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Once again, voters see more urgent issues than the burning planet
A runner in the early morning hours of July 18 in Frankfurt, Germany. (Michael Probst/AP)
Europe is hot.
At the moment, huge swaths of the continent are hotter than at any point in recorded history, often by wide margins. The heat is dangerous, deadly — and a preview of what future summers are expected to look like. The warming climate, a function of decades of greenhouse gases insulating the planet, means that the summer of 2022 may end up being one of the cooler ones this century.
Both there and here. The heat across the Atlantic Ocean, however, should not obscure the heat here at home. Temperatures in recent days have topped 100 degrees even in the northernmost parts of the United States. It’s summer, yes, but waving away these heat waves as simply functions of the season is like waving away the Hindenburg disaster as a problem with passenger disembarking.
Yet this week also saw an apparent collapse of a federal effort to address climate change. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) announced his opposition to an economic package that included more spending on the issue. This wasn’t really a surprise, in large part because Manchin is a coal-state legislator who draws income from the coal industry and addressing climate change means, to a large extent, curtailing the burning of coal to produce electricity. But it also wasn’t much of a surprise because, for all of the energy and focus on climate change as an issue, it often gets shunted to the policy back burner, to use a fitting idiom.
Examples of this are not hard to come by, so let’s look at recent polling from YouGov, conducted for the Economist. The pollsters asked respondents how important they viewed a battery of issues, including health care, the environment and civil rights.
At the very bottom of the list in terms of importance? Climate change.
You’ll notice that this is mostly a function of Republicans viewing climate change as unimportant. The issue has become deeply polarized over the past 15 years, with climate change now being as much of the culture-war discussion as the political one. Disagree? Ask Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) about the Green New Deal, or ask a Fox News pundit about the carbon dioxide emissions that accompany flying.
There is a difference between viewing an issue as important and viewing it as a top priority, of course, particularly when considering electoral politics. YouGov asked about both of those things, too, allowing us to develop a sort of issue hierarchy.
So let’s compare how many people view an issue as very important with those who see that issue as the most important of the set. Overall, Americans say that jobs and the economy is the most important issue to them, with health care ranking second. That’s because of partisan splits: Republicans see the economy as the most important issue, while Democrats view health care as their top priority.
Notice where climate change, shown with outlined shapes, falls on both axes. It’s the second-most important issue for Democrats — but only among the top six overall and near the bottom for Republicans.
What’s more, climate change is seen as slightly less important in the context of the election than it is overall. Below, we see the percentage of poll respondents identifying an issue as very important overall (on the horizontal axis) and in the election (vertical). Dots to the left of the diagonal line are seen as more important in the context of the election than overall — as is the case of abortion rights for Democrats or guns for Republicans.
Climate change is seen as more important for most Americans as an issue in general than in the context of the election (although that difference is within the margin of error).
If we compare the percentage of respondents saying that an issue is important (very or somewhat) in the election with the percentage saying the issue is the most important, we see why Democratic leaders focus on climate change: The issue is viewed as important both overall and for the election.
But, even then, it’s in competition with a lot of other things. Nine issues are seen as important for the election by 87 percent to 93 percent of Democrats. Climate change is one of four things considered the most important by the party.
That’s then offset by Republican indifference (if not antagonism). For Manchin, this is no small thing: He represents a vibrantly red state, one that sees climate change legislation as both a political and cultural threat. With no action on Capitol Hill, it is expected that President Biden will announce a national climate emergency this week, allowing him to take more robust executive actions to combat America’s carbon-dioxide emissions. (Without a change in direction, the country will almost certainly not meet its modest emissions targets.)
The idea that a Democratic president might leverage the National Emergencies Act to address climate change was floated by Republicans as a slippery-slope argument against Donald Trump’s declaration of an emergency to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. See Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) in early 2019, for example.
Because, in the United States, climate change is viewed as a partisan issue. Despite the enormous evidence that the world is warming and that human activity is to blame, and despite manifestations of that warming, climate change remains important largely in the abstract — and only to members of one political party.
Voters in November are more likely to make their selections based on gasoline’s price than the long-term effects of burning it. | 2022-07-19T18:43:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Once again, voters see more urgent issues than the burning planet - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/19/once-again-voters-see-more-urgent-issues-than-burning-planet/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/19/once-again-voters-see-more-urgent-issues-than-burning-planet/ |
Even when using credit-card points and crashing on couches, traveling for the big day is costing guests thousands
(Thumy Phan for The Washington Post)
Wilder Shaw has seven weddings to attend this year. They’re all in desirable destinations, such as Tuscany, Upstate New York and the Northern California coast — places where people go on vacation.
“It’s a nightmare,” Shaw said.
It’s not because Shaw, 33, doesn’t want to attend the special occasions. It’s the cost and recent travel chaos making things hellish.
Summer travel prices aren’t the only culprit in the high cost of attending weddings. The celebrations have become pricey, days-long events, and travel expectations for guests can be high. There’s the engagement party, the bachelor and bachelorette trips, the bridal shower, and then the actual wedding weekend extravaganza.
Some travelers are spending even more on weddings this year; after nuptials were postponed during the height of the pandemic, 2022 marks the busiest wedding season in decades.
“The season has definitely been insane,” Massachusetts-based wedding planner Jasmine Galloway said. “And at all of those weddings, all of the guests are traveling from different countries, different states.”
The busiest wedding year in decades is upon us. Here’s how to save on travel.
And how are all those weddings making guests feel? Broke. Here’s how travelers are coping with the costs.
A family favor in lieu of a rental car
Emma Diltz, 25, is in three weddings this year. They’re taking place around where she’s from, in central Illinois and Missouri. But she lives in Arlington, Va., making flights to each wedding least $400.
Being in the weddings makes it even more expensive. Between buying dresses, getting hair, makeup and nails done, and transportation, “I think I’ve spent $3,500 on weddings,” Diltz said. “There were two that I wasn’t able to go to the bachelorette party, so I actually saved myself some money that way, I guess.”
To manage some of the financial stress, Diltz started putting $100 aside from each paycheck and set Google Flight alerts to find the best time to buy her airfare.
Because the weddings are relatively close to her hometown, a family member will pick her up from the airport to save on transportation costs.
“I am super grateful that they are willing to drive for hours to get me from St. Louis,” Diltz said. “I appreciate that I don’t have to rent a car or anything. But it’s a lot of logistics planning.”
By The Way reporter Natalie Compton shares some quick tips to help you save on wedding travel this summer. (Video: Casey Silvestri/The Washington Post)
‘My credit’s going straight to hell’
Shaw, who lives in Asheville, N.C., also sets up price alerts for airfare.
“I have 90 million Hopper alerts going on all year,” he said.
He often buys one-way flights when he sees a good deal and worries about the return later. His other strategy is to drive three and a half hours to stay at his girlfriend’s parents’ house in Georgia, because flying out of Atlanta is cheaper than leaving from Asheville.
Even with the hacks, it’s cost him about $4,000 in flights so far. That doesn’t include other costs, such as suits and hotels, sometimes alleviated by staying with friends or family.
“Then there’s a sitting-in-an-airport-bar cost that I’ve been going through because there’s been so many delays,” he said.
Even in the onslaught of weddings, invitations are rolling in for next year, including for a bachelor party in New Orleans for Mardi Gras.
“My credit’s going straight to hell,” he said.
$1,000-plus bachelorette trip
Fortunately for Elizabeth Hills, 42, resort rates for a Jekyll Island, Ga., wedding were locked in when she booked a year in advance — well before travel prices began skyrocketing.
That didn’t mean the room was cheap. At $330 a night for three nights, accommodations accounted for a significant portion of Hills’s total cost to attend. There was also her dress, $170, plus the bachelorette trip to South Florida from Charleston, S.C., that set her back $1,050, plus another $800 in additional costs such as food and transportation.
Do I have to give a gift if I’m traveling for the wedding?
To offset some of the costs, Hills had been using her American Express Platinum credit card for months, knowing she would cash in her points (including the sign-up bonus) toward the occasion.
Despite the price tag, “I don’t see spending this money in a negative light,” Hills said. “I was more than happy to do all of the things that we did.”
Emilie Liadis, who lives in Durham, N.C. and travels heavily for work, said it hasn’t helped that prices seem worse than ever. She has six weddings this year taking place around the world, including in Panama and India.
“It’s been a lot more expensive,” said Liadis, 32. “Like ridiculously more expensive compared to previous years of travel for weddings or just travel in general.”
Her advice to others in her position is to set boundaries and say no to invitations if they’re taking too much of a toll on your mental, physical or financial health.
Liadis may back out of one for those reasons. In the past, she has weeded out weddings by only saying yes to invites in places she would like to visit, or whether there would be at least two or three close friends in attendance.
“If we only know the couple, we’re not going to spend time with them,” she said.
But, of course, some feel impossible to miss. In Shaw’s case, that’s all of them.
“They’re all people I can’t skip,” he said. “This one’s my cousin. The other one was one of my closest friends. There’s one coming up, that’s like my oldest friend — you can’t not go to any of them.” | 2022-07-19T18:45:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wedding travel is expensive. Summer prices make it ‘a nightmare.’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/07/19/wedding-guest-travel-tips/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2022/07/19/wedding-guest-travel-tips/ |
Ukraine live briefing: Putin meets with Erdogan and Raisi in Iran; Ukraine’...
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcome Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, second from left, and Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova on July 19 at the White House. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska visited the White House on Tuesday, part of her high-profile trip to Washington as the Russian war in her home country enters its sixth month.
Zelenska arrived at the White House just after 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, and was greeted on the South Lawn by President Biden and first lady Jill Biden. The president presented Zelenska with a bouquet of yellow sunflowers, blue hydrangeas and white orchids — reminiscent of the colors of the Ukrainian flag — and the first lady hugged Zelenska.
The group, which included Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova, posed for a photo at the south entrance to the White House, flanked with an American flag and a Ukrainian flag. They did not answer reporters’ shouted questions about what they would discuss.
Zelenska and Jill Biden held a private meeting, then held an expanded bilateral meeting with Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Isobel Coleman, the deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); Toria Nuland, undersecretary of state for political affairs; Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy; and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff.
Tuesday’s White House visit was not the first meeting for Zelenska and Jill Biden. In May, over Mother’s Day weekend, Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine and met with Zelenska in Uzhhorod, a city that lies on the border with Slovakia, as well as other Ukrainian refugees.
At the start of their bilateral meeting Tuesday, Jill Biden recalled the “sorrow and pain” from the war zone and told Zelenska her team had been working on ways to help mental health for Ukrainian mothers and children forced to flee their homes.
On Wednesday morning, Zelenska is scheduled to address Congress to give an update on security, economic and humanitarian conditions on the ground in Ukraine. The remarks will come less than two months after Congress approved a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine in May, which included a combined $20 billion in military aid, nearly $8 billion in economic aid, nearly $5 billion in global food aid and more than $1 billion in combined support for refugees.
In a letter to Democratic colleagues Tuesday about Zelenska’s upcoming visit, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) highlighted the toll on women and girls that the war in Ukraine had taken, which she said has been of particular concern to the women in Congress.
“In the course of visits from Ukrainian leaders — from members of parliament to grass roots heroes — many of us have heard horrific stories about the brutal treatment of women and girls by Russian forces,” Pelosi wrote. “Indeed, we have sufficient evidence of kidnappings and deportations into Russia, rape of women in front of family members and even rape of little girls. … Let me be clear: rape of children cannot be a weapon of war. It is a war crime!”
At the start of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that his family was a top target for Russian troops. In a rare joint interview in May, Zelenska said she and her two children did not see Zelensky for 2½ months after the war started, as they sheltered in an undisclosed location apart from him.
Jeff Stein, Mike DeBonis and Dan Lamothe contributed to this report. | 2022-07-19T19:04:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska visits White House - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/19/ukraine-olena-zelenska-white-house/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/19/ukraine-olena-zelenska-white-house/ |
Michigan Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh looks on from the sideline during the first half of an NCAA college football game against the Maryland Terrapins. (Terrance Williams for The Washington Post)
University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh spoke out in support of the antiabortion movement over the weekend, telling attendees at a charity dinner that pregnancies should be carried to term and that people should “have the courage to let the unborn be born.”
Speaking at a fundraiser hosted by Plymouth Right to Life, an antiabortion organization in Plymouth, Mich., Harbaugh, one of the most recognizable personalities in college football, took the stage Sunday as the keynote speaker to reiterate his opposition to abortion in the weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
“In God’s plan, each unborn human truly has a future filled with potential, talent, dreams and love,” Harbaugh said, according to the Detroit Catholic, the news service of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit. “I have living proof in my family, my children, and the many thousands that I’ve coached that the unborn are amazing gifts from God to make this world a better place. To me, the right choice is to have the courage to let the unborn be born.”
Harbaugh, a Catholic who has long been against abortion, was joined by his wife, Sarah, and the Rev. John Riccardo of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth to help raise money for several antiabortion charities in southeast Michigan. Harbaugh, whose Michigan program is coming off its best year since he arrived in Ann Arbor and made its first College Football Playoff last season, said the beliefs he holds against abortion were shaped by his parents. He said his views have helped inform the relationships he has with his children, players and staff.
“I love life. I believe in having a loving care and respect for life and death,” Harbaugh said, according to the Detroit Catholic. “My faith and my science are what drives these beliefs in me.”
Harbaugh is among the first major coaches or athletes to speak out in support of the antiabortion movement since the Supreme Court overturned Roe on June 24 — a move that caused 13 states to initiate “trigger bans” designed to take effect once Roe was struck down, prohibiting abortions within 30 days of the ruling. Michigan is one of several states that have unenforced pre-Roe abortion bans that will now probably become a target in determining whether access remains legal.
A women’s clinic run by two generations of women braces for the post-Roe era
Abortions are still legal in Michigan because of a state judge’s injunction in May against a 1931 law that only allows the procedure when “necessary to preserve the life of such woman.” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and state Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats, have said they would not enforce the ban.
David Ablauf, a spokesman for the Michigan football program, told The Washington Post that Harbaugh was simply sharing his personal views, even if his opinions do not speak for the University of Michigan.
“Jim Harbaugh attended an event and shared his personal views as any citizen has the constitutional right to do,” Ablauf said in a statement. “He was sharing his personal beliefs and was not speaking on behalf of the university.”
Rick Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the university, agreed that Harbaugh’s personal beliefs don’t speak for the school. Fitzgerald told The Post in an email that the University of Michigan’s position on abortion services remains “clear” and pointed to a statement issued after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization: “The University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine remain committed to providing high quality, safe reproductive care for patients, across all their reproductive health needs.”
Harbaugh’s comments met with backlash from critics Tuesday, including from FS1′s Joy Taylor, who pointed to the coach’s reference to “courage.”
“So, Women who have abortions are cowards?” she asked.
"To me, the right choice is to have the courage to let the unborn be born” - says Man, Jim Harbaugh. "Courage." So, Women who have abortions are cowards? https://t.co/RoROLyE2Vw
Harbaugh has not been afraid to share his opinion on a range of topics and social issues. After he initially said he “didn’t respect the motivation or action” from Colin Kaepernick during his protest of police brutality against Black people, he later hailed the quarterback as “a hero” and even hosted a throwing exhibition for Kaepernick at Michigan’s spring game in April.
Harbaugh later spoke out against the murder of George Floyd in 2020, denouncing the police officer who knelt on the Black man’s neck and sparked nationwide protests. The coach even participated in a protest in Ann Arbor days after Floyd’s death.
When it comes to abortion, Harbaugh has been consistent in his opposition. In an April 2020 podcast published by the National Review, Harbaugh called abortions “horrendous.”
The coach repeated his stance Sunday, noting that even though the rights of a mother and the rights of a fetus may be in conflict, Harbaugh believes the choice should favor that of the fetus. He again reflected on what the last few weeks have been like in his eyes.
“Passions can make the process messy, but when combined with respect, it ultimately produces the best outcomes,” Harbaugh said, according to the Detroit Catholic. “This process has been passionate and messy, but I have faith in the American people to ultimately develop the right policies and laws for all lives involved. I recognize one’s personal thinking regarding the morality of a particular action may differ from their thinking on whether government should make that action illegal. There are many things one may hold to be immoral, but the government appropriately allows because of some greater good or personal or constitutional right.”
During her talk at the event, Sarah Harbaugh acknowledged that the couple’s stance could impact recruiting. But the family emphasized that they were speaking out “for the right reasons.”
“During halftime of a game, talking with the players, I say they are here because they have chosen to be here,” Jim Harbaugh said, according to local media. “If someone believes in what they stand for, they are choosing to stand for that position, and what kind of person are you if you don’t fight tooth and nail for what you stand for? You get to change hearts by fighting for what you stand for.”
Jemele Hill, a contributing writer for the Atlantic, was among those to question Harbaugh’s motivation and approach to an issue that remains raw for millions of Americans.
“This might be a difficult concept for Jim Harbaugh of any anti-choice person to grasp … but if you don’t want an abortion, just don’t get one,” she tweeted. “Not that hard.”
Donors reportedly gave an estimated $100,000 in pledges to Plymouth Right to Life, according to the Detroit Catholic. Among those donations was a $2,300 pledge so a donor could catch a pass in the ballroom from Harbaugh.
Kim Bellware contributed to this report. | 2022-07-19T20:00:38Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh speaks at antiabortion event, ‘Have the courage to let the unborn be born’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/19/abortion-jim-harbaugh-michigan-unborn/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/19/abortion-jim-harbaugh-michigan-unborn/ |
There’s a prowler on my home security camera. Do I get a dog or a gun?
An image from Courtland Milloy's security camera shows someone outside his home in the wee hours. (Courtland Milloy/TWP)
When reviewing overnight footage from my outdoor home security cameras, I usually see raccoons and opossums scurrying back and forth. But on a recent day, at 2:27 a.m., the cameras caught some unnerving images — a human form, almost ghostly, stepping from the shadows onto a walkway alongside my house.
The prowler was dressed in sneakers, pants, a jacket and a baseball cap turned backward. He wore no mask and appeared to be in his late teens or early 20s. As a motion-detecting light illuminated his face, he walked undeterred to where my car was parked. He stopped, looked around, then circled back to the walkway. At 2:28 a.m., he disappeared back into the shadows.
The minute-long videos have stuck with me since they were recorded July 13, and many questions linger. What if he comes back? What if he is armed? Should I get a dog, as one law enforcement officer suggested? Or a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun, as urbansurvivalsite.com recommends in its review of the “Five Best Guns for Home Defense”?
I recalled the words of 83-year-old Joseph Parker Jr. of Mitchellville, who shot a burglar at his home in 2018: “I didn’t want a murder on my hands,” he told ABC7. “I didn’t want to kill anybody. But I didn’t want to be killed.”
Like Parker, I live in Prince George’s County. Most violent crime is down significantly this year, according to police, homicides by as much as 30 percent compared to this time last year.
Homicides are down in Prince George's, but some other crimes are on the rise
But carjackings are up, and thefts from vehicles are epidemic. Whenever criminals are bold enough to come onto your property to break into your car — whether parked in your driveway, your carport or your garage — it’s not hard to imagine them eventually doing the same to your house.
“Group going around Tantallon, walking around checking cars,” a Fort Washington resident wrote last week on Next Door, a community bulletin board that is monitored by county police. “Ski masks on in broad daylight and hot weather.”
Another resident asked: “What on earth can we do about these blatant criminals?”
One replied: “We are on our own, I look out for mine and my neighbors. [It’s] all you can do.”
The same night the prowler showed up at my house, a car was stolen from in front of a neighbor’s home. And here I was annoyed because raccoons were getting into my garbage cans and making a mess.
Still, I wondered what had made that youngster take such a risk. I could imagine going outdoors to chat with him — man to man. Was there something he’d rather be doing than prowling? And I’d show him where he could get the help he needed.
Yeah, right. Wishful thinking, I know. But the point is, as Parker made clear, while nobody wants to be killed, most people don’t want to kill anybody, either.
Prince George’s police are already a month into their “summer crime initiative” aimed at stemming any rise in crime that might result from children being out of school. Violence “hot spots” along the county’s border with the District, among other places, have been targeted with beefed-up patrols and other enhanced law enforcement efforts through August.
But for areas where property crime is the more serious problem, other kinds of preventive strategies are being implemented, such as police-sponsored neighborhood walks; athletic activities for young people; and training sessions with seniors to help them avoid scammers, car thieves, burglars, purse snatchers and pickpockets, among others.
“We want to engage our seniors, provide training and exercises [to teach them] what to do in case of a crisis, no matter what the crisis may be,” Police Chief Malik Aziz said at a news conference kicking off the summer initiative. “Normally, we will press a community very hard, and put a lot of police in the community in order to drive crime down. So, what we did is blossom our thinking in a more holistic approach to work with other partners and provide our resources to the communities we’re servicing.”
But when you’ve got klatches of car thieves in masks roaming on foot in daylight — not to mention the maskless night prowler in my neck of the woods — a more robust police presence might be preferred over, say, a neighborhood walk.
Aisha Braveboy, the county state’s attorney, is partnering with police in the summer crime prevention effort. At a recent rally in Oxon Hill, she said that fighting crime is about more than prosecuting people; it’s also about helping them get their lives back on track.
“We are focusing on protecting our communities by getting people out of our communities who mean us harm,” Braveboy told The Washington Post. “Now there are people who have committed offenses in the past, they’ve been held accountable, they may commit another offense. But that’s because they don’t have the resources. This is what’s going to make the difference.”
I hope she and Chief Aziz can help those people get the resources that make a difference. Soon. There just aren’t that many effective crime-fighting options for law-abiding citizens during a thievery pandemic. A yard dog can become a barking nuisance. Guns in the wrong hands are dangerous. The county police are shorthanded — often minutes away when seconds count, as the saying goes.
One could always hope that parents would teach their children not to steal.
For now, I can only turn up the volume on my security-cam alerts, enduring the false alarms triggered by wildlife but ensuring that I’ll be awake should the prowler return. | 2022-07-19T20:09:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | I caught a prowler on my home security camera but what can I do? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/security-camera-home-burglar-gun-dog-cops-crime/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/security-camera-home-burglar-gun-dog-cops-crime/ |
Organic Valley's labeling is the subject of a lawsuit over animal welfare. (Lisa M. Bolton/The Washington Post)
On one panel of Organic Valley’s whole milk carton, the dairy cooperative says its “commitment to the highest organic standards and animal care practices helps make all our food delicious and nutritious.” Rotate the carton 90 degrees, and another panel tells consumers that Organic Valley believes “the best organic milk begins with . . . taking care of our cows,” relying on “humane” and “holistic health” practices.
A class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Alameda County, Calif., alleges that the messages on Organic Valley’s cartons, whether stated directly or implied with pastoral images of green fields and happy cows, deceive customers in the Golden State. The statements and imagery, the complaint alleges, do little more than provide cover to a common industry practice that tends to alarm the public when they learn about it: the separation of newborn calves from their mothers.
Plaintiff Amber Takahashi-Mendoza, who’s represented in part by attorneys from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals Foundation, claims that Organic Valley’s consumer packaging tricks shoppers into paying more for milk products that come from cows stressed from the forced separation of their newborns.
“These calves are then reared in isolation hutches, often in poor health without vital socialization and natural sustenance. Male calves are quickly sold for eventual commercial slaughter, while female calves go on to give birth to calves who are immediately taken away from them. These practices are not ‘humane’ and do not comport with established ‘highest standards’ of animal care . . . that Defendant touts on its labels,” the complaint alleges.
A spokeswoman for Organic Valley said the company could not comment because it hasn’t seen the lawsuit yet.
The suit is the latest salvo in animal activists’ campaign against cow-calf separation, a practice that dates back decades and was designed in part, dairy industry experts say, to protect the health of the newborns. But armed with studies and surveys, activists have been increasingly taking aim at a practice they contend is inhumane and widely unpopular with the general public.
Takahashi-Mendoza’s complaint alleges that when separated within hours of a calf’s birth, both mother and newborn can exhibit signs of acute stress, such as weight loss, vocalizations and abnormal behaviors (like calves hugging a fence line or sucking on fixtures within their enclosures). What’s more, the lawsuit claims, early separation can make mother and calf more susceptible to disease, not less, as the dairy industry says.
“Numerous studies have established that abrupt and premature weaning impairs immune responses in calves, such as by impairing the function of cellular and other defenses against pathogens necessary to prevent potentially deadly infections,” the lawsuit says.
The complaint features two heavyweights in their respective fields. Organic Valley is the Wisconsin-based cooperative of independent farmers, about 1,800 by the group’s accounting. According to a news release in June 2021, Organic Valley posted sales of $1.2 billion in 2020, a record for the co-op at a time when milk sales have been plummeting for years, despite an uptick early in the pandemic.
On the other side is the legal arm for PETA, which bills itself as the world’s largest animal rights organization. The group has a reputation for generating outrage with its publicity stunts, such as when it passed out comic books to children whose parents wore furs to “The Nutcracker” (title of the book: “Your Mommy Kills Animals”) or when it ran ads that compared factory farms to concentration camps during the Holocaust.
Last year, PETA gave Organic Valley a “Liar, Liar Pants on Fire” award for what the organization called the “humane washing” of its animal husbandry practices. The group, which advocates for a vegan diet, has long railed against milk consumption. “Since consuming cow’s milk is something that PETA understands to be both unhealthy and totally unnecessary, there’s no justification for exploiting or killing any animals for their milk,” said Asher Smith, director of litigation for the PETA Foundation, in an interview with The Post.
The California lawsuit grew out of a complaint that PETA received from Takahashi-Mendoza last year, Smith said. She filled out an online form that asks consumers to explain how they felt misled by a “humane” label on a product. Smith and his colleagues at the PETA Foundation were intrigued by Takahashi-Mendoza’s case, in part because Organic Valley has at least 18 member farms in California and because the state has a provision in which the farms’ alleged animal husbandry practices could be considered violations of animal cruelty laws.
The central argument in the lawsuit is the same one playing out at dairy farms across the globe: What system is better for the cows that supply the milk?
Dairy farmers, particularly in the United States, argue that early calf-cow separation is better for the animals. Separating a mother and calf before they form a strong bond is less dangerous for farmworkers, and less stressful for the animals, than separating them later. They say early separation also reduces the threat of disease and injury to calves while ensuring that farmers can feed them a high-quality colostrum, a nutrient-dense milk that kick-starts a calf’s immune system in the first hours after birth.
But, industry experts and farmers say, there is also a business case for separation: The newborns drink a lot of milk that would otherwise be sold. “As the calf ages, it takes more and more of the milk,” says Myron Martin, owner of Peace Hollow Farm in Knoxville, Md., which sells to Organic Valley. “We wouldn’t have any milk to sell.”
On the flip side, PETA and some researchers argue, there is a better way. Numerous dairy farms, especially in Europe, have been experimenting with more humane systems, sometimes called cow-calf contact or calf-at-foot farms, in which newborns are raised by their mothers’ side in a more natural environment. The benefits, activists and farmers say, are many: The system reduces stress, promotes weight gain, improves health and lowers mortality rates, all of which may help compensate, in the long run, for the milk lost to nursing calves.
But the transition to the new system is tough, in part because farms, especially in the United States, are not designed to house cows and calves together. Plus, says Martin from Peace Hollow Farm, it’s difficult to move a cow to a milking parlor right after she has fed her calf, which is why he has adopted a different model: He has “nurse cows” on pasture, who become surrogate mothers to three newborn calves.
The dairy industry is not resistant to changes in the way it does business, says Jamie Jonker, chief science officer for the National Milk Producers Federation. Jonker says he’s part of a working group with the International Dairy Federation, a scientific and technical organization, that is examining calf-raising systems to determine best practices. Jonker said there’s not yet a body of evidence to support the benefits of cow-calf contact farms, compared with cow-calf separation systems.
“It’s important that we have the scientific research behind the process to help inform how we change systems rather than simply changing systems due to activist pressure,” Jonker says. | 2022-07-19T20:09:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Organic Valley lawsuit calls separating cows from calves inhumane - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/07/19/organic-valley-lawsuit-peta/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2022/07/19/organic-valley-lawsuit-peta/ |
Democratic Reps. Cori Bush, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley were among the dozens of protesters arrested
Democratic lawmakers joined an abortion rights protest Tuesday outside the Supreme Court. (Oliver Contreras for The Washington Post)
Seventeen members of Congress — including Democratic Reps. Cori Bush (Mo.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) — were among dozens of abortion rights protesters arrested Tuesday outside the Supreme Court in a rally demanding immediate action to protect abortion following the court’s decision last month to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Thirty-five people were arrested for crowding, obstructing or incommoding, a D.C. code often cited when arresting protesters during peaceful, planned and coordinated actions of civil disobedience like the demonstration on Tuesday. Those arrested were cited and released, as is standard practice during events such as this, Tim Barber, a Capitol Police spokesman confirmed.
Among those arrested were members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and included Assistant House Speaker Katherine M. Clark (Mass.) and Reps. Bush, Omar, Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Jackie Speier (Calif.) and Carolyn B. Maloney (N.Y.), according to their offices.
In the weeks following the Supreme Court’s decision, confusion surrounding new abortion-related laws has led to patients being denied much needed maternal health care.
At the time of the decision to overturn Roe, 13 states had “trigger bans,” designed to take effect to prohibit abortion within 30 days of the ruling. At least eight states banned the procedure the day the ruling was released
Now, common complications, including incomplete miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies have now been scrutinized, delayed and even denied, according to the accounts of doctors in multiple states where new laws have gone into effect.
The abortion rights protesters on Tuesday marched from the U.S. Capitol to the street in front of the Supreme Court, holding a large orange banner that reads, “Our Bodies. Our Courts. Our Democracy,” according to a live stream of the protest from the Center for Popular Democracy Action, a collective of liberal groups.
Once there, they remained in the street, despite warnings from authorities to disperse or risk arrest. Some sat in the street as the group chanted: “We won’t go back!” | 2022-07-19T20:14:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Lawmakers, abortion rights protesters arrested outside Supreme Court - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/abortion-protest-capitol-lawmakers-arrested/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/abortion-protest-capitol-lawmakers-arrested/ |
Matt Hilburn, who fought to ‘Unsuck’ Metro, dies at 54
His social media accounts, called Unsuck DC Metro, were among the most tartly entertaining and avidly followed by competitors
Matt Hilburn (Family photo)
Matt Hilburn, a journalist and communications specialist best-known for his creation and curation of the popular and unsparing transportation social media account Unsuck DC Metro, died July 17 at his home in Arlington, Va. He was 54.
The cause was complications of kidney cancer that had metastasized, said his father, Paul Hilburn.
For the past 11 years, Mr. Hilburn had been a wide-ranging online reporter at Voice of America. Among earlier jobs, he worked in public relations with the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the agency that oversees VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; was associate editor of Seapower, a publication of the Navy League of the United States; was a freelance journalist in Spain; and was an English teacher in Japan.
In 2009, Mr. Hilburn began his Unsuck DC Metro blog to air personal gripes about the area’s rail and bus public transportation, the Metro. To avoid distraction in his day jobs, and reduce what he said was a volley of personal threats by Metro employees, he blogged and tweeted anonymously. His was not the only social or traditional media outlet to chronicle Metro’s follies, but his forums (his Twitter feed had almost 81,000 followers) were among the most tartly entertaining and avidly followed by competitors.
“You’d find problems on the rail faster on his account than by following Metro’s official account,” Martin Di Caro, a former transportation reporter for WAMU, told the publication DCist in 2019. He described Mr. Hilburn as one of the many online entrepreneurs writing about Metro who benefited from the fact that the agency “did a poor job of communicating with the public through social media.”
Largely skirting political contretemps over funding and leadership woes, Mr. Hilburn wrote about derailments and other emergency situations, and he kept the conversation buzzing about commonplace mishaps and disappointments from a passenger’s view. He scolded the system for “slipshod” customer service that everyday commuters, such as he, paid a steady rise in fares to endure.
He said he received a torrent of emails and photographs from correspondents — fellow riders — pointing out train delays, uncomfortably long and unexplained stops in darkened tunnels, indecipherable station announcements over the public-address system, bus drivers who disregarded safety on turns, and broken fare card machines.
Having traveled widely internationally, Mr. Hilburn saw at home a system in decay and disarray compared with those he had used in Asia and Europe. “In Japan, it’s pretty much error-free,” he said. “Expectations are lower here. It seems like Metro dodges things rather than tackling them head-on.”
His posts could take on a disparaging tone, calling most transit reporters “shills” and once suggesting the top 10 reasons canines would be more adept at handing the tasks performed by Metro employees. His postings, fellow transit writers observed, veered from well-sourced insight into agency functions or malfunctions to missives singling out low-level Metro employees, sometimes by name.
At other times, Mr. Hilburn presented himself as a guy who just wanted the system to function without weirdness, and that included fellow passengers behaving selfishly and grotesquely. He lambasted those who put wet umbrellas on seats or who conducted personal grooming, leaving behind more than their newspaper for the next unfortunate sitter.
On Kojo Nnamdi’s WAMU public affairs show in 2016, Metro union President Jackie Jeter accused Mr. Hilburn of letting racist tropes infiltrate his comment stream. She said he allowed readers to use coded language about “lazy” municipal employees, most of them Black.
“Is The Washington Post racist because weirdos show up on their website and make racist comments?” he replied.
He denied that race mattered as a concern for Metro — it was instead “the abysmal quality of service and the deadly accidents,” he said. “Incompetence is colorblind.”
Matthew Paul Hilburn was born in Falls Church, Va., on March 7, 1968, and he accompanied his family to Europe and Latin America for his father’s career as a Foreign Service political officer. His mother was a school librarian.
He graduated in 1986 from W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax County, received a bachelor’s degree in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia in 1990 and received a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in 1999.
An early marriage ended in divorce. Survivors include his parents, Paul and Rowena Hilburn of Annandale, Va.
As a writer and editor, Mr. Hilburn was particularly exasperated by typographical errors on Metro brochures — a problem he saw as symbolic of a larger inattentiveness and carelessness. He once showed a Post reporter a 2006 train map in which a word in “Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority,” the parent agency, was misspelled as “Metropolitian.”
If he ever regarded his quest for Metro improvement as Sisyphean, he did not reveal it publicly. He tried to cultivate contacts among the Metro workforce and filed abundant FOIA requests to better understand Metro processes.
With the backing of the conservative legal foundation Judicial Watch, he unsuccessfully sued for access to a 2018 rider-survey questionnaire. “He couldn’t quite swallow the fact that something that had been derived from public interviews had been denied public exposure,” his father said. | 2022-07-19T20:14:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Matt Hilburn, who fought to ‘Unsuck’ Metro, dies at 54 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/19/matt-hilburn-unsuck-dc-metro-dies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/19/matt-hilburn-unsuck-dc-metro-dies/ |
Emmett Till's photo on his grave marker in Alsip, Ill. (Robert A. Davis/AP)
New evidence in the case of Emmett Till’s murder has surfaced in the last few weeks, drawing renewed attention to one of the most horrific lynchings in U.S. history. In late June, Till’s family discovered an unserved arrest warrant on kidnapping charges from 1955 for Carolyn Bryant Donham. Ms. Donham is the White woman who accused the 14-year-old Till, a Black child, of flirting with her at a store in Money, Miss., in 1955. Ms. Donham’s unpublished memoir was recently leaked, its claims contradicting those she’s made in the past to her then-husband’s attorney, on the witness stand in 1955 and to law enforcement. Despite Till’s family calling on Mississippi authorities to execute the warrant, neither the warrant nor the memoir are likely to advance a prosecution of Ms. Donham. Still, the discoveries are another reminder of how much truth is still unknown — and should be known — about Till’s murder.
Days after Till’s fateful encounter with Ms. Donham, her then-husband Roy Bryant and his half brother J.W. Milam showed up armed to Till’s great-uncle’s house and kidnapped him. Till’s disfigured body, with a cotton-gin fan tied around his neck, was found three days later in the Tallahatchie River. Bryant and Milam were acquitted by an all-White, all-male jury in just 67 minutes. Though both confessed to Till’s murder in a 1956 magazine profile, they were protected by double jeopardy from being charged with murder again. Bryant and Milam died as free men.
Till’s family members understandably want to see justice served and have worked tirelessly toward that end. Past justice system efforts in 2006, 2007 and 2021 have tried to make a breakthrough in the case. The discovery of the 1955 arrest warrant shows that a judge found probable cause to arrest Ms. Donham on kidnapping charges in 1955 but without information about what the probable cause was. Without evidence of Ms. Donham’s involvement in Till’s kidnapping, or showing that she knew Bryant and Milam would kidnap Till based on her accusation, a prosecution can’t move forward.
But it doesn’t diminish the importance of the newly surfaced pieces of evidence. “That lay people were able to find the warrant in the archives of the Leflore County Courthouse is a testament of their determination to keep this case alive,” Till family attorney Jaribu Hill told New York Amsterdam News. It also suggests that more evidence may still be discoverable; authorities must determine whether additional investigation would be fruitful. Questions abound, including what evidence local authorities had in 1955 to have sought Ms. Donham’s arrest.
There is one person who could answer some of these questions: Ms. Donham, now in her 80s, has lived the long life that Emmett Till was denied. She has faced no legal repercussions. It’s beyond time for Ms. Donham to tell the truth about her role in one of the most heinous acts of racial violence in U.S. history. | 2022-07-19T20:14:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | New discoveries in Emmett Till’s murder reinforce the need for truth - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/09/new-discovery-emmett-tills-murder-reinforces-need-truth/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/09/new-discovery-emmett-tills-murder-reinforces-need-truth/ |
The end of affirmative action at colleges could be a good thing
A gate to Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., on July 8, 2020. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
The ideological lurch at the Supreme Court that ended the right to abortion probably spells doom for affirmative action in higher education as well. The court agreed this year to hear challenges to the admissions programs at two prestigious universities, one private (Harvard University) and one public (the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).
In fact, the clock has been ticking on affirmative action since 2003, when a more moderate court sustained the use of race as a factor in college admissions. Writing in Grutter v. Bollinger, then-Justice Sandra Day O’Connor predicted that “25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary” to advance the goal of diversity on campus.
Necessary or not, that 25-year window is closing a few years early. Among the justices sure to vote against affirmative action is the senior member of the court, Justice Clarence Thomas. As a Black man with long experience of affirmative action, Thomas has argued — echoing the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass — that the supposed benevolence of racial preferences is harmful to those it purports to help. Underprepared students are set up for failure at elite institutions, while well-prepared minority students are placed under a cloud of suspected inferiority.
Thomas’s critique can point a way forward, if Americans of good will agree not to retreat into culture-war crouches. However the policy was originally intended, affirmative action in college admissions has propped up a lack of action in grade schools and high schools. The truly affirmative idea is to ensure that minority students are just as prepared for college as anyone else.
Wall Street Journal columnist Ben Cohen recently profiled one example of an affirmative educator in action.
Will Frazer made a bundle on Wall Street, then retired early to Florida, where he soon grew bored. He found new purpose at a local public high school, where he has built the Buchholz Math Team into the best competitive mathematics program in the country.
Frazer’s teams, from an otherwise average school, have won 13 of the last 14 national math competitions sponsored by Mu Alpha Theta, the honor society for mathematics students. Cohen visited a bustling summertime practice session and observed a range of reasons for the success. Frazer has a talent for team-building and a highly creative approach to the math curriculum. But another key to the Buchholz dynasty jumped out at me as I read his report.
Frazer “believes the pipeline for the high school’s math team must begin long before students reach high school,” Cohen wrote, so he “searches for prospects in elementary school and steers them to accelerated math classes in middle school.” At that stage, the students begin to encounter stars of the high school team as teachers and tutors, and to envision possibilities for themselves.
Early identification and cultivation of talent is nothing new to the U.S. education system, as Frazer himself suggested when he said to Cohen: “You wouldn’t grab a kid in ninth grade who’s never played football and expect him to be a great high-school football player. For most of these kids, this is their football.” The United States is extremely good at finding athletic promise in children and developing that talent for college programs and beyond.
Math coach Frazer is proof that the same approach can work with academically talented children. And judging from photos of the Buchholz team, math talent comes in every race and color. (Speaking of which, maybe you’ve heard that the engineer who finally got the breathtakingly complex Webb Space Telescope off the ground and into the heavens is the African American son of Virginia sharecroppers.)
From a young age, children of color in the United States are directed toward careers in sports and entertainment, but those whose talents are academic don’t necessarily receive the same early encouragement and guidance. If they did, the question of diversity in higher education might simply melt away.
Frazer’s success recalls the story of Jaime Escalante, the Los Angeles math teacher whose belief in his inner-city students inspired the 1988 film “Stand and Deliver.” The careers of both men suggest a vast resource of untapped brain power if only our country would commit the time and effort necessary to identify and nurture it.
And that takes work. Lots and lots of work. For too long, affirmative action at the college level has been a smokescreen for our failure to act affirmatively enough in the formative years. But if the Supreme Court’s likely decision forces the country to start taking the development of young scholars as seriously as it takes the development of young athletes, the end of affirmative action could be the start of something much, much better. | 2022-07-19T20:15:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | If the Supreme Court ends affirmative action? Could be a good thing. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/affirmative-action-supreme-court-end-good/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/affirmative-action-supreme-court-end-good/ |
Antiabortion activists demonstrate outside the Supreme Court in Washington on June 13. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
There are really two ways to look at American politics at the moment.
One is to view the country as balanced, with views on many issues sitting near an imaginary midpoint. Little chunks of opinion meandering around the center, conversing pleasantly about the weather.
The other is to zoom out a bit, and notice that each of those chunks is connected to two heavy chains and each chain is being pulled by a large portion of a political party. This is probably the more accurate view of American political opinion, to see it not as a flag floating above a line drawn in the grass but as a marker in a nasty tug-of-war.
Consider polling released Tuesday by CNN. The cable network and its pollster, SSRS, asked Americans to evaluate various policy positions held by each party. Across the board, respondents said that the parties’ positions were “generally mainstream,” from the economy to racial injustice to immigration. On only one issue for one party did a majority describe the party as “too extreme”: Republicans (second column, below) on abortion (last row).
On no other issue did even a plurality of respondents say that a party was too extreme. Just that one, in polling conducted less than a month after the repeal of Roe v. Wade.
But that’s the flag, dangling from the rope. Consider how the two parties are tugging in opposite directions on each of these. On each issue, at least half of the opposing party viewed the other side as “too extreme.”
The difference on abortion should be understood in that context. It’s not simply that Americans overall are sort of in the middle. It’s that the Democrats are pulling harder to their side than the Republicans are to theirs; that is, that Republicans are more likely to agree that their own party is too extreme.
You may be wondering about independents, who aren’t shown. That’s because they generally (here and in other polling) align with the overall view. Independents in the United States tend to align with one party or the other. In CNN’s polling, partisans and independents that lean toward that party tended to have the same views of the other side’s extremism as the partisans alone. (The number of true independents is small enough that polls often don’t break their views out.)
If we compare views of the parties on each issue as two axes of a graph, we can see that tug-of-war at work.
On the right side is abortion, the issue on which most Americans think Republicans are too extreme — most Americans and a quarter of Republicans! At left is the economy, which is the only issue where Democrats are viewed as more extreme overall, though only by 4 in 10 Americans.
“Extreme” is subjective and definitionally dependent as a point of contrast. Extreme relative to what? For partisans, it’s often “relative to their own party’s views.” But even that probably overestimates the consideration at play here. Why is the GOP platform on “the economy” viewed as too extreme by most Democrats and vice versa? What aspects of it are too extreme?
Or is “too extreme” simply another reflection of negative partisanship, a descriptor used against the other party simply because it’s the other party? Perhaps the tug-of-war analogy is more literal than metaphorical: The two parties are often tugging in opposite directions not because of either party’s views but just because, for years now, they’ve simply focused on winning the pulling.
In that context, the fact that abortion stands out makes sense. It is a point of obvious differentiation, particularly of late, given that polling has repeatedly shown that a complete ban — as advocated by loud voices within the GOP — is at odds with mainstream opinion.
In other words, “too extreme” often simply means “pulling the wrong way.” But even for many Republicans, that’s not the case on abortion. | 2022-07-19T20:15:08Z | www.washingtonpost.com | On major issues, the parties are seen as mainstream — with one exception - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/19/major-issues-parties-are-seen-mainstream-with-one-exception/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/19/major-issues-parties-are-seen-mainstream-with-one-exception/ |
File - Coffins of 21 teenagers who died in a mysterious tragedy at a nightclub in the early hours of June 26, 2022 are lined up during their funeral held in Scenery Park, East London, South Africa, Wednesday, July 6, 2022. The toxic chemical methanol has been identified as a possible cause of the deaths of 21 teenagers at a bar in the South African city of East London last month, authorities said at press conference in East London Tuesday. July 19, 2022. (AP Photo/File) (Uncredited/AP)
JOHANNESBURG — Methanol was found in the blood of the 21 teenagers who died last month in a bar in South Africa’s city of East London, according to a health official. Methanol — often called wood alcohol — is a toxic chemical and if ingested even small amounts of it can be fatal. Here’s a look at what is known. | 2022-07-19T20:15:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | EXPLAINER: Methanol in South Africa teen deaths often fatal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/explainer-methanol-in-south-africa-teen-deaths-often-fatal/2022/07/19/57ef0964-0796-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/explainer-methanol-in-south-africa-teen-deaths-often-fatal/2022/07/19/57ef0964-0796-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Dylan Strome signed a one-year, $3.5 million contract with the Capitals last week. (Mark Humphrey/AP)
Strome, who was free to sign with any team after Chicago decided not to issue him a qualifying offer, was caught a bit off-guard that the Blackhawks didn’t want him back. But he welcomes the fresh start in Washington.
“It was a crazy couple of days,” he said Tuesday during a video conference call with reporters. “… I’m very excited and very fortunate that a team like Washington reached out, and I couldn’t be happier to get started.”
“It’s been a long time since I started on a new team with all new faces right at the beginning of the season,” he said. “Probably have to go back to my first year of junior because I feel like when you get drafted you kind of know the guys that you’re at camp with and you played with some of them before — and now it’s totally different.”
Strome has played with most of the Capitals’ new additions. He played with forward Connor Brown in the Ontario Hockey League, goaltender Darcy Kuemper with Arizona and defenseman Erik Gustafsson and forward Henrik Borgstrom in Chicago. Strome said winger Tom Wilson, whom he knows from growing up in the Toronto area, phoned to welcome him to the District.
The Capitals acquired him from the Ottawa Senators for a 2024 second-round pick. He has a year left on his contract, with a $3.6 million salary cap hit, before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Brown said Tuesday that he had a feeling he was going to be traded, but he didn’t know Washington would be an option. | 2022-07-19T20:18:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Dylan Strome, Connor Brown are eager to join Washington Capitals - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/19/dylan-strome-connor-brown-capitals/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/19/dylan-strome-connor-brown-capitals/ |
Former president Donald Trump on July 9 in Anchorage. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Fewer and fewer. In October 2021, a Quinnipiac University poll found that an overwhelming 78 percent of Republicans said they wanted to see Trump run in 2024. By February, that share had slipped to 69 percent in a CBS News-YouGov poll. In June, it was down to 53 percent, according to a Politico-Morning Consult poll. And last week, a New York Times-Siena College poll found that just 49 percent of Republicans say they would support Trump for a third nomination, while a 51 percent majority wants someone else.
