truthout--2020-07-05--Supreme Court Could Soon Show Us Why Trump Is Refusing to Share His Tax Returns

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases regarding access to President Donald Trump ’ s tax filings soon .
At the heart of the cases : Can House committees and a New York grand jury subpoena financial institutions for Trump ’ s personal and business tax filings ?
If the Supreme Court rules against Trump , it opens the possibility that the public could eventually see his personal tax return and business records , though experts say it would be unlikely to happen quickly .
Here ’ s why people want to see Trump ’ s tax @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president .
Why Do Presidents Share Their Tax Returns in the First Place ?
Since Richard Nixon , presidents have shared their tax returns in some way or another with the public .
Nixon perhaps explained why best : “ I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their president ’ s a crook .
Well , I ’ m not a crook.
” But Nixon had not shared his tax returns entirely willingly .
During the Watergate scandal , an IRS employee leaked information @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suggested that the president had underpaid his taxes for two years .
As reporters put pressure on Nixon to disclose his returns , he finally shared them , confirming that he had wrongly claimed a deduction and woefully underpaid his taxes .
Nixon , who was under audit at the time , was sent a tax bill of about $ 470,000 plus interest to pay in back taxes from the IRS .
Nixon ’ s release of his federal returns set a precedent .
While no law requires presidential candidates ( or the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his or her tax returns , it was understood among future candidates : The office of the presidency requires a certain amount of transparency , and voters have a right to know if their president pays his or her fair share of taxes and , yes , “ whether or not their president ’ s a crook.
” Why Do People Want to See Trump ’ s Tax Returns ?
While Trump promised to share his tax returns during his 2016 campaign , he refused to do so when he assumed office , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ presidential candidates .
Trump has claimed that voters don ’ t care about his taxes .
Polls suggest otherwise .
According to a 2019 Pew Research poll , 64 % of Americans say that Trump has a responsibility to share his tax returns .
His refusal to share them has some Americans wondering what he ’ s hiding .
So , Why Isn ’ t He Sharing Them Voluntarily ?
Trump has offered many reasons for not sharing his tax returns .
He has said that he couldn ’ t share them while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ audit wouldn ’ t prevent him from sharing them — and he has simply said that his tax rate is “ none of your business.
” Pundits have made guesses as to why , suggesting that perhaps he ’ s not as rich as he says he is , that he has financial ties to Russia , that he ’ s paid no income tax or that he hasn ’ t donated as much to charity as he said he has .
OK .
But Why Is the Supreme Court Involved ?
Multiple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and banks used by Trump for 10 years of his personal financial records , those of his three oldest children and those of parts of his businesses .
The Manhattan district attorney ’ s office also issued subpoenas for those financial records in addition to eight years of Trump ’ s business and personal tax returns .
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the legal battles , which have been consolidated into two cases — Trump v. Mazars USA , LLP and Trump v. Vance — in early July .
Separately @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sued the Treasury Department for Trump ’ s tax returns , after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defied the committee ’ s subpoena for them .
In late 2019 , an investigation by Heather Vogell of ProPublica and WNYC ’ s joint podcast , “ Trump , Inc. , ” found major inconsistencies between how three of the Trump Organization ’ s properties — 40 Wall Street , Trump International Hotel and Tower , and Trump Tower — reported financial information to New York City tax authorities and lenders .
The Trump Organization did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ questions provided by ProPublica when the investigation was originally published .
A lawyer from the firm Marcus & Pollack , which handles Trump ’ s property tax appeal filings with the city , said he was not authorized to discuss the documents .
A spokeswoman for Mazars USA , which signed off on the two properties ’ expense and income statements , said the firm does not comment on its work for clients .
Executives with Trump ’ s lender , Ladder Capital , declined to be quoted for the story .
By @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more profitable to lenders , Trump ’ s business could potentially reduce its tax bill and get loans with lower rates from lenders .
After ProPublica ’ s findings , New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio asked the DA ’ s office to investigate .
ProPublica and WNYC ’ s investigation continues .
Given this pattern in his company ’ s tax records , it makes sense that people would want to see the president ’ s personal tax returns , too .

Two Supreme Court cases are looking at whether financial institutions can be subpoenaed for Trump’s tax filings.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on two cases regarding access to President Donald Trump’s tax filings soon. At the heart of the cases: Can House committees and a New York grand jury subpoena financial institutions for Trump’s personal and business tax filings?
If the Supreme Court rules against Trump, it opens the possibility that the public could eventually see his personal tax return and business records, though experts say it would be unlikely to happen quickly. Here’s why people want to see Trump’s tax returns and what they may reveal about the president.
Why Do Presidents Share Their Tax Returns in the First Place?
Since Richard Nixon, presidents have shared their tax returns in some way or another with the public. Nixon perhaps explained why best: “I welcome this kind of examination because people have got to know whether or not their president’s a crook. Well, I’m not a crook.”
But Nixon had not shared his tax returns entirely willingly. During the Watergate scandal, an IRS employee leaked information from Nixon’s tax returns that suggested that the president had underpaid his taxes for two years. As reporters put pressure on Nixon to disclose his returns, he finally shared them, confirming that he had wrongly claimed a deduction and woefully underpaid his taxes. Nixon, who was under audit at the time, was sent a tax bill of about $470,000 plus interest to pay in back taxes from the IRS.
Nixon’s release of his federal returns set a precedent. While no law requires presidential candidates (or the president for that matter) to share his or her tax returns, it was understood among future candidates: The office of the presidency requires a certain amount of transparency, and voters have a right to know if their president pays his or her fair share of taxes and, yes, “whether or not their president’s a crook.”
Why Do People Want to See Trump’s Tax Returns?
While Trump promised to share his tax returns during his 2016 campaign, he refused to do so when he assumed office, breaking this four-decade tradition among presidents and presidential candidates.
Trump has claimed that voters don’t care about his taxes. Polls suggest otherwise. According to a 2019 Pew Research poll, 64% of Americans say that Trump has a responsibility to share his tax returns. His refusal to share them has some Americans wondering what he’s hiding.
Just for your info, tax returns have 0 to do w/ someone’s net worth. I have already filed my financial statements w/ FEC. They are great! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2016
So, Why Isn’t He Sharing Them Voluntarily?
Trump has offered many reasons for not sharing his tax returns. He has said that he couldn’t share them while he was under audit — but an audit wouldn’t prevent him from sharing them — and he has simply said that his tax rate is “none of your business.”
Pundits have made guesses as to why, suggesting that perhaps he’s not as rich as he says he is, that he has financial ties to Russia, that he’s paid no income tax or that he hasn’t donated as much to charity as he said he has.
OK. But Why Is the Supreme Court Involved?
Multiple House committees have subpoenaed the accounting firm and banks used by Trump for 10 years of his personal financial records, those of his three oldest children and those of parts of his businesses. The Manhattan district attorney’s office also issued subpoenas for those financial records in addition to eight years of Trump’s business and personal tax returns. The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the legal battles, which have been consolidated into two cases — Trump v. Mazars USA, LLP and Trump v. Vance — in early July. Separately, the House Ways and Means Committee sued the Treasury Department for Trump’s tax returns, after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defied the committee’s subpoena for them.
In late 2019, an investigation by Heather Vogell of ProPublica and WNYC’s joint podcast, “Trump, Inc.,” found major inconsistencies between how three of the Trump Organization’s properties — 40 Wall Street, Trump International Hotel and Tower, and Trump Tower — reported financial information to New York City tax authorities and lenders.
Never-before-seen Trump tax docs show his company made his financial situation look worse when he was reporting it for tax purposes, and better when reporting it to lenders. https://t.co/jV4swLcJFj via Trump, Inc. w/ @WNYC pic.twitter.com/tVFi0pNPci — ProPublica (@propublica) October 16, 2019
The Trump Organization did not respond on the record to detailed questions provided by ProPublica when the investigation was originally published. A lawyer from the firm Marcus & Pollack, which handles Trump’s property tax appeal filings with the city, said he was not authorized to discuss the documents. A spokeswoman for Mazars USA, which signed off on the two properties’ expense and income statements, said the firm does not comment on its work for clients. Executives with Trump’s lender, Ladder Capital, declined to be quoted for the story.
By appearing less profitable to tax officials and more profitable to lenders, Trump’s business could potentially reduce its tax bill and get loans with lower rates from lenders. After ProPublica’s findings, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio asked the DA’s office to investigate. ProPublica and WNYC’s investigation continues. Given this pattern in his company’s tax records, it makes sense that people would want to see the president’s personal tax returns, too.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-07-05--Coronavirus Is Creating a Crisis of Energy Insecurity

As the nation remains in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic , a more insidious crisis is taking root as households are unable to pay their energy bills , risking serious health consequences and increasing debt , while federal and state governments fail to adequately protect vulnerable families .
Before COVID-19 , one in three American households were struggling to pay their energy bills .
An increase in extreme temperatures — brought on by climate change — combined with rising energy costs forced consumers to make impossible choices between keeping their lights on , purchasing food , or seeking medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this problem .
