newrepublic--2020-07-23--Here’s What It Would Take to Reopen Schools Safely

So , what is the science ?
Here ’ s the part that has led some people to suggest reopening schools is worth the risk : In the United States , less than 2 percent of recorded Covid-19 cases have been confirmed among children .
Researchers in China found that susceptibility to the virus seemed to increase with age , meaning kids may be less likely to get it even when they come into contact with the virus .
And they ’ re more likely to have mild or even no symptoms when they do have it .
( That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases : If kids don ’ t seem sick , they might not be tested . )
The younger the kids , the better they seem to fare against the virus .
Researchers believe the infection rate among younger children is lower because they have fewer ACE2 receptors , which they gain with age ; the virus uses these receptors like doorknobs to enter the body .
But research on Covid-19 is evolving .
And the latest research , in particular , is far less optimistic .
Last week , a study conducted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that symptomatic kids between the ages of 10 and 19 are just as likely to spread Covid-19 as adults .
Younger kids are about half as likely to spread the virus—but that ’ s not nothing .
It ’ s also important to note that this study took place during school closures , when kids are less likely to interact with others than adults who work at essential jobs , for instance .
The study also didn ’ t look at how much asymptomatic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could mean that even this study underestimates kids ’ ability to transmit the illness : Researchers studying Covid-19 in general , so far , have found that “ silent transmission ” from those who haven ’ t yet developed symptoms , or never do , seems to contribute to a “ majority ” of cases .
There ’ s evidence that even young children can spread the virus .
Cases at daycare centers are rising—including one in-home center where at least 16 children and adults were sickened while a parent and baby waited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came back positive .
So while healthy children are at lower risk for the virus , they ’ re not no-risk .
Long-term health issues , including neurological complications , are poorly understood—especially in children .
And even healthy children present a risk to others : to their peers , teachers , bus drivers , other school staff , and family members back home .
What parents and administrators alike want to know is whether there ’ s anything individual schools can do to mitigate that risk .
There is , researchers say—but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s not cheap , and in some areas , it ’ s impossible .
“ Whenever we ’ re talking about school reopening , we talk about it as kind of a monolith , ” Sara Johnson , an associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and co-director of the Hopkins Consortium for School-Based Health Solutions , told me .
But “ each school reopening is a totally different set of considerations , and even within districts , there ’ s a huge amount of variability.
” Megan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , agreed .
“ There ’ s no one-size-fits-all solution here .
There has to be the flexibility to adapt according to what different communities need.
” Johnson and Collins said they ’ d ask two main questions when it comes to reopening : What do transmission rates look like in a given school ’ s community , and what resources does the school have ?

At summer camps and in the South Korea study, teens have been at higher risk than younger kids, prompting some experts to recommend opening only elementary schools, not middle or high schools. That’s what some countries have done, with many precautions in place. On July 15, a panel of experts from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine recommended that schools open, where possible, for younger kids and those with special needs. Shayla R. Griffin, a researcher and educator based in Detroit, who works on issues of equity and inclusion, similarly suggested in a recent blog post that schools open only for those who need in-person classes the most—including younger students who struggle with online learning and those with special needs. These in-person classes could use empty middle and high school classrooms for greater distancing, with traditional district lines blurring based on need. While it is difficult to replace in-person instruction for any student, it is nearly impossible to replace in-person occupational therapy, social adaptive skills, and other interventions for children who need them.
“Many of the kids who are going to be unable to participate in in-person school, or who may have the most challenges in engaging in this hybrid model, are likely to be the same kids who are already potentially facing the biggest challenges in schools to begin with,” Johnson said. “The pandemic has really amplified, or has the potential to amplify, some of those disparities.” So while parents everywhere are eager for schools to reopen, shoring up resources for the children who are at the greatest risk for being disproportionately affected by this pandemic is an important part of the response, she said.
School districts still hoping to find a way around this problem by simultaneously preparing for all-online, all-in-person, and hybrid models are probably doing both teachers and students a disservice. “We have a month to do it. Don’t distract teachers by asking them to come up with three versions of plans when two of them are unlikely to be safe to implement,” Griffin wrote in her blog post. In any case, she argued, with teachers focused on keeping classrooms clean and getting students to wear masks and maintain a distance, it’s not clear students would actually learn more in-person than online.


newrepublic--2020-07-23--The Infernal Logic of Professional Sports in a Pandemic

“ Please don ’ t take me , ” said four-time Major League Baseball All-Star and Braves franchise first baseman Freddie Freeman , as he described to reporters the prayers he offered on his worst night of battling Covid-19 .
“ I wasn ’ t ready [ to die ] .
” The disclosure was as unexpected as it was raw .
Freeman , after all , was not required by MLB ’ s coronavirus rules to identify himself as a player who tested positive , let alone to discuss his experience with the virus .
These nondisclosure rules are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not in the League ’ s interest for a marquee player like Freeman to test positive for the virus , let alone detail his battle with Covid-19 , because MLB and its 30 aristocratic owners are both perpetuating and capitalizing on the unspoken secret of American sports : Fans are more likely to view the millionaire players as more entitled than the billionaire owners and , more significantly , have accepted that athletes dying for our entertainment is an occupational hazard .
How acceptable that risk of injury or death is to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of humanity but on a continuum of players ’ talent and value to the team .
On the occasion of MLB ’ s much-delayed and highly anticipated Opening Day , it ’ s time for us to reckon with American sports culture , the way we ’ ve normalized the risks that athletes incur for the sake of our entertainment and how the glorified Moneyballification of sports—in which wonky former McKinsey consultants build dream teams based on the way statistics dance on spreadsheets—have all contributed to dehumanizing players into commodifiable assets .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ innovation to this diabolical design , it ’ s the way this dehumanization now reaches down the organizational chart , drawing in “ players ” both on field and off , and of every asset class .
Call it “ Value Over Replacement Human , ” or VORH , which , in the dystopia that is 2020 , has emerged as the summer ’ s hottest statistic ; an Orwellian spin on Bill James ’ s Sabermetrics .
For years , Value Over Replacement Player , or VORP , has been a foundational @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a magic number revealing just how much hitters or pitchers contribute to their teams over replacement players who are either average or below average at any given position and at the plate .
As it has with so many other attitudes and systems undergirding the American way , the coronavirus pandemic has exposed how the confluence of sports society ’ s worst tendencies—from turning a blind eye to the traumatic brain injuries and deaths suffered by football players as a direct result of the sport to plotting athletes on an X–Y axis of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this moment .
At a time when more than 140,000 Americans have died and the virus is spreading uncontrollably , we as a nation are ready for these athletes to potentially risk their lives because of some unprovable need that we , as fans , have for pastimes .

“Please don’t take me,” said four-time Major League Baseball All-Star and Braves franchise first baseman Freddie Freeman, as he described to reporters the prayers he offered on his worst night of battling Covid-19. “I wasn’t ready [to die].”
The disclosure was as unexpected as it was raw. Freeman, after all, was not required by MLB’s coronavirus rules to identify himself as a player who tested positive, let alone to discuss his experience with the virus. These nondisclosure rules are underpinned by a ghoulish logic. It is not in the League’s interest for a marquee player like Freeman to test positive for the virus, let alone detail his battle with Covid-19, because MLB and its 30 aristocratic owners are both perpetuating and capitalizing on the unspoken secret of American sports: Fans are more likely to view the millionaire players as more entitled than the billionaire owners and, more significantly, have accepted that athletes dying for our entertainment is an occupational hazard. How acceptable that risk of injury or death is to fans exists not on a sliding scale of humanity but on a continuum of players’ talent and value to the team.


newrepublic--2020-07-23--Congress’s Steadfast and Stupefying Refusal to End Surprise Billing

