truthout--2020-11-27--Under Biden, We’ll Still Need to Protect Social Security

Earlier this year , Donald Trump tried to bribe voters with a deeply irresponsible tax holiday that was aimed at delaying months of payroll taxes , which are used to fund Social Security and Medicare , for low-to-middle income earners .
Running for re-election , Trump marketed this as a gift to taxpayers , even though , in reality , it was just a deferment .
Because of that , relatively few employees and employers took Trump up on the offer of not paying these bills .
However , more perniciously , Trump began talking about permanently scrapping the system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Security since the 1930s .
In response , the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration warned that the Social Security trust fund could head toward insolvency within a matter of just three years .
President-elect Joe Biden ’ s proposals , by contrast , outline a very different direction .
He has suggested two big changes : increasing revenue to fund the Social Security system and increasing the amount of Social Security payments .
The first change would expand the amount of revenue brought in for Social Security through further taxing super-rich @ @ @ @ @ @ @ buy-in on the needed legislation , Biden wants to change which income is subject to a payroll tax .
Currently , all income up to $ 137,700 is calculated as Social Security-taxable income .
In Biden ’ s plan , that current limit would hold and all additional income between $ 137,700 and $ 400,000 would still not be subject to Social Security taxes .
But , for the richest portion of Americans , who earn more than $ 400,000 annually , the dollars they earn above the $ 400,000 threshold would again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ these wouldn ’ t be used to increase the affluent payee ’ s Social Security benefits but instead to shore up the solubility of the entire Social Security system .
This feeds into the second big change Biden is proposing , which would raise the minimum Social Security payment to 125 percent of the federal poverty line , thus lifting millions of seniors out of poverty .
After all , last year , according to the Census Bureau ’ s supplemental poverty measure calculations , 12.8 percent of Americans over the age of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ succeeds in pushing through this reform , no senior citizen who has worked for at least 30 years would be receiving less than $ 15,920 per year when they retire — and that number would be indexed not to inflation but to changes in the average wage rate nationally .
That ’ s all to the good .
What ’ s less welcome news is that , as Bernie Sanders pointed out during the primaries , at various points in his long career Biden has gone on record to suggest that he would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — including modifying how the benefit is adjusted for inflation — that might result in lower payments for some .
Biden has also , at times , seemed sympathetic to Republican arguments about increasing the age of retirement as a way to keep the Social Security system solvent .
As Biden now starts to put his cabinet together , faced with the possibility of Mitch McConnell ’ s GOP retaining its Senate majority and blocking many of his cabinet nominations , his approach to Social Security is becoming clearer .
Yes , Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raising more revenue for Social Security and increasing payments for low-income seniors .
But he is also apparently contemplating putting his long-time adviser – and chief of staff during his vice-presidency — Bruce Reed , in charge of the Office of Management and Budget .
Reed is a deficit hawk who , when he was part of a post-2008 commission tasked with coming up with proposals to keep the Social Security system afloat , supported raising the retirement age and implementing other cost-saving measures .
This is a potential hiring choice that has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with groups such as Social Security Works coming out loud and clear against Reed being moved into the Office of Management and Budget job .
But it ’ s not only Reed whom progressives are concerned about .
Biden has also floated the possibility of including some anti-Trump Republicans in his big-tent cabinet , including ex-Ohio governor John Kasich and business executive ( and one-time California gubernatorial candidate ) Meg Whitman .
On Monday , Biden announced that Janet Yellen was his choice for Treasury Secretary .
But the rest of his economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place ; so far , the Labor and Commerce Secretaries and the Office of Management and Budget chief haven ’ t been selected .
There are , however , plenty of names being bandied about , from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders on the left to more centrist economists such as Jared Bernstein and Federal Reserve board member Lael Brainard .
At its best , the sort of broad ideological coalition that Biden seems to be envisioning for his cabinet could serve to break through the endless series of roadblocks that the GOP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up against the Biden presidency and agenda .
But the risk of such a coalition is that in being so broad , it could end up diluting core policy goals and values .
In the main , Biden ’ s ideas on Social Security are good ones .
Now , he has to put in place cabinet members willing and able both to sell these ideas to the general public and help Biden navigate a Congress that managed to pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010 but that , since then , has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , structural reforms .

Earlier this year, Donald Trump tried to bribe voters with a deeply irresponsible tax holiday that was aimed at delaying months of payroll taxes, which are used to fund Social Security and Medicare, for low-to-middle income earners.
Running for re-election, Trump marketed this as a gift to taxpayers, even though, in reality, it was just a deferment. Because of that, relatively few employees and employers took Trump up on the offer of not paying these bills. However, more perniciously, Trump began talking about permanently scrapping the system of payroll taxes that have sustained Social Security since the 1930s. In response, the chief actuary of the Social Security Administration warned that the Social Security trust fund could head toward insolvency within a matter of just three years.
President-elect Joe Biden’s proposals, by contrast, outline a very different direction. He has suggested two big changes: increasing revenue to fund the Social Security system and increasing the amount of Social Security payments.
The first change would expand the amount of revenue brought in for Social Security through further taxing super-rich Americans. Assuming he can get congressional buy-in on the needed legislation, Biden wants to change which income is subject to a payroll tax. Currently, all income up to $137,700 is calculated as Social Security-taxable income. In Biden’s plan, that current limit would hold and all additional income between $137,700 and $400,000 would still not be subject to Social Security taxes. But, for the richest portion of Americans, who earn more than $400,000 annually, the dollars they earn above the $400,000 threshold would again be subject to payroll taxes, and these wouldn’t be used to increase the affluent payee’s Social Security benefits but instead to shore up the solubility of the entire Social Security system.
This feeds into the second big change Biden is proposing, which would raise the minimum Social Security payment to 125 percent of the federal poverty line, thus lifting millions of seniors out of poverty. After all, last year, according to the Census Bureau’s supplemental poverty measure calculations, 12.8 percent of Americans over the age of 65 lived in poverty. If Biden succeeds in pushing through this reform, no senior citizen who has worked for at least 30 years would be receiving less than $15,920 per year when they retire — and that number would be indexed not to inflation but to changes in the average wage rate nationally.
That’s all to the good. What’s less welcome news is that, as Bernie Sanders pointed out during the primaries, at various points in his long career Biden has gone on record to suggest that he would be open to changes in Social Security — including modifying how the benefit is adjusted for inflation — that might result in lower payments for some. Biden has also, at times, seemed sympathetic to Republican arguments about increasing the age of retirement as a way to keep the Social Security system solvent.
As Biden now starts to put his cabinet together, faced with the possibility of Mitch McConnell’s GOP retaining its Senate majority and blocking many of his cabinet nominations, his approach to Social Security is becoming clearer.
Yes, Biden is committed to his twin policies of raising more revenue for Social Security and increasing payments for low-income seniors. But he is also apparently contemplating putting his long-time adviser – and chief of staff during his vice-presidency — Bruce Reed, in charge of the Office of Management and Budget. Reed is a deficit hawk who, when he was part of a post-2008 commission tasked with coming up with proposals to keep the Social Security system afloat, supported raising the retirement age and implementing other cost-saving measures. This is a potential hiring choice that has set off alarm bells amongst progressives, with groups such as Social Security Works coming out loud and clear against Reed being moved into the Office of Management and Budget job.
But it’s not only Reed whom progressives are concerned about. Biden has also floated the possibility of including some anti-Trump Republicans in his big-tent cabinet, including ex-Ohio governor John Kasich and business executive (and one-time California gubernatorial candidate) Meg Whitman.
On Monday, Biden announced that Janet Yellen was his choice for Treasury Secretary. But the rest of his economic team has not yet been set in place; so far, the Labor and Commerce Secretaries and the Office of Management and Budget chief haven’t been selected. There are, however, plenty of names being bandied about, from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders on the left to more centrist economists such as Jared Bernstein and Federal Reserve board member Lael Brainard.
At its best, the sort of broad ideological coalition that Biden seems to be envisioning for his cabinet could serve to break through the endless series of roadblocks that the GOP in Congress seems entirely determined to put up against the Biden presidency and agenda. But the risk of such a coalition is that in being so broad, it could end up diluting core policy goals and values.
In the main, Biden’s ideas on Social Security are good ones. Now, he has to put in place cabinet members willing and able both to sell these ideas to the general public and help Biden navigate a Congress that managed to pass the Affordable Care Act in 2010 but that, since then, has proven largely unable to engage with big-picture, structural reforms.
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--2020-11-27--It’s True That Corporate Media Is Biased – But Not in the Ways Right-Wingers Say

Close to 73 million people voted for President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election , and millions of these voters believe his false claims that the election was stolen .
