newrepublic--2020-08-04--The College Athletes Who Refuse to Die for the NCAA

The hits keep coming for Major League Baseball .
On Monday , just one week after an outbreak of the coronavirus derailed games for the Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies , the St. Louis Cardinals canceled their upcoming series with the Detroit Tigers after eight team members , six of them players , tested positive .
The day before , the National Football League dealt with a high-profile case of its own when Philadelphia Eagles head coach Doug Pederson was sent home from the team facility after testing positive .
It seems that league-wide outbreaks are no longer a risk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like medical and equipment staffers , remain at risk along with their families , the athletes themselves are , for the most part , able to make conscious decisions about whether they want to participate in the current altered season thanks in large part to a combination of accrued personal wealth and their players ’ union .
But for the college athletes being actively blocked from acquiring both wealth and a union , a simple question is being asked as many weigh whether to report to campus for preseason workouts and training camps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our lives worth risking for a job in a billion-dollar industry that doesn ’ t even pay us ?
A group of athletes in the Pac-12 Conference—home to schools like University of California , Los Angeles ( UCLA ) , University of Southern California ( USC ) , and Stanford University—recently organized around this very question .
On Sunday , the collective published a list of their demands in The Players ’ Tribune .
Among them were the following : The players want the option to sit out the 2020-2021 season without losing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want to be able to hold schools liable should the athletic departments break protocol and cause an outbreak ; they want well-paid administrators , like university athletic directors , to take pay cuts and for schools to stop burning cash on unnecessarily gaudy facility updates , redirecting those funds instead toward sports programs that have been cut in light of the pandemic ; they want a permanent task force to address racial inequities that persist in college athletics ; they want the long-denied rights to their name , image , and likeness ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the conference ’ s revenue to be spread among the sport ’ s players .
In essence , the Pac-12 athletes desire what college athletes , economists , and labor organizers have demanded for years : To shed the amateur status that the NCAA uses to hamstring its laborers and reap all the profit .
And the Pac-12 athletes—a union in all but name and legal status—are willing to take the necessary actions to achieve a fairer set of work conditions in the face of a deadly pandemic .
Speaking with ESPN @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for The Undefeated , University of California , Berkely cross-country runner and student-athlete advisory committee co-president Andrew Cooper noted , “ The only way a labor movement can be started is with a work stoppage.
” The players are not organizing just for the money , though they absolutely deserve their cut .
They are doing so because leveraging their services—the sole act that allows strength coaches to fetch mid-six-figure salaries and schools to build mausoleums for locker rooms and workout equipment—will allow them to collectively fight for a future that benefits the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and their leaders .
( Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott ’ s annual salary is set at $ 5.3 million . )

The collective, as of now, includes 13 players from the conference’s football programs—notable given the conference raked in $530 million in revenue following the 2018-2019 season. These players have made clear how much they feel the universities are balancing their health against the athletic department’s desire to not entirely miss out on their annual payday. Jaydon Grant, a senior defensive back at Oregon State University, told The New York Times he felt that “the people who are deciding whether we are going to play football are going to prioritize money over health and safety 10 times out of 10.”
The need for a players’ union in college sports, particularly for the sports that rake in tens of millions of dollars for university athletic departments through merchandising, ticket sales, and lucrative television deals, has never been more urgent. But unlike professional leagues, where players’ unions are able to negotiate for players’ demands, the thousands of athletes that make up the NCAA do not have a union or the subsequent protections because the NCAA refuses to recognize that its “student-athletes” are, in fact, workers. That means no collective bargaining agreement, which means no profit sharing, and in a time of pandemic, no enforceable safety protocols.
It was insane for the MLB to start its season with a moderated travel schedule; New York Mets outfielder Yoenis Céspedes agreed, refusing to dress for a game over the weekend and then informing the team that he would be sitting out the season over concerns about the virus. In the National Basketball Association, key players like the Los Angeles Lakers’ Avery Bradley and the Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving both opted out of the association’s Orlando bubble restart. These are players that all stood to make millions if they returned and still opted against it. They did so because their unions, faulty as they might be, ensured that they would not lose everything should they sit out.


newrepublic--2020-08-04--The Never Trumpers Have Already Won

The Never Trumpers Have Already Won

Exceptionally close to the Never Trump insurgency , Saldin and Teles take a cozy approach to their study of this movement and its central characters , faithfully drawing on their accounts of the rise of Trump .
They start with the national security experts—figures such as former National Security Council staffers Peter Feaver and Philip Zelikow .
Officially , this stalwart crew feared that Trump threatened the Cold War national security consensus that had once led conservatives beyond geopolitical “ isolationism.
” Views once safely quarantined to the libertarian or racist fringes of their party were now getting a second @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here was hardly disinterested : More important than anything else for them was that Trump was breaking the taboo within the Republican Party that forbade calling the Iraq War a gross error .
When Trump said on the South Carolina debate stage in February 2016 that George W. Bush ’ s invasion had been “ a big , fat mistake , ” Republicans shuddered in horror .
Like many others , Bush ’ s speechwriter Marc Thiessen thought such comments were suicide in a military-friendly state .
But Trump ’ s comments helped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be to hear , ” Never Trump ex-Republican and journalist Jay Nordlinger later reflected , “ the current president of the United States—a hero of the Republican party and the conservative movement—has the same view of the Bush administration and the Iraq War as the hard Left.
” To their credit , Saldin and Teles get one national security specialist in the Never Trump movement to admit that he consciously angled to make an early act of resistance seem like anything but a defense of reckless warmongering .
In August 2016 , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ circulation , arguing that Trump was beyond the pale for a storied party .
When he started to collect the signatures of former Republican officials , he strategically left out neoconservative “ prince of darkness ” Richard Perle and former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz , both architects of the Iraq War .
This move did not stop New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd observing that the Never Trumpers ’ fear—that Trump would “ make America less safe ” and “ diminish our standing in the world ” —was already a reality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy .
In retrospect , it is hard to figure out what the 2016 Never Trump fuss was about in national security circles .
Trump ’ s foreign policy since his election , after all , is at least as much a story of continuity with the Beltway consensus and Republican traditions as one of rupture .
In many respects , Trump merely extended longtime bromides of right-wing foreign policy , like opposition to the Iran deal or the Paris climate accord , and support for anti-democratic forces globally , including the Israeli @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up to a wider circle of dictators than was fashionable even in Cold War Washington , D.C. , but it was a move from a bit less to a bit more rather than from consistent advocacy for democracy to its opposite .
The friendship of George H.W .
Bush and his clan with Saudi royalty over the decades is not that different from Jared Kushner ’ s relationship with tarnished wunderkind Mohammad bin Salman , the Saudi crown prince and thuggish de facto ruler of the country , even if the two communicate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Saldin and Teles interview are political operatives who run campaigns and staff bureaucracies ; magazine writers and newspaper columnists who offer apologetics for friends and condemnation for enemies ; and some academic economists and lawyers .
Members of each of these groups report experiencing Trump ’ s boorishness as an insult to their own intellectual standing .
Never Trumpism “ can ’ t be superficially intellectualized as policy dispute , ” Zelikow explains .
“ He ’ s disgusting , ” curtly observes Bush speechwriter ( and now Atlantic writer ) David @ @ @ @ @ @ @ axis of evil ” to the language—as if the fact that Trump is a skunk proved that the politics of Republicans before were a garden party .
“ Politics isn ’ t just a matter of getting the policy you want , ” Bret Stephens sententiously tells Saldin and Teles .
“ Politics is also about culture and values.… Do I have to sit there and read Allan Bloom to these motherfuckers ?
” But it ’ s difficult to believe that Trump ’ s character foibles and edgy nativism are supposed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ notion that the same crew that promoted Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin as standard-bearers of American conservatism has always demanded exemplary leaders is laughable .
American conservatives have never entirely cordoned off the toxic forces in their own coalitions—the antisemites , patriarchs , and racists—especially after the Republican electoral base moved south in the 1960s .
Some Never Trumpers , like newly minted Washington Post columnist Max Boot , feigned horror in discovering what the conservative movement had been doing all along .
Ross Douthat , the New York Times writer and soft @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Teles that many Republicans have long practiced a “ willing blindness ” about the centrality of race-baiting as an election and governance strategy .
A better theory of the origins of Never Trumpism is that it was a political bet that Trump would lose in the general election if not in the primaries .
Those who made that bet had to own it when it didn ’ t work out .
It is true enough that many Never Trumpers have forgone opportunities in the short term .
( Others ultimately compromised , like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ special representative for Venezuela , or considered doing so , like Eliot Cohen , who melodramatically vacillated about whether conservatives should serve in the administration , consulting with Trump ’ s team just to be sure . )
But it was rarely because of a moral objection : Never Trumpers were , Saldin and Teles observe in passing , “ positioning themselves for the future , ” when they believed the party would again look to them for guidance .
It is here that Saldin and Teles themselves slide into a bit too @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump sages they interview have , after all , spent their careers compromising on the purity of their policy visions , insisting on working within a political system that requires leaders who cut deals , organize coalitions , and win votes .
These are not people known for ethical probity , and they regard those who carp about compromise from outside as naïve and unsophisticated , incapable of understanding that action requires connivance with power .
Saldin and Teles imply that this very fact might make the Never Trump reach for purity even @ @ @