Now everyone in Washington is pointing at each other , insisting that Americans need to be freed from the burdens of surprise billing , but no one seems to be willing to pull the trigger on a solution .
Congress remains paralyzed by very powerful interests who claim that the most important institutions in the health care industry in this country will collapse in a fiscal heap if they aren ’ t allowed to maintain the status quo—even though it is so stupid , inefficient , and dangerous for patients that hospitals routinely back down from their demands on those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ finds its way into a reporter ’ s story .
( Bear in mind , of course , that Congress ’ s half-hearted efforts have not included a measure to alleviate the burden of ambulance billing , which is the largest source of surprise costs . )
Despite all this disagreement , Politico reported that during last year ’ s battle over surprise billing , even opposing health care industry goons “ agreed insured patients shouldn ’ t receive high bills when they ’ re taken to the emergency room or inadvertently treated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ principle is universally held among all the stakeholders , the problem is that someone loses out on the deal if the matter is resolved , so there ’ s no incentive to be the first to budge .
It ’ s like that episode of Frasier where everyone agrees that someone needs to walk Eddie the dog on the day Martin returns to work , but no one wants to be the one who does it , ruining Martin ’ s big day .
Competing health care interests all seem to agree surprise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the lovable Seattle psychiatrist , they will never willingly agree to a fix unless they are legally compelled to do so .
This is why Congress exists : to mediate between the competing parties impartially .
Instead , one powerful Democratic committee chair , with the blessing of Chuck Schumer , continues to blow the whole thing up—all while industry cash conspicuously finds its way into his campaign coffers .
There are many ways this could be resolved fairly and equitably for patients .
Single-payer would be the ideal solution , but even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could set the prices through the government , as Medicare does .
Far less wide-reaching proposals were introduced during last year ’ s fight over surprise billing , like pegging prices to in-network rates .
The problem is not intractable ; the solutions might reduce hospital profits a tiny bit ( according to the Congressional Budget Office , by something like 1 percent of revenue over 10 years ) , but they ’ d come with the benefit of not saddling patients with disastrous bills .
Solving this dilemma isn ’ t difficult @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because lawmakers have decided that a solution that upsets providers must be avoided at all costs .
Influential research from Yale in 2017 found that most hospitals in the U.S. had almost no out-of-network emergency room bills .
But some hospitals—about 15 percent—were billing almost all E.R .
patients out of network , and most of those were run by one company , EmCare .
That means if you ’ re unlucky enough to live near one of these special Grift Clinics and need medical attention , you ’ re far more likely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
TeamHealth claimed in a letter to senators in December that engaging in balance billing is its “ only available source of contract negotiating leverage.
” What this demonstrates isn ’ t that surprise billing is necessary to the survival of hospitals .
It demonstrates that the entire system is very stupid .
The stupidity of the system isn ’ t limited to just these particular hospitals or one or two particularly scummy companies .
In fact , surprise billing is just the tip of the iceberg .
Any medical bill is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the result of a patient accidentally going to an out-of-network hospital or co-insurance incurred at an in-network hospital .
Patients should not have any involvement in paying for their care , because everyone needs health care , no one can really shop around for it or predict how much of it they will need , and freeing patients of these impossible consumer burdens is the only way to ensure that health care will be equally available and affordable to all .
Health care is a perfect example of something that is more efficient @ @ @ @ @ @ @ handle on our behalf .
It is completely insane to pay for health care by having a thousand different insurance plans pay literally millions of different prices , at the same hospital , and expect that to produce a fair market with rational prices , or a just health care system overall .
Over time , we ’ ve become inured to both the ridiculousness of this surreal scheme and the way that the lawmakers who might otherwise take the whip hand in creating a saner system of health care provision surrender to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debate over surprise billing has been a miniature example of the larger inertia .
Everyone in Washington agrees that surprise bills are terrible , but as soon as hospitals get a little shirty , the political will to do anything about it evaporates .
It ’ s a collective failure that seems poised to continue .
Unless , of course , it comes to pass that the lawmakers who are chiefly responsible for the impasse finally face some electoral consequences .
In the particular instance of Richard Neal , his primary opponent , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the incumbent hard on this issue .
Morse might yet prove that personally blowing up legislation to fix surprise bills could be the equivalent of walking around Boston ringing a bell and wearing a sandwich board that says “ I Am a Bum , Kick Me Out.
” Of course , Morse ’ s problem is that Neal ’ s campaign balance sheet is all the greener for having done so .
This is , of course , just one race , but it ’ s a microcosm of what needs to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health care crisis is to be resolved : Voters will have to decide whose money ought to speak the loudest—the health care industry ’ s , or their own .

Now everyone in Washington is pointing at each other, insisting that Americans need to be freed from the burdens of surprise billing, but no one seems to be willing to pull the trigger on a solution. Congress remains paralyzed by very powerful interests who claim that the most important institutions in the health care industry in this country will collapse in a fiscal heap if they aren’t allowed to maintain the status quo—even though it is so stupid, inefficient, and dangerous for patients that hospitals routinely back down from their demands on those rare occasions when an especially ridiculous bill finds its way into a reporter’s story. (Bear in mind, of course, that Congress’s half-hearted efforts have not included a measure to alleviate the burden of ambulance billing, which is the largest source of surprise costs.)
Despite all this disagreement, Politico reported that during last year’s battle over surprise billing, even opposing health care industry goons “agreed insured patients shouldn’t receive high bills when they’re taken to the emergency room or inadvertently treated out of network.” But while this principle is universally held among all the stakeholders, the problem is that someone loses out on the deal if the matter is resolved, so there’s no incentive to be the first to budge. It’s like that episode of Frasier where everyone agrees that someone needs to walk Eddie the dog on the day Martin returns to work, but no one wants to be the one who does it, ruining Martin’s big day. Competing health care interests all seem to agree surprise billing is a problem, but unlike the lovable Seattle psychiatrist, they will never willingly agree to a fix unless they are legally compelled to do so. This is why Congress exists: to mediate between the competing parties impartially. Instead, one powerful Democratic committee chair, with the blessing of Chuck Schumer, continues to blow the whole thing up—all while industry cash conspicuously finds its way into his campaign coffers.
There are many ways this could be resolved fairly and equitably for patients. Single-payer would be the ideal solution, but even without enacting Medicare for All, we could set the prices through the government, as Medicare does. Far less wide-reaching proposals were introduced during last year’s fight over surprise billing, like pegging prices to in-network rates. The problem is not intractable; the solutions might reduce hospital profits a tiny bit (according to the Congressional Budget Office, by something like 1 percent of revenue over 10 years), but they’d come with the benefit of not saddling patients with disastrous bills. Solving this dilemma isn’t difficult; it’s not getting solved because lawmakers have decided that a solution that upsets providers must be avoided at all costs.


newrepublic--2020-07-23--Rich Republican Nihilists Don’t Care If You Can’t Pay Rent

While the op-ed pages of The New York Times and Wall Street Journal , and apparently at least one dinner party at a million-dollar Brooklyn brownstone , are increasingly obsessed with the sharpening ideological divides among the public , people in the United States seem to agree often enough .
According to a recent Pew Research study , while Democrats are still likelier than Republicans to say they regularly wear masks while they ’ re out , an estimated 80 percent of Americans say they always or sometimes wear masks at stores and other public places .
Likewise , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has become a flashpoint of grievance for Trump , Betsy DeVos , and several Republican governors , who have called for schools to resume—a ghoulish rejection of public health recommendations that has prompted some teachers to draft wills .
Yet , a Reuters poll released last week found that three out of four parents said they thought it was unsafe for schools to reopen , and nearly half resolved to keep their kids at home if schools resumed in-person classes in the fall .
“ I ’ ve had a migraine every day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the stress and fear of all of this , ” Tameka Dumas , the mother of a high schooler in Mississippi , told Reuters .
In light of what seems to be a fairly widespread public consensus on best practices for weathering the coronavirus , the far more troubling divide , perhaps , is the one that exists between Americans and their representatives .
Congress , which reconvened at the start of this week , wasted no time in passing a massive defense spending bill to the tune of $ 740 billion but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ package .
While Democrats have advocated for an extension of the unemployment supplement , increased assistance to renters , and fiscal aid to cash-strapped state and local governments , their Republican colleagues have vowed to oppose all of it .
This , despite the fact that by several measures we ’ re in worse shape now than we were when the first stimulus was passed in March , and a growing number of economists , advocates , and commentators have warned that further inaction will guarantee wide-scale suffering .
At the same time @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alarm over the national deficit , with senators like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul vehemently objecting to more spending .
“ There is significant remorse over letting deficits rise by $ 9 trillion during the previous economic expansion , ” a Manhattan Institute spokesperson who consults for GOP Congress members told The Washington Post .
But the deficit , as it happens , is one classic example of how wildly the priorities of Congress diverge from those of their constituents .
To put it bluntly , almost no one in America cares about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of upper-class voters who hold undue sway over the policymaking process .
A few years ago , a study by a team of political scientists found that Congress ’ s disproportionate attention to the concerns of wealthy constituents—and the deficit in particular—came at the expense of the nation ’ s recovery from the Great Recession .
In the wake of that crash , while the middle and working-class people who were hit hardest expressed concerns about unemployment and the economy , upper-class voters and the various interest groups representing them worried instead about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ representatives ’ rush to curtail spending at the behest of upper-class interests prolonged the downturn .
“ Even while unemployment remained high and growth remained sluggish , the focus in Congress turned quickly to the deficit , resulting in large spending cuts to many domestic programs , which arguably slowed the pace of economic recovery , ” the researchers wrote .

In most cases, of course, the attention that members of Congress focus on the rich simply means looking after their own. As the Center for Responsive Politics noted in April, over half of all Congress members who filed earnings disclosures through 2018 were millionaires, with the richest among them a bipartisan bunch. At the time of filing, Republican Senator Rick Scott was worth $260 million; Virginia Democratic Senator Mark Warner was worth more than $214 million; Nancy Pelosi was worth around $115 million. Furthermore, according to Quartz’s Dan Kopf, the average member of Congress got richer in the years after the Great Recession, whereas the net worth of most American households dropped. It’s little wonder, then, that policymakers have been so disposed to handouts for the rich while also opposing funding for public programs.
Contrast the perpetual deficit fretting—which has started anew in the midst of an even more ruinous economic collapse—with Congress’s general response to the kind of debt that affects far more people. Student debt now totals over $1.6 trillion, and a poll conducted by The Hill last year indicated that a majority of the public, and 72 percent of Democrats, supported the idea of tuition-free college and the canceling of student debt. As journalists Alissa Quart, Astra Taylor, and Brittany M. Powell wrote earlier this month in The Guardian, it’s especially disheartening that so many of the same essential workers now putting their lives at risk struggle with enormous student loan burdens incurred while completing the training required for their jobs. “I think my education was worth it. I wake up every day with a sense of purpose,” medical doctor Susan John told The Guardian. “But I think the price is too high. It’s not just the dollar amount which adds to it. It’s also the price you pay in stress, and anxiety and depression.” Though there’s been some bipartisan interest in extending a freeze on student loan payments for the duration of the pandemic, there’s little momentum in Congress on the subject of debt forgiveness, even though a group of over 100 grassroots groups have called for such a measure and an estimated 63 percent of the public supports eliminating $20,000 of debt for all borrowers.
It’s probably not much of a surprise to anyone at this point that some constituents and their concerns are more equal than others in the eyes of our supposedly democratically elected officials. Yet a 2018 report in The New York Times revealed the astonishing extent to which members of Congress continue to completely misapprehend the interests and priorities of the people they’re meant to represent. According to a team of researchers who interviewed senior congressional staffers—that is, the people who regularly advise lawmakers on policy—representatives consistently and drastically underestimated their constituents’ support for government intervention on issues like climate change and background checks on gun purchases. On the other hand, while 70 percent of Americans in 2017 supported raising the minimum wage, congressional Republicans instead crafted and passed a deeply unpopular tax cut for the rich.