The hashtag “ # StoptheSteal ” has been tweeted a couple million times , and several thousand Trump supporters recently gathered in Washington , D.C. , for a “ Million MAGA March.
” The event prompted White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany to tweet that a million people marched in support of the president , echoing claims of a previous Trump press secretary , Sean Spicer , who , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the size of the crowd at Trump ’ s inauguration .
Former counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway defended Spicer ’ s claim as a simple matter of “ alternative facts.
” Why do so many Americans accept Trump ’ s claims of electoral fraud or his spokespersons ’ blatantly false assertions as truth ?
Widespread distrust of the news media is at least part of the answer .
Well before the 2020 election season began , Trump spent much of his presidency demonizing the press as “ the enemy of the people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or news outlets he disliked as “ fake news.
” These attacks undoubtedly contributed to much of the public ’ s growing distrust of the news media .
Although 2020 surveys by the Pew Research Center and the Reuters Institute show that distrust is widespread and to some degree independent of party affiliation or socioeconomic status , skepticism of the media is most pronounced on the right .
For example , conservatives are more likely to than liberals to embrace conspiratorial explanations for biased media performance : As Pew reported , 60 percent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a desire to mislead audiences ” as a “ major reason why significant mistakes make their way into news stories , ” compared with about a third of Democrats who feel that way .
Many Trump supporters have also been adamantly critical of big tech companies — including Facebook , Twitter and Google — for what they interpret as censorship of stories that favor conservatives and biased algorithms that marginalize conservative perspectives .
Facebook ’ s decision to suppress a poorly sourced and largely unsubstantiated New York Post exposé about Hunter Biden ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case in point , but additional examples are plentiful .
Distrust of establishment media has led Trump ’ s supporters and other conservatives to immerse themselves in an echo chamber of overtly partisan right-wing media , including outlets such as Fox News , One America News , Newsmax and Breitbart .
As Anthony DiMaggio has shown , the “ echo chamber ” effect of immersion in partisan media is much stronger on the right than on the left ; conservative political views and Republican Party affiliation are extremely strong predictors of Fox News @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relentlessly complain about the bias and duplicity of the rest of the corporate media only deepens the distrust that led conservatives to embrace partisan right-wing media in the first place .
The conservative pivot to hyper-partisan news sources is actually ironic , because many of these outlets were founded and are run by billionaire oligarchs who maximize their profits by fanning the flames of discontent while covertly lobbying for policies that maintain the status quo .
Like novelist Rex Stout ’ s ace fictional detective Nero Wolfe , news critics of all political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ folly without backing into fear.
” Skepticism about the corporate news media and global digital platforms such as Google and Facebook is absolutely warranted .
But Trump supporters are fundamentally misguided about what ’ s wrong with these media — especially when some critics assert , without evidence , that news outlets simply fabricate stories to mislead the public .
Conspiratorial explanations that link news slant to the self-interest and partisan bias of editors and journalists — or even aggregates of those individual interests and biases — fail to explain the political power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on which far more fundamental forms of news slant are built .
Understanding the establishment media ’ s deepest biases , not to mention the power of news more generally , requires a structural analysis of journalism , including the economic imperatives , institutional constraints , professional values and social relationships that shape the production of every news story .
This structural perspective has been championed by sociologists such as Gaye Tuchman and Herbert Gans .
In her pioneering 1978 study of the social factors that shape the production of news stories , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that news is oriented to discrete , novel events rather than ongoing systemic issues .
Thus , “ news ” is typically about what went wrong today , rather than what goes wrong every day .
This perspective has real consequences for coverage of topics such as institutionalized racism or social movements that aim to expose and oppose power relationships that might otherwise be taken for granted as “ natural.
” In his 1979 book , Deciding What ’ s News , Gans picked up and developed Tuchman ’ s critique , noting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ often engage in “ built-in anticipatory avoidance ” to reduce the impact of pressures from advertisers , government agencies and officials , interest groups and peers .
Gans observed how forms of anticipatory avoidance reinforced journalists ’ preference for featuring the viewpoints of already powerful public figures while avoiding sources that evoke dissent or lack such authority .
As others have since summarized , “ news ” as understood by the establishment press tends to be about what those in power say and do .
These simple but profound insights help to explain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poor job of informing the public about the issues that Project Censored highlights in its listing of the year ’ s most important but underreported news stories .
This year ’ s story list , which we helped to produce , exposes the corporate news media ’ s deficiencies when it comes to reporting on systemic social problems , including the disappearance or murder of Indigenous women and girls , the deadly consequences of enduring economic inequality , the erosion of workers ’ rights and attacks on freedom of expression — as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ banking and access to affordable medicines .
Each of these crucial news stories has been well-covered by the independent press but either marginalized or ignored altogether by corporate news media .
The corporate media ’ s ideological commitments and structural biases are more clearly illuminated by an analysis of topics they systemically ignore or report only in passing , than by critiques that blame the political predispositions of individual reporters and specific media organizations or promote conspiratorial explanations .
As Tuchman wrote , “ The power to keep an occurrence out of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ How then do we avoid folly without bumping into fear ?
We should defend the media from the irrational attacks of people like Trump and his followers .
We should fight hard for the First Amendment rights of reporters and news organizations .
But , at the same time , we should critique the corporate news media ’ s counter-democratic , profit-driven logic and tendency to ignore systematic social injustice .
Trump wants journalists to serve his interests , but the press should serve the public interest .
Whereas Trump and many of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any form of journalism ( and rational , fact-based inquiry , more generally ) that conflicts with their ideological fantasies , we advocate a critique of the nation ’ s establishment news media grounded in the core values of journalism as a profession .
As the Society of Professional Journalists advocates , ethical journalism should seek truth and report it , minimize harm , act independently , and be accountable and transparent .
When corporate news media make good on these ideals , we should reward them with our attention and our trust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , we should voice our concerns , withhold our support , and redouble our efforts to invigorate the public ’ s knowledge of — and demand for — high-quality , independent alternatives to both the corporate and partisan right-wing versions of news that otherwise set narrow agendas for what and who counts as important and newsworthy in the United States .

Rachel Bruner: “I thought you were afraid of nobody and nothing.”
Nero Wolfe: “Afraid? I can dodge folly without backing into fear.”
—Rex Stout, The Doorbell Rang
Close to 73 million people voted for President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, and millions of these voters believe his false claims that the election was stolen. The hashtag “#StoptheSteal” has been tweeted a couple million times, and several thousand Trump supporters recently gathered in Washington, D.C., for a “Million MAGA March.”
The event prompted White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany to tweet that a million people marched in support of the president, echoing claims of a previous Trump press secretary, Sean Spicer, who, back in January 2017, wildly exaggerated the size of the crowd at Trump’s inauguration. Former counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway defended Spicer’s claim as a simple matter of “alternative facts.”
Why do so many Americans accept Trump’s claims of electoral fraud or his spokespersons’ blatantly false assertions as truth? Widespread distrust of the news media is at least part of the answer. Well before the 2020 election season began, Trump spent much of his presidency demonizing the press as “the enemy of the people” and dismissing any reporting, reporters or news outlets he disliked as “fake news.”
Distrust of the News
These attacks undoubtedly contributed to much of the public’s growing distrust of the news media. Although 2020 surveys by the Pew Research Center and the Reuters Institute show that distrust is widespread and to some degree independent of party affiliation or socioeconomic status, skepticism of the media is most pronounced on the right. For example, conservatives are more likely to than liberals to embrace conspiratorial explanations for biased media performance: As Pew reported, 60 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents cited “a desire to mislead audiences” as a “major reason why significant mistakes make their way into news stories,” compared with about a third of Democrats who feel that way.
Many Trump supporters have also been adamantly critical of big tech companies — including Facebook, Twitter and Google — for what they interpret as censorship of stories that favor conservatives and biased algorithms that marginalize conservative perspectives. Facebook’s decision to suppress a poorly sourced and largely unsubstantiated New York Post exposé about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings stands as a case in point, but additional examples are plentiful.
Distrust of establishment media has led Trump’s supporters and other conservatives to immerse themselves in an echo chamber of overtly partisan right-wing media, including outlets such as Fox News, One America News, Newsmax and Breitbart. As Anthony DiMaggio has shown, the “echo chamber” effect of immersion in partisan media is much stronger on the right than on the left; conservative political views and Republican Party affiliation are extremely strong predictors of Fox News consumption.
