truthout--2020-09-12--Native American Voters Face Significant Barriers to Mail-in Voting in 2020

Observers and pundits are predicting record-setting voter turnout in the coming election .
But the number of votes from Indian Country may be underwhelming because of systemic problems .
University of Florida Political Science Professor and U.S .
Elections Project Director Michael McDonald said turnout on Nov. 3 may well be the highest since 1908 , when 65.7 percent of voters cast ballots .
That percentage this year would bring in 145 million votes .
To reduce the spread of COVID-19 , experts recommend people vote by mail .
In several states , and for certain populations , vote by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Washington , Hawaii , Utah and Colorado residents vote primarily by mail .
Federal law protects military voters ’ rights to vote by mail and electronically .
And for more than a century , every state has allowed absentee ballots to be returned by mail .
“ I ’ m expecting that half the votes , at least , will be cast by mail , in the upcoming November election , ” McDonald said .
He ’ s expecting more than 70 million people to cast a mail ballot .
As it stands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be disenfranchised .
For one thing , laws in most states are at odds with what the post office can handle , a gap high volume will only make worse .
U.S .
Postal Service Chief Counsel and Vice President Thomas Marshall recently warned election officials in 46 states that their deadlines are “ incongruous ” with postal delivery standards .
Marshall said in some states , laws allow people to request ballots so close to Election Day , there ’ s no way the ballot can be received and returned by mail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all for increased vote by mail , ” Jacqueline De León , Isleta Pueblo , told the Navajo-Hopi Observer .
She ’ s an attorney with the legal assistance nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and co-author of the report “ Obstacles at Every Turn : Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters.
” But , De León said , “ we ’ re absolutely against all vote by mail.
” “ If there are no in-person opportunities , then Native Americans will be disenfranchised because it will be impossible for some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” she said .
The nonprofit ’ s report shows as few as 18 percent of Native Americans receive mail at home , primarily because they lack traditional residential addresses .
De León said voter suppression is also an issue .
She pointed to North Dakota , which in 2012 passed voter ID requirements that critics said placed undue hardships on people living on reservations .
The Native American Rights Fund and other groups sued and managed to get that law tempered .
The settlement ensures Native voters can present tribal IDs or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where they live .
In Alaska , discrimination in voting rights has been the subject of lawsuits as recently as 2007 and 2013 .
In one of the suits , evidence included a 100-page English language election booklet shown next to the one-page Yup ’ ik language sheet that included only the date , time and location of the election .
De León was concerned that North Dakota was switching to an all vote-by-mail election , “ which could once again silence Indigenous people , many of whom only get mail at far-flung @ @ @ @ @ @ @ open.
” North Dakota officials have said they were working closely with tribal leaders to install more ballot drop-boxes on reservations .
McDonald said officials need to know where voters live to place them in precincts , although some states have figured out workarounds .
“ If people are concerned about this , and there are good reasons to be concerned about it … I would contact your local election official and find out , get some recommendations from them as to how to best get your ballot to you , ” McDonald @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s report states , are : • A lack of tribal community polling stations where people can drop off ballots in person • A lack of internet service to access voter information or to request an absentee ballot • Long distances to reach post offices open for only limited hours Those hurdles may explain why in the 2012 election in Montana , only 10 to 15 percent of ballots from reservation communities came by mail , compared with 33 percent from the rest of the state .
Another concern is that states @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to hold an election by mail .
For example , in 2016 , just 2 percent of voters in West Virginia , Kentucky and Tennessee voted by mail .
Also , FiveThirtyEight and The New York Times have found gaps in ease or difficulty among states that allow voting by mail .
• In nine states and Washington , D.C. , ballots are automatically sent to every voter • In nine states , applications for mail-in ballots are automatically sent to every voter • In 25 states , voters must request or pick @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mail • In seven states , people can vote by mail only with a valid excuse ( fear of contracting coronavirus doesn ’ t count ) • Some states will accept only absentee ballots delivered by mail In states that require witness signatures , those will be harder to get since the U.S .
Postal Service recently prohibited workers from signing ballots as witnesses .
( To find out how your state rates on ease of voting by mail , click here ) .
If the Primaries Were a Test , Some States @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hold an election during the pandemic .
“ There were lost ballots that were undelivered , ” said McDonald .
“ There were ballots that voters would put into the mail , and then it would turn back up in their own mailbox .
So there were these sporadic problems.
” Rural counties had problems with ballots coming in too late to be counted , he said .
Results of New York City ’ s June primary showed 21 percent of mail-in ballots were rejected — some because the post office couldn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they were sent out so late there was no way the voter could get them in time .
The New York elections board also was short on staff due to COVID-19 .
In Florida ’ s March primary , 18,000 ballots were rejected ; Black and Hispanic voters were more likely to be voting by mail for the first time and , if so , were twice as likely to have their ballots rejected than White voters who were voting by mail for the first time , NPR reported .
Basically , McDonald @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ballot is “ signed , sealed and delivered.
” He said it ’ s “ really important that people follow the instructions very carefully because most frequently people disenfranchised themselves.
” The most common reasons for ballot rejection are because of a missing signature , an unverified signature or late arrival .
But some were rejected because the envelope was taped shut instead of sealed ; others because the wrong envelope was used .
McDonald recommends people request their ballot as soon as possible .
He said North Carolina , for instance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week .
Arizona State University policy assistant Coby Klar suggested other ways Arizona , among other states , could make it easier for Native Americans to vote by mail : Use tribally designated buildings as drop-off sites , set up curbside drop-off , and provide on-site language assistance , paid postage and education campaigns .
Still , once the ballots are in the hands of election officials , the nonprofit public policy organization Brookings said , the flood of ballots will make it difficult for some states to get them counted in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may come away from all this with the idea voting by mail won ’ t work .
But , he said , despite President Donald Trump waving red flags about the potential for fraud with mail ballots , it ’ s a secure system .
In states with all mail-in ballots , there are “ lots of protections.
” “ They are sending out ballots to voters .
They ’ re barcoding everything .
They ’ re doing signature verification checks , ” McDonald said .
“ They can look at a long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ returned their ballots because they ’ re digitizing them all.
” In states with experience in voting by mail , officials say rejection rates are below 1 percent .
With majorities in Congress and state legislatures and the office of the president at stake , tribal citizens ’ votes can be decisive in close elections — if they vote , and if their votes are counted .
At least two sitting U.S. senators — Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democrat John Tester of Montana — credit their latest wins to the Native @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote could influence this year ’ s election results in seven major swing states : Arizona , Michigan , Minnesota , Nevada , North Carolina , Wisconsin and Colorado , according to data from Four Directions .

While voting by mail is critical, it’s not a viable option for some Native American communities.
Observers and pundits are predicting record-setting voter turnout in the coming election. But the number of votes from Indian Country may be underwhelming because of systemic problems.
University of Florida Political Science Professor and U.S. Elections Project Director Michael McDonald said turnout on Nov. 3 may well be the highest since 1908, when 65.7 percent of voters cast ballots. That percentage this year would bring in 145 million votes.
To reduce the spread of COVID-19, experts recommend people vote by mail. In several states, and for certain populations, vote by mail is standard practice. Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, Utah and Colorado residents vote primarily by mail. Federal law protects military voters’ rights to vote by mail and electronically. And for more than a century, every state has allowed absentee ballots to be returned by mail.
“I’m expecting that half the votes, at least, will be cast by mail, in the upcoming November election,” McDonald said. He’s expecting more than 70 million people to cast a mail ballot.
As it stands now, some of those voters will be disenfranchised.
For one thing, laws in most states are at odds with what the post office can handle, a gap high volume will only make worse.
U.S. Postal Service Chief Counsel and Vice President Thomas Marshall recently warned election officials in 46 states that their deadlines are “incongruous” with postal delivery standards. Marshall said in some states, laws allow people to request ballots so close to Election Day, there’s no way the ballot can be received and returned by mail in time.
Vote by Mail Problems in Indian Country
“We’re all for increased vote by mail,” Jacqueline De León, Isleta Pueblo, told the Navajo-Hopi Observer. She’s an attorney with the legal assistance nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and co-author of the report “Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters.”
But, De León said, “we’re absolutely against all vote by mail.”
“If there are no in-person opportunities, then Native Americans will be disenfranchised because it will be impossible for some of them to cast a ballot,” she said.
The nonprofit’s report shows as few as 18 percent of Native Americans receive mail at home, primarily because they lack traditional residential addresses.
