theguardian--2020-09-18--Texas is a 'voter suppression' state and one of the hardest places to vote. Will it help Trump win?

Cynthia Riley realized some voters might not wear face masks when she staffed Texas ’ s primary runoff elections in July .
But she hadn ’ t predicted that her fellow election clerks and one of the judges in Plano , Texas , would refuse to don basic protective gear at the start of a 14-hour shift sitting shoulder-to-shoulder .
“ I don ’ t have to wear a mask , and I ’ m not going to , ” she remembers the Republican judge snapping at her .
Riley , who has a chronic breathing problem , abandoned her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ polls , though she didn ’ t do so thoughtlessly .
She has worked elections since 2016 , and she understands the difference the staff makes .
“ I just feel like it matters a lot who ’ s there , ” she said .
Things can happen , she said , if there aren ’ t clerks onsite who “ are willing to open their mouth ” .
Across the United States , the coronavirus pandemic has threatened the democratic process ahead of the presidential election .
But the situation is even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have long devised a tortuous system that actively disadvantages minority communities who would generally lean Democratic .
Long lines , voter intimidation , voting machine malfunctions and other issues afflicted almost 278,000 Texans during the midterm election in 2018 , according to the Texas Civil Rights Project .
Most recently , Harris county – by far Texas ’ s most populous county , which includes Houston and has the most Covid-19 cases and fatalities in the state – became embroiled in a court battle with the Texas attorney general over whether the county @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to all voters ( a state district judge ’ s recent decision says he can , but the Texas supreme court blocked him from doing so “ until further order ” as the state appeals ) .
From antiquated voter registration practices to a controversial voter ID law , “ Republicans have spent the better part of the last two decades ” finding ways to challenge Texas voters , said Rose Clouston , voter protection director for the Texas Democratic party .
Now , the myriad ways in which they neglected to “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 21st century are only exacerbated and more problematic in a pandemic ” .
Just getting on the electoral rolls in Texas can be arduous , with restrictions on where and when voters can register and who can help them through the process .
Unlike in 21 states and Washington DC , there is no same-day voter registration ; to participate in the presidential election this November , voters must register roughly a month in advance .
Texas also doesn ’ t provide online voter registration – a critical difference from the vast majority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to risk an in-person interaction or rely on the beleaguered US Postal Service to deliver their applications .
“ Voter suppression is encapsulated in every part of voting in the state , ” said Louis Bedford IV , an election protection legal fellow with the Texas Civil Rights Project .
And this symphony of restrictions has contributed to low voter turnout in the state for years .
Judge Orlando Garcia of the US district court ruled last month that Texas was violating federal law by not allowing people to simultaneously apply to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s license or submit a change-of-address application online .
He mandated the state to devise an online system for voter registration no later than 23 September .
Amid that bottleneck , voter registration drives have faced serious roadblocks , as only Texans who are US citizens and undergo training can be appointed as volunteer deputy registrars and register others to vote , a burden some organizers were already struggling to overcome pre-Covid-19 .
Texas is the only state that requires people to be deputized in order to conduct a drive , a 2012 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indicates .
There is no statewide certification , so volunteers can not sign up voters from counties where they are not already sanctioned , out of 254 counties across the state .
Thousands of volunteer deputy registrars would have flocked to parades , block parties and other crowded events over the summer to register their neighbors under normal circumstances .
But , “ because we believe in the science and don ’ t wan na ask our people to put themselves at risk , those things are not happening ” during the health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after a slow start , new Texas voter registrations in June and July actually outpaced the same months in 2016 , a recent report from the Center for Election Innovation and Research shows .
Democrats mounted the single largest weeklong effort around voter registration in state party history this summer , reaching out to 1.3 million unregistered voters .
Amid the public health crisis that has killed nearly 200,000 people in the US , some states have opened up mail-in voting to residents with concerns over Covid-19 .
Not Texas .
“ They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not easing vote-by-mail restrictions , hoping that when we have to choose between our health and our constitutional duty to vote , that we ’ ll stay home , ” said MJ Hegar , the Democrat running to unseat the Republican incumbent US senator John Cornyn .
“ But frankly , they don ’ t know Texans very well .
When you try to intimidate us out of doing something , we just want to do it more.
” The Democratic party ’ s Clouston described “ heartbreaking conversations ” during the primary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ either breaking lockdown to cast a ballot or protecting an immunocompromised child at home .
Low-income , minority voters – many of whom are essential workers – have borne the brunt of the virus .
They may also work hours that make a trip to the polls difficult , said Brittany Perry , an instructional associate professor at Texas A & M University .
“ The number of institutional and personal hurdles is kinda stacking on top of these communities that tend to , of course , vote Democratic , ” she said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to expand its limited vote-by-mail eligibility , so far to no avail .
A more inclusive version of vote-by mail “ would benefit voters ” , Clouston said .
“ It would benefit voters ’ health .
It would benefit voters ’ confidence .
And it would benefit their safety.
” Young people in Texas fueled Beto O ’ Rourke ’ s 2018 senatorial bid , and college students overwhelmingly lean middle of the road , liberal or far left .
But while Texas ’ s voter ID law allows residents to use @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , student IDs have been left off the approved list .
When Brian Rowland attended Prairie View A & M University – a historically Black institution near Houston – in the early-2000s , the students there received a letter from their district attorney singling them out and detailing the potential penalties associated with voting in the county .
The letter embodied “ the front , in-your-face of how emboldened people were at that moment in time ” , said Rowland , who is now a Prairie View city council member .
Students at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for decades , from fighting their way to the US supreme court in 1979 to secure the right to vote based on their college address , to 19 students being indicted in 1992 over voting , though the cases were later dismissed for insufficient evidence .
During the last midterm election , the school continued to field issues , from a voter registration dispute to allegations of voter suppression .
“ It ’ s continued to be that : this cloud of , ‘ what is it about Waller county not wanting Prairie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote ?
’ ” Rowland said .
At Texas A & M University , one of the state ’ s gargantuan public schools , the early voting location is hard to find , there has been a change of venue for the polls on election day this year and the pandemic presents even more challenges to disseminating information about where to vote , said Raven Atkinson , a senior studying political science .
She expects long lines that will especially affect student workers , who “ don ’ t have time to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advocates ’ attempts to add a second polling place on or near campus have fallen on deaf ears .
Alleged voter intimidation pervades much of Texas .
Officials have been quick to threaten prosecution – or actually prosecute – voters , so the specter of criminalization acts as yet another deterrent against participating in the democratic process .
In 2018 , the Harris county GOP ’ s ballot security chairman , Alan Vera , challenged about 4,000 voter registrations in one fell swoop , supposedly because voters had listed post offices or parcel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voter in Texas can challenge the legality of other voters ’ registrations within the same county , and Vera ’ s challenges resulted in more than 1,700 wrongful voter suspensions because of a “ software glitch ” , according to the Houston Chronicle .
Then , last year , state officials caught Donald Trump ’ s attention with the insinuation that almost 100,000 voters had been illegally registered .
But they later dropped their review after many of those people turned out to be naturalized citizens flagged through flawed methodology .
Permitted voter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ access , Perry said , while widespread poll closures have also disproportionately affected areas with burgeoning Black and brown populations .
“ You have a general environment of neglect .
And then you have these episodes of aggressive suppression intent , ” said Clarissa Martínez , deputy vice-president of the Latino civil rights and advocacy organization UnidosUS .
Despite the pandemic , the “ historically high ” stakes this election cycle have given voters plenty of reasons to cast a ballot , Perry suggested .
“ The people see such a huge gulf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for supporters of the Democratic nominee , Joe Biden , one of his greatest draws is that he isn ’ t Trump .
After a series of polls that signal a competitive race in Texas , Trump is now only “ slightly favored ” to win the famously red state , according to the political forecaster FiveThirtyEight .
In recent years , Texas ’ s historically low voter participation has been surging , and Clouston anticipates the election will see record-breaking turnout .
“ I know that Texans are incredibly motivated and excited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Clouston said .
“ And to have a change in leadership .
”

