theintercept--2020-10-01--A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair

Do we even have a right to be hopeful ?
With political and ecological fires raging all around , is it irresponsible to imagine a future world radically better than our own ?
A world without prisons ?
Of beautiful , green public housing ?
Of buried border walls ?
Of healed ecosystems ?
A world where governments fear the people instead of the other way around ?
These are questions we wrestled with as we conceived of a sequel to last year ’ s Emmy-nominated short , “ A Message From the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
” The first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ illustrated by Molly Crabapple , was set in a can-do , cli-fi future : one in which bold , progressive politicians joined with grassroots movements to launch the “ Decade of the Green New Deal , ” battling poverty , injustice , and climate disruption all at the same time .
The film touched a nerve and ended up being viewed more than 12 million times , convincing our little team of the need for more art that departs from well-worn apocalyptic scripts .
About a month into the pandemic lockdown , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , who co-wrote and produced the last film , about whether the utopian imagination could possibly have a role to play in this markedly less optimistic political moment .
We honestly weren ’ t sure .
Last time , we could see a clear if narrow political path to the hopeful future Molly Crabapple illustrated .
The piece was conceived shortly after the Sunrise Movement stormed the halls of power in Washington , demanding a Green New Deal .
That challenge was immediately picked up by Ocasio-Cortez and then quickly echoed by several @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic Party — most notably , Bernie Sanders .
“ A Message From the Future ” was an attempt to help viewers envision what the world could look like if the Green New Deal was actually the governing framework in the largest economy on the planet .
Because , as Ocasio-Cortez said in the voiceover , “ You can ’ t be what you can ’ t see.
” As we all know , U.S. politics is in a very different place today .
Sanders lost the primaries , as did every other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of transformational policy .
The only viable hope of unseating Donald Trump is a presidential ticket crafted to tightly hug the political center , while fending off the demands animating progressive movements , whether to defund the police , or provide free universal health care , or introduce a sweeping Green New Deal .
Beating Trump is urgent , about that I have no doubt .
But while doing so is necessary to fend off naked authoritarianism in the White House , it is decidedly not enough to escape the many other intersecting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the world : whether climate collapse , surging white supremacy , or widespread famine .
These unyielding political facts makes our path to a nonapocalyptic future distinctly less clear than it was one year ago .
And so the question : Is it ethical to expend energy dreaming of a another world when so many fires need extinguishing right now ?
On the other hand , if we stop talking about what winning actually looks like , isn ’ t that the same as giving up ?
Besides , are we so sure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has already ushered in changes few imagined or foretold just a few months ago .
Entire high-carbon , high-consumption industries are on their knees : cruise ships , airlines , fashion .
The Movement for Black Lives has redrawn the political map , and nurses are local heroes .
If this isn ’ t the time to advance a vision of the world governed by radically more humane and inclusive values , when is ?
We called Molly , who had been painting portraits of essential workers and projecting them on the sides @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conversation about the role of futurism in moments when so much seems lost .
Tentatively , we began to brainstorm about crafting a second “ Message From the Future , ” one shaped by burning cities and burning forests and , of course , a highly contagious and deadly virus .
Opal Tometi , a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and longtime migrant rights advocate , joined us as co-author and co-narrator .
And over the months of lockdown and deadly reopenings , a picture of a possible , beautiful future slowly came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and perilous path to getting there .
We knew a few things from the start .
First , that in the midst of such a transnational set of crises , the film needed to feel and sound distinctly more global than the last one , where all of the action took place in the U.S. We also knew that we needed to show more fight this time — the street battles and the general strikes that must be escalated and won before any kind of safe , humane future is even a prospect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ politician , no matter how progressive , could be the protagonist of the sequel .
This time , rank-and-file organizers and activists would be the stars .
Given the array of corporate powers resisting change , and the bleak electoral options on offer , social movements are now the only force left with the power to grab the wheel of history and veer us off our current deadly trajectory .
And not one or two movements , but an unprecedented convergence and collaboration of disparate and often divided political strains : organized labor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , feminist , disabled , migrant , queer , unhoused , worker cooperatives , and more .
Everyone locked out of the elite Great Gorging ( it ’ s not a Great Depression ) will be needed , along with a common vision that weaves together each of these movements ’ boldest and most transformational demands .
A short piece of art is not a political platform , and so it was never our goal to be comprehensive .
Rather , we looked for threads of connection in the hopes that they would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Covid-19 acts as a kind of character in the drama , almost like a tough teacher instructing humanity in a series of lessons that should have been obvious long ago .
Lessons about the essential labor that makes life possible and enjoyable — and yet has been so persistently discounted .
Lessons about systemic racism as an assault on the human body , one that makes it more vulnerable on every front .
Lessons about how community is our best technology , especially during times of crisis .
Lessons about how damage done @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back on us , whether in the form of disease or climate disruption or both .
Lessons , too , about the risks and deadly cruelty of warehousing human beings : in prisons , immigrant detention camps , and for-profit old-age homes , as well as in cavernous meatpacking plants and sprawling “ fulfillment centers.
” Hidden from prying eyes , so many people are packed together in these inhuman institutions — treated as if they have no inherent value whatsoever , in the case of prisons , or as if they are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plants , or animal carcasses they prepare for consumption .
It was in these places , already so sick , that the virus spread like wildfire .
Another Covid-19 lesson we wanted to highlight had to do with why the abuses that long predated the pandemic suddenly received so much more attention during it .
It ’ s a lesson , perhaps , about the relationship between speed and solidarity .
Because for those of us privileged enough to self-isolate , the virus forced a radical and sudden slowdown , a paring and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that was undertaken in a bid to stop the virus ’ s spread .
But that slowness had other , unintended effects as well .
It turns out that when the deafening roar of capitalism-as-usual quiets , even a little , our capacity to notice things that were hidden in plain view may grow and expand .
For some , that awareness has expanded to encompass the cruelty of those long-ignored human warehouses .
For others , it has stretched to include the previously drowned out sounds and sights of the natural world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ terror and tenderness , ” as Opal and Avi put it in the script , a great many people found new capacity to stand up for Black lives in the face of unremitting state violence .
There is no one answer or simple explanation for why we find ourselves in the throes of the deepest and most sustained public reckoning in a half-century with the evil that is white supremacy .
But we can not discount the “ solidarity in vulnerability that the pandemic has generated , ” as Eddie Glaude Jr. put @ @ @ @ @ @ @ highly relevant biography of James Baldwin , “ Begin Again.
” In forcing all of us to confront the porousness of our own bodies in relationship to the vast web of other bodies that sustain us and the people we love — caregivers , farmers , supermarket clerks , street cleaners , and more — the coronavirus instantly exploded the cherished , market-manufactured myth of the individual as self-made island .
Consciousness of our own vulnerability , as Glaude says , can sow solidarity .
Especially when that consciousness is combined with more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the velocity of pre-pandemic life , endlessly striving and climbing , frantically making sure that we do not fall behind , busyness can act as a deadening agent .
There is no time to think about who makes our stuff or where our trash goes or what wars — domestic and international — are waged in our name .
And certainly , there is no time , or so we have so often been told , to look back at the past and present terror committed against Black and Indigenous peoples — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vast wealth on which contemporary capitalism rests .
