vox--2020-08-22--Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the future of the left

This week ’ s Democratic National Convention roused more fuzzy feelings than a Hallmark movie .
From the heartwarming story of a teenager learning to manage his stutter to the endearing testament of Joe Biden finding love after losing his first wife and daughter in a car crash , the Democratic Party ’ s narrative arc inspired millions yearning for a return to American character and civility .
Yet for many progressives , the week was also laced with angst .
A number of Republicans received invitations to speak , while progressive star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was only given a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Hill suggested Democrats might dawdle on pushing for a public option even as a pandemic rages through the nation .
Then the Huffington Post noted that the DNC “ dropped language calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks from its party platform.
” Biden had been making overtures to progressives , but they started to wonder if , as president , he might swap progressive ambition for political austerity .
Thus , it ’ s here , between skeptical support for Joe Biden and overwhelming opposition to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ future .
For two presidential cycles , Sen. Bernie Sanders ignited and expanded the progressive left .
Now organizers and activists seek to build on that working-class coalition by tapping into the energy of a national anti-racist protest movement and an increasingly diverse citizenry .
It ’ s a political strategy previewed this week by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the DNC .
Ocasio-Cortez ’ s brief speech described the left as a mass movement not only fighting for “ guaranteed health care , higher education , living wages , and labor rights ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ repair the wounds of racial injustice , colonization , misogyny , and homophobia.
” AOC — a young , progressive economic populist — stands amid a cohort of movement-based officials and candidates like Ilhan Omar , Rashida Tlaib , Ayanna Pressley , Cori Bush , and Jamaal Bowman ( none besides AOC were invited to speak at the convention ) , who make up a newer , more diverse class of progressive politicians .
Both in 2016 and 2020 , the significant critique of the Sanders left was its shortcomings in mobilizing enough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Now , during America ’ s racial reckoning , progressives are seeking to fix that .
But just as urgent is their desire to get Trump out .
For progressives , Biden is not ideal , but Trump is catastrophic From the Blue Dog Democrats to the democratic socialists , many agree that Donald Trump is an existential threat to American democracy .
It was a consistent theme for the DNC .
“ I am ... asking you to believe in your own ability — to embrace your own responsibility as citizens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tenets of our democracy endure , ” former President Barack Obama said in his remarks .
“ Because that ’ s what ’ s at stake right now .
Our democracy.
” Sanders himself argued that “ at its most basic , this election is about preserving our democracy.
” Likewise , in a debrief following her comments , AOC said voting for Biden was about “ stopping fascism in the United States — that is what Donald Trump represents.
” They are forming an alliance , however uneasy , with establishment Democrats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allows us to move from defense to offense , ” says the Working Families Party ’ s national campaign director , Joe Dinkin .
“ Living in Trump ’ s America is living every day to stop the latest attack on constituencies that we care about — on working-class people of color.
” Dinkin describes electing Biden as “ a door , not a destination ” that allows for groups like WFP to grow a movement and make demands for more expansive policies .
“ The very next task is to end the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The political calamity of the Trump administration has unified the party behind Biden for now , the scope of the devastation stretches so wide — a deadly pandemic , lynchings , double-digit unemployment rates — that progressives believe the left will remain highly mobilized even if Biden wins .
“ Some of the richest people in the world are still getting richer , and millions of people are on the cusp of eviction or foreclosure or hunger , ” Dinkin tells Vox .
“ The dramatic crisis that we ’ re facing is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the WFP , AOC , and our allies have been working on.
” The left believes its future is in organizing diverse coalitions The Democratic Socialists of America , which stands to the left of the WFP , has a similar theory of the case on holding a future Biden administration accountable and expanding progressives ’ power .
“ It was a myth that you just vote in November and then your work as a political actor is done .
That is not what we see now in DSA , ” says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group ’ s National Political Committee .
“ People are very animated and want to be involved and do more than vote .
So as it relates to whatever administration is coming next — the energy that I see , I don ’ t fear dissipating.
” Following the protests over the police killing of George Floyd , James says DSA has been working to support Black Lives Matter activists and organizations to conduct “ progressive politics in a way that is in genuine solidarity with all communities.
” “ We need to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” she continues .
“ Showing up to protest is a great step one , but how do we now , as a left , strategize around building coalitions , listening to Black leadership , understanding that there are incredible moments of opportunity for young Black leaders to emerge , but also our consulting elders who ’ ve been in this moment from civil rights and beyond .
This is a crucial moment to understand what genuine solidarity and collective organizing means in creating an antiracist society.
” As groups like DSA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a particularly uncertain environment , however .
Alliances have been drawn and redrawn by Covid-19 , an unpredictable president , and the economic collapse .
These shifting political currents makes a long term organizing a tricky order .
Yet this type of multiracial coalition-building is something that Ocasio-Cortez , whom James describes as “ a really important leader ” for DSA , has excelled at in her congressional career .
Regularly advocating for anti-racism , reparations , police reform on her social media platforms and on the Hill , she has drawn comparisons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and politicians like Shirley Chisholm .
Her ease with Black activists and thinkers is a coveted asset for progressives who have long struggled to win over Black voters from mainstream Democrats .
Often progressives are accused of forging a reductive analysis of the role of racism in American society in relation to class .
For all the good Sanders has done the progressive movement , his approach with Black voters did him no favors .
Berkeley law professor Ian Haney López wrote in Merge Left : Fusing Race and Class , Winning Elections @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s “ approach to race carries a real cost , creating blind spots regarding how racism works today as well as alienating racial justice activists who form an influential part of the Democratic base.
” Sanders changed his political outreach in 2020 .
In 2016 , the Sanders leadership team was all white , and even Sanders himself conceded that his campaign was too white .
In 2020 , the campaign made a push to diversify and built a leadership team with workers who were Black and of South Asian and Pakistani descent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Southwest , the campaign ’ s months of investment in relational organizing led to a huge win in the Nevada caucuses thanks in large part to Latino voters .
Sanders had lost the state to Clinton in 2016 .
When he was still surging at the top of the year , Sanders even overtook Biden in Reuters polling among Black voters in late February .
Yet despite the campaign shifts , Sanders was trounced as the race moved through the South where Black voters revived Biden .
Today , still aiming to diversify @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into coalition-building with Black activist organizations .
Thus far , they ’ ve leveraged local chapters to help support Movement for Black Lives agenda items like defunding the police .
“ There ’ s a lot of conversation happening around how we build coalitions across a very stark racial divide in this country , ” James told Vox , adding that right now that looks like investing in campaigns at the local level to reroute municipal funding from police to community safety initiatives and educational opportunities in Black communities .
For years , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the progressive left .
He attracted young supporters .
He bolstered political legitimacy .
Yet Sanders will be 79 in September .
It is “ very , very unlikely ” he ’ ll run again .
A new generation of left advocates , who are rooted in the lived experience of discrimination and fluent in the language of racial justice , stand ready to take his place .
In so many ways , the future of Bernie ’ s movement looks a lot like AOC .
Correction : This story has been updated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ James of the DSA .
In the spring , we launched a program asking readers for financial contributions to help keep Vox free for everyone , and last week , we set a goal of reaching 20,000 contributors .
Well , you helped us blow past that .
Today , we are extending that goal to 25,000 .
Millions turn to Vox each month to understand an increasingly chaotic world — from what is happening with the USPS to the coronavirus crisis to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work — and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world .
Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