David Von Drehle: Ron DeSantis's snub of Trump is a 2024 challenge
What’s going on? For one thing, Trump is focused on the wrong things, such as seeking revenge against those he feels betrayed him after the 2020 election. Most Republicans don’t share his lust for vengeance. The CBS-YouGov poll found that 66 percent approve of Vice President Mike Pence’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, while just 34 percent agree with Trump that Pence should have obstructed Congress from certifying the election. Only 42 percent want to support primary opponents for those who were “disloyal” to Trump while a 48 percent plurality say that we should “accept those members’ views within the party.” Trump is still spending time on re-litigating the 2020 election, while most Republicans are focused on the serial disasters that President Biden has unleashed on the country since the 2020 election.
Second, there is growing concern that Trump may be the only Republican who could lose to Biden in 2024. Biden is the most unpopular president since Harry S. Truman. His approval rating in the New York Times-Siena poll is just 33 percent. Yet that same poll shows Biden beating Trump in a 2024 rematch, 44 percent to 41 percent. Meanwhile, the RealClearPolitics average shows Trump leading Biden by just 2.5 points. The fact that Trump is either losing or statistically tied with a president who is failing so badly even the majority of Democrats don’t want him to run again should be a major red flag for the GOP.
Marc Thiessen: A credible argument for Trump supporters to back someone else in 2024
None of this means Trump can’t win the nomination. In 2016, Trump won the New Hampshire primary with just 35 percent of the vote and then won South Carolina with just 32.5 percent. Indeed, he never broke 50 percent in any GOP primary until New York on April 19 — by which time the field had cleared of all but two opponents, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) and then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich. He won the 2016 nomination by prevailing over a divided field with the support of about one-third of Republican primary voters. He could do so again in 2024.
Indeed, we can see this phenomenon playing out again with Trump endorsements in the 2022 midterms. In Ohio, Trump’s imprimatur put J.D. Vance over the top in the Republican Senate primary. But Vance won with 32 percent of the vote — which means 68 percent of Ohio Republicans voted for someone other than Trump’s candidate. Indeed, Vance already had 10 percent support before Trump endorsed him, so Trump’s endorsement moved about two in 10 Republican voters — enough to prevail in a crowded field but only a small fraction of the GOP electorate.
Mark Weaver: Why the J.D. Vance victory wasn't all about Trump
The same is true in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s endorsement helped Mehmet Oz squeeze out a narrow victory over David McCormick. Oz won with 31 percent of the vote, which means 69 percent of Republicans did not follow Trump’s lead. And Oz already had 16 percent support when Trump endorsed him, which means Trump’s endorsement helped deliver just 15 percent of Republican primary voters.
In the Georgia governor’s race, by contrast, Trump’s handpicked candidate — former U.S. senator David Perdue — was trounced by Gov. Brian Kemp (R) 74 to 22 percent. As in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Trump’s endorsement moved about two in 10 GOP voters — or less. But unlike in Ohio and Pennsylvania, Trump’s endorsed candidate faced a single credible opponent, not a crowded field, and lost. | 2022-07-19T21:01:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Trump should hope for a crowded 2024 GOP field. Really. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/trump-should-hope-2024-field-crowded-really/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/trump-should-hope-2024-field-crowded-really/ |
The 1976 and 1980 primaries are not precedents Biden will want to emulate
Former president Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter pose for a photo with President Biden and first lady Jill Biden in Plains, Ga., on April 30, 2021. (Adam Schultz/The White House/AP)
There are a lot of ways to defend President Biden’s electoral chances should he run for reelection in 2024. Invoking the primary successes of Gerald Ford in 1976 and Jimmy Carter in 1980 are not two of them.
Yet, in an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday, that’s how Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) sought to wave away concerns about primary challenges to the sitting Democratic president.
“Do you want to see the president run again in 2024,” anchor John Roberts asked, pointing to polling that shows Biden lagging with potential primary voters — “or is it time for new blood?”
“He’s running. He has my support,” Khanna responded. “I guess” — a quick change of gears — “I’m a pragmatist. Look, Jimmy Carter’s numbers were low and he still destroyed Ted Kennedy. Gerald Ford didn’t have high numbers and he beat an extraordinary political talent, Ronald Reagan.”
“I don’t see anyone like Ted Kennedy out there in the field,” Khanna added, a dig (if unintentionally) at the governor of his own state, Gavin Newsom, who’s grown increasingly unsubtle about positioning himself for a bid. “Beating an incumbent president is very difficult.”
In the primary. Khanna’s two examples — Ford and Carter — show that beating an incumbent in a general election after a bruising primary isn’t that difficult at all.
The modern presidential primary process is younger than you might think. It really began in the 1970s, as the parties moved away from the smoke-filled-room, move-the-convention-delegates process that had reigned for more than a century. If we look at nominating fights for incumbent presidents since then, we see a pattern: those presidents who earned less than 80 percent of their party’s vote in a renomination effort all lost in the general. Including both Ford and Carter.
We’re only talking about three renomination efforts that fared that poorly, mind you, and only nine renomination efforts in total. So take this with a grain of salt. Small sample size. That said, sitting presidents who faced real primary competition — Reagan in 1976, Kennedy in 1980 and Pat Buchanan facing off against George H.W. Bush in 1992 — all ended up losing in November.
This makes sense, given that a weak incumbent would be seen as vulnerable from his own party. In other words, it’s not necessarily the case that the incumbents were weakened by the primary challenge; they might simply have been weak candidates.
But it also makes sense that tough primary fights made them weaker still: More time fending off fights from one’s own team. Less time focused on the general election. A larger chunk of one’s own party being indifferent about coming out in November. (In 1980, Carter earned only 67 percent of Democratic votes, according to general-election exit polling. In 1992, with a strong third-party candidate in the mix, Bush got only 73 percent.)
There are no examples of incumbents getting less than three-quarters of their party’s vote in the primaries going on to win reelection. (Again: small sample size!) On average, those candidates lost by 6 points in November. But there is one example of an incumbent who secured the vast majority of his own party’s support going on to lose his reelection bid. That was Donald Trump.
The caveat here, as you’ll recall, is that the GOP — worried about Trump being weakened in a primary fight — worked hard to lock out candidates and reduce the number of primary contests. Trump was very popular with Republicans, certainly, but his earning 94 percent of Republican primary votes is probably not a fair reflection of the party’s actual support for his renomination. Put another way: he was probably a weaker primary candidate than that 94 percent would suggest — though he earned 94 percent of Republican votes once the party got in line for the general.
Khanna was quick to note Trump’s loss as he defended a second Biden nomination: If Trump is the nominee again, who better to face him than the guy who beat him two years ago? One answer to that question, of course, may be “a Democrat who better energizes the Democratic base.”
After all, Biden may not be looking at a 1976 or a 1980 situation, in which he fends off an insurgent from his left. He may simply be looking at a 2020 situation, where he earns the nomination and then faces a non-Trump general-election opponent who benefits as the anyone-but-the-unpopular-incumbent candidate.
Either way, the result wouldn’t be much different. | 2022-07-19T21:31:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 1976 and 1980 primaries are not precedents Biden will want to emulate - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/19/1976-1980-primaries-are-not-precedents-biden-will-want-emulate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/19/1976-1980-primaries-are-not-precedents-biden-will-want-emulate/ |
Oyster restoration effort in Maryland continues to generate optimism
A barge named the “Robert Lee” planted juvenile oysters at Chinks Point on the Severn River on July 13 as part of an ongoing effort known as Operation Build-a-Reef. (Jeffrey F. Bill/Capital Gazette)
As it positioned itself in the waters off Chinks Point, an oyster-planting barge named the “Robert Lee” opened its side rails and pumped hundreds of thousands of oyster shells covered in millions of thumbprint-sized juvenile oysters into the river with a high-powered hose, a process known as “washing.” GPS trackers attached to some of the shells ensure they are landing in the right locations to take root on the reef below.
This is the fourth consecutive year that the Severn River Association and the Oyster Recovery Partnership have partnered on the Operation Build-a-Reef campaign, an ongoing effort to repopulate the Severn River and other waterways leading to the Chesapeake Bay with oysters. The baby oysters are planted in local sanctuaries like the Severn River and are closed to harvesting so they can grow and multiply, enriching the ecosystem. By fostering young oysters, they are generating an abundance of aquatic life and cleaner bay waters.
“Severn River Association’s goal is to plant at least 25 million oysters each year. We want to do more than that, though,” said Jesse Iliff, executive director for the Severn River Association.
Operation Build-a-Reef’s work to restore Maryland waterways has been a hard-fought battle since the project started in 2018. After salinity concerns that occurred after high rainfall in 2019 and the coronavirus pandemic interrupted operations two years ago, it’s a relief to have things running smoothly, said Ward Slacum, executive director of the Oyster Recovery Partnership. Since 1993, Slacum’s organization has planted more than 9 billion oysters.
The planting effort is essential to the continued growth of the oyster population in the Chesapeake Bay and, by extension, crucial to the survival of other animals and organisms that inhabit the rivers and bay after decades of overfishing caused precipitous declines in annual oyster hauls.
Signs that oyster planting may be working have begun to emerge. Maryland watermen sold more than half a million bushels of wild oysters last winter, more than they have since 1987, according to preliminary state data. It’s a positive sign for a species known for dangerous population swings in recent decades. Organizers have said survival rates for the oysters planted by the Operation Build-a-Reef program have exceeded 80 percent, lending proof that the effort is aiding in the recovery.
Among the attendees Wednesday were Del. Dana Jones and state Sen. Sarah K. Elfreth, two Democrats who represent Annapolis in the General Assembly. Both have successfully overseen the passage of oyster-related legislation, including a bill appropriating millions in state funding aimed at protecting and bolstering the oyster population over the next five years.
“This past legislative session was a banner year, and we’re going to see the fruits of that banner year right here on the Severn River,” Jones said. “We passed the largest investment into oyster recovery that the state has ever done. We’re going to have healthier water quality, we’re going to see a cleaner bay, and it’s due to the great work being done at all levels.”
Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman (D) was represented at the event by County Budget Officer Chris Trumbauer, who said he was excited to be a part of the efforts to combat environmental degradation, caused in part by climate change. | 2022-07-19T21:40:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Oyster restoration effort in Maryland continues to generate optimism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/oyster-restoration-continues-in-annapolis/2022/07/19/3407967c-071b-11ed-9a88-9b2bc12f7753_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/oyster-restoration-continues-in-annapolis/2022/07/19/3407967c-071b-11ed-9a88-9b2bc12f7753_story.html |
U.K. won’t ban video game loot boxes following 2-year inquiry
The U.K. government has decided against including loot boxes under its existing gambling regulations after an extensive inquiry into the matter launched in 2020 by the U.K.’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). In the department’s report, DCMS Secretary of State Nadine Dorries described any formal regulations at this time as “premature,” but called upon the video game industry to continue to improve consumer protections, threatening future legislation should it fail to do so.
Legislators around the world have become increasingly concerned with loot boxes, particularly in titles popular with children. In video games, loot boxes are capsules of random virtual items that can be purchased with real money, in-game currency or a combination of the two. The rewards obtained by opening a loot box can range from purely cosmetic items (as is the case for “Overwatch” loot boxes) to rewards that enhance a player’s power in-game, a model decried as pay-to-win by many gamers. The implementation of loot boxes in 2017′s “Star Wars Battlefront II,” which resulted in a massive public outcry, was a disastrous cautionary tale for publishers pursuing the latter route.
In its report, the DCMS describes loot boxes as closer to a pack of Pokémon cards than a slot machine, explaining that the items procured from a video game loot box typically don’t have real-world value and exist primarily to enhance the user’s gameplay experience. Bringing loot boxes under the purview of the U.K’s Gambling Act — which outlines provisions for various forms of gambling including casino games, sports betting and scratch cards — could have repercussions for other industries.
“Consumer products ranging from football stickers to trading cards, or even some subscription services such as ‘wine of the month’ clubs, rely on a mechanism whereby the real value or utility of the ‘prize’ is not necessarily known at the point of purchase,” reads the report. “While careful legislative drafting could help single out loot boxes, they do not necessarily have well-defined boundaries which clearly demarcate them from comparable products.”
I spent $130 in ‘Genshin Impact.’ If you might do this, maybe don’t play it.
The DCMS also concluded that regulating loot boxes could overload the responsibilities of the Gambling Commission, which would run the risk of blindsiding it to “other potentially problematic monetisation methods.” If the U.K. does decide to regulate loot boxes in the future, it’s likely that the Gambling Act would be modified to place age restrictions on the practice, similar to existing provisions. Currently, the minimum age for betting in football pools is 16, while the minimum age for gambling in casinos is 18.
The DCMS said that while its InGame study (commissioned by the department for the inquiry) hasn’t found a causal link between loot boxes and gambling addiction, there should be more industry-led protections in place to protect young gamers.
“We want to mobilise the industry’s creativity, innovation and technical expertise to deliver tangible progress, improving at pace protections for children and young people and all consumers,” Dorries wrote in the foreword of the report. “If this does not happen, we will not hesitate to consider legislative change.”
Some of the changes the DCMS proposed to game companies were parental supervision for loot box purchases, transparent loot box mechanics and improved research for future policies. The DCMS also noted its intent to create a technical working group comprising members from the game industry, government departments and regulation organizations. By working with academics and consumers, the DCMS hopes that this group will establish industry-wide protections without the need for political intervention.
“We expect the development of industry-led design norms and best practice guidance with regards to loot boxes to be an output of this work,” wrote the DCMS.
The Diablo franchise is about how anything is corruptible. Enter ‘Diablo Immortal.’
Zoe Osmond, chief executive of U.K.-based gambling harm reduction charity GambleAware, called for stricter regulation in a statement to the Guardian. According to GambleAware’s own study (which was cited by the DCMS on its own report), 93% of children in the U.K. play video games regularly, and an estimated 25-40% of those players have bought a loot box.
The Gambling Health Alliance (GHA), a coalition dedicated to combating the harm caused by addictive gambling, began the #LidOnLoots campaign with the aim of classifying loot boxes as a form of gambling and to ban loot boxes from any video game played by minors. According to the GHA’s own survey, 75% of young gamers (ages 11 to 24) felt that buying loot boxes was bad for their health, 76% believed loot boxes should be illegal for minors and 91% agreed that loot boxes are a form of gambling.
Loot boxes have spawned their own cottage industries, largely out of sight of government regulation. For years, “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” has had a thriving gambling scene around skins, cosmetic variants applied to in-game models that can be obtained from loot boxes. Broadly speaking, there are two types of skin betting. The first is more akin to traditional sports betting, where users gamble their skins on the outcome of an esports match; the second is a lottery where players throw their skins into a pot for a chance to get back skins of higher value. Both forms are largely facilitated by specialized sites.
Those skins can then be sold on the Steam Marketplace for Steam Wallet money, with the rarest and most coveted skins fetching up to $1800 (Valve, the Counter-Strike developer and Steam storefront operator, caps all single-listing purchases at $1800). Money obtained from sales can be used to buy video games and even Valve’s $999 VR kit off the Steam Marketplace, though users cannot withdraw those funds.
In 2016, the legal ambiguity of skin gambling was thrust to the forefront when YouTubers Trevor “TmarTn” Martin and Thomas “ProSyndicate” Cassell were exposed for promoted the skin gambling site CSGO Lotto without disclosing their ownership of the site, as reported by Dot Esports. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission stepped in, reaching a settlement with Martin and Cassell that required them to abide by numerous compliance rules, including transparent endorsement and extensive record keeping. Martin and Cassell were not required to pay any fines.
Today, skin gambling in “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” is largely underground due to Valve’s ongoing campaign to crack down on trading sites.
As esports watchdog tackles widespread match-fixing, critics fear it can’t do the job
Other countries have taken more aggressive action against loot boxes. In 2018, Belgium declared that loot boxes are “in violation of gambling legislation” and called for all loot boxes that can be purchased with real money to be removed. In the Netherlands, there is mounting government support to ban loot boxes outright. In response, Valve has restricted loot boxes for players in Belgium and the Netherlands. Similarly, Blizzard removed the ability for Belgian players to purchase loot boxes in “Overwatch” and “Heroes of the Storm” in 2018.
“Diablo Immortal,” Blizzard’s latest release, is not available in Belgium and the Netherlands, reportedly due to regulations in those countries.
The DCMS is expected to provide an update on its technical working group and the progress made by its new loot box initiative by Q1 2023 | 2022-07-19T21:47:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.K. government won't ban loot boxes following 2-year inquiry - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/07/19/video-game-look-boxes-uk-report/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/07/19/video-game-look-boxes-uk-report/ |
Keep cool and carry on? Britons struggle to do so on a record-hot day
The Hampstead Heath bathing ponds in North London draw city residents on Tuesday during the United Kingdom's historic heat wave. (James Forde/ for The Washington Post)
LONDON — On the hottest day ever in Britain, with temperatures soaring above 104 degrees Fahrenheit, we found Earthlings huddled beside the refrigerated section at the Marks & Spencer grocery at Marylebone train station.
“I’ve been standing here for like 10 minutes,” said Andy Martin, 28, a video technician. “Don’t tell anyone.”
This is not normal here. This kind of heat. This heat wave.
The Meteorological Office, the nation’s weather service, reported that at least 34 locations in Britain exceeded the previous high temperature, with a broad swath of southeast and central England topping 40 degrees Celsius. That’s a hellish 104 Fahrenheit.
A fire spread in Dagenham, East London, as temperatures climbed above 40 degrees Celsius or 104 Fahrenheit on July 19. (Video: Storyful)
Britain is not designed for this. The country’s homes and shops, train stations and Tube carriages, its schools and offices — very, very few of them have air conditioning.
Has it ever, in human history, been this hot in the British Isles? Maybe not.
There was a kind of tremulousness, an anxious feeling in the capital on this signal day. It was windy, but that dry sirocco-feeling wind, common in the Mediterranean, in Sicily not Southhampton, with the summer leaves crackling and people stumbling about, from one patch of shade to another, as ambulance crews were kept busy, peeling heatstroke victims off the sidewalks.
Stepping inside some of Britain’s hottest homes on the hottest day was like entering steam rooms.
As reporters from The Washington Post went into some of the flats at Chalcots Estate, a public housing development in central-north London, they were met with a thick fug of heat.
“Can you feel it? It’s so hot,” said Mandy Ryan, who works as a residents association representative.
She walked into her living room and pointed at a ceiling fan, whose blades were rotating slowly, and accused the appliance of uselessness.
“That does nothing,” she said.
Like may residents in the tall tower block just north of Regents Park, she has spectacular views of the London skyline.
She also has a fine collection of cuckoo clocks and ceramic dog ornaments. But inside her home on Tuesday, the most striking thing was the soupy air.
Bonnie, her Labradoodle, was panting heavily at her feet.
“We won’t be having a leg of lamb for dinner tonight,” she joked, nodding at her unused oven.
John Szymanska, a handyman originally from Poland, was plastering and painting a flat in Hampstead in North London.
“It is a misery,” he said, soaked in sweat. “But what can you do?” he asked. “Everywhere it’s getting hotter.”
Unlike some immigrants, who might mention that they find the English weak in this heat, Szymanska offered sympathy. “I feel for them. They’re not used to this.”
Back at Chalcots Estate, Paul Rafis, 38, a butcher and hip-hop artist, was struggling.
His sofa bed was covered in fur. He explained that his dog, Wise, is shedding a lot. Not that Rafis is sleeping much.
“When it’s hot, you suffer in these blocks,” he said.
In his studio flat on the 15th floor, Rafis was worried that his fridge might catch fire — so he turned it off for four hours and shoved the food into his freezer.
Some experts have said that the fire that engulfed nearby Grenfell Tower in 2017, killing 72 people, may have been caused by overheated wiring in a fridge-freezer.
“Nothing in the house is used to this weather,” Rafis said, tapping his fridge, which felt hot again soon being plugged back in.
London’s subway, the Tube, can be notoriously hot — and no line has a worse reputation than the Bakerloo.
“Anyone who enjoys a spot of paddle boarding on rivers of molten lava should head over to the Bakerloo line, where they will feel very much at home,” Labour Party lawmaker Karen Buck tweeted.
We entered with some trepidation at Charring Cross station. There were industrial-size fans forcing air into the narrow passageways, but just like a cave, deep underground, there were pockets of cool air at the platforms.
Inside the carriages, it was pretty ripe.
For Angel Rodriquez, a kitchen worker of Spanish birth who was headed to his afternoon prep shift, the ride wasn’t as bad as he imagined it would be.
He wasn’t philosophical, though. “This is all us,” he noted, saying climate change would only intensify and make things worse. He nodded when reminded of the headlines from home, where huge wildfires have consumed parts of Spain.
Spain devastated by wildfires amid record-breaking heat wave
Streets in London weren’t empty, but they were definitely quiet, with the windows of the city cloaked in curtains to block the sun. The royal parks and their long lawns were mostly empty, with only a few hardy souls spreading out blankets in the shade of trees.
The Lido, a public swimming pool at Parliament Hill, had a long line of people waiting to enter. In the water, children gleefully splashed each other as lifeguards blew their whistles.
Back at Chalcots Estate, the playgrounds were childless. Authorities had urged even healthy youngsters and their parents to stay indoors.
Some residents told The Post they had installed air conditioning — only 3 percent of British homes have it — or bought simple fans. Most, however, were simply drinking cold fluids and avoiding the sun.
A few, albeit a minority, said they were embracing the heat.
“I’m sweating, but I love it,” effused Chantal Peters, 43 and a mother of six.
She said things felt worse two years ago when temperatures soared during a pandemic lockdown. “It was 34C, we were locked in. Now that was hot. That was disgusting.”
Sean Walsh, who works in sales, was visiting his 71-year-old mother who lives in a top-floor flat. His daughter got the day off school because of the heat.
He called the weather “brutal.”
“It’s uncomfortable and hot, and this country isn’t designed for this heat,” he said. “The environment is changing and people are forgetting that. All this concrete, in any big city, it’s a heat sink. You’d be blind Freddy not to read the research and see this is going to continue and we need to adapt. ”
Especially in tall buildings, which radiate heat. “It multiplies,” Walsh said. | 2022-07-19T21:47:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Keep cool and carry on? Britons struggle to do so on a record-hot day - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/19/keep-cool-carry-britons-struggle-do-so-record-hot-day/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/19/keep-cool-carry-britons-struggle-do-so-record-hot-day/ |
Richmond tore down its statues — and revealed a new angle on history
After the 2020 removal of Confederate memorials, museums provide a place to confront the ugly past and find a way forward
Perspective by Philip Kennicott
Senior art and architecture critic
A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which was previously on display at the U.S. Capitol, now resides at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture in Richmond. (Julia Rendleman for The Washington Post)
IN RICHMOND —
Old Jeff Davis now lies on his back, his head bashed in, his right arm loose in its socket, his bronze pelt covered in pink and yellow paint, with scraps of tissue paper stuck to his lapel and collar. From 1907 to June 10, 2020, the people of Richmond looked up at this statue, set on a high plinth beneath a towering column on Monument Avenue during the height of Jim Crow racism.
Across town, at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture (VMHC), another Lost Cause icon sculpted by Valentine is on view. On Dec. 21, 2020, after a request by Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D), the bronze figure of Robert E. Lee was removed from Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol, where it had represented the Commonwealth since 1909.
The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed from the U.S. Capitol early in the morning on Dec. 21, 2020. (Video: Tim Kaine/Twitter)
Today, it stands in a darkened, formal chamber of the VMHC, which reopened on May 14 after a 19-month transformative renovation and expansion of its exhibit spaces. The museum inhabits a sprawling complex, the oldest wing of which opened in 1921 as a shrine to the Lost Cause by the now-defunct Confederate Memorial Institute. The VMHC has preserved the mural room from that original shrine, its walls covered with heroic and hyperbolic Lost Cause imagery, sanctifying the defenders of slavery and treason. Lee and the murals have been recontextualized with interpretive signage that explains their role in perpetuating the lies of the Lost Cause.
On an evolving Monument Avenue, myth and lies run deep
Since the Confederate memorials of Monument Avenue began coming down two years ago — part of a national reckoning with racist, offensive and historically false iconography — Richmond has emerged as a locus for innovative public history. The display of Edward Valentine’s statues in two different institutions points the way forward for reinscribing ugly symbols into a larger and ongoing narrative about racism. The renovation and expansion of the history museum foreground geographical and cultural diversity to create common ground for confronting the state’s ugly history not just of slavery and racism, but Native American dispossession. And across the city, vigorous groups with strong community roots have grown into formidable new voices for explicating a larger, more textured history of Richmond, beyond its Confederate past.
It is almost as if the removal of the statues from Monument Avenue opened the flood gates of history, such that curiosity now flows freely through the whole of the city, enlarging not just the scope of what is considered “historical,” but the city itself. With Monument Avenue just another boulevard in the center of town, Richmond itself feels bigger. And as its own sense of history expands, Richmond proves to the nation that our larger cultural divide over race is manageable, that it is possible to grapple with myths without erasing history and to empower new voices without replacing old ones.
Among those projects are light projections, including of enslaved people onto the walls of the “White House of the Confederacy,” where Davis lived. With support from the Mellon Foundation and in partnership with the Valentine, a group called Reclaiming the Monument, founded during the George Floyd protests, is now expanding its reach with projects throughout Richmond. Also funded by the Mellon Foundation is the JXN Project, which is working to reconstruct an 18th-century house once owned by Abraham Peyton Skipwith, a Black man born enslaved and later emancipated, who became the first known Black homeowner in 1793 in what is now Jackson Ward. The JXN Project has also developed an extensive website, built a robust lecture program and researched deeply into the origins and history of Jackson Ward, created in 1871 to gerrymander and nullify the voting power of Black residents.
“Everywhere we look there is a grass-roots group that has a historical component,” says Rob Havers, head of the Richmond-based American Civil War Museum, a collection of sites that includes the White House of the Confederacy and the Tredegar Iron Works. That may be a group looking to change a street name or erect a history marker for something well known locally but not otherwise acknowledged, or a group organizing walking tours of neighborhoods that played a key role in arts and culture or the civil rights movement. “There is a real impetus and energy, and if you are engaged in public history, the more history the better,” says Havers.
‘Seen at eye level’
The official label for the statue is telling: “Jefferson Davis Statue, 1907 bronze with 2020 paint and tissue.” Thus, the paint and tissue paper are interpreted not as damage, but as historical accretions to an object that continues to evolve.
Nearby, text panels resurrect a discourse that has been mostly forgotten or suppressed — contemporary anger from 1903 as people debated the propriety of placing Lee, a traitor, in the Capitol. A Union veterans’ group representative said it would “put a premium on treason” and a congressman from Iowa decried the moral equivalence between those “who fought on the side of the Union and those who fought against it.”
It takes only a generation for a statue, or memorial, or historical myth, to seem like it was always there, a natural part of the physical and ideological landscape. By placing Lee next to voices that destabilize that “always there” — reminding us that it was offensive from the beginning for Lee to represent Virginia — the VMHC shifts the emotional valence of this statue as profoundly as the Valentine reinterprets the Jefferson Davis sculpture.
During the debate over whether to remove Confederate iconography from the public square, defenders of these works, including former president Donald Trump, decried what they said was an erasure or loss of history. What’s happening in Richmond today proves how wrong that claim was. When they existed simply as statues, these sculptures did little more than claim that reverence is due to the people they represent. Today, as the VMHC’s Rogers says, “it is their absence that is being interpreted.”
Asked about the display of the former Confederate icons, Enjoli Moon, one of the leaders of the JXN project says, “The fact that they are down, we are happy about that.” But, she said, “It is important to preface this, we don’t care about the monuments.” Her group is focused on Jackson Ward, known as the Harlem of the South, where in the last century thousands of residents were displaced to dig an enormous trench to contain Interstate 95.
When statues come down, don't replace them
Moon and her group want to re-create the cabin as a historic site near where it once sat, on a new plot just south of I-95. For Moon, re-creating the cabin would help expand understanding of Richmond’s Black community, including enslaved people who lived not on plantations, but in the city.
“We are thinking everyone is on a plantation, picking cotton, but he could read, he was a clerk, and he would not allow himself to be referred to as a slave,” she says. Skipwith was alive when the Republic was founded, and his life intersected with at least one signer of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Harrison V, who backed Skipwith’s 1785 legislation petition for emancipation. By the time the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, in 2026, Moon hopes Skipwith is understood not just as a symbolic founding father of Jackson Ward, but as a founding father of the Republic itself.
History expanded
Expansion was also key to the remarkable changes at the VMHC. Until 2018, the organization was known as the Virginia Historical Society, founded in 1831, with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall as its first president. For decades, it operated primarily as an archive and research facility, amassing millions of objects, mostly books and documents. Although it hosted public exhibitions regularly since the 1990s, leaders of the organization were well aware of its reputation as a closed, elite and unwelcoming edifice.
“The name was a hurdle,” says Jamie Bosket, president of the VMHC since 2017. So, they changed the name and embarked on a campaign to become a history museum aimed at the general public. The pandemic shutdown in March 2020 accelerated a major architectural renovation, including the addition of 50 percent more gallery space and installation of new exhibits.
“We saw what was happening around us, at times it was at the front door step of our museum,” he says. The museum sits on what is now Arthur Ashe Boulevard, close to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, near Monument Avenue, on land that was once the site of a Confederate veteran’s home.
That exhibition, along with a gallery of landscape art from the state’s five regions, provides a subtle but telling balance to the harder challenges the museum confronts, and meets, with grace. By highlighting forms of diversity that are commonly accepted as enriching — the diversity of food, music, dance, landscape and other folkways — the museum offers stable ground on which to address the ways in which racial and other differences have been exploited to divide the state.
The result is a fully satisfying, engaging and often moving museum, that echoes in its tone what is happening at all levels of public history throughout the city. Nothing has been erased or replaced. Rather, history has been expanded, amended and reordered, with a tone that is neither wholly despondent nor celebratory. It is a mixed bag, warts and all, and much more interesting than a silent statue on a plinth demanding homage it doesn’t deserve. | 2022-07-19T23:16:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Richmond tore down its statues – and revealed a new angle on history - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/07/19/richmond-confederate-memorials-history/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/07/19/richmond-confederate-memorials-history/ |
WARREN, Mich. — In their first rollouts of electric vehicles, America’s automakers targeted people who value short-range economy cars. Then came EVs for luxury buyers and drivers of pickups and delivery vans. Now, the companies are zeroing in at the heart of the market: The compact SUV. In their drive to have EVs dominate vehicle sales in coming years, the automakers are promoting their new models as having the range, price and features to rival their gas-powered competitors. Some are so far proving quite popular. Ford’s $45,000-plus Mustang Mach E is sold out for the model year. General Motors’ Chevrolet brand just introduced an electric version of its Blazer, also starting around $45,000, when it goes on sale next summer.
FARNBOROUGH, England — Airplanes are a minor contributor to global greenhouse-gas emissions, but their share is sure to grow as more people travel in coming years. That has the aviation industry facing the prospect of tighter environmental regulations and higher costs. At Monday’s opening of a huge aviation industry show near London, discussion about climate change replaced much of the usual buzz over big airplane orders. The industry has embraced a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. Experts who track the issue are skeptical. Today’s aircraft engines are the most efficient ever, but improvements in reducing fuel burn are agonizingly slow — about 1% a year on average.
SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk lost his fight to delay Twitter’s lawsuit against him as a Delaware judge on Tuesday set an October trial, citing the “cloud of uncertainty” over the social media company after the billionaire backed out of a deal to buy it. “Delay threatens irreparable harm,” said Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick, the head judge of Delaware’s Court of Chancery, which handles many high-profile business disputes. Twitter wants the billionaire to make good on his April promise to buy the social media giant for $44 billion. Musk, the world’s richest man, pledged to pay $54.20 a share for Twitter but now wants to back out of the agreement.
SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix shed another 970,000 subscribers during the spring amid tougher competition and soaring inflation that’s squeezing household budgets, increasing the urgency behind the video streaming service’s effort to launch a cheaper option with commercial interruptions. The April-June contraction announced Tuesday as part of Netflix’s second-quarter earnings report is by far the largest quarterly subscriber loss in the company’s 25-year history. It could have been far worse, though, considering Netflix management released an April forecast calling for a a loss of 2 million subscribers during the second quarter. The less severe loss in subscribers helped lift Netflix’s battered stock by 7%.
NEW YORK — Wall Street rallied Tuesday to its best day in more than three weeks as more reports pour in on how much profit companies made during the spring. The S&P 500 rose 2.8% Tuesday after a powerful tide carried 99% of the stocks in the index upward. The Dow added 2.4% and the Nasdaq rose 3.1%. Small-company stocks rose even more, pushing the Russell 2000 index up 3.5%. More types of companies are reporting how much they earned during the spring, broadening out from the banks that dominated the earliest part of the reporting season. Hasbro and Halliburton rose after reporting stronger profits than analysts expected.
NEW YORK — Johnson & Johnson rode growing sales of the cancer treatment Darzalex and other key drugs to a better-than-expected second quarter, but foreign exchange rates again cut into the health care giant’s 2022 forecast. The company on Tuesday dropped its forecast to a range below analyst expectations after also trimming it in April due to exchange rates. The company, which brings in nearly half of its sales from outside the United States, now expects earnings of $10 to $10.10 per share. That’s down from a prediction of $10.15 to $10.35 per share it made in the spring.
NEW YORK — Chipotle is closing a Maine store that had been leading efforts to unionize the chain. Employees at the Augusta, Maine, Chipotle had filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board in June asking to hold a union election at the store. It was the first Chipotle to file such a petition. But on Tuesday, Chipotle said it was permanently closing the store. Labor organizers say they will fight the closure, and say Chipotle is trying to send a message to other stores. But the company blames staffing problems and says the closure has nothing to do with the union.
SACRAMENTO, California — Individual health insurance rates are going up across the country. The coronavirus pandemic caused lots of people to put off routine health care. But now many people are returning to doctor’s offices. Health insurers in individual marketplaces across 13 states and Washington D.C. will raise rates an average of 10% next year. California officials on Tuesday announced rates would increase an average of 6% for the 1.7 million people who purchase coverage through the state run health insurance marketplace. Covered California Executive Director Jessica Altman said more people using health care was the biggest driver of the increase. | 2022-07-19T23:16:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Business Highlights: New crop of EVs, aviation hurdles - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-new-crop-of-evs-aviation-hurdles/2022/07/19/a5694962-07b3-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/business-highlights-new-crop-of-evs-aviation-hurdles/2022/07/19/a5694962-07b3-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
By Jeff Amy and Russ Bynum | AP
Republican Gov. Bryan Kemp called the project the largest economic development deal in Georgia's history when it was announced two months ago in Bryan County, where Hyundai plans to build the company’s first U.S. plant dedicated to electric vehicles. The automaker plans to start construction next year and begin producing up to 300,000 vehicles per year in 2025. | 2022-07-19T23:16:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Deal for $5.5B Hyundai plant in Georgia nears final approval - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/deal-for-55b-hyundai-plant-in-georgia-nears-final-approval/2022/07/19/f91c2c9e-07ab-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/deal-for-55b-hyundai-plant-in-georgia-nears-final-approval/2022/07/19/f91c2c9e-07ab-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Prime minister, 2 others vie to become president
Sri Lanka’s prime minister and acting president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, will face two rivals in a parliamentary vote Wednesday on who will succeed the island nation’s ousted leader, who fled the country last week amid huge protests triggered by its economic collapse.
Wickremesinghe, a six-time prime minister with wide experience in diplomatic and international affairs, is backed by members of the fragmented ruling coalition but is unpopular among voters, who view him as a holdover from the previous government. The 73-year-old was appointed prime minister by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, now deposed, in May to help restore Sri Lanka’s international credibility.
The leading challenger, former government minister Dullas Alahapperuma, 63, was nominated Tuesday by a breakaway faction of the ruling coalition after opposition leader Sajith Premadasa withdrew and said he would support him.
Marxist party leader Anura Dissanayake, 53, also was expected to contest the parliamentary vote. He ran for president in 2019.
Wickremesinghe succeeded Rajapaksa’s older brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, as prime minister after he stepped down in response to public pressure.
Methanol seen in blood of teen tavern victims
Methanol was found in all of their bodies, the Eastern Cape provincial deputy director for clinical service said, and investigators are working to determine whether the levels of the toxic chemical were enough to have killed them.
Alcohol poisoning and carbon monoxide inhalation have been ruled out as possible causes of death, although traces of both were found in the bodies of all 21 victims, said the provincial official, Litha Matiwane.
The teenagers died at the Enyobeni Tavern in East London’s Scenery Park township in the early hours of June 26.
Many of the teens, ages 13 to 17, were already dead when they were found strewn across tables and couches. Others died after they were rushed to health facilities.
The owner of the tavern and some employees were arrested and are out on bail. They face charges related to the violation of liquor trading laws, including the sale of liquor to children.
Acclaimed filmmaker to serve out 6-year term
A judiciary spokesman said Jafar Panahi would fulfill a six-year prison term handed down in 2011 on charges of producing anti-government propaganda.
Although Panahi was banned from traveling over the past years, the sentence was never enforced and he continued to make award-winning underground films. The films — about poverty, sexism, violence and censorship in Iran — have long angered authorities.
Panahi was detained last week when he visited the Tehran prosecutor’s office to inquire about the cases of detained dissident filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa al-Ahmad. Rasoulof and Ahmad were swept up this month on charges of undermining the nation’s security by voicing opposition on social media to the government’s violent crackdown on unrest in the southwest.
Palestinian shot after attack, police say; Israel, Gaza trade fire: A Palestinian man in Jerusalem stabbed a man on a bus with a screwdriver before being shot by a bystander, Israeli police said. Earlier in the day, Israeli aircraft struck a post belonging to the militant Hamas group in the Gaza Strip, in response to a gunshot fired into southern Israel from the Palestinian territory, the military said. In the Jerusalem stabbing, hospital officials said the victim, a man in his 40s, was moderately wounded. The alleged attacker was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Australian teenager reported dead in Syrian prison: An Australian teenager detained in northeastern Syria after living as a child under Islamic State rule has died in unclear circumstances, New York-based Human Rights Watch said. The group cited family members as saying that an Australian official had informed them that Yusuf Zahab, who would have been 18 in April, had died of "unclear" causes. Tens of thousands of people with suspected Islamic State ties, many of them foreigners, are held in camps and prisons in northeastern Syria. HRW, citing a statement from a family representative, said Zahab was taken to Syria by older relatives at age 11. | 2022-07-19T23:17:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Digest: July 19, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-july-19-2022/2022/07/19/40b1dba6-076d-11ed-9a88-9b2bc12f7753_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-july-19-2022/2022/07/19/40b1dba6-076d-11ed-9a88-9b2bc12f7753_story.html |
Michael Krepon, campaigner to limit nuclear arms, dies at 75
Michael Krepon testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2011. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Shortly after another spike in tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors Pakistan and India, arms-control advocate and author Michael Krepon traveled in 2002 to the disputed Kashmir region between the two countries.
He came to interview security officials and observe the brinkmanship and extremism at play in one of the world’s potential nuclear flash points. It was Mr. Krepon in his element: trying to avoid armchair analyses in Washington on geostrategy and conflicts to see things for himself and learn from those caught in the middle. He even strolled the alpine shores of Dal Lake and watched boys play cricket.
“When a crisis comes as a surprise,” he wrote in 2018 of the importance of firsthand research and dialogue, “someone important has been asleep at the switch.”
Mr. Krepon, who died July 16 at 75 at his home in North Garden, Va., near Charlottesville, was among the leading voices of nuclear nonproliferation, reaching policymakers on Capitol Hill and activists and academics worldwide for decades. He was a prolific writer and lecturer, co-founder of the Washington-based Stimson Center think tank and later as a “diplomat-scholar” at University of Virginia.
His work — thousands of essays, speeches and more than 20 books as author or editor — served as lessons in how a mix of arms-control pacts, military deterrents, and political and economic incentives could be the best hopes to avoid nuclear war. But Mr. Krepon (pronounced CRAY-pon) also noted the flip side: how nuclear threats may evolve, recede or shift, but always lurk somewhere.
He sometimes quoted a warning by Russian revolution leader Leon Trotsky: “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”
Why Krepon cared so much about India and Pakistan
During the Cold War’s ominous matrix of “mutually assured destruction,” Mr. Krepon strongly backed U.S.-Soviet moves to limit strategic ballistic missiles, known as SALT talks. He raised early alarms about the rise of Kim Jong Un’s nuclear program in North Korea. Mr. Krepon applauded the 2015 deal to limit Iran’s nuclear program and blasted the Trump administration for pulling out in 2018.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Mr. Krepon pondered how far Russian President Vladimir Putin could be willing to go. Not likely to use nuclear arms, Mr. Krepon wrote in Forbes in March, but the real wild card is some kind of escalation between Russian and NATO forces.
At Stimson — co-founded in 1989 with national security researcher Barry Blechman — Mr. Krepon had open channels to policymakers and negotiators in helping shape landmark accords in the 1990s.
They included the Chemical Weapons Convention to limit production and access to chemical arms, and the Open Skies treaty that allows signatories to conduct unarmed reconnaissance flights as intelligence-confirming measures to avoid possible missteps toward war. The Trump administration pulled out in November 2020 and Russia followed, and both countries have made no moves to rejoin.
“It is hard to overstate the impact of Michael Krepon has had on a whole generation of nuclear scholars,” wrote Vipin Narang, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is serving as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy.
Mr. Krepon described himself in realpolitik terms. There will always be some rivalry or dispute to keep the world on edge. He devoted particular time to India and Pakistan, sometimes using his contacts among security officials and others to open informal talks over possible confidence-building measures.
“Progress in arms control is also bedevilled by Newton’s Law,” he wrote in a 1987 essay. “For every action, there is an equal and opposition reaction.”
Michael Herbert Krepon was born in Boston on Aug. 1, 1946. His father — who had earlier changed his name from Kreponitsky — worked in sales and named Michael after a brother who died in Anzio, Italy, in World War II. His mother was a shipping clerk.
Mr. Krepon received scholarship money from four community groups to help with tuition at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. — “where I discovered, like the Scarecrow in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ that I had a brain,” Mr. Krepon later wrote.
After graduation in 1968, the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies offered Mr. Krepon tuition-free graduate classes. He took intensive Arabic and, after completing his master’s degree in 1970, studied at the American University in Cairo.
Back in the United States, Mr. Krepon began organizing marches and other protests against the Vietnam War, he wrote. The activism stirred interest in other ways to influence U.S. policies. In the early 1970s, he was a defense legislative assistant for Rep. Floyd Hicks (D-Wash.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Mr. Krepon wrote that one of his best moments on the Hill was helping persuade Hicks in 1974 to block the Army from spending funds on a new generation of nerve gas weapons.
During the Carter administration, Mr. Krepon began work on nuclear arms control at the State Department’s Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. He said he was pushed out after Ronald Reagan’s presidential victory and wrote his first book, “Strategic Stalemate: Nuclear Weapons and Arms Control in American Politics” (1984), while on a fellowship.
His last book, “Winning and Losing the Nuclear Peace” (2021), recounts the decades since World War II through stories of nail-biting diplomacy, 11th-hour political deals and spirited anti-nuclear activism.
“Somehow, some way — actually through tremendous effort — we’ve gotten through three-quarters of a century without mushroom clouds on battlefields,” Mr. Krepon said at a virtual event in October 2021 hosted by the Washington bookshop Politics and Prose. “We’ve found a way to lash together deterrents and arms control.”
Survivors include his wife of 47 years, the former Alessandra Savine, of North Garden; two children, Misha of Redwood City, Calif., and Joshua Krepon of New York; and four grandchildren.
In 2015, Mr. Krepon received the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s lifetime achievement award. It went on the wall of his “toolshed/office” at home, along with framed covers of his books, he wrote. He also added a reminder to stay humble: “A royalty check from one of my publishers for one nickel.”
On the blog Arms Control Wonk, where Mr. Krepon was a frequent contributor, he posted a personal message June 26 describing his battles with cancer since 2007. He ended the post with a message for arms-control efforts going forward.
“We become safer by filing down the sharpest edges off nuclear weapons while adding new means of reassurance. This is the heart of the matter,” he wrote. “This is how we continue to avoid crimes against humanity and nature.” | 2022-07-19T23:17:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Michael Krepon, campaigner to limit nuclear weapons, dies at 75 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/19/michael-krepon-nuclear-stimson-dies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/19/michael-krepon-nuclear-stimson-dies/ |
Transcript: Malcolm Nance, Counterterrorism Expert & Author, “They Want to Kill Americans”
MR. SCOTT: Hello, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Eugene Scott, a national political reporter on The Post breaking news team, and today best‑selling author and counterterrorism expert Malcolm Nance joins us to discuss domestic extremism, political violence, and American democracy in his new book, “They Want to Kill Americans.”
Malcolm, welcome.
MR. NANCE: Well, thank you very much. I'm very glad to be here.
MR. SCOTT: Glad to have you.
So it's important that you all know we want to hear from you. There will be ways that our audience can tweet us questions, and we'll share your thoughts and ideas with Malcolm as they come in, if you just go ahead and tweet to @PostLive.
So, before we get into your book, I want to ask you about the January 6th hearings, which you mentioned in that clip we just shared. What has been either maybe the biggest takeaway or biggest surprise that you would say you have seen from them so far?
MR. NANCE: Well, you know, I've been serving in Ukraine in the International Legion, and I've been viewing these hearings almost the exact way the average American citizen views them, which means every once in a while, a little snippet of what's going on shows up in their newsfeed, something that's said to be very interesting, and then life takes over, right? And they just don't come back to it or they don't hear about it for a couple of more days.
And what I've been able to glean‑‑and I've watched the hearings since extensively‑‑the most fascinating part that I feel is it appeared Donald Trump really intended to go to the Capitol and have himself declared president for another term, and I can almost see just how angry it got him that he was denied that, that the Secret Service didn't want to bring him to the Capitol, and then he went back to the Oval Office, went back to the room where he watches television, and watched for almost two hours, this siege of the building. And that must have really got in his craw.
But then, again, I really feel that at some point, he was preparing to go back and have himself declared essentially king.
MR. SCOTT: That's what it certainly seems like has been revealed so far. When we talk about the militia groups that were involved and the insurrection, do you think we've learned anything new about them?
MR. NANCE: Well, I mean, we've learned quite a bit about them. We've already for sometime knew about the internal organization of these groups. This book was started in August 2020. It actually went‑‑excuse me‑‑actually went out to the publisher in December 2020 and was pretty much completed last August, and we've not learned very much more about them other than the fact that we know who they are now. We know who the individual players, the perpetrators‑‑but many of them were known before. It's just the news media didn't understand the context in which they were forming these groups, the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the Three Percent militia, and an entirely new wing of what I call the "Trump Insurgency in the United States," or acronym TITUS, which was the Republican Party itself is now an insurgent party that wants nothing to do with governing but merely operates in order to keep the pressure on to take power at some future date and then, of course, stop relinquishing power.