Cynthia Riley realized some voters might not wear face masks when she staffed Texas’s primary runoff elections in July. But she hadn’t predicted that her fellow election clerks and one of the judges in Plano, Texas, would refuse to don basic protective gear at the start of a 14-hour shift sitting shoulder-to-shoulder.
“I don’t have to wear a mask, and I’m not going to,” she remembers the Republican judge snapping at her.
Riley, who has a chronic breathing problem, abandoned her post after maybe 30 minutes at the polls, though she didn’t do so thoughtlessly. She has worked elections since 2016, and she understands the difference the staff makes. “I just feel like it matters a lot who’s there,” she said. Things can happen, she said, if there aren’t clerks onsite who “are willing to open their mouth”.
Across the United States, the coronavirus pandemic has threatened the democratic process ahead of the presidential election. But the situation is even more acute in Texas, where Republicans have long devised a tortuous system that actively disadvantages minority communities who would generally lean Democratic. Long lines, voter intimidation, voting machine malfunctions and other issues afflicted almost 278,000 Texans during the midterm election in 2018, according to the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Most recently, Harris county – by far Texas’s most populous county, which includes Houston and has the most Covid-19 cases and fatalities in the state – became embroiled in a court battle with the Texas attorney general over whether the county clerk can even send mail-in ballot applications to all voters (a state district judge’s recent decision says he can, but the Texas supreme court blocked him from doing so “until further order” as the state appeals).
From antiquated voter registration practices to a controversial voter ID law, “Republicans have spent the better part of the last two decades” finding ways to challenge Texas voters, said Rose Clouston, voter protection director for the Texas Democratic party. Now, the myriad ways in which they neglected to “bring Texas’s election into the 21st century are only exacerbated and more problematic in a pandemic”.
Voters stand in line before the polling center is opened at Disciple Central community church in DeSoto, Texas in July. Photograph: Cooper Neill/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Just getting on the electoral rolls in Texas can be arduous, with restrictions on where and when voters can register and who can help them through the process. Unlike in 21 states and Washington DC, there is no same-day voter registration; to participate in the presidential election this November, voters must register roughly a month in advance.
Texas also doesn’t provide online voter registration – a critical difference from the vast majority of states – which means residents either have to risk an in-person interaction or rely on the beleaguered US Postal Service to deliver their applications.
“Voter suppression is encapsulated in every part of voting in the state,” said Louis Bedford IV, an election protection legal fellow with the Texas Civil Rights Project. And this symphony of restrictions has contributed to low voter turnout in the state for years.
Judge Orlando Garcia of the US district court ruled last month that Texas was violating federal law by not allowing people to simultaneously apply to vote when they renew a driver’s license or submit a change-of-address application online. He mandated the state to devise an online system for voter registration no later than 23 September.
Amid that bottleneck, voter registration drives have faced serious roadblocks, as only Texans who are US citizens and undergo training can be appointed as volunteer deputy registrars and register others to vote, a burden some organizers were already struggling to overcome pre-Covid-19. Texas is the only state that requires people to be deputized in order to conduct a drive, a 2012 report by the Brennan Center for Justice indicates. There is no statewide certification, so volunteers cannot sign up voters from counties where they are not already sanctioned, out of 254 counties across the state.
Thousands of volunteer deputy registrars would have flocked to parades, block parties and other crowded events over the summer to register their neighbors under normal circumstances. But, “because we believe in the science and don’t wanna ask our people to put themselves at risk, those things are not happening” during the health emergency, Clouston said.
Nevertheless, after a slow start, new Texas voter registrations in June and July actually outpaced the same months in 2016, a recent report from the Center for Election Innovation and Research shows. Democrats mounted the single largest weeklong effort around voter registration in state party history this summer, reaching out to 1.3 million unregistered voters.
Don Caple shows a stack of voter registration forms at his roadside Trump-themed trailer in Amarillo. Photograph: Bryan R Smith/AFP/Getty Images
Amid the public health crisis that has killed nearly 200,000 people in the US, some states have opened up mail-in voting to residents with concerns over Covid-19. Not Texas.
“They’re trying to scare us by not easing vote-by-mail restrictions, hoping that when we have to choose between our health and our constitutional duty to vote, that we’ll stay home,” said MJ Hegar, the Democrat running to unseat the Republican incumbent US senator John Cornyn. “But frankly, they don’t know Texans very well. When you try to intimidate us out of doing something, we just want to do it more.”
The Democratic party’s Clouston described “heartbreaking conversations” during the primary runoff as voters made impossible calculations around either breaking lockdown to cast a ballot or protecting an immunocompromised child at home. Low-income, minority voters – many of whom are essential workers – have borne the brunt of the virus. They may also work hours that make a trip to the polls difficult, said Brittany Perry, an instructional associate professor at Texas A&M University.
“The number of institutional and personal hurdles is kinda stacking on top of these communities that tend to, of course, vote Democratic,” she said.
Democrats have jockeyed for the state to expand its limited vote-by-mail eligibility, so far to no avail.
A more inclusive version of vote-by mail “would benefit voters”, Clouston said. “It would benefit voters’ health. It would benefit voters’ confidence. And it would benefit their safety.”
Young people in Texas fueled Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 senatorial bid, and college students overwhelmingly lean middle of the road, liberal or far left. But while Texas’s voter ID law allows residents to use their handgun license to confirm their identity, student IDs have been left off the approved list.
When Brian Rowland attended Prairie View A&M University – a historically Black institution near Houston – in the early-2000s, the students there received a letter from their district attorney singling them out and detailing the potential penalties associated with voting in the county.
The letter embodied “the front, in-your-face of how emboldened people were at that moment in time”, said Rowland, who is now a Prairie View city council member.
Students at the university have faced obstacles to voting for decades, from fighting their way to the US supreme court in 1979 to secure the right to vote based on their college address, to 19 students being indicted in 1992 over voting, though the cases were later dismissed for insufficient evidence. During the last midterm election, the school continued to field issues, from a voter registration dispute to allegations of voter suppression.
“It’s continued to be that: this cloud of, ‘what is it about Waller county not wanting Prairie View students to have the right to vote?’” Rowland said.
At Texas A&M University, one of the state’s gargantuan public schools, the early voting location is hard to find, there has been a change of venue for the polls on election day this year and the pandemic presents even more challenges to disseminating information about where to vote, said Raven Atkinson, a senior studying political science.
She expects long lines that will especially affect student workers, who “don’t have time to be waiting hours to vote”. But advocates’ attempts to add a second polling place on or near campus have fallen on deaf ears.
Voting booths are spaced out for social distancing. Photograph: David J Phillip/AP
Alleged voter intimidation pervades much of Texas. Officials have been quick to threaten prosecution – or actually prosecute – voters, so the specter of criminalization acts as yet another deterrent against participating in the democratic process.
In 2018, the Harris county GOP’s ballot security chairman, Alan Vera, challenged about 4,000 voter registrations in one fell swoop, supposedly because voters had listed post offices or parcel stores under their addresses. Any registered voter in Texas can challenge the legality of other voters’ registrations within the same county, and Vera’s challenges resulted in more than 1,700 wrongful voter suspensions because of a “software glitch”, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Then, last year, state officials caught Donald Trump’s attention with the insinuation that almost 100,000 voters had been illegally registered. But they later dropped their review after many of those people turned out to be naturalized citizens flagged through flawed methodology.
Permitted voter IDs are generally harder for minorities to access, Perry said, while widespread poll closures have also disproportionately affected areas with burgeoning Black and brown populations.
“You have a general environment of neglect. And then you have these episodes of aggressive suppression intent,” said Clarissa Martínez, deputy vice-president of the Latino civil rights and advocacy organization UnidosUS.
Despite the pandemic, the “historically high” stakes this election cycle have given voters plenty of reasons to cast a ballot, Perry suggested. “The people see such a huge gulf between the two candidates,” and for supporters of the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, one of his greatest draws is that he isn’t Trump.
After a series of polls that signal a competitive race in Texas, Trump is now only “slightly favored” to win the famously red state, according to the political forecaster FiveThirtyEight. In recent years, Texas’s historically low voter participation has been surging, and Clouston anticipates the election will see record-breaking turnout.
“I know that Texans are incredibly motivated and excited to vote in this election,” Clouston said. “And to have a change in leadership.”
Erum Salam contributed reporting from Texas.


theguardian--2020-09-18--'Hail, gallant woman': Amy Dorris praised for coming forward with Trump assault allegation

