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How predictive are two straight quarters of economic contraction of an officially declared recession? And how much does that matter, politically?
President Biden listens to a questions during a news conference in the East Room of the White House on Jan. 19. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
The U.S. economy has now shrunk for the second straight quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis announced Thursday. The 0.9 percent annualized drop in the second quarter comes on top of a 1.6 percent drop in the first quarter, further raising fears of a recession.
While two straight negative quarters of gross domestic product (GDP) isn’t actually the technical definition of a recession — that determination is up to the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), which has long emphasized it takes other factors into account — it is the oft-used shorthand for a reason. GDP is the most important indicator, and Thursday’s news increases the already very valid questions about whether we’re in — or could be heading for — a recession.
Naturally, this has led to plenty of consternation for a Democratic Party already staring down the barrel of an arduous 2022 midterm election. Imagine that race also taking place in an officially declared recession. Hence the preemptive pushback from the Biden administration, which has assured we aren’t in a recession and has downplayed the significance of the two-straight-quarters shorthand that now looms so large.
We might not know for some time whether we’re in or entering a recession, given such designations come retroactively, and this situation poses some difficult questions.
But just how closely correlated are two straight quarters of negative GDP to actual, declared recessions? What impact has that had on when recessions are actually declared? And what is the political significance if a recession is declared?
The first two questions are easier to answer.
Despite the shorthand, two straight quarters of negative GDP has not been determinative of an impending recession resignation. As the NBER itself has stated, “Most of the recessions identified by our procedures do consist of two or more consecutive quarters of declining real GDP, but not all of them.”
In the 2020 pandemic-induced recession, the NBER announced the recession in June 2020 — even before the announcement of a second-straight (very) negative quarter the following month.
The recession before that — the “Great Recession” between late 2007 and 2009 — was also declared without two straight negative quarters registering yet. The designation came in December 2008, after data showed the first and third quarters of 2008 were negative, but not the second. The following month, the fourth quarter report gave us a second straight negative quarter.
And the recession before that — in 2001 — didn’t satisfy the shorthand at any point. The third quarter of that year was initially reported as being negative, but it would be the only one. NBER still declared a recession in November of that year.
All of these, of course, are examples of two straight negative quarters being unnecessary to declare a recession rather than insufficient. But it’s also conceivable — though rare — to actually have two straight negative quarters without a recession designation at all. It apparently happened in 1947 when, as the New York Times’s Ben Casselman noted, some of the stronger indicators for the economy echo what we see today.
So: In 1947, we had two consecutive quarters of negative GDP, but positive jobs, positive industrial production and positive consumer spending and NBER doesn't consider it a recession.
Could it happen again? Stay tuned.
— Ben Casselman (@bencasselman) July 27, 2022
Any such designation might take some time, if it ever arrives, in large part because of the unusually mixed signals Casselman highlighted.
As a 2008 Congressional Research Service report recapped, both declarations of the beginnings and ends of recessions are often delayed:
The longest delay between the beginning of a new phase of the business cycle and its announcement was when a recession was found to have ended in March 1991 but was not announced until 21 months had passed. The shortest delay was five months after the expansion ended in January 1980. Of the eight examples shown here, four were not announced until at least a year had elapsed.
Beyond that, there’s the more complicated question of the political impact. The unhappy reality for Democrats is that we’re entering this debate at a particularly inopportune time, with voters deciding control of two very narrowly Democratic-controlled chambers of Congress in the 2022 midterms and with the race looking competitive, if leaning toward Republicans.
It’s a setup with little precedent. Both the 2001 and 2020 recessions came amid other issues that severely mitigated any political judgments being made about the recession — the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the coronavirus pandemic, respectively. Voters judged Donald Trump poorly for his response to the pandemic, but him losing reelection later that year wasn’t really about the recession, per se, nor was that a major Democratic talking point. Pretty much everyone worldwide was experiencing a recession.
The late 2000s recession, meanwhile, was declared shortly after Republicans had already lost the White House at the tail end of George W. Bush’s presidency. The negative impact of the financial crash was very much baked-in to that result, but it wasn’t formally a recession until afterward.
Recessions further back are a little more comparable to today.
When the NBER declared a recession in April 1991, George H.W. Bush was still riding very high at that point. And he would do so for months afterward, with an approval rating that remained in the 70s. But his response — or lack thereof — wound up costing him, on top of other problems including on foreign policy, as the New York Times wrote in the summer of 1992:
Whoever's fault the recession was, Mr. Bush appeared slow to recognize the agony the sour economy was causing many Americans. And whatever lies ahead, the public has been unwilling to excuse him and believes he has been indecisive and insensitive.
The latest New York Times/CBS News poll last week showed that only 34 percent of adults approved of the way Mr. Bush was handling his job, and that only 16 percent liked how he was dealing with the economy -- a lower rating than even President [Jimmy] Carter got at his worst moment.
Ronald Reagan also struggled with his economic approval ratings in 1982 after the NBER declared a recession in January of that year, with Democrats running on the “Reagan recession” in the midterms and winning.
In these last two examples, though, it’s fair to ask how much the technical designation actually mattered, compared to the indicators people were already seeing in their everyday lives. Americans already judge President Biden very poorly on the economy — only about 3 in 10 approve of him on that issue, and even Democrats are quite lukewarm on it — because of inflation and high gas prices.
But certainly, the prospect of a recession won’t help. Republicans will use that word regardless of the NBER’s ultimate call — citing the shorthand and instances in which Democrats and members of the media have employed it — but having it become official at any point (and particularly in the next three months) would take things to a different level. | 2022-07-28T16:23:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What two negative GDP quarters means for ‘recession’ — and our politics - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/recession-gdp-politics/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/recession-gdp-politics/ |
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) changed his mind on supporting a climate and health-care deal, meaning Democrats can use reconciliation to achieve a major campaign goal. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Democrats are close to pulling off something that has eluded them for the past year and a half: passing legislation to address climate change and the costs of health care, and doing it without any Republican votes.
This has been one of President Biden’s top goals since he took office, so much so that he and Democratic leadership have reserved their one legislative tool to get it done: reconciliation.
Here’s what reconciliation means and what Democrats are able to get done with it.
Reconciliation allows Democrats to avoid a Republican filibuster in the Senate: Most legislation in the Senate these days requires 60 votes to pass, rather than a simple majority of 51. That’s because just one senator out of 100 can filibuster legislation, and the only way to end it is to get 60 senators to agree to move on. Rarely does one party have such a supermajority. The Senate is currently split 50-50. Democrats have only a one-vote majority in the Senate, and only because Vice President Harris can cast a tiebreaking vote.
Despite those narrow margins, Biden has actually had significant success with bipartisan legislation. He’s signed an infrastructure bill into law and a modest gun-control package, the first of its kind in decades. And just this week, the Senate passed legislation investing in the U.S. semiconductor industry.
But there is virtually no chance that even one Republican will support Biden’s climate bill. Senate Republicans are generally skeptical of spending federal money to address climate change and health-care costs. Plus, Republicans are months away from potentially taking back the majority in the Senate, so they would rather not give Biden a big win on one of his major campaign promises. So, Democrats turn to reconciliation.
How reconciliation can help Democrats get around Republican opposition: There is one Senate rule that prevents a filibuster from being used on legislation. Any legislation directly and substantially related to the federal budget can’t be filibustered. The original intent of this rule — which has been in effect in its present form since the 1980s — was to help Congress quickly realign federal law to match spending bills as necessary. The power of the purse is Congress’s No. 1 job, and senators didn’t want to let certain spending changes get bogged down in the endless debate that the filibuster allows for.
But pretty much since its inception, reconciliation has been exploited by party leaders to pass policies that they otherwise couldn’t get a majority vote on. Under President Donald Trump, Republicans used reconciliation to pass major changes to the federal tax code that Democrats decried.
“What has changed over time is the degree to which reconciliation has become basically the only way for a majority party … to pass big, party-defining legislation,” said Molly Reynolds, a congressional budget expert at the Brookings Institution.
What happened the last time Democrats tried to use this: In the first few months of Biden’s presidency, Democrats used reconciliation to pass more coronavirus aid, over Republicans’ objections.
Then, Democrats turned to reconciliation with plans to spend $2 trillion to dramatically reshape the federal government, on everything from child care to education.
But reconciliation comes with some big catches, and three big ones have hung up Democrats for the past year and a half:
The Senate generally can’t use this tool more than once or twice per year. So they have to reserve their most important legislation for it.
Everything in the legislation has to relate directly to the budget. That’s a largely subjective measure, decided by the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian. Last year, when they had hopes of passing a massive spending bill addressing all parts of the economy, Senate Democrats argued to the parliamentarian that extending legal status to millions of immigrants was a federal budget issue. (She said it wasn’t.)
Any legislation passed under reconciliation still requires a majority vote to pass. With such a narrow majority, that means Democrats can’t lose a single vote among their caucus. And Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), plus at times Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), have dashed their party’s hopes many times.
What’s happening now: This current deal came together rather abruptly. Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced that they reached a deal Wednesday, surprising many of their colleagues, The Washington Post reports. And Manchin agreed to only a fraction of the original $2 trillion spending bill known as Build Back Better; this is one $433 billion and mostly deals with clean energy and climate, and with prescription drug prices. Manchin was persuaded by Democratic leaders’ promises to make some domestic oil and natural gas production easier, as well as economists’ arguments that this wouldn’t contribute to inflation, The Post reports.
But Manchin could change his mind again. Or a more liberal senator could withhold their support, hoping to get more money for their priorities. Democrats know that this bill is probably the only one they’ll be able to pass over Republicans’ objections, potentially for the rest of Biden’s presidency, if Republicans take back one or both chambers of Congress this fall. | 2022-07-28T16:23:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What is reconciliation, and what can Democrats get done with it? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/reconciliation-joe-manchin/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/reconciliation-joe-manchin/ |
NBA Hall of Famer and broadcaster Charles Barkley has been rumored to be considering a job calling LIV Golf events. (Isaiah Vazquez/Clarkson Creative/Getty Images)
The earliest days of LIV Golf, the divisive Saudi-backed golf league, focused on the biggest-name players in the world: who was in (Phil Michelson, Bryson DeChambeau); who was out (Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy); and what they were getting paid (a lot.)
Over the last couple of weeks, though, LIV’S biggest target has arguably been a guy with a notoriously horrific golf swing: NBA Hall of Famer and Emmy-winning broadcaster Charles Barkley.
When the tour returns this weekend, with a tournament at the Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey, fans won’t be able to watch the action on American TV. But there is a growing expectation that LIV will eventually secure some sort of wider distribution in the United States, as it has in the rest of the world. When it does, it will have at least two marquee golf broadcasters, David Feherty and Arlo White, to entice golf fans. Maybe one day it will have Barkley, too.
“While it certainly won’t be the most popular move and is sure to continue their path of upheaval, they are likely to find a home,” Mark Shapiro, the president of media conglomerate Endeavor, wrote in an email.
There are a number of reasons for LIV’s absence from U.S. airwaves. Several leading sports networks have long-term partnerships with the PGA Tour, which is battling the new league and has banned defecting players from PGA events. NBC, CBS and ESPN’s streaming service all have long-term deals with the PGA, and any publicity for the competing league could diminish those investments.
LIV’s schedule has only recently been finalized, too, and finding hours of weekend time on TV is difficult to do at the last minute. Then there is the controversial funding from Saudi Arabia. Ahead of this weekend’s tournament, a group of families of 9/11 victims put out a video slamming Bedminster’s partnership with Saudi Arabia. The National Press Club also released a statement criticizing the golf club for doing business with a country U.S. officials have blamed for the murder of Washington Post opinion writer Jamal Khashoggi.
Will Staeger, LIV’s chief media officer and a longtime media executive in the United States, is leading its efforts to find U.S. broadcast and streaming partners. David Hill, a pioneering producer and executive who helped launch Fox Sports in the 1990s, is advising the league.
In an interview, Staeger said LIV has 27 deals in place around the world, including wider distribution across much of Europe. LIV has a deal with streaming service DAZN in the United States, but the network does not have a robust subscriber base here, leaving most fans to find its golf on YouTube, Facebook or the league’s own website. (The YouTube broadcast averaged around 100,000 viewers for most of the first event, according to the Athletic.)
“It’s a very intentional strategic path with our introduction to audiences,” Staeger said. “We announced our invitationals quite late relative to when the first event was. Broadcast networks from a sports inventory perspective are all scheduled a year out if not more. So partially by virtue of that, but from an exposure and product display standpoint, it’s a proactive strategy to show our product to fans.”
The league is geared to be a better TV golf product, both Hill and Staeger said. The shotgun start means more shots condensed into less time; the broadcast lasts for around four hours rather than a full day of traditional golf, which can drag on for double that. “Golf is something you go to sleep with,” Hill said. “The monotone of the announcers, the missing action. I tried to give them a blueprint that would be a golf enjoyed by 30-year-olds.”
LIV has already hired White, who used to call the Premier League on NBC, and Feherty, also formerly of NBC; Barkley would be a novelty that would at the very least attract huge buzz. LIV is also doing all of its own TV production, which would make it easier to find a home on a streaming platform like Amazon Prime or Apple TV Plus, which don’t have the same experience producing live sports as TV networks.
Whether LIV’s format can bring any new fans to the sport, or just speed up the game for its existing fans, still remains to be seen. And even with those tweaks, golf is not viewed necessarily as a ratings juggernaut. Several network executives said that anyone interested in putting LIV on TV must weigh whatever the rewards are with the headache of having to answer questions about Saudi Arabia and human rights.
Staeger said he’s been keeping “top media platforms abreast of our progress” and that he plans to engage in more serious negotiations once LIV announces a full season of events for next year. He said questions about Saudi Arabia had not come up in any of his discussions. “We’re a golf league,” he said. “We’re not a government. Our conversations have been focused on the players and the format and the product.”
With Saudi money and decades of resentment, golf's Shark is on the attack again
Given the PGA’s recent deals, Fox and Turner, which is part of Discovery Media, are LIV’s most likely TV partners, according to a number of media executives and other industry insiders. Spokesmen for both networks declined to comment on their interest in LIV; two people familiar with the matter said no substantive talks have occurred.
Considering the staggering amounts of money that LIV has lavished on golfers, including reports of more than $100 million for some players, the league could try to buy its way onto TV. One media executive said his company paid $300,000 for half an hour of weekend afternoon time in the last few years on CBS. Fox’s rate is also in that ballpark. That would mean eight hours over a weekend could cost around $5 million.
Even a LIV tournament is long, and networks may not be interested in displacing programming for a one-off event. But any network would have to listen if LIV offered an exorbitant fee.
Staeger, though, said LIV is not interested in such an arrangement. “It’s not necessary when you have the most compelling golf TV production, and the coverage is being happily taken on 27 networks around the world,” he said. “We believe the product will command a premium in the marketplace.”
Former Fox executive turned industry consultant Patrick Crakes said Fox would surprise him because the network tried its hand at golf when it bought the rights to the U.S. Open and later sold them to NBC in the middle of the deal. Fox also doesn’t have a prominent streaming service to house hours of golf content. “It would seem to be counter to Fox’s strategy of going all-in on the biggest sports and not investing in streaming,” Crakes said.
Staeger said there were a number of strategies LIV could pursue, including negotiating directly with station groups instead of parent companies like NBC, CBS and FOX. Sinclair Broadcast Group, for example, owns around 300 stations across the country, including dozens of network affiliates, as well a tranche of regional sports networks. A Sinclair spokesman declined to comment on the company’s interest in LIV.
Staeger said LIV could split up its rights among several partners, but ultimately he would like the league to follow the model of Formula 1′s recent relationship with ESPN and the Premier League’s longtime partnership with NBC. Both networks offered distribution on broadcast and cable TV, as well as streaming, and they were able to promote a new product in the United States together with the leagues.
“When you’re new, you have to find your footing and your niche, and we’re highly optimistic about the fan response and the ratings we will deliver,” Staeger said. “We are excited to find a partner that sees the value from a rights fees standpoint, but also will engage with us to grow the property.” | 2022-07-28T16:24:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Is LIV Golf on TV in the U.S.? Not yet. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/liv-golf-streaming-tv-us/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/liv-golf-streaming-tv-us/ |
Matt Bonesteel
Former president Donald Trump, right, played in a LIV Golf pro-am with Bryson DeChambeau, left, and Dustin Johnson, second from left. Standing next to Trump is LIV CEO Greg Norman. (Seth Wenig/AP)
BEDMINSTER, N.J. — Former president Donald Trump took part in a rare public golf outing on Thursday to ceremonially open the latest LIV Golf Invitational Series tournament, which will begin Friday at a course he owns about an hour west of New York City.
Trump teed off to a clattering of cameras to start the tournament’s pro-am competition, but the course was otherwise mostly silent as he moved down the first fairway, with Thursday’s event closed to the public.
Trump, an avid golfer whose loose adherence to the game’s rule book has been scrutinized, rarely plays in public. His midmorning round came days after news reports that the Justice Department is questioning Trump’s associates about his actions surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Asked by a reporter on the first tee box if he intended to announce his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, he said, “You’re gonna be so happy … we’ll let you know pretty soon.”
Trump, wearing a white, short-sleeved polo and his trademark red cap, and his son Eric teed off in front of reporters and a few dozen volunteers and event staffers, including LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman. Trump and his son were paired with Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, two of the biggest names to make the lucrative jump from the PGA Tour, long the world’s most high-profile golf circuit, to the Saudi-backed LIV series.
The two professionals clapped and cheered when Trump sent his first drive straight but just off the fairway.
Following the shot, Trump turned to a group of observers, which included his daughter Ivanka and her husband, former White House adviser Jared Kushner, and said, “Glad that’s over with.”
Trump’s private club is swathed in LIV signage this week, much of it trumpeting the organization’s slogan, “Golf, but louder.” And to kick off its third tournament, the Saudi-backed breakaway league turned to one of its loudest, most visible supporters, whose courses will host two events in LIV’s inaugural season.
Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster hosted the 2017 U.S. Women’s Open and was chosen by the PGA of America to host the men’s PGA Championship in 2022. But in January 2021, days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the PGA of America stripped Trump National of the tournament, saying such an event would be “detrimental to the PGA of America brand.”
On Thursday, Trump was asked if he had any regrets that his course was hosting a LIV Golf event and not one sanctioned by the USGA or PGA Tour.
“No, no regrets,” Trump said. “That’s their problem. This course blows every other course away.”
Trump also was asked how much money he was bringing in by hosting the LIV tournament.
“I don’t do it for that," he said. "They’ve been very generous, but I don’t do it for that. I do it because I think it’s great for golf.”
During Thursday’s round, Trump drove his own cart, which featured a presidential seal and a red, white and blue golf bag on the back. On the par-4 opening hole, he left a 15-putt short and recorded a bogey. After watching the pros tee off from the back tees on the 446-yard second hole, Trump looked down the hill toward the blue tees.
“I’m gonna find a more comfortable tee,” he said, settling back into his cart.
The group at times played best-ball, so when Trump’s drive at the third hole landed in a bunker, his caddie scooped it up before Trump was even back on his cart. On the fifth hole, Trump declined to attempt any putts.
The no-cut, shotgun-style LIV tournament begins in earnest on Friday and will feature 48 professional players from across the world, many who’ve left traditional tours lured by generous Saudi-backed contracts. But Thursday morning’s pro-am tournament, which included an assortment of celebrities, social media influencers and conservative voices, unofficially opened the event.
Caitlyn Jenner teed off with English golfers Paul Casey and Ian Poulter. Charles Barkley was paired with Spain’s Sergio Garcia and South African Louis Oosthuizen, and radio host Clay Travis played with American Brooks Koepka.
But Trump, surely trying to draw attention to the weekend tournament on his course, was the most noteworthy name. While he’s a devoted golfer, most of his rounds take place far away from the public or reporters.
This week marks the third event of the controversial LIV Golf series, and its second in the United States. With its Saudi benefactors bankrolling the enterprise and poaching golfers from the PGA and European tours with lucrative contracts and signing bonuses, the new tour has faced heavy criticism. This week, with three days of golf taking place on a Trump-owned course less than 50 miles from Manhattan, promises a new level of scrutiny.
Already, family members of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have called on Trump to cancel the event and had two news conferences planned for this week in Bedminster in an effort to shine a light on Saudi involvement in the attacks — which involved 15 Saudi nationals — and make sure golfers are aware of what they’ve signed up for.
“They’ve been given their talking points. And their talking points are to defend their actions for joining the LIV tournament and to say that the kingdom is not a bad actor,” Terry Strada, national chair of 9/11 Families United — whose husband, Tom, worked in the World Trade Center’s North Tower — said in an interview. “And we’re going to challenge that. They are misguided thinking that they can just now say what they want to say about the kingdom.” | 2022-07-28T16:24:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Donald Trump plays with Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau at LIV Golf pro-am - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/liv-trump-pro-am-dustin-johnson/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/liv-trump-pro-am-dustin-johnson/ |
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) faces reporters as he arrives at a July 21 hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at the U.S. Capitol. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
Two weeks after upending talks around his own party’s economic agenda, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) said Thursday he had found renewed cause to change course, having now secured Democratic leaders’ support for fossil fuels along with assurances that their spending package would not contribute to inflation.
Manchin delivered his explanation to reporters as his fellow Democrats gathered privately to chart the way forward on the measure, one that their chief negotiator — Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) — said he hopes the chamber will pass as soon as next week.
The deal struck between Schumer and Manchin aims to lower health-care costs, combat climate change and revise the tax code — a far more sweeping plan than Manchin himself said he was willing to support just two weeks ago. At the time, he informed Democrats he could not support their pursuit of billions in new investments to fight global warming, financed in part through tax increases, fearing it would worsen inflation as prices are soaring.
Manchin then called on his party to focus on health-care costs if they hoped to act in July, or wait another month until new economic indicators arrived. But the senator said Thursday that he continued working with Schumer behind the scenes — without the involvement of President Biden — in the hope that Democrats could satisfy his fiscal concerns.
“All of you might be surprised, but there should be no surprise, because I’ve never walked away from anything in my life,” Manchin said in a news conference.
The breakthrough came in part after Manchin ensured that fossil fuels are “recognized to be a driving force and player in this piece of legislation,” he said during an appearance on local West Virginia radio. For one thing, Manchin secured support from Biden, Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for a forthcoming measure that would ease permitting around new energy production.
“I wasn’t budging from making sure we have a robust energy portfolio,” Manchin said.
And the senator said he told his staff to “scrub” the bill for potentially inflationary measures, leading Democrats to drop some of their proposed tax increases. Their final agreement does impose a new minimum rate on corporations, targeting major multinational firms that pay nothing to the U.S. government, but Manchin said that would not prove “inflammatory.”
“This is truly going to be around inflation reduction,” he said.
Meanwhile, Democrats gathered privately Thursday to learn new details of the deal. Even though it amounts to a coup for Biden and other top party lawmakers, the agreement still totals far less than the roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better Act that Democrats adopted in the House last year.
Addressing his caucus, Schumer sought to emphasize the rare opportunity in front of his party after serving in the minority in Washington for many years, according to a Democratic aide who attended the meeting and spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the closed-door conversation.
When they were out of power, Democrats long discussed ways to lower health-care costs, reduce the price of medicine and combat climate change, Schumer said. Now the majority leader said the party has the chance to transform those ideas into law and had to seize on the moment swiftly, the aide recalled.
Exiting the meeting, some Democrats appeared to share that view.
“It doesn’t include everything people wanted in the earlier package,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). “But compared to where we thought we were 48 hours ago, I mean, this is light-years — light-years — forward.”
To advance the bill, Democrats need the support of their entire caucus. They intend to use the process known as reconciliation, which will allow them to leverage their tiebreaking majority in the narrowly divided chamber to overcome a Republican filibuster. But some party lawmakers have not yet offered their views on the bill, including Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), a moderate who in the past has raised similar fiscal concerns as Manchin did.
The proposal empowers the U.S. government to help lower drug costs for seniors and includes a bevy of new policies that incentivize cleaner and greener energy. Those investments also come with new mandates for offshore oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska. Still, Democrats believe the sum total of their work will allow them to reduce emissions by 40 percent as of 2030.
Democrats aim to pay for new spending — totaling $433 billion — with policies that also help raise more than $300 billion toward reducing the deficit. Manchin on Thursday described the plan’s fiscal benefits as essential, stressing that he was able to lend his must-have vote only after Democrats walked away from an original bill that would have included trillions of additional dollars in new spending. | 2022-07-28T16:24:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Manchin says he ‘never walked away’ as Democrats push spending deal - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/07/28/democrats-manchin-spending-deal-climate/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/07/28/democrats-manchin-spending-deal-climate/ |
By Gerardo Carrillo and Mark Stevenson | AP
MEXICO CITY — The killing of a young doctor in Mexico has led recent medical school graduates to demand changes to a system that often leaves them exposed to danger in remote outposts during the first year of their careers as part of the country’s medical training system. | 2022-07-28T16:25:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In Mexico, killing of young doctor leads to protest - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-mexico-killing-of-young-doctor-leads-to-protest/2022/07/28/31cfc582-0e87-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-mexico-killing-of-young-doctor-leads-to-protest/2022/07/28/31cfc582-0e87-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
Chick-fil-A store asks for ‘volunteers’ to work for chicken, not money
A Chick-fil-A restaurant sign is seen from a drive-through on July 5, 2022. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
In recent years, working at Chick-fil-A has meant being part of one of America’s most popular fast-food restaurants and a chicken-sandwich juggernaut of a business that’s brought in billions of dollars in annual sales.
So some fans were surprised this week when one North Carolina store took a different approach and asked for “volunteers” who would be paid in chicken instead of money to work at the location’s drive-through.
“We are looking for volunteers for our new Drive Thru Express!” the store in Hendersonville, N.C., wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday that has since been deleted. “Earn 5 free entrees per shift (1 hr) worked. Message us for details.”
The store has been met with backlash for appearing to ignore the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the long-standing federal law that states how employers must pay their employees for all of the hours they work. The Hendersonville location, which is run by a franchisee, responded to the online blowback by saying the “volunteer-based opportunity” was intended for people who “think it’s a good fit for them,” and argued it was different from full- or part-time employment.
“We’ve had multiple people sign up and enjoy doing and have done it multiple times,” the store wrote in a separate post. “People who sign up for this chose it voluntarily.”
A spokesperson for Chick-fil-A, which is headquartered in Atlanta, told The Washington Post on Thursday that the Hendersonville store had “decided to end this program.”
A manager at the Chick-fil-A store declined to comment, and directed all questions to corporate representatives. Joel Benson, the Hendersonville restaurant’s operator, did not immediately respond to a requests for comment on Thursday.
Jennifer Haigwood, director of communications for the North Carolina Department of Labor, told The Post in a statement that while the agency does not have any jurisdiction over volunteers or situations where there isn’t an employer-employee relationship, the FLSA’s requirements regarding private for-profit employers “are clear that there cannot be an employee who provides ‘volunteer’ work for that for-profit employer.”
Known for touting its “family-owned” and “biblically-based” principles, including closing on Sundays, privately-held Chick-fil-A has been one of the most profitable fast-food restaurant chains in the country, with more than 2,600 restaurants across 47 states, D.C., Canada and Puerto Rico.
A 2020 report from Technomic, a consulting firm for the restaurant industry, estimated that Chick-fil-A brought in about $11.3 billion in sales for 2019, trailing only McDonald’s and Starbucks among restaurant chains. In 2021, the average Chick-fil-A store outside of a mall made more than $8.1 million in annual revenue, according to franchise disclosure documents obtained by Restaurant Business magazine.
Chick-fil-A has also faced criticism for its anti-LGBTQ stances, specifically when the company’s chief executive, Dan Cathy, said in 2012 that he was opposed to same-sex marriage. The company later said that its culture was “to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect.” A store in Decatur, Ga., is facing a recent discrimination lawsuit from a transgender employee who has accused the franchise restaurant’s owner of saying it was an “honor” for the worker to face sexual harassment and catcalls.
The store in Hendersonville, located more than 20 miles south of Asheville, N.C., is perhaps best known for employing Madison Cawthorn as a cashier, years before he was elected as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives. The franchisee made headlines last summer when it announced pay raises to employees that bumped their wages to $19 an hour, according to the Hendersonville Times-News.
As online backlash mounted against the store this week, the location wrote in a follow-up post to social media that the idea came as a way for customers at the Hendersonville Chick-fil-A “to earn free food to simply traffic direct other guests.”
“Usually a win-win for us and the volunteer who gets free Chick-fil-A!” the store wrote, according to Vice News. “That way, our team can focus on serving the guests in what we do best.”
A manager at the store defended the idea to Vice, saying the initiative for volunteer works reflected how some brands in the community “establish a relationship” with their customers.
“As a result, there’s an expression of desire from the community to be more a part of what that brand is doing,” said the manager, Ryan, who declined to give his last name to the media outlet. “We get people all the time that want to be a part of what we’re doing. This is designed to be an opportunity for that.”
Critics, however, weren’t buying what the Chick-fil-A store was selling.
“There is so much wrong here I don’t know where to start,” one commenter posted on Reddit.
Even with the negative response to the volunteer positions to be paid in chicken sandwiches, the Chick-fil-A location says it is still looking to hire those interested in full- and part-time positions.
Anne Branigin contributed to this report. | 2022-07-28T17:53:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Chick-fil-A store in N.C. asks for volunteers to work drive-through for chicken, not money - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/28/chickfila-volunteers-labor-drive-thru-chicken-north-carolina/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/28/chickfila-volunteers-labor-drive-thru-chicken-north-carolina/ |
A worker stocks the shelves of a Walmart in the Uptown Mall in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, on Tuesday, July 26, 2022. Consumer price inflation accelerated in June to the highest level since January 1983, maintaining pressure on the Bank of Canada to continue delivering aggressive interest rate hikes. (Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg)
Private labels are more profitable for retailers than branded goods, but other types of trading down aren’t so helpful: Supermarkets still incur the same staffing costs from selling a burger as from a steak.
It’s also possible that Walmart isn’t passing its own price pressures onto customers in full. After all, it must be conscious of losing them to the growing German discount retailers Aldi and Lidl, as well as to the dollar stores. | 2022-07-28T17:53:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Consumer Giants Are More Like Walmart Than They Think - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/consumer-giants-are-more-like-walmart-than-they-think/2022/07/28/599eb364-0e93-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/consumer-giants-are-more-like-walmart-than-they-think/2022/07/28/599eb364-0e93-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
The $369 billion deal could sharply reduce carbon pollution and lower Americans’ power bills. But climate experts said more needs to be done.
The GE-Alstom Block Island Wind Farm stands in the water off Block Island, R.I., in September 2016. (Eric Thayer/Bloomberg)
The $369 billion deal Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) forged Wednesday with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) could represent the nation’s most consequential climate policy yet, even though it falls short of what the United States needs to do to meet its global warming pledge by the end of the decade.
The agreement — which includes generous tax credits to spur clean-energy development and purchases of electric vehicles — could put the United States on track to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, according to Rhodium Group, a research firm. President Biden has pledged to cut emissions at least in half by the end of the decade.
Without new legislation, Rhodium projects that the United States would probably cut its carbon output by only 24 to 35 percent by 2030.
Already, Earth has warmed more than 1.1 degrees Celsius (1.98 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, mainly because of the burning of fossil fuels. Scientists say each additional fraction of warming will increase the severity of hurricanes, floods, wildfires and heat waves in the years to come. The United States would have to shave its emissions at least in half to give global leaders a shot at holding warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).
The new agreement includes some significant concessions on fossil fuels that would probably increase carbon pollution by requiring the federal government to auction off more public lands and waters for oil drilling. Manchin, whose home state of West Virginia is a major producer of coal and gas, had argued for these provisions during the negotiations. But many climate advocates said those trade-offs, which Senate Democrats accepted to win Manchin’s support, were worth it.
Summer is getting hotter and more dangerous
It would also make the construction of renewable-energy projects on federal land contingent on more oil drilling. In order for the Interior Department to issue a right-of-way for wind and solar projects — a necessary approval to connect to the power grid — the department would have to auction off at least 2 million acres for drilling during the previous year. Similarly, Interior wouldn’t be able to sell offshore wind leases until it had offered at least 60 million acres in waters for sale.
Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity, called the fossil-fuel-friendly provisions “super cynical.”
“If you look at the details, it’s a terrible deal,” Hartl said. “I don’t see frankly how the math even works, because the amount of leasing we would be locking in until 2032 would just be game-over for the climate.”
But Princeton University professor Jesse Jenkins, an energy policy expert and modeler, said the bill’s climate calculus does pencil out.
“The measures in this bill do bind the administration’s hand to ensure leasing continues,” he wrote in an email. But Jenkins said any additional emissions from federal leasing are “dwarfed by the emissions reductions driven by the bill.” A new fee on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry and an Environmental Protection Agency regulation curbing emissions of the potent greenhouse gas are also expected to reduce carbon pollution.
The climate and tax package would bolster American energy production and combat climate change through tax incentives for the renewable-energy sector, increasing wind, solar, battery and geothermal construction. Tens of millions of drivers would qualify for new tax credits to buy electric vehicles. Homeowners across the country would get financial help to pay for heat pumps and insulate their properties.
An analysis by the group found that those new investments would lower the cost of electricity by shifting the country away from more-expensive fossil fuels, such as coal, and toward cheaper renewable energy. Though the effects of this transition would probably take a few years to reach individuals, they could save American rate payers $5 billion annually by 2024, the group found. | 2022-07-28T17:53:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The $369 billion Senate deal could be most significant climate pact in U.S. history - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/28/senate-manchin-climate-deal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/28/senate-manchin-climate-deal/ |
By Sigal Ratner-Arias | AP
NEW YORK — Since her breakthrough role as Vanessa in the film adaptation of “In The Heights,” Melissa Barrera has been working non-stop on the big and small screen. Only this year, she appeared in “Scream 5” and is filming a sequel, and stars in the upcoming Benjamin Millepied’s reimagining of the opera “Carmen” and Lori Evans Taylor’s “Bed Rest,” which she also produced. | 2022-07-28T17:53:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Q&A: Melissa Barrera survives, on screen and in Hollywood - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/qanda-melissa-barrera-survives-on-screen-and-in-hollywood/2022/07/28/07213b84-0e93-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/qanda-melissa-barrera-survives-on-screen-and-in-hollywood/2022/07/28/07213b84-0e93-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
Dan Cox, who won the Republican nomination for Maryland governor, speaks to reporters on July 19 in Emmitsburg. (Kenneth K. Lam/The Baltimore Sun/AP)
“You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-American,” President Biden said on Monday, days after the Jan. 6 committee released grim new details about the attack on the Capitol. He was right. So why are offshoots of his own party boosting Republican candidates who have espoused these dangerous views? The time has come for Democratic leadership — including Mr. Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and others — to denounce the cynical campaign tactics employed by various party entities this year.
The latest infuriating example of this is in the Republican primary in Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District, where the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has spent $435,000 to bolster John Gibbs, a former Trump administration official running against incumbent Rep. Peter Meijer. Mr. Meijer was one of just 10 House Republicans who courageously voted to impeach former president Donald Trump after Jan. 6, 2021. Mr. Gibbs, on the other hand, falsely claimed that Mr. Trump’s election defeat in 2020 seemed “mathematically impossible.” His campaign website calls for a “full forensic audit” of the election.
Democrats calculate that Mr. Gibbs would be a weak opponent in a swing district they consider a prime opportunity to pick up a seat. The DCCC-backed ads characterize Mr. Gibbs as “too conservative” and tout his links to Mr. Trump — messages that would go down well among GOP primary voters.
The strategy is not a new one for Democrats in this election cycle. A House Democratic super PAC funded an ad promoting the election-denying opponent of Rep. David G. Valadao (Calif.), another Republican who voted for impeachment. Mr. Valadao won his primary, but the result was closer than expected.
In Maryland, meanwhile, the Democratic Governors Association spent $2 million on ads and mailers promoting Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox. Mr. Cox, as we have written before, is a fringe figure described by Mr. Trump as “100 percent MAGA.” A state delegate, he arranged for buses to bring supporters of Mr. Trump to the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally at the Capitol and has called former vice president Mike Pence a “traitor” for not overturning the election results. Now, he has a chance at the governor’s office, along with a larger platform to spread his baseless claims.
The issue is not simply that this scheme could backfire and elect fringe candidates; Democrats’ Machiavellian approach in key races could pan out. Still, it reeks of hypocrisy to elevate figures who deny the election, while also making the case that they are a grievous threat to American democracy. The moves risk undercutting the progress Democrats have made on communicating these dangers to the public and positioning themselves as the party of democratic principles. As Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.) told Politico: “No race is worth compromising your values in that way.”
According to FiveThirtyEight, at least 120 Republican nominees for Congress and statewide elected office endorse the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen. Others are in contention to win primaries in the weeks ahead. To be sure, the rise of such candidates says more about the state of the Republican Party today. But what a sordid story if Democratic spending helps enable any of them. | 2022-07-28T17:54:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Democrats, stop boosting election deniers in GOP primaries - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/democrats-backing-gibbs-valadao-cox-republicans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/democrats-backing-gibbs-valadao-cox-republicans/ |
Recession or jobs boom? It’s not so simple.
A parent shops for school supplies on July 27 in North Miami, Fla. (Marta Lavandier/AP)
With news that the economy shrank for the second quarter in a row — an informal marker of a recession but not the official test — voters are hearing two competing views of the economy.
Republicans sound as if we’re back to the 1970s, when the so-called misery index (inflation plus unemployment) reached about 20 percent. (Today, it would be about 13 percent.) They point out that gas prices have gone through the roof, inflation is at a 40-year high, and wages have not kept pace. They argue that President Biden misjudged inflation (which the Federal Reserve and most economists did, too) and was slow to react. Now, we might be in a recession.
The White House view is that the economy is “softening” as expected but that unemployment remains historically low. “People who want a job can get a job,” Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, told me and a small group of reporters Thursday. Consumer spending is still increasing (albeit at a slower pace) and inventories have returned to normal levels. Rouse says while the administration knows the economy must “cool,” a record-low unemployment rate sure doesn’t seem like a recession. (Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell doesn’t think we are in a recession, either, although he acknowledged Wednesday that the path to avoid a recession has narrowed.)
Is the White House right or is the GOP? Yes. The economy is a mixed bag. If you have gotten back to work (maybe in a better-paying job) without a long commute, you might be doing better. If you kept your job during the pandemic, but your rent went up and you now pay a fortune in gas to get to work, you’ve lost ground in the past year or so.
As for the cause of inflation, the administration resists the conclusion that the American Rescue Plan overheated the economy. Rouse points to the pandemic’s unprecedented stop and then restart of the economy as the major driver of inflation. In addition, Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine is “having big consequences,” she says, for food and energy prices.
When it comes to the impact of the American Rescue Plan, we should look at the “counterfactual,” Rouse says. After telling businesses to close and workers to go home, were we not supposed to help the families that were going hungry or keep businesses out of bankruptcy?
Republican critics, independent economists (with a few exceptions) and the administration all misjudged the risk of inflation because we had never before had a total shutdown and restart, followed by a war that has disrupted the supply of food and gas. It is frankly ridiculous to think the administration could have found exactly the right amount of stimulus (big enough to prevent suffering but not so big as to aggravate inflation). Instead, the administration erred on the side of supporting the people and businesses that were marooned by the pandemic.
Rouse has reason to feel optimistic after the Senate passed a much-needed semiconductor bill Wednesday, and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) reached an apparent deal with Democratic leaders on what’s now known as the Inflation Reduction Act — a true surprise for the administration filled with the sorts of investments in the economy that will produce long-term growth. The reconciliation deal with Manchin is a gift to the administration — it contains record investment in clean energy, as well as a plan to cap and control drug prices and tax big corporations. (Biden should be particularly pleased with tax provisions such as a global minimum tax for corporations and the end of the carried-interest loophole that will generate more revenue to invest later and make the code fairer.)
Politicians will argue from here to the midterms and beyond about who is to blame for inflation. But if Biden gets the blame for inflation, he should also get credit for jobs and falling gas prices. Even so, he really doesn’t deserve all the credit or the blame for the economy. Both sides exaggerate the extent of Biden’s control over it. He can’t spin the dials to create the perfect balance between jobs and inflation — although lowering tariffs and increasing immigration would tamp down on inflation.
What Biden actually does deserve ample credit for is tackling the pandemic. He pushed out vaccines, treatments and testing kits, all which have allowed people (including him) to avoid serious illness and get back to work. Republicans fought him tooth and nail, resulting in lower vaccination rates and more hospitalizations and deaths per capita in red states.
Instead of deciding whom to blame for inflation, voters should consider how each party wants to address the prospect of a recession. Republicans still push supply-side tax cuts (and weirdly, tax hikes on poorer people). Democrats want tax credits and cuts for middle- and low-income workers, plus a minimum corporate tax and greater investment in clean energy, infrastructure and education to produce steady growth.
Whichever path you favor, keep in mind: No single president (or Congress) is solely responsible for good times or bad, let alone an economy that’s both good and bad. | 2022-07-28T17:54:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Economy is doing well but also in deep trouble - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/economy-recession-fed-reserve/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/economy-recession-fed-reserve/ |
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) faces reporters as he arrives at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee at the U.S. Capitol. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
The new reconciliation deal Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) announced Wednesday anticipates its critics: What was once Build Back Better is now dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act — less catchy, perhaps, but savvy. The name is fitting for a proposal that largely meets the moment.
Senate Democrats deserve credit for managing to push the Chips and Science Act through to passage, even as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) threatened to hold it hostage if a large economic package was pending — and then getting a $433 billion economic package after all. Thanks to behind-the-scenes negotiations between Mr. Manchin and Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), what looked, after the talks’ latest collapse, like an agreement only over lowering prescription drug prices and extending Affordable Care Act subsidies has re-expanded to include tax and climate policy. The legislation lacks some of Build Back Better’s best parts. Thankfully, it also lacks some of the worst.
The tax provisions in the deal are sound on a policy level and smart on a political one. A 15 percent minimum levy on big corporations, the closure at long last of the carried interest loophole and funding for the Internal Revenue Service to bolster enforcement are changes that, put together, should ensure the wealthy pay a fairer share of taxes. The refusal to lift the cap on state and local tax deductions, in what would have amounted to a massive giveaway to the affluent, is also a major improvement from the earlier BBB. Could Democrats have hoped for broader-based tax hikes, such as raising the top bracket or capital gains rates? Of course. But what they’re getting is a significant improvement on the status quo, and allows for an easier rebuttal to misleading claims from Republicans that the proposal will worsen inflation.
The bill’s energy and climate spending provisions are further from perfect. But compared with what Democrats previously believed they’d achieve — nothing — they are welcome. The tax credits for clean energy at the legislation’s heart are a respectable route to boosting U.S. manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and more. Tax credits for the purchasing of electric vehicles are less efficient, and support for fossil fuels seems likelier to help Mr. Manchin’s coal-rich home state than a rapidly warming world. Nonetheless, the bill’s drafters estimate the legislation will result in a 40 percent decline in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. That might be overconfident, but plenty of climate advocates say the proposal keeps the country in the fight against global warming. Democrats can help more by pursuing permitting reform in the coming months as they’ve promised, to ease regulatory obstacles impeding important projects.
There are a few things to mourn in this victory. The loss of the child tax credit means giving up what could have been the most important anti-poverty measure in a generation. Similarly, the refusal to close the Medicaid coverage gap will leave the country’s worst-off citizens stranded without health care, unless Congress somehow finds a way to take this matter back up. These are more than small quibbles. They are serious opportunities missed, and serious harms unmitigated. Yet, to rebuff all that finally is on offer would also be missing a huge opportunity to — yes — build America back better. This week’s deal deserves celebration, and a winning vote. | 2022-07-28T17:54:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The surprise Joe Manchin deal is cause for celebration - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/joe-manchin-spending-deal-climate-economy-health/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/joe-manchin-spending-deal-climate-economy-health/ |
The Manchin deal should fail. But Republicans can learn something from it.
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) attends a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on July 19. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
Republicans are right to oppose the new tax hike and climate spending deal from Sen. Joe Manchin III. That doesn’t mean there aren’t things they can learn from the West Virginia Democrat’s effort — especially when it comes to raising taxes.
The deal appears to be yet another liberal bait-and-switch. It pledges to raise more revenue than it spends for climate and energy programs, but the scant details on the package do not inspire confidence. Almost all of the deficit reduction will come from two nebulous sources: money saved from Medicare drug price negotiation and raised from increased enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service. Those could be considerable, or they could amount to little or nothing. If those sources don’t deliver, this bill is simply a paid-for spending hike.
Manchin’s main tax hike — levying a 15 percent minimum tax on large corporations — will also likely be less lucrative than it looks. Businesses will fight it tooth and nail, and they have the resources to find ways to get around it should they fail. Again, specific details are lacking, but the bill reportedly intends to use reported earnings rather than taxable income as a baseline for levying the minimum tax. If that’s the case, tax lawyers and accountants will work overtime to figure out ways to hide income from taxation while still rewarding investors. In a battle between Big Government and the tax avoidant-industrial complex, I’d bet on the complex every time.
So Manchin’s bill deserves to fail — and it just might, given that other Democratic senators whose approval are necessary for passage have yet to give their assent.
Nevertheless, Republicans can still learn some essential insights from Manchin’s approach for when they regain power. Manchin grasps two things many Republicans resist: We can’t solve our deficit problem without revenue increases, and those hikes should fall on the entities best able to bear the burden. His proposals might be dodgy and tying it to spending hikes is dubious, but any politically successful deficit-reduction measure will rest on these two core premises.
Republicans who resist this need to get serious. Coincidentally, the Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday released its long-term budget outlook for 2022, and it is sobering. As with prior outlooks, the CBO projects increasing debt and deficits as far as the eye can see. Debt held by the public is projected to rise to as much as 185 percent of gross domestic product by 2052. The interest the government pays to service the massive debt is also projected to grow. Somehow, I don’t think Americans will like having to scrimp on social programs to repay the wealthy investors, banks and foreign sovereign wealth funds that will reap the benefits of our profligacy.
These dire predictions are coupled with the fact that we need to spend more on national defense and retirement programs. Our military must grow and modernize its aging weaponry to counter the threat of China. That will cost money, and it’s fanciful to think it will come from repositioning entitlement spending. Plus, the aging of baby boomers is in full swing, which will add significant pressure to Medicare and Medicaid costs over the coming decades. Shirking either budgetary item would be extremely irresponsible.
That’s where Manchin’s insights come in. If we need to spend more, and if we need to cut the deficit, we need to raise taxes and find other sources of revenue in a way that is politically palatable. Manchin’s answers are the right ones: It should come from the well-to-do, whether they are behemoth corporations or the upper-class Americans who have benefited most from the era of globalization.
Those hikes do not need to be increases in tax rates. Well-off corporations and individuals receive a bevy of tax breaks that collectively reduce their federal taxes by a massive amount. The Treasury Department recently listed such breaks, known as tax expenditures, and found that eliminating them could raise trillions of dollars over the next decade. We shouldn’t abolish all of them; the exclusion of employer-paid health insurance premiums is a good example of a tax break that benefits working families. But we could selectively cut them so that the burden falls on those who can afford it.
This could be coupled with cuts in federal spending that also disproportionately benefit the upper classes. For example, why do retirees earning six figures receive subsidized Medicare Part B premiums? These Americans can pay the added costs and simply use the subsidies to afford other luxuries. We shouldn’t burden our grandchildren with debt so their grandparents can enjoy another cruise.
So yes, Manchin’s bill is bad. But his insights are good, and Republicans should use them to their advantage in 2024 and beyond. | 2022-07-28T17:54:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The Manchin deal should fail. But Republicans can learn something from it. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/manchin-climate-healthcare-deal-republicans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/manchin-climate-healthcare-deal-republicans/ |
By Aaditi Lele
(Fatinha Ramos for The Washington Post)
Aaditi Lele is a rising sophomore at Vanderbilt University, where she is a Rachel Carson Council fellow and serves as the news editor of the school newspaper, the Vanderbilt Hustler.
Less than two months ago, I took the oath of naturalization to become the first American citizen in my family. I watched as new Americans from dozens of countries stood together, speaking in unison of our commitment to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States.” But in the wake of multiple decisions by a Supreme Court that seems intent on rolling back Americans’ liberties, I’m left wondering what warped interpretation of the Constitution I’ve committed to defend.
From the day my family moved from Pune, India, to the United States a decade ago, when I was 8 years old, I’ve been bombarded with glorified images and slogans about the American Dream — “Land of the Free!” — and encouraged to embrace this nation’s ideals. I came to believe this messaging. The idea that pursuing citizenship would help me secure my rights was not lost on me, so I did exactly that.
I thought that becoming a citizen would protect me. It would ensure my right to vote, to run for office, to be shielded from deportation. But now, I feel more vulnerable and less free than I ever have before.
In its most recent term, the Supreme Court stripped my right to access abortion, weakened the separation of church and state, impaired the federal government’s ability to fight the climate crisis, diminished protections against firearms, and fortified protections for Border Patrol agents accused of misconduct.
To me, these are all breaches of my new nation’s promises.
As a young woman attending college in Tennessee, I’m terrified by the court’s rescinding of abortion protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. College campuses have some of the highest rates of sexual violence in the country. Among female undergraduates, 26.4 percent experience sexual violence during college. Tennessee’s “trigger law” to restrict abortion access, slated to go into effect on Aug. 25, has no exceptions for cases of rape, incest or sexual violence against children. State law makes it a felony to mail abortion pills.
If I’m sexually assaulted and become pregnant, Tennessee gives me no choice but to follow through with a pregnancy for which I may not be financially, emotionally or physically fit, and to give birth to a child I did not choose to conceive.
The court of course did not stop there. Its ruling in West Virginia v. EPA severely curtailed the federal government’s ability to fight the climate crisis, stating that the Environmental Protection Agency could not impose emissions regulations on power plants without approval from Congress.
I’m one of the millions of young people who marched for climate justice during the 2019 global strikes. For my generation, which has been told that solving this crisis will fall on our shoulders, the implications of this decision are especially alarming.
Then there is the court’s neglect to protect us from the gun violence epidemic. In New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, the court struck down a New York law requiring individuals to show “proper cause” before they can be licensed to carry a concealed weapon. I was brought to the United States under the assumption that it would be a place of safety and refuge. Now I’m more scared than ever for my 14-year-old sister and her classmates, who will enter the next academic year during a period in which the rate of mass shootings is at a historic high.
Finally, I became a citizen partly to escape the stress of navigating the U.S. immigration system. The court’s ruling in the Border Patrol case, Egbert v. Boule — which effectively grants officers immunity from lawsuits seeking to hold them accountable for alleged misbehavior within a 100-mile zone of the U.S. border — causes further anxiety.
Citizenship is often sold with the promise that it will insulate people from persecution by the immigration system. But many immigrant children grow up petrified of making any misstep that could trigger expulsion. For our families, the looming threat of a Border Patrol force that might operate beyond the law is terrifying.
I can’t help witnessing all this and believing that the dream I was sold doesn’t exist — that this country is setting itself up to fail me and so many others.
To live up to its promise, the United States needs strong institutional reforms to secure our rights, whether that means expanding the Supreme Court, adopting ranked-choice voting or implementing any of the many other reforms proposed by defenders of democracy.
I’m new to this. I swore an oath to the United States because I believed I was taking part in something I could be proud of and defend. Despite the Supreme Court’s actions, I remain committed to fighting to make this country a better place — one that protects us all. I’m simply asking that, in return, the country not forget its commitments to me. | 2022-07-28T17:54:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | I recently became a U.S. citizen. Now I’m more vulnerable than ever. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/new-us-citizen-supreme-court-stripping-away-rights/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/new-us-citizen-supreme-court-stripping-away-rights/ |
Which comes first, overeating or gaining weight?
By David S. Ludwig
David S. Ludwig is a co-director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The usual way of understanding obesity is simple: If you consume more calories than you need to fuel yourself, the surplus is deposited into body fat, and you gain weight. Because, according to this approach, all calories are alike to the body, the only way to lose weight is to eat fewer of them or burn more off with exercise.
For a century, this “energy balance” notion has dominated obesity prevention and treatment, from the original focus on calorie-counting in the early 1900s, to the low-fat diet (targeting the most energy dense nutrient) of the late 1900s, to the recent emphasis on reducing consumption of modern processed foods high in fat and sugar.
If this theory is correct, though, it’s hard to square with the facts. After more than a three-decade increase, calorie consumption in the United States has plateaued or decreased since 2000, a new analysis concludes. But obesity rates have increased by more than one-third since then, to an astounding 42 percent of the population today. This paradox can’t be simply explained by our sedentary lifestyles — in fact, Americans have become somewhat more physically active over the past 20 years.
So what if the focus on calories and energy balance is simply wrong, reversing cause and effect? Writing in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition this week, my co-authors — researchers, physicians, public health experts — and I argue that overeating isn’t the primary cause of obesity. Instead, the process of gaining weight causes us to overeat.
This is a different model of obesity, the carbohydrate-insulin model. This theory puts the blame for rising levels of obesity on the processed, fast-digesting carbs that flooded our diets during the low-fat diet craze — white bread, white rice, prepared breakfast cereals, potato products and sugary foods. It posits that consumption of these carbohydrates raises insulin levels too high and produces other hormonal changes that program our body to store extra fat.
Looked at this way, obesity isn’t an overeating problem, it’s a calorie distribution problem — too many calories from each meal being siphoned off into fat tissue and too few remaining in the blood to satisfy the energy needs of the body. Consequently, our brains make us feel hungrier sooner after eating to compensate for those sequestered calories. If we try to ignore hunger and restrict calories, the body conserves energy by slowing metabolism. In this sense, obesity is a state of starvation amid plenty.
According to this theory, simply cutting back on calories doesn’t work over the long term, because it doesn’t address the underlying predisposition to store excessive fat driven by hormones and other biological influences. Instead, the focus should be on reducing the surge of blood glucose and insulin after meals with a higher-fat diet low in processed carbs. This way, fat tissue can be coaxed to release the pent-up calories, leading to less hunger. Weight loss occurs without the need for calorie restriction, increasing the likelihood of long-term success.
So, is the carbohydrate-insulin model more correct than energy balance thinking? Unfortunately, we yet don’t know for sure. The definitive research needed to resolve this controversy has never been done, in part because alternative paradigms for obesity have not been taken seriously.
Two scholarly papers, in addition to our new one this week, have aimed to build the carbohydrate-insulin model from available scientific evidence. Yet there have been more than a dozen papers from critics claiming to have disproved the model based on weak evidence, such as small, short-term trials of two weeks or less.
Meanwhile, despite investing in many major low-fat diet trials (virtually all failing to show any benefit for the main outcomes), the government’s National Institutes of Health has yet to fund a single long-term low-carb trial of similar scope. This hasn’t been a fair contest of ideas.
One reason for this resistance might be cultural. For centuries, obesity has been viewed as a character flaw. Despite decades of research into the genetic and biological influences on body weight, people with obesity continue to be stigmatized, more so than those with almost any other chronic disease, as if their weight were their fault.
Energy balance thinking implicitly contributes to these stereotypes by blaming overeating on poor self-control. Although newer energy balance versions emphasize primal reward centers in the brain that drive food intake, either way, people with obesity are considered unable to resist tempting foods for conscious or subconscious reasons. If the alternative paradigm is correct, however, then deeply ingrained notions about obesity are simply wrong.