A system that must always move faster , and grow bigger , or else face collapse .
For all of these reasons and more , as we searched for a unifying principle that could animate a future worth fighting for , we settled on “ The Years of Repair.
” The call to repair a deep brokenness has roots in many radical and religious traditions .
And it provides a framework expansive enough to connect the interlocking crises in our social , economic , political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Repair work speaks to the need to repair our broken infrastructures of care : the schools , hospitals , and elder care facilities serving the poor and working classes , infrastructures that failed the test of this virus again and again .
It also calls on us to repair the vast damage done to the natural world , to clean up toxic sites , rehabilitate wild landscapes , invest in nonpolluting energy sources .
It is also a call to begin to repair our stuff rather than endlessly replace it in an ever-accelerating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ film refers to as “ the right to repair.
” As we imagine it , the work of repair is intensely concrete and civic — it is armies of Community Care Corp workers and battalions of tree planters , rehabilitating scarred and charred landscapes .
But in heeding the seismic lessons of Covid-19 , repair work is also intensely inward and slightly ephemeral .
It is the practice of connecting , or re-pairing , those many crucial connections that our culture so systematically severs — between individuals and the communities that support them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that sustains all of life .
Even the broken connections between heart and mind that stand in the way of imagining these possible futures .
And running through it all , repair work is also the work of reparation .
A call to keep the long-denied and delayed rendezvous with history ’ s most brutal crimes and to reject , once and for all , the web of flattering and dangerous lies that passes for official history in so many parts of the world .
Drawing on the long-standing demands of Black and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Truth and Reparations Commission , as well as an Indigenous Land Back program , with both of them helping to shape the priorities of how and where we repair broken ecosystems , schools , transit systems , hospitals , and more .
At its most profound level , the Years of Repair are a call to repair the broken stories — of supremacy and dominance — that brought us to this harrowing precipice .
It is this work that is most vital as we confront the reality of ecological unraveling .
The truth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for human habitation is going to contract , even if we do everything right .
And as more and more of us are forced to migrate , inside countries and between them , committing ourselves , as never before , to the inherent value of life will be our only defense against eco-fascism .
These are revolutionary demands , but unlike some revolutionary movements , an ethos of repair reminds us that the cumulative impacts of centuries of violence and decades of what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls “ organized abandonment ” will not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be steering us toward the promise of a fresh start , clean break , or reboot .
But a posture of repair , or what Rev .
William Barber has termed the “ Third Reconstruction , ” reminds us that before we advance — in order to advance — we first need to fix what is broken .
The communities left in ruins .
The spirits deliberately broken .
The broken stories of domination and dominion that provided the cover stories for this cruelty .
This is urgent work that nonetheless can not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not starting from anything near scratch .
Radical anti-colonial , racial justice , and Black feminist movements have been advancing these deeper meanings of repair for nearly two centuries , teasing out what reparation and true reconstruction can and should mean .
Climate justice activists , more recently , have been developing models that meet multiple reparative needs simultaneously ( which is the underlying philosophy of any transformative Green New Deal ) .
It is this work that animates the future world we portrayed on film .
A world with shuttered prisons , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with families fed by local farmers and housed in beautiful , green public housing , built to enhance community and break the barriers of isolation .
A world where the resources currently spent on the sprawling infrastructures of coercion , containment , and violence are shifted to a vast infrastructure of care and repair .
But it ’ s not all rosy .
Part of the story we tell in “ Message From the Future II ” involves things getting worse — more novel viruses , more ecological unraveling , more racist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ times to come is not based on any accelerationist longings on our part but rather on clear-eyed readings of climate models , market bubbles , and who has the guns .
Many future shocks are already locked in .
We didn ’ t , however , expect our forecasts to come true quite so soon .
In fact , we were already far enough along that storyboards were complete when huge swaths of the Western United States were devoured by September ’ s historic wildfires .
When photographs began circulating of an eerie @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Signal Molly Crabapple to make sure she had seen that it precisely matched the color palette she had chosen for the opening of our film .
In truth , predicting a future that looks like our present , only worse , is dead easy .
Some version of that future has been the plotline of countless cli-fi books , films , and television series — many of them very good .
Gael García Bernal , one of our film ’ s narrators , has been cast in an upcoming miniseries adaptation of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , pandemic-themed novel , “ Station Eleven.
” And Emma Thompson , another of our narrators , co-stars in my favorite recent dystopian offering , HBO ’ s “ Years and Years.
” She is terrifying as a distinctly Trumpian U.K. Prime Minister , promising to bring back British glory even as she constructs an archipelago of refugee black sites .
The authors of these bleak narratives are trying to warn us .
The catch may be this : If the only portrayals of the future we ever see are of some mix-and-match @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forecasts can start to feel inevitable — less like warnings and more like prophecy .
Moreover , given the powerful positions occupied by Christian nationalists in the Trump administration ( and perhaps soon , the Supreme Court ) , it is always worth remembering that the most hardwired apocalyptic storyline in our culture is that of the Rapture , when a small group of believers are lifted up to a kingdom in the sky while nonbelievers are swallowed up in the hell they ( we ) deserve .
Seen through this lens , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ living through — the diseases , the droughts , the floods , the extinctions , the hunger , the political mayhem — are not warning signs at all .
On the contrary , they are salutory items on a preordained Rapture checklist — proof positive that the exciting end is nigh , so pray harder to make sure you are among the saved .
Apocalyptic fantasies , in other words , are part of what landed us here .
So as difficult as it may be right now to imagine a future that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we have to keep trying .
However , for futurism to be more than wild-eyed fantasy , there has to be a credible path to get there from here .
Which is why , once we had the script and the storyboards , Avi , Opal , and I started reaching out to groups whose organizing and theorizing shape the future portrayed in the film .
So today , as we send the film into the world , we are also able to announce a powerful launch coalition of groups and networks that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ use it in their organizing .
This growing alliance includes : the Movement for Black Lives , Greenpeace International , Public Services International ( with its more than 700 member unions representing 30 million workers worldwide ) , La Vía Campesina ( representing some 200 million small farmers ) , NDN Collective ( organizing around a comprehensive vision of decolonization and Indigenous self-determination ) , Global Nurses United ( representing so many front-line health workers ) , Amazon Watch , One Billion Rising ( a global movement to end violence against women and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dream Defenders , as well as the Institute for Policy Studies ( which has long been advancing many of these ideas ) , and the organization Avi and I co-founded , The Leap .
For us , the beauty of “ Message From the Future II : The Years of Repair ” flows from the magic of Molly Crabapple ’ s paint brushes , as well as from directors Jim Batt and Kim Boekbinder ’ s expert editing and sound design .
But the true power and possibility of this project is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of movements that is fighting for this vision of radical repair every day .
If any of us still have the right to be hopeful , it is because of them .
This video was produced in partnership with The Leap .

Do we even have a right to be hopeful? With political and ecological fires raging all around, is it irresponsible to imagine a future world radically better than our own? A world without prisons? Of beautiful, green public housing? Of buried border walls? Of healed ecosystems? A world where governments fear the people instead of the other way around?