In retrospect, it is hard to figure out what the 2016 Never Trump fuss was about in national security circles. Trump’s foreign policy since his election, after all, is at least as much a story of continuity with the Beltway consensus and Republican traditions as one of rupture. In many respects, Trump merely extended longtime bromides of right-wing foreign policy, like opposition to the Iran deal or the Paris climate accord, and support for anti-democratic forces globally, including the Israeli far right. True, Trump sidled up to a wider circle of dictators than was fashionable even in Cold War Washington, D.C., but it was a move from a bit less to a bit more rather than from consistent advocacy for democracy to its opposite. The friendship of George H.W. Bush and his clan with Saudi royalty over the decades is not that different from Jared Kushner’s relationship with tarnished wunderkind Mohammad bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and thuggish de facto ruler of the country, even if the two communicate by text.
The other would-be heroes that Saldin and Teles interview are political operatives who run campaigns and staff bureaucracies; magazine writers and newspaper columnists who offer apologetics for friends and condemnation for enemies; and some academic economists and lawyers. Members of each of these groups report experiencing Trump’s boorishness as an insult to their own intellectual standing. Never Trumpism “can’t be superficially intellectualized as policy dispute,” Zelikow explains. “He’s disgusting,” curtly observes Bush speechwriter (and now Atlantic writer) David Frum, who introduced the phrase “axis of evil” to the language—as if the fact that Trump is a skunk proved that the politics of Republicans before were a garden party. “Politics isn’t just a matter of getting the policy you want,” Bret Stephens sententiously tells Saldin and Teles. “Politics is also about culture and values.… Do I have to sit there and read Allan Bloom to these motherfuckers?”
But it’s difficult to believe that Trump’s character foibles and edgy nativism are supposed to explain the hatred for him. The notion that the same crew that promoted Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin as standard-bearers of American conservatism has always demanded exemplary leaders is laughable. American conservatives have never entirely cordoned off the toxic forces in their own coalitions—the antisemites, patriarchs, and racists—especially after the Republican electoral base moved south in the 1960s. Some Never Trumpers, like newly minted Washington Post columnist Max Boot, feigned horror in discovering what the conservative movement had been doing all along. Ross Douthat, the New York Times writer and soft Never Trumper, concedes to Saldin and Teles that many Republicans have long practiced a “willing blindness” about the centrality of race-baiting as an election and governance strategy.


The Anti-Election Party

The nightmare scenario for liberals across America—what if a defeated Donald Trump refuses to leave office ?
—reared its head last week when the president floated the idea of delaying the election .
“ With Universal Mail-In Voting ( not Absentee Voting , which is good ) , 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history , ” he tweeted and then wondered : “ Delay the Election until people can properly , securely and safely vote ?
?
?
” White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller later defended the suggestion , saying it was “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mails in a ballot has their identity confirmed ” and that “ nobody checks ” if the voter is a citizen , which is not true .
But many other Republicans disagreed with the president , if timidly ; Senator Lindsey Graham told CNN it was not “ a particularly good idea.
” If this specific suggestion went too far even for the Republicans , they should not have been surprised at what their party ’ s actions had unleashed .
There is a very fine line that separates the broader Republican Party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic voter fraud and the Trumpian conclusion that we should therefore postpone them indefinitely .
( Leave it to Trump to fail at Subtext 101 . )
But to pretend that walking right up to that line is acceptable , stopping just short of authoritarianism , legitimizes the longstanding Republican project of undermining elections , which began long before Trump .
The Republican Party has spent decades sowing doubt about the legitimacy of elections through high-level campaigns of propaganda about incredibly rare instances of voter fraud , successful purges and measures to restrict @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ballot , and racist fantasies about buses of immigrants showing up to vote for Democrats .
They don ’ t even seem to care whether undermining mail-in ballots will actually hurt them ; they don ’ t seem to care if the coronavirus kills their own constituencies , after all .
The ones who do mewl , often anonymously , about how Trump ’ s attacks on mail-in voting should realize that this is simply a taste of their own medicine , a poison that they have spent years dripping into our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no other mode than to say that elections are fake .
( Except , of course , the ones they win—although sometimes those , too . )
It will continue to churn on , even if it eats itself .
This did not start with Trump ’ s candidacy in 2015 or even with the Tea Party in 2010 .
Republican schemes to purge black voters from the rolls have been defended as “ ballot security ” for decades , as Vann Newkirk reported in The Atlantic .
In 1981 , the Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for allegedly sending out off-duty cops as a “ National Ballot Security Task Force , ” a ploy to intimidate voters—all in the name of “ protecting ” the ballot from voter fraud .
In 1987 , Democrats protested again after Republicans used letters sent to voters being returned as undeliverable as a pretext to challenge those voters ’ eligibility to vote .
A Republican spokesperson claimed the “ purpose of the program was to help election officials make certain that no dead or fictitious persons vote , ” but an RNC official @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that these tactics would “ keep the black vote down considerably.
” But the national party ’ s rhetoric against voter fraud reached a new level—and this is undoubtedly a total coincidence—in 2008 , after the Democrats had chosen the first Black nominee for president .
Most prominently , the Republicans accused ACORN , an organization that helped register voters in low-income communities , of trying to register fake voters and thus steal the election for their old pal Barack Obama , who had represented ACORN in a lawsuit and worked with ACORN-affiliated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organizer .
( As Zach Carter and Arthur Delaney covered in detail for Huffington Post , ACORN did not , in fact , intend to steal the election . )
This campaign culminated in a hugely bipartisan congressional vote to defund the organization in 2009 when Democrats had solid majorities in both chambers .
The organization folded in 2010 .

It’s worth remembering that in 2008, it wasn’t a fringe candidate like Duncan Hunter or Ron Paul who thundered from a national debate stage about the threat of ACORN. It was the saint of bipartisanship: John McCain. In his final presidential debate with Obama, McCain warned the nation that ACORN was “on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy.” This was a complete fiction—not just exaggeration or rhetorical license but a cynical, racist lie designed to spread fear that an organization that worked to register Black voters was intending to cheat to get the first Black president elected. The dog whistle became an airhorn. It would not be out of place on Fox News in 2020.
There is a straight line from ACORN-gate to today’s fearmongering over mail-in ballots. It’s the logical result of a party spending more than a decade calling the legitimacy of American elections into question. Republicans learned long ago how to move the Overton Window through increasing coordinated insanity; it barely matters how irrational their claim is because the simple fact that Republicans are saying it sets the boundaries of normal debate in their favor. As Matthew Phelan and Jesse Hicks noted in this magazine, the Project Veritas-aligned Republican operative Aaron Harris said of his operation to purge voters after a defeat in the courts last year, “We are changing the entire discussion on voter fraud in Texas.”
Such is the unrepentant militancy of the right’s voter fraud witch hunt. It doesn’t really matter if the individual examples crumble or fail to satisfy, as they invariably do. The project has done its job: creating an environment of mistrust, a reason to dismiss Democratic victories, and of course suppressing the vote. Every voter discouraged by I.D. restrictions or purged from the rolls or who can’t spend hours waiting to access the ballot box is a victory for the Republicans. This is a large part of how the party retains such power in a country where a majority of the public disagrees with almost all of their goals and actively wants things that the GOP decries as Marxism. Trump’s unhinged rants about mail-in voting are a temporary threat to that project but not an existential one. The machine will churn on once Trump is gone; it just might revert to saying the quiet part a bit more quietly.


newrepublic--2020-08-04--The Washington Media Is Starting to Treat Trump Like a Clown

The most jarring thing about Donald Trump is that he is president .
Nearly every press conference , public event , and interview is awash with contradictions .
On the one hand , there is the man in the office : grotesque , incoherent , malicious , dumb .
On the other , there are the rituals and aesthetic trappings that have grown around the office of the presidency itself , which all communicate its awesome power and solemnity .
A lot of media coverage gets lost in these contradictions , as if reporters and camera operators can ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : How do you capture—let alone hold to account—someone so ridiculous ?
One of the many virtues of Axios ’ s Jonathan Swan ’ s interview with Trump is that it does away with much of that unearned solemnity .
The interview in which Trump claims , among very many other things , that John Lewis will be remembered for skipping his inauguration and that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has failed is not shot like a typical interview with a sitting president .
Instead , it has the look of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the rhythms of its edits , which cut between Trump ’ s relentless maundering and bullshitting , Swan ’ s increasingly incredulous reactions , and long , awkward shots of the two of them , most closely resembles HBO ’ s Veep .
“ So much of Veep is often just sitting around thinking : ‘ What ’ s the dumbest thing that could happen ?
’ ” wrote showrunner David Mandel in The Hollywood Reporter in 2017 .
The Trump administration “ is doing stuff that we couldn ’ t invent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interview captures Trump as he is , which is to say at his dumbest .
Nowhere is that clearer than in Swan ’ s line of questioning on the administration ’ s handling of Covid-19 .
Swan is understandably baffled when Trump starts handing him printouts , but it ’ s worth examining what he ’ s trying to do .
The line of questioning is meant to get Trump to acknowledge one simple point : that the United States is in the midst of a horrible pandemic that has killed more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ occurred under Trump ’ s watch as president of the United States .
With a different president , this would likely result in a response typically deemed as “ presidential ” : a homily about the gravity of the situation we are enduring collectively .
“ The unspoken question hovering over much of this was Swan pleading with Trump to share in our collective horror about the consequences that have unfolded since , and to take some measure of responsibility for those consequences , ” wrote The Washington Post ’ s Greg Sargent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of responsibility would itself speak to the gravity of what the country is enduring , and show basic respect for the sick , the dead and the bereaved .
”