The fact that right-wing media relentlessly complain about the bias and duplicity of the rest of the corporate media only deepens the distrust that led conservatives to embrace partisan right-wing media in the first place. The conservative pivot to hyper-partisan news sources is actually ironic, because many of these outlets were founded and are run by billionaire oligarchs who maximize their profits by fanning the flames of discontent while covertly lobbying for policies that maintain the status quo.
Beyond the Right’s Conspiracy Theories
Like novelist Rex Stout’s ace fictional detective Nero Wolfe, news critics of all political persuasions need the agility to “dodge folly without backing into fear.” Skepticism about the corporate news media and global digital platforms such as Google and Facebook is absolutely warranted. But Trump supporters are fundamentally misguided about what’s wrong with these media — especially when some critics assert, without evidence, that news outlets simply fabricate stories to mislead the public.
Skepticism about the corporate news media and Google and Facebook is absolutely warranted. But Trump supporters are fundamentally misguided about what’s wrong with these media.
Conspiratorial explanations that link news slant to the self-interest and partisan bias of editors and journalists — or even aggregates of those individual interests and biases — fail to explain the political power of news or to identify the foundations on which far more fundamental forms of news slant are built. Understanding the establishment media’s deepest biases, not to mention the power of news more generally, requires a structural analysis of journalism, including the economic imperatives, institutional constraints, professional values and social relationships that shape the production of every news story.
This structural perspective has been championed by sociologists such as Gaye Tuchman and Herbert Gans. In her pioneering 1978 study of the social factors that shape the production of news stories, “Making News,” Tuchman observed that news is oriented to discrete, novel events rather than ongoing systemic issues. Thus, “news” is typically about what went wrong today, rather than what goes wrong every day. This perspective has real consequences for coverage of topics such as institutionalized racism or social movements that aim to expose and oppose power relationships that might otherwise be taken for granted as “natural.”
In his 1979 book, Deciding What’s News, Gans picked up and developed Tuchman’s critique, noting, for example, how news professionals often engage in “built-in anticipatory avoidance” to reduce the impact of pressures from advertisers, government agencies and officials, interest groups and peers. Gans observed how forms of anticipatory avoidance reinforced journalists’ preference for featuring the viewpoints of already powerful public figures while avoiding sources that evoke dissent or lack such authority. As others have since summarized, “news” as understood by the establishment press tends to be about what those in power say and do.
These simple but profound insights help to explain why the establishment press does such a poor job of informing the public about the issues that Project Censored highlights in its listing of the year’s most important but underreported news stories. This year’s story list, which we helped to produce, exposes the corporate news media’s deficiencies when it comes to reporting on systemic social problems, including the disappearance or murder of Indigenous women and girls, the deadly consequences of enduring economic inequality, the erosion of workers’ rights and attacks on freedom of expression — as well as important solutions-oriented reporting on voting, banking and access to affordable medicines. Each of these crucial news stories has been well-covered by the independent press but either marginalized or ignored altogether by corporate news media.
The corporate media’s ideological commitments and structural biases are more clearly illuminated by an analysis of topics they systemically ignore or report only in passing, than by critiques that blame the political predispositions of individual reporters and specific media organizations or promote conspiratorial explanations. As Tuchman wrote, “The power to keep an occurrence out of the news is power over the news.”
How then do we avoid folly without bumping into fear? We should defend the media from the irrational attacks of people like Trump and his followers. We should fight hard for the First Amendment rights of reporters and news organizations. But, at the same time, we should critique the corporate news media’s counter-democratic, profit-driven logic and tendency to ignore systematic social injustice.
Trump wants journalists to serve his interests, but the press should serve the public interest. Whereas Trump and many of his most vocal supporters appear to oppose any form of journalism (and rational, fact-based inquiry, more generally) that conflicts with their ideological fantasies, we advocate a critique of the nation’s establishment news media grounded in the core values of journalism as a profession. As the Society of Professional Journalists advocates, ethical journalism should seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, and be accountable and transparent.
When corporate news media make good on these ideals, we should reward them with our attention and our trust; when they fail to do so, we should voice our concerns, withhold our support, and redouble our efforts to invigorate the public’s knowledge of — and demand for — high-quality, independent alternatives to both the corporate and partisan right-wing versions of news that otherwise set narrow agendas for what and who counts as important and newsworthy in the United States.
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--2020-11-28--Largest Retail Association Is Lobbying to Get Stores Open as Pandemic Worsens

As schools in some parts of the U.S. shut down again because of surging coronavirus cases , the retail industry is lobbying to keep doors open for consumers this holiday season .
CNN reported that on a conference call last Thursday , Macy ’ s CEO Jeffrey Gennette said the retailer was working with local and state leaders to remove the distinction between “ essential ” and “ non-essential ” retailers .
( It ’ s been up to city and state officials to define which businesses are “ essential ” and remain open during this next round of shutdowns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe the designation of essential and non-essential should play in retail .
We believe you either have a safe environment or not , ” he said .
“ You should be held accountable to health and safety standards.
” At the beginning of the pandemic , Macy ’ s was deemed a “ non-essential ” business ; as a result , the retailer is still recovering from lost sales .
Meanwhile , online shopping hubs like Amazon have grown in recent months .
Macy ’ s isn ’ t alone in the effort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) , which is the world ’ s largest retail trade association , is lobbying to exempt retail from the label of “ essential ” and “ non-essential ” businesses , too .
Earlier this month , the NRF filed a request under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act to release information related to restrictions placed on retailers by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham .
Many retailers and eateries were forced to close for 14 days if an establishment met a quota of reported COVID-19 cases in the workplace .
Several Walmart @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down as a result .
A few days ago , New Mexico officials offered businesses an exemption if they regularly test all employees .
“ Since the onset of the pandemic early this year , New Mexican retailers have made the safety and security of their customers , employees and local communities their highest priority , ” NRF Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Stephanie Martz said in a statement .
“ Furthermore , the state ’ s new measures burden rural communities by decreasing access to essential items if local businesses are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Salon , Jason Straczewski , the National Retail Federation ’ s Vice President of Government Relations and Political Affairs , told Salon the retail industry has made a “ significant investment ” to prepare for in-person shopping this year and keep stores open during the holiday season.
” “ We ’ ve learned so much that we think we have the pathways to serve the customer safely , and we believe that any retail business that is following government protocols for public health and safety should be open and available to serve the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told Salon .
“ The whole designation of what ’ s essential and what ’ s not essential is past its expiration date ; We think there ’ s a way to do this safely and effectively , and retailers should be open this holiday season.
” Indeed , Black Friday — America ’ s strange , hyper-consumerist shopping ritual that sometimes leads to sporadic rage — typically marks a time of year that retailers depend on to make significant profit .
Last year , American shoppers spent an estimated $ 7.4 billion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ equate to stores packed with crowds ( due to capacity limits , social distancing , and other safety measures ) , there still will be a lot of deals on Friday that will continue on throughout the week and weekend .
But the focus on the safety of consumers shifts the focus from who is most at risk by keeping these retailers open : the 4.6 million retail workers stocking shelves and checking out customers .
Stuart Appelbaum , President of the Retail , Wholesale and Department Store Union ( RWDSU ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for retail employees this holiday season , which is already a stressful time for them in a normal year .
“ Workers are in public-facing jobs ; and they interact with larger numbers of customers during the holiday season , risking their own exposure to COVID-19 as well as possibly bringing it home to their families , ” Appelbaum said in a statement .
“ This holiday season , retail workers need customers to do everything they can to help keep everybody safe.
” Workers at Walmart , Amazon , Kroger and PetSmart @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hazard pay .
For these workers , they are being faced with a tough decision this holiday season : work and risk your life , or don ’ t receive a paycheck .
As one anonymous PetSmart employee told NBC News : “ The [ Black Friday ] deals are enticing .
.
.
But this is life and death for a lot of people.
” Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser , chief quality and patient safety officer at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center , told Salon retail establishments haven ’ t been a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. , but the “ caveat ” is that when physical distancing isn ’ t being observed , and masks aren ’ t being worn .
Gonsenhauser said if shoppers see a crowd , it ’ s best to leave and come back at another time .
For the consumers , that ’ s easier to avoid : if you walk into a store and people are too close to each other , leave .
But workers at these stores don ’ t have that luxury .
“ Try and avoid as much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gonsenhauser said , adding online shopping is definitely preferable .

As schools in some parts of the U.S. shut down again because of surging coronavirus cases, the retail industry is lobbying to keep doors open for consumers this holiday season.
CNN reported that on a conference call last Thursday, Macy’s CEO Jeffrey Gennette said the retailer was working with local and state leaders to remove the distinction between “essential” and “non-essential” retailers. (It’s been up to city and state officials to define which businesses are “essential” and remain open during this next round of shutdowns).