These are questions we wrestled with as we conceived of a sequel to last year’s Emmy-nominated short, “A Message From the Future with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.” The first film, co-written by the congresswoman and illustrated by Molly Crabapple, was set in a can-do, cli-fi future: one in which bold, progressive politicians joined with grassroots movements to launch the “Decade of the Green New Deal,” battling poverty, injustice, and climate disruption all at the same time. The film touched a nerve and ended up being viewed more than 12 million times, convincing our little team of the need for more art that departs from well-worn apocalyptic scripts.
Then Covid-19 hit.
About a month into the pandemic lockdown, I started talking with my partner Avi Lewis, who co-wrote and produced the last film, about whether the utopian imagination could possibly have a role to play in this markedly less optimistic political moment.
We honestly weren’t sure. Last time, we could see a clear if narrow political path to the hopeful future Molly Crabapple illustrated. The piece was conceived shortly after the Sunrise Movement stormed the halls of power in Washington, demanding a Green New Deal. That challenge was immediately picked up by Ocasio-Cortez and then quickly echoed by several of the top contenders to lead the Democratic Party — most notably, Bernie Sanders. “A Message From the Future” was an attempt to help viewers envision what the world could look like if the Green New Deal was actually the governing framework in the largest economy on the planet. Because, as Ocasio-Cortez said in the voiceover, “You can’t be what you can’t see.”
As we all know, U.S. politics is in a very different place today. Sanders lost the primaries, as did every other candidate who seemed to grasp the urgency of transformational policy. The only viable hope of unseating Donald Trump is a presidential ticket crafted to tightly hug the political center, while fending off the demands animating progressive movements, whether to defund the police, or provide free universal health care, or introduce a sweeping Green New Deal.
Beating Trump is urgent, about that I have no doubt. But while doing so is necessary to fend off naked authoritarianism in the White House, it is decidedly not enough to escape the many other intersecting crises bearing down on the country and the world: whether climate collapse, surging white supremacy, or widespread famine. These unyielding political facts makes our path to a nonapocalyptic future distinctly less clear than it was one year ago. And so the question: Is it ethical to expend energy dreaming of a another world when so many fires need extinguishing right now? On the other hand, if we stop talking about what winning actually looks like, isn’t that the same as giving up? Besides, are we so sure big wins are impossible? The coronavirus has already ushered in changes few imagined or foretold just a few months ago. Entire high-carbon, high-consumption industries are on their knees: cruise ships, airlines, fashion. The Movement for Black Lives has redrawn the political map, and nurses are local heroes. If this isn’t the time to advance a vision of the world governed by radically more humane and inclusive values, when is?
We called Molly, who had been painting portraits of essential workers and projecting them on the sides of Manhattan buildings, and started a conversation about the role of futurism in moments when so much seems lost. Tentatively, we began to brainstorm about crafting a second “Message From the Future,” one shaped by burning cities and burning forests and, of course, a highly contagious and deadly virus.
Opal Tometi, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter and longtime migrant rights advocate, joined us as co-author and co-narrator. And over the months of lockdown and deadly reopenings, a picture of a possible, beautiful future slowly came into focus, along with a steep and perilous path to getting there.
We knew a few things from the start. First, that in the midst of such a transnational set of crises, the film needed to feel and sound distinctly more global than the last one, where all of the action took place in the U.S. We also knew that we needed to show more fight this time — the street battles and the general strikes that must be escalated and won before any kind of safe, humane future is even a prospect.
Covid-19 acts as a kind of character in the drama, almost like a tough teacher instructing humanity in a series of lessons that should have been obvious long ago.
Finally, and relatedly, no politician, no matter how progressive, could be the protagonist of the sequel. This time, rank-and-file organizers and activists would be the stars. Given the array of corporate powers resisting change, and the bleak electoral options on offer, social movements are now the only force left with the power to grab the wheel of history and veer us off our current deadly trajectory. And not one or two movements, but an unprecedented convergence and collaboration of disparate and often divided political strains: organized labor, Black liberation, climate, Indigenous, feminist, disabled, migrant, queer, unhoused, worker cooperatives, and more. Everyone locked out of the elite Great Gorging (it’s not a Great Depression) will be needed, along with a common vision that weaves together each of these movements’ boldest and most transformational demands.
A short piece of art is not a political platform, and so it was never our goal to be comprehensive. Rather, we looked for threads of connection in the hopes that they would inspire more. In the film, Covid-19 acts as a kind of character in the drama, almost like a tough teacher instructing humanity in a series of lessons that should have been obvious long ago. Lessons about the essential labor that makes life possible and enjoyable — and yet has been so persistently discounted. Lessons about systemic racism as an assault on the human body, one that makes it more vulnerable on every front. Lessons about how community is our best technology, especially during times of crisis. Lessons about how damage done to the natural world will invariably blow back on us, whether in the form of disease or climate disruption or both.
Still: Molly Crabapple
Lessons, too, about the risks and deadly cruelty of warehousing human beings: in prisons, immigrant detention camps, and for-profit old-age homes, as well as in cavernous meatpacking plants and sprawling “fulfillment centers.” Hidden from prying eyes, so many people are packed together in these inhuman institutions — treated as if they have no inherent value whatsoever, in the case of prisons, or as if they are distinctly less valuable than the products, plants, or animal carcasses they prepare for consumption. It was in these places, already so sick, that the virus spread like wildfire.
Another Covid-19 lesson we wanted to highlight had to do with why the abuses that long predated the pandemic suddenly received so much more attention during it. It’s a lesson, perhaps, about the relationship between speed and solidarity. Because for those of us privileged enough to self-isolate, the virus forced a radical and sudden slowdown, a paring and editing down of life to its essentials that was undertaken in a bid to stop the virus’s spread. But that slowness had other, unintended effects as well. It turns out that when the deafening roar of capitalism-as-usual quiets, even a little, our capacity to notice things that were hidden in plain view may grow and expand.
The coronavirus instantly exploded the cherished, market-manufactured myth of the individual as self-made island.
For some, that awareness has expanded to encompass the cruelty of those long-ignored human warehouses. For others, it has stretched to include the previously drowned out sounds and sights of the natural world. And during this time of “terror and tenderness,” as Opal and Avi put it in the script, a great many people found new capacity to stand up for Black lives in the face of unremitting state violence.
There is no one answer or simple explanation for why we find ourselves in the throes of the deepest and most sustained public reckoning in a half-century with the evil that is white supremacy. But we cannot discount the “solidarity in vulnerability that the pandemic has generated,” as Eddie Glaude Jr. put it, while discussing his brilliant and highly relevant biography of James Baldwin, “Begin Again.” In forcing all of us to confront the porousness of our own bodies in relationship to the vast web of other bodies that sustain us and the people we love — caregivers, farmers, supermarket clerks, street cleaners, and more — the coronavirus instantly exploded the cherished, market-manufactured myth of the individual as self-made island.
Read Our Complete Coverage The Coronavirus Crisis
Consciousness of our own vulnerability, as Glaude says, can sow solidarity. Especially when that consciousness is combined with more time. Because when we are moving at the velocity of pre-pandemic life, endlessly striving and climbing, frantically making sure that we do not fall behind, busyness can act as a deadening agent. There is no time to think about who makes our stuff or where our trash goes or what wars — domestic and international — are waged in our name. And certainly, there is no time, or so we have so often been told, to look back at the past and present terror committed against Black and Indigenous peoples — crimes so profitable that they produced the vast wealth on which contemporary capitalism rests. A system that must always move faster, and grow bigger, or else face collapse.