This week’s Democratic National Convention roused more fuzzy feelings than a Hallmark movie.
From the heartwarming story of a teenager learning to manage his stutter to the endearing testament of Joe Biden finding love after losing his first wife and daughter in a car crash, the Democratic Party’s narrative arc inspired millions yearning for a return to American character and civility.
Yet for many progressives, the week was also laced with angst.
A number of Republicans received invitations to speak, while progressive star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was only given a minute to speak. A story reported in the Hill suggested Democrats might dawdle on pushing for a public option even as a pandemic rages through the nation. Then the HuffPost noted that the DNC “dropped language calling for an end to fossil fuel subsidies and tax breaks from its party platform.” Biden had been making overtures to progressives, but they started to wonder if, as president, he might swap progressive ambition for political austerity.
Thus, it’s here, between skeptical support for Joe Biden and overwhelming opposition to Donald Trump, that progressives chart their future. For two presidential cycles, Sen. Bernie Sanders ignited and expanded the progressive left. Now organizers and activists seek to build on that working-class coalition by tapping into the energy of a national anti-racist protest movement and an increasingly diverse citizenry. It’s a political strategy previewed this week by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the DNC.
Ocasio-Cortez’s brief speech described the left as a mass movement not only fighting for “guaranteed health care, higher education, living wages, and labor rights” but also “striving to recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny, and homophobia.”
AOC — a young, progressive economic populist — stands amid a cohort of movement-based officials and candidates like Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Cori Bush, and Jamaal Bowman (none besides AOC were invited to speak at the convention), who make up a newer, more diverse class of progressive politicians. Both in 2016 and 2020, the significant critique of the Sanders left was its shortcomings in mobilizing enough people of color, particularly Black voters.
Now, during America’s racial reckoning, progressives are seeking to fix that. But just as urgent is their desire to get Trump out.
For progressives, Biden is not ideal, but Trump is catastrophic
From the Blue Dog Democrats to the democratic socialists, many agree that Donald Trump is an existential threat to American democracy. It was a consistent theme for the DNC.
“I am ... asking you to believe in your own ability — to embrace your own responsibility as citizens — to make sure that the basic tenets of our democracy endure,” former President Barack Obama said in his remarks. “Because that’s what’s at stake right now. Our democracy.”
Sanders himself argued that “at its most basic, this election is about preserving our democracy.” Likewise, in a debrief following her comments, AOC said voting for Biden was about “stopping fascism in the United States — that is what Donald Trump represents.”
They are forming an alliance, however uneasy, with establishment Democrats to defeat Trump.
“Electing Biden allows us to move from defense to offense,” says the Working Families Party’s national campaign director, Joe Dinkin. “Living in Trump’s America is living every day to stop the latest attack on constituencies that we care about — on working-class people, people of color.” Dinkin describes electing Biden as “a door, not a destination” that allows for groups like WFP to grow a movement and make demands for more expansive policies.
“The very next task is to end the Trump era,” he continued. The political calamity of the Trump administration has unified the party behind Biden for now, the scope of the devastation stretches so wide — a deadly pandemic, lynchings, double-digit unemployment rates — that progressives believe the left will remain highly mobilized even if Biden wins.
“Some of the richest people in the world are still getting richer, and millions of people are on the cusp of eviction or foreclosure or hunger,” Dinkin tells Vox. “The dramatic crisis that we’re facing is making people embrace the kind of politics that the WFP, AOC, and our allies have been working on.”
The left believes its future is in organizing diverse coalitions
The Democratic Socialists of America, which stands to the left of the WFP, has a similar theory of the case on holding a future Biden administration accountable and expanding progressives’ power.
“It was a myth that you just vote in November and then your work as a political actor is done. That is not what we see now in DSA,” says Maikiko James, who serves on the group’s National Political Committee. “People are very animated and want to be involved and do more than vote. So as it relates to whatever administration is coming next — the energy that I see, I don’t fear dissipating.”
Following the protests over the police killing of George Floyd, James says the DSA has been working to support Black Lives Matter activists and organizations to conduct “progressive politics in a way that is in genuine solidarity with all communities.”
“We need to actively defend Black lives in material ways,” she continues. “Showing up to protest is a great step one, but how do we now, as a left, strategize around building coalitions, listening to Black leadership, understanding that there are incredible moments of opportunity for young Black leaders to emerge, but also our consulting elders who’ve been in this moment from civil rights and beyond. This is a crucial moment to understand what genuine solidarity and collective organizing means in creating an antiracist society.”
As groups like DSA work to expand their appeal, however, they face a particularly uncertain environment. Alliances have been drawn and redrawn by Covid-19, an unpredictable president, and the economic collapse. These shifting political currents make long-term organizing a tricky order.
Yet this type of multiracial coalition-building is something that Ocasio-Cortez, whom James describes as “a really important leader” for DSA, has excelled at in her congressional career. Regularly advocating for anti-racism, reparations, and police reform on her social media platforms and on the Hill, she has drawn comparisons to activists like Martin Luther King Jr. and politicians like Shirley Chisholm.
Her ease with Black activists and thinkers is a coveted asset for progressives who have long struggled to win over Black voters from mainstream Democrats. Often progressives are accused of forging a reductive analysis of the role of racism in American society in relation to class.
For all the good Sanders has done the progressive movement, his approach with Black voters did him no favors. Berkeley law professor Ian Haney López wrote in Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America that Sanders’s “approach to race carries a real cost, creating blind spots regarding how racism works today as well as alienating racial justice activists who form an influential part of the Democratic base.”
Sanders changed his political outreach in 2020. In 2016, the Sanders leadership team was all white, and even Sanders himself conceded that his campaign was too white.
In 2020, the campaign made a push to diversify and built a leadership team with workers who were Black and of South Asian and Pakistani descent, among other ethnicities. In the Southwest, the campaign’s months of investment in relational organizing led to a huge win in the Nevada caucuses thanks in large part to Latino voters. Sanders had lost the state to Clinton in 2016. When he was still surging at the top of the year, Sanders even overtook Biden in Reuters polling among Black voters in late February. Yet despite the campaign shifts, Sanders was trounced as the race moved through the South where Black voters revived Biden.
Today, still aiming to diversify, groups like the DSA have thrown themselves into coalition-building with Black activist organizations. Thus far, they’ve leveraged local chapters to help support Movement for Black Lives agenda items like defunding the police.
“There’s a lot of conversation happening around how we build coalitions across a very stark racial divide in this country,” James told Vox, adding that right now that looks like investing in campaigns at the local level to reroute municipal funding from police to community safety initiatives and educational opportunities in Black communities.
For years, Sanders sustained the organizations like DSA on the progressive left. He attracted young supporters. He bolstered political legitimacy. Yet Sanders will be 79 in September. It is “very, very unlikely” he’ll run again.
A new generation of left advocates, who are rooted in the lived experience of discrimination and fluent in the language of racial justice, stand ready to take his place. In so many ways, the future of Bernie’s movement looks a lot like AOC.
Correction, August 22: This story has been updated to include the correct pronouns for Maikiko James of the DSA.
New goal: 25,000
In the spring, we launched a program asking readers for financial contributions to help keep Vox free for everyone, and last week, we set a goal of reaching 20,000 contributors. Well, you helped us blow past that. Today, we are extending that goal to 25,000. Millions turn to Vox each month to understand an increasingly chaotic world — from what is happening with the USPS to the coronavirus crisis to what is, quite possibly, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers, your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work — and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world. Contribute today from as little as $3.


vox--2020-08-22--Trump calls for law enforcement at the polls, prompting cries of voter intimidation

President Donald Trump said Thursday he wants to dispatch law enforcement officials to polling places in November to guard against voter fraud , even though it ’ s unclear whether he can legally do so .
Voting rights advocates have raised concerns that even if Trump ’ s idea doesn ’ t come to fruition , it could discourage some voters from heading to the polls .
It ’ s the latest in a series of statements indicating Trump ’ s interest in influencing how people vote in the November presidential election .
“ We ’ re going to have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ News ’ Sean Hannity .
“ We ’ re going to have sheriffs , and we ’ re going to have law enforcement , and we ’ re going to have , hopefully , US attorneys , and we ’ re going to have everybody and attorney generals.
” Federal law prohibits officials from sending “ armed men ” to “ any place where a general or special election is held , ” and only local officials have influence over police and sheriff ’ s deputies .
But his messaging may inspire local @ @ @ @ @ @ @ having figures of authority like police guarding polling places could have the effect of intimidating voters and discouraging them from turning out to vote .
“ This is just such an old , dirty voter suppression tactic , ” Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers ’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law told the Washington Post .
“ There is no doubt that this is about instilling fear and depressing participation in communities of color.
” In recent years , citizen groups organized to watch for voter fraud have recruited people to serve as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ National Committee has also stepped up a campaign to recruit around 50,000 poll watchers to deploy during the November general election .
That ’ s made possible by the lapse in 2018 of a decades-old consent decree intended to protect against exactly what Trump suggested on Fox News .
In the early 1980s , Democrats accused the RNC of voter intimidation due to a program of off-duty law enforcement officers who patrolled polls in predominantly Black and Latino areas .
The Democratic National Committee sued , and the RNC entered into a federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to pursue such “ ballot security ” measures .
In the decades since , the RNC has been careful to avoid activities that could be construed as voter suppression , leaving the orchestration of poll watcher programs to campaigns and local organizations .
That means this fall will mark the first presidential election in decades in which the group is able to spearhead poll-watching activities .
The RNC has said their new poll watcher program will not include law enforcement officials but will rely on citizen volunteers , that volunteers will focus on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that they plan to be careful to be legally compliant so as not be put under another consent decree .
Trump ’ s comments are the latest in a series suggesting he ’ s interested in undermining Americans ’ faith in the election results and discouraging certain kinds of voting .
The president has long railed against mail-in voting , which he ’ s argued is ripe for fraud and manipulation .
There is little evidence to support that claim , but civil rights advocates have raised concerns that the repeated messages could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
His campaign has recently argued he in fact only opposes universal mail-in voting — rather than absentee or opt-in mail-in voting — which only a small number of states plan to do in the fall .
But the public clearly hasn ’ t gotten the distinction : Republican voters seem to be listening to the president ’ s warning more than Democratic ones , prompting some local Republican parties to quietly promote mail-in voting despite the president ’ s rhetoric .
Trump has also repeatedly criticized the U.S .
Postal Service as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said on Fox News he opposed $ 25 billion of proposed additional funding for the Postal Service because he didn ’ t want it to be used for mail-in voting .
He ’ s suggested withholding $ 3.6 billion in election funding for states to help prepare local election systems for the pandemic , including facilitating mail-in voting .
“ They need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots , ” Trump said .
“ But if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ items that means you can ’ t have universal mail-in voting because they ’ re not equipped to have it.
” He ’ s also proposed delaying the 2020 election “ until people can properly , securely and safely vote.
” All of these messages have already had an impact on how Americans think about the election .
A poll from NBC and the Wall Street Journal indicated that 45 percent of Americans believe votes in the 2020 election will be accurately counted — down from the 59 percent that believed so in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believe that mail-in ballots won ’ t be counted accurately .
As Trump continues to cast doubt on the methods for voting in the fall , voting experts fear it may delegitimize the results of the November election — another chaotic turn in an already tumultuous election year .