Trump, of course, does not do that kind of thing. Instead, he engages in an endless series of evasions and lies, claiming that, actually, the United States is doing better than other countries when it comes to addressing the pandemic. The video is shot and edited in such a way that underscores just how removed Trump is from reality: He is less a president than someone playing a president—and not doing a very good job, at that.
The printouts ultimately damage Trump more than he himself could. They’re a prop for the camera, but they also suggest that the administration is more interested in coddling the president and creating a comforting pseudo-reality than stopping a deadly pandemic. There has already been much discussion of how the presidential daily briefing has shrunk practically to the size of a Post-It note in order to accommodate a president with the attention span of a golden retriever. The printouts show how Trump’s insecurities and shortcomings are dictating what information he receives. Having forgotten what he was supposed to say about the chart, Trump simply hands it to Swan. Swan takes one look at it and realizes instantly that it’s garbage: The list cites deaths as a share of coronavirus cases, not of the population as a whole. All Trump can do is stammer: “You have to go by—you have to go by—here, look. Here is the United States. You have to go by the cases.”
Something similar happens when Swan presses the president about the well wishes he extended to Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was recently arrested on child sex-trafficking charges. This should have been a gift, a way for Trump to distance himself from a disastrous response to an earlier question. Instead, Trump doubles down. Sounding like someone with a bit part in Gotti, Trump repeats several times that he wished her well because Epstein “was either killed or committed suicide” in jail.


newrepublic--2020-08-04--TikTok and America’s Bleak Techno-Nationalism

But given Microsoft ’ s more than $ 160 billion in cash reserves , the price may be immaterial if it brings Redmond tens of millions of avid young users and the hoard of data they produce .
And despite its reputation as a lumbering business-centric firm that ’ s botched acquisitions like Nokia , Microsoft has had recent successes in acquiring already thriving companies and letting them run quasi-independently .
Mojang ( maker of Minecraft ) , the code-sharing site Github , and even the hopelessly banal LinkedIn have all enriched the Microsoft portfolio .
China has long been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to penetrate , but Microsoft has had research and development centers in China for decades , including four in Shanghai alone .
A Microsoft news page features a hymn to the “ booming economy ” in China and claims an ecosystem of 17,000 local partners .
Last month , Microsoft spun off its Xiaobing chatbot—an immensely popular AI-powered teenage girl chat program that Microsoft claims has 660 million Chinese users—into a separate company .
“ We help Chinese companies do business abroad ; this is one of the biggest streams of activity , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CEO of Microsoft Greater China .
That may be , but Microsoft gets less than 2 percent of its revenue from Chinese markets , and it ’ s declined to provide services like email and facial recognition there , fearing how they might be used to compromise privacy and human rights .
With growing disagreements over privacy , regulation , and data sovereignty , Microsoft President Brad Smith has spoken of a burgeoning tech cold war between the U.S. , China , and Europe .
In 2019 , China ordered all government agencies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their systems .
And the ongoing battle over Huawei , the world ’ s largest producer of telecoms equipment , has hampered the global effort to roll out 5G communication services .
Whatever muddled brand of techno-nationalism Trump and other American political leaders might subscribe to—and Republicans aren ’ t alone in warning against the Chinese tech menace—Microsoft is not as unlikely a standard-bearer as it might seem .
The company has a clutch of government and law enforcement contracts , including powering the NYPD ’ s Domain Awareness System , the highly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Defense , and the production of sophisticated HoloLens augmented-reality spectacles for the Army .
Like other American tech Goliaths , Microsoft is wired into the PRISM program and regularly complies with National Security Letters and other legal entreaties from our ever watchful national security apparatus .
With its surveillance capitalist underpinnings , TikTok should fit comfortably into this suite of products and services .
A recent report from Protonmail , a respected privacy-centric Swiss email service , warned : “ The Chinese government has a history of strong-arming and co-opting Chinese tech companies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this data to intimidate , threaten , censor , or engage in human rights abuses.
” It would be hard to argue that the United States , even in this lawless late imperial phase , is less democratic than the People ’ s Republic of China .
But we have our own gulag system , our own long record of abusing protesters , our own illegal invasions of sovereign nations , our own secret laws and clandestine agreements between industry and those in power .
Our intelligence community ’ s greed for data @ @ @ @ @ @ @ systems around the world , is unparalleled .
Every fear that has been ascribed to TikTok and its relationship with the Chinese government could be recast , with minimal adjustment , to describe America ’ s tech monopolies and their obsequious relationship to the security state , whose crimes don ’ t require enumerating for anyone alive who ’ s witnessed the last few months of police rioting .
If there ’ s anything to learn from the ginned-up TikTok controversy—which , given the pressures at play , will likely end in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of one of the dreary constants of the last four years .
That is , major decisions of economic policy and diplomacy are being adjudicated by some of the dumbest , most venal people in American public life , often for reasons that seem arbitrary or insane .
Steve Mnuchin , Peter Navarro , Donald Trump—these are the big brains debating how much , precisely , our government should put its thumb on the scales .
Microsoft , with its trillion-dollar market capitalization , might see this as a great opportunity to add @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like so many other prominent institutions in American life when faced with the reality of Trumpism , be too cowardly to do anything but go along for the ride .

That may be, but Microsoft gets less than 2 percent of its revenue from Chinese markets, and it’s declined to provide services like email and facial recognition there, fearing how they might be used to compromise privacy and human rights. With growing disagreements over privacy, regulation, and data sovereignty, Microsoft President Brad Smith has spoken of a burgeoning tech cold war between the U.S., China, and Europe. In 2019, China ordered all government agencies to replace any Western computer technology in their systems. And the ongoing battle over Huawei, the world’s largest producer of telecoms equipment, has hampered the global effort to roll out 5G communication services.
Whatever muddled brand of techno-nationalism Trump and other American political leaders might subscribe to—and Republicans aren’t alone in warning against the Chinese tech menace—Microsoft is not as unlikely a standard-bearer as it might seem. The company has a clutch of government and law enforcement contracts, including powering the NYPD’s Domain Awareness System, the highly disputed JEDI cloud for the Department of Defense, and the production of sophisticated HoloLens augmented-reality spectacles for the Army. Like other American tech Goliaths, Microsoft is wired into the PRISM program and regularly complies with National Security Letters and other legal entreaties from our ever watchful national security apparatus. With its surveillance capitalist underpinnings, TikTok should fit comfortably into this suite of products and services.
A recent report from Protonmail, a respected privacy-centric Swiss email service, warned: “The Chinese government has a history of strong-arming and co-opting Chinese tech companies into sharing their data and then using this data to intimidate, threaten, censor, or engage in human rights abuses.” It would be hard to argue that the United States, even in this lawless late imperial phase, is less democratic than the People’s Republic of China. But we have our own gulag system, our own long record of abusing protesters, our own illegal invasions of sovereign nations, our own secret laws and clandestine agreements between industry and those in power. Our intelligence community’s greed for data, and its ability to hack computer systems around the world, is unparalleled. Every fear that has been ascribed to TikTok and its relationship with the Chinese government could be recast, with minimal adjustment, to describe America’s tech monopolies and their obsequious relationship to the security state, whose crimes don’t require enumerating for anyone alive who’s witnessed the last few months of police rioting.


newrepublic--2020-08-04--The New Aristocracy Discovers “Microschools”

With the coronavirus threatening the safety of schools that ordinarily would reopen this fall , parents across the country have been organizing “ pods ” or microschools similar to the one Calacanis proposes , The New York Times reports .
The model is not new but has gained traction in recent months .
But because they are expensive and ultimately self-selecting miniature institutions , the Times piece continues , “ they are likely to be most popular among families of privilege , experts say , and may worsen educational inequality.
” All private schooling engineers class inequality in an active @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but in the short term , the effects are more subtle and can be psychological : A number of studies have shown that living around kids who attend private schools entrenches an awareness of class difference among children from lower-income families before they are old enough to think critically about how money shapes our opportunities and even our emotional lives .
Everybody knows about the rent in San Francisco , but did you know about the schooling ?
According to the U.S. Census Bureau ’ s 2008-2012 American Community Survey , about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ schools , but in the San Francisco metro area , that figure is 19.9 percent , behind only New Orleans and Honolulu .
More recent , reliable data is tough to find , but in 2018 a San Francisco Board of Education member put the figure at more like 35 percent overall and an astonishing 75 percent among white children .
This too-familiar chasm in educational opportunities is about to be deepened and made more unbridgeable by the coronavirus .
Wealthy parents are organizing bubble schools .
Private schools are now reopening for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As Mike Walker , head of school at San Francisco Day , told The New York Times , his sector ’ s main advantage is “ flexibility.
” A private school need not follow the state ’ s every guideline with respect to curriculum or safety measures , while their staff and teachers are less likely to be unionized .
A private school need not care if its own students advance at the expense of their neighbors .
The tweet is not the problem .
The huge iceberg of which it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ No amount of free scholarships can fix the flaws built into the private educational system ; they are ethical camouflage in the form of human children .
Some forms of analysis for this kind of granular separation within a citizenry ’ s youth call it “ class , ” although the tech super-rich of Silicon Valley don ’ t seem willing to see themselves as snobs or aristocrats .
Instead , they ’ re “ disruptors , ” a notion derived from market economics , one with conveniently few alliances to any particular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and profit , really .
And education is not exactly a normal market , since no sane government would ever let it be fully privatized : That way lies straightforward plutocracy , as those familiar with European social history will know .
Disruption is already understood as a threat by many teachers and activists in the education sector , who see its cynical logic at work in the apportioning of funds between public and charter schools and the ways that these models turn their classrooms into laboratories for novel startup ideas .
Now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a bigger slice of the market .
As Bloomberg recently reported , ed-tech in Silicon Valley is already throwing money at the Covid-19 education problem , with firms like Reach Capital investing in privatized education databases such as Winnie and pod-school initiative Outschool .
While the federal government neglects to take any meaningful action to assist public schools , U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos recently tweeted her support for a Republican-proposed bit of legislation that would give $ 5 billion in tax credits for families who homeschool or send their children to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ built on connection , and fostering relationships requires proximity , ” Annie Abrams , a public school teacher in New York City , wrote here after Governor Andrew Cuomo proposed a bizarre , post-classroom future for the city ’ s schools .
“ This is what a classroom does.
” In May , Sunset Park teacher Annie Tan echoed Abrams ’ s sentiment when she told The New Republic that “ teaching is eighty percent the relationship , ” plus some unquantifiable ratio of space-sharing , navigating the challenges of early life through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tests .
The strength and emotional resonance of America ’ s recent teachers ’ strikes have come from similar forms of understanding , a deep sense of schools as places where academic learning and a whole host of other activities take place .
Locking in access to those other features ( sensory play , building social skills , the care of a teacher who knows what ’ s going on in your mom ’ s life ) is essential for all kids , regardless of income , because they are the pillars of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus , mental health , emotional health , and community health all matter .

