serious injury. There was also one report of an automated driving crash involving Tesla, which has tested autonomous vehicles in limited capacities in the past, though the circumstances of the incident were not immediately clear.
In the crashes where advanced-driver assistance played a role, and where further information on the collision was known, vehicles most frequently collided with fixed objects or other cars. Among the others, 20 hit a pole or tree, 10 struck animals, two crashed into emergency vehicles, three struck pedestrians and at least one hit a cyclist.
When the vehicles reported damage, it was most commonly to the front of the car, which was the case in 124 incidents. Damage was more often concentrated on the front left, or driver’s side, of the car, rather than the passenger’s side.
The incidents were heavily concentrated in California and Texas, the two most populous states and also the U.S. locations Tesla has made its home. Nearly a third of the crashes involving driver assistance, 125, occurred in California. And 33 took place in Texas. | 2022-06-15T13:41:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tesla Autopilot data from NHTSA sheds light on Elon Musk's promises of autonomy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/15/tesla-autopilot-crashes/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/06/15/tesla-autopilot-crashes/ |
From left, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov attend a Ukraine defense contact group meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, June 15, 2022. (Yves Herman/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
BRUSSELS — NATO allies and partners met Wednesday to discuss how best to help Ukrainian forces as they are pummeled by the Russians in the east, as well as a longer-term push to move the country from Soviet-style to NATO-standard weapons.
Ahead of two days of talks in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said members were hammering out a new assistance package to meet Ukraine’s urgent needs. “Allies are committed to continue providing the military equipment that Ukraine needs to prevail, including heavy weapons and long-range systems,” be told reporters.
Later Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin chaired a meeting of the Ukraine “defense contact group,” where representatives of up to 50 nations gathered to focus on how to respond to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s pleas for modern antimissile weapons and other arms.
“Folks will trade notes on their observations, what they’re hearing and seeing,” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said at a briefing Tuesday.
“They will be reviewing what additional security assistance they can provide in the immediate, medium, and long term to help Ukraine win this war,” she said. “And the U.S. will make clear that we continue to stand united with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
That discussion will be followed by a meeting of NATO defense ministers, who will discuss Ukraine, changes to the alliance’s force posture and defense spending — the issues on the agenda for a NATO summit in Madrid later this month.
“We will now take decisions on the scale and design of our posture for the longer term,” Stoltenberg said. “This will mean big increases in our presence, capabilities and readiness.”
Although Stoltenberg declined to get into specifics, he said the alliance was discussing how best to bolster its defense and deterrence capabilities, particularly on its eastern flank. This effort is likely to include additional forces, prepositioning of heavy equipment and preassigning forces to specific countries, he said.
Overshadowing preparation for the summit, however, is Turkey’s opposition to bids by Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. Although Stoltenberg and other leaders initially expressed confidence that the alliance would move swiftly on the issue, pushback from Ankara has changed the conversation and raised fears of a stalemate.
On Wednesday, Stoltenberg acknowledged that Turkey’s opposition took him by surprise. “We didn’t have information that that would be a problem,” he said.
But Stoltenberg and other officials stressed that the alliance is working to resolve the issue and get both aspiring members to Madrid as “invitees.”
“Many of us had hopes that we would see these two countries join us in Madrid as invitees at the table with the other leaders,” said Smith, the U.S. ambassador, said Tuesday. Now that may not happen.
Still, she added, “I think the allies all hope this is something we can resolve in weeks and months, not years.” | 2022-06-15T14:13:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S., NATO allies meet to discuss more military aid for Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/nato-aid-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/nato-aid-ukraine/ |
Publix heiress paid Kimberly Guilfoyle’s $60,000 speaking fee on Jan. 6
The funds were directed to Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancee through Turning Point Action, a nonprofit run by Charlie Kirk
Beth Reinhard
Kimberly Guilfoyle speaks on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington at a rally in support of President Donald Trump. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Kimberly Guilfoyle, a fundraiser for former president Donald Trump and the fiancee of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., spoke for less than three minutes at the rally on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the Capitol riot.
Eight days before the Jan. 6 rally, Fancelli wired $650,000 to several organizations that helped stage and promote the event. The Washington Post previously reported that these groups included Women for America First, a nonprofit that helped organize the rally, and $150,000 to the nonprofit arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, which paid for a robocall touting a march to “call on Congress to stop the steal.”
She also enlisted the youth organization run by Kirk, a 28-year-old activist and friend of Donald Trump Jr. A spokesman for Turning Point Action declined to comment. Neither Guilfoyle nor Fancelli responded to requests for comment.
Guilfoyle’s speaking fee, for her remarks introducing her fiance, was disclosed in a Monday appearance on CNN by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
Lofgren pointed to the payment as an example of what she described as a misleading marketing effort run by the Trump campaign, which raised roughly $250 million in the weeks after the Nov. 3 election with promises of a massive legal effort to uncover voter fraud. But the payment did not come from the campaign or affiliated political committees. CNN first reported Tuesday that Turning Point Action covered the speaking fee.
“I’m not saying it is crime, but it’s a grift,” Lofgren told CNN’s Jake Tapper after the committee’s second hearing.
In the hearing, committee members used video testimony from former White House and campaign advisers to recount the origins of Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And they argued that this false accusation proved profitable for Trump and the people around him, who encouraged supporters to travel to D.C. on Jan. 6.
Among the groups that encouraged people to attend the rally at the White House Ellipse was Turning Point Action, a 501(c)(4) organization and an affiliate of the better-known Turning Point USA, a 501(c)(3). The difference is that Turning Point Action has more leeway to engage in political activity, but it is still barred from making politics its primary focus. Kirk leads both nonprofits, which are exempt from paying federal income taxes and disclosing their donors.
Representatives of Turning Point Action have previously said the group’s involvement in the rally included sending seven buses with about 350 students to Washington.
Kirk tweeted, but later deleted, a promise that his organization was sending 80 buses to “fight for this president.” An Instagram post on Dec. 30 from Students for Trump, a project of Turning Point Action, advertised buses leaving from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Hoboken, N.J., Richmond and Greensboro, N.C., and arriving in D.C. on the morning of Jan. 6.
On the morning of Jan. 3, a website publicizing the rally listed Turning Point Action as a “coalition partner,” along with nine other organizations, including the Republican Attorneys General Association, Stop the Steal, Tea Party Patriots and Women for America First. The Internet Archive shows the site was later updated to refer to groups such as Turning Point as “participating” organizations.
In addition to promoting the rally, the site noted: “At 1:00 PM, we will march to the U.S. Capitol building to protest the certification of the Electoral College.”
Kirk was a leading promoter of Trump’s false claims of election fraud in the run-up to the Jan. 6 rally. On the eve of the event, he used his radio show to call Jan. 6 “the most important day that will determine the future of the republic.”
On the afternoon of Jan. 6, as the mob pushed its way into the Capitol, Kirk condemned the violence on Twitter. Fancelli did not attend the rally and has also denounced the violence.
Fancelli, who splits her time between homes in Florida and Italy, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and party organizations over the past two decades. But she did not become a top-tier donor until Trump moved into the White House, records show.
Some relatives and other associates, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, attributed her support for the rally to her enthusiasm for Infowars founder Alex Jones. In the weeks before the rally, Fancelli emailed relatives and friends with links to Jones’s talk show, according to two people with knowledge of the messages.
Jones was a leading proponent of baseless claims that Trump’s reelection was subverted by systematic fraud and that Congress could refuse to certify Joe Biden’s victory. | 2022-06-15T14:22:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Charlie Kirk nonprofit Turning Point Action paid Kimberly Guilfoyle’s $60,000 speaking fee on Jan. 6 with money from Publix heiress - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/14/kimberly-guilfoyle-turning-point-action-jan-6/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjM1MTIwNzEiLCJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNjU1Mjk2NDM3LCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNjU2NTA2MDM3LCJpYXQiOjE2NTUyOTY0MzcsImp0aSI6ImMyOTRlNTYwLTRmNmYtNDAwOC05N2I3LWI3OTU3OGFlMjMyOCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9uYXRpb25hbC1zZWN1cml0eS8yMDIyLzA2LzE0L2tpbWJlcmx5LWd1aWxmb3lsZS10dXJuaW5nLXBvaW50LWFjdGlvbi1qYW4tNi8ifQ.-pMn2_flOMemMPVmf2HwI5j8ps5uTB2a245xqj4dam0&itid=gfta | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/14/kimberly-guilfoyle-turning-point-action-jan-6/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWJpZCI6IjM1MTIwNzEiLCJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNjU1Mjk2NDM3LCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNjU2NTA2MDM3LCJpYXQiOjE2NTUyOTY0MzcsImp0aSI6ImMyOTRlNTYwLTRmNmYtNDAwOC05N2I3LWI3OTU3OGFlMjMyOCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9uYXRpb25hbC1zZWN1cml0eS8yMDIyLzA2LzE0L2tpbWJlcmx5LWd1aWxmb3lsZS10dXJuaW5nLXBvaW50LWFjdGlvbi1qYW4tNi8ifQ.-pMn2_flOMemMPVmf2HwI5j8ps5uTB2a245xqj4dam0&itid=gfta |
Biden’s rousing speech before the AFL-CIO is exactly the message Democrats need
President Biden speaks before the AFL-CIO convention in Philadelphia on June 14. (AFP/Getty Images)
President Biden and his White House staff have received a lot of criticism lately, much of it from Democrats nervous that his message isn’t breaking through or that he isn’t hard enough on Republicans. Biden must have heard the complaints.
At a rousing speech before the AFL-CIO in Philadelphia on Tuesday, he sounded like he used to as vice president and on the campaign trail when he inhabited the persona of “Joe from Scranton.” His delivery was punchier and at times angrier than usual. He mocked and knocked Republicans’ plutocratic economics. And he made a stronger-than-usual case that Republicans are blocking economic progress. He was rewarded with multiple ovations.
Biden took his time reminding the audience what a mess the country was when he took office, including Americans “waiting in line for an hour for a box of food.” "That’s what we inherited,” he said. His argument boiled down to an effective message: Look how much better off we are, even if there’s more room for improvement.
He regaled the crowd with the gains to date: more than 8 million jobs created, including more manufacturing jobs; a significant reduction in daily covid deaths; the opening of “shuttered” schools and businesses; and increased personal savings. He featured the infrastructure plan that will create millions of new union jobs. “Now not only is it infrastructure week; we’ve arrived at infrastructure decade,” he declared.
While acknowledging inflation is “sapping the strength of a lot of families,” Biden insisted he is doing all he can to lower costs for families. He then quickly pivoted to put the blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin for rising gas prices, which he noted are up $1.74 since the war in Ukraine began. He also called out Republicans for “doing everything they can to stop my plans to bring down costs on ordinary families.”
Is he shifting blame away from economists, including his own advisers and those at the Federal Reserve, who believed that inflation was “transitory”? Sure, but he’s not arguing that Republicans caused inflation; he’s saying they are standing in the way of measures to tamp down costs for families — a fair point and a solid political argument.
Biden highlighted the Democrats’ plan to cap insulin at $35 per month. Republicans opposed that limit. Biden recalled his plans to help working-class voters with tax credits for kids, child-care subsidies and credits for energy-saving measures. Republicans don’t want any of those, either. (Neither does Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia.)
Biden strenuously argued that voters should be wary of what Republicans are pushing. “Republicans have it all backwards: Their plan literally calls for increasing taxes on middle-class and working people and cutting taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans,” Biden said, referring to the infamous midterm agenda drafted by Florida Sen. Rick Scott. “I believe in bipartisanship, but I have no illusions about this Republican Party, the MAGA party.”
Biden is at his best when he’s going after Republicans who stand on the side of corporations and the rich. “They still refuse to consider changing any part of the Trump tax cuts — which delivered massive windfalls to billionaires and others, and they weren’t paid for,” he told the crowd. “They still refuse to consider a minimum corporate tax of 15 percent. ... They seem to think that the problem in America today is that working families aren’t paying enough.”
He also took issue with a point in Scott’s plan that would “sunset” all federal legislation after five years. “Really, ask yourself, how are you going to sleep at night knowing every five years, Ted Cruz and the other ultra-MAGA Republicans are gonna vote on whether you’ll have Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid?” he argued.
Finally, Biden returned to the Affordable Care Act, pointing out that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is still running on repealing it. As Biden said, that would mean taking away protections for millions of people with preexisting conditions.
In short, Biden argued more convincingly than usual that “we’ve made extraordinary progress by laying a new foundation for our economy,” but that Republicans, if given the majority, would only make matters worse.
It’s no wonder Biden seemed more at ease. He has embraced that message for his entire career. Not coincidentally, the contrast between Democrats as the party of the “little” guy and Republicans as the party of corporations and the super rich has generally worked for Democrats.
“America still has a choice to make — a choice between a government by the few, for the few, or a government for all of us,” he declared. “Democracy for all of us, an economy where all of us have a fair shot and a chance to earn our place in the economy.” That argument might be the best shot Biden has to prevent a Democratic drubbing in November. | 2022-06-15T14:35:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Biden’s rousing speech before the AFL-CIO is exactly the message Democrats need - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/bidens-rousing-speech-before-afl-cio-is-exactly-message-democrats-need/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/bidens-rousing-speech-before-afl-cio-is-exactly-message-democrats-need/ |
Senate candidate Herschel Walker speaks to supporters during an election night watch party on May 24 in Atlanta. (Brynn Anderson/AP)
Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate nominee in Georgia who has been a vocal critic of absentee fathers in Black households, acknowledged Tuesday that he has a second son with whom he has little interaction.
The acknowledgment came after the Daily Beast reported that Walker has a 10-year-old son, and that the boy’s mother sued the football legend to obtain a declaration of paternity and child support. By the time Walker was ordered to pay child support in August 2014, the child had already taken his last name, according to the Daily Beast.
Scott Paradise, Walker’s campaign manager, confirmed in a statement to The Washington Post early Wednesday that Walker has a second son.
While Walker has won the hearts of former president Donald Trump and GOP voters, he has faced blowback from critics and Democrats for false claims he made before and during his candidacy that have surfaced in recent months — from his education and alleged background working law enforcement to his questioning of evolution and promoting a “mist” he said would “kill any covid on your body.”
The latest came Monday when the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on previous speeches and statements given by Walker about how he claimed he had worked with police in Cobb County, Ga., and was an FBI agent. Former DeKalb County district attorney J. Tom Morgan, a Democrat, told The Post that the “honorary deputy” title promoted by Walker’s campaign as his link to law enforcement is equivalent to “a junior ranger badge.”
Walker, who more than 68 percent of the vote in last month’s Republican primary — is also among the 100-plus GOP primary winners who have supported Trump’s false claims that there was widespread fraud during the 2020 presidential election, according to a new Post analysis.
Walker has often spoken of the strong relationship he has with his 22-year-old son, Christian, on the campaign trail as part of his efforts to unseat freshman Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) in November. Warnock is also facing a child-custody dispute, as his ex-wife is suing him to have the child support payments “recalculated” based on his increased income since coming to the Senate, according to the Journal-Constitution.
A Warnock campaign spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Wednesday. Paradise argued to The Post that the child-support situations between the Senate candidates shows “a complete double standard.”
Before and during his candidacy, Walker has repeatedly talked about how proud he is to be a father. He’s also been outspoken about how fathers, especially those in the Black community, needed to be present and active in their children’s lives.
Of the many states running primaries or runoffs on May 24, Georgia took center stage. Here’s what you need to know. (Video: Adriana Usero/The Washington Post)
In 2020, Walker told Charlie Kirk, chief executive of the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, that absentee fathers in Black households was a significant issue.
“I want to apologize to the African American community, because the fatherless home is a major, major problem,” he said at the time, adding that he was “like a father” to many young people in his hometown in Georgia.
He reiterated those sentiments last year to conservative social media stars Diamond and Silk, comparing a Black father leaving his family to separations during slavery.
But several years earlier, Walker was petitioned to prove his paternity and pay child support. Walker and the woman, who is not publicly identified, had a relationship between 2008 and 2011, according to a 2013 petition from attorney Andres Alonso. The petition states that the two separated about eight months before the child was born on May 31, 2012, in New York County.
“The child’s mother is a graduate student at Columbia University struggling to make ends meet. Unfortunately, Mr. Walker has thus far decided not to take full financial responsibility for the care of his alleged son,” the petition stated at the time. “We hope that with the filing of the petition Mr. Walker will finally acknowledge the true extent of his support obligations.”
More than a year later, Walker was ordered to pay child support for a boy who was already more than 2 years old.
Walker was met with criticism from Democrats, such as CNN analyst Bakari Sellers, a former Democratic member of the South Carolina House of Representatives: “.@HerschelWalker out here lecturing Black men on fatherhood and ain’t seen his kid since Obama’s first term,” he tweeted.
A new poll this week from East Carolina University’s Center for Survey Research shows Walker and Warnock to be in a dead heat less than five months before the midterm election.
2:31 PMThe latest: Biden to sign order designed to protect LGBT Americans
2:19 PMNoted: Herschel Walker, who criticizes absentee fathers, acknowledges second son | 2022-06-15T15:01:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Herschel Walker, critic of absentee Black fathers, acknowledges having second son - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/herschel-walker-son-georgia-senate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/herschel-walker-son-georgia-senate/ |
Amber Heard says she harbors no ‘ill will’ toward Johnny Depp
Amber Heard is interviewed by “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie about events related to the high-profile trial with Johnny Depp. (NBC News)
Two weeks after a jury found Amber Heard defamed ex-husband Johnny Depp with a 2018 opinion article in which she described herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse,” Heard said on television that she fears “every step that I take will present another opportunity for this sort of silencing.”
“Which is what, I guess, a defamation lawsuit is meant to do,” she continued. “It’s meant to take your voice.”
Heard sat down with “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie for an extensive interview that aired over Tuesday and Wednesday mornings on NBC and will also be the focus of Friday’s “Dateline.” Guthrie has previously spoken to lawyers for both Heard and Depp on air and noted before the latter interview that her husband “has done consulting work” for the Depp lawyers, but not for that particular conversation.
Heard’s appearance on “Today” marks the first time the actress has spoken to the media about the verdict in the high-profile trial sparked by the defamation lawsuit Depp filed over the op-ed she published with The Washington Post. On June 1, Depp was awarded $15 million in damages. Heard received $2 million after the Fairfax County Circuit Court jury found former Depp lawyer Adam Waldman had defamed her.
In a portion of the conversation teased Monday, Heard pointed to the “hate and vitriol” she received during the trial and said, in response to fervent online support for Depp, that “even if you think I’m lying, you still couldn’t look me in the eye and tell me that you think on social media there’s been a fair representation.” In the extended interview, Heard told Guthrie that she knew she wasn’t a “likable” or “perfect victim.”
“But when I testified, I asked the jury to just see me as human,” Heard said.
Guthrie pressed Heard on several of her decisions related to the trial, including to write the op-ed after the resurgence of the #MeToo movement. The co-anchor asked whether Heard considered that it would be clear she was referring to Depp in the piece, despite not mentioning him by name. Heard responded that it was “important for me to not make it about him,” and said she had “teams of lawyers” review drafts of the op-ed to make sure she didn’t “do anything like defame him.”
Heard said she didn’t intend for Depp to lose work as a result of the op-ed, and that the reason she didn’t cooperate with police when officers were called to the residence during her marriage was because she “didn’t want to get him in trouble.” She also denied that she told TMZ when she would be going to the courthouse to get a restraining order against Depp.
“I love him,” Heard said. “I loved him with all my heart. And I tried the best I could to make a deeply broken relationship work. And I couldn’t. I have no bad feelings or ill will toward him at all. I know that might be hard to understand, or it might be really easy to understand if you’ve ever loved anyone.”
Last week, Depp lawyers Benjamin Chew and Camille Vasquez discussed the weeks-long trial on multiple morning shows. Chew said on “Good Morning America” that Depp was “over the moon” with the verdict. Vasquez said she didn’t think the outcome would discourage abuse victims from coming forward.
The day after the verdict, Heard lawyer Elaine Bredehoft said on multiple shows that Heard intended to appeal the verdict and “has some excellent grounds for it.” Bredehoft said the verdict sent “a horrible message,” and that “there were a lot of influences here that were beyond our control.”