President Donald Trump said Thursday he wants to dispatch law enforcement officials to polling places in November to guard against voter fraud, even though it’s unclear whether he can legally do so.
Voting rights advocates have raised concerns that even if Trump’s idea doesn’t come to fruition, it could discourage some voters from heading to the polls. It’s the latest in a series of statements indicating Trump’s interest in influencing how people vote in the November presidential election.
“We’re going to have everything,” the president told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “We’re going to have sheriffs, and we’re going to have law enforcement, and we’re going to have, hopefully, US attorneys, and we’re going to have everybody and attorney generals.”
Trump says that on election day he's going to send law enforcement to polling locations pic.twitter.com/OpaYvUBY8P — Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) August 21, 2020
Federal law prohibits officials from sending “armed men” to “any place where a general or special election is held,” and only local officials have influence over police and sheriff’s deputies. But his messaging may inspire local action, and even the prospect of having figures of authority like police guarding polling places could have the effect of intimidating voters and discouraging them from turning out to vote.
“This is just such an old, dirty voter suppression tactic,” Kristen Clarke of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law told the Washington Post. “There is no doubt that this is about instilling fear and depressing participation in communities of color.”
In recent years, citizen groups organized to watch for voter fraud have recruited people to serve as poll watchers during elections. The Republican National Committee has also stepped up a campaign to recruit around 50,000 poll watchers to deploy during the November general election.
That’s made possible by the lapse in 2018 of a decades-old consent decree intended to protect against exactly what Trump suggested on Fox News. In the early 1980s, Democrats accused the RNC of voter intimidation due to a program of off-duty law enforcement officers who patrolled polls in predominantly Black and Latino areas.
The Democratic National Committee sued, and the RNC entered into a federal consent decree in which it agreed not to pursue such “ballot security” measures. In the decades since, the RNC has been careful to avoid activities that could be construed as voter suppression, leaving the orchestration of poll watcher programs to campaigns and local organizations.
That means this fall will mark the first presidential election in decades in which the group is able to spearhead poll-watching activities. The RNC has said its new poll watcher program will not include law enforcement officials but will rely on citizen volunteers, that volunteers will focus on both Democratic and GOP-leaning areas, and that it plans to be careful to be legally compliant so as not to be put under another consent decree.
Trump has long sowed doubt about safe voting methods
Trump’s comments are the latest in a series suggesting he’s interested in undermining Americans’ faith in the election results and discouraging certain kinds of voting.
The president has long railed against mail-in voting, which he’s argued is ripe for fraud and manipulation. There is little evidence to support that claim, but civil rights advocates have raised concerns that the repeated messages could impact voters’ faith in election systems.
His campaign has recently argued that he in fact only opposes universal mail-in voting — rather than absentee or opt-in mail-in voting — which only a small number of states plan to do in the fall.
But the public clearly hasn’t gotten the distinction: Republican voters seem to be listening to the president’s warning more than Democratic ones, prompting some local Republican parties to quietly promote mail-in voting despite the president’s rhetoric.
Trump has also repeatedly criticized the US Postal Service as costly and inefficient. Last week, he said on Fox News he opposed $25 billion of proposed additional funding for the Postal Service because he didn’t want it to be used for mail-in voting. He’s suggested withholding $3.6 billion in election funding for states to help prepare local election systems for the pandemic, including facilitating mail-in voting.
“They need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”
He’s also proposed delaying the 2020 election “until people can properly, securely and safely vote.”
All of these messages have already had an impact on how Americans think about the election. A poll from NBC and the Wall Street Journal indicated that 45 percent of Americans believe votes in the 2020 election will be accurately counted — down from the 59 percent that believed so in 2016. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans say they believe that mail-in ballots won’t be counted accurately.
As Trump continues to cast doubt on the methods for voting in the fall, voting experts fear it may delegitimize the results of the November election — another chaotic turn in an already tumultuous election year.
New goal: 25,000
In the spring, we launched a program asking readers for financial contributions to help keep Vox free for everyone, and last week, we set a goal of reaching 20,000 contributors. Well, you helped us blow past that. Today, we are extending that goal to 25,000. Millions turn to Vox each month to understand an increasingly chaotic world — from what is happening with the USPS to the coronavirus crisis to what is, quite possibly, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers, your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work — and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world. Contribute today from as little as $3.


vox--2020-08-22--Watch: In Wonder Woman 1984’s new trailer, Diana and Cheetah go head-to-head

The newest trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 has arrived , bringing us new action sequences , a romantic reunion , and an extended look at the movie ’ s new villain .
In it , Gal Gadot ’ s Diana Prince returns to us in the 1980s — 70 or so years since Wonder Woman ’ s adventures in her first film , and everything is glitzy , golden , and perfect .
But there ’ s an undercurrent of doom — Maxwell Lord ( Pedro Pascal ) is seen and heard saying he can make everyone ’ s dreams @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seems to mean a reunion with the love of her life , Steve Trevor .
But that promise also signals the emergence of Barbara Minerva ( Kristen Wiig ) , who covets everything Diana has .
And it seems that getting it will mean making a Faustian deal to become the villain known as Cheetah .
“ Barbara , what have you done , ” Prince says in the new trailer , featuring a knockdown fight between the two — a scene that wasn ’ t included in the first trailer drop .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ represents the latest chapter in the saga of the movie ’ s release .
Originally , the blockbuster was scheduled to hit theaters on June 5 of this year .
The Covid-19 pandemic scrapped that plan , and eventually nixed its rescheduled date of August 14 , too .
Warner Bros. is now hoping to release Wonder Woman 1984 on October 2 , 2020 — about four months after its original date .
With Patty Jenkins returning to direct , and Gadot reprising her role as the Amazon-turned-superhero Diana Prince , Wonder Woman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bold success of the first film .
Prior to Wonder Woman ’ s release in 2017 , movies about women superheroes were few and far between .
But Wonder Woman resonated with audiences and overachieved at the box office , bringing in $ 821 million worldwide on a reported $ 100 million budget .
The character has now become the flagship superhero for Warner Bros. Wonder Woman 1984 looks to continue writing the character ’ s legacy — and hopefully fans will be able to see it in a theater .
Wonder Woman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ theaters on October 2 , 2020 .

The newest trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 has arrived, bringing us new action sequences, a romantic reunion, and an extended look at the movie’s new villain.
In it, Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince returns to us in the 1980s — 70 or so years since Wonder Woman’s adventures in her first film — and everything is glitzy, golden, and perfect. But there’s an undercurrent of doom: Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal) is seen and heard saying he can make everyone’s dreams come true, and for Diana that seems to mean a reunion with the love of her life, Steve Trevor.
But that promise also signals the emergence of Barbara Minerva (Kristen Wiig), who covets everything Diana has. And it seems that getting it will mean making a Faustian deal to become the villain known as Cheetah.
“Barbara, what have you done?” Prince says in the new trailer, featuring a knockdown fight between the two, a scene that wasn’t included in the first trailer drop.
The new trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 represents the latest chapter in the saga of the movie’s release. Originally, the blockbuster was scheduled to hit theaters on June 5 of this year. The Covid-19 pandemic scrapped that plan, and eventually nixed its rescheduled date of August 14, too. Warner Bros. is now hoping to release Wonder Woman 1984 on October 2, 2020 — about four months after its original date.
With Patty Jenkins returning to direct, and Gadot reprising her role as the Amazon-turned-superhero Diana Prince, Wonder Woman 1984 also looks to capitalize on the bold success of the first film.
Prior to Wonder Woman’s release in 2017, movies about women superheroes were few and far between. But Wonder Woman resonated with audiences and overachieved at the box office, bringing in $821 million worldwide on a reported $100 million budget. The character has now become the flagship superhero for Warner Bros.
Wonder Woman 1984 looks to continue writing the character’s legacy — and, hopefully, fans will be able to safely see it in a theater.
Wonder Woman 1984 is currently scheduled to arrive in theaters on October 2, 2020.