And then the third wing of the TITUS was the average Trump voter who saw all of the events‑‑and as you see right now, there's a poll that says‑‑I believe it's 57, 58 percent of all Trump supporters viewed the attack on the Capitol as an act of patriotism. They don't view it as a crime. They view it as them defending America, which means now we're at a point where a very large swath, millions upon millions of Americans view whatever crimes they do as legitimate forms of protests, even if it involves death, murder, mayhem, the‑‑you know, besieging our top institutions, whereas, you know, they have no problem watching a man get shot 90 times in the back while running away from policemen.
So, so long as they have this belief that they are the only ones who can be‑‑who are the arbiters of the law, that their version of America is the only version of America that's legitimate, and you see them cry in protest when the laws are applied to them, the people who are arrested in the siege of January 6th going to trial and finding themselves not remorseful but upset that they had to go into a real jail. Or people like Peter Navarro, they were upset that they were handcuffed when the police came to arrest them, things that normal Americans understand is what happens when you commit crimes.
This, I think, antagonizes them. It fosters their inherent sense of victimhood because they are the worst whining victors that we have ever seen in American history, you know, second only to the Southerners at the end of the Civil War, I should say. And this burns in them, and that is what fuels their energy to support Donald Trump and to start talking about revenge against other Americans.
MR. SCOTT: I believe you'd argued that that belief that these individuals have comes from what they have heard from the former president himself. Do you mind sharing a bit about how his rhetoric and words and tweets and speeches may have influenced these extremist groups as well as some of these everyday Trump supporters?
MR. NANCE: You know, it's interesting. I spent my entire life in Middle Eastern, Sub‑Saharan Africa, South Asian counterterrorism, and we have a general acceptance that radicalization of individuals when they hear speeches from terrorist leaders or radical clerics or go to a particular mosque or madrasa, and they hear this variation of what they think Islam is. Since 9/11, that has been accepted norms. No one questions that that's the radicalization path of the Middle Eastern terrorist, insurgent, or political extremist.
Now, if I take that template and I put that over the American citizen who is part of the January 6th insurrection or the Republican Party or their leadership in that they have a supreme leader who has a political philosophy or ideology that fires up and motivates a base of young men and women to carry out acts of violence and to organize themselves into cells, groups, and coalitions in order to effect radical change against the government, well, people act as if I come from Mars. It's just absolutely the height of hypocrisy to believe that other peoples in this world have radicalization pathways that Americans are immune to.
We are not immune to them. This is‑‑all of the philosophies, behaviors, and activities we see with Donald Trump have occurred at other times in American history. Anti‑Semitism is not new. White supremacy and white nationalism in the United States is definitely not new. But for the most part, what we've seen is a president of the United States that has harnessed all of the worst demons of the white supremacist cause in America since 1860. Of course, we always have to preface the American Civil War was the worst, but had harnessed these demons and has revived some of the worst, most revile beliefs in America, and then told this entire bloc of American citizens. As many of 75 million of them believe that they are against simple things like common decency or what we call "political correctness," right? They want to have the permission, and Donald Trump has given them the permission to speak negatively, loudly, racially against their own neighbors to the point of threatening them with violence with firearms, fists, and what they would use as collective threatening of their tribe or community. This is what Donald Trump has unleashed in this country.
There is no difference in that path of radicalization. If I was‑‑if I was an intelligence officer at MI6 or DGSE in France or the BND in Germany, I would be writing this up that the United States has an insurgent group or an insurgent society that is radicalizing in no different way than al‑Qaeda or ISIS.
MR. SCOTT: So, if anyone is just joining us and has not heard your responses to previous questions, I would like you to answer this clearly for them.
MR. NANCE: Excuse me.
MR. SCOTT: Your book is titled "They Want to Kill Americans." Who is this "they" you're referring to?
MR. NANCE: Yeah. You know, when I came up with that title, I usually‑‑you know, I was going to come up with a title like "The Coming Trump Insurgency." In fact, the subtitle was "The Coming Trump Insurgency." I had to remove it last year because the insurgency is here. It's exited. It's not only present. It's growing. It's growing further than I actually originally projected in this book. The takeover of the Republican Party by QAnon philosophy, not the crazy parts of adrenochrome and blood drinking of children, but that liberals and liberalism and the people that support them are inherently evil and must be confronted, if necessary, with force. That's a given now. Okay.
If you say something opposed to that at a Trump rally, you'll be booed down. If you say something similar to that, you will be cheered as a hero. We saw that in a speech by Charlie Kirk in Oregon when the one man said, "When can we start using our guns? When can we start killing?"
So the "they" that I'm talking about are your neighbors, and many of your neighbors no longer believe‑‑I mean, let me preface that. They believe in a variation of America which looks nothing like the last 245 years of incremental back‑and‑forth progress leading to a more perfect union, where the better angels of this nation help each one find dignity, decency, and equality. They don't want that anymore.
The typical Republican Trump voter, armed militia man, people who support armed militia men‑‑and people ask me every day, "Malcolm, can you actually lump all the Trump voters into this category?" Yes, I can. They voted for this. They see this. They cheer this. They still go to rallies, and they endorse the inherent threat of violence against other American citizens, and they almost back the takeover of the United States Capitol as not a crime but as a benign, quite possibly beneficial effect against the government.
We are looking at the people who do your plumbing, who are your insurance salesmen, who may be your doctor. As we saw from the Capitol riot, one in five were members of the armed forces or retired veterans of the armed forces and law enforcement, and they are armed. And many of them love talking about how they outnumber and outgun people they call "liberals" and "communists," also known as the other 65 percent of America that didn't vote for Donald Trump, that they have more guns. And these are warnings not to be ignored.
MR. SCOTT: So what would you say to someone who would say or argue that these individuals do not want to kill Americans, but they do want to kill, perhaps, America as we currently know it?
MR. NANCE: Well, you know, it's fascinating because, you know, many of the mass shootings we're seeing are the very people that I'm warning you about, right? The shooting at Uvalde, the shooting at El Paso, the shooting at the Temple of Life in Pittsburgh, the shooting at the synagogue in Poway, the shooting‑‑you know, I mean, how many times do I have to go through this? They all have the same behaviors, patterns, and age brackets of the shooters because these people have templated what they want to do. They look at each other, and they‑‑all of this, by the way, originated‑‑this template originated with Anders Behring Breivik, a Norwegian who mass murdered 68 adults and children at a summer camp, who in his trial said the reason I did it as a white nationalist, dot, dot, dot, was to eliminate the entire next generation of Norwegian liberal politicians. These people take an absolutist view in their white supremacy and their white nationalism, and many of these incidents we're seeing rise, which people view as individual incidents, they're not. They are actually part of a pattern of operations that are very hard to predict. You don't know what's in the mind of the shooter until he buys his ammunition, goes out, starts livestreaming the massacres and starts shooting.
However, we do know what the motivating factors of many of them are, which is a belief that there is a white replacement going on in the United States, where people are being brought in by institutions deliberately to replace White people in America.
Now, you and I, the average American who hears that, thinks that's crazy, and they should think it's crazy. But now with Donald Trump trumpeting this, his entire administration, all of his supporters, his financial backers dropping hundreds of millions of dollars behind this message, what did you think you would be up against? Okay? This isn't a simple matter of a painter and veteran from World War I coming forward and taking power on the heels of the Great Depression, all right, and finding his way into power in Nazi Germany. It's not. This is an organized political party, which has decided that totalitarianism is not as bad as they think, and perhaps so long as the one woman said at a Donald Trump rally, "I never thought that I'd want a dictator in America, but if I have to have it, it should be Donald Trump." I'm not quite sure the American experiment was designed to overthrow itself in elections in order to establish, you know, Mad King Donald I after we had liberated ourselves 245 years ago from King George III.
MR. SCOTT: So where does this come from? Can you talk a bit about the roots, you know, of this current iteration of domestic terrorism? Because, to your point, this obviously started before January 6th.
MR. NANCE: Well, you know, if you go back through the entire history of the last 150 years, everything we are hearing today has sprouted up at some time before, whether it was the rank massive, you know, anti‑Semitism after the publication of the‑‑you know, the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," which was republished by Henry Ford and distributed not just in the United States but even in Germany, and it caused the Holocaust? So anti‑Semitism has been around for a long time.
Anti‑Black bias has been around since the moment they kidnapped most of our ancestors and brought them over as‑‑you know, to the United States to work as slave labor. There are many components of American history which are unsavory, which we have gotten over, the Scalp Act of 1749, where you could scalp an Indian for equivalent of a hundred U.S. dollars today and ethnically cleanse their land, the Asian Exclusion Act of the mid‑1840s, I mean, which discriminated against Chinese who were brought over to work on our railroads. The United States has a horrible history of terrible things, but we always overcame them with forward progressive movement and the embrace of the American experiment and dignity.
What's different now is that Donald Trump as a tribal chief has managed to unshackle the belief of the people who support him that they no longer have to behave with dignity. They no longer have to act like the typical American who has tolerance and support diversity and understanding of other people. There have been state movements even in the Trump administration themself. They removed the word "diversity and equality" from documents in the United States government, which is insane. We are the most diverse nation on this planet.
But this belief now‑‑and it really took off with the election of Barack Obama. Let's just be honest here. You know, the first Black president of the United States, Muslim middle name, comes from an ethnically different background, comes from the bizarre and weird state of Hawaii, which most people don't understand unless they visit there. That was just too much, and nothing he could do was right.
And then you saw the seeds of true violence coming with the taxed‑enough‑already Tea Party and the racism that was spouted at people who were doing the Obama, you know, stimulus plan and then Obamacare. You know, you talk to people in the Trump world. They view Barack Obama as one of the worst presidents of the United States, who apparently did nothing but cause 9/11, and I say that while rolling my eyes because he was not president. But they believe it, and this alternate reality that they live in now is being weaponized against other American citizens.
The question is‑‑and I'm going to pose a question that they ask on their own forums all the time‑‑what is their breaking point? When will they no longer tolerate the‑‑you know, withholding themselves and maintaining the laws? And believe me, a lot of them ask this question, that question of when can they use their guns.
MR. SCOTT: Your most recent answer makes me think of this Twitter question we just got from Manny Otiko, and he wants to know, "Why are Trump supporters so loyal to him when it's obvious he doesn't care about them? Is it white nationalism or tribalism?"
MR. NANCE: It's, in fact, white nationalist tribalism, if you can imagine that, right? They have moved away in their opinions to the point where‑‑you know, I mean, some people have argued, some cult experts have argued that this is a form of cultism, and it's interesting. I wrote two books about ISIS and al‑Qaeda ideology being fourth and‑‑fifth and sixth manifestations of cult movements in Islam, which is very hard to do in Islam, but it's happened before.
So what we are looking at is people who have‑‑or people who have removed themselves from the reality of the world that you and I see and empiricism of it to the belief that whatever the tribal leader who excites their emotions says must be true.
I know that there were interviews done by many interviewers who said they know he's a pathological liar. This man has lied 30,000 times, documented in office by The Washington Post. They know he's a BS artist. They know he doesn't mean what he says. They know that he laughs at them and mocks them sometimes, but he speaks like they do. He speaks to their world. He may be leading them around by a nose ring, but it's a nose ring that they're comfortable with. And it's a field that they want to be in, and that's the one where they are promised that the American experiment was for them only, and that all the rest of the people are losers, cheats, scoundrels, people out to grift the system. And it's absolutely amazing the people that he's generally talking about are the people that were his family and his administration.
And, again, I don't see this strictly because‑‑and by way was a lifelong Republican most of my life but in the same camp as Colin Powell who ended up as a hard left liberal by the way the Republican Party has left this world.
But, again, if I was an analyst at MI6 and I was drafting up a document for the prime minister or the Queen to understand the pathology of what's going on in the American psyche, it would clearly be that they are having a centuries‑‑a combined revival of virtually every conspiracy theory there in the last century, which would explain their victimhood, which would explain why they are becoming a smaller minority, why they can't have all the fruits of America and exclude everyone else from it.
And their politicians are doing a fine job of that. They are turning America into a caricature of what it once was, and they would prefer that caricature as a totalitarian dictatorship or, you know, small "k" kingdom than have the America that it was moving toward, which was diverse, peaceful, and with equality. They have no‑‑they have no desire to have that present.
MR. SCOTT: You touched on this a bit earlier, and I was interested in hearing you say more about whether or not this far right extremism that you're seeing is a global movement and why, if it is.
MR. NANCE: Well, in fact, I wrote a book a few years ago called "The Plot to Destroy Democracy," and it was really an analysis of Vladimir Putin and his intelligence agency and how they had managed to figure out in the early 2000s leading to the mid‑2000s that they could weaponize European and American conservatism, and that they could turn that weapon against their own‑‑against, you know, each individual electoral body and have them essentially vote for totalitarianism or autocracy in these countries.
So United Russia Party funded virtually every major European conservative party, AfD in Germany, OFD in Austria which, by the way, won power, which is fascinating because the OFD was started in 1952 by two Nazi SS officers, and then decades later, the Russians are funding their rise to power as conservatives.
Viktor Orbán in Hungary, the New Deal in Greece, the separatists in Spain, the Five Star party in Italy, which was an ultraconservative party, and in Sweden and in Netherlands, they were all joined at the hip by United Russia because Russia had become a culturally conservative nation and realized that the anti‑immigration movements that were going on in Europe just needed money, cash, and the right electoral figures.
Marine Le Pen in France was given 50 million U.S. dollars to knock down Emmanuel Macron in their first electoral matchup by Vladimir Putin himself.
So, you know, the United States was also a target. They started with the American evangelicals when no one would talk to the extremist right evangelicals. They started funding the alt‑right in the United States.
David Duke, the head of the KKK, has an apartment in Moscow that he shares with Richard Spencer, the American neo‑Nazi party leader. There are many ties overseas, but those ties ended with the election of Donald Trump because Trump then became the pinnacle avatar for all of the grievances of the extremist right in America. Russia really has had no influence since that time. They didn't have to. Donald Trump was carrying out, you know, his intention to change America into essentially an autocratic state, remove all the barriers of the trans‑Atlantic union, and help western democracy collapse on itself in what I call an "axis of autocracies," with Russia at the lead.
I just want to point out something. I'm a Javelin‑qualified missile operator in Ukraine, and when Donald Trump was impeached, he was, in fact, withholding the money so that Ukraine could buy those Javelin missiles, which would deter against the Russian invasion. And that's why he was impeached. These things are‑‑I use the word "incestuous," in a way, but, you know, all of it is happening before your very eyes, and it is accelerating in the last 100 and‑‑I'm sorry‑‑550 days since the January 6th insurrection.
MR. SCOTT: In your book, you detail the threat, you know, that Donald Trump poses to American democracy, but he would eventually fade. Although his support within the Republican Party is still strong, it's going to wane at some point. Is Trump or Trumpism more dangerous at this point in time?
MR. NANCE: You know, there is always going to be a transition away from Trump as the individual avatar for the TITUS, as I call it, but it's really Trumpism. And they will‑‑you know, these people, if you go to these Trump rallies, they are just so grateful that Donald Trump has removed the shackles of common decency and civil discourse and given them the permission slip to curse at people, yell at people, punch people, as they see fit, and to do it in the cause of maintaining white nationalism in the United States, you know, white supremacy, to where they don't have to feel like they're being replaced, which they are not.
So Donald Trump is just one cheeseburger away from removing himself away from the American political scene, right, if we want to be quite frank. He will not live forever, but I suspect what's happening now is a multigenerational phenomenon. And, unfortunately, the only thing that could break this fever is not talking with Trump voters and finding out what their angst is. Their angst is America, the diversity of America, the inclusiveness of America, the allowing immigrants of America, getting people opportunities to live in a better life. They no longer want that. Just ask them. They'll tell you straight up, there's too many immigrants in a nation made up of immigrants, you know.
And I can hear the Native Americans laughing even right now at that ridiculous comment. They no longer want America as it's existed. They want an America that they've manufactured in their own and Donald Trump's mind, which prohibits all of the progress America has made.
MR. SCOTT: Well, that was an eye‑opening and important conversation, Malcolm. I so appreciate you joining us this evening.
MR. NANCE: It is absolutely my pleasure.
MR. SCOTT: And thank you all for coming to Washington Post Live to spend time with us, and I am Eugene Scott. You can find more information about upcoming events on WashingtonPost.com and on the Post Live Twitter account, and more information about upcoming programs will be available to you there. | 2022-07-19T23:19:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: Malcolm Nance, Counterterrorism Expert & Author, “They Want to Kill Americans” - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/19/transcript-malcolm-nance-counterterrorism-expert-author-they-want-kill-americans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/19/transcript-malcolm-nance-counterterrorism-expert-author-they-want-kill-americans/ |
NYC bodega clerk won’t face murder charges in stabbing
Bodega clerk won't face charge in stabbing
A New York bodega clerk who fatally stabbed a man who confronted him at work will not face murder charges, the Manhattan district attorney said Tuesday.
Jose Alba, 61, was charged with second-degree murder after he fatally stabbed Austin Simon, 35, in the Blue Moon bodega on the evening of July 1.
Surveillance footage of the incident at Blue Moon Convenient Store in Hamilton Heights showed Alba arguing with a woman later identified as Simon’s girlfriend, before Simon walked in, stepped behind the counter toward Alba and shoved him. As the two men tussled, Alba grabbed a knife and repeatedly stabbed Simon.
On Tuesday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office filed a motion to dismiss the charges, saying it “would not be able to prove homicide charges” because Alba could reasonably argue that his life was in danger.
The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, the legal group defending Alba, said Tuesday that he “looks forward to moving about freely and spending time with his family.”
Alba received support online from New Yorkers who said the charges against him should be dropped because he was defending himself.
— Annabelle Timsit
and Nick Parker
Man working at 'Law & Order' location shot
According to police, Johnny Pizarro was found about 5:15 a.m. on a residential street in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to the head and neck.
The 31-year-old Queens resident was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police were investigating and hadn’t released information on suspects or a motive.
The network confirmed that Pizarro was a crew member for the series, a spinoff of the long-running “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” The third season is scheduled to air this fall.
“There is no risk to the power grid,” according to Jacklynn L. Gould, the federal Bureau of Reclamation’s director for the Lower Colorado Region. The fire ignited around 10 a.m. and was out within a half-hour, she said.
Hoover Dam, located on the Nevada-Arizona border about 25 miles southeast of Las Vegas, is a popular tourist destination, and some of the visitors captured the scene on video and quickly shared it on social media.
Each of the dam’s 17 generators can supply electricity to 100,000 households. As many as 20,000 vehicles a day drive across the wide top of the dam, which is a National Historic Landmark. | 2022-07-19T23:42:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NYC bodega clerk won’t face murder charges in stabbing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/nyc-bodega-clerk-wont-face-murder-charges-in-stabbing/2022/07/19/f2f8e5ec-04ad-11ed-9282-2a7e062f9565_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/nyc-bodega-clerk-wont-face-murder-charges-in-stabbing/2022/07/19/f2f8e5ec-04ad-11ed-9282-2a7e062f9565_story.html |
Prosecutor: Steve Bannon thumbed his nose at the law
Outside court, the defendant denounced the House Jan. 6 committee and the case against him
Former Trump White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon speaks in Washington after the opening day of his trial on charges of contempt of Congress. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
Donald Trump confidant Stephen K. Bannon was “thumbing his nose” at Congress and the law when he refused to comply last year with a subpoena about the Jan. 6 attack, a prosecutor told a jury Tuesday at opening statements of the right-wing podcaster’s trial for contempt.
Bannon’s trial comes amid intense public focus on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress by a pro-Trump mob, and lingering questions about who shares responsibility for the violence that sought to negate President Biden’s electoral victory.
The trial is being held in a federal courthouse blocks from Capitol Hill, where for the past month the Jan. 6 legislative committee has convened closely watched hearings showcasing the mayhem of that day and the events leading up to it. The next hearing, scheduled for Thursday evening, will focus on Trump’s actions while the Capitol was breached.
Secret Service has no new Jan. 6 texts to provide; National Archives seeks more information
After Tuesday’s trial testimony ended, Bannon erupted outside the courthouse, blasting the head of the Jan. 6 committee, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and repeating false claims that Trump, not Biden, was the true winner of the 2020 election.
“They’re charging me with a crime?” Bannon fumed. “Have the guts and the courage to show up here and say exactly why it’s a crime.”
It is highly unusual for a defendant to speak publicly outside court in the middle of his own trial, let alone criticize decisions about which witnesses appear. Bannon also predicted that Republicans would win back the House in November and create a new Jan. 6 committee that will function far differently than the existing panel, which he derided as a “show trial.”
In her opening statement, Vaughn told the jury that Bannon’s refusal to answer the committee’s questions, or provide lawmakers with any documents, was a serious violation. The committee had sought to get answers from Bannon about his conversations with Trump and others before and during Jan. 6.
“It wasn’t a request and it wasn’t an invitation. It was mandatory,” she said. By not cooperating, she added, Bannon prevented Congress from getting “the important information it needed from him to understand what happened on January 6, and to ensure it never happens again.”
Facing trial, Bannon vows to go "medieval" but judge says meh
Wearing one dark button-down shirt over another, a black suit jacket and a black mask, Bannon, 68, leaned forward at the defense table and listened intently. It’s not the first time the pugilistic media personality has faced federal charges — he was previously accused in New York of participating in a fraudulent fundraising scheme, but Trump pardoned him before he went to trial.
Bannon’s trial on two counts of contempt of Congress is the most high-profile to emerge so far from the various probes surrounding the riot and its aftermath, even though the case is not about the events of Jan. 6 themselves. The facts at issue are quite narrow — whether Bannon’s alleged refusal to cooperate or communicate with the committee amounted to a crime.
One question will be Bannon’s claim he thought the committee would have to negotiate with him and that its deadlines were flexible once he asserted that he couldn’t provide answers or documents to the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. That claim that has been met with great skepticism by U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols.
The judge has previously said it’s not clear that Trump ever invoked such a privilege, let alone if such a claim could be valid, coming from an ex-president toward a podcaster who hadn’t worked at the White House since 2017. But Corcoran suggested to the jury on Tuesday that the executive privilege issue is an important part of understanding whether Bannon intended to break the law.
“He used the word privilege. It’s not an excuse, the evidence will show that’s not an excuse,” Corcoran said in his opening statement.
Bannon’s defense also tried to cast the criminal case in starkly partisan terms. Corcoran noted that last year more than 200 lawmakers voted against holding Bannon in contempt of Congress. The vote was 229-202, mostly along party lines.
Analysis: What two of the witnesses at Thursday night's Jan. 6 hearing might say
The defense attorney urged jurors to question the motivation behind testimony or evidence presented by prosecutors. “My single request for you is to think about it and ask yourself: Is this piece of evidence affected by politics?” he said.
Those suggestions prompted prosecutors to twice interrupt and object to Corcoran’s opening statement, though the judge ultimately allowed him to make his points.
The trial is expected to last a week or less, with possibly only a handful of witnesses.
The government’s first witness, Kristin Amerling, is a staffer for the Jan. 6 committee. She testified that “there is an urgency” to lawmakers’ examination of “a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol, on law enforcement, and on our democracy, and we have a limited amount of time in which to gather information.”
Asked if Bannon appeared before the committee by the date required by the subpoena, Amerling said simply, “he did not.”
She is expected back on the witness stand Wednesday for more questioning from prosecutors, and cross-examination by Bannon’s lawyers.
Analysis: What the Garland memo really means for a criminal probe of Trump
The two misdemeanor contempt charges Bannon faces are each punishable by at least 30 days and up to one year in jail.
But criminal trials over contempt of Congress are exceedingly rare, and serving time in jail for a conviction is even rarer. It has been about seven decades since someone went to jail for that offense — a seminal case in U.S. political and legal history involving the First Amendment, the Cold War and political efforts to publicly shame suspected communists.
In 1947, 10 movie directors and screenwriters refused to answer questions from the House Un-American Activities Committee about their alleged ties to communists. The Hollywood Ten, as they were known, were convicted, and the Supreme Court ultimately rejected their appeals, sending them to jail in the early 1950s, in what many historians now consider one of the worst instances of red-baiting during the Cold War era.
In 1957, the Supreme Court sought to rein in what it had come to view as the excesses of the red-hunting days, ruling in favor of an Illinois labor official, John Watkins, who agreed to answer some questions about people he knew who were communists, but refused to answer questions about people whose communist associations or activities were in the past.
Through the Watkins case and other decisions, the high court discouraged the Justice Department from pursuing more contempt of Congress cases. In the 1970s, two notable figures from the Watergate era, G. Gordon Liddy and former attorney general Richard Kleindienst, were charged and pleaded guilty to contempt of Congress but did not go to prison for that crime. At the time, Liddy had already been sentenced to prison in a related case.
Retropolis: Bannon's contempt trial echoes that of Watergate's G. Gordon Liddy
Bannon’s trial opened Monday with a full day of jury selection, with several potential jurors dismissed because of their familiarity with or opinions of the Jan. 6 riot and subsequent investigations.
More than half of the 12 jurors and two alternates selected work for federal or D.C. government agencies or contractors, including a lawyer for the Securities and Exchange Commission; an employee with the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom; a NASA contract photographer and archivist; and an employee of the International Republican Institute, a democracy and development agency that receives funding from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The D.C. government employees include a Parks and Recreation maintenance manager; a Transportation Department contract driver for special-needs children; and a supervisor with a Health Department pandemic vaccination contractor.
One juror who works with an appliance company said during jury selection that he watched the first prime-time televised hearing of the Jan. 6 committee. “I understand everyone wants to figure out what was going on, to figure out the truth of what happened,” he said. | 2022-07-19T23:46:49Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Openings in Bannon trial debate whether skipping subpoena was a crime - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/bannon-subpoena-contempt-trial/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/bannon-subpoena-contempt-trial/ |
At least a dozen of the GOP electors who falsely certified Trump as the victor of the 2020 election in Georgia are now subjects of criminal investigation
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks at a news conference in Atlanta on May 11, 2021. (Linda So/Reuters)
ATLANTA — Georgia prosecutors investigating potential criminal interference in the 2020 presidential election by Donald Trump and his allies have notified several Republicans who were part of a fake electors scheme that they are “targets” of the probe and could face charges, according to a court document filed Tuesday.
The information in the filing provides the latest insight into the fast moving and expanding investigation that’s led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis, who requested the convening of a special grand jury earlier this year. Part of investigation now centers on the 16 Republicans who gathered at the Georgia Capitol on Dec. 14, 2020, as part of an attempt to falsely certify the state’s electoral college votes for former president Donald Trump even though Joe Biden won the state.
Lawyers for 11 of those 16 Republicans, including Shafer, said in a new court filing that their clients received grand-jury subpoenas on June 1, then were notified in late June that they were considered targets of the investigation instead of witnesses. They argue in the filing that the subpoenas are “unreasonable and oppressive” and the electors will invoke the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination after advice from legal counsel. They deemed the new designation “a publicity stunt.”
In the filing, the electors alleged they were unaware of the broader legal effort by Trump’s legal team, including Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, to use the slate of “alternate electors” to help contest the 2020 presidential election results. They further contend that prosecutors’ investigation is “political interference” resulting from “local passion and prejudice.”
This defense echoes a November 2020 legal memo from Trump legal counsel Kenneth Chesebro, who the Georgia special grand jury has also subpoenaed, that advances an unorthodox legal theory a hinging on the 1960 presidential election in Hawaii when the state briefly created two alternate slates of electors while the state conducted a recount.
Jones, a state senator, received a letter informing him that he was also a target of the investigation, according to a person familiar with the documents. Yahoo News first reported that Jones and two other Republicans had received these letters.
A “target” letter is often the final step a local of federal prosecutor will take to inform an individual they are likely to indicted before formal charges are brought. Jones has filed a motion to disqualify Willis from presiding over the case because she co-sponsored a fundraising event for Jones’s Democratic rival in the lieutenant governors race, Charlie Bailey.
In response to Jones’s motion, the district attorney’s office wrote to the court that Willis shouldn’t be disqualified because Jones “has been treated identically” to the other false electors and that none of the district attorney’s activities have “been outside the character as an officer of the law specially charged to oversee the special purpose grand jury’s investigation.”
Brandon Beach, a state senator, was also served a “target” letter last week for what prosecutors are saying was his role in facilitating communication between the fake electors and the Trump campaign, according to a person familiar with the documents. Internal communications from the campaign obtained by The Post reveal that staffers knew the effort was legally baseless and thus instructed electors to be discreet in their activities at the Georgia Capitol.
The Fulton County special grand jury began meeting in June and has identified more than 100 people of interest. The body has already heard testimony from Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and his staff, Georgia Attorney General Christopher M. Carr (R), state lawmakers and local election workers. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) is slated to supply a sworn written statement to the special grand jury next week.
In July, grand jurors issued material witness subpoenas for several members of Trump’s legal team, including Chesebro, Eastman, Giuliani, as well as lawyers Jenna Ellis, Cleta Mitchell and the conservative commentator Jacki Pick Deason.
Two members of Congress and close Trump allies have also been subpoenaed in the investigation. Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) challenged the subpoena, contesting that federal laws allowed him to move any requests for testimony to federal court.
Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who is of interest to the committee for phone calls he made to Raffensperger about Georgia’s election system, cited the Speech and Debate Clause of the U.S. Constitution as shielding him from subpoenas. On Tuesday, Graham agreed to move any future challenges to the grand jury’s subpoena to state and federal courts in Georgia. | 2022-07-19T23:59:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | GOP fake electors ‘targets’ in Georgia election fraud inquiry - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/19/georgia-fake-electors/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/19/georgia-fake-electors/ |
TANNA, VANUATU - DECEMBER 06: People gather on a pier on December 06, 2019 in Tanna, Vanuatu. Satellite data show sea level has risen about 6mm per year around Vanuatu since 1993, a rate nearly twice the global average, while temperatures have been increasing since 1950. 25 percent of Vanuatu’s 276,000 citizens lost their homes in 2015 when Cyclone Pam, a category 5 storm, devastated the South Pacific archipelago of 83 islands while wiping out two-thirds of its GDP. Scientists have forecast that the strength of South Pacific cyclones will increase because of global warming. Vanuatu’s government is considering suing the world’s major pollution emitters in a radical effort to confront global warming challenges and curb global emissions, to which it is a very small contributor. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) (Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images AsiaPac)
In all this effort, one policy that’s been central to neighbors’ relations with the Pacific for decades has been ignored: migration.
The challenges for small island countries like those of the Pacific are unique. Their numbers include relatively affluent territories like Palau, the Cook Islands and French Polynesia, which occupy a status in between full independence and support by their former colonists. On the other hand, the region also includes nations like Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Kiribati, which receive far less aid and whose development levels are often comparable to those in sub-Saharan Africa.
The gap in this picture is Australia. In contrast to New Zealand, whose Pacific Islander population accounts for about 8% of the total (Maori comprise an additional 16.5%), it has long turned its back on the region.
• China Has Yet to Learn the Rules of the Pacific Chess Game: David Fickling | 2022-07-20T00:47:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Friendship Is the Best Way to Counter China in the Pacific - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/friendship-is-the-best-way-to-counter-china-in-the-pacific/2022/07/19/858e3ba4-07bb-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/friendship-is-the-best-way-to-counter-china-in-the-pacific/2022/07/19/858e3ba4-07bb-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Biden should be thanked for his service
President Biden departs Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church on July 17 in Georgetown. (Al Drago for The Washington Post)
Marc A. Thiessen, in his July 16 op-ed, “I read the polls, Mr. President. Democrats don’t want you to run.,” was, for the most part, realistic, albeit harsh, on President Biden as a candidate for 2024.
I fully support the search for an alternative, mainly because of Mr. Biden’s age and because a younger person with energy and fresh ideas will be good for the country. I completely disagree with Mr. Thiessen’s view that Biden “delivered” high inflation, high gas prices, a drop in real wages and a labor shortage. To blame the president for this is unfair, wrong and bad economics. The word “delivered” is ambiguous as to who is responsible for these issues that make life very hard for Americans. Yes, Mr. Biden might have been the “least-worst” Democratic choice the last time. So what? Did we wish to have four more years of President Donald Trump? I believe that, while diligently searching for a strong, young and widely acceptable candidate, the country should be grateful to Mr. Biden for deciding to give up four of his “older years” to serve and do his best for the country.
Ritha Khemani, Washington | 2022-07-20T01:26:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Biden should be thanked for his service - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/biden-should-be-thanked-his-service/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/biden-should-be-thanked-his-service/ |
With a heavy law enforcement presence, abortion rights advocates pass by the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh on July 2 in Chevy Chase. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
Regarding the July 15 editorial “Safe at home”:
Freedom of speech seems to allow the right to demonstrate on a public street in front of a residence, especially considering public officials’ quotidian ability to insulate themselves from the general public. However, these demonstrations impede the neighbors’ right to privacy and should not be allowed.
Montgomery County law prohibits stopping to picket in front of or adjacent to any private residence. This is settled law, so no further discussion of this topic is necessary.
Brad Chattillion, Germantown | 2022-07-20T01:26:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | It’s settled. Protesters should go home. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/its-settled-protesters-should-go-home/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/its-settled-protesters-should-go-home/ |
Working to widen Middle East peace
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaks during the Jiddah Security and Development Summit in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, July 16. (Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Handout via Reuters)
Regarding the July 16 front-page article “Biden meets Saudi leader”:
As a Jewish organization that has engaged with an array of important Arab countries, we strongly commend the opening of Saudi airspace to flights originating from or destined for Israel. This positive step was enabled by bipartisan investment in building ties between Arabs and Israelis, and by American commitment to the fundamental needs of Middle Eastern allies.
Over the course of years and decades, Israel has proved its readiness and eagerness for peace with all its neighbors: from the 1978 Camp David Accords with Egypt to the 2020 Abraham Accords, initially with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Jordan and Morocco have critically established diplomatic relations with Israel, and we are hopeful that normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia will follow. This will be in the interest of the two countries and of the entire Middle East.
Seth J. Riklin, Daniel S. Mariaschin and David J. Michaels, Washington
The writers are president, chief executive and director of U.N. and intercommunal affairs, respectively, for B’nai B’rith International. | 2022-07-20T01:27:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Working to widen Middle East peace - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/working-widen-middle-east-peace/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/working-widen-middle-east-peace/ |
Juan Soto made his second All-Star Game appearance Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. (Abbie Parr/AP)
LOS ANGELES — What we don’t know about baseball’s central storyline is where Juan Soto will play or how much he will be paid over how many years. Those are enormously important elements for the Washington Nationals, for Soto himself, for the sport as a whole. There is urgency in dealing with all of it. But there’s also time.
So with the best of baseball gathered here for Tuesday night’s All-Star Game, and with no single figure generating more conversation and consternation than the 23-year-old Nationals right fielder, it’s worth remembering why that’s the case. Put aside 15 years for $440 million, and pause the idea of trading a homegrown juggernaut before he enters his prime.
Soto is in this position because he is nothing short of a savant, and there’s so much evidence to support it. Start with this: Two of his important numbers at the all-star break — a .250 batting average and a .497 slugging percentage — would rank as the worst of his career. They are numbers of which others would be proud.
“Everyone’s like, ‘He’s having a slow start,’ or whatever,” said Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner, Soto’s teammate until last summer. “And then you look at the numbers, and they’re still pretty incredible.”
That “slow start” has Soto tied for ninth in all of baseball in on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.902) — and he’s trending in the right direction. His stats say he’s among the best hitters in the game, and he hasn’t even started hitting yet.
“I feel amaaaaaazing!” Soto said with typical flair. “I feel really good at the dish. I’m seeing the ball really well, and whenever I start hitting the ball to the other way is a good sign. For me, I just feel great.”
This is, in effect, a warning to the rest of the majors for the second half. It will be with the Nationals, the only franchise he has known. Or it will be with a team in a pennant race that was willing to unload an ungodly haul in return for two years and two months of Soto’s services before he can hit free agency.
I felt this way about Bryce Harper when he was inching toward free agency in Washington, and I’ll reiterate it about Soto now: Don’t waste energy worrying about whether he’ll leave. Appreciate what you have. Soto’s situation is different from Harper’s because the Nationals expected to compete for championships even as Harper’s time was drawing to an end and they are in some version of a reboot or rebuild now. But the principles remain: Enjoy the talent, even if it could be fleeting.
This discussion, which all but swallowed the All-Star Game whole, isn’t based in the game’s finances — about what Soto would make in his final two seasons of arbitration and what he would be worth in free agency beyond that. It’s based in his combination of raw ability, the discipline to refine it and the aptitude to process information both before the game and in real time.
“For such a young kid to have that maturity, the process that he has, is great,” said Kyle Schwarber, a teammate for half of the 2021 season, a rival with the Philadelphia Phillies now. “It’s A-plus. You don’t really see that in a really young individual. They’re coming up through the game, and they’re trying to tiptoe their way. It seemed like he came right into the big leagues and was ready to go.”
So lump Soto in with whatever list you want. There is no player to compare him to — whatever his standing — that is unreasonable.
“He’s Trout without the defense,” one head of an opposing baseball operations department said Tuesday, “but a better hitter.”
A better hitter than Mike Trout, the best player of this generation. Think that’s hyperbole? Fine. But here are the players baseball-reference.com rates most similar to Soto through age 22, in order: Trout, Frank Robinson, Harper, Miguel Cabrera, Mickey Mantle, Tony Conigliaro, Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda, Giancarlo Stanton and Ken Griffey Jr.
Digest that. Exhale. Okay, now dig in.
Should the Nationals trade Juan Soto? Your questions, answered.
That group includes five Hall of Famers, two who will be shoe-ins (Trout and Cabrera), two who have a realistic chance (Harper and Stanton) and one whose career was shortened by injury (Conigliaro). It includes 16 MVP awards. It’s staggering.
So Soto’s peers weren’t in the clubhouses this week at Dodger Stadium. Soto’s peers are players who are considered peerless. How does that happen?
“First, he has an amazing game plan,” said Atlanta Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who has helped pitchers formulate game plans to combat Soto for years. “Second, he’s ready to hit all the time, so if you miss your spot by one baseball — so, what’s that, two inches? — he hits it hard. Third, he doesn’t chase, either.”
Plate discipline is the most commonly cited trait that opposing pitchers and hitters believe separates Soto from the rest. It is, as Chicago Cubs outfielder Ian Happ said, “off the charts.” Since Soto broke into the big leagues in 2018, only two players who have been in the majors that long have swung at a lower percentage of pitches outside the strike zone than Soto’s 20.4 — Houston’s Alex Bregman and Detroit’s Robbie Grossman. It is the foundation of Soto’s success.
“The moment doesn’t get too big for him,” Happ said. “He understands that he has to be patient in the position he’s in, with how good he is. And he doesn’t … swing … at … balls. It doesn’t matter who’s on the bump. It doesn’t matter if it’s a lefty or a righty. He doesn’t chase, and I think that part of it is so impressive.”
“Those borderline pitches,” New York Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil said, “he does a great job of fouling them off or taking them for balls.”
And when he does take a pitch for a ball, he often does it with style. Soto’s shuffle-and-stare-at-the-pitcher routine might have been seen as unnecessary showmanship in a different era. Now, it’s welcome flair. It’s such a signature that in his locker in the home clubhouse Tuesday was a new cap from MLB partner New Era — black with an unmistakable red silhouette of Soto crouched in his shuffle.
“He’s got his own style, his own brand of it and how he does it,” Turner said, smiling. “It’s unique. You can’t re-create that if you’re somebody else. He’s interesting, I guess, is another way to put it. But he’s really, really good.”
That’s why we’re having this discussion and why it will continue to dominate the sport as the second half begins. Juan Soto can turn down $440 million from the only team he has ever known — and have most in baseball consider it a reasonable decision because the players he most statistically resembles are Hall of Famers. There’s no current player like him. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if he played for your team forever? | 2022-07-20T01:27:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Juan Soto’s peers aren’t all-stars. They’re the all-time greats. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/19/juan-soto-all-star-game/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/19/juan-soto-all-star-game/ |
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred: “I kind of reject the premise of the question.” (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES — MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred stoked the already billowing flames surrounding working conditions for minor leaguers Tuesday when he rejected the notion that minor leaguers do not make enough to live on.
“I kind of reject the premise of the question, that minor league players are not paid a living wage,” Manfred said before the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium. “I think that we made real strides in the last few years in terms of what minor league players are paid, even putting aside the signing bonuses many of them have already received. They receive housing, which is obviously another form of compensation.”
Manfred’s comments came amid sweeping changes to the relationship between MLB and its developmental leagues — some intentional on MLB’s part, some less so. MLB took control of the minor leagues ahead of the 2021 season, cut 40 affiliates and raised facility and nutrition standards for the 120 affiliates that remained. It increased minor league salaries by 38 to 72 percent, but even with the increase many still made less than $20,000 per year — and nothing in the offseason.
A year later, after months of public pressure from minor league advocacy groups, MLB implemented a housing requirement, but salaries remain far below minimum wage.
“Most Minor League baseball players work second jobs because their annual salaries are insufficient to make ends meet. The commissioner makes an annual salary of $17.5 million. His suggestion that Minor League pay is acceptable is both callous and false,” Harry Marino, head of advocacy group Advocates for Minor Leaguers, said in a statement.
Marino’s group — along with one led by former player Garrett Broshuis — has spent much of the past two years raising questions about minor league pay, increasing awareness to the point that the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Manfred this week asking for information about how MLB’s long-standing antitrust exemption affects the way it treats minor leaguers.
That exemption has come under fire not only from the legislative branch lately but also the judicial. A class-action lawsuit, in which former players alleged wage violations, was settled in California, pending the approval of a judge. That settlement would award $185 million (reportedly with an average payment of about $5,000) — and more importantly will include MLB agreeing to rescind rules preventing teams from paying minor leaguers in the offseason.
At least one other lawsuit challenging the antitrust exemption seems likely to reach higher courts soon, meaning Manfred’s comments came at a time when the fact that minor leaguers are underpaid is no longer a matter of public dispute but rather a catalyst to dislodge some of the control MLB has over the way teams treat their young players.
“Helping those guys find their voice and not just make it better for themselves in the nearest term, but for the next generation, is something players and our fraternity has been historically committed to,” MLB Players’ Association Executive Director Tony Clark said. “... We are watching. We are providing support when and where possible.”
Changes to the relationship between the minor and major leagues have been swift in coming. Changes to the relationship between the players union and Manfred’s office have been slower in coming, particularly after contentious labor negotiations this offseason. Asked about Manfred’s efforts to reach out to players and a stated commitment to improving his relationship with them, Clark was vague but certainly not overly encouraging in his assessment.
“I don’t know if ‘repairing relationships’ should be the headline,” Clark said. “Making sure that there is a respect and an understanding that integrity matters. What you say matters. What you do matters more.”
Clark and Manfred speak separately to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America at this time every year, covering a wide range of topics, some more contentious than others. Manfred made clear that while he would like MLB to expand, it cannot do so until the Tampa Bay Rays and Oakland Athletics have more permanent homes. He said he does not know when the sale of the Washington Nationals will be complete but said the process has reached the stage where potential buyers are looking through data and financials.
Clark suggested a pitch clock, bigger bases and shift-limiting rules have been discussed by the newly formed competition committee and that the committee is in the midst of the allotted 45-day discussion period that precedes a formal vote. If the committee votes favorably at the end of that period, those rules could be in place in the majors by the start of next season. | 2022-07-20T01:27:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Rob Manfred disputes premise that minor leaguers are paid unfairly - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/19/rob-manfred-minor-leaguers-living-wage/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/19/rob-manfred-minor-leaguers-living-wage/ |
David Sinopoli. (Photo courtesy of Lancaster, Pa., District Attorney's Office)
A decades-old killing may have been solved with new forensic tech and DNA from a conch shell
She fought fiercely for her life. But Biechler, a flower shop worker described by her husband Phil as “extremely compassionate” and “unbelievably charming,” was pronounced dead at the scene.
A murder was unsolved for 25 years until a man phoned in a tip: He was the killer
A young girl’s murder went unsolved for nearly 58 years. A 20-year-old college student helped crack the case. | 2022-07-20T02:10:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | David Sinopoli killed Lindy Sue Biechler in Pa. cold case solved by DNA, police say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/19/lindy-sue-biechler-cold-case/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/19/lindy-sue-biechler-cold-case/ |
Analysis by Patpicha Tanakasempipat | Bloomberg
NAKHON PATHOM, THAILAND - JUNE (Photographer: Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images AsiaPac)
Thailand is largely regarded as a conservative, deeply religious country, with a military prone to intervening in politics and a king for whom “revered worship” is stipulated in the constitution. It’s also the first country in Asia to decriminalize cannabis and the first in Southeast Asia to move toward legalizing same-sex unions. Such developments stand out in a region where gay sex is illegal in many countries and some impose the death penalty for drug offenses. Among those cheering the moves in Thailand are the vital tourism industry.
1. Is smoking weed really legal in Thailand now?
Yes. Since June 9, cannabis -- also known as marijuana, pot or weed -- is no longer listed as a banned substance under Thailand’s Narcotics Act. However, the government says the decriminalization is intended for medical purposes only. It has repeatedly sought to discourage recreational use, though that will be difficult to enforce as there is no law that explicitly prohibits it. The government has warned that smoking pot in public could violate the country’s public health law, which states that a cannabis smell or smoke is a public nuisance. It has also moved since decriminalization to restrict its use to adults 20 and over and to ban it in schools and for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. Although all parts of the cannabis plants of any potency are legal now, cannabis extracts that contain more than 0.2% of the psychoactive component, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), remain illegal.
2. What’s happening with gay marriage?
Thailand’s House of Representatives passed several bills relating to rights of same-sex couples in June. The bill backed the Cabinet stops short of actual marriage. Instead, same-sex partners would be able to register a civil union, jointly manage assets and inherit upon death, and adopt children together. The House also passed one proposed by the opposition Move Forward Party that’s known as the marriage equality bill. It would amend Thailand’s Civil and Commercial Code to remove references to sex or gender in the official definition of marriage. The bills still require additional votes in the House and Senate before any could become law; no dates have been set. One opposition lawmaker noted that Thailand doesn’t necessarily have to choose between the two options. Precedents have been set in countries like France where couples -- same-sex or opposite -– are able to enter into a civil partnership or get married.
3. Why is the government doing this?
Despite a 2014 military coup -- one of many over the years -- the government has been gradually moving in a generally more progressive direction with regards to cannabis and LGBTQ rights, though the reasons vary.
• The civil union bill was approved in principle in 2018 by the junta’s cabinet under Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha, who had ousted the civilian government. It followed years of pressure from civil society and some government officials for Thailand to advance human rights and modernize to keep up with changing social norms.
• Also in 2018 the junta-appointed parliament approved the medical use of marijuana, citing health benefits, and that limited measure took effect in early 2019. The push for broader legalization came later that year, after the first post-coup election. The Bhumjaithai Party of construction tycoon Anutin Charnvirakul had promoted cannabis as a cash crop and promised to legalize household cultivation. When the party came in fifth and joined the coalition government, Anutin became health minister. He claimed his decree removing cannabis from the narcotics list as a victory for his party.
4. Who’s benefiting?
Local businesses and household growers, for starters. In no time, many dispensaries have popped up in Bangkok to sell cannabis buds, many of which are locally sourced. Long lines of customers stretch into the sidewalks of bustling streets. Some well-known restaurant brands have started selling cannabis-infused food and drinks, not to mention many other small businesses. It’s expected that cannabis farming will become more robust once a bill being considered to regulate the growing, importing and exporting and sale of cannabis is passed. The tourism sector, still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, is also looking to take advantage of the developments to boost Thailand’s brand as an LGBTQ-friendly destination and one of the world’s biggest centers for gender change and medical and wellness tourism.