A prominent American former magazine columnist who accused Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s has joined a chorus of voices supporting the latest woman to accuse Trump of sexually assaulting her , Amy Dorris .
Dorris , a former model and actor , said in a Guardian interview published on Thursday that Trump had forced his tongue down her throat and groped her at the 1997 US Open .
“ I feel sick , violated – it makes me sick , ” Dorris told the Guardian .
Dorris became the 25th woman to make accusations of sexual misconduct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sexual assault and rape .
Trump has denied wrongdoing in every case .
But E Jean Carroll , a writer and longtime columnist for Elle magazine who has accused Trump of rape and defamation , said Dorris had added to the voices of dozens of women whose descriptions of sexual misconduct by Trump bear striking similarities .
“ Dear Amy Dorris : Hail , Gallant Woman !
” Carroll wrote on Twitter .
“ When you came forward today with your story about @ realDonaldTrump , you came forward in support of ALL @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Carroll linked to a recent interview she conducted with Karena Virginia , who alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her at the same tennis tournament a year after Dorris was there .
Sara Ziff , the founder and director of the Model Alliance labor rights organization , which advocates on behalf of victims of sexual assault , gave “ kudos ” to Dorris for stepping forward , while Don Beyer , a Democratic representative from Virginia , flagged “ a new , credible allegation ” of sexual assault by Trump .
“ How @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” asked Naveed Jamali , a Newsweek editor-at-large .
A legal adviser on the Trump campaign , Jenna Ellis , told NBC News the “ allegations are totally false .
We will consider every legal means available to hold the Guardian accountable for its malicious publication of this unsubstantiated story .
This is just another pathetic attempt to attack President Trump right before the election.
” The Trump administration has struck an aggressive posture against perceived antagonists on the eve of the election that critics say has blurred the lines between the presidency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and political needs of Trump himself .
In a highly unusual development last week , the justice department , led by the attorney general , William Barr , announced it was intervening in the Carroll defamation lawsuit to protect the president – although the alleged assault predates Trump ’ s presidency by two decades .
Trump himself did not comment on the Dorris allegations on Thursday .
But they landed just six months after the president made a proclamation to mark National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month .
“ No person should @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indignity of sexual assault , ” the proclamation said .
“ This horrific crime affects Americans of every age , ethnicity , and socioeconomic status .
During National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month , we reaffirm our commitment to supporting survivors of sexual assault , encouraging strong criminal justice responses to these crimes , and ending the scourge of sexual violence in our homes and communities .
”

A prominent American former magazine columnist who accused Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s has joined a chorus of voices supporting the latest woman to accuse Trump of sexually assaulting her, Amy Dorris.
Dorris, a former model and actor, said in a Guardian interview published on Thursday that Trump had forced his tongue down her throat and groped her at the 1997 US Open.
“I feel sick, violated – it makes me sick,” Dorris told the Guardian.
Dorris became the 26th woman to make accusations of sexual misconduct against Trump, ranging from harassment to sexual assault and rape.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in every case.
But E Jean Carroll, a writer and longtime columnist for Elle magazine who has accused Trump of rape and defamation, said Dorris had added to the voices of dozens of women whose descriptions of sexual misconduct by Trump bear striking similarities.
“Dear Amy Dorris: Hail, Gallant Woman!” Carroll wrote on Twitter. “When you came forward today with your story about Donald Trump, you came forward in support of ALL WOMEN. Ravishing regards, E Jean.”
Carroll linked to a recent interview she conducted with Karena Virginia, who alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her at the same tennis tournament a year after Dorris was there.
E Jean Carroll in New York last year. Photograph: Craig Ruttle/AP
Sara Ziff, the founder and director of the Model Alliance labor rights organization, which advocates on behalf of victims of sexual assault, gave “kudos” to Dorris for stepping forward, while Don Beyer, a Democratic representative from Virginia, flagged “a new, credible allegation” of sexual assault by Trump.
“How many more women will come forward?” asked Naveed Jamali, a Newsweek editor-at-large.
“It’s insane that there are so many allegations against the president of the United States for sexual assault that most stories begin with ‘another woman’ to describe the latest accusation against Trump,” tweeted Josh Jordan, a widely followed polling analyst.
Liz Plank, a journalist and NBC News host, expressed exasperation at how Trump has eluded true accountability for his alleged past conduct as a serial sexual assailant.
“I’ve run out of ways to explain why it is upsetting that the president of the United States is a man who has been accused of having spent much of his adult life hurting women,” she wrote. “In any other news cycle – and any other reality – this should be big news the least we can do is to force ourselves not to become numb to the accusations.”
A legal adviser on the Trump campaign, Jenna Ellis, told NBC News the “allegations are totally false. We will consider every legal means available to hold the Guardian accountable for its malicious publication of this unsubstantiated story. This is just another pathetic attempt to attack President Trump right before the election.”
Dorris has described how years of anguish and a sense of duty to speak out led to her decision to tell her story. A close friend of Dorris, Caron Bernstein, bolstered that account in an interview published Friday by USA Today. “It had nothing to do with anything political,” said Bernstein. “The ball dropped, and it just happened to drop now.”
The Trump administration has struck an aggressive posture against perceived antagonists on the eve of the election that critics say has blurred the lines between the presidency and the more private and urgent legal and political needs of Trump himself.
In a highly unusual development last week, the justice department, led by the attorney general, William Barr, announced it was intervening in the Carroll defamation lawsuit to protect the president – although the alleged assault predates Trump’s presidency by two decades.
Trump himself did not comment on the Dorris allegations on Thursday. But they landed just six months after the president made a proclamation to mark National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.
“No person should ever have to endure the anguish and indignity of sexual assault,” the proclamation said.
“This horrific crime affects Americans of every age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. During National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, we reaffirm our commitment to supporting survivors of sexual assault, encouraging strong criminal justice responses to these crimes, and ending the scourge of sexual violence in our homes and communities.”


theguardian--2020-09-18--CDC Covid testing guidelines were watered down despite internal objections – report

Guidance about coronavirus testing posted in August on the website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) was not written by the agency ’ s scientists and was posted despite their objections , the New York Times has reported , citing people familiar with the matter and internal documents .
The guidance deemed it unnecessary to test people with no symptoms of Covid-19 , even if they had been exposed .
The agency ’ s previous position recommended testing all people who have had close contact with anyone diagnosed with Covid-19 .
The reversal shocked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political interference .
Admiral Brett Giroir , assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services ( HHS ) – the CDC ’ s parent – at the time said the goal was “ appropriate testing ” , not more testing for its own sake , and that there had been no political pressure .
Internal documents on the matter contained “ elementary errors ” – such as referring to “ testing for Covid-19 ” , as opposed to testing for the coronavirus , which causes it – and recommendations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the New York Times reported on Thursday , citing a senior CDC scientist .
Trump administration officials told the NYT that the documents were produced by the CDC and had been revised with input from agency director Robert Redfield .
However the NYT also reported that HHS rewrote and then “ dropped ” the guidance into the CDC ’ s website , flouting the agency ’ s review process .
Redfield told Reuters : “ The guidelines , coordinated in conjunction with the White House coronavirus task force , received appropriate attention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experts.
” A HHS spokeswoman told Reuters that guidance always received input from medical and scientific experts on the task force .
A new version of the guidance , expected to be posted on Friday , had not been cleared by the CDC and was being revised by HHS officials , the NYT reported , citing a federal official .