Scientists are supposed to be skeptical. But when variations of the same approach keep failing — and rates of obesity keep going up — it’s critical that new ideas are encouraged, not suppressed. And with the cost of just one weight-related complication, type 2 diabetes, almost $1 billion a day, we must consider different ways of solving the intractable problem of obesity and open our minds to a radical-sounding notion: Overeating is a symptom, not a cause. | 2022-07-28T17:54:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Carbohydrates, not calories, are to blame for obesity - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/obesity-carbohydrates-insulin-calories-fat/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/obesity-carbohydrates-insulin-calories-fat/ |
Economy, Ind. (Timothy Aeppel/Reuters)
A years-old tweet from CNN White House correspondent John Harwood has gotten new life this week — always a sign that someone, somewhere is hoping to score some points.
The tweet at issue was this one.
If you’re proximally attuned to the current political conversation, you’ll recognize the trigger for calling it out. The White House has been very deliberate and very vocal about recalibrating expectations about what constitutes a “recession,” including downplaying the simple equation that Harwood used in 2019.
As The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake noted, the definition is, in fact, more nuanced than the one Harwood presented. Consecutive quarters of declines in the gross domestic product (as the United States has just experienced) is one indicator and one that generally overlaps with recessions. But the declaration of a recession has political repercussions that the White House hopes to avoid — and its critics hope to elevate.
Hence the focus on Harwood, who in recent days has similarly noted that the definition of “recession” isn’t hard and fast. It’s an opportunity for President Biden’s critics and the political right to draw attention to a perceived bit of hypocrisy — to use an allegation of attempted point-scoring to score points.
One of the challenges with Twitter is that, by design, it elides context from an assertion. You have only so many characters even as you’re encouraged to riff on what’s happening in the moment. The result is that stand-alone statements quickly lose the context in which they were offered.
Here, Harwood was responding to comments President Donald Trump made during a meeting with the president of Romania. He’d been asked whether his trade war with China might push China into a recession and take the United States with it.
“We have to solve the problem with China because they’re taking out $500 billion a year, plus — and that doesn’t include intellectual property theft and other things,” Trump replied. “And also, national security. So, I am doing this whether it’s good or bad for your — your statement about, ‘Oh, will we fall into a recession for two months?’ Okay? The fact is, somebody had to take China on.”
Harwood soon after noted on Twitter that recessions were generally measured over longer periods than that.
As it turns out, this argument itself would be undercut after the novel coronavirus emerged. The shutdown of economic activity at the outset of the pandemic lasted only two months, according to the U.S. Business Cycle Dating Committee — proving short recessions possible. That recession did, however, overlap with a two-quarter decline in the GDP.
Much of this debate centers on the distinction between a rule of thumb and a rule. It’s the difference between walking off the size of a room and measuring it accurately. When right-wing critics make declarations like “two quarters of contraction, that’s what we have always said for decades is a recession,” they are blending the two, probably intentionally.
Politico’s Ben White, another of those elevated by right-wing critics for purportedly changing his tune on the definition of “recession,” actually understands the distinction.
“Wall Street analysts, economists and even some in the Biden administration itself expect a report on Thursday to show the economy shrank for a second straight quarter, meeting a classic — though by no means the only — definition of a recession,” White wrote, later adding that "[m]any economists agree that this post-pandemic moment doesn’t meet many criteria for recession.”
His tweet promoting the article, declaring that the White House was “pretty obviously right” in noting that two quarters of slowdown didn’t necessarily mark a recession, was contrasted with a March 2020 tweet. At that point, he pointed to GDP declines as an indication that “we are in a recession right now” — which we were. But since he used two quarters of decline and nothing else as his trigger for that announcement, it was portrayed as hypocritical.
On Twitter, he’d obliquely referenced the rule of thumb. And since it’s easier to search and skim Twitter than White’s catalogue of reporting — and easier still to present tweets as distinct, context-free assertions — someone searched his tweets for “recession.” A hypocrisy was born.
Clearly part of the problem is reporters offering quick responses to things on Twitter. Part of it, too, is the effort to cast reporters as necessarily biased by elevating shaky examples of their willingness to agree with the administration. So we get viral tweets and write-ups of those tweets that gleefully toss context.
Recognizing that defending Harwood and White would prompt people to dig up occasions on which I might have described a recession as being necessarily tied to two quarters of economic slowdown, I went ahead and did the search. The only example I can find was in a story from 2015, in which I wrote that when GDP growth was “below zero for two quarters in a row, that’s usually used as the marker of a recession.” Usually!
The trigger for that article, incidentally, was Trump’s campaign launch, during which he disparaged a GDP decline as something remarkable.
“Whoever heard of this?” he said. “It’s never below zero.”
Let’s just call that a rule of thumb. | 2022-07-28T17:55:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How hypocritical have observers been about the definition of ‘recession’? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/how-hypocritical-have-observers-been-about-definition-recession/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/how-hypocritical-have-observers-been-about-definition-recession/ |
Comedian Jon Stewart becomes emotional as he gives an interview to reporters, voicing his anger at Republican senators after they stalled a bill aimed at giving greater health-care access to U.S. military veterans exposed to toxic burn pits, July 28, 2022. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, was particularly incensed by the turn of events. Tester, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), other lawmakers and Stewart on Thursday morning joined veterans outside the Capitol — who originally came to Washington to see the bill pass — to assail the GOP.
Democrats accused Republicans of voting against it in retaliation for a deal announced earlier by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) that will allow Democrats to move ahead on an economic, health-care and climate package without Republican votes.
“And we turn our backs and say, 'no, we’re going to find an excuse to vote against our veterans while we wave the flag, talking about how great our fighting men and women are," Tester added.
Biden calls for legislation to help sick veterans who served near burn pits
“I’m very sad that 80 percent of the Republicans in the United States Senate said no to veterans yesterday,” she said Thursday. "Eighty percent. Forty votes, no."
Veterans — some in shirts emblazoned with the American flag and others wearing masks -- held up signs. One read “Sick and Dying Veterans Need Healthcare” while another held the GOP responsible with the words “Veterans blood is on Republican hands.”
“In an eleventh-hour act of cowardice, Republicans chose today to rob generations of toxic-exposed veterans across this country of the health care and benefits they’ve earned and so desperately need,” he tweeted. “Make no mistake —the American people are sick and tired of these games.”
On Wednesday, the revised measure drew 55 votes in the Senate — short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster. Twenty-five Republicans who previously supported versions of the bill voted against on the procedural vote.
Jeremy Butler, CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, called out Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) for switching to a no vote Wednesday.
Wednesday’s failed vote was rooted in the budgetary policy dispute that was first raised last month by Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), who objected to the way the bill would change the accounting of some $400 billion in preexisting veterans spending.
That previously authorized spending had been designated as discretionary -- that is, subject to yearly congressional appropriations. The PACT Act, however, authorizes $280 billion of new mandatory spending -- that is, not subject to yearly appropriations -- and also converts the prior $400 billion in authorizations from discretionary to mandatory.
That, Toomey first argued last month, amounts to a budget "gimmick" that could facilitate massive amounts of new appropriated spending: "Why would they do a thing like that?" he said in a June 24 floor speech. "The reason is because that way you create a big gaping hole in the discretionary spending category, which can be filled with another $400 billion of totally unrelated spending -- who knows on what."
“The senior Senator for Pennsylvania has an amendment that would ensure we do not just apply a financial band-aid to the problem, but actually fix the underlying accounting issue,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday in a speech on the Senate floor.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 2 GOP leader, said Thursday that the lopsided GOP vote was "separate" from any backlash to the Manchin-Schumer deal, but he said the sore feelings could make it more difficult to find a solution. "Obviously it doesn't help," he said.
After the failed vote Wednesday, Toomey said an amendment could allow the bill to be quickly passed: "My concern about this bill has nothing to do with the purpose of the bill," he said. "It is a budgetary gimmick that has the intent of making it possible to have a huge explosion in unrelated spending -- $400 billion."
“Make no mistake about this, the American people are sick and tired of the games that go on in this body,” he said. “We can make up all sorts of excuses about how this is going to move money around, but — let me tell you something—we are the ones who decide that. If we want to move money around, we will; if we don’t, we won’t. In the meantime, let’s pass this bill.” | 2022-07-28T17:55:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Republicans stall bill to aid veterans exposed to toxic burn pits - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/republicans-burn-pits-veterans/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/republicans-burn-pits-veterans/ |
FILE - In this image taken from video provided by WHEC-TV, David Jakubonis, left, brandishes a sharp object as he attacks U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, right, as the Republican candidate for New York governor delivered a speech in Perinton, N.Y., Thursday, July 21, 2022. Jakubonis will remain in custody while a federal judge considers his lawyer’s plea to release the Army veteran, who he said was in an alcoholic relapse. (WHEC-TV via AP) (Uncredited/WHEC-TV) | 2022-07-28T17:55:35Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Man who accosted US Rep. Zeldin on stage remains jailed - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/man-who-accosted-us-rep-zeldin-on-stage-remains-jailed/2022/07/28/0e3b9490-0e94-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/man-who-accosted-us-rep-zeldin-on-stage-remains-jailed/2022/07/28/0e3b9490-0e94-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
This geographer helps gaming companies avoid angering countries
Kate Edwards works to foresee blind spots — and help video game developers steer clear.
(Washington Post illustration; Courtesy of Kate Edwards)
In “Stray,” the adorable cat video game that’s become a hit in a quiet summer for game releases, players control a small cat as it navigates a cyberpunk Hong Kong. You prance around the occupants of the city — robots wearing stereotypical rice paddy hats — and skitter past Japanese and Korean signage and text.
That cultural mishmash has prompted some criticism of “Stray’s” French developer, BlueTwelve, particularly for lifting inspiration from the Kowloon Walled City without acknowledging or even giving a nod to some of its troubling history.
Kate Edwards, 57, a Seattle-based cultural and political consultant working in the video game industry, makes it her business to foresee these kinds of criticisms — and help developers address their blind spots, or steer clear entirely.
“Starting with the Walled City as an inspiration can potentially be a valid choice, but how the game distances itself from the original context is a very necessary thought exercise,” Edwards said. “Why choose this moment and place in history? How does it build or detract from the intended narrative and player experience?” (BlueTwelve and “Stray” publisher Annapurna Interactive did not respond to a request for comment.)
Edwards is a longtime video game industry executive who has worked with companies such as BioWare, Google and Microsoft, to get video games to better reflect international cultures and geopolitics. Last year, she was part of the Forbes’ “50 Over 50” list and was inducted into the Women in Games Hall of Fame.
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She’s advised game companies and cautioned them when their titles contained potential fodder for international outrage or controversy.
“If you’re going to be making a mainstream game, like ‘Cyberpunk 2077,’ you have to be mindful of the fact that there’s a lot of different, diverse people playing your game,” Edwards said. “Your particular viewpoint as a game designer, or narrative designer, that viewpoint, unless it has an explicit narrative reason to be there and you can justify it within the world building that you’ve done, it needs to be basically logically consistent with the world you’ve created.
“If you’re going to represent a specific culture, there are plenty of people from these cultures who are sensitivity readers, or they represent that culture, who can give you feedback.”
Edwards got her start working at Microsoft in 1992 as a geopolitical specialist, and helped address a controversy in the game “Age of Empires” in 1997, when the Korean government disagreed with the game’s depiction of a Japanese invasion of Korea. So the game could be sold in South Korea — considered a key market for Microsoft’s growth strategy, Edwards said — the developers significantly altered the details in a downloadable patch. Edwards called the incident “a lightbulb moment” for her to start an internal team that manages geopolitical risk.
In 2004′s “Halo 2,” a Covenant character had its name changed from the religious term “Dervish,” to “Arbiter,” to reduce similarities to Islam and avoid creating the appearance that the game was about the United States versus Islam, according to Edwards. She said she argued for the word change given the game’s references to Islam, the religious nature of the Covenant and protagonist Master Chief’s mission to stop them.
Katy Jo Wright, senior director at Xbox’s team called Gaming For Everyone, said in a statement, “We aim to create product experiences where players feel at home. This includes recognizing the worldwide differences in player journeys, including local needs, barriers, and experiences, and developing meaningful products that have local relevance for a global audience. At times this means we need to make decisions guided by our values of Gaming for Everyone — a commitment to a journey, not a destination. We continue to learn from these experiences and invest resources to fairly represent the diversity of our gaming community.”
After over thirteen years working with Microsoft on geopolitical business strategy, Edwards eventually left to start her own consultancy, Geogrify, where she continued to help clients like BioWare and Google adapt their products for a global audience. She still works with games in many cases.
In 2012, she took an even more involved role in the video game industry: That year, the International Game Developers Association, or IGDA, offered Edwards the role of executive director, where she worked until 2017. She also served as executive director of the Global Game Jam from 2019 to 2022.
Edwards said when she joined the IGDA as a member, she noticed people localization workers complaining that they were being ignored by the industry, so she started a special interest group for them in 2007 and went on to hold a localization summit at the annual Game Developer Conference. Her work led her to being approached by the IGDA for the executive director position, she said.
“I don’t like seeing people complaining about stuff. I like solutions. I don’t like whining,” Edwards said, reflecting on why the IGDA offered her the role. “At the time, I’m like, ‘I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve never been in a leadership role like this.’ But I was really passionate, though, about the organization and about helping developers, because at that point, I’ve been working alongside game developers for many years and I love these people.”
She said she felt strongly about pay equity, diversity and inclusion, and encouraging better practices around working overtime.
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In 2014, when gamers launched a targeted online harassment campaign, called GamerGate, Edwards, as IGDA director, spoke out against them, and was, as a result, a recipient of death threats and insults.
“I put on that strong face because I’m leading the IGDA. I’d have to be this pillar of strength to other developers who are being harassed and attacked. And I did that the best I could,” Edwards said. “But at the same time, there were plenty of times I was on the phone with my parents, crying, because I couldn’t take the stress. But of course, we all know what happened to GamerGate. They basically evolved into the alt-right, and then Trump got elected, and they got distracted.”
Edwards added that she knew a lot of women who left the video game industry in the aftermath of the harassment, deciding to take on jobs at major tech companies where their skills would be applicable. She ultimately left the IGDA in 2017, when she felt that she was no longer able to make a difference.
“We understand that those who play games are basically at gender parity, and across all racial groups and cultures,” Edwards said. “But the people who make games still tend to be skewed in a certain direction, demographically, so we still really want to strive to see that those who make games better represent those who play them. And we’re not there yet, even though we are seeing improvements.”
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Over the past several years, video game companies, including Riot Games, Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft, have faced allegations of sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination, as well as claims that their human resource departments have failed to adequately address complaints brought before them. Last July, a week after news of a California lawsuit against the publisher Activision Blizzard surfaced, employees at Ubisoft, another major video game publisher based in Paris, authored an open letter in solidarity with Activision Blizzard employees, sending it to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. Ubisoft ousted several executives in 2020 following reports of workplace harassment and toxicity, and has vowed to reform its culture.
“It’s been painful to work in this industry over the last five years, where we see some signs of change. We see more women in leadership roles and people of color in leadership roles,” Edwards said. “But then we see the crap that went down at Ubisoft, or the crap that went down at Riot, or the stuff at Activision Blizzard. It’s very much two steps forward, one step back.”
To critics who say that video games are toys, and that asking gaming companies to address politics is akin to asking Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog what they think of politics, Edwards said she thinks of games as culture.
“Games represent the current evolution of human narrative. We are redefining how stories get passed from one generation to another, in the same way that art has done and written text has done, and film and radio and all these other forms of creative media have done, which are all still around,” Edwards said.
“Games are now taking a stab at redefining what that looks like: How do we convey story, and narrative, and emotional connection between generations? And that’s vitally important for developers to understand what they’re doing because far too often in our industry, it’s a business, it’s all about money, it’s all about numbers.” | 2022-07-28T17:56:18Z | www.washingtonpost.com | This consultant helps video game devs avoid cultural and political gaffes - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/07/28/video-game-politics-sensitivity-consultant/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2022/07/28/video-game-politics-sensitivity-consultant/ |
Saudi crown prince wants you talking about his ‘city of the future’
An image provided by Saudi Arabia's Neom on July 26 shows the design plan for two parallel structures, known collectively as The Line, in the heart of the proposed Red Sea megacity. (AFP/Getty Images)
Imagine living in a vertical metropolis with no cars and a temperate climate, housed in twin high-rises more than 100 miles long, with hanging gardens and stunning views. In this Shangri-La, there’s no traffic or pollution, just green space, amenities and high-speed mass transit.
The twist is that it’s in Saudi Arabia, in a remote stretch of desert, and that you can’t move there anytime soon, because it only exists in promotional videos — the latest pie-in-the-sky pet project of the country’s crown prince and de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS.
This week, the prince unveiled new details about the project, versions of which he has been talking up for years, calling it a “civilizational revolution” that will challenge “traditional … horizontal cities.” Some 100 miles in length and one-eighth of a mile wide, the walled city would form the “infrastructure spine” of a wider megapolis, known as Neom, planned for northwestern Saudi Arabia.
The presentation in Jiddah on Monday — including slick (yet, some would say, dystopian) promo images and talk of an IPO — set off a days-long media and public relations blitz. The Dubai-based Gulf News called it “Saudi Arabia’s megacity of the future,” while others described the ambitions as “eye-popping.”
According to tech news website the Verge, promotional footage for the city seems like “the result of some very excitable marketing execs and a fortnight of all-nighters in Blender.”
“If you have money,” you should “raise the bar,” Mohammed said at the project’s reveal in Jiddah, Reuters reported. “Why should we copy normal cities?” he added.
The new details and material ginned up global interest in the futuristic megaproject just as Mohammed departed Tuesday for his first official trip to Europe since the murder of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, which drew international condemnation.
Government critics have been quick to highlight what appears to be shrewd timing.
“MBS is doing it again: reviving a dystopian vanity project to distract from an abysmal human rights record, while indifferent Western leaders are welcoming him after he learned to hide his fingerprints from ongoing atrocities,” said Khalid Aljabri, a Saudi national whose siblings were imprisoned and who now lives in exile in the United States.
The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The prince has been keen to end his pariah status and rehabilitate the oil-rich kingdom’s image as a forward-looking global power with modern amenities and a diverse economy.
In the past, he has used Neom, a $500 billion project owned by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, as a “key tool for him to consolidate his power” and a “lynchpin in his diplomatic efforts,” Ali Dogan, a research fellow at the Berlin-based Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, wrote last year.
Saudi Arabia’s city of the future has women in sports bras and co-ed offices
The prince was on Thursday in France, where he was scheduled to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron at the presidential palace. Earlier this week, Mohammed flew to Athens and signed several bilateral agreements, including an energy deal that would see Saudi Arabia export electricity to Greece.
Greek Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis hailed what he said was the kingdom’s move toward a “new era of humanity in renewable energy and new technology,” according to the Guardian.
“Three years after Khashoggi’s murder, Greece made clear this week that politicians would rather talk about energy than the star journalist dismembered by Saudi agents in Istanbul,” the paper reported.
Mohammed was previously shunned by both the Biden administration and European governments after U.S. intelligence concluded that he approved the operation that led to Khashoggi’s death inside the Saudi Consulate in Turkey’s largest city.
But as Western nations face steep Russian energy cuts and soaring gas prices as a result of the war in Ukraine, some leaders have softened their stances, downplaying concerns over the country’s human rights record while stressing what officials say is Riyadh’s important role as a strategic partner.
Saudi Arabia has the world’s second-largest proven oil reserves, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
“The relationship with Saudi Arabia is bigger than any one individual,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference on the same day the U.S. intelligence assessment was released last year.
Earlier this month, President Biden traveled to Jiddah to meet with several Middle Eastern leaders, including Mohammed, greeting the prince with a fist bump that drew criticism even from within his own party. Biden said he confronted the prince directly about the Khashoggi killing, “making clear what I thought of it at the time and what I think of it now.”
Rights groups say that the administration should push harder.
“The reality is that for Saudi Arabia, nothing would be as groundbreaking, sustainable or futuristic for the country as basic dignity and human rights for people under its jurisdiction,” said Bethany Alhaidari, the Saudi case manager at the Freedom Initiative, an organization advocating for prisoners wrongfully detained in the Middle East. | 2022-07-28T19:03:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Neom and The Line: Saudi crown prince touts sci-fi-style megaproject - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/28/neom-te-line-city-saudi-arabia-mbs-khashoggi-europe/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/28/neom-te-line-city-saudi-arabia-mbs-khashoggi-europe/ |
Why Wall Street’s Favorite Tax Break Is a Biden Target
Analysis by Sabrina Willmer and Melissa Karsh | Bloomberg
Pedestrians walk on Wall Street in front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., on Friday, Oct. 19, 2018. The rebound in U.S. stocks lost steam as investors assessed the latest batch of corporate earnings and simmering geopolitical tensions ahead of the weekend. (Bloomberg)
One of the most reviled loopholes in a tax code full of them is under threat again. While the average American worker must pay the standard tax rate on their income, wealthy private equity managers and venture capitalists are able to pay a lower capital gains rate on one of their main forms of compensation. That’s made the so-called carried interest loophole a favorite target of politicians who call it part of a system rigged to benefit the rich, while exacerbating income inequality. Despite that, through the years, the private equity industry has successfully lobbied to keep the provision.
1. What is the carried-interest loophole?
It allows private equity and venture capital managers to pay a more favorable tax rate on one of their main forms of compensation. Managers are able to pay a 20% long-term capital gains rate on their cut of the profit on the deals they make rather than get taxed at the 37% top rate for ordinary income.
2. Where does the idea come from?
The origins of carried interest date back to medieval times when Italian merchants gave ship captains a cut of the profit for carrying their goods safely across stormy seas.
Private-equity funds typically buy, revamp and grow mature companies with the goal of selling them for a hefty profit five to six years down the road. Venture-capital funds generally invest in fledgling businesses, sometimes at such an early stage that they generate little if any revenue. Managers in private equity generally make money in two ways: They typically charge investors a 2% annual management fee on assets. On top of that, they take a 20% cut of the profit on deals, usually only after a certain return threshold is met. The share of their earnings that comes out of that profit -- a figure sometimes in the millions -- has been taxed as capital gains, at a much lower rate than the top marginal income rate applied to wages.
4. How did that become a tax break?
Decades before the current explosion of growth in the private equity industry, the loophole came into existence. In 1954, Congress passed a law that enshrined it in the tax code with an original intent of helping employees in speculative fields such as oil and gas, according to a 2020 article in the Journal of Economics, Trade and Marketing Management.
5. Have there been changes to it?
The loophole was modified under President Donald Trump. Before taking office, Trump had said that wealthy managers were “getting away with murder” via the tax break. But the Republican tax bill passed in 2017 fell short of ending the break altogether, instead requiring fund managers to hold their underlying investments for at least three years to have the lower rate versus the prior requirement of one year. That change mainly hit hedge fund managers, who generally don’t hang on to their holdings for that long.
6. What’s the argument over carried interest?
The preferred tax treatment has been long battled over by lawmakers and those in the industry. Critics argue that the tax break is just like any other fee and should be treated as such. Proponents say carried interest encourages long-term investment and have also argued that it creates jobs. Meanwhile, some in other parts of the financial world, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s Jamie Dimon, favor eliminating the tax break, calling it “another example of institutional bias and favoritism toward special interest groups.”
7. What would the impact of eliminating it be?
In 2018, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that taxing carried interest as ordinary income would raise $14 billion over nearly a decade. Private equity firms’ senior deal-makers are likely to feel the most impact from any changes as they are the ones who typically earn the largest portion of the carry. As a result, firms may look to change how managers are paid, including ending so-called fee waivers, which are used to capture tax benefits by converting management fees to carry. Ending the loophole could impact recruitment in the industry, and create a more level playing field for banks and other companies trying to recruit applicants now drawn to private equity. | 2022-07-28T19:25:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Why Wall Street’s Favorite Tax Break Is a Biden Target - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-wall-streets-favorite-tax-break-is-a-biden-target/2022/07/28/4d0d9274-0ea1-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/why-wall-streets-favorite-tax-break-is-a-biden-target/2022/07/28/4d0d9274-0ea1-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
This image provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) shows a colorized transmission electron micrograph of monkeypox particles (red) found within an infected cell (blue), cultured in the laboratory that was captured and color-enhanced at the NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick, Md. The World Health Organization recently declared the expanding monkeypox outbreak a global emergency. It is WHO’s highest level of alert, but the designation does not necessarily mean a disease is particularly transmissible or lethal. (NIAID via AP) (Uncredited/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) | 2022-07-28T19:25:11Z | www.washingtonpost.com | If monkeypox spreads through sexual contact, is it an STD? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/if-monkeypox-spreads-through-sexual-contact-is-it-an-std/2022/07/28/b08c2c50-0ea3-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/if-monkeypox-spreads-through-sexual-contact-is-it-an-std/2022/07/28/b08c2c50-0ea3-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
Pope Francis wears a headdress during a visit with Indigenous peoples at a former Indian residential school in Alberta, Canada, on July 25. (Eric Gay/AP)
When error, abuse or crimes are committed, the perpetrator’s contrition and atonement are first steps and preconditions of any possible reconciliation. That’s true when harm is caused by individuals or institutions — even ones as vast and magisterial as the Catholic Church. Pope Francis, more than any of his predecessors, has grasped that. He showed so again this week in delivering a profound and moving apology to Indigenous Canadian peoples whose culture, communities and children were victimized by what he called an “evil committed by so many Christians.”
The pontiff’s in-person apology was perhaps too long in coming — at least three decades after reports surfaced of sexual, physical and emotional abuse suffered by children at church-run residential schools in Canada. Beyond the abuse — an act of “cultural genocide,” in the words of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which delivered its conclusions in 2015 — thousands of children died and were buried at the schools, usually in unmarked graves, amid circumstances often hidden from history.
Although the government founded and funded those schools, they were run by churches. Most were Catholic-operated, and their legacy of horror, over the course of a century starting in the 1880s, is a staggering testament to the collateral damage caused by forced assimilation with Canada’s dominant White European culture. The very purpose of the schools was to obliterate the linguistic and spiritual cornerstones of Indigenous communities, an act of long-lived brutality.
The pope acknowledged that history forthrightly, although not as completely as some Indigenous leaders may have wanted. For years they have pushed not only for an apology for the role played by the Catholic orders that ran many of the schools — finally delivered earlier this year, when Indigenous leaders met with Francis at the Vatican — but also for the church’s own institutional complicity. Moreover, while the Canadian federal government has paid several billion dollars in reparations to former residential school students under a class-action lawsuit, and Protestant denominations chipped in millions more, the Catholic Church, which ran about two-thirds of the roughly 130 residential schools, has contributed a relative pittance.
Still, words are important, and the pope’s were largely on the mark when, in the first public appearance of his week-long trip to Canada on Monday, he spoke in a powwow circle at the site of a former Indian residential school south of Edmonton, Alberta. The school was founded by Catholic missionaries.
Addressing himself to “every Native community and person,” Francis expressed his “shame” and said he was “deeply sorry,” eliciting applause from Indigenous people in attendance. He asked forgiveness “for the ways in which many members of the church and of religious communities cooperated, not least through their indifference, in projects of cultural destruction and forced assimilation promoted by the governments of that time, which culminated in the system of residential schools.”
Just as important, he acknowledged that apologies are not sufficient, and said that he agreed that “concrete” actions would be required to achieve a full reconciliation. The onus therefore remains on the Vatican, in this papacy or the next, to make good on Francis’s words. | 2022-07-28T19:25:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | The pope’s apology to Canada’s Native peoples is belated but apt - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/pope-apologizes-to-native-peoples-in-canada/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/pope-apologizes-to-native-peoples-in-canada/ |
Why the third-party talk from Forward goes nowhere
Andrew Yang, one of the founders of Forward, a new third party. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
The moment has come for a third party in America!
Or so say a post-partisan trio of former politicians who have merged their organizations under one banner, called simply Forward, which is intended to speak for the great mass of Americans who don’t feel represented by Democrats and Republicans. The leaders are former Republicans David Jolly (who served in Congress) and Christine Todd Whitman (who was a governor and Cabinet secretary) and former Democrat Andrew Yang (who ran for president).
Their Post op-ed pitching the idea is titled “Most third parties have failed. Here’s why ours won’t.” Despite their celebrity, they’re almost certainly wrong, and what they’re offering is political vaporware. They’ve located a real problem, but they have the same solution that has been tried before — one that seldom accomplishes anything.
Their party, they say, is “for the majority of Americans who want to move past divisiveness and reject extremism.” Sounds appealing, but as it exists so far, Forward is less a party than a shapeless outline of what a party might be if it actually existed.
It’s being presented with the same vapid sloganeering we’ve gotten from every top-down attempt like this to form a third party: What Americans yearn for is a way to “get beyond the partisanship” and find “common sense solutions” to “solve problems” in a way that “brings us all together” and “moves the country forward.”
For a classic of the genre, click on the video on the homepage of No Labels, a direct predecessor of Forward. You’ll hear earnest Americans from across the country repeat these bromides over and over while inspiring music swells in the background over stock footage of people walking through fields holding American flags aloft (as one does) and linking hands while the sun sets behind them.
Which inevitably leaves one asking, “Okay, but what do these people actually want to do?” There’s the rub.
Because while politics can sometimes be flags and sunsets and stirring encomia to “common sense,” if you actually wind up with power — which, after all, is the whole point — you have to make choices.
You will search the Forward website in vain for actual policy positions. One page labeled “Our Platform" consists of vague goals (“Reinvigorate a fair, flourishing economy”) along with a trio of political reforms: ranked-choice voting, nonpartisan primaries and independent redistricting commissions.
All of which are perfectly fine; the first and last are also supported by many liberals and a few conservatives. But if your goal is to run candidates and win offices (as Forward says it plans to do), you have to tell people what they’re voting for.
In one paragraph of the op-ed, the Forward leaders almost get specific:
There are two important things to see here. First, their both-sides-are-extreme description is highly misleading. It presents positions of the “far left” like “confiscate all guns” and “completely upend our economy,” which are not the positions of the Democratic Party or Democratic elected officials, and contrasts them with positions like “eliminating gun laws” which are the position of many or most Republicans.
In other words, in order to claim the two parties are equally “extreme,” they have to exaggerate the extremism of Democrats and downplay the extremism of Republicans.
But more important is what’s missing: the actual position of the Forward party on these issues. They’ve told us Americans want a compromise between Democrats and Republicans, but they hint at their own stance without ever actually revealing it.
It’s not that the political reforms they advocate are unimportant. The winner-take-all rules of most American elections are designed to make it almost impossible for third parties to build support, since they never have the chance to make policy except in some local offices.
There’s no question that if you split the Democrats and Republicans into smaller but more ideologically coherent parties, people would be able to vote for candidates who more closely represent their beliefs; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) are part of the same party despite their very different views.
If we had multi-member districts, the Conservative Democrats and the Democratic Socialists could both be represented. Political scientist Lee Drutman has made a strong case that the two-party duopoly is the source of many of our problems, and structural changes we could make to promote third parties would make the system more responsive to the public.
But whatever structural changes you prefer, sooner or later a third party has to stand for something. This is the problem with the kind of centrism Forward represents. In true centrist fashion, it defines itself not by what it believes, but by an unease with whatever the other parties believe. One suspects that the people behind it are worried that if they take real positions, they’ll start alienating people; better to stick to vague notions about coming together to solve problems.
But that’s not real politics. Real politics requires you to not just say “Gee, wouldn’t it be great if everything was better?” but to make hard choices, choices that will make some people mad. It means risky stands on principle and tradeoffs and imperfect solutions and fights.
If you aren’t willing to take all that on, you aren’t serious about politics. And so far, the Forward folks don’t seem to be. | 2022-07-28T19:26:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Andrew Yang's Forward is another third party going nowhere - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/third-party-forward-andrew-yang-failure/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/third-party-forward-andrew-yang-failure/ |
By Don L. Scott Jr.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) in Alexandria February. (Robb Hill for The Washington Post)
Don L. Scott Jr., a Democrat, represents Portsmouth in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he is minority leader.
Thanks to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s leadership, Virginia is no longer the best state in America in which to do business.
CNBC’s 2022 list of “America’s Top States for Business” ranked Virginia third, behind North Carolina and Washington state. Early in his tenure, the governor has managed to topple Virginia from the No. 1 position it won in unprecedented back-to-back rankings under Democratic leadership. In 2021 — with a Democratic “trifecta” — Virginia held on to its No. 1 ranking while pulling the commonwealth up 27 spots in Oxfam’s report on the best states for workers. Democrats know that making Virginia work for its people is good for business, too. Unfortunately, Youngkin’s presidential aspirations have kept the governor laser-focused on culture-war issues that poll well among Republican primary voters in Iowa — not building the economy or supporting working Virginians. As CNBC’s business rankings highlight, leadership that makes Virginia a less welcoming place for workers makes it less welcoming to business, too.
Youngkin’s top priority as governor has been to erase equity from state government, and businesses are taking note. One of his first acts in office was to literally take the word “equity” out of the governor’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. He proceeded to set up a statewide snitch line for teachers who acknowledge race and racism. When Youngkin’s appointed health commissioner denied the impact of structural racism on infant and maternal health disparities and claimed that discussing racism “alienates White people,” Youngkin refused to take action. This spring, Youngkin vetoed a bill to study disparities in business that had previously passed the General Assembly with overwhelming bipartisan support. It’s no wonder why Virginia’s score in CNBC’s “Life, Health, and Inclusion” category plummeted between 2021 and 2022. Even Lego was set to invest $1 billion in a new factory in Chesterfield — a deal begun during former governor Ralph Northam’s (D) term — recently revealed some trepidation over Youngkin’s stance on racial equity.
Next, with marriage rights under existential threat at the federal level, an unprepared Youngkin appeared on national television misquoting the Virginia Constitution and refusing to say whether he would act to codify protections for same-sex marriage. He has indicated on record that he does not personally support same-sex marriage. Another byproduct of buying into the anti-LGBTQ hysteria is that it’s bad for the economy. Last year, nearly 300 national companies signed on to a statement warning that anti-LGBTQ legislation would influence which states they decide to invest in. Nonetheless, all indications are that Youngkin will continue to pick his own political aspirations over the best interests of Virginians and Virginia’s economy. It’s no surprise, then, that “economy” was another CNBC category in which Virginia’s score has fallen since Youngkin took office.
Virginia also lost stature in 2022 with a lower “workforce” score. Besides publicly criticizing our community college system and cutting $20 million from his predecessor’s G3 “Get a Skill, Get a Job, Get Ahead” workforce development program, Youngkin has attacked Virginia’s workforce by threatening their bodily autonomy — and women are paying attention. Days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Youngkin introduced a budget amendment to prevent low-income Virginians from accessing abortion care even with the most severe fetal diagnoses. The governor followed up the move by proposing a new abortion ban and promising to sign “any bill that comes to [his] desk” to restrict reproductive freedom. While my caucus in the legislature, along with Virginia organizers and activists, work to protect past progress on reproductive rights, Democratic governors in other states are looking to recruit businesses from states that would restrict their employees’ bodily autonomy, as Youngkin is hoping to do.
Democrats handed Youngkin record surpluses and a booming economy. Six months later, our growth is stalling as businesses reconsider whether they want to invest in a state whose governor is willing to defund its infrastructure and education system while alienating its workforce. The problem with Youngkin’s backward social agenda is that his positions are cruel and out of step with the will of most Virginians. It is simply the natural result that our economy and national reputation will suffer the consequences. But the governor doesn’t really care what happens to Virginia’s people or its economy because he isn’t that interested in Virginia; his sights are set on the White House. | 2022-07-28T19:26:06Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Youngkin’s culture wars are good for him but bad for Virginia business - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/youngkins-culture-wars-are-good-him-bad-virginia-business/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/youngkins-culture-wars-are-good-him-bad-virginia-business/ |
Zelensky and some lawmakers want more U.S. military personnel in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a news conference in Kyiv on July 28. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)
Russian artillery and heavy armor are pounding Ukrainian forces in the country’s south and east, grinding out small advances using brutal, scorched-earth tactics. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new war objective is to occupy as much territory as possible before the winter freeze and attempt to annex it to cement his gains, which would make achieving peace far harder.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky believes that if Russia holds large parts of the south when winter arrives, such as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, Ukraine will lose its ability to function as a viable state. He says the next few weeks will determine the country’s fate, and Ukraine is already mounting a counteroffensive. He’s right when he says that if the United States doesn’t give him the tools to succeed — and fast — Washington and Kyiv will both regret it later.
Speaking to a delegation of five U.S. lawmakers last week in Kyiv, Zelensky repeated his requests for more and better U.S. weapons. He also revealed that he has been asking the Biden administration to deploy U.S. military personnel in Kyiv to improve U.S.-Ukraine coordination on all aspects of the war, three of those lawmakers told me.
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) asked the Ukrainian president whether he supported sending more U.S. military personnel into Ukraine to boost coordination. Zelensky jumped at the idea.
“As soon as I raised it, he cut me off and said, ‘We’ve been asking for it. We’d welcome it. We’ve proposed that,’” said Waltz, who told me, “The problem is with the White House.”
Zelensky proposed that U.S. and Ukrainian military personnel form three joint coordination cells, focused on planning, logistics and strategic communications. Waltz said U.S. troops would not be deployed to the front lines. They would work out of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, which is struggling right now to reestablish operations with a skeleton staff.
Congressional confidence in the $40 billion U.S. weapons and aid program in Ukraine will wane without more direct supervision, Waltz said. “From an oversight standpoint, we have to know where this stuff is going,” he said. “Also, it would help the Ukrainians use it more effectively.”
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.), who led the delegation, told me that he, too, supports Zelensky’s idea to deploy more U.S. military personnel in Kyiv. But some Biden administration officials are concerned about further deepening U.S. military involvement in the conflict, he said. “The resistance is because the Biden administration feels it would be escalatory,” Smith said. “And also, if we’ve got U.S. personnel working in an operations center inside Ukraine, they become legitimate military targets.”
A National Security Council spokesperson told me the United States is coordinating extensively with the Ukrainian military at the leadership level and among troops on the ground in neighboring countries. The lawmakers said this coordination, mostly in Germany and Poland, is inferior to working together inside Ukraine.
There’s also resistance within the Pentagon to providing Ukraine with other weapons Zelensky is asking for, including longer-range missiles and advanced, long-range drones. Officials are worried about depleting U.S. stocks and fear the drones might be captured by Russia and then reverse-engineered or used against us, Smith said.
“I understand that risk. It’s not insignificant,” he told me. “But I think that the risk of the Russians winning and carving up Ukraine so that it ceases to be a country is greater.”
Zelensky told the lawmakers his army needs the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), a surface-to-surface missile that can travel about 190 miles, nearly quadruple the range of the missiles the United States is currently providing. These munitions would allow Ukrainian forces to move farther away from Russian artillery, while striking deeper into the enemy-held territory and forcing the Russians to lengthen their supply lines.
Biden’s officials fear Ukraine could use them to strike inside Russia, triggering further escalation. Zelensky has given the White House assurances these missiles wouldn’t be used inside Russia. Delegation member Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) told me that Zelensky has proved he can be trusted to keep his word.
Slotkin, like the other lawmakers, emphasized the urgency of Zelensky’s requests. She said the next weeks and months present a window for Ukraine to claw back territory. If Kyiv fails, she said, hopes for a negotiated solution will further suffer.
“Any push to get the Ukrainians to the negotiating table must come with some additional military victories under their belt, and we should be focused on helping them get those victories,” she said. “That’s where we could be doing more.”
To its credit, the Biden administration has given Ukraine an enormous amount of aid — but that entire effort could falter without a new weapons surge. If Putin establishes territorial gains this year, next year he will only push further. Time is running out to give Zelensky what he needs to win or at least negotiate from a position of strength. | 2022-07-28T19:26:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Zelensky and some lawmakers want more U.S. military personnel in Ukraine - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/zelensky-some-lawmakers-want-more-us-military-personnel-ukraine/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/zelensky-some-lawmakers-want-more-us-military-personnel-ukraine/ |
The package, if smaller than Democrats’ initial ambitions, would transform huge sectors of the U.S. economy and affect millions of Americans
Wind turbines generate electricity near Block Island, R.I., this month. (John Moore/Getty Images)
$260 billion in clean-energy tax credits
$80 billion in new rebates for electric vehicles, green energy at home and more
$1.5 billion in rewards for cutting methane emissions
$27 billion ‘green bank’
Support for fossil fuel projects
Agriculture, steel, ports and more
$313 billion from a 15 percent corporate minimum tax
$124 billion from major enforcement increases at the IRS
Lowering prescription drug prices
Extending health insurance subsidies
Major changes to the Affordable Care Act. The nation’s biggest-ever climate bill. The largest tax hike on corporations in decades. And dozens of lesser-known provisions that will affect millions of Americans.
If enacted, the legislation released Wednesday night in a surprise agreement between Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) would represent one of the most consequential pieces of economic policy in recent U.S. history — though still far smaller than the $3 trillion the Biden administration initially sought.
The bill would put about $370 billion into bolstering U.S. energy production and combating climate change through massive increases in renewables, transforming many parts of the economy by reducing carbon emissions in transportation, agriculture, home electricity, heavy industry, domestic manufacturing and other sectors. With the planet rapidly warming, Schumer and Manchin say the bill would reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030, close to President Biden’s goal of cutting U.S. emissions by at least 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Manchin also emphasized that it would spur American energy independence more broadly, including by encouraging natural gas, as the war in Ukraine has exposed domestic reliance on petrostates’ fossil fuel production.
The bill uses two main levers: Major new incentives for private industry to produce far more renewable energy, and other incentives for households to transform their energy use and consumption. Democrats say this second set of incentives will also offer immediate consumer relief for the higher energy prices that have bedeviled the Biden administration.
The agreement would also raise roughly $450 billion through new tax provisions — the biggest of which will fall on the country’s large corporations. After years of rising concern about widening wealth inequality, Democrats failed in their efforts to repeal Republicans’ 2017 tax law. The new bill leaves intact most of the corporate and individual income tax cuts President Donald Trump signed into law, largely because Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) had insisted on leaving them untouched.
But it would still raise taxes significantly, and it would give the badly underfunded Internal Revenue Service its biggest budget increase in its history.
“This would certainly be the biggest corporate tax increase in decades,” said Steve Wamhoff, a tax expert at Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. “We’ve had decades of tax policy benefiting the rich, but this is really the first attempt to raise revenue in a progressive way that would begin to combat wealth and income inequality.”
On health care, Democrats campaigned in 2020 on major changes, and this deal fulfills two major pledges: Allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, and making health care more affordable for millions of Americans.
It falls short on plugging one of the biggest gaps of the Affordable Care Act and other key items long sought by the party’s more liberal members. Still, it amounts to the biggest changes to the health system in roughly a decade.
“This is the best development on health care for the American people in years,” Sara Lonardo, a spokeswoman for Families USA, a liberal consumer health lobby, said in a statement. “It’s crucial we get this deal locked down and passed as soon as possible. Once this bill is law, we will keep fighting to ensure the millions of Americans in the Medicaid coverage gap get the care they need to live their healthiest lives.”
The bill leaves out many key policy ambitions of Democrats — excluding, for instance, plans for new child care, housing, eldercare and paid-leave programs. But after months of gridlock and false starts, Democrats hope this agreement will finally become law.
Meanwhile, Republicans have started warning that the measure will hurt the U.S. economy with higher taxes as fears of a recession are growing. Steve Miran, who served as a senior official in the Treasury Department under President Donald Trump’s administration and is the co-founder of the investment fund Amberwave Partners, said the plan’s tax provisions would exacerbate inflation by leading to a decline in supply. “The current policy mix has already messed up the supply side, and hiking taxes will push further in the wrong direction,” Miran said. “In a world where demand outstrips supply and causes inflation, I don’t think attacking supply even further is the solution you’re looking for.”
But Democrats from Biden on down argued that the deal was a big step forward.
“If it sticks, this will be a huge policy win for the White House and the country, addressing both the president’s number-one short-run issue of inflation, and the number-one long-run issue: climate change,” said Jason Furman, who served as a senior economist in the Obama administration.
Here is a summary of what’s in the more than 700-page bill — and what’s not.
New and extended credits will incentivize solar, wind, hydropower and other sources of renewable energy. Private firms and publicly owned utilities could get tax subsidies both for the production of renewable energy and for manufacturing a specific part essential to a renewable project, such as wind turbines or solar panels. The goal? To make new green energy production cheaper for utilities to build than fossil fuel plants are.
Buyers of new electric vehicles would get a $7,500 tax credit applied at the point of sale . That would also apply to vehicles whose manufacturers are no longer eligible for an existing EV credit, such as Tesla and General Motors. Couples who earn less than $300,000 a year or individuals who earn less than $150,000 would be eligible. A new $4,000 tax credit would also apply to purchases of used EVs. Tens of millions of people would qualify for these credits. Other consumer rebates would subsidize the installation of more-efficient heat pumps, solar panels and more.
If consumers claim the subsidies in the bill, they could save as much as $1,840 on their annual energy bill on average, according to an analysis by Rewiring America, a climate analysis group. (That would also require spending significantly to buy things such as an EV, a heat pump and solar panels.) That’s also the case for the latest agreement between Schumer and Manchin, said Leah Stokes, a climate expert at the University of California at Santa Barbara.
A new Methane Emissions Reduction Program would reward oil and gas companies that slash their emissions of methane and penalize those that don’t. The program, crafted by Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), originally would have provided $775 million upfront to oil and gas companies to cut their methane emissions. The current agreement doubles that money to $1.5 billion, according to a Senate Democratic aide. Methane traps far more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, the most abundant greenhouse gas.
A Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator, commonly referred to as a green bank, would leverage public and private funds to invest in clean-energy technologies and infrastructure. In states where green banks have already been established, public money has been used to leverage six to 20 times more dollars in private investment in clean energy.
To secure Manchin’s vote, Democratic leadership pledged to mandate new oil and gas leasing in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Alaska, where industry groups are pushing for a major expansion in oil production. Manchin views drilling in those areas as important for the country’s domestic energy independence.
Manchin also said in a statement that Biden, Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had “committed to advancing” a permitting reform bill that would make it easier for developers to override environmental objections when building pipelines, natural gas export facilities and other energy infrastructure. This falls outside the rules of the Senate procedure the party is using to pass the economic package, meaning Democratic leadership will have to try to secure GOP support for the permitting changes.
The bill contains numerous smaller measures aimed at specific parts of the economy with high emissions: $20 billion for agriculture subsidies to help farmers reduce emissions, $6 billion to reduce emissions in chemical, steel and cement plants, and $3 billion to reduce air pollution at ports.
The single biggest tax hike in the plan would apply to all U.S. corporations that earn more than $1 billion per year in profits. Under current law, U.S. corporations ostensibly pay a 21 percent tax rate. But dozens of Fortune 500 companies pay no federal income tax at all by claiming deductions for research and development and other credits.
The plan would close off that option by subjecting large corporations to a tax on their financial statements. Corporations would still be able to claim tax credits, though, since renewable energy groups raised concerns the minimum tax could undercut the effectiveness of the climate tax credits.
The IRS would scale up dramatically in an attempt to close the “tax gap” — the difference between what people and corporations owe and what they actually pay. Democrats say that their plan to invest $80 billion in the IRS would more than pay for itself, in part because the tax agency’s budget was cut by 20 percent between 2010 and 2020. Former IRS commissioner Charles Rossotti and current Treasury official Natasha Sarin previously estimated the IRS could raise $1.4 trillion in additional tax revenue with more funding.
While Democrats are celebrating the measure, Republicans say it represents a political vulnerability for the administration if more Americans face audits or other scrutiny from the tax collector. It remains to be seen whether all the new revenue Democrats hope to raise will come from wealthy tax cheats, as they have pledged.
The deal allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time and would prevent future administrations from refusing to do so. It’s a major win for Democrats, who have long pledged to lower the cost of medicines, particularly for seniors. The government would start by negotiating the price of 10 drugs and gradually scale up to 20 by 2029.
But it isn’t clear how many Americans with Medicare coverage would see lower out-of-pocket costs — or how much money they could save. That depends on which drugs wind up being negotiated and how much prices drop, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Last year, Democrats’ pandemic aid law boosted financial help for low-income Americans with plans on the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges and extended the subsidies to middle-income earners for the first time. But the enhanced tax credits are set to expire at the end of this year, raising the specter of roughly 13 million Americans learning that their health premiums would soon increase — in some cases by hundreds of dollars per person annually — just weeks before the elections.
The deal would extend the tax credits for three more years, through 2025. Lawmakers had been haggling over the timeline, hoping to ensure as long an extension as possible. Earlier this month, it appeared that Manchin favored a two-year extension, but allowing the financial help to continue through 2025 helps Democrats avoid another funding cliff before the 2024 presidential election.
Democrats had already abandoned a pivotal program last year that would have punished electric utilities that didn’t deploy more clean energy: the Clean Electricity Performance Program, which would have accounted for nearly 42 percent of the original bill’s emissions cuts, according to a chart released by Schumer’s office last year. But it fell out early amid opposition from Manchin, who said it would accelerate the country’s energy transition too quickly and leave it more dependent on foreign governments.
Most of Democrats’ earlier proposed tax reforms have been dumped. Biden initially proposed more than $3 trillion in new tax hikes on the rich and corporations, and even those proposals were smaller versions of the multi-trillion-dollar “wealth tax” plans pushed by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during the 2020 presidential campaign. Higher taxes on wealthy investors and heirs, also proposed by Biden, are out as well.
The legislation also excludes relief from a cap on how much state and local taxes Americans can deduct off their federal taxes, which has been a top priority for some Democrats in high-tax states. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) told Axios on Wednesday that the matter “should be addressed” in a final bill.
Democrats will have to come to terms with the failure of their ambitions to expand health care to two other groups — millions of poor Americans in Republican-controlled states and senior citizens.
President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act required states to expand Medicaid to those earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. But the Supreme Court made such a move optional, and many GOP-run states refused. Advocates had hoped to ensure the plan extended Medicaid to cover these groups, which would have expanded coverage to roughly 2.2 million people, many of whom live in the South. It was a huge priority for several vulnerable Democrats, such as Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (Ga.).
Last summer, more-liberal Democrats were also pushing for a major expansion of Medicare — allowing the program to cover vision, dental and hearing services. But that’s been out of talks since the fall.
The deal also cut some of Biden’s priorities, such as infusing hundreds of billions into home care for the elderly and those with disabilities.
And it doesn’t include provisions that could help provide health insurance for new mothers who earn low incomes, as well as some of the nation’s most vulnerable children. Earlier versions would have permanently funded coverage for low-income kids and expanded Medicaid to provide benefits for a year after giving birth in every state. | 2022-07-28T19:27:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin’s ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’ explained - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/07/28/manchin-schumer-climate-deal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/07/28/manchin-schumer-climate-deal/ |
Transcript: 117th Congress: Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.)
MS. SOTOMAYOR: Hi, everyone, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Marianna Sotomayor, and I am a congressional reporter at The Washington Post.
I am very excited to talk to Congresswoman Kat Cammack. Maybe the top reason is we come from the same state of Florida.
Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us today.
REP. CAMMACK: Hey, good morning to you, Marianna. It's great to be with you guys, and "Go Gators," since you're a Floridian.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: Yep, yep. I know there's a lot of allegiances to the Gator community.
I want to let our viewers know before we get started that you can actually ask the congresswoman a question. Just make sure to tweet @PostLive, and we'll try to incorporate some of those questions in our conversation.
Congresswoman, there's so much that I want to talk to you about, so much to even look forward to before these November midterm elections, a lot of politics happening.
But I want to talk to you about the news of the day. We all, more or less, woke up to the news about the state of the economy. It is the second quarter in which we have seen the economy shrink that has traditionally been an indicator that we are headed into a recession. Of course, the Biden administration is saying, well, our job numbers here in the country are still pretty strong, so we're not necessarily there. They don't want to declare a recession.
Two‑part question for you. One, what is your reaction to what you're seeing? And, you know, it's possible that Republicans take back the House majority after the midterm election. What are you all discussing about how you‑‑what legislation or, you know, how you would like to strengthen the economy?
REP. CAMMACK: Absolutely. Well, you know, I think this morning's news about meeting the criteria of a, quote/unquote, "technical recession" wasn't really a surprise for anybody, Republican or Democrat, and, you know, we get into this game of, you know, definitions, and is this technically a recession? I can tell you, having been back home and talking to constituents, it has been a recessionary‑type environment for a while.
When I have seniors that are making the decision between gas or groceries, they're facing increased pressure on a fixed income to make rent, these are real‑life issues that everyone back home and really across America. We've all been feeling the squeeze, and you needn't go to the gas station and pay over $5 a gallon of gas to recognize that things aren't going great right now in America in terms of the economy.
I talk to employers all the time, and they say, "Listen, you know, we thought that things were going to be picking back up. We thought that we would be able to get some folks back in to apply and get folks to work." The incentive packages that employers have been putting together to try to entice people to get back to work have been through the charts, but yet the end result is still the same in that employers are having a hard time finding help. Our folks on fixed incomes are really getting squeezed the hardest. Those lower‑ and middle‑class Americans that are working‑class families, they're feeling the squeeze. You know, this is back‑to‑school time. I've got moms calling me saying it's over $600 per child in just back‑to‑school supplies. I don't think anyone is shocked by this news. So it's pretty clear that we've got a lot of work to do here at home, and that the policies that the Biden administration is pushing forward just aren't working. They're missing the mark, and they have both when it comes to the actual numbers but also in practice too. So, you know, I think that when Republicans take back the House‑‑and Republicans will take back the House and I believe the Senate, as well‑‑we're going to put forward an America‑first agenda that is rooted in the basics, getting government out of the way. The regulatory environment has really strangled enterprise and commerce across this country through a variety of different industries. We're going to help get people back to work by reducing that burden of everyday essentials on them, from school supplies, you know, like what I said, to the basics like gas and groceries. The inputs on our food supply right now, be it food cost, be it fertilizer, and of course, all the regulatory environment, it's really increasing the cost of food.
So we're going to focus on lowering gas prices, getting people back to work, and really unleashing the economic opportunity that we have here in this country, and I think that there's no better country in the world that can produce energy. And we are an energy economy. We can produce it better, cleaner, and more efficiently than anywhere else in the world. So we're going to empower our domestic production industry to get back to work to really restart that engine, and that's going to be the first step.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: I want to talk to you a little bit more later on about, you know, what you're hearing down in what is considered traditionally a battleground state, but I do want to talk about the biggest news of the day so far in terms of this summer, this year, which is the Supreme Court decision in rolling back Roe v. Wade and just the uncertainty that we're seeing right now as to how states will address abortion access.
You have a very personal story. I know you have told it before.
REP. CAMMACK: Yeah.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: But, you know, I want to start off this conversation by letting our viewers know, who may not have heard it, how do you come to this issue? What is your own personal story?
REP. CAMMACK: Well, you know, I feel a lot of the times like I have a very important role in this conversation for a couple of reasons. One, I have a very personal story; but two, I also represent, I believe, the generation that is impacted most by this issue right now as the youngest Republican woman in Congress today.