vox--2020-08-22--Democrats push for $25 billion for the Postal Service. The White House says it will reject it.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy assured legislators Friday that election mail will be delivered on time in November , despite lacking a plan to do so amid an expected influx of mail-in ballots .
As DeJoy testified before the GOP-led Senate committee , House Democrats planned a rare Saturday session to approve legislation that would repeal postal changes and invest $ 25 billion in the agency .
However , the the special session may be solely symbolic ; the legislation is unlikely to pass the Senate , and Trump administration officials are recommending the president veto it if it reaches his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and former logistics executive , has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks as new operational changes made under his leadership have slowed mail delivery times .
DeJoy says that he implemented the changes — including eliminating overtime for postal workers , removing mail sorting machines , and requiring postal workers to leave mail behind at facilities if it ’ s not processed in time — to cut costs for the agency that has long been struggling financially .
The result : Longer delays in delivery of letters and packages , which have raised @ @ @ @ @ @ @ November presidential election .
Mail-in voting rates are expected to skyrocket this fall in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic , which complicates in-person voting .
Some have argued Trump is intentionally handicapping the agency to make mail-in voting harder , and the president himself acknowledged he plans to withhold funding to make it more difficult for the agency to process absentee ballots .
As public backlash mounted , DeJoy announced earlier this week that the changes would be put on hold until after the November election “ to avoid even the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” But speaking before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Friday , DeJoy said dismantled sorting equipment capable of processing 21.4 million pieces of flat mail per hour won ’ t be restored and the policy requiring workers to leave mail behind at facilities won ’ t be reversed .
DeJoy also claimed that the Postal Service didn ’ t have any planned changes for election mail , even as internal documents reported by CNN show the agency did plan to process ballots differently this year in a way that could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been reversed .
DeJoy told the committee he ’ s still “ extremely highly confident ” that election mail will be delivered on time in the fall , but couldn ’ t provide details of a plan to ensure on-time delivery and said it wouldn ’ t be ready to show lawmakers by the end of the weekend , indicating it was still being drafted .
USPS has long had money problems .
Lawmakers disagree on how to help .
The Postal Service has long been one of the most popular federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has long struggled to remain solvent .
Mail volume has been slowing and the agency has a requirement to fund it ’ s employees post-retirement health care costs 75 years into the future due to the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act , a policy that doesn ’ t apply to any other federal agency or private company .
The pandemic nearly delivered a fatal blow to USPS when first-class mail began dropping and tens of thousands of workers were unable to come to work due to illness or other coronavirus-related concerns .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ dollars on making post offices and sorting facilities safe , including investing in personal protective equipment and plexiglass dividers .
The agency was expected to run out of money by the end of September , but is now likely to be buoyed through the middle of 2021 due to a surge in coronavirus-related package shipments .
Some Republican policymakers have long sought to privatize the agency to compel it to compete with companies like UPS and FedEx .
Democrats often argue it should be viewed as a service , tasked with delivering mail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to reach .
Now , in the face of outrage over changes that could contribute to mail delays and anxiety over mail-in voting in the fall , lawmakers in the Democrat-led House are pushing a bill that would provide $ 25 billion in funding for the Postal Service .
In addition to the influx of funding , the Delivering for America Act , sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney , D-New York , would prohibit USPS from making any changes to service and operations that were in place at the beginning of 2020 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It would require no more changes be made until the coronavirus pandemic is over .
The House is set to meet Saturday to vote on the funding bill .
While it ’ s likely to pass the House , the chamber ’ s Republicans have pledged to oppose it and it ’ s unlikely to pass the GOP-dominated Senate .
The Trump administration has said it “ strongly opposes ” the bill and said the president would likely veto it even if it did pass the Senate .
They argued it would implement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ election mail delivery harder and that the funding is “ an overreaction to sensationalized media reports.
” However , Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said he supports including $ 10 billion in funding for the Postal Service in a pending coronavirus aid legislation “ just to make sure the Post office is on good terms going into the November election.
” The White House has said it may support additional funding for the agency as a part of a larger package .
DeJoy will testify before Congress again on Monday , this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Committee .
As public scrutiny over the Postal Service continues to mount , DeJoy ’ s next appearance may be even more contentious than the last .

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy assured legislators Friday that election mail will be delivered on time in November, despite lacking a plan to do so amid an expected influx of mail-in ballots.
After DeJoy testified before the GOP-led Senate committee, House Democrats held a rare Saturday session to approve legislation that would repeal postal changes and invest $25 billion in the agency. The measure passed mostly on partisan lines, although 26 Republicans voted in favor of the proposal. Still, there are no plans for a Senate vote, and President Donald Trump has made clear his opposition.
Despite the US Postal Service’s status as an independent agency, the White House and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reportedly played a role in the process that led to DeJoy’s selection as postmaster general. A Trump donor and former logistics executive, he has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks as new operational changes made under his leadership have slowed mail delivery times.
DeJoy says that he implemented the changes — including eliminating overtime for postal workers, removing mail sorting machines, and requiring postal workers to leave mail behind at facilities if it’s not processed in time — to cut costs for the agency that has long been struggling financially.
The result: longer delays in delivery of letters and packages, which have raised concerns that the policies could impact the November presidential election. Mail-in voting rates are expected to skyrocket this fall amid the coronavirus pandemic, which complicates in-person voting. Some have argued Trump is intentionally sabotaging the agency to make mail-in voting harder, and the president acknowledged he plans to withhold funding to make it more difficult for the agency to process absentee ballots.
As public backlash mounted, DeJoy announced last week that the changes would be put on hold until after the November election “to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail.”
But speaking before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Friday, DeJoy said dismantled sorting equipment capable of processing 21.4 million pieces of flat mail per hour won’t be restored and the policy requiring workers to leave mail behind at facilities won’t be reversed. DeJoy also claimed that the Postal Service didn’t have any planned changes for election mail, even as internal documents reported by CNN show the agency did plan to process ballots differently this year in a way that could contribute to slower delivery. That policy has been reversed.
DeJoy told the committee he’s still “extremely highly confident” that election mail will be delivered on time in the fall, but couldn’t provide details of a plan to ensure on-time delivery and said it wouldn’t be ready to show lawmakers by the end of the weekend, indicating it was still being drafted.
USPS has long had money problems. Lawmakers disagree on how to help.
The Postal Service has long been one of the most popular American institutions, but the largely self-funded service has long struggled to remain solvent. Mail volume has been slowing, and the agency is required to fund its employees’ post-retirement health care costs 75 years into the future due to the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, a policy that doesn’t apply to any other federal agency or private company.
The pandemic nearly delivered a fatal blow to USPS when first-class mail began dropping and tens of thousands of workers were unable to come to work due to illness or other coronavirus-related concerns. The agency spent hundreds of millions of dollars on making post offices and sorting facilities safe, including investing in personal protective equipment and plexiglass dividers.
The agency was expected to run out of money by the end of September but is now likely to be buoyed through the middle of 2021 due to a surge in coronavirus-related package shipments. Some Republican policymakers have long sought to privatize the agency to compel it to compete with companies like UPS and FedEx. Democrats often argue it should be viewed as a public service, tasked with delivering mail to rural areas that are less efficient to reach.
Now, in the face of outrage over changes that could contribute to mail delays and anxiety over mail-in voting in the fall, lawmakers in the Democrat-led House have passed a bill that would provide $25 billion in funding for the Postal Service.
In addition to the influx of funding, the Delivering for America Act, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), would prohibit USPS from making any changes to service and operations that were in place at the beginning of 2020, before DeJoy took over the agency. It would require no more changes be made until the coronavirus pandemic is over.
The Trump administration has said it “strongly opposes” the House’s Postal Service funding bill and said the president would likely veto it even if it did pass the Senate. The White House argues it would implement “burdensome” requirements that would make election mail delivery harder and that the funding is “an overreaction to sensationalized media reports.”
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said he supports including $10 billion in funding for the Postal Service in a coronavirus aid legislative package, “just to make sure the post office is on good terms going into the November election.” The White House has said it may support additional funding for the agency as a part of a coronavirus aid package. But Democrats have so far rejected proposals to fold in the Postal Service funding. They are generally opposed to smaller-scale coronavirus aid packages, which may sap leverage for their key priorities, such as resuming sweeping unemployment benefits and shoring up state and local government budgets.
DeJoy will testify before Congress again on Monday, this time in front of the House Oversight Committee. As public scrutiny over the Postal Service continues to mount, DeJoy’s next appearance may be even more contentious than the last.
New goal: 25,000
In the spring, we launched a program asking readers for financial contributions to help keep Vox free for everyone, and last week, we set a goal of reaching 20,000 contributors. Well, you helped us blow past that. Today, we are extending that goal to 25,000. Millions turn to Vox each month to understand an increasingly chaotic world — from what is happening with the USPS to the coronavirus crisis to what is, quite possibly, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers, your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work — and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world. Contribute today from as little as $3.