As individuals lost their jobs at alarming rates , they were also asked , or mandated , to stay at home to stop the spread of the virus .
This led to an unexpected increase in residential energy use and corresponding energy bills .
In a new nationally representative survey of 2,381 low-income households , administered in May 2020 , we find that the pandemic has deepened energy insecurity .
Those who lost their jobs or had their hours reduced due to the pandemic were three times more likely to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bill in the previous month .
In addition , like COVID-19 itself , energy insecurity has disproportionately worsened for vulnerable populations .
African American ( 16 percent ) and Hispanic ( 19 percent ) households were far more likely to report difficulty paying an energy bill in the last month compared to White respondents ( 9 percent ) .
The problem is also worse for households with young children , those with disabled members , and those who rely on an electronic medical device .
Respondents who power a medical device at home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ able to pay an energy bill in the past month , three times as likely to receive a notice from their utility provider that their energy is in jeopardy of being disconnected , and more than four times as likely to have their service shut off .
These heightened levels of energy insecurity could spur a health crisis in low-income households by exposing at-risk populations to the summer heat while simultaneously hindering their ability to seek or afford medical care .
While some policies have been implemented , the situation remains dire as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ however , there is a path forward for policymakers to protect vulnerable families by suspending all utility disconnections , forgiving late payment fees , and increasing funds for energy bill assistance throughout the hot summer months .
As the energy insecure population grows in the U.S. , the health consequences could be calamitous , not only for those who are disabled or require an electronic medical device but also for those who live in poor housing conditions .
Energy insecurity and deficient housing stock have been linked to negative health outcomes , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and mental health issues , especially in households with children and senior citizens .
Approximately 20 percent of survey respondents noted that their home was drafty or had poor insulation ; 9 percent had holes in the floors and walls ; and 7 percent did not have a working air conditioner .
An additional 12 percent responded that they had mold , which is associated with bronchitis , upper respiratory tract symptoms , and higher rates of depression .
The coming summer months , which are poised to be one of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ threat .
If economic conditions do not improve , millions of Americans will be vulnerable .
An estimated 65,000 people visit the emergency room each year due to acute heat illnesses ; however , this summer could be comparatively severe as 25 percent of our survey respondents either lost their health insurance entirely ( 15 percent ) or were put on a less generous plan due to COVID-19 , and 40 percent of respondents indicated that the pandemic has harmed their ability to seek medical care .
In response to their energy insecurity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extreme measures to maintain comfortable temperatures in their home in the last year .
Some of these measures are dangerous , such as using space heaters , which are the leading cause of household fires and associated deaths ; turning on their stove ; and burning trash .
As temperatures rise , we expect families to use methods of cooling their homes that will allow them to stay comfortable while keeping their energy costs low , such as taking cold showers , buying regular and dry ice , and using fans .
Because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is critical that policymakers address energy insecurity ; otherwise , the summer of 2020 will present unprecedented challenges to already-struggling American families .
In the early weeks of the pandemic , the federal government took several steps to offer relief .
The Coronavirus Aid , Relief and Economic Security ( CARES ) Act provided every eligible low-income American with $ 1,200 in stimulus funding .
However , at the time of our survey , only 32 percent of respondents had received their check , presumably because low-income individuals are less likely to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taxes through direct deposit .
These delays have left many vulnerable during the early days of the pandemic , especially those that are energy insecure .
Our survey results imply that those households that did receive a stimulus check were more likely to be able to pay their energy bill in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak .
Additionally , Congress extended federal unemployment insurance for those who lost their jobs because of the pandemic ; yet , these benefits are set to expire at the end of July .
Finally , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in additional funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program , which helps low-income households pay their energy bills ; however , leading energy advocates are calling for billions in additional funding to meet the growing need for assistance through the summer months .
State governments and utility commissions also enacted measures to protect residents .
As of June 2020 , more than half of state governors signed orders to prevent utility shutoffs , though these protections vary greatly .
They range from full moratoriums to narrow protections that leave millions susceptible @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if they can not pay their bill .
In addition , many of these orders are set to expire soon , with two thirds of the population projected to be unprotected by July and 88 percent unprotected by August .
What Can We Do ?
As we enter the warmest months of the year , stimulus relief is drying up and temporary protections are ending , leaving millions of families at risk for devastating financial and health-related consequences .
Policymakers should consider near- and longer-term responses to help relieve the growing material hardship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the federal government should impose a federal moratorium on all utility shutoffs and forgive late fees at least through the hot summer months .
Congress should also increase appropriations for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program so states can extend their utility bill assistance programs .
In the longer-term , the federal government should design a stimulus package that invests in clean energy technology and increases funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program , which improves poor housing conditions by subsidizing energy efficient upgrades for low-income residents .
An investment in the program would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bills , improve their health , and help those in the efficiency industry get back to work as the U.S. economy reopens .
As the economic and public health crises persist in the U.S. , policymakers should prioritize helping households meet their energy needs .
Without relief , the repercussions could last well beyond the COVID-19 pandemic , especially for vulnerable families .

With unpaid bills and energy shutoffs rising during the pandemic, we need to act now to avoid another health emergency.
With unpaid bills and energy shutoffs rising during the pandemic, we need to act now to avoid another health emergency. Bonnie Natko / flickr
As the nation remains in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, a more insidious crisis is taking root as households are unable to pay their energy bills, risking serious health consequences and increasing debt, while federal and state governments fail to adequately protect vulnerable families.
Before COVID-19, one in three American households were struggling to pay their energy bills.
An increase in extreme temperatures — brought on by climate change — combined with rising energy costs forced consumers to make impossible choices between keeping their lights on, purchasing food, or seeking medical care.
The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated this problem. As individuals lost their jobs at alarming rates, they were also asked, or mandated, to stay at home to stop the spread of the virus. This led to an unexpected increase in residential energy use and corresponding energy bills.
In a new nationally representative survey of 2,381 low-income households, administered in May 2020, we find that the pandemic has deepened energy insecurity. Those who lost their jobs or had their hours reduced due to the pandemic were three times more likely to report an inability to pay an energy bill in the previous month.
In addition, like COVID-19 itself, energy insecurity has disproportionately worsened for vulnerable populations. African American (16 percent) and Hispanic (19 percent) households were far more likely to report difficulty paying an energy bill in the last month compared to White respondents (9 percent).
The problem is also worse for households with young children, those with disabled members, and those who rely on an electronic medical device.
Respondents who power a medical device at home were twice as likely not to be able to pay an energy bill in the past month, three times as likely to receive a notice from their utility provider that their energy is in jeopardy of being disconnected, and more than four times as likely to have their service shut off.
These heightened levels of energy insecurity could spur a health crisis in low-income households by exposing at-risk populations to the summer heat while simultaneously hindering their ability to seek or afford medical care. While some policies have been implemented, the situation remains dire as several of these measures are temporary; however, there is a path forward for policymakers to protect vulnerable families by suspending all utility disconnections, forgiving late payment fees, and increasing funds for energy bill assistance throughout the hot summer months.
Health Impacts As the energy insecure population grows in the U.S., the health consequences could be calamitous, not only for those who are disabled or require an electronic medical device but also for those who live in poor housing conditions. Energy insecurity and deficient housing stock have been linked to negative health outcomes, including increased rates of asthma, respiratory infections, and mental health issues, especially in households with children and senior citizens. Approximately 20 percent of survey respondents noted that their home was drafty or had poor insulation; 9 percent had holes in the floors and walls; and 7 percent did not have a working air conditioner. An additional 12 percent responded that they had mold, which is associated with bronchitis, upper respiratory tract symptoms, and higher rates of depression. The coming summer months, which are poised to be one of the hottest on record, are another looming threat. If economic conditions do not improve, millions of Americans will be vulnerable. An estimated 65,000 people visit the emergency room each year due to acute heat illnesses; however, this summer could be comparatively severe as 25 percent of our survey respondents either lost their health insurance entirely (15 percent) or were put on a less generous plan due to COVID-19, and 40 percent of respondents indicated that the pandemic has harmed their ability to seek medical care. In response to their energy insecurity, a third of households reported taking extreme measures to maintain comfortable temperatures in their home in the last year. Some of these measures are dangerous, such as using space heaters, which are the leading cause of household fires and associated deaths; turning on their stove; and burning trash. As temperatures rise, we expect families to use methods of cooling their homes that will allow them to stay comfortable while keeping their energy costs low, such as taking cold showers, buying regular and dry ice, and using fans. Because we only expect conditions to worsen, it is critical that policymakers address energy insecurity; otherwise, the summer of 2020 will present unprecedented challenges to already-struggling American families.