And when I talk to folks about this, regardless of where you find yourself on the political spectrum, I always start with I know how personal this is, and I look at my own story and the fact that my mom, she was urged to abort me for health reasons. When she was in her late 20s, she was pregnant with my sister and actually suffered a stroke days before she was set to deliver, and it took her about a year-and-a-half to just relearn the basic motor functions: walking, talking. And to this day, there's still residual effects of the stroke, but it was then that the doctors told her that she would never be able to have children again safely, and so you can imagine as a young woman, the heartbreak that, you know, that kind of news puts on you.
So fast‑forward several years, and she finds herself pregnant with me, and circumstances aren't exactly ideal when she finds herself pregnant with me, being alone, a single mom raising a daughter, and she was running a small family business at the time, not a lot of support and certainly no resources really to have a lot of options. But it was the doctors that started the pressure campaign of, you know, "You're not going to survive this, and certainly, your child won't survive this. You know, do you really want to put yourself in that position?"
And, certainly, when my grandparents found out, they also had grave concerns, as any parent would, about the safety of their child, and so they also urged, you know, "Hey, listen, maybe, maybe this is a good idea to abort this child." But against all odds, my mother had an incredible moment of bravery, and she defied doctor's orders and was able to carry a baby girl, healthy baby girl, 8 pounds 6 ounces, all the way to full term and delivered with no issues, against all, all odds.
And so today I'm here because, you know, my mom back in the late '80s, she didn't have all the resources that are here today, and I know how personal and how absolutely terrifying these situations can be. And that's why I think it's so important that we really empower and support the over 2,700 pro‑life pregnancy centers around the country that are really designed to give women in these positions, in these situations, the support they need rather than just the one‑sided narrative of it's time to abort. That is not a solution, and we need to move away from this narrative that abortion is health care. It's not. And so I think we need to empower women to really give them all options and all information that's on the table, and that's why I'm so excited about what Dobbs v. Jackson did. It really took this issue and returned it to the states where we have known it should have been rested all along.
But it also is empowering women and the pro‑life community and the advocates who are around the country who have worked tirelessly for, gosh, years, decades. They have really now amplified their voices, because I as a small government conservative believe that government is best when it is local, it is small, and it is responsive. And I think that voices are going to be amplified at the state level more so than they ever could be at the federal, and it was well overdue that Dobbs v. Jackson return this issue back to the states where it's always belonged.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: You mention that abortion isn't health care. You are actually the co‑chair of the Pro‑Life Caucus on Capitol Hill, and, you know, you are part of the class of‑‑that I think has seen the largest group of Republican women. It is likely, if you all take back the House, you will have probably the largest ranks ever of Republican women in the House, and a lot of these questions will come up. And it could be something that you all will address.
You have essentially‑‑will likely have the power to really shape legislation when it comes to women's health. I've talked to a number of your colleagues on this, what they see as, you know, protecting--protecting access to pro‑life measures but also things that could help empower women, just like you were saying. Could you tell us a little bit about either proposals you have or what those conversations are like with your colleagues about what you all can do on women's health?
REP. CAMMACK: Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think it's such an honor to really serve as the co‑chair for the Pro‑Life Caucus. I mean, it is‑‑it's really‑‑again, like I said, this is about empowering women. It's about empowering this next generation of pro‑life advocates. For so long, we had said I'm going to be part of the pro‑life, post‑Roe generation, and I think it kind of snuck up on us in a way that we all were just blown away by in such an amazing way.
And when I talk about this particular issue amongst my peers but also certainly amongst my age demographic, I also say, "Listen, this is not just a win for the sanctity of life, but this was a win for the sanctity of our Constitution." And I think we're seeing a lot of women who are engaging in the conservative movement, in the pro‑life space, who are saying, you know, "I'm a little curious about how federal government approaches this issue, the hypocrisy that exists." You know, how is it that NASA can regard bacteria on Mars as life, but we don't recognize a heartbeat in the womb as life? I think that's a little curious. I also question when the DOJ has language that says that a pregnant woman who is murdered, it's classified as a double homicide, but it's not if the woman takes the child's life. There's a litany of discrepancies that we have on this issue that need to be worked out.
But I think there's also a foundational issue. You know, we are the nation of equal opportunity, not equal outcome. We are rooted in the idea in the tenets of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and how can you uphold those ideals if we don't begin with life?
And so one of the bills that we have been really adamant about, there's actually the very first discharge petition of the 117th Congress with every single Republican who has signed on to it. It is Representative Wagner's bill. She champions the Abortion Survivor Protection Act, and I was really proud to work with her and Representative Whip Scalise on this to bring this discharge petition, which say simply that if a child survives an abortion attempt, the doctor has to administer lifesaving care, but more than that, it has to be reported, because this issue actually is common. And it is grossly underreported. The data that we do have shows that this is a frequent issue that people around the country come into contact with, and so just from the standpoint if a child survives, it is at that point outside of the womb fighting for life, as a health care professional, that person needs to deliver health care, lifesaving health care to that child. And so I think that's a basic, a basic place where we start in. We're going to fight for life in that moment, and we're going to start actually collecting the necessary data to really understand this issue from all levels.
But, you know, you also see things, of course, where Representative Kay Granger who will be the chair for Appropriations, she's fighting at every turn to make sure that the Hyde Amendment protections are included so that no taxpayer dollars go to financing abortion, regardless of how you feel about it. I think that there is absolutely no place for taxpayer‑funded abortions to be in our nation.
And when you look at, say, Planned Parenthood, for example, with nearly 600 facilities around the country, 96 percent of their pregnancy care is not prenatal. It's not anything but abortions. Ninety‑six percent of their pregnancy‑centered, quote/unquote, "health care"‑‑and I'm using air quotes on that‑‑it's‑‑96 of that is abortion.
So I think we have a really good shot right now to take the pro‑life movement, not just on the abortion issue but moving forward, you know, empowering working moms, empowering working families, talking about ways we can make adoption more affordable and accessible, streamlining some of these systems that we know have some kinks that need to be worked out, talking about protections for the special needs community.
There's been a situation in my district where we have found that there was discriminatory practices in place to deny organ transplants to children that were born with special needs. That's the most horrific thing you can possibly think of to tell a parent while you're child has Down syndrome and, therefore, is not eligible for this transplant.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: Wow.
REP. CAMMACK: That to me is something that needs to change. So we're going to continue to fight for pro‑life, and it's not just in the womb, but it's all the way through.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: So I wanted to actually ask you a question we are getting from one of our viewers, Kenneth Woodward. He is from Illinois and is asking, is the GOP conference willing to back abortion restrictions that allow exceptions of rape, incest, and immediate physical harm to the mother? Where are you guys on that?
REP. CAMMACK: You know, and I think that's the wonderful thing about the Republican Party is that we all, like I said, come at it from our own different personal experiences, and the wonderful thing about Dobbs v. Jackson is that it return this issue to the states. So now the citizens of each state have the ability to really champion what they feel is going to work best for their state.
And I know in some areas, you have a heartbeat bill. In places like California, it's abortion on demand up until the day before delivery, late‑term abortions, which I personally find absolutely horrific. I think that is where the state legislatures and the governors and the people of those respective states are going to be truly empowered.
But, as a pro‑life advocate, I would say that it is our job to really highlight and support the entire pro‑life community and the systems and the services that they provide. This isn't like 30 years ago when we were really struggling to provide pro‑life alternatives. This is where we now, like I said, have 2,700 pro‑life pregnancy centers around the country that are willing to stand with women in crisis, in need, and so I think there's going to be some pretty robust debates about the issues of rape and incest, particularly when it's reported. And, certainly, I know that these are difficult conversations, but they're conversations that we need to be having, and certainly across this country in the next few years, we're going to be hearing them in state capitols.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: You mention just the debates that are coming up, likely will come up. House Democrats at some points is forcing you all to try and have some debates. I know last week was an example of that, the last two weeks actually.
REP. CAMMACK: [Laughs.]
MS. SOTOMAYOR: You voted against allowing women‑‑or protecting women from seeking an abortion out of state. I wanted to ask you about that, but I know you also voted against contraception as something else that Democrats tried to put on the floor. But you did vote in support for Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, your colleague, Republican from Iowa, her own proposal on contraception, which would essentially allow any woman over the age of 18 to access FDA‑approved birth control pills over the counter, which would be pretty revolutionary. Democrats voted against that. It looks like there could be places for compromise. I know that, you know, there's a lot of politicking when it comes to voting on things, but on that issue, on those issues, do you think that you could actually find a place to define legislation for protections? Because that could be something that may come up if you all are in the majority.
REP. CAMMACK: You know, and I think that's a wonderful opportunity for us to work in a bipartisan manner on this. As you said, you know, I supported Representative Hinson's bill to provide contraceptives to people that are 18 and over, and the thing that I continually push back on is that Republicans are not against contraception. That's not it at all.
What we are against is the notion that a total free‑for‑all using non‑FDA‑approved measures, that that is somehow going to solve a problem. No. That's absolutely not it. And the notion that there was going to somehow be checkpoints across interstate lines for women who were traveling across states to, you know, seek abortions, that somehow there was going to be some sort of effort to police this or go after woman, that couldn't be further from the truth. And it was actually pretty infuriating to hear that argument be put on the House floor and leveraged against us.
I think that the pro‑life movement is a pro‑woman movement. We are extraordinarily supportive of women at all stages, and to suggest that somehow that states were going to restrict interstate travel and punish women for traveling to get an abortion was absolutely ludicrous, and I think most people across the country saw it for what it was. I mean, it was‑‑it was political through and through. And as you‑‑as you said, you know, there was a move for the contraception bills to be put forward, yet Democrats voted against Representative Ashley Hinson's bill, and I talked to them. And they said, well, we actually are‑‑we're in support of this, but we just can't. The politics are clouding good policy, and I think that that's what we need to get back to is good sound policy that is all about empowering people and to make the best decisions for themselves.
And I think offering contraception that is not FDA‑approved, that is terribly risky, and so I think if we get the politics out of the way, take a step back and really have a conversation as Americans, not Republicans versus Democrats, but as Americans and particularly as women.
You know, I serve in the Women's Caucus as the vice chair, and we have very incredible contributions to each other's ideas. I think that this is a place that we can actually work together, but we've got to get out of this outrage politics culture that we're living in where one person says something crazy and the next person has to one‑up them. It's not productive. It's not helpful, and I think the American people at the end of the day, they deserve better.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: When you're back home, you mention, you know, you're hearing things that are related to the economy. I've heard that too, traveling to different parts of the country.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: Is abortion coming up at all? What are the issues? You know, beyond inflation, everyone‑‑it doesn't matter background or where you live in the country‑‑is tackling that. What else are you hearing from people?
REP. CAMMACK: Oh, my goodness. When I'm back home, I haven't heard a soul mention abortion or any of the social issues really at all. People are really scared about the economics. They're very scared when it comes to having enough money to get through the end of the month, especially for our working‑class folks. I've got moms that are very concerned about the fact that baby formula is not on the shelves, and they're in, you know, Facebook groups to try to help each other source baby formula when they have specialty needs or kids that have specialty needs or allergies. They're really concerned and know‑‑like I said, young women, they're concerned about feminine products being in short supply.
I can't tell you how many of my friends have text me saying, "I have been to three stores, and I cannot find tampons anywhere." It's almost like the Biden administration is waging a war on young women around this country because it's baby formula; it's menstrual products. It's all these things that are essentials for us, and we aren't able to get them. And that's due to a litany of factors, but it's what's really top of mind, because if you were to drive around my district, for example, you're going to see that gas is extraordinarily volatile. It will go from nearly $5 a gallon one day to $4.60 the next. You're going to see parents trying to make ends meet. You're going to see a lot of my seniors who are making tough decisions about the essentials and prescription medication and how am I going to pay rent that continues to skyrocket, where, you know, Florida is now becoming a very desirable place to live.
You know, we have a ton of folks moving to our state, as evidenced by the fact that we picked up a congressional seat in this latest census, and these are things that are putting pressures on everyday Americans. Whereas politics used to be a thing of, oh, you know, it's out there, politicians, politics, whatever, now they're paying attention because gas, groceries, crime‑‑fentanyl has been absolutely eating up congressional districts across the country, regardless if you're Republican or Democrat.
A great example is in Marion County, in my backyard, we've had another brick of fentanyl found with a pill press, and this is the number one killer of young adults between the ages of 18 and 45. Opioids are absolutely--and fentanyl, it's killing our communities. It's busting up families‑‑and crime, of course. These are the issues that folks back home are talking about and they're concerned about, and that's what Republicans are focused on.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: So we only have a couple minutes left, if you can believe it. I do want to ask you two quick things.
REP. CAMMACK: It went by fast. [Laughs.]
MS. SOTOMAYOR: I know. It always goes by fast. It always shocks me.
But you mentioned, you know, social issues aren't necessarily something that are coming up when you're talking to voters. You all took a vote last week on a social issue that many do consider settled law. That was, of course, marriage equality, allowing people of same‑sex marriage to get married as well as protecting interracial marriages. You were one of the 47 Republicans who voted in support of it. Why did you feel it was necessary to do that?
REP. CAMMACK: Well, as a constitutional conservative, I felt that it's really quite simple for me. Yes, it is settled law, and if we are going to really uphold the 5th Amendment and the 14th Amendment and guarantee equal protections under the law, we need to make sure that we're doing that across the board.
I've said often that the Constitution, it's not a la carte. We don't get to pick and choose what we want to uphold from one day to the next, and as someone who is fiercely protective of my oath and the Constitution, I felt that it was really important that I take a stand and say yes, 14th Amendment, equal protection under the law.
And I think it's really important that we mention that it wasn't redefining the biblical definition of marriage. "Marriage" has been co‑opted as a term by the government for really a contract between two consenting adults, and I don't think that anybody is in disagreement. They want marriage out of government as much as I do, but at the end of the day, I know that this is the right vote because it is the constitutional vote. And we need to protect equal rights for every single American, regardless of what their definition of "pursuit of happiness" is.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: And I know, you know, looking ahead further down the road, you have former President Donald Trump's endorsement. I'm curious to know, you know, what you think of his own role in the midterms has been and if he should maybe run for president again in 2024.
REP. CAMMACK: You know, it's‑‑it has been so remarkable to see the effect and the influence that President Donald Trump has had on conservative politics, but American politics. Heck, I would even say global politics. You see so many leaders around the world who have really kind of emulated a lot of his style and his strategies and approaches to issues, and I for one am grateful of his service and what he has done in really putting Americans first and really pushing back against the notion that government knows best, because government doesn't.
And I think that empowering people is always a good idea, and that's what he did was he was empowering people to make the best decisions for themselves, their families, and their business, and getting government out of the way, really dismantling so many of these big government bureaucracies that are unelected and really not accountable for so many of the decisions that impact our life.
So I think in terms of the midterms, he has been extraordinarily successful in supporting conservative candidates around the country, and I think we're going to continue to see that track record of success.
I think the midterms are going to be about taking back the House, taking back the Senate, restoring some balance in Washington, and I can't wait to see what comes next.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: I wanted to ask you about‑‑you know, we've kind of talked about the role of women here on Capitol Hill. You all potentially may take back the majority. It's something that I like to see too. In the press corps, we're seeing a lot more diversity there as well.
You know, you are a freshman. You've only been here for your first two years. If you can tell me, you know, what has it been like? Has there ever been a time where you as a woman, you know, have had to stand up or--to men? Have you tried to change any ideas of what has typically been a very male‑dominated Capitol Hill, and how are you fostering or mentoring women who are just starting off their career on Capitol Hill?
REP. CAMMACK: Wow. Oof. There's a lot there. [Laughs.]
You know, as somebody who was raised by a single mom, a working mom who was in a male‑dominated industry, commercial sandblasting, you know, you kind of grow up just knowing how to be tough and how to deal with some of the commentary and some of the, you know, unfair approaches that get taken to women in a traditionally male‑dominated space.
You know, when folks tell me, "Oh, hey, little darling," I give it right back to them because I know that most of the time‑‑and I would say actually 99 percent of the time‑‑there's no malice in how people approach me. It's really just how people approach their life in general, you know, and so I take it in stride. And the folks know, especially the fellows, they know that I'm going to give them just as much of a hard time back.
And one of the things that I did right out the gate was I joined congressional baseball team, and so I'm right out there at second base ribbing my fellow members and having a good time, you know, just letting them know that we agree on so much. And there's such a value‑add to having women at the table, such a different perspective that really hasn't been up here in Washington, D.C.
But one of the things that I'm continually pushing back on is the notion that I am somehow qualified because I check a box, and I think that most women, they're proving their worth. They're proving their talent. They're proving that they deserve a seat at the table, not because they're a woman, not because they're young, but because they are the best damn person for the job. And that's what I love about this class. We just have a class of badass women who come form every walk of life, every industry, and to me, that is so exciting because we're going to continue to build on that. We're going to have women who have served in battle. We have veterans. We have business owners who have dominated industry. We have working moms that are getting elected, and they're going to have a seat at the table, and they'll be able to really influence policy in a way that is reflective of the America that we have today. And that is going to be, I think, one of the greatest contributions to the 118th Congress and really set the stage for decades of pro‑American, pro‑woman policy in America.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: Well, Congresswoman, we've touched on a number of different topics‑‑
REP. CAMMACK: [Laughs] Yes.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: ‑‑and I still have about a zillion more questions, but I will save them for the hallways of the House. Thank you so much for joining us today.
REP. CAMMACK: Hey, thank you so much, and of course, Go Gators.
MS. SOTOMAYOR: Go Gators.
Thanks to everyone for tuning in. If you want to hear any more interviews and see what’s coming up soon, please go to WashingtonPostlive.com. Thank you so much for joining us. I’m Marianna Sotomayor. Until next time. | 2022-07-28T19:28:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: 117th Congress: Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/28/transcript-117th-congress-rep-kat-cammack-r-fla/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/28/transcript-117th-congress-rep-kat-cammack-r-fla/ |
‘Hacks’ co-star on Emmy nomination and women in comedy
Hannah Einbinder is the Emmy-nominated co-star of the popular and critically acclaimed series “Hacks.” On Tuesday, Aug. 2 at 3:00 p.m. ET, join Washington Post Live for a conversation with Einbinder about her role on the multigenerational show and the changing landscape for women in comedy. | 2022-07-28T19:28:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | ‘Hacks’ co-star on Emmy nomination and women in comedy - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/08/02/hacks-co-star-emmy-nomination-women-comedy/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/08/02/hacks-co-star-emmy-nomination-women-comedy/ |
Analysis by Helena Andrews-Dyer
Natachi Onwuamaegbu
Beyoncé performs at the 2022 Academy Awards on March 27. (Mason Poole/A.M.P.A.S. via Getty Images)
The singer will officially release her seventh solo studio album, “Renaissance,” on Friday. The title boldly calls up Europe’s centuries-long cultural rebirth, the sparks that yanked an entire continent out of the Dark Ages and into enlightenment. Can one album — 16 tracks, to be exact — do all that for a world still blinking against the light of normalcy after years of a pandemic? The short answer is: Beyoncé's can.
‘ ’03 Bonnie & Clyde’
On its face, Beyoncé's first non-soundtrack single without her Destiny’s Child bandmates doesn’t seem particularly earth-shattering. It’s a smooth groove over a Tupac sample with Jay-Z’s signature lyricism and Bey’s R&B improvs. But the 2002 song was a prophecy. “You ready, B? Let’s go get ’em,” Jay-Z tells his girl, whom he was rumored to be dating at the time, at the top of the track. But really he’s talking to whoever’s listening, because the collaboration functioned like a save-the-date for the next two decades. The duo would join forces again and again on tracks and whole albums (singles “Crazy in Love” and “Drunk in Love,” the “On the Run” tour and the “Everything is Love” record). “Put us together, how they gon’ stop both us?” the rapper announces as Beyoncé muses about how happy they’ll be. He also raps that he “ain’t perfect” and, well, news of his infidelity years later proved that right, but also inspired one of Beyoncé’s best artistic endeavors to date. (We’ll get to that later.)
The night Beyoncé won the Super Bowl | 2022-07-28T19:51:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Beyoncé's 10 most groundbreaking moments leading up to 'Renaissance' - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/07/28/beyonce-biggest-moments-renaissance/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/07/28/beyonce-biggest-moments-renaissance/ |
Employees at a store in western Massachusetts became the first of more than 500 Trader Joe’s locations to take such a step
Customers walk to a Trader Joe's market in Cambridge, Mass. Workers at a store in western Massachusetts voted to unionize on Thursday. (Charles Krupa/AP)
Trader Joe’s workers at a store in Hadley, Mass., voted 45-31 to unionize, becoming the first at that company to do so, according to the National Labor Relations Board.
The union’s victory in western Massachusetts follows a wave of successful union drives this year at high-profile employers that have long evaded unionization, such as Starbucks, Amazon, Apple and REI. Union victories can produce a ripple effect across employers and industries, emboldening new workers to organize. Petitions for union elections this year are on track to hit their highest level in a decade, as a hot labor market has afforded workers more leverage over their employers.
A spokesperson for Trader Joe’s disputed the workers’ allegations, adding that the company’s salaries, benefits and working conditions remain top notch.
“Trader Joe’s offers its Crew Members a package of pay, benefits, and working conditions that is among the best in the grocery business. Despite this, employees in our Hadley, Mass., store recently voted to be represented by a union,” said Nakia Rhode, a spokesperson for Trader Joe’s. “We are prepared to immediately begin discussions with union representatives for the employees at this store to negotiate a contract.”
While Starbucks and Amazon have so far refused to negotiate union contracts with their employees who have recently voted to unionize, Rhode state that Trader Joe’s is willing to use any current union contract for a multi-state grocery store in the region as a model for a contract, including pay, retirement, healthcare, and working conditions, for workers at its Hadley store.
Trader Joe’s, a national chain that employs 50,000 workers across 42 states, has built a devoted base of customers since its founding in 1967 with reasonable prices, local flair, and a reputation for offering strong wages and benefits to its “crew members” — who don Hawaiian shirts. But unionizing employees in Hadley say that in recent years, the company has steadily chipped away at many of the benefits that made Trader Joe’s an attractive place to work.
Health-care benefits for part-time workers have also taken a beating. The company used to offer such benefits to part-time workers but raised the required weekly hours to qualify for the benefit from roughly 20 to 30 hours a week with the passage of Obamacare.
A spokesman for Trader Joe’s told the Huffington Post at the time, “We have made some changes to our healthcare coverage that we believe will be a benefit to all Crew Members working in our stores.”
“I think the company has made changes over the years that have made Trader Joe’s a less of a great place to work. Public perception hasn’t caught up with that reality,” said Yosef, 41. “I also feel like unions are good for all workers. You don’t have to have the worst working conditions to benefit from having a union. Eventually if we can’t take care of ourselves, the company will lose that magic that made it so special.”
During parts of the pandemic, Trader Joe’s took extra steps to protect its workforce. It required customers to wear masks, enforced capacity restrictions in stores, allowed workers to take extended leaves of absence with health-care benefits and in some cases increased wages by up to $4 an hour.
The worker revolt comes to a Dollar General in Connecticut
Edwards, who has worked at the Hadley store for eight years, said a manager sent him home in late May for wearing a union pin to work. Edwards led a rally for the union on the sidewalk outside the Trader Joe’s in Hadley on Saturday that more than 100 community members showed up to support. After the rally, the union organized for customers to deliver flowers to workers inside the store, but security threatened to call the police if they followed through, Edwards said.
Less than a week before workers began voting in Hadley, Trader Joe’s announced in an internal memo that it was increasing benefits nationwide. The company said it was raising Sunday and holiday pay by $10 an hour, as well as the rate of accrual for paid time off. It said it would give out raises to employees with more tenure at the company to increase pay equity across the company. Expanding benefits to workers in the lead-up to a union election is a tactic frequently used by employers to dissuade workers from voting to unionize.
The workers at the Hadley store say they expect other Trader Joe’s employees to be emboldened by their victory.
“I think our victory can be replicated,” Yosef said. “Even if we’re living in different areas of the country, the crew experience is universal. We’re all dealing with the same issues: pay, benefits, safety. I think we all have a lot in common.” | 2022-07-28T20:30:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Trader Joe's workers in Massachusetts vote to join union at one store - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/28/trader-joes-union/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/28/trader-joes-union/ |
James Lovelock, creator of Gaia theory of ‘living’ Earth, dies at 103
Dr. James Lovelock in 2015. (Nicholas.T.Ansell/AP)
As the British research vessel RRS Shackleton steamed toward Antarctica in 1971, scientist James Lovelock was a familiar presence on deck along with his invention: an ultrasensitive instrument that could detect virtually any trace of pollutants and other environmental toxins.
Even in the most remote reaches of the South Atlantic, Dr. Lovelock’s device found that the air carried chlorofluorocarbons then used in aerosols, refrigerants and other commercial applications.
It was a moment where the major threads of Dr. Lovelock’s groundbreaking work and theories began to braid into one. He was already exploring his hypothesis that Earth itself is a fully interwoven ecosystem — “like a gigantic living thing” — that can self-regulate to sustain life.
The readings from the ship brought a sharper edge to his Gaia theory, named after the Greek goddess who personified the Earth. It showed no place on the planet was untouched by man-made threats to the environment, findings that helped launch Dr. Lovelock’s reputation as a planetary caretaker with an ailing patient.
“The biosphere and I are both in the last 1% or our lives,” Dr. Lovelock told the Guardian in 2020. It was an environmental warning repeated in many variations during a more than 80-year career of remarkable scientific range and originality — winning widespread praise as a visionary and scorn as a doomsday fatalist.
These overlapping roles — inventor, researcher, moralist, provocateur — were worn with pride by Dr. Lovelock, who died July 26 at his home in Abbotsbury, on England’s southwest Dorset coast, on his 103rd birthday.
James Lovelock's work: Climate change personified
British journalist Jonathan Watts called Dr. Lovelock the “Forrest Gump of science”: turning up at just the right times to have major influences on the environmental studies and the understanding of climate change and the interconnectivity of the world’s ecosystem.
“He was the ultimate big thinker on the subject,” said Watts, the global environmental editor of the Guardian who is writing a biography of Dr. Lovelock.
Dr. Lovelock used his sweeping Gaia theory as an entry point for specific challenges to ease a planet under stress. He broke with eco-allies to promote nuclear power, and backed agro-giant farming and genetic modifications for more sustainable crops. He shrugged off policies on renewable energy and carbon-cutting goals as too incremental. Just “faffing around,” he said.
In the end, it’s up to humanity to make huge and revolutionary accommodations to live with Earth — “an ultra-high-tech, low-energy civilization,” he wrote — or the planet to find a way to live without humans.
“The question is not how humanity can retain its planetary dominance, which was always an illusion,” Dr. Lovelock wrote in “The Revenge of Gaia” (2006), part of a series of “Gaia” books over four decades. “It is whether humanity can use science and technology to mount a sustainable retreat.”
Inventor from necessity
James Ephraim Lovelock was born in Letchworth Garden City, about 30 miles north of London, on July 26, 1919. He lived his first years with his grandparents, then joined his parents in London’s Brixton Hill, where his father ran an art shop and his mother worked in the town offices.
He said his early interest in nature came from hikes in the Hertfordshire hills with his father, who taught him the names of various plants and bugs. Dr. Lovelock graduated from the University of Manchester in 1941 during World War II, but he was given conscientious objector status because of his family’s pacifist Quaker beliefs.
This time we've pushed Earth too far, says James Lovelock
He joined the government-run Medical Research Council, where he would spend the next two decades while working toward a doctorate in medicine in 1949 at the University of London. As he took on more projects, he realized the equipment of the era was not up for the tasks. So he designed his own, leading to more than 60 patents ranging from a method to freeze bull sperm to a blood-pressure gauge for scuba divers.
In 1957, he hit on his most far-reaching invention: the electron capture detector, a portable device that looked a bit like a hose nozzle and could detect infinitesimal evidence of man-made chemicals such as pesticides. It was among the most important analytical instruments of the 20th century, likened by French philosopher Bruno Latour to Galileo’s telescope but peering inside our planet rather than to the heavens.
The detector’s data became part of the scientific underpinnings for Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, “Silent Spring,” which helped launch the environmental movement, and later were cited in the banning of chemicals such as pesticide DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in some countries.
The device, fitted with a gas chromatograph, was with Dr. Lovelock on his Antarctic voyage, and his findings helped confirm links between chlorofluorocarbons and the hole in the ozone layer. (Chlorofluorocarbons have been banned in most countries, including the United States.)
At the dawn of the space race in 1961, Dr. Lovelock was recruited by NASA for projects that included looking for life on Mars. The first stirrings of the Gaia theory came as Dr. Lovelock and a colleague at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., noticed the stability of the atmospheres on Mars and Venus, while Earth was “in a deep state of disequilibrium,” he wrote in “Gaia: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine” (1991).
“It was that moment that I glimpsed Gaia,” Dr. Lovelock wrote in 1991. “An awesome thought came to me.” A neighbor in England, “Lord of the Flies” author William Golding, suggested wrapping the ideas around the name of the Greek goddess.
Dr. Lovelock began unveiling the theory in the late 1960s in academic papers and conferences. The response was mostly dismissive. Some researchers rejected the contention that ecosystems — from subterranean bacteria to the ice crystals of the stratosphere — could work in some grand network. Evolutionary researchers said it ran counter to the laws of natural selection.
Others wrote off Dr. Lovelock as pushing Age of Aquarius quasi-science with a gloss of Earth Mother spirituality.
“I have a suspicion that the Earth behaves like a gigantic living thing,” Dr. Lovelock said in a 1969 speech, echoing an 18th-century forerunner, Scottish geologist James Hutton, who described the planet as a “superorganism.”
A few colleagues, among them evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis, became early acolytes and helped bring Gaia into widespread acceptance and the bedrock principles of a discipline known as earth system science.
Lynn Margulis, leading evolutionary biologist, dies at 73
Dr. Lovelock remained a tireless champion of Gaia, giving interviews just weeks before his death. He favored simple analogies to explain what he saw as a world on the brink. One story was his imagined Daisy World: The hypothetical planet’s black daisies absorb light and warm the planet; the white daisies reflect light and keep it planet cool; a change in the balance could be catastrophic.
He married Sandra Orchard in 1991. In addition to his wife, he is survived by four children from his first marriage to Helen Hyslop, who died in 1989; and grandchildren.
At a lecture in 2011, he said he had no plans to retire because of the urgency of climate change. “The need to do something about it now,” he said.
His final years, in a cottage near the sea, were spent vacillating between optimism about mankind’s resilience and dread about its refusal to deal with the perils at hand.
“The Gaia hypothesis is for those who like to walk or simply stand and stare, to wonder about the Earth and the life it bears, and to speculate about the consequences of our own presence here,” he wrote in “Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth,” his seminal 1979 book. “It is an alternative to that pessimistic view which sees nature as a primitive force to be subdued and conquered.” | 2022-07-28T20:43:19Z | www.washingtonpost.com | James Lovelock, scientist behind 'living' Earth Gaia theory, dies at 103 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/28/lovelock-gaia-earth-dies/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/28/lovelock-gaia-earth-dies/ |
Utqiagvik, Alaska, formerly known as Barrow, saw its most rain in a single day, while Fairbanks was raked by high winds
Storm approaches northern Alaska Monday. (NASA)
Massive flooding in eastern Kentucky engulfs homes, leaves several dead
At 71 degrees north latitude, the community, located on a peninsula that juts into the Arctic Ocean, is among the northernmost permanently inhabited places in the world.
The significance of the record was noted by meteorologists and climatologists in Fairbanks. “Utqiagvik has only recorded over 1.00 inch of rain two other times since records began there in 1920,” wrote the National Weather Service office in Fairbanks in a statement.
Alaska’s capital, Juneau, recently saw both the wettest January and February on record, while the town of Talkeetna, north of Anchorage, saw the third most precipitation of any summertime two-day period on record earlier this month. And in Fairbanks, the most populous city in the interior of Alaska, an unprecedented December deluge in 2021 made for what was by far the wettest cold-season day on record.
Here are the peak wind gusts that have been observed in Interior Alaska from 9 AM through 9 PM. Winds are currently decreasing across the Interior and will continue to do so through tonight. #AKwx pic.twitter.com/94ziYM6QQs
— NWS Fairbanks (@NWSFairbanks) July 26, 2022
As many as 30,000 power outages were reported in Fairbanks at the peak of the wind event according to the Golden Valley Electric Association.
Damage to the power grid was so widespread that, for around an hour on Monday night, a 911 outage affected the Fairbanks-North Star, Denali, and Delta Junction boroughs.
In Alaska, the record-setting Utqiagvik deluge and damaging Fairbanks windstorm joined a summer, and year, of unusual weather extremes. It occurred toward the conclusion of one of the state’s worst fire seasons on record in which more than 3 million acres burned. | 2022-07-28T20:47:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The northernmost city in U.S. just had its wettest day on record - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/28/utqiagvik-alaska-record-rain-barrow/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/28/utqiagvik-alaska-record-rain-barrow/ |
It’s often understood as a period when economic output contracts for two straight quarters. But the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee, a group of academics whose determination is regarded as official in the US, defines a recession differently: as a “significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months.” It looks at three criteria -- depth, diffusion and duration -- and considers factors such as employment, inflation-adjusted spending, industrial production and income. NBER says extreme conditions revealed by one criterion may offset weaker signals from another. For instance, the pandemic-driven recession of 2020 was broad-based and characterized by a sharp drop in economic activity, but it was extremely short, lasting just two months.
President Joe Biden’s administration insists a recession is not a foregone conclusion. The Fed’s Powell has held out hope for a so-called soft landing -- a cooling in economic activity that doesn’t lead to a recession -- but he acknowledged on June 22 that achieving one will be “very challenging.” So far, the labor market remains a bright spot in an otherwise darkening economic picture, with employers adding more jobs than expected in June.
The global economy is facing a similar picture: high inflation and aggressive steps by central banks to curb it. “The outlook has darkened significantly since April,” Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist, said in July. “The world may soon be teetering on the edge of a global recession, only two years after the last one.” In a report released in early June, World Bank President David Malpass said that even if a global recession is averted, the combination of high inflation and slow growth -- something known as stagflation -- could persist for several years. In Europe, much of the fate of the economy hinges on access to Russian gas, though recession risks differ by country. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has emphasized that a recession is still not the central bank’s baseline scenario; some of her colleagues describe the risk as non-trivial but say any contraction would be temporary. Meantime, in China -- the world’s second-largest economy -- the outlook remains uncertain. The economy is showing mixed signs of recovery, strained by stringent Covid-19 measures and associated lockdowns, but the government is seeking ways to step in. | 2022-07-28T20:56:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What You Need to Know About Recessions — Including Whether We’re in One - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-you-need-to-know-about-recessions-including-whether-were-inone/2022/07/28/0f67329a-0eab-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/what-you-need-to-know-about-recessions-including-whether-were-inone/2022/07/28/0f67329a-0eab-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
Vince McMahon appears in the ring during the WWE "Monday Night Raw" show in 2009. (Ethan Miller/Photographer: Ethan Miller/Getty)
Abraham Riesman is the author of “True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee” and the forthcoming “Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America.”
Last Friday, after four decades at the helm of World Wrestling Entertainment, Vince McMahon announced his retirement. Given the avalanche of sexual misconduct allegations against him, the news looked like a victory for decency. But nothing is ever quite what it seems in professional wrestling.
McMahon is no longer chairman and chief executive of the multimedia firm, nor will he play his character in WWE programming. But he remains the largest single stockholder in the publicly traded company and reportedly controls 80 percent of shareholder votes.
This confusion is appropriate. After all, McMahon made his billions by sledgehammering down the wall between fantasy and reality, leaving everyone else to wander in the dust. But this latest twist in McMahon’s long, bizarre story is a useful lesson in the difference between a real political win and a tantalizing illusion of victory.
“Professional” wrestling has never been a legitimate sporting competition; the outcomes of wrestlers’ bouts are preplanned to inflame the audience’s passions. But that fact used to be concealed by an informal code known as “kayfabe,” intended uphold the illusion that pro wrestling was as real as baseball or tennis. Kayfabe had to be maintained both inside and outside the ring. That meant never breaking character in public. Wrestlers who performed as “babyfaces,” or good guys, could be fired on the spot if they were caught sinning. “Heels,” or bad guys, couldn’t be seen doing random acts of kindness.
McMahon broke the code in the latter half of the 1980s when he formally admitted that all matches and storylines were preplanned. By putting himself in the same legal category as the circus or the Harlem Globetrotters, he was able to escape the purview of state athletic commissions, which had levied taxes and enforced safety regulations in pro wrestling for decades.
But his greatest political innovation didn’t come in a lobbying campaign. It emerged in the wrestling ring.
In the late 1990s, McMahon chose to make himself the primary character in his own programming. He became a supreme heel known as “Mr. McMahon”: a sadistic, greedy, womanizing billionaire who antagonized the fans’ favorite wrestlers. The character represented the worst impulses in the human spirit. It also bore an uncanny resemblance to the real-life Vince McMahon, but always with a protective layer of irony.
If old kayfabe meant committing to a lie and calling it the truth, McMahon’s new type mixed truth and lies liberally until the two were indistinguishable. If you were a fan, you either let the spectacular confusion wash over and titillate you, or you became obsessed with picking apart what was real and what wasn’t. Either way, you were consuming the product. Either way, McMahon won.
Even if you don’t follow wrestling, these themes may sound familiar.
Donald Trump grew up on the wrestling programs run by Vince’s father, and the former president remains an avid fan of the art form — and of McMahon.
They’ve known each other since the 1980s, when Trump enthusiastically “hosted” two installments of McMahon’s annual WrestleMania extravaganza near his Atlantic City casino. Trump, playing himself, even engaged in a months-long rivalry with Mr. McMahon in 2007, culminating in a WrestleMania performance where he shaved McMahon bald.
Trump’s WWE journey wasn’t just an education in how to be a wrestling heel. He was learning how to hold an audience’s attention and how to let his enemies’ accusations make him more powerful, skills that would allow him to win the 2016 election.
Trump’s ascent to the Oval Office brought McMahon’s revolutionary anti-ethics to the highest echelons of power. Now, it has become common to describe politics as kayfabe, whether the illusion is playing out in staged debates between dueling paid commentators on cable news, or in the careers of a generation of conspiracy-theory-spouting Republican politicians.
But there is a way out of the hall of mirrors that kayfabe represents. Rather than trying to adjudicate the drama, look for who really benefits from a given system. Once you find out where power lies and uncover the agenda behind the spectacle, you will know what you’re up against — and how to fight back effectively.
McMahon’s resignation is proof. While he may be publicly disgraced, the new WWE co-chief executives are a McMahon loyalist and McMahon’s own daughter. The new director of creative is McMahon’s son-in-law. If the company gets sold, as some have speculated, McMahon stands to make a fortune.
It’s worth approaching the latest twists in Trump’s story with a gimlet eye. The spectacle of his prosecution, whether at the federal level or in Georgia, would be tantalizing. But the real victory would be the hard work of protecting the country’s election infrastructure state by state and county by county.
The heels are winning at every turn. The babyfaces are shameful embarrassments. No one knows what to believe. We might be living in Mr. McMahon’s world. But we don’t have to accept his rules. | 2022-07-28T20:56:56Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Vince McMahon's WWE resignation and the key to post-Trump politics - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/vince-mcmahon-wwe-resign-trump/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/vince-mcmahon-wwe-resign-trump/ |
Georgia will be a measure of the erosion of split-ticket voting
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) speaks to reporters between votes on Capitol Hill on May 26, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) stands a good chance of being reelected this November. The governor leads his Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams by a narrow margin in a poll released Wednesday by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, with Kemp getting the support of 48 percent of poll respondents.
At the same time, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) is also well-positioned to win. Warnock gets 46 percent of the vote in his match-up against Republican Herschel Walker. His 3-point lead is within the margin of error, but, still: there is good reason to think that Georgia voters will vote both for a Republican governor and a Democratic senator this fall.
This isn’t unheard of, certainly. Several states have popular Republican governors but otherwise elect Democrats statewide, including Massachusetts and Maryland. But “not unheard of” is not the same as “common.” And given the recent trend away from split-ticket voting at the state level, it’s worth exploring the implications of what might unfold in Georgia.
The Journal-Constitution poll found that 4 percent of Kemp voters also planned to vote for Warnock. That’s 2 percent of the respondents overall. In other words, the two contests look like this, with those Kemp-Warnock voters keeping the senator just ahead of Walker.
This is one poll, certainly, and the state of play will change by the general election in November. But it suggests that there may be either enough Democrats willing to back Kemp (who famously opposed Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the state’s presidential results) or Republicans willing to back Warnock (perhaps given Walker’s ... liabilities) that Georgia could split its statewide preferences between the parties.
In recent years, that’s become less common. You can see the evolution of the relationship below. The vote margin in the Senate races closest to the indicated year are shown from left to right. The vote margin in the gubernatorial races are shown from top to bottom. Each state is represented by a dot. Dots in red- or blue-shaded zones are ones in which the state voted for a governor and senator of the same party. Dots in the white areas split between the parties.
We can measure how strongly correlated the vote for Senate and governor were in each year. That’s shown in the gray graph: dots closer to the right indicate that the margins in both races were more similar. So, in the races considered in the “2016” graph, there was a relatively strong correlation between those margins.
You can see this visually: the more the dots align along an imaginary diagonal from bottom-left to top-right, the more the margins are correlated. That’s obvious in 2016; a bit less so in 2020.
Compare that with the increasing alignment of Senate votes with presidential ones. Again, these are not all Senate races from the presidential election years themselves. But the correlation between the two results have grown significantly.
Why the difference? Presumably in large part because voters are still able to separate gubernatorial races from national politics. When you’re voting for president, you’re voting for the leader of the country; when you’re voting for a senator, you’re voting to increase your party’s position in a significant legislative body. When you’re voting for governor, the stakes are high, but different. We nonetheless still see gubernatorial results aligning with Senate ones, a mark of the increased nationalization of politics.
There are two questions that the results in Georgia might address.
The first is the extent to which Kemp will benefit from sympathetic Democratic voters. The Journal-Constitution poll found that Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the primary target of Trump’s, was getting 16 percent of the Democratic vote in that race.
The second, and more important, is the extent to which Republican partisans line up behind Walker simply to increase the GOP’s chances of taking over the Senate despite Walker’s well-documented political shortcomings. Should the results in Georgia align by party — Kemp wins by a similar amount as Walker, for example — it could hint at the further erosion of split-ticket voting in the United States. It could also just be a side effect of a strong Republican year.
Governors still can win even as their states elect senators of the other party. But the trendline is not toward that happening more often. | 2022-07-28T20:57:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Georgia will be a measure of the erosion of split-ticket voting - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/georgia-will-be-measure-erosion-split-ticket-voting/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/georgia-will-be-measure-erosion-split-ticket-voting/ |
FILE - This image provided by the U.S. Secret Service shows James Murray in a June 2018, photo, in Washington. Murray, the Secret Service director, is delaying his retirement as the agency deals with an inspector general’s investigation and congressional inquiries related to missing text messages around the time of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says Murray will remain in his role “for the betterment of the agency” and to see the agency through the investigations. (USS via AP) (Uncredited/U.S. Secret Service) | 2022-07-28T20:57:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Secret Service director delays retirement amid 1/6 scrutiny - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-director-delays-retirement-amid-16-scrutiny/2022/07/28/2d248b90-0eb3-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-director-delays-retirement-amid-16-scrutiny/2022/07/28/2d248b90-0eb3-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
Commanders cornerbacks William Jackson, left, and Corn Elder run drills at Washington's summer training camp. The team's secondary will have a revamped look in 2022. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post)
His burgundy shirt was already drenched with sweat from sprinting up and down the field, but Chris Harris couldn’t contain his enthusiasm, so he again high-stepped it another 40 yards toward the line of scrimmage. The Washington Commanders defensive backs coach, a solo entertainment crew and hype man during practices, watched yet another one of his players deflect a pass, then declared for much of Ashburn to hear, “We own this sh**!”
Turns out, Harris was not wrong.
The Commanders’ defense — notably the secondary — owned the second day of training camp, even if only a sparse crowd witnessed it.
Throughout the nearly two-hour practice, Washington’s defensive backs disrupted Carson Wentz’s passing game, helped create trouble in the run and stymied an offense that, on paper, has the potential to be a dynamic improvement over last season’s.
If the secondary’s success lasts when the pads come on, it will be apparent that the group has changed drastically. According to Coach Ron Rivera and multiple players who took part in the skewed workout, the change is already obvious.
“There's not really a lot of blown assignments,” receiver Terry McLaurin said. “That's a surefire sign of communication, and those guys know what they're doing out there. They're a confident group, but they put the work in, and I think that's a testament to Coach Harris and the way he's coaching those guys in that room.”
Added safety Bobby McCain: “We know our roles, we know who we are, we know how to talk to each other, we know how to communicate.”
For the past two seasons, Washington has preached the need for better communication in its secondary, but, outside of a couple brief win streaks late in seasons, never did it appear on the same page consistently.
In 2020, Washington allowed opponents nine plays of 50 yards or more, the second-most in the league that season.
In 2021, it gave up 7.57 yards per opponent pass attempt, the sixth-most in the league.
Secondary is a priority as Commanders consider options for the 11th pick
“That’s one thing we’re preaching in the room, man, just communicating,” McCain said. “ … A lot of times you get in the room, and you see bad plays, and it’s not necessarily the guy just making a crazy play. It’s more or less, ‘Oh, I didn’t know I had help. Oh, I didn’t get that call. Oh, I didn’t know this.’ So that’s all on communication. That’s all everybody doing just their piece to let the next guy know, like, ‘Hey, this is where I’m at. This is where your help is. And this is where the weaknesses are.’”
Unlike the past two seasons, the Commanders kept most of their defensive core intact, especially in the backfield. Among the leaders of the group is veteran cornerback Kendall Fuller, who’s beginning his seventh NFL season and his third in this latest go-round with Washington.
Thursday, despite no game-planning, Fuller was able to anticipate and quickly read the offense to fly all over the field and deflect multiple passes — including one that landed in the arms of linebacker Cole Holcomb, who ran it back for a touchdown.
Harris went nuts over that one.
“One of the smarter corners in this entire league, not just with his ability, but his way to break down your splits, his ability to tell when you’re maybe tipping off your routes,” McLaurin said of Fuller. “I tell a lot of our receivers, myself included, [it] could be kind of frustrating, because it seems like he’s jumping everything, but that just forces us to be more clean in our footwork, in our routes and in our body demeanor.”
Fellow outside corner William Jackson is back for a second season, and he caught McLaurin’s eye, too, for his explosiveness. And third-year player Kam Curl has so far picked up where he left off, using his versatility to play the Buffalo nickel, to drop down in the box, to stay deep as a safety and to even move in the slot. He gives the defense options, and he gives Harris plenty more reasons to sprint, scream and high-five his players.
And McCain, in his second season with Washington, has developed as a quick leader of the group. He has experience at both corner and safety and has taken on the role of mentor for the young defensive backs.
“I’ve seen it all,” he said. “I’ve played all five spots in the back end, so understanding football, it’s like ‘one, two, three’ to me. You can always learn. You can always be better. I can always be better, and I can always learn. But anytime they have a question, and they can come to me, they know that.”
Acclimating to the team is a group of new and younger players — players with versatility and athleticism whose roles are hardly solidified for the season. The Commanders released Landon Collins in June, saving a sizable amount of salary cap space but leaving a void at safety and linebacker, where Collins played almost interchangeably in the latter half of last season.
Rivera noted this year’s secondary will appear much different, largely because of the personnel. In Collins’s absence, the team has brought in rookies Percy Butler, Christian Holmes, Ferrod Gardner and Josh Drayden. It also retained second-year DBs Darrick Forrest and Benjamin St-Juste and added veteran DeJuan Neal.
Washington has used St-Juste, a lengthy corner whose first season was limited by concussions, in the nickel position so far, and the competition at the Buffalo spot, a key role in Jack Del Rio’s defense when it opts for a bigger nickel look, is brewing by the day.
“The guys that were given opportunities at the Buffalo and at the nickel position, I think those guys have really stepped up,” Rivera said. “Benjamin coming back and right now getting the first shot at the Buffalo seems to really be fitting and adapting to it nicely. Danny [Johnson’s] a guy that’s very consistent. We know who Danny is for us. Then we got a couple of young guys — I’m not going to name them. The less people know about them the better — but they’ve done a nice job.”
But Rivera didn’t need to say their names. Harris said them repeatedly as he sprinted up and down the field in celebration. | 2022-07-28T20:57:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Washington Commanders secondary dominates second day of training camp - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/washington-commanders-secondary/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/washington-commanders-secondary/ |
Transcript: ‘Thirteen Lives’
MS. ALEMANY: Good afternoon, and welcome to Washington Post Live. I’m Jackie Alemany, a congressional investigations reporter here at The Post.
It's been four years since the world collectively held its breath while global effort was underway to rescue 12 young Thai soccer players and their coach from a cave that they became trapped in during an unforeseen monsoon. Academy Award winner Ron Howard's latest project takes that story to the big screen. I'm delighted today to be joined by Mr. Ron Howard and actor Joel Edgerton to talk about "Thirteen Lives."
Ron, Joel, welcome to Washington Post Live.
MR. EDGERTON: Thank you.
MR. HOWARD: Thank you. A pleasure.
MS. ALEMANY: And I also for our audience want to add a little disclosure. The Washington Post and Imagine Entertainment recently announced a partnership to produce TV and film projects.
Now that that's out of the way, Ron, let's get right to it. What was the motivation for you to take this story and make it into a feature film?
MR. HOWARD: Well, it began with a screenplay by William Nicholson, who had already been working on it for a year. The producers had gotten rights, had connected with Rick Stanton, John Volanthen, and others, and through that, Bill had begun to really synthesize this into a movie narrative.
And when I read it, while I had been, you know, certainly aware of the story and relieved by the outcome, I had no idea the different‑‑the different brands of courage that was actually on display and was required for this to have been achieved, and I just thought it was a remarkable opportunity. I loved the cross‑culturalism of it, a lot of cinematic challenges for me as a veteran director, but first and foremost, it's that big idea. If the world could come together and achieve this for these boys, you know, what else could we do? And they gave us this remarkable object lesson through that achievement.
MS. ALEMANY: And, Joel, your character plays a pivotal role in the success of the boys' ultimate rescue. What was the most surprising thing that you learned about Dr. Harris and sort of that brand of courage, as Ron mentioned?
MR. EDGERTON: Well, the big surprising thing for me is, you know, the mechanics and the how of how they got the boys out of the cave, which, you know, in that initial news cycle, like everyone around the world, I was glued to, there were aspects of that rescue that were kept sort of hidden from the public. There was a slightly controversial aspect to it in the planning of it in terms of how they got the boys out, especially knowing that as that plan was being activated and thought through, there was the risk that it wasn't going to be successful. So there was an understandable reason why the big surprising element and Dr. Harris's skill as medical practitioner and how that was implemented and crucial in the rescue, why that was kept secret.
I was excited to learn when I got involved with the project about those aspects. My job literally was on the floor when you‑‑when I stared to learn and I think as audiences sort of learned the mechanics of the rescue, that I call it the "threading of the eye of the needle" or this sort of high‑wire act of how it went down that is a marvel, and it continues to shock me even more today as I think about it.
MS. ALEMANY: Yeah. Actually, I meant to google this after watching the film earlier this week, but one of Dr. Harris's initial reactions to this plan that Rich proposes to you during the film is that it's unethical and potentially problematic in that regard to put these kids under as an anesthesiologist. Can you go into a little bit more about some of the ethical quandaries that maybe you studied while playing this part?
MR. EDGERTON: I think the big salient point for me was how it became a pivotal aspect in Dr. Harris's life and potential future.
I mean, no one had ever tried that before. You know, the idea of making anybody unconscious in a rescue situation, particularly under water, had never been achieved or tried. The idea of it felt like it was unachievable. There was a real risk that in doing so, it would speed up the risk of danger for the children and lead in the worst‑case scenario to the death of a child or more.
When you talk about how this situation came to a head as the waters were rising and the oxygen was depleting and the theory of keeping the kids in the cave throughout the whole monsoon season, the feeling was they were going to die if something wasn't tried. Now, what was really important for me was learning that Dr. Harris was hit with a crisis that if he didn't help and didn't try, these children were likely to die anyway. So he was willing to take the risk on the hope that the plan, as difficult as it was, would achieve the survival of at least one or more or hopefully, you know, the majority of the children, but his feeling was there was a certain risk that at least some of the children would perish in the attempt, but better result than all of them perishing. That to me felt beyond medical and incredibly, deeply personal when you look at an ethical and wonderful man looking down the barrel of the rest of his life, knowing he could have been instrumental, feeling that he had harmed children in attempting to help them.
MS. ALEMANY: And just to‑‑
MR. HOWARD: And what Joel is talking about as it relates to his character and the characters that‑‑the person that he's playing is sort of what I found throughout the movie, and it went even beyond the divers. It went beyond Dr. Harris. It went to, you know, this amazing level of volunteerism and problem‑solving under duress.
There's a scene in "Apollo 13" that people always want to talk about. People use it in film classes. They use it in history classes, and it's where they're‑‑they all just put a bunch of junk on a table and say, "Okay. The oxygen levels are running low. This is all they have to work with. How can we create, you know, a scrubber so that we can recycle the air?" And, you know, it's all based from my interviews with people from NASA, but everybody loves that by‑the‑seat‑of‑your‑pants problem‑solving. And I kept encountering this over and over and over again in this movie from people who, you know, weren't necessarily professionals paid to work together. They were there because they cared about those kids.
MR. EDGERTON: Yeah.
MS. ALEMANY: And a reminder for our audience, quickly, we do want to hear from you. So, if you have any questions throughout our program, please tweet your questions at us using the handle @PostLive.
Ron, you actually created the perfect segue for my next question. Although the successful rescue mission was largely tied to the cavers, the film does show that it really took a vast effort from thousands to accomplish the mission. Can you talk a little bit more about how you showed the extent of the sacrifices made by local communities throughout the world to contribute to the aid and rescue of these boys?
MR. HOWARD: Well, we‑‑you know, we had the framework of our story, the framework that actually occurred. It's a great movie narrative. One of the things that you can do in a scripted version is try to create that, that connection for the audience on an emotional level with a variety of characters, through understanding those characters relationships, and it's just‑‑you know, it's visceral. That's what drama is for. So my job was to first understand and then allow the audience to connect with, you know, the questions that would arise. You know, the flooding is coming. X, Y, anD Z ideas are not working. What else? And what will it meant, and how does it feel to be on the ground there in that camp or in that cave or up on that mountain trying to help divert rainwater that was flooding into the cave? And they were trying to find ways to create this diversion program. People were, you know, slipping, sliding, breaking legs, unbelievable, and all there because they‑‑you know, they wanted to be. So it's really just a matter of doing the research and then connecting it to scenes, building relationships, and recognizing the potential for‑‑you know, for drama and trying to share that in a little over a couple of hours in a compelling way for audiences.
MS. ALEMANY: Joel, I'm not sure if I heard you cough or laugh when Ron said people were slipping all over the place. Did you sustain any injuries during this filming?
MR. EDGERTON: That was definitely a cough.
MR. EDGERTON: No, I think‑‑the question of injuries was always‑‑I mean, I definitely‑‑we definitely scratched our hands up. I remember early, early days doing these makeup tests where we were getting incredible amounts of scratches put on our hands. The moment you went even into this set, the cave sets that Molly had designed and constructed, which are incredible when you see the film, you realized just how sharp these caves were.