With the coronavirus threatening the safety of schools that ordinarily would reopen this fall, parents across the country have been organizing “pods” or microschools similar to the one Calacanis proposes, The New York Times reports. The model is not new but has gained traction in recent months. But because they are expensive and ultimately self-selecting miniature institutions, the Times piece continues, “they are likely to be most popular among families of privilege, experts say, and may worsen educational inequality.”
All private schooling engineers class inequality in an active kind of way over the long term, but in the short term, the effects are more subtle and can be psychological: A number of studies have shown that living around kids who attend private schools entrenches an awareness of class difference among children from lower-income families before they are old enough to think critically about how money shapes our opportunities and even our emotional lives. Everybody knows about the rent in San Francisco, but did you know about the schooling? According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008-2012 American Community Survey, about 10 percent of children nationally attend private schools, but in the San Francisco metro area, that figure is 19.9 percent, behind only New Orleans and Honolulu. More recent, reliable data is tough to find, but in 2018 a San Francisco Board of Education member put the figure at more like 35 percent overall and an astonishing 75 percent among white children.
This too-familiar chasm in educational opportunities is about to be deepened and made more unbridgeable by the coronavirus. Wealthy parents are organizing bubble schools. Private schools are now reopening for in-person lessons where public schools cannot. As Mike Walker, head of school at San Francisco Day, told The New York Times, his sector’s main advantage is “flexibility.” A private school need not follow the state’s every guideline with respect to curriculum or safety measures, while their staff and teachers are less likely to be unionized. A private school need not care if its own students advance at the expense of their neighbors.


newrepublic--2020-08-05--The Republicans’ Crimes Against Democracy

The result is an all-out campaign by Trumpworld against mail-in voting .
Last weekend , lawmakers in Nevada approved a bill that would send absentee ballots to every registered voter in the state .
The move drew a furious response from Trump on Monday morning .
“ In an illegal late night coup , Nevada ’ s clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state , ” he wrote on Twitter .
“ Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation .
Using Covid to steal the state .
See you in Court @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apparently undeterred by Trump ’ s threats , signed the bill into law later that day .
It ’ s unclear what sort of legal challenge Trump could mount in court ; no lawsuit has yet been filed .
And despite his claims of an “ illegal late night coup , ” Nevada ’ s civil government appears to be intact .
Trump ’ s admission that it becomes “ impossible for Republicans to win ” when Americans can easily cast a ballot is also shaping his legal strategy .
In Pennsylvania , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mobile drop boxes supervised by county officials to gather absentee ballots during the state ’ s primary elections earlier this year .
Drop boxes are fairly common in states where absentee voting is widely used .
Last month , however , the Trump campaign filed a federal lawsuit against the state and counties to stop election officials from collecting ballots anywhere but at a county election office , citing the hypothetical risk of fraud .
The complaint largely translates right-wing claims about voter fraud into legalese , warning that the use of “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ off boxes “ allows illegal absent and mail-in voting , ballot harvesting , and other fraud to occur and/or go undetected , and will result in dilution of validly cast ballots.
” The campaign also sought to overturn a restriction that only allows county residents to serve as poll watchers at their own county ’ s election site .
Kathy Boockvar , Pennsylvania ’ s top state election official , described the Trump campaign ’ s claims as “ speculative doomsday allegations ” in a motion urging the court to dismiss the lawsuit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ options would likely require more voters to return their absentee ballots by mail .
For Pennsylvania , a key swing state that Trump can ’ t afford to lose in November , that may be a tricky proposition .
The state is currently experiencing a widespread slowdown in mail delivery in cities like Philadelphia due to both staffing shortages from illness and policy changes .
In memos issued last month , Postmaster DeJoy instructed postal workers to leave mail at delivery centers if it would delay their routes , cut overtime that could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and limit other measures that would make it easier for the agency to deliver mail at a more regular pace .
Those delays could be catastrophic when combined with the expected surge in absentee voters later this year .
Michigan is already seeing systemic problems during its primaries this week ; some results from New York ’ s June 23 primaries are still uncertain more than six weeks later .
DeJoy ’ s memos cited an imminent fiscal crunch at the agency to justify the cutbacks .
Some of those woes are legitimate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that it expected a $ 13 billion decline in revenue this year because of the broader economic slowdown .
But others are entirely preventable .
Unlike virtually every other public and private institution in America , the Postal Service is required to pre-fund decades of retired employees ’ health benefits .
Bloomberg ’ s Barry Ritholtz noted in 2018 that the Postal Service otherwise would have been profitable in recent years .
The disastrous 2006 law that imposed the mandate was introduced and passed by Congress within three days without a recorded vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ law two weeks later .
Critics of the measure see it as a back-door effort to privatizing the Postal Service by artificially making it fiscally unsustainable .
That ideological posture would explain why Republican lawmakers haven ’ t backed efforts to keep the Postal Service afloat , let alone to remove the millstone around its neck .
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled a $ 1 trillion stimulus package last week that included no relief for the postal system .
A bill proposed by Maine Senator Susan Collins that would provide some funds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it to send a report to Congress in nine months on its “ long-term viability ” — something that Collins herself could help ensure by working to repeal the 2006 law .
Without that relief , top Postal Service officials will have plenty of justification to scale back service and delay deliveries .
The dysfunction and disenfranchisement , in short , is the point .
The conservative plot against the Postal Service is more than just a policy mistake or a shameless privatization grab ; it undermines one of the Founders ’ most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ uniquely American post didn ’ t just carry letters for the few , ” wrote Winifred Gallagher in her 2016 book How the Post Office Created America .
She continued : Trump and many of his allies do not share those lowercase “ r ” republican values , and there is almost nothing that Americans can do before the election to prevent him from trying to delegitimize the results if he loses .
He is largely impervious to accepting reality when it embarrasses him as shown most recently by an interview with Axios @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the U.S. isn ’ t doing so bad with the pandemic .
Even his own advisors and confidantes often find themselves unable to restrain him from making self-destructive posts on Twitter or embarrassing off-the-cuff remarks to reporters .
The rest of us are unlikely to be more successful .

Limiting ballot drop-off options would likely require more voters to return their absentee ballots by mail. For Pennsylvania, a key swing state that Trump can’t afford to lose in November, that may be a tricky proposition. The state is currently experiencing a widespread slowdown in mail delivery in cities like Philadelphia due to both staffing shortages from illness and policy changes. In memos issued last month, Postmaster DeJoy instructed postal workers to leave mail at delivery centers if it would delay their routes, cut overtime that could be used to make multiple deliveries, and limit other measures that would make it easier for the agency to deliver mail at a more regular pace. Those delays could be catastrophic when combined with the expected surge in absentee voters later this year. Michigan is already seeing systemic problems during its primaries this week; some results from New York’s June 23 primaries were still uncertain until Tuesday night.
DeJoy’s memos cited an imminent fiscal crunch at the agency to justify the cutbacks. Some of those woes are legitimate. The Postal Service announced in May that it expected a $13 billion decline in revenue this year because of the broader economic slowdown. But others are entirely preventable. Unlike virtually every other public and private institution in America, the Postal Service is required to pre-fund decades of retired employees’ health benefits. Bloomberg’s Barry Ritholtz noted in 2018 that the Postal Service otherwise would have been profitable in recent years. The disastrous 2006 law that imposed the mandate was introduced and passed by Congress within three days without a recorded vote; George W. Bush signed it into law two weeks later. Critics of the measure see it as a back-door effort to privatizing the Postal Service by artificially making it fiscally unsustainable.
That ideological posture would explain why Republican lawmakers haven’t backed efforts to keep the Postal Service afloat, let alone to remove the millstone around its neck. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell unveiled a $1 trillion stimulus package last week that included no relief for the postal system. A bill proposed by Maine Senator Susan Collins that would provide some funds to the Postal Service would also require it to send a report to Congress in nine months on its “long-term viability”— something that Collins herself could help ensure by working to repeal the 2006 law. Without that relief, top Postal Service officials will have plenty of justification to scale back service and delay deliveries. The dysfunction and disenfranchisement, in short, is the point.