“We don’t believe the designation of essential and non-essential should play in retail. We believe you either have a safe environment or not,” he said. “You should be held accountable to health and safety standards.”
At the beginning of the pandemic, Macy’s was deemed a “non-essential” business; as a result, the retailer is still recovering from lost sales. Meanwhile, online shopping hubs like Amazon have grown in recent months.
Macy’s isn’t alone in the effort. The National Retail Federation (NRF), which is the world’s largest retail trade association, is lobbying to exempt retail from the label of “essential” and “non-essential” businesses, too. Earlier this month, the NRF filed a request under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act to release information related to restrictions placed on retailers by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. Many retailers and eateries were forced to close for 14 days if an establishment met a quota of reported COVID-19 cases in the workplace. Several Walmart stores and grocery stores have been shut down as a result.
A few days ago, New Mexico officials offered businesses an exemption if they regularly test all employees.
“Since the onset of the pandemic early this year, New Mexican retailers have made the safety and security of their customers, employees and local communities their highest priority,” NRF Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel Stephanie Martz said in a statement. “Furthermore, the state’s new measures burden rural communities by decreasing access to essential items if local businesses are ordered closed.”
In an interview with Salon, Jason Straczewski, the National Retail Federation’s Vice President of Government Relations and Political Affairs, told Salon the retail industry has made a “significant investment” to prepare for in-person shopping this year and keep stores open during the holiday season.”
“We’ve learned so much that we think we have the pathways to serve the customer safely, and we believe that any retail business that is following government protocols for public health and safety should be open and available to serve the customer in their community,” Straczewski told Salon. “The whole designation of what’s essential and what’s not essential is past its expiration date; We think there’s a way to do this safely and effectively, and retailers should be open this holiday season.”
Indeed, Black Friday — America’s strange, hyper-consumerist shopping ritual that sometimes leads to sporadic rage — typically marks a time of year that retailers depend on to make significant profit. Last year, American shoppers spent an estimated $7.4 billion. While Black Friday won’t equate to stores packed with crowds (due to capacity limits, social distancing, and other safety measures), there still will be a lot of deals on Friday that will continue on throughout the week and weekend.
But the focus on the safety of consumers shifts the focus from who is most at risk by keeping these retailers open: the 4.6 million retail workers stocking shelves and checking out customers. Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), issued a statement this week expressing concern for retail employees this holiday season, which is already a stressful time for them in a normal year.
“Workers are in public-facing jobs; and they interact with larger numbers of customers during the holiday season, risking their own exposure to COVID-19 as well as possibly bringing it home to their families,” Appelbaum said in a statement. “This holiday season, retail workers need customers to do everything they can to help keep everybody safe.”
Workers at Walmart, Amazon, Kroger and PetSmart are calling on their employers to reinstate hazard pay. For these workers, they are being faced with a tough decision this holiday season: work and risk your life, or don’t receive a paycheck. As one anonymous PetSmart employee told NBC News: “The [Black Friday] deals are enticing . . . But this is life and death for a lot of people.”
Dr. Iahn Gonsenhauser, chief quality and patient safety officer at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, told Salon retail establishments haven’t been a major source of community spread in the U.S., but the “caveat” is that when physical distancing isn’t being observed, and masks aren’t being worn. Gonsenhauser said if shoppers see a crowd, it’s best to leave and come back at another time.
For the consumers, that’s easier to avoid: if you walk into a store and people are too close to each other, leave. But workers at these stores don’t have that luxury.
“Try and avoid as much of it as you can,” Gonsenhauser said, adding online shopping is definitely preferable.
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--2020-11-28--A Global Police State Is Emerging as World Capitalism Descends Into Crisis

In her novel Everything is Known , Liza Elliott describes a future dystopia where five global mega corporations , dubbed Affiliations , rule the planet .
“ Infested with the inescapable surveillance industry , the five global Affiliations manipulated Big Data to commodify and commercialize all human activity for profit.
” The Affiliations had subordinated states to their domination : “ George Orwell got it wrong .
Big Brother did not come from a totalitarian state , but from a totalitarian non-state.
” Big Data was “ a relentless cybernetic grandmaster who with sneaky eyes and listening ears spied on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , recording every word you spoke or wrote .
It kept account of all this and more to amass the info power it needed to control the market , the heartbeat of the money economy.
” The world ’ s population had become divided into three segregated social clusters , the members of the Core , the Peripherals , and the Outliers who comprised a majority of humanity : Outliers were the discarded people .
If they could not function in the Affiliation run world , they were cast off .
Their lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their own fault .
There would never be sympathy .
They scrounged out a life with the dregs , the overruns , and the un-sellable excesses from the opulent Core and stark Periphery .
Some worked unpredictable marginal field-labor jobs while others scrounged in the leftovers , the scraps , and the trash .
The world Elliott describes could well be , with not much of a stretch , a portrait of the one we live in .
The unprecedented concentration of capital at the global level has cemented the financial power of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economic power to wield political influence and control states .
In 2018 , just 17 global financial conglomerates collectively managed $ 41.1 trillion , more than half the GDP of the entire planet .
That same year , the richest one percent of humanity , led by 36 million millionaires and 2,400 billionaires , controlled more than half of the world ’ s wealth while the bottom 80 percent had to make do with just 4.5 percent of this wealth .
It is this mass of downcast humanity that make up Elliott ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pages to follow are referred to as surplus humanity .
Yet the technical infrastructure of the twenty-first century is producing the resources in which a political and economic system very different from the global capitalism in which we live could be achieved .
Through popular political control of the new technologies we could collectively transform our world for the better .
Machines are accomplishing tasks that were unimaginable a decade ago .
As Srnicek and Williams remind us , the internet and social media are giving a voice to billions who previously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ closer than ever to existence .
Open-source designs , copyleft creativity , and 3D printing all portend a world where the scarcity of many products might be overcome .
New forms of computer simulation could rejuvenate economic planning and give us the ability to direct economies rationally in unprecedented ways .
The newest wave of automation is creating the possibility for huge swathes of boring and demeaning work to be permanently eliminated .
Clean energy technologies make possible virtually limitless and environmentally sustainable forms of power production .
And new medical technologies not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but also make possible new experiments with gender and sexual identity .
If we are to free ourselves through these new technologies of the fourth industrial revolution , however , we would first need to overthrow the oppressive and archaic social relations of global capitalism .
At a time when both fascism and socialism again appear to be on the agenda around the world , it behooves us to study the system of global capitalism , less as an intellectual exercise in itself than in order to struggle against its depredations with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that can avert catastrophe and meet the material and spiritual needs of humanity .
Rather than serving to liberate humanity , the new technologies are being applied at this time by the agents of this system to bring about a global police state .
While I am hardly the first to talk about a police state , I mean in this book considerably more than what we typically associate with a police state — police and military repression , authoritarian government , the suppression of civil liberties and human rights .
Certainly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around the world .
In this study , however , I want to develop the concept of global police state to identify more broadly the emerging character of the global economy and society as a repressive totality whose logic is as much economic and cultural as it is political .
By global police state I refer to three interrelated developments .
First is the ever more omnipresent systems of mass social control , repression and warfare promoted by the ruling groups to contain the real and the potential rebellion of the global working @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inequalities are politically explosive and to the extent that the system is simply unable to incorporate surplus humanity it turns to ever more violent forms of containment .
The methods of control include sealing out the surplus population through border and other containment walls , deportation regimes , mass incarceration and spatial apartheid , alongside omnipresent new systems of state and private surveillance and criminalization of the poor and working classes .
They also include the deadly new modalities of policing and repression made possible by applications of digitalization and fourth industrial revolution @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of global society into what in Pentagon jargon is called “ battlespace , ” concentrated in the world ’ s megacities that are now home to more than half of humanity .
Second is how the global economy is itself based more and more on the development and deployment of these systems of warfare , social control , and repression simply as a means of making profit and continuing to accumulate capital in the face of stagnation — what I term militarized accumulation , or accumulation by repression .
If it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be sustained by ubiquitous systems of social control and repression , it has become equally evident that quite apart from political considerations , the ruling groups have acquired a vested interest in war , conflict , and repression as a means of accumulation .
As war and state-sponsored violence become increasingly privatized , the interests of a broad array of capitalist groups shift the political , social , and ideological climate towards generating and sustaining social conflict — such as in the Middle East — and in expanding systems of warfare , repression @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bogus wars against drugs , terror , immigrants and refugees are enormously profitable enterprises .
We are now living in a veritable global war economy .
And third is the increasing move towards political systems that can be characterized as twenty-first century fascism , or even in a broader sense , as totalitarian .