Inadequate Policy Responses In the early weeks of the pandemic, the federal government took several steps to offer relief. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided every eligible low-income American with $1,200 in stimulus funding. However, at the time of our survey, only 32 percent of respondents had received their check, presumably because low-income individuals are less likely to have a bank account or file their taxes through direct deposit. These delays have left many vulnerable during the early days of the pandemic, especially those that are energy insecure. Our survey results imply that those households that did receive a stimulus check were more likely to be able to pay their energy bill in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak. Additionally, Congress extended federal unemployment insurance for those who lost their jobs because of the pandemic; yet, these benefits are set to expire at the end of July. Finally, the CARES act provided $900 million in additional funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps low-income households pay their energy bills; however, leading energy advocates are calling for billions in additional funding to meet the growing need for assistance through the summer months. State governments and utility commissions also enacted measures to protect residents. As of June 2020, more than half of state governors signed orders to prevent utility shutoffs, though these protections vary greatly. They range from full moratoriums to narrow protections that leave millions susceptible to immediate disconnection and eventual debt accrual if they cannot pay their bill. In addition, many of these orders are set to expire soon, with two thirds of the population projected to be unprotected by July and 88 percent unprotected by August. What Can We Do? As we enter the warmest months of the year, stimulus relief is drying up and temporary protections are ending, leaving millions of families at risk for devastating financial and health-related consequences. Policymakers should consider near- and longer-term responses to help relieve the growing material hardship on families. In the near-term, the federal government should impose a federal moratorium on all utility shutoffs and forgive late fees at least through the hot summer months. Congress should also increase appropriations for Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program so states can extend their utility bill assistance programs. In the longer-term, the federal government should design a stimulus package that invests in clean energy technology and increases funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program, which improves poor housing conditions by subsidizing energy efficient upgrades for low-income residents. An investment in the program would simultaneously help vulnerable households lower their energy bills, improve their health, and help those in the efficiency industry get back to work as the U.S. economy reopens. As the economic and public health crises persist in the U.S., policymakers should prioritize helping households meet their energy needs. Without relief, the repercussions could last well beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for vulnerable families.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-07-05--Far Right Reading List Shows Link Between Its Literature and Real-World Violence

On May 4 , far right personalities Milo Yiannopoulos and Michelle Malkin published what they call their “ America First ” reading list as a Google Doc that they then promoted through their social media accounts .
Yiannopoulos has recently gained attention for promoting conspiracy theories about both COVID-19 and the recent anti-police brutality protests across the United States .
Malkin , who might be best known for writing a book arguing that Japanese internment during World War II was justified , has similarly promoted dangerous disinformation about COVID-19 and reduced Movement for Black Lives protesters to “ invaders [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is out of character for a pair whose recommended reading list is rife with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories , paranoid invasion fantasies , and at least one prominent fascist philosopher who explicitly denied the notion that he should rely on empirical evidence .
It might be tempting to dismiss the list as another stunt by attention-hungry provocateurs or an attempt to give a racist and misogynist worldview an intellectual veneer .
However , it is worth paying attention to what their literary choices reveal about their ideology , the narratives that underpin it , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real-world violence .
The first thing their list attempts to do is establish just what constitutes “ American literature.
” This holds true despite the fact that many of the titles were not written by Americans at all : the list ’ s creators are invested in defining the United States strictly as an outgrowth of pre-modern Europe , so it should come as no surprise that it includes older canonical texts by figures like Homer , Ovid , St. Augustine and Shakespeare in addition to Americana like Huckleberry Finn and Paul Revere @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for most of its more modern literature by U.S. authors peter out by the early 1960s ( Ray Bradbury ’ s 1963 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes , for instance ) with only a small handful of more recent novels , such as the self-published , remarkably poorly written 2019 accelerationist novel Harassment Architecture by Mike Ma .
In a tab on the Google Doc marked “ HOW TO READ , ” Yiannopoulos and Malkin address their readers directly , writing , “ The purpose of this list is to help you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a firm basis in history , politics , religion and theology.
” That “ firm basis ” manages to exclude the entire wealth of Black and Indigenous perspectives .
Their understanding of modern American literature leaves no room for a Toni Morrison or a Leslie Marmon Silko , and their classics certainly have no place for a Frederick Douglass or a W.E.B .
DuBois .
Instead , they opt for a virtual how-to manual for white resentment and violence .
Having established that what they understand as American literary culture is innately and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ next thing their list does is reassert the narratives of invasion , resistance and expansion that have fueled the far right imagination for decades .
Possibly the list ’ s clearest example of an invasion narrative is recently deceased French author Jean Raspail ’ s 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints , a book Yiannopoulos and Malkin indicate is a “ must read ” and that has been championed by far right figures from Steve Bannon to leaders of Europe ’ s “ identitarian ” movement .
The Camp tells of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an undifferentiated mass of impoverished Indian migrants who literally eat feces and invade Europe like zombies , displacing its white inhabitants in the process .
It begins with an anecdote about a pedigreed university professor who murders a young hippie for supporting the migrants ( in 1973 , it was still possible for the far right to characterize academics as upholders of Western superiority , rather than its destroyers ) .
In fact , throughout the novel , the real villains are less the migrants than the media , political and religious elites @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who advocate for the nameless , faceless , brown-skinned horde .
In all , the novel ’ s plot amounts to an updated stab-in-the-back myth .
Many on the far right have described the book as prophetic since a new wave of migrants began arriving on Europe ’ s Mediterranean shores in 2015 and renewed attention has been focused on undocumented immigration at the southern border of the United States since Donald Trump ’ s election campaign began that same year .
Pat Buchanan , who recently used The Camp of the Saints @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Syrian migrants on the white nationalist website VDARE , has two titles on the reading list , one of which is another “ must read ” ; VDARE founder and white nationalist Peter Brimelow has one title on the list as well .
In case all of that is still too subtle , invasion narratives also dovetail neatly with the “ great replacement ” theory that motivated , among other things , the mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch , New Zealand , in March 2019 .
Shooter Brenton Tarrant titled his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We must crush immigration and deport those invaders already living on our soil.
” Over the past year , Yiannopoulos and Malkin have been working closely with the “ groyper ” movement , which is essentially an “ alt-right ” ( white nationalist ) rebrand since the old label became too toxic following the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville , Virginia , in 2017 .
In fact , it is groyper-in-chief Nick Fuentes ’ s podcast that gave the movement — and the reading list — the “ America First @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the “ very fine people ” who attended Unite the Right , borrowed the phrase from Donald Trump ’ s inauguration speech . )
Groypers are a constituency already moved by the overheated rhetoric of invasion and replacement , and so attacking – or , as they would say , “ resisting ” – the classes of people they regard as responsible for facilitating the “ invasion ” is a logical next step .
The reading list includes both Italian fascist intellectual Julius Evola ’ s Revolt Against the Modern World and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Society and its Future , which Yiannopoulos and Malkin describe as a “ rejection of the modern world.
” Either one of these texts is toxic enough by itself , but in conjunction with one another , they amount to a further indication that the list provides both a theoretical rationale and a moral justification for violent attacks on such “ modern ” notions as democracy , egalitarianism , feminism and multiculturalism .
Where Evola draws on a mythologized past of undiluted elitism and authoritarian , masculine heroism that , he argues , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rejecting any need for empirical evidence ) , Kaczynski , whose 17-year bombing campaign killed three people and injured 23 others , rails against a “ leftist psychology ” that he claims is symptomatic of a sick industrial society .
Like many contemporary reactionaries , Kaczynski despises “ political correctness , ” which he says “ has its stronghold among university professors.
” Not coincidentally , it is university professors who were the most frequent targets of Kaczynski ’ s mail bombs .
The list also included more overt resistance narratives .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Luther Pierce ( it has since been removed with no explanation given ) .
The Turner Diaries is a novel about a clandestine movement of white men who use racialized terrorism and nuclear warfare to “ take back ” the United States from Jewish “ usurpers ” and what Pierce portrays as the mindless , sex-crazed Black and Latino men who act as their enforcers .
Pierce was the leader of the militant white supremacist organization National Alliance and his novel inspired neo-Nazi terror group The Order , which was responsible for murdering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh evangelized the book , traveling to gun shows to sell it ( and its sequel , Hunter ) to like-minded people ; his bombing attack on the Murrah Building closely resembled a similar act described in detail in Pierce ’ s text .
Investigators found portions of it in his getaway car .
Germany ’ s National Socialist Underground ( NSU ) , which murdered 10 people and injured others in a years-long terror campaign against a mostly Turkish immigrant population , also took inspiration from The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ translated several chapters of the book into German and a digital copy was found on a hard drive in an apartment Mundlos and his two primary accomplices had rented while underground .
The list also supports narratives of expansion , a central theme of “ classical ” fascism .
It includes multiple titles that seek to “ [ set ] the record straight about the Crusades , ” a historical reference point that is ubiquitous in online far right discourse and invokes images of violent confrontation between Western warriors and Muslim “ Saracens.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the compilers ’ commentary constantly refer to a theme of Christian superiority and its inseparability from “ Western ” identity .
They describe one “ must read ” title as explaining “ why the noblest virtues all rest on Christian principles ” and another as articulating “ how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination.