De León said voter suppression is also an issue. She pointed to North Dakota, which in 2012 passed voter ID requirements that critics said placed undue hardships on people living on reservations.
The Native American Rights Fund and other groups sued and managed to get that law tempered. The settlement ensures Native voters can present tribal IDs or even simply point out on a map where they live.
In Alaska, discrimination in voting rights has been the subject of lawsuits as recently as 2007 and 2013. In one of the suits, evidence included a 100-page English language election booklet shown next to the one-page Yup’ik language sheet that included only the date, time and location of the election.
De León was concerned that North Dakota was switching to an all vote-by-mail election, “which could once again silence Indigenous people, many of whom only get mail at far-flung post offices that aren’t consistently open.” North Dakota officials have said they were working closely with tribal leaders to install more ballot drop-boxes on reservations.
McDonald said officials need to know where voters live to place them in precincts, although some states have figured out workarounds.
“If people are concerned about this, and there are good reasons to be concerned about it … I would contact your local election official and find out, get some recommendations from them as to how to best get your ballot to you,” McDonald said.
Other problems, the fund’s report states, are:
A lack of tribal community polling stations where people can drop off ballots in person
A lack of internet service to access voter information or to request an absentee ballot
Long distances to reach post offices open for only limited hours
Those hurdles may explain why in the 2012 election in Montana, only 10 to 15 percent of ballots from reservation communities came by mail, compared with 33 percent from the rest of the state.
Another concern is that states vary widely in their experience and readiness to hold an election by mail. For example, in 2016, just 2 percent of voters in West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee voted by mail.
Also, FiveThirtyEight and The New York Times have found gaps in ease or difficulty among states that allow voting by mail.
In nine states and Washington, D.C., ballots are automatically sent to every voter
In nine states, applications for mail-in ballots are automatically sent to every voter
In 25 states, voters must request or pick up an absentee ballot to vote by mail
In seven states, people can vote by mail only with a valid excuse (fear of contracting coronavirus doesn’t count)
Some states will accept only absentee ballots delivered by mail
Three states require notarization of ballots
Six require witness signatures
In states that require witness signatures, those will be harder to get since the U.S. Postal Service recently prohibited workers from signing ballots as witnesses.
(To find out how your state rates on ease of voting by mail, click here).
If the Primaries Were a Test, Some States Flunked
Wisconsin was the first state to hold an election during the pandemic.
“There were lost ballots that were undelivered,” said McDonald. “There were ballots that voters would put into the mail, and then it would turn back up in their own mailbox. So there were these sporadic problems.”
Rural counties had problems with ballots coming in too late to be counted, he said.
Results of New York City’s June primary showed 21 percent of mail-in ballots were rejected — some because the post office couldn’t handle pre-paid postage, others because they were sent out so late there was no way the voter could get them in time. The New York elections board also was short on staff due to COVID-19.
In Florida’s March primary, 18,000 ballots were rejected; Black and Hispanic voters were more likely to be voting by mail for the first time and, if so, were twice as likely to have their ballots rejected than White voters who were voting by mail for the first time, NPR reported.
Basically, McDonald said it will boil down to whether the ballot is “signed, sealed and delivered.” He said it’s “really important that people follow the instructions very carefully because most frequently people disenfranchised themselves.”
The most common reasons for ballot rejection are because of a missing signature, an unverified signature or late arrival. But some were rejected because the envelope was taped shut instead of sealed; others because the wrong envelope was used.
McDonald recommends people request their ballot as soon as possible. He said North Carolina, for instance, is sending out ballots beginning this week.
Arizona State University policy assistant Coby Klar suggested other ways Arizona, among other states, could make it easier for Native Americans to vote by mail: Use tribally designated buildings as drop-off sites, set up curbside drop-off, and provide on-site language assistance, paid postage and education campaigns.
Still, once the ballots are in the hands of election officials, the nonprofit public policy organization Brookings said, the flood of ballots will make it difficult for some states to get them counted in a timely manner.
Vote by Mail Still a Good Option
McDonald said a person may come away from all this with the idea voting by mail won’t work.
But, he said, despite President Donald Trump waving red flags about the potential for fraud with mail ballots, it’s a secure system. In states with all mail-in ballots, there are “lots of protections.”
“They are sending out ballots to voters. They’re barcoding everything. They’re doing signature verification checks,” McDonald said. “They can look at a long history of signatures of people that have returned their ballots because they’re digitizing them all.”
In states with experience in voting by mail, officials say rejection rates are below 1 percent.
With majorities in Congress and state legislatures and the office of the president at stake, tribal citizens’ votes can be decisive in close elections — if they vote, and if their votes are counted.
At least two sitting U.S. senators — Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Democrat John Tester of Montana — credit their latest wins to the Native American vote.
CNBC reports the Native vote could influence this year’s election results in seven major swing states: Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Colorado, according to data from Four Directions.


truthout--2020-09-12--The Right-Wing Worldview Is One of Scarecrows and Scapegoats

In the 1995 movie , The American President , President Andrew Shepherd ( Michael Douglas ) dissects the politics of conservative Sen. Bob Rumson ( Richard Dreyfuss ) in a fiery White House speech .
Shepherd declares : Fast forward to 2020 .
This movie soundbite perfectly captures the American right wing ’ s relentless fixation on fear and blame .
Fueled by a continuous supply of dry kindling from conservative media like Fox News and the rhetoric of President Donald Trump , the wildfire of paranoid panic on the right rages in a moment of worldwide pandemic and societal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( RNC ) gave us a microcosm of the fear-fanning and blame-naming that now defines the right-wing Trumpist political world .
The RNC decided not to propose a policy-based party platform for the convention , but rather declared support for Trump ’ s populist “ America first ” agenda and reiterated the 2016 policy platform .
Hearkening back to red meat for the conservative base , speaker after speaker embraced a tacit platform of authoritarian loyalty laced with a cocktail of fright and finger pointing .
Politics is a battle of competing stories @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to stir the base .
Above all , political culture is an exercise in moral storytelling that maximizes the power of the rhetorical symbol to emotionally activate core supporters .
Right-wing storytellers engaged a tried-and-true strategy linking two potent symbols : the scarecrow — who to fear — and the scapegoat — who to blame .
Build up fear .
Give it a name .
Put a face to the name .
Blame the face .
Attack the face .
Rouse the followers to do the same .
Repeat as necessary .
Keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ always on alert .
Conservative anxiety is activated primarily through three scarecrows , each of which provide many targets for blame .
Assembled from the straw of the classic “ us ” and “ them , ” these scarecrows point toward scapegoats deftly fashioned from toxic , coded language around race , class and gender .
Scarecrow # 1 : They Will Take Our Safety The first scarecrow is the threat to safety .
In the mind of the right-wing voter , the threat to safety takes two main forms : physical safety @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have exploded following the police-perpetrated murder of George Floyd and other cases of police brutality , racialized language around safety has been increasingly obvious in the national discourse .
Perhaps the best example of scapegoating of the threat to safety at the 2020 RNC was the inclusion of Mark and Patricia McCloskey , the gun-wielding couple who threatened peaceful protesters in front of their St. Louis home .
In their convention speech , they railed about “ Marxist liberal activists ” and “ criminals , ” an “ out-of-control mob ” out to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to these fears for physical safety , they also appealed to financial safety , calling out zoning laws that keep “ low-quality apartments ” out of suburban neighborhoods .
In the right-wing worldview , protecting property ( and property values ) has become almost as sacrosanct as protecting life and limb .
This kind of demagoguery pervades Trump ’ s entire presidential term , including his remarks to the RNC .
Describing Joe Biden ’ s mission as an “ attack on public safety , ” Trump painted those who oppose him as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conservative American values .
Whether it be a travel ban targeting Muslim-majority nations full of “ hatred ” for the U.S. , “ savage ” MS-13 gang members threatening families , poor immigrants coming to the U.S. from “ sh**hole countries , ” caravans of “ dangerous ” migrant refugees headed for the southern border , or violent antifa “ thugs ” and looters coming for suburban neighborhoods , both conservative media and the president consistently prop up racist straw men in the service of the safety scarecrow .
Scarecrow # 2 : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scarecrow is the threat to liberty .
For this threat , physical liberty , religious liberty and “ thought ” liberty are central .
In other words , they are coming for your guns , your God and the mind of your college student .
The RNC began with Kimberly Guilfoyle ’ s screaming ( and meme-inspiring ) message of panic : Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed her fear : “ They want to tell you when you could go to work , when your kids go to school … what sources @ @ @ @ @ @ @ many hamburgers you can eat.