The increasing influence around the world of neo-fascist , authoritarian , and rightwing populist parties and movements , symbolized above all by Trumpism in the United States , has sparked a flurry of debate on whether fascism is again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sharp polarization around the world between insurgent left and popular forces , on the one hand , and an insurgent far Right , on the other , at whose fringe are openly fascist tendencies .
A project of twenty-first century fascism is on the ascent in the civil societies of many countries around the world .
The project has made significant advances in recent years in its competition to win state power , and in some cases , it has gained a foothold in the capitalist state .
At the same time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through militarism , misogyny , extreme masculinization and racism .
Such a culture generates a climate conducive to mass violence , often directed against the racially oppressed , ethnically persecuted , women , and poor , vulnerable communities .
But a fascist outcome is not inevitable .
Whether or not a fascist project manages to congeal is entirely contingent on how the struggle among social and political forces unfolds in the coming years .
This global police state is emerging at a time when world capitalism descends into a crisis that is unprecedented @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reach , the extent of ecological degradation and social deterioration , and the sheer scale of the means of violence that is now deployed around the world .
In the first instance , the global police state is a story of control and repression of the poor and working classes .
There are growing movements against the many expressions of global police state — mass incarceration , police violence , U.S.-led wars around the world , the persecution of immigrants and refugees , the repression of environmental justice activists .
Yet often these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social justice , which by itself begets , at best , mild reform .
If these movements are to attack the global police state in its jugular vein , they must identify global capitalism as the driver of the systems of social control and repression that they are combating .
This book attempts to do just that .
It sets out to identify the contemporary dynamics of capitalist transformation and the novel forms that are emerging .
This concept of a global police state allows us to specify how the economic dimensions of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with political , ideological and military dimensions of this transformation… .
I offer a “ big picture ” of the emerging global police state in a short book that is eminently readable .
The book may startle many readers and make them angry .
I trust the work will serve as a warning to the dystopic future that is upon us .
More importantly , by exposing the nature and dynamics of this out-of-control system , I hope it will contribute to the struggles to bring about an alternative future based on human @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a crisis of humanity .
The destruction under global capitalism of the social fabric worldwide and the extreme alienation of labor , our very species being , raises fundamental questions about what it means to be human and how to recover our humanity .
It is in the nature of our species to work together to assure our collective existence .
But the capitalist system that throws up a global police state turns such cooperation into a process of destruction for masses of humanity as we are made to compete with one another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ identity , meaning , and community ensue .
If we are to recover our humanity we must — contra capital — re-embed ourselves in relations of reciprocity and mutual well-being .
[ What are ] the prospects for a renewal of emancipatory projects around the world ?
[ We must ] face [ the ] challenge of revitalizing a Left that could help bring about an ecological socialist future .
Once we have exposed the brutal world of global capitalist inequality and exploitation the most urgent matter becomes how we can move forward @ @ @ @ @

The following is an extract from the Introduction to The Global Police State, a new book by William I. Robinson that was released early this fall by Pluto Press.
In her novel Everything is Known, Liza Elliott describes a future dystopia where five global mega corporations, dubbed Affiliations, rule the planet. “Infested with the inescapable surveillance industry, the five global Affiliations manipulated Big Data to commodify and commercialize all human activity for profit.” The Affiliations had subordinated states to their domination: “George Orwell got it wrong. Big Brother did not come from a totalitarian state, but from a totalitarian non-state.” Big Data was “a relentless cybernetic grandmaster who with sneaky eyes and listening ears spied on everything: your clothes, your friends, recording every word you spoke or wrote. It kept account of all this and more to amass the info power it needed to control the market, the heartbeat of the money economy.” The world’s population had become divided into three segregated social clusters, the members of the Core, the Peripherals, and the Outliers who comprised a majority of humanity:
Outliers were the discarded people. If they could not function in the Affiliation run world, they were cast off. Their lives, such as they happened, were their own fault. There would never be sympathy. They scrounged out a life with the dregs, the overruns, and the un-sellable excesses from the opulent Core and stark Periphery. Some worked unpredictable marginal field-labor jobs while others scrounged in the leftovers, the scraps, and the trash.
The world Elliott describes could well be, with not much of a stretch, a portrait of the one we live in. The unprecedented concentration of capital at the global level has cemented the financial power of a transnational corporate elite that uses its economic power to wield political influence and control states. In 2018, just 17 global financial conglomerates collectively managed $41.1 trillion, more than half the GDP of the entire planet. That same year, the richest one percent of humanity, led by 36 million millionaires and 2,400 billionaires, controlled more than half of the world’s wealth while the bottom 80 percent had to make do with just 4.5 percent of this wealth. It is this mass of downcast humanity that make up Elliott’s Peripherals and Outliers, what in the pages to follow are referred to as surplus humanity.
Yet the technical infrastructure of the twenty-first century is producing the resources in which a political and economic system very different from the global capitalism in which we live could be achieved. Through popular political control of the new technologies we could collectively transform our world for the better. Machines are accomplishing tasks that were unimaginable a decade ago. As Srnicek and Williams remind us, the internet and social media are giving a voice to billions who previously went unheard, bringing global participative democracy closer than ever to existence. Open-source designs, copyleft creativity, and 3D printing all portend a world where the scarcity of many products might be overcome. New forms of computer simulation could rejuvenate economic planning and give us the ability to direct economies rationally in unprecedented ways. The newest wave of automation is creating the possibility for huge swathes of boring and demeaning work to be permanently eliminated. Clean energy technologies make possible virtually limitless and environmentally sustainable forms of power production. And new medical technologies not only enable a longer, healthier life, but also make possible new experiments with gender and sexual identity.
If we are to free ourselves through these new technologies of the fourth industrial revolution, however, we would first need to overthrow the oppressive and archaic social relations of global capitalism. At a time when both fascism and socialism again appear to be on the agenda around the world, it behooves us to study the system of global capitalism, less as an intellectual exercise in itself than in order to struggle against its depredations with a view towards replacing it with one that can avert catastrophe and meet the material and spiritual needs of humanity. Rather than serving to liberate humanity, the new technologies are being applied at this time by the agents of this system to bring about a global police state.
While I am hardly the first to talk about a police state, I mean in this book considerably more than what we typically associate with a police state — police and military repression, authoritarian government, the suppression of civil liberties and human rights. Certainly, we see this, and more, around the world. In this study, however, I want to develop the concept of global police state to identify more broadly the emerging character of the global economy and society as a repressive totality whose logic is as much economic and cultural as it is political. By global police state I refer to three interrelated developments.
First is the ever more omnipresent systems of mass social control, repression and warfare promoted by the ruling groups to contain the real and the potential rebellion of the global working class and surplus humanity. Savage global inequalities are politically explosive and to the extent that the system is simply unable to incorporate surplus humanity it turns to ever more violent forms of containment. The methods of control include sealing out the surplus population through border and other containment walls, deportation regimes, mass incarceration and spatial apartheid, alongside omnipresent new systems of state and private surveillance and criminalization of the poor and working classes. They also include the deadly new modalities of policing and repression made possible by applications of digitalization and fourth industrial revolution technologies. The global police state brings all of global society into what in Pentagon jargon is called “battlespace,” concentrated in the world’s megacities that are now home to more than half of humanity.
Second is how the global economy is itself based more and more on the development and deployment of these systems of warfare, social control, and repression simply as a means of making profit and continuing to accumulate capital in the face of stagnation — what I term militarized accumulation, or accumulation by repression. If it is evident that unprecedented global inequalities can only be sustained by ubiquitous systems of social control and repression, it has become equally evident that quite apart from political considerations, the ruling groups have acquired a vested interest in war, conflict, and repression as a means of accumulation. As war and state-sponsored violence become increasingly privatized, the interests of a broad array of capitalist groups shift the political, social, and ideological climate towards generating and sustaining social conflict — such as in the Middle East — and in expanding systems of warfare, repression, surveillance and social control. The bogus wars against drugs, terror, immigrants and refugees are enormously profitable enterprises. We are now living in a veritable global war economy.
And third is the increasing move towards political systems that can be characterized as twenty-first century fascism, or even in a broader sense, as totalitarian. The increasing influence around the world of neo-fascist, authoritarian, and rightwing populist parties and movements, symbolized above all by Trumpism in the United States, has sparked a flurry of debate on whether fascism is again on the rise. There has been a sharp polarization around the world between insurgent left and popular forces, on the one hand, and an insurgent far Right, on the other, at whose fringe are openly fascist tendencies.