5. What’s the overall status of LGBTQ in Thailand?
As a predominantly Buddhist country that remained so amid the arrival of Islam and Western colonialism in centuries past, Thailand doesn’t doesn’t have a legacy of laws against homosexuality or sodomy like some of its neighbors. But despite its reputation for having a relaxed attitude toward gender and sexual diversity, LGBTQ activists say there is a long way to go to achieve equality. Same-sex unions performed elsewhere aren’t recognized. Thus, foreigners married to Thai nationals are eligible for non-immigrant spousal visas only if they are of the opposite sex, and same-sex spouses of expatriate workers in Thailand are not eligible for dependent visas. Thai nationals can’t legally change their gender or title on national identification documents to reflect their identity. Many LGBTQ activists have also complained about discrimination when it comes to employment decisions. While there is a degree of LGBTQ visibility in the entertainment industry, including at nightclubs and on television talk shows, they are still largely underrepresented in other roles in society.
6. How does this fit into the broader Thai landscape?
Thai society can at times seem outdated and riddled with tight rules on the one hand, tolerant and free-wheeling on the other. There is no official state religion but monks are highly respected. The monarchy is considered society’s “spiritual pillar” and any criticism is prohibited as a matter of national security, with violations punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The 2019 election was billed as an end to five years of military rule, yet not much changed: Prayuth returned as prime minister with the help of a military-backed party and the military-appointed Senate. Crackdowns on dissidents and government critics made headlines during unprecedented youth protests in 2020, which called for the king’s power and wealth to be curbed and more democracy introduced. On other fronts, cities and resorts like Bangkok and Pattaya are known as centers of the Southeast Asian sex trade, despite the fact that prostitution has been illegal in Thailand since 1960. Some lawmakers are working on legalizing casinos, seeking to generate jobs, attract foreign investment and boost tourism. The parliament is also considering a bill that would open up the alcohol market, currently dominated by big corporations, to smaller players and homebrewers.
7. How does this fit with the rest of Asia?
Thailand seems to be a trailblazer for the rest of Asia. Some neighbors such as Singapore penalize possession, consumption and trafficking of cannabis with hefty fines, prison terms or even the death penalty. In Malaysia, which also has tough drug laws, a parliamentary caucus is looking into policies for medical use of cannabis. Taiwan is the only Asian jurisdiction that legally recognizes same-sex marriage. Vietnam allows same-sex couples to have symbolic weddings but doesn’t recognize the marriage. Hong Kong doesn’t allow it, but does permit gay expatriate workers to bring their spouses in on dependent visas. Meanwhile, in other places like Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, sexual relations between people of the same sex are outlawed. | 2022-07-20T02:19:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How Thailand Is Blazing Trails on Gay Rights, Legalizing Marijuana - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-thailand-is-blazing-trails-on-gay-rights-legalizing-marijuana/2022/07/19/0e60409c-07c8-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-thailand-is-blazing-trails-on-gay-rights-legalizing-marijuana/2022/07/19/0e60409c-07c8-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
The Army veteran wrote a well-received memoir, ‘Mission Accomplished,’ and was appointed to the French Legion of Honor in recognition of her military service
Muriel Engelman in 2017. She was an Army nurse at a field hospital near the front lines of the Battle of the Bulge. (Zach Coco)
For more than two months, starting before the Battle of the Bulge commenced in December 1944 and continuing through the New Year, they faced a near-constant barrage of German attacks, with V-1 buzz bombs exploding every 15 minutes, day and night. Nazi planes strafed the field hospital, and the camp was hit three times by bombs even thought its tents were painted with large red crosses.
“After a while, you learn to cope,” Mrs. Engelman recalled. Although she feared what the Germans might do to her if she was captured — she was one of only two Jewish nurses at the hospital, with an H for Hebrew imprinted on her dog tags — she adopted a realist attitude: “What will be, will be.”
When German infantry reached the outskirts of Liège, about 10 miles from the field hospital, Mrs. Engelman and her fellow nurses were told to pack their musette bags with first aid supplies and the warmest clothes they had, in case they were taken prisoner.
She found room for a few additional items: her liquor ration and cigarettes, which she planned to use for bartering, and the French perfume she had purchased in Paris a few months earlier. She didn’t want it to fall into German hands.
“We were scared,” she acknowledged in an oral history for the Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress. Her patients were frightened for her as well: One wounded GI made her a blackjack, “a 10-inch length of hosing stuffed with lead sinkers, and suspended from my wrist by a leather thong,” while another gave her a spring-assisted knife.
“If a German approaches,” he suggested, “plunge the blade into his belly, then turn it and run like hell.”
A dance-loving Connecticut native on the cusp of turning 24, Mrs. Engelman couldn’t imagine plunging a knife into anyone’s belly. She survived the battle — the German advance was halted that January — and went on to write a wry memoir, “Mission Accomplished: Stop the Clock” (2008), that Kirkus praised as “a must-read for WWII history buffs and lovers of homespun storytelling.”
Its cover photo, taken on a frigid day during the Battle of the Bulge, showed Mrs. Engelman casually holding the blackjack, smiling at the camera with the knife bulging inside her coat pocket. After six weeks of bombings, she had deep hollows under her eyes.
Mrs. Engelman was 101, and one of the last surviving Army nurses to serve near the front lines during World War II, when she died June 30 at a board-and-care home in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Her children, Curtis and Suzanne Engelman, confirmed the death but did not cite a cause.
Nearly 60,000 American nurses volunteered to serve in the Army during World War II, caring for soldiers at field hospitals and on trains, ships and medical transport planes. Mrs. Engelman insisted she was no different from any of them, even after being appointed to the French Legion of Honor in 2018 in recognition of her wartime service.
“I’m not brave,” she had previously told the Orange County Register. “I didn’t do anything different from what anyone else did. I was just one of many.”
Even as a child, Mrs. Engelman seemed destined for a career in medicine. “She brought home every dog and cat that was injured and bandaged them up,” her son said in a phone interview. Her mother once told a newspaper reporter, “Everyone’s trouble was her concern.”
After graduating from high school in 1938, Mrs. Engelman studied nursing at Cambridge Hospital (now Mount Auburn Hospital) in Massachusetts, becoming a registered nurse in 1942.
The next year, she reported for duty as a second lieutenant in the Army Nurse Corps. She had considered joining the Navy, she said, but wasn’t a great swimmer. “I thought that I’d rather get killed on land than on the water.”
“We had 10 dates a night,” she recalled. “There was no shortage of men, and I know at one point I said, ‘Well, I’m through going with the medics, because the infantry was more exciting and then the Air Corps, they were even more fun.’ ”
Nearly 20,000 Americans were killed during the Battle of the Bulge, and tens of thousands more were wounded, missing or captured. As the fighting escalated, Mrs. Engelman worked 12-hour shifts, and tried to maintain her sense of humor even as the bombs made it difficult to sleep.
Mrs. Engelman later treated German prisoners of war, “the very people that tried to kill me,” she noted. “Of course, they were human beings, so I did.”
Mrs. Engelman and her husband retired to Florida before moving to Southern California in 2010. He died in 2020. Survivors include her children, Curtis of Binghamton, N.Y., and Suzanne of Laguna Niguel; two grandsons; and two great-grandchildren.
After she was discharged from the Army, Mrs. Engelman sometimes traveled to New York City to greet American troops arriving from overseas. She was reminded, perhaps, of her own return from France, with a bottle of champagne in her luggage that her family opened at Thanksgiving. | 2022-07-20T02:19:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Muriel Engelman, front-line nurse in World War II, dies at 101 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/19/army-nurse-muriel-engelman-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/19/army-nurse-muriel-engelman-dead/ |
NASCAR set to stage its first street race next year in Chicago
NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace poses outside Chicago's Soldier Field. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
In the latest move to broaden its variety of races, NASCAR is taking to the streets of Chicago.
Beginning in 2023 and continuing for at least two more years, the stock-car racing circuit will stage a top-flight Cup Series race in Grant Park, on the shore of Lake Michigan. The proposed course layout resembles a figure-eight, features sharp left and right turns and includes portions of Lake Shore Drive, Columbus Drive and Congress Plaza.
NASCAR executive Ben Kennedy, the 30-year-old great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., hailed the unprecedented race as “the boldest change” to his organization’s schedule.
“We want to be bold and innovative as we think about new venues and new concepts that we’re going to. This is number one on the list for us right now,” Kennedy, NASCAR’s senior vice president of racing development and strategy, said at a promotional event Tuesday in Chicago that was also attended by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and driver Bubba Wallace.
“It’s certainly going to be most anticipated event of our season,” Kennedy continued, “and one of the biggest sporting events in our country in 2023.”
In further comments, Kennedy noted that there has never before been a street-course race in NASCAR’s national series history.
“What better place to do it than downtown Chicago, such an iconic city,” he said.
I’m excited @NASCAR is willing to take chances and try new things. Chicago is one of the best sports towns in the country… I know our drivers will put on one hell of a show! https://t.co/nfdVknCB5C
— Jeff Burton (@JeffBurton) July 19, 2022
The race, set to debut during NASCAR’s 75th anniversary, will take place on July 2, 2023, and will be preceded on the 2.2-mile course by an International Motor Sports Association competition. It will replace a road-course race that has been staged in Wisconsin on the same weekend for the past two years. The Cup Series held a race at Joliet’s Chicagoland Speedway, approximately 45 miles from Grant Park, from 2001 to 2019.
Earlier this year, NASCAR staged an exhibition event inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for the first time. In 2021, the series held its first dirt-track race in more than 50 years.
The decision to stage a street-course race also comes as Formula One, which has long been associated with street circuits, grows in popularity in the United States.
Of the Chicago event, Wallace emphasized Tuesday how it would be “bringing NASCAR to this demographic.”
“We talk about how representation matters,” continued Wallace, a North Carolina native who is the only Black full-time driver in the Cup Series, “and I think exposing this sport to this area, downtown, with so much to do around while this race is going on, is super important. So you’re going to get that next Bubba Wallace that’s sitting in the stands, like I was when I was nine years old, to be like, ‘Hey, I want to do this one day. But I want to be better.’ ”
Lightfoot said Tuesday that Chicago officials would be “working hand and glove with NASCAR to make sure that the experience is safe but also incredibly enjoyable for the fans.”
“I’m looking forward to showcasing our fantastic city on a global stage,” she added. “We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that this race is a love letter to the city of Chicago.” | 2022-07-20T02:19:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | NASCAR will stage its first street race in Chicago in 2023 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/19/nascar-street-race-2023-chicago/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/19/nascar-street-race-2023-chicago/ |
This photo taken in June/July 2022 and provided by Amnesty International shows a close-up of a landmine found by deminers in Kayah state, eastern Myanmar. Myanmar’s military has laid landmines that have killed and injured people in and around villages in Kayah, a conflict-affected region near the border with Thailand, Amnesty International said Wednesday, July 20, 2022. (Amnesty International via AP) (Uncredited/Amnesty International) | 2022-07-20T02:20:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amnesty Intl says Myanmar army has laid landmines in Kayah - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/amnesty-intl-says-myanmar-army-has-laid-landmines-in-kayah/2022/07/19/65f13a42-07cc-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/amnesty-intl-says-myanmar-army-has-laid-landmines-in-kayah/2022/07/19/65f13a42-07cc-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
The former Virginia state climatologist became a lightning rod in debates around climate change, reviled by activists and revered among skeptics
Patrick J. Michaels died July 15 at his home in Washington. He was 72. (Cato Institute)
His stance, and the forceful way he promoted it in his frequent media appearances, attracted the condemnation of scientists and environmentalists who accused Dr. Michaels of obstructing policy changes that might mitigate the threat posed by climate change. They noted his association with the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, where he was for a period director of the Center for the Study of Science, as well as his financial backing by the fossil fuel industry, to question the integrity of the research he cited in support of his positions.
But with his combination of academic bona fides, his state title and his flair in the boxing ring of policy debate — he described former vice president Al Gore, a leading climate change activist, as a “scientist wannabe” and denounced the “self-selected community of climate boffins” and “keepers of the environmental-gloom paradigm” — Dr. Michaels proved an often effective champion of his cause.
“He was just a born fighter,” said Robert Balling, a professor at Arizona State University who co-wrote books with Dr. Michaels including “The Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air About Global Warming” (2000) and “Climate of Extremes: Global Warming Science They Don’t Want You to Know” (2009).
“I knew people who refused to debate him,” Balling added, recalling the frustrations of some scientists, highly trained in their fields but unpracticed in the political arena, who were called upon to spar with him.
Dr. Michaels wished to be known not as a climate change “skeptic,” but rather as a “lukewarmer.” That term, said Judith Curry, an atmospheric scientist and professor emerita at Georgia Tech, denotes someone who argues that global warming is caused only partly by human activity, with natural climate variability as another contributing factor.
He was named Virginia state climatologist by Gov. John N. Dalton, a Republican, in 1980. By all accounts, Dr. Michaels performed ably in that role, once described by The Post as a “cross between a meteorologist and a librarian,” in which he was tasked with gathering and analyzing data on weather across the state.
But as climate change emerged as an issue of increasing urgency, and as scientific agreement coalesced around its human causes, Dr. Michaels became more outspoken in challenging what he regarded as alarmist positions on global warming and regulatory overreach in the effort to combat it.
He argued that the United States should not sign the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (the United States ultimately was not a signatory to the agreement) and described the 2016 Paris agreement (which the United States joined under President Barack Obama, left under President Donald Trump and rejoined under President Biden) as “climatically insignificant.”
In 2006, the office of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, asked Dr. Michaels to clarify that he did not speak for the state or the governor when he addressed matters related to global warming. Dr. Michaels stepped down from the post and from U-Va. the following year, lamenting what he said was a lack of “academic freedom.”
Dr. Michaels left the Cato Institute in 2019 and joined the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington. Responding to critics who noted his funding over the years from coal-burning utilities, he said that he had been “working on climate change long before I worked as a consultant” and that his “views have been quite consistent over that period.”
In his frequent media appearances, he exploited the “norm” that “for every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD” on the other side of a political issue, Andrew Revkin, a former New York Times journalist who has written about climate change since the 1980s and who now runs a communication innovation initiative at the Columbia Climate School, said in an interview.
“He was artfully accepting the human role in the climate system and artfully always able to present the case for caution or for uncertainty,” but in a way that suited the advocacy and interest groups he worked for, Revkin said.
“He was an excellent writer and verbal communicator, but in my opinion he undermined his own effectiveness by being strident,” David Policansky, a former scholar and senior project director at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine wrote in an email, noting “the risks and rewards of mixing science and politics. A risk is undermining one’s credibility and a reward is influencing policy.”
Dr. Michaels received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences in 1971 and a master’s degree in biology in 1975, both from the University of Chicago. He received a doctorate in ecological climatology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1979. He was a past president of the American Association of State Climatologists.
His books included “Sound and Fury: The Science and Politics of Global Warming” (1992), “Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media” (2004) and “Lukewarming: The New Climate Science that Changes Everything” (2016), written with Paul C. Knappenberger.
Dr. Michaels’s marriage to Erika Kancler ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of six years, the former Rachel Schwartz of Marshall, Va.; two children from his first marriage, Erika Michaels of Waynesboro, Va., and Robert Michaels of Richmond; and two brothers.
Even among those who disagreed intensely with his scientific positions, Dr. Michaels found his defenders.
“He did care about the environment,” said Larry Kalkstein, a professor emeritus of climatology at the University of Delaware and the University of Miami, recalling that he had seen Dr. Michaels “painted unfairly as a … pawn for industry.”
“I never found his gaining money from industry as being a negative,” Kalkstein added, noting his own financial support from environmental groups. “I found that it’s basically the same in my mind.”
“I disagreed with Pat vehemently when it comes to the science and policy implications of climate change,” Michael E. Mann, a professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University who had earlier worked with Dr. Michaels at the University of Virginia, wrote in an email. “But I always found him to be an amicable colleague during our overlap at U. Va two decades ago.”
At climate conferences, Dr. Michaels was easily identifiable by the green tennis shoes he often wore — a ready-made conversation starter in a world of polarizing debate. | 2022-07-20T02:49:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Patrick Michaels, climate change contrarian, dies at 72 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/19/patrick-michaels-climate-change-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/19/patrick-michaels-climate-change-dead/ |
A mourner offers flowers next to a picture of Shinzo Abe. The former prime minister was shot and killed on July 8 while campaigning for a parliamentary election. (Issei Kato/Reuters)
TOKYO — Japan is looking to hold a state funeral on Sept. 27 to honor former prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated this month, Japanese news outlets reported Wednesday.
The event is expected to a be a major gathering of current and former world leaders, with dignitaries already making plans to attend to commemorate Abe, who worked to increase Japan’s image and influence globally and was the country’s longest-serving and most recognizable leader of the modern era.
It would be the second state funeral in postwar Japan since the 1967 death of Shigeru Yoshida, and a break from past practice in which ceremonies for former leaders have been jointly funded by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Japanese Cabinet. A state funeral would be fully taxpayer-funded.
Nonetheless, the government appeared on track to hold the event at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo. Abe’s private funeral and wake, which were intended to be small events, drew thousands of attendees and dignitaries. An official decision on a state commemoration is expected later this week.
Abe was shot and killed on July 8 after a gunman armed with a homemade weapon fired twice at a political rally in Nara, near Osaka, ahead of this month’s upper house election. Investigations into security measures and the gunman’s motives are underway.
The suspect, 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, told law enforcement that he had a grudge against Abe and believed the former leader was connected to a religious organization to which his mother had donated much of her money. Later, the Unification Church confirmed his mother was a member.
Tetsuya’s uncle, who was not identified by name, told Mainichi Shimbun that the mother donated at least 100 million yen (about $720,000) to the organization, including life insurance payments from her husband’s death and sales from family real estate. Yamagami dropped out of college after his mother went bankrupt, his uncle told the newspaper.
The church has said it returned about half that amount to her, and did not have records of the rest of the donations.
Julia Mio Inuma contributed to this report. | 2022-07-20T03:19:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Japan plans state funeral for Shinzo Abe - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/19/japan-shinzo-abe-state-funeral/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/19/japan-shinzo-abe-state-funeral/ |
Maryland Del. Daniel L. Cox (R-Frederick) talks with reporters in Annapolis last month. (Brian Witte/AP)
The apparent victory in Maryland’s Republican gubernatorial primary of a little-known state lawmaker who ran as Donald Trump’s acolyte is a triumph for the former president’s cult of personality and, in all likelihood, a stunning act of political self-immolation for the GOP. Del. Daniel L. Cox, the Trump-endorsed right-winger now at the top of the Republican Party ticket on November’s ballot, is, in the view of most political analysts, a dead man walking toward a landslide defeat in November.
Mr. Trump lost Maryland in 2020 by 2-1; only Vermont and (by a nose) Massachusetts repudiated him more decisively. Rationally, Maryland Republicans would embrace candidates who had kept the former president at arm’s length. Instead, they opted for Mr. Cox, a first-term delegate from Frederick whose thinly veiled appeals to QAnon cranks and conspiratorial takes on supposed electoral fraud would have made his candidacy a joke in an earlier era.
In today’s political landscape, his fringe views are not a joke; they are a menace. Last year, he arranged three buses to convey his constituents to the Jan. 6 rally that Mr. Trump had promised would be “wild” and that became, by design, a blood-spattered insurrection. At the very moment that violent rioters stormed the Capitol, beating and injuring scores of police officers, he tweeted that Vice President Mike Pence was a “traitor” for refusing to reject the certification of the election. As a mouthpiece for the Trumpian lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, Mr. Cox has positioned himself squarely as an enemy of democracy.
Maryland Republicans have made their choice — for a candidate described by Mr. Trump as “100 percent MAGA.” They made it despite the availability of a stark alternative, Kelly M. Schulz, a close political ally of term-limited GOP Gov. Larry Hogan. She served in his Cabinet for nearly the entirety of his eight years in office, first as labor secretary and then, until January, as commerce secretary. In turning their backs on Ms. Schulz, primary voters spurned a pro-business pragmatist in the mold of Mr. Hogan, whose moderate Republicanism and contempt for Mr. Trump have made him one of the nation’s most popular governors. His stratospheric approval levels might easily have helped propel Ms. Schulz, whom he warmly endorsed, to the governorship. She could have been the first woman to hold the job.
By contrast, Mr. Cox moved to impeach Mr. Hogan, a governor of his own party. He got no serious support in that gesture from either party — a indication of how he is regarded by his colleagues in Annapolis.
Democrats are delighted to have Mr. Cox on the ballot, and they played a part in his win. The Democratic Governors Association spent $1.2 million on advertising and mailers designed to elevate Mr. Cox, calculating that he would be easy prey in November. That assessment is probably accurate. Nonetheless, if by some remote chance it is wrong and some unforeseeable chain of events leads to Mr. Cox moving into Government House in Annapolis, Democrats will rue their cynical action. | 2022-07-20T03:37:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Dan Cox, Maryland GOP choice for governor, has little chance - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/dan-cox-maryland-republican-governor-candidate-trump/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/19/dan-cox-maryland-republican-governor-candidate-trump/ |
Brown’s lead in Maryland AG race sets up historic November possibility
Anthony G. Brown and Katie Curran O'Malley are vying for the Democratic nomination for Maryland attorney general. (Brown Campaign/O'Malley campaign)
Anthony G. Brown (D), a three-term congressman and two-term lieutenant governor under Martin O’Malley, led former Judge Katy Curran O’Malley Tuesday night in Maryland’s Democratic primary election for attorney general, but the race remained too close to call.
Brown held a substantial lead over O’Malley, a longtime prosecutor and judge in Baltimore and the wife of the former governor, But more than 150,000 mail-in ballots will not be counted until Thursday.
A Brown victory would position him to make history as Maryland’s first Black attorney general if he is elected in November, an outcome that appears to be a strong possibility. Republicans have not captured the statewide race for attorney general since 1952. An O’Malley victory would also likely be historic, setting her up to the first woman to hold the job of Maryland’s top law enforcement official.
If Brown holds his lead he would take on either Michael Peroutka or Jim Shalleck, the candidates running in the Republican primary. Peroutka led Shalleck late Tuesday, but that race was also too close to call according to the Associated Press.
“We’re pleased with the results so far and our sizable lead,” Brown said in a statement Tuesday night. “Tonight shows that our campaign’s message has resonated with voters. As votes continue to be counted, I’m confident that we will finish strong and win this race. I want to thank every election worker and volunteer putting in the work to ensure that every vote is counted and every voter has their voice heard.”
In a statement Tuesday night O’Malley said she was feeling “good and cautiously optimistic that we are going to win this primary, but more than half of the votes still need to be counted and we might not have final results for a while. Now more than ever, we owe it to every person who participated in the electoral process to make sure that their vote is counted and that their voice is heard.”
Brown and O’Malley both emphasized public safety and crime during their campaigns and said they would work to protect civil rights and abortion rights in Maryland. They also said they wanted to enshrine the protections of Roe v. Wade in Maryland’s constitution.
In an interview last month, Brown said the attorney general should also assume a key role in tackling gun control, strengthening environmental regulations and prosecuting polluters.
Brown, 60, received his undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard and served as a military lawyer in the Army and Army Reserve for 30 years before retiring as a colonel.
In 2006, after eight years in the Maryland House of Delegates, he was elected lieutenant governor on a ticket with Martin O’Malley and served for eight years. Brown ran for governor in 2014 but lost to Larry Hogan (R). In 2016 he was elected to the U.S. Congress representing Maryland’s 4th District and has served there since 2017.
A graduate of Towson University and the University of Baltimore School of Law, O’Malley, 59, has 30 years of experience working as an assistant state’s attorney, heading the white-collar crime unit and serving as a Baltimore district judge. The race for attorney general was her first run for elected office. Her father, J. Joseph Curran Jr., served a term as lieutenant governor and 20 years as Maryland’s attorney general.
O’Malley had criticized Brown in campaign ads and literature for what she said was a lack of courtroom and trial experience. “My opponent, Anthony G. Brown, is a fine congressman, but he’s never tried a criminal case in Maryland and he doesn’t have the right experience for this job,” she said in one of her commercials.
The attack appears not to have resonated enough with voters to discourage them from supporting Brown. He emphasized his legal background as well as his political acumen in building partnerships and working with a wide range of legislators, political leaders and constituents.
The idea that “having extensive trial experience is a key feature for being the attorney general, I would submit you don’t understand the responsibilities of the office or the organization of the office,” Brown said in June about O’Malley’s ad.
The race against O’Malley was expected to be close but there was a lot of uncertainty as Election Day approached. Though a Goucher College poll released in late June showed a tie between Brown and O’Malley, 35 percent of voters said they were undecided about who should replace Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D), who announced he wouldn’t seek reelection last year after two terms in office.
In the Republican contest for attorney general, many voters appeared to have made up their minds in the final weeks of the campaign. In a Goucher College poll released late last month almost 70 percent of Republican voters said they were undecided on whether to choose Shalleck, a longtime prosecutor and former president of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, or Peroutka, an attorney and former Anne Arundel County Council member.
Peroutka ran on a conservative platform that highlighted five key issues including opposing abortion rights, protecting gun rights and prosecuting “public officials who have exceeded their lawful authority and have violated the God-given, constitutionally protected, liberties of Marylanders.”
In 2004, Peroutka ran for president under the Constitution Party, which promotes conservative religious views.
Peroutka is the founder of the Pasadena, Md.-based Institute on the Constitution which advocates on its website for an “American view of government” which is composed of three tenets: “There is a God. Our rights come from Him. The purpose of civil government is to secure and protect our God-given rights.”
Shalleck, who served as a local, state and federal prosecutor for 24 years, resigned from the elections board a year ago to focus on the 2022 race. He has practiced law in a private firm in Montgomery County since 1994. Shalleck ran for Montgomery County executive in 2014, but lost to Democratic incumbent Isiah Leggett.
In his campaign for attorney general, Shalleck focused on going after violent and repeat offenders, increasing funding and support for police, protecting victims’ rights and prosecuting polluters. | 2022-07-20T03:46:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Brown’s lead in Maryland AG race sets up historic November possibility - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/browns-lead-maryland-ag-race-sets-up-historic-november-possibility/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/browns-lead-maryland-ag-race-sets-up-historic-november-possibility/ |
Maryland Del. Brooke E. Lierman was the projected winner Tuesday in the Democratic primary for state comptroller over Bowie Mayor Tim Adams. (Astrid Riecken for The Washington Post)
Maryland Del. Brooke E. Lierman (D-Baltimore City), a civil rights and disability lawyer, was the projected winner of the Democratic primary for state comptroller, according to the Associated Press. She bested Bowie Mayor Tim Adams for the nomination.
Lierman faces Harford County Executive Barry Glassman (R) in the general election, and if she wins — in a state where registered Democrats far outnumber Republicans — she would be Maryland’s first female chief financial officer.
When Lierman took the stage at her watch party in Baltimore shortly after 10 p.m., she stopped short of declaring victory but echoed her campaign theme by telling supporters the campaign would “break a glass ceiling in November.” She campaigned Tuesday with former senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland’s first female U.S. senator.
“I am so thrilled because we are doing so well in every county of the state, beating our expectations,” Lierman told supporters in a speech live-streamed from Checkerspot Brewing. “We are doing so, so well.”
She said it was a privilege to run opposite Adams, calling him “a thoughtful and dedicated person who wants to serve the state, and I appreciate his desire to be involved in public service.”
Adams has said he will support the winner of the nomination. “Once every vote is counted, we will accept their decision and regardless of the outcome work to ensure that Democrats are elected up and down the ballot in November,” Kevin Harris, a senior adviser to the campaign, said in a statement.
Lierman and Adams spent Tuesday canvassing voters at polling places in a last-minute bid to increase turnout.
Under the radar in the best of times, the comptroller’s race was an unknown quantity to many voters, who polls show were largely undecided on the marquee governor’s race weeks before Election Day.
At Carole Highlands Elementary School in Takoma Park, Patrick Femi, 77, said he voted for Adams because he “saw his name constantly” in advertisements. Femi added that he didn’t know much about the comptroller’s duties, which include managing the state’s finances.
Rather than choose between two candidates whose campaigns he didn’t follow, Marc McNeil, a 59-year-old from Frederick, skipped the race altogether on his ballot. “Honestly, I really didn’t know too much about either of them,” he said.
Plenty of voters took advantage of early voting, casting ballots before the Tuesday rush.
Marrell Harden, 59, a retired government employee who cast his ballot early in Anne Arundel County, said he voted for Adams, someone who he said is “not new to politics, but new to statewide politics.”
“I think it’s time for some fresh faces,” Harden said.
John Wist, 34, from Anne Arundel, voted for Lierman after switching his independent affiliation to the Democratic Party to cast a ballot in Tuesday’s primary. While he praised Adams’s business acumen, he said he appreciated Lierman’s legislative experience. “I think being deep within state finances and understanding that on a different level was a little bit more convincing for me for Lierman.”
The comptroller seat has not been open since 1998. The winner will replace Peter Franchot, who ran for the Democratic nomination for governor this year and who has been comptroller since 2006. The comptroller serves four-year terms and, unlike the governor, is not limited to two terms.
Throughout the campaign, Adams emphasized his business background and executive experience, while Lierman highlighted her legislative expertise and understanding of how government works. Both say they want to make changes to increase competition in large public contracts.
While Lierman has connections among establishment Democrats, Adams entered the race from the private sector.
Both had the financial resources to air TV ads. Adams self-financed his campaign, spending more than $3 million in his first bid for statewide office.
The primary function of the state comptroller, known as the state’s chief financial officer or accountant, is to collect about $16 billion annually in taxes, including taxes on individual and business income, sales, gasoline, and alcohol and tobacco. The office also handles information technology for the state, paying the state’s bills and employee paychecks. The agency has 1,100 employees and a budget of $110 million.
Lierman, 43, lives in Fells Point, and works at the Baltimore firm Brown Goldstein & Levy. Her father, Terry Lierman, is a former chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party.
Lierman supported successful bills in the latest session divesting the pension fund from Russia and requiring the board of trustees of the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System to consider the effect of climate change on investments.
She also led a coalition to create a program of community-based gun violence prevention that, with legislation passed in Congress in late June, is poised to receive federal dollars, a development that she said gives Maryland a head start compared with other states.
Lierman said that if elected comptroller, she would work to minimize single-source contracts, prioritizing Maryland-based companies and investing in minority-owned businesses. She wants to modernize the office of comptroller, performing data analysis to ensure that corporations are paying their fair share in taxes and that families are taking advantage of benefits such as the earned income tax credit. She worked to create a legal division within the comptroller’s office that can write legally binding letters to advise businesses on how certain tax laws apply to them.
She wants to refocus on the comptroller’s 12 field offices to be present in the community, such as holding meetings with church groups and senior centers to talk about financial literacy and tax preparation services, ultimately building more financially resilient communities.
Lierman touted the endorsements of high-profile Maryland Democrats including U.S. House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, U.S. Rep. Jamie B. Raskin and Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks.
Ovetta Wiggins, Hau Chu and Gaya Gupta contributed to this report. | 2022-07-20T03:46:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maryland comptroller race: Brooke Lierman projected winner in Democratic primary - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/maryland-comptroller-primary-lierman-adams/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/maryland-comptroller-primary-lierman-adams/ |
Montgomery County voters await results in executive, council races
Voters cast ballots at the Silver Spring Civic Center on July 19. (Robb Hill/for The Washington Post)
Voters turned out Tuesday to cast ballots in Montgomery County’s hard-fought primary races, spurred by concerns over development, affordable housing and education issues in Maryland’s most populous county.
There was still no projected winner late Tuesday in the marquee Democratic primary race for Montgomery County executive or in the Democratic primaries for County Council, with precincts still counting Election Day results and thousands of mail-in votes remaining to be counted later this week.
Incumbent County Executive Marc Elrich, who is finishing his first term, faced Potomac businessman David Blair, term-limited County Council member Hans Riemer (D-At Large) and robotics company executive Peter James in a hard-fought and heavily funded primary. It was the second matchup for Elrich and Blair. The two men teed off in the 2018 primary, which Elrich won by 77 votes despite heavy spending by Blair, who poured millions of his own money into that campaign, as he did again this year.
The winner of the Republican primary, either Shelly Skolnick or Reardon Sullivan, will also be on the ballot in November, but the Democratic primary is tantamount to winning the general election in the deep-blue county, which has not elected a Republican county executive since the 1970s.
Affordable housing, land use and development became centerpiece issues in the race for residents, along with education, public safety and transportation, as they prepared to select who will lead the affluent D.C. suburb.
Last year, the county redrew its council district lines, adding two new council seats with hopes of better representing the changing demographics of the county, which had become more racially diverse over the last four decades. Under the new council map approved last year, District 5 has a Black plurality and District 6 a Hispanic plurality. The influx of new residents has also meant an increased demand for housing, inciting intense zoning debates and dividing the county on how to best advance development.
Elrich won the county’s top elected position in 2018 in part because of the popularity of his wariness to rapid, widespread development, instead supporting slow growth to offset school overcrowding and traffic congestion.
At Bethesda Elementary School on Tuesday, Sergio Kapfer, 72, saw Elrich’s approach to development as the right one for the county.
“I’m not pro-development,” he said.
“Definitely not pro-development,” added his wife, Daphna Krim, 70.
The couple has lived in Bethesda since the 1980s, before high-rise apartment and office buildings took over some portions of the neighborhood.
“It used to be a really quiet, lovely residential area,” Krim said. “Now, it’s just really built up. Too many people. Too much traffic.”
But for those who want to see quicker growth, Elrich has been a been a divisive figure in local politics — drawing critics who say he’s stunting the county’s development.
Polls closed in Maryland’s highly contested gubernatorial primary
Diane Taitt, 56, voted for him in 2018, but said she now wants someone who would bring more density and support businesses in Silver Spring, where she lives.
“I don’t think he moved the needle on the right formula for stimulating business in downtown Silver Spring,” Taitt said about Elrich. “It’s time to allow more density. We’re right outside of the city.” She cast her vote Tuesday for Riemer.
Others turned to Blair for a fresh face in politics. Antitrust attorney Danny Cohen, 64, waded through eight pamphlet-wielding campaigners and countless lawn signs with his wife on his way to vote for Blair at the Carver Educational Service Center in Rockville.
“I really want Marc Elrich out,” Cohen said. “I want to get some fresh blood, someone who can change things.”
Voters also cast ballots for four at-large council members and seven council district seats. Among the Democrats competing for the at-large nominations were at-large incumbents Gabe Albornoz, who is serving as council president, Will Jawando and Evan Glass, and District 5 incumbent Tom Hucker. Hucker ran for county executive for several months but withdrew his bid in April.
On Thursday, Amy Linde pulled up to the front of the Wheaton Recreation Center and hopped out waving her mail ballot in the air. She came to deliver her vote for Elrich and District 6 council candidate Omar Lazo.
“Elrich, he’s always getting bashed, but I still think overall he’s the best candidate,” Linde, 39, said. “And Omar Lazo is awesome. My neighbor and a good friend of mine worked on Omar’s campaign. You know, we just talked a lot about the same values.”
Council member Andrew Friedson (D-District 1), whose district includes Bethesda, Potomac, Chevy Chase and most of Travilah and who ran unopposed in the primary, made his first stop at Bethesda Elementary School in an Election Day tour that took him to 25 polling places across the county.
“I feel great,” Friedson said with a campaign sticker affixed to his short-sleeve polo. “It’s always fun to watch democracy in action.”
In the weeks leading up to Election Day, the competition in the county executive and council races grew increasingly heated. At least two super PACs popped up to influence the race — one focused on affordable housing and aimed at driving votes away from Elrich, and another financially backed by real estate and development groups, which endorsed Blair along with a slate of council candidates, including Albornoz, Glass and Hucker.
The attacks — and the PACs — drew criticism from leaders and voters who said the influence of money added unnecessary confusion and intensity to the local races.
Mark Drury, a 66-year-old Wheaton resident who voted for Elrich during early voting, said there wasn’t a singular issue that drove him to cast his ballot. Generally, he thought Elrich was successful in his first term — and the attack ads from his opponents and the PACs turned him off to the competition.
“There’s some negativity in this race, which is upsetting,” Drury said. “They’re all good people. They have different opinions, want to do different things. I don’t agree with everybody.”
David Stevens, 75, shared a similar sentiment about the constant advertisements when he dropped off his mail ballot for Elrich at the Silver Spring Civic Building on Tuesday.
“I didn’t like the fact that there were these ads that would just attack Elrich,” Stevens said. “Those attacks were pointless.”
According to the most recent campaign finance filing reports, Blair has loaned his campaign a total of $4.8 million, adding $1.85 million since the last filing in mid-June. He previously poured $5.4 million into his 2018 campaign. Riemer and Elrich both raised over $1 million through the county’s public financing program, which allows them to receive matching funds for donations under $250 from county residents.
Despite the heat and spending in the race, early-voting turnout still had a slow start in this year’s primary, which also includes statewide positions like governor and attorney general. Just over 24,700 — or 3.7 percent of eligible Montgomery County voters — cast a ballot during the eight-day early-voting period that closed Thursday evening.
As of Monday, more than 29,000 county voters had returned mail-in ballots, according to the state board of elections, and more than 115,000 had requested ballots.
Eva Herscowitz and Sammy Sussman contributed to this report. | 2022-07-20T03:46:20Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Montgomery County voters await results in executive, council races - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/montgomery-county-primary-election/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/montgomery-county-primary-election/ |
Early results would move Montgomery school board incumbents to Nov. election
Voters fill out their ballots July 19 at the Leisure World polling site in Silver Spring, Md. (Maansi Srivastava/The Washington Post)
Incumbent school board members in Montgomery County looked to be moving on to the general election after early results Tuesday night showed them among the top vote-getters in their races. For the Prince George’s school board, two newcomers were leading in that county’s one competitive primary race.
There were no projected winners in the board races Tuesday night as many votes, including mail-in ballots, were still to be counted. But if results hold, incumbent Karla Silvestre would face office for Montgomery County’s at-large school board seat against challenger Mike Erickson. In District 1, where four candidates ran to fill a seat being vacated by an outgoing board member, Grace Rivera Oven and Esther Wells were the two candidates with the most votes. Challenger and former school system employee Julie Yang will probably face incumbent Scott Joftus for the District 3 seat, and longtime board member Brenda Wolff would face Valerie Coll.
School board elections are nonpartisan, and the top two vote-getters in each race move on to the general election in November.
This election cycle, Maryland voters headed to the polls and chose school board leaders they hoped would guide districts as they continue to recover from the impact of the pandemic.
The state’s educators are attempting to overcome historic learning losses seen in students impacted by virtual learning during the pandemic, overcome staff and teacher shortages and assist students facing mental health challenges. School officials are also facing challenges from parents over curriculum being taught in schools, and arguing that they deserve more oversight into what’s being taught to children, most notably in counties including Frederick and Carroll.
Michael Stoller, a parent with two children enrolled in Montgomery County Public Schools, walked up to the Silver Spring Civic Center on Tuesday with his 12-year-old son, Julien. He and his wife researched the candidates together and decided to vote for Oven, Yang, Coll and At-Large candidate J “Domenic” Giandomenico.
“The resources in schools, kind of like ...” Stroller started.
“Mental health,” Julien chimed in.
Stroller nodded. “Mental health, books, pandemic stuff have been really important because teachers and administration have had a really rough go of it," he said.
Montgomery County Public Schools — the state’s largest school system with roughly 160,000 students — had four seats eligible for the primary: District 1, District 3, District 5 and an at-large seat. The candidates varied in terms of their backgrounds, including those who worked in the sports industry and retired educators.
In April, the school system privately signed a memorandum of understanding with the county police department to return officers at specific in-school assignments, after a student was shot and critically injured at Magruder High School in Rockville. The agreement has been controversial in the county, with some residents pushing for a stronger police presence after a string of school safety issues. Others have pushed against it, citing the disproportionate rates with which school resource officers have arrested students of color and students with disabilities.
Most of the candidates supported police in schools to respond to violent incidents and crime but also supported more robust mental health supports for students.
Prince George’s County Public Schools — the state’s second-largest with about 130,000 students — had one seat, District 6, eligible for the primary with five candidates running. Candidates listed school safety, access to technology and student mental health as some of their top concerns.
If Tuesday night’s early results hold, newcomers Branndon D. Jackson and Ashley Kearney would face off in November.
The school system was the last in Maryland to return to in-person learning and kept a masking requirement in place while other districts dropped it. The District 6 candidates listed one-on-one tutoring and Saturday academies as part of initiatives they’d support to assist with student learning recovery after the pandemic.
The election also comes as the Prince George’s board is beginning to change; its current hybrid structure will end and become a fully-elected board in 2024. Members will begin electing their chair and vice-chair — leadership positions currently appointed by the county executive — in December.
Most voters couldn’t recall who they picked as their school board candidates as they left their voting sites. The races are down the ballot, amid a gubernatorial race and county executive race in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. However, they could cite what education issues they cared about as they showed up to the polls.
Tori Bourret, 34, voted in person Tuesday at the Silver Spring Civic Center in Montgomery County. The school board race wasn’t the race she was the most passionate about, given the ongoing county executive election, but she looked at mental health issues specifically when choosing board of education candidates. Bourret was previously a social worker at a school and saw an “inherent need for access to those services.” She couldn’t recall the specific candidates she chose.
“Especially with covid and everything, everyone is having mental health issues,” she said.
In Prince George’s, Gregory Stannard, 72, similarly couldn’t list the school board candidate he selected to represent District 6 as he walked out of his voting cite at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Upper Marlboro. But he specifically sought out candidates that cared about gun violence prevention, noting that it was one of the biggest issues at stake in the election. He added that teachers don’t need guns, as some lawmakers nationally have suggested, especially in the wake of a shooting at an elementary school in Texas that killed 19 students and two teachers.
“Everybody’s talking about protection," Stannard said. “We don’t need guns."
One Maryland mother — Erin Oster — arrived at her precinct Tuesday night in Thurmont, Md., specifically to vote for the school board race. Oster, a registered independent, said she wanted to see “fresh faces” on the Frederick County Board of Education. She has a 6-year-old with special needs enrolled in kindergarten, and she felt she needed to pick candidates who would represent the values she wants in her child’s education, she said. She couldn’t recall the names of the candidates she picked but noted she chose “Republican-affiliated” candidates.
“Something needs to be done with the way schools are,” Oster, 36, said. “Right now, you don’t have much of a say in the curriculum that’s being taught.”
Gaya Gupta contributed to this report. | 2022-07-20T03:46:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Early results would move Montgomery school board incumbents to Nov. election - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/19/early-results-would-move-montgomery-school-board-incumbents-nov-election/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/19/early-results-would-move-montgomery-school-board-incumbents-nov-election/ |
The beleaguered island nation of Sri Lanka enters a new phase of its rolling crisis Wednesday as the country’s Parliament selects its next president. The panicked departures and resignations of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, two brothers who loomed large over the country’s politics for more than a decade, came amid an astonishing economic collapse that precipitated mass protests. Now, the victor of the secret ballot vote in Parliament will preside over a shaky unity government that will pave the way for fresh elections.
But whoever emerges has a miserably difficult job on their hands, including charting a path forward with negotiators from the International Monetary Fund. Sri Lanka is bankrupt; it is unable to pay for imports of essential goods, including food, medicine and fuel, in part because it is unable to service existing debts given its essentially empty coffers of foreign currency. Spiking inflation has a vast swath of the country’s 22 million people in need of food assistance. Schools and many businesses remain shut, while ordinary citizens wait days in mile-long lines for gas.
To the rest of the world, Sri Lanka has become a cautionary tale of misgovernment and misfortune. The profligacy of the Rajapaksa brothers, along with a misguided plan to convert the nation’s farming industry into a solely organic enterprise, collided with a set of factors out of the country’s control. Those included the sweeping impact of the pandemic, which crashed the vital tourism sector, and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted global supply chains and accelerated the inflationary spiral that dragged Sri Lanka’s economy into the abyss.
International experts warn that other debt-ridden countries — from Laos in Southeast Asia to Kenya in East Africa — are teetering toward a similar fate. “Countries with high debt levels and limited policy space will face additional strains. Look no further than Sri Lanka as a warning sign,” International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said during meetings of the Group of 20 finance ministers this weekend.
One of the major players in Sri Lanka’s calamity is China. Beijing is Sri Lanka’s lone biggest creditor, accounting for some 10 percent of the country’s foreign debt. Between 2000 and 2020, it extended close to $12 billion in loans to the Sri Lankan government, largely for a slate of major infrastructure projects that turned into white elephants — including a costly port facility in the Rajapaksas’ hometown of Hambantota, which was effectively ceded to Chinese control half a decade ago after Sri Lankan authorities recognized they could no longer pay off the loans.
After spending vast sums becoming the de facto creditor of much of the developing world, however, Chinese state banks have in recent years become more interested in debt collecting. A slowing economy at home has curbed Beijing’s appetites for risk abroad.
But Sri Lanka walked into what Beijing critics have dubbed China’s “debt trap” diplomacy. In 2020, it received a line of $3 billion in easy credit from China to help in the repayment of its existing debts. Sri Lanka opted for this path rather than taking the more painful steps of restructuring its debts in dialogue with the IMF and pushing through austerity measures to appease the Paris Club, the grouping of 22 rich nations that are the world’s major creditors. (China is not a member, a reflection of its own geopolitical ambitions and distaste for rules set by other powers.)
That appears to have been a mistake. “Instead of making use of the limited reserves we had and restructuring the debt in advance, we continued to make debt payments until we ran out of all of our reserves,” said Ali Sabry, Sri Lanka’s caretaker finance minister from April to May, to the Wall Street Journal. “If you had been realistic, we should have gone [to the IMF] at least 12 months before we did.”
As inflation soared, Sri Lankans rose up: A visual timeline of Sri Lanka's crisis
Chinese loans loom large in other debt-ravaged countries, too. China accounts for some 30 percent of Zambia’s external debt. Billions of dollars in Chinese funding for a hydropower facility and rail infrastructure are now edging Laos toward defaulting on its debt.
Chinese officials and state commentators resent Western criticism of their methods, arguing that it smacks of a kind of colonial paternalism.
“It is simply another typical case reviewing the sour-grapes mentality of the U.S.-led Western world, unwilling to see any beneficial co-operation between China and others, and they know clearly that they have lost advantages in pursuing such kinds of collaboration,” declared the state-controlled Global Times in reaction to criticism of China’s role in Laos last year.
In Sri Lanka’s case, China is hardly the only creditor. India and Japan, among other nations, account for a considerable portion of Sri Lankan debt and are also enmeshed in complicated talks over further repayment and aid. But China’s engagement with the country has been more conspicuous and problematic, argued Alan Keenan of the International Crisis Group.
That includes Beijing’s “active political support for the ruling Rajapaksa family and its policies. … These political failures are at the heart of Sri Lanka’s economic collapse, and until they are remedied through constitutional change and a more democratic political culture, Sri Lanka is unlikely to escape its current nightmare,” Keenan told the BBC.