” At the same time , Willa Cather , the lone female author on the list who isn ’ t a post-civil rights-era right-wing polemicist , may well be a fine writer , but Yiannopoulos and Malkin summarize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her focus on “ the resilient women who settled the Great Plains.
” By constantly emphasizing the heroism of the colonizer while completely excluding any voice of the colonized , they make it clear that a certain kind of invasion is , in fact , acceptable to them .
In brief , the sum total of the outlook supported by these texts is a justification of all past ( and , presumably , present and future ) colonial efforts by “ virtuous ” Western Christians at the expense of whatever Other is at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on anti-Semitic literature ( The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , Kevin MacDonald ’ s Culture of Critique , and yes , Hitler ’ s Mein Kampf , although the latter has also been removed without explanation ) ; masculinist or anti-feminist texts ( Jack Donovan ’ s The Way of Men or several titles by Camille Paglia ) ; and overt white nationalist screeds by the likes of Jared Taylor , Vox Day and Ann Coulter .
Yiannopoulos and Malkin ’ s commentary is revealing here .
They acknowledge that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say nothing about why they felt a fraudulent text produced in Tsarist Russia should be included anyway .
They describe Culture of Critique as a “ highly controversial historical survey of the roots of anti-semitism [ sic ] .
” This is , at best , a grossly misleading summary .
MacDonald ’ s book is not so much an exploration of why other people have turned on Jews in the past , but rather why he believes Jews should be hated .
His focus on what he believes is Jewish culpability , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ toward Jews , is evident right in the book ’ s subtitle : “ An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements.
” In fact , Culture is the final book of a trilogy and the subtitles of the other two , “ Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy ” and “ Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism ” only emphasize MacDonald ’ s presumption that Jews are inherently , indeed genetically , predisposed to maintaining a subversive communal identity separate from whatever other populations they encounter .
His @ @ @ @ @ @ @ condemning the “ clannish ” nature of international , cosmopolitan Jewry .
Yiannopoulos and Malkin have a history of brushing off claims of racism , misogyny and anti-Semitism by invoking their own genre of identity politics .
Yiannopoulos could not possibly be anti-Semitic , because he is part Jewish ; Malkin obviously can not be misogynist because she is a woman .
And neither of them could ever be racist because he claims he is married to a Black man ( whose name he has never revealed and whose face has never been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and married to a Jewish man .
Yiannopoulos , however , was banned from Twitter for leading a viciously racist and misogynist campaign against a Black actor and notoriously filmed singing America the Beautiful while his erstwhile friend Richard Spencer and others gave Nazi salutes .
For her part , Malkin has openly supported anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and the white nationalist aspirations of the groyper movement .
One of the major tools of contemporary far right movements like the alt-right , Europe ’ s “ identitarians , ” and now the groypers is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a concept borrowed from mid-century Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci that was introduced to far right circles by Armin Mohler , a post-WWII German apologist for fascism , in a 1946 dissertation that codified what he called Germany ’ s interwar “ Conservative Revolution.
” The concept gained popularity in the European far right through the work of Mohler ’ s mentee Alain de Benoist and his notion of “ right-wing Gramscianism.
” De Benoist , the intellectual leader of France ’ s Nouvelle Droite ( New Right ) , co-authored a “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Year 2000 , ” which described metapolitics as , “ not another way of doing politics .
It has nothing to do with a ‘ strategy ’ that aims to impose an intellectual hegemony any more than it claims to disqualify other possible approaches or attitudes .
It rests solely on the observation that ideas play a fundamental role in collective consciousnesses and , more broadly , in the entire history of men.
” In practice , far right metapolitics is a process of using cultural means to make far right ideas more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ practitioners refer to as shifting the “ Overton window , ” which represents the outer limits of acceptable discourse .
The “ America First ” reading list clearly falls within the metapolitical sphere .
It is nothing if not an overt attempt to instill a very narrowly defined conception of “ American ” culture in the minds of a young , overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male constituency that is already predisposed to racialized and gendered resentment .
As we have seen from Christchurch to El Paso , Oslo to Pittsburgh , their cohort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violence .
It is possible to dismiss the “ America First ” reading list as just another manifestation of the far right echo chamber and the urge for people like Yiannopoulos and Malkin to keep drawing attention to themselves .
However , it also provides useful insights into the mindset of their “ groyper ” constituency and related far right sects , as well as the pathways that lead from their exclusionary ideology to violent action .
Three years after Unite the Right and in the midst of both a pandemic and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political change , understanding the process by which the far right propagates narratives of invasion , resistance and expansion in the interest of establishing its own sense of legitimacy is still a necessary precondition for effective opposition to their objectives .

On May 4, far right personalities Milo Yiannopoulos and Michelle Malkin published what they call their “America First” reading list as a Google Doc that they then promoted through their social media accounts. Yiannopoulos has recently gained attention for promoting conspiracy theories about both COVID-19 and the recent anti-police brutality protests across the United States. Malkin, who might be best known for writing a book arguing that Japanese internment during World War II was justified, has similarly promoted dangerous disinformation about COVID-19 and reduced Movement for Black Lives protesters to “invaders [and] ransackers.” None of this is out of character for a pair whose recommended reading list is rife with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, paranoid invasion fantasies, and at least one prominent fascist philosopher who explicitly denied the notion that he should rely on empirical evidence.
It might be tempting to dismiss the list as another stunt by attention-hungry provocateurs or an attempt to give a racist and misogynist worldview an intellectual veneer. However, it is worth paying attention to what their literary choices reveal about their ideology, the narratives that underpin it, and the connection between those narratives and real-world violence.
Defining American Literature
The first thing their list attempts to do is establish just what constitutes “American literature.” This holds true despite the fact that many of the titles were not written by Americans at all: the list’s creators are invested in defining the United States strictly as an outgrowth of pre-modern Europe, so it should come as no surprise that it includes older canonical texts by figures like Homer, Ovid, St. Augustine and Shakespeare in addition to Americana like Huckleberry Finn and Paul Revere’s Ride. The publication dates for most of its more modern literature by U.S. authors peter out by the early 1960s (Ray Bradbury’s 1963 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, for instance) with only a small handful of more recent novels, such as the self-published, remarkably poorly written 2019 accelerationist novel Harassment Architecture by Mike Ma.
In a tab on the Google Doc marked “HOW TO READ,” Yiannopoulos and Malkin address their readers directly, writing, “The purpose of this list is to help you build a library that will give you a firm basis in history, politics, religion and theology.” That “firm basis” manages to exclude the entire wealth of Black and Indigenous perspectives. Their understanding of modern American literature leaves no room for a Toni Morrison or a Leslie Marmon Silko, and their classics certainly have no place for a Frederick Douglass or a W.E.B. DuBois. Instead, they opt for a virtual how-to manual for white resentment and violence.
Invasion Narratives
Having established that what they understand as American literary culture is innately and almost exclusively derived from Europe, the next thing their list does is reassert the narratives of invasion, resistance and expansion that have fueled the far right imagination for decades. Possibly the list’s clearest example of an invasion narrative is recently deceased French author Jean Raspail’s 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints, a book Yiannopoulos and Malkin indicate is a “must read” and that has been championed by far right figures from Steve Bannon to leaders of Europe’s “identitarian” movement. The Camp tells of a ramshackle “armada” of boats carrying an undifferentiated mass of impoverished Indian migrants who literally eat feces and invade Europe like zombies, displacing its white inhabitants in the process. It begins with an anecdote about a pedigreed university professor who murders a young hippie for supporting the migrants (in 1973, it was still possible for the far right to characterize academics as upholders of Western superiority, rather than its destroyers). In fact, throughout the novel, the real villains are less the migrants than the media, political and religious elites, as well as the hedonistic activists who advocate for the nameless, faceless, brown-skinned horde. In all, the novel’s plot amounts to an updated stab-in-the-back myth.
Many on the far right have described the book as prophetic since a new wave of migrants began arriving on Europe’s Mediterranean shores in 2015 and renewed attention has been focused on undocumented immigration at the southern border of the United States since Donald Trump’s election campaign began that same year. Pat Buchanan, who recently used The Camp of the Saints as a metaphor for an article about Syrian migrants on the white nationalist website VDARE, has two titles on the reading list, one of which is another “must read”; VDARE founder and white nationalist Peter Brimelow has one title on the list as well.
In case all of that is still too subtle, invasion narratives also dovetail neatly with the “great replacement” theory that motivated, among other things, the mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019. Shooter Brenton Tarrant titled his manifesto The Great Replacement and wrote, “We must crush immigration and deport those invaders already living on our soil.”
Resistance Narratives
Over the past year, Yiannopoulos and Malkin have been working closely with the “groyper” movement, which is essentially an “alt-right” (white nationalist) rebrand since the old label became too toxic following the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. In fact, it is groyper-in-chief Nick Fuentes’s podcast that gave the movement — and the reading list — the “America First” slogan. (Fuentes, one of the “very fine people” who attended Unite the Right, borrowed the phrase from Donald Trump’s inauguration speech.) Groypers are a constituency already moved by the overheated rhetoric of invasion and replacement, and so attacking – or, as they would say, “resisting” – the classes of people they regard as responsible for facilitating the “invasion” is a logical next step.