” In the right-wing worldview , it seems that “ they ” are always finding new ways to steal your freedom .
None of these stories quite riles the embattled base like the left ’ s alleged existential menace to religious liberty .
But for right-wing Christians who form the core of the party , “ religious liberty ” means the control of religion in the public square .
It also means exemption from following nondiscrimination laws designed to protect the LGBTQ community or require employer-provided health insurance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claim such mandates are a threat to their liberty , they ’ re actually a threat to their control .
Accustomed to a position of privilege in matters of law and identity , those on the Christian right easily interpret protections of marginalized groups as their own loss of freedom .
Cissie Graham Lynch , granddaughter of Billy Graham , attacked Democrats on the first night of the convention as a threat to religious liberty .
She even portrayed the COVID-19 pandemic as a mechanism for Christian persecution , saying , “ Some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ marijuana shops and abortion clinics were declared essential.
” Issues from abortion to gun control legislation to environmental safeguards to liberal college professors continue to be rallying cries for “ protecting freedom ” for the right .
Scarecrow # 3 : They Will Take Our Culture The final scarecrow is the threat to culture .
So much of conservative rhetoric now centers on framing a grand assault on a way of life , perceiving any loss of cultural control as some kind of catastrophic loss of personal freedom .
Conservative Christian activist Charlie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the first night of the RNC : In this statement , Kirk claims his as the only true American culture — and he names the vengeful mob that will take it away from the “ true ” Americans .
The threat to culture scarecrow embodies their deepest fears .
In the removal of Confederate statues or the Confederate flag , the challenge to white supremacist versions of history in the classroom , the “ disloyalty ” of taking a knee during the national anthem , or the elimination of privilege for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right-wing mind .
And in this worldview , the “ liberal ” media , Hollywood elites , “ Marxist ” university professors , LGBTQ activists and “ socialist ” Democrats are the convenient scapegoats to blame .
As a former evangelical minister now liberated from the right-wing worldview , I deeply understand the power of these symbols and the emotions they provoke .
The narrative of fear and blame finds fertile ground with Christian-right believers because of their own psychological tale of scarecrows and scapegoats — a vindictive and exclusive divine who reinforces @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and then projected as hostility toward others .
Demands for obedience , purity and “ responsibility ” transform a religious perspective into a political culture constantly looking to preserve privilege and scapegoat the nonconforming .
As November approaches , progressives have the opportunity to challenge the rhetoric of fear and blame by looking deeper than right-wing propaganda .
By challenging the foundational stories at the root of this moral worldview , progressives can resist and replace them with stories of justice , compassion and reason — shifting minds and not just political fortunes @

The GOP keeps followers loyal with a continual narrative of fear and blame of the “other.”
In the 1995 movie, The American President, President Andrew Shepherd (Michael Douglas) dissects the politics of conservative Sen. Bob Rumson (Richard Dreyfuss) in a fiery White House speech. Shepherd declares:
We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who’s to blame for it.
Fast forward to 2020. This movie soundbite perfectly captures the American right wing’s relentless fixation on fear and blame. Fueled by a continuous supply of dry kindling from conservative media like Fox News and the rhetoric of President Donald Trump, the wildfire of paranoid panic on the right rages in a moment of worldwide pandemic and societal upheaval.
The 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC) gave us a microcosm of the fear-fanning and blame-naming that now defines the right-wing Trumpist political world. The RNC decided not to propose a policy-based party platform for the convention, but rather declared support for Trump’s populist “America first” agenda and reiterated the 2016 policy platform. Hearkening back to red meat for the conservative base, speaker after speaker embraced a tacit platform of authoritarian loyalty laced with a cocktail of fright and finger pointing.
Politics is a battle of competing stories, and convention speakers spun passion-filled tales to stir the base. Above all, political culture is an exercise in moral storytelling that maximizes the power of the rhetorical symbol to emotionally activate core supporters. Right-wing storytellers engaged a tried-and-true strategy linking two potent symbols: the scarecrow — who to fear — and the scapegoat — who to blame.
Build up fear. Give it a name. Put a face to the name. Blame the face. Attack the face. Rouse the followers to do the same. Repeat as necessary.
Keep the loyal followers continually terrified — and always on alert.
Conservative anxiety is activated primarily through three scarecrows, each of which provide many targets for blame. Assembled from the straw of the classic “us” and “them,” these scarecrows point toward scapegoats deftly fashioned from toxic, coded language around race, class and gender.
Scarecrow #1: They Will Take Our Safety
The first scarecrow is the threat to safety. In the mind of the right-wing voter, the threat to safety takes two main forms: physical safety and financial safety.
As nationwide protests have exploded following the police-perpetrated murder of George Floyd and other cases of police brutality, racialized language around safety has been increasingly obvious in the national discourse. Perhaps the best example of scapegoating of the threat to safety at the 2020 RNC was the inclusion of Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the gun-wielding couple who threatened peaceful protesters in front of their St. Louis home. In their convention speech, they railed about “Marxist liberal activists” and “criminals,” an “out-of-control mob” out to “abolish the suburbs.” In addition to these fears for physical safety, they also appealed to financial safety, calling out zoning laws that keep “low-quality apartments” out of suburban neighborhoods. In the right-wing worldview, protecting property (and property values) has become almost as sacrosanct as protecting life and limb.
The 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC) gave us a microcosm of the fear-fanning and blame-naming that now defines the right-wing Trumpist political world.
This kind of demagoguery pervades Trump’s entire presidential term, including his remarks to the RNC. Describing Joe Biden’s mission as an “attack on public safety,” Trump painted those who oppose him as anarchists and criminals out to take away conservative American values. Whether it be a travel ban targeting Muslim-majority nations full of “hatred” for the U.S., “savage” MS-13 gang members threatening families, poor immigrants coming to the U.S. from “sh**hole countries,” caravans of “dangerous” migrant refugees headed for the southern border, or violent antifa “thugs” and looters coming for suburban neighborhoods, both conservative media and the president consistently prop up racist straw men in the service of the safety scarecrow.
Scarecrow #2: They Will Take Our Liberty
The next scarecrow is the threat to liberty. For this threat, physical liberty, religious liberty and “thought” liberty are central. In other words, they are coming for your guns, your God and the mind of your college student.
The RNC began with Kimberly Guilfoyle’s screaming (and meme-inspiring) message of panic:
They want to destroy this country and everything we have fought for and hold dear. They want to steal your liberty, your freedom. They want to control what you see and think and believe so that they can control how you live.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed her fear: “They want to tell you when you could go to work, when your kids go to school … what sources of information are credible and even how many hamburgers you can eat.”
In the right-wing worldview, it seems that “they” are always finding new ways to steal your freedom.
None of these stories quite riles the embattled base like the left’s alleged existential menace to religious liberty. But for right-wing Christians who form the core of the party, “religious liberty” means the control of religion in the public square. It also means exemption from following nondiscrimination laws designed to protect the LGBTQ community or require employer-provided health insurance to include contraception coverage. While they claim such mandates are a threat to their liberty, they’re actually a threat to their control. Accustomed to a position of privilege in matters of law and identity, those on the Christian right easily interpret protections of marginalized groups as their own loss of freedom.
Cissie Graham Lynch, granddaughter of Billy Graham, attacked Democrats on the first night of the convention as a threat to religious liberty. She even portrayed the COVID-19 pandemic as a mechanism for Christian persecution, saying, “Some Democratic leaders banned church services, while marijuana shops and abortion clinics were declared essential.”
Issues from abortion to gun control legislation to environmental safeguards to liberal college professors continue to be rallying cries for “protecting freedom” for the right.
Scarecrow #3: They Will Take Our Culture
The final scarecrow is the threat to culture. So much of conservative rhetoric now centers on framing a grand assault on a way of life, perceiving any loss of cultural control as some kind of catastrophic loss of personal freedom. Conservative Christian activist Charlie Kirk captured the essence of this scapegoat on the first night of the RNC:
Trump was elected to protect our families from the vengeful mob that seeks to destroy our way of life. Our neighborhoods, schools, churches, and values. President Trump was elected to defend the American way of life.
In this statement, Kirk claims his as the only true American culture — and he names the vengeful mob that will take it away from the “true” Americans.
The threat to culture scarecrow embodies their deepest fears. In the removal of Confederate statues or the Confederate flag, the challenge to white supremacist versions of history in the classroom, the “disloyalty” of taking a knee during the national anthem, or the elimination of privilege for the Christian right, resentful grievance dominates the right-wing mind. And in this worldview, the “liberal” media, Hollywood elites, “Marxist” university professors, LGBTQ activists and “socialist” Democrats are the convenient scapegoats to blame.