vox--2020-08-23--Democrats push for $25 billion for the Postal Service. The White House says it will reject it.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy assured legislators Friday that election mail will be delivered on time in November , despite lacking a plan to do so amid an expected influx of mail-in ballots .
After DeJoy testified before the GOP-led Senate committee , House Democrats held a rare Saturday session to approve legislation that would repeal postal changes and invest $ 25 billion in the agency .
The measure passed mostly on partisan lines , although 26 Republicans voted in favor of the proposal .
Still , there are no plans for a Senate vote , and President Donald Trump has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US Postal Service ’ s status as an independent agency , the White House and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reportedly played a role in the process that led to DeJoy ’ s selection as postmaster general .
A Trump donor and former logistics executive , he has faced increased scrutiny in recent weeks as new operational changes made under his leadership have slowed mail delivery times .
DeJoy says that he implemented the changes — including eliminating overtime for postal workers , removing mail sorting machines , and requiring postal workers to leave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s not processed in time — to cut costs for the agency that has long been struggling financially .
The result : Longer delays in delivery of letters and packages , which have raised concerns that the policies could impact the November presidential election .
Mail-in voting rates are expected to skyrocket this fall in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic , which complicates in-person voting .
Some have argued Trump is intentionally handicapping the agency to make mail-in voting harder , and the president himself acknowledged he plans to withhold funding to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to process absentee ballots .
As public backlash mounted , DeJoy announced earlier this week that the changes would be put on hold until after the November election “ to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail.
” But speaking before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Friday , DeJoy said dismantled sorting equipment capable of processing 21.4 million pieces of flat mail per hour won ’ t be restored and the policy requiring workers to leave mail behind at facilities won ’ t be reversed .
DeJoy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t have any planned changes for election mail , even as internal documents reported by CNN show the agency did plan to process ballots differently this year in a way that could contribute to slower delivery .
That policy has been reversed .
DeJoy told the committee he ’ s still “ extremely highly confident ” that election mail will be delivered on time in the fall , but couldn ’ t provide details of a plan to ensure on-time delivery and said it wouldn ’ t be ready to show lawmakers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ indicating it was still being drafted .
USPS has long had money problems .
Lawmakers disagree on how to help .
The Postal Service has long been one of the most popular American institutions , but the largely self-funded service has long struggled to remain solvent .
Mail volume has been slowing , and the agency has a requirement to fund its employees ’ post-retirement health care costs 75 years into the future due to the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act , a policy that doesn ’ t apply to any other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic nearly delivered a fatal blow to USPS when first-class mail began dropping and tens of thousands of workers were unable to come to work due to illness or other coronavirus-related concerns .
The agency spent hundreds of millions of dollars on making post offices and sorting facilities safe , including investing in personal protective equipment and plexiglass dividers .
The agency was expected to run out of money by the end of September , but is now likely to be buoyed through the middle of 2021 due to a surge in coronavirus-related @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long sought to privatize the agency to compel it to compete with companies like UPS and FedEx .
Democrats often argue it should be viewed as a public service , tasked with delivering mail to rural areas that are less efficient to reach .
Now , in the face of outrage over changes that could contribute to mail delays and anxiety over mail-in voting in the fall , lawmakers in the Democrat-led House have passed a bill that would provide $ 25 billion in funding for the Postal Service .
In addition to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for America Act , sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney ( D-NY ) , would prohibit USPS from making any changes to service and operations that were in place at the beginning of 2020 , before DeJoy took over the agency .
It would require no more changes be made until the coronavirus pandemic is over .
The Trump administration has said it “ strongly opposes ” the House ’ s Postal Service funding bill and said the president would likely veto it even if it did pass the Senate .
The White House @ @ @ @ @ @ @ requirements that would make election mail delivery harder and that the funding is “ an overreaction to sensationalized media reports.
” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has said he supports including $ 10 billion in funding for the Postal Service in a coronavirus aid legislative package , “ just to make sure the Post office is on good terms going into the November election.
” The White House has said it may support additional funding for the agency as a part of a coronavirus aid package .
But Democrats have so far rejected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ funding .
They are generally opposed to smaller-scale coronavirus aid packages , which may sap leverage for their key priorities , such as resuming sweeping unemployment benefits and shoring up state and local government budgets .
DeJoy will testify before Congress again on Monday , this time in front of the House Oversight Committee .
As public scrutiny over the Postal Service continues to mount , DeJoy ’ s next appearance may be even more contentious than the last .
In the spring , we launched a program asking readers for financial contributions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and last week , we set a goal of reaching 20,000 contributors .
Well , you helped us blow past that .
Today , we are extending that goal to 25,000 .
Millions turn to Vox each month to understand an increasingly chaotic world — from what is happening with the USPS to the coronavirus crisis to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be a critical part of sustaining @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make sense of an increasingly chaotic world .
Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .


vox--2020-08-23--A guide to Lovecraft Country’s many pop culture tropes and references