newrepublic--2020-07-23--There’s Never Been a Better Time to Be a White-Collar Criminal

Consumer fraud , like tax evasion , marks a key arena of malfeasance where further enforcement work would benefit the public good .
Indeed , a more significant commitment of criminal enforcement to consumer fraud would have even more obvious salutary effects than focusing on tax evasion , since the evidence suggests that Black people are likelier to file consumer fraud complaints .
But consumer fraud is all too easy , in a political sense , for law enforcement officials to ignore—the monetary losses totted up through such scams are staggering in the aggregate , but they are diffuse and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The FTC ’ s data showed that the median loss from fraud reported to the agency last year was just $ 320 .
That may seem like a small amount to many people—and particularly to the sorts of people ( like me ) who attend elite law schools and move on to become federal prosecutors .
But according to data released last year by the Federal Reserve , nearly 40 percent of households in the country would have been incapable of managing an unexpected expense of $ 400 or more without going into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ explained that racial and ethnic minorities of all educational backgrounds were “ even less able to handle a financial setback.
” Things are no doubt considerably worse as a result of the significant increase in unemployment this year , which has disproportionately affected Black and Latino workers .
The state of white-collar criminal enforcement is now in such disrepair that it will take years to recover , if it ever fully does .
Even if Joe Biden wins in November , it will take a serious commitment of attention and resources on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Department to try to reverse the damage .
The Biden campaign recently released more than 100 pages of recommendations from the “ unity task forces ” that were asked to find common ground between Biden ’ s supporters and those of Senator Bernie Sanders .
The document contains many laudable and detailed proposals concerning criminal justice reform—including use-of-force guidelines , police oversight reforms , and other measures to address discrimination in the criminal justice system .
But it does not contain anything specific to addressing white-collar crime , a sphere in which incarceration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There is , in fact , much that can and should be done—some of it relatively easy , and some of it requiring serious thought and long-term planning .
To begin with , internal Justice policies governing white-collar prosecutions need to be revised and in some cases entirely rolled back .
Enforcement priorities need to be closely reevaluated in order to ensure that the department is using its scarce resources optimally—and , ideally , in a manner that protects the interests of broad swathes of our society rather than well-to-do individuals and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government to do even more for them .
Then there ’ s the question of staffing decisions—a critical element in white-collar prosecutions .
Most political appointees will move on , but personnel decisions at the senior career level may also need to be revisited—without veering into political litmus tests—to ensure that hiring and promotions were justified by merit rather than political patronage or personal relationships and that political appointees have not “ burrowed ” into career positions .
Funding needs to be boosted in order to support the hiring of more prosecutors and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ investigations .
We must look closely at whether white-collar investigators and prosecutors represent the diversity of the economic constituencies that they are—or should be—protecting .
And the department should consider whether it can cost-effectively take functions in-house that it sometimes outsources—like data collection and analysis—so that American taxpayers are not paying needlessly high private sector rates .
We also need to take a good look at how best to maximize the jurisdictional reach of white-collar prosecutions .
We need to improve our international law enforcement partnerships to increase the speed and efficacy of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think creatively about how we can incentivize countries that drag their feet when asked to provide information or access to people within their borders to do more .
( One way to do this might be by boosting international aid contingent on countries that tend to slow-roll white-collar criminal inquiries showing measurable progress in these areas . )
Some searching discussion also needs to happen about how the stateside federal bureaucracy handles the rise of white-collar crime .
We should ensure greater coordination between the Justice Department and consumer protection agencies like the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
And more broadly , we need to consider whether federal law enforcement institutions , in their current form , are still adequate for the international economic system as it exists today—byzantine , fractured , and opaque .
The Justice Department is by no means the only agency that will require an incoming Biden administration to sift through the rubble of the Trump era .
But the public deserves a dramatic and long-term improvement in white-collar work at the Justice Department , and now is the time to start thinking hard about making @ @ @

How much of this reflects actual hostility to white-collar prosecution among senior officials—as opposed to inexperience or ineptitude—is an open question. It is widely known in legal circles that conservative lawyers now in private practice who may once have staffed the senior positions of a Republican Justice Department have been reluctant to join the Trump administration out of fear of becoming permanently tainted (a risk that, in addition, might harm their private sector earning potential). The result has been a conspicuous shortage of conservative-leaning talent—lawyers who wouldn’t stifle or mismanage white-collar enforcement efforts—coupled with the upward ladder-climbing of underqualified and occasionally inept career lawyers.
Some of the people now at the top of the Justice Department are comically unfit. Bill Hughes, one of the high-ranking officials overseeing the department’s work pursuing coronavirus-related misconduct, is an associate deputy attorney general who, according to his LinkedIn bio, came to his position from the White House barely a year ago, with no prior experience working at the Justice Department except for a summer internship as a law student nearly 15 years ago. He appeared at a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in June, but his answers to questions about the department’s pandemic response were vague and vacuous. At one point, a visibly annoyed Senator Dianne Feinstein pressed him about the department’s work pursuing perpetrators of consumer fraud, asking him in frustration, “What is being done to stop them—to arrest and convict?” Hughes told her that the department was “vigorously investigating and using the tools we have, both criminal and civil,” and proceeded to cite the possibility of obtaining forfeiture of fraudulent gains at the end of a successful criminal prosecution—a nonanswer to the question at hand that also betrayed a law-student-level understanding of criminal procedure.
I saw less egregious instances of these sorts of questionable appointments in my own day-to-day work. As some news reports have indicated, this occasionally resulted in me getting into professional disagreements with officials who had been mid-level managers during the Obama administration but had managed to get promoted under Trump. Before his ascension, for instance, Robert Zink, the current head of the Fraud Section, was best known for leading a high-profile prosecution of a trader at the Swiss bank UBS that resulted in the defendant’s acquittal in 2018—the sort of misstep that usually does not result in a promotion shortly thereafter. And Brian K. Kidd, the current head of the securities and financial fraud unit in that office, came to the position after serving as a prosecutor in Puerto Rico and in the public corruption division in Washington—best known for mishandling virtually every high-profile case it has pursued, including the failed prosecutions of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez. Kidd’s most notable achievement is having worked on one of the many corporate settlements during the Obama administration.


newrepublic--2020-07-24--The Limits of Mask Ordinances

The Limits of Mask Ordinances

Yet mask requirements don ’ t do much to address indoor transmission .
In D.C. , as in many areas where mask requirements have been imposed , restaurants and bars remain open .
Despite distance put between diners , a recent study from JPMorgan found that card expenses toward restaurant dining were “ particularly predictive ” of later virus spread .
While removing masks to eat , as the current D.C. order allows , makes logistical sense—science has come a long way , but we still haven ’ t figure out how to eat while keeping a mask on—it also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make indoor dining safe .
“ Six feet is good , obviously 10 feet is better , but if you ’ re around a lot of people , even if you ’ re within six feet you should still be wearing a mask , ” Saskia Popescu , a hospital epidemiologist and infection preventionist , told me .
When it comes to managing risks , she also recommends making decisions based on the environment you ’ re in .
“ Do you have airflow , do you have natural ventilation , how small @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is it an enclosed space with a lot of people—you look at how many people are in that environment with you and for how long.
” Airflow is a particularly complicated factor .
Many restaurants , offices , homes , schools , churches and other indoor spaces involve ventilation systems that recirculate at least part of the air .
In one case study of a restaurant in Guangzhou , China , a diner with no symptoms sat in front of an air-conditioning vent , which pushed viral particles through the air—more than six @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the vent ’ s path were fine .
“ If you can ’ t bring in higher rates of outdoor air , you want to increase the filtration of the air that is recirculated , ” Allen told me .
That can be done by installing high-quality filters in the existing HVAC systems , or by using portable HEPA filters in the rooms themselves .
But as of right now , local ordinances focused on mask-wearing don ’ t require that .
People who live , work or eat in buildings where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may never even know that they ’ re at higher risk .
“ Look , we know how this is spread , ” Popescu said .
“ People in close contact for prolonged periods of time , like household contacts—that ’ s the high-risk interaction that ’ s going to get people sick.
” While wearing a mask is important , the broader policy solutions that could help contain Covid-19 , though expensive , are well-known by now .
Investing in widely available and quick-turnaround tests and contact tracing is perhaps most important @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So is strengthening the social safety net with sick leave , safe housing , universal health care , unemployment , and other policies—all of which will help halt workplace transmission for people with Covid-19 .
Relying solely on masks to control the pandemic is more difficult for those who face discrimination because of their mask-wearing .
There have been accounts of racism against masked people of color , including a case in May where two Black men were escorted out of a Walmart by an armed guard because they were wearing masks .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ American Public Health Association , called it “ the masking-while-Black phenomenon.
” “ We tell everybody : wear a mask , ” he told me .
“ Of course , many African American men don ’ t want to wear a mask because they ’ re afraid of being profiled.
” Wearing a mask in a bank , for instance , seems particularly risky for many people—but especially people of color , Benjamin said .
There may also be racial disparities in how mask mandates are enforced , with people of color more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Joshua Santarpia , an associate professor of pathology and microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center , told me that he wishes people had more guidance from health officials on which materials are best for masks and how to wear them properly—including putting them on and taking them off without becoming infected in the process .
“ I really need , want , someone to come in and say , please , make your mask like this , do it like this , ” he said .
He recommended making different standard @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ We need better masks for people—better fitting , better quality , ” he said .