As a former evangelical minister now liberated from the right-wing worldview, I deeply understand the power of these symbols and the emotions they provoke. The narrative of fear and blame finds fertile ground with Christian-right believers because of their own psychological tale of scarecrows and scapegoats — a vindictive and exclusive divine who reinforces human self-blame — blame that is internalized and then projected as hostility toward others. Demands for obedience, purity and “responsibility” transform a religious perspective into a political culture constantly looking to preserve privilege and scapegoat the nonconforming.
As November approaches, progressives have the opportunity to challenge the rhetoric of fear and blame by looking deeper than right-wing propaganda. By challenging the foundational stories at the root of this moral worldview, progressives can resist and replace them with stories of justice, compassion and reason — shifting minds and not just political fortunes.
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--2020-09-12--Trump Aides Tried to Alter CDC COVID Reports to Fit President’s False Claims

Days after President Donald Trump admitted to knowingly downplaying the Covid-19 pandemic in his statements to the public , new reporting late Friday revealed that Trump political aides have been reviewing — and in some cases altering — weekly CDC reports about the deadly virus in an effort to bring them into closer alignment with the president ’ s false narrative and claims .
Politico reported Friday evening that the Health and Human Services Department ’ s politically appointed communications aides , led by former Trump campaign official Michael Caputo — a Republican strategist with no medical expertise — “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CDC ’ s findings , including an effort to retroactively change agency reports that they said wrongly inflated the risks of Covid-19 and should have made clear that Americans sickened by the virus may have been infected because of their own behavior.
” The primary target of the Trump officials ’ interference , according to Politico , has been the CDC ’ s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports ( MMWR ) , a crucial resource for experts , public officials , and members of the public seeking to track the spread of Covid-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on meddling from political appointees , Politico reported that the agency has “ increasingly agreed to allow the political officials to review the reports and , in a few cases , compromised on the wording.
” According to one internal email obtained by Politico , Caputo aide Paul Alexander accused the CDC — an agency directed by Trump appointee Robert Redfield — of “ writing hit pieces on the administration ” and attempting to use its weekly reports to “ hurt the president.
” “ CDC tried to report as if once kids @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and this will impact school re-opening , ” wrote Alexander , an assistant professor of health research at McMaster University in Toronto .
“ Very misleading by CDC and shame on them .
Their aim is clear.
” Alexander demanded that Redfield allow the HHS aide to personally edit the CDC ’ s reports , which are authored by career scientists .
“ The reports must be read by someone outside of CDC like myself , and we can not allow the reporting to go on as it has been , for it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Alexander , who has also attempted to alter the public messaging of Dr. Anthony Fauci , wrote to Redfield .
“ Nothing to go out unless I read and agree with the findings how they CDC , wrote it and I tweak it to ensure it is fair and balanced and ‘ complete . '
” Yale epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves called the emails “ explosive ” and said Caputo should resign immediately .
“ This is just beyond the pale , ” Gonsalves tweeted .
“ Caputo , with acquiescence of Redfield , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump ’ s advantage .
It ’ s sick and disgusting.
” According to Politico , attempts by political appointees to alter the MMWR to their liking “ began in earnest after a May report authored by senior CDC official Anne Schuchat , which reviewed the spread of Covid-19 in the United States and caused significant strife within the health department.
” “ HHS officials , including Secretary Alex Azar , believed that Schuchat was implying that the Trump administration moved too slowly to respond to the outbreak , ” Politico continued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to CDC officials , who believed that Schuchat was merely recounting the state of affairs and not rendering judgment on the response.
” In addition to trying to change the language of CDC scientists to make it fit with the president ’ s rosy depiction of the pandemic , Caputo and his aides have also moved “ to halt the release of some CDC reports , including delaying a report that addressed how doctors were prescribing hydroxychloroquine , the malaria drug favored by Trump as a coronavirus treatment despite scant evidence , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which was held for about a month after Caputo ’ s team raised questions about its authors ’ political leanings , was finally published last week , ” Politico noted .
“ It said that “ the potential benefits of these drugs do not outweigh their risks.
” Politico ’ s new reporting represents just the latest evidence of the Trump administration ’ s ongoing interference in the activities of public health agencies , an effort lawmakers and experts have denounced as a deliberate campaign to undermine trust in Covid-19 data and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ A Trump stooge with a history of racist statements and no medical background is doctoring CDC reports warning Americans on Covid because they make Trump look bad , ” Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. ( D-N.J. ) tweeted late Friday , referring to Caputo .
Eric Feigl-Ding , an epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists , said the “ Trump CDC is dead to me if they muzzle the MMWR .
”

Leaked emails show an effort to bring COVID-19 reports into alignment with Trump’s false narrative on the pandemic.
Days after President Donald Trump admitted to knowingly downplaying the Covid-19 pandemic in his statements to the public, new reporting late Friday revealed that Trump political aides have been reviewing — and in some cases altering — weekly CDC reports about the deadly virus in an effort to bring them into closer alignment with the president’s false narrative and claims.
Politico reported Friday evening that the Health and Human Services Department’s politically appointed communications aides, led by former Trump campaign official Michael Caputo — a Republican strategist with no medical expertise — “have attempted to add caveats to the CDC’s findings, including an effort to retroactively change agency reports that they said wrongly inflated the risks of Covid-19 and should have made clear that Americans sickened by the virus may have been infected because of their own behavior.”
The primary target of the Trump officials’ interference, according to Politico, has been the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR), a crucial resource for experts, public officials, and members of the public seeking to track the spread of Covid-19. While CDC officials have pushed back on meddling from political appointees, Politico reported that the agency has “increasingly agreed to allow the political officials to review the reports and, in a few cases, compromised on the wording.”
According to one internal email obtained by Politico, Caputo aide Paul Alexander accused the CDC — an agency directed by Trump appointee Robert Redfield — of “writing hit pieces on the administration” and attempting to use its weekly reports to “hurt the president.”
“CDC tried to report as if once kids get together, there will be spread and this will impact school re-opening,” wrote Alexander, an assistant professor of health research at McMaster University in Toronto. “Very misleading by CDC and shame on them. Their aim is clear.”
Alexander demanded that Redfield allow the HHS aide to personally edit the CDC’s reports, which are authored by career scientists.
“The reports must be read by someone outside of CDC like myself, and we cannot allow the reporting to go on as it has been, for it is outrageous. Its lunacy,” Alexander, who has also attempted to alter the public messaging of Dr. Anthony Fauci, wrote to Redfield. “Nothing to go out unless I read and agree with the findings how they CDC, wrote it and I tweak it to ensure it is fair and balanced and ‘complete.'”
Yale epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves called the emails “explosive” and said Caputo should resign immediately.
“This is just beyond the pale,” Gonsalves tweeted. “Caputo, with acquiescence of Redfield, has started to twist the science to Donald Trump’s advantage. It’s sick and disgusting.”
In one email to CDC officials obtained by POLITICO, a Caputo aide blistered scientists and called for already-published reports to be retroactively altered. pic.twitter.com/QSFhMlU00i — Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) September 12, 2020
According to Politico, attempts by political appointees to alter the MMWR to their liking “began in earnest after a May report authored by senior CDC official Anne Schuchat, which reviewed the spread of Covid-19 in the United States and caused significant strife within the health department.”
“HHS officials, including Secretary Alex Azar, believed that Schuchat was implying that the Trump administration moved too slowly to respond to the outbreak,” Politico continued. “The HHS criticism was mystifying to CDC officials, who believed that Schuchat was merely recounting the state of affairs and not rendering judgment on the response.”
In addition to trying to change the language of CDC scientists to make it fit with the president’s rosy depiction of the pandemic, Caputo and his aides have also moved “to halt the release of some CDC reports, including delaying a report that addressed how doctors were prescribing hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug favored by Trump as a coronavirus treatment despite scant evidence,” Politico reported Friday.
“The report, which was held for about a month after Caputo’s team raised questions about its authors’ political leanings, was finally published last week,” Politico noted. “It said that “the potential benefits of these drugs do not outweigh their risks.”
Downright criminal stuff here. The whole executive branch will need an audit. https://t.co/FifycXnJfE via @politico — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) September 12, 2020
Politico’s new reporting represents just the latest evidence of the Trump administration’s ongoing interference in the activities of public health agencies, an effort lawmakers and experts have denounced as a deliberate campaign to undermine trust in Covid-19 data and advance the president’s political agenda.