The “America First” reading list is an overt attempt to instill a very narrowly defined conception of “American” culture in the minds of a young, overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male constituency.
The reading list includes both Italian fascist intellectual Julius Evola’s Revolt Against the Modern World and Unabomber Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto Industrial Society and its Future, which Yiannopoulos and Malkin describe as a “rejection of the modern world.” Either one of these texts is toxic enough by itself, but in conjunction with one another, they amount to a further indication that the list provides both a theoretical rationale and a moral justification for violent attacks on such “modern” notions as democracy, egalitarianism, feminism and multiculturalism. Where Evola draws on a mythologized past of undiluted elitism and authoritarian, masculine heroism that, he argues, needs to be reclaimed (while explicitly rejecting any need for empirical evidence), Kaczynski, whose 17-year bombing campaign killed three people and injured 23 others, rails against a “leftist psychology” that he claims is symptomatic of a sick industrial society. Like many contemporary reactionaries, Kaczynski despises “political correctness,” which he says “has its stronghold among university professors.” Not coincidentally, it is university professors who were the most frequent targets of Kaczynski’s mail bombs.
The list also included more overt resistance narratives. It initially featured The Turner Diaries by William Luther Pierce (it has since been removed with no explanation given). The Turner Diaries is a novel about a clandestine movement of white men who use racialized terrorism and nuclear warfare to “take back” the United States from Jewish “usurpers” and what Pierce portrays as the mindless, sex-crazed Black and Latino men who act as their enforcers. Pierce was the leader of the militant white supremacist organization National Alliance and his novel inspired neo-Nazi terror group The Order, which was responsible for murdering talk radio host Alan Berg in 1984. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh evangelized the book, traveling to gun shows to sell it (and its sequel, Hunter) to like-minded people; his bombing attack on the Murrah Building closely resembled a similar act described in detail in Pierce’s text. Investigators found portions of it in his getaway car. Germany’s National Socialist Underground (NSU), which murdered 10 people and injured others in a years-long terror campaign against a mostly Turkish immigrant population, also took inspiration from The Turner Diaries: NSU member Uwe Mundlos translated several chapters of the book into German and a digital copy was found on a hard drive in an apartment Mundlos and his two primary accomplices had rented while underground.
Expansion Narratives
The list also supports narratives of expansion, a central theme of “classical” fascism. It includes multiple titles that seek to “[set] the record straight about the Crusades,” a historical reference point that is ubiquitous in online far right discourse and invokes images of violent confrontation between Western warriors and Muslim “Saracens.” Moreover, the reading list and the compilers’ commentary constantly refer to a theme of Christian superiority and its inseparability from “Western” identity. They describe one “must read” title as explaining “why the noblest virtues all rest on Christian principles” and another as articulating “how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination.” At the same time, Willa Cather, the lone female author on the list who isn’t a post-civil rights-era right-wing polemicist, may well be a fine writer, but Yiannopoulos and Malkin summarize their interest in her books by emphasizing her focus on “the resilient women who settled the Great Plains.” By constantly emphasizing the heroism of the colonizer while completely excluding any voice of the colonized, they make it clear that a certain kind of invasion is, in fact, acceptable to them. In brief, the sum total of the outlook supported by these texts is a justification of all past (and, presumably, present and future) colonial efforts by “virtuous” Western Christians at the expense of whatever Other is at hand.
Anti-Semitism, Anti-Feminism, White Nationalism
The list is also heavy on anti-Semitic literature (The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Kevin MacDonald’s Culture of Critique, and yes, Hitler’s Mein Kampf, although the latter has also been removed without explanation); masculinist or anti-feminist texts (Jack Donovan’s The Way of Men or several titles by Camille Paglia); and overt white nationalist screeds by the likes of Jared Taylor, Vox Day and Ann Coulter. Yiannopoulos and Malkin’s commentary is revealing here. They acknowledge that the Protocols are a hoax, but they say nothing about why they felt a fraudulent text produced in Tsarist Russia should be included anyway. They describe Culture of Critique as a “highly controversial historical survey of the roots of anti-semitism [sic].” This is, at best, a grossly misleading summary. MacDonald’s book is not so much an exploration of why other people have turned on Jews in the past, but rather why he believes Jews should be hated. His focus on what he believes is Jewish culpability, rather than other people’s attitudes toward Jews, is evident right in the book’s subtitle: “An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements.” In fact, Culture is the final book of a trilogy and the subtitles of the other two, “Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy” and “Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism” only emphasize MacDonald’s presumption that Jews are inherently, indeed genetically, predisposed to maintaining a subversive communal identity separate from whatever other populations they encounter. His analysis seldom rises above the level of condemning the “clannish” nature of international, cosmopolitan Jewry.
Understanding the process by which the far right propagates narratives of invasion, resistance and expansion is a necessary precondition for effective opposition to their objectives.
Yiannopoulos and Malkin have a history of brushing off claims of racism, misogyny and anti-Semitism by invoking their own genre of identity politics. Yiannopoulos could not possibly be anti-Semitic, because he is part Jewish; Malkin obviously cannot be misogynist because she is a woman. And neither of them could ever be racist because he claims he is married to a Black man (whose name he has never revealed and whose face has never been seen publicly) and she is Filipina and married to a Jewish man. Yiannopoulos, however, was banned from Twitter for leading a viciously racist and misogynist campaign against a Black actor and notoriously filmed singing America the Beautiful while his erstwhile friend Richard Spencer and others gave Nazi salutes. For her part, Malkin has openly supported anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and the white nationalist aspirations of the groyper movement.
Metapolitics
One of the major tools of contemporary far right movements like the alt-right, Europe’s “identitarians,” and now the groypers is what they call “metapolitics.” It is a concept borrowed from mid-century Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci that was introduced to far right circles by Armin Mohler, a post-WWII German apologist for fascism, in a 1946 dissertation that codified what he called Germany’s interwar “Conservative Revolution.” The concept gained popularity in the European far right through the work of Mohler’s mentee Alain de Benoist and his notion of “right-wing Gramscianism.” De Benoist, the intellectual leader of France’s Nouvelle Droite (New Right), co-authored a “Manifesto of the New Right for the Year 2000,” which described metapolitics as, “not another way of doing politics. It has nothing to do with a ‘strategy’ that aims to impose an intellectual hegemony any more than it claims to disqualify other possible approaches or attitudes. It rests solely on the observation that ideas play a fundamental role in collective consciousnesses and, more broadly, in the entire history of men.” In practice, far right metapolitics is a process of using cultural means to make far right ideas more palatable, or what many of its practitioners refer to as shifting the “Overton window,” which represents the outer limits of acceptable discourse.
The “America First” reading list clearly falls within the metapolitical sphere. It is nothing if not an overt attempt to instill a very narrowly defined conception of “American” culture in the minds of a young, overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male constituency that is already predisposed to racialized and gendered resentment. As we have seen from Christchurch to El Paso, Oslo to Pittsburgh, their cohort is already prone to explosive and deadly violence.
It is possible to dismiss the “America First” reading list as just another manifestation of the far right echo chamber and the urge for people like Yiannopoulos and Malkin to keep drawing attention to themselves. However, it also provides useful insights into the mindset of their “groyper” constituency and related far right sects, as well as the pathways that lead from their exclusionary ideology to violent action. Three years after Unite the Right and in the midst of both a pandemic and a rapidly evolving push for anti-racist social and political change, understanding the process by which the far right propagates narratives of invasion, resistance and expansion in the interest of establishing its own sense of legitimacy is still a necessary precondition for effective opposition to their objectives.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-07-05--Minor League Teams Could Be Latest Casualties of COVID’s Disaster Capitalism

No Minor League season .
Teams releasing players .
Some team owners continue to pay Minor League players , while others convey “ tough luck ” sentiments and cut the players off .
More than 40 Minor League teams to be eliminated ; untold damage for local economies as a result .
This is our new reality in the age of COVID-19 .
Take , for instance , the Clinton LumberKings , a Minor League baseball team in Clinton , Iowa .
Minor League baseball has been played in this town since 1937 .
With its working-class roots , Clinton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ part of the town ’ s identity , providing affordable entertainment and a glimpse at stars before they become stars .
After all , it is hundreds of miles from the nearest Major League Baseball ( MLB ) team .
And it has also employed scores of workers for almost 100 years , from front office personnel to concession workers to ushers .
Now Clinton ’ s team , along with 41 others , are on a list of teams to be eliminated , and Minor League Baseball may never be played there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the context of the COVID-19/economic crises , with the future of the Minor Leagues — indeed , the future of baseball — up in the air .
There are three points to make here .
First , just as with others in big business , Major League Baseball owners are taking advantage of this situation in order to bring about changes that they knew would have been met with steep resistance under other circumstances .
Author Naomi Klein speaks of “ disaster capitalism , ” in which those of wealth and avarice take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their agendas and/or make changes that would have been difficult to have made otherwise .