Heard agreed with Bredehoft during her “Today” interview, especially regarding social media attacking her character. But Heard also said of the overall experience, “No matter what, it will mean something.”
She added, “I did the right thing.” | 2022-06-15T15:10:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amber Heard says she harbors no ‘ill will’ toward Johnny Depp - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/15/amber-heard-johnny-depp-today/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/06/15/amber-heard-johnny-depp-today/ |
Pharrell Williams is bringing his Something in the Water festival to downtown D.C. over Juneteenth weekend. (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
In 2019, Pharrell Williams launched Something in the Water, a three-day festival celebrating the impact his hometown of Virginia Beach and the surrounding area has had on music, arts and American life. While the pandemic curtailed plans to make it an annual event, Something in the Water is returning this month — but not to Virginia Beach, after the superstar musician decried the city’s “toxic energy” after police killed his cousin.
Instead, Williams and company are coming to downtown D.C., taking over a swath of Independence Avenue SW with some of the most notable names in hip-hop, R&B and beyond over Juneteenth weekend.
True to the festival’s Virginia roots, drug-rap don Pusha T and jam rockers nonpareil Dave Matthews Band will represent the V in the DMV, while Backyard Band, Rare Essence and Sound of the City will keep the District’s go-go tradition alive. The festival also features turn-of-the-millennium favorites such as Usher, the hitmaking pair Ashanti and Ja Rule, and leaders of the new school Lil Uzi Vert and Tyler, the Creator.
At the top of the bill are the organizer himself and a cast of “phriends” that includes Q-Tip, N.O.R.E., SZA, longtime collaborator Justin Timberlake and Clipse, the long-awaited reunion of Pusha T and his brother No Malice. The lineup also offers revelers plenty of chances to experience some of the brightest young things that contemporary music has to offer. Here are six acts concertgoers shouldn’t miss.
For much of the 2010s, music festivals were synonymous with the oontz-oontz of electronic dance music. Calvin Harris has been a reliable presence for EDM’s entire rise, deftly adapting to the genre’s ebbs and flows. The Scottish DJ-producer-singer-songwriter has a deep catalogue of crowd-pleasing hits that should get the Something in the Water crowd dancing, from singalong hits featuring Rihanna and Dua Lipa to his own disco-house concoctions like “Feel So Close” and “Summer.” Expect to hear material from his forthcoming “Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 2,” the second collection of true-to-their-title songs that sees the DJ calling in the biggest names in pop music for a summer-ready soundtrack.
Denzel Curry, 27, has the expansive discography of a grizzled rap veteran beyond his years. But the South Florida star had an early start, releasing his first mix tape at just 16 as part of influential rap crew Raider Klan. In the years since, Curry has been on a stylistic zigzag, adeptly delivering goth-tinged mosh-pit starters, syllable-heavy psychedelia, breathless songwriting showcases and Biscayne Bay bangers. On this year’s “Melt My Eyez See Your Future,” Curry shed his previous alter egos and drew inspiration from westerns and samurai flicks as a means for self-exploration. Considering how swiftly he moves through sounds, it’s no surprise his lyrical approach is so well-suited for music more indebted to the jazzy boom-bap beats of hip-hop’s golden age. As he raps on “Walkin’”: “I started in a nightmare so pinch me, I’m dreamin’ / I’m killin’ off my demons ’cause my soul’s worth redeemin.’ ”
A few years ago, Dreamer Isioma went viral the new-fashioned way — on TikTok — with “Sensitive,” a percolating trash-talker that quickly established the Chicago-based singer-songwriter as an exciting new voice. On their debut album, “Goodnight Dreamer,” the first-generation Nigerian American talent continued to flip rap cliches into new forms and functions, sneering and shrugging vocals on songs that turn pop music’s past into its present. In concert, the frantic and concussive “Crying in the Club” could inspire ecstatic catharsis, while the funkadelic “HUH?” speaks truth to power and asks tough questions while burning the house down: “You dance to the music but you ain’t about the movement / What the hell is you doing?”
There are few musicians who have made a bigger mark during the latest crossover of urbano — that umbrella term for reggaeton, dance hall and Latin trap — than Ozuna. The Puerto Rican vocalist broke through on massive posse cut “Te Boté” alongside fellow stars Bad Bunny and Nicky Jam, and has since racked up handfuls of appearances that have notched more than a billion views on YouTube. With a lithe, versatile voice, Ozuna is as comfortable on DJ Snake’s moombahton smash “Taki Taki” as he is duetting with Latin pop star — and his favorite singer — Romeo Santos.
Singer-songwriter Raveena is at her best when juxtaposing elements of her identity and influences, creating something uniquely and wholly her own. The Indian American talent provided a glimpse of a musical secret garden with her mellow debut, “Lucid,” but returned earlier this year with a concept album that has an even clearer third-eye vision. “Asha’s Awakening” revolves around the journey of a Punjabi space princess, giving a 10,000-foot — or 10,000-year — view of the human experience through a collision of sonic palettes, rhythms and cultures. For the album, Ravenna cites influences ranging from jazz legend Alice Coltrane and Indian singer Asha Puthli to globe-trotting pop experimenters Timbaland, Missy Elliott and M.I.A., and the result keeps hands clapping, feet stomping, hips rolling and brains ticking. “I think it’s really fun putting people in uncomfortable positions to receive new sides of you,” she has said. “The human experience is so vast.”
Sabrina Claudio emerged a few years back as part of a wave of silky-smooth purveyors of quiet storm R&B. The Cuban-Puerto Rican singer was all breathy coos and come-ons, with gentle touches of melisma and falsetto, on her syrupy debut, “About Time.” This year she returned with “Based on a Feeling,” an album penned during the isolation of the pandemic that is sonically deeper, fuller and richer yet still focused on “Subtle Things” and “Basic Needs,” as two song titles proclaim. During a long, hot weekend, her music could envelop concertgoers and provide a chance to reflect.
Independence Avenue, between Third and Ninth streets SW. somethinginthewater.com.
Dates: June 17-19. Gates open at 2 p.m. June 17-18 and at noon June 19.
Price: $399.50 for a three-day pass. | 2022-06-15T15:11:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Something in the Water preview: Six acts you shouldn't miss - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/15/something-in-the-water-dc-preview/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/06/15/something-in-the-water-dc-preview/ |
Peyton Gendron, who is accused of authoring a racist replacement-theory rant and killing 10 Black people, could be eligible for the death penalty.
BUFFALO, NY - On May 17, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited the memorial across the street from the scene of a deadly mass shooting at a Tops Supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., on May 14. (Heather Ainsworth for The Washington Post)
The Justice Department on Wednesday charged Peyton Gendron, 18, with 26 hate-crime counts and a firearm offense in the mass shooting that killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo grocery store last month. The charges could make Gendron eligible for the death penalty.
The charges were announced as Attorney General Merrick Garland met with dozens of survivors of the shooting and family members of those who were slain.
Garland, along with several top deputies, gathered privately with about 40 local residents at the Apollo Media Center, to provide an update on the Justice Department’s federal civil rights investigation.
Two weeks ago, a state grand jury indicted Gendron on 25 counts, including domestic terrorism and murder as a hate crime. Authorities said Gendron shot 13 people, 11 of them Black, at the Tops Friendly Markets on May 14. Before the rampage, investigators say, Gendron had said and written that he subscribed to a racist ideology called the “great replacement” theory.
Garland was joined in the meeting by Trini E. Ross, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York; Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta; Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who leads the civil rights division; and Paul Abbate, deputy director of the FBI. | 2022-06-15T15:11:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Suspect in Buffalo grocery massacre charged with federal hate crimes - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/15/buffalo-gendron-federal-hate-crimes/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/15/buffalo-gendron-federal-hate-crimes/ |
Protesters form a chain around the European Commission's headquarters in Brussels on June 12 to support Ukraine's application for E.U. candidacy status. (Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP/Getty Images)
The survey across 10 European countries suggests public attention may turn from the war to fears about its wider impact, particularly the rising cost of living on the continent. European governments will have to keep those concerns in mind as they seek to maintain public support for their Ukraine policies, some analysts say.
Still, Europeans are not divided over support for Ukraine — or about who’s responsible for the war. A large majority, 73 percent, mainly blame Moscow, and 64 percent believe that Russia, not the United States, the European Union or Ukraine, is the biggest obstacle to peace.
Respondents were split into those who favor “peace,” even if that involves concessions from Ukraine, and those who view “justice” as the priority, even if it means a protracted conflict. A fifth of the voters “swing” between the two and still want a strong European response, while the rest said they didn’t know.
Putin prepared for ‘prolonged’ conflict, U.S. intelligence chief says
This split in public opinion was reflected in comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday. In a speech from a military base in Romania, Macron said he hopes Ukraine will win the war, but “we also want to build peace, which means that at some point, we all want the fire to stop and for discussions to resume.”
“The Ukrainian president … will have to negotiate with Russia, and we Europeans will be around this table,” he said. “That’s the reality of things.”
In all 10 countries surveyed, apart from Poland, the first camp — for “peace” — is larger than the second, labeled “justice.” Many of those in the first category worry their governments are prioritizing “action against Russia ahead of other important issues, such as rising inflation and the cost-of-living crisis,” the ECFR said.
As economies reel from the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine propelled already rising inflation in countries that use the euro to a record high in May, with energy projected to have the steepest annual rate. And that was before an E.U. deal this month to phase out most imports of Russian oil, spurred by mounting evidence of Russian war crimes in Kyiv’s suburbs.
On Sunday, President Biden blamed the Russian invasion of Ukraine for rising U.S. gas prices, saying it was “outrageous what the war in Ukraine is causing.”
The Western sanctions that hit the Russian economy “will also affect the lives of European citizens with a direct impact on their homes, their jobs, their wallets,” lawmaker Sara Matthieu told her colleagues. She urged the 27-nation bloc to help mitigate the rise in prices and “protect our citizens, specifically those at risk of falling into poverty, people that are afraid of not being able to heat their homes next winter.”
The impact on European households has prompted a range of policy moves. Germany, for example, is offering temporary energy tax reductions and issuing a monthly nine-euro ticket for public transportation. | 2022-06-15T15:12:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ukraine support high in Europe, but inflation could deepen divisions, poll suggests - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/ukraine-war-support-inflation-europe-poll-yougov/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/ukraine-war-support-inflation-europe-poll-yougov/ |
Libya oil output strangled from infighting in world starved of energy
A view shows the Zueitina oil terminal west of Benghazi, Libya Oct. 4, 2020. (Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Libya’s oil production has almost completely halted due to a political stalemate, officials told media, during a time of heightened global concerns over the supply of crude.
The Libyan Ministry of Oil and Gas told media this week that the country’s oil output has fallen more than 85 percent, with production now at 100,000-150,000 barrels per day according to Reuters — a shocking drop from a once robust of 1.2 million barrels per day last year.
The drop in production, initially reported by Bloomberg, places further pressure on a global market that has already witnessed a 50 percent jump in the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil this year, up to nearly $120. It also comes at a time when Europe is desperately seeking alternatives to Russian energy from sources in Africa and the Mediterranean.
Libya postpones presidential election at last minute amid renewed threat of civil unrest
The blockade of oil facilities is driven by a political rivalry between two main factions in the country over the control of Libya’s government. Tripoli-based Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, who came to power in a U.N.-backed process, refused to hand over power to Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed prime minister in March by the eastern-based parliament, which is in turn backed by the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA).
The LNA is led by Khalifa Hifter, an eastern-based warlord who controls significant territory. In 2019, his forces launched an offensive against Tripoli, where a U.N.-backed government has been in power.
The struggle has also featured extensive involvement of foreign powers, including Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the Russian mercenary outfit known as the Wagner Group.
A much-anticipated parliamentary election in December was postponed, dashing international hopes in a vote that could help lead Libya out of the decade of chaos that followed the overthrow of Moammar Gaddafi in the 2011 revolution. In the years that followed, Libya descended into chaos as rival camps battled for control of the oil-rich nation — with the facilities at the heart of the country’s wealth turned into bargaining chips.
Hifter’s group controls many of the country’s major oil fields and terminals. Groups of protesters closed two major oil fields in April, halving the country’s output to 600,000 barrels a day at the time, according to Bloomberg. The continuing shutdowns are ostensibly the work of local protesters demanding Dbeibah hand over his power, at the LNA’s behest, Reuters reported.
A video statement by protesters in Zueitina oil terminal then demanded both the ouster of Dbeibah and the sacking of Mustafa Sanallah, chairman of the National Oil Corporation because the company had sent oil revenue to Dbeibah’s government.
Hifter’s use of tribesman to close oil facilities aims to starve the U.N.-backed unity government in Tripoli, said Anas al-Gomati, director of Libyan think tank the Sadeq Institute, as well as placing pressure on the United States and Europe into backing Hifter’s rival government.
It is not the first time Hifter has employed such a tactic to place pressure on international powers: in 2020, a months-long blockade cost Libya heavy financial losses to place pressure on Hifter’s rivals during peace talks.
“It is notable that Russian Wagner Group mercenaries working alongside Hifter’s forces since 2019 have long held influence” in some oil facilities since 2020, said Gomati. “Russia stand to benefit as Europe remains reliant on Russian energy and starved of alternatives in the Mediterranean.”
“It emboldens Hifter and his Russian backers to strongarm the international community in Libya, and could destabilize the country’s fragile cease-fire,” added Gomati.
The Ministry of Oil and Gas could not be immediately reached for comment. In a post on its Facebook page on Saturday, the ministry emphasized the negative effect of these blockades, “especially with the unprecedented rise in prices in the global oil market.” The blockade, it continued, will make Libyans lose out on much-needed revenue. | 2022-06-15T15:45:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Libyan oil output strangled as world craves energy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/libya-oil-output/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/libya-oil-output/ |
Book club: Boy questions his beliefs as America prepares for war
In Avi’s “Loyalty,” a Colonial family supports Britain, but the son must decide for himself where his allegiance lies.
The American Revolution and the lead-up to it might seem like a simple story: The British were unfair to the American colonists, taxing them without giving them a voice in Parliament and getting too involved in local government. The liberty-seeking patriots were the heroes. But for Noah Cope, a 13-year-old main character in the novel “Loyalty,” the situation was a lot more complicated.
In 1774, Noah’s family lives in Tullbury, Massachusetts, where his father is a pastor of a parish connected to the Church of England. Noah and his two sisters were born in America, but the Copes consider themselves British. As the story begins, Noah’s father is overheard praying for King George III. He’s pulled from their home by local rebels and ordered to denounce the king. When he refuses, he’s stripped of clothing, and covered in hot tar and feathers. Mr. Cope dies of his injuries a few days later, and Noah is beaten for not providing names of other townspeople loyal to the king.
The teen vows to avenge his father’s killing by joining the Royal Navy and helping defeat the rebels. After the family heads to nearby Boston for protection, Noah finds he’s far too young and too short to join the military. But he’s offered a job as a spy.
Noah eagerly accepts the assignment, which mostly involves eavesdropping on Paul Revere, Samuel Adams and others at a pub and sharing what he learns with the British. At first, Noah thinks his mission is heroic, protecting colonists from a small, violent group of rebels. But he starts to hear and see things that don’t fit with that perspective.
Jolla, a Black teenager freed from enslavement who works at the pub, is suspicious of both sides and their promises. He encourages Noah to think critically. Noah doesn’t want to reject his father’s beliefs, but it becomes clear that the rebels have a lot of support. As war appears likely, the teen realizes he has to reconsider where his loyalties lie.
In Lauren Tarshis’s “I Survived the American Revolution, 1776” (for ages 7 to 10), orphan Nathaniel Knox runs away from his mean uncle’s house and finds himself in New York City during the Battle of Brooklyn Heights. The 11-year-old gets an up-close look at war and how slavery is involved in the fight for liberty.
World War II is the backdrop of Alan Gratz’s “Projekt 1065” (ages 10 to 14), the story of Michael O’Shaunessey, who poses as a member of Hitler Youth to spy on Nazi Germany for the Irish government. The German people aren’t all bad, and the teen wrestles with betrayal and the weight of individual sacrifice for the greater cause.
The Summer Book Club is open to kids ages 6 to 14. They may read some or all of the books on our list. (Find a blurb for each book at wapo.st/kidspostbookclublaunch2022.) The first 700 kids registered will receive a notebook and pen. To join the club, children must be registered by a parent or guardian. To register, that adult must fill out our form at wapo.st/kidspostbookclub2022. If you have questions, contact kidspost@washpost.com.
Do you have a suggestion? | 2022-06-15T15:49:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kids book club: In Avi's 'Loyalty,' a boy struggles to take sides as America moves toward war - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/06/15/kidspost-book-club-loyalty/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/kidspost/2022/06/15/kidspost-book-club-loyalty/ |
Commanders owner Daniel Snyder has declined to appear before a congressional committee. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder informed the House Committee on Oversight and Reform that he will not appear at a hearing next week on the team’s workplace issues, as requested.
“The Committee intends to move forward with this hearing,” a spokesperson said. “We are currently reviewing Mr. Snyder’s letter and will respond.”
The committee made its requests to Snyder and Goodell in separate letters sent June 1 from Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), the committee’s chairwoman, and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the chairman of the subcommittee on economic and consumer policy. In those letters, the committee asked for responses by June 6.
The league and team said in separate statements that they would respond in a timely manner. The committee said it was requesting Goodell and Snyder to appear, rather than issuing subpoenas.
The committee’s June 1 letters said that the hearing “will address the Washington Commanders’ toxic workplace culture and the National Football League’s (NFL) handling of that matter. It will also examine the NFL’s role in setting and enforcing standards across the League, which serves as a leading example to other American workplaces.”
The offices of attorneys general Jason S. Miyares (R) of Virginia and Karl A. Racine (D) of the District of Columbia have announced they are conducting their own investigations. | 2022-06-15T15:53:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Daniel Snyder declines congressional request to appear at hearing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/dan-snyder-roger-goodell-congressional-hearing-commanders/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/dan-snyder-roger-goodell-congressional-hearing-commanders/ |
A flag flies outside Caterpillar Inc. headquarters in Peoria, Illinois, U.S., on Thursday, March 2, 2017. Caterpillar shares headed for the steepest decline in eight months as the worlds biggest maker of machinery for mining and construction had its offices raided by law enforcement officials. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
The headquarters moves by Caterpillar Inc. and Boeing Co. are a sign of how detached the corporate mailbox is becoming from industrial companies’ core manufacturing operations.
Caterpillar announced on Tuesday that it would move its global headquarters to an existing office in Irving, Texas — part of the Dallas-Fort Worth area — from its current location in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois. It’s the second big manufacturing company to ditch Illinois in as many months, with Boeing announcing in May that it would move its headquarters to Arlington, Virginia, from Chicago. What’s particularly striking about both moves is just how few jobs will be affected: In Caterpillar’s case, the headquarters shift involves about 230 employees. That compares with the more than 17,000 mostly manufacturing workers that will continue to operate in Illinois for now and Caterpillar’s total global workforce of more than 107,000. At Boeing, the office reshuffling is primarily about finding new desks for Chief Executive Officer Dave Calhoun and Chief Financial Officer Brian West. Asked this week how many jobs would move to Virginia, Calhoun said: “Almost none — like none.” Boeing isn’t planning any new buildings; the company will instead fill unused space at its existing defense campus in Arlington.
Headquarters moves tend to attract a lot of attention because corporate offices have historically represented attractive buckets of tax dollars for the local community. Amazon.com Inc. infamously held a high-profile competition for the location of its second headquarters in 2018, leading to an embarrassing parade of investment promises and tax breaks as states and cities tried to one-up one another. It’s highly debatable whether throwing money at companies to move their headquarters around the continental U.S. is a particularly effective or worthwhile strategy, but a theoretical argument could be made about the benefits of adding thousands or tens of thousands of jobs to the local community. For a growing number of US manufacturing companies, however, the headquarters office simply doesn’t matter much anymore. Caterpillar didn’t request and will not receive any incentives related to the headquarters move, spokeswoman Kate Kenny said in an email. That’s good because any politician who offered financial rewards for fewer than 250 jobs would have a lot of explaining to do. Raytheon Technologies Corp. announced separately this month that it’s moving its headquarters to Arlington, Virginia, from Waltham, Massachusetts. In a statement, the company made a point of noting that it, too, neither sought nor accepted any financial incentives from any state or municipality related to the move. Raytheon employs about 130 corporate staff members in Arlington and doesn’t expect that number to increase significantly, a spokesperson said. There will be no impact to its headcount in Massachusetts.