Guidance about coronavirus testing posted in August on the website of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was not written by the agency’s scientists and was posted despite their objections, the New York Times has reported, citing people familiar with the matter and internal documents.
The guidance deemed it unnecessary to test people with no symptoms of Covid-19, even if they had been exposed.
The agency’s previous position recommended testing all people who have had close contact with anyone diagnosed with Covid-19. The reversal shocked doctors and politicians and prompted accusations of political interference.
Admiral Brett Giroir, assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – the CDC’s parent – at the time said the goal was “appropriate testing”, not more testing for its own sake, and that there had been no political pressure.
Internal documents on the matter contained “elementary errors” – such as referring to “testing for Covid-19”, as opposed to testing for the coronavirus, which causes it – and recommendations inconsistent with the CDC’s stance, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing a senior CDC scientist.
Trump administration officials told the NYT that the documents were produced by the CDC and had been revised with input from agency director Robert Redfield.
However the NYT also reported that HHS rewrote and then “dropped” the guidance into the CDC’s website, flouting the agency’s review process.
Redfield told Reuters: “The guidelines, coordinated in conjunction with the White House coronavirus task force, received appropriate attention, consultation and input from task force experts.”
A HHS spokeswoman told Reuters that guidance always received input from medical and scientific experts on the task force.
A new version of the guidance, expected to be posted on Friday, had not been cleared by the CDC and was being revised by HHS officials, the NYT reported, citing a federal official.


theguardian--2020-09-18--Joe Biden: trust scientists, not Trump, on realities of coronavirus

Joe Biden sent a message to voters on Thursday night that differed starkly from Donald Trump ’ s unlikely coronavirus promises , saying : “ The idea that there ’ s going to be a vaccine , and everything is going to be fine tomorrow is just not rational , just not reasonable.
” Speaking at a drive-in town hall in the Pennsylvania town of Moosic , just south of Scranton , the Democratic nominee warned the country would not immediately return to normal life even if a coronavirus vaccine was soon approved .
Biden ’ s CNN town hall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a similar event in nearby Philadelphia , but the president sent a very different message on the pandemic , once again implausibly suggesting coronavirus was “ going to disappear ” and that a vaccine would be available in weeks .
Biden ’ s unusual town hall venue underscored the long road ahead the country faces .
Biden addressed an audience of about 250 voters , some of whom sat in camping chairs next to their parked cars as the former vice-president took their questions .
“ Who knew drive-ins were coming back ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the start of the event .
Echoing comments he made during a Wednesday speech , Biden said he did not trust Trump ’ s statements on the development of a coronavirus vaccine , accusing the president of politicizing the issue for the sake of his re-election .
“ I don ’ t trust the president on vaccines .
I trust Dr Fauci , ” Biden said , referring to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases .
“ If Fauci says the vaccine is safe , I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ listen to the scientists , not to the president.
” Biden ’ s comments were a notable contrast to Trump ’ s clash this week with Dr Robert Redfield , the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
The president questioned Redfield ’ s credibility on Wednesday , after the CDC director testified to the Senate that a coronavirus vaccine would not be widely available until the late second quarter or early third quarter of next year .
Trump claimed Redfield was “ confused ” when he made that prediction @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Trump ’ s response to the pandemic had been “ close to criminal ” , and he did not shy away from discussing the country ’ s mounting coronavirus death toll , which is expected to surpass 200,000 within days .
The first voter to ask Biden a question , Shani Adams , noted she recently lost her sister to coronavirus .
Biden expressed his condolences to Adams and told her : “ You know , we talk about almost 200,000 deaths and it ’ s almost like background noise .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” In contrast Trump suggested on Wednesday that the country ’ s coronavirus death toll would be much lower if Americans who lived in Democratic-controlled states were not counted .
Virtually every answer Biden provided on Thursday appeared designed to draw a clear distinction between himself and the current president .
Drawing on his early childhood in Pennsylvania , Biden described the presidential race as “ a campaign between Scranton and Park Avenue ” .
When Anderson asked Biden if he believed he had benefited from white privilege in his life , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pivoted to a reflection on classism .
“ Grow up here in Scranton .
We ’ re used to guys who look down their nose at us , ” Biden said .
“ Guys like Trump , who inherited everything and squandered what they inherited , are the people that I ’ ve always had a problem with .
Not the people who are busting their neck.
” While a number of Biden ’ s answers were short on policy details , the Democrat instead spent much of the night presenting a character-based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for raising doubts about the legitimacy of the election , Biden asked , “ What ’ s happened to us ?
This is not who we are .
This is not what America is .
No president ’ s ever said anything like that.
” When asked if he would accept the results of the election , Biden said : “ Sure , the full results , count every vote.
” The next major opportunity for Biden to change the minds of undecided voters will come later this month when he debates Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cooper that he had already started preparing for the debates , studying Trump ’ s recent comments and crafting concise answers to potential questions .
“ I ’ m looking forward to it , ” Biden said .

Joe Biden sent a message to voters on Thursday night that differed starkly from Donald Trump’s unlikely coronavirus promises, saying: “The idea that there’s going to be a vaccine, and everything is going to be fine tomorrow is just not rational, just not reasonable.”
Speaking at a drive-in town hall in the Pennsylvania town of Moosic, just south of Scranton, the Democratic nominee warned the country would not immediately return to normal life even if a coronavirus vaccine was soon approved.
Biden’s CNN town hall came two days after Donald Trump held a similar event in nearby Philadelphia, but the president sent a very different message on the pandemic, once again implausibly suggesting coronavirus was “going to disappear” and that a vaccine would be available in weeks.
Biden’s unusual town hall venue underscored the long road ahead the country faces. Biden addressed an audience of about 250 voters, some of whom sat in camping chairs next to their parked cars as the former vice-president took their questions. “Who knew drive-ins were coming back?” the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper joked at the start of the event.
Echoing comments he made during a Wednesday speech, Biden said he did not trust Trump’s statements on the development of a coronavirus vaccine, accusing the president of politicizing the issue for the sake of his re-election.
“I don’t trust the president on vaccines. I trust Dr Fauci,” Biden said, referring to the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “If Fauci says the vaccine is safe, I’d take the vaccine. We should listen to the scientists, not to the president.”
Biden’s comments were a notable contrast to Trump’s clash this week with Dr Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The president questioned Redfield’s credibility on Wednesday, after the CDC director testified to the Senate that a coronavirus vaccine would not be widely available until the late second quarter or early third quarter of next year. Trump claimed Redfield was “confused” when he made that prediction.
During his town hall, Biden said Trump’s response to the pandemic had been “close to criminal”, and he did not shy away from discussing the country’s mounting coronavirus death toll, which is expected to surpass 200,000 within days.
The first voter to ask Biden a question, Shani Adams, noted she recently lost her sister to coronavirus. Biden expressed his condolences to Adams and told her: “You know, we talk about almost 200,000 deaths and it’s almost like background noise. But it means a lot of empty chairs.”
In contrast Trump suggested on Wednesday that the country’s coronavirus death toll would be much lower if Americans who lived in Democratic-controlled states were not counted.
Virtually every answer Biden provided on Thursday appeared designed to draw a clear distinction between himself and the current president. Drawing on his early childhood in Pennsylvania, Biden described the presidential race as “a campaign between Scranton and Park Avenue”.
When Anderson asked Biden if he believed he had benefited from white privilege in his life, the Democratic nominee acknowledged he had but quickly pivoted to a reflection on classism.
“Grow up here in Scranton. We’re used to guys who look down their nose at us,” Biden said. “Guys like Trump, who inherited everything and squandered what they inherited, are the people that I’ve always had a problem with. Not the people who are busting their neck.”
While a number of Biden’s answers were short on policy details, the Democrat instead spent much of the night presenting a character-based argument for his candidacy. Criticizing Trump for raising doubts about the legitimacy of the election, Biden asked, “What’s happened to us? This is not who we are. This is not what America is. No president’s ever said anything like that.”
When asked if he would accept the results of the election, Biden said: “Sure, the full results, count every vote.”
The next major opportunity for Biden to change the minds of undecided voters will come later this month when he debates Trump for the first time. Biden told Cooper that he had already started preparing for the debates, studying Trump’s recent comments and crafting concise answers to potential questions. “I’m looking forward to it,” Biden said.


theguardian--2020-09-18--Why is Biden polling better than Clinton did?: Politics Weekly Extra  podcast

This week , Jonathan Freedland speaks with the Guardian ’ s Washington DC bureau chief David Smith about why Joe @ @ @ @ @ than Hillary Clinton did in the polls in 2016 This week , the question is @ @ @ @ @ polling better than Clinton did in 2016 ?
” Polls don ’ t necessarily determine @ @ @ @ @ , as anyone who lived through the 2016 election knows – Democrats especially .
However @ @ @ @ @ Joe Biden has had a consistent lead over Donald Trump for the last 12 months @ @ @ @ @ averaged out , he is 6.2 % ahead .
Around the same time in 2016 @ @ @ @ @ lead over Trump was just 1 % .
So , what is causing this bump @ @ @ @ @ To delve into the many possible reasons , Jonathan Freedland is joined by the Guardian @ @ @ @ @ , David Smith .
• Let us know what you think of the podcast : @ @ @ @ @ @ theguardian.com • Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts

Presented by Jonathan Freedland, with David Smith. Produced by Danielle Stephens

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks with the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief David Smith about why Joe Biden is seemingly doing better than Hillary Clinton did in the polls in 2016
This week, the question is: “Why is Biden polling better than Clinton did in 2016?” Polls don’t necessarily determine who will win an election, as anyone who lived through the 2016 election knows – Democrats especially.
However, it is noticeable that Joe Biden has had a consistent lead over Donald Trump for the last 12 months and that when polls are averaged out, he is 6.2% ahead. Around the same time in 2016, Hillary Clinton’s lead over Trump was just 1%. So, what is causing this bump in numbers for Biden?
To delve into the many possible reasons, Jonathan Freedland is joined by the Guardian’s Washington Bureau Chief, David Smith.
Let us know what you think of the podcast: send your feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com
Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts


theguardian--2020-09-17--How is arguing with Trump voters working out for you?