A project of twenty-first century fascism is on the ascent in the civil societies of many countries around the world. The project has made significant advances in recent years in its competition to win state power, and in some cases, it has gained a foothold in the capitalist state. At the same time a neo-fascist culture appears to be emerging through militarism, misogyny, extreme masculinization and racism. Such a culture generates a climate conducive to mass violence, often directed against the racially oppressed, ethnically persecuted, women, and poor, vulnerable communities. But a fascist outcome is not inevitable. Whether or not a fascist project manages to congeal is entirely contingent on how the struggle among social and political forces unfolds in the coming years.
This global police state is emerging at a time when world capitalism descends into a crisis that is unprecedented, given its magnitude, its global reach, the extent of ecological degradation and social deterioration, and the sheer scale of the means of violence that is now deployed around the world. In the first instance, the global police state is a story of control and repression of the poor and working classes. There are growing movements against the many expressions of global police state — mass incarceration, police violence, U.S.-led wars around the world, the persecution of immigrants and refugees, the repression of environmental justice activists.
Yet often these movements are based on moral appeal to social justice, which by itself begets, at best, mild reform. If these movements are to attack the global police state in its jugular vein, they must identify global capitalism as the driver of the systems of social control and repression that they are combating. This book attempts to do just that. It sets out to identify the contemporary dynamics of capitalist transformation and the novel forms that are emerging. This concept of a global police state allows us to specify how the economic dimensions of global capitalist transformation intersect in new ways with political, ideological and military dimensions of this transformation….
I offer a “big picture” of the emerging global police state in a short book that is eminently readable. The book may startle many readers and make them angry. I trust the work will serve as a warning to the dystopic future that is upon us. More importantly, by exposing the nature and dynamics of this out-of-control system, I hope it will contribute to the struggles to bring about an alternative future based on human freedom and liberation. We do face a crisis of humanity. The destruction under global capitalism of the social fabric worldwide and the extreme alienation of labor, our very species being, raises fundamental questions about what it means to be human and how to recover our humanity. It is in the nature of our species to work together to assure our collective existence. But the capitalist system that throws up a global police state turns such cooperation into a process of destruction for masses of humanity as we are made to compete with one another to survive. Crises of values, identity, meaning, and community ensue.
If we are to recover our humanity we must — contra capital — re-embed ourselves in relations of reciprocity and mutual well-being. [What are] the prospects for a renewal of emancipatory projects around the world? [We must] face [the] challenge of revitalizing a Left that could help bring about an ecological socialist future. Once we have exposed the brutal world of global capitalist inequality and exploitation the most urgent matter becomes how we can move forward toward greater social justice.
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--2020-11-28--Advocates Push for Washington State to Allow Magic Mushrooms for Dying Patients

Back in March , just as anxiety over COVID-19 began spreading across the U.S. , Erinn Baldeschwiler of La Conner , Washington , found herself facing her own private dread .
Just 48 and the mother of two teenagers , Baldeschwiler was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer after discovering a small lump on her chest , no bigger than a pea .
Within weeks , it was the size of a golf ball , angry and red .
Doctors gave her two years to live .
“ It ’ s heartbreaking , ” she said .
“ Frankly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of retreating into her illness , Baldeschwiler is pouring energy into a new effort to help dying patients gain legal access to psilocybin — the mind-altering compound found in so-called magic mushrooms — to ease their psychic pain .
“ I have personally struggled with depression , anxiety , anger , ” Baldeschwiler said .
“ This therapy is designed to really dive in and release these negative fears and shadows.
” Dr. Sunil Aggarwal , a Seattle palliative care physician , and Kathryn Tucker , a lawyer who advocates on behalf of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ practice group at Emerge Law Group , are championing a novel strategy that would make psilocybin available using state and federal “ right-to-try ” laws that allow terminally ill patients access to investigational drugs .
They contend that psilocybin — whether found in psychedelic mushrooms or synthetic copies — meets the criteria for use laid out by more than 40 states and the 2017 Right to Try Act approved by the Trump administration .
“ Can you look at the statute and see by its terms that it applies to psilocybin ?
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ answer is yes.
” Still , the pair admit they ’ re pushing a legal theory still untested in the courts .
“ This is untrodden ground , ” Aggarwal said .
This month , Aggarwal , who works at the Advanced Integrative Medical Science Institute , known as AIMS , took the first step toward federal authorization of the substance in Washington state and perhaps across the nation .
He submitted an application to manufacture psilocybin to the state ’ s Pharmacy Quality Assurance Commission , which would allow him to grow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and administer them for therapeutic use .
Commission members haven ’ t yet reviewed the application , but Gordon MacCracken , an agency spokesperson , said there “ would be a path ” for possible license and use — if the application meets the requirements of state regulators and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration .
Currently , psilocybin use is illegal under federal law , classified as a Schedule 1 drug under the U.S .
Controlled Substances Act , which applies to chemicals and substances with no accepted medical use and a high @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and LSD .
Recently , however , several U.S. cities and states have voted to decriminalize possession of small amounts of psilocybin .
This month , Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin for regulated use in treating intractable mental health problems .
The first patients will have access beginning in January 2023 .
It ’ s part of a wider movement to rekindle acceptance of psilocybin , which was among psychedelic drugs vilified — and ultimately banned — after the legendary counterculture excesses of the 1960s and 1970s .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those fears , have been metabolized in the 50 years since then , ” Aggarwal said .
“ Not completely , but we ’ ve moved it along so that it ’ s safe to try again.
” He points to a growing body of evidence that finds that psilocybin can have significant and lasting effects on psychological distress .
The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research , launched this year , has published dozens of peer-reviewed studies based on two decades of research .
They include studies confirming that psilocybin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , thoughts of suicide and the emotional repercussions of a cancer diagnosis .
Psilocybin therapy appears to work by chemically altering brain function in a way that temporarily affects a person ’ s ego , or sense of self .
In essence , it plays on the out-of-body experiences made famous in portrayals of America ’ s psychedelic ’ 60s .
By getting out of their heads — and separating from all the fear and emotion surrounding death — people experience “ being ” as something distinct from their physical forms .
That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , said Dr. Ira Byock , a palliative care specialist and medical officer for the Institute for Human Caring at Providence St. Joseph Health .
“ What psychedelics do is foster a frame shift from feeling helpless and hopeless and that life is not worth living to seeing that we are connected to other people and we are connected to a universe that has inherent connection , ” he said .
“ Along with that shift in perspective , there is very commonly a notable dissolution of the fear of dying , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s just remarkable.
” The key is to offer the drugs under controlled conditions , in a quiet room supervised by a trained guide , Byock said .
“ It turned out they are exceedingly safe when used in a carefully screened , carefully guided situation with trained therapists , ” he said .
“ Almost the opposite is true when used in an unprepared , unscreened population.
” Baldeschwiler is one of several AIMS cancer patients eager to undergo psilocybin therapy .
Another is Michal Bloom , 64 , of Seattle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stage 3 ovarian cancer .
The anxiety of living with the terminal disease is overwhelming , she said .
“ It ’ s as if someone came up to you , put a gun to the back of your head , whispered , ‘ I have a gun to your head and I ’ ll have a gun to your head for the rest of your life .
I may pull the trigger , I may not , ’ ” she said .
“ How do you live like that ?
” Research @ @ @ @ @ @ @ psilocybin therapy may be enough to quell that fear , Aggarwal said .
“ I ’ m really interested in a right-to-try approach because it ’ s really what we need for patients right now , ” he said .
Under the state and federal laws , to be eligible for “ right-to-try ” status , a treatment must have completed a phase 1 clinical trial approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration , be part of active clinical trials and in ongoing development or production .
So far , psilocybin ticks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The FDA has granted “ breakthrough therapy ” status to psilocybin for use in U.S. clinical trials conducted by Compass Pathways , a psychedelic research group in Britain , and by the Usona Institute , a nonprofit medical research group in Wisconsin .
More than three dozen trials are recruiting participants or completed , federal records show .
But access to the drug remains a hurdle .
Though psychedelic mushrooms grow wild in the Pacific Northwest and underground sources of the drug are available , finding a legal supply is nearly impossible .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a supply of the synthetic psilocybin its researchers produce for clinical trials , but so far have received nothing .
Penny Patterson , a Usona spokesperson , said there ’ s been no “ definitive resolution ” and that conversations are continuing .
The firm ’ s reluctance may reflect a larger unease with employing right-to-try laws to speed use of psilocybin , said Dr. Anthony Back , a palliative care physician at the University of Washington .
Back supports the use of psilocybin for cancer patients and has even tried the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But he said using psilocybin outside of formal clinical trials might endanger Usona ’ s ability to get traditional FDA approval .