For all of these reasons and more, as we searched for a unifying principle that could animate a future worth fighting for, we settled on “The Years of Repair.” The call to repair a deep brokenness has roots in many radical and religious traditions. And it provides a framework expansive enough to connect the interlocking crises in our social, economic, political, informational, and ecological spheres.
Repair work speaks to the need to repair our broken infrastructures of care: the schools, hospitals, and elder care facilities serving the poor and working classes, infrastructures that failed the test of this virus again and again. It also calls on us to repair the vast damage done to the natural world, to clean up toxic sites, rehabilitate wild landscapes, invest in nonpolluting energy sources. It is also a call to begin to repair our stuff rather than endlessly replace it in an ever-accelerating cycle of planned obsolescence — what the film refers to as “the right to repair.”
Still: Molly Crabapple
As we imagine it, the work of repair is intensely concrete and civic — it is armies of Community Care Corp workers and battalions of tree planters, rehabilitating scarred and charred landscapes. But in heeding the seismic lessons of Covid-19, repair work is also intensely inward and slightly ephemeral. It is the practice of connecting, or re-pairing, those many crucial connections that our culture so systematically severs — between individuals and the communities that support them, between humans and the more-than-human world that sustains all of life. Even the broken connections between heart and mind that stand in the way of imagining these possible futures.
And running through it all, repair work is also the work of reparation. A call to keep the long-denied and delayed rendezvous with history’s most brutal crimes and to reject, once and for all, the web of flattering and dangerous lies that passes for official history in so many parts of the world. Drawing on the long-standing demands of Black and Indigenous movements, the film imagines a Truth and Reparations Commission, as well as an Indigenous Land Back program, with both of them helping to shape the priorities of how and where we repair broken ecosystems, schools, transit systems, hospitals, and more.
At its most profound level, the Years of Repair are a call to repair the broken stories — of supremacy and dominance — that brought us to this harrowing precipice. It is this work that is most vital as we confront the reality of ecological unraveling. The truth is that the amount of land fit for human habitation is going to contract, even if we do everything right. And as more and more of us are forced to migrate, inside countries and between them, committing ourselves, as never before, to the inherent value of life will be our only defense against eco-fascism.
These are revolutionary demands, but unlike some revolutionary movements, an ethos of repair reminds us that the cumulative impacts of centuries of violence and decades of what Ruth Wilson Gilmore calls “organized abandonment” will not be fixed overnight. Capitalism may always be steering us toward the promise of a fresh start, clean break, or reboot. But a posture of repair, or what Rev. William Barber has termed the “Third Reconstruction,” reminds us that before we advance — in order to advance — we first need to fix what is broken. The communities left in ruins. The spirits deliberately broken. The broken stories of domination and dominion that provided the cover stories for this cruelty. This is urgent work that nonetheless cannot be rushed.
Fortunately, we are not starting from anything near scratch. Radical anti-colonial, racial justice, and Black feminist movements have been advancing these deeper meanings of repair for nearly two centuries, teasing out what reparation and true reconstruction can and should mean. Climate justice activists, more recently, have been developing models that meet multiple reparative needs simultaneously (which is the underlying philosophy of any transformative Green New Deal).
It is this work that animates the future world we portrayed on film. A world with shuttered prisons, with far more land under Indigenous jurisdiction, with families fed by local farmers and housed in beautiful, green public housing, built to enhance community and break the barriers of isolation. A world where the resources currently spent on the sprawling infrastructures of coercion, containment, and violence are shifted to a vast infrastructure of care and repair.
But it’s not all rosy. Part of the story we tell in “Message From the Future II” involves things getting worse — more novel viruses, more ecological unraveling, more racist state violence. This preview of worse times to come is not based on any accelerationist longings on our part but rather on clear-eyed readings of climate models, market bubbles, and who has the guns. Many future shocks are already locked in.
We didn’t, however, expect our forecasts to come true quite so soon. In fact, we were already far enough along that storyboards were complete when huge swaths of the Western United States were devoured by September’s historic wildfires. When photographs began circulating of an eerie Mars-like sky over Oregon, I had to Signal Molly Crabapple to make sure she had seen that it precisely matched the color palette she had chosen for the opening of our film.
In truth, predicting a future that looks like our present, only worse, is dead easy. Some version of that future has been the plotline of countless cli-fi books, films, and television series — many of them very good. Gael García Bernal, one of our film’s narrators, has been cast in an upcoming miniseries adaptation of Emily St. John Mandel’s prophetic, pandemic-themed novel, “Station Eleven.” And Emma Thompson, another of our narrators, co-stars in my favorite recent dystopian offering, HBO’s “Years and Years.” She is terrifying as a distinctly Trumpian U.K. Prime Minister, promising to bring back British glory even as she constructs an archipelago of refugee black sites.
The authors of these bleak narratives are trying to warn us. The catch may be this: If the only portrayals of the future we ever see are of some mix-and-match of fascism and ecological collapse, the forecasts can start to feel inevitable — less like warnings and more like prophecy.
Moreover, given the powerful positions occupied by Christian nationalists in the Trump administration (and perhaps soon, the Supreme Court), it is always worth remembering that the most hardwired apocalyptic storyline in our culture is that of the Rapture, when a small group of believers are lifted up to a kingdom in the sky while nonbelievers are swallowed up in the hell they (we) deserve. Seen through this lens, the conflagration of crises we are currently living through — the diseases, the droughts, the floods, the extinctions, the hunger, the political mayhem — are not warning signs at all. On the contrary, they are salutory items on a preordained Rapture checklist — proof positive that the exciting end is nigh, so pray harder to make sure you are among the saved.
Apocalyptic fantasies, in other words, are part of what landed us here. So as difficult as it may be right now to imagine a future that is genuinely better than our present, we have to keep trying. However, for futurism to be more than wild-eyed fantasy, there has to be a credible path to get there from here.
Which is why, once we had the script and the storyboards, Avi, Opal, and I started reaching out to groups whose organizing and theorizing shape the future portrayed in the film. So today, as we send the film into the world, we are also able to announce a powerful launch coalition of groups and networks that have united to push it out and use it in their organizing. This growing alliance includes: the Movement for Black Lives, Greenpeace International, Public Services International (with its more than 700 member unions representing 30 million workers worldwide), La Vía Campesina (representing some 200 million small farmers), NDN Collective (organizing around a comprehensive vision of decolonization and Indigenous self-determination), Global Nurses United (representing so many front-line health workers), Amazon Watch, One Billion Rising (a global movement to end violence against women and girls), the Sunrise Movement, Dream Defenders, as well as the Institute for Policy Studies (which has long been advancing many of these ideas), and the organization Avi and I co-founded, The Leap.
For us, the beauty of “Message From the Future II: The Years of Repair” flows from the magic of Molly Crabapple’s paint brushes, as well as from directors Jim Batt and Kim Boekbinder’s expert editing and sound design. But the true power and possibility of this project is not onscreen. That resides in the movement of movements that is fighting for this vision of radical repair every day.