People who live, work, or eat in buildings where the air is recirculated but not well filtered may never even know that they’re at higher risk.
Yet mask requirements don’t do much to address indoor transmission. In D.C., as in many areas where mask requirements have been imposed, restaurants and bars remain open. Despite distance put between diners, a recent study from JPMorgan found that card expenses toward restaurant dining were “particularly predictive” of later virus spread. While removing masks to eat, as the current D.C. order allows, makes logistical sense—science has come a long way, but we still haven’t figured out how to eat while keeping a mask on—it also highlights how hard it actually is to make indoor dining safe.
“Six feet is good, obviously 10 feet is better, but if you’re around a lot of people, even if you’re within six feet, you should still be wearing a mask,” Saskia Popescu, a hospital epidemiologist and infection preventionist, told me. When it comes to managing risks, she also recommends making decisions based on the environment you’re in. “Do you have airflow, do you have natural ventilation, how small is the space? And then, is it an enclosed space with a lot of people—you look at how many people are in that environment with you and for how long.”
Airflow is a particularly complicated factor. Many restaurants, offices, homes, schools, churches, and other indoor spaces involve ventilation systems that recirculate at least part of the air. In one case study of a restaurant in Guangzhou, China, a diner with no symptoms sat in front of an air-conditioning vent, which pushed viral particles through the air—more than six feet—and sickened diners downwind. Those outside of the vent’s path were fine.


newrepublic--2020-07-24--What the Americans With Disabilities Act Has to Teach Today’s Protesters

In response to the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities ’ call for protests against Nixon ’ s refusal to enforce Section 504 , activists across America occupied federal buildings .
The most intense action came out of San Francisco , where Judy Heumann—by then the founder of Disabled in Action , advocating for the independent living movement—managed to keep 150 people , some with complicated medical needs , in residence at the city ’ s Health , Education , and Welfare offices , for 25 days in all .
But it was Lomax who organized for the Black Panthers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ central artery of care that kept the action strong .
It ’ s still the longest sit-in ever to take place at a federal building .
Califano eventually caved , in part because the 1977 television workers ’ labor strike meant that news coverage of the sit-in was reaching an unusually large television audience .
Chuck Jackson was Brad Lomax ’ s caretaker for his multiple sclerosis–related disabilities—the Times obit calls him an “ attendant.
” But he was a Black Panther , too , and he also provided personal care to several @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Of the three activists I ’ ve mentioned here , he ’ s by far the least widely known .
By contrast , Heumann is almost ( but not quite ) a star : She went on to become an adviser in the Clinton and Obama administrations and this year published an autobiography titled Being Heumann : An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist .
Lomax is somewhere in the middle , a giant in the history of coalitionary organizing tactics , whose legacy is only now reaching a new generation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Section 504 proved to be a crucial step toward the Americans With Disabilities Act : It recognized people with disabilities as a distinct minority group with particular interests and vulnerabilities .
It also overturned the archaic assumption that people with physical differences were somehow both excluded and exempt from the reality everybody else lived in : Not hiring a disabled person was now technically discrimination—not , as many at the time thought , merely a logical outcome .
These are tenets we take somewhat for granted in our legal system , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ echoing agendas of multiple advocacy groups that America ever got there .
The uneven distribution of celebrity between Heumann , Lomax , and Jackson is evidence of how poorly we recall even the most recent history , and partly the result of straightforward whitewashing .
As the disability rights consultant and founder of RampYourVoice Vilissa Thompson put it in 2016 when she created the hashtag # DisabilityTooWhite , “ [ T ] here is a lack of representation and diversity within the disability community from the organizations that are supposed to empower us @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woman on television is still a rare event .
Historians of activism , meanwhile , have argued that most accounts of 504 activism have neglected the role of Black power in its success , in a way that has marred our understanding of American social politics in the 1970s .
In his landmark 2010 article , “ Is disability studies actually white disability studies ?
” disabilities studies scholar Chris Bell further argued that this whitewashing is the result of the too-neat way history books slice up and present protest movements : Terms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while powerful in theory , can also obscure differences within the disabled experience .
The campaign for rights for disabled people has never been separate from Black Power or from feminism , as anybody who has taken care of another person ’ s intimate needs will know : It ’ s a subject that touches on all other subjects .
Everybody has a body .
The 1977 sit-in leveraged support from groups that opposed the war in Vietnam , those who wanted to modernize school buildings , and those who were fighting for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re all mortal and vulnerable to injury and change , after all , and disability is the one marginalized identity that all of us are likely to hold at some time during our lives , if only in babyhood or old age .
Crip Camp is one example of an effort among a number of academics and writers currently working to correct the whitewashed historical record of disability rights advocacy .
The ADA ’ s thirtieth anniversary this year comes at a troubling time .
The Act itself is more under threat than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ discrimination lawsuits from federal employees while grossly mismanaging the Covid-19 crisis , a health emergency guaranteed to cause long-term health problems in many thousands of Americans .
It ’ s a dark bookend to a term that , in its first summer ( three days after the twenty-sixth anniversary of the ADA ) , saw the sitting president of the United States perform a physical impression of a journalist with arthrogryposis , on camera , at one of his own rallies , to make his supporters laugh .
As large numbers of Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their fellow citizens in Portland , Oregon , this past week , it was Chuck Jackson I thought of .
On a daily level , his caretaking labor consisted of small actions , repeated many times , to facilitate his comrades ’ comfort .
It ’ s not headline-grabbing work , and Jackson is not one of the people at the center of Crip Camp .
Instead , he facilitated others .
Jackson ’ s commitment to physical justice is the luminous antithesis of Trump ’ s violent nationalism .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ equality is not only an idea , but a practice that scales from the smallest of interactions to the largest dreams we ’ re capable of dreaming .

In response to the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities’ call for protests against Nixon’s refusal to enforce Section 504, activists across America occupied federal buildings. The most intense action came out of San Francisco, where Judy Heumann—by then the founder of Disabled in Action, advocating for the independent living movement—managed to keep 150 people, some with complicated medical needs, in residence at the city’s Health, Education, and Welfare offices, for 25 days in all. But it was Lomax who organized for the Black Panthers to feed the group, providing a central artery of care that kept the action strong. It’s still the longest sit-in ever to take place at a federal building. Califano eventually caved, in part because the 1977 television workers’ labor strike meant that news coverage of the sit-in was reaching an unusually large television audience.
Chuck Jackson was Brad Lomax’s caretaker for his multiple sclerosis–related disabilities—the Times obit calls him an “attendant.” But he was a Black Panther, too, and he also provided personal care to several other people at the occupation besides Lomax. Of the three activists I’ve mentioned here, he’s by far the least widely known. By contrast, Heumann is almost (but not quite) a star: She went on to become an adviser in the Clinton and Obama administrations and this year published an autobiography titled Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist. Lomax is somewhere in the middle, a giant in the history of coalitionary organizing tactics, whose legacy is only now reaching a new generation, through films like Crip Camp.
Section 504 proved to be a crucial step toward the Americans With Disabilities Act: It recognized people with disabilities as a distinct minority group with particular interests and vulnerabilities. It also overturned the archaic assumption that people with physical differences were somehow both excluded and exempt from the reality everybody else lived in: Not hiring a disabled person was now technically discrimination—not, as many at the time thought, merely a logical outcome. These are tenets we take somewhat for granted in our legal system, but it was only through the mutual support and echoing agendas of multiple advocacy groups that America ever got there.


newrepublic--2020-07-24--How Taxpayer Dollars May Have Bought a Kurdish Strongman’s Beverly Hills Mansions

Tracing the Kurdish fuel deals leads to a Virginia-based logistics company , DGCI .
For at least half a decade , DGCI has been the Pentagon ’ s go-to fuel provider in Kurdistan and has been dogged by questions about its connections to Kurdish politicians .
Most recently , DGCI was contracted by the U.S. military to deliver wildly overpriced jet fuel , at rates as high as $ 10 a gallon , to an American base at the international airport in Erbil , Kurdistan ’ s capital .
The Erbil airport is a key staging point for fuel deliveries @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s continued involvement in that country ’ s civil war .
On the strength of such deals , DGCI ’ s annual revenue rose from $ 2 million in 2015 to about $ 150 million in 2017 .
That year , it was the fastest-growing corporation in the state of Virginia and No .
20 in the nation , “ with three-year revenue growth of 10,999 percent , ” according to a 2017 Virginia Business article .
This kind of stratospheric growth isn ’ t normal , particularly for a firm that only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It ’ s not like DGCI invented the iPhone .
A Kurdish government–backed concession , rather than business genius , explains the windfall .
“ [ DGCI ] is the only contractor known to have successfully delivered gasoline and diesel fuel ” to the Erbil airport , said a 2015 Pentagon justification letter , the first of many such letters , which awarded exclusive contracts to the company without “ full and open competition.
” In December 2019 , the DOD attempted to award fuel contracts to two other logistics companies , Varec @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prevented the other companies from making deliveries , and the Pentagon ended up purchasing fuel from DGCI at even higher prices .
Repeated requests for comment from Varec , Strategic Social , and DCGI went unanswered .
Instead , DCGI officials have warned employees not to speak to reporters about allegations surrounding the company ’ s business .
When I sent follow-up inquiries to company officials from my work email , they were bounced back by the server .
In Kurdistan , monopolies happen because you have power or pay off those who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kurdish conglomerate called Zozik Group ; together , they share ownership of a subsidiary called Triple Arrow .
Zozik , which did not respond to my requests for comment , has faced long-standing allegations that it ’ s a channel for bribes to PUK officials , as detailed in the earlier New Republic investigation .
But PUK connections alone don ’ t explain DGCI ’ s overpriced deliveries to Erbil , which is outside the party ’ s primary territory .
Even early in the U.S. occupation of Iraq , State Department officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ centers more on the Barzani clan , ” according to diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks .
In Erbil , “ the Barzanis have to have at least half of the shares of big businesses , ” said Abdulla Hawez , a Kurdish journalist and researcher .
Sources said that Zozik and DGCI cooperated with companies linked to Barzani ’ s Kurdistan Democratic Party bloc in order to deliver fuel to the U.S. government .