I was a child when their family , the extremist group called Westboro Baptist church , began picketing in Kansas in 1991 .
Driven by patriarch Fred Phelps ’ s homophobic interpretation of the Bible , they quickly became infamous for wielding shocking slogans and shouting lurid insults in public spaces .
It would be easy to write them off as monsters – a familiar impulse in today ’ s political climate , particularly toward supporters of Donald Trump .
But , with democracy itself on the line this election year , we must remain open to the possibility of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first time in the late 90s at the University of Kansas .
I was a first-generation college student who had inherited no family political tradition .
We were working in wheat fields when better-off families were attending civic events or reading opinion pages .
In that void , I had absorbed a vague , moderate conservatism from the prevailing culture of my Reagan-era childhood and adolescence at the dawn of conservative talk radio .
On the typically liberal campus that was challenging my ideas , Westboro was a frequent , well-organized presence at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or lectures .
Over the previous decade , they had traversed the country to disrupt all manner of events , including the funerals of American soldiers and the murdered gay man Matthew Shepherd .
But KU – “ gay U ” , some Kansas conservatives liked to call it – was just down the road from their home in Topeka , so students like myself saw them often .
“ Fags die , God laughs , ” read one sign .
Later , in response to the 2001 terrorist attack on the World @ @ @ @ @ @ @ increasingly accepting of queerness – “ Planes crash , God laughs.
” The content of their message was horrifying , but the tone with which they shared it – smiling , smug self-righteousness , casting pity on us who weren ’ t saved – was repugnant , as well .
Their vitriol had the opposite of its intended effect , raising my awareness as a heterosexual , cis-gender woman of the trials faced by my LGBTQ+ peers .
By the time I graduated in 2002 , my politics had significantly altered .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sociology class for which I researched the impact of one ’ s race , gender and economic status on life outcomes , I concluded that affirmative action was right as rain .
I arrived with no concept of worker rights , all but erased from consciousness in my union-busted state ; after reading early 20th-century documents of the labor movement for an American literature class , I realized that I had been born near the bottom of a socioeconomic ladder my country kept insisting didn ’ t exist .
I arrived believing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fiscally conservative ; after excelling on campus while paying my own way through school and then graduating into poverty for lack of social capital – while watching less motivated , less capable children of affluence walk into prestigious internships and lucrative jobs – I viewed the so-called free market , welfare reform and low taxes as a thoroughly rigged system that only progressive measures could remedy .
To be clear , for all the claims to the contrary about universities , there was no agenda to convert me to liberalism .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so respectfully and gave me As .
Organizations such as the College Republicans were a visible presence .
Rather , my information sources and environment expanded .
Upon reviewing these new discoveries , I converted myself .
Plenty of students make no such shift .
Conservatism remains ever-available for those attending universities , as evidenced by the countless far-right college graduates currently running this country .
According to Pew Research Center , 51 % of men who voted for Republican congressional candidates in 2018 held college degrees .
While the Westboro group is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , their signature argument is decidedly far-right – and most of its leaders are credentialed attorneys .
Conversely , millions of Americans without college degrees develop progressive views by way of informal education : reading , observing , life experience .
It was not higher education that changed me but my willingness to change .
Among those born to bad or limited information – the flawed narratives of history books , the blinders of privilege , or propaganda on their parents ’ televisions and car radios—there are those who will stick with existing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But there are those who would reconsider , and we need them more than ever .
Megan Phelps-Roper would have been in her early teens , holding one of those hateful signs , when I passed her family on the way to class .
Like me , she attended public schools and consumed popular culture .
But , where my formative years were carved by mainstream influences – Catholicism , the nightly news , waiting tables – hers was the stuff of cults .
Her grandfather was the charismatic , zealous leader @ @ @ @ @ @ @ truth .
Doubt and dissent were discouraged , sometimes through abuse .
Shame and guilt were devices of control , and those who left were cut off from communication .
Phelps-Roper participated in a family protest against homosexuality for the first time at age five .
As she came of age , Phelps-Roper ’ s ability to assess information had been thoroughly perverted .
Westboro acted not out of hate but out of love , her elders taught her , to warn mortals of their sins so that they might repent and avoid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 26 , however , Phelps-Roper would make a much larger and braver leap than my political shift from center-right to solid left .
In 2012 , she left Westboro – her lifelong idea system , her only identity and nearly her entire family .
Just as the cruel signs she once held probably convinced few who saw them , it was not angry condemnations of her ideas that moved her toward the truth .
It was , rather , a handful of friendly strangers on Twitter , including a Jewish man who responded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sensing the humanity beneath her inhumane behavior , they thoughtfully pressed her with intellectual and philosophical debate over the course of several years .
“ People had grace for me when I seemed not to deserve it the most , ” Phelps-Roper told PBS ’ s Amanpour & Co. last year after the release of her memoir , Unfollow .
“ The fact that they were able to suspend their judgments long enough to have those conversations with me completely changed my life .
So now instead of me being out there with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ m working for healing and change to try to repair some of that damage.
” I noticed that , in her writings and interviews about her experience , Phelps-Roper does not favor the term “ cult ” .
I asked her whether , perhaps , she found the descriptor accurate but not constructive .
Phelps-Roper conceded that the term is accurate enough , even though some common features of cults are not true of Westboro , such as money-making schemes or sexual ownership of women by the leader .
“ ‘ Cult ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conveys the gist of the situation at Westboro and communities like it : a small , fringe group that exerts an inordinate amount of control over its members , exalting itself to special status via claims of unique access to truth , ” Phelps-Roper told me via online message .
All the same , she confirmed that she doesn ’ t use the term because it shuts down communication channels .
“ People tend to dismiss cult members as crazy or stupid , rather than complex human beings like everyone else , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and real understanding more difficult , and it can give us a false sense of security that we ’ re not subject to the same kinds of forces that draw people into these groups and keep them there.
” Plus , Phelps-Roper explained , she can ’ t get through to her family by lobbing labels that make them bristle .
“ I want to reach Westboro members – to help convince them that there are other , better ways of living in the world , ” she said .
“ If I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to describe people who are earnestly trying to do what they believe is right , I ’ m throwing obstacles in my own path and making change even more difficult than it naturally is.
” There has been much discussion in recent years about the extent to which liberal America should or should not have empathy for , say , economically distressed Trump voters .
Some encourage compassion about the hard lives that made some of them vulnerable to political fearmongering .
Others might point out that plenty of Trump voters are doing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whiteness and that , regardless of their reasons , we should practice zero tolerance toward agents of oppression .
The strongest position contains both truths .
We can acknowledge that destructive ideas have roots deeper than the individuals who hold them and yet firmly denounce such ideas .
To hear Mary Trump tell it in her new memoir , her uncle is severely dysfunctional in part because of his upbringing .
But the purpose of her story is not to engender sympathy for our current president , “ the world ’ s most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ show how he was made – revealing that the problem is not the current president but , rather , what patriarchy , corporate greed and white supremacy can make out of an innocent child born in the belly of all three .
You can be intellectually woke without being awakened to the largest truth : that we are all connected , enemies and allies alike .
The United States is teetering toward authoritarianism .
Are you still lecturing strangers on social media ?
Are you still shouting at a family member that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working out ?
If you want to stop fascism , the efficient mission is not to attack the opposing side .
It is , rather , to be the opposite of Donald Trump : a defiantly open heart who protects and bolsters valid information systems required for people to truly decide for themselves about all that he and his movement represent .
If you think such information is a given in the world we are living in , you are mistaken .
Many white people believe the current president is a good man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even disturbed ?
If they have valid news sources , then by my estimation , yes .
But many do not .
They live in spaces inundated by decades of rightwing propaganda and intentional manipulation of their fears .