Read more: A Former Elevator Maker Needs Fewer Floors
Caterpillar told Bloomberg News that its headquarters move would help it attract talent and improve access to its employees, customers and dealer network because of the two major airports in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. I have a hard time believing that Caterpillar, one of the largest companies in the world and a pillar of the Illinois economy, had a terribly difficult time recruiting some 250 people to the Chicago area to fill its headquarters positions. Chicago also has two major airports, and Caterpillar’s Deerfield office is about a 20-minute drive from O’Hare International. Caterpillar also cited access to a mix of downtown and suburban residential areas with a range of housing prices and high-quality school districts as part of the Dallas-Fort Worth area’s appeal. For what it’s worth, Texas’ lack of an individual income tax also has benefits for Caterpillar CEO Jim Umpleby, who earned a $1.65 million salary in 2021 and whose total annual compensation of $24.3 million was 475 times that of the company’s median employee.These are still manufacturing companies, and remote work or not, there’s a risk in putting the CEO office too far geographically from the factory floor. Caterpillar’s electric generator division is now based in Irving, Texas, but that’s a comparatively small business for the maker of construction and mining equipment, and Illinois remains home to the largest concentration of the company’s employees. Boeing is moving an even longer plane ride away from its commercial aerospace operations in Seattle, and it’s not clear how that helps the company address its primary challenge at the moment of making and delivering jets as promised to customers.
• ‘Just in Time’ Is Sticking With Manufacturers: Brooke Sutherland
• Consumers Are Losers in a Booming Industrial Economy: Conor Sen
• KKR Wins by Treating Workers More Like Owners: Brooke Sutherland | 2022-06-15T16:41:50Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Caterpillar and Boeing Show Headquarters Don’t Matter - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/caterpillar-and-boeing-showheadquarters-dont-matter/2022/06/15/06897d20-ecc5-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/caterpillar-and-boeing-showheadquarters-dont-matter/2022/06/15/06897d20-ecc5-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
George Washington University to stop using ‘Colonials’ name by 2023-24
George Washington University said it will drop its "Colonials" moniker by the 2023-24 academic year. (Jonathan Newton /The Washington Post)
George Washington University will retire its “Colonials” moniker, a name intended to honor its namesake but that has long been criticized as a term that glorifies colonialism, officials announced Wednesday.
In a statement, university officials said the use of the moniker has divided the community and can “no longer serve its purpose as a name that unifies.” Officials said they will continue to use the moniker until a new name is introduced, a change expected to come by the 2023-24 school year.
The announcement comes almost two years after the university established committees to consider requests to shed the moniker and rename campus buildings. Among those requests were calls to change the name of the school’s student center — formerly the Cloyd Heck Marvin Center, named after a university president who advocated for segregation — which was renamed last year.
The name “Colonials,” introduced in 1926, has been a ubiquitous part of the GWU experience. The sports teams are named the “Colonials.” Students schedule medical appointments at the Colonial Health Center and exchange “Colonial Cash” for meals and laundry services.
Mark S. Wrighton, who took office as the university’s interim president in January, commended the university’s “principled” approach to this decision.
“I was impressed by the principled and collaborative approach of the special committee, and it was clear this process was driven by research and robust engagement with the community," Wrighton said in a statement. "While some may disagree with the outcome, this process has determined that changing the moniker is the right decision for our university.” | 2022-06-15T16:41:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | George Washington University to drop 'Colonials' name - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/15/gwu-colonials-change/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/06/15/gwu-colonials-change/ |
FILE - Dolly Parton performs at Austin City Limits Live during Blockchain Creative Labs’ Dollyverse event during the South by Southwest Music Festival on March 18, 2022, in Austin, Texas. Parton is donating $1 million to pediatric infectious disease research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, the organization announced on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. The new gift is one of several Parton has made to the center over the years, including a $1 million gift in April 2020 for COVID vaccine research. (Jack Plunkett/Invision/AP, File) | 2022-06-15T16:42:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dolly Parton gives $1M to infectious disease research, again - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/dolly-parton-gives-1m-to-infectious-disease-research-again/2022/06/15/4be2773a-ecc7-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/dolly-parton-gives-1m-to-infectious-disease-research-again/2022/06/15/4be2773a-ecc7-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
CHICAGO — The swimming season kicked into high gear early in a large swath of the U.S., as a heat wave pushed temperatures into the 90s and beyond on Wednesday in a stretch spanning from northern Florida to the Great Lakes and covering about a third of the country’s population. | 2022-06-15T16:42:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Heat wave keeps its sticky grip on Midwest and South - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/heat-wave-keeps-its-sticky-grip-on-midwest-and-south/2022/06/15/5b9628ac-ecc7-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/heat-wave-keeps-its-sticky-grip-on-midwest-and-south/2022/06/15/5b9628ac-ecc7-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
The plot thickens on a GOP congressman’s pre-Jan. 6 tour
There remains no proof that Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) led a “reconnaissance” tour of the Capitol complex for insurrectionists. But Loudermilk clearly hadn’t shared the whole story.
Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) speaks at the Conservative Policy Summit held at the Heritage Foundation in 2015. (Andrew Harnik for The Washington Post)
The Jan. 6 committee on Wednesday morning released new details about the group Loudermilk led around the Capitol complex on Jan. 5. The basics of its letter:
According to surveillance footage, the letter says, Loudermilk led a tour of “approximately ten individuals” through a trio of House office buildings and near entrances to the tunnels to the Capitol.
The committee indicates that participants acted in an unusual manner, taking photographs of areas “not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints.”
It says one of those people (who at one point photographed what appeared to be a staircase) marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6. While near the Capitol, someone the committee identifies as the same man recorded a video with threatening words for Democratic members of Congress. “There’s no escape, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler; we’re coming for you,” the man says in footage provided by the committee. “We’re coming in like white on rice for Pelosi, Nadler, Schumer — even you, AOC. We’re coming to take you out and pull you out by your hairs. How about that, Pelosi? … When I get done with you, you gonna need a shine up on top of that bald head.”
The committee released some of the video:
To be clear — and as we’ve noted before — none of this proves that Loudermilk knowingly or even unknowingly helped those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Nor does the committee’s letter address whether the man in the video even entered the Capitol. But it lends at least some weight to some Democrats’ heretofore-unsubstantiated allegations that GOP members led “reconnaissance” tours before Jan. 6.
We’ll have to learn more about what these people were photographing. But this man’s words certainly suggest he was inclined to go into the Capitol and target Democratic members of Congress — or at least was talking tough about it. The idea that people on tours were in some way casing the Capitol is no longer completely speculation, which it seemed to be for months after Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) first lodged the allegation shortly after the attack.
Breaking down claims about congresspeople and pre-Jan. 6 Capitol tours
As much as anything, though, this new evidence continues to undermine Loudermilk’s explanations.
Loudermilk avoided talking about the tour for many months, even as the committee expressed an interest in the matter. Aides went so far as to suggest that not only were there no “reconnaissance” tours, but that there were no tours, period.
By May, though, the committee said it had information on a tour that it wanted Loudermilk to address.
In a statement at the time, Loudermilk suggested this was just an extremely innocent tour given to a family. He cited “a constituent family with young children meeting with their Member of Congress.” He said “the family did not enter the Capitol grounds on the 6th” and that nobody had been charged or was under investigation for such actions.
Soon, though, Loudermilk expanded the pool of people involved: The next day, he released a video acknowledging that the family also had “guests.” Now we learn the group was in the double-digits — something the Capitol Police have confirmed (it put the number as high as 15 people at one point in the tour).
In a statement Wednesday, Loudermilk’s office didn’t address the discrepancies in his statements or the new evidence from the committee. He did refer to another review by the Capitol Police that found nothing suspicious about his group.
“The Capitol Police already put this false accusation to bed, yet the Committee is undermining the Capitol Police and doubling down on their smear campaign, releasing so-called evidence of a tour of the House Office Buildings, which I have already publicly addressed,” Loudermilk said.
He added: “No where that I went with the visitors in the House Office Buildings on January 5th were breached on January 6th; and, to my knowledge, no one in that group was criminally charged in relation to January 6th.”
There remains a question about whether anyone on this tour actually participated in the insurrection, which the Jan. 6 committee’s letter doesn’t address. Loudermilk told Roll Call this week that his office checked in with the group as the riot unfolded, but that none of them was on the Capitol grounds that day.
Loudermilk said that “they saw some stuff going on didn’t look right, so they all turned and left. So none of them were involved in this.”
In other words, his office kept tabs on this group — yet Loudermilk’s initial statement referred to only a family with young children. What’s more, one participant, according to the Jan. 6 committee, was at least talking about going into the Capitol and threatening Democrats. Perhaps his comments in the video were just tough talk, but it seems more of an open question about what he was actually planning to do and why he was taking pictures.
It might be that what Loudermilk said in his initial statement could technically be true; he didn’t say it was only a family, and perhaps nobody else on the tour ultimately did enter the Capitol. But there was apparently much more to the story that he opted not to share.
It also bears noting that the Jan. 6 committee’s read on the situation is pretty different from that of the Capitol Police. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger released a letter this week stating that the group’s actions on the tour were not suspicious. The Jan. 6 committee, though, now says the “tour raises concerns about their activity and intent while inside the Capitol complex.”
Other video released by NBC News suggests the same man was filming things rather indiscriminately.
Sherrill’s and Maloney’s allegation remains unproven to this day. But Loudermilk has certainly fed into suspicion about what groups like this might have been up to. And for whatever reason, the committee doesn’t seem afraid of looking like it’s tilting at windmills. | 2022-06-15T17:12:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The plot thickens on GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk's pre-Jan. 6 tour of the Capitol complex - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/loudermilk-tour-video/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/loudermilk-tour-video/ |
Ukraine’s ambassador in Berlin doesn’t ‘give a damn’ if he offends for his cause
Andrij Melnyk, Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, at his residency following an interview with The Washington Post on June 6. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
BERLIN — Ukraine’s top diplomat in Germany is not one for being diplomatic.
“Better shut your leftist mouth,” Andrij Melnyk tweeted at a German politician who criticized Ukraine’s Azov Battalion.
“Asshole,” he called out as the head of the German parliament’s foreign affairs committee left through revolving doors after a frustrating joint talk show appearance, Der Spiegel reported.
And in one of his most headline-grabbing insults, he called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz an “offended liverwurst” for refusing to visit Kyiv amid a spat over the German president’s ties to Russia.
But Melnyk, who has held the position of Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin since 2014, is unapologetic.
“I don’t give a damn what they think — I’m not here for a beauty competition,” he said in an interview at his residence last week, wearing a yellow tie and crisp blue shirt that echoed the Ukrainian flag fluttering on the lawn.
“If anyone feels offended, I don’t really care,” he said. “My only task is to tell people the truth of what is happening and this catastrophic situation in my country.”
Melnyk’s outspokenness has caused waves in the staid world of German politics, but his friction with the German political establishment also reflects broader tensions in the Ukraine-Germany relationship.
Ukraine has maintained a tough stance toward its allies in the fight against Russia, challenging them — rather than begging — to do more. And even as Berlin has acted as a key partner, it has also emerged as Kyiv’s frenemy No. 1.
From the pace of its arms deliveries to its reluctant position on oil and gas embargoes, Germany has repeatedly fallen short of Ukrainian expectations.
And the 46-year-old ambassador in Berlin has emerged as one of its most vocal critics.
Melnyk sees public pillory as the most effective way to get assistance, amid what he describes as political inertia even as Russia gains territory on the ground.
“Germany, at least when it comes to Ukraine, makes decisions only under pressure,” he said. “Only when you demand publicly, and when you try to explain publicly, and when there’s a debate going on for some time, only then you have a decision.”
In April, after weeks of fraught debate over whether to send heavy weapons to Ukraine, Scholz finally greenlit deliveries of German-made antiaircraft vehicles. But two months later, heavy weaponry from Germany has yet to arrive in Ukraine, Melnyk said. He doesn’t miss an opportunity for a dig.
After hesitancy, Germany greenlights some heavy arms for Ukraine
“Germany is the world champion in announcements and then doing nothing,” he said, picking up a strawberry from the bowl in front of him.
So, he has sought to ramp up pressure in the press. By his office’s count, before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, he’d done about 800 media interviews. Now, they’ve simply lost track.
But in playing the role of persistent critic, and dispensing with the usual diplomatic niceties, he has become a target of criticism, too.
Appearing on Germany’s top political talk show last month, he clashed with public intellectual Harald Welzer, who had called for an end to arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Welzer called him “incredibly offensive with interlocutors.”
Germany’s history impacts sentiments over weapons deliveries, Welzer said. “The war we experienced has affected every generation.”
“Do you know how many people Nazi Germany killed in Ukraine,” Melnyk interjected. “Your ancestors killed 10 million people in my country.”
And then there was the “liverwurst” episode, which prompted calls for an apology from a broad spectrum of German politicians.
The chancellor had said he would not travel to Kyiv after Ukrainian leaders snubbed a visit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, known for advocating a soft line on Moscow before the invasion. The cold shoulder was inappropriate, Scholz said during an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF.
German chancellor rejects Kyiv visit — but his main rival is set to go
Melnyk, in response, said Scholz was “playing an offended leberwurst” — a common insult in Germany for someone who is easily offended.
“The tone is inappropriate,” Christian Democrat lawmaker Johann Wadephul told Germany’s RND news network. “Even in a special situation, diplomatic representatives should behave appropriately toward government officials.”
And while Melnyk’s blunt style may have made him a media favorite, it has rankled parts of the political establishment.
“I think he’s overdoing it a little now,” said one German politician, who did not want to be named while criticizing the ambassador. “He’s regularly behaving beyond the capacity and demands of an ambassador. You can’t, as the ambassador, attack the head of government or state on a daily basis.”
Melnyk says he’s been unable to get a meeting with Scholz’s foreign policy and security adviser, Jens Plötner, despite multiple requests. “That’s his decision,” Melnyk said, though he says he still has a good working relationship with the chancellery. “I look for other ways.”
Plötner declined to comment. A German official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic relations, said Melnyk has been on several recent visits to the chancellery.
The ambassador said he’d still like to see Scholz go to Kyiv — a visit that may happen this week, alongside France’s Emmanuel Macron and Italy’s Mario Draghi.
A trip by chancellor would be “symbolic” to soldiers on the ground, Melnyk said, “because now the question is: Is Germany on our side?”
Scholz, known for his incredibly cautious public style, is in many ways the polar opposite of Melnyk. He shies away from direct statements and, for the most part, has not stuck his neck out far on Ukraine.
In one of his boldest of moments, three days into the war, Scholz declared a “Zeitenwende” — or turning point — for Germany, as Russia’s aggression reshaped the continent’s security reality. He announced a vast increase in Germany’s defense spending and dropped a red line on weapons deliveries to conflict zones.
Embracing military power, Olaf Scholz tries to lead Germany into a new era
“That was one of the very few days in the past days where I felt happy,” Melnyk said.
But now, the ambassador worries Scholz can’t even bring himself to say that Ukraine should win the war. Instead, the chancellor has said Russia should not win — a small but some say significant difference.
Germany could demonstrate who should prevail through deliveries, he said.
Ukrainian soldiers have been in Germany training on Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzer systems, after Berlin pledged to send seven. But Melnyk argued that Ukraine needs 800 to 1,000 to turn the tide.
The IRIS-T air defense system pledged by Germany last week? “Not a game changer,” he said. “A game changer would be when Germany decides, because of it’s own rational national interests, to help with everything they could.”
While Germany has pledged to phase out Russian oil by the end of the year, Melnyk said a moratorium on Russian gas would be the key to pressuring Moscow, as painful as it might be for Europe. If Germany stopped the gas for three months — and the payments that go along with it — “let’s see whether Putin is going to change his course or not,” he said. “I’m sure that he would.”
While Melnyk’s detractors accuse him of never being satisfied, the ambassador points to the momentum on the battlefield and the need for urgency, as dozens of Ukrainian soldiers die every day.
“Russia is winning,” he said. “Not just by taking new territories, but by destroying everything which is there, killing people, sending people out, making whole areas like a moon landscape.”
Of the criticism he’s gotten, he said: “I don’t enjoy the s***storms or the trolls. But for me, what counts: Is Germany going to help or not?”
Frederik Seeler in Berlin contributed to this report. | 2022-06-15T17:16:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Andrij Melnyk: Ukraine's blunt ambassador to Germany - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/ukraine-germany-ambassador/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/ukraine-germany-ambassador/ |
James Joyce is on my summer reread list. Also, Colette.
I’ll revisit ‘Ulysses’ on its 100th anniversary and delve into ‘Chéri’ as well as works by wonderful modern writers including Guy Gavriel Kay
(Vintage International; W.W. Norton)
In a few weeks, I’ll be taking a summer break through most of July and August. Naturally enough, I’ve been assembling a pile of books to relax with during the downtimes when I won’t be working on a Major Writing Project that is — sigh — at least three years overdue.
First of all, to honor its centenary, I’d like to reread James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” which was published exactly 100 years ago on June 16, 1922. If you’ve always shied away from tackling this modernist masterpiece, let me recommend Frank Delaney’s “Re: Joyce,” a podcast that analyzes this richly layered text sentence by sentence. Delaney, who was born in County Tipperary, possessed one of those gorgeous Irish voices, coupled with a genial conversational manner, that make listening to him an utter joy. Alas, he died in 2017 when he had explicated only the first third of the book.
Joyce, ‘Ulysses’ and obscenity viewed in page-turner style
I’m also hoping to revisit another classic, Colette’s two-part “Chéri” (1920) and “The End of Chéri” (1926), now available in a carefully attentive new translation by Rachel Careau, who also provides a substantial introduction. I first discovered these mildly shocking novels — about a self-centered pretty boy and the older, worldly wise cocotte who loves him — when I was teaching in a lycée in Marseille, but that was a long time ago, and my French has since grown rusty. So, I’m eager to try Careau’s English version, perhaps with an occasional glance at my ancient Livre de Poche editions.
Some years ago, Johns Hopkins University Press reissued, in paperback, a six-volume boxed set of Giacomo Casanova’s “The History of My Life,” translated by Willard R. Trask. Reading it proved to be a revelation. While chockablock with (consensual) sexual encounters, the memoirs also chronicle one get-rich-quick scheme after another, as this picaresque rogue dodges the law throughout most of 18th-century Europe, including Turkey, Russia and England. Certainly, no reader ever forgets Casanova’s escape, through a combination of ingenuity and daring, from the notorious Venetian prison known as the Leads. Still, there’s always been some question about the veracity of this tireless con artist (multilingual pun intended). Happily, Leo Damrosch, the author of superb books about Rousseau, Swift and the world of Samuel Johnson, has just brought out “The Adventurer: The Life and Times of Giacomo Casanova” (Yale). I can hardly wait to start it.
James Grady’s latest thriller, “This Train” (Pegasus), takes place almost entirely on Amtrak’s “Empire Builder” as it speeds across the country from Seattle to Chicago. Since I’ve already zipped through the first chapters, I know that the passengers constitute a cross-section of American types — visualize an updated version of Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims — whose actions, often enigmatic and ominously unsettling, are relayed in fast-moving, syncopated prose, each sentence like a knife-thrust. Of course, it is a truth universally acknowledged that suspense novels set on trains can’t help be other than terrific, and this one involves conspiracy and possible terrorism. Needless to say, any fan of Grady’s “Condor” adventures will be eager to climb onboard “This Train.”
Why isn’t Guy Gavriel Kay better known to general readers? In seductive prose, Kay’s historical fantasies transport the reader to a Renaissance Europe that never quite existed and rival the works of George R.R. Martin and Robin Hobb for sheer excitement. Having much enjoyed Kay’s “Under Heaven,” an intricate novel of political chicanery in 8-century China, I’m now looking forward to “All the Seas of the World” (Berkley). Right now, I simply know that the plot involves two assassins in a half Italianate, half Arabic Mediterranean world of intrigue and romance, but then who needs to know more? Advance reviews have used the word “masterpiece.”