If any of us still have the right to be hopeful, it is because of them.
This video was produced in partnership with The Leap.


theintercept--2020-09-30--Trump Campaign Looks to Make Good on Poll-Watching Threat in Philadelphia

President Donald Trump called for his supporters to “ carefully watch ” voting sites , his presidential campaign requested that Philadelphia immediately allow them to appoint poll watchers at early-voting centers .
Early voting in Philadelphia began on Tuesday .
The city opened six early-voting sites at new satellite election offices and another at City Hall where voters can register , request , fill out , and submit mail-in ballots .
Unlike early-voting centers , traditional polling locations are only open on Election Day , and people can vote in person as opposed to delivering their mail ballots .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the mail-in voting process is an effort to dissuade Democrats from using it , said Lt. Gov .
John Fetterman .
Absentee ballots , available to every Pennsylvania voter , can either be dropped off in person at election locations or set through the mail .
But if a voter who requested an absentee ballot — more than 2 million have already done so , the overwhelming majority Democrats — decides instead they want to vote in person on Election Day , he warned , they ’ ll be turned away if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — and the envelope it came in — with them to the polls .
“ That ’ s what they want , ” he told The Intercept .
“ Let ’ s say half a million people out of 2 million say , ‘ Oh my God , I don ’ t want to vote by mail anymore.
’ Can you imagine that ?
” The simplest thing , he said , is to just follow the instructions on the ballot and vote by mail .
On Wednesday , at the weekly Philadelphia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for public comment , the Trump campaign ’ s Pennsylvania state director for Election Day operations , James Fitzpatrick , requested that the board allow the campaign to immediately appoint poll watchers at early-voting centers .
“ I am a qualified Philadelphia elector , and I represent Donald J. Trump for president , ” Fitzpatrick said .
“ Your office opened satellite offices around Philadelphia yesterday and has plans to open more , ” he said .
“ Because voting is occurring at these satellite offices , the Trump campaign requests that we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to observe the voting at these satellite offices .
In the alternative , if these are satellite offices of the Board of Elections , we request the right to have our representatives observe the process from a public space within these satellite election officers .
Voters deserve transparency and accountability.
” Officials do not respond directly to public comments at such meetings .
Asked if the commissioners would allow the Trump campaign to appoint poll watchers , City Commissioner Lisa Deeley told reporters , “ They are not polling locations .
Poll watchers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ … It is a temporary election office where services are made available to citizens who would like to register to vote or request their mail-in ballot , and they vote their mail ballot there , or they can take it home and vote on it at their dining-room table , ” she said .
During the first presidential debate on Tuesday night , Trump made numerous false claims about mail-in voting fraud and said , “ I am urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully.
” He also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claiming that watchers were barred from observing early voting , failing to note that the satellite election offices are not actual polling locations .
“ As you know today there was a big problem .
In Philadelphia , they went into watch — they ’ re called poll watchers .
A very safe , very nice thing .
They were thrown out .
They weren ’ t allowed to watch .
You know why ?
’ Cause bad things happen in Philadelphia .
Bad things.
” Earlier in the day , Trump tweeted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ let Poll Watchers & Security into Philadelphia Voting Places .
There is only one reason why .
Corruption !
!
!
Must have a fair Election.
” One woman at an early-voting center in the city ’ s Overbrook neighborhood told a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter on Tuesday that she was hired by the Trump campaign to observe voting and was not allowed inside .
That ’ s because there are no polling locations currently open , and because the Trump campaign doesn ’ t have any poll watchers approved to work in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Also on Tuesday , a deputy sheriff removed Fitzpatrick from the satellite election office at City Hall , “ where he was recording video on his cellphone , according to election and sheriff aides , ” Politico reported .
The Trump campaign has threatened legal action against Philadelphia County for denying admission to poll watchers at the satellite election sites .
Tuesday ’ s debate was not the first time that Trump encouraged his supporters to go to polling sites in an attempt to intimidate voters , a form of voter suppression that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ era .
He did the same in 2016 , along with David Duke and leaders of white nationalist groups .
In August , Trump told Fox News he would send sheriffs and other law enforcement to polling places on Election Day , which he likely does not have authority to do .
Asked for comment , Fitzpatrick referred reporters to a letter he said the campaign sent by email to the county ’ s three commissioners on Tuesday .
Deeley and her spokesperson said they had not yet received any letter and had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to questions about concerns about voter intimidation and security at the satellite offices , Deeley said the city already had sheriffs stationed at some early-voting centers .
The city plans to open more locations in the coming weeks .
A Republican National Committee staffer , identified by Fitzpatrick as Andre McCoy , was also at the Wednesday meeting .
He would not speak to journalists and directed questions to Fitzpatrick , whom he left with .
Fitzpatrick and McCoy referred questions to another person helping field questions from the press , who said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Asked to comment , that person referred reporters to Trump campaign Deputy National Press Secretary Thea McDonald , who did not immediately respond to a request for comment .
Republicans are paying close attention to the polls in Pennsylvania , a crucial swing state that Trump won by just 44,000 votes in 2016 .
Paid staffers from the RNC observed vote counts in Philadelphia following the June primary , The Intercept reported .
The county was one of the slowest in the state to count ballots from the primary : The process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1 , 2020 This article has been updated to include a legal threat from the Trump campaign against Philadelphia County and that Fitzpatrick had been removed from a satellite election office on Tuesday , as well as a comment from Fetterman .

The morning after President Donald Trump called for his supporters to “carefully watch” voting sites, his presidential campaign requested that Philadelphia immediately allow them to appoint poll watchers at early-voting centers.
Early voting in Philadelphia began on Tuesday. The city opened six early-voting sites at new satellite election offices and another at City Hall where voters can register, request, fill out, and submit mail-in ballots. Unlike early-voting centers, traditional polling locations are only open on Election Day, and people can vote in person as opposed to delivering their mail ballots.
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The tactic of raising doubts about the integrity of the mail-in voting process is an effort to dissuade Democrats from using it, said Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. Absentee ballots, available to every Pennsylvania voter, can either be dropped off in person at election locations or set through the mail. But if a voter who requested an absentee ballot — more than 2 million have already done so, the overwhelming majority Democrats — decides instead they want to vote in person on Election Day, he warned, they’ll be turned away if they don’t bring their ballot — and the envelope it came in — with them to the polls. “That’s what they want,” he told The Intercept. “Let’s say half a million people out of 2 million say, ‘Oh my God, I don’t want to vote by mail anymore.’ Can you imagine that?” The simplest thing, he said, is to just follow the instructions on the ballot and vote by mail.
On Wednesday, at the weekly Philadelphia City Commissioners meeting, which is open for public comment, the Trump campaign’s Pennsylvania state director for Election Day operations, James Fitzpatrick, requested that the board allow the campaign to immediately appoint poll watchers at early-voting centers.
“I am a qualified Philadelphia elector, and I represent Donald J. Trump for president,” Fitzpatrick said. “Your office opened satellite offices around Philadelphia yesterday and has plans to open more,” he said. “Because voting is occurring at these satellite offices, the Trump campaign requests that we immediately be able to appoint poll watchers to observe the voting at these satellite offices. In the alternative, if these are satellite offices of the Board of Elections, we request the right to have our representatives observe the process from a public space within these satellite election officers. Voters deserve transparency and accountability.”