The legacy Beijing lays down in Colombo will be a marker for the years to come. “This is the first major, uncontrolled collapse where China is a dominant lender,” wrote Peter Hartcher of the Sydney Morning Herald. “This throws open big questions about how it handles its new power over the fates of nations when they’re at their most vulnerable.” | 2022-07-20T04:20:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | "Debt trap diplomacy:" China's hand in Sri Lanka’s economic crisis - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/sri-lanka-china-debt-trap/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/sri-lanka-china-debt-trap/ |
Three slain Tuesday afternoon in D.C., police say
A woman and two men were shot in a three-hour period in separate incidents in Southeast.
Three people — a woman and two men — were shot and killed in the District in separate incidents Tuesday afternoon, the police said.
No obvious connection among the shootings could be learned immediately.
All occurred in Southeast within three hours, according to police. They brought the number of homicides in the city this year t0 118, about a dozen more than last year at this time.
In the first of the shootings, a woman was fatally wounded inside a home in the 2900 block of Knox Place, police said. The time was given as 1:24 p.m.
The second fatal shooting was reported at 3:53 p.m. in the 1000 block of Southern Avenue SE, said Officer Hugh Carew, a police spokesman. The name of the man slain there was withheld pending notification of relatives, police said.
The last of the killings occurred in the 400 block of Burbank Street SE about 4:20 p.m., Carew said.
As of midnight on Monday, the number of homicides in the city this year was 115, compared with 102 at the same time last year, an increase of 13 percent. | 2022-07-20T04:25:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Three slain in District Tuesday, police say - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/three-shot-dead-southeast-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/19/three-shot-dead-southeast-dc/ |
Norwegian stars are stunned on a wild night at the world championships
Brazil's Alison dos Santos surprisingly won the 400-meter hurdles. (Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
EUGENE, Ore. — The forgotten and unknown crashed the world track and field championships Tuesday night. A coronation of twin Norwegian forces of nature turned into a celebration of the unexpected. A 28-year-old journeyman from Great Britain forced the Olympic record holder to concede on the homestretch. A long-limbed Brazilian broke free from the two greatest runners in his event’s history, and an American stole a bronze medal as the unbeatable whippet known as “The Terminator” faded to seventh.
A leading Norwegian newspaper blared a headline Tuesday morning in Oslo: “Hunting Two Gold Tonight.” Norway stunningly settled for one silver. Jake Wightman, who had never won a global championship medal, stormed past Jakob Ingebrigtsen halfway through the final lap of the 1,500 meters. Minutes later, Karsten Warholm, who had not lost a 400-meter hurdles race that he had finished since 2018, barely finished.
American Rai Benjamin finally beat the rival who stopped him from winning gold in Tokyo, but he couldn’t claim the top of the podium. Brazilian Alison dos Santos, a bronze medalist footnote at that epic Olympic final last summer, dusted Benjamin and everybody else as he won in 46.29 seconds. Benjamin finished in 46.89. Trevor Bassitt, who runs without sponsorship, provided another surprise with a bronze medal finish in 47.39. When his time popped up on the scoreboard, Benjamin rushed from behind and tackled him to the track.
“Can somebody sign this man!?” Benjamin hollered on the track.
“I knew if I got a medal, people would be shocked,” Bassitt said.
Once the track cleared, Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh climbed the podium and accepted a silver medal. Her high jump honor paired with the bronze won Monday by Ukrainian men’s high jumper Andriy Protsenko. He moved from the besieged city of Kherson to a rural village, where he scrounged for training tools. He turned an iron bar and two tires into a barbell for squatting.
“After that, I understand that anything is possible,” Ukrainian hurdler Anna Ryzhykova said. “Andriy trained for one month in an occupied city. To go out there with the risk of his life and his family and win a bronze medal, it was so amazing. I was almost crying.”
World Athletics, track and field’s global governing body, became one of the first sports organizations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes in February. President Sebastian Coe said it would be “inconceivable” to allow “two aggressor nations who walked into an independent state” to compete, a sentiment Ukrainian athletes agreed with.
“Every sportsman from Russia has a chance to say something,” Ukrainian hurdler Viktoriya Tkachuk said. “No one said anything, even in a personal message. They are not supporting us. They are not supporting Ukraine. So it means they support [President Vladimir] Putin and everything that Russia is doing with Ukraine now.”
Benjamin and Warholm renewed a rivalry that took the event to unthinkable levels last summer. At the start of 2021, American Kevin Young’s world record had stood at 46.78 seconds for 29 years. Benjamin came within 0.05 seconds at the U.S. Olympic trials, and days later Warholm seized the record at 46.70. In Tokyo, on a bouncy track, Warholm and Benjamin engaged in perhaps the greatest race in Olympic history. Benjamin took an early lead and obliterated Warholm’s record in 46.17. But Warholm separated in the final 50 meters and crossed in 45.94, tearing a hole in his singlet as he become the first man to break 46 seconds.
Before Tuesday night’s final, Benjamin had warned against expecting the same performance. Neither had been at his best this year — dos Santos, in fact, had run the fastest time of 2022.
Although Benjamin’s training had been hampered by tendinitis that required a platelet-rich plasma injection after the U.S. championships, Tuesday’s final was his best chance to conquer his inexorable rival. Warholm suffered a small hamstring tear during a race June 5, which truncated his preparation and as late as last week, he claimed, endangered his participation. (“I had no doubts,” Benjamin said.) Benjamin was also running in front of his home fans, in a stadium at which he had collected a pile of championships.
“I’m not into kicking people when they’re down,” Benjamin said afterward. “He’s hurt. I’m hurt.”
Warholm said he felt no pain in his ailing hamstring but pointed to a lack of training owing to injury sapped his fitness.
“I’ve been living on this cloud for the last three or four years, where everything is going my way,” he said. “With this injury, I have to do things a little bit differently. Someday, I hope I can be proud of coming here, given the circumstances.”
The night included the meet debut of another 400-meter hurdles dynamo who has transformed the event. Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin laid waste to her heat preliminary heat, finishing in 53.95 seconds with minimal effort. McLaughlin, 22, has broken the world record at every major event over the past year while lowering it from Dalilah Muhammad’s 52.16 to 51.41.
Muhammad pushed McLaughlin to those heights, challenging her at the Olympic trials and the Olympics. Their rivalry, though, may have reached its endpoint. Muhammad turned 32 this year and skipped the U.S. championships while recovering from a hamstring injury. She ran the third-fastest time of the preliminary round (54.45), but it would be a shock if he reclaims the event. Muhammad and McLaughlin once operated on the same plane, but McLaughlin may now be in a class of her own.
Before Tuesday night, Wightman’s biggest accomplishment in the 1,500 had been a bronze medal at the European championships. He reached his first Olympics last summer and finished 10th; Ingebrigtsen set an Olympic record at 21.
Ingebrigtsen took control of the race after two laps and held off the pack, seemingly cruising to another coronation. Wightman, running at the front of a pack behind Ingebrigtsen, bolted to the outside and sprinted even with him, then past him, around the final turn. Ingebrigtsen summoned his kick, but Wightman crept further into the lead. With 50 meters to go, Ingebrigtsen craned his neck and looked behind him. The best miler in the world realized he was running for second.
Afterward, Wightman found his mother in the stands and hugged her. An in-stadium interviewer informed him he was the world champion. “I know,” Wightman said. “Crazy.”
The reporter then turned to Wightman’s mother, who declared she was “the proudest mum in the whole stadium — in the world.” Shortly thereafter, Wightman ran a fifth lap around Hayward Field, this one with the Union Jack draped over his back.
Three days after he won the 100-meter final, Fred Kerley missed the 200-meter final after he felt a twinge in his left hamstring and finished sixth in his heat. He suffered only a cramp, per a Team USA spokeswoman, and could be considered for Saturday’s 4x100 relay. Noah Lyles won his heat in 19.62 seconds, a strikingly fast time for a semifinal. He perhaps learned a lesson from last summer’s Olympics, where he pulled up in a semifinal and barely qualified before winning bronze. | 2022-07-20T04:51:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Alison dos Santos, Jake Wightman pull upsets at world championships - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/07/20/alison-dos-santos-jake-wightman-track-championships/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/07/20/alison-dos-santos-jake-wightman-track-championships/ |
I don’t supply anything but money. I don’t take them to doctor appointments or the grocery store. I’m usually at work during the day. My mom home-schools my daughter, and I wasn’t planning to change that.
Mother/Daughter: Your parents have a considerable attachment and emotional stake in you and your daughter.
And then — make your plan, don't let them manipulate you, and start the next chapter of your life.
Frustrated: Repeat after me: “I care about you. I also care about your dog. But this relationship is now dominating your life, and I am feeling dismissed and neglected. Your lack of self-awareness has become a problem that is affecting our friendship.”
Wondering: I plan to keep it up as long as possible. | 2022-07-20T05:21:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Amy: How do I make my parents okay with me moving out? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/07/20/ask-amy-parents-moving-out/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/07/20/ask-amy-parents-moving-out/ |
Dear Carolyn: When my husband and I married, I kept my last name, and when we had children, we simply gave them both our last names, with my last name in the middle and his last.
My son, who is older, basically has dropped the middle name and just uses his dad’s last name, which is fine with me, but my daughter, who is in high school, has now decided to drop her dad’s last name and use mine. She says she likes it better.
For context, she has a strong feminist streak, and although I have not encouraged her to do this, I don’t have a problem with it either. I feel as if it’s her choice.
Her dad, however, feels as though it is a rejection of him and his family. Her view is that she likes the sound of my last name better, and it’s a way of sticking it to the patriarchy. And although I am secretly proud and honored by her gumption, I also am trying to keep the peace between her and her dad.
I think, in the end, her dad is going to have to learn to suck it up and deal, but is there any way to broker some peace here? He is really upset, and she dismisses it as toxic masculinity. For what it’s worth, he is pretty progressive when it comes to women’s rights, but he is also from a deeply paternalistic culture, so I am sure it’s an adjustment for him.
— What’s in a Name?
What’s in a Name?: Please point out to him that you, thanks to your own experience in a paternalistic culture, didn’t have to make any adjustment to being erased. Because you’re so darn used to it.
As gratifying as it is to make a political issue of this, though, it’s already been needlessly politicized. What both of your children are doing is normal kid stuff. They are figuring themselves out and making choices that are beyond the reach of their parents’ preferences, ideologies, corrective measures and long-cherished visions. You’re shrugging, your husband is smarting, yes, but you’re both trees falling in a forest debating how loud you each were.
Your husband will have to suck it up and deal in the end, because that’s the end of all these child-grows-up-and-makes-own-choices stories. Good, bad, neutral. And your daughter is sending him that message through her “strong feminist streak,” because, like almost every child, she is a certifiable genius at knowing how best to deliver that message to each parent at maximum velocity.
Not that her views are for show; they can be real and valid and still be deployed strategically, developmentally, to differentiate herself from her parents.
So if he’s receptive to words that are more useful than reassuring, feel free to tell your husband that, in so valuing his name as a symbol of himself and family, he may have handed his daughter the means by which she could declare her independence — and if he wants to keep her as close to him as possible, his smartest move is to drop the issue completely and trust his love and authority to exist independently of their trappings.
If he’s not, then stick to making sympathetic sounds — “This is hard for you, I know” — or to reminding him that it’s an accomplishment, yours and his, to raise a child with her own beliefs and the strength to stand up for them. Or urge him to model maturity and leadership by being patient in his responses to her. Ahem. Power struggles and peacemaking rarely bring power or peace. | 2022-07-20T05:21:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Carolyn Hax: Husband is upset that daughter has dropped his last name - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/07/20/carolyn-hax-daughter-last-name-drop/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/07/20/carolyn-hax-daughter-last-name-drop/ |
In this image taken from video footage run by China’s CCTV, an aerial shot shows a partially collapsed building in the eastern Chinese port city of Tianjin, Tuesday, July 19, 2022. A gas explosion and the partial building collapse, left some people missing and others injured. (CCTV via AP) (Uncredited/CCTV)
BEIJING — One person has died in a gas explosion that injured 12 others at a six-story residential building in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, state media said Wednesday. | 2022-07-20T05:22:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 1 dead, 12 injured in Tianjin gas explosion in north China - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/1-dead-12-injured-in-tianjin-gas-explosion-in-north-china/2022/07/20/66ffc796-07e5-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/1-dead-12-injured-in-tianjin-gas-explosion-in-north-china/2022/07/20/66ffc796-07e5-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Pedestrians outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, US, on Monday, July 18, 2022. US stocks fell amid a drop in big tech as investors assessed the outlook for corporate profits and risks to economic growth as central banks hike interest rates to combat runaway inflation. (Bloomberg)
Capitulation Time
People are negative. Really, really negative. Now, the question is whether that could conceivably be a good thing.
It’s very unusual for big fund managers to be overweight in bonds relative to equities, and suggests deep negativity about the immediate outlook for the economy. And yet the latest edition of Bank of America Corp.’s monthly survey of global fund managers finds that they are now more underweight in stocks than bonds than at any time since March 2009, the month the stock market hit bottom after Lehman Brothers collapsed:
At one level, this is awful. The people who deploy assets for the long term think it’s better to lend to the government (at what are still very low rates) than take a share in the profits of growing businesses.
At another level, opportunity might just be knocking. This is how stocks have performed compared to bonds (proxied by the SPY and TLT exchange-traded funds) since the beginning of 2009. The previous two times that the fund management community went overweight bonds — in the wake of the 2009 crisis, and during the first Covid lockdowns in 2020 — also turned out to be historically great times to go long in stocks.
The impression of such deep gloom — that it must be overdone — continues on digging deeper into the survey. BofA regularly asks its respondents if they are taking more or less risk than usual. OK, to an extent this survey suffers from the same in-built bias as the poll that discovers a strong majority of drivers think that they drive more safely than average. Most of the time, BofA’s managers think they are taking less risk than usual, and there are times when they are wrong about this — most spectacularly in 2006 and 2007, when they thought they were drawing in their horns and taking less risk, when in fact they were still woefully exposed to the coming credit crisis.
However, it seems reasonable to assume that the survey is directionally accurate. Even if they are at all times taking more risk than they think, managers are probably right when they believe they are throwing caution to the winds, and when they feel they’re being extra careful. And they currently think that they’re taking less risk than at any time since the survey started asking the question more than 20 years ago:
The previous low on this measure came five months before the final market low, but again this could be taken as evidence that the market has already taken enough evasive action. BofA sums up the entire survey as “full capitulation.” With luck, they are right.
That leads to the issue of profits, now being announced for the second quarter. The bigger names to release results so far have shown that market is indeed on edge, with International Business Machines Corp. punished with a 5% fall, while Netflix Inc., which released numbers that could have been worse after Tuesday’s close, rewarded with a gain of 7% in the share price.
There’s a decent shot that other companies that can avoid nasty surprises should also be rewarded this way, because investors are braced for a really bad decline in profits. Since BofA’s survey started in 1998, they have never been so sure that global profits are going to fall in the next year:
This is strange because the “consensus” earnings estimates, compiled using the numbers put out by the brokers who follow stocks and which are used to calculate prospective price/earnings multiples, are showing total resilience. As this chart from Manish Bangard of Credit Suisse Group AG demonstrates, expectations for S&P 500 earnings per share this year are higher than they were six months ago. They’re not rising, but they’re not showing anything like the negativity that comes from the top-down survey of fund managers:
Energy accounts for a chunk of this discrepancy. Exclude the energy companies, whose profits will obviously be swollen by the strong oil price, and estimates are falling. This is from Andrew Lapthorne, chief quantitative strategist at Societe Generale SA:
Analysts’ estimates for this year and next are a long way from signaling a drop in earnings, with 10.5% growth forecast for this year and 7.5% for next. But strip away the impact of the Oil sector and analysts are expecting 5.2% growth in 2022 and 8.9% in 2023, but with almost 3.0% cut from MSCI World ex Energy and Materials EPS during the last couple of months, it will not take much at the current pace of downgrading to see a decline in earnings this year.
To back this up, earnings momentum — the proportion of estimates that are being raised rather than lowered — has also weakened sharply in the last month, as the following SocGen chart shows. This has happened most dramatically in the US, probably thanks to the sharp rises in interest rates, but momentum has also dipped in Europe, the UK, and even to an extent Japan:
The interaction with interest rates also promises difficulties. With the cost of both equity and debt finance rising, analysts have no choice but to raise the weighted average cost of capital they use in their calculations. This is an unusual and unwelcome development at a time when the economy is in danger of recession:
If companies are sitting on bad news, this would probably be a good time to tell us about it. When investors are this negative anyway, it’s a good strategy to throw the kitchen sink at earnings and clean house. So there is a distinct risk of plenty more post-earnings selloffs ahead. But there’s also reason to think that the official data provided by people like ourselves might at this point be misleading. The brokers might still have relatively optimistic earnings forecasts, but money is generally being deployed by people who are far more bearish. It’s hard to be positive about the current outlook, but at times like this a little good news can go a long way.
Robin Hood Rides Again
One of the strangest and arguably positive trends under way in the US is the labor market’s steady redressing of the gap between rich and poor. The Atlanta Federal Reserve’s Wage Tracker data, compiled from census figures, show that while wages are rising fast, they’re rising far faster for the lowest-paid than for the best-paid. The Atlanta Fed splits earners into quartiles, with the lowest 25% of earners in the first quartile and the best-paid in the fourth quartile. Last month saw first quartile workers match their biggest percentage wage gains since the survey started in 1998. Meanwhile, their raises exceeded those for the richest quartile, in percentage terms, by the greatest amount on record.
For years after the Global Financial Crisis, the highest paid also managed to bring home higher raises than the poorer paid, contributing the growing sense of unfairness and inequality in society. Somehow, the pandemic and its fallout have acted as a great leveler:
Why is this dramatic social development not creating more excitement? Because of inflation, of course. Take into account the rise in prices, and the low-paid have a less-bad deal than those who are paid more — but they still have a bad deal. In real terms, wage increases for the first quartile are roughly equal to their nadir from 2011, at -2%, while the best-paid quartile have seen their salaries fall by 5.4% after inflation:
These data require close attention. One of the biggest unspoken risks at present is of civil unrest. Lots of people have ample reason to be unhappy with the way the economy is working. The post-pandemic environment has acted to counteract a number of the inequalities that have so damaged society in recent years — but rising inflation could still negate such improvements.
Cracking the Crypto Code
Amid all the excitement in the stock market, Bitcoin is recovering. Indeed, it’s gained about 30% in barely a month. That comes after a disastrous fall, in which it tumbled far more than the S&P 500 index. None of that stopped a number of crypto-titans from showing up at Bloomberg’s crypto conference and sounding formidably bullish. Isabelle Lee offers some analysis from the summit:
Bitcoin gives its investors a bumpy ride. Just in the last 12 months, it has gone from massively outperforming the S&P 500 to trailing the benchmark index. The world’s largest digital asset has now fallen 24% in that time frame, while the S&P 500 has slipped just about 8%.
Even so, Bitcoin’s correlation to US equities has continued to strengthen and even tends to be stronger in the midst of crucial macro events, data from Arcane Research show. Its 90-day correlation with the S&P 500 peaked at 0.655 last week, near the all-time highs from early May, Arcane added. Meanwhile, its correlation with gold — the asset that many see as being replaced by Bitcoin — remains minimal:
This implies that the latest rebound for Bitcoin, which crossed the $23,000 level on Tuesday to move out of a narrow trading range, and even break through its 50-day moving average for the first time since April, might at least have contributed to the mini-rally in equities. Despite the rampant bearishness among big fund managers, it seems that there is still some optimism in the cryptoverse:
How to explain this? It’s easy to make sense of why equities rise. The trajectory of the stock market can be determined primarily by two things: earnings per share and the price-to-earnings multiple that investors are prepared to pay for them. When shares of companies rise, it means investors’ view of the their future profits are improving — more profitability for those involved.
But what can we extrapolate from the uptrend in cryptocurrencies? Perhaps this, too, might be attributed to investor optimism on the ecosystem’s future profits. Though for now, this has been challenging to quantify save for the small number of publicly-traded crypto firms, including mining companies.
Here’s Sam Bankman-Fried, the cherubic crypto billionaire who tried to bail out firms during the industry’s implosion this year, during the Bloomberg Crypto Summit, “Building the Future,” on Tuesday:
“Profitability was sort of a dirty word for a number of years, and it has returned to investor parlance... There’s been a substantial re-rating toward looking for at least a likely or plausible pathway toward profitability being a core component of an investment thesis.”
Note that there are few if any other fields of investment where profitability is ever regarded as a dirty word. Quite the opposite. Arguably, it’s an important moment when the sector is grappling with operating profitably, and not just hoping to see prices grow.
But that leads to a critical and difficult question. Why, then, do digital assets rise, and how?
The past few weeks have been terrible for the broader ecosystem, as the implosion in crypto prices has forced a number of firms to seek rescue. Bitcoin fell nearly 65% from its peak and was stuck in a narrow trading range between $19,000 to $22,000 as optimism evaporated in the space driven in part by the tightening monetary policy, and a few spectacular collapses.
The mood music changed over the weekend when Bitcoin, the largest virtual coin, jumped around 10% to above $23,500, a level it was last at in mid-June. The Bitcoin spot volume on Monday saw $10 billion worth of coins changing hands, while the seven-day average trading volume sits at $6.6 billion, Arcane Research data show. Smaller, lesser-known tokens — commonly referred to as altcoins — also gained. Ether, the second-largest, at one point edged higher by 11%.
For Mike Novogratz, founder of Galaxy Digital Holdings, the “worst is over.” During the Bloomberg summit, the billionaire investor compared the recent crypto crisis, which saw roughly $2 trillion vanish, to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. (At its peak last November, the entire cryptoverse reached about $3 trillion in market value before nosediving to less than $1 trillion currently.)
It remains to be seen whether crypto’s mini-rally will hold and whether companies will ever be profitable. However, with prices stabilizing, it does at least seem fair to hope that the worst of the excesses have been wrung out. And it’s reassuring that crypto bosses are now focusing on managing their business so that it makes a profit.
It’s hot in New York, and it’s very much hotter at home in the UK, which has just suffered through the hottest day on record. Britain is not set up to deal with temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). So, some music to get through the swelter might include: Cold As Ice by Foreigner, You Have Placed a Chill in My Heart by the Eurythmics, Cold by Maroon 5, “Love Is A Wonderful Colour” by Icicle Works, Frozen by Madonna, Cold Heart by Elton John and Dua Lipa, Shivers by Ed Sheeran, Southern Freeez by Freeez, The Freeze by Spandau Ballet, “Let It Go” or more or less anything from Disney’s Frozen, Cold by Crossfade, “Stupid Girl” or anything else by Cold, anything by Coldplay so here’s their collaboration with BTS, or Cool Monsoon by Massive Attack. Please note that I got through this list without resorting to “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice. If you feel listening to that, try listening to this instead.
• The Dollar Bulls Look Increasingly Like a Cult: Jared Dillian
• Let’s Hope Twitter Beats Musk in Court, Quickly: Liam Denning
• Colombia’s Economy May Yet Catch Up to the Hype: Tyler Cowen | 2022-07-20T05:22:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Full Capitulation’ Could Mean Opportunity Knocking - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/full-capitulation-could-mean-opportunity-knocking/2022/07/20/52fb4b08-07ea-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/full-capitulation-could-mean-opportunity-knocking/2022/07/20/52fb4b08-07ea-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Analysis by Hendrik du Toit | Bloomberg
Vapour rises from the cooling towers of the Sasol Ltd. Secunda coal-to-liquids plant in Mpumalanga, South Africa, on Monday, Feb. 3, 2020. At 56.5 million tons of greenhouse gases a year, Secunda’s emissions exceed the individual totals of more than 100 countries, including Norway and Portugal, according to the Global Carbon Atlas. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
At least two different types of finance are necessary to fund our net zero future.
Much of this argument is being developed by the Sustainable Markets Initiative, launched in 2020 by Prince Charles and supported by about 480 signatory companies. Its mission: building a global effort by the private sector to speed a sustainable future. According to the SMI Transition Finance Working Group, the world’s economy requires about $4 trillion a year to reach net zero by 2050, with the spending front-loaded to ensure we create a viable pathway to success. Emerging markets need about 25% of this investment because, though they markets are responsible for only one-seventh of legacy emissions per capita, they are on track for 90% of global-emission increases by 2030.
Must most of the money be provided by government? No. Finance is more than a solution to the crisis — it’s an opportunity for investors and asset owners. They have a chance to allocate capital for compelling return and game-changing impact. The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, whose 450 members represent about $130 trillion of assets under management, reckons private actors could provide 70% of the financing.
The opportunities are everywhere. About 85% of CO2 emissions are generated by four sectors which rely on the production and burning of fossil fuels: power, buildings, mobility, and industry. There are investors who balk at opportunities in these sectors. Why? Because of the drive to cleanse portfolios. Divest now, they say. Sell the problem to someone else, even a predatory owner. Such investors would rather be seen to be clean than commit the finance to help making the real economy clean. They are driven by appearances.
Consider Reliance Industries Ltd., India’s largest publicly traded company by market value. The country is the world’s No. 3 carbon emitter. Reliance’s businesses span energy, materials, retail and digital. Its New Energy unit will help the entire conglomerate achieve its target of reaching net zero by 2035. Reliance has committed $10 billion to the transition, most of which will go to developing manufacturing capacity for integrated solar photovoltaic, advanced energy storage, electrolysers, and fuel cells. New Energy serves decarbonization as well as profits.
There’s also PLN, Indonesia’s state-owned electricity generation company. It is the country’s No. 2 source of carbon emissions. PLN has a decarbonization plan that reaches into 2030 and a net zero plan to 2060.
This is only one way to achieve a lasting net zero: by changing the real economy. We need to deliberately allocate public and private finance to to ensure that the changeover happens in time while maintaining much of our productive industrial base. Alongside green investment, we should mobilize transition finance. This is sustainability with substance.
Hendrik du Toit is the chief executive officer of asset management company Ninety One Plc. | 2022-07-20T05:22:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How to Reach Net Zero Profitably - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/how-to-reachnet-zeroprofitably/2022/07/20/a151b734-07e9-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/how-to-reachnet-zeroprofitably/2022/07/20/a151b734-07e9-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
LOS ANGELES — Nneka Ogwumike scored a season-high 35 points and Los Angeles pulled away in the second half, extending Indiana’s losing streak to 10 games.
UNCASVILLE, Conn. — Brionna Jones tied a season high with 21 points, Alyssa Thomas added 18 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and a season-high six steals as short-handed Connecticut beat New York. | 2022-07-20T05:23:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Hayes, Howard lead Atlanta past Las Vegas 92-76 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wnba/hayes-howard-lead-atlanta-past-las-vegas-92-76/2022/07/20/8653f408-07e2-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/wnba/hayes-howard-lead-atlanta-past-las-vegas-92-76/2022/07/20/8653f408-07e2-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Brutal heat dome moves east, with Central Europe set to sizzle
Firefighters in France, Spain, Greece and the U.K. battled to contain wildfires on July 19, while Portugal reported more than 1,000 heat-related deaths. (Video: Reuters)
A brutal heat wave that brought record temperatures to Britain and parts of France is forecast to move eastward across central Europe on Wednesday, as scientists warned of “very high levels” of ozone pollution across large parts of the continent as temperatures soar.
The death toll from a heat dome that originated from a sprawling area of high pressure over Western Europe is rising, with Portugal alone reporting more than 1,000 deaths from the latest heat wave. The Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere issued an “orange” hot-weather warning for Wednesday, the maximum level.
The German weather service forecast the focus of the heat would shift eastward, after the country recorded the hottest day of the year so far on Tuesday, with temperatures reaching 103.1 degrees (39.5 Celsius) in the country’s west.
Cities in Belgium and the Netherlands also logged temperatures above 100 degrees on Tuesday, just shy of records set in a July 2019 heat wave, according to weather historian Maximiliano Herrera.
Meanwhile, firefighters in France, Spain, Greece and Britain battled wildfires exacerbated by the soaring temperatures. Authorities ordered a hospital in the Athens area to evacuate.
The London Fire Brigade declared a major incident on Tuesday as firefighters battled several major fires across the city, from Wembley in the north to Croydon in the south. Scores of residents were forced to flee as houses, vehicles and grassland were engulfed in flames, with smoke clouds billowing out over parts of the River Thames.
Tinder dry conditions and extreme heat have sharply increased the chance of wildfires spreading, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate monitoring service. A sizable part of Western Europe in “extreme fire danger,” it said Tuesday.
Along with increased carbon emissions from the wildfires, Copernicus scientists are warning that “very high levels” of ozone pollution caused by the heat wave could affect northern and western Europe in coming days.
At low altitudes, ozone is one of the main elements of urban smog, according to Mark Parrington, a senior Copernicus scientist.
“The potential impacts of very high ozone pollution on human health can be considerable both in terms of respiratory and cardio-vascular illness,” he said in a statement.
As some experts pointed to the role of human-influenced climate change in the record-shattering temperatures, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres convened a “moment for nature” on Tuesday.
“Our ways of life — based on producing, consuming, discarding and polluting — have brought us to this dire state of affairs,” Guterres said in a video message.
“But, since human activities are at the root of this planetary emergency, that means we also hold the key to the solutions. Now is the time to transform our relationship with nature and chart a new path,” he added. | 2022-07-20T06:22:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Brutal heat wave moves from U.K. and France to central Europe - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/europe-uk-heat-wave-dome-record/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/europe-uk-heat-wave-dome-record/ |
Oleksandr Fedorov speaks in Narva, Estonia, Thursday, June 16, 2022. Fedorov is a Mariupol resident who was outside Ukraine when the war started. He’s now part of the chain of volunteers helping people to reach Europe through Russia. His wife and one child are still in the city. (AP Photo) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-07-20T06:53:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | "The mouth of a bear": Ukrainian refugees sent to Russia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-mouth-of-a-bear-ukrainian-refugees-sent-to-russia/2022/07/20/b8c68778-07f3-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the-mouth-of-a-bear-ukrainian-refugees-sent-to-russia/2022/07/20/b8c68778-07f3-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
People from Mariupol and eastern Ukraine disembark from a train at the railway station in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Thursday, April 7, 2022, to be taken to temporary residences in the region. About 500 refugees from the Mariupol area arrived in Nizhny Novgorod on a special train organized by Russia from eastern Ukraine, about 500 miles (800 kilometers) from the border. (AP Photo) (Uncredited/AP) | 2022-07-20T06:53:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ukrainian refugees forced to escape to enemy soil in Russia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ukrainian-refugees-forced-to-escape-to-enemy-soil-in-russia/2022/07/20/42611fca-07f4-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ukrainian-refugees-forced-to-escape-to-enemy-soil-in-russia/2022/07/20/42611fca-07f4-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Lt. Gen. Michael E. Langley poses in the Russell Senate Office Building on July 18. He is being considered to lead the military’s Africa Command and, if promoted, would become the first Black four-star Marine Corps officer. (Louie Palu/Agence VU)
Lt. Gen. Michael E. Langley, whose confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday, has been tapped to lead the U.S. forces in Africa.
By Rachel Chason
In the late 1980s, Maj. Ronald Bailey met a young Marine he knew had promise. Michael E. Langley was a powerlifter who dominated flag football games, an intellectual who set records for how many training courses he wrote and a problem-solver whose bosses frequently tapped him to mediate workplace disputes.
More than three decades later, Langley will be under the microscope yet again after being nominated to lead all U.S. military forces in Africa as chief of U.S. Africa Command. His Senate confirmation hearing is Thursday, and if he’s confirmed, Langley would become the first Black person to receive four stars since the founding of the U.S. Marine Corps 246 years ago. Over that time, more than 70 White men have risen to the Marines’ highest ranks.
“As you looked at the horizon, you saw the end,” said retired Lt. Gen. Walter Gaskin, the fourth Black man to be elevated to a three-star general. “You didn’t see what was over the horizon because no one was there.”
Military leaders promise to address systemic racial disparities in the military justice system
Langley has served in Afghanistan, Somalia and Japan. He has held top jobs at the Pentagon and led U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa. He currently oversees Marine forces on the East Coast. Gaskin described him as straightforward, deeply competent and not the “beating-on-the-table” kind of Marine.
“You have all the credentials in the world,” Gaskin has told Langley. “No one can doubt you deserve this.”
But there were others who also deserved a fourth star, Gaskin said. He said Lt. Gen. Frank Petersen, who was the first Marine to become a three-star general in 1986, was an example of someone who “no doubt” should have been elevated to a four-star general.
That’s why this moment is not just one of profound pride, Gaskin said. It is also a reminder of the obstacles that kept it from arriving sooner. He said he has told Langley directly: “You carry the legacy … the weight of all those who came before you who didn’t have the same opportunities.”
Retired Lt. Gen. Willie Williams, the third Black Marine to receive three stars, said “commitment to purpose and perseverance” shared by Langley and so many other Black Marines led to his promotion.
“Even right now, I get chills thinking about it,” retired Lt. Gen. Ronald Coleman, the second Black Marine to receive three stars, said of Langley’s promotion.
Austin confirmed as nation’s first African American defense secretary
Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the U.S. military in Africa faces “unique challenges.” Instead of confronting a single threat, the U.S. is focused on helping governments address a variety of challenges tied to climate change, population growth and political instability. Insurgencies in the Sahel region, along with the growing presence of Russian mercenaries, are of chief concern to the United States.
The question that Langley and other leaders should be asking, O’Hanlon said, is: “Where can you meaningfully make a difference without putting in tons of forces or incurring liabilities?”
Langley was briefly based in Stuttgart, leading the U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa beginning in November 2020 after his predecessor was removed amid allegations of using a racial slur for Black Americans in front of troops. Langley declined to comment on the allegations against his predecessor at the time, telling Stars and Stripes in an interview that the military, like society in general, was still “evolving” when it came to issues related to race.
Retired Gen. Robert Neller, the Marine Corps commandant from September 2015 to July 2019, said Langley is often reserved, but also can be engaging and warm, drawing others to him. “He gets stuff done, and people tend to like working for him,” Neller said.
Among the generals, Langley is known as a “quiet professional” who “listens more than he talks,” said retired Lt. Gen. H. Stacy Clardy III, who worked with Langley at various points, including in the Pentagon. Clardy counted Langley among the people on whom he could rely, saying he found Langley’s “judgment to be flawless.”
When Langley learned years later that he had become a general, earning his first star, his initial response was: “I can’t wait to tell my dad,” Bailey recalled.
In May, Langley gathered with many of the other three-star generals as an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to be based at Pearl Harbor was commissioned in honor of Petersen, the first Black Marine aviator and three-star general. There were rumors of Langley’s nomination circling, said Williams, the third Black Marine to receive three stars, but it was too early to talk openly about the possibility.
Instead, Williams said he thought about the past that had made the moment possible, beginning with Gilbert “Hashmark” Johnson, who was one of the first Black men to enlist in the Marines after the force began to integrate in 1942. Williams thought about the future, and how many young Marines would be able to see themselves in Langley and dream bigger. And he thought about the responsibility that Langley and other Black Marines continue to bear.
“We live standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before us,” he said. “And then we provide shoulders for others to stand on.” | 2022-07-20T08:11:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Marines to elevate Michael Langley as first Black four-star general - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/michael-langley-africom-marines-general/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/michael-langley-africom-marines-general/ |
Ranil Wickremesinghe (Buddhika Weerasinghe/Bloomberg)
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe was selected by Parliament Wednesday as the country’s new leader, after widespread protests ousted the unpopular Gotabaya Rajapaksa earlier in July. His elevation is likely to spark further backlash from the public, who see him part as of the political elite and an ally of the Rajapaksa regime that had brought the island nation to an economic crisis.
Wickremsinghe was comfortably elected with 134 votes in the 225-member Parliament. His term ends in 2024. He was backed by Rajakapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, and had become prime minister in May after Rajapaksa’s elder brother, Mahinda, resigned from that position.
The new president tried to strike a conciliatory note after his victory, telling lawmakers that the people were asking for a new political culture. "I want to start work from tomorrow with you. Let’s all join together,” he said.
Wickremesinghe, who became acting president after Rajapaksa fled last week, declared a state of emergency before the vote that granted sweeping powers to security forces. On Wednesday morning, security was beefed up around Parliament in anticipation of protests.
In recent weeks, demonstrators stormed and occupied the homes and offices of the president and the prime minister. They later withdrew from many of the buildings, but have continued to camp at the presidential office. On Wednesday morning, dozens of protesters sat on the steps of the grand colonial-era building in a silent protest.
“Even if [the vote is] over today, it’s not over. We have to ensure they follow what we want,” said Caryll Tozer, a women’s rights activist who participated in the protests.
Sri Lanka is in the grips of a deep economic crisis, with severe fuel shortages bringing the country to near-standstill. Soaring food prices have pushed many into poverty. Ongoing political instability has stalled critical negotiations with the International Monetary Fund over a bailout package. | 2022-07-20T08:11:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Sri Lanka parliament names Ranil Wickremesinghe as president - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/sri-lanka-new-president-ranil-wickremesinghe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/sri-lanka-new-president-ranil-wickremesinghe/ |
A crew member on the “Law & Order: Organized Crime” television show was fatally shot Tuesday at a filming location in Brooklyn, leaving real-life New York police officers to investigate a crime scene on the set of a show centered on fictional depictions of their department.
Police identified the victim as Johnny Pizarro, 31, of Queens. He worked on the Law & Order show as a parking production assistant. The police said in an emailed statement that he was sitting in his car around 5:15 a.m. Tuesday when someone came up to the car, opened the door and shot him in the neck and head. In local news footage after the incident, crime scene workers were seen photographing the interior of a red Honda Civic with its passenger door open.
He was taken to Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, where he was pronounced dead about 6 a.m., police said, adding that no arrests had been made as of late Tuesday. A short, slender man dressed in a black hoodie was seen running from the filming location in the Greenpoint neighborhood, police said.
The area’s surrounding precinct has among the lowest murder rates in New York City, according to police data from January 2021 to May 2022.
Neighbors told local media outlets that with the filming location nearby, fictional crime scenes were nothing new. One resident, Janus Czuj, told the New York Post that he thought the shooting scene was part of a set. “I didn’t think it was a real tragedy,” he said, adding that he “saw the tape and thought, ‘Oh, it’s a movie.’ But this was a real shooting.”
“Law & Order: Organized Crime” stars Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler, a fictional New York Police detective. Its third season premieres in September.
NBC and Universal Television said in a statement: “We were terribly saddened and shocked to hear that one of our crew members was the victim of a crime early this morning and has died as a result. We are working with local law enforcement as they continue to investigate.”
While it was unclear whether the killing was related to Pizarro’s role on the show or whether the assailant knew him, it was the latest high-profile shooting death on a filming set since Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer, was killed on the set of the Western film “Rust” last year.
In that shooting, which left another crew member injured, a gun was fired with live ammunition inside instead of a decoy round. The gun went off in actor Alec Baldwin’s hands, and he has denied that he pulled the trigger. In March, his lawyers argued that he should be shielded from financial responsibility in the shooting. | 2022-07-20T08:24:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Law & Order crew member Johnny Pizzaro shot, killed on location in Brooklyn - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/20/law-order-crew-member-shot-brooklyn/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/20/law-order-crew-member-shot-brooklyn/ |
The president is expected to make the announcement in a major climate speech Wednesday
President Biden speaks at the White House on July 8 before signing an executive order to help safeguard women's access to abortion and contraception. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
The president’s new push comes in the wake of spiking temperatures at home and abroad — and fresh political setbacks in Congress. Last week, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) informed Democratic leaders he was not ready to support billions of dollars in new climate spending as part of a sprawling economic package that the party had hoped to advance by this month. In staking his opposition, Manchin cited persistent concerns about inflation, marking the latest setback Democrats have faced at the hands of the moderate politician since last year.
For Biden, meanwhile, the climate announcement comes as he grapples with a broader array of domestic challenges that have sent his approval rating to new lows. He has faced frustration and anger from many Democrats for not being more forceful in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, for example, and his administration has struggled to assuage Americans who have seen the prices of goods skyrocket at their fastest clip in roughly 40 years. In a more promising sign for Biden, though, gas prices have fallen 10 percent from their June peak above $5.
Manchin on Friday said he might be open to reconsidering his stance if the economy shows signs of improvement next month. But his opposition in the meantime has left Democrats unable to proceed with their original spending ambitions in the narrowly divided Senate — and prompted Biden to try to act on his own to reduce emissions and foster clean energy technology.
“Obviously, we want to encourage the president to use whatever executive powers that the commander in chief has in order to advance this goal while still leaving the door open to negotiate a legislative result,” said Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.). | 2022-07-20T09:07:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Biden to issue new climate policy, vowing to act if Congress doesn’t - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/20/biden-issue-new-policy-climate-vowing-act-if-congress-doesnt/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/20/biden-issue-new-policy-climate-vowing-act-if-congress-doesnt/ |
Vanessa Guinan-Bank
A man cools down in a fountain in central Berlin on July 19. (Markus Schreiber/AP)
BERLIN — Nuremberg has stopped illuminating its historic buildings, Hamburg landlords are rationing hot water, and Berlin may turn off nonessential traffic lights at night. In Potsdam, even the temperatures on Germany’s beloved saunas have been turned down.
“It’s better to have a cold shower in summer than a cold apartment in winter,” said Jürgen Krogmann, the mayor of Oldenburg, a city in northwestern Germany, whose 30-point energy-saving plan includes shutting off hot water in municipal buildings, putting an end to warm showers in public sports facilities and nixing air conditioning in public buildings even during this week’s heat wave.
“It is about not being blackmailed by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and becoming energy self-sufficient,” Krogmann said. “It’s about protecting the climate. And it’s about reacting to the massively increased prices.”
It is part of a desperate scramble across Europe to reduce energy consumption in a summer of soaring temperatures and prices and to build up natural gas supplies ahead of the bitter chill of winter — in anticipation that Russia may shut off the gas completely.
The European Commission is expected on Wednesday to outline a proposal — tentatively called “Save gas for a safe winter” — recommending that European Union countries prepare for the months ahead by continuing to look for alternatives to Russian natural gas, including finding new gas suppliers and switching to different types of fuel.
It also suggests measures to reduce demand by limiting thermostat settings in public buildings, among other measures, according to an early draft obtained by French media outlet Contexte and reviewed by The Washington Post.
The draft notes that Russia has already stopped sending gas to the Baltic states and Poland, Bulgaria and Finland and that flows to Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy have been reduced. The proposal suggests there is a “sizable risk” that Russia may halt imports this year.
That would have an impact across the E.U. and ripple effects around the world. But Germany’s heavy reliance on Russian gas makes it especially vulnerable to disruptions.
Despite a rush to diversify, Berlin remains at the mercy of the whims of Moscow, which supplies 30 percent of the natural gas used for Germany’s electricity production and home heating.
Anxiety is high this week that Moscow may decide not to reconnect Nord Stream 1, the main pipeline between Russia and Germany, at the end of 10 days of scheduled maintenance on Thursday. State-run Russian gas giant Gazprom has warned some European clients that it can no longer guarantee supply to the continent in the context of war. But on Tuesday, Putin told reporters that “Gazprom has fulfilled, is fulfilling and will fulfill its obligations in full.”
While waiting to see how it plays out, Germany is making contingency plans.
It is temporarily falling back on coal power plants and even considering keeping some nuclear power plants online — something the government had fiercely resisted.
An extreme move, which experts say may be triggered in case of a Nord Stream 1 stoppage, would be to cut off certain nonessential industries from gas supplies, causing significant ramifications for Europe’s largest economy.
“When Putin cuts gas supplies, he uses energy as a weapon,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote in an opinion piece in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday. “Not even the Soviet Union did that during the Cold War,” he added.
The stability of Russian gas flows during the Cold War was an oft-repeated argument of Scholz’s predecessor, Angela Merkel, who oversaw an increase in German dependence on Russian energy, despite Russian belligerence beyond its borders.
But even before the war in Ukraine, Germany’s gas storage facilities, which hold the most volume in the E.U., were running low. Storage levels in February were less than a third — in part the result of what many experts say was an intentional move by the Kremlin as it prepared for war.
Is nuclear energy green? France and Germany lead opposing camps.
Storage was at “historical low levels” between the end of last year and February, said Philipp Heilmaier, head of the future energy supply division at the German Energy Agency, a partially state-funded consultancy.
The Rehden storage facility — one of Western Europe’s largest, with the capacity to hold more than 4 billion cubic meters of gas — was less than 1 percent full. The facility had been controlled by a Gazprom subsidiary.
Storage levels have since rebounded to 64.6 percent overall, and 32.4 percent at Rehden, which is now run by a government trust. But efforts to top up stagnated after Gazprom reduced supplies arriving through Nord Stream 1 to 40 percent of capacity in June. And there are concerns about being able to reach the government’s goal for overall storage levels of 80 percent by Oct. 1 and 90 percent by Nov. 1.
“At present, gas storage facilities are being partially depleted,” the Federal Network Agency, Germany’s electricity and gas regulator, said in a report last week. “This development makes it difficult to achieve the storage levels required for the winter and reduces the reserves for a gas shortage situation.”
That’s despite a drop in consumption. In the first five months of the year, Germans used 14 percent less gas compared with a year earlier, according to Germany’s Association of Energy and Water Industries. The association attributed that in part to a milder winter, but also to consumer behavior in response to a combination of higher prices and the plea to save energy.
Russia’s chokehold over gas could send Europe back to coal
Markus Bauer-Schneider, 48, who lives in Berlin with his partner and infant, said he’s paying more attention to his energy use — not just because of the rising costs, but also because of concerns about supplies.
“We live in an old building, and I am very sure already that we will use only half our living space in winter,” he said. “It’s quite a few square meters, so we won’t heat the living room in winter. It’s just not worth it anymore.”
The capital is still putting together its energy-saving plans, with discussions about whether to turn the lights off at the Brandenburg Gate monument and 200 public buildings after midnight, dim streetlights and turn off traffic lights at night. But Berlin is also living up to its reputation for inefficiency. The Tagesspiegel newspaper reported that the city is running 1,400 gas-powered streetlights day and night because the timer mechanism is broken.
Bauer-Schneider said he’s willing to make sacrifices. “We should not be getting gas from such a madman,” he said, referring to Putin. “So then you have to cut back.”
Others aren’t yet willing to let go of small luxuries.
“For me, a bathtub is absolute quality of life,” said Michael von Wittke, 44, who attested that he already had a very small carbon footprint. “I can lie in it for one or two hours and then would even add more hot water twice. To me, that is one the cores of my quality of life. I will only change that under very particular circumstances.”
Still, Jens Suedekum, an economics professor at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and adviser to Germany’s government on climate and energy, said that to make it through the winter without a drastic government intervention in the energy market, consumers need to reduce supply in the short term.
Given current storage levels, demand for gas from private households needs to drop by 10 percent at minimum, he said, though with a 15 to 20 percent reduction, the “possibility for disaster would be much lower.”
“Information campaigns and ‘please’ are not enough,” he said. “Certain people you might reach, but the vast majority need price signals to decrease demands.”
Germany has so far shielded consumers from the full extent of the price hikes — which otherwise would have tripled or quadrupled energy bills. Currently employed Germans are entitled to a one-off payment of 300 euros in September as compensation for their increased energy costs.
But experts say that additional price increases passed on to consumers would need to come with significantly more financial protection for vulnerable households.