Ever since reading Gigi Pandian’s “The Locked Room Library” in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine — it was shortlisted for several awards — I’ve been eager to try her longer fiction. Published this past spring, Pandian’s “Under Lock & Skeleton Key” (Minotaur) inaugurates a series focusing on the Secret Staircase Construction Company, which specializes in creating hidden compartments, sliding bookcases and the like for its clients’ homes. In this initial whodunit, a young illusionist named Tempest Raj discovers the body of someone she once knew inside a wall that has supposedly been sealed for more than a century. Pandian proclaims herself a disciple of John Dickson Carr, so I’m eager to see how her new book compares with the master’s locked-room classics.
Finding wisdom in Charles Baudelaire’s mad scribblings
Let me at least mention two more attractive-sounding summer escapes. J.H. Gelernter’s “Captain Grey’s Gambit” (Norton), set during the Napoleonic era, is the second outing for British secret agent Richard Grey. In this one, an international chess tournament provides the background — and that alone pretty much sells the book for me. As an admirer of David Stacton’s breathtakingly brilliant “The Judges of the Secret Court,” I was drawn to Paul Witcover’s “Lincolnstein” (PS Publishing), which also focuses on Abraham Lincoln’s assassination by John Wilkes Booth. But in this fantastic reimagining, Lincoln is “saved” through radical surgical techniques like those employed by one Victor Frankenstein. As it happens, though, the president’s new brain has been excised from the body of Jim, the longtime Black friend of a Union intelligence officer named Finn, who is soon ordered to hunt down and destroy the escaped monster. Given such iconic characters, how could a fantasy novel be more American, especially when it also addresses the themes of race, inequality and love?
Every summer reading list needs at least one “rediscovery.” A while back, I wrote about “Living Alone,” Stella Benson’s strange, almost surreally comic 1919 novel about magic and witchcraft. Now, Recovered Books has republished Benson’s “Pull Devil, Pull Baker,” irresistibly described as “the oddest book you will ever read.” It purports to be the reminiscences of an aging Russian con artist, who speaks in broken, and oddly spelled, English. But is this self-proclaimed “Don Juan of Our Days” real? It’s hard to tell, but I suspect that’s part of the fun. | 2022-06-15T17:34:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Michael Dirda's summer reading list - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/15/michael-dirda-ulysses-summer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/15/michael-dirda-ulysses-summer/ |
By Mark Guarino
Myrna Walker, right, marches in memory of her sister Nancie Walker, whom she last heard from in January 2003 before she disappeared. Nancie Walker's remains were later found, and her death remains unsolved. (Mark Guarino for The Washington Post)
CHICAGO — In the 100-degree heat late Tuesday, Myrna Walker marched for her sister Nancie Walker, whom she last heard from in January 2003 before she disappeared.
Chicago is just part of a larger national problem. More than 260,000 women went missing in 2020, the latest year tracked by the National Crime Information Center. Thirty-five percent of the total, or a little more than 90,000, were Black women, a stark finding considering that Black women account for about 13 percent of the U.S. population.
Statistics show that Black women are at a high risk for multiple factors that could lead to disappearances. The National Domestic Violence Hotline reports that 45 percent of Black women experience physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner. Black women and girls are also more likely to become victims of sex trafficking, according to a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation report released in 2020, and nearly 60 percent of all juvenile prostitution arrests are Black children.
Working on the Gacy cases gave him “a deep-seated impression that the whole missing-person world is a disaster," he said, adding: “There’s very little difference today from 35 years ago.”
Before the We Walk for Her march on Tuesday, activists said the administration of Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) shared the blame with the police for not prioritizing the cases of missing women and girls. (A spokesperson for Lightfoot said the mayor’s gender-based violence initiative directed $25 million in support services for sex-trafficking victims and others targeted because of their gender.) | 2022-06-15T17:55:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In Chicago, We Walk for Her March highlights missing women of color - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/15/chicago-missing-women/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/15/chicago-missing-women/ |
Washed-out roads from Gardiner, Mont., to the northeast entrance aren’t expected to reopen this summer, officials said
By Gabe Hiatt
A flooded north entrance at Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Mont., on June 13. (Jacob W. Frank/National Park Service/AP)
Roads and bridges devastated by surging river water, rockslides, mudslides and toppled trees have “severely damaged” the infrastructure, officials observed in an aerial assessment. No known injuries or deaths occurred in the park as of Tuesday night, according to the news release.
Park officials identified problem areas from the north entrance in isolated Gardiner, Mont., through the Mammoth Hot Springs, Lamar Valley and Cooke City, Mont., which is close to the park’s northeast entrance. Park officials are also monitoring water and wastewater systems at Canyon Village and Mammoth Hot Springs.
Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Mont., experienced record rainfall and extensive flooding on June 13. (Video: The Washington Post)
Yellowstone closed all five entrances to the park Monday after snowmelt and record rainfall contributed to disastrous flooding that has knocked out power and stranded local communities.
More than 10,000 visitors were evacuated from the park, the Associated Press reports. The Montana National Guard said on its Facebook page Wednesday that it has rescued 87 people and flown more than 41 hours in support of search-and-rescue operations in South Central Montana. Previous updates from the National Guard named rescues in Roscoe, Fromberg, Cooke City and East Rosebud Lake.
The National Park Service describes Yellowstone’s Northern Range as home to the park’s biggest elk herd and “arguably the most carnivore-rich area in North America.” According to NPS, Yellowstone sees half its annual visitation in June, July and August. | 2022-06-15T17:55:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Yellowstone flood closures could last all summer, officials say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/15/yellowstone-flood-closure-northern-section/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/15/yellowstone-flood-closure-northern-section/ |
The responsible heat dome is predicted to rebuild this weekend and deliver more record-challenging temperatures into next week
Predicted high temperatures over the Ohio and Tennessee Valleys on Wednesday. (Pivotal Weather)
A significant heat dome has been crowding weather maps over the Lower 48 states for the past week, bringing blistering temperatures that have toppled records. Highs have spiked 10 to 20 degrees above average in spots, and some places have endured their hottest and most humid weather ever observed during June.
Now the heat dome is languishing over the Tennessee Valley and bringing highs of 95 to 100 degrees from the Corn Belt to the Carolinas, with exceptional humidity in the Midwest exacerbating just how sultry it feels. High humidity levels are contributing to heat index values pushing 115 degrees in spots.
Because of the punishing combination of heat and humidity, more than 95 million Americans are under excessive heat warnings or heat advisories from the Florida Panhandle to northern Michigan.
Excessive Heat Warnings and Heat Advisories reman in effect today from Michigan to northern Florida. High temps are expected to reach into the upper 90s to near 100, with heat indices well into the triple digits. Be sure to take extra precautions if spending time outdoors. pic.twitter.com/r4FNAJPWQa
Record-challenging highs are predicted Wednesday in Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Knoxville and Atlanta.
A new pulse of heat, meanwhile, is on the horizon and looks to become established into early next week. There are signs that the anomalously toasty temperatures could linger seven to 10 days or more, taking a toll on heat-stressed residents.
Notable records
Here's yesterday's min/max in the Midwest. Records include St. Louis min/max 81°/99°, Kansas City min 81°, Nashville min/max 79°/97°, Madison max 96°, Indianapolis min 78°, Des Moines min 78°, Springfield (MO) min 75°, Springfield (IL) min 79°, and Evansville monthly min 81°. pic.twitter.com/e1P9yDrbUE
— Maxar | WeatherDesk (@Maxar_Weather) June 15, 2022
Since the weekend, heat has expanded north and east while withdrawing from California and the Southwest, leading to a slew of record temperatures from the Plains to the Southeast. The ongoing episode is impressive not just for its exceptional daytime highs, but associated elevated nighttime lows and saunalike humidity.
Here are a few of the more notable records collected from just the past two days:
St. Louis had its warmest overnight low on record for June on Monday night into Tuesday morning. Temperatures didn’t dip below 83 degrees. A daily record warm minimum also was set Wednesday morning with a low of 81 degrees. St. Louis also hit 100 degrees on Monday, edging out the record of 98 set in 1952. Another record was snagged Tuesday with a high of 98 degrees.
Kansas City, Mo., had a morning low of 81 degrees on Monday, which was the warmest in nearly 16 years there. At 4 a.m. on Monday, the heat index was still 92 degrees.
To put this in perspective, the last time KC went two consecutive days without dropping below 80 degrees was 42 years ago when it happened on July 14th-15th of 1980! And, yes, 1980 was 42 years ago!#DoYouRemember https://t.co/9PQnS1sILN
Chicago (Midway International Airport) managed a high of 100 degrees on Tuesday, the earliest in the year it has hit the triple digits since 2012. The average high there in mid-June is 80 degrees.
Milwaukee experienced its highest heat index in June since 1948. It reached 109 degrees at 3:52 p.m. Tuesday, tweeted the Maxar Weather Desk, the product of a 98-degree temperature and 73-degree dew point.
Columbus, Ohio, recorded an unprecedented dew point, which is a measure of humidity, of 84 degrees at 6:45 p.m. on Tuesday. Any dew point over 80 degrees is exceptionally sultry. According to the National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio, that dew point beat the previous record high by 3 degrees. Columbus also posted a heat index of 115 degrees on Tuesday — among its highest on record.
Dodge City, Kan., posted a low temperature of just 83 degrees on Monday, its warmest minimum temperature ever observed in any month of the year.
North Platte, Neb., soared to 108 on Monday, its highest June temperature on record.
Additional records: Columbia, S.C., hit 103 degrees on Monday. Madison, Wis., set a record high of 96 on Tuesday. Nashville managed a 97-degree high on both Monday and Tuesday, tying one record and breaking another. The Music City also had a record-warm low on Tuesday morning at 81 degrees.
The record-setting warm overnight low temperatures, of which there have been many, are potentially even more dangerous than daytime highs. While groups vulnerable to heat may be able to escape to air-conditioned public environment like a mall, shopping complex, library or public cooling during the day, they may not have access to cooling at night. That is especially true for those in challenging financial situations.
When overnight temperatures remain hot, the human body is deprived of its natural cool-down window and doesn’t have an opportunity to reset before daytime heat returns. That accumulated heat stress can be deadly for vulnerable individuals.
Before the heat spread into the central and eastern states, a slew of records occurred last week and over the weekend from Texas to California’s Central Valley. Death Valley, Calif., soared to 123 degrees on Friday while, over the weekend, Phoenix hit 114 and Las Vegas climbed to 109. Weekend highs peaked at 105 degrees in Austin and San Antonio.
Dozens of other records are in jeopardy Wednesday, with triple-digit heat expected in Atlanta and Columbia, S.C., while Chicago is predicted to soar into the mid- to upper- 90s. Nashville could flirt with 100 degrees, and mid- to upper-90s are likely virtually everywhere across the South.
The heat is forecast to continue Thursday, with Nashville around 100, northern Florida in the upper 90s, southwest Kansas in the lower 100s; and Houston with a high around 98.
A cold front will bring some relief to the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and Ohio Valley on Thursday, along with the chance of some severe thunderstorms. But, by Friday, the next wave of heat will be building back to the northwest with temperatures in the 90s expanding into Montana.
The heat dome is predicted to intensify again over the weekend in the Central states, bringing a surge of record-challenging high temperatures to the central and northern Plains. By early to the middle of next week, the excessive heat will be on the move toward the Upper Midwest and Ohio Valley, and possibly the East Coast.
If you like crunchy grass, then you're going to love what's in store for us. Both the 6-10 day and 8-14 day outlooks call for more hot, dry weather for Middle Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/t5bxEABwiW | 2022-06-15T18:08:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sweltering heat continues to bake much of central, eastern Lower 48 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/15/heatwave-midwest-east-record-highs/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/15/heatwave-midwest-east-record-highs/ |
First Lego manufacturing facility in U.S. is coming to Virginia
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), left, and Lego Group chief executive Niels Christiansen announce plans Wednesday for a $1 billion, carbon-neutral factory in Virginia. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
RICHMOND — The Lego Group said Wednesday it plans to build a $1 billion precision-manufacturing facility in Chesterfield County, south of Richmond, to crank out its famous tiny plastic bricks.
The 1.7 million-square-foot factory is expected to create more than 1,760 jobs over 10 years, according to a news release from Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who joined company officials to announce the project at the Science Museum of Virginia.
“The LEGO Group’s decision to establish its U.S. manufacturing plant in Virginia shines a global spotlight on the advantages that make the Commonwealth the best business location in the nation, and we look forward to a long and successful partnership with this iconic company,” Youngkin said in a written statement.
Youngkin thanked a bipartisan group of legislators in the General Assembly for helping to secure the deal by supporting a package of incentives. The company would be eligible for a performance grant of $56 million if it reaches the promised levels of investment and employment, and the state will support site improvements worth up to $19 million, Youngkin’s office said.
Those incentives are subject to approval from the full General Assembly, which could take them up Friday during a session on the state’s two-year budget.
Lego sets its sights on a growing market: Stressed-out adults
The factory will be the company’s seventh worldwide and first in the United States. Lego is based in Denmark.
“We are looking forward to making LEGO bricks in the US, one of our largest markets,” chief executive Niels B. Christiansen said in the news release. “The location in Virginia allows us to build a solar park which supports our sustainability ambitions and provides easy links to country-wide transportation networks. We are also looking forward to creating fantastic employment opportunities for the people of Virginia.”
Christiansen praised the state’s skilled workforce and transportation links. The site in Chesterfield — between Richmond and Petersburg — is near major highways, railroads and an inland port on the James River.
State lawmakers touted the announcement as a sign of economic health, particularly following recent decisions by two major aerospace and defense contractors — Boeing and Raytheon — to locate their corporate headquarters in Arlington.
“The future economic impact of the LEGO Group’s U.S. manufacturing plant in Chesterfield County cannot be overstated, and we are thrilled to welcome this global household brand to Virginia,” state Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax), who leads a commission that reviews major economic development proposals, said in the state’s news release.
Commission vice chairman Del. Barry D. Knight (R-Virginia Beach) joined her in praising the announcement as an “exceptional win for Virginia.” | 2022-06-15T18:09:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | First Lego manufacturing facility in the U.S. is coming to Virginia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/lego-factory-virginia-youngkin/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/lego-factory-virginia-youngkin/ |
A small county in New Mexico shows where big-lie delusions can lead
County Commissioner Couy Griffin speaks in Santa Fe, N.M., on Jan. 31, 2020, as hundreds of advocates for gun rights rally at the New Mexico Capitol against a proposed red-flag gun law that had the support of Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. (Morgan Lee/AP)
This is a story about how a small county in New Mexico has decided to reject the results of the state’s primary elections after being infected by Donald Trump’s false claims of election fraud.
The first character in this story is Couy Griffin. In March, Griffin was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of illegally entering or remaining on restricted grounds by a federal judge — a verdict that followed Griffin’s presence at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Griffin is a fervent supporter of the former president, being one of the founders of the group Cowboys for Trump. He is also an elected member of the three-person county commission in Otero County, N.M.
That brings us to the second character in the story, David Clements. Clements gained national attention after being fired from New Mexico State University after refusing to comply with the school’s coronavirus rules, and has since made a name for himself as part of the election-fraud circuit. He’s turned up at public hearings around the country sowing doubt about the reliability of voting mechanisms used in the 2020 election.
Given those descriptions, it was perhaps inevitable that Clements and Griffin would at some point align.
As they did, in February. At a meeting of the Otero County Commission, Clements and his wife Erin argued successfully for the county to engage in a review of its election results akin to the one in Maricopa County, Ariz., last year. That the Arizona “audit” failed to find concrete evidence of fraud or questionable practices — and not for lack of looking — did not appear to spur any caution on the part of commissioners. Neither did the fact that Otero County, unlike Maricopa, was won by Donald Trump with more than 60 percent of the vote.
“Should I honor my oath and be loyal to the people,” Griffin said then as he responded to the county attorney’s stated concern about a possible state intervention, “or should I cow to the state and say, ‘Oh no, I might get sued or I might get in trouble?' ”
The county commission voted to move forward with the probe, authorizing nearly $50,000 to pay a firm called EchoMail to conduct it. EchoMail was also involved in the Arizona “audit,” with founder Shiva Ayyadurai offering public testimony to state legislators in that matter. In short order, Ayyadurai’s assertions were thoroughly debunked, stemming from a lack of understanding about how elections were run. That was last October; four months later, Griffin and his colleagues on the Otero County Commission authorized the payment to Ayyadurai’s company — after hearing Erin Clements describe him as “one of the smartest men in the country.”
The EchoMail proposal included a door-to-door canvas of voters conducted by volunteers from the “New Mexico Audit Force,” with which the Clementses are associated. That canvas quickly raised the ire of the House Oversight Committee, which decried the effort as risking “intimidation directed at minority voters.” In response, Ayyadurai denied that EchoMail had contracted anyone to conduct the canvas — though in a separate letter to the state his company admitted to receiving data from the canvassers.
EchoMail bailed. In mid-March, soon after House Oversight weighed in, the company reportedly handed over a limited analysis to Otero County, sparking a legal back-and-forth over the value of the work conducted. Eventually, they reached an agreement with the county in which it would return a portion of what it had already received as payment. Included in that agreement was an important line: EchoMail “found No Election Fraud as a result of their services.”
New Mexico Audit Force, however, pressed forward with the theory that the voting process was tainted by fraud. As did the county commissioners, who last week decided to mandate a hand recount of votes cast in this month’s primary elections, though that action would depend on the agreement of a judge. The commissioners — acting on proposals offered by Griffin — also determined that the county would ignore state mandates for ballot drop boxes moving forward and that it wouldn’t use electronic voting machines provided by Dominion Voting Systems under a state contract.
On Monday, the county commissioners declined to certify the primary results. On Tuesday, the state sued to force them to do so.
“The post-election canvassing process is a key component of how we maintain our high levels of election integrity in New Mexico,” Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver said in a statement, “and the Otero County Commission is flaunting that process by appeasing unfounded conspiracy theories and potentially nullifying the votes of every Otero County voter who participated in the Primary.”
That “unfounded conspiracy theories” point is important. At the beginning of the meeting Monday, Griffin responded to a request that the commission fulfill its duty to certify the election by describing his duty to uphold his oath of service to his constituents. That oath, he suggested, necessitated elevating skepticism about voting results, a skepticism that he and his colleagues seem to sincerely hold.
“When I certify stuff that I don’t know is right,” county commissioner Vickie Marquardt said during the hearing, “I feel like I’m being dishonest because in my heart I don’t know if it is right.”
(That mirrored an argument made by David Clements as the commission debated rejecting electronic voting machines last week. “The question is what effect does it have on this commission to use something they know is not trustworthy,” he argued, later adding: “At that point you all become culpable.”)
Told on Monday that they could be forced by a court to certify the election (“So, what,” Marquardt asked, “they’re going to send us to the pokey?”), Griffin sighed.
“And that’s how we get control from the top down,” he said. (Requests for comment from the commissioners did not receive a response by the time of publication.)
It’s worth reviewing the path by which the county commission reached this point. Donald Trump, eager to soften his likely and then actual election loss, elevated unfounded allegations about voter fraud. His supporters believed him. Various opportunists, sincere and otherwise, rushed to fill the demand for evidence of fraud that Trump created. Over time, this created a self-reinforcing narrative: since the claims of fraud were unfalsifiable, the purported threat of fraud remained intact.
So a county that backed Trump handily — a county in which no fraud has been shown, a county that paid for a review of its votes that found no fraud — ends up rejecting its own election results. It does so out of both a concern that this unproven fraud continues undetected and out of obstinance, as authorities demand that they adhere to reality.
Otero County is an outlier, a dark-red area in which a fervent Trump ally (and Jan. 6 participant) controls one-third of the seat of power. But it is also a reflection of how an established effort to uproot nonexistent fraud poses a real and ongoing risk to free and fair elections.
On our radar: In Nevada, another election denier advances
5:35 PMNoted: On DACA anniversary, activists demand GOP support for immigration changes
4:40 PMTake a look: Trump’s win rate among non-incumbents is now 73 percent | 2022-06-15T18:13:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A small county in New Mexico shows where big-lie delusions can lead - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/small-county-new-mexico-shows-where-big-lie-delusions-can-lead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/small-county-new-mexico-shows-where-big-lie-delusions-can-lead/ |
But Roberts warns Biden administration that abandoning the Trump-era policy seems to skirt legal requirements
Security personnel stand watch outside the Supreme Court building in Washington. (Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP)
The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an attempt by Republican-led states to defend a Trump-era immigration policy that made it harder for immigrants to obtain green cards, which has been abandoned by the Biden administration.