newrepublic--2020-08-05--Utility Companies’ Deadly Addiction to Profit

Northern California ’ s investor-owned electric utility PG & E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter in June over its role in 2018 ’ s deadly Camp Fire .
Its billions of dollars worth of liability from that fire also landed the company in bankruptcy court .
It emerged from a 17-month process at the end of June with a restructuring agreement , allowing it to access a $ 21 million pool of public funds .
That agreement , in turn , was contingent on PG & E helping to compensate some 70,000 wildfire victims for $ 13.5 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it was agreed , PG & E could pay by offering these victims—people that lost homes and in some cases loved ones thanks ( legally ) to PG & E ’ s negligence—non-voting PG & E stock , the value of which has dropped more than 80 percent since the Camp Fire happened .
This is a summer of utility company scandals .
As the PG & E settlement draws ire , wildfires are again raging across southern California , with widespread energy shutoffs ahead further north as part of PG & @ @ @ @ @ @ @ risk during the dry season .
Ohio utility company FirstEnergy has been ensnared in a $ 61 million bribery scandal to prop up the state ’ s emissions-heavy coal industry .
And while investor-owned utilities in Democrat-controlled states have frequently enjoyed better press , having shifted to cleaner fuel as a result of state law , environmental justice campaigners in New York and California this summer say companies ’ failure to reckon with climate change and indifference to customer needs in a pandemic-induced recession is putting lives at risk , with Democratic governors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all raising a question : Who gets to make life or death decisions when it comes to essential services being sold for a profit ?
Mari Rose Taruc , coordinator for the Bay Area-based group Reclaim Our Power campaign , tracked the PG & E bankruptcy proceedings closely .
Reclaim Our Power , like other climate and environmental justice and ratepayer advocacy groups in PG & E ’ s service territory , opposed the deal that eventually passed .
Governor Gavin Newsom “ totally caved to PG & E , ” Taruc told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have the willpower .
He bowed to PG & E and Wall Street [ PG & E ’ s creditors ] , and the result was a bad deal for thousands of survivors.
” Should another wildfire sparked by PG & E burn down homes or should PG & E fail to meet safety requirements , the agreement allows for the California Public Utilities Commission to revoke its charter to operate .
“ Why wait for lives to be lost and damages to be done to actually change PG & E now ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ more novel provisions of the PG & E bankruptcy agreement is that—should it fail to meet the terms of the agreement—its assets could be transferred to a new non-profit and state-created entity called Golden State Energy .
Investor-owned utilities , or IOUs , around the country are regulated by public utility commissions—appointed or elected statewide bodies that define what rates they can charge and how much profit they can make .
The structure was part of a Progressive Era grand bargain : In exchange for being granted a monopoly over a defined service @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under increasing scrutiny—would be tightly regulated .
In the more than a century since , utilities can essentially treat buying off regulators and lawmakers as an operating expense .
Often , particularly for utilities with big investments in coal , that ’ s looked like lobbying against clean energy mandates .
IOUs ’ close ties with regulators and policymakers can also make them less willing to intervene on behalf of ratepayers—also known as their customers .
Despite a statewide moratorium on New York utility shut-offs in response to the coronavirus upheavals , Rochester @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than 36,871 final termination notices in June , according to a monthly collection report filed with New York State .
They haven ’ t actually cut off power to anyone since the moratorium started , since that ’ d be against the law , but ratepayers struggling to pay their bills have scrambled to make payments , fearing they ’ d lose power at a time when it ’ s never been more essential—particularly given the subtropical climate New York State has experienced this year and is now predicted to experience regularly , @ @ @ @ @

Rochester resident Qutisha Britt was alarmed to receive a shut-off notice this summer. “I had to had to figure out how I was going to pay so I wouldn’t lose my service because I have a one-year-old daughter who has asthma and uses a machine so she doesn’t have an attack,” she said in a written statement collected by Metro Justice. Britt was able to use state assistance programs to negotiate her overdue balance down but worries about what’ll happen when the moratorium expires. With debt forgiveness and an extended moratorium, she added, “I wouldn’t have to worry about losing services and risking my daughter’s life.”
“The pandemic and the coercive behavior by utilities like RG&E at a time like this has really made the need for public utilities run by the people and for the people more evident than ever,” said Mohini Sharma, Lead Organizer with the base-building group Metro Justice. She’s helping lead the group’s Rochester for Energy Democracy campaign to replace RG&E with a public not-for-profit electric cooperative with concrete commitments for carbon-free energy, worker and community control, and funding for a just transition for any RG&E workers whose work is primarily in fossil fuels slated for phaseout.
Campaigners say Cuomo has avoided confronting the state’s electric utilities, including New York City electric company ConEd and gas company National Grid. “Cuomo basically controls the Public Service Commission and lets them get away with murder,” Illapa Sairitupac of New York City’s Democratic Socialists of America Ecosocialist Working Group told me. “He’ll do these symbolic gestures and threaten ConEd”—as he did following massive blackouts last summer—“but nothing else will happen after that. It’s all a horse and pony show.” Metro Justice and DSA, members of the New York Energy Democracy Alliance, have been working to organize a statewide utility strike amid the pandemic and collaborate with community-based mutual aid groups to help those struggling to stay housed, fed, and healthy. As temperatures rise, DSA is now rallying around three main demands: utility payment cancellation, a two-year shut-off moratorium, and cancellation of consumers’ existing utility debt.


newrepublic--2020-08-05--The AFL-CIO’s Untenable Stance on Cops

The AFL-CIO’s Untenable Stance on Cops

On the night of May 31 , as Black Lives Matter protests raged throughout the nation ’ s capital , the house of labor went up in flames .
The imposing headquarters of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations was swept up in the chaos , its windows smashed and its lobby set ablaze .
Out front , its seal—a lighter hand clasping a darker one in solidarity—was graffitied with rallying cries like “ We matter !
” The next day , the organization quietly released a statement expressing support for the protests while cautioning against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , called the damage to the building “ disgraceful.
” But the scuffle had exposed , perhaps irrevocably , some of the simmering tensions within the federation .
The AFL-CIO represents 55 member unions , a sprawling , fractious coalition of teachers , municipal employees , steelworkers , and journalists—as well as the 100,000 law enforcement officers who belong to the International Union of Police Associations .
This leading cop union has come under fire in recent months for its role in shielding officers from accountability in racially charged brutality cases ; since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ newly empowered left wing has been calling on Trumka to kick IUPA out of the federation .
Trumka has gone out of his way to offer public support to protesters—even after some torched his headquarters—but he also seems hell-bent on sidestepping the calls to disaffiliate from IUPA .
As the fight pits labor ’ s radical new generation against its beleaguered old guard , events are forcing Trumka to make a choice he ’ s long avoided : between the activist and traditionalist wings of the labor movement .
On the one hand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s current , precarious coalition and all of the collective political power it wields .
On the other , he can help shore up the AFL-CIO ’ s longer-term prospects for growth by empowering the activist wing , which wants to advance more robust commitment to social justice—and to adopt a more confrontational posture toward President Trump and all those who support him .
As a former president of the United Mine Workers of America and a retired coal miner himself , Trumka knows what it feels like to be targeted by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a labor leader in the hills of Appalachia , during a contentious 1989 strike that pitted 1,900 members of the UMW in Kentucky , Virginia , and West Virginia against Pittston Coal .
When the strike turned violent , he was accused of staging “ orchestrated terrorism ” in the coalfields .
But Trumka ’ s 11 years at the top of the AFL-CIO have been an exercise in compromise and restraint , defined mostly by the mandate to keep his unruly coalition unified in the face of ongoing federal attacks on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he has toed the Democratic Party line , embracing an earnest liberalism while shying away from anything that could upset the federation ’ s more conservative members .
But his efforts to occupy a middle ground have come up short on questions of racial justice .
Following the killing of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson , a white former police officer , Trumka commissioned a report on racism and spoke out forcefully about police brutality .
That September , he said , “ Our brother killed our sister ’ s son.
” ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , was a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 88 ; Wilson had the backing of the Fraternal Order of Police . )
Trumka added , “ Racism is part of our inheritance as Americans.
” IUPA ’ s president , Sam Cabral , sent Trumka a nasty letter to complain .
And this past June , as calls to disaffiliate from IUPA intensified , Cabral sent another letter accusing Trumka of “ dishonoring ” law enforcement and “ profiling ” cops .
Trumka ’ s statements about institutional racism , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patently false.
” Following that dustup , Trumka continued to defend the police as “ community friendly , ” perhaps in an effort to keep IUPA off his back .