Already, to the dismay of social organizations, some towns and cities are planning mass “warming centers” during the winter for the vulnerable in public buildings such as recreation centers.
In the city of Ludwigsburg, just north of Stuttgart, the district fire chief said 5,000 sleeping bags and beds were being readied. “We want to be prepared,” he told the FAZ newspaper.
If the gas is turned back on Thursday, it will be a “huge relief,” said Suedekum, the economics professor, “at least for a little bit of time.”
But even then, the uncertainty is likely to return.
“The long-term answer is renewables,” he said. “That’s the ultimate answer to all these energy problems.”
Emily Rauhala and Quentin Ariès in Brussels contributed to this report. | 2022-07-20T09:25:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Russia threatens gas cuts, Germany makes contingency plans - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/russian-gas-cuts-germany/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/russian-gas-cuts-germany/ |
Tory Leadership Hopefuls Are In a Dangerous Fight Over Finance
Liz Truss, UK foreign secretary, during her formal Conservative party leadership campaign launch in London, UK, on Thursday, July 14, 2022. The UK Conservative Party will hold a latest ballot Thursday in the contest to elect their new leader and Britain’s next prime minister. (Bloomberg) | 2022-07-20T09:56:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tory Leadership Hopefuls Are In a Dangerous Fight Over Finance - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/tory-leadershiphopefuls-are-in-a-dangerous-fight-over-finance/2022/07/20/3ec3f676-080d-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/tory-leadershiphopefuls-are-in-a-dangerous-fight-over-finance/2022/07/20/3ec3f676-080d-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
‘I just have extremely good time management skills and I’m very disciplined,’ said Alena Analeigh Wicker
Alena Analeigh Wicker, 13, was recently accepted to the University of Alabama’s Heersink School of Medicine. (D. Lacy Photography)
“I’m still a normal 13-year-old,” said Alena, a student at both Arizona State University and Oakwood University, where she is simultaneously earning two separate undergraduate degrees in biological sciences. “I just have extremely good time management skills and I’m very disciplined.”
In May, Alena was offered a spot at the University of Alabama’s Heersink School of Medicine for 2024, as part of its Early Assurance Program — which offers early admission to applicants who meet specific requirements. Alena is more than 10 years younger than the average incoming medical student.
“What is age?” said Alena, who lives just outside Fort Worth and is completing most of her courses online. “You’re not too young to do anything. I feel like I have proven to myself that I can do anything that I put my heart and mind to.”
“Alena was gifted,” said her mother, Daphne McQuarter. “It was just how she did things and how advanced she was. She was reading chapter books.”
“There was a little boy that bullied me, and he would tease me and call me ‘smarty pants,’” Alena recalled, adding that her mother decided to home-school her for several years after the bullying started.
“I was bored,” said Alena, who recently started using her middle name, Analeigh, as her surname. “The high school work was so easy for me that I ended up graduating from high school at 12 years old.”
Taking extra classes, Alena said, was more of a pleasure than a pain. She flew through Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mocking Bird” and John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.” As far as schoolwork went, none of it was a struggle.
“I love school, I love learning, I love reading,” Alena said, adding that from a young age, she has had a particular interest in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math.
On top of her devotion to schoolwork, Alena is also a budding entrepreneur and philanthropist. About a year and a half ago, she started the Brown STEM Girl — an organization aimed at providing opportunities for girls of color interested in exploring careers in STEM.
According to the National Science Board, women make up 28 percent of the science and engineering workforce, and of them, only about 5 percent are women of color. Alena is on a mission to change that.
“We’re showing the world that there’s other girls out there that are just like me, and they deserve an opportunity and a chance,” said Alena, explaining that her organization has a rigorous application process and offers financial scholarships, mentorship programs and additional resources to standout students. There are more than 460 active members and about 2,000 girls on a waiting list, Alena said, adding that the organization is funded through private donations.
She wanted to create a platform for girls like her “to feel like they belong somewhere,” she said. “I represent all the brainiac girls in the world.”
The Brown STEM Girl is not Alena’s first extracurricular endeavor. She has been doing speaking engagements for years, she said, and she has received numerous honors and awards throughout her life. Recently, she was named one of Time’s Top Kid of the Year Finalists for 2022, and she is also a published author.
“I have a hunger and desire to learn, and that’s just always been me,” said Alena.
She became NASA’s youngest intern in the summer of 2021 — which was a long-held dream.
Last year, Clayton Turner, the director of the agency’s Langley Research Center, came across a news story about Alena — then a 12-year-old who was headed to college and who hoped one day to work at NASA. He decided to reach out.
“I couldn’t be more proud,” said Turner, who became Alena’s mentor and got her an internship at the agency, where she did various assignments, including remote research for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge, Calif., which she visited during her internship. “Alena is one of those exceptional intellects.”
“What’s in her is wanting to help others, wanting to lift up others,” he said.
“I wasted no time. I dropped a class, changed my major, and when I took my first biological class, I knew in that moment that this is what I’m supposed to be doing,” she said.
“They’ve been hugely instrumental,” Alena said.
“She has a lot of talent,” said Vanterpool, who taught Alena’s general biology class. As her professor, “I really saw the drive and grit. She did well. She didn’t settle for less than what she knows she’s capable of.”
Vanterpool and other academic advisers encouraged Alena to apply for medical school, but she knew the chances of getting accepted were slim — especially as a 13-year-old Black girl. The average acceptance rate at U.S. medical schools is 7 percent, and about 7 percent of those accepted are Black.
“Statistics would have said I never would have made it,” Alena wrote in an Instagram post to her 18,000 followers about her recent acceptance to medical school.
“My mom is amazing. She gave me opportunities more than things,” said Alena, who has a 24-year-old sister. “She taught me to think beyond and see beyond. For me, that was the best experience.”
“We’ve had such an amazing relationship because I always gave her the space to be a kid, grow, make mistakes and learn,” said McQuarter. “She knew she always had a voice in anything, including her education.”
People often tell Alena she is growing up too fast. To that, she responds: “I don’t think I’m missing any part of my childhood. I get a childhood, and it’s amazing.”
In her spare time, Alena plays sports — including soccer and track and field — and she loves going to the arcade with friends. She also enjoys singing, cooking and travel.
Through fostering her academic and professional ambitions early on, Alena hopes to serve as an inspiration to others, and to prove that someone’s age shouldn’t stand in the way of their success.
“I would say to any little girl out there that’s reading this: Never give up on you, never let someone tell you that you can’t do something,” Alena said.
“I don’t think it’s going to be easy, but I have a huge support system around me that pushes me and cheers me on,” Alena said. | 2022-07-20T10:13:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Alena Analeigh Wicker, 13, just got accepted to medical school - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/07/20/alena-analeigh-wicker-college-stem/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/07/20/alena-analeigh-wicker-college-stem/ |
U.S. offers $5K to find wrongly freed dognapper of Lady Gaga’s Frenchies
Singer Lady Gaga. AFP/Getty Images (VALERIE MACON)
The United States is offering a reward to help trace a man suspected of kidnapping pop singer Lady Gaga’s French bulldogs and shooting her dog walker last year, with law enforcement saying he was “erroneously released” from a Los Angeles jail.
The U.S. Marshals Service is offering a reward of “up to $5,000” for information leading to the arrest of James Howard Jackson, 19, it said in a statement on Monday.
“Jackson should be considered armed and dangerous. Anyone with information as to his whereabouts should contact law enforcement immediately," it added.
Jackson was one of three people charged with attempted murder and robbery following the kidnapping of the French bulldogs belonging to Lady Gaga on Feb. 24, 2021. He was “erroneously released from custody April 6, 2022, due to a clerical error,” the statement said, without giving further details.
‘House of Gucci’ sounds like a movie that’s so bad it’s good. That’s only half right.
The dog walker, Ryan Fischer, was ambushed by two men about 9:40 p.m. close to Sunset Boulevard, the LAPD said at the time. When he refused to let go of the animals, one of the men fired a gun, striking him in the chest, and grabbed the two dogs. A third dog, Asia, was unharmed after Fischer clutched the animal as he lay bleeding on the sidewalk.
Fischer sustained a gunshot wound to the chest and was hospitalized but survived. Jackson is alleged to have shot Fischer with a “. 40-caliber handgun,” the U.S. Marshals said.
The incident sparked global headlines last year with emotional pleas from the singer on social media for the return of her “beloved” pets.
With their squat bodies and friendly demeanor, French bulldogs, sometimes called Frenchies, are well-loved in the United States, becoming the second most popular dog breed in the country after Labrador Retrievers in 2020, according to the American Kennel Club. However, they are expensive, with price tags frequently ranging between $1,500 and $5,000 or more and have been targeted in recent years by dognappers hoping to sell them.
Lady Gaga’s dogs, Koji and Gustav, were returned two days after the incident. She had offered a $500,000 reward for their return.
Police arrested five people in April in connection with the attack. Jaylin White, 19 and Lafayette Whaley, 27 and Jackson were all charged with one count of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit robbery and second-degree robbery, said the U.S. Marshals — federal law enforcement agents under the Department of Justice. The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said it had requested the U.S. Marshals Service’s assistance to find and arrest Jackson.
The “Bad Romance” and “Paparazzi” singer, whose name is Stefani Germanotta, 36, has not publicly commented on the reward. Dog walker Ryan Fischer posted on Instagram at the time of Jackson’s mistaken release in April that he was “deeply concerned.” But he added, “I’m confident law enforcement will rectify the error.”
He also made a plea to Jackson to hand himself in.
“I ask for Mr. Jackson to turn himself over to the authorities, so resolution to the crime committed against me runs its course, whatever the courts determine that outcome to be,” he added. “Thank you to everyone who is supporting me during this time.” | 2022-07-20T10:39:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. Marshals seek suspect in Lady Gaga's dog kidnapping with $5,000 reward - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/20/lady-gaga-kidnapped-dogs-reward/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/20/lady-gaga-kidnapped-dogs-reward/ |
A man puts his ballot in a drop box in Silver Spring on July 19. (Robb Hill for The Washington Post)
As Maryland voters brace for days or weeks of not knowing who won tightly contested primary races, Gov. Larry Hogan doubled down on the veto that ensured the unprecedented scramble.
A spokesman for term-limited Hogan (R), who was in Colorado on Tuesday as voters cast their primary ballots for statewide office, blamed the Democratic lawmakers who pitched the proposal in advance of what they feared would become a chaotic primary.
“It’s regrettable the General Assembly did not pass a clean early-canvassing bill,” Michael Ricci said in response to questions about Hogan’s decision.
The legislation at issue let election workers count mail-in ballots early, easing a confluence of challenges rooted in the coronavirus pandemic, redistricting and Maryland’s only-in-the-nation law forbidding their tabulation until the Thursday after Election Day.
But it didn’t meet Hogan’s standards for election security, he said, and the governor struck down the proposal in late May.
Hogan’s action added to the state’s peculiar primary, which was delayed because of a redistricting lawsuit and pushed to the middle of summer vacation season, resulting in low attention from voters. Election offices already were struggling with staffing shortages fueled by the pandemic and its attendant disruptions to training.
“This problem was unnecessary,” said John T. Willis, executive in residence at the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Baltimore. “Every time you have what to the public looks solvable and wasn’t solved, people are going to question why and that builds on itself, leading to distrust.”
Nearly a half-million people requested mail-in ballots this year — the highest number the state has ever recorded — as people who shifted to voting remotely during the pandemic continued to do so. As of Monday, 213,019 of the ballots had been returned.
Even without the ballots counted, the Associated Press called several high-profile races late Tuesday night because the margins were so wide to overcome. They projected Del. Daniel L. Cox (R-Frederick) would win the Republican gubernatorial contest, Del. Brooke E. Lierman (D-Baltimore City) would clinch the Democratic nomination for comptroller and Rep. Anthony G. Brown (D-Md.) would take the Democratic nomination for attorney general.
Hogan said his decision was based on a provision of the bill that would have loosened security requirements at a time of increasing mistrust in the integrity of elections, a lightning-rod issue since the 2020 election and former president Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of fraud.
Hogan said the bill passed by the General Assembly would have allowed voters who neglect to sign their ballots to provide a signature either in person, by mail, email or text. “It remains silent on basic security measures such as signature verification,” he wrote.
State Sen. Cheryl C. Kagan (D-Montgomery), the bill’s sponsor, and some other voting rights advocates said Hogan’s decision to reject the bill, which would have permitted local boards to start tallying mail-in ballots on June 30 — eight days before the start of early voting — is the reason election results could be delayed for days, if not weeks.
“It’s so important that our local boards cannot be blamed for the delay,” she said. “It will not be as if they’re not working hard enough. It will not be because of fraud. It will not be for any reason other than Larry Hogan’s veto of legislation that would have solved the problem.”
Kagan wrote a letter to the governor June 1 asking him to issue an executive order, just as he did in 2020, during the height of the pandemic, to allow for early counting.
She said she never got a response.
Ricci said the situation did not warrant the action Kagan suggested.
“There are specific conditions for a state of emergency to be declared under the law. It is not a fix or remedy for any inconvenient situation, including legislative ineptitude,” he said.
The state’s elections board could have intervened, and it considered taking legal action, but opted against it last month.
William G. Voelp, chairman of the Maryland State Board of Elections, whose members are appointed by the governor, said there were a number of people who would have liked for the state to seek relief from the court to allow canvassing to start early. “And I was one of them,” he said.
The board decided not to pursue legal action at its June 28 meeting.
Voelp said with early voting starting on July 7, when mail-in ballot counting could not take place, boards would have only had about four days to start canvassing.
“The facts were before us and the timing that was around us just did not support … going to heroic efforts,” he said.
Instead, board workers will begin processing ballots on Thursday, releasing results at the end of each day. It is up to local boards to decide whether they will canvass on weekends, and it remains unclear when winners could be declared. The uncertainty about results has rankled candidates.
“It’s going to be a really frustrating evening for a lot of politicians statewide,” James Shalleck, one of two Republican primary candidates for attorney general and a former president of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said on Tuesday. “I think it’s going to take at least a week to get really solid numbers.”
Parry Hughes, who voted in Calverton, said he is not concerned about waiting for the final results as long as the reasons are legitimate. He understands that thousands of mail-in ballots still need to be processed, and he trusts the elections board, he said.
“They’re usually very reputable and very good at it,” said Hughes.
Hughes, however, is concerned about candidates not accepting a loss. “If you didn’t win, you didn’t win this time,” he said. “The whole thing right now is geared up to … if they don’t like what it is, just to change the vote.”
Steve Thompson and Vanessa Sanchez contributed to this report. | 2022-07-20T11:22:42Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Late start counting mail-in ballots delays Md. election results - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/20/hogan-delay-maryland-elections/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/20/hogan-delay-maryland-elections/ |
Nadhim Zahawi, UK chancellor of the exchequer, waits to address the annual Financial and Professional Services Dinner at Mansion House in London, UK, on Tuesday, July 19, 2022. The City of London has scrapped its black-tie dress code for the Square Miles most prestigious annual dinner as part of a move to modernize the banquet held in the grandiose surroundings of Mansion Houses Egyptian Hall, according to a person familiar with the matter. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg) | 2022-07-20T11:27:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Brexiteers Want a Piece of the Bank of England - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/brexiteers-want-a-piece-of-the-bank-of-england/2022/07/20/3ec3f676-080d-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/brexiteers-want-a-piece-of-the-bank-of-england/2022/07/20/3ec3f676-080d-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Several important macroeconomic questions are puzzling economists, the Federal Reserve and everyone else. Why is inflation running so hot? What’s behind the surge in home prices? And why is it so hard for businesses to find workers?
There is no single answer, of course, and there are some credible ones. Supply shortages, robust consumer demand and the Russia-Ukraine war are undoubtedly contributing to higher prices. A slowdown in home construction coupled with renewed interest in suburbs during the pandemic resulted in housing shortages. And the pandemic motivated some workers to retire early while making it harder for others to return to work.
Yet the questions linger, suggesting other forces at play as well. There is a good chance one of them is cryptocurrencies.
It’s well accepted that the availability — or scarcity — of money affects the economy by changing businesses and consumers’ desire and ability to spend. That’s why the Fed printed trillions of dollars to bolster the US economy in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and again during the pandemic. It’s also why the Fed now seeks to tighten the money supply to cool down spending and inflation. The most widely owned cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are easily convertible into dollars, so it’s reasonable to think that they could have a similar impact on the economy.
There was little danger of that for much of their short existence. In mid-2020, roughly a decade after Bitcoin’s debut, the global market value of cryptocurrencies was just $250 billion, according to crypto data provider CoinMarketCap, a fraction of the $18 trillion in circulation at the time as measured by the so-called M2 money supply. But crypto’s footprint expanded considerably in the months that followed, reaching a market value of close to $3 trillion in late 2021.
Here’s what happened to the economy during the same time: Inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, rose 9.4% from June 2020 to the end of 2021, the highest over any comparable period since the early 1980s. The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index surged 29%, well higher than during any comparable period back to the index’s inception in 1987, including the run-up to the housing bubble in the mid-2000s. Job openings more than doubled to close to 11.5 million from 5.5 million, by far the biggest spike in absolute numbers or on a percentage basis since the data series begins in 2000.
Then came the crypto bust. Since late 2021, cryptocurrencies have given up $2 trillion of market value, their global market cap plummeting by two-thirds to about $1 trillion. While economic numbers are reported on a lag of a month or more, there are signs that inflation, housing and the job market may also be cooling. Inflation expectations have declined, as have prices of some CPI components, notably gasoline. The growth in home prices appears to be slowing, and in some places prices may actually be falling. Job openings declined by 1.7% this year through May, and some employers say it’s becoming easier to find workers.
I’m not suggesting that cryptocurrencies are solely or even mostly responsible for these broader economic trends, not least because it’s hard to pinpoint how much of the global crypto gains and subsequent losses can be attributed to Americans. But they are a factor, and possibly a big one. In a Redfin survey conducted near crypto’s peak in December 2021, 11.6% of first-time homebuyers said that at least some part of their down payment came from crypto gains. That was up from 8.8% in 2020 and 4.6% in 2019, tracking crypto’s meteoric rise during that period.
Crypto profits also appear to have contributed to labor shortages. In a survey conducted by consumer data provider CivicScience last October, 11% of respondents said crypto gains allowed them or someone they know to quit their job. That number is 44% for respondents making less than $25,000 a year, and a shocking 75% for those earning $25,000 to $50,000, the pay bracket for jobs where shortages have been most acute, such as retail, health and social assistance, travel and leisure.
One reason central bankers inject money into the economy during downturns is that having more dollars sloshing around makes people feel richer, which, not surprisingly, is what the run-up in cryptocurrencies appears to have done. More than half of respondents in CivicScience’s survey said that investing in cryptocurrencies increased their personal wealth. The highest percentage was in the $25,000 to $50,000 cohort, where more than 60% said cryptos made them richer.
If cryptocurrencies continue to slump or fall further, I suspect respondents in new surveys will point to lower crypto prices as a reason they returned to work or cut back on spending or put off buying a home. That will be another indication that cryptocurrencies might be moving the economy in ways that are important to economists and the Fed.
One of the early and recurring warnings about cryptocurrencies is that they could eventually disrupt central banks’ efforts to stabilize the job market and inflation. That day is probably already here.More From Other Writers at Bloomberg Opinion:
• The Need for Global Stablecoin Standards: Cunliffe & Alder
• Giving Thanks for Crypto’s Well-Timed Meltdown: Editorial
• Bitcoin’s Fair Value Tied to Gold and Tech Stocks: Aaron Brown | 2022-07-20T11:27:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Crypto Is Sticking Its Nose Into US Economic Woes - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/crypto-is-stickingits-nose-into-us-economic-woes/2022/07/20/ef8117ba-081b-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/crypto-is-stickingits-nose-into-us-economic-woes/2022/07/20/ef8117ba-081b-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Slide from Aramco presentation to CSIS. <br> (via Bloomberg)
During US President Joseph Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia, the world was so focused on how Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would respond to his plea to pump more oil immediately that it missed a bombshell: the level at which Saudi oil production will peak.
It’s a lot lower than many anticipated. It’s lower than the Saudis have ever intimated. And with the world still hungry for fossil fuels, it spells long-term trouble for the global economy.
For years, Saudi oil ministers and royals have sidestepped one of the most important questions the energy market faces: What is the long-term upper limit of the kingdom’s oilfields? The guesstimate was that they could always pump more, and for longer; if the Saudis knew the answer, they kept it secret. And then, almost casually on Saturday, Prince Mohammed broke the news, revealing that the ultimate maximum capacity is 13 million barrels a day.
Prince Mohammed framed his answer emphasizing that the world — and not just countries like Saudi Arabia — needs to invest in fossil-fuels production over the next two decades to meet growing global demand and avoid energy shortages. “The kingdom will do its part in this regard, as it announced an increase in its production capacity to 13 million barrels per day, after which the kingdom will not have any additional capacity to increase production,” he said in a wide-ranging speech.
It bears repeating: Saudi Arabia, the holder of the world’s largest oil reserves, is telling the world that in the not-so-distant future it “will not have any additional capacity to increase production.” Let that sink in. The first part of his announcement was well known. In 2020, Riyadh instructed its state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco to embark on a multiyear, multibillion-dollar program to boost its maximum production capacity to 13 million barrels by 2027, up from 12 million. The project is ongoing, with the first small additions coming online in 2024 followed by larger ones in the following three years.
But the second part was completely new, setting a hard ceiling at a much lower level than the Saudis have themselves discussed in the past. Back in 2004 and 2005, during Riyadh’s last big expansion, the kingdom made plans to expand its pumping capacity to 15 million if needed. And there was no suggestion that even that elevated level was an upper limit.For example, Aramco executives told the CSIS think tank in Washington in 2004 that the company could sustain output levels of 10, 12 and 15 million barrels a day for 50 years if needed. At the time, Riyadh was fighting the views of the late Matt Simmons, author of the much-discussed book “Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy.” The book argued that peak Saudi oil production was just around the corner.
One reason why Saudi Arabia is now setting a lower production ceiling may be related to climate change. Unsure about future oil demand growth, Riyadh may calculate that it’s foolish to spend billions of dollars in new capacity that may not be needed.
In his speech, Prince Mohammed stressed the “importance of assuring investors” that policies do “not pose a threat to their investments,” with the aim of avoiding “their reluctance to invest.” I don’t think Prince Mohammed was talking about Wall Street money and hedge funds when he said “investors.” It’s a term that also covers Saudi Arabia’s interests.
Oil demand forecasting is as much art as science — and the kingdom is conservative by nature. A decade ago, then Saudi energy minister Ali Al-Naimi said Saudi Arabia would be “lucky” to be pumping more than 9 million by the early 2020s. “Realistically, based on all projections that I have seen, including ours, there is no call on us to go past 11 million by 2030 or 2040.” The reality has turned far more positive than he anticipated: next month, Aramco will lift daily production to just above 11 million barrels.
If demand proves stronger in the coming years than the Saudis currently anticipate, the kingdom may simply revise its investment plans, and announce it’s able to boost output further. But Prince Mohammed sounded rather definitive in setting that 13 million upper boundary. If money isn’t the constraint, then it must be geology.
For years, Saudi Arabia has brought new oil fields online to offset the natural decline of its aging reservoirs, and allowed Ghawar, the world’s biggest oil field, to run at lower rates. As it seeks to boost production capacity and not just offset natural declines, Aramco is increasingly turning to more expensive offshore reservoirs. Perhaps Riyadh is less confident in its ability to add new oilfields. Ghawar itself is pumping far less than the market assumed. For years, the conventional wisdom was that the field was able to produce about 5 million barrels, but in 2019 Aramco disclosed that Ghawar’s maximum capacity was 3.8 million.
Despite widespread talk about peak oil demand, the truth is that, for now at least, consumption keeps growing. The world relies heavily on three nations for crude: the US, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Together, they account for nearly 45% of global total oil supply. With US investors unwilling to finance a return to the days of “drill, baby, drill” at home, American output growth is now slower than it was in the 2010s. Russia faces an even darker outlook as the impact of Western sanctions not only curb current supply, but also hinder its ability to expand in the future.
In an era of climate change, Saudi oil production will be, ironically, even more important. And Riyadh has now, publicly, set a hard limit on how much it can pump. This time, oil demand will have to peak — because there won’t be additional supply. Ultimately, there are only two routes to that outcome: Voluntarily, by shifting to low-carbon sources of energy such as nuclear power or wind; or by compulsion, via much higher oil prices, faster inflation and slower economic growth. If we don’t take the first path, we’ll be forced to follow the second. | 2022-07-20T11:27:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Saudi Arabia Reveals Oil Output Is Near Its Ceiling - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/saudi-arabia-reveals-oil-output-is-near-its-ceiling/2022/07/20/eff7aff6-081b-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/saudi-arabia-reveals-oil-output-is-near-its-ceiling/2022/07/20/eff7aff6-081b-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Roughly three-quarters of HBCUs are located in states that have banned or mostly banned abortions
Dillard University student and reproductive justice activist Kalaya Sibley poses for a portrait in Washington, D.C., where she is interning for the summer. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
Many of the country’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are scattered across the South, in states where Black Americans, in the wake of the Civil War, pooled their resources and finally gained access to higher education.
The Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that legalized abortion nationwide, will have a outsize effect on students at HBCUs due to their concentration in states that are restricting access to the procedure. Nearly three-quarters of HBCUs recognized by the Department of Education are in states that have banned or mostly banned abortions. Those 72 schools enroll more than 166,000 students.
Meanwhile, 21 HBCUs are located in states where abortion is currently legal but could be under threat. Maryland, D.C. and Delaware — where abortions are legal and likely to stay that way — have seven historically Black schools between them.
But the Supreme Court’s abortion decision is also energizing student-led movements for more sexual wellness education and wider access to contraceptives on campus.
Student leaders at Dillard University in New Orleans want to make sure students maintain access to contraceptives, said Marissa Pittman, 20, a rising junior and student body president. Paige Hawkins, a rising senior at Clark Atlanta University, runs the school’s chapter of Planned Parenthood Generation Action and said the group plans to host more educational events when the school year starts.
“As the freshmen come in in August, [we want them to know] if you need access to contraceptives, access to safe abortions, please let us know,” said Hawkins, 21, who is studying English. Georgia has a six-week abortion ban from 2019 that is pending in the courts and will likely take effect. “Though this may ban safe abortions, it’s not going to ban abortions,” Hawkins said. “People are going to go through the process of possibly hurting themselves.”
“It’s unfair, first of all, and it’s unjust,” Sibley, a rising senior at Dillard, said about the restrictions in Louisiana. The state had an abortion ban that went into effect after the Supreme Court decision, but it was blocked by a judge until a hearing on July 29.
“I believe everyone should have a right to make decisions about their bodies,” Sibley said. “Knowing that people who look like me, and even just women in general, have to experience these roadblocks … is defeating.”
Now, it is critical that students know what legal options exist, said Rochelle L. Ford, Dillard’s president.
“I think presidents around the country, regardless of their student population, they have to wrestle with that and provide those services,” Ford said. “That means making sure all students, male and female, know what prevention options are, they know what resources are available to help support them when they might be confronted with having to make decisions about their reproductive health.”
In Texas, officials at Prairie View A&M University plan to bolster existing health education programs, said Tondra L. Moore, the school’s executive director of health services. “While HBCUs are highly concentrated in regions of the U.S. that will most likely limit access to reproductive services, HBCU college health providers are well versed in providing excellent care to students with limited resources,” Moore said in a statement.
Sixty-nine percent of full-time, first-year students at Prairie View receive Pell grants — federal grants reserved for low-income families — which is on par with the need at HBCUs across the country. For these young people, resources are already tight, and traveling out of state for an abortion isn’t financially feasible, students said.
Research indicates the long-term effects of being denied an abortion pose even more economic challenges. A woman who is denied an abortion faces an almost fourfold increase in the odds her household will fall below the poverty line, according to the Turnaway Study, which tracked the effects of unintended pregnancy on women’s lives. She is less likely than a woman who sought and received an abortion to graduate with an advanced degree.
Analysis: Women denied abortion struggled more financially after, study shows
“I think it’ll have a negative effect because most Black women, minority women, usually if they get pregnant and if they’re in school, they don’t finish or they drop out,” said Hope Morgan, 22, a rising senior and criminal justice major at Prairie View.
“I have this fear of what could happen,” said Giddens, 21. “What happens if we’re in a dire situation and this is something that we need?”
At Xavier, a Catholic school in New Orleans, abortion and reproductive health are not often discussed openly, she added. The university’s health center offers testing for sexually transmitted infections, according to its website, but Giddens said condoms and other contraceptives are more difficult to come by. The university does not offer condoms or other contraceptives in the health center, a spokeswoman confirmed. Officials declined to comment further.
In more recent years, however, students have worked with administrators to host seminars about sexual health care and lead peer education groups. “A lot of our push around reproductive justice has been student-led,” Giddens said.
The next abortion battle: Patients crossing state lines
“Black women’s maternal health in America is not in the greatest state,” she said. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than White women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Me, personally, I’m more determined to disprove myths around reproductive health. I’m more determined to fight for reproductive justice knowing it’s going to disproportionally impact my community.”
Thomas K. Hudson, president of Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., said it is too early to know how abortion access will factor into prospective students’ decisions about where to attend college, but he doesn’t anticipate it becoming an issue.
“Typically our students, they come for the environment, they come for the educational opportunities that we offer,” Hudson said. About two-thirds of Jackson State’s freshman class were out-of-state students during the fall 2020 semester, according to federal data.
“I don’t see myself attending law school in a southern state,” said Sibley, holding back tears. The Dallas native said living in the South, where the shadow of Jim Crow still lingers, has taken an emotional toll and “the limiting of abortion access was the cherry on top for me.”
“That is another limitation that I just don’t want to experience,” she continued. “It’s tiring. It’s annoying. It’s frustrating. | 2022-07-20T11:27:52Z | www.washingtonpost.com | HBCU students disproportionately affected by Roe's reversal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/20/abortion-access-hbcus-roevwade/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/07/20/abortion-access-hbcus-roevwade/ |
The U.S. is sweltering. The heat wave of 1936 was far deadlier.
Children on Mulberry Street in New York City turned a WPA street excavation site into a temporary swimming hole using water from a fire hydrant as temperatures rose to the highest point in city history on July 9, 1936. (AP)
Abandoned vehicles sinking into scorching-hot orange silt. Fields of dying crops. Ghost towns cowering under black clouds of dust.
The country and much of the world are currently baking in a brutal heat wave. Britain had its hottest day on record Tuesday, with temperatures hitting 104 degrees at London Heathrow Airport. Much of central Asia has been 20 degrees hotter than normal. And in the United States, more than 100 million Americans were under National Weather Service heat advisories or warnings Tuesday, a day after triple-digit temperatures stretched from Texas to North Dakota.
But in much of the central United States, summer 1936 was even hotter. At their peak, temperatures in North Dakota were warmer than midsummer Death Valley, and hot enough to cook rare steak in the street.
Few residents struggling in those temperatures would have been able to afford such a meal: The heat wave struck during the Great Depression, six years into a sustained period of crop failure and economic hardship.
The North American heat wave of 1936 followed one of the coldest recorded winters in the same area.
In North Dakota, February temperatures at Devil’s Lake plunged to minus-21 degrees. Channel ice in the Illinois River at Peoria grew 19 inches thick. The Chesapeake Bay froze entirely, something that has happened only seven times since 1780. Schools closed in the Pacific Northwest, the Great Plains and the Midwest, with rural schools in Cottonwood County, Minn., losing almost a month of class time.
Although greenhouse gases have warmed the world’s oceans since the 1830s and global warming concerns were being raised as early as 1896, the pronounced swing in temperatures in 1936 isn’t generally considered to be part of human-driven climate change.
At the time, 1936 had such a frozen start that the idea of a heat wave would have seemed like wishful thinking.
Livestock were freezing to death, and pedestrians were regularly experiencing hypothermia and frostbite. Snowdrifts in Pierson, Iowa, swallowed whole locomotives, interrupting deliveries and depleting food stocks,
The blizzards contrasted with the Dust Bowl imagery of the ’30s. As described in John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” the era saw arid topsoil blown into clouds that scoured the land, blighting everything in their path. And while the extraordinary winter of 1935-36 was certainly a hardship, it would feel like a reprieve as spring gave way to summer.
As documented in “The 1936 North American Heat Wave: The History of America’s Deadly Heat Wave during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression,” temperatures began to climb rapidly in March, with rainfall becoming scarce. Occasional storms would give farmers hope that the early high temperatures would break. Instead, they kept ascending.
By June, a drought was consuming the Northeast, causing a feedback loop where the hot, dry ground further heated the air. Soon, the West and the South were experiencing the same conditions.
High temperatures in Bloomington, Ind., exceeded 100 degrees for two weeks straight in July. The Illinois State Journal declared in a July 8 headline, “Heat wave scorches Midwest: many die.”
A century later, the pain of D.C.’s deadliest disaster still resonates
“We had fans,” recalled 88-year-old Columbus resident Louise Sager in 2016 when speaking to NBC4 on the 80th anniversary of the heat wave. The temperature had hit 103 degrees for seven consecutive days, and air conditioning was available only in a few stores and theaters. Sager drank lemonade on her dad’s farm to keep cool and waited for ice deliveries.
In eastern Washington state, Oregon and the Great Plains, the dryness became so serious that President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Great Plains Drought Area Committee, which would later report that “radical adjustment must be made in activities if the area is to self-sustaining.”
Dust storms blew as far as Atlanta, Boston and New York, with silt covering the decks of ships more than 250 miles off the East Coast. New York City streets melted as temperatures on July 9 reached 106 degrees.
Residents of Lincoln, Neb., slept on the lawn of the Nebraska Capitol in an attempt to keep cool on nights when the mercury never dipped below 91 degrees. In New York, people slept on fire escapes.
By September, the high temperatures had abated. But more than 5,000 heat-related deaths had been reported across America, in addition to 1,000 in Canada.
Today, heat remains America’s deadliest “weather killer,” causing more fatalities in an average year than tornadoes, hurricanes or flooding. But given that global energy-related CO2 emissions in 1936 were less than a sixth of today’s, what caused the summer temperatures that year to soar so drastically?
In 2015, researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia determined that the 1936 heat wave was born of the ocean: specifically, high surface sea temperatures. Areas of the Pacific from the Gulf of Alaska to Los Angeles had warmed in tandem with the Bay of Fundy between Maine and Nova Scotia.
“Together they reduced spring rainfall and created perfect conditions for scorching hot temperatures to develop in the heart of the U.S.,” noted Markus Donat of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science.
In the decades since 1936, America has experienced a succession of heat waves. The drought of 1980 caused an estimated $20 billion in damage. Ratcheting temperatures throughout the summer of 1988 are reported to have claimed almost 10,000 lives.
Since 2020, the Southwest has officially been experiencing a megadrought: a two-decade-plus shortage of water, and the area’s driest period since 800 A.D. A study this year determined that 42 percent of the soil moisture deficit is the result of human-caused climate change.
If the conditions of the 1936 heat wave were to take place now, the result would likely be far more severe. “Should this ocean warming reoccur in exactly the same constellation,” Donat said in 2015, “because of climate change it is likely the temperature impacts would be even more devastating and those old records may be surpassed.” | 2022-07-20T11:27:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Heat wave of 1936 killed 5,000, topped 120 degrees in North Dakota - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/07/20/heat-wave-1936/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/07/20/heat-wave-1936/ |
Fanaticism may be rising alarmingly fast. But it’s a very old problem.
Several of history’s greatest thinkers offered solutions to the problem plaguing our politics
Perspective by Zachary R. Goldsmith
Zachary R. Goldsmith teaches in the Cornerstone Integrated Liberal arts program at Purdue University.
Abortion rights demonstrators march toward the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh in Chevy Chase, Md., on July 2. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
Commenting on protests outside Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh’s home, a recent Wall Street Journal editorial claims we live in “fanatical times when political violence is all too possible.” Referring to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, Mark Meadows, President Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, called the rioters “a handful of fanatics,” while a recent piece in Slate invites us to “Meet the Trump Fanatics Who Have Taken Over Elections in a Critical Swing State.” But what do we mean when we talk about “fanaticism”?
Far from an invention of the Trump era, the term fanaticism has a long history stretching back all the way to the ancient Greco-Roman world. It became associated with political violence during the French Revolution, ultimately pushing some of the era’s prominent philosophers to develop the very solutions that could help our society today.
Although it may be hard to believe now given its current use, fanaticism began as a value-neutral, purely descriptive term, referring to a particular type of Roman religious experience that took place at a particular type of Roman temple called a fanum. The priests of these ancient “mystery cults,” existing roughly between the 5th century B.C. and the 5th century A.D., were history’s first fanatics.
But, during the Christian era, the concept took on its decidedly negative hue, as a reference to someone with errant and dangerous religious beliefs. Martin Luther, for example, the renegade Catholic priest who would become the leader of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, often denounced the revolutionary priests who went even further in their religious and political iconoclasm than he did as “false prophets” and “wretched fanatics.” In rejecting the validity of all secular temporal authority, these populist priests sought to bring heaven down to Earth, a bridge too far for Luther.
Two centuries later, during the French Revolution — when observers witnessed a form of passion and zeal hitherto only known to exist in matters of religion — the concept of fanaticism expanded to allow for an overtly political version. Remarking on the events across the channel, English historian Horace Walpole wrote in 1793 that the French Revolution displayed “enthusiasm [often a synonym for fanaticism] without religion.” Similarly, an English pamphleteer of the time, writing under the name Junius, argued that these events proved the existence of a “mistaken zeal in politics as well as religion.”
These commentators observed the same kind of errors in thought displayed by earlier religious fanatics, this time deployed not on issues of religious dogma, but matters of politics.
Two of the best commentators on this new political fanaticism were German philosopher Immanuel Kant and the British thinker and statesman Edmund Burke. While propounding vastly different philosophical systems, each of them approached the French Revolution and the modern era it inaugurated with the idea of fanaticism front and center in their thinking.
An opponent of revolution in any form, Kant came surprisingly close to endorsing the events unfolding in France in 1789. On the other hand, Burke, who had no such universal and abstract opposition to revolution — and probably supported the American Revolution — abhorred the events in France from the outset. Both, however, saw fanaticism as a serious political problem that was brought to the fore by the events in France.
Writing in 1798, Kant argued that the “disinterested sympathy” of European observers of the revolution was proof positive of “a moral character of humanity” that implacably inclined toward “progress.” However, this sort of passionate involvement in politics, in Kant’s view, could easily break the lashes of reason and slip into the “oppressive passion” of fanaticism.
Burke held a totally different view of the French Revolution. In his famous “Reflections on the Revolution in France,” written near the outset of the revolution in 1790, Burke argued that the “political men of letters” orchestrating the revolution sought to completely refashion France “with a degree of zeal which hitherto had been discovered only in the propagators of some system of piety.” It was the “spirit of fanaticism” that Burke identified at the root of the French Revolution. The idea that an ideal society could be created atop the ruins of the existing (however imperfect) French state was pure fanaticism, thought Burke, akin to the beliefs of religious utopians of bygone eras.
While both Kant and Burke had different definitions of fanaticism, they also offered different solutions to the problems posed by it.
For Kant, fanaticism could be avoided by careful political judgment. He encouraged people to be “broad minded” and “disinterested” in their political judgments, asking what kind of decisions we would make about politics if we were in someone else’s shoes.
For Burke, a statesman could avoid fanaticism by adopting a moderate political ethos characterized by prudence and a concern for order and stability. Burke argued in his “Reflections,” “in most questions of state, there is a middle. There is something else than the mere alternative of absolute destruction or unreformed existence.”
With fanaticism on the rise in American politics, perhaps we can learn from the diagnoses of these great thinkers that came before us and from their proposed antidotes to be more reasonable, broad minded and moderate in our own politics. Rather than ultimate battles between light and darkness, or truth against falsehood, Kant and Burke (despite their many differences) would both tell us that politics rightly understood requires a tempering of our own passions and a corresponding respect for the inherent value and rights of our fellow citizens. | 2022-07-20T11:28:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Fanaticism may be rising alarmingly fast. But it’s a very old problem. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/07/20/fanaticism-might-be-rising-alarmingly-fast-its-very-old-problem/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/07/20/fanaticism-might-be-rising-alarmingly-fast-its-very-old-problem/ |
Warpaint will perform at Capital Turnaround in Navy Yard. (Mia Kirby)
Warpaint returned earlier this year with the band’s first album in six years, a delay elongated — like so many others — by the pandemic. In the interim, the members of the L.A.-born quartet have stayed busy, variously working on solo albums, collaborating with the likes of Courtney Barnett and Suzanne Ciani, scoring films, and having a baby. But don’t call it a hiatus or a comeback. “It’s just four humans living in this world that are lucky enough to express themselves and make music with each other and hone their individual creativity and individual skills, in a weird time,” said drummer Stella Mozgawa. The result, “Radiate Like This,” is as dreamy and moody as its predecessors, taking a foray into Stevie Wonder-inspired soulshine before closing with the decidedly sensual “Send Nudes.” July 22 at 8 p.m. at Capital Turnaround, 770 M St. SE. capitalturnaround.com. $27.50.
With a tone like a pitch-shifted Lana Del Rey, Ethel Cain’s vocals are heavy with reverb and regret, her confessional, transgressive lyrics replacing Del Rey’s Americana obsession with Bible Belt imagery: blood and baptisms, bar fights and bruises. Her stunning debut album “Preacher’s Daughter” sees Cain conjure whatever she wishes, emerging from ethereality to reveal slow-burning country ballads, warped piano instrumentals, strip club sleaze and shoegaze nightmares. The alter ego of 24-year-old singer-songwriter Hayden Anhedönia has the makings of a Southern Gothic pop star. Standout track “American Teenager” is a deceptive anthem about the Friday night lies sold over the counter to the nation’s children. July 24 at 8 p.m. at Union Stage, 740 Water St. SW. unionstage.com. Sold out.
Bonbon is a “mini-festival” that brings together several of the city’s most vital DJs and performers to benefit SMYAL, a D.C. nonprofit that supports LGBTQ youth through leadership and mentorship. Dvonne, a founding member of the Noxeema Jackson collective, brings together influences that range from Luther Vandross and Notorious B.I.G. to goth industrial and raver club. Tommy C and Kristy La Rat are veterans of D.C. dance floors, expertly mixing tracks from across the disco-house-techno continuum and pan-Latin, diasporic dance music, respectively. The lineup is rounded out by Pwrpuff, Aphroditus, FRANXX and Gabberbitch69 — a purveyor of punishing, high-tempo tracks — and features a performance by Bambi, who produces “genderless and gendermore fantasies” as the mother of Haus of Bambi. July 24 at 5 p.m. at Songbyrd, 540 Penn St. NE. songbyrddc.com. $25.60.
For much of Laura Veirs’s career as a solo artist, her music was inextricably linked to Tucker Martine, an indie super-producer who helped helm her albums and is also Veirs’s ex-husband. While 2020’s “My Echo” was released after their divorce, the just-released “Found Light” is the first that sees the singer-songwriter processing, preparing and pushing through to a new phase of life and music. As she told NPR, “The whole process of making records was intertwined with my ex — who’s a great record producer, but I wanted to do it my own way.” On “Found Light,” Veirs’s lyrics are vivid poetry, full of sense-stimulating images like “vermilion suns” and “pomegranate fingertips,” and the songs grapple with how she has learned from pain, freed herself from burdens and returned to nature — and herself. July 27 at 8 p.m. at Union Stage, 740 Water St. SW. unionstage.com. $20. | 2022-07-20T11:28:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | 4 concerts to catch in the D.C. area: July 22-28 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/07/20/concerts-dc/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/07/20/concerts-dc/ |
Biden has abdicated U.S. leadership on Syria to Russia and Iran
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, center, in Aleppo, Syria, on July 9. (Syrian Presidency/Facebook/AP)
President Biden’s trip to the Middle East last week showed that his administration has abandoned any pretense of U.S. leadership on addressing the crisis in Syria. That policy of neglect undermines U.S. and regional interests — and threatens to leave the region’s security in the hands of Russia and Iran.
Biden never mentioned Syria publicly during his four-day trip, which was billed as a demonstration of U.S. engagement in a region where powers such as Russia and China are making inroads. The president didn’t come up with any new ideas for solving the Syrian political crisis. He didn’t offer any public admonishments to the Gulf countries that have been slowly but surely ending the pariah status of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who continues to perpetrate mass atrocities on his people. In Biden’s Post op-ed explaining the rationale for his Middle East trip, he only mentioned Syria to tout a U.S. mission that killed a terrorist there.
During his candidacy, Biden heavily criticized President Donald Trump for not doing more to prevent Turkey from attacking U.S.-allied Kurds in Syria’s northeast. But as Turkey prepares for another such incursion, Biden has said nothing about it. That has left the diplomacy in the hands of Russia and Iran, who are meeting with Turkey this week on Syria, with the United States not at the table.
Meanwhile, Moscow and Tehran are now expanding the military partnership they forged in Syria to the war in Ukraine. Russia is using the weapons it tested on Syrian civilians to kill Ukrainian civilians. Russia is also now attacking the United States’ allies in Syria — local forces who have been helping U.S. troops fight the Islamic State.
Many Syrians see the Biden administration as missing in action. During a June 29 hearing at the U.N. Security Council, Omar Alshogre, who spent three years imprisoned in Assad’s dungeons, called out the United States for breaking its promises.
“The United States, recently your government has been very limited to empty statements, no actions,” he said. “You’re supposed to be the leader of the democratic world. I don’t even see you in this global arena anymore.”
Alshogre called out the leadership of Jordan for closing its borders to Syrian refugees. He also criticized the United Arab Emirates for helping to welcome Assad back into the good graces of the diplomatic community, including by hosting him for a visit in March.
“The United Arab Emirates, don’t you have any respect for the people who have been suffering for years, for everyone who died under torture in Syria, for every mother who lost her kid? Normalizing Assad is a crime.” he said. “Shame on you.”
A National Security Council spokesperson told me that Syria “is a regular topic of conversation” with U.S. partners in the Gulf region and the administration has been “constantly engaged in quiet diplomacy on Syria.” The spokesperson pointed out that Syria was mentioned in official statements issued after Biden’s meetings last week with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq.
“We continue to raise Syria with our Gulf partners to urge against any actions that would legitimize the Syrian regime, and we ourselves have not lifted sanctions imposed on Syria,” the spokesperson said.
While it is true the Biden administration has not lifted any sanctions on Assad, neither has the Biden team implemented any of the sanctions called for in the law known as the Caesar act, which stipulates sanctions for any country or company that does business with the Assad regime. In fact, the administration has looked the other way while Assad profits from a new regional gas deal.
The one place the Biden team has been active on Syria is at the United Nations, where the U.S. delegation fought to preserve the one remaining humanitarian aid corridor that provides vital food and medicine to millions of Syrians living outside the regime’s control in Idlib province. Even there, the United States acceded to a Russian version of the resolution that limited the aid route extension to six months.
Administration officials argue that maintaining relatively low levels of violence and focusing on aid and terrorism is about the best the United States can hope for in Syria. But the violence levels only seem low if one ignores the fact that Russia and Assad are intentionally starving millions of innocent people and torturing tens of thousands of civilians in custody.