Lovecraft Country , HBO ’ s new horror series built on pulp fiction and Jim Crow Americana , teems with creepy moments — but even more with literary and pop culture references .
A pastiche of the many horror , supernatural fantasy , sci-fi , adventure , and superhero tropes that filled midcentury American life , Lovecraft Country places Black characters at the forefront of those stories and watches how they shift as a result .
In Lovecraft Country , it ’ s the cosmic terror that ’ s banal ; racism in daily life is the true existential dread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a reference — to H.P .
Lovecraft , the man whose work is synonymous with weird fiction , the subgenre of horror fixated on cosmic dread , and which infuses nearly all modern horror .
Unfortunately , Lovecraft was also horrifically racist , and the new TV series is an attempt to acknowledge the debt that modern horror owes to him while repudiating the racism at the center of his work .
The series is closely based on Matt Ruff ’ s 2016 horror novel of the same name , which Ruff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debate about how to handle Lovecraft .
Both the book and the show use a vast array of pop culture references to make you constantly aware that they are aware of the tropes they ’ re playing with .
The series ’ first episode is especially overt in this regard .
The entire opening sequence is a midcentury American geek ’ s dream , full of aliens and heroes and a stirring voiceover ( that is , itself , a reference ) .
This technique of using radio and musical voiceovers to narrate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ show uses throughout its first season — and it ’ s just one more element that makes Lovecraft Country so fascinating .
Below , we break down each of the main references and callouts of the series , episode by episode .
The opening monologue we hear in the first sequence of “ Sundown ” is a quote from the 1950 biopic The Jackie Robinson Story , a rosy recounting of the first officially acknowledged Black baseball player to join the Major Leagues .
“ This is the story of a boy and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as our hero , Atticus , a.k.a .
Tic , literally dreams of fighting a war , first against enemies in the trenches , and then against giant UFOs and flying Cthulhus .
“ But more than that , it is the story of an American boy and dream that is truly American.
” This is the book we see Tic reading on the bus in “ Sundown , ” the book that ’ s prompted his fantastical dream sequence .
Written by Edgar Rice Burroughs of Tarzan fame , A Princess of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ series of sci-fi adventure novels known as the John Carter series .
They ’ re also known as the Barsoom series , so named for the alien land that Carter , a “ Virginia gentleman ” and Confederate general , encounters when he unexpectedly finds himself on Mars .
In Tic ’ s dream , he greets a beautiful alien who descends from a UFO , a likely reference to the book ’ s titular princess .
The princess speaks to him in a creepy unknown language .
That ’ s a common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s the Lovecraftian language of R ’ lyehian .
It seems more likely , however , that it ’ s a fragment of a different language — one we ’ ll encounter later in the series , and which Tic might not even know that he knows .
Weird Tales was a popular magazine that ran from 1923 to 1954 , and thus fueled much of the geek culture zeitgeist for the first half of the 20th century .
It published numerous works of horror by H.P .
Lovecraft , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ray Bradbury .
Perhaps more importantly , it helped give rise to the term “ weird fiction , ” which is still used today to describe the specific subgenre of cosmic horror infused with existential dread that Lovecraft popularized .
The Outsider and Others by H.P .
Lovecraft One of Lovecraft ’ s collections of short stories , The Outsider and Others , is an apt choice for the first textual reference to Lovecraft on the show .
The book was very influential — it contains most of Lovecraft ’ s most famous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like “ The Horror at Red Hook ” and “ The Call of Cthulhu.
” But many of these stories are home to Lovecraft ’ s most direct racist metaphors and allegories — what to Lovecraft were the horrors of other races , foreigners invading America , and miscegenation .
The image is blunt : To Lovecraft , Tic is both the Outsider and the Other — and Tic knows it .
A few moments later , he reminds himself and his uncle George of Lovecraft ’ s racist beliefs when he references @ @ @ @ @ @ @ less well-known writings : the 1912 poem “ On the Creation of N*****s , ” about which the less said the better .
Tic ’ s father , Tic explains to George , made him memorize it so he ’ d understand exactly what he was reading .
Arkham was a fictional Massachusetts town that Lovecraft invented and then returned to again and again in his fiction — so much so that to this day , many people think it ’ s a real place .
Arkham was also the name of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his works ; the name of the publisher is displayed prominently on the spine of the copy of The Outsider and Others that Tic is reading .
George refers to Arkham as the home of “ Herbert West — Reanimator , ” another reference to one of Lovecraft ’ s most famous stories : a 1921 tale about a scientist who tries to reanimate the dead with less than optimal results .
The story was made into a cult hit 1985 horror film , Reanimator .
Arkham is perhaps best known outside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s asylum in DC ’ s Batverse — but that , too , is a reference to Lovecraft , and especially the ongoing theme of madness that runs through the author ’ s works .
George publishes a fictional version of “ the Green Book.
” The Green Book was a real series of pamphlets that offered guidance to Black Americans living under Jim Crow regarding which American towns were safe for them to stay in while traveling .
( The pamphlets became much more widely known after the 2018 debut of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which went on to clinch a frustrating Best Picture win at the 2019 Oscars . )
The knowledge shared within the Green Book was especially important for Black travelers to have in the North , where local attitudes were often just as fiercely racist as attitudes in the South , but weren ’ t advertised as overtly .
One of the most pernicious ways racism manifested in the North during this period was through sundown towns , sometimes called sunset towns , which proliferated throughout northern states .
They were places where Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dark .
This terrifying concept forms the basis for one of Lovecraft Country ’ s scariest scenes , both in the book and on the TV series , and which serves as a set piece of “ Sundown ” — when Atticus and friends encounter a racist cop who ’ s policing a sundown town .
In 1965 , eminent Black writer and scholar James Baldwin was invited to Cambridge University to debate the question , “ Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro ?
” with prominent conservative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the debate , in a speech that would later be titled “ The American Dream and the American Negro.
” In “ Sundown , ” an audio excerpt from Baldwin ’ s speech is overlaid with a montage of the group ’ s road trip , as they encounter slices of Americana , often overshadowed by implied and unofficial social segregation under Jim Crow .
When our heroes first encounter the otherworldly monsters in the woods , George identifies them as “ shoggoths.
” This is a reference to one of Lovecraft ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ creatures from other dimensions that he classed into oddly named hierarchies like Shoggoths and Yog-Sothoth .
At the top of the monster chain sits Cthulhu , his most famous creation — basically a giant winged tentacle monster .
Shoggoths , however , are more slug-like , with fewer tentacles and many eyes .
It seems unlikely that the fast , agile creatures our heroes encounter are shoggoths , but they may very well be Elder Gods , a typical Lovecraftian term for the ancient creatures who loom out there in the cosmic void @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ... what music they make.
” As Tic notes after George recites it , “ The children of the night ... what music they make ” is one of the most famous quotes from Bram Stoker ’ s 1897 vampire novel Dracula .
The vampires inspire our crew to use lights to drive away the creatures that attack them in the woods , until sunlight returns them to ( relative ) safety .
The photography of Gordon Parks and Margaret Bourke-White Several times throughout the episode , particularly in the montage of Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trips across America , Lovecraft Country artfully pays homage to real photographs by seminal Black photographers .
Gordon Parks , who later gained broader fame as the director of Shaft , was a renowned photojournalist who captured some of the most iconic images of mid-century life amid Jim Crow and a segregated nation .
“ Sundown ” visually references two of his most well-known photos , Untitled , Shady Grove , Alabama , 1956 , and Department Store , Mobile , Alabama , 1956 .
An even more famous reference appears when we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a long line under a cheery billboard .
The reference is to Black photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White ’ s famous Depression-era photo of displaced Black residents seeking work relief after a flood in Kentucky in 1937 .
The authors George discovers within the Braithwhite library : “ Blackwood , Hodgson , Clark Ashton Smith '' These are all major authors in the subgenre of horror that Lovecraft wrote in and popularized , Weird fiction .
( See Weird Tales above . )
Algernon Blackwood wrote supernatural fantasy tinged with plenty of horror in late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ famous tales are The Willows and The Wendigo , and many of his tales involve stories of men having terrifying encounters with a kind of sentient nature .
William Hope Hodgson was another British writer of the same era , known for his ghost and sci-fi/fantasy stories .
And Clark Ashton Smith was an American writer who was hugely influenced by Lovecraft , with whom he was close friends .
The Braithwhite mansion seems to hold a treasure trove of Weird writing .
The House on the Borderland — William Hope Hodgson George @ @ @ @ @ @ @ horror novel , which we ’ re told is one of his favorites .
What elevates its story of a man who becomes psychologically entangled with his dilapidated sentient mansion from the realm of typical haunted house stuff is Hodgson ’ s phantasmagorical writing , which had a huge influence on horror writers of the 20th century .
Think House of Leaves for Edwardian hipsters .
The plot of this episode winds up mimicking the plot of Hodgson ’ s novel as George describes it , with the entire mansion ultimately collapsing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does in the end .
This is the fictional cult that the Braithwhites belong to , but it ’ s also probably a meta-reference to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn , a famous turn-of-the-century occult society populated by influential new-age types like Aleister Crowley and Pamela Colman Smith , as well as Weird writers like Blackwood and Arthur Machen .
This is one of Lovecraft ’ s most famous inventions — the fictional book of the dead , a book so notorious many people think it ’ s real .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ story from 1924 , then recurs — like most of his story elements — throughout his work .
This episode contrasts it with the fictional “ Book of Names.
” As George points out , the Necronomicon is the book of “ dead names , ” while the Book of Names is the “ book of life.
” Beyond being a list of names , both books seem to have great occult powers .
But precisely what kind of power is unclear , which is just how Lovecraft wanted it , probably .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 19th-century novel by Alexandre Dumas ( also of Three Musketeers fame ) is Montrose ’ s favorite novel — and its tale of a man who plans for years to execute a daring jailbreak clearly inspired Montrose ’ s own tunnel dig out of the jail where the Braithwhite cult confines him .
Spoken-word poet and jazz artist Gil Scott-Heron penned this shrewd 1970 opus — which gives us the reference for the episode ’ s title — as a way to critique the sharp disparity between the ambitions of white and Black @ @ @ @ @ @ @ race .
The work experienced a cultural resurgence after its appearance in the 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic First Man .
In Lovecraft Country , its appearance as a voice-over serves to brilliantly undercut what would ordinarily be the climactic scene where a rich madman achieves his lifelong goal of opening a portal to another dimension , or something similar .
The song completely overshadows everything that ’ s onscreen with a reminder that the antics of rich white people are supremely detached from reality .
In the spring , we launched a program @ @ @ @ @ @ @ keep Vox free for everyone , and last week , we set a goal of reaching 20,000 contributors .
Well , you helped us blow past that .
Today , we are extending that goal to 25,000 .
Millions turn to Vox each month to understand an increasingly chaotic world — from what is happening with the USPS to the coronavirus crisis to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support will be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work — and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world .
Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