“A Trump stooge with a history of racist statements and no medical background is doctoring CDC reports warning Americans on Covid because they make Trump look bad,” Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) tweeted late Friday, referring to Caputo.
Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said the “Trump CDC is dead to me if they muzzle the MMWR.”
“To kill the MMWR,” Feigl-Ding added, “is akin to burning science.”
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--2020-09-12--Hurricane Laura Signaled the Arrival of Climate-Intensified Toxic Disasters

The weather system that would become history-making Hurricane Laura spun out of a tropical wave that moved into the Atlantic Ocean off the West African coast on Aug. 16 .
Five days later the system strengthened into a tropical storm , with sustained winds of 45 miles per hour .
Passing over the island of Hispaniola , Laura killed at least 31 people in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic before moving across Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico , still as a tropical storm .
By Aug. 25 , Laura was a Category 1 hurricane with sustained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the next 24 hours , the storm underwent a process known as “ rapid intensification ” : Feeding off of abnormally warm water temperatures in the Gulf , the storm exploded into a Category 4 monster with sustained winds of nearly 145 mph — almost a catastrophic Category 5 .
Laura ’ s intensification is one of the fastest on record in the region .
Scientists say such events , which complicate evacuation plans , are likely to become more common as much of the atmospheric heat trapped by rising greenhouse gas levels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has important implications for Southern states along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts , where ocean waters tend to be warmer and where most hurricanes strike .
Laura was a record-breaking storm in what ’ s already been an unusually active hurricane season — the first in which nine tropical storms formed before August and 13 before September .
The first major hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season and the strongest storm to hit Louisiana since 1856 , Laura was also the earliest 12th-named storm on record in the North Atlantic basin , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hit that part of the Gulf , and the fifth-strongest storm on record to hit the U.S. For a moment , it even appeared that Laura and another hurricane might hit along the Gulf Coast at the same time , but then Marco weakened , making landfall on Aug. 24 near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a weak tropical storm .
As Laura approached the U.S. , the country was grappling with another major climate-related disaster : raging wildfires in California , the worst in the state ’ s history .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , at about 1 a.m. on Aug. 27 .
The seat of Cameron Parish , Cameron is a census-designated place near the Texas border that ’ s been repeatedly leveled by hurricanes .
In 1957 , Audrey killed 300 people there .
In 2005 , Rita destroyed much of the community , which had been evacuated , preventing massive loss of lives .
Residents were still rebuilding from that disaster when Ike hit in 2008 .
As some storm-battered residents gave up and moved , Cameron ’ s population fell from about 1,965 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2010 , many of them living in RVs that they can drive away at a moment ’ s notice .
Warned that Laura ’ s storm surge would be “ unsurvivable , ” Cameron residents evacuated ahead of the hurricane , which came ashore with 150 mph winds and a surge of 9 to 12 feet — less than the 20 feet that had been predicted .
There have been no reported deaths in Cameron Parish directly related to Laura .
But reporters who visited the community since the storm have emerged to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ boats blocking streets , every cell tower in the parish down , and caskets disinterred from cemeteries .
After witnessing the destruction in hard-hit Lake Charles , Louisiana , one local business owner told a Texas TV station , “ I lost my mind.
” So far , 27 deaths along the Gulf Coast — 22 in Louisiana and five in Texas — have been attributed to Hurricane Laura .
Six of the deaths in Louisiana came after the storm passed and were classified as heat-related .
Others have been blamed on carbon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ generators amid widespread and continuing power outages , including five people killed in a single home in Louisiana .
In all , about 600,000 homes lost power in the storm , and all nine transmission lines that deliver power into southwestern Louisiana were catastrophically damaged .
A week after Laura hit , more than 300,000 people were still without power across Louisiana and Texas as those states experienced dangerous levels of heat and humidity — all in the midst of the deadly COVID-19 respiratory pandemic that ’ s hit Louisiana especially hard .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which bore the storm ’ s brunt , 90 % of households remain without power .
People in storm-affected areas are also contending with another problem worsened by a warming climate and intensified flooding : clouds of mosquitos so thick they ’ re being blamed for the deaths of hundreds of cattle and some horses .
That ’ s led to spraying of chemical pesticides , which have their own health drawbacks .
Calcasieu Parish is among the communities that began spraying for mosquitos since Laura ; its spray program typically uses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ widely used and less toxic than some insecticides , they can cause respiratory , eye , and skin irritation .
Epidemiological studies have also raised concerns about pyrethroids ’ potentially harmful effects on sperm , reproductive hormones , pregnancy outcomes , and early neurobehavioral development after in utero exposure ; other studies have pointed to adverse effects on the immune system , heart , liver , kidneys , and blood .
In addition , the spraying can have an effect on the local ecology , since pyrethroids kill insects other than mosquitos .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to bioaccumulate , more recent research has found pyrethroids build up in the bodies of some species of dolphins and fish , and pass on to human babies through their mothers ’ milk .
While Florida is the state that ’ s been hit by the most hurricanes since record keeping began , Texas and Louisiana are also among the top four most storm-vulnerable states , along with North Carolina .
That matters for the entire nation , since the Gulf Coast is home to about half of all U.S. oil refining capacity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ communities near those refineries and the region ’ s other petrochemical and industrial facilities — communities that are disproportionately non-white and low-income .
The Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana and Texas coasts is a center of the offshore oil and gas industry , and there were about 1,400 active wells along the path Laura took through the Gulf .
SkyTruth , a West Virginia-based group that uses satellite imagery for environmental monitoring , has reported seeing no signs so far of any large-scale leaks or spills .
“ This is a vast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of offshore pipelines were damaged by mobile drilling rigs that had been blown loose from their moorings , and dragged their anchors across miles of seafloor , ” the group noted in a Facebook post .
The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association , an industry group , said in a statement that “ building upon lessons learned from past storms , like Katrina , Ike and Rita , companies are continuously improving preparation and response plans to lessen storm impacts and shorten the time it takes to recover.
” But that doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cause spills .
Julie Dermansky , a New Orleans-based photographer and reporter , flew over at least 20 miles of storm-affected areas and documented extensive oil sheens in wetlands for the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and DeSmogBlog .
“ For miles along the western Louisiana coastline near the Texas border , I spotted large swathes of land and water that appeared coated with oil , visible as the floodwaters receded between the small communities of Grand Chenier and Cameron , ” Dermansky wrote at DeSmogBlog .
“ On September 2 and 3 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ along the bayous from Cameron north to the city of Lake Charles and as far east as New Iberia , roughly 130 miles west of New Orleans.
” In all , 31 oil and chemical spills were reported after Laura to the Coast Guard ’ s National Response Center , the federal agency responsible for recording and monitoring such incidents .
One of the spills was connected to a fire at BioLab , a pool chemical company in Westlake , Louisiana , near Lake Charles , that sent black clouds of smoke and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nearby residents in homes without power to shelter in place for more than a day .
Of all the reported spills , 20 appear to have involved coastal waters .
Another involved a spill into a marsh of an unknown quantity of crude oil from a storage tank containing up to 40,000 barrels owned by Plains All American , an oil pipeline and storage company based in Houston .
In past disasters , these initial reports have sometimes underestimated the size of spills .
Hurricanes bring significant air pollution as well .
Before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ practice , refineries and petrochemical plants went into shutdown mode ; that involves burning off excess chemicals in pipes in a process called “ flaring , ” which also occurs at fracking sites .
In the two days before the storm hit , Texas facilities doing this released more than 4 million pounds of extra air pollution , according to reports companies made to state environmental regulators that were analyzed by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund for NPR .
Much of that was a single release of carbon dioxide , a greenhouse gas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Beaumont , Texas , according to the Houston Chronicle .
Other pollutants released included cancer-causing benzene , and nitrogen oxides that can trigger respiratory problems .
Similar data does not exist for Louisiana .
But residents of the historically African American community of Mossville , Louisiana , a petrochemical center on the outskirts of Lake Charles , returned to their homes days after the storm only to report suffering from headaches that they suspect are tied to pollution releases .
Studies have linked flaring to adverse health effects in nearby communities , including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are currently organizing to get the state to ban routine flaring by 2025 , and in fact held an online forum about flaring the day Laura hit .
The pre-storm releases and storm-related spills come on top of the chronic pollution from refineries , limits on which have been relaxed under the Trump administration .