Not everyone targeted by disinformation falls for it , and such experiences are not an excuse for racist , sexist , xenophobic views and political choices .
But they are a reason .
In March , 63 % of Fox News regulars , polled by the non-partisan Pew Research Center ’ s Election News @ @ @ @ @ @ @ response to the Covid-19 pandemic was “ excellent ” .
Just 23 % of average Americans – and a mere 2 % of MSNBC regulars – agreed .
MSNBC and Fox News ’ treatment of facts is not analogous .
The former comments with a liberal slant , while the latter now amounts to state television for a Republican White House .
But both sides of the American political divide have allegiances to information sources that affirm their existing beliefs .
Meanwhile , false information masquerading as fact is a common feature of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the 2016 election had a pro-Trump slant , and recent research studies have suggested that misinformation is most concentrated among conservative media consumers .
However , researchers at the University of Colorado published a report last May indicating that a substantial number of leftists share false or misleading information , too .
Let ’ s acknowledge that today ’ s cultural chasm is driven by social media streams and cable “ news ” programs .
It is easy , in such a splintered media ecosystem , to maintain a closed system of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ fake news ” .
Some of today ’ s most dangerous misinformation concerns a public health crisis .
What accounts for those who , say , insist that the Covid-19 pandemic is a hoax and thus refuse to wear a mask ?
According to a research report from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government , the strongest predictors of belief in Covid-19 conspiracy theories are not educational attainment or political affiliation but , along with partisan and ideological motivations , “ a psychological predisposition ” to dismiss experts and doubt mainstream narratives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is this predisposition owed ?
We enter treacherous territory when we diagnose something inherent about a person to explain her partisan leanings .
A major research study in 2016 debunked oft-cited studies claiming causality between personality and politics .
It is self-aggrandizing for the well-informed , though , to declare that gullibility is innate and that proponents of misinformation are just dumb .
Here we find the fatal flaw of self-congratulatory liberalism .
When presented with evidence of , say , lower salaries for women and higher incarceration among people of color , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outcomes result from innately lower aptitude , laziness and corrupt character .
We rightly point to the oppressive conditions of a racist , sexist state to explain such data .
In other words , we understand that the system failed the person , not the other way around .
Yet we place ideological identities in no such environmental context .
What if our systems failed the media consumers who are , for myriad reasons , easily taken by political lies ?
Underfunded public schools could be teaching media literacy and civics but are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ basic needs such as food and healthcare .
Underregulated , profit-driven social media companies have focused on mining user data rather than stopping malicious spread of false information on their platforms .
Understaffed publications of the free press have , amid efforts to adapt to the digital media economy , turned news into salacious , conflict-driven clickbait to maintain the bottom line .
We must approach the current political crisis less like a valid debate and more like the treatment of a toxic stream along which extremist factions swirl into themselves like eddies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re arguing with don ’ t even share a common set of definitions , let alone discussion frameworks or worldviews .
No movement can win in the 21st century without this understanding as a foundation .
To clear that toxic stream , we need robustly funded schools with civics curricula that activate participation in democracy , tell the story of all peoples , admit our often brutal history as a nation , and incorporate 21st-century media literacy as an essential tool of citizenship .
We need government crackdowns on big tech ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We need new , less compromised business models encouraging media members to be government watchdogs rather than generators of advertising revenue .
But information is only part of the solution for what ails our country .
Political scientists have long noted the role of emotion in political behavior , and logic will not sway positions that were not formed through logic .
Many Trump voters were moved not by facts but by the feelings their outrageous leader incites .
As conservative analyst Bill Kristol recently tweeted , reacting to news that the Republican @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President ’ s America-first agenda ” in lieu of any new platform , “ It ’ s no longer the Republican party .
It ’ s a Trump cult.
” Here we can learn from those like Phelps-Roper , who have freed themselves from irrational worldviews .
Reaching past someone ’ s biased influences , as her story of unlikely Twitter friendships reveals , requires not just better information but a non-confrontational , even respectful tone in conveying it .
Members of oppressed groups should not be expected to do this work , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emotional labor and at worst physically dangerous .
But what about would-be cultural bridge-builders protected by privileges such as whiteness and wealth ?
Should they bother ?
Yes .
Nationally , voters are breaking ranks from “ Trumpism ” , disavowing their lifelong party or finding belonging with “ never Trump ” Republican groups like the Lincoln Project .
My state government contains several elected officials who left the Republican Party and became Democrats in recent years—including a viable 2020 candidate for a U.S. Senate seat held by Republicans since 1919 .
From @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black Lives Matter movement successfully forced a national reckoning about race , the portion of white Republicans who said government spends too little on improving conditions for Black Americans more than doubled , rising from 14 to 33 % , according to a report from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research .
We should value justice over unity .
But there is more unity to be had than you might think from watching the news .
People change , and privileged Americans who can help them do so play an important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Phelps-Roper says in her much-viewed Ted Talk , the Twitter friends who helped her see the light “ didn ’ t abandon their beliefs or their principles – only their scorn .
They channeled their infinitely justifiable offense and came to me with pointed questions tempered with kindness and humor .
They approached me as a human being – and that was more transformative than two full decades of outrage , disdain and violence.
” If someone who dislikes this notion has changed someone ’ s mind through contempt and condescension , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The opposite is more likely to be true , in my experience .
The confronted person digs in , defends , doubles down .
In a July opinion piece for the New York Times , Charlie Warzel described a Senegalese medical anthropologist sent by the World Health Organization to Guinea , where residents were resisting public health guidance during the Ebola epidemic in 2014 .
He spent a long time listening , rather than lecturing , and realized that the people “ weren ’ t selfish or anti-science .
They were scared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who didn ’ t respect them or understand their traditions.
” While US “ anti-maskers ” of the Covid-19 pandemic are a different bunch , understanding their motives is necessary to successfully reach them .
“ You can not force public trust , ” Warzel wrote of the current health crisis .
“ You have to earn it by being humble and transparent , and by listening.
” Is such humility warranted in the face of terrible actors , those who not only refuse to wear a mask but refuse to accept the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
If an equitable , non-violent society is our goal , ideologies that seek to dismantle unjust power structures such as white supremacy and patriarchy are unequivocally better than those that do not .
There is no moral equivalence between the neo-Nazi and the Black Lives Matter protester , or the feminist marcher and the men ’ s rights activist .
Some ideas are superior to others .
But even if your ideas are superior , I am asking you to consider that you did not arrive at them because of your innate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social and racial privilege , you arrived at them because of your life experiences , your information sources , your community influences .
Even a psychological predisposition toward rational thinking , if this a valid possibility , is just a bit of good fortune you did nothing to earn .
If you had been born into the Phelps family , would you have thought your way out of Westboro ?
At what age ?
Twelve ?
Eighteen , when you left home ?
Twenty-six , by way of social media ?
Forty-four , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never ?
For many the answer thus far is never .
That ’ s an extreme example , I hear you say .
Children of cults are one thing , but a Trump voter has free will in their decisions .
True .
Yet if you ’ d been born white , in a homogeneously white place , with Fox News on every television and Rush Limbaugh on every car radio for your entire life , would you be a liberal or even a centrist today ?
Maybe , but not without knowing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ monstrous things often are not , at their core , monsters .
Nope , I hear you say .
I am better than a Trump voter .
I ’ m sure as hell better than a Nazi .
On the level of ideas , well , yes .
But why ?
Is it because something about them is naturally defective ?
You yourself would have been one of the good ones in Germany , correct ?
Because something about you is inherently better ?
If that all sounds right , be careful .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ fighting is inside you .
Sarah Smarsh ’ s new book , She Come By It Natural : Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs , will be published in October 2020 .
She lives in Kansas