We saw this in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria .
In today ’ s context , what is happening to Minor Leaguers and the MLB as a whole is representative of a design that the MLB owners had in place .
Months prior to COVID-19 , MLB owners were seriously discussing cutting the number of teams and cutting the number of draft rounds .
There were mobilizations taking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the owners , and then the plague hit .
The changes underway may result in Minor League jobs never returning .
We may be looking at a dramatic and pro-corporate restructuring of baseball as an industry after both the pandemic and economic crises end , unless there is a loud and organized public response .
This is just as true for workers outside of baseball — be they journalists , retail workers , meatpackers or public sector workers — as for those in baseball , including ( but not limited to ) the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a game , but what is unfolding for the Minor Leaguers is far from a game or a joke .
The lives and careers of thousands of players and other workers in the industry are unraveling as the uncertainty of their situations grow in intensity .
The pay for the highest-level Minor Leaguers — those at the Triple-A level , one step from the Major Leagues — was already outrageously low at $ 12,000 a year .
The MLB requires them to conduct much work with no compensation ( such as during spring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , gain pitiful amounts of per diem while on the road , and share uncomfortably close quarters with other players due to a lack of resources to live on their own .
Third , this dismal situation mirrors that faced by millions of workers across the U.S. who have lost their jobs or , in other cases , been compelled to work under unhealthy conditions in the midst of this pandemic .
Not only are we forced to protect ourselves through social distancing , but families are forced to give up work , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take care of their children .
Already stretched budgets — due to the polarization of wealth we have been seeing grow in this country over the last 40 years — have reached the snapping point .
Minor Leaguers are not cresting this situation but are being swamped by this catastrophe .
Major League players are also facing a pounding by the MLB owners but , at least in their case , the Major Leaguers have the protection of a union , the Major League Baseball Players Association .
In the case of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the owners know that they can roll over the players and the communities where these Minor League teams are located with little risk unless something is done right now .
That means organization and it means building coalitions .
A step in that direction has been our founding of a new nonprofit , Advocates for Minor Leaguers which , while not a labor union , seeks to provide a voice for Minor Leaguers and to work to better their working conditions .
This struggle is not about enriching Minor League players .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we have for all workers who are losing their jobs , their homes and their futures .
Now is the time for action , not pity .

Part of the Series Despair and Disparity: The Uneven Burdens of COVID-19
No Minor League season. Teams releasing players. Some team owners continue to pay Minor League players, while others convey “tough luck” sentiments and cut the players off. More than 40 Minor League teams to be eliminated; untold damage for local economies as a result. This is our new reality in the age of COVID-19.
Take, for instance, the Clinton LumberKings, a Minor League baseball team in Clinton, Iowa. Minor League baseball has been played in this town since 1937. With its working-class roots, Clinton’s Minor League team has become part of the town’s identity, providing affordable entertainment and a glimpse at stars before they become stars. After all, it is hundreds of miles from the nearest Major League Baseball (MLB) team. And it has also employed scores of workers for almost 100 years, from front office personnel to concession workers to ushers.
Now Clinton’s team, along with 41 others, are on a list of teams to be eliminated, and Minor League Baseball may never be played there again.
All of this happening in the context of the COVID-19/economic crises, with the future of the Minor Leagues — indeed, the future of baseball — up in the air.
There are three points to make here. First, just as with others in big business, Major League Baseball owners are taking advantage of this situation in order to bring about changes that they knew would have been met with steep resistance under other circumstances. Author Naomi Klein speaks of “disaster capitalism,” in which those of wealth and avarice take advantage of disasters in order to advance their agendas and/or make changes that would have been difficult to have made otherwise. We saw this in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. In today’s context, what is happening to Minor Leaguers and the MLB as a whole is representative of a design that the MLB owners had in place. Months prior to COVID-19, MLB owners were seriously discussing cutting the number of teams and cutting the number of draft rounds. There were mobilizations taking place against them, bad press for the owners, and then the plague hit.
The changes underway may result in Minor League jobs never returning. We may be looking at a dramatic and pro-corporate restructuring of baseball as an industry after both the pandemic and economic crises end, unless there is a loud and organized public response. This is just as true for workers outside of baseball — be they journalists, retail workers, meatpackers or public sector workers — as for those in baseball, including (but not limited to) the players.
Second, baseball may be a game, but what is unfolding for the Minor Leaguers is far from a game or a joke. The lives and careers of thousands of players and other workers in the industry are unraveling as the uncertainty of their situations grow in intensity. The pay for the highest-level Minor Leaguers — those at the Triple-A level, one step from the Major Leagues — was already outrageously low at $12,000 a year. The MLB requires them to conduct much work with no compensation (such as during spring training), purchase their own equipment, gain pitiful amounts of per diem while on the road, and share uncomfortably close quarters with other players due to a lack of resources to live on their own.
Third, this dismal situation mirrors that faced by millions of workers across the U.S. who have lost their jobs or, in other cases, been compelled to work under unhealthy conditions in the midst of this pandemic. Not only are we forced to protect ourselves through social distancing, but families are forced to give up work, in many cases, in order to take care of their children. Already stretched budgets — due to the polarization of wealth we have been seeing grow in this country over the last 40 years — have reached the snapping point. Minor Leaguers are not cresting this situation but are being swamped by this catastrophe.
Major League players are also facing a pounding by the MLB owners but, at least in their case, the Major Leaguers have the protection of a union, the Major League Baseball Players Association. In the case of the Minor Leagues, there is nothing, and the owners know that they can roll over the players and the communities where these Minor League teams are located with little risk unless something is done right now. That means organization and it means building coalitions. A step in that direction has been our founding of a new nonprofit, Advocates for Minor Leaguers which, while not a labor union, seeks to provide a voice for Minor Leaguers and to work to better their working conditions. This struggle is not about enriching Minor League players. It is about displaying the same concern that we have for all workers who are losing their jobs, their homes and their futures.
Now is the time for action, not pity.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-07-05--Police Reform Hasn’t Stopped the Killings Before. It Won’t Now Either.

President Trump signed an executive order on police reform this June that was more a defense of policing than an indictment .
Democrats assembled in their usual formation to say it did not go far enough .
But amid crystal-clear calls from protesters in the streets to defund the police , there is bipartisan agreement among national politicians to do just the opposite : fund them .
As presumptive Democratic candidate and major architect of mass incarceration Joe Biden said recently , “ Every single police department should have the money they need to institute real reforms.
” History tells @ @ @ @ @ @ @ police who act as its foot soldiers — have always been a bipartisan project .
Political scientist Naomi Murakawa documents in her book The First Civil Right : How Liberals Built Prison America how the midcentury movement for “ police professionalization ” marked an earlier consensus to fund the police .
“ Some saw police funding as a way to repress rioting and law-breaking ; others saw police funding as a way to suppress impetuses for rioting by improving ‘ police-community- relations.
” Both saw resources for policing — not its defunding and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ staged partisan disagreements on reform are a counter-revolutionary tactic .
They aim to further enshrine policing into the fabric of our society .
As historian Stuart Schrader points out , “ police reform is not designed to help citizens .
It is designed to help police.
” Police reform is a time-honored counter-insurgency measure to quell rebellion .
During the Watts rebellion in 1965 , with the South Los Angeles neighborhood in flames , similar reforms were proposed : citizen review boards , bias trainings , diversifying the police force .
And the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Ronald Stokes , years earlier — one that many viewed as the kindling for the rebellion — is particularly instructive in our current moment .
The surveillance of the daily lives of Muslims leading up to Stokes ’ s death and the liberal reforms which precipitated and followed it , can inform current discussions about reform and abolition .
Indeed , the murder of Ronald Stokes happened in a city whose police department was heralded as a national model for police professionalization and reform .
On the evening of April 27 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were unloading suits out of the back of a Buick in front of the Nation of Islam ’ s ( NOI ’ s ) mosque in South Los Angeles when two white officers stopped them .
What was described in the Los Angeles Times as a “ blazing gunfight ” and a “ riot ” left seven unarmed Muslims shot by police .
One man , William Rogers , was paralyzed from the waist down , and mosque secretary Ronald Stokes was shot through the heart at close range while walking towards a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in prayer .
As the others lay on the ground handcuffed and bleeding , they held hands and chanted Allāhu akbar , “ God is most great.
” But before being hailed with police bullets that night , Muslims were surveilled for years and routinely harassed for selling newspapers .
Then , as now , policing was defined by a continuum of violence against communities , rather than their protection from it .
Police Chief William Parker himself proudly admitted that “ we have been watching [ them ] with concern for a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ national reformer in the push for police professionalization .
He was also famous for popularizing the term the “ thin blue line ” and describing police as the “ greatest dislocated minority in America.
” He did this all while overseeing a police force so brutal that the generally moderate civil rights leader Roy Wilkins compared Los Angeles police as “ next to those in Birmingham , Alabama.
” The Monday before Stokes was murdered , 10 Muslim men drove to the University of California , Los Angeles campus to sell copies of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Speaks .