Lovecraft Country, HBO’s new horror series built on pulp fiction and Jim Crow Americana, teems with creepy moments — but even more with literary and pop culture references.
A pastiche of the many horror, supernatural fantasy, sci-fi, adventure, and superhero tropes that filled midcentury American life, Lovecraft Country places Black characters at the forefront of those stories and watches how they shift as a result. In Lovecraft Country, it’s the cosmic terror that’s banal; racism in daily life is the true existential dread.
Even the show’s title is a reference — to H.P. Lovecraft, the man whose work is synonymous with weird fiction, the subgenre of horror fixated on cosmic dread, and which infuses nearly all modern horror. Unfortunately, Lovecraft was also horrifically racist, and the new TV series is an attempt to acknowledge the debt that modern horror owes to him while repudiating the racism at the center of his work. The series is closely based on Matt Ruff’s 2016 horror novel of the same name, which Ruff wrote in response to the wider cultural debate about how to handle Lovecraft. Both the book and the show use a vast array of pop culture references to make you constantly aware that they are aware of the tropes they’re playing with.
The series’ first episode is especially overt in this regard. The entire opening sequence is a midcentury American geek’s dream, full of aliens and heroes and a stirring voiceover (that is, itself, a reference). This technique of using radio and musical voiceovers to narrate and underscore the action is one the show uses throughout its first season — and it’s just one more element that makes Lovecraft Country so fascinating.
Below, we break down each of the main references and callouts of the series, episode by episode.
Episode 1, “Sundown”
Jackie Robinson
The opening monologue we hear in the first sequence of “Sundown” is a quote from the 1950 biopic The Jackie Robinson Story, a rosy recounting of the first officially acknowledged Black baseball player to join the Major Leagues. “This is the story of a boy and his dream,” the narrator recounts as our hero, Atticus, a.k.a. Tic, literally dreams of fighting a war, first against enemies in the trenches, and then against giant UFOs and flying Cthulhus. “But more than that, it is the story of an American boy and dream that is truly American.”
A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
This is the book we see Tic reading on the bus in “Sundown,” the book that’s prompted his fantastical dream sequence. Written by Edgar Rice Burroughs of Tarzan fame, A Princess of Mars is the first installment of the series of sci-fi adventure novels known as the John Carter series. They’re also known as the Barsoom series, so named for the alien land that Carter, a “Virginia gentleman” and Confederate general, encounters when he unexpectedly finds himself on Mars. In Tic’s dream, he greets a beautiful alien who descends from a UFO, a likely reference to the book’s titular princess.
The princess speaks to him in a creepy unknown language. That’s a common trope of Lovecraftian fiction, so perhaps it’s the Lovecraftian language of R’lyehian. It seems more likely, however, that it’s a fragment of a different language — one we’ll encounter later in the series, and which Tic might not even know that he knows.
Weird Tales
Weird Tales was a popular magazine that ran from 1923 to 1954, and thus fueled much of the geek culture zeitgeist for the first half of the 20th century. It published numerous works of horror by H.P. Lovecraft, as well as many other influential writers like Ray Bradbury. Perhaps more importantly, it helped give rise to the term “weird fiction,” which is still used today to describe the specific subgenre of cosmic horror infused with existential dread that Lovecraft popularized.
The Outsider and Others by H.P. Lovecraft
One of Lovecraft’s collections of short stories, The Outsider and Others, is an apt choice for the first textual reference to Lovecraft on the show. The book was very influential — it contains most of Lovecraft’s most famous short stories, including the heavy hitters like “The Horror at Red Hook” and “The Call of Cthulhu.” But many of these stories are home to Lovecraft’s most direct racist metaphors and allegories — what to Lovecraft were the horrors of other races, foreigners invading America, and miscegenation.
The image is blunt: To Lovecraft, Tic is both the Outsider and the Other — and Tic knows it. A few moments later, he reminds himself and his uncle George of Lovecraft’s racist beliefs when he references one of the author’s far less well-known writings: the 1912 poem “On the Creation of N*****s,” about which the less said the better. Tic’s father, Tic explains to George, made him memorize it so he’d understand exactly what he was reading.
Arkham, Massachusetts
Arkham was a fictional Massachusetts town that Lovecraft invented and then returned to again and again in his fiction — so much so that to this day, many people think it’s a real place. Arkham was also the name of the small press through which Lovecraft published many of his works; the name of the publisher is displayed prominently on the spine of the copy of The Outsider and Others that Tic is reading.
George refers to Arkham as the home of “Herbert West — Reanimator,” another reference to one of Lovecraft’s most famous stories: a 1921 tale about a scientist who tries to reanimate the dead with less than optimal results. The story was made into a cult hit 1985 horror film, Reanimator.
Arkham is perhaps best known outside of Lovecraft as the name of Gotham’s asylum in DC’s Batverse — but that, too, is a reference to Lovecraft, and especially the ongoing theme of madness that runs through the author’s works.
The “guide book” a.k.a. the Green Book
George publishes a fictional version of “the Green Book.” The Green Book was a real series of pamphlets that offered guidance to Black Americans living under Jim Crow regarding which American towns were safe for them to stay in while traveling. (The pamphlets became much more widely known after the 2018 debut of the frequently criticized film Green Book, which went on to clinch a frustrating Best Picture win at the 2019 Oscars.) The knowledge shared within the Green Book was especially important for Black travelers to have in the North, where local attitudes were often just as fiercely racist as attitudes in the South, but weren’t advertised as overtly.
One of the most pernicious ways racism manifested in the North during this period was through sundown towns, sometimes called sunset towns, which proliferated throughout northern states. They were places where Black people were unofficially forbidden to be after dark. This terrifying concept forms the basis for one of Lovecraft Country’s scariest scenes, both in the book and on the TV series, and which serves as a set piece of “Sundown” — when Atticus and friends encounter a racist cop who’s policing a sundown town.
James Baldwin debates William F. Buckley
In 1965, eminent Black writer and scholar James Baldwin was invited to Cambridge University to debate the question, “Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?” with prominent conservative William F. Buckley. Baldwin emphatically won the debate, in a speech that would later be titled “The American Dream and the American Negro.”
In “Sundown,” an audio excerpt from Baldwin’s speech is overlaid with a montage of the group’s road trip, as they encounter slices of Americana, often overshadowed by implied and unofficial social segregation under Jim Crow.
Elder Gods and Shoggoths
When our heroes first encounter the otherworldly monsters in the woods, George identifies them as “shoggoths.” This is a reference to one of Lovecraft’s hierarchies of monsters — groups of creatures from other dimensions that he classed into oddly named hierarchies like Shoggoths and Yog-Sothoth. At the top of the monster chain sits Cthulhu, his most famous creation — basically a giant winged tentacle monster. Shoggoths, however, are more slug-like, with fewer tentacles and many eyes.
It seems unlikely that the fast, agile creatures our heroes encounter are shoggoths, but they may very well be Elder Gods, a typical Lovecraftian term for the ancient creatures who loom out there in the cosmic void.
“The children of the night ... what music they make.”
As Tic notes after George recites it, “The children of the night ... what music they make” is one of the most famous quotes from Bram Stoker’s 1897 vampire novel Dracula. The vampires inspire our crew to use lights to drive away the creatures that attack them in the woods, until sunlight returns them to (relative) safety.
The photography of Gordon Parks and Margaret Bourke-White
Several times throughout the episode, particularly in the montage of Black life we see as the group road trips across America, Lovecraft Country artfully pays homage to real photographs by seminal Black photographers. Gordon Parks, who later gained broader fame as the director of Shaft, was a renowned photojournalist who captured some of the most iconic images of mid-century life amid Jim Crow and a segregated nation. “Sundown” visually references two of his most well-known photos, Untitled, Shady Grove, Alabama, 1956, and Department Store, Mobile, Alabama, 1956.
An even more famous reference appears when we see a number of people waiting in a long line under a cheery billboard. The reference is to Black photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White’s famous Depression-era photo of displaced Black residents seeking work relief after a flood in Kentucky in 1937.
Yes. From Margaret Bourke-White for Life Magazine in February 1937.
On the LEFT, the original. On the RIGHT, from #LovecraftCountry. https://t.co/2S86nIrXox pic.twitter.com/5NLu47Jcq0 — James Paul (@curiousjamesp) August 17, 2020
Episode 2, “Whitey On the Moon”
The authors George discovers within the Braithwhite library: “Blackwood, Hodgson, Clark Ashton Smith"
These are all major authors in the subgenre of horror that Lovecraft wrote in and popularized, Weird fiction. (See Weird Tales above.) Algernon Blackwood wrote supernatural fantasy tinged with plenty of horror in late 19th century Britain; among his most famous tales are The Willows and The Wendigo, and many of his tales involve stories of men having terrifying encounters with a kind of sentient nature. William Hope Hodgson was another British writer of the same era, known for his ghost and sci-fi/fantasy stories. And Clark Ashton Smith was an American writer who was hugely influenced by Lovecraft, with whom he was close friends. The Braithwhite mansion seems to hold a treasure trove of Weird writing.
The House on the Borderland — William Hope Hodgson
George recaps the ending of this 1908 gothic horror novel, which we’re told is one of his favorites. What elevates its story of a man who becomes psychologically entangled with his dilapidated sentient mansion from the realm of typical haunted house stuff is Hodgson’s phantasmagorical writing, which had a huge influence on horror writers of the 20th century. Think House of Leaves for Edwardian hipsters.
The plot of this episode winds up mimicking the plot of Hodgson’s novel as George describes it, with the entire mansion ultimately collapsing, just as the house on the Borderland does in the end.
Order of the Ancient Dawn
This is the fictional cult that the Braithwhites belong to, but it’s also probably a meta-reference to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a famous turn-of-the-century occult society populated by influential new-age types like Aleister Crowley and Pamela Colman Smith, as well as Weird writers like Blackwood and Arthur Machen.
Necronomicon
This is one of Lovecraft’s most famous inventions — the fictional book of the dead, a book so notorious many people think it’s real. But it actually appears in a Lovecraft short story from 1924, then recurs — like most of his story elements — throughout his work.
This episode contrasts it with the fictional “Book of Names.” As George points out, the Necronomicon is the book of “dead names,” while the Book of Names is the “book of life.” Beyond being a list of names, both books seem to have great occult powers. But precisely what kind of power is unclear, which is just how Lovecraft wanted it, probably.
The Count of Monte Cristo
We’re told that this famous 19th-century novel by Alexandre Dumas (also of Three Musketeers fame) is Montrose’s favorite novel — and its tale of a man who plans for years to execute a daring jailbreak clearly inspired Montrose’s own tunnel dig out of the jail where the Braithwhite cult confines him.
Spoken-word poet and jazz artist Gil Scott-Heron penned this shrewd 1970 opus — which gives us the reference for the episode’s title — as a way to critique the sharp disparity between the ambitions of white and Black America during the age of the space race. The work experienced a cultural resurgence after its appearance in the 2018 Neil Armstrong biopic First Man.
In Lovecraft Country, its appearance as a voice-over serves to brilliantly undercut what would ordinarily be the climactic scene where a rich madman achieves his lifelong goal of opening a portal to another dimension, or something similar. The song completely overshadows everything that’s onscreen with a reminder that the antics of rich white people are supremely detached from reality.
New goal: 25,000
In the spring, we launched a program asking readers for financial contributions to help keep Vox free for everyone, and last week, we set a goal of reaching 20,000 contributors. Well, you helped us blow past that. Today, we are extending that goal to 25,000. Millions turn to Vox each month to understand an increasingly chaotic world — from what is happening with the USPS to the coronavirus crisis to what is, quite possibly, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers, your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work — and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world. Contribute today from as little as $3.


vox--2020-08-23--Trump’s sister calls him a liar with “no principles” in secret recordings