So long as Assad’s partners in Moscow and Tehran are dominating the diplomacy, Syria will never achieve a sustainable peace. Without a new U.S.-led diplomatic push, Syria will continue to be an exporter of refugees, terrorism, narcotics and instability. Before taking office, Biden’s officials acknowledged that.
“We failed in preventing a tragic loss of life as well as millions of people made into refugees or internally displaced, and that’s something that we all have to live with,” candidate Biden’s foreign policy adviser, Antony Blinken, now secretary of state, told me two months before the 2020 election. “This is one of the things that we are looking hard at, and then, if we are given the responsibility, it’s something we will need to act on.”
Biden now has the responsibility and he needs to act. The United States can’t be a leader in the Middle East while leaving the Syria crisis to endlessly fester and leaving the Syrian people to endlessly suffer. | 2022-07-20T11:28:29Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Biden has abdicated U.S. leadership on Syria to Russia and Iran - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/biden-has-abdicated-us-leadership-syria-russia-iran/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/biden-has-abdicated-us-leadership-syria-russia-iran/ |
The Supreme Court building in D.C. in October 2020. (Jonathan Newton /The Washington Post)
I hear what you are saying. And, yes, the data is compelling. Cassandra has been right literally every time she has made a prediction. War. Famine. Rights rollbacks. (A phrase that makes it sound as though maybe the rights are part of a nifty sale rather than a horrible violation of the contract you thought you had with society!) Whenever she has said anything — “Don’t let that horse into the city! It’s full of armed soldiers!” or “If we don’t do anything about the climate, it will get worse” or “Susan Collins, do not take what Brett Kavanaugh just said as reassurance that he doesn’t want to overturn Roe v. Wade” — I have been forced to admit, in retrospect, that she has been absolutely on the money, every time, like that Masonic eye thing that is on the back of all the dollars.
And, yes, every single time she has predicted anything, I have said, “Nah,” or “I’ll believe it when I see it!” or “I just don’t think Joe Manchin would pull the rug out from beneath us yet again! Not Joe!” or vowed to eat my hat. And I know that I have a suspicious number of intact hats for somebody who has said that so many times!
And, yes, once again, Cassandra is trying to warn us. She thinks something terrible will happen and wants to tell us so that we can prepare, just as she told us in the past about Donald Trump not accepting the results of the election, or the horrifying consequences of state trigger laws about abortion, or the dozens of other things she has been right about. Now, given her track record, you might say: Let’s hear this lady out!
But I have to say: What are the odds that she’s right again?
I hear you. She has always been right before, every time I said that what she predicted was much too dire even to contemplate. But to that I say: This prediction this time sounds much too dire to even contemplate.
Did you hear what she’s saying will happen now? I mean, that just sounds beyond the pale. I know that I have technically said this every time and been wrong, in retrospect, every time, but — woof. I just don’t see it. Thank heavens we haven’t regressed to a point where something that bad is likely! What a relief that Cassandra is probably wrong this time — although, technically, she has yet to be wrong about anything! But this time, I have to say, I really feel like she’s wrong and I’m right.
This is why, when I go to Las Vegas, I always leave with so much less money than I arrive with! Because if you hit red 49 times in a row, you are just bound to hit black the next time. That’s just math! At a certain point in coin-flipping, you are owed tails, and I won’t let anyone tell me otherwise. I understand both how probability works and how predictions work!
Who are you going to believe — me, a guy telling you that the Supreme Court has probably done all that it wants to do and there is no chance that it will come for Obergefell v. Hodges next, or Cassandra, a literal prophetess who has always been right and is screaming that I am wrong? I know only two things about Cassandra: She is a hysterical woman to whom we should not give the time of day, and she has been (technically, in only the strictest, most literal sense) right about every single thing that she has predicted so far. Also, her predictions are so depressing! I don’t want to live in a world where what Cassandra says is true, even though, technically, I guess, I do live in that world right now.
Besides, I just don’t think she is right this time. | 2022-07-20T11:28:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Okay, but Cassandra cannot possibly be right *again* - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/cassandra-another-warning-due-to-be-wrong/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/cassandra-another-warning-due-to-be-wrong/ |
What must still be faced in the Emmett Till tragedy
By Timothy B. Tyson
From left: J.W. Milam, his wife, Carolyn Bryant and Roy Bryant sit in a courtroom in Sumner, Miss., on Sept. 23, 1955. (AP)
Timothy B. Tyson is senior research scholar at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and author of “The Blood of Emmett Till.”
Is it possible to squeeze a measure of long-denied justice out of a 67-year-old arrest warrant?
That’s the question facing Mississippi authorities as they again consider the horrifying 1955 lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till.
Most people know some of the horrible story. Three days before Leflore County deputies pulled Till’s body from Tallahatchie River on Sept. 1, 1955, the local prosecutor issued a warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant, her husband, Roy, and his half brother, J.W. Milam, on charges of kidnapping.
Till had been tortured to death — clipped ear, gouged-out eye, shattered skull, a bullet to the head — because “the boy from Chicago” spoke to then-21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, Milam later said, at Bryant’s Grocery 10 miles north of Greenwood.
After the sheriff arrested Roy Bryant and his half brother — adding murder charges when the body surfaced — he told a reporter, “We aren’t going to bother the woman. She has got two small boys to take care of.”
Till’s lynching for speaking to a White woman, the subsequent acquittals of the two men charged — and the insistence of Till’s mother on an open casket — set off protests from Buffalo to Los Angeles, helping launch the modern civil rights movement. Images of Till’s mutilated face forced Americans in the North and South to witness the brutality of Jim Crow and the moral emptiness of a nation’s indifference.
The Post's View: New discoveries in Emmett Till’s murder reinforce the need for truth
In June, filmmaker Keith Beauchamp and a research team discovered the warrant in the basement of the county courthouse. The warrant might set the stage for reopening the case, either at the local or federal level.
An aide to Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch says there is no new evidence to justify doing so. The Till family demands that the warrant be served and that Carolyn Bryant Donham, who later remarried and is now in her late 80s, be arrested and tried for alleged kidnapping and accessory to murder.
Would prosecuting her bring any measure of justice at this point? Possibly. “Not everything that is faced can be changed,” wrote James Baldwin. “But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Regardless, what must be faced is the ruthless, White-dominated, social order that the case came to symbolize.
Clearly, local prosecutors thought they had sufficient evidence to charge her 67 years ago. Donham has spoken of the events before, including to me as I was researching a 2017 book on the case. Four days after the incident at the grocery, Roy Bryant and Milam stormed into the home of Till’s great-uncle, Moses Wright, where Till was staying for a vacation that summer. Armed with pistols, the men yelled that the 14-year-old had done some “smart talking” at the store and dragged him to their car.
Wright stepped out into the darkness that night and told reporters the following day that he heard “a lighter voice” coming from the car identify his nephew. Later he told FBI agents, “a woman was in the background.” This was not Roy Bryant’s first attempt to find Till: Earlier that day, he had snatched a different young man from inside the store and demanded his wife identify him; she said he was not the one who had “insulted” her. That afternoon, Roy Bryant grabbed a third boy from the side of the road; his wife told him that it was not him, either.
And in Donham’s unpublished memoir, which I obtained from her years ago and shared with authorities, she claims that on the night of the murder, Roy Bryant dragged Till into their kitchen at 2:30 a.m. and “growled, ‘Is that him’?”
She says she enraged her husband by saying no.
But then, to her “utter disbelief,” she writes, Till “flashed me a strange smile and said, “‘Yes, it was me.’” She says she begged her husband to return Till unharmed. He promised to do so, in her account, “so … that’s what I thought would happen.”
It stretches credulity to accept that a 14-year-old boy, snatched from sleep by two armed White men, would affirm that he was the person that they were allegedly looking to punish.
In other accounts, Donham denies identifying Till but omits his confession. But there is a pattern in all these accounts — Roy Bryant looked to his wife to identify Till before he perished. Whether she actually did so is less clear. We do know that she testified at the men’s murder trial that Till sexually assaulted her, and she and later told me in an interview, “That part is not true.”
The sheriff claimed from the outset that the body could not have been Till’s and made no effort to investigate the case. Only the men were prosecuted for murder, and an all-White jury acquitted both in a five-day trial. A Leflore County grand jury passed on indicting Donham for murder in 2007.
The still-unserved (but verified) warrant is an opportunity for prosecutors to illuminate the ugly corners of the case and seek justice on behalf of Till. And it offers all of us a chance to consider what the movement that demanded a multiracial democracy back in 1955 can teach us, even now, when we are still killing Emmett Till in so many ways. | 2022-07-20T11:28:41Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | An unserved warrant re-opens the Emmett Till tragedy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/emmett-till-lynching-arrest-warrant/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/emmett-till-lynching-arrest-warrant/ |
The top Marine faces unprecedented opposition. He says that’s ‘positive.’
Gen. David H. Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, on July 14 in D.C. (Alex Brandon/AP)
In 1949, as atomic weapons were transforming warfare, the Defense Department was rocked by the “Revolt of the Admirals,” when the Navy leadership publicly protested Defense Secretary Louis Johnson’s decision to assign the strategic bombing mission to the Air Force. The analogy is inexact, but today, as information technology transforms warfare, the Marine Corps has been facing what might be dubbed the “Revolt of the Generals.” In this case, it is retired, not active-duty, general officers who are in revolt, and they are protesting not against senior civilians but against one of their own: Gen. David H. Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps.
Three years ago, Berger launched a radical revamp called Force Design 2030 to prepare the Corps for high-tech warfare against China and other potential adversaries. He has gotten rid of all the Marines’ tanks and more than half of their artillery batteries, while reducing the number of infantry and helicopter units. He is investing in rocket artillery, drones, loitering munitions, electronic warfare, tactical missiles, a new amphibious assault ship and other cutting-edge capabilities. The centerpiece of his reforms is the creation of littoral combat regiments — the first one has just been stood up — that, in the event of war, are supposed to move around Pacific islands, performing reconnaissance missions and firing missiles at Chinese ships and aircraft.
More than two dozen retired Marine generals — including revered figures such as former commandant Charles Krulak and former Central Command chief Anthony Zinni — have launched a public lobbying campaign to stop this transformation, which they argue is too focused on China at the expense of other threats such as insurgents. A trio of retired four-stars, including Krulak and Zinni, argued in a Post op-ed: “It will make the Marines less capable of countering threats from unsettled and dangerous corners of the world.”
If Berger is perturbed by this unprecedented opposition from the retired generals, he did not show it during a recent Zoom interview from his spacious Pentagon office. “There should be that kind of family discussion about what direction we’re taking,” the mild-mannered commandant told me. “I look at that as a positive thing.”
He insisted that “divesting platforms,” despite all the opposition, was “not a very difficult decision for us.” He said that his decisions have been driven in part by war games that show the Chinese military having considerable success with asymmetric capabilities such as carrier-killer missiles, cyberweapons and diesel submarines. The Marine makeover is designed to “change the adversary’s calculus” and throw the Chinese “off their game.” He envisions littoral combat units that will be “constantly moving,” making them “difficult to detect and target,” and that will “have a lethal capability and their own [intelligence] collection capability.”
“You have to make trade-offs,” he insisted. Although he said that heavy armor is still necessary for the “joint force” — the Army will still deploy lots of tanks — it is “less of a needed capability” for the Corps. “Looking into the future,” he said, “we need a better mix of loitering munitions, rocket artillery, missiles and other systems, manned and unmanned.”
Berger sees confirmation from the war in Ukraine for what he is trying to accomplish. “Sometimes large, bulky, hard-to-maneuver forces are in disadvantage against small, distributed forces,” he pointed out. “Ukrainian forces are doing a remarkable job of using different pieces of collection and closing kill chains quickly with long-range precision fires, and that’s an approach we would take as well.”
More recently, of course, Russia has been using a brute-force approach by simply raining down artillery to slowly advance in eastern Ukraine. Some might see this as a cautionary sign that the age of industrial warfare isn’t quite finished. But Berger sees it differently: “My read on it is that Russia is attacking the people in the cities. They’re not attacking the Ukrainian military. ... You can’t reach any conclusion on future warfare when they’re not attacking the enemy. They’re rubbling cities.”
Berger’s arguments have not convinced his critics, but he has won over the constituencies that count. Both Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his predecessor, Mark T. Esper, have been “fully supportive,” he said, “and, in fact, urge us to go faster.” Congress is also supportive. Indeed, eight House and Senate members of both parties, all Marine veterans, strongly endorsed the redesign, writing in the Wall Street Journal: “We don’t have time for incremental change. China is rapidly modernizing.”
I tend to agree. Given the rapid changes sweeping warfare — as sensors, drones and precision-guided munitions become ubiquitous — the U.S. armed forces don’t have the luxury of standing still. But Berger is running a risk that, by focusing so heavily on China, the Marine Corps could be ill-prepared for a future counterinsurgency conflict such as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Berger’s redesign appears to have survived the “Revolt of the Generals” and is so far advanced that it will be hard for a successor to reverse. Now, all that remains to be seen is how the new Marine Corps will fare in an actual conflict, given that wars seldom unfold as expected. | 2022-07-20T11:28:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Gen. David H. Berger continues Marines reform despite pushback - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/marine-corps-commandant-reforms-changing-force-role/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/marine-corps-commandant-reforms-changing-force-role/ |
From “River’s Dream,” published by TBW Books. (Curran Hatleberg)
When everything seems to fly at us with breakneck speed, it’s a good reminder to slow down, take our time and smell the proverbial roses. Speed isn’t always an asset, especially in photography.
Curran Hatleberg doesn’t hurry his work. I found this out on a recent trip to the Baltimore studio space he shares with his partner, artist Cynthia Daignault. We spent a couple of hours chatting about his latest book, “River’s Dream” (TBW Books, 2022). Hatleberg is generous, humble and easy to chat with.
I have no doubt that Hatleberg’s approachability contributes to his way of working. He likes to wander until he finds a spot he feels comfortable with and then dig in. As he told me as I sat on a couch in his studio, “Once I meet someone with mutual curiosity, I say yes to everything.”
Experience is the key with Hatleberg’s work. Things are working their best when the camera feels like it disappears and whatever encounter he finds himself in takes over. The camera becomes secondary as experience becomes primary: “ “The photo never quite lives up to the experience of being there,” Hatleberg told me.
He usually waits until he has exposed hundreds of rolls of film before he begins the process of editing. The exposed rolls of film are filled with his encounters, and he waits to develop them to create a sense of objective distance. Once the film is developed, those encounters are then strung together to create a story.
This is how “River’s Edge” came to be. Hatleberg wandered through Mississippi, Florida, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia, Ohio and Maryland while making the images that would end up in the book. But the book isn’t so much about a specific place as it is about trying to locate and capture an atmosphere.
The atmosphere in “River’s Edge” is one of summer heat and humidity. This isn’t something I initially grasped when I first flipped through the book. I was more preoccupied with sussing out its influences and divining what it had to say to me. But once I read another review that brought it up, and after chatting with Hatleberg, it became inescapable: Suddenly, every photo spoke to that heavy, warm atmosphere.
Hatleberg told me that he wanted the book to be suffused with a sense of sultriness. He even went so far as to pick paper stock for the book that felt slippery, reminiscent of the dampness of a Southern summer. As we chatted away in Baltimore, he told me, “I wanted it to feel like summer — like it was about to rain.” And there are plenty of visual cues that pop up throughout his book.
For example, there’s a group of people taking refuge in the shade of a porch, men gathered around a table wearing tank tops playing dominoes, a group of people at an outdoor picnic, a person dipping their hand into a clump of cool ice in a cooler. Throughout the book, people and places are continually bathed in the golden hues of late summer.
Above all, “River’s Edge” is about the primacy of experience. The book’s photographs are kind of secondary. They are really a byproduct of Hatleberg’s insatiable curiosity and desire to meet people where they are. As he told me up in Baltimore, he’s interested in engaging with the world rather than imposing anything on it and he believes that making oneself vulnerable to experience is one of the keys to making the work that drives him.
As for photographic influences, Hatleberg’s is a continuation of a time-honored tradition in American photography established by the likes of William Eggleston and Walker Evans. You’ll see hints of both in “River’s Edge.”
Eggleston and Evans are chroniclers of the American experience. Eggleston elevated the banality of small-town life (yes, Southern!) into art. Evans recorded the details and particulars of the old clashing with the new but also made himself open and vulnerable to the experience of “ordinary” Americans. You’ll see strong echoes of each in “River’s Edge.”
The release of “River’s Edge” has been so highly anticipated that the first edition of the book sold out before it even hit shelves. Some of the work in the book was exhibited in the Whitney Biennial in 2019 and is only now available in book form. There is no doubt in my mind that it will become a revered classic. It kind of already is.
The book is now available in a second edition that will probably sell out as well, so if you want to grab a copy, now is the time to do it.
You can find out more about Hatleberg and his work on his website, here. And you can buy the book on the publisher’s website, here. | 2022-07-20T11:28:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Photos of the American South - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2022/07/20/curran-hatleberg-takes-us-sultry-journey-rivers-dream/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2022/07/20/curran-hatleberg-takes-us-sultry-journey-rivers-dream/ |
Why people are fighting over Social Security numbers
Liberal groups don’t like Mitt Romney’s proposal to limit who gets tax credits designed to help lift children from poverty
Analysis by Joshua McCabe
(Jenny Kane/AP)
In June, when Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) released an updated plan to expand child benefits, liberal advocacy groups objected to provisions limiting the benefit to parents with Social Security numbers. Rather, they wanted the benefits made available to parents with individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITINs).
This may sound like a completely technical controversy. It is not. The United States’ unique history of tax benefits and unauthorized immigration underlies the fight over identification numbers.
SSNs and ITINs have different histories
Congress introduced SSNs soon after the Social Security Act of 1935 to track workers’ earnings and determine new program benefits. Their use grew quickly over time. Social Security numbers are now required for authorized work and access to many other government benefits.
The Social Security Administration issues SSNs to citizens, permanent residents, people granted asylum, and refugees authorized to work in the United States. As a result, undocumented immigrants — who lack SSNs because they are not authorized to live or work in the United States — are excluded from most federal government benefits.
Many other countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, take similar approaches. In Canada, the government issues a Social Insurance Number to citizens and residents authorized to work there. The United Kingdom issues and requires a National Insurance Number. Both countries limit benefits to people who have a SIN or NIN.
Liberal advocacy groups in the United States instead want people without Social Security numbers to be eligible for benefits. They point out that these residents are identifiable through their individual taxpayer identification numbers.
ITINs were introduced much more recently to improve compliance with federal tax law. Most tax filers use their SSN as their taxpayer identification number. However, the IRS wanted to provide a way for people who were not authorized to work to fulfill their separate legal obligation to report earned income for tax purposes. The IRS created the new ITIN system in 1996 and began issuing numbers to unauthorized workers filing their taxes. Neither Canada nor the United Kingdom developed similar systems for taxing income derived from unauthorized work.
Who should be eligible for the new benefits?
America’s major family benefits — the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit — are administered through the tax code rather than the Social Security office. In other words, they claim these as part of their tax refund, instead of receiving them as direct support, as with SNAP (which provides food benefits to needy families) or disability benefits.
This distinction leads to a complicated question. Should these credits be viewed as tax breaks or as social benefits? Individuals’ answers to that question tend to influence their beliefs over whether an ITIN or SSN is more appropriate. Those who think of these credits as tax breaks are plausibly more likely to think they should go to all taxpayers — including unauthorized immigrants. Those who think of them as benefits will plausibly be more inclined to think they should only go to people who are authorized to work in the country.
ITINs were intended to make it easier for people to comply with tax law. Congress has rarely paid attention to whether ITIN filers claim particular exemptions, deductions or nonrefundable (which can’t exceed a taxpayer’s total tax liability) credits considered part of a standard tax code.
Congress disagrees on what to do about refundable tax credits — which means that if a taxpayer is owed more such credits than they would pay in taxes, the government will send them a check for the difference. Such credits are more like traditional social benefits because low-income households can receive refunds that are larger than what they owe. As a result, some in Congress think that they should not go to people with ITINs.
This has shaped the debate over the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit since ITINs were introduced in 1996. Republicans became increasingly concerned with limiting access to the earned income tax credit after 1993 when Democrats greatly expanded its refundable portion. Worries that the tax credit had been transformed from a tax break to a welfare benefit ultimately led to new Social Security number requirements as part of the 1996 welfare overhaul.
The child tax credit began as a nonrefundable credit and initially was available to taxpayers with either SSNs or ITINs. But Republicans grew concerned after Democrats made the tax credit partially refundable. After Congress expanded the refundable portion of the credit in 2009, a Treasury report found that taxpayers using ITINs — most of whom are widely believed to be unauthorized immigrants — claimed more than $4 billion in child tax credit benefits.
Congress responded with a flurry of bills aimed at adding SSN requirements for the child tax credit. While none passed, the 2017 expansion of the credit allowed Republicans to add a compromise requirement that beneficiaries provide a Social Security number for all children (but not parents) claimed under the credit.
Poor mothers get shut out of the Child Tax Credit, our research finds
The U.S. has many more unauthorized immigrants than comparable countries
The United States has an exceptionally large population of unauthorized immigrants, making up an estimated 3.5 percent of the population, more than countries like the United Kingdom, where it’s 0.73 percent, or Canada, where estimates place it between 0.05 and 1.3 percent.
As a result, SSN requirements affect more people in the United States than elsewhere, which particularly affects mixed-status families. Whereas Canada’s Social Insurance Number requirements exclude an estimated 3,000 mixed-status families in that country, SSN requirements could exclude up to 5.8 million mixed-status families in the United States. The stakes are simply much higher here.
In the U.S., immigration opponents are far more passionate than its supporters.
The limits of lessons from abroad
Liberal advocacy groups have won over many policymakers by pointing out that the United States is the only rich democracy without a universal child benefit. Potential expansions of the child tax credit would move the United States closer to other countries on this issue.
But the discussions have exposed tensions over the fact that the United States is the only rich democracy that provides child benefits to unauthorized immigrants. Given the strong anti-immigrant sentiment among some Americans, further expanding child benefits may bring up those tensions.
Joshua McCabe is a senior family economic security analyst at the Niskanen Center and author of “The Fiscalization of Social Policy: How Taxpayers Trumped Children in the Fight Against Child Poverty” (Oxford University Press, 2018). | 2022-07-20T11:29:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Romney wants to limit child benefits to taxpayers with SSNs. So what? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/20/immigrants-child-poverty-benefits/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/20/immigrants-child-poverty-benefits/ |
Wednesday briefing: Secret Service’s missing Jan. 6 texts; Respect for Marriage Act; Europe’s heat wave; pool oasis; and more
The Secret Service says texts around Jan. 6, 2021, are gone for good.
Why this matters: The House Jan. 6 committee wanted those records, which could have had information about President Donald Trump’s actions before and during the Capitol attack.
What happened? A reset and replacement of agency cellphones in mid-January 2021, officials said, which purged many messages, even though agents were told to save them.
Coming tomorrow: The next public Jan. 6 hearing is at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
The House passed a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriages.
The details: The Respect for Marriage Act would repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman, and passed with bipartisan support, a historic moment.
What’s next: It’s unclear when — or if — the Senate will vote on the bill. Later this week, the House plans to vote on protecting access to birth control.
Why this is happening: It’s a response to fears that the Supreme Court might reconsider rulings on birth control and same-sex marriage.
Georgia is investigating “fake electors” for potential criminal interference.
What are fake electors? Groups of Republicans, including 16 in Georgia, who attempted to cast electoral votes for Trump in a state Joe Biden won.
The bigger picture: It’s part of a wider investigation in Georgia into Trump, his allies and their actions after the 2020 election.
Russia plans to officially claim more Ukrainian territory, the U.S. said.
What’s happening? It’s installing Russian banks, forcing people in occupied sections of eastern and southern Ukraine to apply for Russian citizenship, putting loyalists in local government and more.
What that means: It lays the groundwork for annexation sometime this year, officials said.
The death toll from Europe’s heat wave is rising.
The latest: Portugal alone has reported more than 1,000 deaths. Wildfires are raging in France, Spain, Greece and Britain, which had its hottest day ever yesterday.
Why is this heat wave so scary? It’s the latest example of climate change pushing temperatures to previously unimaginable levels — faster than many expected.
What’s next? The heat wave is moving toward central Europe today.
People are questioning whether tiny police departments make sense.
Why? Critics say these agencies, with fewer than 10 officers, often lack training, equipment and expertise, as shown during the May school shooting in Uvalde, Tex.
How common is this? Very. The small departments make up nearly half of all local law enforcement agencies but often struggle to recruit qualified officers.
What’s the alternative? Combining neighboring forces, which many communities oppose.
There’s an Airbnb-like site just for pools.
How it works: Swimply lets you rent someone else’s pool for an average of $45 an hour, with about 25,000 listings in the U.S., Canada and Australia.
It’s had a pandemic boom: 96% of Americans don’t have a pool, and with so many people stuck at home over the past two years, business has doubled.
And now … getting fewer chips in your chip bag? “Shrinkflation” is everywhere. Here’s what to do about it. | 2022-07-20T11:29:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The 7 things you need to know for Wednesday, July 20 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/07/20/what-to-know-for-july-20/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/the-seven/2022/07/20/what-to-know-for-july-20/ |
E.U. says Russia ‘likely’ to cut off gas, proposes plan to cut consumption
By Quentin Ariès
“We have to prepare for a potential full disruption of Russian gas. And this is a likely scenario," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a news conference in Brussels on July 20. (Stephanie Lecocq/ EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
BRUSSELS — The European Union proposed a plan for countries to reduce demand for natural gas — as officials warned that Russia was “likely” to cutoff the flow to Europe.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen outlined a proposal for members to cut gas consumption by 15 percent for a few months, starting in August.
“Russia is blackmailing us. Russia is using energy as a weapon. And therefore, in any event, whether it is partial, major cut off of Russian, or total cut off of Russian gas, Europe needs to be ready,” Von der Leyen told a news conference.
“We have to be proactive,” she added. “We have to prepare for a potential full disruption of Russian gas. And this is a likely scenario. That’s what we’ve seen in the past.”
Gas supplies from Russia to Europe have slowed dramatically in recent weeks as European officials accuse the Kremlin of retaliating in response to Western sanctions over Moscow’s war in Ukraine. In a summer of rising temperatures and energy prices, E.U. countries are hoping to build up supplies ahead of the winter.
Wednesday’s proposal to curb consumption from Aug. 1 to March 1 asks member states to switch from gas to alternative fuels, incentivizes industries to reduce consumption and outlines ways for consumers to save on heating and cooling. | 2022-07-20T11:30:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | European Union proposes plan to cut gas use with Russia cutoff 'likely' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/eu-gas-ration-russia-cutoff/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/eu-gas-ration-russia-cutoff/ |
Reps. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the chair and vice chair, respectively, of the House Jan. 6 select committee, listen during a hearing at the U.S. Capitol on July 12. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the House Jan. 6 select committee, announced on Tuesday that he has covid-19, just days before the committee’s prime-time hearing on Thursday. Nevertheless, the hearing will continue as planned. That speaks volumes about why the committee has been arguably the most effective and most bipartisan congressional undertaking since the 9/11 Commission.
In any other situation, the absence of a committee’s chair would likely delay its business, since that would give the opposing party the upper hand. But Thompson’s absence will have no impact on the proceeding whatsoever.
That’s because on this committee, the dedication to finding the truth, to defending democracy, to educating the public and to presenting a full accounting of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol are equally shared among its Democratic and two Republican members.
Aside from superb staff work and smart production strategy, the reason the committee is so effective is twofold: First, the committee abandoned the “everyone gets five minutes of questioning” protocol that congressional committees typically adopt, in favor of coordinated, focused questioning by two members per hearing. Second, and more importantly, unserious and dishonest Republicans aren’t present. (Ironically, one or more Republican members could have wreaked havoc if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had not yanked his party’s members off the committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to let him appoint obstructionists to the panel.)
In other words, bipartisanship is only possible when members of both parties share common values and a desire for a positive outcome. Bipartisanship is often a joke these days, not because of Democrats — who remain committed to democracy and stay within shouting distance of the truth — but because most Republicans are dedicated to MAGA dogma (e.g., keep the base enraged, pursue Christian nationalism at the expense of democracy, limit access to voting). What used to be bipartisan exercises, such as reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act, are now entirely partisan.
Even when democratic values per se are not at stake, today’s GOP has set a specific goal: making sure the incumbent Democratic president is a failed, one-term president. Bipartisanship is impossible when one side drops previously acceptable goals precisely because it would result in a win for the other side (e.g., tax cuts for working families, vaccinations for children).
The only debate within the GOP these days is which specific “wins” it must concede to President Biden to preserve the pretense that Republicans are concerned about their constituents’ well-being. When pure obstruction would expose their members to undue criticism, they will allow Biden to conduct the basic operations of government (e.g., passing an infrastructure package or avoiding a default on the debt).
This is why Biden’s obsessive search for bipartisanship is misguided. Bipartisanship should be a means to an end, not the end itself. Democrats should pursue it to secure values the party holds dear or produce results for Americans. That’s conceivable only when both sides want success and share some basic set of values, such as sustaining a functional democracy.
That’s why the Jan. 6 committee has been a stellar success — and why virtually nothing else would be attainable if MAGA Republicans hold the reins. | 2022-07-20T12:19:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Jan. 6 committee shows what bipartisanship is — and what it isn’t - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/jan-6-committee-shows-what-bipartisanship-really-is/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/20/jan-6-committee-shows-what-bipartisanship-really-is/ |
A mid-century modern neighborhood ‘ensconced in nature’
The houses in Rock Creek Woods were designed by noted architect Charles Goodman
In Rock Creek Woods, houses of brick, wood and glass built in 1959 and 1960 melt into the landscape without disrupting it, just as famed architect Charles Goodman intended. (Photos by Craig Hudson for The Washington Post)
Driving down the winding, leafy roads of Rock Creek Woods in Kensington, Md., all around are mid-century marvels. Houses of brick, wood and glass built in 1959 and 1960 melt into the landscape without disrupting it, just as famed architect Charles Goodman intended.
“Goodman situated the sloping, bucolic curves of the neighborhood as an intentional, organic and communal response to the sterile and rectilinear ‘crabgrass frontier’ of postwar American suburbia,” says neighborhood historian Steve Lorenz, who is also a cultural historian by profession.
Lorenz, who’s been living in Rock Creek Woods with his wife and three children since 2016, points out that Goodman’s ultimate goal was to provide a sense of being ensconced in nature.
The innovative architect was a leader in the D.C. area for bringing contemporary design and naturalistic site planning to the housing market. His many neighborhoods include Hollin Hills in Fairfax County, Va., and many in Montgomery County, Md., including Hammond Wood and Wheaton Crest.
He designed the homes with large glass windows to “reflect the heightened visuality of the modern television age,” Lorenz says.
“He also discouraged owners from building fences that would disrupt the circular sight lines intended to foster closer neighborly relationships,” he adds.
Goodman’s vision for close-knit neighbors has been fulfilled, according to Julie Marcis, co-chair of the Rock Creek Woods Civic Association. Marcis, who has lived in the community for 21 years, notes that in addition to the lovely architecture, neighborhood ties are what keep many rooted there.
“Mostly it comes down to the people who live here,” she says. “We are so different and so interesting and congenial.”
The civic association sponsors many activities that bind neighbors together, including a Labor Day picnic, a Halloween parade and celebration, a years-old book club, and popular house tours and parties. Marcis says covid put the brakes on some of the activities, but they’ve recently started up again.
Rock Creek Woods abuts Rock Creek Park and homeowners use the park’s many biking and hiking trails, dog parks, tennis courts and playgrounds, according to Sophia Hu, real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Realty in Potomac.
“We’ve also been really lucky that people who buy these houses are not interested in tearing them down,” Marcis says.
As an added incentive, homeowners receive a 20 percent tax credit toward Maryland state income tax for any exterior repairs that preserve the original design of the home, according to Hu.
“This includes roof repairs and maintaining frameless windows,” she adds. “Everyone is very careful to not alter the original integrity of the Goodman architecture.”
A former administrator for a public relations firm, Marcis notes she and her husband live in a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house that’s gone through several renovations while still maintaining the look and feel of Goodman’s original design.
“There’s tons of windows,” she says. “And while it cuts down on the amount of artwork I can hang, I don’t know if I could ever live in a house that didn’t have as much light as this one.”
The community also features more than 100 cherry blossom trees, a natural splendor that arrives each spring.
“That’s in addition to the many mature trees, shrubs and plants in every yard,” Hu says.
Sightings of deer, fox, squirrels and owls are regular occurrences, she adds.
With only 76 single-family homes, Rock Creek Woods seems like a secluded nature preserve. The community has no drive-through traffic and just one entrance on Spruell Drive that also serves as its only exit.
But public transportation and major roads and highways are nearby to easily connect to the rest of the region. Tucked away from Connecticut Avenue, Rock Creek Woods is a short drive to Interstates 495 and 270 and just a few miles from the National Institutes of Health and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, according to Hu.
Restaurants and stores in Kensington and Silver Spring serve the community, and Kensington’s Antique Row is just five minutes away.
“During covid, the neighbors were lifesavers,” says Marcis, who notes that over the years the neighborhood is gradually turning over with younger families.
“It’s very exciting because there are children and dogs and people that just enjoy each other,” she notes.
“This neighborhood will continue forever,” Marcis says. “It’s just that kind of neighborhood.”
Living there: With quality neighbors and its serene close-to-nature feel, Rock Creek Woods is popular with potential buyers, Hu says, adding that no houses are on the market.
“It has very low turnover,” she says. “Some original owners still live there, including one who just celebrated her 102nd birthday in May.”
In 2021, seven houses were sold, and in 2022, none have sold. The average sale price of single-family homes this past year was $957,428. The most expensive was a three-bedroom, three-bathroom house for $1.2 million. The least expensive was a fixer-upper with five-bedrooms and three-bathrooms that sold for $650,000.
Schools: Rock View Elementary, Newport Mill Middle and Albert Einstein High.
Transit: Rock Creek Woods is between two Metro stations, Wheaton, 2.5 miles away, and Grosvenor-Strathmore, 3.5 miles away on the Red Line. The 33 Ride On bus and L8 Metrobus are just a short walk away on Connecticut Avenue. | 2022-07-20T12:54:03Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Neighborhood profile: Rock Creek Woods - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/20/where-we-live-rock-creek-woods/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/20/where-we-live-rock-creek-woods/ |
(Matt Query)
NoSleep isn’t a typical forum for workshopping stories, specifically because comments that are either congratulatory or critical are taken down. Instead, comments are meant to preserve a story’s plausibility. Scroll beyond the story and you’ll find everything from faux advice (“I think you should stop taunting whatever this is. Also, I love your dog!”) to questions from frightened readers ("Bruh.... I live in Rural Idaho..... near Jackson.... should I never go to a ranch?”).
“Ninety-nine-point-nine-percent of the time when a client’s like, ‘My brother has something that he wrote, will you read it?’ Your eyes sort of roll and you begrudgingly say, ‘Sure, I’ll read it,’ ” he said. "But in this instance, it was the .01 percent where I read it and it just was staggeringly good.”
“It’s this wonderful confluence of technology empowering an artist to get their work out there without having to know somebody, get permission from somebody,” Glassgold says. “Writing something good gets lost in the shuffle. But if you do something great, you can get noticed. And that’s the beautiful thing about YouTube, TikTok or r/NoSleep.”
“They branded themselves as the front page of the internet,” Query says of Reddit. “I’ve used Reddit to fix my dishwasher and learn how to fix parts of my car. And now it’s helped me workshop a cool story.” | 2022-07-20T12:58:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Old Country is a novel based on a Reddit story - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/07/20/no-sleep-reddit-novel-old-country-query/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/07/20/no-sleep-reddit-novel-old-country-query/ |
The independent Amazon Labor Union has faced challenges making headway into new warehouses after securing an upset victory in Staten Island in April
Maddie Wesley helps lead an April 24 rally near an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island that was up for a vote to unionize. (Calla Kessler for The Washington Post)
Workers have launched a new union campaign at an Amazon warehouse in New York in the latest bid to organize the anti-union tech giant.
Amazon workers at the warehouse near Albany would vote to join the independent Amazon Labor Union, which has faced challenges making headway into new warehouses after securing an upset victory at a warehouse in Staten Island in April.
Two workers involved in the campaign said they are moving to unionize to negotiate for higher pay, safer working conditions, longer breaks and a say in how the company tracks productivity.
Amazon did not respond to a request for comment, but after the union victory in Staten Island, the company said it was “disappointed with the outcome of the election … because we believe having a direct relationship with the company is best for our employees.” (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Inspired by the victory in Staten Island, workers have launched independent union campaigns in North Carolina, Kentucky and now Upstate New York. These warehouses face a steep battle in replicating the victory in Staten Island, as Amazon has doubled down on tactics intended to dissuade workers from joining unions. Yet, if any of these campaigns are successful, it would be only the second time workers unionized in the e-commerce giant’s 28-year history.
Chris Smalls’s Amazon uprising and the fight for a second warehouse
Organizers who work at the Albany warehouse, ALB1, have parked themselves outside the building, 12 miles southeast of Albany. In recent days, they’ve passed out brochures with QR codes that link to digital union authorization cards. Organizers say they’ve collected hundreds of cards.
The National Labor Relations Board requires signatures from more than 30 percent of eligible voters to qualify for a union election. The Albany organizers say they’ve already passed that threshold but are waiting to file for an election until they have support from 70 to 80 percent of those eligible to vote.
Kimberly Lane, a worker at the Albany warehouse, who is on the union’s organizing committee, said low wages and safety concerns had pushed her to advocate for the union at ALB1.
“To me, Amazon is a poster child for why unions were created,” said Lane, who wants a steeper pay raise than the 50-cent-an-hour hike she’s gotten in nearly two years at the company. She makes $15.70 an hour. “It’s not a livable wage or in line with the cost of living. The big joke between my son and I is that I get a quarter or so raise every six months. He’s like, ‘Mom, you won’t get a dollar raise for two years.’ ”
The Albany campaign is the latest in a wave of unionization efforts that have cropped up at big-name companies that have long remained free of unions, such as Starbucks, Apple, REI and Trader Joe’s. While baristas at Starbucks have unionized more than 190 stores, other campaigns have not yet had the same success.
Amazon has long opposed union drives among its warehouse workforce and has repeatedly been found by the National Labor Relations Board to have violated labor laws protecting workers’ rights to organize by surveilling workers’ organizing efforts, firing union organizers, confiscating union literature and threatening workers who support unions.
The company has installed anti-union messaging throughout the Albany warehouse, and organizers say the messaging has worried workers who say they support the union. Signage throughout the warehouse reads, “Remember: Filling out a physical or digital union authorization card is legally binding. Don’t sign a card.” and “Protect your privacy. Don’t sign an ALU card.”
The Amazon Labor Union, with pro bono assistance from law school students, has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that the company has violated labor laws at the Albany warehouse in recent weeks by interfering with workers’ rights to organize unions and implementing a new companywide policy that prohibits employees from “access[ing] Amazon buildings or work areas during off-duty periods.” The communication sent out on June 30 specifies that the rule would “not be enforced discriminatorily against employees engaging in protected activity.”
Before partnering with the Amazon Labor Union, the workers seeking to unionize at ALB1 contacted Teamsters and the Retail Wholesale and Department Store Union, which also have Amazon-related organizing campaigns. The Albany workers ultimately decided to work with the Amazon Labor Union because of its leadership’s understanding of the environment inside Amazon warehouses, two workers at the Albany warehouse said.
“We decided to go with Amazon Labor Union because it was created for Amazon employees,” said Heather Goodall, who quietly began gauging support for a union at ALB1 in May. “They understand the concerns we have and are very familiar with what’s going on in our warehouse.”
Connor Spence, the Amazon Labor Union’s vice president of membership, said that although hundreds of workers at Amazon warehouses around the United States have reached out to the ALU for help unionizing since the first victory in Staten Island in April, the union has scarce resources to throw behind new campaigns and is reluctant to take on new organizing projects.
“We’ve had tons of people reach out, but we can’t launch a campaign because of that,” he said. “The difference at ALB1 is that Heather reached out and she already had a strong showing of support.”
The Amazon Labor Union has recently been focused on a weeks-long National Labor Relations Board hearing, where Amazon’s lawyers have made the case that the election results from Staten Island should be thrown out because of interference from the union and NLRB officials. The National Labor Relations Board says it will make a ruling on whether to cast aside the election results in the coming weeks.
Last year, the National Labor Relations Board cast aside the results of a defeated Amazon union drive in Bessemer, Ala., after finding that Amazon improperly interfered with the election. After a reelection in April, both parties objected to each other’s conduct and the result is held up in a months-long investigation by the National Labor Relations Board. | 2022-07-20T12:58:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amazon workers launch new union campaign in Albany - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/20/union-amazon-albany/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/20/union-amazon-albany/ |
It’s Time for GE to Let Go of GE
Analysis by Brooke Sutherland and Ben Schott | Bloomberg
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 25: The General Electric logo is displayed on a refrigerator at a Best Buy store on January 25, 2022 in San Francisco, California. General Electric reported lower than expected fourth quarter earnings with revenue of $20.3 billion compared to analyst expectations of $21.5 billion. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America)
General Electric Co.’s three-way breakup is meant to be a moment of rebirth for the 130-year-old industrial giant.
This is the company that commercialized modern lighting, developed the X-ray machine, invented non-reflective glass and made the silicon rubber for the boots used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their walk on the moon in 1969. A plane powered by jet engines that GE had a hand in developing takes off every two seconds, and its power equipment helps generate one-third of the world’s electricity.
But this is also the company that allowed its finance arm to grow so opaque and unwieldly that wrong-way bets almost sank the industrial parent during the financial crisis and more recently created a surprise $15 billion reserve shortfall tied to a long-term care insurance business. Since the start of this century, GE has developed a reputation for making bad acquisitions — from the 2015 purchase of Alstom SA’s energy business, which resulted in a $22 billion writedown, to its ill-fated foray into oil and gas and expensive bets on a digital reinvention that failed to pan out — and for taking a loose approach to financial reporting. Former Chief Executive Officer Jack Welch once described GE as “the greatest people factory in the world,” but his management style and business culture is now being blamed for breaking the company, those that its executives parachuted in to run, such as Boeing Co., and perhaps the American capitalist model altogether.
While current CEO Larry Culp has made meaningful progress in cleaning up GE’s act and streamlining its operations, the stock has floundered since November, when he announced plans to split the company in three. Many investors seem to prefer to wait for the opportunity to own shares of the new companies rather than ride out the messy and long process of unraveling the GE behemoth — particularly amid concerns about a recession. So it’s surprising that given the opportunity to cast its businesses in a new, independent light, GE is choosing instead to anchor them in name to the parent’s legacy.
GE announced on Monday the branding for the three companies it plans to create. The health-care division is scheduled to be spun off first, in early 2023, and will be called GE HealthCare. The amalgamation of GE’s gas power, renewable energy and digital assets, which is set to be carved out in early 2024, will be called GE Vernova. The remaining aerospace operations will be called GE Aerospace. The last business will retain the rights to the GE trademark, which it will license long term to the other companies. GE says its brand is valued at almost $20 billion and provides a competitive advantage with customers. But it also comes with a lot of baggage, particularly in the eyes of investors. If the lesson of GE’s past is that it was too bold when it should have been cautious, the lesson of its present may be that the company is too cautious about letting go of its legacy when it should be bolder.
When Culp’s former company, Danaher Corp., announced it was breaking into two in 2015, Steven Winoker — then an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. but now GE’s head of investor relations — had this to say: “Two Danahers? What’s not to like about that?” It’s difficult to imagine anyone saying the same about three versions of GE. It’s also worth noting that despite its sterling reputation, Danaher didn’t pass down its name; the spinoff of its industrial business was called Fortive Corp.
The new GE names are boring, and that has its benefits. Keeping all three entities inside the GE master brand will likely have relieved the company’s lawyers, who were saved the tricky commission of securing a trio of novel global trademarks. Notwithstanding the company’s ups and downs, the GE monogram has been evolving elegantly since the 1890s and is not to be discarded lightly, nor without a better alternative.
The most imaginative of the new names is GE Vernova. The explanation for how the company came up with that branding suggests it’s probably for the best that the creative impulses ended there. “Ver” is derived from “verde” and “verdant,” to signal the greens and blues of the Earth, while “nova” comes from the Latin word “novus,” which means new. This is meant to capture “a new and innovative era of lower carbon energy that GE Vernova will help deliver.” Sure.
There is a plausible path for that energy-focused business to eventually become known as just Vernova. This would be akin to how Baker Hughes Co. eventually dropped the name Baker Hughes, a GE Co. — a mouthful of a moniker that was adopted upon the merger of the two companies’ oil field services businesses in 2017 and became significantly less desirable after the GE parent ran into financial difficulties. GE still owns about 4% of Baker Hughes. It makes sense that the Vernova energy businesses would have the most direct route to a non-GE future as they are the ones with the most checkered past and the most challenged financial outlook. By contrast, it seems unlikely that GE HealthCare will one day simply call itself “HealthCare,” while the aerospace business goes by “Aerospace.” This branding leaves limited room for the resulting companies to carve out their own identity.
Design-wise, GE’s spinoffs follow in the footsteps of Facebook’s recent restrained rebranding as Meta Platforms Inc. — an attempt to reframe the company within the metaverse without provoking undue controversy.
There is also an echo of Volvo’s earnest sensibility, as parodied in the 1990 movie “Crazy People”: “Buy Volvos. They’re boxy but they’re good. We know they’re not sexy. This is not a smart time to be sexy anyway, with so many new diseases around. Be safe instead of sexy. Volvo. Boxy, but good.”
If GE’s color choices are predictable — “compassion purple” for GE HealthCare, “evergreen” for GE Vernova and “atmosphere blue” for GE Aerospace — they at least have pretensions to the poetic. But the variety of sans-serif typefaces is a tad more chaotic. GE HealthCare uses approachable curves and a cute rotation of its a’s and e’s; GE Vernova is set in bland all-caps, with a clunky tag line to explain the name; and GE Aerospace deploys an industrial, almost federal face which feels more New Deal than next century.
There is nothing screamingly wrong with GE HealthCare and GE Aerospace as brand names. For all the negativity surrounding GE in financial circles, investors have short memories. The company’s challenges are also fairly complex, and there is a broader world beyond Wall Street in which the average person doesn’t spend much time dwelling on long-term care insurance foul-ups and acquisition writedowns. GE’s reputation has never been tarnished in the same way as, say, Monsanto Co., which is associated with the Agent Orange herbicide used in the Vietnam War and genetically modified crops. Bayer AG dropped the Monsanto name when it acquired the company in 2018. But there is nothing particularly inspiring or exciting about the names GE HealthCare or GE Aerospace, either, and typically companies embarking on a reinvention want at least some inspiration and excitement.