In Kurdistan, monopolies happen because you have power or pay off those who do. DGCI is paired with a Kurdish conglomerate called Zozik Group; together, they share ownership of a subsidiary called Triple Arrow. Zozik, which did not respond to my requests for comment, has faced long-standing allegations that it’s a channel for bribes to PUK officials, as detailed in the earlier New Republic investigation.
But PUK connections alone don’t explain DGCI’s overpriced deliveries to Erbil, which is outside the party’s primary territory. Even early in the U.S. occupation of Iraq, State Department officials conceded internally that corruption in Erbil “centers more on the Barzani clan,” according to diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks. In Erbil, “the Barzanis have to have at least half of the shares of big businesses,” said Abdulla Hawez, a Kurdish journalist and researcher. Sources said that Zozik and DGCI cooperated with companies linked to Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party bloc in order to deliver fuel to the U.S. government.
Identifying the details of each participating shell company, along with the relationships between participating political factions and proxy owners, is complicated and requires incredible attention to detail to even partially unravel. Sources identified a massive network of companies and political leaders designed to grease rails in Erbil, Baghdad, and Syria. Within the network, there is infighting between different factions and companies, and affiliations can change. But leaked Kurdish government documents make one thing clear: The Barzanis are major players.


newrepublic--2020-07-24--Trump’s Greatest Liability Is His Own Incumbency

Then the pandemic and the protests upended Trump ’ s case for re-election .
Boasting about a 2017 tax-cut package or a rising stock market is unlikely to sway most of the millions of voters who ’ ve lost their jobs in recent months or known someone who died from COVID-19 .
This perhaps explains why polls show Trump losing considerable ground among voters on economic issues .
A Washington Post-ABC News survey released this week found that he and Biden are effectively tied among voters when it comes to trust in their economic policies .
Those numbers may grow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fails to extend or supplement federal relief measures that are set to expire at the month ’ s end .
Without a positive message to draw upon , Trump is pouring all of his energy into painting Biden as a cognitively impaired figurehead of a far-left movement that wants to abolish cops and suburbs .
White grievance politics helped Trump secure victory in 2016 , so it ’ s understandable that he hopes to harness them again in 2020 .
“ I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ police : When I take the oath of office next year , I will restore law and order to our country , ” he said when accepting the nomination speech four years ago .
“ I will work with , and appoint , the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the country to get the job properly done .
In this race for the White House , I am the law and order candidate.
” This theme took him all the way to his inaugural address , which struck an unusually divisive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ But for too many of our citizens , a different reality exists : Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities ; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation ; an education system , flush with cash , but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge ; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential , ” Trump said .
“ This American carnage stops right here and stops @ @ @ @ @ @ @ multiple shortcomings in 2020 .
First , it ’ s a wildly inaccurate description of Biden ’ s policy stances .
Second , Biden is perhaps the least convincing avatar of a purported leftist plot to destroy white America that Democrats could have put forth .
( Discussions of Biden ’ s cognitive state have also , thus far , largely revived debates around Trump ’ s own mental faculties instead . )
Third , it ’ s hard to claim a law-and-order mantle when you ’ re granting clemency to former aides @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and overseeing a Justice Department that corruptly protects the White House ’ s friends from consequences .
Perhaps most importantly , however , it ’ s impossible for Trump to claim the dogwhistle meaning of “ law-and-order politics ” while Fox News is broadcasting wall-to-wall coverage of riots in major American cities .
Media Matters for America ’ s Matt Gertz noted earlier this week that the president and his favorite news network appear to be locked in a strange feedback loop , where footage of protests on Fox inspires Trump to launch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ footage of protests .
The subconscious goal by both the president and the network is to attribute this violence to the cities ’ Democratic leaders , as if to say that Trump is all that stands between the mob and his voters .
This dynamic is dangerous for Americans on its own terms .
I also suspect that this feedback loop is more harmful than helpful for the president himself .
His first campaign took place amid an earlier wave of public reckoning with police violence and systemic racism .
Trump pitched himself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and to reverse the gains and achievements made by the nation ’ s first black president .
To some extent , he succeeded .
Colin Kaepernick lost his job .
The Justice Department under Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr largely abandoned police reform .
Rush Limbaugh , the archfoe of political correctness , received the Presidential Medal of Freedom during the State of the Union address .
A more competent leader would have taken steps to confront these various challenges : by wielding the federal government ’ s full power and influence to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to approve more consistent direct aid to Americans to offset the economic damage , and by trying to address the nation ’ s racial inequities , if only superficially .
Instead , Trump undermined the national pandemic response and took a sluggish approach to economic assistance for struggling Americans .
Perhaps the defining moment of his response to last month ’ s civil unrest was his retreat to an underground bunker while protesters gathered outside the White House .
A Trump voter who expected him to maintain America ’ s racial status quo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Ironically , what was once Trump ’ s greatest political victory might turn out to be a curse .
During the impeachment proceedings in January and February , Trump and his allies told the Republican-led Senate that removing him from office would be tantamount to deciding the upcoming November election .
I noted at the time that in past impeachment proceedings , removal from office and disqualification from office were decided in two separate votes .
In theory , twenty Republican senators could have voted to convict and remove Trump from office @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from holding it again .
Trump would still have been free to run for re-election , leaving the final judgment on his political fate to the American people .

Then the pandemic and the protests upended Trump’s case for reelection. Boasting about a 2017 tax-cut package or a rising stock market is unlikely to sway most of the millions of voters who’ve lost their jobs in recent months or know someone who died from Covid-19. This perhaps explains why polls show Trump losing considerable ground among voters on economic issues. A Washington Post-ABC News survey released this week found that he and Biden are effectively tied among voters when it comes to trust in their economic policies. Those numbers may grow even worse for the president if Congress fails to extend or supplement federal relief measures that are set to expire at the month’s end.
Without a positive message to draw upon, Trump is pouring all of his energy into painting Biden as a cognitively impaired figurehead of a far-left movement that wants to abolish cops and suburbs. White grievance politics helped Trump secure victory in 2016, so it’s understandable that he hopes to harness them again in 2020. “I have a message to every last person threatening the peace on our streets and the safety of our police: When I take the oath of office next year, I will restore law and order to our country,” he said when accepting the nomination speech four years ago. “I will work with, and appoint, the best prosecutors and law enforcement officials in the country to get the job properly done. In this race for the White House, I am the law and order candidate.”
This theme took him all the way to his inaugural address, which struck an unusually divisive and negative tone for the occasion. “But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential,” Trump said. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”