Officials do not respond directly to public comments at such meetings. Asked if the commissioners would allow the Trump campaign to appoint poll watchers, City Commissioner Lisa Deeley told reporters, “They are not polling locations. Poll watchers are only appointed at polling locations. … It is a temporary election office where services are made available to citizens who would like to register to vote or request their mail-in ballot, and they vote their mail ballot there, or they can take it home and vote on it at their dining-room table,” she said.
During the first presidential debate on Tuesday night, Trump made numerous false claims about mail-in voting fraud and said, “I am urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully.” He also referred to poll watchers in Philadelphia, claiming that watchers were barred from observing early voting, failing to note that the satellite election offices are not actual polling locations. “As you know today there was a big problem. In Philadelphia, they went into watch — they’re called poll watchers. A very safe, very nice thing. They were thrown out. They weren’t allowed to watch. You know why? ’Cause bad things happen in Philadelphia. Bad things.” Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted, “Wow. Won’t let Poll Watchers & Security into Philadelphia Voting Places. There is only one reason why. Corruption!!! Must have a fair Election.”
One woman at an early-voting center in the city’s Overbrook neighborhood told a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter on Tuesday that she was hired by the Trump campaign to observe voting and was not allowed inside. That’s because there are no polling locations currently open, and because the Trump campaign doesn’t have any poll watchers approved to work in the city, as the Inquirer reported. Also on Tuesday, a deputy sheriff removed Fitzpatrick from the satellite election office at City Hall, “where he was recording video on his cellphone, according to election and sheriff aides,” Politico reported. The Trump campaign has threatened legal action against Philadelphia County for denying admission to poll watchers at the satellite election sites.
Tuesday’s debate was not the first time that Trump encouraged his supporters to go to polling sites in an attempt to intimidate voters, a form of voter suppression that goes back to before the civil rights era. He did the same in 2016, along with David Duke and leaders of white nationalist groups. In August, Trump told Fox News he would send sheriffs and other law enforcement to polling places on Election Day, which he likely does not have authority to do.
Asked for comment, Fitzpatrick referred reporters to a letter he said the campaign sent by email to the county’s three commissioners on Tuesday. Deeley and her spokesperson said they had not yet received any letter and had no information on it.
In response to questions about concerns about voter intimidation and security at the satellite offices, Deeley said the city already had sheriffs stationed at some early-voting centers. The city plans to open more locations in the coming weeks.
A Republican National Committee staffer, identified by Fitzpatrick as Andre McCoy, was also at the Wednesday meeting. He would not speak to journalists and directed questions to Fitzpatrick, whom he left with. Fitzpatrick and McCoy referred questions to another person helping field questions from the press, who said they did not work for the campaign. Asked to comment, that person referred reporters to Trump campaign Deputy National Press Secretary Thea McDonald, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republicans are paying close attention to the polls in Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state that Trump won by just 44,000 votes in 2016. Paid staffers from the RNC observed vote counts in Philadelphia following the June primary, The Intercept reported. The county was one of the slowest in the state to count ballots from the primary: The process took two weeks.
Update: Oct. 1, 2020
This article has been updated to include a legal threat from the Trump campaign against Philadelphia County and that Fitzpatrick had been removed from a satellite election office on Tuesday, as well as a comment from Fetterman.


theintercept--2020-09-29--Launch Event: “A Message From the Future II: The Years of Repair”

The Years of Repair ” is an animated short film that dares to dream of a future in which 2020 is a historic turning point , where the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic and global uprisings against racism drive us to build back a better society in which no one is sacrificed and everyone is essential .
The film is a sequel to the 2019 Emmy-nominated short film “ A Message From the Future ” with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , and features the art of Molly Crabapple and directors Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt , with the political storytelling of Naomi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tometi .
The cast of narrators from around the world includes Tometi , Emma Thompson , Gael García Bernal , and the Nigerian poet and activist Nnimmo Bassey .
Join us for an online event at 3 p.m .
ET on October 1 to celebrate the film ’ s global launch , hosted by Emma Thompson and featuring key members of the team behind the film including : At a time when everyday life feels like an apocalyptic Hollywood movie , this film brings together movement leaders with an all-star cast to imagine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ashes .

LIVE: Thursday, October 1 at 3 p.m. ET
“A Message From the Future II: The Years of Repair” is an animated short film that dares to dream of a future in which 2020 is a historic turning point, where the lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic and global uprisings against racism drive us to build back a better society in which no one is sacrificed and everyone is essential.
The film is a sequel to the 2019 Emmy-nominated short film “A Message From the Future” with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and features the art of Molly Crabapple and directors Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt, with the political storytelling of Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis, and Opal Tometi.
The cast of narrators from around the world includes Tometi, Emma Thompson, Gael García Bernal, and the Nigerian poet and activist Nnimmo Bassey.
Join us for an online event at 3 p.m. ET on October 1 to celebrate the film’s global launch, hosted by Emma Thompson and featuring key members of the team behind the film including:
Nnimmo Bassey, narrator
Naomi Klein, executive producer
Opal Tometi, writer and narrator
Emma Thompson, narrator
At a time when everyday life feels like an apocalyptic Hollywood movie, this film brings together movement leaders with an all-star cast to imagine something really radical: utopia from the ashes.
Watch the short film here:
In partnership with The Leap.


theintercept--2020-10-02--Trump Tests Positive for Coronavirus, 48 Hours After Mocking Biden for Wearing a Mask

of refusing to follow his own government ’ s public health advice to wear a mask during the coronavirus pandemic , and just two days after mocking his opponent Joe Biden for routinely doing so , President Donald Trump tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday , contracting the illness spread by respiratory droplets .
Fox News , the president ’ s de facto campaign arm , snapped into action by illustrating reports on the breaking news with one of the rare images of Trump wearing a mask — taken during a carefully staged photo-op at Walter Reed Military Medical Center @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aides had urged him to wear a mask in public that day to set an example for his followers , he was careful to undermine the guidance from health experts first , by suggesting that masks were appropriate only at times , like , “ when you ’ re in a hospital.
” In the months since that photo-op , the president has been central to the politicization of mask-wearing — sowing resistance among his supporters by flouting the guidance himself and repeatedly making fun of others who follow it , particularly Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as president .
After Biden wore a mask to a Memorial Day service , Trump shared a childish tweet from the Fox News commentator Brit Hume suggesting that the former vice president looked silly .
At a rally in Pennsylvania last month , Trump treated Biden ’ s mask-wearing as a weakness to be ridiculed .
“ Did you ever see a man who likes a mask as much as him ?
” the president asked in his insult-comic mode .
He went on to suggest that his rival covered his face not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic viral illness but “ because , you know what , it gives him a feeling of security .
If I were a psychiatrist , I ’ d say : ‘ This guy ’ s got some big issues . '
” During the presidential debate on Tuesday , Trump again insinuated that there was something odd about the former vice president wearing a mask , a measure recommended by his coronavirus task force in April .
“ I don ’ t wear a mask like him , ” Trump said , gesturing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see him , he ’ s got a mask .