Supreme Court questions Biden administration's actions on immigration rule
But in an unusual concurring opinion, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. accused the Biden administration of apparent gamesmanship in abandoning the rule after lower courts ruled against it. He raised questions — shared by other justices when the court heard oral arguments in the case — about whether the administration was skirting the legal requirements that apply when a presidential administration vacates a policy of its predecessor.
He said a “mare’s nest” of procedural problems stood in the way of the court making such a decision, however, and his words read more like a warning for the future. It was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch.
The court still must rule before the end of the term on another Biden administration case involving immigration. It involves lower-court decisions that have kept the administration from ending a Trump-imposed “remain in Mexico” requirement that keeps asylum seekers along the southern border outside the United States while their cases are decided.
Biden administration tells justices it should be able to end 'remain-in-Mexico' rule
Wednesday’s case was about President Donald Trump’s “public charge” rule, approved in 2019, which denied green cards to immigrants if they had relied too much on social welfare programs such as food stamps. It was in effect about a year, but courts across the country judged it at odds with federal immigration law, and a district judge in Illinois in November 2020 said it could not be implemented nationwide.
The Biden administration acquiesced to the Illinois judge’s decision and moved to dismiss the remaining cases around the country. That left states that favored the public charge rule without recourse, and Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) tried to intervene on behalf of other Republican-led states. | 2022-06-15T18:13:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Supreme Court dismisses Republican challenge to immigration rules - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/supreme-court-trump-green-card-policy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/15/supreme-court-trump-green-card-policy/ |
BloombergQuickTake Analysis
Analysis Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events
How Boris Johnson Is Taking UK Into New Trade Rift With EU
By Stephanie Bodoni | Bloomberg
The UK is planning legislation to override parts of the Brexit deal it signed with the European Union, using an arcane concept of international law as a justification to do so. The move, designed to defuse tensions over how a section on Northern Ireland should be implemented, instead risks triggering a serious legal dispute with the EU more than two years after the UK left the bloc, just as a unified approach to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine had bound them together again.
1. What is the UK proposing?
The legislation would give British ministers the power to unilaterally rewrite the bulk of the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, which keeps the area in the EU’s single market while creating a customs border with the rest of the UK. That was designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland. The new rules would separate goods just flowing between Britain and Northern Ireland from goods intended for the EU and allow businesses in Northern Ireland to choose whether they follow UK or EU standards, or both, for goods. They would also extend UK subsidy controls and tax breaks, including changes to value-added tax, to Northern Ireland and would strip the EU Court of Justice of its role in settling disputes over the Brexit deal in the region, allowing instead an independent arbitration panel to oversee legal issues.
2. What’s prompting the move?
The protocol has angered unionists in Northern Ireland because it treats the region differently to the rest of the UK, but the EU notes that the deal grants Northern Ireland unique access to both the EU common market and the UK. EU member states and senior US politicians have warned that unilateral efforts to scuttle parts of the arrangement risk jeopardizing hard-won peace and stability in the region. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan has been panned by legal experts and may face stiff opposition in Parliament, while Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said June 8 that the UK has displayed “bad faith” in how it has approached the part of the Brexit treaty dealing with Northern Ireland.
3. What’s the political backdrop in Northern Ireland?
The Democratic Unionist Party balked at the rules Johnson originally signed up to, and is now refusing to take its place in Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government until the protocol is removed. Its opposition is ideological as well as economic, believing Northern Ireland must not be treated differently to the rest of the UK. That’s why Johnson’s ministers have shifted the justification for rewriting the protocol, from focusing primarily on trade disruption to the threat to Northern Ireland’s fragile politics.
4. Why does the EU object?
The European Commission said the proposed bill “is extremely damaging to mutual trust and respect between the EU and the UK.” Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, described the UK’s planned legislation on June 15 as a breach of international law, adding that the UK proposal to eliminate the role of the EU Court of Justice in governing disputes was a further breach. The EU is preparing for a drawn-out fight over London’s move.
5. What options does the EU have?
The EU is restarting a case it initiated against the UK in March 2021 over the implementation of the protocol, and is also launching two new infringement cases over the UK’s failure to meet its obligations under the EU’s sanitary and phytosanitary rules and provide the EU with required trade statistics data on Northern Ireland. Infringement proceedings could ultimately lead to financial penalties being imposed on the UK, but the cases will play out over the course of many months. The EU could take things further if it really wants to play hard ball and start imposing tariffs on targeted goods in Britain. The most radical, and ultimately the most risky option given the disruptions to global trade, would be an EU decision to terminate the entire trade and cooperation agreement with the UK, which would further hamper UK companies from accessing the EU single market.
6. How effective would the EU infringement procedure be?
Infringement cases are traditionally triggered when an EU nation persistently fails to comply with the bloc’s rules. It’s a dragged out process. What’s different this time is that the UK is no longer part of the EU and wouldn’t face the same kinds of pressures as an EU member to comply. Time also plays a role in diluting the effectiveness of such cases. Even if the EU Court of Justice decides to fast track cases, they can still take months and by the time a decision has been taken, new developments may have overtaken it.
7. What happens if the UK just ignores any EU orders?
The UK has a so-called dualist legal system, meaning that international law is legally binding only in so far as it’s put into UK law by parliament. So, the UK could be found to be in breach of international law, but it wouldn’t be a breach of UK domestic law. If the UK withdrew its recognition of the EU Court of Justice through legislation and EU judges then decide this violates the arrangement and later fines it, the UK could just ignore such orders, say lawyers, because there is actually no enforcement mechanism for such failures to act.
8. What other dispute settlement mechanisms are there?
Infringement procedures alone might not be enough for the EU to counter what it said is a violation of international obligations. The commission said on June 15 that “a unilateral solution violating an agreement will never be tolerated by the EU.” The EU could also decide to impose tariffs on targeted products, such as Scottish salmon. This would trigger a trade dispute reminiscent of the one the EU had with the US during the administration of then-President Donald Trump and which contributed to more than $18 billion in U.S. and EU exports subject to painful levies. The EU-UK withdrawal agreement also foresees an arbitration process to thrash out disputes, but it’s yet another option that could take a very long time.
9. What if the legal avenues don’t work?
There’s still the political dimension if legal avenues fail to convince the UK to not move ahead with its plans. Soon after the UK announced its new bill, the US urged both Britain and the EU to resolve their differences. Senior US politicians, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have previously warned that such a move from the UK dampens prospects of a UK-US trade deal. | 2022-06-15T18:13:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Boris Johnson Is Taking UK Into New Trade Rift With EU - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-boris-johnson-is-taking-uk-into-new-trade-rift-with-eu/2022/06/15/1a8c6224-ecc0-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-boris-johnson-is-taking-uk-into-new-trade-rift-with-eu/2022/06/15/1a8c6224-ecc0-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
Judge rejects Bannon’s bid to toss contempt charges
The former top Trump adviser had claimed executive privilege should bar his prosecution for failing to appear before House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.
Stephen K. Bannon speaks to the media as a protester stands behind him outside of the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in June. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
A federal judge on Wednesday denied Stephen K. Bannon’s motion to dismiss the criminal contempt case against him, saying he would allow a July 18 trial to go forward as scheduled.
Bannon, 67, was charged in November with two counts of contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with a subpoena issued a few months earlier by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The former chief strategist to President Donald Trump had asked U.S. District Carl J. Nichols to toss out the charges, arguing that he relied on the Justice Department’s long-standing advice about congressional subpoenas to White House aides and was not committing a crime when he failed to produce documents or appear before the committee.
But at a three-hour court hearing Wednesday, Nichols, a 2019 Trump appointee, repeatedly challenged his claims and ultimately decided in the Justice Department’s favor.
The decision was a critical victory for the prosecution that Attorney General Merrick Garland said was brought to “show the American people by word and deed that the department adheres to the rule of law, follows the facts and the law and pursues equal justice under the law.” It also provided a moral victory to the House committee, even though a conviction would not force Bannon to cooperate.
The judge questioned in particular whether Bannon — who was not in the White House for the events leading up to Jan. 6 — was covered by the opinions of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which has asserted that, if the president invokes executive privilege, his senior aides cannot be made to testify. Nichols also rejected Bannon’s claim that the composition of the House investigative committee rendered it illegitimate.
Bannon is one of two former Trump associates the Justice Department is prosecuting for refusing to comply with subpoenas from the Jan. 6 committee. Earlier this month, Trump’s White House trade adviser Peter Navarro was indicted on the same contempt charges that Bannon faces. But the Justice Department at the same time revealed it would not prosecute two other high-ranking Trump aides who the committee had referred for contempt — former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and communications chief Daniel Scavino Jr.
The misdemeanor contempt charges against each carry a maximum sentence of one year in jail.
Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty, argued that he refused to respond to a Sept. 23 subpoena by the committee in-part on the advice of his counsel, Robert J. Costello, who said that Trump asserted executive privilege over appearances by his former aides. But Nichols said it was a “disputed fact” whether Trump categorically invoked executive privilege or “unequivocally directed” Bannon not to comply with the committee
Though he rejected Bannon’s bid to throw out the case, Nichols said he would decide later whether Bannon could raise the Justice Department opinions as a defense in his trial.
David Schoen, Bannon’s defense attorney, said Bannon would seek to delay his trial, alleging that the House committee’s ongoing hearings and lawmakers’ statements are tainting the pool of potential jurors. | 2022-06-15T18:13:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Judge rejects Steve Bannon’s bid to toss contempt charges - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/judge-rejects-bannon-motion-to-dismiss/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/judge-rejects-bannon-motion-to-dismiss/ |
Jamie Chung’s surrogacy choice raises radical questions about pregnancy and technology
Sherry Cola and Jamie Chung attend Disney And Pixar's “Lightyear” premiere at El Capitan Theatre on June 8 in Los Angeles. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images)
It’s rare for a contemporary television star to sound like a radical second-wave feminist. But that’s what came to mind when “Dexter: New Blood” actress Jamie Chung explained why she and her husband had decided to have a surrogate carry and give birth to their twins.
“I was terrified of becoming pregnant. I was terrified of putting my life on hold for two-plus years,” Chung told Today Parents. “I don’t want to lose opportunities. I don’t want to be resentful.”
Chung, 39, acknowledged that people might assume she was “vain,” and that “there’s a little bit of shame” attached to that decision.
The reactions Chung anticipated aren’t unreasonable, considering surrogacy essentially offloads the discomforts and incapacities of pregnancy onto another woman. Yet there’s something galvanizing about hearing a woman bluntly rage against the limits of biology and the costs it imposes on half the population.
Chung’s honesty is rare, though she isn’t the first actor to use professional ambition as justification.
In 2019, actress and presenter Sunny Leone used the language of empowerment when she told the lifestyle site Masala!: “I chose surrogacy and I chose adoption because I wanted to keep going and I wanted to keep working."
I don’t know if Chung has read Shulamith Firestone, the radical feminist author of “The Dialectic of Sex,” who saw technology as a potential tool of liberation. But Chung’s acknowledgment of how hard she has worked, how highly she values her career and how time out of the workforce would gnaw at her, echoes Firestone’s 1970 broadside.
“Women were the slave class that maintained the species,” Firestone wrote, “to free the other half for the business of the world — admittedly often its drudge aspects, but certainly all its creative aspects as well.”
When “The Dialectic of Sex” was published, the world’s first sperm banks, in Iowa and Japan, were just six years old. The birth of Louise Brown, the first person conceived via in vitro fertilization, was eight years away. Firestone believed that “artificial reproduction,” which she imagined involving an “artificial placenta,” was imminent.
That technological revolution didn’t advance as far, or as fast, as Firestone expected.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 2 percent of American children born in 2019 were conceived through IVF, which can be used to impregnate gestational surrogates. But the placenta Firestone wrote about is still not a reality. Teams at the University of Michigan and SDJ Barcelona Children’s Hospital — Hospital Clinic are working on prototypes. But their aim, as Firestone predicted, is to help premature babies survive, not to replace the womb.
For people who can’t — or don’t want to — carry a pregnancy to term, using another woman’s body is the only option. If Firestone were alive today, she might acidly condemn surrogacy as an example of a “servant class” liberating a few, more privileged women from “the tyranny of reproduction.”
One doesn’t have to be that unsympathetic to feel a twinge of moral unease about surrogacy. Bearing a child is distinct from other work. If a surrogate experiences complications, her health and future fertility could be diminished or even destroyed. What other job requires an employee to give a client that much control over her body?
The stakes can get even more queasy-making when it comes to surrogate bargain-hunting in countries where fees are lower than is typical in the United States. Recently, the plight of surrogates and babies endangered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where surrogacy has become a big business, revealed just how common this is.
Even as surrogacy has become more acceptable, the idea of decoupling women from pregnancy is still radical.
In her day, Firestone confessed herself surprised to discover that various methods of reproductive assistance polled well with a broad cross-section of Americans. But, she observed, “the hitch was that they would consider them only where they reinforced and furthered present values of family life and reproduction. … It was not the ‘test tube’ baby itself that was thought unnatural … but the new value system” suggesting that women ought not be constrained by pregnancy and birth.
Jamie Chung is proof of how uncomfortable it is to confront the unfairness of biological reality head-on.
Women have struggled in a cynically libertarian system that claims they might “have it all,” while doing little to support them in childbearing and child rearing. No wonder some rebel against that expectation or try to buy their way into a shortcut. And no wonder others react strongly to the prospect of offloading pregnancy, seeing reproductive capitalism as just another form of exploitation.
You don’t have to like Chung’s decision or her motivations. Even several days after I read her interview, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it myself. Fifty years after Firestone dreamed that women might be freed from the prison of biology, we’re still judging women who try to bust themselves out — rather than the systems that constrain them. | 2022-06-15T18:13:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Jamie Chung’s surrogacy choice raises radical-feminist questions - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/jamie-chung-surrogacy-feminism/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/jamie-chung-surrogacy-feminism/ |
In the D.C. Democratic primary, stay the course
A voting booth at Shepherd Elementary School during the Democratic primary election in D.C. on June 19, 2018. (Calla Kessler/The Washington Post)
With the Democratic primary election for D.C. mayor less than a week away, more than 36,000 voters have already voted, dropping off or mailing in their ballots or casting them at an early voting location. That is more than one-third of the total 89,513 votes cast in the city’s 2018 primary and we hope a sign there will be a healthy turnout for this most consequential of elections.
In addition to determining whether Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), whom we have endorsed, will have an opportunity to serve a third term, voters will make crucial decisions that will affect the balance of the D.C. Council. Ms. Bowser was virtually uncontested four years ago when she was reelected. Not so this year. Two council members — at-large member Robert C. White Jr. and Ward 8 representative Trayon White Sr. — are her chief challengers on June 21, both campaigning on a platform of change. Ms. Bowser, they say, has been in office for almost eight years and problems still remain.
They get no argument from us about the challenges that confront D.C. but it is those very challenges that demand a seasoned leader who has already proved she can deal with tough issues. Ms. Bowser ably navigated the city through the unprecedented covid-19 crisis, faced down threats from the Trump administration, made important inroads into such seemingly intractable problems as homelessness and pioneered historic investments in housing and health care. She is the first to identify the work that needs to be done to confront an increase in crime, continue education reform and guide the city’s recovery from the pandemic. Not only does she have experience in tackling these problems but also she has well-thought-out approaches to the issues. The same cannot be said of challengers who are thin on accomplishments and have campaigned on platitudes.
The races for at-large council member, council chairman and three ward seats are equally critical for D.C.’s future. Recent years have seen the council drift sharply to the left and the city’s self-proclaimed progressives see opportunity in the critical Democratic primary to further cement their hold. Witness the machinations in Ward 3 in which three candidates within the space of 24 hours this week dropped out of the race and threw their support to Matthew Frumin after a poll commissioned by Independent at-Large member Elissa Silverman, generally seen as part of the council’s far left wing, seemed to show Eric Goulet was in the lead. We have endorsed Mr. Goulet and his thoughtful agenda. So has former mayor Anthony Williams. Mr. Goulet, a former city budget director, has a grasp of city issues and is willing to listen but is firm in his support for mayoral control of schools, smart policing and the need not to raise taxes. Our other endorsements: Phil Mendelson for council chairman; Salah Czapary for Ward 1 and Faith Gibson Hubbard for Ward 5.
The District has been blessed with sober, stable leadership but voters should remember it was not that long ago that its government was in dysfunction and its finances in disarray. It would be a mistake to return to those days.
Endorsements for 2022 D.C. primaries
Mayor Muriel Bowser gets our endorsement for a third term
The Post endorses Brian Schwalb for D.C. attorney general
Here’s who The Post endorses in D.C. Council primary elections | 2022-06-15T18:13:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | D.C. primaries: Mayor Bowser is worth staying the course - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/washington-dc-democratic-primary-endorsements/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/washington-dc-democratic-primary-endorsements/ |
Saddleback still Southern Baptist for now, after surprise appeal by Rick Warren
Pastor Rick Warren speaks during the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif., on June 14. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
ANAHEIM, Calif. (RNS) — One of the nation’s best-known pastors made a surprise visit to the floor of the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention Tuesday.
Rick Warren, author of “The Purpose Driven Life” and pastor of Saddleback Church — one of the denomination’s largest churches — told delegates from local churches, known as messengers, that he was grateful for the SBC.
“I love Southern Baptists,” he said.
He then urged Southern Baptists to set aside their differences and work together to spread the gospel around the world. Warren also said Baptists are able to overcome all kinds of theological differences and still cooperate.
“As Western culture becomes more dark, more evil, more secular, we have to decide: Are we going to treat each other as allies or not?” he said.
Warren’s appeal came as members of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination were considering expelling Saddleback for violating a church ban on woman pastors.
While Saddleback does not use the word “Baptist” in its name, the church is affiliated with the 13.7 million-member SBC. Warren started the Southern California church in 1980 after graduating from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The best-selling author spoke at the SBC Pastors’ Conference in 2011.
In May 2021, the church ordained Liz Puffer, Cynthia Petty and Katie Edwards as staff pastors. That move put Saddleback in the middle of a divide over the SBC’s statement of faith, which restricts the office of pastor to men. Some Southern Baptists say that the ban on women pastors only applies to the senior pastor of a church. Others, like Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Al Mohler, say no woman should serve as a pastor in any capacity.
The issue of women pastors and women preachers caused a national debate in 2020, after Bible teacher Beth Moore tweeted about speaking at a church on Mother’s Day. That led to claims that women preachers were invading the SBC, which remains an issue for critics of SBC leadership like Florida pastor Tom Ascol, a leading candidate for SBC president. Moore would eventually leave the denomination in part because she said the uproar over women preaching was overshadowing the SBC’s abuse crisis.
Raising the stakes, Saddleback also recently announced Warren would retire this fall and Andy and Stacie Wood, who pastor a Silicon Valley church, would succeed him. Andy Wood is currently lead pastor at Echo Church, a multisite church, while Stacie Wood serves as a teaching pastor. They would have the same roles at Saddleback.
Mohler told Religion News Service in 2021 that ordaining a woman pastor violates Baptist and biblical teaching: “Saddleback has taken actions that place itself in direct conflict with the stated doctrines of the Southern Baptist Convention.”
Southern Baptists vote on sex abuse proposals, debate female pastors
Last year, Shad Tibbs, pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Trout, La., called on the SBC to “break fellowship” with Saddleback and any other church that has women pastors. That request, made at the SBC’s 2021 annual meeting in Nashville, was referred to the credentials committee, which is charged with deciding whether or not churches are in “friendly cooperation” with the SBC.
Earlier Tuesday, Linda Cooper, chair of the credentials committee, told messengers that the committee was not yet ready to make a recommendation about Saddleback, given that Southern Baptists disagree about whether the ban applies to the lead or senior pastor of a church — or to any staff member at a church being called a pastor.
“The Credentials Committee has found little information evidencing the Convention’s beliefs regarding the use of the ‘title of pastor’ for staff positions with different responsibility and authority than that of the lead pastor,” the committee said in its report.
Instead, the committee recommended creating a study group to look at the issue.