And while spikes in air pollution are likely as a hurricane arrives , monitoring it can be difficult as states take air quality monitors offline to keep them from being damaged ; the environmental departments in both Louisiana @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( EPA ) they would be doing so .
Pollution monitors also failed due to power loss , the Associated Press reported .
It could take awhile to understand just how toxic Laura was .
After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017 , it took months for the public to learn about some of the hundreds of spills that occurred , according to a report by the EPA ’ s Inspector General .
A Louisiana Department of Natural Resources spokesperson told DeSmogBlog this week that it ’ s still too early to assess @ @ @ @ @ @ @ residents say the dearth of information is business as usual .
As Carla Chrisco , a Lake Charles lawyer who evacuated the city before Laura , told the Associated Press , residents “ generally don ’ t get any information except what the industry puts out .
”

The weather system that would become history-making Hurricane Laura spun out of a tropical wave that moved into the Atlantic Ocean off the West African coast on Aug. 16. Five days later the system strengthened into a tropical storm, with sustained winds of 45 miles per hour. Passing over the island of Hispaniola, Laura killed at least 31 people in Haiti and four in the Dominican Republic before moving across Cuba and into the Gulf of Mexico, still as a tropical storm.
By Aug. 25, Laura was a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 75 mph. But over the next 24 hours, the storm underwent a process known as “rapid intensification”: Feeding off of abnormally warm water temperatures in the Gulf, the storm exploded into a Category 4 monster with sustained winds of nearly 145 mph — almost a catastrophic Category 5. Laura’s intensification is one of the fastest on record in the region. Scientists say such events, which complicate evacuation plans, are likely to become more common as much of the atmospheric heat trapped by rising greenhouse gas levels ends up in the oceans. This has important implications for Southern states along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, where ocean waters tend to be warmer and where most hurricanes strike.
Laura was a record-breaking storm in what’s already been an unusually active hurricane season — the first in which nine tropical storms formed before August and 13 before September. The first major hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season and the strongest storm to hit Louisiana since 1856, Laura was also the earliest 12th-named storm on record in the North Atlantic basin, the first Category 4 storm on record to hit that part of the Gulf, and the fifth-strongest storm on record to hit the U.S. For a moment, it even appeared that Laura and another hurricane might hit along the Gulf Coast at the same time, but then Marco weakened, making landfall on Aug. 24 near the mouth of the Mississippi River as a weak tropical storm. As Laura approached the U.S., the country was grappling with another major climate-related disaster: raging wildfires in California, the worst in the state’s history.
Laura hit land near Cameron, Louisiana, at about 1 a.m. on Aug. 27. The seat of Cameron Parish, Cameron is a census-designated place near the Texas border that’s been repeatedly leveled by hurricanes. In 1957, Audrey killed 300 people there. In 2005, Rita destroyed much of the community, which had been evacuated, preventing massive loss of lives. Residents were still rebuilding from that disaster when Ike hit in 2008. As some storm-battered residents gave up and moved, Cameron’s population fell from about 1,965 people in 2000 to just 406 by 2010, many of them living in RVs that they can drive away at a moment’s notice.
Warned that Laura’s storm surge would be “unsurvivable,” Cameron residents evacuated ahead of the hurricane, which came ashore with 150 mph winds and a surge of 9 to 12 feet — less than the 20 feet that had been predicted. There have been no reported deaths in Cameron Parish directly related to Laura. But reporters who visited the community since the storm have emerged to tell stories of widespread devastation, with boats blocking streets, every cell tower in the parish down, and caskets disinterred from cemeteries. After witnessing the destruction in hard-hit Lake Charles, Louisiana, one local business owner told a Texas TV station, “I lost my mind.”
So far, 27 deaths along the Gulf Coast — 22 in Louisiana and five in Texas — have been attributed to Hurricane Laura. Six of the deaths in Louisiana came after the storm passed and were classified as heat-related. Others have been blamed on carbon monoxide poisoning from the improper use of generators amid widespread and continuing power outages, including five people killed in a single home in Louisiana. In all, about 600,000 homes lost power in the storm, and all nine transmission lines that deliver power into southwestern Louisiana were catastrophically damaged. A week after Laura hit, more than 300,000 people were still without power across Louisiana and Texas as those states experienced dangerous levels of heat and humidity — all in the midst of the deadly COVID-19 respiratory pandemic that’s hit Louisiana especially hard. In Lake Charles and surrounding Calcasieu Parish, which bore the storm’s brunt, 90% of households remain without power.
People in storm-affected areas are also contending with another problem worsened by a warming climate and intensified flooding: clouds of mosquitos so thick they’re being blamed for the deaths of hundreds of cattle and some horses. That’s led to spraying of chemical pesticides, which have their own health drawbacks. Calcasieu Parish is among the communities that began spraying for mosquitos since Laura; its spray program typically uses synthetic pyrethroids. While these chemicals are widely used and less toxic than some insecticides, they can cause respiratory, eye, and skin irritation. Epidemiological studies have also raised concerns about pyrethroids’ potentially harmful effects on sperm, reproductive hormones, pregnancy outcomes, and early neurobehavioral development after in utero exposure; other studies have pointed to adverse effects on the immune system, heart, liver, kidneys, and blood. In addition, the spraying can have an effect on the local ecology, since pyrethroids kill insects other than mosquitos. And while they were once thought not to bioaccumulate, more recent research has found pyrethroids build up in the bodies of some species of dolphins and fish, and pass on to human babies through their mothers’ milk.
Unknown Toxic Threats
While Florida is the state that’s been hit by the most hurricanes since record keeping began, Texas and Louisiana are also among the top four most storm-vulnerable states, along with North Carolina. That matters for the entire nation, since the Gulf Coast is home to about half of all U.S. oil refining capacity. But it has particular implications for communities near those refineries and the region’s other petrochemical and industrial facilities — communities that are disproportionately non-white and low-income.
The Gulf of Mexico off the Louisiana and Texas coasts is a center of the offshore oil and gas industry, and there were about 1,400 active wells along the path Laura took through the Gulf. SkyTruth, a West Virginia-based group that uses satellite imagery for environmental monitoring, has reported seeing no signs so far of any large-scale leaks or spills. “This is a vast improvement over Hurricane Katrina, when hundreds of offshore pipelines were damaged by mobile drilling rigs that had been blown loose from their moorings, and dragged their anchors across miles of seafloor,” the group noted in a Facebook post. The Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association, an industry group, said in a statement that “building upon lessons learned from past storms, like Katrina, Ike and Rita, companies are continuously improving preparation and response plans to lessen storm impacts and shorten the time it takes to recover.”
But that doesn’t mean Laura didn’t cause spills. Julie Dermansky, a New Orleans-based photographer and reporter, flew over at least 20 miles of storm-affected areas and documented extensive oil sheens in wetlands for the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and DeSmogBlog. “For miles along the western Louisiana coastline near the Texas border, I spotted large swathes of land and water that appeared coated with oil, visible as the floodwaters receded between the small communities of Grand Chenier and Cameron,” Dermansky wrote at DeSmogBlog. “On September 2 and 3, I also documented oil sheen in waterways along the bayous from Cameron north to the city of Lake Charles and as far east as New Iberia, roughly 130 miles west of New Orleans.”
In all, 31 oil and chemical spills were reported after Laura to the Coast Guard’s National Response Center, the federal agency responsible for recording and monitoring such incidents. One of the spills was connected to a fire at BioLab, a pool chemical company in Westlake, Louisiana, near Lake Charles, that sent black clouds of smoke and chlorine gas into the sky and forced nearby residents in homes without power to shelter in place for more than a day. Of all the reported spills, 20 appear to have involved coastal waters. Another involved a spill into a marsh of an unknown quantity of crude oil from a storage tank containing up to 40,000 barrels owned by Plains All American, an oil pipeline and storage company based in Houston. In past disasters, these initial reports have sometimes underestimated the size of spills.
Hurricanes bring significant air pollution as well. Before Laura made landfall, as is normal practice, refineries and petrochemical plants went into shutdown mode; that involves burning off excess chemicals in pipes in a process called “flaring,” which also occurs at fracking sites. In the two days before the storm hit, Texas facilities doing this released more than 4 million pounds of extra air pollution, according to reports companies made to state environmental regulators that were analyzed by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund for NPR. Much of that was a single release of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from a methanol production facility in Beaumont, Texas, according to the Houston Chronicle. Other pollutants released included cancer-causing benzene, and nitrogen oxides that can trigger respiratory problems. Similar data does not exist for Louisiana. But residents of the historically African American community of Mossville, Louisiana, a petrochemical center on the outskirts of Lake Charles, returned to their homes days after the storm only to report suffering from headaches that they suspect are tied to pollution releases.