Their children hold signs that read, “God hates fags.”
I was a child when their family, the extremist group called Westboro Baptist church, began picketing in Kansas in 1991. Driven by patriarch Fred Phelps’s homophobic interpretation of the Bible, they quickly became infamous for wielding shocking slogans and shouting lurid insults in public spaces.
It would be easy to write them off as monsters – a familiar impulse in today’s political climate, particularly toward supporters of Donald Trump. But, with democracy itself on the line this election year, we must remain open to the possibility of transformation.
I saw Westboro for the first time in the late 90s at the University of Kansas. I was a first-generation college student who had inherited no family political tradition. We were working in wheat fields when better-off families were attending civic events or reading opinion pages. In that void, I had absorbed a vague, moderate conservatism from the prevailing culture of my Reagan-era childhood and adolescence at the dawn of conservative talk radio.
On the typically liberal campus that was challenging my ideas, Westboro was a frequent, well-organized presence at the LGBTQ+ pride parade, music concerts or lectures. Over the previous decade, they had traversed the country to disrupt all manner of events, including the funerals of American soldiers and the murdered gay man Matthew Shepherd. But KU – “gay U”, some Kansas conservatives liked to call it – was just down the road from their home in Topeka, so students like myself saw them often.
“Fags die, God laughs,” read one sign. Later, in response to the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center– deemed punishment for a culture increasingly accepting of queerness – “Planes crash, God laughs.”
The content of their message was horrifying, but the tone with which they shared it – smiling, smug self-righteousness, casting pity on us who weren’t saved – was repugnant, as well. Their vitriol had the opposite of its intended effect, raising my awareness as a heterosexual, cis-gender woman of the trials faced by my LGBTQ+ peers.
By the time I graduated in 2002, my politics had significantly altered. I arrived deeming affirmative action unfair; after a sociology class for which I researched the impact of one’s race, gender and economic status on life outcomes, I concluded that affirmative action was right as rain. I arrived with no concept of worker rights, all but erased from consciousness in my union-busted state; after reading early 20th-century documents of the labor movement for an American literature class, I realized that I had been born near the bottom of a socioeconomic ladder my country kept insisting didn’t exist. I arrived believing I could be at once socially liberal and fiscally conservative; after excelling on campus while paying my own way through school and then graduating into poverty for lack of social capital – while watching less motivated, less capable children of affluence walk into prestigious internships and lucrative jobs – I viewed the so-called free market, welfare reform and low taxes as a thoroughly rigged system that only progressive measures could remedy.
To be clear, for all the claims to the contrary about universities, there was no agenda to convert me to liberalism. The professors who questioned my conservative ideas did so respectfully and gave me As. Organizations such as the College Republicans were a visible presence.
Rather, my information sources and environment expanded. Upon reviewing these new discoveries, I converted myself.
Plenty of students make no such shift. Conservatism remains ever-available for those attending universities, as evidenced by the countless far-right college graduates currently running this country. According to Pew Research Center, 51% of men who voted for Republican congressional candidates in 2018 held college degrees. While the Westboro group is hard to pin along modern party lines, their signature argument is decidedly far-right – and most of its leaders are credentialed attorneys. Conversely, millions of Americans without college degrees develop progressive views by way of informal education: reading, observing, life experience. It was not higher education that changed me but my willingness to change.
Among those born to bad or limited information – the flawed narratives of history books, the blinders of privilege, or propaganda on their parents’ televisions and car radios—there are those who will stick with existing beliefs regardless of what they are shown. But there are those who would reconsider, and we need them more than ever.
Megan Phelps-Roper would have been in her early teens, holding one of those hateful signs, when I passed her family on the way to class. Like me, she attended public schools and consumed popular culture. But, where my formative years were carved by mainstream influences – Catholicism, the nightly news, waiting tables – hers was the stuff of cults.
Her grandfather was the charismatic, zealous leader demanding commitment and claiming a monopoly on truth. Doubt and dissent were discouraged, sometimes through abuse. Shame and guilt were devices of control, and those who left were cut off from communication. Phelps-Roper participated in a family protest against homosexuality for the first time at age five.
As she came of age, Phelps-Roper’s ability to assess information had been thoroughly perverted. Westboro acted not out of hate but out of love, her elders taught her, to warn mortals of their sins so that they might repent and avoid eternal damnation.
At the age of 26, however, Phelps-Roper would make a much larger and braver leap than my political shift from center-right to solid left. In 2012, she left Westboro – her lifelong idea system, her only identity and nearly her entire family.
Just as the cruel signs she once held probably convinced few who saw them, it was not angry condemnations of her ideas that moved her toward the truth. It was, rather, a handful of friendly strangers on Twitter, including a Jewish man who responded to Phelps-Roper’s antisemitic provocation. Sensing the humanity beneath her inhumane behavior, they thoughtfully pressed her with intellectual and philosophical debate over the course of several years.
“People had grace for me when I seemed not to deserve it the most,” Phelps-Roper told PBS’s Amanpour & Co. last year after the release of her memoir, Unfollow. “The fact that they were able to suspend their judgments long enough to have those conversations with me completely changed my life. So now instead of me being out there with Westboro creating new victims, I’m working for healing and change to try to repair some of that damage.”
I noticed that, in her writings and interviews about her experience, Phelps-Roper does not favor the term “cult”. I asked her whether, perhaps, she found the descriptor accurate but not constructive.
Phelps-Roper conceded that the term is accurate enough, even though some common features of cults are not true of Westboro, such as money-making schemes or sexual ownership of women by the leader.
The fact that they were able to suspend their judgments long enough to have those conversations with me completely changed my life Phelps-Roper
“‘Cult’ is definitely a convenient shorthand that rapidly conveys the gist of the situation at Westboro and communities like it: a small, fringe group that exerts an inordinate amount of control over its members, exalting itself to special status via claims of unique access to truth,” Phelps-Roper told me via online message.
All the same, she confirmed that she doesn’t use the term because it shuts down communication channels.
“People tend to dismiss cult members as crazy or stupid, rather than complex human beings like everyone else,” she said. “That makes compassion and real understanding more difficult, and it can give us a false sense of security that we’re not subject to the same kinds of forces that draw people into these groups and keep them there.”
Plus, Phelps-Roper explained, she can’t get through to her family by lobbing labels that make them bristle.
“I want to reach Westboro members – to help convince them that there are other, better ways of living in the world,” she said. “If I use a needlessly pejorative word like that to describe people who are earnestly trying to do what they believe is right, I’m throwing obstacles in my own path and making change even more difficult than it naturally is.”
There has been much discussion in recent years about the extent to which liberal America should or should not have empathy for, say, economically distressed Trump voters. Some encourage compassion about the hard lives that made some of them vulnerable to political fearmongering. Others might point out that plenty of Trump voters are doing just fine in the coddled world of whiteness and that, regardless of their reasons, we should practice zero tolerance toward agents of oppression.
The strongest position contains both truths. We can acknowledge that destructive ideas have roots deeper than the individuals who hold them and yet firmly denounce such ideas. To hear Mary Trump tell it in her new memoir, her uncle is severely dysfunctional in part because of his upbringing. But the purpose of her story is not to engender sympathy for our current president, “the world’s most dangerous man”. It is to show how he was made – revealing that the problem is not the current president but, rather, what patriarchy, corporate greed and white supremacy can make out of an innocent child born in the belly of all three.
You can be intellectually woke without being awakened to the largest truth: that we are all connected, enemies and allies alike. The United States is teetering toward authoritarianism. Are you still lecturing strangers on social media? Are you still shouting at a family member that they’re wrong? How is that working out?
If you want to stop fascism, the efficient mission is not to attack the opposing side. It is, rather, to be the opposite of Donald Trump: a defiantly open heart who protects and bolsters valid information systems required for people to truly decide for themselves about all that he and his movement represent.
If you think such information is a given in the world we are living in, you are mistaken.
Many white people believe the current president is a good man. Are they irrational, some perhaps even disturbed? If they have valid news sources, then by my estimation, yes.
But many do not. They live in spaces inundated by decades of rightwing propaganda and intentional manipulation of their fears.
Not everyone targeted by disinformation falls for it, and such experiences are not an excuse for racist, sexist, xenophobic views and political choices. But they are a reason.
In March, 63% of Fox News regulars, polled by the non-partisan Pew Research Center’s Election News Pathways Project said the president’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was “excellent”. Just 23% of average Americans – and a mere 2% of MSNBC regulars – agreed.
If you want to stop fascism, the efficient mission is not to attack the opposing side. It is, rather, to be the opposite of Trump