That met with opposition from Mohler, who said a study committee was not needed. Mohler served on the committee that revised the SBC statement of faith to include the ban on women pastors and said Southern Baptists know what the word “pastor” means.
Jack Maddox, a pastor and messenger from First Baptist Church of Jacksboro, Tex., also opposed appointing a study group.
“We do not need another committee, although well-intended, to speak to this issue for our church or for this convention,” he said. “We have a book that has already spoken to it. ”
Adam Greenway, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, proposed amending the committee’s recommendation to have a broader study about how closely churches need to follow the SBC statement of faith. After a break, that amendment was defeated.
After Warren’s speech, the credentials committee withdrew its recommendation. Doing so postponed any further action on the motion for now. The credentials committee will continue to meet during the year and may make a decision about Saddleback in the months to come.
Churches have been expelled from the SBC in the past for having gay members, for mishandling sexual abuse and for racist actions. While churches have left the SBC after naming women pastors in the past, no church had previously been expelled for having a woman pastor.
Before he left the floor, Warren challenged messengers to focus on finishing the Great Commission — Jesus’ command to spread the gospel around the world. Warren plans to spend his post-Saddleback years working with the Finishing the Task Network, which hopes to expand missionary work.
“Are we to keep bickering over secondary issues?” he said. “Or are we going to keep the main thing the main thing?” | 2022-06-15T18:13:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Saddleback still Southern Baptist for now, after surprise appeal by Rick Warren - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/06/15/saddleback-remains-southern-baptist-now-after-surprise-appeal-by-rick-warren/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/06/15/saddleback-remains-southern-baptist-now-after-surprise-appeal-by-rick-warren/ |
Vacationers looking for deep specialization and a personal touch may want to hire a travel coach. (iStock)
“I didn’t want to be in Rome, Milan or Florence,” says Russo, a retired real estate broker from Verona, N.J. “I wanted to get to know the locals. I wanted to feel like I lived there.” | 2022-06-15T18:13:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why you should hire a travel coach - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/15/travel-coaches/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/06/15/travel-coaches/ |
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell will take questions on the Fed’s plans and the economic outlook at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time
Jerome H. Powell, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, speaks during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in D.C. on May 4. (Bloomberg News)
For weeks, Fed leaders set expectations for an increase of half a percentage point, as it did in May, in the latest of seven rate increases slated for this year. But a surprisingly bleak inflation report released last week, the war in Ukraine plus growing signs that the markets and American public have lost faith in the Fed, ignited a more forceful push from central bank policymakers as they wrapped up two days of meetings. The Fed has not enacted a hike of this size since 1994, but signaled similarly-large hikes are coming later this year.
“The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is causing tremendous human and economic hardship,” according to a statement released by Fed policymakers at the conclusion of the Fed's two-day policy meeting. "The invasion and related events are creating additional upward pressure on inflation and are weighing on global economic activity. In addition, covid-related lockdowns in China are likely to exacerbate supply chain disruptions.”
The Fed added that it expects “ongoing increases” of three quarters of a percentage point “will be appropriate,” though it is unclear exactly how many, or at which meetings the Fed will implement them. (Kansas City Fed President Esther George voted against the rate decision, preferring a small hike of half a percentage point.)
The move to hike interest rates will make the price of mortgages, auto loans and a wide array of business investments more expensive. Rising interest rates work to cool off an overheated economy by dampening consumer spending, so that demand for goods and services falls, helping bring prices down. However, investors and some businesses are newly concerned that the move to get inflation under control could cool the economy too much, triggering a new recession and a wave of layoffs.
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell will appear at a news conference at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time. He will be questioned about his confidence that the Fed’s plans will work and that policymakers can avoid a recession, especially given the delay to tackle inflation.
In May, prices climbed 8.6 percent compared with a year earlier, a new pandemic-era high. Soaring energy, housing and food prices continue to drive up costs at the fastest pace in 40 years, and Americans are feeling the strain in practically every part of their daily lives, from groceries to gas to rent.
Meanwhile, the markets fell this week as investors worried that the Fed was up to the task of slashing inflation. On Monday, the S&P 500 tumbled nearly 4 percent to cross into a bear market — meaning the index has lost 20 percent of its value since its most recent peak. So far in 2022, losses have wiped out a hefty chunk of the stock market’s pandemic-era gains.
The Fed is also fighting to regain the trust of American households and businesses worried that their costs of living will not go down anytime soon. Consumer sentiment in June sank to a low not seen since the 1980 recession, according to a University of Michigan survey released last week. Additionally, a poll by The Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government found that most Americans expect inflation to worsen and are adjusting their spending habits, a mind-set that can make the surge in prices even worse.
Meanwhile, rising prices are weighing heavily on President Biden’s approval ratings and hampering his economic message at a time when many Americans do not feel like the economy is working for them. Republicans are also poised to hammer Democrats on inflation going into the midterms later this year.
Fed officials are under pressure to lower inflation and slow the hiring without causing people to lose their jobs. But the Fed cannot do that with any sort of precision. Plus, executing that plan will be exceedingly difficult. Indeed, a new crop of economic projections released at the end of Wednesday’s meeting pointed to a rising unemployment rate, lower economic growth and inflation that takes longer to fall.
The Fed also has a slightly weaker outlook on the U.S. economy for later this year. New Fed projections released today showed the unemployment rate rising, ticking up to 3.7 percent by the end of the year, 3.9 percent in 2023, and 4.1 percent by the end of 2024. That’s higher than the outlook back in March.
Also, the Fed had a more dour look at inflation levels later this year. They are predicting inflation to come down to about 5.2 percent, using their preferred gauge of measuring inflation, which is higher than their earlier estimates.
Fed officials also downgraded this year’s economic growth estimates to 1.7 percent.
The repercussions of rising inflation are playing out globally. Policymakers from the European Central Bank held a rare unscheduled meeting Wednesday to address higher borrowing costs for many European governments and address fears of a debt crisis.
Now, the Fed faces the enormous task of squashing inflation without damaging the rest of the economy, which has been booming, especially for workers. The Fed’s leaders hope that interest rate hikes will slow demand for workers and help get the labor market — which has about two job openings for each person looking for work — back on a more sustainable path.
On top of it all, it’s unclear whether a steady stream of Fed rate hikes will be a match for the kind of inflation dogging The Post-pandemic economy. In an encouraging sign, the red-hot housing market has started to cool, as a run-up in mortgage rates discourage aspiring buyers from competing for the few homes available.
One big driver of inflation is energy and gas prices, which surged since Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine. Supply chain issues continue to push up prices for cars and construction materials. Ultimately, rate hikes can’t address semiconductor shortages or end a war, nor can they assuage peoples’ anxiety about paying a national average of $5 per gallon — if not more — at the gas pump. | 2022-06-15T18:13:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fed announces sharp interest rate hike to fight inflation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/06/15/fed-rate-hike-inflation/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/06/15/fed-rate-hike-inflation/ |
Their daughter blames them for her divorce. Carolyn Hax readers give advice.
Dear Carolyn: My daughter “Sandy,” who is 34, is going through a really crappy divorce. She and her husband got together in college and married at 24. They have two children, so there is a custody fight, and Sandy has not worked full time in over a decade so she is having to seek more support from her husband than she wants to. It’s all awful.
She was telling me the other day that she feels it is partly my fault that she married so young and wound up so unhappy. She says that she felt that her dad and I would be disappointed in her if her relationship failed. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Her dad and I fretted endlessly about how she seemed to be getting locked into a relationship that started so young. We probably had 50 conversations over the years about how we wished she would date other people, try new things, find herself before she settled down. I guess we were too quiet about those feelings.
I know that I did not push my daughter into her marriage, and it’s not my fault that the marriage is ending now. I also know that divorce is not “failure”; it can be freedom. Still, I feel terrible that my daughter thinks it’s even a little bit my fault that she is in this hell. What do I do?
Parent: Say, “I’m so sorry you feel that way! If I could go back in time, I would have been more vocal about my own worries so that you would have known that I wouldn’t be disappointed if your relationship ended.” Because it’s true, right? And it’s going to get you a lot further than explaining why this mess isn’t your fault. It also gives her an opening to say, “Yeah, I’m not sure why I thought that,” or “But you always said …”
Even though it won’t make a difference in her divorce, you’ll both probably feel better if you can have a shared understanding of the past.
Otherwise, don’t be too quiet about your feelings again this time. Your daughter needs to hear that this is “all awful” and that “divorce is not ‘failure’; it can be freedom.” Those are really powerful words coming from you, or your husband for that matter! So don’t forget to share them. Good luck — I hope things get easier soon.
Parent: I’m sorry you and your daughter are going through this. To start: You do not need to accept any blame at all for the relationship or its end; that’s ultimately between your daughter and her ex, though it might take time for her to see it. I’ve been in your daughter’s place myself and it is, as you say, all awful.
During and immediately following my divorce, I pushed my grief, including inappropriate blame, onto the people I most trusted, some of whom had warned me early in our courtship about how fast we were moving and some yellow flags they saw. They weren't too quiet; I wasn't in a place to hear them.
Pushing those emotions and responsibility away for a time, so I could focus on getting through my days and the tasks of unraveling the life that had been, was part of survival. I did eventually (and with the help of therapy) get to a place where I could own my responsibility in choosing and eventually ending my marriage, but it was just too much right at that end.
As for what to do: Hold your position and find ways to help if you can. You can make it clear what you are and are not willing to do and discuss — my friends did this and it honestly made things better between us long term. If you’re aware of or can find resources available to your daughter that can provide help you aren’t able or willing to give, it would be a kindness to direct her to them. Finally, use your own support system. Your daughter isn’t part of that right now (circles of grief — support/comfort in, dump out).
Parent: This is hard, I’m sorry. You seem to have a healthy perspective, which is not taking “fault” for her marriage but wanting to support your daughter. So ask her how to do that. You can tell her you were struck by the comment, that you did worry about her settling down so young but wanted to respect her decision, and then ask what she would have liked you to do at the time. This can help her think about whether there in fact was something you could have said to make a difference and can guide your future actions if/when you have similar concerns.
You should also take an honest look at how you treated her growing up. Did you place a lot of pressure to make sure she “succeeded” in all traditional ways? Did you express disappointment if she fell short in any expectation? Why is a fear of your disappointment driving her adult decisions? If you see your part in this, tell her. Validation may be useful to her. Finally, tell her explicitly that you are sorry she feels that way, that divorce is not a failure, that she should not live in fear of disappointing you, and that you are here to support her through this process in whatever way she needs.
— M. | 2022-06-15T19:18:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | My daughter blames me for her divorce. Carolyn Hax readers give advice. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/15/carolyn-hax-daughter-blames-me-divorce/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/06/15/carolyn-hax-daughter-blames-me-divorce/ |
A Texas city has been without running water for days amid heat wave
Ector County resident Jose Hernandez fills up jugs of water from a fire hydrant that was opened to reduce pressure on the system as City of Odessa Water Distribution crews work to resolve a water crisis in Odessa, Tex. About 165,000 residents have been left with little to no running water for days. (Eli Hartman/Odessa American via AP)
Crews in Odessa, Tex., were scrambling to restore water Wednesday while 165,000 residents in and around the city had been without drinking water amid sweltering heat after a pipe broke this week.
The city’s water taps lost pressure and went dry after the 24-inch water main ruptured Monday afternoon, according to city officials. The Ector County Office of Emergency Management declared a state of disaster in the city, saying there was an “imminent threat” of “severe damage, injury, or loss of life or property.”
“Citizens should expect a significant loss in water pressure and/or no water at all,” the city wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday. “A significant portion of the community remains without water at this time.”
The city announced Wednesday that Odessa’s water treatment plant was up and running again by about 8 a.m., and that officials expected that it could take 12 to 14 hours for the “recharging” process to finish. During that time, more water will be added to the system to make sure there isn’t an additional leak in the aging pipe, and that the water does not become contaminated.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), whose administration faced scrutiny after the deadly winter freeze of 2021, said in a news release that the state was “taking swift action to respond to Odessa’s impacted water supply and support the local community in meeting their water needs.” Tom Kerr, the city’s utilities director, said at a news conference that the pipe that broke is about 60 years old.
“Aging water systems are common throughout the country,” Kerr said Tuesday. “It’s often difficult for municipalities to be able to afford to manage those systems as they age. That’s the situation we find ourselves in.”
Odessa was under a mandatory boil water notice Wednesday, and residents were advised to pick up cases of bottled water in town. Water delivery was also expected to be made to the area’s nursing homes. No injuries or deaths had been reported as of Wednesday afternoon.
Some residents were frustrated by how Odessa was left without water when temperatures were expected to approach 100 degrees.
“Only time I’ve ever been thankful that we at least buy water to drink. Seriously, Odessa — is there ANYTHING that our city can get right?” resident Caroline McCrary wrote on Facebook. “This is insane.”
A city spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The water crisis comes the same week that a massive summer heat wave has spread across the United States, with more than 100 million Americans from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes under heat alerts. In Texas, sweltering days and sultry nights recently set dozens of records. Dallas had a morning low of 80 degrees Sunday, a record high. Overnight temperatures often play an even greater role than daytime highs in amplifying heat stress on the body and contributing to heat-related illnesses and fatalities in vulnerable populations. Dallas then hit a record high of 103 degrees Sunday afternoon.
Cities such as Austin, San Antonio and Abilene tied or broke daily heat records over the past week, while the heat and oppressive humidity in Houston and Galveston has contributed to heat indexes in the 105- to 110-degree range.
Located about 320 miles west of Fort Worth, Odessa is perhaps best known for oil and as the home of “Friday Night Lights,” the 1990 Buzz Bissinger book on the city’s love of high school football that was adapted into a movie and a television series.
Water treatment has been an issue Odessa lawmakers have sought to address in recent years. In November, the Odessa City Council approved a $95 million plan to rehabilitate the water treatment plant, according to the Odessa American.
When the break occurred at 6 p.m. Monday, Odessa Mayor Javier Joven told reporters this week, it was difficult to isolate the location of the leak, which led the city to shut down the whole water system at the intersection of 42nd and San Jacinto streets.
“Because of the critical nature of the loss in pressure, we were compelled to take the plant offline to begin the repairs that are ongoing,” Joven said at a Tuesday news conference.
Joven added that the city needed to add 15 million to 20 million gallons of water back into Odessa’s system to get it up to speed, reported the American.
Phillip Urrutia, the deputy city manager for Odessa, explained to the Associated Press that the broken pipe that’s kept about 165,000 residents without water is due to “an aging infrastructure.”
“It’s a cast iron pipe, and so those are typically more susceptible to breaks than other new technologies like PVC pipe that’s going in the ground,” he said.
Some plumbers estimate that cast iron pipes can last between 75 to 100 years, compared to PVC drain lines that have an indefinite shelf life.
City officials continued to stress to residents to keep boiling whatever water they had available. Some in Odessa, such as resident Amber Elms, found a degree of humor amid the heat.
“Hard to boil water when you have none,” she wrote.
Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow contributed to this report. | 2022-06-15T19:40:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 165,000 people in Odessa, Texas, without water for days after pipe breaks amid heat wave - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/15/odessa-texas-water-break-summer-heat/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/15/odessa-texas-water-break-summer-heat/ |
On some PBS stations, Jan. 6 hearings are preempted by ‘Curious George’
Public television built its reputation for news on the Watergate hearings. But some affiliates have hesitations about these hearings.
By Paul Farhi
The House committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021, holds its second public hearing on Capitol Hill on June 13. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Major broadcast and cable networks are carrying the House hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection live. But on many PBS stations, the hearings are losing out to the likes of Daniel Tiger and Curious George.
WyomingPBS is among a number of public stations that have been reluctant to preempt shows such as “Donkey Hodie” and “Sesame Street” for hearings that sometimes feature cursing — in videotaped testimony, former attorney general William P. Barr recalled telling Donald Trump his election-fraud claims were “bulls---” — and images of rioters attacking police at the U.S. Capitol.
Thursday’s prime-time hearing attracted an estimated national TV audience of around 20 million, about 19 million of them on the three leadings broadcast networks and CNN and MSNBC on cable (the figures do not include PBS’s audience). Fox was the only major station that didn’t carry the hearing live, opting instead to stick with its opinion programs. However, Fox joined the pack by carrying Monday’s morning hearing. And NBC and CBS plan to air future hearings on all affiliate stations (ABC did not immediately respond to The Post).
Some PBS stations, like ArizonaPBS, showed last week’s prime-time hearing on their main channels but downgraded Monday’s hearing to a secondary channel, in favor of children’s programming.
The stations’ decision is striking, too, in light of Congress’s role in funding PBS and its affiliated stations. The stations receive taxpayer support through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, an entity created by Congress to distribute federal money to noncommercial radio and TV stations. Congress appropriated $485 million to CPB in the current fiscal year. The figure is set to rise to $525 million by 2024.
In contrast with many other PBS stations, Washington’s WETA is tripling down on the House hearings, broadcasting them live on its flagship channel (Channel 26) and two sub-channels during the day and re-airing them in prime time each evening. (WETA produces “NewsHour”).
At least one PBS station opted not to show the first hearing at all on Thursday, but quickly reversed itself after receiving complaints from viewers. PBS North Carolina dropped the opening session because viewers were able to see it on other stations and through a stream on the station’s website, interim chief executive David Crabtree told the Raleigh News & Observer. | 2022-06-15T19:44:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | On some PBS stations, Jan. 6 hearings are preempted by 'Curious George' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/06/15/pbs-jan-6-hearings/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/06/15/pbs-jan-6-hearings/ |
A look at one of Italy’s youngest mayors — she’s 15
Past mayors look down from the walls of the town hall in Castel San Pietro Terme at a new generation of leadership, as represented by Michelle Lamieri. (Isabella Franceschini)
Isabella Franceschini studied economics at Italy’s Bologna University and then spent some time traveling the world. It was in that period she began attending photo workshops — and photography became the main focus of her professional life.
Since then, Franceschini has focused on long-term documentary work. Her projects have been featured in national and international publications, including Der Spiegel and Marie Claire. She said she is inspired by the human experience.
In her photo documentary “Becoming a Citizen,” Franceschini explores the civic education and service of teenager Michelle Lamieri, one of Italy’s youngest mayors.
I’ll let Franceschini describe her project in her own words:
Michelle Lamieri, 15, is one of the youngest mayors in Italy. But unlike a typical mayor, who oversees a city government, Michelle’s job is to take part in the social life of her town and learn about local issues and how they fit into the broader concepts of citizenship and democracy.
Michelle’s experience is the result of a 1997 law allowing for the participation of Italian children in political bodies through the Children’s Municipal Councils, which are organized in the same way as a typical senior council. Thus, the citizens of the future, together with their educators, who are also part of this project, can develop ideas, exchange approaches and debate freely in compliance with democratic rules.
The children are exposed to local problems and take an active part in the social life of their towns. They learn about integration, tolerance, diversity and equality. The program seeks to instill knowledge of the core values of a democratic country. As U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt said: “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”
Michelle was elected deputy mayor in 2017, at age 10, and as mayor in 2019 in Castel San Pietro Terme in Bologna, one of 183 municipalities with a Children’s Council, out of a total of more than 7,900 Italian municipalities. Other countries such as France, Switzerland and Croatia have developed similar models of youth civic participation and, together with Italy, have created Youth Planet, the European association recognizing the next generations’ role in shaping the future.
In 2021, Michelle became a member of the Regional Youth Assembly for Emilia-Romagna, the first in Italy. The function of the young councilors is to express opinions on ongoing regional measures and formulate proposals to contribute to the protection of human rights for children in Italy. Young councilors have unique perspectives on local issues. They often bring new ideas to the table, and they can be an inexhaustible source of energy and passion for social change.
For millennia, humans have felt the need to live in a society with others. “Man is by nature a political animal,” because the typical form of social life is “poleis,” Aristotle said in the 4th century B.C. “Politics” comes from this ancient Greek word.
These local young change-makers are a new generation of dynamic, diverse and innovative citizens who champion democratic values and are motivated and empowered to organize for a more peaceful and just society. They start absorbing the values of democracy from childhood. They identify with the concept of internationalism and globalism. This is not the divisive politics of the left and the right, but the politics of productive debate. Not long from now, they could make the world a better place to live.