newrepublic--2020-07-24--The Problem With Putinology

The Problem With Putinology

Belton capably chronicles the ensuing two decades of Putin ’ s rule , a tale of authoritarianism gradually consolidated .
There were the “ liberal-seeming economic reforms of Putin ’ s first term ” buoyed by rising oil prices , a recovery from the 1998 financial crisis and the growth of a Russian middle class .
The reforms were liberal-seeming because , while Putin was implementing them , he was also maneuvering to bring most of the Russian news media under state control and to eliminate the independence of oligarchs , who had acquired massive wealth and considerable political power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a “ social contract ” and an “ unwritten pact ” in which Putin gave Russians order and economic opportunity , while Russians gave him increasingly unconstrained power .
With the power he gained , the true colors of Putinism began to show .
Here Belton retraces the analysis of Timothy Snyder ( in The Road to Unfreedom ) , Brian Taylor ( in The Code of Putinism ) , and others , who regard Putin as a post-modern fascist or as a post-modern Tsar .
After 2004 , a reelected Putin added @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a coterie of White Russian nationalists , and “ relying on the writings of Russia ’ s imperial Orthodox past , [ he ] set a path that subverted what remained of the country ’ s democracy , and sought to unite the country by pitting it against the West.
” He had cobbled together an ideology that would serve the security state better than the discredited husk of communism or the straitjacket of Western-style liberalism .
Belton prefers the word feudalism , “ a feudal system , ” to fascism .
Yet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vintage— “ the country [ under Putin ] was going back to the times of the gulag , ” she declares—as well as a feudalism that relies upon modern finance .
Putin has merged feudalism with “ crony state capitalism.
” His Christian piety is false , Belton is sure , though his imperialism real .
But Russia ’ s governing ideology is most cogently a smokescreen for extracting the nation ’ s wealth , much of which is earned by selling gas and oil to the West and much of which is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ holdings .
Thus are feudalism and crony capitalism the tributaries of kleptocracy , a form of government diagnosed in detail by the political scientist , Karen Dawisha , in her 2014 book , Putin ’ s Kleptocracy : Who Owns Russia ?
Putin ’ s People has a spectacular denouement .
A West that had once naively expected Russia to adopt its model of political economy stood by passively while Putin lured it into adopting Russia ’ s model of political economy .
The Russian empire that Putin conjured from the ravings of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Ukraine first .
In Putin ’ s regime , “ the pursuit of empire was becoming all-consuming , ” Belton writes of Russia in the second decade of the twenty-first century .
When Russia was unable to control Ukraine informally , Moscow chose to assert itself by annexing Crimea and launching a war in Eastern Ukraine .
The conflict with the West entered a new phase in 2014 .
Having split Ukraine , an imperialist Kremlin “ found especially fertile ground [ for influence and control ] in Eastern Europe.
” Then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back again by bending European and American leaders to its purpose .
Putin and his cronies , Belton avers , “ had accurately calculated that , for the West , money would outweigh all other concerns.
” A craven West let itself be seduced by Russia ’ s illicit wealth , whether in “ Londongrad ” —a London awash in illegally obtained Russian money—or on the European continent .
Belton identifies Silvio Berlusconi , Matteo Salvini , Gerhard Schroeder , and the Czech Republic ’ s Milos Zeman as politicians in Putin ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Dana Rohrbacher and Rand Paul developed Russian connections , becoming witting or unwitting catalysts in a Russian strategy “ to undermine Western democracies ” that had its origins in the very break-up of the Soviet Union .
At long last , the KGB , only half vanquished in 1991 , could exact its revenge .
For Belton , proof of a Russia triumphant is President Donald Trump .
Trump first went to Moscow in 1987 , and loved it .
At a professional low point in 2003 , with most Western banks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as various Russia-connected figures poured money into his properties and business ventures , from Panama City to Florida to Baku to SoHo .
Belton interprets Russia ’ s 2016 support for Trump as an effort to compromise him , earning Trump ’ s “ deference to Putin and his circle ” once Trump became president .
She places Trump ’ s decision to “ withdraw US troops from Syria ” not in the context of Trump ’ s appeal to war-weary middle America , but in the context of a KGB-style Russian influence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ suited Russian and not American interests .
In Putin ’ s People , all roads lead back to the Kremlin—even when equally or more plausible explanations are left untouched .
Belton makes two significant contributions in Putin ’ s People .
She demonstrates the foreign-policy consequences of corruption , of a shadow world of laundered money , organized ( and at times disorganized ) crime , and influence peddling or influence purchasing at high levels of government .
Corruption is a terrible vulnerability : all intelligence services trade in it .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ footnotes and loopholes , with no shortage of politicians whose actions could be guided by non-Western manipulators .
Belton is right to depict the West as a landscape in which Russian intelligence has much to work with ; she is right to sound the alarm .
In addition , Belton provides a useful portrait of a particular political generation in Russia .
For this generation , the pivotal dichotomy was not communist versus dissident , nationalist versus reformer or liberal versus conservative ( whatever these words mean in Russian politics ) .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1980s and 1990s versus those who did not .
Many of Putin ’ s KGB cronies in Leningrad/Saint Petersburg have risen to high office .
They run the country , and the lessons they learned from 1989 were not the lessons Frances Fukuyama , Bill Clinton , and Barack Obama learned from 1989 .
Putin ’ s people do not want Western-style liberal democracy to fail , rather they sincerely believe it was failed and false to begin with .

Useful in understanding Putin’s rise to power, Putin’s People is also an impediment to understanding much else about the country that he rules.
Belton capably chronicles the ensuing two decades of Putin’s rule, a tale of authoritarianism gradually consolidated. There were the “liberal-seeming economic reforms of Putin’s first term” buoyed by rising oil prices, a recovery from the 1998 financial crisis, and the growth of a Russian middle class. The reforms were liberal-seeming because, while Putin was implementing them, he was also maneuvering to bring most of the Russian news media under state control and to eliminate the independence of oligarchs, who had acquired massive wealth and considerable political power in the 1990s. Belton refers to a “social contract” and an “unwritten pact,” in which Putin gave Russians order and economic opportunity, while Russians gave him increasingly unconstrained power.
With the power he gained, the true colors of Putinism began to show. Here Belton retraces the analysis of Timothy Snyder (in The Road to Unfreedom), Brian Taylor (in The Code of Putinism), and others, who regard Putin as a postmodern fascist or as a postmodern Tsar. After 2004, a reelected Putin added to his inner circles of KGB associates a coterie of White Russian nationalists, and “relying on the writings of Russia’s imperial Orthodox past, [he] set a path that subverted what remained of the country’s democracy, and sought to unite the country by pitting it against the West.” He had cobbled together an ideology that would serve the security state better than the discredited husk of communism or the straitjacket of Western-style liberalism.
Belton prefers the word feudalism, “a feudal system,” to fascism. Yet it is both a feudalism of Soviet vintage—“the country [under Putin] was going back to the times of the gulag,” she declares—as well as a feudalism that relies upon modern finance. Putin has merged feudalism with “crony state capitalism.” His Christian piety is false, Belton is sure, though his imperialism real. But Russia’s governing ideology is most cogently a smoke screen for extracting the nation’s wealth, much of which is earned by selling gas and oil to the West, and much of which is squirreled away in Western banks and real estate holdings. Thus are feudalism and crony capitalism the tributaries of kleptocracy, a form of government diagnosed in detail by the political scientist Karen Dawisha, in her 2014 book, Putin’s Kleptocracy: Who Owns Russia?


newrepublic--2020-07-24--Trump and the GOP Are About to Push the Economy off a Cliff

The unemployment provision in March ’ s Cares Act that granted laid-off workers an additional $ 600 a week is set to expire in one week .
With tens of millions unemployed , this is a looming catastrophe .
For the last four months , these payments have staved off a maelstrom of economic woe by serving as a badly needed lifeline , allowing many to feed their families and pay mortgages and rents .
And yet , as this expiration date grew nearer , President Trump and many of his closest advisers continued to insist on using the president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the situation : a payroll tax cut .
Trump ’ s obsession with payroll tax cuts is the economic equivalent of his yen for pitching hydroxychloroquine : All of the available evidence suggests that it won ’ t work , but he clings to the notion with a naïve faith , all the same .
Even though it has been obvious for some time that passing such a cut was politically impossible—it couldn ’ t even muster the necessary number of votes in the Republican-held Senate , let alone the Democratic House—he only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told Republicans , I said I think a payroll tax would be good , but we ’ re not going to get it from Democrats , ” he said .
“ So you still need Democrat votes .
I would like to see it , but if we ’ re not going to get their votes , I guess we have to go on to the next thing.
” Trump and the GOP should have been going on to the next thing months ago .
Instead , with a week left , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Depression .
This all says quite a bit about the bankruptcy of the Republican Party ’ s economic dogmas and the persistence with which they are hewed to—and the extent to which Trump , once touted as a clean break from party orthodoxy , is inexorably lashed to them .
The big problem with a payroll tax cut is obvious : It only benefits people who pay payroll taxes .
“ If you don ’ t have a job , you ’ re not paying payroll tax .
So , eliminating the payroll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money in your pocket , ” The Washington Post ’ s Allan Sloan wrote .
Given that the biggest and most persistent economic problem at the moment is the high unemployment rate—at least 25 million people are unemployed , more than one in 10 adults—this is clearly not a workable solution .
Trump and his cohort have trumpeted the measure as a tax break for hardworking Americans at a time when many hardworking Americans have been displaced from their jobs through no fault of their own .
A payroll tax cut fails both @ @ @ @ @ @ @ means of getting people back into jobs .
It would , however , be of great benefit to the wealthy .
“ A payroll tax cut is going to provide more benefits to high-income people who don ’ t really need help right now , ” Steve Wamhoff , director for federal policy at the Institution on Taxation and Economic Policy , told CNBC this spring .

Given the impracticality and general lack of sense behind doing a massive payroll tax at this juncture, it’s not surprising that economic advisers Stephen Moore and Larry Kudlow, two of the most consistently wrong figures in political and economic discourse, are standing behind the idea. Both are disciples of Art Laffer, the largely discredited architect of supply-side economics who has, nevertheless, become a guru for the Trump administration. While many believed that Trump, something of a political tabula rasa in 2016, would deviate from these Republican doctrines, he has instead dutifully promoted them, advocating for impractical, deficit-busting tax cuts that disproportionately help the wealthy at every opportunity. Even with the economy in a tailspin, Trump and his advisers have clung to these discredited ideas.
They are aided by Republicans in Congress, particularly the Senate. Many claim to worry that the large unemployment insurance payments are disincentivizing people from seeking work; there is little evidence at hand to suggest this is true. There are growing signs that the actions of Republicans are being driven by ideological concerns, rather than economic worries. Continuing these unemployment payments would, in theory, be the obvious thing to do from a political, as well as economic, perspective: Trump and Republicans could run on their efforts to save the economy and point to the extra money on the campaign trail. Instead, in Congress, there are efforts to cut the payments, in some cases significantly, while many are beginning to raise concerns about the ballooning deficit. This, despite the fact that the massive corporate tax cut passed by Republicans and signed into law by President Trump has played an outsize role in the growth of that deficit. Republicans have apparently decided that it would be better to leave a big mess for Joe Biden, the prohibitive favorite to become president in November, than to do something to stave off calamity.
Moore and Kudlow have their own brands to protect. For these die-hard supply-siders, admitting failure is never an option. They have the same solution to every problem, now and forever. Talking to reporters on Friday, Moore said that he thought abandoning the payroll tax cut could cost the president the election. It was an absurd claim given everything else (economic collapse, global pandemic, widespread incompetence) that’s going on, but it was nevertheless pitched perfectly for the Fox Business Channel Cinematic Universe. Moore and Kudlow aren’t really economists, after all—they just play them on TV.