There , they were hassled by police officers who asked whether they were students and demanded their identification .
Arthur Coleman refused .
Four days later , Coleman had his head lacerated by a gun butt and was shot in his chest and the base of his penis by Donald Weese , the same officer who killed Stokes .
He was then handcuffed and left lying on the ground .
Policing the sale of newspapers on a college campus was part of the daily surveillance and profiling that served as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week .
This is not a contradiction .
Huddled together under the umbrella of police professionalization was racial bias training and wiretapping , crime data and racial and religious profiling .
The purpose of police professionalization was to broaden the scope of policing while shielding it from public scrutiny and oversight .
Exceptional violence begins with the quotidian .
The daily policing of everyday Black life is a sustain pedal punctuated by the staccato notes of police murder which have catalyzed current uprisings .
Trayvon Martin was killed over Skittles and a can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ choked to death over selling cigarettes .
Sandra Bland ’ s death was prompted by a traffic stop .
George Floyd was murdered over a $ 20 bill .
Rayshard Brooks was sleeping in his car .
The murder of Ronald Stokes began with two men unloading suits from the back of a Buick .
When Jones and Jingles were stopped and asked by police “ if they were Muslims , ” they demanded to know why they were being questioned .
One officer cited high rates of crime in the area and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A scuffle ensued , and a Black off-duty police officer intervened by slamming a blackjack club against one of the men ’ s heads .
What began as two officers questioning men who were unloading laundry , ended with a half-dozen men shot and one dead .
Officer Donald Weese alone was responsible for shooting five of the men .
Yet , the grand jury ruled Stokes ’ s murder justifiable homicide .
If history is any guide , liberal professionalization reforms such as community relations training , racial diversification and data @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of police murder .
To the contrary , the backdrop to the deadliest case of police violence in the 30-year history of the Nation of Islam included all three .
In Los Angeles , it was the victims of police violence , not police , who eventually went on trial .
The state brought 40 counts of assault and resisting arrest against 14 defendants .
The trial set the record for longest jury deliberation in Los Angeles history .
Over 18 anguishing days , Malcolm X and supporters held vigils outside the courthouse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them .
In the end , 11 of the 14 men were found guilty .
Herbert Rogers , whose son William was sentenced on assault charges while sitting in a wheelchair paralyzed from police bullets , summed up the trial most succinctly : “ You can ’ t get a fair trial in a white man ’ s court.
” Police Reforms Fail Because They Were Never Designed to Succeed When the Watts Rebellion erupted three years later in response to police violence , many considered the murder of Ronald Stokes the origin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who was herself a victim of police brutality and had tried to sue the city for years , recalled joining the organized fight against police violence after Stokes ’ s killing .
Longtime civil rights attorney Loren Miller , who represented the Muslims at trial , had ominously forecast a year before Watts that “ violence in Los Angeles is inevitable and nothing can or will be done about it until after the fact.
” Between 1963 and 1965 alone , police had killed 60 Black people in Los Angeles ; 25 were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the back .
Yet the reforms proposed after Stokes ’ s murder in 1962 were again mirrored in 1965 : civilian review boards , diversified police forces , community relations committees , speaker ’ s bureaus — in short , pacification projects .
Even the liberal-minded Miller condemned the McCone report commissioned after Watts as a “ bitter disappointment ” which “ prescribes aspirin where surgery is required.
” What does this mean in our current moment that liberal police reforms preceded and followed Stokes ’ s murder ?
When Malcolm X spoke @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he emphasized that “ this happened in Los Angeles.
” A police force known nationally for its modernization and professionalization did not change its reputation among Black Angelinos as a violent occupying army .
It did not stop Ronald Stokes from being murdered , or William Rogers from being paralyzed , or Watts from burning .
As Angela Y. Davis pointed out , we are “ trapped on a treadmill of reform.
” But reform does not stop the killings .
Although reformist solutions such as # 8CantWait focus on banning various forms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ predicated on the possibility — indeed the inevitability of — excessive force .
It is for this reason that historian Micol Seigel has described policing as “ violence work.
” Mariame Kaba cautioned that when “ the streets calm and people suggest once again that we hire more Black police officers or create more civilian review boards , I hope that we remember all the times those efforts have failed.
” They have failed because they were never designed to succeed .
There is no “ excessive use of force ” uncoupled from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The murder of Ronald Stokes was inextricably bound in the harassment of Black Muslim men selling newspapers and unloading suits .
Those practices were embedded in reforms .
To truly end police violence , we must end policing itself .

President Trump signed an executive order on police reform this June that was more a defense of policing than an indictment. Democrats assembled in their usual formation to say it did not go far enough. But amid crystal-clear calls from protesters in the streets to defund the police, there is bipartisan agreement among national politicians to do just the opposite: fund them. As presumptive Democratic candidate and major architect of mass incarceration Joe Biden said recently, “Every single police department should have the money they need to institute real reforms.”
History tells us that mass incarceration — and the police who act as its foot soldiers — have always been a bipartisan project. Political scientist Naomi Murakawa documents in her book The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America how the midcentury movement for “police professionalization” marked an earlier consensus to fund the police. “Some saw police funding as a way to repress rioting and law-breaking; others saw police funding as a way to suppress impetuses for rioting by improving ‘police-community- relations.” Both saw resources for policing — not its defunding and dissolution — as the answer.
These staged partisan disagreements on reform are a counter-revolutionary tactic. They aim to further enshrine policing into the fabric of our society. As historian Stuart Schrader points out, “police reform is not designed to help citizens. It is designed to help police.” Police reform is a time-honored counterinsurgency measure to quell rebellion.
During the Watts rebellion in 1965, with the South Los Angeles neighborhood in flames, similar reforms were proposed: citizen review boards, bias trainings, diversifying the police force. And the police murder of a Black Muslim man, Ronald Stokes, years earlier — one that many viewed as the kindling for the rebellion — is particularly instructive in our current moment.
The surveillance of the daily lives of Muslims leading up to Stokes’s death and the liberal reforms which precipitated and followed it, can inform current discussions about reform and abolition. Indeed, the murder of Ronald Stokes happened in a city whose police department was heralded as a national model for police professionalization and reform.
The Fatal Results of Police Professionalization
On the evening of April 27, 1962, Monroe Jones and Fred Jingles were unloading suits out of the back of a Buick in front of the Nation of Islam’s (NOI’s) mosque in South Los Angeles when two white officers stopped them. What was described in the Los Angeles Times as a “blazing gunfight” and a “riot” left seven unarmed Muslims shot by police. One man, William Rogers, was paralyzed from the waist down, and mosque secretary Ronald Stokes was shot through the heart at close range while walking towards a white police officer with his hands raised in prayer. As the others lay on the ground handcuffed and bleeding, they held hands and chanted Allāhu akbar, “God is most great.”
Police reform is a time-honored counter-insurgency measure to quell rebellion.
But before being hailed with police bullets that night, Muslims were surveilled for years and routinely harassed for selling newspapers. Then, as now, policing was defined by a continuum of violence against communities, rather than their protection from it. Police Chief William Parker himself proudly admitted that “we have been watching [them] with concern for a long time.”
Parker was a leading national reformer in the push for police professionalization. He was also famous for popularizing the term the “thin blue line” and describing police as the “greatest dislocated minority in America.” He did this all while overseeing a police force so brutal that the generally moderate civil rights leader Roy Wilkins compared Los Angeles police as “next to those in Birmingham, Alabama.”
The Monday before Stokes was murdered, 10 Muslim men drove to the University of California, Los Angeles campus to sell copies of the NOI’s newspaper, Muhammad Speaks. There, they were hassled by police officers who asked whether they were students and demanded their identification. Arthur Coleman refused. Four days later, Coleman had his head lacerated by a gun butt and was shot in his chest and the base of his penis by Donald Weese, the same officer who killed Stokes. He was then handcuffed and left lying on the ground. Policing the sale of newspapers on a college campus was part of the daily surveillance and profiling that served as the precursor for the fatal violence later that week.
This is not a contradiction. Huddled together under the umbrella of police professionalization was racial bias training and wiretapping, crime data and racial and religious profiling. The purpose of police professionalization was to broaden the scope of policing while shielding it from public scrutiny and oversight.
The Everyday Violence of Policing
Exceptional violence begins with the quotidian. The daily policing of everyday Black life is a sustain pedal punctuated by the staccato notes of police murder which have catalyzed current uprisings. Trayvon Martin was killed over Skittles and a can of iced tea. Eric Garner was choked to death over selling cigarettes. Sandra Bland’s death was prompted by a traffic stop. George Floyd was murdered over a $20 bill. Rayshard Brooks was sleeping in his car. The murder of Ronald Stokes began with two men unloading suits from the back of a Buick.
The purpose of police professionalization was to broaden the scope of policing while shielding it from public scrutiny and oversight.