The big thing was understanding this when it came to the difficulty of underwater cave diving, zero visibility, the amount of equipment you're carrying, just how dangerous it was, and I think it really underlines the fact that as the world‑‑it got excited about the children being found after an extended period of time, just how difficult the task of getting them out was and how extraordinarily unique the skill of underwater cave divers are and rescue divers that meant that it wasn't an easy situation to just teach a bunch of young children to expect to have 30 years of diving skill in the space of a day or two.
MS. ALEMANY: I can't think of a better word than the one Ron used, which is that film is "visceral" and gripping and, in some parts, pretty difficult to watch knowing how strenuous some of the rescue operation really was.
We have a clip from the film. So, actually, let's take a look.
MS. ALEMANY: Joel, what did you know about caving and diving before you landed this role?
MR. EDGERTON: Very little, and, you know, a lot of what I knew about cave diving came from watching the news about the cave rescue itself. And I knew that there was like this sort of thin percentage of human beings that were interested in cave diving, and I certainly never imagined that I'd be one of them. I mean, I still can't promise you that I would ever go on a crazy cave dive, but I'd be willing to tip my toe into it. I knew so little. I knew very little about scuba diving.
We‑‑I have to say at this point, like, we were led by an incredible team of divers, you know, particularly Rick and Jason who were there on the actual dive, the rescue themselves, but an incredible team of Navy divers and rescue divers and salvage divers that guided us in a very quick amount of time from being novice divers to being able to, you know, on screen pretend the skill necessary for what was required of us in the film. And, you know, it's‑‑even in a study setting, you realize how difficult and dangerous it is, and we were very lucky to be led by such an incredible team.
MS. ALEMANY: And, Ron, the 13 survivors would have no idea during their time in the cave that their story had captured international attention. You are a director who really digs into the research and the story. Can you talk a little bit about that process, getting to know these boys and when they learned about the impacts that their story had on a global scale?
MR. HOWARD: Well, we had no access to the actual boys. So everything is through contracts, arrangements through the Thai government and so forth. So all of our research was based on observation, you know, divers who had gone in and seen the kids and, of course, a fair amount of journalism done immediately after and also during, which had profiled kids, and, you know‑‑and their story was kind of elegantly simple.
The coach was remarkable. He managed to keep them calm. The fact that they were a team to begin with meant a lot. Also, the fact that they were from the North. Northern Thailand is, in some ways, a challenging place to grow up. It's beautiful, but it's‑‑you know, it's fraught with some social tensions and difficulties and economic challenges and so forth. And, you know, a lot of the Thai actors who I was working with and also our consultants and so forth all said that, you know, "These boys from the North are tough," and we actually put that line into the‑‑into the movie.
I relied a lot on the actors to become collaborators. I had great‑‑a couple of great co‑producers, you know, both of whom have done some writing, to do the translation, to interface with the actors in their own language, and, you know, I just kept imploring them, "Don't let a false moment get through. You've got to tell me. I'm not going to feel insulted. I'm not going to be upset. This is what we must do. You know, among three or four other goals we've got to achieve, we've got to have that authenticity," because I also recognized, you know, not only is that appropriate, but, you know, as a viewer, I want to know that that care has been taken and I want that insight. And the actors are going to--you know, going to reach a more emotional level and with more‑‑we're going to‑‑again, that pathway to empathy that I'm always trying to build through these kinds of scenes and situations for the performances to the audience is going to be there if they really own and believe in everything that they're saying and doing.
And the kids had never acted before. So, you know, for them, it's very honest, very raw, and it was very easy for them to connect this experience to themselves. Elsewhere, we had real experienced professionals who I relied upon.
MS. ALEMANY: Why didn't the Thai government want you to directly interface with the boys?
MR. HOWARD: We didn't ask. I mean, they already‑‑it's a‑‑you know, that had already‑‑by the time I came on to the project, that was clearly understood, you know, that rights had been defined, and so, you know, I took our producers' word for it.
I think also‑‑you know, this is me surmising‑‑you know, I think there was a‑‑there was so much chaos around the story that, you know, I think that to some extent, they wanted to put up a little firewall and protect the boys who were still growing, still going to school from, you know, some kind of onslaught.
MS. ALEMANY: And, Joel, I'm sure that for any parent watching this film, it would be impossible not to feel for the parents who are really in agony to learn that their sons are trapped in this cave and might not survive. What about the parents' stories did you learn in creating the film, and did they see this experience as a test of character?
MR. EDGERTON: Look, I was on my way barreling towards fatherhood as we were shooting the film. In fact, I became a father of twins a week or two before I even wrapped shooting my section of the film.
MS. ALEMANY: Congratulations.
MR. EDGERTON: Thank you. [Laughs.]
And as that was happening, I was thinking more and more about parenthood, the idea of your children being trapped and not knowing and having that terrible question mark. I think it was one of the reasons why the entire world was gripped by this. It's like as humans, we empathize about other human beings, interestingly and understandably, despite culture, religion, race, any of that stuff. When human beings go missing, we place ourselves in that position. We watch because we care and particularly when they're children. The idea of having to empathize with what the parents felt, I think, is an easy situation for anybody.
In the film, you know, there's so many moving parts in this film, and in the film, the point of view of the parents is really distilled into one particularly significant character who personally, as a watcher of the film, is one of my favorite characters, and I think it speaks volumes to that empathetic aspect of why we're all drawn into the story, is a lot of it came down to how would it be--not just to be one of the children and the fear of not knowing but to be one of the parents, being helpless on the outside and not knowing what is possible and what the outcome was going to be.
MS. ALEMANY: And I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that we all know the boys ultimately survived being trapped in the cave for days on end, but if they had not survived, would you, Ron, have been as inclined to produce this story as a feature film?
MR. HOWARD: Well, there would be‑‑there'd be a different set of sort of human conditions surrounding the story, and I don't‑‑I can't imagine what they‑‑what they would have been exactly. But, you know, had that process led to something that I felt could still be cathartic for audiences, it would be tragic, sure, but, you know, would there be something to learn from it still? Then, possibly.
You know, I'm‑‑as a storyteller, I'm inclined to sort of look for stories that reinforce the viability and plausibility of optimism, but again, I would look at sort of what the thematics that that outcome yielded and what did we learn and where's the drama in that. Particularly, again, you're going to make a scripted film. You've got to be thinking about the fact that you're sharing information, but you also need to engage something deeper, the nervous system. That becomes cathartic for an audience, that then it becomes, you know, engrossing and entertaining as well.
MS. ALEMANY: I want to dig a little deeper into that because, obviously, humanity has been through a bit of a harrowing and unusual period of time over these last few years through the coronavirus pandemic. I'm wondering other than catharsis‑ism, what do you think audiences right now are looking for when they are using film as an outlet in their everyday lives?
MR. HOWARD: Well, I mean, you know, for all time, storytelling has accomplished a number of things, and it's all a version of entertainment because what we want is to‑‑you know, to be engaged, and we‑‑you know, we benefit from this. It can be escapism. It can relieve tension. That's, you know, incredibly viable. There are all kinds of genres that provide that.
Information and that sense of empathy and catharsis is also a way in which human beings, you know, engage with narratives and get something out of it, that it gives them something to talk about, to think about, to‑‑you know, to grow with. And audiences more and more are being offered, you know, a wide array of formats and approaches.
And, you know, I'm also directing documentaries. Here at Imagine Entertainment, we're doing short form. We're doing branded content. We're doing, you know, movies and long‑form television and the documentaries, but it all comes back down to story, and story is always about character, thematics, and answering questions, you know, stimulating curiosity and paying that off in ways, whether that's really broad, playful, fun comedy or, you know, darker tragedy or, you know, sort of the recreation of inspiring events, as we have with "Thirteen Lives."
MS. ALEMANY: And faith plays a crucial role in this story. We learn that the soccer coach led his team through medication and prayer while being trapped in the cave. We have another clip here which we're going to look at which gets at a bit of that role that faith played in the boys' ultimate survival.
MS. ALEMANY: Joel, were you surprised to learn the extent to which faith impacted their survival?
MR. EDGERTON: Yeah. I remember when this happened, and early in the shoot, I remember joking about if that was 12 ten‑year‑old versions of me in that cave, it would have been a very different moment that the divers discovered. I would have imagined myself to be incredibly selfish, fearful, and desperate, and not to say that there weren't an entire tapestry of feelings those kids went through and experiences they had.
One of the things that really moved me and broke my heart is watching the video of when Rick and John first discovered the children, about how organized, how polite, how almost bizarrely casual they were about that discovery, did not seem like 12 boys and a coach had been trapped without knowing where and how, for 12 boys or‑‑and I think that faith had a lot to do that, and I think that the coach's ability to rally those boys and to instill a sense of confidence in them through meditation was important. And I think having traveled extensively in Thailand myself, there's a mysterious elegance and beauty to Thai culture, which I can't even begin to understand, having never lived there myself. But there's an impressive nature that perhaps is founded in their faith that says a lot, and as I said, if that was‑‑if that was 12 versions of ten‑year‑old me in there, that scene would look‑‑and, you know, I don't mean to be facetious, but that scene would have looked very different. It would have been like, "Get me out. Right now, please. I'm scared."
MR. HOWARD: It's so interesting to hear Joel say that because a couple of the divers mentioned, you know, just as we were talking to them, interviewing them, you know‑‑well, maybe more than a couple, that they went into this not thinking about spirituality as a factor, but there is a lot of‑‑you know, a lot of mythology around the mountain, the Sleeping Princess. Maybe this was a test of the boys. Maybe it's a test of society, these kinds of questions. And they‑‑you know, they went into it with a degree of cynicism, and we sort of‑‑you know, we demonstrate this in the movie. It's a reflection of several conversations that I had, and by the end, you know, they had to wonder.
And, of course, that region in the North also has its own specific version of Buddhism, which also includes some belief systems that preceded Buddhism but have been sort of synthesized into some of their ceremonies and prayers. Again, I leaned heavily on research, sure, but also, I cast a lot of actors from the North who would have an intimate sense not only of that very specific dialect and phrasing but, again, also culture. And it was a great experience for me creatively to see certain scenes shift and evolve into something else, and some of these moments around the spirituality were very meaningful and potent to me and, you know, put me in a mindset to take that aspect of the movie very, very seriously as it related to, you know, sort of empowering people to carry on and make this possible.
Again, I thought of the whole thing as kind of an anatomy of a miracle, which is kind of a glib way of saying it, but I‑‑sometimes I do that with a film just to sort of keep checking moment by moment, scene by scene. You know, are we‑‑are we understanding this? And I wanted it to be sort of as dimensional as I could about that, but I also wanted to be very granular and understand it on a lot of different levels.
MS. ALEMANY: Yeah. You do see some of that faith ultimately. You make some subtle illusions to it rubbing off on the divers after the experience is said and done.
But we, unfortunately, only have time for one question left, but I think it's the perfect question to end this conversation. Ron, this is a question from an audience member. James from North Carolina asks about, you have directed other movies based on actual events and persons such as "Apollo 13," "A Beautiful Mind," and "Frost/Nixon." What similarities and differences may have been a factor in your determination to direct "Thirteen Lives"?
MR. HOWARD: Well, when I first made "Apollo 13," I was terrified of tackling a true story. I thought it would limit my creativity, and I found it to be the opposite. And I also really loved the way it connected with audiences, not just that the film was popular and well regarded, but, you know, on a personal level, the way it stimulated people's sort of connection to the story. You asked earlier about ways that films can entertain. You know, every genre, even when it's playful, fantasy, you know, it's really about transporting an audience and stimulating their imagination, and I found that in this sort of‑‑you know, this kind of nonfiction scripted kind of storytelling, you could do those things. And, in fact, the audiences were really ready for it. So I had confidence that even though I didn't know anything about Thai culture, I'm claustrophobic in caves myself, I just‑‑no experience with that, that this was a great story, and there were a lot of those details that could be connected, could answer questions, could stimulate an audience's curiosity, and pay off in a really rewarding way for an audience. And it would be an interesting personal journey for me, which, you know, it certainly was.
MS. ALEMANY: And, Joel, you get the final word. What message do you hope people will take away from having watched this film?
MR. EDGERTON: Well, it's the same message that really drew me in to want to be a part of this film, apart from, you know, the excitement of being able to, you know, go to work for Ron is this story‑‑you know, you asked before about the outcome. The fact that the outcome was positive and given, like you pointed out, what we've just been through, what everybody has been through in their own version of the last few years has been an undulating series of highs and lows, for some incredibly low, to have a true story that shows the strength of human collaboration, the sense of human empathy, and what is possible when we all come together selflessly to solve a problem for other people, despite the lines of culture and all these things that otherwise divide us, it's such a great thing to be able to see at the moment. And the fact that it's true underlines for us that it is possible. It's not just some fictional dreaming. It's there to remind us that no matter how difficult things are, people will put aside so much of themselves in order to reach out to help other people. I wanted to be involved in that.
MS. ALEMANY: Ron, Joel, we're going to have to leave it there. Unfortunately, we are all out of time. Ron Howard and Joel Edgerton, thank you so much for joining us today, and congratulations on a fantastic film.
MR. HOWARD: Thanks so much.
MR. HOWARD: Great talking to you.
MS. ALEMANY: And thanks to all of you for watching. To check out what interviews we have coming up, please head to WashingtonPostLive.com and find out more information about our upcoming programming.
I'm Jackie Alemany. Thanks again for joining us today. | 2022-07-28T20:59:17Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Transcript: ‘Thirteen Lives’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/28/transcript-thirteen-lives/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live/2022/07/28/transcript-thirteen-lives/ |
D.C. mayor asks for National Guard to help with Texas, Arizona migrants
Víctor Rodríguez, 27, and his wife, Ordalis, 26, sit with their children Jeremías, 5, and Luciana, 1, outside the District's Union Station in April. Originally from Venezuela, they were transported via bus from Texas. (Craig Hudson/For the Washington Post)
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Thursday she is seeking to have 150 National Guard troops deployed to the city to help with the thousands of migrants arriving on chartered buses from Texas and Arizona, a politics-driven influx from those border states that has overwhelmed local aid groups.
“We need space, and we need the federal government to be involved,” Bowser said at the end of a news conference on a separate topic, calling the busloads of migrants seeking U.S. asylum who have been arriving at Union Station “a humanitarian crisis that we expect to escalate.”
Several aid groups assisting the migrants denounced the request as seeking to “militarize” a problem that should provoke a more humanitarian response in a region increasingly made up of immigrants.
Bowser, who also has been facing calls by some members of the D.C. Council to do more to assist the migrants, formally made the request to the Defense Department last week.
A spokesman for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin declined to comment on the request Thursday, saying it is still being evaluated. “The Secretary takes this request for assistance very seriously. He and his team are working through the details, and will respond to the mayor’s office as soon as a decision has been reached,” the spokesman said in a statement.
Bowser’s request comes amid an ongoing surge of migrants — many from Venezuela, Cuba or Central Africa — at the U.S.-Mexico border as the Biden administration seeks to end Title 42, a pandemic-related policy that paused nearly all asylum proceedings at the border.
With the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program also ending, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) accused Biden of being too lax on border enforcement.
In April, Abbott launched a program to send migrants who arrived in his state to the District so “the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border.” A month later, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) followed suit with his own voluntary program busing migrants to D.C.
The burden of assisting the more than 4,000 migrants who have come to D.C. since then has fallen on local aid groups — many of them staffed by volunteers — who have met the migrants at Union Station and helped them find temporary shelter or assisted them with plans to reach their final destinations in other parts of the country as they await asylum court dates.
SAMU First Response — a group based in Spain that has been among those assisting the migrants — is looking to lease space near Union Station that would serve as a “respite center” providing temporary lodging and other basic needs, part of a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant of at least $1 million it has to help those arriving.
With a similar facility in Montgomery County near capacity and the region’s social services network already strained as Texas and Arizona continue their programs, Bowser said, the situation has reached “a tipping point” that requires a more robust response from the Biden administration.
In a July 19 letter to the Defense Department, her administration proposed creating a temporary processing center at the D.C. Armory, the Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling military installation or the Fort Lesley J. McNair post — all of which are short drives from Union Station.
Under the proposal, the National Guard troops would shuttle newly arrived migrants to that location, where they could stay and find help in reaching other destinations, a setup that would be similar to the federal government’s response to the arrival of thousands of Afghan refugees last summer.
“We need to make sure that there is a national response,” Bowser said Tuesday. “Not an ad hoc city-by-city, state-by-state response.”
Aid groups said Bowser’s effort to get the U.S. military involved echoes the xenophobia displayed by Abbott and Ducey when, through their busing programs, they chose to use migrants arriving in desperate need of help as political pawns.
“It’s shameful,” said Amy Fischer, a volunteer with the Sanctuary DMV aid group that has been assisting the migrants as part of a larger Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network of locally based organizations.
That network and other immigrant advocates have been pushing for more city funding to help get those migrants settled — akin to the approach taken in San Antonio, which runs a migrant shelter with FEMA’s aid and, at its airport, features informational booths for newly arrived migrants seeking assistance.
“The D.C. community has communicated loudly and clearly since April that we welcome the people that are being bused here,” Fischer said. | 2022-07-28T21:44:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. Mayor Bowser calls for National Guard to help with arriving migrants - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/28/migrants-dc-texas-national-guard-bowser/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/28/migrants-dc-texas-national-guard-bowser/ |
The problem for third parties? America is not a political free market.
A MAGA hat on a chair at the “Protect Our Elections Rally” at the Arizona Federal Theater in Phoenix on July 24, 2021. (Cassidy Araiza for The Washington Post)
Americans are deeply frustrated with politics. They see the country heading in the wrong direction. They are regularly forced to choose between two candidates they don’t particularly like. Between 40 and 50 percent of the country identifies not as Democrat or Republican but as independent.
To someone schooled in the basics of market economies, this would seem like a no-brainer: Create an alternative. If people think all of the local coffee shops are terrible, you open a new coffee shop. And if the two major political parties are terrible, bingo: Start a new major political party.
There’s just one problem: The other coffee houses control who can open a coffee shop and how big it can be. What’s more, the people who are frustrated with the coffee shops still often have a vested interest in seeing one of the coffee shops succeed. And the problems snowball from there.
The announcement Wednesday that a group of former candidates and elected officials from both parties were forming a new party — Forward — isn’t really surprising. It’s a flash of admirably American optimism, the idea that their low prices on pourovers and tasty muffins will set them apart. And it’s even to some extent self-aware: The essay introducing the party is predicated on the idea that this third party won’t fail.
I wrote about this a bit last year. A key point from that article is that our constantly hearing about new “third” parties makes the inherent problem obvious. There are, of course, scores of other parties out there, a third and a fourth and a 20th party that sit in contrast to the Democrats and the Republicans. But since the point of a political party is to amass political power and since none of those parties have amassed much, they’ve been relegated to insignificance. There’s no powerful third party, no counterweight to the Democrats and the Republicans. Largely because the Democrats and Republicans have worked hard to make sure there isn’t one.
The problem begins even at the point of appearing on the ballot.
Here is what it takes to get on the ballot in Pennsylvania. Read through that, noting the difference between candidates for “political parties” and “minor political parties.” Imagine you are thinking about putting forth a challenge to an incumbent state officeholder but don’t want to run as a Democrat or a Republican. What are the odds that you get tripped up by the rules?
The Forward founders have an advantage you don’t. They all know lawyers who do this stuff and can figure out how to file what needs to be filed and where. But that’s expensive — and even if the lawyers figure it out, the system is in many places skewed specifically to make running as a Democrat or Republican easier than running as anything else. And who’s going to change that, the Democrats and Republicans who currently make the laws?
As I wrote last year, American politics is a duopoly. You want in on the market? Good luck.
The Forward crew’s optimism extends further than simply arguing that they can crack into the political economy. Here’s one pie in their sky:
“That’s why we’re proposing the first ‘open’ party. Americans of all stripes — Democrats, Republicans and independents — are invited to be a part of the process, without abandoning their existing political affiliations, by joining us to discuss building an optimistic and inclusive home for the politically homeless majority.”
Get the town together and haggle out solutions. America!
The problem, of course, is that Americans have strong views about specific things on which they are often not going to be willing to compromise. The Forward essay criticizes the far left for wanting to get rid of guns and the far right for wanting to get rid of gun laws. But that’s not where the parties are, because the parties are responsive to the coalitions they’ve built. If you simply take some independents and sit them down — much less partisans! — you’re going to very quickly find a lot of important issues on which there is not a reachable consensus. Then what?
What’s important to remember about the Forward group’s regular invocation of the number of independents is that most independents still align with one party or the other. In Gallup’s most recent polling, 43 percent of respondents identified as independents. But a bit under half of that group said they leaned toward the Democrats; most of the rest leaned toward the GOP. What animates independents who lean toward one party or the other isn’t that they support centrist positions, it’s that they hate the other party. Republican-leaning independents don’t necessarily share “being independent” with Democrat-leaning ones. They simply share a disinterest in being part of a political party … which, of course, doesn’t bode well for those looking to start a new political party.
This conflation of “independent” and “centrist” is a fatal flaw in this argument. Both parties are home to centrists (though the Democrats more heavily so). The parties have traditionally worked hard to make their positions palatable to those in the middle. They’re big, long-standing coffee shops! They’ll do what they can to keep customers, even grudgingly.
Then there’s Donald Trump. Trump won in 2016 in part because he activated more right-wing voters — but he did so while largely holding the more-moderate elements of the GOP who were skeptical of his nomination. Hillary Clinton worked hard to peel those voters away. In part because (two-party) partisanship is such a strong motivator, it didn’t do much good.
His rise offers a useful example of how the long-standing dream of building a third party misunderstands American political power. Trump was not a strong Republican, not a party guy. He flipped between party identities at various points, just as he changed his positions on issues. Then, in 2016, he took over the GOP and remade it in his image. He understood a latent, underrepresented political force and paired it with the Republican Party’s infrastructure.
This wasn’t easy, depending on a lot of factors unique to Trump: celebrity, wealth, charisma. Those factors have also propelled third-party efforts in the past, as with Ross Perot in 1992. Perot was a one-person third-party, really, crafting a party around his own personality and money. It puttered on into 1996 and even 2000 — with one Donald Trump briefly considering running as its presidential candidate.
Without Perot, the party withered. Locked out of power, it nonetheless meandered on as so many “third” parties do. It has a website; it even has social media.
On Thursday morning, its 1,677 followers on Twitter saw a message intended in part for Andrew Yang, one of the founders of the Forward Party. Yang had asked his much-more substantial Twitter following what animal Forward might adopt as its mascot. He offered a Twitter poll that included “eagle” as an option — justifiably not knowing that the Reform Party had already claimed that one.
The Eagle is already taken. The Reform Party has both the trademark in the trademark office and a common law trademark from a ruling in the New York Second Circuit Court of Appeals. https://t.co/HM976T8zze
— Reform Party (@ReformParty) July 28, 2022
Sorry, you can’t call your coffee shop “Caffiends.” That’s been trademarked since 1992 by a shop that closed in 1993. The detritus of past third-party efforts is all around us, unseen, unnoticed and impotent. | 2022-07-28T21:57:25Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The problem for third parties? America is not a political free market. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/problem-third-parties-america-is-not-political-free-market/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/problem-third-parties-america-is-not-political-free-market/ |
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the highest ranking Republican in the state, at a news conference in Madison, Wis., on July 27, 2021. (Scott Bauer/AP)
MADISON, Wis. — A Wisconsin man this week ordered absentee ballots for himself in the names of a mayor and top state lawmaker in what he says was an attempt to expose vulnerabilities in the state’s voting system.
Harry Wait, who leads a group in southeastern Wisconsin that has focused on voting issues, said Thursday that he was willing to go to jail to prove his point. The stunt angered many state elections officials, especially those who have spent the last several years fighting baseless claims of widespread voter fraud.
“I would be willing to take that hit for the country,” Wait said of facing jail time. “You can’t have ballots going all over the place, unsecured.”
Wait said he used the state’s online elections portal Tuesday to request absentee ballots for the Aug. 9 primary to be sent to his home in the names of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) and Racine Mayor Cory Mason (D). Wait has clashed with both of the officials repeatedly as the president of the group HOT Government, which takes its name from an acronym for “honest, open and transparent.”
Soon after he made the requests, Wait explained his actions in an email to Vos and Mason as well as Racine County District Attorney Patricia Hanson (R) and Racine County Sheriff Christopher Schmaling (R), who has promoted former president Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud and called for the arrest of five of the state’s elections commissioners.
Wait said he requested about a dozen ballots in all. Other than the requests for ballots for Vos and Mason, Wait said he had permission from the voters to request their ballots. He said he had not received ballots for Vos and Mason and did not expect to because he had alerted authorities to what he had done.
‘A real conflagration’: Wisconsin emerges as front line in war over the 2020 vote
Hanson said she was investigating the matter. Under Wisconsin law, it’s a misdemeanor to make a false statement to obtain a ballot and a felony to make a false statement to an election clerk.
In a Facebook post about the incident, Schmaling made no mention of investigating Wait — and instead called for an investigation of the state’s online elections portal, MyVote Wisconsin.
Ann Jacobs, who sits on the state’s elections commission, said the district attorney should charge anyone involved in the effort to try to get ballots meant for others.
“They intentionally went and stole somebody’s ballot,” said Jacobs, a Democrat on a board that is politically evenly divided. “It’s like walking into Walmart and picking up a large-screen TV and walking out the door with it and then going to the cops and saying, ‘It’s really easy to steal this.’ You still stole it.”
Jacobs and the commission’s nonpartisan director, Meagan Wolfe, said the attempts to illegally obtain ballots did not expose any vulnerabilities in the state’s system.
“Intentionally using someone else’s identity to subvert the system does not demonstrate a flaw with MyVote, but rather a flaw with that person’s conduct,” Wolfe said in a written statement. “A nefarious person who chooses to impersonate someone else to gain official documents of any kind — whether for election use or any other purpose — is clearly violating state and federal law and could face consequences.”
The issue prompted the elections commission to call for an emergency meeting Thursday night.
Vos issued a statement decrying Wait’s move and noting that Wait is supporting Vos’s primary opponent.
“His actions are sad,” Vos said in his statement. “If election integrity means anything, it means we all have to follow the law — Republicans and Democrats alike.”
Mason said he wants Wait to face charges.
“He's clearly violated the law and tried to take away my right to vote, as well as Robin’s,” he said. “You can argue that there should be more security at the local bank. You can't go rob the bank to make your point.”
Mason said he’s worried Wait’s actions will drum up unfounded suspicions about voter fraud just before the fall elections.
“It’s clearly wrong and, you know, laced with all kinds of irony of people so desperate to prove a conspiracy that doesn’t exist that they’re willing to perform the very crime they claim they’re trying to prevent,” he said.
Wisconsin’s online portal allows registered voters to request absentee ballots after logging in using their names and dates of birth. They can have the ballots sent anywhere so that those who are temporarily living somewhere other than their homes have a chance to vote.
A similar procedure can be followed by sending in a paper form through the mail.
Most voters must provide a copy of a photo ID the first time they request an absentee ballot that the election clerk can keep on file. Voters who say they are confined to their home because of age or disability do not have to show an ID, but falsely making such a claim is a crime.
When voters make online requests for ballots, their clerk receives an email informing them of the request. The clerk makes the final call on whether to issue ballots.
Wait said he recently explained to a reporter with the conservative Epoch Times how to request an absentee ballot in Wait’s name and have it mailed to Michigan. A short time later, he received a call from his clerk to alert him to the request, he said.
Wait said the system worked in that instance, but he was worried clerks in other parts of the state would not be as diligent.
“I want MyVote shut down,” Wait said. “I want all absentee ballots shut down until they can secure the ballots.”
Wait made his ballot requests two weeks before the primary, when Vos faces a challenge from Adam Steen. The primary will also narrow the field for governor and U.S. Senate.
Wait, who backs Steen, has long fought with Vos over the 2020 presidential election. Joe Biden beat Trump by about 21,000 votes in Wisconsin — results that have been upheld by courts and independent reviews.
Wait said he does not believe Vos has done enough to look into the election even though Vos hired a former state Supreme Court justice to conduct a year-long investigation of it.
Schmaling last year called for Jacobs and four other elections commissioners to be charged with crimes for the policies they set for voting in nursing homes in 2020. Because nursing homes weren’t allowing visitors during the coronavirus pandemic, the elections commission told clerks to disregard a law that required them to send poll workers to those facilities and instead send residents absentee ballots.
Hanson and two other district attorneys declined to charge the commissioners. Two other prosecutors have not said whether they plan to bring charges over that matter.
Schmaling did not return a call Thursday, but Wait said the sheriff told him he did not plan to arrest him during a call they had Wednesday.
“He said, ‘Thank you so much for breaking this open,’ ” Wait said of his talk with Schmaling. “So I said, ‘Does that mean you’re not going to arrest me?’ And he said, ‘help no.’ ”
That same morning, Schmaling posted a message on Facebook that said, “I am disheartened by the apparent vulnerabilities in My Vote Wisconsin that are ripe for fraud, and everyone — no matter their political leanings — should join in requesting a thorough, statewide, investigation into this significant election integrity issue.”
As of Thursday afternoon, the post had generated hundreds of comments and had been shared nearly 1,000 times. | 2022-07-28T21:57:27Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Wisconsin anti-voting-fraud activist commits voter fraud to make a point - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/wisconsin-voter-fraud/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/wisconsin-voter-fraud/ |
Maryland’s ‘duty to retreat’ standard clouds case
Jessica Ander
The 48-year-old Baltimore man who was killed instigated the confrontation, the attorneys said, when he parked his car, got out with a baseball bat and crossed several lanes of traffic near the Inner Harbor to confront a group of squeegee workers.
A motorist’s dash cam captured the moments before the shooting. It showed Timothy Reynolds, who had the bat, was walking away from the squeegee workers when they followed after him. Reynolds turned and chased them, with the bat raised. He swung once, missing one worker, and another worker threw what appeared to be a rock at his head, hitting him.
The third worker shot at Reynolds five times.
Anytime someone is charged with intentionally killing another person, a claim of self-defense can be raised. But it’s a different conversation in Maryland from a state such as Florida, which has a “stand your ground” law.
Maryland is in a minority of states that has preserved a “duty to retreat” standard from English common law. The state’s expectation, which largely comes from a body of court decisions rather than the legislature or criminal code, lays out that a person threatened in public with deadly force is expected to retreat before resorting to it.
However, J. Wyndal Gordon, the teen’s attorney, said at a July 15 news conference that the case is defensible.
“Someone wielding a bat, we would believe, is definitely deadly force, and the law allows deadly force to be met with deadly force,” Gordon said. “We understand the duty to retreat, but there is no duty when it is unsafe, or the avenue to escape is unknown.”
In this case, the teen defendant is Black, and the deceased is White.
In cases where the person claiming self-defense killed someone, the use of deadly force is justified only if the person establishes the attacker was using deadly force or believed their life was in danger, he said. The calculus is similar if the self-defense claim is applied to a situation where force was used to defend others.
Warren Brown, another attorney for the teen, said at the news conference that his client is 5-foot-6 and 126 pounds — “a small child,” while Reynolds was over 6 feet tall, weighed 200 pounds and wielded a bat.
“You don’t have an obligation if the individual who is the aggressor is placing you in a situation where if you were to turn back or if you were to retreat, you would be placing yourself in danger,” he said.
Instead, Gray said, the prevailing view among states is the “stand your ground” concept, which he said goes back to an “imagined Old West sensibility.” In cases around those states’ statutes, he said, “there is a recognition . . . that Americans have a different view of manliness and standing up for yourself than those sort of more delicate Brits.”
Florida is a good example: The state’s statute lays out that if a person starts a nonviolent confrontation, and someone responds with a threat of deadly force or with deadly force, then the person has a “perfect” right of self-defense because of that escalation, Gray said.
At the news conference, Gordon said, “I do believe that the shooter believed, honestly and reasonably, that he was in imminent or immediate danger of death or serious bodily injury.”
Additionally, the evidence in the case will show a “perfect self-defense,” he said.
If a baseball bat was about to strike someone’s head, Murtha said that probably would be perfect self-defense. If someone comes up with a bat and is five feet away, but the individual knows the person has attacked people before, that could be an imperfect self-defense, he said.
To Gray, an underlying issue worth examining is the culture of violence in Baltimore and more broadly across the United States.
There were a lot of “off-ramps here where nobody dies, and nobody took any of those off-ramps.” | 2022-07-28T22:19:13Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Maryland’s ‘duty to retreat’ standard clouds case - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/marylands-duty-to-retreat-standard-clouds-case/2022/07/28/a0bd6db6-0e1c-11ed-ab50-5d9e73892397_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/marylands-duty-to-retreat-standard-clouds-case/2022/07/28/a0bd6db6-0e1c-11ed-ab50-5d9e73892397_story.html |
Britain has experienced some relief since last week's heat wave, but the parched grass in London's of Greenwich Park is a symptom of the country's driest summer in decades. (Andy Rain/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
LONDON — When Britain experienced its highest temperatures ever recorded, in an extreme heat wave last week, scientists had little doubt the blistering event was supercharged by humanity’s runaway release of greenhouse gases.
Now a group of researchers, using observational data and climate modeling, have sought to calculate just how much human-fueled climate change is to blame. The analysis, conducted by the widely respected World Weather Attribution group, concluded that global warming made this British heat wave “at least 10 times more likely.”
The heat smashed records, with the mercury climbing to 40.3 degrees Celsius — or 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit — in Coningsby, England, on July 19. Temperatures at Heathrow International Airport and St. James Park in central London were just a fraction of a degree less intense.
The researchers determined that in a preindustrial world, circa 1850, the same heat wave would have been 4 Celsius cooler (according to the observational data) or 2 Celsius cooler (the computer modeling suggests).
The World Weather Attribution team specializes in examining the links between ongoing weather events and climate change. It found that climate change made devastating pre-summer heat in India and Pakistan 30 times more likely; exacerbated heavy rain and killer floods in South Africa; and increased the power and damage of Japan’s Super Typhoon Hagibis.
The same group — which is composed of scientists from around the world — said the heat wave last summer in the Pacific Northwest, which saw temps in Portland spike to 116 Fahrenheit, would have been “virtually impossible” before climate change.
The British heat wave would have been “extremely unlikely” without human-caused climate change, the researchers said.
Local records were beaten in 46 meteorological stations across the country. The previous record for Britain was 38.7 Celsius (101.6 Fahrenheit) in 2019.
That may not sound so very hot to a person spending the summer in Karachi or Houston. But remember: the British government estimates that less than 5 percent of British homes have air conditioning. The country and its infrastructure aren’t built for these extremes.
“Heat waves are often invisible disasters,” unlike flooding or hurricanes, said Emmanuel Raju, of the University of Copenhagen’s Centre for Disaster Research, and one of the authors of the report.
A full tally of the July heat wave’s lethality will take a month or more, as researchers pore over death certificates. But the report warns: “impacts include projections of excess mortality of over 840 people” for the two-day event, plus “hospitalizations, infrastructure damage, and psychosocial effects.”
In the world of “natural climate,” before the deployment of the steam engine in the industrial revolution, the atmospheric carbon dioxide level stood at 280 parts per million. Today it is 412 million parts per million — and the planet is on average 1.2 Celsius warmer.
Most of the world’s governments have pledged to keep future warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 Celsius.
2C or 1.5C? How global climate targets are set and what they mean
So far, the planet appears on track to blow past these targets. On current trajectories, the world is projected to warm 2.7 Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.
The analysis of the British heat wave found its likelihood in a 1.2 Celsius cooler, preindustrial world was “extremely low” — and “statistically impossible” in two out of the three meteorological stations in England that they examined.
Friederike Otto, one of the study’s authors, based at Imperial College London, said because of climate change, “every heat wave is more likely and more likely to be more extreme.”
Even so, these are still rare events.
Post Reports podcast: Britain’s hottest day ever
In today’s climate, given the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, one could expect a repeat of the British heat wave once in 100 years. For the 1-day maximum temperatures over 40 Celsius, the return time is estimated at 1 in 1000 years.
But that is for the “current climate,” the researchers cautioned. Assuming greenhouse gas levels increase over the coming decades, they predict so too will the frequency of killer heat.
According to the models run by the British Meteorological Office, a 40 Celsius day could happen once every 15 years by 2100 if countries meet their carbon emission promises — or once every three or four years if they continue to emit as much pollution as they do today. | 2022-07-28T22:19:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Human-caused climate change made U.K. heat wave 10 times more likely, study says - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/28/human-caused-climate-change-made-uk-heat-wave-10-times-more-likely-study-says/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/28/human-caused-climate-change-made-uk-heat-wave-10-times-more-likely-study-says/ |
Drug industry poised for rare political loss on prices
Senate deal giving Medicare limited authority to negotiate prices would chip at power of Big Pharma
Bottles of medicine at a mail-in pharmacy warehouse in Florence, N.J. (Julio Cortez/AP)
Year after year for most of two decades, proposals to allow the government to negotiate lower prices from drug companies for Medicare recipients have wound up dead in Congress, defeated by the powerful pharmaceutical industry and its allies. Now the Washington drug lobby is on the cusp of a rare political loss.
After winning the support of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Senate Democrats say they will pass a sweeping bill as early as next week that, along with climate and deficit-reduction measures, would give Medicare powers to negotiate prices on select numbers of the costliest drugs for the first time since Congress passed the prescription drug benefit for seniors in 2003.
Although it is limited in scope and wouldn’t go into effect until 2026, the measure if enacted would represent a significant step away from the government’s hands-off approach to drug pricing that has stoked drug company profits while fueling popular outrage. Polling has shown for years that huge majorities of Americans from both parties support Medicare negotiation of drug prices.
“Now, finally, like every other country in the world, we’ll be able to negotiate with drug companies on expensive drugs. It is a truly historic breakthrough many, many years in the making,” said David Mitchell, president and founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs, one of the advocacy groups that has been pushing Congress to act.
Fact check: Biden’s claim that the drug-price bill will ‘help fight inflation’
Seniors with high drug costs would receive significant relief from another part of the bill. By 2025, it would cap their out-of-pocket costs for Medicare Part D (the prescription drug pharmacy benefit) at $2,000. By 2024, it would eliminate a 5 percent co-pay on drugs for catastrophic coverage, saving thousands of dollars for patients with serious diseases like cancer who require very expensive drugs. Those are not the controversial parts.
The industry fight over pricing is what has attracted the most heat. Drug companies have lobbied heavily to avoid anything that resembles government price controls for its products. They are on pace to break records in 2022 with $187 million in lobbying activity reported so far, with an army of 1,587 registered lobbyists (57 percent of them former government officials), according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit group that tracks political spending.
The industry argues that price caps, negotiating or other government curbs on profits will sap the industry’s will to pursue new innovations. But the Congressional Budget Office, an official scorekeeper for the impacts of legislation, said the impact on industry innovation would be modest: a reduction of 15 drugs coming to market out of an expected 1,300 over 30 years, based on the limited scope of negotiations being proposed.
That has not stopped the industry from stepping up dire warnings.
“This bill will decimate the hope of curing cancer and other deadly diseases,” Stephen Ubl, president and chief executive officer of PhRMA, the industry’s largest lobbying group, said at a forum on Wednesday. Faced with dwindling returns, drug companies would lack incentives to seek new uses for approved drugs, Ubl said. He added that “negotiating” is a misnomer in the bill, because the “deck is stacked” in the government’s favor with a proposed tax on the sale of medicine if manufacturers refused the government’s price. Michelle McMurry-Heath, president and chief executive of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, said in a news release this month the legislation “could propel us light-years back into the dark ages of biomedical research.”
The industry received a public relations boost during the coronavirus pandemic when Pfizer and Moderna rolled out effective vaccines, using novel technology discovered in government-funded research, in record time.
But frustration has continued to build in recent years as drug companies fought hard to protect practices that critics called abusive: strategies to avoid competition by paying generic manufacturers to delay their products, larding on multiple patents to extend monopolies, and rolling out improved versions of drugs just as generic competition is due to emerge. Democrats and Republicans, including former president Donald Trump, have railed against drug company behavior.
“I’m not sure that we would be here if industry hadn’t fought more modest reform bills as hard as they have,” said Rachel Sachs, a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis and nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies the drug industry.
Still, the Senate’s Medicare pricing has major limitations. Negotiated prices will only apply to a narrow category of expensive drugs with no generic competition, and then only in relatively small numbers.
The first negotiated prices would take effect on 10 drugs in 2026, 15 additional drugs in 2027, 15 more in 2028 and 20 more in 2029, according to a detailed explanation of its contents by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Through negotiations and other provisions, the bill is expected to equal net revenue for the government of $288 billion over 10 years.
Moreover, negotiated prices would not be permitted until nine to 13 years after a new drug’s introduction, so the launch price of new drugs will remain unfettered. After launch, drug companies would face financial penalties if they continue to raise prices faster than the rate of inflation. Drug companies an incentive to capture as much profit as possible in those initial years.
“It is clear that if this legislation passes it will lead to higher drug prices at the time drugs are first launched on the market,” the investment firm Raymond James wrote this month in an analysis.
Another point of contention: Insulin would not be covered under the negotiation provisions, because the drugs will have generic competition. Also left out is a $35 proposed cap on the co-pay for consumer purchases of insulin. Groups including Public Citizen continued this week to press the Senate to restore the insulin provisions, which were included in earlier versions.
A separate bipartisan insulin effort led by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) appears to be taking precedent in the Senate’s strategy, even though the outcome of that measure remains uncertain, said Peter Maybarduk, director of the access to medicines project at Public Citizen. Democratic leaders were considering adding an insulin provision back into the reconciliation bill.
Public Citizen is among those who have pressed Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to restore the insulin provision in the reconciliation bill, which will not require 60 votes to pass. Excessive insulin pricing is causing a “rationing crisis that has killed a number of people in the United States and is a needless cause of suffering, since we’re talking about a 100-year-old medical technology,” Maybarduk said. | 2022-07-28T22:27:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Manchin deal puts drug companies in line for a rare loss on drug pricing - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/28/drug-pricing-democrats-manchin/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/28/drug-pricing-democrats-manchin/ |
Hamas raises taxes in impoverished Gaza
The Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers have imposed a slew of new taxes on imported clothes and office supplies just ahead of the new school year, sparking limited but rare protests in the impoverished coastal enclave.
The move by the militant group comes as Gaza’s 2.3 million people are suffering not only from a 15-year Israeli-Egyptian blockade, but also from a jump in prices caused by global supply-chain issues and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A list by the Economy Ministry includes planned taxes on items like packaged nuts, with an import tariff of 2,000 shekels (nearly $600) per ton. In the past, nuts were imported tax-free. The tariff on a ton of toilet paper rose from $90 to $580. The taxes are set to go into effect Aug. 1.
The list also includes a tax of about $3 on a pair of jeans and $230 on a ton of plastic folders used to store papers.
Gaza’s economy has been hit hard by the Israeli-Egyptian blockade, imposed when Hamas seized power in 2007. Israel says the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from procuring arms, but critics say the restrictions amount to collective punishment.
Israeli court overturns settler eviction order
The Israeli Supreme Court has cleared the way for Jewish settlers of an outpost in the occupied West Bank to remain in their homes, overturning an eviction order that determined the outpost had been built improperly on privately owned Palestinian land.
In their decision, a panel of judges found that though the Mitzpe Kramim outpost was built on privately owned Palestinian land, it had been allocated to the settlers in “good faith” by the Israeli government. Therefore, the 40 Jewish families living there can remain, the panel said.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and has built more than 130 authorized settlements there. The Palestinians want the West Bank to form the main part of their future state.
Lightning kills dozens this week in northern India: Seven people, mostly farmers, were killed by lightning in a village in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state, police said, bringing the death toll by lightning to 49 in the state this week. The farmers had taken shelter under trees during rains when they were struck.
17 reported killed in fighting in Syria: At least 17 people were killed and dozens wounded in the Syrian province of Sweida in clashes between residents and gangs aligned with state security agencies, activists and local media said. Over the weekend, the detention of one resident by government-backed fighters prompted others to set up roadblocks and detain members of government-allied gangs and besiege their bases, the local Suwayda24 media outlet reported. The resulting fighting left 17 people dead, Sweida's health directorate said.
Attacks in Mali kill 3 civilians, 15 troops: At least three civilians and 15 soldiers were killed in attacks in central Mali, the army said, as insecurity worsens in the West African nation. An army spokesman said the attacks targeted army positions and that the army fought back, killing at least 48 assailants. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they bear the mark of groups tied to al-Qaeda.
Landslide kills 6 in Tehran: A landslide triggered by heavy rains in Tehran killed six people, with 14 believed missing, Iran's state-run media reported. State TV reported that the rains caused flash floods and landslides in a neighborhood at the foothills of the Alborz mountain range. Nine people were reported injured. Meanwhile, the semiofficial Iranian Students' News Agency said flash floods killed five people in a southeastern province, while one died in a town east of Tehran. | 2022-07-28T22:28:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | World Digest: July 28, 2022 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-july-28-2022/2022/07/28/fe3c60d0-0e7d-11ed-bf3a-cdf532019c52_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/world-digest-july-28-2022/2022/07/28/fe3c60d0-0e7d-11ed-bf3a-cdf532019c52_story.html |
Joe Manchin’s climate deal isn’t enough, but it’s still a miracle
A protester depicts Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) holding puppets of Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and President Biden on Capitol Hill on Oct. 20, 2021. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
Better late than never. The $369 billion to fight climate change in the deal announced Wednesday between Senate Democrats and the White House represents the nation’s biggest investment ever in the future of our overheating planet.
Congress should pass it quickly. Like, tomorrow. Before Hamlet — I mean Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) — changes his mind yet again.
For anyone who understands how desperately we need to make the transition to a clean-energy economy — and who also understands how difficult it is to do anything big in today’s dysfunctional Washington — the legislation announced by Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) looks like nothing short of a miracle.
A summary of the package released by its authors says it would “put the U.S. on a path” toward a 40 percent reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by 2030. Yes, climate scientists say we need to move even faster. But if you had told me as recently as last week that climate action this bold was even a remote possibility, I would have said you were delirious from this summer’s oppressive heat.
One thing the bill does is expand the market for the new, more mainstream electric cars and trucks that are becoming available. More motorists will be able to get a $7,500 tax credit for buying a new clean vehicle under the plan, which eliminates the current cap on the number of cars sold by each manufacturer that are eligible for the credit. And — for the first time — buyers can receive a credit of up to $4,000 for buying a used one. These changes make zero-emissions cars a more realistic option for low- and middle-income drivers as well as Tesla aficionados.
Car manufacturers would get $2 billion in grants to convert existing manufacturing plants to produce clean vehicles, along with up to $20 billion in loans to build new electric car manufacturing facilities. There are tax credits and grants for clean commercial vehicles as well — presumably such as the fleet of electric delivery trucks Amazon plans to deploy. If it’s corporate welfare, at least it’s in the national (and planetary) interest. (Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Post, is the founder of Amazon.)
Transportation is just the beginning. The bill also contains $30 billion in grants and loans to help state governments and utility companies accelerate the transition to clean sources of electric power. It includes $6 billion to reduce emissions from carbon-belching facilities such as chemical, steel and cement plants. It would provide $9 billion to encourage low-income families to use energy-efficient home appliances and offer tax credits for the next decade to consumers who make their homes more efficient by installing heat pumps, solar panels and other emissions-free or energy-saving devices.
The bill encourages and enables each of us — as individuals, as families, as neighborhoods — to do our part. Climate change is such a huge problem that it seems overwhelming. None of us can solve it alone. Still, each of us can take responsibility for doing what is within our power — and can take pride in making a contribution to our children’s and grandchildren’s future.
But this bill represents more than climate individualism. The Manchin-Schumer package would spend $60 billion to funnel clean-energy investments into “disadvantaged communities.”
Environmental racism has long been shamefully ignored, and environmental justice has been delayed and denied. Poor communities traditionally get saddled with the worst-polluting industrial plants, and low-income residents suffer the health consequences. Many of those clean-air and clean-water problems remain to be addressed. But this bill at least seeks to ensure that those communities share in the economic benefits of the clean-energy revolution.
There is $27 billion in the bill to fund a “technology accelerator” to advance emissions-reducing technologies. The United States once led the world in producing solar panels; now, the leader is China. Wouldn’t it be great if that technology reached the point where solar panels looked and were installed just like regular shingles, a dream Tesla’s Elon Musk has floated but not quite achieved? Wouldn’t it be even better if that breakthrough were made in San Antonio rather than Shenzhen?
This legislation is no magic carpet whisking us to a decarbonized economy and past the worst-case scenarios that keep climate scientists up at night. Many experts believe the ultimate solution is to put a steep tax on carbon and let market forces do the rest.
This bill at least puts what amounts to a tax on excess emissions of methane, which is an even more potent greenhouse gas — a price that rises to $1,500 per metric ton by 2026. Baby steps, but in the right direction.
This could be our nation’s first truly significant attempt to meet the challenge of climate change. If we manage to take that first step, I’m happy to let historians credit two guys named Joe, no matter how much one of them wavered along the way. | 2022-07-28T22:29:05Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Joe Manchin's climate deal isn't enough, but it's still a miracle - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/joe-manchin-miracle-climate-deal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/joe-manchin-miracle-climate-deal/ |
Nicholas Sandmann attended Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Ky. (Lisa Cornwell/AP)
In February 2019, Fox News host Sean Hannity deplored media coverage of Nicholas Sandmann, the Kentucky high school student famous for his encounter with an Omaha tribe elder at the Lincoln Memorial. The defamation suits from Sandmann and his attorney, declared Hannity, would “destroy every one of these big media outlets. I guarantee it. It’s a slam dunk and they will all pay.”
Slam dunk, meet summary judgment.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Kentucky ruled against Sandmann in his defamation suits against five media outlets — the New York Times, CBS News, ABC News, Gannett and Rolling Stone — over their depiction of events at the memorial on Jan. 18, 2019. In granting the organizations’ motions for summary judgment, senior U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman determined that the allegedly defamatory claims about Sandmann were expressions of opinion protected under First Amendment doctrine. A spokesperson for the New York Times declared, “We welcome the decision today by the federal district court in Kentucky, granting judgment in favor of The Times along with several other news organizations. The decision in the case reaffirms that The Times provided a fair account of the controversy surrounding the events that took place that day on the National Mall.”
The controversy was an internet phenomenon from the beginning: A viral video from a Twitter account depicted a snippet of Sandmann’s encounter with Omaha elder Nathan Phillips, accompanied by this text: “This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March.” That comment shaped not only thousands of Twitter comments but also an early wave of media coverage that missed a critical part of the picture: Whereas the viral video, devoid of context, appeared to show Sandmann, who was wearing a MAGA hat, and other students surrounding Phillips and his fellow activists, it was the latter group that marched into the students’ midst, as other videos demonstrated.
The initial suggestion that Sandmann & Co. were the aggressors carried a toll, argued the lawsuits. In his suit against Gannett, for example, Sandmann alleged that the company “accused Nicholas of behavior constituting menacing racial intimidation of Native American political activist Phillips.” In the complaint against the New York Times, Sandmann’s attorneys wrote that the allegedly defamatory article “is now forever a part of the historical Internet record and will haunt and taint Nicholas for the remainder of his natural life and impugn his reputation for generations to come.”
Bertelsman’s ruling this week was clinical and consistent with rulings from previous Sandmann litigation against The Post, CNN and NBC News. In those cases, which eventually settled, the judge had narrowed the scope of Sandmann’s original complaints, initially dismissing the case against The Post entirely and then reinstating it — and allowing others to proceed — on the limited question of whether it was false and defamatory to report Phillips’s claim that Sandmann had “blocked” his path or otherwise stopped him from retreating.
In its coverage of the clash at the memorial, The Post had published a quote from Phillips saying, “It was getting ugly, and I was thinking: ‘I’ve got to find myself an exit out of this situation and finish my song at the Lincoln Memorial.’ I started going that way, and that guy in the hat stood in my way, and we were at an impasse. He just blocked my way and wouldn’t allow me to retreat.” Other outlets, including the Times, picked up the quote or paraphrased it.
Attorneys for Sandmann argued that the “blocking statements” libeled their client — and that those claims were expressed in “words that have factual connotations that can be proven either true or false,” according to Sandmann’s suit against Gannett. The media organizations, meanwhile, countered that the “blocking statements” were anything but factual representations. “The NY Times did not adopt Phillips’s statement as an established fact, but reported it in a way that made clear it was Phillips’s opinion: he was describing his personal feelings and subjective impressions during the event,” reads a filing by Times lawyers.
Protections for opinions are grounded in Supreme Court doctrine: “Under the First Amendment there is no such thing as a false idea. However pernicious an opinion may seem, we depend for its correction not on the conscience of judges and juries but on the competition of other ideas,” reads the ruling in the 1974 case Gertz v. Welch. Failing to build legal moats around opinions, in other words, would chill debate about matters of public concern — even matters as seemingly inconsequential as who surrounded whom by the Lincoln Memorial on some random January afternoon.
In his ruling, Bertelsman noted that courts consider how a “reasonable reader” would interpret statements from people quoted in news accounts. “[A] reasonable reader would understand that Phillips was simply conveying his view of the situation,” wrote Bertelsman, a Carter appointee. “And because the reader knew from the articles that this encounter occurred at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, he or she would know that the confrontation occurred in an expansive area such that it would be difficult to know what might constitute ‘blocking’ another person in that setting.” Phillips’ characterizations, wrote the judge, were “objectively unverifiable and thus unactionable opinions.”
David McCraw, the top newsroom lawyer for the Times, says that the newspaper treated Phillips’s account as an opinion and included other perspectives on the events.
As for Sandmann? “We are disappointed with the decision. We intend to appeal,” Sandmann attorney Todd McMurtry wrote via email.
Though clearly a defeat for Hannity and his predictive folly, the ruling is nothing approaching a victory for the mainstream media. Whipped into a lather by a decontextualized tweet, media outlets decided that a staring contest on the Mall warranted a mobilization of resources to nail down the particulars. The scramble produced a range of reports — sloppy and incomplete, for the most part — that amplified the nonevent and, yes, exposed Sandmann to ridicule. Had the journalists taken a step back, they might have produced better work or, preferably, no work at all, at least on this topic. | 2022-07-28T22:29:12Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Kentucky federal judge tosses suits from Nick Sandmann - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/judge-dismisses-sandmann-defamation-suits/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/judge-dismisses-sandmann-defamation-suits/ |
For young and old, the pandemic was upending
Children draw on top of a prop during a Dec. 13 rally in Washington. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
In her insightful July 24 Sunday Opinion column, “What do we owe kids for all they sacrificed during covid?,” Alyssa Rosenberg outlined the very real and wrenching suffering that children endured during the pandemic and concluded that to make it right, we as a nation must be ambitious on their behalf.
“Ambitious” would mean finally protecting enrollment for children in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. “Ambitious” was President Biden’s expanded child tax credit program, the one now lying at the bottom of the Senate. “Ambitious” is the record investment we made in our nation’s children in 2021 — the largest year-to-year increase in the share of federal spending on kids since First Focus on Children began tracking in 2006.
White House coronavirus response coordinator Ashish K. Jha appeared anything but ambitious when he said, “The thing I would not be okay with is saying, okay, let’s go back to normal.”