I am convinced that there is a need for aware citizens — for young people who, upon reaching the age of 18, know the Italian Constitution, or at least the 12 articles of the fundamental principles for which our grandparents fought, so that they can exercise the right to vote with conscience — and so that democracy triumphs. This is the happy ending of the story of my project with which I hope to raise awareness — so that more municipal administrations will invest in civic education for the citizens of the future. | 2022-06-15T19:45:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Photos of one of Italy's youngest mayors - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2022/06/15/look-one-italys-youngest-mayors-shes-15/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2022/06/15/look-one-italys-youngest-mayors-shes-15/ |
Army-Navy games to be played at five Northeast sites the next five seasons
Army and Navy played in East Rutherford, N.J., in 2021. Navy won, 17-13. (Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
Army-Navy football games will tour the Northeast over the next five years, the two institutions announced on Wednesday afternoon.
Games are scheduled through 2027 with stops in or near Boston; Washington, D.C.; Baltimore; New York; and Philadelphia.
“Our destinations over the next five years provide the Academies with an opportunity to share the economic impact, history and tradition of Army-Navy with a number of communities in diverse geographic areas,” Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk said in a statement.
Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots will play host on Dec. 9, 2023. This will be the first time the game is played in that region and will coincide with the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
FedEx Field in Landover, Md., is up next on Dec. 14, 2024 for the 125th playing of the game.
Perspective: As college sports change, coaches must stop whining and amplify new voices
The Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium will host Dec. 13, 2025, as Baltimore holds the game for the seventh time — the first since 2016.
MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., the home field for the New York Jets and Giants, will be the site on Dec. 12, 2026 as New York marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11
The five-year rotation concludes at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field on Dec. 11, 2027. The Eagles’ home is this season’s site for a 3 p.m. kickoff on Dec. 10.
The Midshipmen lead the all-time series 62-53-7.
“We had great interest from many regions and thank the cities who participated in the bid selection process,” Army athletic director Mike Buddie said in a statement. “We cannot wait to have this game played at some incredible venues in great cities.” | 2022-06-15T19:45:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Army-Navy games announced for next five years - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/army-navy-football-schedule/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/army-navy-football-schedule/ |
Ron Rivera hopeful a Terry McLaurin contract is coming. When? ‘Don’t know.’
The Commanders receiving corps, without its star in Terry McLaurin, has been relying mostly on Jahan Dotson, Dyami Brown and Curtis Samuel, when healthy, at offseason workouts. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
“[The negotiations are] never contentious, I can promise you that much,” Rivera said. “So, we're feeling pretty good and pretty confident [that], at some point, this will get done.”
“It's very beneficial,” Brown said of the extra snaps. “Sometimes, you need a little bit more repetition just to critique everything and be more precise.”
“At the end of the day, you want to make sure and go through the process of really thinking these things out,” he said. “There's a lot of planning that goes involved, and it's not just planning for this coming season. … If you start spending and spending, then where's the money going to come from? And how are you going to start planning for it? Well, by one at a time, and being very thoughtful about what we're doing.”
HOF advice at camp
“I love 'em. I love those two dudes [Allen and Payne],” he said. “I mean, whoa, Jesus, they’re just thick. [They’re] bowling balls and butcher knives. Now, I’m just trying to get 'em out of that two-gap [mind-set]. Let’s go forward. Let’s build a camp in the backfield three yards deep. Penetration kill all run plays. Penetration disrupt the timing of an offense — and no quarterback wants that kitchen in his living room. No way.”
“I mean, come on, man,” he continued. “You got these ends coming off with Chase and Sweat. Fellas, let’s set the stage, they’ll take him off [with a sack]. I guarantee you. So, just work together as a unit. That’s all I’m trying to get 'em to understand.” | 2022-06-15T19:45:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ron Rivera hopeful a Terry McLaurin contract is coming. When? ‘Don’t know.’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/commanders-terry-mclaurin-minicamp/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/commanders-terry-mclaurin-minicamp/ |
By Jerry Brewer
Steve Kerr is trying to win his fourth title with the Golden State Warriors. (Elsa/Getty Images)
“It feels like it wasn’t this way when I first started coaching eight years ago,” Kerr said of NBA offenses that have evolved from finding mismatches to forcing them with their actions, screening and spacing. “I think maybe over the last five or six years, it’s gotten more and more popular as we’ve had more and more three-point shooting, more five-out lineups, because the floor is so open. And all the switching, it’s hard to attack switches. I think that’s the reason for the hunting over the last few years.”
Since Kerr and former Cleveland Coach David Blatt met in 2015, the Finals have regularly showcased the value of new coaching blood. In 2016, Kerr encountered a better first-time coach for Cleveland, Tyronn Lue, and the Cavs wound up rallying from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the historic 73-9 Warriors in seven games. After Golden State beat Cleveland in the next two Finals, Kerr faced Toronto’s Nick Nurse in 2019. The Raptors won, and it branded Nurse a Year 1 championship coach.
Add it together, and the NBA has seen five rookie coaches in the last eight Finals. Three of them have captured the Larry O’Brien Trophy. And these aren’t cases of beginner’s luck. Blatt is the only coach in the group who flamed out. Kerr, Lue and Nurse have continued to be successful with various rosters and situations. With most of the Celtics’ core between ages 24 and 28, Udoka figures to be a sustainable strategist, too.
We’re just beginning to realize the impact of the NBA’s embrace of new ideas. The style of basketball is more pleasing, though the extreme reliance on three-point shooting is a bubbling issue. Even during a Finals featuring two stellar defensive teams, the beauty of the game is evident amid all the muck. Kerr’s motion offense has revolutionized the way NBA basketball looks. It’s a hybrid system that borrows wrinkles from classic systems such as the triangle offense, Princeton offense and Jerry Sloan’s Utah Jazz system, but it becomes its own transcendent thing because it’s built around the multidimensional shooting and playmaking ability of Stephen Curry and the elite complementary skill set of Klay Thompson.
With skilled players and shot creators all over the floor — and a power forward with a point guard’s court vision in Draymond Green — the Warriors play both a free-flowing and a thinking man’s game. It’s a chess match in which decisions must be made at an incredible pace. After nearly a decade of trying to keep up with the Warriors, teams aren’t just hoping to copy some of their offensive principles. They’ve devised defensive systems that are far more versatile and better at utilizing the current position-less culture of basketball.
Under Udoka, the Celtics have transformed into the NBA’s No. 1 defense, and they could have a long run as the trendsetter. It’s a masterpiece of interchangeable pieces. They have no weak individual defenders. Their big men can function guarding on the perimeter. With Robert Williams III, they have rim protection. Their roster is flexible enough to play big or small. They have length. They play physical. Marcus Smart, the defensive player of the year, is a disruptive lead guard.
It took more than half of Udoka’s first season, but Boston has a championship identity. Offense, particularly turnovers and decision making, has been the Celtics’ problem against the Warriors. Even when they’ve played drop coverage and allowed Curry a lot of freedom, the Celtics have done plenty to limit Golden State. While the series has lacked dramatic, last-minute endings, it has been an interesting battle of wild momentum swings. The coaching game within the game has been riveting, with Kerr making slight tweaks to free up Curry and Udoka striking a balance between dogged defensive philosophy and throwing new looks at an opponent that has seen everything.
“Two physical teams, two great defensive teams," Curry said. “There’s a lot of adjustments from game to game. The deeper you go in the series, you just know each other so well. Things become a little harder for both sides. If you embrace the fact that even if it’s not pretty, you can still win the game, and that’s all that matters.”
Now we’ve truly arrived at the adapt-or-die moment. The series can still go either way, but the Warriors have been here before. They’ve closed out the Finals three times under Kerr, and two of the championship-clinching victories were on the road. They also blew three chances to eliminate Cleveland in 2016. Boston, young and erratic, hasn’t been to the edge before. But Udoka’s ability to relate to players and sternly tell them the truth has gotten them this far. The ending may come down to trust and grit.
Whether Kerr or Udoka celebrate, new blood wins. And a diversity of thought leads to diverse hiring. Next season, half of the league’s 30 coaches will be Black. Many of them are like Udoka, relative newcomers who have been around the game for a while. When the Los Angeles Lakers hand over what may be LeBron James’s last good years to a rookie in Darvin Ham, the trend is clear.
Throughout sports, the coaching profession is changing. Legends are retiring. Attitudes are shifting. It’s an ideal time for a refresh, and as another NBA season reaches the end, ingenuity keeps owning the moment. | 2022-06-15T21:07:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ime Udoka and Steve Kerr show the NBA's coaching innovation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/ime-udoka-steve-kerr-nba-finals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/ime-udoka-steve-kerr-nba-finals/ |
At the U.S. Open, golfers must make peace with their imperfections
Justin Thomas and Scottie Scheffler won the year's first two major titles. (Rob Carr/Getty Images)
BROOKLINE, Mass. — Now to the golf, in which a bunch of perfectionists will play an event long proud of its peerless punishment of imperfection, so that the perfectionists must develop some kind of peace with their imperfections.
What a concept, the U.S. Open.
It might just last.
As its 122nd edition hits The Country Club, where it stops by only every now and then — 1913, 1963, 1988, 2022 — men’s golf finds itself with four lions holding the four current major titles. It finds itself with four lions who can attest to the hard navigation of their own human heads, and how the best navigator should win here.
Defending U.S. Open champion Jon Rahm of Spain and Arizona State, still 27, can tell about the oddity of watching film and seeing a different round of golf than one thought one played at the time. He shot that closing 67 last June at Torrey Pines in San Diego, and he made those two closing, curling, winding birdie putts of 24 and 18 feet, and he thought he might have fashioned something near-immaculate.
Key lesson: He hadn’t, quite.
“It’s easy to think you need to be playing perfect golf,” he said here Tuesday, “and I remember watching my highlights of Sunday last year, and I thought I played one of the best rounds of my life, and I kept thinking [when watching], I cannot believe how many fairway bunkers I hit that day, how many greens I missed and how many putts I missed. You know, it’s golf, and that’s how it is. You truly don’t have to play perfect, and that’s, I think, the best lesson I can take from that.”
Reigning British Open champion of California and the University of California at Berkeley and Las Vegas, Collin Morikawa, still 25, can tell about recent rounds in which he almost doesn’t recognize Collin Morikawa.
His scorecards haven’t recognized the two-time major winner, either.
From a closing 67 to finish fifth at the Masters, the great bright light from suburban Los Angeles has gone on a binge of bust by his standards (but a bonanza for many): tied for 26th, tied for 29th, tied for 55th at the PGA Championship, tied for 40th and cut at the Memorial near Columbus.
“There’s been a couple of rounds over the past couple of months that I’ve just kind of shut off J.J. (Jakovac, his caddie), and just hit my shot, do everything in my head,” Morikawa said here Tuesday. “That’s not me. I think I’m normally a pretty happy golfer. I like to smile out there. Yeah, it definitely affects your mood, and it is frustrating because I do want to be consistent. It’s not what I’m thinking about. I think it just goes back to I felt like my prep was good, and it just didn’t turn out that way. Sometimes when you think you’re going to do everything right, it just doesn’t happen.”
He says everybody talks about small things, but that actually, it’s really about small things.
“Acceptance,” he said. “I think we are the best golfers in the world, and we set ourselves to high standards. Sometimes when you don’t perform the way you want to, you can get upset. It can be frustrating. That’s how it’s been recently. You just have to accept that you’re going to hit bad shots.”
When watching golf, then, imagine a giant pile of little things in addled minds.
“There are so many little things that aren’t said or heard or no one else would know other than yourself, but that’s the thing,” Morikawa said. “It’s the small things that really make a difference. You always hear that, but that’s what really happens, that’s what it takes to win majors.”
Reigning Masters champion Scottie Scheffler of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and the University of Texas, still 25, speaks with something that looked an awful lot like perfection lodged in his recent memory. Between Feb. 13 and April 10, he won four of the six events he entered. Golf has never really tolerated such things across the months except from Tiger Woods several times.
Scheffler had the anti-perfectionist good sense to laugh at his own closing double bogey at the Masters, but then he became the fifth golfer in the last four years to miss the cut on the ensuing major after a major title.
He speaks from a perch of knowing it’s not all so drastic.
“For me I’m not going to sit there and be, like, ‘Oh my gosh, how did this happen?’” he said here Tuesday. “‘How could I ever miss a cut? What’s going on?’ Just sitting back and looking, ‘Well, I could have approached this differently. Mentally I could have been a little bit different approaching this shot,’ and it’s more stuff like that versus, ‘I missed the cut, what am I doing out here? I got all these things to work on.’ It was more just sitting back and saying, ‘You know, I could have been better mentally here and there, and other than that, that could have changed the tournament for me.’ Just little changes. It’s nothing big.”
And reigning PGA Championship champion Justin Thomas of Louisville and the University of Alabama, still 29, speaks not so long after lurching from eight shots behind to win that PGA last month in Oklahoma, and not so long after dueling with Rory McIlroy last weekend in Canada. Thomas tells of the very struggle that will tell the winner in the exacting fairways and the chastening rough here in the old shadows of Boston.
“It’s when things start going south or maybe you get a couple bad breaks or you get some wind gusts, whatever it is, to where you just get thrown some adversity, and it’s like, How are you going to handle it?” he said here Monday. “Those are the times, especially in a major, that I’ve learned that I become a little impatient. I almost try to force the issue sometimes. At the end of the day or at the end of the week in a major, that’s how a lot of guys are going to end up losing the tournament. I’m trying to get to a point where I don’t do that anymore.
“I wish it was that easy to be able to say, ‘I’m going to stay perfectly in the present and in the moment and I’m not going to let anything affect me,’ but it’s not that easy, so you just kind of have to make way with whatever you have.” | 2022-06-15T21:07:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How the U.S. Open challenges golfers' minds - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/us-open-mental-challenges/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/06/15/us-open-mental-challenges/ |
A girl changed how we see crayons and skin color. Now, she’s an author.
As Bellen Woodard has grown, so has the movement she started at 8
The cover of 11-year-old Bellen Woodard's book. (Courtesy of Scholastic)
To see how a moment turned into a movement you just have to flip through the pages of Bellen Woodard’s new book.
Written against colorful illustrations, the story takes readers back to when the Northern Virginia girl was 8 and a classmate asked if she could hand him the “skin-colored crayon.”
“Some call it the skin-color crayon,” reads a page in the book. “I’ve heard it many times before. But this time when I pass the peach-colored crayon to him, something in me feels different.”
Flip a few pages: “Can someone pass me the skin-color crayon?” another friend asks later. The question rings through the room.
Flip again: “This question didn’t seem to bother my teacher. Or my friends.”
Flip again: “Why was I the only one feeling confused?”
Bellen is an 11-year-old straight-A student who loves the color pink, playing with her dogs and spending time with friends. She is also the CEO of her own company, an activist and, now, an author. In July, Scholastic will publish a children’s book written by Bellen and illustrated by Fanny Liem.
Titled “More than Peach,” the book details how Bellen became an industry transformer, getting people to think differently about the crayons and colored pencils that children are handed. It also encourages readers to think about what they want to change in the world.
“Did you know that the peach crayon was actually named ‘flesh’?” reads a section toward the end of the book, touching on how Crayola initially gave the crayon that name. “I found it pretty strange that there was just one crayon with that name and that even today only one was being called ‘skin-color’ crayon. So with More than Peach, I want every single person to know I value them and that their spaces (and businesses) really should, too!”
If you find yourself shopping for crayons on Target’s website now or in stores this summer, you will see Crayola now has a “Colors of the World” line. You will also see alongside it a brand of crayons and colored pencils that don’t carry as well-known a name but contain a wide spectrum of skin-tone colors. Here’s what you should know about them: They were the innovation of a Black girl who knew her skin wasn’t the color of peaches and wanted to find a way for all children to feel seen.
Bellen’s book shows her talking to her mom about what happened in class and deciding that the next time someone asked for the skin-colored crayon, she would say: “Which one? Skin can be any number of beautiful colors.” In the book, she answers that way again and again. Then one day, she hears those words coming from someone else. “My teacher replies just the way I did” the book reads.
Bellen will tell you that she realized at that moment that language and perspectives could be changed.
I first told you about Bellen when she was 9 and had just created the “More than Peach” project, which aimed to get multicultural-colored crayons and colored pencils into more classrooms. At the time, her effort was focused on Loudoun County, where her family lives.
A 9-year-old girl got people to finally stop thinking of the peach-colored crayon as the ‘skin-color’ crayon
Since then, as she has grown, so has her effort. She has spoken with stars and national leaders, including Michelle Obama and Simone Biles, learned to become a public speaker and created a company that has an international reach.
Each week, she receives dozens and sometimes hundreds of drawings from children who want to show her their colorful creations. A recent package included a letter from a teacher in California that read: “Dear Bellen, Thank you for all your hard work to help make every kid feel included! We drew you some pictures to show our appreciation. You’re making a BIG difference!”
“She has so many letters and drawings from kids that say, ‘Bellen, we don’t use that language anymore,’” her mom, Tosha Woodard, said. By “that language,” those children mean they no longer call the peach crayon the skin-colored crayon.
“Many are not even from America,” Bellen said. They have come from Japan, Angola and many other countries. “They’re really cute. They’re really thoughtful. Some have rainbows. Some have drawings the kids made of themselves. It makes me feel really happy to see that the younger kids are getting it. Hopefully when they’re older, they can talk to their kids about it, and it just keeps getting better.”
On Sunday, Bellen is scheduled to speak to Girl Scouts who live overseas and in the nation’s capital for a virtual event that has been billed as “an exceptional Juneteenth celebration.”
“Be you. Brilliant,” she will tell them.
She will also tell them much more, but she hasn’t had a chance to write down her words.
When I spoke to Bellen on a recent evening, the sixth-grader (she skipped a grade) was focused on getting through a week filled with dance classes, a trip to Kings Dominion and her final days of school. She planned to choose her words for the Sunday event later. But she knew what message she hoped to convey to those girls: They should trust in themselves and the quality of their ideas.
These past few years have shown Bellen the power that an idea backed by conviction and hard work can hold.
“If I was doing something and saw no one really cared, that would probably lower my confidence and lower how much I want to keep doing this,” Bellen said. “But if I see it’s working and something is changing, it makes me want to keep going. And I definitely have seen the impact.”
I asked how she felt knowing people would soon be reading a book that tells her story.
“It’s really cool,” she said. “It just reminds me that I’m doing the right thing and that people all around the world are getting this message and that they understand it. It just makes me happy because all this hard work and everything with my schedule, it does good.”
One of the people Bellen has met through her work is Mae Jemison, who was the first Black woman from the United States to travel to space.
“Don’t shrink,” Bellen said Jameson told her.
That detail appears in the book.
So does this advice, attributed to Bellen: “Instead of asking kids what they want to be when they grow up, ask them what they want to change.” | 2022-06-15T21:11:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | A girl changed how people see crayons. Now, she's an author. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/bellen-woodard-crayons-book/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/bellen-woodard-crayons-book/ |
Some D.C. candidates go negative as election approaches
The Emery Heights Community Center in Ward 4 on June 10, the first day of in-person early voting in D.C. (Vanessa G. Sanchez/The Washington Post)
In the days before Tuesday’s D.C. Democratic primary, some mayoral and council candidates are going negative, attacking their opponents through TV and digital ads and mailers.
Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), who is seeking a third term, ran a video ad over the weekend aimed at one of her opponents, Council member Robert C. White Jr. (D-At Large). In the 38-second video, a narrator declares that White has delivered “broken promises” and “bad ideas” before Bowser appears, touting herself as a trusted leader. “I keep my promises. I do what I say I’m going to do, and I don’t waffle,” she says in the clip, taken from a mayoral debate.
An earlier negative mailer from the Bowser campaign includes the phrase “Robert White wants to send our kids away to boarding school” inscribed on a red backpack, a reference to White’s proposal to create more public boarding schools in the city for students whose turbulent home lives could interfere with their education.
White, the best-funded of Bowser’s three opponents, has taken aim at the mayor in his own ads, with negative mailers and last week a video ad on what he characterized as Bowser’s failure to deliver results on housing affordability, crime and education.
“She is asking for four more years, but we cannot accept the status quo,” White says in the video.
White’s campaign manager, Luz Martinez, said in an interview that the Bowser campaign has directed a deliberately misleading campaign against White, including lambasting his proposal to create boarding schools. She said Bowser is targeting White because she views him as a strong contender.