Trumka’s bids to appease the right make sense on some level; the labor movement has been shrinking for decades, and while IUPA represents only a fraction of the AFL-CIO’s 12 million members, kicking it out could alienate the sizable conservative faction within its ranks. As Trumka sees it, the federation—which is funded in part by dues—can’t afford to lose anyone.
But many of the staunchly leftist rank and filers view kicking out the cops as a moral issue rather than a purely political one. In the early twentieth century, the American Federation of Labor opposed the very idea of organizing police, saying that “both policemen and militiamen are often controlled by forces inimical to the labor movement.” And even after it admitted police unions in 1919, its leaders didn’t shrink from confronting anyone who, they felt, had compromised the federation’s ideals: In 1957, for instance, it kicked out the Teamsters for corruption. It could do the same with the cops.
Even if Trumka continues to dodge the issue, it will come to a head during the election of the next president of the federation. (Trumka is widely expected to step down next year.) One of the two front-runners, Liz Shuler, the current secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, would most likely follow in Trumka’s middle-minded footsteps. But if she represents a continuation of the status quo, Sara Nelson, the president of the 50,000-strong Association of Flight Attendants, offers more radical change. A militant rank and filer turned rising star, she has declared her commitment to socialist policies and condemned the Trump administration’s myriad evils. On the question of cop unions, the difference in their approaches is clear: Shuler has suggested asking them to develop “codes of excellence” to enact change. Meanwhile, Nelson’s union released a fiery statement putting those same unions on notice, demanding they address racism in their ranks “or be removed from the Labor movement.” The question is whether the entrenched powers that be will allow her to ascend to the top job.


newrepublic--2020-08-05--The Pandemic Benefit Seems so Great Because Actual Wages Are Insanely Low

At the end of last week , the $ 600 federal unemployment insurance supplement expired after a congressional deadlock on passing a new stimulus bill , leaving millions of laid-off workers without income that was helping them support themselves and their families .
That , of course , was by design ; the extra $ 600 , Republicans insisted from the start , would make it all too easy for workers to stay home in the middle of a deadly pandemic .
“ It pays better to stay home than it does to come in and actually put yourself at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to work , ” The Federalist ’ s Chris Bedford said on Fox News recently .
“ People need to get back to work , need to go out , they need to not be run by fear.
” Aside from the fact that it seems entirely reasonable to pay people to stay home—particularly as coronavirus cases continue to surge in many parts of the country and the death toll has since exceeded 150,000—there ’ s not much evidence to support the claim that unemployment insurance has deterred workers from returning to their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the enhanced unemployment benefits exceeding people ’ s wages also points to another grave ( and worsening ) aspect of American economic life that started well before the pandemic .
A recent analysis by the Roosevelt Institute estimated that as many as 22 million people—or approximately 15 percent of the labor force in the country—did earn more money from collecting the enhanced pandemic unemployment than what they were paid by their jobs .
That speaks less to the generosity of the dole than it does to the explosion of low-wage work over the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attempt to revive the devastated economy when the pandemic has passed will have to foreground that crisis .
Poverty wages are often treated as an inevitable and immutable part of the economy , and Republicans and Democrats alike routinely respond to the problem by simply encouraging low-wage workers to acquire more education or skills in order to move out of bad jobs .
But wages across the board haven ’ t kept pace with increases in worker productivity since the 1970s , and over that same period , the low-wage service sector ballooned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That trend only intensified in the wake of the Great Recession , where a significant portion of the middle-class jobs lost during that downturn were subsequently replaced during the recovery by low-wage positions .
According to the Brookings Institution , today 44 percent of all workers between the ages of 18 and 64 , or more than 53 million people , are low-wage hourly workers .
The cruel irony now is that low-wage workers—many of whom were swiftly and conveniently reclassified as “ essential ” as soon as statewide lockdowns began—have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As The Boston Globe ’ s Katie Johnston wrote this week , low-wage workers , who are disproportionately Black and Latinx , have had to contend with unsafe conditions , a lack of adequate protective gear , and only meager paychecks to show for it as “ hazard pay ” bonuses have all but dried up .
“ I ’ m completely , 100 percent afraid , ” Joe Koffi , a nursing home employee whose hazard pay raise recently ended , told Johnston .
“ The Covid is still everywhere .
Why @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Given the sorry state of nearly half of all workers ’ wages in this country , it won ’ t be enough for the jobs lost during lockdowns to come back ( though even that is far from guaranteed ) .
We should , as a number of Democratic policymakers have argued , extend the unemployment supplement for as long as it takes to safely weather the pandemic .
But there ’ s also an opportunity in this moment to push for raising wages , which will be crucial over the long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from a new economic collapse .

At the end of last week, the $600 federal unemployment insurance supplement expired after a congressional deadlock on passing a new stimulus bill, leaving millions of laid-off workers without income that was helping them support themselves and their families. That, of course, was by design; the extra $600, Republicans insisted from the start, would make it all too easy for workers to stay home in the middle of a deadly pandemic. “It pays better to stay home than it does to come in and actually put yourself at a little bit of risk to come to work,” The Federalist’s Chris Bedford said on Fox News recently. “People need to get back to work, need to go out, they need to not be run by fear.”
Aside from the fact that it seems entirely reasonable to pay people to stay home—particularly as coronavirus cases continue to surge in many parts of the country and the death toll has since exceeded 150,000—there’s not much evidence to support the claim that unemployment insurance has deterred workers from returning to their jobs. But the curious situation of the enhanced unemployment benefits exceeding people’s wages also points to another grave (and worsening) aspect of American economic life that started well before the pandemic. A recent analysis by the Roosevelt Institute estimated that as many as 22 million people—or approximately 15 percent of the labor force in the country—did earn more money from collecting the enhanced pandemic unemployment than what they were paid by their jobs. That speaks less to the generosity of the dole than it does to the explosion of low-wage work over the past several decades, and any serious attempt to revive the devastated economy when the pandemic has passed will have to foreground that crisis.


newrepublic--2020-08-05--This Is How Trump Will Try to Take Down Kamala Harris

Yes , I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker .
And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco .
I have also helped the careers of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , Gov .
Gavin Newsom , Sen. Dianne Feinstein and a host of other politicians .
The difference is that Harris is the only one who , after I helped her , sent word that I would be indicted if I ‘ so much as jaywalked ’ while she was D.A .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were defensible because they ’ d been made within a very large and influential political machine and because Harris would go on to promise , almost a decade later , to keep an eye on Brown as district attorney .
Ultimately , Brown never became a problem for Harris ’ s presidential campaign , and interest in him faded even within conservative media , which latched onto the issue for a moment when Harris was announced .
Curiously , the right is keeping mostly quiet about him , even now as Harris returns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contender .
On his show Monday night , Tucker Carlson opened with a segment on the veepstakes in which he argued that Biden ’ s running mate will be the “ actual Democratic nominee ” and “ the person who will run the government if Biden wins in November.
” Before turning to Susan Rice , whom he framed as the frontrunner , Carlson singled out Harris , Bass , and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams for criticism .
“ In a normal year , no mainstream candidate would consider any of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ All of them would be disqualified without debate.
” He went on to list their faults : Karen Bass is a lunatic Fidel Castro acolyte who praised Scientology and once belonged to an armed revolutionary group .
She ’ s out .
Stacey Abrams is so delusional she thinks she ’ s the governor of Georgia—and by the way , she ’ s essentially unemployed .
In one of her last regular jobs , she wrote bad porn novels—for real .
Kamala Harris , meanwhile , is so transparently transactional , even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ strong stomach , found her repulsive .
Pretty much no one who knows Kamala Harris likes her .
One of these critiques is not like the others : The dirt on Bass and Abrams was followed by a hit on Harris ’ s personality and ambition .
It would be truly odd if researchers who went to the trouble of bringing up a B or C list contender ’ s writing career managed to miss Willie Brown .
But he wasn ’ t mentioned—not on Carlson ’ s Monday show , not in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same night , and not in Carlson ’ s extended riff on Harris last week .
This may well be a simple oversight—a stuck gear in the typically well-oiled conservative noise machine .
But there are two other possibilities .
It ’ s plausible that conservative operatives just don ’ t think they can use the Brown material .
It ’ s also plausible that they ’ re waiting for Harris ’ s selection to “ discover ” the story and use it against her .
It shouldn ’ t be forgotten @ @ @ @ @ @ @ favorite subjects of late has been the governance of Democratic cities .
In fact , he and the rest of the right have been particularly fixated on San Francisco , which the conservative press regularly depicts as a lawless progressive dystopia .
Moreover , it ’ s hard to imagine a more irresistible line of attack for Trump : He is obviously comfortable deploying both crude sexism and racist innuendo for his own ends .
And there ’ s no reason to believe corruption in his administration would render him any less willing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all , the assault accusations leveled against him in 2016 didn ’ t dissuade him from resurrecting the allegations against Bill Clinton .
Rather , they encouraged him to do it .
But the inevitability of a discourse about Brown if Harris is selected has less to do with Trump ’ s particular traits than the fundamental habits and strategies of Republican mudslinging .
Figures like Brown have been the subject of right-wing messaging and attack ads for generations .
Whether those attacks will actually work on anyone outside the Republican base in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
For one , Trump ’ s bigotry and culture war offensives have alienated moderate and suburban voters over the course of his presidency—doubling down on them against Harris or anyone else could very well backfire .
And voters of all stripes clearly have more important things on their minds right now ; the coronavirus pandemic might drown out Republican attempts to drum up scandal as thoroughly as the financial crisis helped drown out messaging about Tony Rezko , Jeremiah Wright , and all the other opponents against Barack Obama in 2008 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ imagine Karen Bass as an armed revolutionary demonstrates , it ’ s likely that a flailing Trump campaign will try to throw the sink at Harris or whoever the running mate is anyway .