But “back to normal” is exactly where we’re going. Unfortunately, “normal” is the 6.7 million children — mostly Black and Hispanic — expected to lose their health insurance at the end of the public health emergency. “Normal” is congressional gridlock that will cut the share of federal spending on children to pre-pandemic levels. “Normal” is again denying the nation’s poorest children access to the child tax credit. Maybe it’s time to make “ambitious” the new normal. We owe our children at least that much.
Bruce Lesley, Bethesda
The writer is president of First Focus on Children, a children’s advocacy organization.
Alyssa Rosenberg’s thoughtful column on how the coronavirus and its variants have affected youths ignored the consequences to the elderly.
My husband and I are in our mid-70s, as are many of our friends. Sadly, this group has lost more than two years of opportunity for a fuller life. Children can plan on decades ahead of them; that’s not true for the people older than 70. There hasn’t been any stimulus to repay the loss of deposits on trips that many planned for their later years. People missed visits to their children or grandchildren who live far away. Necessary visits to the doctor were canceled to avoid exposure to the virus.
Many of “the over 70s” did eventually get sick, sometimes with dire consequences. I needed to address this for them.
Sarah Horn, Clifton | 2022-07-28T22:29:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | For young and old, the pandemic was upending - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/young-old-pandemic-was-upending/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/young-old-pandemic-was-upending/ |
Columbus Dispatch reporter Bethany Bruner in front of the Ohio Statehouse. Bruner’s reporting confirmed the story of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who crossed state lines to obtain an abortion. (Courtesy of Fred Squillante/Columbus Dispatch/Gannett)
When the Indianapolis Star published a story July 1 about a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio who was forced to travel to Indiana for an abortion because of new restrictions in her home state, it sparked a national frenzy. An indignant President Biden cited the story a week later as an example of extreme abortion laws, and his political opponents pounced. They suggested it was a lie or a hoax. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board concluded it was “too good to confirm,” and The Post’s Fact Checker cautioned it was “a very difficult story to check.” Ohio’s attorney general went further, calling it a “fabrication.”
Meanwhile, local journalists went digging. Using shoe-leather tactics, reporters in Ohio and Indiana proved that the horrific story no one wanted to believe was indeed true.
Today, media reporter (and frequent guest host) Elahe Izadi tells the story of how local journalists got the first big scoop since Roe was overturned, why the public rarely hears such abortion stories and the role local journalists play in documenting the consquencesof Roe’s fall. | 2022-07-28T22:29:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The true story of a 10-year-old’s abortion - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/the-true-story-of-a-10yearolds-abortion/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/podcasts/post-reports/the-true-story-of-a-10yearolds-abortion/ |
Pope Francis visits a Quebec rapidly shedding its Catholicism
Pope Francis celebrates Mass Thursday at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in Quebec. (John Locher/AP)
QUEBEC CITY — For more than 140 years, the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church, its conical spire soaring high into the sky, has been an imposing presence here in the provincial capital.
It was a rallying point for the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, an organization devoted to protecting the interests of Quebec’s French-speaking population. It has appeared in travel guides. In 1991, the church, with a facade designed to mirror that of Paris’s Sainte-Trinité church, was classified as a heritage building for its architectural and artistic value.
But today, amid growing secularization, poor Mass attendance, declining revenue and the climbing costs of maintaining centuries-old places of worship, its doors are closed. The church celebrated its last Mass in 2015. Its future is uncertain; officials are considering how the building might be repurposed.
The plight of Saint-Jean-Baptiste parallels the declining role of the church in Canada’s most Catholic province, where for centuries it dominated public and private life — and where steeples and spires still tower over small villages and urban centers — but which is now shedding the faith at a precipitous pace.
Pope Francis arrived in Quebec on Wednesday for the second leg of his “penitential pilgrimage,” where he drew criticism — again — for what critics say has been his insufficient apology for the church’s role in Canada’s residential school system for Indigenous children.
For the bulk of the 19th and 20th centuries, Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families to be placed in boarding schools often hundreds of miles from their communities, where they were forbidden from speaking their native languages are practicing their cultural traditions, and in many cases were physically and sexually abused. Most of the schools were run by Catholic entities.
Francis on Monday apologized for the “evil committed by so many Christians” in the system, but not for the complicity of the Church as an institution.
The 85-year-old pontiff celebrated a Mass Thursday at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, a popular pilgrimage site outside Quebec City. Before it began, two people approached the pulpit and unfurled a banner calling on Francis to rescind the papal bulls from the 15th century that enshrined the Doctrine of Discovery, which were used as justification to colonize and convert Indigenous peoples in the new world.
The Quebec that he encountered has changed dramatically since Pope John Paul II visited in 1984. John Paul was serenaded by a 16-year-old Céline Dion at a packed Olympic Stadium in Montreal and celebrated Mass with some 350,000 people in what was then Canada’s largest religious gathering.
The share of Catholics aged 15 and older in Quebec fell from 87 percent in 1985 to 62 percent from 2017 to 2019, according to Statistics Canada. In 1985, more than half of those people who identified as Catholics participated in a religious activity at least once a month. From 2017 to 2019, that figure was 14 percent.
The proportion of people with a religious affiliation other than Catholic doubled, from 9 percent in 1985 to 18 percent from 2017 to 2019.
“We have passed from a situation when there was a sort of moral authority of Catholicism decades ago,” said Jean-François Roussel, a theology professor at the University of Montreal. “For a lot of Quebecers … Catholicism is not a part of their lives, not even a part of their family lives.”
In the two decades to 2020, the number of parishes in the province declined from 1,780 to 983, according to the government agency that manages Quebec’s library and archives.
Catholic baptisms and weddings have also plunged, researchers reported last year in the journal Secular Studies.
“We have been entering, for the last 10 years or so, into a strong phase of decline of a certain Catholicism in Quebec,” said University of Ottawa sociologist E.-Martin Meunier, a co-author of the report. “If there is a collapse of Catholicism, it concerns first of all institutional Catholicism.”
Quebec has had a long, complex relationship with the faith.
For centuries, the Church had a stranglehold over public institutions in Quebec, including health care, education, and social services, before the province began to uncouple itself in favor of a more secular approach — the so-called Quiet Revolution of the 1960s.
The shift away from Catholicism has accelerated in recent decades.
The result is that more than 600 churches in Quebec have closed, many of them bulldozed or deconsecrated so that other uses can be found for the historic buildings.
In Sherbrooke, 100 miles east of Montreal, the former Ste-Thérèse church is now The OMG Restaurant, a “festive place” where cocktails are topped with cotton candy and “even the wisest will be tempted to listen to the devil that sleeps within them.”
(The O in OMG has devil horns. So do some of the hamburgers.)
In Montreal, where Mark Twain once observed “you couldn’t throw a brick without breaking a church window,” places of worship have also been transformed into condominiums and community centers.
In 2014, the former Notre-Dame-du-Perpétuel-Secours was reborn as the Théâtre Paradoxe, where this month, Justin Turnbull, who goes by the name “The Suicide Jesus,” beat Brian Pillman to become the first-ever Apex Championship Wrestling world champion.
Court rules Quebec can bar government workers from wearing hijabs, turbans, other religious items
Saint-Jean-Baptiste, meanwhile, is in limbo.
The first church on that site was built after a fire in 1845 and inaugurated in 1849. It was dedicated to John the Baptist, Jesus’ cousin, who would become the patron saint of French Canadians. When it was destroyed by a fire in 1881, it was immediately rebuilt.
The priest who delivered the final homily in 2015 praised it as “a stone church, built with genius, with grandeur, with pride, which allows everyone — without distinction — to rub shoulders with beauty, silence, elevation, contemplation.”
The church is the property of the archdiocese, said David O’Brien, a spokesman for the local government. He said the city is analyzing how it might be repurposed.
Eva Dubuc-April waited at the Basilica of St. Anne-de-Beaupré on Thursday for Francis to celebrate Mass.
Dubuc-April, 31, said she had her children baptized and attends Mass periodically. But she feels strongly that the church needs to modernize by reconsidering its teachings on sexuality and the male-only priesthood.
She likes Francis personally and sees him as a reformer, but he has faced resistance from a conservative Vatican bureaucracy.
“In Quebec, people that practice Catholicism don’t agree with these old teachings,” she said. “If they don’t progress, there will be no one left.”
Chico Harlan in Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec, contributed to this report. | 2022-07-28T22:41:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Pope Francis visits a Quebec rapidly shedding Catholicism - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/28/pope-francis-quebec-canada/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/28/pope-francis-quebec-canada/ |
Montgomery plans to continue counting ballots into the weekend
Canvassers for the Montgomery County Board of Elections review mail-in ballots for the primary election on July 21 in Germantown, Md. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
Montgomery County election officials plan to continue counting ballots into the weekend, with thousands of mail-in and provisional ballots in the gubernatorial primary left to count before a winner can be named in the Democratic primary for county executive and other local races.
Under Maryland law, each county has until the second Friday after the election, or two days after it completes its count, to certify and send local results to the state. Once all the local boards finish counting and certify, the state board of elections will host a meeting to certify the election — a process that’s unique to the gubernatorial primary race, said Nikki Baines Charlson, deputy administrator at the Maryland State Board of Elections.
Baines Charlson said she anticipates many counties will wrap up counting and certify Friday, but some will take additional time to finish tabulating the influx of mail-in ballots voters cast this year.
The bulk of outstanding ballots remain in Montgomery County, the state’s most populous county. Election officials said they have at least 17,000 more mail-in ballots to count, as well as just over 8,000 provisional ballots and any mailed ballots that arrive before the cutoff at 10 a.m. Friday. The board plans to continue canvassing through Saturday and will add additional dates as needed, Montgomery County elections spokesman Gilberto Zelaya said in an interview. The county is aiming to complete its count by Aug. 12.
“If we could do it before then,” Zelaya said, “that would be better.”
Most statewide races have already been called, but a few key local races still depend on those lingering votes. In Montgomery County, incumbent Marc Elrich and businessman David Blair are in a tight race for the Democratic nomination for county executive. Democratic primaries for eight other county council seats also remain too close to call.
Officials have noted that it’s not unusual for local races to take time to call. In 2018, it took nearly two weeks to reach a result in the Democratic primary for Montgomery County executive — also a tight race between Elrich and Blair, in which Elrich narrowly won by 77 votes. But this year officials dealt with pre-pandemic election procedures, the widespread popularity of mail-in ballots and logistical challenges that have made the process slower. Officials also could not begin to process mailed ballots until two days after the July 19 election, according to Maryland law.
State Board of Elections Chair William G. Voelp said a meeting to certify the results of the election will be held sometime in August, but a date has not yet been finalized.
“It’s common that it’s delayed a few days,” Voelp said of election certification. “It’s not so common for it to be two weeks.”
The death this week of the board’s vice chair, Malcolm L. Funn, means all four remaining board members must be present to reach a quorum.
Zelaya, from Montgomery, said the county will enter “phase two” of tabulating mail-in ballots on Friday. Phase two signifies that the board of elections has stopped accepting mail-in ballots. So far, the board has canvassed and counted more than 47,000 votes, Zelaya said.
Teams have worked every day since the county began canvassing on July 21, but Zelaya emphasized how intensive the process is — especially for web delivery and provisional ballots that take extra steps to properly account for.
“Just because we’re not canvassing doesn’t mean we’re not working,” Zelaya said. “I welcome everyone to come and watch for 10 minutes, then you will realize why it takes so long.” | 2022-07-28T22:41:07Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Montgomery plans to continue counting ballots into the weekend - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/28/maryland-board-elections-certification-montgomery/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/28/maryland-board-elections-certification-montgomery/ |
Biden is showing that governing from the middle is possible
President Biden on Thursday. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
Is it possible that, despite all the partisan noise and expert disbelief, Joe Biden is actually managing to do something he promised during his campaign: govern from the center?
The evidence is piling up. If the compromise hammered out on Wednesday between Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) passes, it will be the largest investment in climate change ever made by the federal government while also being the largest deficit reduction package in a decade.
The deal comes on top of the Chips and Science Act, which will make massive investments in basic research and critical technologies. That followed the first bipartisan gun control legislation passed in a generation. And that was preceded by a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that had been one of Donald Trump’s signature campaign promises.
Governing from the center in today’s world looks a lot different than it did in the past. When Congress came together in the 1980s and ’90s to pass big bipartisan bills saving Social Security, reforming taxes, helping Americans with disabilities and reducing air pollution, the authors of the bills were often lionized in the media and within their own parties.
Today, the incentive in Congress is to never compromise. Holding out against the other party, which is regarded not as the opposition but as the enemy, is a badge of honor. That is what allows you to fundraise from the most radical elements on your side of the spectrum. One big bipartisan effort to address immigration reform stalled in the early 2000s, viciously attacked by the extremes of both parties.
The Dream Act was supported by two of the most ideologically opposed senators, Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), who were also good friends. They were among the oldest members of the Senate and perhaps embodied an old way of governing that was out of tune with the changing times. The Gingrich revolution of the 1990s had changed the Republican Party, and soon Washington itself. Compromise was considered a sellout, even treasonous.
In trying to revive that old model of governing, Biden is fighting against the tide. But surprisingly, in small but significant ways, he is winning. If more bipartisan bills get passed and if legislators don’t get punished for working across party lines — even get rewarded for it — that might begin to shift some of the incentives and reduce the toxicity in Washington.
For Democrats, there is a real potential upside here. They are better positioned than Republicans to become a big-tent party. As a notable Brookings study showed, in 2020, “Biden’s victory came from the suburbs,” and those voters are presumably more moderate and centrist than, say, the Democrats’ base. Suburban voters seem to be increasingly turned off by Republican positions on issues such as abortion and guns. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the generic congressional ballot has moved from favoring Republicans to being essentially a tie.
Being a big-tent party is hard. It does mean holding coalitions together, including people with whom you profoundly disagree. But in a large, diverse country of more than 330 million people, it is the only way to gain working majorities. Some of the greatest Democratic accomplishments have taken place in that spirit.
Franklin D. Roosevelt deferred action on civil rights so that he could pass the New Deal. Lyndon B. Johnson enlisted the segregationist South to support much of his Great Society legislation. Bill Clinton had to govern mostly with a Republican-controlled Congress. And when Barack Obama had congressional majorities, he chose to prioritize universal health care over many other important social issues, including same-sex marriage.
Sometimes, compromise can lead to better outcomes. For example, the immigration bill was, in my view, a better plan than either party would have independently passed because both sides have legitimate concerns and valid arguments that got represented.
Some of Manchin’s arguments in the past year have similarly been credible. He has argued, for example, against making bills look affordable by shoving in lots of programs but funding them for just a year, in the hope that they will be extended annually. On climate, his view that we should not choke off fossil fuels before we have enough green technologies at scale to replace them might be self-serving for the senator from West Virginia but it also happens to be an accurate read of where we are today.
More important, please remember that Manchin represents a state that Trump won by about 40 points in 2020. The wonder is surely that he is willing to go as far as he has already. Think of him as a litmus test. If Democrats can keep Manchin with them, by definition they are building a big tent, one that could encompass a majority of Americans. | 2022-07-28T23:11:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Biden is showing that governing from the middle is possible - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/biden-is-showing-that-governing-middle-is-possible/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/28/biden-is-showing-that-governing-middle-is-possible/ |
Celebrated for playing the beleaguered wife in August Wilson’s play, she was also known for her screen roles in ‘Sparkle’ and ‘A Different World’
Actress Mary Alice won an Emmy Award in 1993 for her supporting role in “I’ll Fly Away,” an NBC period drama. (Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection/Getty Images)
August Wilson dies at 60; his plays about 20th-century Black life were among the most celebrated modern dramas
''Don’t you think I ever wanted other things?'” she says, voice trembling. ''Don’t you think I had dreams and hopes? What about my life? What about me?''
Mary Alice Smith was born in Indianola, Miss., and grew up in Chicago. She rarely spoke about her personal life, but said she modeled her performance in “Fences” partly on her mother and an aunt.
“It was a kind of tribute to them and the Black women in my family who never were able to pursue their dreams,” she told the Times.
“I’m an actor today because of that,” Ms. Smith told the New York Daily News.
Ms. Alice’s later screen credits included roles in Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X” (1992), Clint Eastwood’s “A Perfect World” (1993) and Maya Angelou’s “Down in the Delta” (1998), the only movie directed by the famed poet. After appearing in the 2005 TV remake of “Kojak,” she retired from acting.
“Acting has been a big sacrifice,” she told the Tribune in 1986. “I sometimes think that if I had continued to be a teacher, I would be retired already. The income would have been constant. … But I didn’t feel about teaching the way I do about acting. It’s my service in life. I’m supposed to use it.
“I had an experience years ago when I thought about giving it up,” she continued. “I really didn’t feel I wanted to act anymore. I was sitting down. I got up and I had the experience. It was a feeling, a feeling with such clarity and I had no doubt what it was. It was my God. The voice said to go home, that everything is going to be all right. As long as you do work, it said, don’t worry about the money.” | 2022-07-28T23:41:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mary Alice, veteran actress who won a Tony for ‘Fences,’ dies - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/28/fences-actress-mary-alice-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/28/fences-actress-mary-alice-dead/ |
A member of the U.S. Capitol Police stands guard on the field as Congressional Republicans prepare to play in the Congressional baseball game, Thursday, July 28, 2022, in Washington. The annual baseball game between Congressional Republicans and Democrats raises money for charity. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Dozens of climate activists turned out at the annual Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park on Thursday to demand more urgent action on climate change.
Before the start of the game, long a tradition in Washington, the activists moved toward the center field entry gate to disrupt those seeking to come into the stadium. Police formed lines to separate demonstrators from attendees. Two demonstrators, a man and a woman, crossed the police line and were detained — it was not immediately clear if they faced any charges. A third person was later detained.
Organizers behind the protest had to reformulate their plans more than 24 hours before the game after the announcement of an agreement between Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on a spending package aimed at lowering health-care costs, combat climate change and reduce the federal deficit. Most of the new spending is focused on climate change and clean energy production.
Outside the Thursday evening game, activists said they supported the agreement, but remained skeptical. Demonstrators speaking to the crowd urged President Biden to declare a climate emergency to exercise executive power on additional climate investment, saying they believe the agreement was not enough.
Sourish Dey, 17, a spokesperson for the activists, said additional action is vital.
“We took in-your-face actions because Congress has failed to take serious action,” Dey said. “They’ve known about this crisis since well before I was born.”
One of the key reasons behind the protest was to put pressure on Manchin, who said more than two weeks ago that he would not support investments to deal with climate change, fearing that the spending would exacerbate inflation. | 2022-07-28T23:50:40Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Climate activists demonstrate outside Congressional Baseball Game - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/28/congressional-baseball-game-protested/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/28/congressional-baseball-game-protested/ |
Amazon’s Ad Business Is a Star. But Where Are the Details?
For the big internet companies that make their living from selling advertising, these are troubled times. As happens in any kind of economic slowdown, businesses cut ad spending quickly. For Amazon.com Inc., though, whose e-commerce business is getting hammered, advertising is proving to be a bright spot.
Well, relatively speaking. Just as it did for Amazon’s rivals in digital advertising, the company’s ad revenue growth rate slowed in the second quarter to 18% from 32% in the fourth quarter, before the recent slowdown began, Amazon reported Thursday. But it’s still cruising on the highway at a decent speed compared with some other digital ad companies. Ad revenue at Meta Platforms Inc., most obviously, decelerated to minus 1.5% in the second quarter from 20% in the fourth quarter. Even Google’s ad revenue slowed to 11.6% in the quarter from 32.5% in the fourth quarter.
And compared with the rest of Amazon’s business — aside from Amazon Web Services, investors’ favorite business — advertising is a star. After all, online sales fell 4% in the quarter. Moreover, given the high-profit nature of advertising, the business is likely now a key contributor to the company’s bottom line. AWS’s operating profits of $5.7 billion offset losses of $2.4 billion at the rest of Amazon. But without advertising, the rest of Amazon would have lost much more money.
Having said all that, it’s important to acknowledge that much is unknown about Amazon’s ad business, which makes assessing its growth prospects and true profitability difficult. Investors deserve more clarity about it.
For instance, how much of the $8.7 billion in advertising in the second quarter was driven by merchants that sell their goods on Amazon’s marketplace and want to ensure prominent placement? It’s not clear these merchants do so willingly or happily. A 2020 congressional report on competition in digital markets cited evidence that “Amazon may require sellers to purchase their advertising services as a condition of making sales on the platform.” (An Amazon spokesperson denied that merchants that sell on Amazon’s marketplace are required to buy advertising.)
One potential reason for investors to be concerned, then, is that any kind of regulatory action against such practices could squeeze Amazon’s ad revenue. Another, related point: Search results on Amazon have become so crowded with ads that the company risks alienating shoppers looking for actual results.
Even so, there’s no question that Amazon is an increasingly successful ad platform. People in the ad industry say that Amazon is seen as an effective place for brands to buy ads. Its wealth of data on what consumers are shopping for means advertisers can target their ads precisely at the customers they’re trying to reach. Other retailers are building similar ad businesses, with some success. Indeed, GroupM, the world’s biggest media buyer, says its biggest packaged-goods clients increased their spending on what it calls “retail media” — Amazon and the websites of Walmart Inc. and Target Corp. — to 12% of their total US ad spending in 2021 from 3% in 2019.
Moreover, Amazon is not just selling on ads on its marketplace but on other properties, such as its Freevee video streaming service and on its Twitch gaming site. And it sells ads on websites it doesn’t own across the internet, just as Google does. Unlike Google, though, Amazon doesn’t break out any details about how much of the revenue comes from which bucket.
That’s important for understanding the profitability of the revenue — and even how much of the revenue that Amazon actually keeps. When Google or Amazon sells ads on properties it doesn’t own, it gets only a cut of the revenue. Google discloses what it shares with those other properties. It’s not clear from Amazon’s disclosures what exactly it is reporting — net or gross ad revenue. Another thing: Selling ads on Freevee can’t be as profitable as selling ads on Amazon’s marketplace, given the cost of producing or licensing programming for the service. So how much ad revenue is Freevee contributing to the total?
It is time to stop talking about the digital ad market as one dominated by two companies, Alphabet Inc. and Meta. Amazon’s share of the US digital ad market is expected to reach 12.6% this year, Insider Intelligence estimates, up from 7.7% in 2019. Meta and Google, which had a combined 55.2% share of the market in 2019, will this year take 50.5%. And given that Meta’s ad revenue is likely to shrink in the next 12 months, Amazon’s share seems likely to grow through this downturn. As encouraging as that may be to investors, though, it is time for Amazon to provide clearer disclosure about the nature of its ad business. | 2022-07-28T23:59:22Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Amazon’s Ad Business Is a Star. But Where Are the Details? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/amazons-ad-business-is-a-star-but-where-are-the-details/2022/07/28/01e8572a-0ece-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/amazons-ad-business-is-a-star-but-where-are-the-details/2022/07/28/01e8572a-0ece-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
Ciara Pierre, 1, plays with Joel Vasquez, 1, who sits in his mother Liliana Cruz’s lap after arriving alongside other migrants at Union Station in Washington on July 12, following a bus ride that originated in Texas. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
Let’s get this sorted out.
When thousands of people wearing surplus store armor storm the city, many carrying bear spray and weapons, many more shouting for the overthrow of the government, that’s the time to call in the National Guard.
When thousands of people come in on buses carrying their worldly possessions in a single bag, many holding crying babies in soiled diapers, many more with no shoes on their feet, that’s not the time for the National Guard.
This is how D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is responding, months into the ongoing political stunt being played by two Republican governors who think it’s hilarious to score political points on the backs of vulnerable people.
She’s asking for the National Guard.
“With pledges from Texas and Arizona to continue these abhorrent operations indefinitely, the situation is dire, and we consider this a humanitarian crisis,” Bowser’s office said in a letter to the Secretary of Defense, asking for federal help.
In the past month, “the pace of arriving buses and the volume of arrivals have reached tipping points,” the mayor’s letter, obtained by NBC News, said. “Our collective response and service efforts have now become overwhelmed: the regional welcome center we helped establish in Montgomery County, Maryland is at capacity; our homeless services system is already under great strain; and, tragically, many families arrive in Washington, D.C. with nowhere to go, or they remain in limbo seeking onward destinations across the United States.”
They want to use the D.C. Armory as a processing center, staffed by unarmed personnel.
The aid workers who have been doing much of the work — greeting buses arriving at Union Station at all hours, getting the migrants clothing, diapers and food before working out the next steps on their paths to citizenship — are mostly horrified by the prospect of working with the military.
Migrant buses sent to D.C. are a cruel, political stunt
“What I’ve been hearing consistently from migrants is that when the military is there, they get treated like militants,” said Bianca Vazquez, who has been an organizer with the mutual-aid groups meeting the migrants.
As a nation, we have a history of militarizing the immigration process.
A fun trip to Ellis Island’s historical exhibits will show you some of the holding cells that migrants described as “kennels,” where aspiring Americans were caged for weeks, months or even years before they were processed.
In this latest, grim chapter of the way America chooses Americans, migrants have been bused to D.C. as a protest. It began in April, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced he would export his state’s chaos to the nation’s capital after the Biden administration’s ending of Title 42, the suspension of admission and asylum during the pandemic. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) soon joined in, sending buses of migrants from his state, too.
Buses come nearly every day, sometimes two or three a day, aid workers said. They’ve dropped off more than 4,000 immigrants so far, with plenty more to come. And D.C. doesn’t have the resources to help everyone.
ROTFL?
Laugh-crying GIFs and emoji galore is how right-wingers are greeting Bowser’s request for help, believing that D.C. is finally getting a taste of what border states have been living for years now.
Let’s get something straight — this crisis is not about handling crowds or lawbreakers.
We’ve been good hosts for years, America.
D.C. welcomes your fidgeting middle school tour groups, your loons, your extremists, the sex offenders and the addicts you send here to represent you in Congress.
We have posh steak houses for your egotists and specialty clubs of all flavors to satisfy their various kinks. Our police force is primo at spotting your drunk drivers, and they have flex cuffs for days when the protesters come to town. Our local DEA agents know where your congressman is getting his drugs.
The nation’s capital is very good at managing a daily influx of people.
But the 4,000 migrants aren’t just a crowd to be managed by the National Guard. This isn’t a policing problem or a military emergency.
These are vulnerable people who are here to make new lives for themselves — the very foundations of everything that is America. And what better place to do it than in Washington, D. C.?
The aid groups have asked for help creating a welcome center, funding housing programs and committing resources to help them begin the process of becoming legal Americans. Many of the migrants go on to family in New York, Boston and Iowa. And D.C. simply needs to do this as efficiently and morally as possible.
We’ve done it many times before, D.C. And we can do it again.
This is a humanitarian crisis, and we need to approach it with humanity. | 2022-07-28T23:59:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Texas and Arizona send migrants to DC; mayor calls for national guard - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/28/migrant-buses-texas-abbott-arizona-ducey-dc-washington-bowser-national-guard/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/28/migrant-buses-texas-abbott-arizona-ducey-dc-washington-bowser-national-guard/ |
Speaking last week at a conference, the conservative Supreme Court justice also offered a robust defense of religious liberty
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. (Susan Walsh/AP)
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. in a speech in Rome dismissed criticism from foreign officials who he said “lambasted” his opinion that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that provided a constitutional right to abortion.
Speaking last week at a conference promoting religious liberty, Alito for the first time publicly spoke about the decision he wrote in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which he characterized during his remarks as the case “whose name may not be spoken.”
“One of these was former [United Kingdom] prime minister Boris Johnson. But he paid the price,” Alito joked, to applause from the crowd. Johnson has been embroiled in scandal and this month announced plans to step down.
Alito spoke July 21 at the Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit, sponsored by the Religious Liberty Initiative at the university’s law school. It was established in 2020 to promote “religious freedom for people of all faiths through scholarship, events, and the Law School’s Religious Liberty Clinic,” which files briefs at the Supreme Court.
Justices often do not divulge their speaking engagements in advance, and Alito’s became known Thursday after the law school issued a news release and posted a video of the speech on YouTube.
Alito said he was resisting listing examples from other countries whose defense of religious liberty he found insufficient even though he said foreign leaders — he also mentioned French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — criticized the court’s decision eliminating the federal right to abortion.
The audience laughed at what Alito sarcastically said was the most hurtful criticism, from Britain’s Prince Harry.
“But what really wounded me — what really wounded me — was when the Duke of Sussex addressed the United Nations and seemed to compare the decision whose name may not be spoken with the Russian attack on Ukraine,” Alito said.
Alito in speeches often says religious liberty is not treated as respectfully as other constitutional rights. But the just-completed Supreme Court term was nothing short of a complete victory for religious groups. Overturning Roe was a longtime goal of religious conservatives, but separately the court’s six conservative justices consistently sided with protection of religious faith over concerns about government endorsement of religion.
It ruled for a coach disciplined by his school board for midfield prayers after games, said Boston was not free to reject a Christian group’s request to fly its flag at city hall for fear it would appear to be an endorsement of religion if other groups are given the privilege, and said Maine cannot bar religious schools from receiving public tuition grants extended to other private schools.
Still, Alito said some see religious faith as akin to other enthusiasms, such as support for professional sports teams. He questioned whether some of his dissenting colleagues fully grasp the Constitution’s protection of religious freedom.
The justice, who the video shows now sports a beard, offered a hypothetical about three attorneys entering a court that requires the removal of head coverings: a Jew wearing a kippah, a Muslim wearing a headscarf and a man in a Green Bay Packers hat. As to whether the man with the Packers cap must be accommodated the same as the others, Alito said, “For me, the Constitution of the United States provides a clear answer.”
He added: “Some of my colleagues are not so sure. But for me, the text tells the story: the Constitution protects the free exercise of religion, it does not support the free exercise of support for the Packers.” Alito did not say why he thought some of his colleagues might disagree.
Alito said for some, protection of religious freedom is shrunk down to the freedom to worship. “When you step outside into the public square, in the light of day, you had better behave yourself like a good secular citizen,” he said.
Alito said protection of religious liberty is also important for free speech and the freedom of assembly. “Religious liberty and other fundamental rights tend to go together,” he said.
The justices have separated after their rancorous session, of which the Dobbs decision was only one that split the court’s conservatives and liberals. There are signs the discord remains.
In an address to a judicial conference last week, liberal Justice Elena Kagan said the court’s legitimacy is threatened when long-standing precedent is discarded and the court’s actions are seen as motivated by personnel changes among the justices.
“If, over time, the court loses all connection with the public and the public sentiment, that’s a dangerous thing for democracy,” Kagan said at a conference of judges and lawyers in Montana.
She added: “People are rightly suspicious if one justice leaves the court or dies and another justice takes his or her place and all of sudden the law changes on you.”
At a separate event on Thursday, two other justices struck a more conventional and upbeat tone about the court’s work.
“Every single one of my colleagues is equally passionate about the Constitution, our system of government and getting it right as I am,” Sotomayor said. “We may disagree on how to get there. We often do. But that doesn’t mean I look at them and say, ‘You are bad people.’ I accept that it is a difference of opinion.”
Barrett insisted that the justices have “genuine affection for each other” and said even though she and Sotomayor disagree sometimes, Sotomayor has persuaded her at times to change her initial position. “We do try to work together behind the scenes. We don’t go in and have our minds made up and locked in. We work together a lot and we talk,” Barrett said. “We do change our minds.”
Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report. | 2022-07-28T23:59:48Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Alito dismisses criticism of abortion ruling reversing Roe v. Wade - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/alito-defends-roe-wade-abortion-ruling/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/alito-defends-roe-wade-abortion-ruling/ |
A Jan. 6 defendant is running for office in Florida — from jail
Jeremy Michael Brown wore military gear at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, prosecutors say. (FBI)
On the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, a flag-waving crowd gathered outside the Florida jail where an alleged participant was being held.
Jeremy Michael Brown, a retired Special Forces soldier charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct on restricted Capitol grounds, addressed them through a phone call played over loudspeaker. The 47-year-old Tampa resident and member of the extremist Oath Keepers group decried the “tyrannical government,” read a lengthy passage from the Bible and portrayed himself as engaged in a fight for “the liberty of every American.”
Then Brown made an announcement that sent the crowd into cheers.
“Today, Jan. 6, 2022, from the maximum security section of the Pinellas County jail,” he said, “I, Jeremy Brown, announce my candidacy for Florida state House of Representatives.”
Within a few months of that speech, he had collected enough signatures to qualify as a candidate and run a long-shot campaign for Florida’s District 62 — all from jail. As the sole Republican candidate, Brown, who has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial on felony and misdemeanor charges, is set to run against the winner of the August Democratic primary. The newly drawn district includes heavily blue areas; about 72.4 percent of voters there went for Biden, according to the Tampa Bay Times, which reported on Brown’s campaign this week.
It’s unclear whether legal issues could impede Brown’s candidacy or ability to hold public office while he remains in jail. Lawyers are reviewing that question, the Florida Department of State’s Division of Elections told the Tampa Bay Times.
“We don’t know, the state office doesn’t know and to be honest, I don’t care,” Brown said in an interview with the newspaper. “I’m gonna run until they tell me no. It’s almost like our government is incompetent.”
His platform and messaging carry some of the themes that animated the far right and the assault on the Capitol, with Brown describing a United States under attack by “evil agendas” and a corrupt federal government that is teetering toward tyranny. His website lists priorities such as fighting critical race theory and “gender-confusing tactics,” studying whether vaccines cause harm and pushing for stricter “election security laws.”
The campaign has leaned into his status as a Jan. 6 defendant and jail inmate. His logo features barbed wire and his inmate number: 1875858. Shirts sold on his website and worn by campaign staffers are designed to look like orange jail scrubs. Brown, who has been jailed since September, calls himself a “political prisoner of war.”
Federal prosecutors have noted that he is a self-identified member of the Oath Keepers; the group’s founder and several of its members face charges of seditious conspiracy. Brown has said that he expects to be added to the case, though prosecutors told a judge they were not aware of plans to do so “in the immediate future.”
As of late July, he faced two misdemeanor charges connected to his actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Federal prosecutors say he and others coordinated the trip to Washington via the encrypted messaging app Signal, with Brown telling an unidentified person, “We have a RV an Van going. Plenty of Gun Ports left to fill.” He referred to his RV as “GROUND FORCE ONE.”
Videos and images from Jan. 6 showed Brown behind the barriers law enforcement had set up at the Capitol, dressed in military gear, including a helmet, body armor, boots and a tactical vest, according to a federal court filing. He carried a radio, surgical trauma shears and zip ties, according to court documents, and ignored verbal orders to get back, complying only when pushed with police batons.
“During this encounter,” the document said, “Brown repeatedly claimed that the officers were, in his opinion, violating the Constitution of the United States.”
A separate case filed against him in a federal court based in Florida listed felony charges of possessing unregistered explosive grenades, firearms, 8,000 rounds of ammunition and classified documents at his Tampa home. A judge ordered that he remain detained in that case, saying he might pose a threat to law enforcement officers based on a sign he posted on his door telling them to remember their oaths and come back with “a bigger tactical package.”
Brown’s campaign declined an interview request from The Washington Post, taking issue with a previous story describing how he and other veterans were drawn to the Capitol on Jan. 6 by conspiracy theories and a call for patriots.
“Jeremy Brown is a true American Hero and the very freedom that you enjoy everyday is a result of his sacrifices to this country,” said the email from his girlfriend, Tylene Aldridge.
In other interviews, Brown has claimed he was providing security during the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the storming of the Capitol. He said he’s being targeted in a shadowy government plot after declining to become a confidential informant in the run-up to Jan. 6. An online fundraiser for his defense has raised more than $100,000.
While Brown remains locked up, his campaign holds rallies outside the jail and events with a cardboard cutout of him. He delivers campaign speeches by phone and has been on the far-right media circuit, occasionally getting cut off by a recorded voice counting down the time remaining. He’s raised about $15,800 for the race, records show.
Brown acknowledged in an interview aired on Rumble, a video site popular with conservatives, that the district is heavily Democratic. He said he was running not to win, but “to wake the American people up to what’s going on.”
The Democratic primary candidates are state Rep. Michele Rayner, who currently represents House District 70; Wengay Newton, her predecessor; and Jesse Philippe, a lawyer. The winner is set to face Brown in the November general election. | 2022-07-28T23:59:54Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Jan. 6 defendant Jeremy Brown is running for Florida's House from jail - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/january-6-candidate-florida/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/january-6-candidate-florida/ |
“I’m honestly flattered that you all think that at my size, I can go out there and not prepare for the game, and not take it serious,” Arizona's Kyler Murray, shown last week, told reporters Thursday. (Rick Scuteri/AP)
Kyler Murray was not scheduled to speak with the media Thursday, but after several days of coverage — much of it unflattering — about the “independent study” clause in his contract, the Arizona Cardinals quarterback felt it was time to have his say.
In remarks that were uncharacteristically lengthy and impassioned for the normally reserved player, Murray took issue with suggestions that he didn’t spend enough time honing his craft.
“I refuse to let my work ethic, my preparation, be in question,” the 24-year-old told reporters at the Cardinals’ facility.
“To think that I can accomplish everything that I have accomplished in my career and not be a student of the game, and not have that passion and not take this serious,” Murray added, “is disrespectful, and it’s almost a joke.”
Murray was clearly agitated over the reaction to news that emerged Monday regarding a clause in his recent $230.5 million contract extension, including $160 million in guaranteed money. As first noted by NFL Network, amid the contract language is an unusual section requiring Murray to complete four hours of “independent study” each week during the Cardinals’ season. The study is expected to be completed “in good faith,” and Murray will not get credit if he is concurrently “engaged in any other activity that may distract his attention (for example, watching television, playing video games or browsing the internet).”
Buckner: Kyler can’t play today, guys. He’s got to finish his homework.
It is unclear how the Cardinals might attempt to verify Murray’s efforts. The contract went on to stipulate that should Murray violate the mandates of the clause, he would be in default of his deal.
The revelation sparked speculation on why Arizona wanted to include the clause. NFL Network reported Monday that the Cardinals “wanted a commitment in writing while going to a certain place moneywise.”
In the wake of that report, 2021 comments from Murray surfaced in which he told the New York Times, “I think I was blessed with the cognitive skills to just go out there and just see it before it happens. I’m not one of those guys that’s going to sit there and kill myself watching film. I don’t sit there for 24 hours and break down this team and that team and watch every game because, in my head, I see so much.”
On Thursday, Murray scoffed at the notion that he might be so gifted that he has no need for film study. Referring to the fact that, at a listed 5-foot-10, he is one of the shortest starting quarterbacks in recent NFL history, he said, “I’m honestly flattered that you all think that at my size, I can go out there and not prepare for the game, and not take it serious. It’s disrespectful, I feel like, to my peers, to all the great athletes and great players that are in this league.
Murray also took it upon himself to “list the accolades” he has earned over the years, including taking his Texas high school team to a 43-0 record, winning the Heisman Trophy at Oklahoma and getting selected ninth overall in the 2018 MLB draft in addition to going first overall in the 2019 NFL draft.
Alluding again to his relatively diminutive physical stature, he told reporters, “I’m already behind the eight-ball, and I can’t afford to take any shortcuts — no pun intended.”
Murray, who also pointed out he earned Associated Press offensive rookie of the year honors in 2019 and two Pro Bowl selections, went on to assert that while it was “a given” that he watched film on his own time, there were “many different ways to process the game.”
“I do enjoy and love the process of watching the game with my guys — the quarterbacks, my coaches,” he said. “I think you can ask any quarterback in the league — the camaraderie in that room, the passion that goes into it, every man in that room has a job, every man contributes in different ways.”
Earlier in the week, Cardinals Coach Kliff Kingsbury and some teammates came to Murray’s defense.
“When I watched what he’s done since he got here, the first year and his development in all areas,” the coach said, “all he’s done is gotten dramatically better each and every year. That’s what I judge it by.”
“Kyler knows the playbook better than anyone on this team,” Arizona tight end Zach Ertz said Tuesday.
“There is a fine line, in my opinion, in watching too much film and trying to overanalyze things and playing fast,” added the 10th-year veteran, who was traded to the Cardinals last year. “Each and every player has to find their own process.”
Calling Murray “a hard worker,” Cardinals safety Budda Baker said Tuesday, “Guys are all different. Some guys like to stay at the facility and watch film, some guys like to watch film not on their team-issued iPads [but] in their big [meeting] rooms. Some guys at home.
“He just got paid, so everything is good. All he thinks about is football, anyway.”
According to the Arizona Republic, Murray declined to comment Thursday when asked follow-up questions on whether he was upset about the independent study clause or had tried to push back on it before signing his contract.
In his initial address to the media, the quarterback pointed to the “incomprehensible amount of time, blood, sweat, tears and work” he had put into his athletic career.
“People can’t even comprehend the amount of time that it takes to do two sports at a high level in college, let alone be the first person to do it ever at my size,” Murray said. “Like I said, it’s funny, but to those of you out there that believe I would be standing here today in front of y’all without having a work ethic and without preparing, I’m honored that you think that. But it doesn’t exist. It’s not possible.” | 2022-07-29T00:00:02Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Kyler Murray says it’s ‘disrespectful’ to think he doesn’t study film - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/kyler-murray-disrespectful-contract/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/kyler-murray-disrespectful-contract/ |
Four-time Formula One champ Sebastian Vettel to retire at end of season
Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel announced his retirement at the end of the 2022 season. (Lisa Leutner/Reuters)
Sebastian Vettel, a four-time Formula One champion and the youngest driver to win a title, announced his retirement Thursday. He will leave the sport at the end of the 2022 season, when his contract with Aston Martin concludes.
“I love this sport,” Vettel, 35, said in a video posted to his recently created Instagram account. “It has been central to my life since I can remember. But as much as there is life on track, there is my life off track too.”
In 2010, Vettel became the youngest Formula One driver to win a championship at 23, besting Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 title by 166 days. Vettel won his four championships consecutively from 2010 to 2013, tying Alain Prost for the third-most in Formula One history by the time he was 26. While Vettel’s dominance gave way to that of Hamilton over the past decade, the German driver finished second behind Hamilton in 2017 and 2018. His most recent win came in the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix.
Vettel, who also has raced for Red Bull and Ferrari since his 2007 debut, joined Aston Martin last year. He sits 14th in the drivers’ standings with 15 points this season.
In his retirement announcement, Vettel cited a desire to spend more time with his family and on his personal interests. The latter includes environmental issues, about which he has been increasingly outspoken. Vettel in May said climate change led him to question his role as a Formula One driver. A month later, he wore a shirt and a helmet highlighting “Canada’s climate crime” during the buildup to the Canadian Grand Prix.
“Certain things are in my control and certain things are not. It’s my passion to drive a car. I love it, and every time I step in the car I love it,” he said during the May television appearance. “When I get out of the car, of course I’m thinking as well, ‘Is this something that we should do, travel the world, wasting resources?’ ”
Vettel alluded to climate change in his retirement announcement, saying, “My passion comes with certain aspects that I have learned to dislike. They might be solved in the future, but the will to apply that change has to grow much, much stronger and has to be leading to action today. Talk is not enough and we cannot afford to wait. There is no alternative. The race is underway.” | 2022-07-29T00:00:09Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Four-time Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel announces retirement - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/sebastian-vettel-retirement/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/sebastian-vettel-retirement/ |
D.C. firefighters sent to wrong address for infant in cardiac arrest who was later pronounced dead
The mistake resulted in a delay of about a minute before help reached the infant, authorities said
The D.C. agency responsible for handling 911 calls acknowledged Thursday that it sent firefighters and paramedics to the incorrect address for a report of a newborn baby in cardiac arrest, resulting in a delay of about a minute before help reached the infant, who was pronounced dead at a hospital.
In a statement offering “our deepest sympathies” to the family of the day-old girl, the D.C. Office of Unified Communications said a 911 operator erroneously entered an address on Savannah Street SE instead of Savannah Terrace SE into the dispatch system after receiving a call about the child at 2:26:03 a.m. on July 3. The two addresses are less than a half-mile apart.
An internal investigation of the incident found that a firetruck, Engine 32, arrived at the incorrect address at 2:35:03 a.m., nine minutes after the call, the agency said. In an interview, OUC’s chief of staff, Kelly Brown, said that because the two addresses are “just around the corner from each other,” Engine 32 probably would have arrived at the infant’s home around the same time, 2:35:03 a.m., if it had been dispatched correctly.
A teenager was drowning. 911 sent help to the wrong place.
A fire department paramedic unit, Medic 25, which went to the correct address without a delay, was the first to arrive, at 2:36:23 a.m. That was 80 seconds after Engine 32 might have arrived if it had been sent to the correct location, according to a timeline released Thursday by OUC. Whether the delay of about a minute contributed to the baby’s death is unclear.
“I really can’t get into whether the child could have been saved,” Brown said. She did not comment on whether the call-taker has been disciplined. The parents of the infant did not respond Thursday to phone messages seeking comment.
After the 911 operator received the call for help and mistakenly entered Savannah Street instead of Savannah Terrace, she began giving the caller CPR instructions while first responders were dispatched to Savannah Street at 2:27:33 a.m., according to the timeline.
Kelly said Medic 25 was dispatched from a station nearly two miles from Savannah Street and Savannah Terrance, and Engine 32 was dispatched from a station about a half-mile away.
At 2:34:21 a.m. — a little less than seven minutes after first responders had been dispatched — the call-taker corrected the address in the computerized “call dispatch notes” but failed to correct it the system’s “incident location field,” the investigation found. As a result, Engine 32 continued to the incorrect address, arriving 42 seconds after the partial correction.
However, the personnel in Medic 25, coming from farther away, had time to read the “dispatch notes,” and they went “directly to the correct address without delay,” Brown said. | 2022-07-29T01:22:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | D.C. firefighters sent to wrong address for baby in cardiac arrest - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/28/dc-911-mistake-baby-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/07/28/dc-911-mistake-baby-dead/ |
While rising mortgage rates add a new layer of stress to buyers, fewer bidding wars can counterbalance affordability
Competition hasn’t disappeared entirely, but there may be some opportunities for buyers who can handle the higher monthly payments that come with rising mortgage rates. (Clover Li for The Washington Post/FTWP)
First-time home buyers Courtney Culbreath and her husband, Tyler Graham, say they’ve been helped and hurt by the fast-moving housing market that is simultaneously cooling down soaring demand yet ratcheting up mortgage rates, which had been rock bottom for years.
“We only paid $72,000 over the $660,000 asking price and we know lots of buyers spent $150,000 or more above the list price,” says Culbreath, a 32-year-old surgeon. Culbreath and Graham, 30, a federal government employee, purchased their single-family home in Herndon, Va., in May 2022 after looking for 18 months and losing three previous bidding wars.
“The house appraised for more than our final offer and we didn’t need extra cash to make up the difference,” says Culbreath. “We didn’t have any contingencies on our offer and so far, the house seems okay.”
Yet they were stung by mortgage rates, which nearly priced them out of the home that came within their grasp.
“When we started looking at houses, rates were at 3.5 percent and we locked in our rate at 4.5 percent when our offer was accepted,” says Culbreath. “We would probably not have bought the house if we waited any longer and the rate was 5.5 percent or higher.”
First-time buyers represented just 30 percent of the market in June, down from 34 percent on average in 2021, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2021 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.
But now the market has shifted again as higher mortgage rates and double-digit price increases are creating even greater affordability issues for many buyers. Competition hasn’t disappeared entirely, but there may be some opportunities for buyers who can handle the higher monthly payments that come with rising mortgage rates.
Competition slowing
Buyers throughout the country have faced relentless competition for homes since before the pandemic because of the massive shortage of housing in the nation. The United States needs an estimated 5.8 million additional homes to meet demand, according to Realtor.com. The pandemic added fuel to the overheated housing market as potential buyers moved to work remotely, take on new jobs, live closer to their families or find a more affordable home.
“Boise [in Idaho] has been on top 10 lists of places to live for affordability and a great lifestyle for the past decade, but that turned it into one of the most competitive housing markets in the country with prices going up 25 to 35 percent every year for the past few years,” says Bob Van Allen, president of Coldwell Banker Tomlinson in Boise. “We’ve seen a lot of buyer fatigue from people who made 10 or more offers and didn’t win any of them.”
Higher mortgage rates are putting added pressure on buyers. But frustration has been building for years because of the limited number of homes for sale.
“Buyers are tired and feel beaten up because they’ve lost so many bids that they don’t want to compete,” says Brittany Patterson, senior vice president of the Patterson Group at TTR Sotheby’s International Realty in Alexandria, Va. “Buyers need to know that the market isn’t as competitive now.”
Sellers whose homes have been on the market a week or two are more willing to look at all offers and at buyers with different loans instead of just those with cash or conventional financing, says Melanie Atkinson, a real estate agent with Smith and Associates in Tampa.
“We’re all of a sudden seeing price reductions,” says Michael Manuel, a real estate agent with Long & Foster Real Estate in Old Town Alexandria. “We’re seeing interest rates rise. We’re seeing inventory up. We’re also seeing people that were so determined to lock into a 2 or 3 percent interest rate now all of a sudden sitting on the sidelines.”
But there can be danger in waiting for the market to shift, too.
“One couple I worked with wanted to buy a condo in North Bethesda in late 2021,” says Jonathan Lahey, a team leader with the Fine Living Group with eXp Realty in Washington. “They weren’t quite ready because they were moving money around from retirement accounts. They finally bought in May 2022, but they had to pay $65,000 more for the same type of unit they looked at a few months ago and the mortgage rate was higher, too.”
Buyers who looked at a $500,000 property in January before mortgage rates rose must pay an estimated $400 to $500 more per month if they purchase this summer because of higher rates and prices, says Lahey.
“But it’s better not to wait if you can afford it because prices are anticipated to continue to increase, just at a slower pace,” says Lahey. “On top of that, mortgage rates are likely to keep going up and inflation generally is making everything more expensive.”
Van Allen says affordability is unlikely to improve for buyers who wait, and it could get worse.
“The only difference is that maybe it will get a little easier to find something to buy,” Van Allen says.
Inventory woes slowly easing
Slowing buyer demand and shifting seller sentiment means that the supply of homes for sale is inching upward. Sellers who didn’t want people in their homes during the pandemic are now feeling safer and others are choosing to put their homes on the market before mortgage rates go higher.
Nationally, the total number of housing units for sale was 1,260,000 at the end of June, which was up 9.6 percent compared with May and up 2.4 percent compared with June 2021, according to the National Association of Realtors. That represents a three-month supply of homes at the current sales, up from 2.6 months in May and 2.5 months in June 2021. A balanced market between buyers and sellers has a four-to-six month supply of homes. Existing-home sales have dropped for five consecutive months, according to NAR.
But markets vary widely. In June 2022, there were 7,473 listings available in the D.C. region, according to Bright MLS, down 0.5 percent compared with June 2021. However, the drop in active listings was less than it has been in recent months. Home sales were down 22.9 percent in June 2022 compared with June 2021, but the median sales price in the region was up 5.8 percent in June 2022 over June 2021 to $598,032. That median sales price is $108,000 higher than the median sales price two years ago.
“Inventory is still really low in Florida, but our market feels a little bit like 2019 when inventory was low, but the market wasn’t as frenzied as it’s been the last couple of years,” says Atkinson. “The average price of a home is up 37 percent in Florida compared to 2019 and property taxes and insurance are also not as cheap as people think.”
Demand may decline in Florida because of higher costs, which should ease the strain on buyers even if supply doesn’t rise, says Atkinson.
“We’re seeing fewer buyers scheduling appointments with agents, less buyers at open houses and less requests for showings,” says Lahey. “The market seems to be stabilizing, which is a good thing for buyers.”
Market may relieve buyer pain
While rising mortgage rates add a new layer of stress to buyers, fewer bidding wars can counterbalance affordability.
Competition may be easing slightly, but homes are still selling quickly. In the D.C. region, half of all homes sold in seven days or less in June, according to Bright MLS, which is one day longer than in June 2021 and May 2022. Nationally, homes typically sold in 16 days in May, according to NAR, one day faster than in March 2022 and in April 2021.
“We’re starting to see fewer bidding wars and more contingencies being accepted by sellers,” says Matt Ferris, a real estate agent with Redfin in Alexandria. “There are more opportunities for buyers to have a home inspection.”
At the height of the frenzied market, after losing out on too many homes, many buyers were skipping home inspections or spending hundreds of dollars on pre-offer home inspections so they could make a non-contingent offer.
“People were getting tired of doing that,” Manuel says. “Why spend thousands of dollars in pre-inspections, only to not get selected or to find out that the inspection didn’t meet up to expectations?”
Jennifer Walker, a real estate agent with McEnearney Associates in Alexandria, says buyers sometimes need to take a timeout to reset in a hot market.
“The accelerator can only be pushed down to the floor for so long,” Walker says. “People are burned out, but this is a time when people can reset. They realize that they need someone who understands what’s going on in the market and can help them buy a house.”
One couple Ferris worked with rented a home in Arlington and hoped to stay there, but they wanted more space and eventually expanded their search to Fairfax City.
“Generally, I find most people end up buying something different than what they initially describe as their priority,” says Ferris. “They’ll realize that they can look at wider geographic area or that a busy street isn’t that bad or that they can live with one less bedroom after they see a few houses and know what’s available in their price range.”
Tips to overcome higher mortgage rates
Some buyers who took a break are returning to the housing market despite higher mortgage rates because they still have reasons to move such as needing a larger home, rising rent or household changes. For some buyers, it’s “now or never” because rates and prices are likely to continue to rise, says Van Allen. Buyers may find a slightly more balanced market with more time to decide.
Suggestions for ways to succeed despite high rates, high prices and continued low inventory include:
Be open to another location. A client of Christine McCarron, a real estate agent with Re/Max Unlimited in Boston, thought they didn’t want to live in a particular town, but they decided to look at a property there on a whim and fell in love with it. In Idaho, buyers are shifting away from higher-priced Boise to Idaho Falls and Twin Falls a few hours away for affordability, Van Allen says.
Tweak your monthly budget. Focus on the monthly payment rather than the price difference or the interest rate, suggests Lahey. If you can cut $200 in expenses by limiting your discretionary spending, that may be enough to make your housing payment affordable.
Search within a wider circle. Instead of setting search parameters by a town name or a Zip code, McCarron suggests looking within a circle on a map to capture more potential neighborhoods.
Revisit properties that linger on the market. Sellers may be more willing to accept a lower offer, so buyers could look slightly above their price range at properties that have been listed for 30 days or more, suggests McCarron.
Offer an information-only home inspection. If you face heavy competition for a particular house, Van Allen suggests telling the sellers you won’t ask for repairs on anything a home inspection finds.
Save a bigger down payment. The benefit of waiting a little longer to make an offer can sometimes mean buyers have more of a down payment to reduce the amount they need to borrow.
Wait for the next season. While the risk is that prices and rates could go higher, there may be more homes on the market and fewer buyers in late summer or early fall, says McCarron.
Look for new construction. In Florida, homeowners insurance can be a major cost for buyers, says Atkinson. Newly built homes often have lower insurance rates that can make monthly housing costs more affordable, she says.
“I tell every single client this: When you want to buy a house, you wait until you fall in love with it,” says Manuel. “That way, if the market changes, you’re stuck with something that you love, and it won’t matter as much even if it loses value.”
Even with higher mortgage rates and slowing buyer demand, home values in most markets are anticipated to rise more slowly rather than to decline. Buyers and sellers may find a more even playing field in 2022 and beyond.