• GE’s Culp Slays the Beast That Jack Built: Brooke Sutherland
• Meta’s Mediocrity Turns Out to Be the Message: Ben Schott
• Boeing Faces Chorus of Critics in High Places: Brooke Sutherland
• What Banks and Airlines Can Learn from Funeral Homes: Ben Schott | 2022-07-20T12:58:43Z | www.washingtonpost.com | It’s Time for GE to Let Go of GE - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/its-time-for-ge-to-let-go-of-ge/2022/07/20/9bb0cede-0823-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/its-time-for-ge-to-let-go-of-ge/2022/07/20/9bb0cede-0823-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Judicial Nominations Are Totally Out of Whack
The Senate on Tuesday evening confirmed US District Court Judge Michelle Childs for seat on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, generally considered the most important court in the nation other than the Supreme Court. Childs, and the circumstances of her nomination and confirmation, provide a good tour of how out of whack the judicial nomination process has become. | 2022-07-20T12:59:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Judicial Nominations Are Totally Out of Whack - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/judicial-nominations-are-totally-out-of-whack/2022/07/20/7db05de6-0828-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/judicial-nominations-are-totally-out-of-whack/2022/07/20/7db05de6-0828-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Strong bills. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
US price inflation is at 9.1% and a there is a fiercely strong dollar, a pair of statistics that was certainly unexpected a year ago and even now seems odd. On closer reflection, however, these numbers reflect a world in which the US is still seen as a leader — in both economic growth and its ability to respond nimbly to crises.
Many countries are currently experiencing high inflation, but markets view the US as the one most interested in setting the problem straight, and relatively soon. American voters hate inflation, the Fed is taking palliative actions, and the American political system is willing to suffer a recession to bring down inflation, as it did during the late 1970s.
The US is not the only nation that will succeed in lowering its inflation rate by a fair amount. But the political equilibrium in the US is probably the most transparent, if only because the US is the country that everyone obsesses over on social media.
The US also has less of an energy price problem than most of Europe or Japan. That also makes the dollar a more attractive asset. Other sources of market data support pro-dollar sentiments, as five-year break-even rates — one measure of expected forthcoming inflation — have continued to fall, and they are now sitting at about 2.5%.
The longer-term prospects for the US are also more favorable than current commentary implies. For instance, since 2009 the US has had higher per-capita GDP growth rates than either Europe or Japan. The US also has seen a more robust recovery from the pandemic than either Europe or Japan, or for that matter Latin America. China is stuck in a disastrous Covid Zero policy, and many emerging economies, most prominently Sri Lanka, are experiencing serious troubles. Russia’s attack on Ukraine is a bigger problem for Europe than for North America.
Looking forward, markets may be expecting that the US will extend its growth advantage over much of the rest of the world.
In addition, American soft power is far more robust than many criticisms would indicate. English is increasingly entrenched as the global language. The world’s major internet companies are still largely American, with the exception of some Chinese ones. If the internet continues to become more important in our lives, that is another plus for the US — and the dollar.
America also sets a good deal of the global intellectual agenda, for better or worse. The #MeToo movement, Black Lives Matter and wokeism, among other topics, are debated around the world. A US presidential election is akin to a global presidential election, in terms of interest and maybe impact. No other country can say the same.
And so it is with the US. Both abroad and domestically, on both the left and right, there seems to be less faith in the American dream than there was three or four decades ago. In some quarters the US is seen as on the verge of collapse, or at the very least moral and intellectual ruin.
Maybe — or maybe not. During the last 20 years or so, the US has faced some significant setbacks, including a terrorist attack, the Great Recession, a pandemic during which it had a high mortality rate compared to the rest of the world, and the events of Jan. 6. | 2022-07-20T12:59:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Strong Dollar Is a Vote of Confidence in America - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-strong-dollar-is-a-vote-of-confidence-in-america/2022/07/20/6843f20a-081f-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-strong-dollar-is-a-vote-of-confidence-in-america/2022/07/20/6843f20a-081f-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
New evidence disputes Trump administration’s citizenship question rationale
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross testifies before a House Appropriations subcommittee in March 2020. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
Previously unreleased internal communications indicate the Trump administration tried to add a citizenship question to the census with the goal of affecting congressional apportionment, according to a report issued Wednesday by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
The documents appear to contradict statements made under oath by Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, who told the committee that the push for a citizenship question was unrelated to apportionment and the reason for adding it was to help enforce the Voting Rights Act.
The nearly 500 documents include several drafts of an August 2017 memorandum prepared by a Commerce Department lawyer and political appointee, James Uthmeier, in which he initially warned that using a citizenship question for apportionment would probably be illegal and violate the constitution, the report said.
In later drafts, Uthmeier and another political appointee, Earl Comstock, revised the draft to say there was “nothing illegal or unconstitutional about adding a citizenship question” and claiming the Founding Fathers “intended the apportionment count to be based on legal inhabitants,” the report said. In December 2017, the Department of Justice sent a formal request to the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, asking it to add the question; in March 2018, Ross announced it would be added to the 2020 Census.
“Today’s Committee memo pulls back the curtain on this shameful conduct and shows clearly how the Trump Administration secretly tried to manipulate the census for political gain while lying to the public and Congress about their goals,” Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.
The administration’s effort to add the question lasted two years. It was challenged by civil rights groups who blasted it as an effort to undercount Latinos and scare immigrant communities from participating in a survey that determines congressional apportionment and redistricting, as well as the disbursement of $1.5 trillion in federal funds annually.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the administration’s stated rationale for adding the question was “contrived,” and the administration dropped the effort. It then said it would instead block undocumented immigrants from being counted for apportionment, setting off another volley of court battles that lasted until the waning days of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Despite Trump administration denials, new evidence suggests census citizenship question was crafted to benefit white Republicans
That attempt ultimately failed when, due to pandemic-related delays, the Census Bureau was unable to deliver state population totals to the president before he left office. The administration was also unable to explain how it planned to identify and count undocumented immigrants, for whom there is no official tally.
The documents obtained by the committee had been withheld by the Trump administration despite subpoenas, the report said, adding that the committee had faced “unprecedented obstruction” from administration officials. Ross and Attorney General William P. Barr were held in contempt of Congress after refusing to produce them, the report noted, adding that the previously withheld or redacted documents were finally released “after more than two years of litigation, and the arrival of a new administration.”
Maloney introduced a bill last week that she said is designed to protect the census against future attempts to politicize it. H.R. 8326, the Ensuring a Fair and Accurate Census Act of 2022, would limit the number of political appointees at the bureau and prohibit the secretary of commerce from adding topics or questions to the survey “unless he or she followed the existing statutory requirements to notify Congress in advance.” It also bars new questions from appearing on the decennial census form unless they have been “researched, tested, certified by the Secretary, and evaluated by the Government Accountability Office.” | 2022-07-20T12:59:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | New evidence disputes Trump administration’s citizenship question rationale - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/20/new-evidence-disputes-trump-administrations-citizenship-question-rationale/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/20/new-evidence-disputes-trump-administrations-citizenship-question-rationale/ |
2 TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW (Knopf, $28). By Gabrielle Zevin. Two friends run a successful video design company while testing the boundaries of their relationship.
3 THE IT GIRL (Gallery/Scout Press, $28.99). By Ruth Ware. When new evidence challenges the decade-old conviction of a former classmate’s killer, a woman revisits her old friendships.
4 A PRAYER FOR THE CROWN-SHY (Tordotcom, $21.99). By Becky Chambers. A monk and a robot explore their home planet in the sequel to “A Psalm for the Wild-Built.”
9 UPGRADE (Ballantine, $28). By Blake Crouch. A man develops extraordinary abilities after undergoing genetic improvement.
10 SEA OF TRANQUILITY (Knopf, $25). By Emily St. John Mandel. The author of “Station Eleven” and “The Glass Hotel” explores the psychological implications of time travel for characters from different centuries.
6 THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVITUDE (Penguin Press, $29). By Mark Leibovich. A journalist chronicles the political enablers who allowed Trump to thrive in a culture of submission.
7 ROGUES (Doubleday, $30). By Patrick Radden Keefe. A collection of the award-winning journalist’s articles about criminals and con artists.
10 THE 1619 PROJECT (One World, $38). By Nikole Hannah-Jones and the New York Times Magazine. Essays contextualize the history of slavery as part of the founding of the United States. | 2022-07-20T12:59:37Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Washington Post hardcover bestsellers - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/washington-post-hardcover-bestsellers/2022/07/20/ed5a9502-079d-11ed-911b-f04803b1891b_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/washington-post-hardcover-bestsellers/2022/07/20/ed5a9502-079d-11ed-911b-f04803b1891b_story.html |
Evil is a country artist on their own terms
The DMV native will debut the rock opera ‘The Second Death’ later this summer
Country artist Evil will debut a rock opera at Black Cat later this summer. (Erin Yasmeen)
Sometimes a song seems prophetic when it’s really just timeless. That’s the case with “Young American,” a gentle strummer of a country tune by DMV native Evil. In a dreamy croon, Evil sings of being “desensitized” and “ready to die,” and the chorus isn’t a rousing call to action but an appeal for resignation: “Young American / Put down your fists / ’Cuz you can’t win.”
Written around 2017 and released in 2019, “Young American” seems to foretell the wave of protests that would wash over the U.S. in 2020, crystallized by the police murder of George Floyd. In the two years since, there have been plenty more protests, whether after acts of violence committed by firearm or those done by judicial decree. But after two long, contentious years, the energy of 2020 has turned into exhaustion. “Young American” feels like the anti-protest anthem of the day.
“It's definitely something that I think is proving to be way more relatable than I had wanted it to,” Evil says.
In the years since the release of “Young American,” Evil has stayed busy, building on the stripped-down country of their self-titled debut with songs that glisten with orchestral flourishes, Auto-Tuned vocals and gurgling electronic beats. Born and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, Evil is a country artist on their own terms at a time when many artists are challenging the stereotypes and expectations of what country artists look and sound like.
“When I think of my music, I just think about where it came from, and what has made me the person that I am,” Evil says. “It’s just about our experiences and how the places that we’ve lived and the people in those places have shaped us. … It’s really just about me expanding what we think a rural life can be.”
One of those experiences was growing up in a “very church-heavy” South as a queer trans person, a fact Evil grapples with on “The Second Death,” a live rock opera that will debut at Black Cat in August. The five-act half-play, half-concert serves as a capsule of Evil’s thoughts on religion and God, for better and for worse. A rock opera seemed like an appropriately dramatic way to share their story.
“I wanted an opportunity to flat out express that and show everybody what it’s supposed to be, and then when you take it and make it your own thing, that’s entirely your opinion,” Evil says. “I thought that the best way to do that is to put it in front of people’s faces.”
Performing with Shamir on July 22 at 7 p.m. at Songbyrd, 540 Penn St. NE. songbyrddc.com $17-$20. “Evil: The Second Death” on Aug. 20 at 8 p.m. at Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW. blackcatdc.com. $15. Proof of coronavirus vaccination required for both shows. | 2022-07-20T12:59:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Evil is a country music artist on their own terms - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/07/20/evil-the-second-death/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/07/20/evil-the-second-death/ |
How can I help my teen son choose friends who are good for him?
Q: How can I help my teen son choose friends who are good for him? He has ADD and has always struggled to fit in, and now that he’s at a new school, he’s choosing to hang out with people who are not really “friends.” He is not confident and will spend time with kids who belittle him or lie to him.
We moved last year, and his best friends are in other schools/states, so he’s starting over to some degree. He won’t participate in any sports or clubs. How can I help him choose to spend time with kids who like him for the kind and caring kid he is?
A: This is so hard, and I’m sorry. Watching our children struggle, especially regarding friendships, is brutal. I’ve been pondering how best to offer you support, and I’m really stuck on how you can help your son “choose friends who are good to him.” It’s not that this isn’t a worthwhile idea; he has attention-deficit disorder, he’s lost all of his friends in a move, and he’s resisting clubs and sports. Add in the pandemic, and you’ve got a mess.
Let’s start with the basics. You moved last year, so, if you haven’t yet, get your support team together, which means a good pediatrician, therapist and psychiatrist. I’m not saying you need all of these people all at once, but you want to ensure your son has been reassessed for his ADD, as well as his medication and/or therapy. This will give a needed snapshot of where your son is now.
You say he has always struggled to fit in, but he did find some best friends at his old school, so we know he is capable of making and keeping friends. I also suggest finding a way to see those friends in the near future, because a touch of the familiar can be a needed balm for the weary soul.
ADD or not, he isn’t the first teen to be attracted to bullies. Does he need support? Absolutely, but I would like to normalize that social problems are common for teens. For more social support, listen to Holly Blanc Moses’s “The Autism ADHD Podcast.” Recognizing what makes a good friend is a skill that can be taught, but first we want to understand his behavior. Remember: The most important need for a human is to belong. Your son, like it or not, feels as if he belongs to these mean friends, and although it may break your heart, know that people would often rather be bullied than ignored.
You also need to connect with adults who can safeguard him while he works on his social skills. Reach out to the school to find supportive adults who can be there for your son. The school psychologist and counselor should be made aware of your son and his needs, and look into getting an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504, if he doesn’t have one already.
I would also reach out to some teachers and ask for help. Of course, teachers are overworked and underpaid; we aren’t trying to add to their burdens. But most teachers are happy to keep an eye out for new students who need to find their footing, and they might not know they need to unless you tell about the situation. The adults just need to know.
While you are making this plan, know that doctors and experts agree that exercise, routines and rewards work well for teens with attention deficits. Although your teen may be understandably resistant to joining a sport or club, this is the time to problem-solve and sweeten the pot when he follows through. Surround him with order, direction and compassion, and do whatever you can to make this happen. If that means more tech time on the weekends as a reward, for instance, so be it. But don’t give up on him joining something, even outside of school.
As for these friends, make your home the hub of the action. Purchase the junky snacks and let them hang out, play games and watch movies. Listen for their dynamics, and understand what you’re hearing. Ask a partner or friend for their opinion, too. It’s not that I don’t believe what you say; you just want to make sure you have an accurate understanding of what is happening, so when you help your son, you’re working in reality, not fear.
There are skills coaches for your son and parent coaches for you; if you look, you can find resources everywhere. Start with doctors, therapists and psychiatrists, then move on from there. It may not be easy, but you can help your son find an emotionally safe lane where he can grow in confidence. | 2022-07-20T13:00:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How to help a teen son make the right friends - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/07/20/teen-son-friend-problems/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022/07/20/teen-son-friend-problems/ |
How D.C. could decide the next presidential election
Washington’s lack of representation reveals several cracks in American democracy
Analysis by Clarence Lusane
The U.S. Capitol and the National Mall in 2019. (Al Drago/Bloomberg News)
In 1825, John Quincy Adams won the presidency with 13 votes. Not “by” 13 votes, but “with only” 13 votes. In that hotly contested election with his fierce rival Andrew Jackson, neither candidate won a required majority of electoral college votes. At the time, 261 electoral college votes were available, requiring a candidate to win a minimum of 131, one over the majority.
While Jackson won a plurality of 99 electoral votes compared to Adams’s 84, the failure by either candidate to achieve a majority sent the election to the House, as mandated by the 12th Amendment. After much haggling, and using guidelines under which each state had one vote, 13 state delegations voted for John Quincy Adams, and seven voted for Jackson.
That legacy haunts contemporary presidential politics and the effort to reform the 1887 Electoral Count Act. Former president Donald Trump in 2021 tried to orchestrate a situation in which disputes about the 2020 election would send the decision to the House, where Republicans held a 26-24 state majority at the time. While the move has been appropriately criticized as an effort to steal the election, it exposes several ways in which the current U.S. system of electing or selecting a president fails the democracy test — including, in certain cases, the undemocratic exclusion of the District of Columbia, leaving its 700,000 residents without a say in the presidency.
D.C. and the 23rd Amendment
In 1961, Congress passed and the nation ratified the 23rd Amendment, which gave Washington three electoral college votes, ending its citizens’ exclusion from the presidential election. Ordinarily, a state’s electoral college votes are determined by the number of its members of Congress, consisting of two senators and some number of representatives based on the state’s population. With 54 representatives, for instance, California has 55 electoral college votes. Since the District was not made a state, it was instead assigned as many electoral college votes as — but no more than — the least populous state.
Neither the 23rd Amendment nor the 1974 District of Columbia Home Rule Act provided the city with voting representation in the House or Senate. (The District does have non-voting representatives in both the House and Senate.) While home rule devolved considerable power to the district, including an elected mayor and council, Congress still retains control of the city, much like colonial rule, as the act states in Section 601:
… the Congress of the United States reserves the right, at any time, to exercise its constitutional authority as legislature for the District, by enacting legislation for the District on any subject … including legislation to amend or repeal any law in force in the District.
Congress has used this power several times, as when Congress overrode the D.C. vote to legalize marijuana or imposed school vouchers that were widely opposed. Congress may in fact expand this power, or so some congressional Republicans have promised. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.) have all threatened to reduce or even end home rule if the GOP takes power in the House in 2023. Claiming that crime and homelessness in the city are out of control, Clyde has told the Daily Caller that he is drafting legislation to repeal home rule.
Leaving U.S. citizens of the nation’s capital without representation in the federal legislature is undemocratic enough. That democratic exclusion would be even more pointed if a presidential election were to be thrown to the House of Representatives.
Some undemocratic ways the U.S. selects presidents
First, a U.S. candidate can fail to win a majority of the popular vote but still become president by winning at least 270 electoral college votes. This has already happened twice in the six elections between 2000 and 2020. In 2000, George W. Bush lost the popular vote by about 500 votes to Al Gore, but won the election. In 2016, Hillary Clinton bested Donald Trump by 3 million votes, but Trump took office.
Second, under certain circumstances, state delegations in the House get to decide the presidency. That happens if, for instance, there’s an electoral college tie, or if no candidate receives an electoral college majority. It could also occur for corrupt or devious reasons, as when Trump tried to have Republican state congressional delegations vote against certifying several states’ slates of electors.
If a presidential election were to go to the House, that would deprive citizens who reside in D.C. or U.S. territories of any say. Despite being less populous than the District, both Vermont (pop. 643,007) and Wyoming (pop. 576,851) would cast votes. In fact, since each state would have one vote, those smaller states’ voters would have a disproportionate say than voters in more populous states, whose voices would be comparatively diluted.
Were a disputed presidential election to go to Congress, the Senate would vote on the vice president, with each senator getting one vote — again amplifying the voices of citizens of small states over those of more populous states.
These are real possibilities. Plentiful evidence suggests that “big lie”-endorsing local and state candidates are taking election administration offices and will work with congressional Republicans to send the 2024 presidential election to the House if Trump runs and again loses in the electoral college.
A course correction is possible
However, since the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, members of Congress from both parties, along with legal experts and voting rights advocates, have been working to change the 1887 Electoral Vote Count Act. Were such a bill to move forward, Congress could include a provision giving D.C. a vote for president and vice president, should an election be thrown to the House and the Senate. Granting the District the right to vote in a disputed or challenged election would increase the nation’s democracy.
Clarence Lusane (@clusane) is a professor of political science at Howard University and the author of the forthcoming “Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice and Democracy” (City Lights, 2022), among other books. | 2022-07-20T13:00:31Z | www.washingtonpost.com | If Congress decides the presidency, D.C. will have no vote. Should that change? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/20/trump-electoral-count-act-biden/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/20/trump-electoral-count-act-biden/ |
Methanol found in bodies of 21 teens who died in South African nightclub
Lesley Wroughton
Coffins of 21 teenagers who died at a nightclub last month during a funeral in East London, South Africa, on July 6. (AP)
Traces of methanol — a colorless and highly toxic liquid — were detected in the bodies of all 21 teenagers who were found dead at a South African nightclub last month, as the investigation into the cause of the mysterious deaths that stunned the community continues.
Government officials and members of the police service and the department of health said at a news conference on Tuesday that while the substance had been detected in the blood samples of all the teens, experts were assessing the levels of methanol recorded to determine whether the amount was “lethal” or “nonlethal.”
Litha Matiwane, the Eastern Cape provincial deputy director for clinical service, said initial tests ruled out alcohol and carbon monoxide poisoning as possible causes of death and that officials were awaiting more conclusive results from a laboratory in Cape Town.
The victims, who were between ages 13 and 17, were found slumped over tables and chairs inside the Enyobeni Tavern in the coastal city of East London on June 26. Initial reports suggested a stampede may have been to blame, though officials later said they believed the victims had inhaled or ingested a toxic substance. No obvious signs of injury were present.
The deaths sparked debate throughout the country over underage drinking at taverns in South Africa’s Black townships, which are plagued by poverty, high unemployment and a lack of basic services in a legacy of apartheid. The legal drinking age in South Africa is 18.
Yonela Dekeda, a spokeswoman for the Eastern Cape health department, told The Washington Post that the initial test results were “not conclusive.”
“There are more tests that are being done to identify exactly what the cause of death was,” she said. “We can’t say at this stage where they got the methanol, whether it was through liquor or something else. That is still unknown.”
Families seek justice after South Africa nightclub deaths
Methanol is often found in fuels, plastics, pesticides, paint and antifreeze. It is poisonous to humans and can cause an array of adverse health effects, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most methanol poisonings occur as a result of drinking beverages contaminated with the substance or from drinking products that contain it, the CDC says, adding that signs and symptoms of exposure, which may result in death, include nausea, dilated pupils, a decreased level of consciousness, and respiratory arrest.
Methanol is sometimes purchased in bulk and added to alcoholic drinks to make money, which can cause severe outbreaks, according the Methanol Poisoning initiative, an initiative launched by Oslo University Hospital (OUH) and Doctors Without Borders. The substance is used to dilute normal drinking alcohol.
One witness told The Washington Post that those suffering inside the venue yelled “I can’t breathe,” and “I’m choking,” before they dropped to the ground and died around her. Others recalled being “suffocated” by a substance that “smelled like gas.”
Survivor describes South Africa nightclub disaster: ‘I can’t breathe’
Dekeda said final results may “take weeks or months” to obtain. Asked whether other possible causes of death were being investigated, she said: “Not at the moment.”
Last week South African police said that the 52-year-old owner of the Enyobeni Tavern had been arrested along with two employees, aged 33 and 34. The owner is expected to appear in court next month, facing charges that include supplying underage people with alcohol, Reuters reported.
A mass funeral for the 21 teenagers was held on July 6, their coffins laid out side by side, surrounded by candles and yellow and white roses.
South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, delivered a eulogy that paid tribute to the young victims — sharing details about their lives, their personalities and their hopes for the future.
“These are the lives we have lost,” he said as he named the victims. “Our nation has lost young people who wanted to become doctors, teachers, policemen and women, lawyers, actors, businesspeople, and entrepreneurs.”
In his speech, Ramaphosa vowed that the government would clamp down on those profiting from underage drinking.
“Blame must be laid at the feet of those who are making money off the dreams and lives of the young people of South Africa by breaking the law and selling them alcohol,” he said as he urged law enforcement and parents to work together to clamp down on illegal events and activity. “Today it is somebody else’s child, tomorrow it could be yours.”
Wroughton reported from Cape Town. | 2022-07-20T13:01:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | South Africa nightclub teen victims had methanol in their systems - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/south-africa-nightclub-teen-deaths-methanol/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/south-africa-nightclub-teen-deaths-methanol/ |
E.U. puts a fresh spin on an old cut for a new generation of fans
The legendary go-go band has rereleased one of its first singles, ‘Peace Gone Away’
Long-standing members of the legendary go-go group E.U., from left, conga player Maurice “Mighty Moe” Hagans, bassist and bandleader Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliott, and drummer William “Ju Ju” House. (LaWanda Wells)
Go-go, with its funky percussion and lively call-and-response format, could easily be dismissed as lighthearted party music. But don’t be fooled: The official music of D.C. is protest music.
“I’m going to use this platform that God has given me to address violence in any way I can,” says Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliott, the lead vocalist and guitarist of legendary go-go band Experience Unlimited, who is celebrating his birthday with shows at Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club and the Birchmere. “I’m known as a go-go artist and throw a good party, but people can also hear the message at the same time. Love your brothers, because peace has gone away. We need to bring it back.”
Celebrating 50 years as a group, Experience Unlimited, also known as just E.U., has rereleased one of its first singles: “Peace Gone Away” was written more than 40 years ago but sounds just as relevant today.
“While we would all like to think that violence has gotten better since that time [when the song came out], it hasn’t — in fact, it’s gotten worse,” Elliott says. “So somebody’s got to step up to the plate and say, ‘Hey, we got to fix this.’ And hopefully the song will reach a new generation of people in 2022 and help people change their course for good.”
Citing increased violence within the District, particularly in Ward 8, where E.U. originally hails from, Elliott felt that “Peace Gone Away” was emblematic of the current state of affairs. Violent crime in the city is up from last year and recently became a focal point within the go-go community after a shooting at music festival Moechella in June. The band rerecorded the song and shot an accompanying music video with Melva “Lady” Adams, who co-wrote the 1977 single that originally appeared on E.U.’s debut album, “Free Yourself.”
“To know better is to do better,” proclaims Elliott, who stands tall behind a go-go mural of himself next to the Congress Heights Metro stop in the “Peace Gone Away” video. His emphatic message is underscored by a booming horn section, spastic percussion and Adams’s soulful singing that gives a fresh spin to the original cut. Keeping that creativity and originality flowing is something Elliott says has kept E.U. relevant in a crowded music space.
“The originality is so important; you have to play original songs to go to another level,” says Elliott, noting a trend among go-go bands of covering popular pop songs to reach new audiences. “You can do a well-mastered or well-created remake of any song and you put that go-go spin on it, that’s going to help, but we’ve been blessed in E.U. to always learn music and appreciate it and make originals of our own, and we had a lot of success with it.”
E.U.’s 1988 hit “Da Butt,” which was featured in Spike Lee’s film “School Daze,” is one of the few go-go songs to chart nationally. The band scored two more Billboard charting singles shortly after the success of “Da Butt.” E.U. plans to play some of its seminal hits, with more surprises up its sleeve, during the birthday celebration in Bethesda this weekend.
Says Elliott, “This is not only a chance to see E.U., but to also see go-go history and see how we still party today.”
Sugar Bear Birthday Bash featuring E.U. on July 23 at 8 p.m. at Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club, 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda. bethesdabluesjazz.com. $30. Sugar Bear Birthday Bash Part 2 featuring E.U. and Vybe Band on July 24 at 7 p.m. at Bethesda Blues and Jazz. $40.
E.U. featuring Sugar Bear Birthday Show on Aug. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Birchmere, 3701 Mt. Vernon Ave., Alexandria. birchmere.com. $35. | 2022-07-20T13:24:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | E.U. rereleases "Peace Gone Away," a 1977 song that's still relevant today - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/07/20/eu-peace-gone-away-rerelease/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/07/20/eu-peace-gone-away-rerelease/ |
Quidditch is now quadball, distancing game from J.K. Rowling, league says
University of Maryland quidditch team member Heather Farnan, center, stands on defense with a bludger during practice in College Park, Md., on April 8, 2019. (Will Newton/For The Washington Post)
LONDON — A sport invented by British author J.K. Rowling in her hugely popular Harry Potter series — which features witches and wizards flying on broomsticks trying to score goals — is rebranding.
The fictional game has been a real-life sensation among muggles for more than a decade and is played as a fast-paced, mixed-gender contact sport across the world.
As part of an effort to distance the sport from its creator, who has sparked controversy for her views on transgender issues, the International Quidditch Association (IQA) announced it will now be known as quadball.
The IQA said a second reason prompting the name change involved trademarks and licensing. The trademark for “quidditch” is owned by the Warner Bros. entertainment company, and organizers want to use the quadball trademark to continue to grow the game “into a mainstay of organized sports.”
Harry Potter stars reunite for ‘magical’ 20th anniversary special, without J.K. Rowling
Rowling, 56, caused a social media storm after she shared her opinions on Twitter and later penned a lengthy personal essay on transgender issues, causing many in the LGBTQ community to accuse her of transphobia. Rowling has said she supports trans rights and has been a long-standing donor to LGBTQ charities but that she does not believe in “erasing” the concept of biological sex.
She has not publicly commented on the name change, but earlier this month she tweeted: “Like many women on the left, I despair that so many self-proclaimed liberals turn a blind eye to the naked misogyny of the gender identity movement and the threat it poses to the rights of women and girls.” Rowling, who could not immediately be reached for comment early Wednesday, added: “I believe women are susceptible to certain harms and have specific needs and that feminism is necessary to secure and protect our rights.”
Actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, who played the trio of best friends Harry, Hermione and Ron respectively on the fabled Hogwarts school set, have all publicly distanced themselves from Rowling’s comments and said they stand with the trans community.
The proposal to change the sport’s name was first made in March, and thousands of players across the globe were polled on the new name, the IQA said, before they settled on quadball — which refers to both the number of balls and the number of positions used in the sport.
Quidditch soared off the page and was adapted for the real-life pitch in 2005, when it was first played at Middlebury College in Vermont. The rules became gradually codified, and it took off in 2007.
The sport now boasts nearly 600 teams in 40 countries, the IQA said, and is often broadcast on television and online.
Seven players on each team — among them chasers, beaters and a seeker (Harry Potter’s own position) — attempt to score the quaffle ball through opposition hoops. Instead of flying, the players run with brooms positioned between their legs as they jostle, catch, defend and tackle to score points and win.
The sport is “unique as the only full-contact, mixed-gender sport in the world, especially to those who identify with the trans or non-binary communities,” QuidditchUK says on its website. “We celebrate that inclusion of those from the LGBTQ+ communities, and greatly encourage anyone from any background to take part it in our sport.”
In the United States, Major League Quidditch, a league in the United States and Canada, and U.S. Quidditch, the sport’s U.S. governing body, are also parties to the name change.
“Quadball isn’t just a new name, it’s a symbol for a future for the sport without limitations,” Major League Quidditch founders wrote in a letter posted online Tuesday. “With it, we hope to turn the sport into exactly what it aspires to be: something for all.”
Major League Quidditch said it “did not make this name-change lightly” and expects to revamp franchises by the fall and continue with brand changes before the end of the year. Changing the sport’s name “opens unprecedented opportunities for growth, exposure and partnerships,” the group added.
J.K. Rowling thought she was talking to Zelensky. It was Russian pranksters.
In Britain, QuidditchUK said it fully supports the rebranding, calling it a “great moment in the development of our sport.”
“The name change indicates a firm stance with our trans players and members, as well as giving us more firm legal footing and opening up greater opportunities for funding and external partners,” it said on its website. The quidditch rebrand will continue this year, and players should also expect the names of the balls to be amended as part of the overhaul. The name of the snitch — a magical golden ball in the books, and a role played by a person in the game — will also be changed.
Rowling’s Harry Potter books first published in 1997 have become a bedtime staple for many children and a global phenomenon, with movies, theme parks and countless merchandise.
The stories follow the orphaned wizard Harry as he seeks to save the magical world from nemesis Voldemort, alongside his classmates. The hugely popular books have sold over 500 million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than 80 languages.
The next international quidditch tournament will take place this weekend in Limerick, Ireland, the IQA said, with teams taking part from Europe, Australia and Hong Kong. | 2022-07-20T13:54:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Quidditch name is now quadball, in rebuke to J.K. Rowling over trans rights - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/20/quidditch-quadball-name-change-jk-rowling/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/20/quidditch-quadball-name-change-jk-rowling/ |
Russia's Daria Kasatkina waves to the public during the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris on May 30, 2022. (Michel Euler/AP)
Daria Kasatkina, Russia’s highest-ranked female tennis player, has come out as gay and criticized the war in Ukraine in an unusually candid interview that highlighted the difficulties top athletes face in navigating the repercussions of the conflict — both at home and abroad.
Kasatkina, 25, touched on two of the most sensitive topics in Russia — Ukraine and LGBTQ rights — in a wide-ranging conversation with Russian blogger Vitya Kravchenko that was filmed in Barcelona, and released Monday on YouTube.
Kasatkina — the world No. 12 in women’s tennis — said she wanted “the war to end,” and described the conflict as “a full-blown nightmare.”
She said there “hadn’t been a single day since February 24,” when Russia invaded Ukraine, that she hadn’t read or thought about the war. She expressed empathy for Ukrainian players affected by the war.
“I want to play against players who have an opportunity to train and prepare for tournaments just like me, who don’t need to worry about courts being bombed and [having] nowhere to go,” she added. “I can’t imagine what it’s like to have no home — not because you haven’t bought it, but because your home was taken away.”
Kasatkina is the latest Russian athlete to speak out against the war, in defiance of laws in Russia that ban anyone from criticizing what officials there call Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine. Several other Russian tennis players have called for an end to the war, including the men’s No. 8 Andrey Rublev — though many have done so in more vague terms than Kasatkina.
Acknowledging the significance of the stance she was taking, Kasatkina broke down in tears in one of the videos when she was asked if she was scared she would no longer be able to go back to Russia, admitting it was something she had considered.
A horror-themed website told readers to ‘hunt’ gay people. Then an activist was stabbed to death.
During the interview, Kasatkina also revealed that she has a girlfriend — a significant move given that LGBTQ issues are taboo in Russia, where it has been illegal for nearly a decade to disseminate information to minors about “nontraditional sexual relationships” including gay relationships.
“I believe it’s important that influential people from sports, or any other sphere really, speak about it,” she said, adding that “living in the closet” would be too difficult in the long term. “It’s pointless, you’ll be constantly focused on that, until you choose to come out,” she said, although she added that it was up to each person “how to do it and how much to tell.”
She later posted a photo on social media with the figure skater Natalia Zabiiako — who has competed for Russia, Estonia and Canada — and the caption “my cutie pie.”
Last year, the U.S.-based nonprofit Freedom House gave Russia a score of zero when it comes to the equal treatment of minorities, including gay people, in society. “LGBT+ people are also subject to considerable discrimination, which has worsened in the last decade,” the group wrote in its report.
Just two years ago, a constitutional amendment was passed defining marriage exclusively as between a man and a woman. Russia has also banned pro-LGBTQ demonstrations and restricted LGBTQ advocacy groups.
When asked when she thought it would be acceptable for a same-sex couple to hold hands in public in Russia, Kasatkina answered: “Never.”
Russia accuses Ukraine of helicopter strike on Belgorod fuel depot
Kasatkina also touched on the global debate about the inclusion of Russian and Belorussian athletes in major sporting events, after many international sports competitions banned them in response to the war in Ukraine. Tennis players have been allowed to compete in many major tournaments so long as they stay neutral on the conflict — and they cannot compete under their national flags.
However, in a move that later proved controversial in tennis, Wimbledon banned Russian and Belorussian athletes from competing altogether — including Kasatkina, and many of the world’s top male and female players.
Wimbledon’s Russia and Belarus ban leaves 16 of the top 100 on the outside
While not explicitly giving an opinion on the ban, Kasatkina said that “sports is not outside of politics,” but added that they “really unite” people and nations. | 2022-07-20T13:59:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tennis star Daria Kasatkina says Ukraine war must end, comes out as gay - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/daria-kasatkina-tennis-gay-ukraine-russia/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/20/daria-kasatkina-tennis-gay-ukraine-russia/ |
Extreme heat prompts alerts in 28 states after Texas, Oklahoma hit 115
The National Weather Service's forecast for high temperatures on Wednesday. (Pivotal Weather) (Pivotal Weather)
Records are crashing as temperatures spike amid a high-end heat wave baking the Great Plains. Temperatures have spiked to 115 degrees in Texas and Oklahoma, with more than 60 million Americans anticipated to see triple-digit heat over the next week.
Heat advisories and excessive heat warnings affect more than 105 million people in 28 states both across the central United States and the Northeast, where the combination of hot weather and high humidity will lead to conditions ripe for heat-related illness or heatstroke.
The Weather Channel tweeted that more than 200 million people will experience highs exceeding 90 degrees for the next three days.
Dallas, Oklahoma City and Tulsa could all approach 110 degrees in the days ahead, and some locations have blown past that. For the first time on record, every one of the Oklahoma’s network of 120 weather stations hit 103 degrees on Tuesday.
Oklahoma City proper spiked to 110 degrees for the first time in a decade on Tuesday. That marks only the ninth time since just after World War II that the Sooner State’s capital has been so hot — a once-each-10-years event, on average. It also beats out a record that has stood since 1936.
It was comparably hot in north Texas, where Fort Worth’s Meacham International Airport climbed to 110 degrees and Dallas got to 109. Wichita Falls hit 115, a July record.
“Another day of exceptional heat lies ahead with triple-digit highs forecast for all of North and Central Texas,” wrote the National Weather Service in Fort Worth in an online technical discussion.
Dallas is predicted to peak around 107 degrees Wednesday, and it should be in the lower 100s essentially until further notice. Austin and San Antonio also are expecting similar temperatures.
“We’re sort of in our third wave of well-above-average temperatures this summer for south Central Texas,” said Keith White, a meteorologist at the Weather Service in Austin, in an interview Wednesday. “Austin could be looking at 106 or 107 today. Just last week, there were three days in Austin at or above 106.”
Every day between July 9 and July 13 in Austin tied or broke a record high. The city made it to a whopping 110 degrees on July 10, and hit 109 on the 11th and 12th. That’s the hottest three-day stretch on record in the city; bookkeeping days back to 1897.
“The 110 degrees on the 10th actually tied for our second warmest temperature recorded in history in Austin,” White said. So far, Austin has logged 39 hundred-degree days this season, and San Antonio’s up to 40.
“That’s the most we’ve ever seen at this point in the season, even surpassing 2011, the banner year for drought and fires,” White said.
Drought and fire have both been issues across much of Texas and Oklahoma, where red flag warnings are in effect. Along and especially west of Interstate 35, humidity levels below 25 percent, coupled with winds gusting up to 30 mph, are brewing conditions ripe for swift fire spread.
Several fires cropped up across north Central Texas on Monday, including in Somervell County, southwest of Dallas.
Wildfire (Somervell County) Another wildfire has sparked in Somervell County near Highway 67 and CR 1004 southwest of Glen Rose. Requesting assistance from Hood County. pic.twitter.com/fgc4iYSMux
“We’ve had a large number of fires across our region, and even more and larger ones in other areas of Texas,” said White. He blamed both the recent spate of dry weather and an anomalously wet spring last year. That helped plants to grow and provided a greater availability of fuels that would later dry up.
“[The wet spring in 2021] allowed a lot of vegetation to grow more than normal, then we had a drier winter, spring and summer, making things susceptible to burning,” said White
Closer to the Gulf Coast, a touch more humidity is present. While that will cap temperatures slightly lower — between 98 and 102 degrees — the juicy air mass in place will help heat indexes top 105 degrees.
“Today will be a scorcher no matter where you are in the [area],” wrote the Weather Service in Houston.
That humidity is wafting north toward the Ozarks and up the Mississippi Valley as well. In Little Rock, Wednesday’s high temperature was predicted to peak just a hair over 100 degrees, but heat indexes could flirt with 115 degrees.
The local Weather Service office described the setup as “Hot, muggy, and basically “swimming in the air” conditions.
What’s behind the heat? A stagnant ridge of high pressure colloquially known as a “heat dome.” High pressure results in sinking air, which clears skies and fosters copious sunshine. The high acts as a force field of sorts, diverting the jet stream northward and deflecting any inclement weather into Canada.
While the heat dome looks to shift east a touch in the coming days, it doesn’t look to break down any time soon, meaning there’s no immediate end in sight to the heat. In Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Dallas, Wichita Falls, Houston, Austin and Little Rock, highs should remain around or above 100 degrees for at least the next week.
The heat will also bleed toward the East Coast. Heat advisories span from Delaware through parts of interior New York into southern New Hampshire Wednesday, where the combination of heat and humidity will make it feel like 95 to 100 degrees in the north and 100 to 105 degrees in the south.
Some of the hottest weather along the East Coast is forecast this weekend. On Sunday, highs could touch the century mark from Washington to New York for the first in time in at least several years.
The heat coincides with a historically extreme event in Europe, which so far has killed more than 1,000 people and fueled wildfires that have prompted 40,000 to evacuate. A staggering 34 weather stations broke the 101.7 degrees threshold in the United Kingdom, logging temperatures hotter than anything the U.K. has observed before.
Brutal heat dome moves east, with Central Europe set to swelter
Human-induced climate change is irrefutably amplifying the duration and severity of heat waves. | 2022-07-20T14:25:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | U.S. heat wave: Over 100 million people under alerts in 28 states - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/20/heatwave-us-record-oklahoma-texas/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/20/heatwave-us-record-oklahoma-texas/ |
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 14: People ride a ferry toward the Statue of Liberty on August 14, 2019 in New York City. On Tuesday, acting Director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ken Cuccinelli reworked the words of the Emma Lazarus poem The New Colossus as he defended the Trump administrations immigration policies. The poem appears on a plaque inside The Statue of Liberty. The 1883 poem by Lazarus is often cited as an inspiration statement about Americas attitude toward immigrants. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) (Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America)
As divisive as US immigration policy is, members of both parties ought to be able to agree on a simple principle: Immigrants who come to the country legally should be given a fair chance to succeed and build lives in the US — as generations have before them.
It’s perplexing, then, that the government is denying this opportunity to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants whose parents came to the US legally for work, but who haven’t yet been granted green cards giving them legal permanent residency — and are now at risk of being forced to leave the only country many have ever known. A bipartisan measure passed in the House of Representatives last week would help fix the problem. In the interests of fairness and common sense, the Senate should act quickly to pass its own version and ensure these immigrants can stay.
Roughly 1.6 million people reside in the US on non-immigrant, employment-based visas. They include entrepreneurs, academics, artists, physicians and workers in the technology and health-care industries. Children of these visa holders can live in the US legally until they turn 21, but then must obtain new visas giving them permission to continue to study or work. Those unable to do so face an excruciating choice: stay in the US illegally, or “self-deport” to their countries of birth. As of April 2020, more than 250,000 of these children were at risk of “aging out” of their legal status.
The country’s dysfunctional legal immigration system is worsening the problem. Each year the US awards 140,000 green cards to employment-based visa holders and members of their immediate families. Due to a backlog in applications and (mostly arbitrary) caps on the number of green cards allocated to each country, some workers now need to wait decades to obtain them. Even if they’re eventually successful, their children won’t benefit if they’ve since become adults; they can’t receive green cards until their own applications reach the front of the queue. This effectively means that legal immigrants who arrived as infants and have been raised and educated in the US are less likely to become citizens than foreigners who came as adults.
In fact, the status of these legal immigrants — often called “documented Dreamers” — is even more precarious than that of children without documentation. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, created by President Barack Obama in 2012, allows immigrants brought to the country before the age of 16 to work in the US and defer deportation, with renewal required every two years. More than 700,000 undocumented immigrants have benefited from DACA’s protections and remained in the US, wielding $24 billion in after-tax spending power. But DACA stipulated that only immigrants with “no lawful status” were eligible — which excluded the children of immigrants on work visas from the same protections.
The good news is that Congress is waking up to the problem. The House of Representatives approved an amendment to the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that would ensure that U.S-raised children who reach adulthood before their parents receive their green cards don’t age out of the benefit of gaining legal permanent status. It would also authorize them to work after the age of 16 and allow them to maintain their place in the green-card queue even if their parents leave the country.
Leaders in the Senate should now work to pass the measure into law. Failing to do so would harm not just legal immigrants and their families but the country as a whole. America’s long-term growth prospects require that the country bring in more knowledge workers from abroad, particularly in the sciences and technology. Ensuring the children of those workers can stay and build lives in the US is critical to winning the war for talent — and is a necessary a step toward creating the immigration system the country needs. | 2022-07-20T14:29:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Give Documented Dreamers a Chance to Stay - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/give-documented-dreamers-a-chance-to-stay/2022/07/20/ae44eaae-082c-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/give-documented-dreamers-a-chance-to-stay/2022/07/20/ae44eaae-082c-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
Analysis by Michelle Leder | Bloomberg
MIAMI BEACH, FL - SEPTEMBER 29: A bus plows through a flooded street that was caused by the combination of the lunar orbit which caused seasonal high tides and what many believe is the rising sea levels due to climate change on September 29, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. The City of Miami Beach is in the middle of a five-year, $400 million storm water pump program and other projects that city officials hope will keep the ocean waters from inundating the city as the oceans rise even more in the future. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) (Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America)
Some prominent companies and industry groups are unhappy about the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plan to require disclosures related to climate change. They’re right that it will present an added burden, but that’s a small price to pay for better information about costs and risks that matter to investors.
When the SEC unveiled a proposal in March detailing the new disclosure rules, the agency had to expect that it would generate some big feelings at a time when polarization is running high.
After all, climate change remains a hot-button issue even within the walls of the SEC, with Commissioner Hester M. Peirce cheekily noting that the agency was “not the Securities and Environment Commission.”
And that was before a 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court on June 30 raised significant questions over just how far the SEC could go in requiring companies to disclose things like how much pollution their business generates. While the SEC hasn’t commented on the case, plenty of others have filled that void, claiming that the SEC will no longer be able to move forward with the rules without Congress’ permission
Count me in the camp that believes the proposal, and really most of the work that the SEC does when it comes to putting out new rules, is essentially about improving disclosures for investors, which is critical to the agency’s mandate that dates to the 1930s. In theory, at least, the Supreme Court’s decision shouldn’t have much impact, though it probably will get messy and lead to numerous lawsuits and long delays in terms of implementation.
Even as those battles play out, the SEC will have to contend with the controversy surrounding its push for more information on businesses’ environmental impact.
The new climate-related disclosures proposed by the SEC center around two areas: companies’ own contributions to pollution as well as those of their customers and suppliers; and companies’ exposure to climate threats — such as more frequent and severe storms — that could have a financial impact on their business.
One complaint made by companies and lobbying groups in letters submitted to the SEC was that the additional information sought by regulators was excessive and would be costly to assemble. Some, including Exxon Mobil, argued that portions of the disclosures should be protected from liability.
Businesses have valid concerns about the new rules, starting with having to parse a proposal that runs to almost 500 pages. In a comment letter sent by the American Bar Association, attorney Jay Knight, who serves as chair of the ABA’s committee on securities regulation, noted that the SEC estimated the new rules would involve an additional 70 hours of work per filing.
It’s especially perplexing to investors when there are differences in disclosure practices among companies in the same industry, or when companies use different metrics or language to measure the same thing.
Take two large retailers, Home Depot Inc. and Lowe’s Cos. Home Depot first began talking about climate-related risks in a 10-K it filed for 2017 and has significantly increased its disclosures over the past five years to include steps it had planned to reduce its carbon footprint. But Lowe’s only began in 2019, and its disclosure was essentially a mere mention of the words “climate change.” It’s reasonable to expect that two companies in similar industries would be similarly affected, and this is where better rules come into play.
I’ve long come down on the side that more information, even if it’s disclosed in 6-point italics in a footnote of a 10-K filing, is better than less. Even if most investors never bother to read that information, it helps those who do want to make more-informed decisions about their investments.
The evidence is clear that most companies are affected in all sorts of ways when it comes to climate-related issues. Investors in those companies deserve to have standardized information so that they can better assess the impact. Here’s hoping that the SEC is up to the task — and the pushback.
When the Weather Gets Hot Enough to Kill: Fickling & Pollard
Companies Need to Get Real About Climate Risk: Editorial
Supreme Court Wages War on Public Sector Expertise: Timothy L. O’Brien
Michelle Leder is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. Creator of Footnoted.com, a site devoted to SEC filings, she is author of “Financial Fingerprint: Uncovering a Company’s True Value.” | 2022-07-20T14:30:04Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Investors Deserve Better Disclosure on Climate Risk - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/investors-deserve-better-disclosure-on-climate-risk/2022/07/20/e00379f8-0830-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/investors-deserve-better-disclosure-on-climate-risk/2022/07/20/e00379f8-0830-11ed-80b6-43f2bfcc6662_story.html |
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