When Jones and Jingles were stopped and asked by police “if they were Muslims,” they demanded to know why they were being questioned. One officer cited high rates of crime in the area and suggested the suits may have been stolen. A scuffle ensued, and a Black off-duty police officer intervened by slamming a blackjack club against one of the men’s heads. What began as two officers questioning men who were unloading laundry, ended with a half-dozen men shot and one dead. Officer Donald Weese alone was responsible for shooting five of the men. Yet, the grand jury ruled Stokes’s murder justifiable homicide.
If history is any guide, liberal professionalization reforms such as community relations training, racial diversification and data analysis will not change the violent outcome of police murder. To the contrary, the backdrop to the deadliest case of police violence in the 30-year history of the Nation of Islam included all three.
In Los Angeles, it was the victims of police violence, not police, who eventually went on trial. The state brought 40 counts of assault and resisting arrest against 14 defendants. The trial set the record for longest jury deliberation in Los Angeles history. Over 18 anguishing days, Malcolm X and supporters held vigils outside the courthouse while 200 police with nightsticks patrolled around them. In the end, 11 of the 14 men were found guilty. Herbert Rogers, whose son William was sentenced on assault charges while sitting in a wheelchair paralyzed from police bullets, summed up the trial most succinctly: “You can’t get a fair trial in a white man’s court.”
Amsterdam News archive Amsterdam News archive
Police Reforms Fail Because They Were Never Designed to Succeed
When the Watts Rebellion erupted three years later in response to police violence, many considered the murder of Ronald Stokes the origin. Ruth Robinson, a Black teacher who was herself a victim of police brutality and had tried to sue the city for years, recalled joining the organized fight against police violence after Stokes’s killing. Longtime civil rights attorney Loren Miller, who represented the Muslims at trial, had ominously forecast a year before Watts that “violence in Los Angeles is inevitable and nothing can or will be done about it until after the fact.”
Between 1963 and 1965 alone, police had killed 60 Black people in Los Angeles; 25 were unarmed and 27 were shot were in the back. Yet the reforms proposed after Stokes’s murder in 1962 were again mirrored in 1965: civilian review boards, diversified police forces, community relations committees, speaker’s bureaus — in short, pacification projects. Even the liberal-minded Miller condemned the McCone report commissioned after Watts as a “bitter disappointment” which “prescribes aspirin where surgery is required.”
What does this mean in our current moment that liberal police reforms preceded and followed Stokes’s murder? When Malcolm X spoke to the press about the killing, he emphasized that “this happened in Los Angeles.” A police force known nationally for its modernization and professionalization did not change its reputation among Black Angelinos as a violent occupying army. It did not stop Ronald Stokes from being murdered, or William Rogers from being paralyzed, or Watts from burning.
As Angela Y. Davis pointed out, we are “trapped on a treadmill of reform.” But reform does not stop the killings. Although reformist solutions such as #8CantWait focus on banning various forms of excessive force, daily policing is predicated on the possibility — indeed the inevitability of — excessive force. It is for this reason that historian Micol Seigel has described policing as “violence work.”
Mariame Kaba cautioned that when “the streets calm and people suggest once again that we hire more Black police officers or create more civilian review boards, I hope that we remember all the times those efforts have failed.”
They have failed because they were never designed to succeed. There is no “excessive use of force” uncoupled from the everyday violence of surveilling Black life. The murder of Ronald Stokes was inextricably bound in the harassment of Black Muslim men selling newspapers and unloading suits. Those practices were embedded in reforms. To truly end police violence, we must end policing itself.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-07-06--As COVID Ravages the US, Trump’s Campaign Insists It’s “Totally Harmless”

As President Donald Trump gears up for his reelection campaign , one issue is clearly causing him some consternation : the seemingly unchecked spread of coronavirus throughout the United States under his watch .
Trump polls poorly on the matter , likely due to his contradictory views with most Americans on how to deal with the disease .
While he has maintained in the past that easing social distancing rules and ending stay-at-home orders were necessary for growing the economy , 63 percent of voters actually prefer prioritizing efforts to quell the spread of COVID-19 over those economic concerns , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ earlier this month .
That same poll demonstrates that Trump ’ s overall approval rating is dipping , likely because of his mismanaging of the coronavirus pandemic .
Just 39 percent say they approve of the job Trump has done as president , while 59 percent say they disapprove .
With these numbers in mind , the White House and the Trump campaign both appear to be shifting their strategies for how to discuss the disease with the American people going forward .
According to several officials that spoke to The Washington Post @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forward appears to be , whether true or not , telling voters they can safely live with the disease running rampant in the months ahead .
The president will promote messaging that suggests Americans can “ live with the virus being a threat , ” according to one of those sources that spoke to the Post .
Another source said that the administration will try to normalize the regularly changing record-high daily new cases of coronavirus being identified across the country in recent weeks .
“ They ’ re of the belief that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we stop highlighting it , the base will move on and the public will learn to accept 50,000 to 100,000 new cases a day , ” one former administration official familiar with Trump ’ s plans said .
The reporting from the Post appears to confirm a story published late last week by NBC News about the probable shift in messaging from the Trump administration and reelection campaign .
That report detailed how the president will focus on highlighting therapeutic drugs and emphasizing how he views the disease as being low-risk to most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ narrative already on Saturday , one day after the NBC report was filed , when he claimed , without evidence , the overwhelming majority of those contracting COVID-19 aren ’ t being harmed by it .
“ We have tested over 40 million people .
But by so doing , we show cases , 99 percent of which are totally harmless , ” Trump said in a statement at the White House .
Yet , even while making that statement , the statistics seem to contradict Trump ’ s assertions .
Some estimates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 20 percent of individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 may require hospitalization , for example .
The total number of deaths so far , too , represent about 4.5 percent of the total number of identified cases of COVID-19 .
Even if one does believe Trump ’ s claims , however , there is evidence that even asymptomatic carriers of the virus could suffer some harm from it .
One study published in Nature Medicine last month found that those testing positive for the coronavirus but presenting no symptoms may still develop signs of minor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in patients who exhibit symptoms of walking pneumonia .
Further study is also needed to determine whether asymptomatic patients see more damage to their bodies in the future .
As of Monday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time , nearly 2.9 million cases of COVID-19 were identified in the U.S , with nearly 130,000 deaths attributed to the disease .

Though deaths from COVID-19 are around 130,000 and growing, Trump will push the narrative that it’s a minor worry.
As President Donald Trump gears up for his reelection campaign, one issue is clearly causing him some consternation: the seemingly unchecked spread of coronavirus throughout the United States under his watch.
Trump polls poorly on the matter, likely due to his contradictory views with most Americans on how to deal with the disease. While he has maintained in the past that easing social distancing rules and ending stay-at-home orders were necessary for growing the economy, 63 percent of voters actually prefer prioritizing efforts to quell the spread of COVID-19 over those economic concerns, according to a Politico/Morning Consult poll released earlier this month.
That same poll demonstrates that Trump’s overall approval rating is dipping, likely because of his mismanaging of the coronavirus pandemic. Just 39 percent say they approve of the job Trump has done as president, while 59 percent say they disapprove.
With these numbers in mind, the White House and the Trump campaign both appear to be shifting their strategies for how to discuss the disease with the American people going forward. According to several officials that spoke to The Washington Post on the matter, the plan going forward appears to be, whether true or not, telling voters they can safely live with the disease running rampant in the months ahead.
The president will promote messaging that suggests Americans can “live with the virus being a threat,” according to one of those sources that spoke to the Post. Another source said that the administration will try to normalize the regularly changing record-high daily new cases of coronavirus being identified across the country in recent weeks.
“They’re of the belief that people will get over it or if we stop highlighting it, the base will move on and the public will learn to accept 50,000 to 100,000 new cases a day,” one former administration official familiar with Trump’s plans said.
The reporting from the Post appears to confirm a story published late last week by NBC News about the probable shift in messaging from the Trump administration and reelection campaign. That report detailed how the president will focus on highlighting therapeutic drugs and emphasizing how he views the disease as being low-risk to most Americans
Trump seemed to be pushing that narrative already on Saturday, one day after the NBC report was filed, when he claimed, without evidence, the overwhelming majority of those contracting COVID-19 aren’t being harmed by it.
“We have tested over 40 million people. But by so doing, we show cases, 99 percent of which are totally harmless,” Trump said in a statement at the White House.
Yet, even while making that statement, the statistics seem to contradict Trump’s assertions. Some estimates say that as many as 15 to 20 percent of individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 may require hospitalization, for example. The total number of deaths so far, too, represent about 4.5 percent of the total number of identified cases of COVID-19.
Even if one does believe Trump’s claims, however, there is evidence that even asymptomatic carriers of the virus could suffer some harm from it. One study published in Nature Medicine last month found that those testing positive for the coronavirus but presenting no symptoms may still develop signs of minor lung inflammation similar to what is seen in patients who exhibit symptoms of walking pneumonia. Further study is also needed to determine whether asymptomatic patients see more damage to their bodies in the future.
As of Monday at 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time, nearly 2.9 million cases of COVID-19 were identified in the U.S, with nearly 130,000 deaths attributed to the disease.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.