This may well be a simple oversight—a stuck gear in the typically well-oiled conservative noise machine. But there are two other possibilities. It’s plausible that conservative operatives just don’t think they can use the Brown material. It’s also plausible that they’re waiting for Harris’s selection to “discover” the story and use it against her. It shouldn’t be forgotten that one of President Trump’s favorite subjects of late has been the governance of Democratic cities. In fact, he and the rest of the right have been particularly fixated on San Francisco, which the conservative press regularly depicts as a lawless progressive dystopia. Moreover, it’s hard to imagine a more irresistible line of attack for Trump: He is obviously comfortable deploying both crude sexism and racist innuendo for his own ends. And there’s no reason to believe corruption in his administration would render him any less willing to make patronage an issue. After all, the assault accusations leveled against him in 2016 didn’t dissuade him from resurrecting the allegations against Bill Clinton. Rather, they encouraged him to do it.
But the inevitability of a discourse about Brown if Harris is selected has less to do with Trump’s particular traits than the fundamental habits and strategies of Republican mudslinging. Figures like Brown have been the subject of right-wing messaging and attack ads for generations. Whether those attacks will actually work on anyone outside the Republican base in this particular election is an open question. For one, Trump’s bigotry and culture war offensives have alienated moderate and suburban voters over the course of his presidency—doubling down on them against Harris or anyone else could very well backfire. And voters of all stripes clearly have more important things on their minds right now; the coronavirus pandemic might drown out Republican attempts to drum up scandal as thoroughly as the financial crisis helped drown out messaging about Tony Rezko, Jeremiah Wright, and all the other opposition research against Barack Obama in 2008. But as the effort to have us imagine Karen Bass as an armed revolutionary demonstrates, it’s likely that a flailing Trump campaign will try to throw the sink at Harris or whoever the running mate is anyway.


newrepublic--2020-08-05--I’m a Teacher in New York. I’m Doing My Job by Fighting an Unsafe Reopening.

What worries me most about schools reopening in the fall is that more people will die .
Right now teachers are feeling like we ’ re rushing toward a reopening that isn ’ t well thought out .
That ’ s why teachers across the country are talking about safety strikes and staging sick-outs .
As I mentioned back in May , just among my students ’ families and our paraprofessionals ’ families in my small classroom , we had 14 deaths from Covid-19 .
I don ’ t want that happening again , and I know that my students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Under the current reopening plan at my school , we ’ re going to have three cohorts because we can only fit about a third of the students in the school under the social distancing guidelines in place .
And that means that students are only going to be in school one to two days a week .
But if I ’ m in the classroom on Monday and cohort A is with me , then cohort B and C are going to be home remote-learning .
Who ’ s going to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ haven ’ t gotten any information or transparency on questions like that .
There ’ s also the issue of proper ventilation .
So many of our school buildings are older or already overcrowded ; they ’ re not set up for social distancing .
My classroom is windowless , which means that it would need an HVAC filter .
But my principal is worried that there won ’ t be an adequate filter set up by fall , so I ’ m going to have to teach my class in the library @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that can ’ t use their classroom for safety reasons .
So that ’ s at least two classrooms in the same library , with everyone trying to learn and simultaneously trying to socially distance from each other .
How is that a good idea for students or for teachers ?
For those arguing that it ’ s our duty to go back to school , like The Atlantic piece about teachers “ rising to the occasion ” of essential work , I ’ d tell them that our duty is to each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sure the community is safe .
And in a pandemic , we do that through making sure that we ’ re social distancing and staying away from indoor areas as much as we can .
The reason I am not going back to the classroom is to keep all of us safe .
None of us should be martyrs , and making ourselves martyrs will only create resentment .
It just doesn ’ t make sense to have an eighth of the city ’ s population—1.1 million students—go back to schools in person @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the spread of the coronavirus and put all New Yorkers in danger .

What worries me most about schools reopening in the fall is that more people will die. Right now teachers are feeling like we’re rushing toward a reopening that isn’t well thought out. That’s why teachers across the country are talking about safety strikes and staging sick-outs. As I mentioned back in May, just among my students’ families and our paraprofessionals’ families in my small classroom, we had 14 deaths from Covid-19. I don’t want that happening again, and I know that my students are still dealing with that grief.
Under the current reopening plan at my school, we’re going to have three cohorts because we can only fit about a third of the students in the school under the social distancing guidelines in place. And that means that students are only going to be in school one to two days a week. But if I’m in the classroom on Monday and cohort A is with me, then cohort B and C are going to be home remote-learning. Who’s going to be teaching them that day? We just haven’t gotten any information or transparency on questions like that.


newrepublic--2020-08-05--The Pandemic Benefit Seems So Great Because Actual Wages Are Insanely Low


newrepublic--2020-08-06--“Family Life Coaches,” Private Jets, and the One Percent’s Pandemic Economy

A “ family life coach ” position in Aspen pays between $ 80,000- $ 100,000—the ideal applicant “ wins , ” is willing to make time for “ overnight stays , ” and possesses the “ 3G ’ s : Grit , growth , gratitude.
” A private teaching position in the Bay Area for a backyard school will net you $ 120,000 ( and a $ 2,000 UberEats bonus for referrals ) .
Are you a nanny with experience as a camp counselor willing to oversee scavenger hunts and an obstacle course for a family ’ s private summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is perfect for you .
The rich have always sought to create private worlds of their own , cordoned off from the rest of the country and insulated from the violence their resource hoarding inflicts on others .
What the coronavirus has provided is a common denominator , a single ongoing event that has exacerbated every existing form of inequality and inspired among the elites a certain kind of brashness about getting what they believe is theirs to take : jumping to the front of the line to get tested , hiring concierge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sites .
And now , a life uninterrupted by a pandemic while others struggle to secure the basics for themselves and their families .
Across the country , public school systems are trying to develop best practices for another semester of remote learning that will service the tens of millions of parents and kids who depend on these institutions beyond their educational services .
This summer , teachers at public and private schools alike have organized against their administrations to ensure their school systems are doing everything possible to protect their students , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ ve done this while grappling with the fact that another remote semester will only further set back the students already disproportionately underserved by the education system ; in New York City , a recent review by the city ’ s Independent Budget Office found that the Grab & Go program designed to help feed children at risk of going hungry only distributed a quarter of the meals it usually provided children during in-person schooling .
As many schools have opted to pursue remote learning to start the fall , parents with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shelling out for private “ pod ” teachers .
A “ microschool community ” in San Francisco is footing the bill for registered nurses to conduct weekly Covid-19 tests for their hired teachers .
Another group , also in the Bay Area , is looking for a Spanish-fluent teacher to keep up with their kindergartners ’ language immersion program .
In New York City , two parents are looking for a live-in “ teacher nanny ” to work 40 to 45 hours a week at their house in the suburbs .
“ You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is better contained , ” the job listing reads .
“ You have separate living quarters and you can leave the property whenever you like but on foot.
” The pay for this year-round service starts at $ 70,000 but no worries : “ You are welcome to give up your apartment and stay with them for the year and save money.
” These are jobs in a country where millions of people need them—the arrangements might even be an improvement for some teachers—but the dynamic is still a broken one .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 20 states was above ten percent while the virus continues to hospitalize and kill a rising number of people in this country .
Meanwhile , the main debate being had on Capitol Hill this summer concerned whether the government was distributing too much money to working and middle-class people suddenly out of a job—all while Congress breezily passed a $ 740 billion defense bill and left for a nice paid summer break .

With the Paycheck Protection Program funds for small businesses from the spring beginning to dry up and the $600 unemployment stimulus expired, thousands of locally owned restaurants now have to choose between closing up shop temporarily or going out of business—and putting their employees out of work—for good. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, a chief executive officer is offering a job for a personal chef at “one of his personal homes.” Bonus points if the candidate has “the ability and desire to organize, clean, and manage the dwelling.” Other, more health-conscious rich families have made compromises—like having their personal chefs cook in the pool house.
These jobs servicing the elite are not random; they are the product of a system that has clearly been designed for one group and not the other. Doing its part to add to the misery, the best–or rather, most telling–plan the White House has been able to foist came in the form of the Ivanka Trump-led “Find Something New” campaign that debuted last month—a public initiative that tried to rebrand the widespread joblessness crisis as an opportunity to switch career paths. I am set to be an ecologist; others, like my editor, are destined to be interplanetary doctors (presumably for a wealthy family of four living in the Mars version of the Hamptons.)
In this void created by federal inaction, the wealthy have chosen to help themselves. The demand for private jets was so high in April that operators were running out of planes. (It helped that Congress carved out multiple tax breaks for private jet companies, dropping both the federal excise tax and fuel tax.) For families looking to stay closer to home, many hauled their nannies to their summer homes, threatening to fire them if the at-risk workers refused to incubate themselves. Martha Stewart now lives full-time with her gardener, driver, and housekeeper—her “three detainees,” she called them—at her Westchester home. When some families went to hire replacement workers, they added stipulations including Covid-19 antibodies.


newrepublic--2020-08-06--Death by a Thousand Cuts for One of America’s Last Great Institutions