Omari Daniels contributed to this report. | 2022-07-29T01:30:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Volatile market puts more home buyers in the driver's seat - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/28/navigating-crazy-housing-market/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/28/navigating-crazy-housing-market/ |
Electricity is Expensive. Drivers Shouldn’t Pay For It
User behavior is hard to change. (Photographer: Bloomberg)
With the rush to electric vehicle adoption, charging networks are being rolled out across countries, government-backing is growing and automakers are promising a host of green cars. Yet, even if all this happens, it’s worth wondering how power grids will handle the demand for all this electricity.
Given the increasing prevalence of power outages globally, I’m not so sure they can. Electricity consumption just from EVs is expected to grow over 25%(1) . Even if charging networks are laid out, the wiring under highways would hardly be enough. Talk to EV drivers who have attempted road trips and they’ll moan about the anxiety associated with finding charging stations. There will need to be more of these as adoption grows, and connecting grids will become even more crucial.
China, the world’s largest market for EVs, may have a solution. Even with high adoption, controlled charging is becoming a necessity to curb the impact on distribution transformers, according to one study. But that also requires an upgrade of grid software, hardware and the way businesses run. Another recent report found if 60% of gasoline vehicles were replaced and charging was largely unmanaged, then national peak loads would rise by over 8%. If managed, however, that would be 2.6%. As a power crisis bites, that difference is significant.
It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: The infrastructure available will determine drivers’ charging behavior, but grids need to understand demand to come up with strategies. Increasingly, companies are realizing it won’t necessarily be like gas stations, where consumers fill up on the go. It may be overnight at home, during the day at the office, as well as last-minute. Either way, grids must cope and do better. Power distribution will need to expand and be reconfigured, while secondary substations, including transformers, will need to be upgraded — a behemoth task.
There are some (at least part) solutions to help ease the pressure, and many are being put to work in small measures. One is better batteries that take cars further. Still, those remain expensive and at some point, will need to be charged. Large-scale energy storage is also becoming a bigger part of the energy equation as it helps balance out peak demand. China is investing to increase this over this decade to 100 gigawatts. In the US, too, industrial-sized battery use is on the rise in states like California and Maine, with Tesla Megapacks.
A more long-term fix is vehicle-to-grid technology. While traditional power systems were made to go one way — grid to home or business (or EV), this goes the other way around and allows EVs to be part of the power storage solution. But like most huge technology and behavioral shifts that require vast amounts of investment, regulatory support is required to create the right incentives.
China is now working to commercialize this, while putting in place policies to bolster the process. Last year, China’s Standardization Administration said its national standards would be aligned with EV charging needs. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Science and Technology released draft guidelines for energy storage and smart grid technology that focused on key issues, including large-scale AC-DC hybrid power grids and energy efficiency enhancement for different types of consumers. Alongside this, billions of dollars are being put to work to upgrade the country’s power grids.
The way China conquered battery development and became home to the world’s largest, and arguably the most sophisticated, commercial powerpacks, shows its approach to EV energy storage problems works. The path to connecting grids will be similar. It’ll have to be a coordinated effort that will need a lot of subsidies and regulatory support. Put simply, ad-hoc moves to upgrade distribution and transmission are unlikely to power EVs. That’s a lesson for Europe and the US — otherwise, their consumers will be paying even higher prices for power.
• These Are the Batteries We Really Need: Anjani Trivedi
• Tesla’s Not-So-Secret Battery Could Help Texas: Liam Denning
• China Cracks the Trillion-Dollar EV Question: Anjani Trivedi
(1) If every American switched to an electric vehicle. In addition, electricity demand will vary by country. For instance, the share of electricity consumption required by an 80% share of electric vehicles in 2050 will vary between 3% and 25% of total electricity demand across the EU-28 Member States, according to the European Environment Agency. | 2022-07-29T01:30:47Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Electricity is Expensive. Drivers Shouldn’t Pay For It - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/electricity-is-expensive-drivers-shouldnt-pay-for-it/2022/07/28/81928b14-0ed1-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/electricity-is-expensive-drivers-shouldnt-pay-for-it/2022/07/28/81928b14-0ed1-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
Updated July 28, 2022 at 10:10 p.m. EDT|Published July 28, 2022 at 9:45 p.m. EDT
A protester in San Francisco urges increased access to monkeypox vaccine July 18. That city's mayor on July 28 declared a state of emergency because of the growing number of monkeypox cases. (Haven Daley/AP)
San Francisco and the state of New York declared public health emergencies Thursday amid the growing monkeypox outbreak, the latest in escalating measures in response to the rapidly spreading virus.
The action by two of the hardest-hit areas comes after the World Health Organization declared a global emergency this past weekend and as the Biden administration weighs a national emergency declaration.
More than 40 percent of the nation’s confirmed 4,907 monkeypox cases have been reported in California and New York.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed (D) announced a local public health emergency Thursday, noting that cases of monkeypox had nearly doubled, to 261, in a week. She said the move would mobilize resources, accelerate emergency planning and allow for future spending to be reimbursed by the state and federal governments.
California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D), who had called for the emergency declaration, said the decision would make it easier to expand testing and vaccines and pressure the federal government to take the outbreak more seriously.
“It’s a powerful declaration to the country and the world about the need to act decisively and strongly,” Wiener said in an interview.
After the state of New York recorded more than 1,200 cases, State Health Commissioner Mary T. Bassett on Thursday declared an imminent threat to public health, retroactive to June 1.
“This declaration means that local health departments engaged in response and prevention activities will be able to access additional State reimbursement, after other Federal and State funding sources are maximized, to protect all New Yorkers and ultimately limit the spread of monkeypox in our communities,” Bassett said in a news release.
The outbreak has overwhelmingly been concentrated in men who have sex with men. Gay leaders such as Wiener and longtime HIV activists have urged health officials to act decisively to contain monkeypox and avoid repeating mistakes from the AIDS crisis when the suffering of gay men was minimized and the world failed to act quickly. Vaccines are believed to be effective before and after exposure, and an antiviral approved for a closely related disease, smallpox, can be used to treat monkeypox.
Local officials, including Breed, say the supply of vaccine is not sufficient to provide shots to everyone at high risk of exposure.
“Our declaration of emergency is to sound the alarm and make it very clear we are in desperate need of more vaccine and more treatment,” Breed said Thursday.
Struggle to vaccinate gay and bisexual men for monkeypox exposes inequities
Monkeypox spreads primarily through close contact, and experts say they believe skin-to-skin exposure during sexual activity is a major source of transmission in the current outbreak. But they caution that the virus spreads through other forms of touch and can circulate outside the gay community, noting a handful of cases in women and children.
WHO officials advised men who have sex with men to temporarily reduce their number of sexual partners in an attempt to reduce transmission. The New York and San Francisco announcements did not include containment measures or restrictions designed to curb spread.
“We are not implementing behavior restrictions or other measures like we did under COVID. This is all about having the resources and ability to move quickly to deploy these resources,” Breed said in a post explaining the emergency.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday that officials had not made a decision on a national emergency declaration, noting the virus had yet to become as formidable a threat as the coronavirus. Becerra touted vaccines and treatments that the Biden administration has continued to send to local health departments and providers, including about 800,000 doses that federal officials cleared for distribution this week.
“We will weigh any decision on declaring a public health emergency based off the response we’re seeing throughout the country,” Becerra told reporters at a briefing. “Bottom line is: We need to stay ahead of this and be able to end this outbreak.”
Federal officials have spent the week privately wrestling over whether to declare an emergency, with some senior health officials arguing that it would elevate public awareness of the outbreak and allow for a more robust response, including compelling hospitals to report more data on monkeypox patients.
But other health and White House officials have raised questions about declaring a U.S. emergency, saying it would be mostly symbolic and create pressure to declare additional emergencies for other issues, such as abortion, that advocates have sought. HHS also has continued to renew a 2½-year-old public health emergency declaration for coronavirus amid some conservatives’ demands to end it. | 2022-07-29T03:02:16Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Monkeypox emergencies declared in San Francisco, New York - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/28/monkeypox-emergency-san-francisco-new-york/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/07/28/monkeypox-emergency-san-francisco-new-york/ |
He was best known for his memoir, ‘The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South’
Eli N. Evans was the author of books including “The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South.” (Family photo)
Eli Nachamson Evans was born in Durham on July 28, 1936. According to family lore, Evans was an Anglicized form of the family’s original surname, the Hebrew word for “stonecutter.” | 2022-07-29T03:02:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Eli Evans, ‘poet laureate’ of the Jews of the South, dies at 85 - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/28/eli-evans-southern-jews-dead/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/07/28/eli-evans-southern-jews-dead/ |
The Mystics' bench celebrates during the first half of Thursday night's win at Dallas. Washington's reserves outscored the Wings' bench 20-5. (Rebecca Slezak/AP)
ARLINGTON, Tex. — The end of the Washington Mystics’ longest break of the season coincided with the start of perhaps their most important stretch of the year.
With six days between games, Coach Mike Thibault gave the team a weekend off before two days of practice. Thursday’s 87-77 win over Dallas started a run of four games in six days that includes hosting a back-to-back this weekend against Seattle, a pair of games with huge playoff implications. That’s followed by a home game against Commissioner’s Cup champion Las Vegas before a trip to first-place Chicago, the defending WNBA champion, three days later.
The Mystics (18-11), playing without Elena Delle Donne (scheduled night off), got things off to a good start at College Park Center. The victory over the Wings (12-16) knotted them with Seattle, which lost at Connecticut, for fourth place in the league.
“It’s a big weekend, obviously,” Thibault said. “Very little prep time for either team. . . . We played [the Storm] a month ago, and they haven’t changed a lot other than [adding former Mystic] Tina [Charles]. We haven’t faced them with her. . . . It’s kind of come out and just play.”
Point guard Natasha Cloud, one of the team’s more vocal leaders, said nothing needed to be said entering this crucial stretch.
“Not a message,” she said before Thursday’s game. “We’re all just under the understanding that it’s one day at a time, one game at a time.
The Mystics had played the most games in the league entering the All-Star Game this month, making the break even more important for their postseason push. The schedule was a big reason Thibault gave his team the extra rest.
“We love being around each other, but … we need some space, too,” Cloud said with a laugh. “And just time to reset, be with our families and really just like sit down for a minute and be where our feet are. Because I think too often people forget that we’re constantly going. I literally go home, I spend one day with my dogs, and then I’m on the road again.”
Strong out the gate
Washington had one of its best halves of the season, taking a 56-36 halftime lead. The Mystics never trailed after being down 4-2.
Myisha Hines-Allen moved into the starting lineup in Delle Donne’s absence and opened the game with a steal and a layup. A few minutes later, she crossed over her defender and then hit a three-pointer to put the Mystics up 11-6. Hines-Allen finished with 14 points.
“That was my thing, try to be aggressive from the beginning,” Hines-Allen said. “But for the most part, for us to start that run, [it] started on the defensive end. We were able to get our hands on things and just run out in transition, and then our bench came in and did the same exact things. That’s how we were able to just keep the whole momentum.”
The Wings made a fourth-quarter push to get within nine, but Cloud (14 points, seven assists) buried back-to-back jumpers to extend the lead to 78-64. Five Mystics players finished in double figures, including Ariel Atkins (14), Shakira Austin (12) and Alysha Clark (13).
The Mystics got a huge lift from their bench late in the first quarter, powering a 9-0 run to take a 28-14 lead. Shatori Walker-Kimbrough continued to play well, helping the team’s lobbying effort for her as the league’s sixth woman of the year. Tianna Hawkins, back in the rotation, came out aggressive and finished with seven points. The Mystics’ bench outscored the Wings’ 20-5.
“Just being ready,” Hawkins said. “Before every game I tell the bench mobs to be ready when your name is called. … You’ve got a sub coming, so there’s no reason to leave anything else on the court.”
Thibault was named an assistant on the U.S. women’s national team that will play in this year’s FIBA World Cup. He is joined by Kara Lawson (Duke) and Joni Taylor (Texas A&M) under Coach Cheryl Reeve (Minnesota Lynx). Thibault has been involved with USA Basketball, off and on with both the men and women, since 1993 and was an assistant on the 2008 women’s Olympic team that won gold.
“It’s always fun to do USA, and it’s always an honor,” Thibault said. “I’ve been doing it since, like, 1993. Tells you how old I am. . . . It’s always rewarding and nothing like representing your country on the international stage and playing the best in the world.” | 2022-07-29T04:07:26Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Mystics open crucial stretch of WNBA schedule with a win at Dallas - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/mystics-wings-wnba-playoff-push/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/mystics-wings-wnba-playoff-push/ |
Baltimore's Trey Mancini acknowledges the crowd in a curtain call during a win against Tampa Bay on Thursday. (Terrance Williams/AP)
As Trey Mancini said afterward: “You can’t script it better than that.”
Sports, and specifically in this case, baseball, showed again Thursday why Hollywood has nothing on the spine-tingling moments that real-life competition can create.
Consider the unlikely confluence of circumstance in Baltimore, where the Orioles were taking on the Tampa Bay Rays: Fans already roaring for Mancini, a beloved, longtime franchise fixture in possibly his final home at-bat before the MLB trade deadline. A day at the ballpark dedicated to the memory of a devoted young fan taken too soon by cancer, a disease Mancini himself battled. And, on an 0-2 count, a flyball lifted seemingly harmlessly toward the waiting glove of an opposing outfielder.
Then … magic.
Losing the ball in the afternoon sky, Rays outfielder Josh Lowe had it glance off his left cheek and bounce away. Mancini, never known as the fastest runner, chugged his way around the bases and beat the eventual throw to the plate for an astonishing inside-the-park home run.
“A fairy tale has come to life!” exclaimed the O’s TV announcer.
The eighth-inning play didn’t necessarily win the game for the Orioles — they were already up 1-0 and maintained the shutout for a 3-0 victory — but it provided Baltimore fans and players alike with not just a highlight, but an indelible memory.
“I can’t believe that just happened,” Mancini said in an on-field interview shortly after the last out was recorded. “Of anything that’s happened throughout my career, I think getting an inside-the-park home run is by far the craziest thing.”
The 30-year-old outfielder/first baseman/designated hitter then pointed out that the sequence unfolded on Mo Gaba Day, when the team honored the inspiring superfan who died two years ago at the age of 14. Before the game, Mancini caught a ceremonial first pitch from Gaba’s mother. “I know he was up there smiling, and laughing at me running around the bases,” Mancini said of Gaba after the dramatic win.
Later, while wearing a #MoStrong T-shirt and standing in front of a Gaba bobblehead at his locker, Mancini told reporters, “I had some help from somebody. That was absolutely insane. I’d like to think Mo had a hand in it.”
O’s Manager Brandon Hyde seemed to agree.
“Lost in the sun — or lost somewhere up in the air,” he said of the fateful flyball. “A special play.”
Adding another layer was the possibility that Mancini might soon be moved to another team. Despite the fact that the Orioles are hovering around the wild-card race as they enjoy their best season in six years, his name has come up in trade rumors. Baltimore’s games before Tuesday’s trade deadline are at Cincinnati and Texas, so Thursday’s eighth-inning at-bat served as the last chance before then for O’s fans to show Mancini how much he meant to them.
Between the eighth and ninth innings, Mancini was sent out of the dugout for a prolonged curtain call.
“It meant a lot,” he said of the chance to bask in cheers. “Again, I have no idea what the next few days bring, but I wanted to make sure to soak in every moment today, just in case this was it.”
An eighth-round pick by Baltimore in the 2013 MLB draft, Mancini has spent his entire career in the organization and has been a full-time member of the major league squad since 2017. After establishing himself as one of the game’s better young sluggers, he was forced to sit out the 2020 season following a diagnosis of Stage 3 colon cancer. Mancini endured chemotherapy treatments — getting support along the way from Gaba, among others — while the threat of coronavirus hung over his ordeal. He eventually received medical clearance and was back in the O’s lineup by the start of last season.
Gaba’s passing on July 28, 2020, resonated deeply with Mancini. On the first Mo Gaba Day staged by the Orioles one year ago, Mancini also homered on an 0-2 count to help Baltimore get a dramatic win. Somehow, he was able to one-up himself Thursday with a far less likely trip around the base paths. It was the first inside-the-park home run of his career, and the first managed by anyone at Camden Yards since 2011.
Mancini soon may not be calling Camden Yards home anymore, although he said postgame that he hoped he could “stick around and still be a part of this team.”
“But I understand how the business works and I don’t really have a say in it,” he added. “I’m just going to go out there every day and keep playing for this team and the name across my chest, because I love this city and the team, and I love these guys in here. It’s just been such a fun year.”
It wasn’t quite as enjoyable an afternoon for Lowe, who took Mancini’s flyball off his face. Sporting a welt on his cheek afterward, the 24-year-old Tampa Bay outfielder told reporters, “Kind of a tough sky toward the end. Hadn’t really been like that at all. A lot of clouds, so you could see I didn’t have sunglasses on, and it had been fine the entire time. … That was the first one that really got up there and got in the clouds.”
Mancini said he could tell Lowe was having difficulty tracking the ball.
“The second that I saw him put his glove up,” Mancini said, “I knew that I needed to get going, you know, get scooting.”
Approximately 17 seconds and one adroit slide into home later, he sent into delirium a crowd that had been intent on giving him a rousing send-off.
“Baseball, man,” said O’s starter Jordan Lyles, who earned the win after quelling the Rays’ bats for 5⅔ innings. “No one else deserves it more than [Mancini]. Great person. Great teammate.
“Baltimore, if this is it, they have been very lucky to have him.” | 2022-07-29T04:07:32Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Orioles’ Trey Mancini authors magical moment with inside-the-park homer - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/trey-mancini-inside-park-homer/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/28/trey-mancini-inside-park-homer/ |
I have a third child in his 30s, who is not living with us. My son has a long history of incarcerations and has two felonies for theft and drug offenses. He has been out of prison for over a year. He lives with friends and at times with his father (my ex). He’s not exactly the model citizen but is keeping out of trouble.
She has not forgiven him for stealing his grandpa’s credit card and cash from them when he was a teen. She has basically disowned him for his failures, and I’m guessing she’s embarrassed by him, too. They were really close when he was a child.
As far as I’m concerned, he’s done his time, he is family and he shouldn’t be disowned. Grandma recently told him (when I was in the other room) that he can’t stop at the house anymore.
I like to see him occasionally and am not afraid of him stealing. He is not dangerous. Your advice?
Mom: Your son may have paid his debt to society, but his reconciliation should happen at home.
You could start by encouraging him to make amends. Has he sincerely acknowledged and apologized for his actions? Asked for forgiveness? Recognized how he violated his grandparents’ trust? Attempted to repay them?
If not, he should. He might do this in a letter, carefully written and sent to your folks.
My brother and his wife are heavy drinkers. I try to avoid their obnoxious drunken shenanigans. My brother has basically written all of us off. He initiates no contact with any of us on the false premise that we have abandoned him.
When I contacted him about mom’s new nursing home and gave an update on our dad, my brother said he doesn’t care anymore and abruptly ended the conversation. My sister and I, along with our husbands, have been doing the heavy lifting regarding our parents’ home maintenance and our father’s care.
Dutiful: Yes, your brother does have a “right” to know about his parents. But with rights come responsibilities.
To satisfy your own concerns, you should email him: “You don't seem to want to hear from me, but do you want to receive occasional health updates about our parents? I'll respect your decision; just let me know.”
Upset: “Marley” was already doing a good job of evading and avoiding. A total break could be next. | 2022-07-29T04:33:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Ask Amy: Grandma struggles to forgive grandson who stole when he was a teen - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/07/29/ask-amy-mom-son-forgive/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/07/29/ask-amy-mom-son-forgive/ |
Dear Carolyn: My current boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend had, and I know this is crude, much larger breasts than I have. I’m fairly flat-chested. We’ve been together 2½ years, but I recently found out that, in the early part of our relationship (like six months in), he told one of his guy friends that “he’s happy he got the chance to be with someone with bigger breasts before dating someone who he loves but is flat-chested.” And I don’t know how upset to be about this.
It obviously hurts to think there’s a way someone you love is settling for you, but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to expect him to not be subject to the biological preference men have for bigger breasts. It feels like a dealbreaker somehow, but it also realistically feels like it can’t be one.
— Insecure
Insecure: May the taste gods strike me down, but you need to think bigger.
I thought that’s what you were doing with the clause that began, “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to expect him to.” My advisory brain filled in the rest of your sentence with, “prefer every single thing about me to all the other possibilities in the world.” Because although we’re all pretty good at loving each other holistically, we also “settle” on countless little things to make our partnerships work. And some big ones. Physical traits, intellectual interests, geographic ties, cat- or dog-personhood, whatever else.
We say we wouldn’t change a thing about someone because we love the someone it all adds up to, not because we love every single thing.
I’m guessing that, in most cases, we make this mental adjustment consciously, fully aware we’re getting X despite a preference for Y. We do it when we think this entire person is amazing, so, okay, X it is, because amazingness is what matters, and X just doesn’t. If there isn’t enough “amazing” to cover it all, then that’s a different story. But when it works, it works because of maturity, self-awareness, acceptance and deep love, which is way more romantic than if every box were perfectly checked.
So the question you’re really wrestling with — I hope — is not whether your man can truly love a flat-chested woman, because your 2½ years say he can, or whether it’s “settling,” because it probably is, or whether “settling” itself is a dealbreaker, because it’s something everyone does, although I prefer to call it “not having ridiculous expectations of specific people or of romance in general.” The real question is whether you can still love someone who not only did a boob retrospective bro-nalysis of women he’s loved, but also found some way for you to learn of it two years after the fact.
For some, this would be a dealbreaker. Some, not. For anyone of integrity, it will depend not only on your values and feelings and your boyfriend’s character, but also on your own history of bonding with friends by picking over your partners’ assets — past and, ahem, “current.”
If you’ve been there yourself, then the only question left is whether you need your partners to be at least a little discreet.
Now’s probably a good time for me to mention that “the biological preference men have for bigger breasts” and/or for boob rating is not a mess I care to clean up today. Thank you. | 2022-07-29T04:33:39Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Carolyn Hax: Boyfriend compared her chest size to his ex-girlfriend's - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/07/29/carolyn-hax-boyfriend-chest-size-comparison/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2022/07/29/carolyn-hax-boyfriend-chest-size-comparison/ |
Earlier this year, President Biden made an impassioned address on World Press Freedom Day. Journalists live in “perilous times,” he warned on May 3, pointing to at least 11 killed in Ukraine in the weeks that followed the Russian invasion. The duty of the press is to “hold the powerful to account,” Biden continued. “And for this, too often, they are killed, jailed, raped, threatened, and harassed. Women journalists, long a minority in the newsroom, are disproportionately targeted, on- and offline, in these attacks.”
Eight days after Biden made these remarks, a celebrated woman journalist joined this year’s grim and growing casualty list: Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian American correspondent for Al Jazeera, was shot dead while covering clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians near Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
Israeli authorities initially tried to blame Palestinian militants for her death, even as Al Jazeera and numerous eyewitnesses said she had been shot by Israeli soldiers.
Subsequent detailed investigations by a number of major media outlets, including The Washington Post, found that those Israeli claims were almost certainly false and that Abu Akleh was likely killed by Israeli sniper fire. In written responses to my colleagues at the time, the Israeli Defense Forces declared that “no IDF soldier deliberately fired at a journalist,” though it supplied no evidence to justify that conclusion. Nor did it respond to questions about what Israeli footage of the incident — by drones or body cameras worn by most soldiers — may show.
Those findings came out in June. Yet the Biden administration, beyond expressions of sympathy and sadness, did little to press for justice for a journalist — and a U.S. citizen, after all — allegedly killed by the Israelis and, instead, seemed to echo the Israeli line, which had shifted as more evidence emerged. On July 4, the State Department issued a short statement after finishing an analysis of the forensic and ballistic evidence, as well as separate investigations carried out by the Palestinians and Israelis. It concluded that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh likely originated from Israeli gunfire, but there was “no reason to believe this was intentional” — a conclusion that seemingly waved away Israeli culpability and infuriated Abu Akleh’s family and others seeking accountability.
President Biden did not act on a request from Abu Akleh’s relatives to meet while visiting Israel and the West Bank this month. He did not mention her in public remarks when standing alongside Israeli officials. But U.S. officials still insisted that the Biden administration cared about her case.
“There will have to be efforts made in accountability and making sure that we find a way to conclude this chapter justly,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters before Biden landed in Israel. “This is someone who was a journalist, an American citizen. The president, the secretary of state, the entire team grieves for the family.”
"We would like accountability as in holding the Israeli government accountable, starting with...the soldier who pulled the trigger"
Shireen Abu Akleh's niece @LinaAbuAkleh told me on #MSNBCPrime that the US needs to "end the impunity" that Israel enjoys:pic.twitter.com/3WuDS4TI1v
Abu Akleh’s family is now holding the Biden administration to its word. This week, her brother, his wife and their two children came to Washington to press her case. That started with a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday from which they came away disappointed.
“We were hoping they would tell us something we hadn’t heard before,” Lina Abu Akleh, Shireen’s niece, told me the following day. But that was not to be: “It was just the same rhetoric, repeating the same statements,” she added. Blinken apparently made no new commitments or promises and did not retract the July 4 statement that so upset the Abu Akleh family.
“Why would they reach a conclusion about intent and hurt our case, if they don’t have any clear evidence or credible sources,” said Abu Akleh. “It makes you wonder — are they trying to cover up the story, shove it under the rug, close the case?”
She believes that her aunt “was clearly targeted” by a “very precise shot,” even as she wore a visibly-marked press vest. “There’s no way that’s a mistake,” she said.
The family also met with officials from the Justice Department’s section on human rights and special prosecutions, which is separately involved in investigating the killing of a U.S. journalist by Russian forces in Ukraine.
In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Abu Akleh pointed to a long history of impunity for Israel when it comes to killing American citizens — from the infamous 2003 incident that saw an Israeli soldier drive a bulldozer over peace activist Rachel Corrie to earlier this year, when Israeli forces dragged Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American, from his car at a checkpoint and left him bound and gagged in the cold at a construction site, where he died of a heart attack.
“The U.S. has a choice to make: They either support human rights, the equal treatment of its citizens, support justice, or they continue to perpetuate the impunity that Israel enjoys,” she told me.
The Abu Akleh family deserves accountability. CNN, NYT, etc found Shireen was shot by an Israeli sniper while wearing a press vest. Yet, the U.S. has done nothing. We didn’t even conduct a thorough investigation in this murder of an American reporter. President Biden must act. pic.twitter.com/A4rhu3D1lt
For Palestinians, the lack of accountability for Abu Akleh’s death is a parable for the broader injustice of the prevailing status quo — one where millions of Palestinians remain subject to Israeli military occupation, second-class citizens in their own land. They view her killing as yet another example of the impunity with which Israel can operate, and the Biden administration’s response, thus far, as yet another example of the ways with which the United States has historically shielded Israel from censure and scrutiny.
“Her case represents all the stories she covered over the past 25 years,” said Abu Akleh, gesturing to her aunt’s quarter-century of coverage of politics and conflict in the occupied territories. “When you talk about her case, you’re talking about the entire cause of Palestine.”
The family received more encouragement following meetings on the Hill. A Thursday news conference on the steps of the Capitol was attended by a string of prominent Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez (N.Y.), who urged the Biden administration to launch a proper, independent investigation of the incident.
A statement from six Democratic senators on the Appropriations Committee, including Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Patrick Leahy (Vt.), outlined how they had introduced text that would mandate Blinken or a future secretary of state to submit a report on the steps taken to facilitate a credible investigation into Abu Akleh’s death. “We will continue working to get the full truth about this tragedy, ensure accountability, and make clear our unwavering support for freedom of the press and the safety of journalists around the world,” they said.
The support of the lawmakers “provided us with some comfort and solace,” said Abu Akleh, “but for two months we haven’t seen any meaningful action.”
They may face a long road ahead: Palestinian human rights are far from a bipartisan priority in Washington, while the Biden administration has already made clear its lack of interest in reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and the moribund prospect of an independent Palestinian state. The Abu Akleh family has said they are willing to take the case to the International Criminal Court — but the ICC is an institution whose jurisdiction neither the United States nor Israel recognizes.
During his Middle East trip, Biden “was preaching about human rights,” said Abu Akleh. “We just hope the same values are applied to Palestinian lives.” | 2022-07-29T04:34:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Slain journalist’s family puts spotlight on Israeli impunity - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/29/slain-journalists-family-puts-spotlight-israeli-impunity/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/29/slain-journalists-family-puts-spotlight-israeli-impunity/ |
Paris Faces an Even Colder, Darker Winter Than Berlin
In the European energy crisis, all of the attention is focused on Germany and gas from Russia. But France and its fleet of struggling nuclear reactors are at least as important. Indeed, the first European city to suffer a blackout as temperatures drop toward the end of the year may well be Paris rather than Berlin.
In the middle of the summer, when French electricity demand hovers around 45 gigawatts per hour, that’s not an insurmountable problem. But on a cold winter evening, when French households can push consumption above 80 or 90 gigawatts, it could be catastrophically expensive. Although the French economy is smaller than Germany’s, Gallic power demand surges well above that of its neighbor during the winter as households there rely more on electricity for heating and hot water.
While EDF has promised that at least some of its reactors will be back online in time for the colder months, the company has a nasty habit of over-promising and under-delivering. The severity of the winter could be key: Each degree Celsius the temperature drops below normal, French power demand surges by about 2.5 gigawatts an hour — equivalent to the output of two nuclear power stations.
During a late cold snap last April, the French grid was forced to issue a rare orange alert — the second highest — asking households and companies to “moderate their consumption.” Those alerts will become a staple this coming winter, and very likely will escalate to “red alerts” that indicate a risk of blackouts unless families and businesses reduce demand.
Electricity traders are taking the risk seriously. In the wholesale market, the benchmark one-year French baseload power contract has jumped to a record high of 507 euros ($512) per megawatt hour, well above German prices of 350 to 370 euros for the parallel contract. French retail consumers are protected for now thanks to a price cap, but businesses are fully exposed.
Come winter, it will get much worse. For December, baseload French power is trading above 1,000 euros, almost double German prices, while peakload power — typically in the evenings when families gather for dinner and the heating is on — is changing hands at more than 2,000 euros. In practice, that means traders expect French power demand may be so high relative to supply that so-called hourly prices will bump against the 4,000-euro limit set by the exchange many times in December. The market, aware of what’s coming, is trying to kill consumption ahead of time, in an effort to avert blackouts. It’s a costly way of attempting to force electricity-intensive companies, such as smelters, to plan to shut down in December.
The French problem is spilling over into the rest of Europe, including the UK. EDF, long a source of national pride as well as low-cost electricity exports, is having to buy power to meet daily requirements. Earlier this month, the French grid made an emergency request to the British network for extra power — and that was in summer, when demand is low.
In the past, EDF only imported electricity on a net basis for a few days a year, if at all. For example, between 2014 and 2016, France didn’t import power on a single day. But as the nuclear troubles mounted, it’s relied increasingly on imports. Last year, it bought electricity from overseas for 78 days. So far this year, it has been forced to do so on a record 102 days.
France’s purchases put further pressure on a European electricity and gas market that’s already under stress. If French President Emmanuel Macron wants to help ease the European energy crisis, he needs to focus at home. Fixing EDF should be his top priority — well above his phone conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Paris has taken a first step, announcing the nationalization of the company at a cost of 10 billion euros, although not earlier than September. Puzzlingly, Macron has yet to bring in a new executive team. The company’s chief executive is set to depart, but perhaps not until March 2023. The rest of the senior team, including the executive in charge of nuclear power who has overseen the disastrous performance of the last couple of years, appear to be safe in their jobs for now. Macron also hasn’t curbed the influence of the trade unions within EDF — another perennial issue that’s stymied reform at the company.
Time is running out. Paris is delightful in the autumn and the winter; it’ll be much less attractive if the “City of Light” is forced to go dark.
London Paid a Record Price to Dodge a Blackout: Javier Blas | 2022-07-29T06:04:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Paris Faces an Even Colder, Darker Winter Than Berlin - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/paris-faces-an-evencolder-darker-winter-than-berlin/2022/07/29/6d2fe282-0efb-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/paris-faces-an-evencolder-darker-winter-than-berlin/2022/07/29/6d2fe282-0efb-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
What to Know About Bolsonaro-Lula Showdown in Brazil
Analysis by Simone Iglesias | Bloomberg
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s former president, speaks at a rally during Bahia’s Independence Day in Salvador, Bahia state, Brazil, on Saturday, July 2, 2022. Former leftist president Lula still leads the Brazilian presidential race in a potential runoff against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, a survey carried out between June 20-24 by Futura for Modalmais shows. (Bloomberg)
Brazil’s presidential election in October is shaping up to be a riveting head-to-head contest between two larger-than-life figures representing opposite ends of the political spectrum: the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who ruled the country from 2003 to 2010. While there are 10 other contenders in the race, none has a realistic chance of winning. The election outcome will have profound implications for South America’s biggest and most-populous nation.
1. Why is this election so compelling?
Lula, a former labor union leader, was found guilty of money laundering and corruption in 2017 and sentenced to almost 10 years in prison, which prevented him from running in the elections that brought Bolsonaro to power four years ago. He was released in 2019 after a change in appeal laws, and the nation’s top court annulled his conviction on procedural grounds in 2021, clearing the way for him to stage a political comeback. A 76-year-old cancer survivor, Lula is revered by those who credit him with implementing social policies that lifted millions out of poverty during his two terms in office, and reviled by others who see him as a symbol of corruption. Bolsonaro, 67, a former army captain who was stabbed while on the campaign trail in 2018 and has been hospitalized several times as a result of that attack, is equally controversial. His supporters consider him a guardian of traditional family values and an anti-corruption crusader, while his opponents have labeled him a far-right authoritarian and accuse him of advancing sexism, racism and homophobia.
2. What’s at stake?
The next administration will have to respond to growing public outrage over surging living costs and rising poverty and hunger in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, even as it tries to convince investors that it is committed to sound fiscal policies. Bolsonaro has pledged that, if re-elected, he would privatize state-owned oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA and the national postal service; cut corporate taxes in a bid to boost investment; pass pro-gun laws; and make it more difficult for women to have abortions. Lula has said he would change rules that limit public spending; reform the tax system so the rich pay more and the poor pay less; ensure Brazil becomes self-sufficient in oil and fuel; and protect the Amazon rainforest. The vote will also be a key test for Brazilian institutions, since Bolsonaro appears to be laying the groundwork to challenge a result that goes against him.
3. How is Bolsonaro questioning the election’s integrity?
He’s stated that only God could remove him from office and has systematically sought to undermine institutions that impose checks and balances on his powers. He has repeatedly cast doubt about the reliability of the country’s electronic voting system, even claiming without proof that the 2018 election was rigged against him because he didn’t win in the first round, and there are fears he may mimic Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the result of the US’s 2020 election. In late July, top Brazilian banking and company executives, jurists, economists and other professionals signed a letter in defense of the country’s voting system, and said the unwarranted attacks on it posed an “immense danger” to democracy. The more than 60,000 signatories didn’t mention Bolsonaro by name. Bolsonaro has denied that he’d consider staging a coup should he lose the election.
4. What do polls show?
An Ipespe poll of 2,000 people surveyed in July showed Lula winning 44% support in the first voting round, on Oct. 2, to 35% for Bolsonaro. It also indicated that Lula would win a possible runoff on Oct. 30 by 17 percentage points. Other polls have also shown Lula to be the clear favorite.
5. What is Lula’s appeal?
He has evoked memories of a golden period for Brazil, when government policies funded by a commodities boom successfully eradicated hunger, reduced poverty and bolstered the ranks of the middle class -- good times he has pledged to revive. He’s also considered the only viable alternative to Bolsonaro by those who accuse the incumbent of botching the handling of the pandemic and undermining democratic institutions and civil rights.
6. Can Bolsonaro still win?
Bolsonaro has spent big to ease the impact of Covid-19 and, more recently, to temper rising living costs for vulnerable Brazilians. His popularity hit a record high during the pandemic as the government gave 600-real ($112) cash handouts to the poor. With the inflation rate exceeding 10%, Bolsonaro has spearheaded legislation to temporarily increase grants for about 18 million families. He will also give temporary cash handouts to truck and cab drivers to cushion them against higher fuel prices. But it remains unclear whether those measures will be sufficient to close the gap with Lula, especially with the economy expected to start cooling down after the central bank aggressively raised interest rates. | 2022-07-29T06:04:58Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What to Know About Bolsonaro-Lula Showdown in Brazil - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/what-to-know-about-bolsonaro-lula-showdown-in-brazil/2022/07/29/31dc208c-0ef7-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/what-to-know-about-bolsonaro-lula-showdown-in-brazil/2022/07/29/31dc208c-0ef7-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
How a Declining British City Changed Its Fortune
BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND - JULY 28: Fireworks are seen during the Opening Ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games at Alexander Stadium on July 28, 2022 on the Birmingham, England. (Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images) (Photographer: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images Europe)
“It feels like it’s Birmingham’s chance to shine,” says Stephen Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders, a hit television series set in the city. Two thousand performers took part in last night’s opening ceremony for this year’s Commonwealth Games. The city’s landmarks are splashed in bright paint or festooned with multi-colored banners. Brummies are brimming with pride.
The games are the highlight of several good years for the city. Peaky Blinders has bathed the local accent in gangster glamor. Several big companies, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., have located regional offices there, encouraged by the prospect of faster connections with London when HS2, the new high-speed railway, is finished. The city boasts a brand-new network of trams, a restaurant mile to make the mouth water, and the world’s biggest Primark. Andy Street, the mayor of the West Midlands Region that includes Birmingham as well as other Black Country towns such as Wolverhampton and Coventry, has emerged as the most influential of Britain’s six new metropolitan mayors, not least because he is a Tory.
Until recently, Birmingham’s history was one of decline and disappointment. But it didn’t use to be that way. In the 1880s and 1890s, intellectuals flocked to what one American visitor called “the best-governed city in the world.” Birmingham commissioned a succession of fine buildings and a broad new boulevard — Corporation Street. It also led the world in clearing slums and providing municipal services such as gas, water and sewerage.
The impresario of all this was Joseph Chamberlain, one of the great political figures of the 19th and early 20th centuries, who was mayor from 1873 to 1876, became an MP and a Cabinet minister. His sons — by different wives — were just as influential if not more so. Austen Chamberlain was twice chancellor of the exchequer; Neville Chamberlain was prime minister in the period leading up to World War II.
Joseph Chamberlain drew on two great local resources. The first was a civic gospel that preached that local industrialists had a duty to give back as much as they could to their communities. In many cities, industrialists — once they had made their pile — retreated to the countryside and lived like feudal barons. In Birmingham, local families, many of them Quakers and Unitarians, tried to improve the place that had given them their wealth. The Cadburys led the way by creating the model town of Bourneville for their workers, filled with spacious artisans’ houses with their own gardens.
The second was the creativity of local business. Chamberlain’s Birmingham was one of small workshops and niche products. The mayor himself was an exemplar of this: He moved there when he was 18 to take over his uncle’s company, which at one point produced three-quarters of the world’s screws. From the 1920s, the city reinvented itself as a motor town — Britain’s Detroit — with companies like Austin, Rover Motors and Dunlop Rubber within easy commuting distance.
The city’s fortunes changed sharply from the 1960s onwards. It is hardly original to say that Britain is an over-centralized country with London dominating the economy and Whitehall, and particularly the Treasury, trying to micromanage a country of which it knows little. The quality of governance in Birmingham plummeted thanks to ill-conceived reform, most notably the 1973 reorganization of local government. The Labour Party — which was dominant for most of the 60s and 70s — increasingly treated Birmingham as a fief if not a rotten borough. The motor industry was frequently paralyzed by industrial action.
Things began to change this century. Birmingham played a vital role in Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s devolution of power to Britain’s cities — and in the much more ambitious levelling up strategy that followed. Nick Timothy — a Brummie who worshipped Joe Chamberlain and who was Theresa May’s right-hand man when she ran the Home Office under Cameron — sketched out a plan to make the city and the party more appealing. It was a combination of the old civic gospel and industrial strategy. However, May’s bid to implement this strategy failed when she became prime minister herself because all her attention was absorbed by Brexit. Timothy also annoyed too many people. But his ideas eventually blossomed into the Northern strategy that delivered the Tories an 80-seat majority in 2019.
Does the recent turnaround in the city’s fortunes have any chance of lasting? Or will the curse that settled on the city in the 60s and 70s turn its dreams once more to ashes?
It’s foolish to be too optimistic in today’s fevered atmosphere. Liz Truss, the frontrunner in the Conservative leadership race, sees levelling up in terms of creating enterprise zones rather than reviving Chamberlain’s civic gospel. The failure to establish a stable trading relationship with Europe could spell problems for the broader motor vehicle economy.
Still, there are some reasons to be optimistic. The motor industry continues to flourish despite Brexit. Nearby Warwick University is home to world-class research on batteries and electric vehicles. Street has brought a problem-solving and post-partisan spirit to his job as West Midlands mayor.
Britain needs competent mayors as a second line of defense against an increasingly dysfunctional central government. They are another pool of talent beyond the world of think tanks and spads. Let’s hope that Street and Birmingham shine for longer than the two weeks of the games.
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Conservatives Shouldn’t Write Off ‘ Trussonomics’ Just Yet: Lionel Laurent | 2022-07-29T06:04:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How a Declining British City Changed Its Fortune - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-a-declining-british-city-changed-its-fortune/2022/07/29/6df4eb22-0efb-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/how-a-declining-british-city-changed-its-fortune/2022/07/29/6df4eb22-0efb-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
“I don’t know how you didn’t notice that [the] speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels.” You know it’s going to be an interesting resignation letter when you get to lines such as these. That speech, the letter went on, clearly aimed at “the most vile racists.”
The author of this resignation screed is Zsuzsanna Hegedus, a long-time aide to the addressee, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. What had Orban said that she found shocking enough to quit after supporting him so devotedly?
During a visit to a Romanian town that’s home to a lot of ethnic Hungarians, Orban had pretty much repeated what he’s been dog-whistling to his base for years — except this time, with a sliver of additional, and therefore surprising, clarity.
It’s fine for Europeans to mingle with one another, Orban said, but it’s not alright for them to mix with others — non-Europeans, that is — because “we do not want to become peoples of mixed race.”
This lapse — if indeed it was one — is noteworthy far beyond Hungary, Romania or even the European Union. That’s because Orban has become a sort of idol and flagbearer to populists and wannabe dictators everywhere.
These range from Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to his former US counterpart, Donald Trump, who’s now entertaining hopes for another turn in the White House. Steven Bannon, the Donald’s former svengali, once said that Orban “was Trump before Trump.” He meant that as a compliment, obviously.
Like all populists, Orban benefits whenever his notoriety grows in mainstream politics and media. The EU, for example, is in the midst of a drawn-out censure process against Hungary for undermining the rule of law and democratic standards. Such opprobrium from “the deep state” in Brussels only makes Orban’s star burn all the more brightly on the far right.
Last year, Tucker Carlson, a permanently foaming-at-the-mouth host on Fox News, aired his show from a rooftop in Budapest for a week, featuring a fawning interview with Orban and more. In May, the Conservative Political Action Conference, organized by the American Conservative Union, made a pilgrimage to Budapest for its first event in Europe. Next week, Orban will in turn drop in at CPAC Texas to take the stage with Trump.
What do the Trumpies like about Orban? In part, his anti-liberal, anti-establishment message and its angry, defiant delivery. Orban disdains multicultural, tolerant, individualistic and pluralistic versions of democracy and extols the homogenous — Christian and nativist — sort.
By “Christian,” he doesn’t necessarily mean anything particularly religious, but the exclusion of Muslims. During the refugee crisis of 2015, he used the specter of alien and dark-skinned Syrians to fire up his base and put up barbed fences. But the specter of an Islamic invasion remains, he claims. He’s also made a target of the LGBTQ crowd. A Hungarian law banning sex education in schools allegedly inspired the “Don’t Say Gay” law signed this year by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another of the movement’s aspirants.
Anti-Semitism, too, was always there in Orban’s subtext but never explicit. Orban has chosen the Jewish financier and philanthropist George Soros, American but born in Hungary, as his main bogeyman, plastering Soros’s face on campaign posters and such. In attacking Soros’s “globalist” vision and his international “networks,” Orban constantly plays with ancient anti-Semitic tropes.
So far, however, Orban has always been careful to preserve plausible deniability. This is how he differs from the likes of Trump, but also from Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Orban admires (he wants to end the EU’s sanctions on Russia, among other things). This week, for example, Orban fired back to Hegedus that his government has a “zero-tolerance policy on anti-Semitism and racism.”
That relative restraint and discipline in the service of plausible deniability also applies to his gradual takeover of Hungary’s politics, media, universities, courts and civil society. Orban isn’t one to incite crass — January 6th-style — riots against parliament. Instead, he’s spent a decade changing obscure laws, rewriting the Hungarian constitution, tweaking the electoral system, giving jobs to cronies, and so forth.
Each step is incremental, and some — if they cause too much of a backlash — he even reverses. But cumulatively, the method rigs the system in his favor. The result — which so inspires America’s MAGA crowd — has been called “Goulash authoritarianism.”
His tirade in Romania is therefore intriguing. It’s one thing for Orban to drop words such as “replacement” into his speeches — a dog whistle to white supremacists and their “Great Replacement Theory,” but seemingly innocuous to other people. It’s another to give speeches that sound like passages of the Nuremberg Race Laws of 1935.
An accidental slip? Or a sign of growing confidence, signaling a clearer line in future? Orban, in his smallish country, has less power than Trump did or Putin does. But — not least in the US — he bears watching.
Europe Is Faking Solidarity, and Putin Knows It: Andreas Kluth
The Days of ‘ Germany Knows Best’ Are Over: Maria Tadeo | 2022-07-29T06:04:59Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Orban Wants No Mixed-Race Europeans. Will He Say That In Texas Too? - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/orban-wants-no-mixed-race-europeans-will-he-say-that-in-texas-too/2022/07/29/6ccfb114-0efb-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/orban-wants-no-mixed-race-europeans-will-he-say-that-in-texas-too/2022/07/29/6ccfb114-0efb-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
Better camera tracking and a crackdown on poaching has led to higher estimates of the top predator’s abundance
Tigers are sighted at Bardiya National Park in Nepal. (Niranjan Shrestha/AP)
Tigers are having a good year.
Nepalese officials announced Friday the top predator’s numbers within the country’s borders have more than doubled in a bit more than a decade. Across Asia, there are as many as 5,500 tigers prowling jungles and swamps, a leading wildlife group said last week, a 40 percent jump from its 2015 assessment.
The slow but steady rise in the big cat’s estimated population comes as biologists get better at tracking the animal and marks a high point amid a deepening extinction crisis that may see as many as a million plants and animal species disappear worldwide due to habitat loss and climate change.
Tiger researchers, while optimistic, warn the fierce hunter remains under threat from both poaching and encroachment into its remaining habitat. And nations are struggling to reach their collective goal of doubling the population of wild tigers worldwide between 2010 and 2022, the last two years assigned to the tiger in the Chinese zodiac.
“It’s a fragile success,” said Dale Miquelle, tiger program coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society. “There are still many pressures on tiger populations, and they are disappearing from some areas.”
There are anywhere between 3,726 and 5,578 tigers in the wild worldwide today, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which tracks the status of plants and animals facing extinction. It’s a far cry from the tens of thousands of tigers that once roamed across Asia.
One big reason behind the recent jump in tiger estimates: Scientists have simply gotten better at counting the cats, placing motion-sensing cameras in more spots to identify their territory. Biologists warn prior estimates of tiger populations are less reliable.
“A lot of us expanded beyond the traditionally known protected areas to other areas, and we’ve suddenly discovered that there are more tigers than we initially started with,” said Abishek Harihar, a population ecologist in India and deputy director of the tiger program at Panthera, a wild cat conservation group. Both Harihar and Miquelle co-wrote the IUCN’s recent tiger assessment.
But a combination of expanding protected areas and targeting poachers who sell tiger parts for use in traditional medicine has allowed tigers to stabilize or recover in China, India and Thailand.
“In all of those countries, tiger conservation has been a priority at the highest levels of government,” said Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of wildlife conservation at World Wildlife Fund.
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Asia’s most iconic predator is perhaps doing best of all in Nepal, where the estimated population has soared from 121 to 355 since 2009, its government said Friday, after the small Himalayan country committed to restoring habitat.
The grassy lowlands between Nepal and India near the Himalayan foothills — known as the Terai — teem with grazing animals, making it among the most productive potential habitats for the carnivore. Nepal was once home to so many tigers that during a 10-day expedition in 1911, King George V’s hunting party killed 39 tigers (as well as 18 rhinoceros and four bears).
Tigers once roamed from Turkey in the west to the eastern coast of Russia and from frigid forests of Siberia in the north to tropical islands of Indonesia in the south. But a century of hunting both tigers and their prey has restricted their range and decimated their numbers.
By the 1940s, wild tigers vanished from Singapore and Bali. By the 1960s, they were gone for good in Hong Kong and Java. In recent decades they disappeared from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. And today, they continue to die out in Malaysia.
Tigers remain top cat in less than one-fourteenth of their former habitat.
Both revered and feared across the globe, the tiger is a classic “charismatic megafauna” — a big, regal animal that receives outsize attention and money in the conservation movement. But by protecting tigers, Miquelle said, conservationists end up protecting entire ecosystems that other animals and people depend on.
“When we talk about protecting tigers, you’re really talking about protecting the environment that people also need to survive and live a better life,” he said.
Yet as tigers rebound, conflicts arise. In India, home to two-thirds of the world’s wild tigers, the big cats killed 383 people between 2010 and 2019, testing the tolerance of locals for living among them.
India’s tiger population doubles in a dozen years, despite growing human-animal conflict
In a bid to bolster incomes and provide economic incentive for tiger conservation, groups such as the WWF are encouraging residents to open their homes to ecotourists hoping to see the animals.
Further complicating conservation efforts is Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has made it more difficult for researchers to collaborate with Russian counterparts and to attend a major tiger forum in the port city of Vladivostok scheduled for September.
And rising seas fueled by global warming threaten to inundate tiger-filled mangroves in Bangladesh, though climate change may end up expanding the cat’s range in Russia.
Despite the gains, tigers are still officially classified as endangered in the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species. And countries still are failing to double their numbers.
“We haven’t succeeded in that process,” Miquelle said. “But we do feel that there are more tigers today than there were 12 years ago — that progress is being made.” | 2022-07-29T06:05:23Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tiger populations are rebounding in much of Asia - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/07/29/tiger-population-asia-nepal/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2022/07/29/tiger-population-asia-nepal/ |
Man arrested with gun outside Rep. Jayapal’s home charged with stalking
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who represents Washington's 7th District, is the first South Asian American woman elected to the House. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Authorities in Seattle on Wednesday filed a felony stalking charge against a man who was arrested outside the house of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) earlier this month with a loaded weapon.
Iowa Democratic Party chairman receives multiple threats, including one of lynching, after criticizing Trump
In an interview with federal agents, Forsell acknowledged that he had shouted profanities at Jayapal’s residence while driving past it on numerous occasions since late June, as well as on July 9. But he denied stepping onto her property, yelling death threats or racist insults, and allegedly said his animosity toward Jayapal is because she is a member of the Democratic Party. Forsell also told investigators that he had been drinking on July 9, and that he suffers from mental health issues. | 2022-07-29T07:32:00Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Brett Forsell charged with stalking Pramila Jayapal at her Seattle home - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/29/rep-pramila-jayapal-brett-forsell-stalker-seattle/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/29/rep-pramila-jayapal-brett-forsell-stalker-seattle/ |
Raising Cane's co-CEO AJ Kumaran (AJ Kumaran/Courtesy of AJ Kumaran)
Though the probability of hitting the Mega Millions jackpot is notoriously lousy, the chief executives of Raising Cane’s are hedging their bets after buying lottery tickets for all 50,000 of their fast-food employees — for the second time in a week.
The company’s widely publicized first attempt at a win cost about $100,000 but wasn’t a success; no winners were announced Tuesday. But now that the prize has reached $1.1 billion — the second-largest in Mega Millions history — the leaders of the restaurant chain known for its chicken fingers have dropped an extra $100,000 for a fresh round of tickets ahead of Friday night’s drawing.
“Our crew members were so stoked the last time,” co-CEO AJ Kumaran told The Washington Post. “So we decided to try our luck again. And now we’re all just excited, waiting and crossing our fingers for a win.”
The jackpot has a cash-payout option of $648.2 million. If a ticket purchased by Raising Cane’s is a winner, the CEOs would split the sum evenly among their employees, meaning workers would receive nearly $13,000 each — a welcomed extra bit of cash amid the uncertainty of a shifting labor market, inflation and fears of a recession.
“Look, I hear from our crew members all the time, and things are really tough out there,” Kumaran said. “Whether they’re pumping gas or buying groceries, they’re feeling it and it’s hard. So this was an opportunity to have fun but at the same time, hopefully make a little bit of extra money for our people.”
Yet some have questioned the executives’ decision to throw more money at a game with minuscule chances of winning.
“You spent $100,000 on tickets and you lost, and you’re going to do it again? Why not give the money, give $200,000 to your employees?” CNN’s John Berman asked Kumaran during an interview Wednesday.
Kumaran responded that buying the lottery tickets was “really more than about money.” The decision to divvy up the potential winnings reflects “taking care of each other [and] standing by each other as a family,” he said.
He told The Post that the idea of buying the lotto tickets really came down to “doing the right thing” for employees — and having a bit of fun at it.
“I don’t think of it as $100,000. It’s really $2 per crew member,” he said. “And if you think about it that way, it’s just a couple of bucks. They work very hard every day, and we’re doing this for them to have fun and test their luck. So I feel good about doing it.”
Kumaran also pointed to the $200 million in raises the company has paid its employees over the last two years. Raising Cane’s announced last year it would increase wages by about 15 percent for most employees.
The lottery idea started last Thursday, when Mega Millions announced its jackpot had swelled to one of the largest in the game’s history. That’s when Kumaran proposed having Raising Cane’s purchase the tickets. The company’s general counsel, however, was less than thrilled with the idea, he said.
Undeterred, Kumaran tapped his co-CEO and founder, Todd Graves, to finance the tickets out of his own pocket. “We thought, ‘Okay let’s do it as soon as possible because how hard can it be to print 50,000 tickets?’”
As it turns out, pretty difficult. Between getting a hold of the cash needed from four different banks and hitting up two 7-Eleven convenience stores in Dallas to print the tickets, the plan turned into a 10-hour operation on Monday.
“Let me tell you, it’s nerve-racking being at a gas station with $100,000 in cash,” Kumaran said.
He munched on a hot dog while the orange-and-white tickets were slowly printed. Twice, the machine had to be refilled — something that usually happens “every two months or so,” Kumaran said the gas station’s manager remarked. Meanwhile, other customers were complaining about machine being taken hostage.
The hustle, however, was to no avail — though it did help Kumaran figure out a way to streamline the process for his next attempt on Wednesday. That day, instead of going around town with stacks of money, he was able to wire transfer the $100,000 to 7-Eleven. The eight-hour wait to print the tickets was still the same, nonetheless.
On Friday evening, a small crew of Raising Cane’s employees will scan all 50,000 tickets to see if any are able to break Mega Millions’ streak of 29 consecutive drawings without a winner — a long-awaited rollover that has inspired both “jackpot chasers” and serious gamblers to throw down their money.
Only four jackpots have been hit this year, with the last one — worth some $20 million — being won April 15 in Tennessee.