He could be speaking 200 feet away from him and he shows up with the biggest mask I ’ ve ever seen.
” Biden responded by noting that the director of the Centers for Disease Control , Dr. Robert Redfield , just told Congress that nationwide mask-wearing could bring the pandemic under control in 6-12 weeks , potentially saving tens of thousands of lives .
When Trump interrupted with the false claim that health experts have “ also said the opposite , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ replied dismissively , “ No serious person ’ s said the opposite.
” Moments later , Trump also made fun of Biden for observing social distancing at small-scale campaign events during the pandemic , and denied that the crowded rallies he has held recently to make himself feel loved have threatened public health .
“ So far we have had no problem whatsoever , ” the president claimed , relying on voters to have forgotten , or never heard , that his supporter Herman Cain tested positive for Covid-19 nine days after sitting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Tulsa in June , and died weeks later .
Biden then pointed out that Trump had said recently that his rallies were safe , for him , because he maintained social distance from his supporters .
“ He ’ s not worried about the people out there , breathing on one another , cheek by jowl , ” Biden said .
“ We ’ ve had no negative effect , ” Trump interjected .
“ No negative effect ?
” Biden replied .
“ Come on.
” Trump ’ s wife , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aides , Hope Hicks , also tested positive for the viral disease on Thursday .
Both women have , at times , worn masks in public , but have also regularly been seen unmasked , including this week .
At the conclusion of the debate , when she crossed the stage in front of Biden to join her husband , she was unmasked .
By contrast , Jill Biden , the former vice president ’ s wife , wore a mask throughout the indoor event , and continued to do so as she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it concluded .
Although masks were supposed to be required for everyone in the debate audience , Norman Ornstein , a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who was in the hall reported on Twitter that the entire Trump entourage “ came in with masks , took them off as soon as they sat down , refused to put them on when asked by Cleveland Clinic personnel.
” After news of Trump ’ s positive test was reported on Thursday , Ornstein observed that the debate had taken place with “ Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 90 mins .
Oy.
” The president ’ s disdain for mask-wearing has been one of the few constants in his response to the pandemic that has now killed nearly 208,000 Americans .
In early April , when Trump himself announced that his coronavirus task force recommended mask-wearing to slow the spread of the virus , he immediately made it clear that he had no intention of doing so .
Asked why , Trump said that he was concerned about how he would look , and suggested that the pandemic would soon be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and hopefully it will pass very quickly , ” he told reporters .
Trump ’ s apparent worry was that the public might be alarmed , or perhaps tipped off to the true scale of the crisis he was intentionally downplaying , by seeing him in a mask .
His concern clearly influenced the behavior of his aides and senior administration officials .
In April , Vice President Mike Pence refused to wear a mask during a visit to the Mayo Clinic , where it was mandatory .
Also in April , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ block plans by the United States Postal Service to deliver five face covering to every American household , 650 million masks in total .
A month later , when food industry executives in Iowa arrived for a roundtable discussion with Pence , a White House aide was spotted on camera asking them to remove the masks they were wearing before the vice president entered the room .
Incredibly , after Hicks was diagnosed on Thursday , Trump still went to a fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster , New Jersey .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of other people , including campaign supporters , at a roundtable event , ” The Washington Post reports .
“ The president did not wear a mask Thursday , including at the events at his golf course and on the plane , officials said .
He was tested after he returned to the White House .
”

After six months of refusing to follow his own government’s public health advice to wear a mask during the coronavirus pandemic, and just two days after mocking his opponent Joe Biden for routinely doing so, President Donald Trump tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday, contracting the illness spread by respiratory droplets.
On Friday afternoon, the White House physician disclosed that Trump had a fever and a cough and had been given an experimental Covid-19 treatment, a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies that has not yet been approved by the F.D.A. A short time later, the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, said that the president would be “working from” Walter Reed Military Medical Center “for the next few days.”
Fox News, the president’s de facto campaign arm, had snapped into action by illustrating initial reports on the breaking news with one of the rare images of Trump wearing a mask — taken during a carefully staged photo-op at Walter Reed hospital in July.
Fox News illustrates breaking news that Trump has tested positive for Covid with rare image of him briefly wearing a mask – moving quickly to airbrush from the minds of viewers his reckless refusal to do so routinely and his constant mockery of Biden for being more responsible. pic.twitter.com/2JdRpgBo4e — Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) October 2, 2020
While Trump’s aides had urged him to wear a mask in public that day to set an example for his followers, he was careful to undermine the guidance from health experts first, by suggesting that masks were appropriate only at times, like, “when you’re in a hospital.”
When he emerged from the White House on Friday for a more urgent trip to the hospital for treatment, the president was wearing the same cloth mask he had worn briefly that day in July, and waved dismissively as a debate prop on Tuesday. Given that he now has the virus, it seemed irresponsible of him not to wear an N95 mask instead, which would do more to protect those around him from getting the virus.
Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Before he left the White House for the hospital, the president recorded a video message thanking well-wishers, while not wearing a mask of any kind.
Before and after that July photo-op, the president has been a central figure in the politicization of mask-wearing — sowing resistance among his supporters by flouting the guidance himself and repeatedly making fun of others who follow it, particularly Biden, the Democratic nominee to replace him as president.
North Carolina woman refuses to wear a mask & causes a huge scene saying "Trump 2020" pic.twitter.com/OiXok1jRoB — Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) July 10, 2020
After Biden wore a mask to a Memorial Day service, Trump shared a childish tweet from the Fox News commentator Brit Hume suggesting that the former vice president looked silly.
At a rally in Pennsylvania last month, Trump treated Biden’s mask-wearing as a weakness to be ridiculed. “Did you ever see a man who likes a mask as much as him?” the president asked in his insult-comic mode.
He went on to suggest that his rival covered his face not to protect others or himself from the pandemic viral illness but “because, you know what, it gives him a feeling of security. If I were a psychiatrist, I’d say: ‘This guy’s got some big issues.'”
During the presidential debate on Tuesday, Trump again insinuated that there was something odd about the former vice president wearing a mask, a measure recommended by his coronavirus task force in April.
Here's Trump — who just announced he and Melania are under quarantine for possible COVID infection — mocking Joe Biden at Tuesday's debate for wearing a mask pic.twitter.com/Q9cFtqezwc — @robertmaguire.bsky.social (@RobertMaguire_) October 2, 2020
“I don’t wear a mask like him,” Trump said, gesturing toward Biden. “Every time you see him, he’s got a mask. He could be speaking 200 feet away from him and he shows up with the biggest mask I’ve ever seen.”
Biden responded by noting that the director of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Robert Redfield, just told Congress that nationwide mask-wearing could bring the pandemic under control in 6-12 weeks, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives. When Trump interrupted with the false claim that health experts have “also said the opposite,” about the effectiveness of masks, Biden replied dismissively, “No serious person’s said the opposite.”
Moments later, Trump also made fun of Biden for observing social distancing at small-scale campaign events during the pandemic, and denied that the crowded rallies he has held recently to make himself feel loved have threatened public health. “So far we have had no problem whatsoever,” the president claimed, relying on voters to have forgotten, or never heard, that his supporter Herman Cain tested positive for Covid-19 nine days after sitting unmasked at Trump’s indoor rally in Tulsa in June, and died weeks later.