MSNBC and Fox News’ treatment of facts is not analogous. The former comments with a liberal slant, while the latter now amounts to state television for a Republican White House. But both sides of the American political divide have allegiances to information sources that affirm their existing beliefs.
Meanwhile, false information masquerading as fact is a common feature of our times. Most misinformation disseminated online during the 2016 election had a pro-Trump slant, and recent research studies have suggested that misinformation is most concentrated among conservative media consumers. However, researchers at the University of Colorado published a report last May indicating that a substantial number of leftists share false or misleading information, too.
Let’s acknowledge that today’s cultural chasm is driven by social media streams and cable “news” programs. It is easy, in such a splintered media ecosystem, to maintain a closed system of unfalsifiable beliefs in which inconvenient facts become “fake news”.
Some of today’s most dangerous misinformation concerns a public health crisis. What accounts for those who, say, insist that the Covid-19 pandemic is a hoax and thus refuse to wear a mask?
According to a research report from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the strongest predictors of belief in Covid-19 conspiracy theories are not educational attainment or political affiliation but, along with partisan and ideological motivations, “a psychological predisposition” to dismiss experts and doubt mainstream narratives about major events.
But to what is this predisposition owed? We enter treacherous territory when we diagnose something inherent about a person to explain her partisan leanings. A major research study in 2016 debunked oft-cited studies claiming causality between personality and politics. It is self-aggrandizing for the well-informed, though, to declare that gullibility is innate and that proponents of misinformation are just dumb. Here we find the fatal flaw of self-congratulatory liberalism.
When presented with evidence of, say, lower salaries for women and higher incarceration among people of color, liberals rightly reject the notion that these outcomes result from innately lower aptitude, laziness and corrupt character. We rightly point to the oppressive conditions of a racist, sexist state to explain such data. In other words, we understand that the system failed the person, not the other way around. Yet we place ideological identities in no such environmental context.
What if our systems failed the media consumers who are, for myriad reasons, easily taken by political lies? Underfunded public schools could be teaching media literacy and civics but are forced to prioritize testing-driven curricula while providing basic needs such as food and healthcare. Underregulated, profit-driven social media companies have focused on mining user data rather than stopping malicious spread of false information on their platforms. Understaffed publications of the free press have, amid efforts to adapt to the digital media economy, turned news into salacious, conflict-driven clickbait to maintain the bottom line.
We must approach the current political crisis less like a valid debate and more like the treatment of a toxic stream along which extremist factions swirl into themselves like eddies. You and the person you’re arguing with don’t even share a common set of definitions, let alone discussion frameworks or worldviews. No movement can win in the 21st century without this understanding as a foundation.
To clear that toxic stream, we need robustly funded schools with civics curricula that activate participation in democracy, tell the story of all peoples, admit our often brutal history as a nation, and incorporate 21st-century media literacy as an essential tool of citizenship. We need government crackdowns on big tech’s complicity in the spread of misinformation. We need new, less compromised business models encouraging media members to be government watchdogs rather than generators of advertising revenue.
But information is only part of the solution for what ails our country. Political scientists have long noted the role of emotion in political behavior, and logic will not sway positions that were not formed through logic. Many Trump voters were moved not by facts but by the feelings their outrageous leader incites. As conservative analyst Bill Kristol recently tweeted, reacting to news that the Republican National Committee will merely endorse “the President’s America-first agenda” in lieu of any new platform, “It’s no longer the Republican party. It’s a Trump cult.”
Here we can learn from those like Phelps-Roper, who have freed themselves from irrational worldviews. Reaching past someone’s biased influences, as her story of unlikely Twitter friendships reveals, requires not just better information but a non-confrontational, even respectful tone in conveying it.
Members of oppressed groups should not be expected to do this work, of course, which is at best emotional labor and at worst physically dangerous. But what about would-be cultural bridge-builders protected by privileges such as whiteness and wealth? Should they bother?
Yes. Nationally, voters are breaking ranks from “Trumpism”, disavowing their lifelong party or finding belonging with “never Trump” Republican groups like the Lincoln Project.
My state government contains several elected officials who left the Republican Party and became Democrats in recent years—including a viable 2020 candidate for a U.S. Senate seat held by Republicans since 1919.
From 2014 to 2018, during which the Black Lives Matter movement successfully forced a national reckoning about race, the portion of white Republicans who said government spends too little on improving conditions for Black Americans more than doubled, rising from 14 to 33%, according to a report from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
We should value justice over unity. But there is more unity to be had than you might think from watching the news. People change, and privileged Americans who can help them do so play an important role in this pivotal moment.
As Phelps-Roper says in her much-viewed Ted Talk, the Twitter friends who helped her see the light “didn’t abandon their beliefs or their principles – only their scorn. They channeled their infinitely justifiable offense and came to me with pointed questions tempered with kindness and humor. They approached me as a human being – and that was more transformative than two full decades of outrage, disdain and violence.”
If someone who dislikes this notion has changed someone’s mind through contempt and condescension, I’d love to hear about it. The opposite is more likely to be true, in my experience. The confronted person digs in, defends, doubles down.
In a July opinion piece for the New York Times, Charlie Warzel described a Senegalese medical anthropologist sent by the World Health Organization to Guinea, where residents were resisting public health guidance during the Ebola epidemic in 2014. He spent a long time listening, rather than lecturing, and realized that the people “weren’t selfish or anti-science. They were scared and felt stripped of dignity by officials who didn’t respect them or understand their traditions.”
While US “anti-maskers” of the Covid-19 pandemic are a different bunch, understanding their motives is necessary to successfully reach them.
“You cannot force public trust,” Warzel wrote of the current health crisis. “You have to earn it by being humble and transparent, and by listening.”
Is such humility warranted in the face of terrible actors, those who not only refuse to wear a mask but refuse to accept the value of entire groups of human beings?
If an equitable, non-violent society is our goal, ideologies that seek to dismantle unjust power structures such as white supremacy and patriarchy are unequivocally better than those that do not. There is no moral equivalence between the neo-Nazi and the Black Lives Matter protester, or the feminist marcher and the men’s rights activist. Some ideas are superior to others.
But even if your ideas are superior, I am asking you to consider that you did not arrive at them because of your innate superiority. Depending on your level of social and racial privilege, you arrived at them because of your life experiences, your information sources, your community influences. Even a psychological predisposition toward rational thinking, if this a valid possibility, is just a bit of good fortune you did nothing to earn.
If you had been born into the Phelps family, would you have thought your way out of Westboro? At what age? Twelve? Eighteen, when you left home? Twenty-six, by way of social media? Forty-four, better late than never? How about never? For many the answer thus far is never.
That’s an extreme example, I hear you say. Children of cults are one thing, but a Trump voter has free will in their decisions.
True. Yet if you’d been born white, in a homogeneously white place, with Fox News on every television and Rush Limbaugh on every car radio for your entire life, would you be a liberal or even a centrist today? Maybe, but not without knowing the hard truth that people who think monstrous things often are not, at their core, monsters.
Nope, I hear you say. I am better than a Trump voter. I’m sure as hell better than a Nazi.
On the level of ideas, well, yes. But why? Is it because something about them is naturally defective? You yourself would have been one of the good ones in Germany, correct? Because something about you is inherently better?
If that all sounds right, be careful. The seed of everything you’re fighting is inside you.
Sarah Smarsh’s new book, She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs, will be published in October 2020. She lives in Kansas


theguardian--2020-09-18--Donald Trump accused of rewriting US history as he signs 'patriotic education plan' – video report

Donald Trump railed against what he called a 'leftwing revolution ' in schools and universities teaching about the historical legacy @ @ @ @ @ as he signed an executive order to promote 'patriotic education ' in the US .
@ @ @ @ @ of attempting to rewrite American history to appeal to his core base of white voters @ @ @ @ @ , distorted , and defiled the American story , ' Trump said at a history @ @ @ @ @ 'We want our sons and daughters to know they are the citizens of the most @ @ @ @ @ of the world' • Critics condemn Trump 's rewrite of America 's legacy of racism @ @ @ @ @ condemn Trump 's rewrite of race in America in DC speech – live

Donald Trump railed against what he called a 'leftwing revolution' in schools and universities teaching about slavery and colonialism, as he signed an executive order to promote 'patriotic education' in the US. Critics immediately accused the president of attempting to rewrite America's historical legacy of slavery to appeal to his core base of white voters.
'The left has warped, distorted, and defiled the American story,' Trump said at a history conference in Washington DC. 'We want our sons and daughters to know they are the citizens of the most exceptional nation in the history of the world'