Adverse events may occur that will have to be reported to the FDA , an agency already watching the research closely .
“ I can see why they ’ re hesitant , to be honest , ” Back said .
“ I think right-to-try is an uphill battle.
” Still , Tucker and other advocates say it ’ s a battle worth fighting .
End of Life Washington , a group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state ’ s Death With Dignity Act , recently published a policy that supports psilocybin therapy as a form of palliative care .
Other treatments for anxiety and depression , such as medication and counseling , may simply not be practical or effective at that point , said Judith Gordon , a psychologist and member of the group ’ s board of directors .
“ When people are dying , they don ’ t have the time or the energy to do a lot of psychotherapy , ” she said .
Baldeschwiler @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years to live , she wants access to any tool that can ease her pain .
Immunotherapy has helped with the physical symptoms , dramatically shrinking the size of the tumor on her chest .
Harder to treat has been the gnawing anxiety that she won ’ t see her 16-year-old daughter , Shea McGinnis , and 13-year-old son , Gibson McGinnis , become adults .
“ They are beautiful children , good spirits , ” she said .
“ To know I might not be around for them sucks .
It ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( KHN ) is a national health policy news service .
It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente .

A growing body of evidence shows that psilocybin therapy can provide enormous benefits to those with terminal illnesses.
Back in March, just as anxiety over COVID-19 began spreading across the U.S., Erinn Baldeschwiler of La Conner, Washington, found herself facing her own private dread.
Just 48 and the mother of two teenagers, Baldeschwiler was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic breast cancer after discovering a small lump on her chest, no bigger than a pea. Within weeks, it was the size of a golf ball, angry and red. Doctors gave her two years to live.
“It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “Frankly, I was terrified.”
But instead of retreating into her illness, Baldeschwiler is pouring energy into a new effort to help dying patients gain legal access to psilocybin — the mind-altering compound found in so-called magic mushrooms — to ease their psychic pain.
“I have personally struggled with depression, anxiety, anger,” Baldeschwiler said. “This therapy is designed to really dive in and release these negative fears and shadows.”
Dr. Sunil Aggarwal, a Seattle palliative care physician, and Kathryn Tucker, a lawyer who advocates on behalf of terminally ill patients and chairs a psychedelic practice group at Emerge Law Group, are championing a novel strategy that would make psilocybin available using state and federal “right-to-try” laws that allow terminally ill patients access to investigational drugs.
They contend that psilocybin — whether found in psychedelic mushrooms or synthetic copies — meets the criteria for use laid out by more than 40 states and the 2017 Right to Try Act approved by the Trump administration.
“Can you look at the statute and see by its terms that it applies to psilocybin?” Tucker said. “I think the answer is yes.”
Still, the pair admit they’re pushing a legal theory still untested in the courts. “This is untrodden ground,” Aggarwal said.
This month, Aggarwal, who works at the Advanced Integrative Medical Science Institute, known as AIMS, took the first step toward federal authorization of the substance in Washington state and perhaps across the nation. He submitted an application to manufacture psilocybin to the state’s Pharmacy Quality Assurance Commission, which would allow him to grow psilocybin mushrooms from spores at his clinic and administer them for therapeutic use.
Commission members haven’t yet reviewed the application, but Gordon MacCracken, an agency spokesperson, said there “would be a path” for possible license and use — if the application meets the requirements of state regulators and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
Currently, psilocybin use is illegal under federal law, classified as a Schedule 1 drug under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, which applies to chemicals and substances with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, such as heroin and LSD.
Recently, however, several U.S. cities and states have voted to decriminalize possession of small amounts of psilocybin. This month, Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin for regulated use in treating intractable mental health problems. The first patients will have access beginning in January 2023.
It’s part of a wider movement to rekindle acceptance of psilocybin, which was among psychedelic drugs vilified — and ultimately banned — after the legendary counterculture excesses of the 1960s and 1970s.
“I think a lot of those demons, those fears, have been metabolized in the 50 years since then,” Aggarwal said. “Not completely, but we’ve moved it along so that it’s safe to try again.”
He points to a growing body of evidence that finds that psilocybin can have significant and lasting effects on psychological distress. The Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, launched this year, has published dozens of peer-reviewed studies based on two decades of research. They include studies confirming that psilocybin helped patients grappling with major depressive disorder, thoughts of suicide and the emotional repercussions of a cancer diagnosis.
Psilocybin therapy appears to work by chemically altering brain function in a way that temporarily affects a person’s ego, or sense of self. In essence, it plays on the out-of-body experiences made famous in portrayals of America’s psychedelic ’60s.
By getting out of their heads — and separating from all the fear and emotion surrounding death — people experience “being” as something distinct from their physical forms. That leads to a fundamental shift in perspective, said Dr. Ira Byock, a palliative care specialist and medical officer for the Institute for Human Caring at Providence St. Joseph Health.
“What psychedelics do is foster a frame shift from feeling helpless and hopeless and that life is not worth living to seeing that we are connected to other people and we are connected to a universe that has inherent connection,” he said.
“Along with that shift in perspective, there is very commonly a notable dissolution of the fear of dying, of nonexistence and of loss, and that’s just remarkable.”
The key is to offer the drugs under controlled conditions, in a quiet room supervised by a trained guide, Byock said. “It turned out they are exceedingly safe when used in a carefully screened, carefully guided situation with trained therapists,” he said. “Almost the opposite is true when used in an unprepared, unscreened population.”
Baldeschwiler is one of several AIMS cancer patients eager to undergo psilocybin therapy. Another is Michal Bloom, 64, of Seattle, who was diagnosed in 2017 with stage 3 ovarian cancer. The anxiety of living with the terminal disease is overwhelming, she said.
“It’s as if someone came up to you, put a gun to the back of your head, whispered, ‘I have a gun to your head and I’ll have a gun to your head for the rest of your life. I may pull the trigger, I may not,’” she said. “How do you live like that?”
Research shows that a single six-hour session of psilocybin therapy may be enough to quell that fear, Aggarwal said. “I’m really interested in a right-to-try approach because it’s really what we need for patients right now,” he said.
Under the state and federal laws, to be eligible for “right-to-try” status, a treatment must have completed a phase 1 clinical trial approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration, be part of active clinical trials and in ongoing development or production.
So far, psilocybin ticks all those boxes, Tucker said.
The FDA has granted “breakthrough therapy” status to psilocybin for use in U.S. clinical trials conducted by Compass Pathways, a psychedelic research group in Britain, and by the Usona Institute, a nonprofit medical research group in Wisconsin. More than three dozen trials are recruiting participants or completed, federal records show.
But access to the drug remains a hurdle. Though psychedelic mushrooms grow wild in the Pacific Northwest and underground sources of the drug are available, finding a legal supply is nearly impossible.
Tucker and Aggarwal asked Usona last summer for a supply of the synthetic psilocybin its researchers produce for clinical trials, but so far have received nothing. Penny Patterson, a Usona spokesperson, said there’s been no “definitive resolution” and that conversations are continuing.
The firm’s reluctance may reflect a larger unease with employing right-to-try laws to speed use of psilocybin, said Dr. Anthony Back, a palliative care physician at the University of Washington.
Back supports the use of psilocybin for cancer patients and has even tried the drug to better understand the experience. But he said using psilocybin outside of formal clinical trials might endanger Usona’s ability to get traditional FDA approval. Adverse events may occur that will have to be reported to the FDA, an agency already watching the research closely.
“I can see why they’re hesitant, to be honest,” Back said. “I think right-to-try is an uphill battle.”
Still, Tucker and other advocates say it’s a battle worth fighting. End of Life Washington, a group focused on helping terminally ill patients use the state’s Death With Dignity Act, recently published a policy that supports psilocybin therapy as a form of palliative care. Other treatments for anxiety and depression, such as medication and counseling, may simply not be practical or effective at that point, said Judith Gordon, a psychologist and member of the group’s board of directors.
“When people are dying, they don’t have the time or the energy to do a lot of psychotherapy,” she said.
Baldeschwiler agrees. With perhaps less than two years to live, she wants access to any tool that can ease her pain. Immunotherapy has helped with the physical symptoms, dramatically shrinking the size of the tumor on her chest. Harder to treat has been the gnawing anxiety that she won’t see her 16-year-old daughter, Shea McGinnis, and 13-year-old son, Gibson McGinnis, become adults.
“They are beautiful children, good spirits,” she said. “To know I might not be around for them sucks. It’s really hard.”
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.