Biden then pointed out that Trump had said recently that his rallies were safe, for him, because he maintained social distance from his supporters. “He’s not worried about the people out there, breathing on one another, cheek by jowl,” Biden said. “We’ve had no negative effect,” Trump interjected. “No negative effect?” Biden replied. “Come on.”
Trump’s wife, Melania, and one of his closest aides, Hope Hicks, also tested positive for the viral disease on Thursday. Both women have, at times, worn masks in public, but have also regularly been seen unmasked, including this week.
Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images
The first lady, like other members of Trump’s family, wore a mask as she took her seat in the debate hall at the Cleveland Clinic on Tuesday, but later removed it.
A reminder that the Trump family refused to wear masks during the debate, when the rest of the audience was pic.twitter.com/yS0kGDTLrQ — Dan Saltzstein (@dansaltzstein) October 2, 2020
Naomi Biden, one of the candidate’s granddaughters, tweeted about that disregard for the rules from the other side of the debate hall.
Why is the Trump family allowed to not wear masks in the debate hall while everyone else follows the rules? — Naomi Biden (@NaomiBiden) September 30, 2020
At the conclusion of the debate, when she crossed the stage in front of Biden to join her husband, Melania Trump was unmasked. By contrast, Jill Biden, the former vice president’s wife, wore a mask throughout the indoor event, and continued to do so as she stood with her husband on stage after it concluded.
First Lady Melania Trump and Dr. Jill Biden join their husbands at the conclusion of the first presidential debate. #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/GbdtBQjjNm — The Hill (@thehill) September 30, 2020
Although masks were supposed to be required for everyone in the debate audience, Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute who was in the hall reported on Twitter that the entire Trump entourage “came in with masks, took them off as soon as they sat down, refused to put them on when asked by Cleveland Clinic personnel.”
Photo: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Bloomberg via Getty Images
After news of Trump’s positive test was reported on Thursday, Ornstein observed that the debate had taken place with “Trump shouting only 8-10 feet from Biden for 90 mins. Oy.”
On Friday morning, the Bidens were both tested but showed no sign of infection. “I’m happy to report that Jill and I have tested negative for COVID,” the former vice president wrote on Twitter. “Thank you to everyone for your messages of concern. I hope this serves as a reminder: wear a mask, keep social distance, and wash your hands.”
Chris Wallace, the debate moderator, confirmed on Fox News on Friday that Trump, his aides and his family had also flouted the rules by not wearing masks in their pre-debate run through on stage. “There seems to have been a disregard for the risks of the virus,” Wallace said.
Chris Wallace on Fox News suggests that at least some campaign officials at Tuesday’s debate were not tested on site: “[Some] didn’t arrive until Tuesday afternoon … there wouldn’t have been enough time to have the test and have the debate … there was an honor system" pic.twitter.com/EtLQPUGPcX — JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) October 2, 2020
The Fox News anchor also explained that while he was tested by the Cleveland Clinic in advance of the debate, the president and his aides were allowed to screen themselves for the virus. “There was an honor system,” Wallace said on testing for the virus, “when it came to the people that came into the hall from the two campaigns.”
Incredibly, after Hicks was diagnosed on Thursday, Trump still went to a fundraiser at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “Trump was in close contact with dozens of other people, including campaign supporters, at a roundtable event,” The Washington Post reports. “The president did not wear a mask Thursday, including at the events at his golf course and on the plane, officials said. He was tested after he returned to the White House.”
The president’s disdain for mask-wearing has been one of the few constants in his response to the pandemic that has now killed nearly 208,000 Americans. In early April, when Trump himself announced that his coronavirus task force recommended mask-wearing to slow the spread of the virus, he immediately made it clear that he had no intention of doing so. Asked why, Trump said that he was concerned about how he would look, and suggested that the pandemic would soon be over anyway. “This will pass, and hopefully it will pass very quickly,” he told reporters.
Trump’s apparent worry was that the public might be alarmed, or perhaps tipped off to the true scale of the crisis he was intentionally downplaying, by seeing him in a mask. His concern clearly influenced the behavior of his aides and senior administration officials. In April, Vice President Mike Pence refused to wear a mask during a visit to the Mayo Clinic, where it was mandatory.
Also in April, the White House reportedly stepped in to block plans by the United States Postal Service to deliver five face covering to every American household, 650 million masks in total.
A month later, when food industry executives in Iowa arrived for a roundtable discussion with Pence, a White House aide was spotted on camera asking them to remove the masks they were wearing before the vice president entered the room.
Earlier on Friday, Notre Dame revealed that the university’s president, Rev. John Jenkins, had also tested positive. Days earlier, Jenkins had apologized for not wearing a mask and shaking hands with several people at the White House ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett last weekend. Footage of the event appeared to show Jenkins shaking hands with Attorney General Bill Barr.
This looks to me like Notre Dame President Fr. John Jenkins & Attorney General William Barr shaking hands while both refused to wear masks. https://t.co/bQUkE7oBSt — David Darmofal (@david_darmofal) October 2, 2020
“When I arrived at the White House, a medical professional took me to an exam room to obtain a nasal swab for a rapid COVID-19 test,” Jenkins wrote in an email to Notre Dame’s faculty, staff and students on Monday. “I was then directed to a room with others, all fully masked, until we were notified that we had all tested negative and were told that it was safe to remove our masks. We were then escorted to the Rose Garden, where I was seated with others who also had just been tested and received negative results.”
Ronna McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, also tested positive for Covid-19, as did Sen. Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah who just met with Barrett on Tuesday, an encounter during which neither of them wore a mask.
I was remarkably impressed by Judge Barrett. My meeting with her was fantastic. She is a judge, a legal scholar, and a lawyer with outstanding credentials. We had a great conversation and I am very much looking forward to speaking with her more during her confirmation hearing. pic.twitter.com/rfGt717PlW — Mike Lee (@SenMikeLee) September 29, 2020
Lee was also seen shaking hands and hugging people at the Rose Garden ceremony for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee last Saturday.
The idea of hugging anyone who is not my wife right now is unthinkable. These people, either by virtue of taxpayer-funded daily testing or sheer ignorance, are afforded things those of us with families or loved ones who would die if infected have been denied for months. pic.twitter.com/2pCSBwtFZ0 — Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) September 26, 2020
On Friday evening, Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican revealed that he too had tested positive for Covid-19. Tillis, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, met with Barrett on Wednesday — indoors, unmasked — and also attended the White House event for her last Saturday.
I had a great meeting with Judge Amy Coney Barrett, which reaffirmed what a supremely qualified nominee she is and I look forward to getting her confirmed. Judge Barrett made it clear that her duty is to uphold the Constitution and interpret the law as written. #ACB #ConfirmACB pic.twitter.com/wRzbnw33m4 — Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) September 30, 2020
Last Updated: Friday, Oct. 2, 2:55 p.m. PDT
This article was updated to report that President Donald Trump is being treated with an experimental drug cocktail and moved to the hospital, that former Vice President Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19 on Friday, and that recent White House visitors Sen. Mike Lee, Sen. Thom Tillis, Ronna McDaniel and Rev. John Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, all tested positive.