The odds of winning big Friday are roughly 1 in 303 million — the probabilities of having a toilet-related injury or being named a saint are significantly higher. | 2022-07-29T07:36:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Raising Cane's CEOs spend $200,000 on Mega Millions lottery tickets - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/29/raising-canes-mega-millions-lottery/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/29/raising-canes-mega-millions-lottery/ |
Abortion rights activist Olivia Julianna in Houston on June 20. (Callaghan O’Hare for The Washington Post)
Olivia Julianna, the 19-year-old reproductive rights activist who this week turned an insult from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) into a fundraiser, has raised more than $1.3 million for women seeking abortions — after taking just 72 hours to hit the $1 million mark.
The donations inspired by Olivia Julianna, a political strategist for the nonprofit Gen Z for Change, happily surprised abortion-rights advocates. The $1.3 million raised by the group by early Friday is more than 10 percent of what the National Network of Abortion Funds — which includes about 90 abortion funds in the United States and Mexico — distributed in an entire year. It is also enough to fund thousands of abortions, which cost on average $550 per service.
“When I originally put out this fundraiser, I was hoping we would raise a few thousand dollars,” Olivia Julianna said in a statement. “This movement … has truly left me in awe.” | 2022-07-29T09:07:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Olivia Julianna’s abortion fundraiser raises $1M after Gaetz insult - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/29/matt-gaetz-olivia-julianna-abortion-fundraiser-1m/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/29/matt-gaetz-olivia-julianna-abortion-fundraiser-1m/ |
Nigeria’s harsh police culture grew from colonial abuses
Akali Omeni’s new book ‘Policing and Politics in Nigeria: A Comprehensive History’ explains why this culture persists
Analysis by Travis B. Curtice
While I’m teaching my politics of policing class in Philadelphia, I often suggest that the United States can learn lessons about policing by studying other countries through a comparative lens. Students can be skeptical. But it’s not hard to show that many issues we might think are unique to policing in the United States — disproportional violence against minoritized communities, militarization of police, patterns of state repression by police, political elites weaponizing crime for political gain — come up again and again around the world.
Consider one foundational challenge of policing: the expectation that the government should have a monopoly on violence and that police are charged with using it to protect citizens’ security. Police officers are supposed to exercise that monopoly in a country, deciding how and when to use that violence in the communities they patrol. But their right to do so is highly contested. In many societies, police have dual roles. Yes, they are responsible for providing law and order, ostensibly keeping communities safe from crime. But they are also used by people in power to coerce their political opponents. That leaves citizens with two questions: Whose interests do the police protect and how do politics shape policing?
In “Policing and Politics in Nigeria: A Comprehensive History,” Akali Omeni skillfully examines these issues as he traces the history of policing in Nigeria from the colonial era to now. While Omeni situates the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as a foundational institution of the Nigerian state, he also argues that the NPF is a broken institution that does not place the “average Nigerian’s interest and well-being at the core of its culture.”
Just over two years ago, the #EndSARS social movement in Nigeria drew worldwide attention to the ongoing culture of police abuse and impunity within the NPF’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The NPF tasked SARS with handling violent crimes like armed robbery, motor vehicle theft, kidnapping and murders. But rather than effectively protecting communities and curbing violent crimes in Nigeria, SARS became infamous for its police brutality against civilians.
This is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria, or the region. Drawing on historical evidence and interviews he conducted, Omeni documents an ongoing culture of NPF police abuse from the colonial era until now, including extrajudicial executions, other unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and corruption.
Omeni begins the book in the colonial era before the unification of Nigeria. The book’s early chapters show how the culture of the United Kingdom’s colonial police force was shaped by both suppressing local rebellions and independence movements and by fighting in World Wars I and II. As an institution, the police were on the front line protecting British colonial interests. Omeni shows how even the individual colonial administrators’ opinions uniquely shaped policing. He links this British colonial policing culture to that of several imperial police forces including the Lagos Police, the Royal Niger Company, the West African Frontier Force and the Armed Hausa Police, which were eventually united into the NPF.
Next, Omeni examines several critical junctures in Nigeria’s state development, when its government had the opportunity to change policing for the better. These include Nigeria’s independence in 1960; decades of military dictatorship; and Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999. Instead of reforming the police to focus on protecting Nigerian citizens, Omeni shows that successive governments allowed the colonial era’s policing culture of us-vs.-them to persist. Even as the NPF became centralized, Omeni argues, the politics of control and partisanship within the police shaped political events like the Biafra war, decades of military rule and the eventual transition to the democratic Fourth Republic.
Omeni argues that British colonial rule continues to shape policing in Nigeria. But he also makes a strong case that Nigeria’s leaders have repeatedly broken promises and failed to reform the police to meet the needs of Nigerian citizens. Omeni shows that while policing practices, trainings and pathologies developed under the colonial era persist today, the culture of police abuse — most infamously known through the SARS unit’s flagrant abuses — continues because of such larger issues as institutional neglect, political tensions and authoritarian dynamics. In other words, rather than protecting everyday Nigerians, politicians and police officers in Nigeria used the institution’s pathologies for their own ends.
Omeni could have connected how the history of policing in Nigeria connects and relates to policing more generally. As I read this book, I kept thinking that while the history of policing in Nigeria is a Nigerian story, it is also a larger story about how the institution of policing is designed to use violence to control societies. Yes, police are also supposed to keep communities safe and deter crime — but fundamentally their role is to ensure political control of local communities.
For individuals trying to understand the #ENDSARS movement, militarization and the police, the lingering effects of settler colonial dynamics, and the durability of authoritarian institutions and repressive behaviors by police, even in ostensibly democratic societies, this is a must read.
Travis Curtice (@travisbcurtice) is an assistant professor in the department of politics at Drexel University. His research examines the politics of policing and political violence.
‘Islamic State in Africa’ explores nine militant Islamic groups | 2022-07-29T09:07:46Z | www.washingtonpost.com | “Policing and Politics in Nigeria” examines the colonial roots of police abuses - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/29/nigerias-harsh-police-culture-grew-colonial-abuses/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/29/nigerias-harsh-police-culture-grew-colonial-abuses/ |
In Michigan, a pro-Israel group works to beat a Jewish Democrat
Rep. Andy Levin find himself fighting for his political life against a fellow Democrat, Rep. Hayley Stevens
Rep. Andy Levin (D) speaks to Paul and Keely Tyson at a Juneteenth event in Royal Oak, Michigan, June 19, 2022. Levin is in a tough fight with Rep. Haley Stevens. (Gregory Korte/Bloomberg)
PONTIAC, Mich. — Rep. Andy Levin had watched it happen in Ohio, then in Pennsylvania, then North Carolina, then Maryland. He knew that the United Democracy Project, a super PAC created by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, had become the single biggest spender in Democratic congressional primaries, helping pro-Israel Democrats beat left-leaning candidates.
But it was astounding, he said, to see the pro-Israel PAC spend at least $4.2 million to help Rep. Haley Stevens in their member-on-member primary just outside Detroit.
“The whole thing is so absurd,” said Levin, 61, in an interview here, after a rally with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D). “I’m a way out-there Jewish person. I have mezuzas on the doors in my office. I’m one of two former synagogue presidents in the Congress.”
The Aug. 2 primary in the new 11th Congressional District, drawn by a nonpartisan commission last year, has become one of the country’s most expensive, and the latest battle between the Democratic Party’s left, and donors who want to reduce progressive clout in Congress. It’s also a test of the pro-Israel group’s clout in Democratic primaries, where, seven months into its existence, it’s won all but one of the races it has played in.
Four years after Levin and Stevens arrived in the House — the scion of a Michigan political dynasty, and a first-time candidate who became freshman class president — they’ve waged a bitter, sometimes personal battle for a safe Democratic seat.
As donors fought a proxy conflict over support for Israel, Levin, echoing supporters like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has framed their race as a fight for the party’s soul. Stevens, who’s easily outraised Levin, sees a different choice — a pragmatic young Democrat who’d be the first woman to represent some of the district’s towns, or a “60-something white man,” as she referred to him in a debate, who shouldn’t have run here.
“I am not running for Congress to debate ideology,” said Stevens, 39, after a tour of a steel fabricating plant in Madison Heights. “I think there's a generational component here, but I also believe that there is a ‘who’s going to be Oakland County's champion?’ component.”
Neither Democrat wanted to face each other, though pro-Israel donors were eager to take down Levin — the main sponsor of a Two-State Solution Act that calls East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza “occupied territories,” and would put financial pressure on Israel not to annex them. Michigan lost one of its House seats after the 2020 census, and while the old map put Levin in a safe seat and Stevens in a swing one, redistricting put them both in a district that was out of Republicans’ reach.
The pair’s disagreements start over who should’ve run where. Stevens had represented nearly half of the new district, and run two tough races where her story — “I was chief of staff to President Obama’s auto rescue,” referring to the 2009 bail out of car companies during the financial crisis — appeared on TV constantly.
Levin represented about a quarter of the new 11th District, but his home was smack in the middle of it. (Stevens, who got married last year, purchased a new home with her husband that relocated her in the redrawn seat.)
Some Democrats wanted Levin to run in a neighboring seat that voted for Trump narrowly, and where two-time U.S. Senate candidate John James was a shoe-in for the GOP nomination. “I’m an Oakland County kid,” said Levin, explaining his decision. “My kids are the fifth generation of my family to live here in the new 11th District.” Had he run in the 10th District instead, he expected AIPAC and its allies to come in against him.
“It would be the same story there,” Levin said. “There it would be in the general; here, it's in the primary.”
Critics of Levin’s Israel views saw an opportunity right away. In mid-January, just weeks after Levin and Stevens declared for the 11th District, former AIPAC president David Victor, an Oakland County resident, typed out an email to potential Stevens donors.
The “race of the cycle,” Victor wrote, was not in Detroit, where Israel critic Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D) was seeking reelection. Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), two frequent AIPAC targets, had “very little influence on fellow members given their background and fringe status.” But as a self-described Zionist, whose father and uncle served in the House and the U.S. Senate, Levin was “arguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the US-Israel relationship.”
Stevens and Levin did disagree on Israel; she pledged “unequivocal support” for the country, while Levin was a critic of Israel’s settlement building and the “forced removal” of Palestinians from east Jerusalem. Alana Alpert, who has been Levin’s rabbi since 2015 — the year they co-founded a liberal group called Detroit Jews for Justice — said the attacks were clearly unfair, and that her own mother had been so distraught to see them that she’d sworn off support for AIPAC.
“There are some very progressive folks in our community who are basically having their fears about Israel exploited, to distract them from like the issues that most impact us,” said Alpert. “Who’s benefiting from that, ultimately? The corporations that Andy wants to hold accountable.”
Some supporters of Levin’s Israel stance have mobilized against Stevens. In early July, an activist with IfNotNow, which calls Israel an “apartheid” state, confronted Stevens on camera. In the race’s final stretch, a local IfNotNow organizer formed “Jews for Andy” to campaign for the congressman.
But as in other races where the United Democracy Project (UDP) has spent money — around $30 million this cycle — Israel was not a top issue in the district. When the PAC’s ads began running, they echoed Stevens’s own positive messaging. In interviews around the district, voters who said they were still deciding and cited other priorities as they made what, for many, was a tough choice between two Democrats they liked.
“I think we can’t lose on this one,” said Lori Mizzi-Spillane, 62, who said she’d thought hard before deciding to support Levin. “The environmental issues are what tipped me over the edge.”
Levin and his allies tried to highlight more distinctions, from his background as a union organizer — “A Shop Steward for Congress,” goes one campaign slogan — to his support of left-leaning principles like Medicare-for-all and the Green New Deal.
“I trust Andy!” said Warren at the rally in Pontiac, after Levin reminded the crowd that he’d endorsed her campaign for president. “I don’t trust Andy because he has a slick line, because he’s carefully chosen just which bill he’s going to put his name on, because he hangs back and waits. I trust Andy because he fights from the heart.”
Convincing voters that Stevens won’t fight for them — or that she’s compromised by the PAC spending — has been as difficult here as in the other states where the UDP intervened. Levin has echoed supporters like Sanders, highlighting Republican donations to the PAC — and AIPAC’s support for dozens of Republican incumbents — to argue the GOP is trying to buy the seat. That’s the message that J Street, a liberal group that opposes further annexation and supports the creation of a Palestinian state, put on the air.
“No campaign cash is worth abandoning our democracy,” says a narrator in the 30-second spot, linking AIPAC’s support for the Republican incumbents to their votes to overturn the 2020 election. The group put more than $700,000 behind that spot, far less than UDP — and less than the Emily’s List super PAC Women Vote!, which works to elect female Democrats, had spent on its own spots.
“It’s disingenuous to whine about dark money while using dark money ads to unfairly attack Haley Stevens, who by any measure is a great mainstream House Democrat that even Andy Levin endorsed in the past,” said Patrick Dorton, a UDP spokesman.
On Friday, Sanders will head to Pontiac to rally with Levin, and elevate the case that the super PAC spending is a trick to replace a reliable progressive with a business-friendly centrist. But Logan Bayroff, a J Street spokesman, agreed there was more work to do convincing Democratic voters that the pro-Stevens ads on their screens had a darker motive.
“We did the best we could to get this information in front of voters,” said Bayroff. “The ads are coming from a super PAC called the ‘United Democracy Project.’ Nobody reads the fine print.”
Stevens, too, was dismissive about the effort to portray spending on her behalf as a crime against democracy. “I don’t come from a political family,” she said, before telling a story about the trouble she’d had raising money in 2018 — and the help that national Democrats came in with, after Republican super PACs attacked her.
“It’s quite ironic to be chastising a colleague for super PAC money when you as well have super PAC money coming in,” Stevens added, referring J Street.
Stevens has also benefited from developments unrelated to the PAC spending, from the larger share of the district that’s voted for her before to news that synced with her campaign’s messaging. Levin stumbled in June, running an ad featuring a 2018 endorsement from the late John Lewis (D), a civil rights icon and Georgia congressman who died in 2020. It came down after members of the Congressional Black Caucus complained — including Rep. Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.), who endorsed Stevens after declining to run in one of the new districts.
Stevens has also been helped by liberal anger at the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which led to a surge of new fundraising for Democrats last month, boosting Democratic women in particular. On Monday, Stevens knocked on primary voters’ doors in one of the places Levin had represented since 2019, telling residents the ways she’d work for them, and what she’d change.
“I want to be the first woman to represent Madison Heights!” she said. | 2022-07-29T10:17:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | In Michigan, a pro-Israel group works to beat a Jewish Democrat - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/29/michigan-pro-israel-group-works-beat-jewish-democrat/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/29/michigan-pro-israel-group-works-beat-jewish-democrat/ |
Tilden Gardens co-op apartment offered at $2.6 million
Owner says the 3,600-square-foot home offers the benefits of living in an apartment and a house
Tilden Gardens co-op apartment | The co-op apartment, at Tilden Gardens, was once a restaurant known as the Tilden Gardens Cafe. It is listed at just under $2.6 million. (Connie Gauthier)
John Rupp gives all the credit to his daughter Megan for finding this co-op apartment at Tilden Gardens in D.C.’s Cleveland Park neighborhood. Rupp and his wife, Maureen O’Bryon, had sold their house on Fessenden Street in Northwest Washington and downsized to a co-op apartment in another building. But it wasn’t working out.
Rupp said Megan’s motivation was purely personal.
“These people have been complaining for too long about giving up a house, having to walk down a hall to the apartment and having no outside space. Living room [is] too small,” Rupp said of his daughter’s thinking. “I have to get them off my back. I’ll find them a place that they’d like.”
The apartment wasn’t the problem as much as the route to it was.
“The part of it I didn’t like at all is one had to enter the apartment by going through the main lobby, which was very beautiful, but then up the elevator and down a long hall,” he said. “I had the sense that I was a rat in a box.”
The solution was a one-of-a-kind apartment at Tilden Gardens, a six-building complex on a five-acre triangular parcel off Connecticut Avenue NW. James M. Goode, in his 1988 book, “Best Addresses,” about Washington’s distinguished apartment buildings, described Tilden Gardens as “the city’s most innovative large apartment house constructed in the 1920s.” Until the Watergate arrived in the 1960s, Tilden Gardens was the largest luxury co-op apartment complex in Washington.
Condo vs. co-op: Know the differences before buying one
This apartment was originally a restaurant in the main building. The Tilden Gardens Cafe opened its doors in 1929. Judith and Milton Viorst reviewed it in their 1970 guide to Washington’s better restaurants: “If your definition of gourmet foods includes a beautiful pot roast or a homemade custard pie … then you’ll be thoroughly impressed with the splendid selection of high-quality dishes available at this restaurant.”
Despite that review, the restaurant closed its doors not long after, and the space was rented to the Daughters of the American Revolution until 2005. Two years later, real estate agent Ed Carp bought it and converted it into an apartment. Carp sold it to Rupp and his wife in 2013. The apartment met many of their requirements.
“It has an exterior entrance, so we didn’t feel like it was an apartment,” Rupp said. “I kind of had a sense that it was a house attached to an apartment with the benefits of a front desk out the back door, somebody to accept deliveries, somebody to watch over things.”
Rupp and O’Bryon undertook an extensive renovation. They installed hardwood floors, a gas fireplace and octagonal skylights in the main room. They added a library, a fourth bedroom and laundry facilities. They redid the kitchen and enlarged the bedroom windows.
But they left many of the period features, such as the beams and arches in the main room. “What we didn’t change is what attracted us to it in the first place,” Rupp said.
They also added a private patio. Carp had negotiated the right to build the patio but never got around to it. “The prior owner, the fellow who did the conversion, he was quite smart,” Rupp said.
Not only did they have their own private outdoor space, but they also had Tilden Gardens’ extensive lawn.
“The other thing we liked about the apartment very much is if you walk outside, you have the Tilden Gardens gardens, which is a great place to sit, read a book, meet friends,” Rupp said. “We lost our yard [at the Fessenden Street house], but we acquired the patio and acres of green space.”
Rupp said that in many ways, the 3,600-square-foot home offered the benefits of living in an apartment and a house. He and his wife could travel and not worry, knowing that someone was keeping an eye on their home, and they could entertain large gatherings.
“We have had 125 people,” Rupp said. “It didn’t feel crowded.”
Rupp, who lives most of the year in Europe, has been less inclined to return to Washington since his wife died in October, which is why he has decided to sell.
“I’m there one or two days a year,” he said. “It makes no sense for me to hold onto it.”
The four-bedroom, three-bathroom co-op apartment is listed at just under $2.6 million. The monthly fees are $2,455.
3000 Tilden St. NW, Unit 1-I, Washington, D.C.
Co-op fee: $2,455 monthly
Features: This co-op apartment at Tilden Gardens was once a restaurant known as the Tilden Gardens Cafe. It was converted into an apartment in 2007. Although the apartment is attached to the main building, no one lives above or below the unit. The apartment can be reached through the main entrance or a private entrance. Parking is available for rent.
Listing agent: Nancy Itteilag and Chris Itteilag, Washington Fine Properties | 2022-07-29T10:30:28Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Tilden Gardens co-op apartment offered at $2.6 million - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/29/tilden-gardens-apartment-for-sale/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/29/tilden-gardens-apartment-for-sale/ |
As Starbucks exits, Union Station struggles with safety, empty stores
The closure of a Starbucks because of ‘challenging incidents’ is adding fuel to concerns about the conditions of Washington’s busiest transit hub
The Starbucks store days before it permanently closes its doors at Union Station. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
Starbucks is departing Union Station on Sunday while citing safety concerns at the iconic transit hub. Although crime has fallen in recent years, so too have passenger counts, occupied storefronts and foot traffic, creating a dreary backdrop at a once-vibrant gateway to the nation’s capital.
A Washington fixture for more than a century, Union Station is the region’s busiest commuter facility, the first stop for many visitors and a dining spot for tourists and local residents. But between its marble floors and 96-foot coffered ceilings is an outdated and deteriorating station showing signs of neglect.
Businesses are closing amid a pandemic that shifted commuter behaviors. As fewer travelers use the station, city officials and nonprofits have increasingly turned attention to those inside who are homeless or suffering from mental illness. Meanwhile, a rise in high-profile incidents in and around the hub has boosted a perception of insecurity.
While transit centers across the United States historically have served as shelters for the homeless, experts say there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that trend is increasing in the pandemic’s third year. Union Station is in line for a multibillion-dollar revamp over two decades, but first must overcome a growing sense of unease as businesses shutter and rail traffic struggles to reach pre-pandemic levels.
In announcing the closure of 16 stores earlier this month, Starbucks cited “a high volume of challenging incidents that make it unsafe to continue to operate,” although the company declined to elaborate on incidents specific to Union Station. A Starbucks spokeswoman said problems at the closing locations mirror challenges within their surrounding communities, including rising drug use, chronic homelessness and mental health issues.
Union Station management and some city leaders challenged Starbucks’s claims, pointing to a downward trend in crime at the station in recent years, a time period that included no major disturbances at Starbucks. D.C. police data show a single reported case linked to the store in the past 18 months, which involved a shoplifter who authorities say assaulted responding officers.
A first look at plans for the new Union Station in D.C.
Others say the station, owned by the U.S. government and leased to and operated by other entities, is in urgent need of attention.
“It’s important that our federal partners pay specific attention to the public safety and the social service needs at the station” said John Falcicchio, D.C.’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development.
As plans advance on a $10 billion redevelopment, he said the station also needs immediate investment to improve day-to day operations. City officials say more effort is needed to fill empty storefronts, beef up security and provide resources on-site to help the homeless and those suffering from mental health problems.
A struggle for control
Union Station, which opened in 1907, is a hub for Amtrak, as well as for Maryland and Virginia commuter trains, Metro and local and intercity buses. The debate over the facility’s future comes alongside a brewing legal fight over which company will manage Amtrak’s busiest home outside New York.
The U.S. government in 1985 authorized the nonprofit Union Station Redevelopment Corp. (USRC) to oversee the property. The USRC has subleased the property to Union Station Investco (USI), a subsidiary of New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition, which maintains and manages the station. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
Amtrak subleases the concourse space from USI and is in the middle of a court battle as it tries to take over the station’s leasing rights from it. In an April eminent domain filing, the passenger railroad alleged the station is plagued by poor maintenance and a lack of capital investment. According to the Amtrak filing, about $75 million in deferred maintenance is needed at Union Station, citing a building assessment by USI and the Federal Railroad Administration.
Amtrak moves to seize control of Union Station
Amtrak, whose police department has jurisdiction at the station, said it is working with other entities at the station to make safety and security improvements.
“We hope our pending litigation will enable us to directly invest in the station in a more efficient and effective manner and make additional improvements and increase the standards of care for maintenance, cleanliness, management and operations at this historic multimodal transportation center,” Amtrak spokeswoman Kimberly Woods said in a statement.
Beverley Swaim-Staley, who oversees the station as president and chief executive of the USRC, said recent crime data show “incidents of any serious nature are, in fact, down.” Some of the most highly publicized incidents of the past year, she said, happened outside the station, with victims entering the transit hub to seek help.
D.C. police say the number of calls they responded to at and around Union Station that resulted in offense reports dropped from 503 in 2019 to 227 in 2021. But the pace has increased this year, with 149 calls through July 19, up from 119 during the same period last year.
Many of those calls involve D.C. police assisting Amtrak Police, which has the lead law enforcement role inside the station. The bulk of calls to D.C. police were for minor assaults, people who fell, family disturbances, thefts and lost property. Within areas of the station under Metro’s jurisdiction, crime is down about 8 percent this year compared with the same period in 2021, according to Metro Transit Police data.
Amtrak Police records show year-over-year declines in major crime incidents, such as assaults, thefts and larceny offenses, coinciding with the drop in foot traffic at the station.
In addition to crimes, calls to fire and emergency services offer a snapshot of the range of mental health problems that await responders at the station, including drug and alcohol intoxication, overdoses, panic attacks and suicide attempts. Fire officials also respond to a large number of calls for unconscious or disoriented people.
“We certainly want everybody to feel safe in the station, but a lot of different populations come to Union Station, from tourists to commuters and local residents. Everyone is allowed to be in the station,” said Swaim-Staley, noting that some visitors might be uncomfortable with people asking for money or talking to themselves. “Panhandling is not a crime. People are not arrested for that.”
Homeless camp cleared at Union Station: ‘We don’t have nowhere to go’
As foot traffic decreased during the pandemic, the presence of homeless people and cases of mental health became more pronounced. Federal parkland turned into a homeless encampment outside the station until the National Park Service cleared the tents last month. Some recent safety incidents involved tent-dwellers.
‘Transit has to bear the burden’
Experts say the situation isn’t unique to Union Station.
Public transportation was one of the few climate-controlled options that stayed opened as the pandemic emerged, a time when public libraries closed and shelters implemented capacity restrictions, said Jacob Wasserman, a researcher at the UCLA Institute for Transportation Studies who has studied homelessness in transit environments.
“Transit has to bear the burden of other social policy failures, from housing to public safety,” he said. “And that’s hard for transit hubs because they were not designed for housing people … but it has become their issue, their responsibility by necessity.”
As issues involving homelessness and mental health have surged at transit hubs in areas such as Chicago, New York and Los Angeles, some cities are partnering with homeless advocates to help direct people to shelters, counseling and treatment.
In Washington, the nonprofit h3 Project is working with about 100 people at Union Station and the surrounding area. Its response team is called more frequently than before the pandemic to help people experiencing a mental crisis, who are dressed inappropriately or in need of resources.
Ami Angell, the nonprofit’s executive director, said the group has worked with Union Station and law enforcement, reducing the need for encounters with security or police, which she said can have a harmful effect on the vulnerable population. Angell said mental health issues also appear to have increased because access to medical prescriptions was more difficult early in the pandemic.
“Once an individual no longer was taking the prescription, it was much more difficult to get them back on it,” she said.
Several maintenance and retail workers at the station said they don’t feel unsafe, but echoed concerns about the apparent rise in homelessness and mental health incidents.
Some city social services also are available at the station, including a team with the Department of Behavioral Health, which responds to crisis referrals and conducts routine checkups on some homeless people. City spokeswoman LaToya Foster said there are fewer homeless people at the site since the closure of encampments at Columbus Circle.
Traffic down amid high-profile assaults
About half of the food stands in the lower level dining hall are closed, while several storefronts are empty in the concourse area. A bagel shop recently shuttered a few doors from the Starbucks that is closing Sunday.
Union Station and city officials cite the pandemic’s financial blow to businesses across downtown Washington. Even as some foot traffic has returned to Union Station, pre-pandemic lunch crowds and commuters aren’t back, officials said.
Commuter trains from Maryland and Virginia, which terminate at Union Station, are carrying about 30 percent of pre-pandemic passenger levels, while Metro ridership at Union Station is 25 percent of 2019 numbers. The station is Amtrak’s second busiest, with passenger counts down about 10 percent compared with counts before the pandemic, officials said.
Some local leaders rejected Starbucks’s claims that the coffee giant left because of safety concerns.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that some of the locations slated to be closed nationally have been unionizing or moving in that direction,” D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) said, echoing the sentiments of other city leaders. “We can’t ignore that context and take a press release for the whole truth.”
In a statement, Starbucks denied the closures were the result of labor organizing issues, adding that the decision was “based on the challenging incidents” the company has seen in the stores and its inability to create a safe and welcoming environment.
The only incident reported to D.C. police at the Starbucks in the past 18 months occurred July 9, when authorities said a woman tried to steal two bags of coffee from the store and fought responding officers. The woman was arrested, but prosecutors did not pursue charges.
About a week earlier, police chased a man with a knife through the station after authorities said he pursued a family waiting for a hotel shuttle near the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum.
Ella McBride, 57, had been at the station’s Warby Parker eyeglass store when she noticed the altercation June 28. She saw a family on a sidewalk and a man staring at them from across the street. McBride, in an account supported by a police report, said the man ran toward the group with a knife in his hand. The family crossed the street, deciding it might be safer to walk to the hotel rather than wait for the shuttle. Police said the man cut them off, and was “walking around them, muttering nonsensical statements,” and making threats.
“I ran screaming all the way to Union Station to get the police,” said McBride, who lives near the station.
Police said in an arrest affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court that the man with the knife ran into Union Station through the entrance off First Street Northeast, which leads into the Metro station. Officers pursued the man up the escalator to the main concourse, where people waited to board trains — and where Starbucks is located — then out to Columbus Circle.
Police said the man stole a bicycle from a person in the circle and sped down Louisiana Avenue. Officers caught him a few blocks away and found a knife in a pocket of his shorts. They did not determine a reason for the attack. No one was injured.
Two days later, D.C. police said a man was stabbed nearby and ran into the station while injured and bleeding. An arrest affidavit indicated an Amtrak Police officer pulled out his gun and ordered a man to drop the weapon. The man complied and was arrested. Authorities said the motive isn’t known.
Some high-profile cases linked to the station have not taken place on station property. Last year, a woman who police believe lived in a tent outside Union Station was found dead in a shopping cart nearby, and the homicide was later linked to a man who Fairfax County police say is a serial killer. In 2018, a man was shot and killed during an argument outside Union Station in an incident that halted trains as police searched for the suspect.
Back inside, police charged a Richmond man in 2020 with shooting a man at the bus terminal.
Allen said there are safety and economic concerns that should be addressed to make Union Station a more attractive destination for visitors and neighbors.
“But a lot of this, I believe, is ultimately driven by the fact that Union Station isn’t woven into the surrounding community like it needs to be to thrive,” he said. “There’s little reason to go inside if you aren’t trying to catch a train.”
After not receiving a major rehabilitation in decades, the station needs a makeover to meet future demand, rail and local officials say. Many of the station’s facilities don’t meet federal accessibility requirements and fall short of modern transportation standards. The Federal Railroad Administration is advancing a multibillion-dollar expansion and redevelopment plan to transform the station by 2040, adding a new train hall and concourses, as well as tracks and retail options.
Union Station overhaul removes parking spaces, adds underground facility
Falcicchio said the city wants to work with Union Station management to help fill empty storefronts with local vendors. He said a program to subsidize lease rates could help as it has in other parts of the city.
“People like to go places that feel vibrant,” he said, “and right now, Union Station could use an infusion of vibrancy.” | 2022-07-29T10:30:34Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Union Station: As Starbucks leaves, a struggle with safety, empty stores - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/07/29/dc-union-station-starbucks/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/07/29/dc-union-station-starbucks/ |
Now hear this: How ‘Into the Woods’ makes the noise so joyful
The hit revival, starring Sara Bareilles, Gavin Creel, Phillipa Soo, Joshua Henry and Patina Miller, applies clarion sound to Sondheim’s score
The cast of the new Broadway revival of “Into the Woods.” Conductor Rob Berman and the 15-member orchestra are visible upstage. (Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)
NEW YORK — As the band strikes up and the singers open their throats in the hit Broadway revival of “Into the Woods,” the audience realizes it is immersed in a blessed event. Saints (and sound designers) be praised: You can hear every word of the show.
It should be a regular occurrence, not the singular happenstance represented by this latest incarnation of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1987 musical about storybook characters desperately seeking happy endings. The notes and vocals converge in ideal balance on the stage of the St. James Theatre, where the production has just been extended through Oct. 16. A listener neither strains to understand what’s being conveyed, nor feels defeated by overamplified instrumentality or inadequately interpreted lyrics. Far too frequently, these lesser results subtract from the pleasures of musical theater, in an age that wants to make an unfortunate virtue of volume.
Sondheim, arguably the greatest Broadway lyricist of all time, wrote cleverly and evocatively, but also dramaturgically: His words drive plot, situation, character. They cry out to be heard. And no one laid out the strictures of the art better than Sondheim himself. In the preface to “Finishing the Hat,” the book of his lyrics published in 2010, he cited his influences and listed the writer’s credo he lived by: “Content dictates form; less is more; God is in the details, all in the service of clarity, without which nothing else matters.”
It strikes me how much work “clarity” does in this set of instructions. Clarity for lyricists has to refer not just to scansion and word choice, but also how their songs are communicated. And it is on this latter point that the sound designers, actors, director and conductor of “Into the Woods” seem to be so rewardingly in sync. What I learned in talking to several of them recently was the intensity of the commitment to bringing aural clarity to the vision of Sondheim and Lapine and “Into the Woods” orchestrator Jonathan Tunick. And how much that required each of them to be listening at all times to the show and to one another. And how, too, they wanted audiences to listen.
“The way people approach doing sound, it’s not just turn up the faders and get the voices out there and get the music out there,” observed Scott Lehrer, sound designer of the production, partnering with Alex Neumann. “It is kind of how you want to deliver it to an audience. And it involves a lot of different things.”
Those things demand a collaboration on the part of the music makers and the audio designers over how subtly to get listeners to lean in to the sound. “My approach with Sondheim in general and particularly this piece is, text is first and foremost,” explained Rob Berman, the veteran music director who conducts the show’s onstage 15-member orchestra. “It should sound like talking on the notes. I’m always encouraging singers to smooth it out. The intention takes care of the detail.”
That encouragement has been taken to heart. “You work so hard so that every word is heard — not just heard, but felt,” said Joshua Henry, the magnetic baritone who plays Rapunzel’s Prince.
The art of sound design is one of the least understood of the theater crafts, even among theater professionals: In 2014, the Tony Awards eliminated the sound design categories, in part because many nominators and voters confessed to not knowing how to judge them. (After years of protest, they were reinstated for the 2017-2018 Broadway season.) In fairness, sound designers themselves sometimes find it hard to describe the technical demands of their art — how they “solve” the problem of optimizing sound delivery in a theater.
“There are so many good designers out there, and they solve it totally differently,” said Neumann, in a Zoom interview with Lehrer. “One of the things that I find really interesting is going and seeing other designers’ shows and listening to how they did it. Even if it’s not how I would have solved it — I would have done this amplification, I would have done this reinforcement — I’m always interested in hearing other people’s work and how they explored the ways to get the sound out there.”
In a show such as “Into the Woods,” which moved to Broadway after a short, critically embraced run in the Encores series of musicals-in-concert off-Broadway at City Center, amplification is de rigueur. Not only are the actors miked, but each of the instruments is as well. It’s the job of the person at the sound board — the “mixer” — to calibrate what is coming out of those microphones and into the speakers placed strategically around the St. James Theatre.
Gavin Creel, who plays both Cinderella’s Prince and Little Red Ridinghood’s Wolf, attested to the mixer’s pivotal role. “I remember saying to Carin, ‘I sing better when you are at the board,’ ” he said, referring to Carin M. Ford, a beloved engineer who mixed the sound for the 2017 revival of “Hello, Dolly!,” for which Creel won a Tony as best supporting actor. (Creel and the sound team heaped similar praise on “Into the Woods” sound mixer Elizabeth Coleman.)
The staging formula at Encores, which began in 1994 and two years later birthed the enduring revival of “Chicago,” has always centered on appreciation of the score. Sets and props are minimal. “Into the Woods” director Lear deBessonet runs the series, with which Lehrer and Berman have long been associated, and they all subscribe to the notion that in the beginning, and the end, there is the word — and the song.
“I have an audio monitor that just has the vocals. I can hear the actors when they’re going to breathe,” Berman said of his process of multiple auditory focuses. “I’m really accustomed to accompanying singers just by listening. Then I’m listening to the orchestra, just acoustically.”
What makes his job on “Into the Woods” all the more satisfying is the template Sondheim and Tunick laid out.
“He conceived the show as a chamber orchestration,” Berman said of Tunick, citing an example of the intricacy of Cinderella’s first act number, “On the Steps of the Palace.” “There’s an eight-, 10-bar passage — just flute, clarinet and viola. The thing that Jonathan is always brilliant at is he holds back, so that when finally all 15 players play, it sounds like 60. It’s all about proportion.”
Added deBessonet: “The way Rob directs music and conducts is just glorious. It’s always text and intention first. You might think it’s about diction, but it’s actually about the clarity of the thought — if there isn’t clarity of thought, no amount of enunciation will make that clear.”
It’s also clear how dear the cast holds this concept. Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, composer of the Broadway musical “Waitress,” and who plays the Baker’s Wife, knows from performing her own work how crucial it is that the lyrics land. “Into the Woods” intensified that understanding.
“As a lyricist, I know words really matter. It really, really matters to me what I’m saying. And I’ve always been that way,” Bareilles said. “But I was not someone who came in and knew the show very well. I was familiar with it — ish. I definitely thought I knew it better than I did. And I gained a deep appreciation for the complexity, of the mechanics, the scaffolding of the show. And from a craft perspective, it’s just a marvel.
“That’s the beautiful thing about theater pieces,” she added. “The whole thing, it’s an orchestra.”
Into the Woods, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine. Directed by Lear deBessonet. Through Aug. 21 at St. James Theatre, 246 W. 44th St., New York. intothewoodsbway.com. | 2022-07-29T10:34:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Now hear this: How ‘Into the Woods’ makes the noise so joyful - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/07/29/into-the-woods-broadway/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/07/29/into-the-woods-broadway/ |
A miscast lead is only the first of many woes plaguing Darren Star’s latest Netflix series
Neil Patrick Harris as Michael Lawson in “Uncoupled.” (Netflix)
A middle-aged protagonist’s expectations of growing old in comfort and style with their rich, handsome partner in a tastefully grand Manhattan apartment are unsparingly dashed when said partner makes an abrupt departure. Stunned and devastated, the childless protagonist looks to a pair of longtime pals for support, as well as a prickly new friend who comes attached to a major real estate deal. A spirited but shambolic co-worker encourages the protagonist to figure out the next chapter of their life, while shots of a squeaky-clean, casually plutocratic New York, set to a jaunty, jazzy score, suggest that one’s post-40 years can be so much more than fretting in front of a mirror.
That’s the story of the quinquagenarian Carrie Bradshaw in “And Just Like That …,” the “Sex and the City” sequel series that premiered last year. It’s also the plight of Neil Patrick Harris’s Michael Lawson in “Uncoupled,” the charmless new Netflix comedy from Jeffrey Richman and Darren Star, the latter of whom created the iconic HBO show (and later ceded creative control to Michael Patrick King).
Like Carrie, Michael has to start over unexpectedly after years of feeling settled — though in his case, it’s because his boyfriend, Colin (Tuc Watkins), moves out after 17 years together with nary an explanation. For most of the season’s eight episodes, Colin remains a cipher (though it’s not as if any of the other characters get much fleshing-out).
Dating as a gay man in one’s late 40s is a nightmare, Michael complains, particularly when so much has changed about hookup culture since the mid-2000s; an entire episode is dedicated to the norms and mores of Grindr. But the real estate agent doesn’t get much sympathy from his richest client, Claire (Marcia Gay Harden, seemingly willing herself into camp diva status through over-the-top line deliveries). Mid-divorce from a philandering husband, the loudly self-pitying Claire dares Michael to compare his situation to hers — and he’s happy to oblige.
Star’s characters have tended to grow older with him. The former wunderkind behind “Beverly Hills, 90210” followed up “Sex and the City” with “Younger,” the irrepressible romantic sitcom starring Sutton Foster as a 40-year-old woman who poses as a 20-something when no one will hire her for an entry-level job, and “Emily in Paris,” the weightless but compulsively watchable girlboss fantasy in which Lily Collins’s titular ingenue will never be as interesting or charismatic as her middle-aged French colleagues.
One might hope, then, that Star’s latest show would offer some insight into the aging process, especially given that it’s the gay TV auteur’s first series with a gay male protagonist. But “Uncoupled” is flat, joyless and surprisingly cold-looking. Star’s best shows, like “Sex and the City” and “Younger,” tend to be triumphs of casting, but it’s hard not to get the sense that Harris — so heartbreaking in his recent turn on HBO Max’s AIDS drama “It’s a Sin” — is substantially miscast, seemingly handcuffed by the demands of broad-appeal likability. The actor is most inventive in roles that evince authority, like the smarmy, manic know-it-all Barney Stinson on “How I Met Your Mother.” As the perplexed and adrift Michael, who’s not sure how he’s supposed to feel about being the wreckage of someone else’s midlife crisis, Harris seems less assured, more stuck in his head.
Though it takes a couple of episodes to get there, the actor does conjure a playful spark with Tisha Campbell, who plays his office partner, Suzanne. But it’s not until the final episode that Suzanne and Michael’s friends — libertine weatherman Billy (Emerson Brooks) and hangdog art dealer Stanley (Brooks Ashmanskas), analogues for Samantha and Charlotte, respectively — get any significant character development.
What the show lacks most conspicuously, though, especially given its fatalistic air, is moments of emotional groundedness. There are a few scattered about, most poignantly Claire’s loss of her friends post-divorce, since they decide to side with her much-wealthier husband. “Uncoupled” tries to balance out its aspirational trappings with sexual frankness, but the perfectly trim and hairless bodies on display undercut that effort, too.
If “And Just Like That …” made female middle age look like one long slog, “Uncoupled” doesn’t have much to add from a gay man’s perspective, despite the small representational milestone it achieves. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that it’ll mostly just make you nostalgic for Star’s earlier work.
Uncoupled (eight episodes) is streaming on Netflix. | 2022-07-29T10:35:01Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Neil Patrick Harris’s ‘Uncoupled’ is a joyless look at starting over - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/07/29/uncoupled-neil-patrick-harris-review/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/07/29/uncoupled-neil-patrick-harris-review/ |
We looked a hundreds of thousands of Airbnb listings to calculate how the heartland describes itself
Anglers cast for walleye and sauger at Locks and Dam 15 on the Mississippi River at Davenport, Iowa, across from Midwestern neighbor Illinois. (Larry Fisher/Quad City Times/AP)
On their way from renting out an air mattress to building a $60 billion-plus community-upending, rent-scrambling juggernaut, Airbnb’s founders presumably devoted zero effort to drawing the ultimate map of American culture.
But they did it. Purely as a byproduct of their venture-backed ambition.
The magic comes not from the properties themselves but in the hosts’ descriptions of their rentals. In them, hundreds of thousands of Americans carefully describe their home and culture for an outside audience. Even better, each of those descriptions has approximate geographic coordinates.
We first noted this found-data tour de force when looking for a cheap room on our way to the life-changing Ashfall Fossil Beds in eastern Nebraska. It felt like every other result on Airbnb said something like “a good-natured Midwestern welcome” or “loaded with Midwestern charm.”
Nothing makes a data journalist’s heart skip a beat quite like the word “Midwest.” Outlining the precise boundaries of America’s vaguest region has long been a rite of passage for our kind, from Soo Oh at Vox to David Montgomery at CityLab to Walt Hickey at FiveThirtyEight.
You can see why: It’s a concrete geographic construct linked to an ephemeral cultural one.
In Airbnb, we’d stumbled on an ideal data set for drawing that elusive line between culture and geography. More importantly, once we’d looked at more than half a million Airbnb listings and built a database powerful enough to answer “Where is the Midwest?” we could use it to answer a much more difficult follow-up: “What is the Midwest?” What cultural touchstones make it different from the rest of the country? And why is the foremost of those touchstones a toothy, googly-eyed game fish?
First, we had to — once and for all — define the Midwest.
Airbnb makes this easy. There are 12 states with listings that mention “Midwest” to an unusual degree. They trace the outline of a relatively expansive region running from the foothills of the Appalachians to the fertile central Great Plains.
By this measure, Iowa is the most Midwestern state in the union, followed by Indiana and Wisconsin. Rural folks tended to be more likely to describe themselves as Midwestern than did their city-dwelling cousins, so states with large urban populations, such as Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, slipped farther down the rankings. (Most mentions of Midwest outside the 12 core states are to the effect of “I’m originally from the Midwest” or in reference to a local street or landmark with Midwest in the name.)
Detailed maps hint that folks in the hilly Appalachian strip of southeastern Ohio and the arid western steppe of Nebraska and the Dakotas might not consider themselves as Midwestern as their friends in the Corn Belt, but Airbnb does not have enough data to categorically exclude them. Of all the non-Midwestern states, Oklahoma comes closest to making the cut (even when we exclude mentions of Midwest City, an Oklahoma City suburb). But it’s only half as Midwestern as Ohio or South Dakota, and less than a fifth as Midwestern as Iowa.
With the outline of the Midwest firmly drawn, we can calculate the most Midwestern cultural artifacts. To meet our criteria, a word had to be mentioned in at least 300 listings. We counted each word only once per listing, grouped different word forms together, and removed place names and brand names (sorry Hy-Vee, you would have topped the list!). We axed anything that got more than third of its listings nationwide from a single state, since those are local touchstones, not regional ones.
By this measure, the most Midwestern thing on Earth is the walleye, a drab but delicious freshwater fish whose primeval bulging eyes and snaggled teeth would look at home in one of those Nebraska fossil beds. It’s the state fish of both South Dakota and Minnesota, and at least six Midwestern towns have claimed to be the walleye capital of the world.
Marianne Huskey Fechter is one of the most accomplished women in pro fishing history, with an angler of the year award and a major tournament win under her belt. She built it all on long hours on the water — and boatloads of walleye, which she describes as a “beautiful fish.”
“They’re just amazing,” Fechter said. Though amazing can also mean amazingly reluctant to bite.
“That’s why those of us that do it love it so much,” she said. “It’s one of those things that you’re always trying to figure it out and, you know, in the back of your mind, you’re never going to. It’s an endless challenge.”
Fechter talks of the fish in almost mystical terms, describing the “nostalgia of the walleye” that has hooked generations of Midwesterners. “Once you catch your first walleye,” she said, “you’ll understand.”
“The story of my life is just chasing after walleye,” said Minnesota guide, tournament angler and walleye whisperer Tony Roach. “I grew up in a fishing family. I mean, I was literally bottled-fed in a boat while my dad was walleye fishing.”
“It’s really threaded into the fiber of a lot of people in the Midwest,” Roach said.
Throughout much of the region, the fish is a constant presence. Walleye lurk in tens of thousands of Midwestern lakes, and unlike warm-water fish such as bass, they can be readily caught even in the depths of a Midwestern winter.
Anyone can catch a walleye with a few bucks’ worth of basic gear, some practice and a little luck, Roach said, though that doesn’t stop some Midwesterners from dropping the equivalent of several years’ salary on boats, McMansion-grade ice-fishing trailers and sophisticated electronics designed to better target the finicky fish.
“It’s a big part of the economy, Roach said.
Two of the next three most-Midwestern words, “Heartland” and “Lutheran,” seem like gimmes. One’s a synonym for Midwestern, and — in the minds of many — the other might as well be. “Conservatory” and “orchestra” seem odd, but Google Trends confirms that both are unusually popular in Midwestern states. If you think you know why, let us know!
Three others are probably artifacts of the sort of property- and hospitality-focused Midwestern English you’d expect from an Airbnb listing — “rehabbed” for renovated, “blacktop” for asphalt and “supper” for dinner.
Several other freshwater fish join walleye on the list, including bluegill and the bass varieties of smallmouth and largemouth. All three are plentiful throughout much of the country, but bluegill are often called bream in the South. And the Midwest is the largest area where the native ranges of largemouth and smallmouth bass overlap, meaning Airbnb hosts there have greater need to identify the species, rather than just calling them “bass.” Anglers in other parts of the country may also prefer to target trout or saltwater fish.
“Amish” may seem surprising, given their deep roots in Pennsylvania, but the Midwestern states of Indiana and Ohio have some of the country’s largest Amish populations, with smaller groups of the old-school Anabaptists spread throughout the Midwest Farm Belt.
Likewise “glacial” may remind you of icy mountain passes, not the relatively flat American Midwest, until you realize the Midwest got much of that flatness from the millennia-long Wisconsin Glaciation, which ground down its topography, enriched its soil and filled the Great Lakes.
It also may explain another one of the most Midwestern things on the planet: snowmobiles.
Howdy, friends! The Department of Data is fueled by your fun facts. Tell us what you’re curious about: Is New England outperforming Old England? Did covid deaths among older Americans cause a secret boom in inheritances? How many feet of topsoil has the Midwest lost since Europeans “tamed” the prairies? Just ask!
To get all the most fun facts in your inbox the instant we publish, click here to “sign up.” If your question inspires a column, we’ll send an official button and ID card. This week’s buttons will go to any data journalist who’s played the “define the Midwest” game. Just send us a link to your story, plus your address. | 2022-07-29T10:39:10Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Airbnb Files, Part 1: The most Midwestern things on Earth - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/29/airbnb-the-most-midwestern-things/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/29/airbnb-the-most-midwestern-things/ |
The way LIV players could reduce Saudi ‘sportswashing’
Even athletes participating in sportswashing can do some good by speaking out
Perspective by Lane Demas
Lane Demas is a professor of history at Central Michigan University. He is the author of "Game of Privilege: An African American History of Golf" and "Integrating the Gridiron: Black Civil Rights and American College Football."
Golfer Phil Mickelson speaks during a news conference ahead of the LIV Golf Invitational Series event in St. Albans, England, on June 8. (Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images)
Professional golf is splintering before our eyes, threatening the future of the PGA Tour. Every week, LIV Golf — the upstart tour funded by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund — lures more top players and golf media figures to its ranks. With seemingly endless money flowing from the opaque fund controlled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, it appears that LIV is here to stay, at least for now. On Wednesday, the tour announced a 14-event schedule in 2023, including a team competition. And with each top player who jumps, the odds increase that LIV becomes a legitimate competitor to the PGA Tour.
This horrifies some in the sports world, but the revulsion is not uniform. Basketball legend Charles Barkley, who is discussing a broadcasting role with LIV, told the New York Post that it represented “selective outrage” and observed: “If you are in pro sports, you are taking some type of money from not a great cause.”
Barkley’s justification calls to mind a long history of debates over government “sportswashing” — the use of sports to cloak or distract from human rights violations and repression. In 1936, for example, some Americans opposed sending U.S. athletes, including track star Jesse Owens, to the Olympic Games hosted by Adolf Hitler in Berlin.
Yet these conversations have always been complicated. Americans today rightly celebrate Owens for his courage in winning four gold medals in Berlin, challenging Nazi racism, but they usually ignore the rest of the story: overall, the 1936 Olympics were a rousing success for the Fuhrer, arguably the most successful episode of sportswashing ever.
Athletes, however, have another option besides simply choosing to abstain or partake in sportswashing. While it is unclear whether LIV players can contractually comment on Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, history indicates that athletes can seek a middle ground by participating in contested sporting events, and then using the spotlight that follows to speak out for change. In fact, Lee Elder, a trailblazing African American golfer, did precisely this in the 1970s when it came to South Africa, exposing the benefits and detriments of this course of action.
Elder was an elite PGA Tour player and easily the top African American golfer of the 1970s. After taking up the game later in his teens, he worked his way up from caddying to become one of the first 10 Black players to compete on the PGA Tour after the circuit desegregated in 1961. He won four times from 1974-1978, helped the U.S. win the 1979 Ryder Cup and integrated the Masters Tournament in 1975. Yet, despite the racism Elder confronted and his role as a trailblazer in integrating the PGA Tour, the golfer was no activist. He was quiet and withdrawn — boring, even — hardly sharing himself with the media and rarely criticizing anything publicly. Which is to say, Elder was the quintessential PGA Tour golfer.
But in 1971, Elder confronted backlash when he accepted an invitation from White South African golf star Gary Player — and South Africa’s apartheid government — to compete in the South African PGA Championship. The whole world knew this was a blatant act of sportswashing to curry favor at a time when the apartheid regime was facing an unprecedented global sports boycott. South Africa, for example, was banned from participating in the Olympics from 1964 to 1988, and White South African athletes faced ongoing threats to bar them from competing in a range of sports. Many Americans supported the anti-apartheid boycotts of South Africa and neighboring Rhodesia.
In the United States, most fans loved Player, and his peers on the PGA Tour publicly supported him, including African American players like Elder and Charlie Sifford. Yet, though he later voiced regret, in 1971 Player openly supported the apartheid regime in his home country, even going so far as to praise it rapturously in his 1966 autobiography. Many fans, recognizing that the South African government sought to draw from Player’s popularity to sanitize their regime, implored Elder not to accept the invitation. Black and White sportswriters warned he would be nothing but a pawn. Anti-apartheid organizations pleaded with him not to go. Tennis legend Arthur Ashe, himself banned from competing in South Africa, called the golf invitation “a farce.”
But Elder went. His public statement announcing the trip emphasized that he was “not a politician” and had no intention of being “involved in political controversies that are internal and local.” He spent three weeks touring Africa in November and December of 1971, including Liberia, Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya (he even won the Nigerian Open).
Predictably, his time in South Africa drew the most attention and criticism. At Johannesburg’s Huddle Park Golf Course, an estimated gallery of 10,000 people watched as he and Player were paired together in the South African PGA Championship. A small group of Black South African golfers also participated, the first allowed to compete alongside White players in that tour’s history.
Elder’s detractors were largely correct in their criticism. He participated in a sportswashing trip that mostly went off the way South Africa’s regime wanted. Much to the chagrin of the anti-apartheid movement, he established a lifelong friendship with Player and publicly opposed U.S. economic sanctions on South Africa.
However, Elder refused to be a mere pawn for the repressive government. In small but meaningful ways, he turned the visit into something else, ultimately making the trip on his own terms. For instance, he negotiated hard to have the gallery racially integrated at Huddle Park — also a first for the South African PGA. Behind the scenes, he asked to meet the imprisoned Nelson Mandela (he was denied). Perhaps most significantly, off the cuff in Johannesburg, Elder boldly told local journalists that he would refuse to return until apartheid was abolished. Such frank moments were not in the plans. “I felt like I really left something permanent there in South Africa,” he later said. By 1975, he had also raised tens of thousands of dollars to support Black golf and education programs in South Africa.
Elder’s journey is largely forgotten today, long overshadowed by more outspoken athletes and their subsequent African trips, such as Ashe’s visit to South Africa in 1973 and Muhammad Ali’s famed “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire in 1974. For those athletes, their trips helped them speak out early, often and eloquently about a range of issues, from racism and colonialism to human rights more broadly.
Elder was no Ali, Ashe or Owens. But in his own non-activist style — one that many professional golfers seem to share — he managed to find cracks in the regime’s plans, little moments and spaces where he could assert himself and send his own message. “Thanks to Elder, there are 40 Black professional South African golfers,” Jet magazine told readers in 1975. “Which is about four times as many as the U.S. can boast.”
For Elder, the trip sparked a long-term interest in South Africa and its Black citizens. He eventually visited again in 1989, on the eve of the fall of apartheid, delivering even stronger words. Although his stance may have been modest compared to more outspoken athletes, Elder’s actions stood out in the world of golf. In comparison, by the 1980s, many of the game’s most popular players were defying the international sports boycott (and U.S. State Department warnings) to play in South Africa’s annual “Million Dollar Challenge” at Gary Player Country Club in Sun City, including Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller and Raymond Floyd.
Obviously, golfers who have joined LIV have made a far deeper commitment than just a single appearance — they have signed lucrative contracts worth millions of dollars that are funded directly by the Saudi government and some stars, as reported on Wednesday by Front Office Sports, will get equity in their LIV teams. But Lee Elder’s story offers a model for LIV participants to take the money, and still find the courage to speak up in some small way — especially when the LIV Tour ventures to Saudi Arabia this October.