truthout--2020-11-28--Court Rejects Trump’s Attempt to Overturn Certification of Pennsylvania Results

Voting rights advocates expressed excitement and relief on Friday after a federal appellate panel upheld a lower court ’ s ruling rejecting a request from President Donald Trump ’ s reelection campaign for an emergency injunction to overturn the certification of election results in Pennsylvania .
After Pennsylvania certified its results earlier this week — the state was among those that helped deliver President-elect Joe Biden ’ s historic and decisive victory — Trump continued to deny the outcome , saying that “ this election has to be turned around , because we won Pennsylvania by a lot.
” The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ three Republican-appointed judges unanimously denied the campaign ’ s injunction request , with Judge Stephanos Bibas writing : “ Voters , not lawyers , choose the president .
Ballots , not briefs , decide elections.
” “ Free , fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy , ” added Bibas , a Trump appointee , in the 21-page opinion .
“ Charges of unfairness are serious .
But calling an election unfair does not make it so .
Charges require specific allegations and then proof .
We have neither here.
” Advocacy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Common Cause Pennsylvania , League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania , and NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference — were intervenors in the case , along with eight impacted voters represented by the state and national ACLU , Lawyers ’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law , Public Interest Law Center , and the law firm Covington & Burling LLP .
“ Once again , this court decision is a win for voters , ” declared Suzanne Almeida , elections adviser for Common Cause Pennsylvania .
“ We ’ re glad that this court @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evidence and lack of merit in this lawsuit .
In America , voters choose our elected officials .
Pennsylvania ’ s voters made a collective decision , weeks ago , and that decision needs to be honored.
” Derrick Johnson similarly said that the NAACP is “ pleased with the court ’ s decision to uphold democracy and allow the people ’ s will to prevail in the face of ridiculous suppression efforts .
We must remain resolute and committed to protecting millions of Americans ’ votes as the Trump campaign attempts to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from alone in condemning the president ’ s recent attacks on democracy — from his seemingly endless lies about voter fraud to a series of failed legal challenges .
“ While Trump ’ s lawsuit is legal farce , his intent to overthrow American democracy is dangerous fact , ” said Witold Walczak , legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania .
“ The voters have spoken in record numbers , and it is time to end this painful chapter in American history.
” Mimi McKenzie , legal director at the Public Interest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump campaign ’ s attempts to subvert democracy have been deeply concerning .
But it is reassuring that yet again a court has outright rejected their efforts to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters.
” Sophia Lin Lakin , deputy director of the ACLU ’ s Voting Rights Project , also agreed .
As she put it : “ The Trump campaign should end its pathetic and futile attempts to subvert democracy and ignore the will of the people .
The voters have spoken.
” Despite the loss on Friday and calls for an end to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ellis and Rudy Giuliani responded to the panel ’ s ruling by promising to plow ahead to the U.S. Supreme Court — to which the president has appointed three justices .
“ The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud , ” said Trump ’ s attorneys .
“ We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature .
On to SCOTUS !
” Trump , for his part , continued to tweet baseless claims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ruling came a day after the president berated a journalist as a “ lightweight ” for asking if he would concede if the Electoral College votes in favor of Biden .
“ Don ’ t talk to me that way , ” Trump said in response to the questioning from Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason .
“ I ’ m the president of the United States .
Don ’ t ever talk to the president that way.
” Despite Trump ’ s tantrums and lies since his defeat , some advocates are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Political Empowerment Project said that “ as the founder of an organization that advocates that African Americans vote in each and every election and that our votes count , I am elated that our system of democracy worked in the midst of the most serious threat to that democracy that I have witnessed in my lifetime .
Hopefully , the healing can now begin , and our commonwealth and our citizens will never again witness such an assault on who we are as a nation.
” As Terrie Griffin of the League of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Today ’ s decision affirms one thing : every vote matters.
” Kristen Clarke , president and executive director of Lawyers ’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law , wondered on Friday : “ How many losses are President Trump and his allies willing to endure in their futile and baseless attempts to use the courts as a forum to rewrite the election outcome ?
” “ Once again , ” Clarke added , “ the court has made clear that there is no legal basis to subvert the will of voters .
@

Voting rights advocates expressed excitement and relief on Friday after a federal appellate panel upheld a lower court’s ruling rejecting a request from President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign for an emergency injunction to overturn the certification of election results in Pennsylvania.
After Pennsylvania certified its results earlier this week — the state was among those that helped deliver President-elect Joe Biden’s historic and decisive victory — Trump continued to deny the outcome, saying that “this election has to be turned around, because we won Pennsylvania by a lot.”
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals panel of three Republican-appointed judges unanimously denied the campaign’s injunction request, with Judge Stephanos Bibas writing: “Voters, not lawyers, choose the president. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections.”
“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,” added Bibas, a Trump appointee, in the 21-page opinion. “Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”
Advocacy groups — including Black Political Empowerment Project, Common Cause Pennsylvania, League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, and NAACP Pennsylvania State Conference — were intervenors in the case, along with eight impacted voters represented by the state and national ACLU, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Public Interest Law Center, and the law firm Covington & Burling LLP.
VICTORY (again!): A court just rejected the Trump campaign's challenge to this ruling and stopped another outlandish attempt to disenfranchise millions of Pennsylvania voters in a blatant affront to our democracy. https://t.co/KmbUFSTfWH — ACLU (@ACLU) November 27, 2020
“Once again, this court decision is a win for voters,” declared Suzanne Almeida, elections adviser for Common Cause Pennsylvania. “We’re glad that this court, also, recognized the lack of evidence and lack of merit in this lawsuit. In America, voters choose our elected officials. Pennsylvania’s voters made a collective decision, weeks ago, and that decision needs to be honored.”
Derrick Johnson similarly said that the NAACP is “pleased with the court’s decision to uphold democracy and allow the people’s will to prevail in the face of ridiculous suppression efforts. We must remain resolute and committed to protecting millions of Americans’ votes as the Trump campaign attempts to undermine our democracy.”
Johnson was far from alone in condemning the president’s recent attacks on democracy — from his seemingly endless lies about voter fraud to a series of failed legal challenges.
“While Trump’s lawsuit is legal farce, his intent to overthrow American democracy is dangerous fact,” said Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. “The voters have spoken in record numbers, and it is time to end this painful chapter in American history.”
Mimi McKenzie, legal director at the Public Interest Law Center, concurred that “the Trump campaign’s attempts to subvert democracy have been deeply concerning. But it is reassuring that yet again a court has outright rejected their efforts to disenfranchise Pennsylvania voters.”
Sophia Lin Lakin, deputy director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, also agreed. As she put it: “The Trump campaign should end its pathetic and futile attempts to subvert democracy and ignore the will of the people. The voters have spoken.”
It bears repeating: "The Campaign never alleges that any ballot was fraudulent or cast by an illegal voter." In court for weeks, they have been trying to invalidate the ballots of millions of Pennsylvanians, who they don't even *claim* have done anything wrong. https://t.co/wcv0O3yYRN — Public Interest Law Center (@PubIntLawCtr) November 27, 2020
Despite the loss on Friday and calls for an end to the lawsuits, Trump campaign attorneys Jenna Ellis and Rudy Giuliani responded to the panel’s ruling by promising to plow ahead to the U.S. Supreme Court — to which the president has appointed three justices.
“The activist judicial machinery in Pennsylvania continues to cover up the allegations of massive fraud,” said Trump’s attorneys. “We are very thankful to have had the opportunity to present proof and the facts to the PA state legislature. On to SCOTUS!”
Trump, for his part, continued to tweet baseless claims of “massive voter fraud.” The ruling came a day after the president berated a journalist as a “lightweight” for asking if he would concede if the Electoral College votes in favor of Biden.
“Don’t talk to me that way,” Trump said in response to the questioning from Reuters White House correspondent Jeff Mason. “I’m the president of the United States. Don’t ever talk to the president that way.”
Despite Trump’s tantrums and lies since his defeat, some advocates are optimistic.
Tim Stevens of the Black Political Empowerment Project said that “as the founder of an organization that advocates that African Americans vote in each and every election and that our votes count, I am elated that our system of democracy worked in the midst of the most serious threat to that democracy that I have witnessed in my lifetime. Hopefully, the healing can now begin, and our commonwealth and our citizens will never again witness such an assault on who we are as a nation.”
As Terrie Griffin of the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania said: “Today’s decision affirms one thing: every vote matters.”
Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of Lawyers’ Committee For Civil Rights Under Law, wondered on Friday: “How many losses are President Trump and his allies willing to endure in their futile and baseless attempts to use the courts as a forum to rewrite the election outcome?”
“Once again,” Clarke added, “the court has made clear that there is no legal basis to subvert the will of voters.”
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