newrepublic--2020-07-24--What $600 Can Do

What $600 Can Do

Despite early promises from the president of a swift economic bounce back from the pandemic , the Labor Department ’ s jobs report on Thursday estimated that more than 31 million people were claiming unemployment benefits .
At the same time , the unemployment insurance benefit established in March ’ s stimulus bill—which grants laid-off workers an additional $ 600 each week—is set to expire at the end of the month .
As Congress continues to debate the terms of a new stimulus package , Republicans are attempting to scrap or drastically lower that benefit against the recommendations of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sense and decency ) .
With the end date for that much-needed unemployment assistance quickly approaching , we asked several laid-off workers across different industries , many in the states hit hardest by the pandemic , to explain how they ’ ve navigated the unemployment system , what the $ 600 supplement has meant during a public health crisis , and how they see their jobs changing in the future .
The extra $ 600 actually gave me chances I never had before .
I was able to pay off some of my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 8- $ 9 hourly , and I was just getting by on that .
I wish I could find a job that pays over $ 11 , but it ’ s hard .
It also allowed me to not return to a job in the service industry I had to travel by two trains and a bus to get to , plus the fact that cases here were still high when my job reopened .
I knew the $ 600 would end sooner or later , but finding work has been difficult .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ before everything happened .
Covid took that away from me .

I’m staying with my parents, and with the Covid unemployment supplement about to end, I’ve decided to let go of my apartment in New York. Whatever money I have in my bank account has to last me until I feel safe enough to go back to work, and I don’t know when that will be. I’m worried about how long I’ll be able to survive and how much I’ll have to financially lean on the people around me to get by. People are having to put their lives at risk in order to keep businesses going, and I don’t think it’s safe. I mean, if I felt like it was safe, I would be back at work.
Kayla, 21, Minnesota
“In the announcement of their plans to open, they told us they couldn’t guarantee PPE for workers, and, most damning to me, they wouldn’t require masks for customers.”
The $600 let me not go back to a job in the tourism industry where they were not taking proper steps to protect us, even after employees co-signed on a letter of grievance. In the announcement of their plans to open, they told us they couldn’t guarantee PPE for workers, and, most damning to me, they wouldn’t require masks for customers. This is a cruise boat with windows that can’t open and one open-air deck. It would be close quarters, even with social distance. Every day, I see their boats go out full of people, and I feel so, so grateful I was able to leave thanks to the $600.


newrepublic--2020-07-27--It Was Insane to Restart Sports in America

For the sports-deprived American discontent with watching Premier League games , last week was something of a reprieve : The National Basketball Association , ensconced in its Orlando bubble , began running scrimmages between 22 invited teams .
The National Women ’ s Soccer League crowned a champion .
And Major League Baseball kicked off its 60-game sprint of a regular season .
Sports were back !
Then , on Sunday , as the Miami Marlins wrapped a three-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies , news broke that at least four players had tested positive for Covid-19 prior to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ starting pitcher .
Despite this , and a report that one player had tested positive as early as Friday , Miami manager Don Mattingly said the team “ never really considered not playing ” Sunday ’ s game—a decision they reportedly reached via group text message .
By Monday morning , ESPN ’ s Jeff Passan reported that two coaches and 11 Marlins players—a full third of the team—tested positive .
As a result of the outbreak , Miami ’ s home-opener against the Baltimore Orioles was canceled , as was the Phillies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yankees .
This was inevitable .
It didn ’ t have to play out at this level of stupidity and danger , but spreading the virus was built in from the start .
There is just no way to safely facilitate the amount of travel that a 30-team league like the MLB requires .
Mindlessly listening to the familiar noises of an afternoon game might be a nice relief from the past few months of silence—even being able to watch shitty YouTube highlights of half-hearted NBA scrimmages has been amazing , honestly—but that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The MLB ’ s abridged regular season and the Marlins ’ outbreak were both preceded by months of hostile negotiations between team owners and the MLB Players Association .
During the negotiations—which chiefly concerned how much players ’ salaries would be reduced and how long the season would be—team owners and commissioner Rob Manfred tried to publicly cast the union as the enemy of the people—the force standing in the way of bringing “ baseball back to our fans.
” After that routine flopped , the owners finally conceded in late June to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to in March : They would be able to set the length of the season , provided the players were compensated with full prorated versions of their original contracts .
The 2020 MLB season was finally back on , only to slowly collapse a month later .
In response to the Marlins fallout , some sportswriters pointed to the NBA and its Florida bubble as the sensible , ideal alternative : Rather than resume the season with the logistical nightmare of everyday travel , the association opted to bring a limited number of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to play in a series of scrimmages and a brief number of regular season games before proceeding with a full-scale version of the playoffs .
Staff and team members , and a handful of reporters , are locked down in Orlando , at the Disney-owned compound , not allowed to leave save for family emergencies .

Beyond the creepiness of the bubble concept, the NBA experiment is also taking place in Florida, a national and global hot spot for the virus. And while players are not supposed to leave the bubble, essential workers are walking to its borders every day as players look for delivery options outside of room service. Adding to this disruption of the so-called bubble is the fact that of the few emergency departures that have already taken place—league star and New Orleans Pelicans rookie Zion Williamson, for instance, had to leave the bubble for an undisclosed family matter—at least one seems to have included a pitstop. Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams recently left the bubble to attend the funeral of a close family friend. During that same trip, a picture of Williams wearing a face mask at an Atlanta nightclub was posted on Instagram by rapper Jack Harlow. (Harlow, who was also wearing a mask, quickly deleted the picture and then hilariously lied about his slip-up in another since-deleted post, explaining, “That was an old pic of me and Lou. I was just reminiscing cuz I miss him.”)
There is, in other words, no good way to restart professional sports in a pandemic. Trying to do it anyway is stupid, selfish, and dangerous. Travel heightens the risk for all involved, and there is no bubble airtight enough. Both versions are ultimately in the pursuit of the same thing—large sums of precious television ad dollars—and the owners behind both leagues are willing to do whatever it takes to get those ad dollars into their pockets.
These owners are the same people whose wealth is dependent on a healthy stock market, workers be damned. So it should not register as a shock that, despite all available evidence that now is decidedly not a good moment for large groups of players to share a locker room or a hotel or an airplane or a bubble community, the people in charge wanted to do it anyway.


newrepublic--2020-07-27--The Lincoln Project Doesn’t Matter

The Lincoln Project Doesn’t Matter

Many have argued that the Project should be understood as an even more ambitious effort to repair the moral standing of the Republican Party and the conservative movement in general .
“ The more that liberals refuse to hold right-wing operatives like the Lincoln Project brain trust accountable for their past behavior and contribution to the current state of conservatism in America , ” the progressive writer Eoin Higgins recently wrote , “ the more we will see the rehabilitation of such ghouls as an ongoing scheme by conservatives to push the Overton window even further right and assume the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this week , The Washington Post ’ s Greg Sargent repeatedly prodded John Weaver , who oversaw John McCain ’ s 2000 presidential bid , on this question—whether the Project rejects not just Trump but Republican politics and policy as we ’ ve come to know them .
In response , Weaver pointed out that the Project is also working to defeat certain Republican candidates down ballot and spoke vaguely about the need to move beyond “ trickle-down economics.
” But when asked specifically whether the Project would continue supporting Biden if elected—whether @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drum up support for new taxes on the rich to fund a coronavirus recovery bill—Weaver hedged .
“ Weaver said he couldn ’ t directly address this until he saw specifics , ” Sargent wrote , “ but said : ‘ We ’ ll be generally supportive of trying to get this country moving forward.
’ ” This reply shouldn ’ t have surprised .
Whether they say so straightforwardly or not , the conservatives of the Lincoln Project will not generally be supportive of progressive policy .
And this has troubled some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ broader NeverTrump camp of moderate Republicans could hold political sway postelection .
“ If Biden wins , organizations like the Lincoln Project will have newfound influence and options , ” Columbia political analyst Lincoln Mitchell recently wrote for CNN .
“ They will be well positioned to be a conservative counter to the progressives who would like to see a President Biden tack left once elected.
” But there ’ s something profoundly odd about the notion that moderate Republicans might exert a “ newfound ” influence on Democrats under Biden .
Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four Republicans whom President Obama either appointed or retained , including two Republican secretaries of defense .
Republicans in Congress ensured that Democratic policy would reflect the right ’ s premises on public spending , debt , and the size and role of government .
They were able to do so because Democrats in general sought Republican input and because Democratic moderates and conservatives , representing moderate and conservative constituencies , either agreed with them or were unwilling to overrule them , even when the party presumably could have , with its legislative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the right under Obama were the product not only of Obama ’ s particular political disposition but the conciliatory disposition of the Democratic Party as a whole , which survives today even though the party has recently been pulled left on a variety of policy issues .
Biden has promised to seek common ground with Republicans proudly and repeatedly—although it should be said that he has , in recent weeks , finally started to signal an awareness that Republicans aren ’ t going to be eager to support his policy agenda .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic leaders , including those who acknowledge that measures like eliminating the legislative filibuster will be necessary to enact many Democratic priorities , profess a commitment to bipartisanship as a general value and are invested in the rhetoric of national reconciliation .
Given this , procedural reforms under Biden that weaken Republicans might be seen even by non-Republicans as divisive opportunism—an impression that could politically damage Biden and Democrats .
Granted , that would be a better problem to face than the one they now have , which is that pivotal moderate Democrats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the first place .
The Lincoln Project ’ s critics on the left are correct about the GOP .
The Republican Party is a purely malignant force in American politics and American life .
It has no positive contributions to make , its major policies are not supported by the majority of the American public , and it would not be as powerful or as radical as it is were it not for the advantages the design of the federal government grants to conservatives .
Those advantages , left in place , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most significant problems as a country and society , including an environmental crisis that threatens all civilization .
Much of what ails us can not be fixed without structurally disempowering the GOP as an institution—its incapacitation is the only plausible and morally defensible remedy to polarization and partisan gridlock we have .
Many progressives now take all these things for granted .
But the leaders of the Democratic Party , the political press , and most voters , including most Democratic voters , simply do not—even now , as over a hundred thousand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thanks , in large part , to the arrogance and stupidity of Republican policymakers .
If most non-Republicans remain insufficiently hostile towards the GOP as a whole in the post-Trump era , that will have much less to do with the Lincoln Project and the activities of particular NeverTrump Republicans now than the influence of generations of propaganda about how politics ought to work and the structural factors on which the Republican Party depends .
None of that will be undone by tweets about how the Lincoln Project is a grift : At @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take advantage of all we ’ ve seen pressure campaigns can do these past few weeks to convince Democratic leaders and ordinary voters to think as they do about Republicans and the implications of sharing power with them .
We ’ ve seen recently how naturally this approach to partisanship tends to come to the right .
The president has been mouthing off recently about how Democrats destroy cities and want to abolish the suburbs ; this week Congressman Louie Gohmert responded to a House vote on removing Confederate statues from the Capitol @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic Party from the House absent a name change .
“ A great portion of the history of the Democratic Party is filled with racism and hatred , ” he said in a statement .
“ Whether it be supporting the most vile forms of racism or actively working against Civil Rights legislation , Democrats in this country perpetuated these abhorrent forms of discrimination and violence practically since their party ’ s inception.
” It might be observed that one could say the same of the Republican Party ’ s most recent history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But few in national politics do .
Republicans really are better at this kind of thing .