The result is increased pressure and the lingering doubt that begins to creep in when one wonders about whether they ’ re witnessing signs of the end times of the career they were promised .
Even with an entire staff of letter carriers working overtime , mail is backing up .
Multiple carriers I spoke with said that it feels like the Christmas season constantly , with packages piling up now that more people are shopping from home , scared to spend extended time in brick-and-mortar stores .
The workload itself is overwhelming , and when coupled with the ongoing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the United States Postal Service , or USPS , the situation begins to feel untenable for the physical and mental well-being of letter carriers and other postal workers experiencing similar circumstances across the country .
“ It ’ d be nice if I could go back to not only hearing about my job when it ’ s about to get taken out from under me , ” said one suburban letter carrier .
At the risk of oversimplifying a complex issue , that ’ s what is at stake .
Besides its consistent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is one of the last institutions that provide a gateway to a comfortable living for those with limited options .
There are no degree or diploma requirements .
Nearly 100,000 employees are veterans , and the ones I knew were comfortable in the work because it resembled the structure and management hierarchies they experienced in the military .
While the postal service may survive privatization in name , hundreds of thousands will lose the reliability of knowing that they have a career—an actual pathway to something like middle-class comfort—instead of just another temporary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them at the whims of the profiteers .
Its destruction would mean the end of a connected country—those gifts and packages to families in the rural corners of America , letters to incarcerated loved ones , and money orders for those without easy access to a bank .
We ’ re going to kill one of the last good public institutions so that private enterprise can deliver a few more packages for less money while the rest of the country suffers , losing a massive piece of our essential sense of community .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ are plenty of branches here in Philadelphia that have it worse than us , ” said a carrier of over 20 years .
“ We ’ re at least getting all the mail out .
For now , at least , until this new guy ’ s impossible shit gets started.
” The “ new guy ” is Postmaster General Louis DeJoy , a significant Republican fundraiser and Trump donor who took office in June of this year .
Adding to the skepticism is the fact that President Trump has already gone on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ postal service in 2018 .
Among carriers spoken to for this story , the consensus was that it ’ s not a matter of if DeJoy ’ s endgame is forcing privatization but when .
“ This talk of taking away hours or privatizing has been going on for a long time , but this one feels a little bit different , ” Larry King , a retired carrier of more than 30 years in Uniontown , Pennsylvania , told me .
King served as president and vice president of the National Association @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local branch 520 and currently serves as treasurer .
Threats to remove Saturday delivery , move to a five-day delivery schedule , and other cost-cutting measures have been floated since the 1980s .
“ This time you ’ ve got a postmaster general that doesn ’ t know anything about the mail , ” he said .
“ First time in twenty years we ’ ve had someone with no experience in the post office running things .
And he ’ s got $ 30 to $ 70 million [ invested ] in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I think this time it feels a lot more real.
” DeJoy ’ s vision for the future of the USPS is littered with the types of efficiency buzzwords that make private equity goons salivate but has no practical path toward implementation without destroying the service and reputation that has made it the most highly regarded federal agency in America .
Among the most impractical is the complete elimination of overtime pay and a forced , structured workday that is not to exceed eight hours for any given carrier .
For post offices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where a handful of employees indicated that all 70-plus carriers are working 10 to 12 hour days just to clear the mail , it ’ s an impossible vision and one with implications that are forcing carriers to mentally grapple with decades of training .
“ That overtime pay really helps with $ 20,000 of daycare every goddamn year , ” said one carrier , who pointed out the most damning implication of removing overtime from thousands of carriers across the country .
It ’ s akin to a massive salary cut for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warning or preparation .
While overtime pay is , by definition , above and beyond the expected scope of duties and scope of pay , it ’ s a vital piece of the puzzle for mail carriers .
Among the carriers I spoke with and have known , and the many anecdotes relayed from union people from other areas of the country , there ’ s a consensus on the best way to use the job to climb the socioeconomic ladder : take advantage of your body while you can .
For workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves in physical shape as they age , there are more opportunities for hours .
The mail has to get delivered , after all , and there ’ s usually too much for everyone to manage in the eight allotted hours of pay at the standard hourly rate ( starting hourly wage for an entry-level carrier with no previous experience is just over $ 16 ) .

DeJoy’s vision for the future of the USPS is littered with the types of efficiency buzzwords that make private equity goons salivate but has no practical path toward implementation without destroying the service and reputation that has made it the most highly regarded federal agency in America. Among the most impractical is the complete elimination of overtime pay and a forced, structured workday that is not to exceed eight hours for any given carrier. For post offices like the one in southeastern Pennsylvania, where a handful of employees indicated that all 70-plus carriers are working 10 to 12 hour days just to clear the mail, it’s an impossible vision and one with implications that are forcing carriers to mentally grapple with decades of training. “That overtime pay really helps with $20,000 of daycare every goddamn year,” said one carrier, who pointed out the most damning implication of removing overtime from thousands of carriers across the country. It’s akin to a massive salary cut for countless workers, with little to no warning or preparation.
While overtime pay is, by definition, above and beyond the expected scope of duties and scope of pay, it’s a vital piece of the puzzle for mail carriers. Among the carriers I spoke with and have known, and the many anecdotes relayed from union people from other areas of the country, there’s a consensus on the best way to use the job to climb the socioeconomic ladder: take advantage of your body while you can. For workers who begin their careers early or keep themselves in physical shape as they age, there are more opportunities for hours. The mail has to get delivered, after all, and there’s usually too much for everyone to manage in the eight allotted hours of pay at the standard hourly rate (starting hourly wage for an entry-level carrier with no previous experience is just over $16).
Picking up more hours means more money, and with enough time-and-a-half or double-time pay after eight and ten hours on the street respectively, a carrier can earn a comfortable living—albeit at the expense of their physical comfort. By forcing carriers to lose their overtime pay, that hustle into the upper-middle class disappears. Perhaps worst of all, it will come with ruining the reputation of the service, as dissatisfied customers are inevitable if employees are being ordered to just return with crates of undelivered mail when eight hours is up.


newrepublic--2020-08-06--Climate “Realism” Is the New Climate Denial

Peaks in tweeting activity on alarmism and realism often correspond to high-profile speeches by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg ; the highest level of alarmism/realism tweeting activity came on the day of Greta ’ s famous “ How Dare You ” speech during the U.N .
Climate Summit .
This is consistent with a longstanding pattern others have observed as well : The climate change denial machine always goes in full gear just as global action on climate change becomes a higher priority for government policies , much like the tobacco industry and its misinformation campaign reached a peak as government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enacted .
The term “ alarmists ” has been used by deniers in the past , mostly to denigrate climate scientists .
But today , the dichotomy of alarmism and realism appears to be carefully constructed around Thunberg , whom deniers consider a stereotypical “ alarmist.
” While some use of the term “ alarmist ” may be organic , some of it seems more deliberate .
Over the past year , the Heartland Institute has enlisted Naomi Seibt as a counter-figure to Thunberg .
Seibt denounced the scientists ’ and Thunberg ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it with the “ climate realism ” of those who , Seibt and Heartland would have it , are merely skeptics grounded in reality .
In March , Friends of Science , a notorious climate change denial website , published a video with a title that all too clearly summarized the communicative strategy : “ Greta or Naomi : Climate Alarmism v Realism.
” Accumulating proof of anthropogenic global warming and climate disruption within our ecosystems has made it increasingly difficult even for deep-pocketed deniers to argue against emissions-curbing laws .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caps and rising seas , and more intense , frequent fires , floods , and extreme weather events , how do you keep convincing people that climate change is not an immediate priority and also not humanity ’ s ( or , more specifically , the fossil fuel industry ’ s ) responsibility ?
Results from our data analysis show that between 50 and 60 percent of the top users most frequently tweeting on climate realism and alarmism follow the Heartland ’ s Twitter account .
The think tank also frequently used the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ website and , around the end of 2019 , went so far as to launch the website climaterealism.com .
The Heartland Institute has received extensive funding from the fossil fuel industry .
Most of Heartland ’ s income comes through Donors Capital Fund and its affiliated organization Donors Trust , both described as the “ dark money ATM ” of the conservative movement for their ability to funnel funding while concealing identities .
Greenpeace ’ s ExxonSecrets reports that the Heartland Institute has received $ 676,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998 and at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the total today might be even higher .
A 2019 Influence Map report found that “ the five largest publicly-traded oil and gas majors ( ExxonMobil , Royal Dutch Shell , Chevron , BP , and Total ) have invested over $ 1Bn of shareholder funds in the three years following the Paris Agreement on misleading climate-related branding and lobbying.
” While Seibt reportedly chose not to renew her contract with Heartland as of April 2020 after facing potential fines from a regional broadcasting authority , the Heartland ’ s YouTuber phase is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ denial machine .
Seibt offered a strong online presence to counter Thunberg , creating the perception of an ongoing debate on climate change and the degree and timing of its impacts .
Transforming climate change into a political issue rather than a scientific one , and making sure it stays that way , allows the denial machine—the fossil fuel industry , the conservative think tanks , the ultra-conservative politicians and their media platforms—to exploit public polarization and to keep telling “ their side of the story.
” Framing the debate as “ realism @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emotions and exploits the public ’ s fear of an altered planet and the sense of losing control over our future .
Who doesn ’ t want to hear that worst-case scenarios—the loss of beloved cities , the collapse of biodiversity and agriculture , deaths through severe weather and starvation—are mere hysteria ?
But the deniers ’ campaigns are fundamentally economical—it ’ s about power and money .
By spreading doubt and misinforming , the fossil fuel industry can delay emission-control measures and continue to pursue its billion-dollar profits undisturbed .

Curious about the development of this new communicative strategy on social media, we recently collected all English-language tweets that contained a set of keywords linked to climate alarmism and realism since the launch of Twitter in 2006. That amounted to a total of 66,561 tweets, with a tweet matching the keywords first appearing in December 2007. While the use of both expressions on Twitter was negligible until 2016 (an average of fewer than 200 tweets per year), the use of the two terms started increasing in 2016. Not until 2019 did the terms climate “realism” and “alarmism” become commonplace: Between January 2016 and March 2020, the use of these terms grew by 900 percent, with the largest yearly increase recorded between 2018 and 2019.
This obviously wasn’t a peer-reviewed statistical study, which would need to investigate how these trends compared to broader trends on Twitter: the growth of tweeting overall, for example. But we were interested in what these tweets, laid alongside rhetoric shifts from prominent institutions and individuals, suggested about the way this narrative was developing and being deployed in reaction to individual events. The jump from 2018 to 2019, for instance, corresponds to another trend: 2019 represented a watershed year for climate action and public awareness on the climate crisis, so much so that it has been defined on more than one occasion as “the year the world woke up to climate change.”