President Donald Trump ’ s sister , Maryanne Trump Barry , sharply disparaged the president and said she believed he paid a friend to take his SATs in audio recordings published by the Washington Post Saturday night .
Trump “ has no principles — none , ” Barry said in the recordings provided to the Post .
“ It ’ s the phoniness of it all .
It ’ s the phoniness and this cruelty .
Donald is cruel.
” Barry , a former federal judge , made the comments in a set of secret recordings in 2018 and 2019 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who has emerged as a fierce critic of the president .
Barry said that Donald Trump “ doesn ’ t read , ” that “ he was a brat , ” and that she did his homework for him , adding that she believes he paid a friend to take the standardized tests that allowed him to transfer from Fordham University to the University of Pennsylvania .
The allegation that Trump cheated on a college entrance exam ( which he denies ) was one of the oft-questioned parts of a book by Mary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which she describes the dramatic inner workings of the Trump family and how it shaped the president ’ s psyche .
The recordings with Barry , provided to the Post to substantiate the allegation , seem to be one of the underpinnings of her book .
There ’ s more to the story , however : Mary Trump ’ s spokesperson told the Post she recorded her aunt to gather evidence supporting her claim that she was cheated out of a significant portion of her inheritance after her grandfather and family patriarch Fred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Robert Trump , and Donald Trump joined a lawsuit to prevent Mary from getting a larger inheritance , and she eventually settled the matter in 2001 , after being told the estate was worth $ 30 million .
She later came to believe it was worth around $ 1 billion and the family had lied about its value .
In her book , Mary Trump said she became a major source in a 2018 New York Times investigation into the sprawling financial corruption of the larger Trump family , who amassed their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The Trump family has a long history of tax evasion and deceptive business practices The publication of Maryanne Trump Barry ’ s comments marks the first time a member of the family besides Mary Trump has been heard disparaging Donald Trump , and his history of deception .
But Barry herself has been implicated in the Trump family ’ s shady financial activity .
The 2018 Times investigation revealed a pattern of tax evasion that allowed Donald Trump to receive the current equivalent of at least $ 413 million from his father @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s patriarch whose real estate business was the foundation of its wealth , further enriched the family by hiding millions of dollars of gifts through shell companies .
As David Barstow , Susanne Craig , and Russ Buettner of the Times reported in 2018 : The IRS didn ’ t catch on , and Fred Trump transferred more than $ 1 billion to his children .
The Trumps paid only about $ 52.2 million in taxes , rather than the at least $ 550 million they could have been forced to pay .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ those shell companies used to draw cash from their father ’ s businesses by marking up purchases already made by employees rather than buying equipment for Fred Trump ’ s buildings , the Times reported , as it claimed to do .
The millions of dollars siphoned through the company went — untaxed — to Barry , Donald Trump , and their other siblings .
In 2018 , a lawyer for Donald Trump denied the Times ’ s reporting , saying the allegations of “ fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ there was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone.
” In Mary Trump ’ s book , Too Much and Never Enough , she said Barry denied a willing part in any scheme .
“ I met with Maryanne shortly after the article ran .
She denied all of it .
She was just a ‘ girl , ’ after all .
When a piece of paper was put in front of her , she ’ d signed it .
... She seemed unconcerned that there would be any repercussions , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Times ’ s investigation was published , a judicial conduct council launched an investigation into how Barry benefited from tax schemes and may have influenced actions taken by the family over the decades .
The Times reported last year that Barry , now 83 , retired 10 days after a court official told complainants that the investigation would get “ the full attention ” of the council , ending the investigation .
( Barry was appointed as a federal judge by President Ronald Reagan .
She complained in Mary Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ only favor ” to her over her head : asking his lawyer Roy Cohn to push Reagan to appoint more female judges . )
Donald Trump has claimed on the campaign trail to be a self-made billionaire , and he has built trust with many voters on the premise that his business expertise can benefit the country .
But the Times ’ s reporting illustrates how Trump — who was earning $ 200,000 annually in today ’ s dollars by the age of 3 — was propped up by family wealth .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ now among the most powerful people in America .
That will be on full display beginning Monday , when the Republican National Convention will convene with part digital , part in-person events throughout the week .
Some of the key speakers at the convention will be members of the Trump family .
In addition to the president , Donald Trump Jr. , Melania Trump , Ivanka Trump , Eric Trump , and Tiffany Trump are all slated to appear , making it a true family affair .
In the spring , we launched @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to help keep Vox free for everyone , and last week , we set a goal of reaching 20,000 contributors .
Well , you helped us blow past that .
Today , we are extending that goal to 25,000 .
Millions turn to Vox each month to understand an increasingly chaotic world — from what is happening with the USPS to the coronavirus crisis to what is , quite possibly , the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes .
Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers , your support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our resource-intensive work — and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world .
Contribute today from as little as $ 3 .

President Donald Trump’s sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, sharply disparaged the president and said she believed he paid a friend to take his SATs in audio recordings published by the Washington Post Saturday night.
Trump “has no principles — none,” Barry said in the recordings provided to the Post. “It’s the phoniness of it all. It’s the phoniness and this cruelty. Donald is cruel.”
Barry, a former federal judge, made the comments in a set of secret recordings in 2018 and 2019 by her niece, Mary Trump, who has emerged as a fierce critic of the president.
Barry said that Donald Trump “doesn’t read,” that “he was a brat,” and that she did his homework for him, adding that she believes he paid a friend to take the standardized tests that allowed him to transfer from Fordham University to the University of Pennsylvania. She also expressed disgust over “what they’re doing with kids at the border” in the Trump administration’s family separation policy for migrants.
The allegation that Trump cheated on a college entrance exam (which he denies) was one of the oft-questioned parts of a book by Mary Trump released earlier this year, in which she describes the dramatic inner workings of the Trump family and how it shaped the president’s psyche. The recordings with Barry, provided to the Post to substantiate the allegation, seem to be one of the underpinnings of her book.
There’s more to the story, however: Mary Trump’s spokesperson told the Post she recorded her aunt to gather evidence supporting her claim that she was cheated out of a significant portion of her inheritance after her grandfather and family patriarch Fred Trump Sr. died in 1999.
Barry, Robert Trump, and Donald Trump joined a lawsuit to prevent Mary from getting a larger inheritance, and she eventually settled the matter in 2001, after being told the estate was worth $30 million. She later came to believe it was worth around $1 billion and the family had lied about its value.
In her book, Mary Trump said she became a major source in a 2018 New York Times investigation into the sprawling financial corruption of the larger Trump family, who amassed their wealth in part due to tax dodges.
The Trump family has a long history of tax evasion and deceptive business practices
The publication of Maryanne Trump Barry’s comments marks the first time a member of the family besides Mary Trump has been heard disparaging Donald Trump and his history of deception. But Barry herself has been implicated in the Trump family’s shady financial activity — a scandal that eclipses the secret recordings.
The 2018 Times investigation revealed a pattern of tax evasion that allowed Donald Trump to receive the current equivalent of at least $413 million from his father. Fred Trump, the family’s patriarch whose real estate business was the foundation of its wealth, further enriched the family by hiding millions of dollars of gifts through shell companies.
As David Barstow, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner of the Times reported in 2018:
Much of [the $413 million] came to Mr. Trump because he helped his parents dodge taxes. He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show. Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more. He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents’ real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings.
The IRS didn’t catch on, and Fred Trump transferred more than $1 billion to his children. The Trumps paid only about $52.2 million in taxes, rather than the at least $550 million they could have been forced to pay.
Barry was the co-owner of one of those shell companies used to draw cash from their father’s businesses by marking up purchases already made by employees rather than buying equipment for Fred Trump’s buildings, the Times reported, as it claimed to do. The millions of dollars siphoned through the company went — untaxed — to Barry, Donald Trump, and their other siblings.
In 2018, a lawyer for Donald Trump denied the Times’s reporting, saying the allegations of “fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory,” adding, “there was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone.” In Mary Trump’s book, Too Much and Never Enough, she said Barry denied a willing part in any scheme. “I met with Maryanne shortly after the article ran. She denied all of it. She was just a ‘girl,’ after all. When a piece of paper was put in front of her, she’d signed it. ... She seemed unconcerned that there would be any repercussions,” Mary Trump wrote.
But after the Times’s investigation was published, a judicial conduct council launched an investigation into how Barry benefited from tax schemes and may have influenced actions taken by the family over the decades. The Times reported last year that Barry, now 83, retired 10 days after a court official told complainants that the investigation would get “the full attention” of the council, ending the investigation. (Barry was appointed as a federal judge by President Ronald Reagan. She complained in Mary Trump’s recordings that Donald Trump long held his “only favor” to her over her head: asking his lawyer Roy Cohn to push Reagan to appoint more female judges.)
Donald Trump has claimed on the campaign trail to be a self-made billionaire, and he has built trust with many voters on the premise that his business expertise can benefit the country. But the Times’s reporting illustrates how Trump — who was earning $200,000 annually in today’s dollars by the age of 3 — was propped up by family wealth.
The beneficiaries of the family scheme are now among the most powerful people in America. That will be on full display beginning Monday, when the Republican National Convention will convene with part digital, part in-person events throughout the week.
Some of the key speakers at the convention will be members of the Trump family. In addition to the president, Donald Trump Jr., Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Tiffany Trump are all slated to appear, making it a true family affair.
New goal: 25,000
In the spring, we launched a program asking readers for financial contributions to help keep Vox free for everyone, and last week, we set a goal of reaching 20,000 contributors. Well, you helped us blow past that. Today, we are extending that goal to 25,000. Millions turn to Vox each month to understand an increasingly chaotic world — from what is happening with the USPS to the coronavirus crisis to what is, quite possibly, the most consequential presidential election of our lifetimes. Even when the economy and the news advertising market recovers, your support will be a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work — and helping everyone make sense of an increasingly chaotic world. Contribute today from as little as $3.