But there’s something profoundly odd about the notion that moderate Republicans might exert a “newfound” influence on Democrats under Biden. Biden served in the last Democratic Cabinet alongside four Republicans whom President Obama either appointed or retained, including two Republican secretaries of defense. Republicans in Congress ensured that Democratic policy would reflect the right’s premises on public spending, debt, and the size and role of government. They were able to do so because Democrats in general sought Republican input and because Democratic moderates and conservatives, representing moderate and conservative constituencies, either agreed with them or were unwilling to overrule them, even when the party presumably could have, with its legislative supermajority early in the administration.
Concessions to the right under Obama were the product not only of Obama’s particular political disposition but the conciliatory disposition of the Democratic Party as a whole, which survives today even though the party has recently been pulled left on a variety of policy issues. Biden has promised to seek common ground with Republicans proudly and repeatedly—although it should be said that he has, in recent weeks, finally started to signal an awareness that Republicans aren’t going to be eager to support his policy agenda. But most voters and just about all Democratic leaders, including those who acknowledge that measures like eliminating the legislative filibuster will be necessary to enact many Democratic priorities, profess a commitment to bipartisanship as a general value and are invested in the rhetoric of national reconciliation. Given this, procedural reforms under Biden that weaken Republicans might be seen even by non-Republicans as divisive opportunism—an impression that could politically damage Biden and Democrats. Granted, that would be a better problem to face than the one they now have, which is that pivotal moderate Democrats still oppose overruling Republicans and procedural reforms in the first place.
The Lincoln Project’s critics on the left are correct about the GOP. The Republican Party is a purely malignant force in American politics and American life. It has no positive contributions to make, its major policies are not supported by the majority of the American public, and it would not be as powerful or as radical as it is were it not for the advantages the design of the federal government grants to conservatives. Those advantages, left in place, will prevent Democrats from meaningfully addressing our most significant problems as a country and society, including an environmental crisis that threatens all civilization. Much of what ails us cannot be fixed without structurally disempowering the GOP as an institution—its incapacitation is the only plausible and morally defensible remedy to polarization and partisan gridlock we have. Many progressives now take all these things for granted. But the leaders of the Democratic Party, the political press, and most voters, including most Democratic voters, simply do not—even now, as over a hundred thousand Americans have been killed by the coronavirus thanks, in large part, to the arrogance and stupidity of Republican policymakers.


newrepublic--2020-07-27--The Growing Fight Against the School Death Trap

“ It is our responsibility to exercise our power as workers to force our leaders to do what they have refused : end this pandemic , ” Refuse to Return ’ s sample resolution reads .
“ Our demands are intrinsically tied to the movements for racial justice , as Black and Brown communities have disproportionately borne the brunt of this pandemic and will continue to do so if elected officials force students and staff to return to campus before it is safe.
” According to CDC data , Black and Latinx people in the United States are three times @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans and almost twice as likely to die from it .
Litzelman sees connections between the pandemic , school shootings , and the water crisis in Flint , Michigan—all lethal failures of a capitalist system in which leaders “ acclimate Americans to the idea that this is just something that we deal with.
” Litzelman points out teachers have more leverage to stay home than many American workers , including other school employees .
About 65 percent of public school teachers in the U.S. belong to unions , and despite the myriad challenges @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s possible for them to do their jobs online .
In contrast , Sequoia , a nonunion health tech who works alongside the school nurse at an elementary school in Aurora , Colorado , is “ between a rock and a hard place ” this fall .
If a student or staff member becomes infected , “ I will be coming in direct contact with them when they come to the clinic , and I will be around them for an extended amount of time , ” she said .
But if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in-person learning , she doesn ’ t get paid .
Sequoia ’ s paychecks continued after the school shut down this spring , since her position was already budgeted , but her district , like many around the country , is now facing a deficit .
Some of the ideas floated to reduce costs include “ charging children to use the school bus , upping athletic fees , getting rid of nurses and replacing them with my position , which I think is completely crazy , especially during a pandemic.
” She and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and will have to borrow an isolation room from another department .
If they have more than two people at the school showing symptoms , Sequoia doesn ’ t know what they ’ re going to do .
But at the same time , she can ’ t imagine not coming back to her students if the campus opens .
“ It would be like abandoning the Titanic as it goes down .
I ’ m like , that ’ s my ship , I ’ m going to go down with it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Facebook group affiliated with Refuse to Return and has emailed Governor Jared Polis , asking him to make a decision about reopening because she feels Colorado ’ s school districts are dragging their feet .
When the school year starts on August 17 , she ’ d ideally like to begin remotely , despite the fact that her son , who has autism and is nonverbal , has struggled with online learning .
“ It is easier to bring a child back up to their level than it is to bury a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So if it means keeping the kids safe and they ’ re behind a little bit , then so be it.
” Covid-19 is already killing school workers , even before the doors open for fall .
In Arizona , three teachers shared a classroom to give virtual summer school lessons .
Despite wearing masks , sanitizing , and maintaining distance , all of them tested positive for the virus , and one , Kimberley Chavez Lopez Byrd , died in June .
In Florida , Jordan Byrd ( no relation ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a school custodian , recently died after contracting the virus .
The school ’ s principal and his wife , who is the principal of another school in the area , both tested positive and experienced “ relatively mild ” cases .
“ Our school family is devastated , ” a teacher at Jordan Byrd ’ s school wrote on Facebook , according to a report in the Tallahassee Democrat , “ and this occurred with no teachers , paraprofessionals [ or ] students on campus .
If this disease spread in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distancing , and other safety measures were in place , imagine what it will look like when kids are arriving on buses , sitting in classrooms , walking the crowded halls , and eating lunch with no masks.
” The Florida Education Association , which represents around 150,000 educators , including public school teachers and staff , is suing the state , arguing that returning to school before the virus is under control violates the state ’ s constitution .

“It is our responsibility to exercise our power as workers to force our leaders to do what they have refused: end this pandemic.”
“It is our responsibility to exercise our power as workers to force our leaders to do what they have refused: end this pandemic,” Refuse to Return’s sample resolution reads. “Our demands are intrinsically tied to the movements for racial justice, as Black and Brown communities have disproportionately borne the brunt of this pandemic and will continue to do so if elected officials force students and staff to return to campus before it is safe.” According to CDC data, Black and Latinx people in the United States are three times as likely to contract Covid-19 as white Americans and almost twice as likely to die from it. Litzelman sees connections between the pandemic, school shootings, and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan—all lethal failures of a capitalist system in which leaders “acclimate Americans to the idea that this is just something that we deal with.”
Litzelman points out teachers have more leverage to stay home than many American workers, including other school employees. About 65 percent of public school teachers in the U.S. belong to unions, and despite the myriad challenges of teaching and learning remotely, it’s possible for them to do their jobs online.
In contrast, Sequoia, a nonunion health tech who works alongside the school nurse at an elementary school in Aurora, Colorado, is “between a rock and a hard place” this fall. If a student or staff member becomes infected, “I will be coming in direct contact with them when they come to the clinic, and I will be around them for an extended amount of time,” she said. But if her school doesn’t open for in-person learning, she doesn’t get paid.