Professional sports offers an unprecedented platform, and with just a few impromptu words or a simple lapel pin, one of the LIV players could easily undermine what Saudi Arabia thinks it has paid for. That is, of course, if they choose to do so. | 2022-07-29T10:39:15Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The way LIV players could reduce Saudi ‘sportswashing’ - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/07/29/way-liv-players-could-reduce-saudi-sportswashing/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/07/29/way-liv-players-could-reduce-saudi-sportswashing/ |
Exploring the rich history — and strange depths — of the Black Sea
Joshua Keating talks to Jens Mühling about his new book on a region central to the Ukraine-Russia conflict
Perspective by Joshua Keating
Joshua Keating is a global security reporter for Grid and the author of "Invisible Countries."
People relax on a beach of the Black Sea in Sevastopol, the largest city on the Crimean Peninsula and its most important port and naval base, with a Russian warship seen in the background on July 15, 2022. (Olga Maltseva/AFP/Getty Images)
When Ukrainian forces sunk Russia’s Black Sea flagship, the Moskva, in April, they sent it to join a veritable fleet of ghost ships stranded below. The Black Sea — bordered by Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania and, of course, Russia and Ukraine — has been central to the conflict between the last two of those nations. But the region has also borne witness to centuries of other struggles, many of which resonate with the battles being fought on its shores today.
This kind of “historical simultaneity” fascinates the German journalist and travel writer Jens Mühling, whose book “Troubled Water: A Journey Around the Black Sea” was published in the United States this year in translation by Simon Pare. Though it recounts a journey made in late 2018 and early 2019, its English-language release this year is timely, appearing just as the Russian invasion of Ukraine has underlined the sea’s importance for its own region and for the wider world. The blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea coast has crippled the ability of one of the world’s largest grain exporters to ship wheat and other products to the rest of the world, contributing to a growing global hunger crisis, particularly in parts of the Middle East and Africa. A deal to resume shipping through the sea, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey this month, brought some hope of a resolution to the crisis, but subsequent Russian attacks on the key port of Odessa have dampened expectations.
Far from a remote frontier, the war has made clear that the Black Sea plays a central role in the global economy and global security. It’s a place we should all be getting more familiar with.
To better understand the connections between the current struggles and the histories that inform them, I called Mühling, a specialist in Russian and Eastern European affairs who was the editor of a German-language newspaper in Russia for two years. As he pointed out to me, “Parts of the Black Sea coast that I traveled in 2018, which were Ukrainian at the time, are now occupied by Russia, including almost the whole coastal stretch between Crimea and Odessa.” In the book, he starts his journey on the eastern side of the Kerch Strait, which separates Russia from the Crimean Peninsula, a territory Russia annexed and has de facto controlled since 2014. Proceeding clockwise, he visits Georgia, backtracks for complex geopolitical reasons to the semiautonomous enclave of Abkhazia, then continues on to Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine, ending his journey in Crimea on the opposite side of the strait.
Mühling makes for an observant and often wry traveling companion, conversant in several of the region’s languages. His account may remind readers of past travelogues such as Patrick Leigh Fermor’s “A Time of Gifts” or John Steinbeck’s “A Russian Journal,” both of which dip a toe in the Black Sea’s waters, but as Mühling points out, the sea has been an object of fascination for foreign writers since the time of Strabo and Herodotus.
“Ever since the discovery of the Black Sea by the Greeks, it’s been portrayed as a place where strange people live,” Mühling told me. For the Greeks, the Black Sea was the edge of the known world, inhabited by, as he writes in the book, “cannibals, hellhounds, man-slaughtering Amazons, dwarves mounted on flying cranes, Cyclopes, lice-eaters, and werewolves.”
The real and not-quite-so-fantastical inhabitants got short shrift in the ancient literature. To this day, the simplistic image of the region as an uncivilized frontier may inform the actions of the powers that surround it, including the war in Ukraine. Mühling suggests that Russia “is trying to portray this as a crusade of civilization against barbarism.” He continued, “Russia’s narrative really sounds familiar if you’ve studied Black Sea history a little bit.”
Mühling is certainly drawn to the obscure and the surprising in the places he visits. One section on the nationwide tree-relocation campaign by Georgia’s billionaire ex-prime minister, for example, verges on magical realism. But he refuses to exoticize local quirks in the way of Herodotus and his ilk. He instead sets out to discover whether a Black Sea regional identity exists, distinct from the nation-states that surround it. This led to what he said was an unexpected focus on little-known ethnic minority groups.
Warships are evolving, but they won't go away
Many of these, Mühling explained, “have migratory histories that are sometimes quite baffling and that usually took place around the Black Sea coast. You run into people who will tell you that their ancestors lived on a different stretch of the coast and had to leave because of some human-made catastrophe. As a result, you have a lot of links across the sea.” The groups Mühling encounters include Turkish-speaking Greeks living in Russia; Russian “Old Believers,” Orthodox Christians persecuted for rejecting 17th-century church reforms, who have settled on the Danube River delta in Romania; and Karaites, a Jewish sect that recognizes only the Torah, not the Talmud, in Crimea. Mühling’s approach can be seen as an attempt to push back against a nation-state-centric view of the region at a time when nationalism is very much in evidence.
Two major themes about the Black Sea emerge from Mühling’s narrative journey. One, it is a cultural region in constant flux. The borders are frequently changing and contested: Abkhazia’s independence and Crimea’s control by Russia are not recognized by most of the world, even if they are reality on the ground. This means that any journey like Mühling’s entails a stroll across a shifting landscape. “You do become very aware of this continuous change because it’s basically happening in front of your eyes,” he says.
Second, that constant cultural flux has not exactly produced a harmonious melting pot. Antipathy toward the people living farther along the coast is a constant theme. “Our coast! The Turks stole it from us!” an Armenian couple he meets in Russia laments to him in one characteristic interview. And one of the views he encounters most consistently in his journey from country to country is hostility toward Roma people.
Still, human connection across cultural lines is possible. In Crimea, Mühling tells the story of Vladimir, a Russophone marine biologist, and Alla, his Ukrainian wife, formerly a TV reporter for a Ukrainian-language station, who has faced antipathy both from local Russian-speakers and from friends back home over her decision to stay on the peninsula. Alla’s son from a previous marriage tells Mühling about the day in 2014 when “Vladimir woke me up one morning and said, ‘Max, we’re part of Russia now.’ ” The line echoes one from Vladimir Putin, who in a 2014 speech justifying Crimea’s annexation described the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 as a time when “millions of people went to bed in one country and awoke in different ones.” Putin himself had caused history to repeat itself.
Once again the region’s borders are in flux. People are on the move again as well: More than 8 million Ukrainians have been displaced by the invasion. Reading the book today, the reader can’t help but wonder how Alla and Vladimir — and the other Ukrainians and Russians Mühling encountered — are faring.
How the war spread through Ukraine
And of course, the waters themselves have been a theater of war. As Mühling proves, the traces of this conflict will lurk beneath the Black Sea’s surface — and reverberate on its shores — long after the war has ended. Indeed, the Black Sea is unique among major bodies of water for its two layers. The top layer, fed by freshwater from rivers like the Danube, the Dniester and the Dnieper, teems with life. But 90 percent of the sea, which consists of heavy salty water streaming in from the Mediterranean, is clinically dead. Two hundred meters below the surface, the water contains no oxygen. The only life that survives in this layer is bacteria that consumes organic waste and produces toxic hydrogen sulfide.
Here, history literally lurks below the surface. Thanks to the lack of oxygen, ships that sink in the Black Sea are stunningly well preserved. Byzantine-era vessels have been found with their ropes and rigging still visible. In 2017, an Anglo-Bulgarian team discovered the oldest intact shipwreck ever found: a 2,400-year-old Greek trader — the spitting image of those painted on vases at the British Museum.
What’s left of the Moksva will rest there, too, as silent and still as the remainders of other eras nearby. | 2022-07-29T10:39:30Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Exploring the rich history — and strange depths — of the Black Sea - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/29/black-sea-muhling-ukraine-russia-troubled-water/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/29/black-sea-muhling-ukraine-russia-troubled-water/ |
How I learned that swearing can be good for the soul
I was once a cautious curser, but living with multiple sclerosis taught me that it can be freeing to be foul-mouthed
Perspective by Elizabeth Jameson
Elizabeth Jameson is an artist and writer who explores what it means to live in an imperfect body. In 2021, she created MS Confidential, a monthly web series about the chaos of daily life for people living with multiple sclerosis.
An image from artist Elizabeth Jameson's series "Poetry, in Motion," created in collaboration with Catherine Monahon. (Elizabeth Jameson)
When I still had the use of my hands, I used to load up my paintbrush and hurl a glob of paint against my studio wall, as a way of releasing frustrations. I didn’t ask permission. I just did it.
When I lost the use of my hands — not to mention the rest of my body — because of the progression of multiple sclerosis, even that release was gone. Then one day, after I’d gone to work out at a rehabilitation center for people with spinal cord injuries, and was sitting and waiting for my caregiver to get the car, I stumbled upon another welcome release. One I could use even in my quadriplegic body: swearing.
Living with multiple sclerosis has meant that my life is perpetually governed and controlled by people who make decisions on my behalf. I desperately need these people, and I deeply appreciate them. But it’s still sometimes frustrating that I need someone else to do just about anything.
I cannot drive my own wheelchair or hold a cup of coffee. I can’t scratch the itch on my nose or quench my thirst unless someone lifts a cup and straw to my mouth. I have to be fed by others, who don’t necessarily know to offer up the right thing at the right time. Words only go so far, and I don’t want to seem too difficult. If crumbs fall while I’m being fed, I’ll often just resign myself to the mess. Would it be nice if someone noticed and intervened? Sure. Is it worth having to make yet another dreaded ask? Probably not.
It has taken a long time, but I have found ways to use my voice beyond everyday requests and niceties: cursing with abandon.
Some time ago, I was waiting for my ride at the rehabilitation center. A man I had seen a few times before rolled up in his wheelchair to wait alongside me. He genially asked my name, and I told him.
“Hi — I’m Ted,” he said. Then, with a huge grin, he added, “I don’t mean to offend you, but f--- you, Elizabeth!”
To someone else it might have been unnerving. But the way Ted was smiling at me, it seemed less like an insult than an invitation — to play, perhaps? To be defiant? To not have to be on my best behavior, for once?
“Well, f--- you too, Ted!” I beamed.
It was a deliverance from my overly controlled life. It was freedom, a fresh breath of air.
That experience came back to me one day at Stanford University’s Medicine X, an academic medical conference I’ve attended for years as an advocate and patient. There I would often have lunch with people with all sorts of disabilities and compare insights. It was a community of problem solvers, and I regularly found joy in learning from and sharing with people of diverse disabilities and backgrounds. None of us complained about our lot in life. It was more like: “Oh you have diabetes? I can’t imagine what that is like. Tell me about it.”
The end of my life was killing me
My realization about the resonance — maybe even the healing effect — of wild profanity snuck up on me one day at the conference. We were going around the table talking about our lives when I exclaimed, “F--- you!” to no one and everyone. (I said the word, of course. I just can’t repeat it in a family newspaper.) I don’t know why — it just came out of me. At first I was ashamed, a lingering product perhaps of my Catholic upbringing in Rochester, N.Y., back when my great aspiration was to become a nun and serve the poor. Instead I had become a public-interest lawyer, before my disease took that from me, and had allowed myself to cuss occasionally, but this was a real departure. Looking around the table, I was relieved to see that everyone was laughing and smiling. Other people even started chiming in.
The swearing wasn’t about our disabilities, exactly. It was bigger, less specific. It felt less like a rational response to anything and more like a kind of teenage defiance. As if we were all saying some variation of, “I may have cancer, but f--- you,” to no one in particular. It felt good to say it. And it made us smile. It even made a lot of other people smile. What are you defying when you are a defiant teenager? Control. The control over your freedom and agency.
It became almost like a chorus we could all riff on — and we didn’t do it for just one lunch. We became casually known to other conference-goers as the “F--- You Club.” And as one might imagine, it became very popular.
The Stanford conference reaffirmed my sense that finding relief in swearing was not just my own weird quirk, and reminded me that it can open doors to honest expression, particularly in difficult situations. A few months later, I was visiting my longtime friend Phil, who was nearing the end of his life after a difficult battle with cancer. Phil’s transformation from the last time I had seen him was shocking: He was pale and emaciated, with hollow cheeks and a gaping mouth that wouldn’t close. I had been in denial of his terminal cancer for a long time, but his appearance that day made me face reality.
As Phil sat in his chair, I couldn’t help but stare. I was trying not to cry when I told him, “I don’t want you to die.”
He rolled his eyes at me, annoyed, and said, “I’m not dying right now, I’m living!”
Phil was a man who enjoyed living. He enjoyed it so much, he refused to wait for a funeral he couldn’t attend — his funeral — and instead threw himself a huge party before his cremation. “Roast me before they toast me,” he called it.
He was sick of people saying, “Oh Phil, I’m so sorry that you have cancer.” That kind of thing really bored and annoyed him. He didn’t want to be talked to that way. “Talk to me like that when I’m dead,” he would say.
But I, too, had a way I wanted to be talked to. I wanted a deep connection with my dear friend. I wanted Phil to discuss his feelings about approaching death. I had fantasized that we would have a profound conversation about the meaning of life, but Phil was not interested in my expectations. His version of living involved humor, not gravitas.
I was desperate to talk about big things, but he wouldn’t budge. Without tears or pity, I blurted out, “Okay, well, f--- you, Phil!”
A giant smile transformed his face, and he exploded into laughter. “Thank you for saying that!” He seemed deeply relieved. “F--- you too.”
Those words, both funny and intimate, satisfied both of us. Phil was still in the land of the living, his spirit and personality whole and present. If he had had the energy, I believe we would have volleyed cuss words back and forth for some time.
Through the simple act of swearing we celebrated life by breaking the rules of how one should act, especially when sick and preparing to die. We had an understanding.
Long covid could change the way researchers study chronic illness
A number of studies have shown that swearing in stressful circumstances can have positive physiological effects, such as increased tolerance to pain and improved stamina. I wonder now whether trading profanities could be used more widely and with therapeutic intention within the disabled community, and even beyond.
I’ve begun asking friends — particularly those living with disease or disability — what they think of embracing this kind of uncensored expression. While some can’t relate, others understand intuitively what it’s taken me decades of living with M.S. to fully articulate: that words can pierce the suffocating social pressure, that they can blunt the pains of a difficult daily existence. For me, they are something to help ease my grief over a body that is failing me.
There is no instruction manual or guidebook to navigate this journey of living with illness and death. But I’ve found that it helps to occasionally rage at my broken body and the progression of my illness, while sharing a moment of exasperation with a friend.
I used to hurl paint at a wall, bright colors laced with my frustration and anger flying through the air. Now I simply hurl words of every flavor under the sun. Sometimes, on a good day, there’s someone to hurl them back. I particularly like the salty ones. | 2022-07-29T10:39:36Z | www.washingtonpost.com | How I learned that swearing can be good for the soul - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/29/swearing-therapeutic-multiple-sclerosis-chronic-illness/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/29/swearing-therapeutic-multiple-sclerosis-chronic-illness/ |
Former president Donald Trump's golf bag is seen during the pro-am of the Bedminster Invitational LIV Golf tournament in Bedminster, N.J. (Seth Wenig/AP)
While violating this law could result in imprisonment of “not more than six months,” a fine, or both, these punishments are rarely dolled out.
Last year, a DC-based watchdog group accused his Bedminster golf club of profiting from using images of the presidential seal.
Asked by a reporter whether he intended to announce his candidacy for the 2024 presidential election, he said: “You’re going to be so happy … We’ll let you know pretty soon.” | 2022-07-29T10:39:55Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Trump uses presidential seal at LIV Golf tournament in Bedminster, N.J. - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/29/trump-presidential-seal-liv-golf-tournament/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/29/trump-presidential-seal-liv-golf-tournament/ |
Nationals fans do the “Baby Shark” dance before Gerardo Parra's pinch-hit appearance in Game 3 of the 2019 World Series. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)
Bin Jeong can’t quite remember at what point in the 2019 baseball season she learned “Baby Shark” singalongs had become commonplace at Nationals Park. Jeong is the CEO of the U.S. subsidiary of Pinkfong, the South Korea-based company behind the popular children’s tune, and she’s not a sports fan. She guesses it wasn’t until October, during the Nationals’ run to the World Series title, that she became aware of the Gerardo Parra-sparked crossover.
“I didn’t actually watch the games,” Jeong said. “But I did see all the YouTube videos of everyone singing and doing the ‘Baby Shark’ dance inside the stadium, which was mesmerizing. This was something that we never expected. … I think it was a magical moment that we couldn’t really orchestrate, and it just happened.”
It will happen again Sunday, in less magical form, when the last-place Nationals celebrate Baby Shark Day during their series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals. Baby Shark mascots will be in attendance, an animated music video featuring Screech, the Nationals’ mascot, and Baby Shark will play on the scoreboard and the first 8,000 fans 12 and under will receive a Nationals-branded Baby Shark song cube. Parra, who joined the Nationals’ front office as a special assistant after retiring in May, is not scheduled to attend.
How 'Baby Shark' became the anthem of the Nationals' 2019 season and World Series run
You've gotta see Gerardo Parra's Baby Shark intro.
This is WILD. pic.twitter.com/kjmb6vaoUl
Depending on one’s point of view, the day’s festivities will either provide a nostalgic respite from speculation about Juan Soto’s future ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline or an annoying, played-out soundtrack amid a miserable season. (Is it the end, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo?)
“Baby Shark” became the 2019 Nationals’ improbable anthem after Parra began using it as his walk-up song in June in honor of his 2-year-old daughter. After Washington started to turn its season around, Parra and his teammates began celebrating hits by making the hand motions from the “Baby Shark” music video, which, with more than 11 billion views since 2016, is the most viewed video in YouTube history.
When Jeong and her colleagues at Pinkfong USA’s headquarters in Los Angeles got word of the craze, in part through Parra’s Instagram posts, they decided to show their support. Before Game 3 of the 2019 National League Championship Series, WowWee, Pinkfong’s toy partner, sent Parra a box of plush Baby Shark toys. Parra hung one of them from the railing in front of the Nationals’ dugout for the remainder of the playoffs. The toy was authenticated and sent to the National Baseball Hall of Fame after the World Series.
“Before that, it was all organic,” Jeong said of the Nationals’ Baby Shark connection.
Pinkfong’s Baby Shark mascot toured D.C. and handed out toys before Game 3 of the World Series. Ahead of Game 5, Parra invited the mascot, with Pinkfong USA Chief Content Officer Marina Lee inside the yellow costume, to visit the players’ family room at Nationals Park. The coronavirus pandemic contributed to the three-year delay in Pinkfong’s first official partnership with a pro sports team.
While the Nationals have fallen on hard times since their World Series triumph, Baby Shark continues to thrive; the character spawned a TV series on Nickelodeon and has a movie in the works.
“Luckily I’m not tired of it yet,” Jeong said of the song, which she hears almost daily.
And Nationals fans? Check back after Sunday. | 2022-07-29T11:31:24Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Nationals to celebrate Baby Shark Day, with or without Gerardo Parra - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/29/baby-shark-day-gerardo-parra/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/07/29/baby-shark-day-gerardo-parra/ |
Announcing another interest-rate increase on Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the path toward a soft landing — with lower inflation and no significant rise in unemployment — has narrowed. The question is whether there is any such path.
On Thursday, the first estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product showed a fall of 0.9% at an annual rate. This came after a drop of 1.6% in the first quarter. Two consecutive quarters of lower GDP are generally termed a “technical recession” — although it’s too soon to say whether this one is the real thing. The data get revised and, more important, the labor market still looks exceptionally tight. Under current circumstances, Powell would be delighted with a pause in output growth that causes no rise in unemployment yet still presses down on inflation. That would be deemed a soft landing.
But would this kind of slowdown suffice to get inflation back under control? Monetary policy can curb growth in demand — somewhat uncertainly, and with a lag. How that demand resolves into changes in output, employment and prices is beyond the Fed’s reach. The central bank’s choices boil down to this: Does it try to curb demand gradually (which risks letting high inflation get entrenched) or abruptly (which risks a severe recession and much higher unemployment)? It has no finer control than that.
Despite two quarters of declining output and what many commentators see as a hawkish turn in monetary policy, the Fed has so far chosen gradualism. The Fed funds rate now stands at 2.25% to 2.5%. With consumer-price inflation at 9.1% in the year to June and core PCE inflation at 4.4% in the second quarter, the policy rate is still substantially negative in real terms. By that standard, at least, monetary policy is still loose — just not as loose as through the spring of this year. Powell said he and his colleagues expect further rate increases to be “appropriate,” but he was notably much more vague than before.
That vagueness means the Fed has taken a big step from “forward guidance” on interest rates to “let’s see what happens.” Amid much uncertainty about the true state of the economy, this is wise. Even so, it would be helpful if the Fed said more about its intentions not for the path of interest rates but for the path of demand. In particular, it should be more forthcoming about whether bad news on unemployment combined with bad news on inflation would push it toward more gradualism or less.
Powell said he hoped that a slackening of demand might reduce pressure in the labor market without raising unemployment. This isn’t fanciful, because the level of vacant positions — and, in particular, the ratio of vacancies to the number of people looking for work — is currently off the charts. It’s plausible to think that this is pushing up wages and risks entrenching high inflation. You’d think that lower demand could trim the number of vacancies and reduce that pressure without causing more people to lose their jobs.
The problem is that it never seems to work that way. A new paper by Olivier Blanchard, Alex Domash and Larry Summers for the Peterson Institute for International Economics shows that, historically, whenever vacancies come down substantially, unemployment goes up. Digging into the reasons, the study emphasizes the importance of the process that matches unemployed workers to vacant positions. Improving the efficiency of this matching process can indeed reduce the number of vacancies at any given level of unemployment, but there’s no sign in the data that this is happening.
In fact, it’s worse than that. During the pandemic, so-called matching efficiency fell sharply (as you might expect, with workers moving more than usual between kinds of work and from place to place). It remains much lower than in 2019. The implication is that a higher rate of unemployment will be needed to hold inflation constant. Before the pandemic, the study says, this so-called natural rate of unemployment was probably about 3.6% — equal to the current rate. Now it’s 4.9%, conservatively estimated. If this is correct, the Fed can’t expect unemployment to stay put as it brings down inflation.
The new GDP figures show that demand — measured as current-dollar output — grew 7.8% at an annual rate in the second quarter, following a rise of 6.6% in the first quarter. Those numbers are still too high, and moving in the wrong direction. This justifies the latest increase in interest rates. Depending on what happens next, more might be needed. In any case, as it continues to restrain demand, the Fed should expect — and shouldn’t be deflected by — higher unemployment.
• Are Interest Rates at Neutral? Markets Hope So: Mohamed A. El-Erian
• Think the Fed Hasn’t Done Enough? Think Again: Nir Kaissar
• The Inflation Beast Won’t Lie Quietly Again: Allison Schrager | 2022-07-29T12:10:45Z | www.washingtonpost.com | The Fed Should Get Ready for Higher Unemployment - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-fed-should-get-ready-for-higher-unemployment/2022/07/29/98b59938-0f32-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-fed-should-get-ready-for-higher-unemployment/2022/07/29/98b59938-0f32-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
Yellen’s Legacy Is Being Eroded by Inflation
WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 07: U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen testifies during a hearing before Senate Finance Committee at Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill June 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. The committee held a hearing to examine the Biden Administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2023 for the Treasury Department. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) (Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images North America)
Inflation and White House infighting may end up shortening Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s tenure, but don’t forget how much she has had to contend with.
After a remarkable career as chief White House economist and Federal Reserve chair, Yellen, 75, has ended up spending her final stint in government — one she had to be talked into — deflecting responsibility for the worst inflationary wave in four decades. An academic with a penchant for technocrat-speak, she has been elbowed out of Biden’s inner circle and surprised the administration by publicly admitting she “was wrong” about inflation, according to Bloomberg News reporting. As is often the case, the blame game over volatile prices oversimplifies the events of the past year and a half. Her legacy will hinge on whether she can help steer the economy back to stable prices.
Heading into key midterm elections, Republicans have predictably sought to attribute the serious inflation problem to Biden’s economic stewardship, taking particular aim at the $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief package that Democrats pushed through Congress in early 2021 with Yellen and the president’s blessings. Of course, that package extended unemployment benefits, helped get Covid shots in arms and expanded the child tax credit, helping keep millions of kids out of poverty.
But most controversially among economists, it sent out $1,400 direct payments when the economy probably didn’t need that much kindling. Although many middle and lower-income families probably put the money away in rainy-day funds, at least some of them ended up boosting demand for supply-constrained used cars, durable home goods and speculative stocks and cryptocurrencies. Economists including former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers warned at the time that, for all the merits of the package, the checks were excessive and risked stoking inflation. But Yellen gave the legislative project her imprimatur. Why?
There are several plausible theories:
• She saw it as a health emergency in which the normal rules of sound fiscal policy didn’t apply.
• She thought, based on decades of recent history, that inflation expectations were so well anchored in the US that the plague of volatile prices was highly unlikely to return. It had been slayed.
• She thought the political ends justified the means.
• All of the above.
The humanitarian argument made a lot of sense — and frankly, so did the political one. The measures were negotiated not long after reported Covid deaths hit an all-time high in January 2021 and as the jobless rate was running nearly twice as high as it is today. Even the controversial stimulus checks were justifiable if you thought they would play some role in keeping people safe at home, giving them a financial buffer to forgo risky options when vaccines still weren’t widely available to the public.
What’s more, the negotiations came soon after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, new details of which continue to shed light on the threat to democracy itself. Yellen may well have concluded that inflationary risks seemed modest compared with the threat of letting Trump’s enablers take the legislature in 2022 or have the former president return to the White House in 2024. She conceivably wanted to give Democrats a boost, and although the bill wasn’t perfect, she would have understood the challenges of legislative consensus building. That was the bill that was on the table.
What’s not plausible is that Yellen, one of the most extraordinary economists of her time, simply missed the inflationary threat altogether. In fact, recent commentary by her biographer, Owen Ullman, suggests that “in discussions with Treasury staff, she sought without success to determine if it was possible to scale” the package back “by roughly a third.” (Whatever she discussed internally at Treasury, Yellen has been careful to insist she “never urged” adoption of a smaller package.)
Should Yellen and Democratic lawmakers have insisted on a more parsimonious package? With the benefit of hindsight, yes. Almost undoubtedly, the plan has contributed to core inflation, but it’s not the source of the price pressures that Americans most notice (gas and food, which spiked in the run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine), nor was the bill an inflationary grenade as written. Because of a confluence of other factors, it ended up contributing to the problem and making it broader, though. In retrospect, policy makers should have recognized that supply-side dynamics were different in the Covid era and that factory and transportation snarls could form a toxic brew with stimulated demand. But they weren’t alone in their error.
Meanwhile, Republicans’ criticism of the Biden administration for stimulus checks can be nakedly hypocritical. Governor Ron DeSantis, a likely presidential candidate in 2024 and a critic of the inflationary impacts of the federal stimulus, recently announced $450 per child for some 59,000 Florida families. That’s a drop in the bucket compared with the broader federal stimulus — and those families may sorely need the money — but the political double-dealing is rich.
No matter the origins of inflation, rising prices are clearly eroding Americans’ quality of life, and the administration’s moves in 2021 played some role, however well-intentioned. Now, it needs to help fix it, including by working with industry to promote energy production and housing construction and bringing more workers into the economy, perhaps through more immigration. The Inflation Reduction Act legislation that surprisingly emerged this week will fight rising prices through deficit reduction, and it also helps Democrats regain lost momentum. It’s true that many of the solutions on the table probably won’t do much to stem the current wave of rising prices, and the country will have to rely on the Fed and its blunt interest-rate tool. But the White House and Congress could prove critical in preventing a protracted inflationary regime like the 1970s, characterized by wave after wave.
Notably, it’s not entirely clear whether Yellen will be there to finish the job, but whoever does will help write her legacy and the economic history of the Biden administration. Since she took the post, there has long been speculation that Yellen aimed to hand it off at some stage to one of several qualified successors, including perhaps Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard, who previously held a senior post at Treasury. It remains to be seen whether the inflation outcome burnishes or tarnishes Yellen’s storied career.
• Rolling Back Tariffs Would Help Tame Inflation: Editorial | 2022-07-29T12:10:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Yellen’s Legacy Is Being Eroded by Inflation - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/yellens-legacy-is-being-eroded-by-inflation/2022/07/29/6662b7bc-0f2e-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/yellens-legacy-is-being-eroded-by-inflation/2022/07/29/6662b7bc-0f2e-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
Congress has not yet funded the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at the Department of Health and Human Services
People try to keep cool at the Justa Center, a resource center catering to the older homeless population, as temperatures hit 110 degrees on July 19 in Phoenix. (Ross D. Franklin/AP)
A week after taking office, President Biden signed a sweeping executive order that established a new federal office focused on addressing the health consequences of climate change, which disproportionately affects poor communities and communities of color.
“Many climate and health calamities are colliding all at once,” Biden said at the time, adding, “Just like we need a unified national response to covid-19, we desperately need a unified national response to the climate crisis.”
Nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a weather disaster last summer
“Right now, it is an unfunded office,” said Adm. Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health. “What we really need is funding to have a permanent staff.”
However, the government spending bills that lawmakers released last year also included $3 million for the climate office — until that money was stripped from the legislation at the last minute as part of an agreement brokered behind the scenes. That has fostered apprehension among officials in the climate office.
Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, accused Democrats on Thursday of using the spending bills to pursue the Green New Deal, the liberal proposal to eliminate the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions over 10 years while guaranteeing well-paying jobs for all.
“Senate Democrats’ bills seek to use the appropriations process to advance radical environmental and climate policies,” Shelby said in a statement, citing proposals to subsidize the solar industry and curb emissions of methane, a potent planet-warming gas, from livestock.
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“It shouldn’t be controversial to set up an office to make sure our communities and health systems are ready to face extreme weather threats being made more frequent and common by climate change,” Balbus said. “The 200 leading health journals in the world have made it clear that climate change is the greatest threat to public health of this century. This issue needs focused attention now.”
Jonathan Parley, executive director of Climate Resolve, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit, noted that $3 million pales in comparison to what some states are spending to cope with climate impacts. For instance, California has agreed to spend $100 million over two years on establishing “community resilience hubs,” where people can cool down during a heat wave or access power during blackouts caused by an extreme weather event.
“When the state of California is spending more than the federal government on its public health protections associated with climate change,” Parley said, “it’s somewhat appalling.”
However, Levine said comparing the climate office with such state-level efforts is like “apples and oranges,” since the office is meant to coordinate work across the federal government rather than create resilience centers and related facilities.
Inaction on climate change imperils millions of lives, doctors say
In recent years, the medical community has increasingly recognized climate change as a leading threat to public health. The Lancet, a top medical journal, warned last year that global warming is set to become the “defining narrative of human health” — triggering food shortages, deadly disasters and disease outbreaks that would dwarf the toll of the coronavirus pandemic.
Rising temperatures have led to higher rates of heat illness, causing farmworkers to collapse in fields and elderly people to die in their homes. Smoke from wildfires has infiltrated the lungs and bloodstreams of people hundreds of miles away. Extreme droughts have caused crops to fail, triggering severe hunger and food insecurity for the world’s most vulnerable populations.
In San Jose, for instance, temperatures are 6 or 7 degrees higher in poor neighborhoods that lack tree cover, making it harder for residents to cool down during a heat wave. “We know that those differences are widening over time and having real impacts on children, seniors and others who might be vulnerable,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, a Democrat.
In Albuquerque, officials have recorded a 17-degree difference between the coolest and hottest parts of the city on summer afternoons. The higher temperatures pose the greatest risk to homeless individuals and those who lack access to air conditioning, said Kelsey Rader, the city’s sustainability officer.
Biden has made addressing these inequities a centerpiece of his climate agenda. Under the Justice40 initiative, he has vowed to “deliver at least 40 percent of the overall benefits from federal investments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities.”
In May, as part of that initiative, Health and Human Services announced the formation of a new Office of Environmental Justice. It is housed within the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity — meaning it, too, has no funding.
“Certainly front-line communities — poor communities, communities of color — always seem to get the brunt of pollution and health hazards,” said Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), who participated in a recent roundtable with the climate office on protecting farmworkers from extreme heat. “So that office needs the resources to speak up for those who have lacked a voice historically.”
If given funding, officials in the climate office described an array of programs they would like to launch or expand, including efforts to reduce carbon emissions from hospitals, fund internships in community health departments and train community health workers to assess people’s vulnerability to heat or wildfire smoke.
“I’m going to be positive and optimistic that we will get funding for fiscal year 2023,” Levine said. “You know, hope springs eternal.” | 2022-07-29T12:10:53Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Health and Human Services climate office has no funding - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/29/health-office-climate-change/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/07/29/health-office-climate-change/ |
What to watch with your kids: ‘DC League of Super-Pets’ and more
Krypto (voice of Dwayne Johnson), left, and Superman (John Krasinski) in “DC League of Super-Pets.” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Furry cartoon superhero actioner is funny, cute; rude humor.
“DC League of Super-Pets” is an animated comedy about Superman’s dog, Krypto (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), who’s worried about losing “best friend” status to Lois Lane. Expect animated fantasy violence and danger — crashing through ceilings, explosions, characters getting hit by a car, etc. But these scenes are quickly resolved with jokes and visual proof that no one is really injured. A turtle named Merton (Natasha Lyonne) is a bit spicy for this otherwise family-friendly film, using profanity (which is bleeped out) and on the prowl for love, with some innuendo-laced jokes. There are also jokes about dog poop, insult words (“dorks,” “losers”), a kiss and a reference to Lois staying overnight at Superman’s house. The film’s overall message — that love is self-sacrificing — may require parental explanation for kids to really get it. More likely to hit home are themes of courage and teamwork and the secondary message that if you choose to adopt and love a pet, it will love you forever. Superhero characterizations and voice actors are diverse in terms of gender, race, age and body size/shape. (100 minutes)
Amber Brown (TV-G)
Book star comes to life in impactful and emotional show.
“Amber Brown” is a coming-of-age series produced by Bonnie Hunt (“Cheaper by the Dozen”). Inspired by Paula Danziger’s popular same-named book series, the show follows 11-year-old Amber (Carsyn Rose) as she navigates some of life’s most difficult challenges. The series is mainly live-action but frequently includes animations to express Amber’s emotions. Themes include embracing your individuality, expressing yourself honestly and friendship. The show’s all-star cast, including Sarah Drew (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and Michael Yo, tackles difficult and important subjects that kid viewers can take lots of lessons from. (10 25-minute episodes)
Paper Girls (16+)
Suspenseful time-travel tale has violence, strong language.
“Paper Girls” is a suspenseful sci-fi series based on the same-named comic book about the time-traveling adventures of four 12-year-old newspaper delivery girls in the late 1980s. It has lots of strong language, including “f---,” “s---,” “a--hole,” and “b-----s,” as well as racist slurs. There’s also violence: Characters are frequently in peril, a teen wields a gun and shoots another character, someone uses a hockey stick to kill an enemy and there’s lots of futuristic sci-fi weapon use. That said, it’s also a story of loyalty and friendship, with positive messages about valuing differences. (Eight 35-minute episodes)
The Gray Man (PG-13)
Spy flick has violent action, standard storyline.
“The Gray Man” is a secret agent action/thriller movie starring Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans as men who get caught up in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. There’s lots of violence and references to violence. Scenes include torture, body horror, gun violence, explosions and domestic violence. While characters demonstrate perseverance, courage and integrity, the movie could also be seen as romanticizing a violent lifestyle. Characters use strong language (“f---,” “s---” and more). (129 minutes) | 2022-07-29T12:11:14Z | www.washingtonpost.com | What to watch with your kids: ‘DC League of Super-Pets’ and more - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/07/29/what-watch-with-your-kids-dc-league-super-pets-more/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/movies/2022/07/29/what-watch-with-your-kids-dc-league-super-pets-more/ |
Siblings didn’t want their mother’s killer executed. It happened anyway.
Faith Hall's children and brother objected to the execution of the man convicted of killing her. (WBRC)
Terryln Hall was just 6 when Joe Nathan James Jr. followed her mother, Faith Hall, to a friend’s house in August 1994 and shot her three times, killing her.
James was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. And for years, the younger Hall hated him, she told WBRC. “I did have hatred in my heart for this man because you took my mother,” she told the station. “But as I got older, became a mother myself, I had to realize you can’t walk around with hatred in your heart.”
“In order for me to live a prosperous life,” she added, “I had to forgive.”
As James’s execution approached this month, Hall, her sister, and their uncle made a heartfelt plea to Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R), requesting that she stop James’s execution.
In the end, their request was denied.
On Thursday evening, James was executed by lethal injection at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala.
“Justice has been served,” Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. “Joe James was put to death for the heinous act he committed nearly three decades ago: the cold-blooded murder of an innocent young mother, Faith Hall.”
Following the execution, Ivey echoed Marshall, saying “justice has been served for Faith Hall,” AL.com reported.
Hall’s family instead called it a “tragic day.” In a joint statement before James was put to death, they said they would not attend the execution as they had forgiven James for “his atrocities toward our family.”
“We are having to relive the hurt that this caused us many years ago,” the statement said, adding that they hoped “the state wouldn’t take a life simply because a life was taken.”
James’s execution comes as a majority of Americans continue to support the death penalty, according to a June 2021 Pew Research survey, which found that while 60 percent of U.S. adult respondents favor it for those convicted of murder — 78 percent of respondents worried that an innocent person might be executed.
The Halls are not the only victims who have tried to stop or delay the executions of people who upended their lives. The daughter of Eric Sutphin, who was killed in 2006 in Virginia by William Morva, requested in 2017 that his execution be stopped. In 2019, the family members of William and Nancy Mueller, and Nancy’s 8-year-0ld daughter, petitioned to delay the federal execution of their killer, Daniel Lewis Lee.
In Alabama, James has been on death row since 1996, when he was convicted of killing 26-year-old Hall, his ex-girlfriend.
On Aug. 15, 1994, Hall and her friend Tammy Sneed were driving home from a shopping trip in Birmingham when Hall noticed James following them in a car. Because James had previously stalked her and threatened her, Hall and Sneed were afraid, and they drove to Sneed’s apartment and fretted over what to do, according to court documents.
They called the police, but James arrived and forced his way into the home, carrying a gun. James asked Hall about a man he had seen her with and eventually started shooting. As Hall tried to escape toward the bathroom, James chased her and shot her in the abdomen, chest and head.
At the time, Terryln Hall was 6, and her sister was 3, WBRC reported.
Once James was sentenced to death, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction after ruling a judge had improperly admitted evidence in the earlier trial, the Associated Press reported. But James was convicted again in 1999 and again received the death penalty.
On Tuesday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals denied James’s request for a stay of execution. The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday also denied a petition for a stay submitted by James.
State Rep. Juandalynn Givan (D) sent a letter to Ivey requesting on behalf of the family that she stop the execution and that James instead continue to serve a life sentence without the possibility for parole, AL.com reported last week.
But on Wednesday, Ivey announced she would not do it.
“My staff and I have researched all the records and all the facts and there’s no reason to change the procedure or modify the outcome,” Ivey told reporters. “So, the execution will go forward.”
On Thursday evening, James had no last words before the injection was administered, and his eyes were closed throughout the procedure, AL.com reported. He died at 9:27 p.m.
Hall’s family expressed their grief.
“We pray that God allows us to find healing after today and that one day our criminal justice system will listen to the cries of families like ours even if it goes against what the state wishes,” their statement read. “Our voices matter and so does the life of Mr. Joe Nathan James, Jr.” | 2022-07-29T12:11:21Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Joe Nathan James executed in Alabama over objections of victim's family - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/29/joe-james-execution-alabama/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/29/joe-james-execution-alabama/ |
Brittney Griner’s detention should prompt fixes to U.S. drug laws
By Marc M. Howard
WNBA player Brittney Griner is escorted to a Moscow courtroom for a hearing on July 25. (Evgenia Novozhenina/Pool/AP)
Marc M. Howard is a professor of government and law at Georgetown University, where he directs the Prisons and Justice Initiative. He is also the founder of the Frederick Douglass Project for Justice, and the author of “Unusually Cruel: Prisons, Punishment, and the Real American Exceptionalism.”
Russia’s detention of WNBA star Brittney Griner over alleged possession of hashish oil has strained U.S. diplomatic ties with Moscow and intensified international condemnation of Russia’s authoritarian regime. Griner testified this week that when she was arrested in Moscow on Feb. 17, her rights were not read to her, as is required under Russian law. “I had no intention to break the law,” said Griner, who was detained after customs officials reportedly found two cannabis vape cartridges in her baggage.
Whatever the outcome of U.S. efforts to secure Griner’s release, it’s clear that Griner, who says she was prescribed cannabis oil by a doctor, has not received due process. While rightly condemning Griner’s detention, many have cited Russia’s “draconian” drug laws and its imprisonment of “more people per capita for drug crimes compared with the rest of Europe.” Rep. Colin Allred (D-Tex.), for instance, has said the Russian criminal system “is very different than ours and is very opaque.”
But Americans should hardly throw stones. Griner’s ordeal gives reason to scrutinize the U.S. legal system’s treatment of drug offenses — and the tens of thousands of people languishing in American prisons for such crimes.
Despite $182 billion in annual taxpayer funding for mass incarceration, the criminal legal system in this country falls far short of our nation’s ideals. The U.S. system is plagued by over-prosecution, excessive sentencing, brutal prison conditions, lack of rehabilitation opportunities and limited reentry prospects.
Consider recreational marijuana, which has been legalized in 19 states and decriminalized in 18 others. It remains illegal in Allred’s Texas as well as under federal law, including in transportation between states. Hashish, the substance at issue in Griner’s detention, comes from the cannabis plant, as does marijuana, but is significantly more potent. Hashish-related offenses have often been punished more severely by U.S. courts. And even in states where marijuana has been decriminalized, the changes sometimes do not extend to cannabis concentrates.
Critically, the legalization wave has not benefited people who were convicted under previous laws that criminalized marijuana. Unlike most other countries, including Russia, the United States does not allow changes in laws to benefit people who were previously punished under the old laws. A 2020 ACLU report found that marijuana arrests account for more drug arrests in the United States than any other drug class; in 2018, the last year for which the report analyzed data, law enforcement made nearly 700,000 marijuana arrests, more than for all violent crimes combined as reported by the FBI. According to 2020 data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly a quarter-million Americans are behind bars for drugs: Some 171,300 people are incarcerated in state prisons for drug-related offenses (14 percent of the total number of state prisoners) and 67,438 in federal prisons (46.7 percent of all those in federal prisons).
Russian prosecutors argue that the 0.702 grams of cannabis reportedly found in the vape cartridges in Griner’s baggage constitutes a “significant” amount and have charged her with “large scale transportation of drugs,” which can carry a prison sentence of up to 10 years. However outrageous the charges sound — to any reasonable mind, the quantity was quite small, and Griner testified on Wednesday that she needed the oil to help with pain and inflammation of injuries sustained over her career — it’s worth noting that U.S. prosecutions can be similarly harsh. The distinction between “using” and “dealing” usually depends on arbitrary weight thresholds that are selectively applied by prosecutors, leading many Americans to receive shockingly long sentences. Some 46,700 people in state incarceration were convicted of possession. But that is only part of the story, as some of the others incarcerated were in possession of drugs but found their charges elevated to “trafficking and dealing” because of the amount of marijuana present.
U.S. incarceration rates for drug offenses have long exceeded those of other Western democracies. In 2000, 70 percent of drug possession and 74 percent of drug-dealing convictions in the United States resulted in incarceration, compared to just 8 percent and 21 percent in Germany that year.
Many concerned about Griner’s ordeal worry about prison conditions in Russia. Here, too, our country has little to gloat about: Numerous reports have found U.S. prisons to be overcrowded and understaffed, with the incarcerated exposed to violence, malnutrition, and other environmental and health issues.
Opinion: In prison, having your period can put your life in danger
While many seize on Griner’s incarceration to criticize Russia’s harsh drug laws, U.S. practices should not be ignored. Congress and state legislatures could take a major step forward by making drug legalization laws retroactive, such that they would allow for the early release of the tens of thousands of Americans who remain locked up for behavior that most states — and most Americans — no longer consider to be criminal.
President Biden and all 50 state governors should also take immediate action on the countless clemency petitions awaiting review from people who deserve to be free as much as Griner does. Given her history of social activism and support for criminal legal reform, surely Griner herself would agree. | 2022-07-29T12:11:33Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Opinion | Brittney Griner’s detention should prompt fixes to U.S. drug laws - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/29/brittney-griner-detention-improve-us-drug-laws/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/29/brittney-griner-detention-improve-us-drug-laws/ |
A geologist’s journey from the terrestrial to the celestial
Review by Marcia Bartusiak
An illustration of the asteroid Psyche, which could be the core of a failed planet. It’s the target of a NASA mission led by geologist Lindy Elkins-Tanton. (NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech/Arizona State University)
Lindy Elkins-Tanton is the principal investigator for a NASA probe slotted to fly out to the asteroid belt to study a rare, metal-rich asteroid called Psyche. This body, 138 miles wide, is suspected to be the ancient core of a failed planet, one that didn’t fully form in that vast region between Mars and Jupiter. As Earth’s core is inaccessible, Psyche might serve as the means to unlock the secrets of our own planet’s mysterious center.
Given the title of her memoir — “A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman” — a reader might expect to be immersed solely in a scientific story: how a geologist progressed over the years from hammering terrestrial rocks as a student to leading a deep-space mission. But this riveting book, beautifully written, is far more. With a brave candor, Elkins-Tanton examines all aspects of her experiences — personal and professional, the good and the bad — to plumb the very meaning of her life. She also offers novel approaches to education, tactics for handling sexual harassment cases in academia and new methods for team-building in scientific research that go beyond the “hero model.” “No single person can alone build human knowledge anymore,” she notes. “We need the breadth of ideas that comes from a diversity of voices.”
Elkins-Tanton’s childhood at first appears quite idyllic. Growing up in Ithaca, N.Y., she dabbled in poetry and music, won awards for her horse riding, and explored her town with great freedom. But there was also a dark side: Her mother was detached, her father often angry, and she had to wear an uncomfortable back brace to treat her scoliosis. More than that, she was repeatedly sexually assaulted as a small child in her neighborhood woods, a fact her mother never wanted to acknowledge. A terror remained within Elkins-Tanton for years because of that trauma, until a therapist recognized it as a type of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Before that analysis, though, she found solace in her chosen major at MIT. “The more I thought about geology,” she writes, “the more I felt calm and comforted. … That geologic timeline spooling out and out into the past and then again into the future felt like a tall cool drink on a hot day.” By her sophomore year, she was conducting high-temperature and high-pressure experiments that mimicked the interior of the Earth. She delightfully recounts each step of her procedures like a chef lovingly describing her favorite recipe. At her graduation, she received not only a bachelor’s degree but a master’s degree as well.
Here her life takes an unexpected turn. Not feeling ready to continue her studies (“for reasons still unclear to me,” she admits), she surprisingly went into business, becoming an analyst for a management consulting firm. Over the following years, she married into a prominent family, gave birth to a son and, while later running her own consulting company, raised sheep and trained dogs. But after the dissolution of her marriage and two years of teaching mathematics at a small Maryland college (where she met her current husband), she at last returned to MIT, first for a PhD and later a professorship.
At this point, the book offers valuable lessons on successful scientific strategies. Early on, Elkins-Tanton recognized that to answer the big questions in her science she needed to step “across disciplinary boundaries to synthesize from entirely different fields.” That became her modus operandi. For example, she became fascinated with the Siberian flood basalts, the most voluminous mass of lava to ever erupt upon a continent, enough to cover the Lower 48 states. It oozed out around the time of the end-Permian extinction, some 252 million years ago, when 70 percent of terrestrial species and more than 90 percent of ocean species disappeared. Was that a coincidence, or was the eruption the cause? To find an answer, she organized a vast collaboration of geologists, geophysicists, geochemists and atmospheric scientists.
The expressive descriptions of her field trips to Siberia are the most engaging sections of the book, providing a ringside seat to the discomforts and thrills of a geological expedition. “The layers of the rock rose from the river like an endless shelf of books, slumped at an angle,” she writes. “Layer after layer, rising up through time. We’d float up through the whole Tunguska sequence, and then we’d meet the flood basalts themselves.” After years of data-gathering by that worldwide network of researchers, they indeed proved that climate-changing gases released by the flood (“frighteningly similar to what humankind is producing today,” she stresses) caused the mass extinction.
Her questions then reached beyond the Earth. In 2014 Elkins-Tanton became director of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, where the proposal for the Psyche mission was finalized. The review process was long and painstaking, but it came down to a final one-day team presentation before a panel of judges, a nerve-racking appraisal that seems 10 times more intense than a dissertation defense. The Psyche proposal was a dark horse, as Elkins-Tanton had never headed up a NASA mission and her industrial partner had previously built spacecraft only for Earth orbit, not deep space. This is where Elkins-Tanton’s early detour into business and the lessons she learned there paid off; NASA noticed that day how well her team functioned under pressure.
Once launched, the spacecraft will travel three years to get to Psyche. With the start of that journey, writes Elkins-Tanton, “we’ll have won, again, something actually worth winning: the chance to work harder, for longer, on something that will amaze us and drive human knowledge farther.” She has found her life’s meaning.
Marcia Bartusiak is professor of the practice emeritus at MIT and the author of seven books on the frontiers of astrophysics and its history, including “The Day We Found the Universe” and “Black Hole.”
A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman
By Lindy Elkins-Tanton
William Morrow. 272pp. $29.99. | 2022-07-29T12:11:51Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Book review of "A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman," by Lindy Elkins-Tanton - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/29/geologists-journey-terrestrial-celestial/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/29/geologists-journey-terrestrial-celestial/ |
How decades of greed and bad choices left us vulnerable to a pandemic
Review by Andy Slavitt
Preparations for the funeral of a man who died of covid-19 in Hagerstown, Md., in January 2021. John Ehrenreich's book offers a psychologist’s take on the decisions over the past 50 years that led to the pandemic's high death toll. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
Before you crack open John Ehrenreich’s new book, “The Making of a Pandemic: Social, Political, and Psychological Perspectives on Covid-19,” both the rather bland title and the lengthy compilation of footnotes may give you the impression that you are about to read a dry academic text. Instead, the book turns out to be an examination, indeed an indictment, of the last few decades of American politics, business and society. This pandemic book spends relatively little time on the years of the pandemic, but it paints a grim picture of decisions and events from dozens of years before.
Ehrenreich’s critique won’t be a surprise to people familiar with his work, and his main point presents a compelling, and occasionally edgy, case for our deep malfeasance. He wants to go beyond a technical analysis of why we found ourselves short of ventilators. He wants us to look back further to pinpoint the policies that caused the pandemic to hit us so hard — things we don’t immediately associate with the coronavirus, such as the growth of factory farms, the overuse of antibiotics and policies that promote individual wealth over equality.
If you’ve had enough epidemiological takes on the pandemic, a psychologist’s take exploring the disastrous choices we made over the last 50 years is an intriguing one. The unwillingness of the United States to promptly follow basic and proven standards to prevent transmission is responsible for hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. Ehrenreich wants to know not why a virus spread as it did (that is what they do, after all) but why we ended up at each other’s throats, why pandemic denialism became a right-wing cause (not only in the United States but globally) and how a country that has spent decades maligning government is supposed to function in situations where the government is the most important actor.
He puts us all on the couch and tells us that the losses we are suffering are symptoms of deeper pathologies. Infectious diseases spread all the time, he argues. They become pandemics because a lot of conditions align, a good number of them of our making. His list includes inequality in how we live and work, unchecked capitalism, shortsighted policymaking, man-made climate change, and our federalist system, which is anemic in a crisis. The social-scientist take is that the excess deaths and related suffering from the pandemic are just the more visible manifestations of what has been plaguing us in less visible, but very real, ways for decades.
The author, a longtime State University of New York professor, doesn’t shy away from politics, and he doesn’t spare Donald Trump’s response — though he seems to see Trump more as a symptom than the root cause. His political analysis at times lumps President Biden in too closely with Trump, though there is almost no resemblance between their pandemic responses, and at other times (too carelessly for some readers) lumps Democrats in with Republicans. The book has an anti-right-wing flavor, but it is heavily seasoned with notes of anti-establishment politics of all sorts. No one need be spared, but public health advocates and policymakers are likely to take some exception.
He does try to take an anthropological approach to some tough questions, such as why conservatives are less compliant with public health measures. This exploration is a rather uncomfortable psychological assessment of conservatives. Conservatives’ personality types show less empathy and concern for disadvantaged groups than liberals’, Ehrenreich posits, and so they are less interested in public health measures to protect others. They lack trust in government and therefore what government scientists say, they are more dogmatic, and they are more swayed by intuition than by reason. He cites studies for his analysis, but his brush is broad. Some of his psychological observations on why people reacted the way they did feel more on point than his political analysis: that some people prefer blame and denial to fear of death, and that the minimizing of the pandemic is a form of wishful thinking.
One hazard of trying to cover every potential social problem over five decades is that the book sometimes oversimplifies and cuts a few logic corners. Ehrenreich complains about the inadequacy of public health resources but doesn’t acknowledge that the botched performance of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention undermined public confidence in making such investments. He minimizes the role of social media in disseminating disinformation because he doesn’t seem to understand (or chooses to ignore) how algorithms and targeting work so destructively on such platforms.
But the places where readers might take exception don’t diminish Ehrenreich’s overall premise; there is way more to nod your head at than not. He is perhaps most convincing when pointing to the corrosive impact of the tight corporate hold on society. He shows quite clearly how greed and unchecked capitalism are behind most of the ills we experience — the lion’s share of which are visited on the poorest, the most vulnerable, and Black and Brown communities.
The book is not to be read for practical solutions. Ehrenreich’s main conclusion — that the only way to prevent future pandemics is to end deforestation and factory farming, and to address racism, poverty and political polarization — won’t leave the reader with hope that we are headed anywhere good soon. It’s not just a gridlocked Congress and a polarized public that are at issue, but the complexity of many of these policy areas (such as the need for affordable food for developing countries). In any event, in the real world, even far more modest efforts to invest in a better public health system aren’t getting traction.
Too many of us come to the topic of the pandemic both weary and entrenched in our views based on how it’s affected us and the people we know. Ehrenreich’s worldview isn’t well-hidden in his telling of events. If you share this view, the book will confirm what you believe, and it is chock full of additional data for your arsenal.
But the best way to come to this topic is with curiosity. There is much more we don’t know — even at the most basic level — and what we do know is caught up in a multitude of complex forces. If you’re ready to engage with a well-argued point of view, if you want more than simple epidemiological answers, and if you think it’s important that we understand our own role and are willing to accept some share of the responsibility, this book will engage you even when it doesn’t always persuade you.
Andy Slavitt was President Biden’s White House senior adviser for the pandemic response and served as President Barack Obama’s head of Medicare and Medicaid. He is the author of “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response” and the host of the podcast “In the Bubble.”
The Making of a Pandemic
Social, Political, and Psychological Perspectives on Covid-19
By John Ehrenreich
Springer Nature. 150 pp. $54.99 | 2022-07-29T12:11:57Z | www.washingtonpost.com | Book review of "The Making of a Pandemic: Social, Political, and Psychological Perspectives on COVID-19" by John Ehrenreich - The Washington Post | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/29/how-decades-greed-bad-choices-left-us-vulnerable-pandemic/ | https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/07/29/how-decades-greed-bad-choices-left-us-vulnerable-pandemic/ |
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