Studies have linked flaring to adverse health effects in nearby communities, including premature births. Environmental advocates in Texas are currently organizing to get the state to ban routine flaring by 2025, and in fact held an online forum about flaring the day Laura hit. The pre-storm releases and storm-related spills come on top of the chronic pollution from refineries, limits on which have been relaxed under the Trump administration. And while spikes in air pollution are likely as a hurricane arrives, monitoring it can be difficult as states take air quality monitors offline to keep them from being damaged; the environmental departments in both Louisiana and Texas informed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) they would be doing so. Pollution monitors also failed due to power loss, the Associated Press reported.
It could take awhile to understand just how toxic Laura was. After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in 2017, it took months for the public to learn about some of the hundreds of spills that occurred, according to a report by the EPA’s Inspector General. A Louisiana Department of Natural Resources spokesperson told DeSmogBlog this week that it’s still too early to assess the storm’s damage. But residents say the dearth of information is business as usual. As Carla Chrisco, a Lake Charles lawyer who evacuated the city before Laura, told the Associated Press, residents “generally don’t get any information except what the industry puts out.”
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--2020-09-12--In Calling to Defund Police, Don’t Fixate on Costs of Police Settlements

When someone is harmed , disabled or killed by police , they , and their families , deserve compensation — for medical bills , lost time at work , emotional and physical trauma .
In fact , as outlined in the Movement for Black Lives ’ s BREATHE Act , they deserve reparations — like those recently paid and made to survivors of torture by Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge .
If anything , police settlements should be larger than the amounts survivors and families often receive .
In recent years , and most recently in the context of campaigns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ focused on the amount paid out in settlements for police-perpetrated violence by municipalities as an indication of how expensive current police practices are .
In some cases , they have demanded regular reporting and transparency around police misconduct settlements .
In others , they have called for these settlements to come directly out of police budgets , as an incentive for departments to reduce the amount of violence they perpetrate .
Some have called for settlements to come from liability insurance carried by individual officers instead of city coffers .
Each of these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the people we are organizing with and on behalf of survivors of police violence and families of people killed by police .
None of them will put an end to the violence that produces the need to compensate them in the first place .
It is also critical to note that the amounts currently budgeted for police misconduct settlements are based on past harm — so trying to cut this amount now will directly affect payments to people who have already suffered police violence , and will do nothing to prevent future harm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial incentives to stop police violence — because violence is inherent to policing .
Highlighting the amount of police “ misconduct ” settlements , or shifting the responsibility for payment onto police departments , profit-driven private insurance companies or different governmental entities will not stop police from harming people — but it will likely harm people harmed by police .
The most likely consequence of focusing attention on these payments is not that police violence will stop or slow down — because it is a feature , not a bug .
What these @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incentives to deny or reduce compensation to the people harmed by police violence — to avoid public scrutiny , to avoid cuts to departmental budgets , to avoid cutting into the bottom line .
If you are shocked by the amount of money spent on police settlements — and by the amount of violence and harm they represent — the best response is to work to decrease the power of police to enact that violence .
In other words , the best way to reduce the amount of police violence settlements is to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not the settlements paid to people harmed by policing .
Two years ago , the Action Center on Race and the Economy ( ACRE ) released “ Police Brutality Bonds : How Wall Street Profits from Police Violence , ” which details the way municipalities use creative financing and deceptive accounting practices to hide the true cost of police brutality .
It is in these municipalities ’ interest to try and obscure how big the settlements are so that they are less likely to face demands to abolish the police entirely .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in U.S. capitalism , Wall Street takes its cut .
The ways in which banks profit from the cost of police violence was the primary focus of the report .
However , the report placed a spotlight on the issue of police settlements more broadly , leading to a focus on the amount cities budget for such settlements as a target in campaigns for police accountability .
The report itself referred to these settlements as a “ burden ” on communities that carried opportunity costs in terms of meeting other community needs , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ directly onto police departments and individual officers through liability insurance .
The recent nationwide uprisings in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd , Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade , and their clarion call to # DefundPolice , have brought police budgets back into the spotlight .
ACRE revisited and re-released the Police Brutality Bonds report in early June of this year with several critical amendments as a result of further political education and conversation with the community .
The updated report no longer includes demands around individual officer liability insurance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the settlements .
In a statement released with the updated report , ACRE said , If campaigns to reduce the overall cost of police misconduct settlements are successful , people hurt or killed by police in the future may well be told that , because the public has protested police brutality settlements , the city is not in a position to settle their cases early on , and won ’ t compensate them unless ordered to by a court .
This will force more police violence victims into years of costly , exhausting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ results in compensation simply being denied .
Many victims and their families — including people most vulnerable to police and other forms of violence , such as homeless and precariously housed people , people with low or no income , queer and trans people , disabled people and people who are criminalized or use controlled substances — will give up ( or their lawyers will ) before they have a day in court .
Those who persist will face ongoing criminalizing narratives and sometimes direct threats of retaliation by police .
Demands that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of police department budgets suffer from the same flaws .
Departments are deeply invested in continuing the practices that produce police violence — one need look no further than the New York City Police Department ’ s resistance at the highest levels to being told , again , that they can ’ t choke the life out of someone .
As we have seen in campaigns to # DefundPolice , they are also deeply invested in keeping or increasing their budgets .
So instead of ending police violence or taking the budget cut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against compensation for survivors and families of people killed by police than they already do , through smear campaigns , concealing evidence and dragging litigation out over years and years , leaving the people we want to protect with even less recourse .
Calls for police officers to carry individual liability insurance are also more likely to hurt survivors and families than to reduce police violence or “ make officers pay.
” First , as anyone who has ever had to fight for coverage of an injury , treatment or procedure knows all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deny coverage for necessary treatment and claims for compensation , stonewalling claimants and forcing them to appeal denial after denial , dragging things out for years in the hopes that they will give up — as many do .
They also frequently blame claimants for injuries they suffer , arguing that people “ assumed the risk ” of injury when they engage in particular activities .
These companies engage in extensive surveillance and invasion of privacy in an effort to attribute the cause of any injuries to anything other than the entity they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are criminalized , insurance companies will have even more fodder for these arguments .
And , unlike governments , private insurance companies are solely accountable to their shareholders , not to the public , and therefore even less susceptible to public pressure than municipalities .
Placing police violence victims and families of people killed by police at the mercy of private corporations does a deep disservice to those our movements must be most accountable to .
Secondly , police unions will likely successfully negotiate for cities to take on paying the cost of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or through wage increases , much as they have ensured that cities indemnify individual officers against individual damages assessed in lawsuits .
So individual officers will continue to effectively be immune from paying damages or increased premiums .
Another possible avenue for shifting the cost of police violence onto individual officers is to eliminate indemnification , meaning that cities would no longer agree to pay judgments against individual officers .
Now , even if a court orders an individual officer to pay damages , it is likely that the city that employs them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Eliminating these agreements could force individual officers to pay for the harm they perpetrate .
However , this approach is also likely to further harm survivors : When protected assets are taken out of the equation , there is often not enough left for an officer to pay a significant settlement , and more incentive for officers to move any unprotected assets into someone else ’ s name or declare bankruptcy before paying a settlement — particularly where they killed , maimed , raped or wrongfully convicted someone and compensation could run @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indemnification to require officers to pay the full cost of the harm they do — often at the direction or with the tacit approval of their employer — would likely leave survivors and family members with settlements in name only , without a penny in their pockets .
The bottom line is that people hurt by police and families of people killed by police deserve reparations , including compensation .
Police brutality settlements should not only be paid , they should be much higher , and should not require years of costly litigation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brought onto people and their families through these acts can not be undone .
We should be removing barriers to compensation , healing , repair , restitution and systemic change , not adding to them through demands focused on police settlements .
There are many other places to increase transparency and cut police budgets , including by making visible and eliminating the high legal fees and costs that cities pay to defend against police brutality suits and engage in public relations smear campaigns against people harmed by police instead of immediately compensating individuals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continue to make visible the ways in which Wall Street capitalizes on and profits from Black death and violation at the hands of police — much as it capitalized off of slavery by insuring the bodies of the enslaved .
We can continue to lift up demands to defund , disarm and dismantle police departments and invest in the programs and infrastructure we need to produce genuine and lasting safety .