“She sees that we have a strong campaign, we have momentum, and it’s going to be an extremely competitive race down to the line,” Martinez said.
“The only misleading things are Robert’s bad ideas — from government-run boarding schools, to creating 10,000 government jobs without a plan to pay for it, to his opposition to hiring police officers — that do not appear on his campaign website or in his mail despite him saying them on the campaign trail,” Bowser’s campaign manager, Malik Williams, said in response.
Williams said the negative approach is nothing new. “Voters have been barraged with negative ads this entire election season about the Mayor’s record,” Williams wrote in a statement, adding that the campaign wanted to show voters the difference between Bowser and “those who have bad ideas, no record and are already running away from their own campaign promises.”
D.C. political strategist China Dickerson, who has worked on previous Democratic campaigns in the city, said candidates are using negative campaigning to distinguish themselves, especially during the primary, which in this deeply Democratic city generally determines the winners of the general election in November.
“Just touting what you will do is not effective in D.C.,” Dickerson said. In an race among Democrats in a heavily Democratic city, voters are prone not to pay close attention, thinking that ultimately somebody from their party will win, she said. “People are confused about how you’re different, [so] you might have to say how the other person will be bad for the city or the community.”
Attacking an opponent is not new, she said, and it is even more expected among candidates who — like Bowser and White — have a long history of working alongside each other, she said. “Because they have worked together, they are able to pick on each other,” she said.
Some of the council campaigns have gone negative as well. In Ward 1, Council member Brianne K. Nadeau launched a website connecting her leading opponent, former police officer Salah Czapary, to the Republican Party. Czapary’s former campaign chairman, William Pack, had ties to Republican organizations, including the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank. Czapary, who was registered as an independent until earlier this year, said he removed Pack in mid-May when he learned of the ties.
And in Ward 3, one candidate made a video about Eric Goulet after he turned a question about increasing diversity in the ward into a criticism about housing vouchers during a D.C. Chamber of Commerce debate last month.
During the debate, Goulet said that “there’s been a significant increase in the housing voucher program, which is bringing largely African American residents and families into the neighborhood without support and really without any hope of then connecting [them] to jobs and getting them into D.C.’s middle class.”
Ben Bergmann released a video on his Twitter account last week attacking Goulet for his answer.
Goulet did not respond to phone calls requesting comment. Bergmann has since dropped out of the race, urging voters to vote for Matthew Frumin and not Goulet, after another candidate, Tricia Duncan, did the same. | 2022-06-15T21:11:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Some D.C. candidates go negative as final days before election approach - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/dc-election-negative-ads/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/dc-election-negative-ads/ |
Man fatally shot outside Northeast D.C. shoe store, police say
A police commander said the victim appeared to have been targeted, but did not say why.
A man was fatally shot outside a shoe store in Northeast Washington on Wednesday. (Peter Hermann/The Washington Post)
A man was fatally shot outside a shoe store Wednesday morning in the Benning neighborhood of Northeast Washington, police said.
The shooting occurred in a shopping plaza at Shoe City, in the East River Park Shopping Center in the 3900 block of Minnesota Ave NE, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.
Officers responded around 11:40 a.m. and located the victim, who was suffering from multiple gunshot wounds and was in front of the shoe store, next to a post office.
Cmdr. Darnel Robinson of the Sixth District station said it appeared the victim, whose identity was not immediately disclosed pending notification of relatives, had been targeted.
The gunman was last seen running behind a McDonald’s next to the shopping plaza and toward Minnesota Avenue, police said. Robinson said police recovered a weapon at the scene.
Tyrell Holcomb, an advisory neighborhood commissioner for the area, came to the shopping center and said the city needs more recourses to deal with violence.
“This is the second shooting over here that’s taken place in broad daylight,” Holcomb said, referencing the April shooting of 38-year-old Tiffany Wiggins, which occurred a block away.
Holcomb said he has petitioned for violence interrupters who work in communities to mediate disputes and try to prevent shootings.
“The violence interrupters need to have resources beyond MPD in order to prevent stop things like this from happening since they’re the first line of defense when things like this happen,” Holcomb said. | 2022-06-15T21:11:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man fatally shot outside shoe store in Northeast Washington - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/dc-shoe-store-shooting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/dc-shoe-store-shooting/ |
As Risks Rain Down on Emerging Markets, Unrest Rises
Analysis by Andrew Rosati and Eric Martin | Bloomberg
Demonstrators during a protest in Lima, Peru, on Thursday, April 7, 2022. Peru is forecast to raise interest rates Thursday to curb soaring inflation that led to mass protests, riots and a state of emergency in recent days. (Bloomberg)
When global economy-watchers talk about the outlook for so-called emerging markets these days, they’re kicking around some alarming terms: They see a toxic cocktail of risks, warn of a train wreck and are braced for a potential cascade of disasters. It’s the fallout from a mix of external shocks and mounting financial troubles washing over low- and middle-income countries, creating perhaps the biggest confluence of challenges since the 1990s, when a series of rolling crises sank economies and toppled governments. By mid-2022, rising food and energy prices had fueled street protest in countries including Sri Lanka and Peru.
1. What’s triggered the worry?
A post-pandemic surge of inflation is a recipe for strain in countries that need US dollars for energy, medicine and food imports. Food costs account for about 40% of consumer spending in places like sub-Saharan Africa, more than double the share in advanced economies. To tame higher prices, the US Federal Reserve is embarking on its most aggressive series of interest-rate increases in two decades, which helps drive up the dollar and push down other currencies. So debt-servicing costs are jumping — just after developing nations borrowed billions in foreign currencies to fight Covid-19.
2. Did the pandemic cause this?
The health crisis certainly created a backdrop of social tensions, which is one reason economists are starting to suspect a broader trend in the upheaval hitting some of the poorest corners of the globe. Peru, which had one of the world’s highest Covid death rates, was rocked by weeks of violence in March and April as farmers and truckers protested the rising cost of fuel and fertilizers.
3. What are the risks?
The current dynamic can trigger fits of panic among international investors and sudden flights of capital from the countries most exposed. That’s places like Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer and one of the IMF’s biggest borrowers in recent years. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent global commodity prices surging, the country’s central bank let the Egyptian pound weaken more than 15% in a matter of hours and hiked the benchmark interest rate for the first time in five years amid an outflow of hard currency.
4. Where else is trouble brewing?
Sri Lanka is seen as a prime example of how shortages of food and fuel can spill over into violent street protests and destabilize an unpopular government. The South Asian nation defaulted on its foreign debt in May for the first time since achieving independence from Britain in 1948. A handful of other nations, including Pakistan, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Ghana and El Salvador, were in danger of following suit, according to Bloomberg Economics. As of mid-June about 15 emerging-market countries had government bonds trading with yields at least 10 percentage points more than US Treasuries, a benchmark of distress. That compared with six a year earlier. While the direct effect of a string of defaults on the global economy would be small, blowups in the developing world have a history of spreading well beyond their starting points. That’s what happened in 1997, when a currency devaluation in Thailand touched off a broader Asian crisis, ended the 32-year rule of Indonesia’s President Suharto and ultimately led to Russia’s domestic debt default.
5. Is the news all bad?
In some ways, the spike in global commodities prices has been a boon for resource-rich regions like Latin America. Exports of beef and copper rose quickly in places such as Brazil and Chile. But with much of the region’s fuel and fertilizers imported, the worry is that higher prices can still feed off of each other. In Brazil, where tensions are running high ahead of an election in October, President Jair Bolsonaro’s government used the commodities windfall to expand aid to the poor after a spike in gasoline prices helped push inflation past 12% in April.
6. What’s the response?
The World Bank mobilized a $170 billion crisis-response package in April, more than the $157 billion spent for its initial Covid-19 response. More countries entered rescue talks with the IMF. And though many wealthy nations gave developing countries a pass on making debt repayments while they dealt with the virus, there has been slow progress on a plan to help debt-ridden nations restructure what they owe. A collective $35 billion bill is coming due this year. The World Bank, in a revision of a pre-pandemic forecast, predicted in April that the combination of forces will mean that 75 million to 95 million people who would have left extreme poverty this year will remain at that level. | 2022-06-15T21:16:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | As Risks Rain Down on Emerging Markets, Unrest Rises - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/as-risks-rain-down-on-emerging-markets-unrest-rises/2022/06/15/f1d537d8-ecd9-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/as-risks-rain-down-on-emerging-markets-unrest-rises/2022/06/15/f1d537d8-ecd9-11ec-9f90-79df1fb28296_story.html |
A survey by a group supporting abortion rights showed an 8 percent increase over 2017.
Ariana Eunjung Cha
Those for and against abortion rights protest on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court last month in response to the leaked draft of the court's opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. (AP Photo) (AP)
The Guttmacher Institute, which surveys abortion providers every three years, said the number of abortions increased 8 percent in 2020 from 2017, to an estimated total of 930,160. It concluded that about one in five pregnancies ended in abortion in 2020.
The Guttmacher Institute’s survey data is not comprehensive, but its conclusion is similar to one from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported in November that abortions ticked up by 2 percent in 2019 over 2018, to a total of 625,346. The agency’s numbers are lower than Guttmacher’s partly because they do not include data from California, New Hampshire and Maryland.
The Guttmacher report said its new data highlights “that the need for abortion care in the United States is growing just as the U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to overturn or gut Roe v. Wade.”
“An increase in abortion numbers is a positive development if it means people are getting the health care they want and need,” the online report stated. “Rather than focusing on reducing abortion, policies should instead center the needs of people and protect their right to bodily autonomy.”
The organization said the abortion rate for women aged 15 to 44 increased from 13.5 per 1,000 in 2017, to 14.4 per 1,000 in 2020, a 7 percent increase.
The rise in abortions was largest in the West, which saw a 12 percent increase, and the Midwest, where it increased by 10 percent, followed by the South, at 8 percent, and the Northeast, at 2 percent. | 2022-06-15T21:16:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Abortions in U.S. rose in 2020, ending decades-long decline, report says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/15/abortion-numbers-increase-ending-decline/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/15/abortion-numbers-increase-ending-decline/ |
WHO to rename monkeypox after scientists call it ‘discriminatory’
Monkeypox virions, left, from a sample of human skin associated with a 2003 prairie dog outbreak. (CDC/AP)
Monkeypox will get a new name, the World Health Organization said, after a group of researchers advocated for a “nondiscriminatory and non-stigmatizing nomenclature.”
A recent international outbreak of the rare but potentially serious viral illness, which has been historically endemic to central and West Africa, has had no connection to those regions, and calling it monkeypox unfairly associates the transmission with the continent, according to 29 biologists and other scientists who wrote a June 10 post on the online forum Virological. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed at a briefing Tuesday that the agency would announce “the new names as soon as possible.”
“In the context of the current global outbreak, continued reference to, and nomenclature of this virus being African is not only inaccurate but is also discriminatory and stigmatizing,” the researchers wrote, pointing to the media’s use of photos of African patients from previous epidemics to depict the pox lesions commonly associated with the disease.
What is monkeypox, the rare virus now confirmed in the U.S. and Europe?
This year, more than 1,600 monkeypox cases have been confirmed, and nearly 1,500 more are suspected, according to data that 39 countries sent to the WHO. Most of those countries — 32 — had not previously reported infections, raising concern among the global health community that the virus is not behaving as it normally has in the past.
Last week, the White House said that there were at least 45 cases identified in 15 states and the District of Columbia so far, and that the numbers are expected to surpass those of a 2003 outbreak, which would make it the biggest the United States has faced.
Monkeypox is known to spread through human contact with animals such as rodents or primates, but the virus has spread further this year through human-to-human transmission than previously reported.
A number of U.S. patients are men who have sex with men, leading officials to warn about a suspected link to such contact. The risk to the public remains low, authorities say.
The scientists suggest the name hMPXV, which begins with an “h” to denote the human version of the virus.
The group also proposed classifying the lineage of monkeypox by letters and numbers based on when outbreaks are discovered rather than location, which stigmatizes some countries or regions for finding and reporting a virus that could have originated elsewhere.
In Europe, where the virus has gained a foothold, cases have been reported in Britain, Germany and Portugal.
Infections typically last two to four weeks, beginning with flu-like symptoms and swollen lymph nodes. Fluid-filled bumps — or “pox” — then surface on the skin. The recent monkeypox cases often involve genital rashes that can be confused for syphilis or herpes, officials say.
There have been 72 reported deaths this year, all in countries that previously have had bouts of monkeypox transmission. The U.N. health agency is looking into news reports from Brazil of a monkeypox-related death, Tedros said.
The agency is also recommending against mass vaccination for the virus, which can be treated with antiviral medicines and vaccines stockpiled in the event of a smallpox outbreak, due to limited clinical data and an insufficient global supply. The WHO is developing a plan to make vaccines and treatments more accessible.
“The global outbreak of monkeypox is clearly unusual and concerning,” Tedros said.
U.S., Europe evaluate monkeypox vaccines but WHO says immunization not urgent | 2022-06-15T21:16:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Monkeypox name is 'discriminatory,' scientists say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/15/monkeypox-name-who/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/15/monkeypox-name-who/ |
Ukrainian troops confer near the city of Kharkiv on June 8. (Maria Senovilla/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Two U.S. military veterans have gone missing in Ukraine, and it is feared they have been captured by Russian forces, family members of the missing Americans said Wednesday.
Alexander J. Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Huynh, 27, both of Alabama, went missing in the last few days near Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city not far from the Russian border, according to their families. Drueke had served in the U.S. Army and Huynh is a Marine Corps veteran, they said.
In phone interviews, both families shared similar accounts in which the two men had contacted them June 8 to say they would be unreachable during a multiday mission. Neither has been heard from since, they said.
Drueke’s mother, Lois, said she received a phone call Monday from another U.S. citizen who indicated he was in Ukraine with her son. The caller, whom she did not identify, told her that intercepted communications suggested Russian forces had detained two Americans, she said.
“Alex felt very strongly that he had been trained in ways that he could help the Ukrainians be strong and push Putin back,” she added, referring to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. “He went over there not to fight, but to train.”
Joy Black, who identified herself as Hunyh’s fiancee, said that he had volunteered to fight alongside Ukrainian forces. She received a phone call Monday also from someone appearing to be American who told her that Hunyh was missing.
“The response that we’ve gotten from our government has been very helpful,” Black said. “They have been taking it very seriously. We got the call on Monday morning, and this has just gone up so high, so quickly.”
News of the Americans’ disappearance was first reported Wednesday by the Telegraph of London. The State Department said that the Biden administration, which has discouraged Americans from joining the war effort, was “aware of unconfirmed reports of two U.S. citizens captured in Ukraine” but declined to comment further.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with Ukrainian authorities,” the statement said. “ … We also once again reiterate U.S. citizens should not travel to Ukraine due to the active armed conflict and the singling out of U.S. citizens in Ukraine by Russian government security official.”
Speaking to the media Wednesday afternoon, White House spokesman John Kirby said he had no information to share about the missing Americans or whether the U.S. government believes they have been taken captive.
American killed in Ukraine was a volunteer, fellow fighters say
It’s unclear how many Americans have joined the war. Soon after the conflict began in late-February, Ukrainian officials said that about 4,000 had expressed interest in doing so.
At least one American citizen, Marine Corps veteran Willy Joseph Cancel, 22, has been killed in action.
Drueke served two tours in Iraq with the U.S. Army, leaving around 2010 as a staff sergeant, his mother said. He had struggled with post-traumatic stress since leaving the military but seemed to find purpose in the mission in Ukraine, she added.
Hunyh served in the Marine Corps for a few years, including on the Japanese island of Okinawa, his fiancee said.
The Washington Post could not immediately verify either man’s military service histories.
Lois Drueke said she last spoke with her son by phone on June 5, and then received a message three days later on the encrypted communications platform Signal. His message said that he would be “going dark” and unreachable for a few days, and that he would be in contact again after completing an assignment.
Alice Crites and Missy Ryan contributed to this report. | 2022-06-15T21:16:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. veterans missing in Ukraine, feared captured, families say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/15/americans-feared-captured-russia-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/15/americans-feared-captured-russia-ukraine/ |
Access to contraception will be all the more vital in a post-Roe world
By Rachel Schulson
A one-month dosage of hormonal birth control pills. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP)
Rachel Schulson is a writer in Chattanooga, Tenn.
In 2004, I flew to Washington for the March for Women’s Lives. It was exciting to march with others for a cause I believed in. But watching the marchers and counterdemonstrators verbally clash over the right to abortion access, I felt far from my home in Chattanooga, Tenn., and the desperate need for essential services there.
The solution I struck on a few years later seems like one that, in the post-Roe world we seem soon to be entering, could be useful far beyond the abortion-services desert of southeast Tennessee.
When it comes to basic reproductive health, the situation in southeast Tennessee is about as stark now as it was in 2004. The only sanctioned sex-education program in public schools is abstinence-based. In rural counties close to me, women may need to wait up to a month for appointments for long-term, reversible contraceptive devices, such as IUDs.
There hasn’t been an abortion provider in Chattanooga since 1993; a nonprofit called the National Memorial for the Unborn now stands where that clinic once offered services. Women seeking abortions often drive two hours to Atlanta or Nashville, or an hour and a half to Knoxville (where abortion services are still available, even though a Planned Parenthood clinic was torched in December).
Back in 2004, the abortion rights advocates on the streets in Washington and antiabortion protesters shouting at them from the sidewalk were never going to agree on abortion policy. Meanwhile, women in my community were getting pregnant when they didn’t want to be. I started thinking about practical solutions.
It took almost a decade, but I founded a contraception-access nonprofit in southeast Tennessee, based on an organization in Memphis. That kind of pragmatic, prevention-only work appealed to me because I respect those who don’t feel as I do — and because I don’t believe there will ever be a consensus.
The goal of the organization, A Step Ahead Chattanooga, was to offer comprehensive sex education (you’d be surprised by how many women don’t know why they get periods); provide free contraception, including the insertion or removal of IUDs and implants; and supply free transportation to appointments if needed. ASAC today offers its services in 18 counties in the southeast corner of Tennessee, rural north Georgia and northeast Alabama. (I retired from the organization in 2019 and no longer speak for it.) Contraceptives are relevant to almost everyone, regardless of personal politics or beliefs about abortion access. What ASAC doesn’t do is offer abortions or referrals for them.
Such models are rare in the South, and in other places where people struggle to gain access to basic reproductive care.
Whenever I spoke publicly about ASAC at churches, civic organizations, homeless shelters and elsewhere, I could sense people’s tense shoulders relaxing as they realized that the organization wasn’t involved in abortions — beyond trying to make them unnecessary. The dozens of ASAC referral partners include many Christian nonprofits that recognize the importance of making contraceptives available but wouldn’t have associated with a mission that facilitated abortions.
To this day, I don’t know where many of the people I worked with inside and outside the organization stand on abortion, and until now I have never publicly shared my own views. It didn’t matter. You can advocate for contraceptive access because you want to prevent abortions from being performed; you can advocate for contraception access because you believe that all reproductive decisions — from abstinence to abortion — should be solely a woman’s prerogative. Either way, you’re supporting contraception.
I hope efforts like the current one in Missouri to pull Medicaid funding from some methods of birth control don’t begin to erode this middle ground.
To date, ASAC has connected almost 5,500 women with free contraception, mostly IUDs and implants, and offered sex education to thousands more. Most clients are in their early 20s, in committed relationships and have completed some college courses. Almost half have no insurance, and more than a third were not using any method of contraception before receiving one through ASAC. Some in the reproductive justice movement may find the organization’s willingness to make compromises unacceptable. But that sort of rigidity strikes me as all too similar to the inflexibility of those who oppose contraception itself.
As far as my views are concerned, I wish Roe v. Wade would remain intact and abortion was available to anyone who sought one, anywhere. But I also live in one of the many parts of the United States where abortion is already unavailable. Helping women who do not feel prepared for parenthood to avoid getting pregnant seems essential.
As activists prepare for a post-Roe future, shouldn’t a prevention-oriented model, with its big tent and ability to appeal across partisan lines, be part of the plan? | 2022-06-15T21:17:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Access to contraception will be all the more vital in a post-Roe world - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/contraceptive-services-post-roe-world/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/15/contraceptive-services-post-roe-world/ |
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