Our goal is to end the violence of policing and of the economic structures it defends .
Let ’ s make sure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t inadvertently harm the people most affected by the issues we are fighting .
Until police violence no longer exists , we owe reparations to people and communities that have been harmed .
Period .

Part of the Series The Road to Abolition
When someone is harmed, disabled or killed by police, they, and their families, deserve compensation — for medical bills, lost time at work, emotional and physical trauma. In fact, as outlined in the Movement for Black Lives’s BREATHE Act, they deserve reparations — like those recently paid and made to survivors of torture by Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. If anything, police settlements should be larger than the amounts survivors and families often receive.
In recent years, and most recently in the context of campaigns to #DefundPolice, some organizers have focused on the amount paid out in settlements for police-perpetrated violence by municipalities as an indication of how expensive current police practices are. In some cases, they have demanded regular reporting and transparency around police misconduct settlements. In others, they have called for these settlements to come directly out of police budgets, as an incentive for departments to reduce the amount of violence they perpetrate. Some have called for settlements to come from liability insurance carried by individual officers instead of city coffers.
Each of these approaches stands to harm instead of help the people we are organizing with and on behalf of survivors of police violence and families of people killed by police. None of them will put an end to the violence that produces the need to compensate them in the first place.
It is also critical to note that the amounts currently budgeted for police misconduct settlements are based on past harm — so trying to cut this amount now will directly affect payments to people who have already suffered police violence, and will do nothing to prevent future harm.
There is no way to create financial incentives to stop police violence — because violence is inherent to policing. Highlighting the amount of police “misconduct” settlements, or shifting the responsibility for payment onto police departments, profit-driven private insurance companies or different governmental entities will not stop police from harming people — but it will likely harm people harmed by police. The most likely consequence of focusing attention on these payments is not that police violence will stop or slow down — because it is a feature, not a bug.
What these approaches will do is simply create stronger incentives to deny or reduce compensation to the people harmed by police violence — to avoid public scrutiny, to avoid cuts to departmental budgets, to avoid cutting into the bottom line.
If you are shocked by the amount of money spent on police settlements — and by the amount of violence and harm they represent — the best response is to work to decrease the power of police to enact that violence. In other words, the best way to reduce the amount of police violence settlements is to reduce and ultimately end policing itself, not the settlements paid to people harmed by policing.
Highlighting the amount of police “misconduct” settlements will likely harm people harmed by police.
Two years ago, the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE) released “Police Brutality Bonds: How Wall Street Profits from Police Violence,” which details the way municipalities use creative financing and deceptive accounting practices to hide the true cost of police brutality. It is in these municipalities’ interest to try and obscure how big the settlements are so that they are less likely to face demands to abolish the police entirely. And of course, whenever money is moving in U.S. capitalism, Wall Street takes its cut.
The ways in which banks profit from the cost of police violence was the primary focus of the report. However, the report placed a spotlight on the issue of police settlements more broadly, leading to a focus on the amount cities budget for such settlements as a target in campaigns for police accountability. The report itself referred to these settlements as a “burden” on communities that carried opportunity costs in terms of meeting other community needs, and demanded that this burden be shifted directly onto police departments and individual officers through liability insurance.
The recent nationwide uprisings in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Tony McDade, and their clarion call to #DefundPolice, have brought police budgets back into the spotlight. ACRE revisited and re-released the Police Brutality Bonds report in early June of this year with several critical amendments as a result of further political education and conversation with the community. The updated report no longer includes demands around individual officer liability insurance or further shifting of municipal accounting for the settlements.
In a statement released with the updated report, ACRE said,
We are clear that those demands fall far short of the world we envision and won’t result in any change to how police operate. Even worse, they may end up hurting victims unintentionally and should not be advocated for. Instead demands that challenge both the power of the police terrorizing communities and Wall Street’s financial power over communities are better focus areas for efforts to seek radical change that will seed the end to policing — and of extractive racial capitalism.
If campaigns to reduce the overall cost of police misconduct settlements are successful, people hurt or killed by police in the future may well be told that, because the public has protested police brutality settlements, the city is not in a position to settle their cases early on, and won’t compensate them unless ordered to by a court. This will force more police violence victims into years of costly, exhausting and often devastating litigation, which often results in compensation simply being denied. Many victims and their families — including people most vulnerable to police and other forms of violence, such as homeless and precariously housed people, people with low or no income, queer and trans people, disabled people and people who are criminalized or use controlled substances — will give up (or their lawyers will) before they have a day in court. Those who persist will face ongoing criminalizing narratives and sometimes direct threats of retaliation by police.
If you are shocked by the amount of money spent on police settlements, the best response is to work to decrease the power of police to enact that violence.
Demands that the cost of settlements come directly out of police department budgets suffer from the same flaws. Departments are deeply invested in continuing the practices that produce police violence — one need look no further than the New York City Police Department’s resistance at the highest levels to being told, again, that they can’t choke the life out of someone. As we have seen in campaigns to #DefundPolice, they are also deeply invested in keeping or increasing their budgets. So instead of ending police violence or taking the budget cut, they will just fight even harder against compensation for survivors and families of people killed by police than they already do, through smear campaigns, concealing evidence and dragging litigation out over years and years, leaving the people we want to protect with even less recourse.
Calls for police officers to carry individual liability insurance are also more likely to hurt survivors and families than to reduce police violence or “make officers pay.” First, as anyone who has ever had to fight for coverage of an injury, treatment or procedure knows all too well, private insurance companies routinely deny coverage for necessary treatment and claims for compensation, stonewalling claimants and forcing them to appeal denial after denial, dragging things out for years in the hopes that they will give up — as many do. They also frequently blame claimants for injuries they suffer, arguing that people “assumed the risk” of injury when they engage in particular activities. These companies engage in extensive surveillance and invasion of privacy in an effort to attribute the cause of any injuries to anything other than the entity they insure.
Where people harmed by police are criminalized, insurance companies will have even more fodder for these arguments. And, unlike governments, private insurance companies are solely accountable to their shareholders, not to the public, and therefore even less susceptible to public pressure than municipalities. Placing police violence victims and families of people killed by police at the mercy of private corporations does a deep disservice to those our movements must be most accountable to.
Secondly, police unions will likely successfully negotiate for cities to take on paying the cost of insurance premiums as a condition of employment or through wage increases, much as they have ensured that cities indemnify individual officers against individual damages assessed in lawsuits. So individual officers will continue to effectively be immune from paying damages or increased premiums.
Calls for police officers to carry individual liability insurance are more likely to hurt survivors and families than to reduce police violence or “make officers pay.”
Another possible avenue for shifting the cost of police violence onto individual officers is to eliminate indemnification, meaning that cities would no longer agree to pay judgments against individual officers. Now, even if a court orders an individual officer to pay damages, it is likely that the city that employs them will pay them under an indemnification agreement. Eliminating these agreements could force individual officers to pay for the harm they perpetrate. However, this approach is also likely to further harm survivors: When protected assets are taken out of the equation, there is often not enough left for an officer to pay a significant settlement, and more incentive for officers to move any unprotected assets into someone else’s name or declare bankruptcy before paying a settlement — particularly where they killed, maimed, raped or wrongfully convicted someone and compensation could run in the millions. So, eliminating indemnification to require officers to pay the full cost of the harm they do — often at the direction or with the tacit approval of their employer — would likely leave survivors and family members with settlements in name only, without a penny in their pockets.
The bottom line is that people hurt by police and families of people killed by police deserve reparations, including compensation. Police brutality settlements should not only be paid, they should be much higher, and should not require years of costly litigation. The terror that the police have brought onto people and their families through these acts cannot be undone. We should be removing barriers to compensation, healing, repair, restitution and systemic change, not adding to them through demands focused on police settlements.
There are many other places to increase transparency and cut police budgets, including by making visible and eliminating the high legal fees and costs that cities pay to defend against police brutality suits and engage in public relations smear campaigns against people harmed by police instead of immediately compensating individuals and families left behind. We can continue to make visible the ways in which Wall Street capitalizes on and profits from Black death and violation at the hands of police — much as it capitalized off of slavery by insuring the bodies of the enslaved. We can continue to lift up demands to defund, disarm and dismantle police departments and invest in the programs and infrastructure we need to produce genuine and lasting safety.
Our goal is to end the violence of policing and of the economic structures it defends. Let’s make sure our demands to #DefundPolice don’t inadvertently harm the people most affected by the issues we are fighting. Until police violence no longer exists, we owe reparations to people and communities that have been harmed. Period.
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