theintercept--2020-12-08--Effort to Take On Surprise Medical Billing in Coronavirus Stimulus Collapses

Wendell Primus , senior policy adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the most powerful staffer on the Hill , had plans to send a proposal on surprise medical billing to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , according to four sources with knowledge of the negotiations .
By Monday night , however , the effort had been rebuffed .
A last-minute scramble to include surprise hospital billing reform in the new coronavirus relief bill has fallen short , according to multiple sources .
Surprise billing is a tactic used by hospitals and other medical providers , many of them owned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to manipulate bills so that patients and insurance companies wind up paying eye-popping sums for treatment .
Slowing and weakening surprise billing reform has been a driving motivation of House Ways and Means Chair Richie Neal , D-Mass.
, during this past congressional term .
The issue fell under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee , whose chair , Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey , hammered out a tough reform bill on the bipartisan issue with his Republican counterparts .
Neal , however , invented jurisdiction for the Ways @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jurisdiction over taxation , and he linked the issue to government revenue in a roundabout way — and put forward his own proposal that was much more favorable to the private equity industry .
McConnell was not interested in including the provision , according to three Senate aides .
Neal was also an obstacle to getting reform into the Covid-19 bill , said one member of Congress briefed on the talks .
“ The one stumbling block has been of course , Richie trying to scuttle it , ” the member said .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to ending surprise medical billing and his ties to Blackstone , his top funder this cycle .
The progressive group Fighting Corporate Monopolies ran ads attacking Neal , during his primary against Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse , over “ protecting Blackstone ’ s profits ” by helping last year to kill a Senate compromise deal that would have ended surprise billing , The Intercept previously reported .
Neal pulled in major donations from Blackstone executives at the same time he went to work against surprise billing — an unusually close link between campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ equity executives are known to own vacation homes in the Berkshires , which Neal represents .
Surprise billing happens when a patient is in a hospital or medical facility that is within their insurance network but is treated , perhaps only during a single round , by a doctor who is out of network .
Patients , of course , have no way of knowing or checking whether the doctor making rounds is in their network or not , so private equity firms have purchased providers and arranged service to maximize the number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a patient .
Those bills are then exponentially higher , landing at the feet of both patients — in the form of copays and deductibles — and insurance companies , who pay the remainder .
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the issue , with people who went to the emergency room for Covid-19 symptoms receiving surprise bills even when insurers have promised to cover out-of-network care related to the novel virus .
Neal tried to muscle his own version of the bill through , even though Energy and Commerce Committee had a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ network insurance rates to institute federal benchmarks for payment disputes .
Under the proposal , bills over $ 750 would go to independent arbitration .
The Neal proposal would allow providers and insurance companies to settle disputes through an open negotiation process .
If that fails , they could move to an independent mediation process , with a suggestion to consider the mean network rate — regardless of the size of the bill .
That cumbersome process would do little to reform the system , leaving provider profits in place and potentially leading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he wanted to punt the issue to next year , Politico reported Tuesday .
“ Providers really want arbitration , because they want the ability to be able to get more money , ” said one congressional aide close to the process .
“ Especially through private equity , because they know they can win this process .
Because it almost always goes toward the provider.
” A Ways and Means Committee spokesperson defended Neal ’ s bill in a statement .
“ The Chairman wants to find a balanced path forward on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ treats fairly community doctors and hospitals that have been completely overwhelmed by the COVID crisis .
He has repeatedly asked for the other committees to make the updated legislative text of their proposal public , but they have not agreed to that transparency .
”

A last-minute scramble to include surprise hospital billing reform in the new coronavirus relief bill has fallen short, according to multiple sources. Surprise billing is a tactic used by hospitals and other medical providers, many of them owned by private equity giants such as Blackstone, to manipulate bills so that patients and insurance companies wind up paying eye-popping sums for treatment.
Wendell Primus, senior policy adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the most powerful staffer on the Hill, had plans to send a proposal on surprise medical billing to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, according to four sources with knowledge of the negotiations. By Monday night, however, the effort had been rebuffed.
“There’s still work that needs to be done with the committees,” a senior Democratic aide said.
Slowing and weakening surprise billing reform has been a driving motivation of House Ways and Means Chair Richie Neal, D-Mass., during this past congressional term. The issue fell under the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee, whose chair, Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, hammered out a tough reform bill on the bipartisan issue with his Republican counterparts. Neal, however, invented jurisdiction for the Ways and Means Committee — the panel has jurisdiction over taxation, and he linked the issue to government revenue in a roundabout way — and put forward his own proposal that was much more favorable to the private equity industry.
Photo: Jim Davis/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
McConnell was not interested in including the provision, according to three Senate aides. Neal was also an obstacle to getting reform into the Covid-19 bill, said one member of Congress briefed on the talks. “The one stumbling block has been of course, Richie trying to scuttle it,” the member said.
Neal has drawn criticism for his opposition to ending surprise medical billing and his ties to Blackstone, his top funder this cycle. The progressive group Fighting Corporate Monopolies ran ads attacking Neal, during his primary against Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, over “protecting Blackstone’s profits” by helping last year to kill a Senate compromise deal that would have ended surprise billing, The Intercept previously reported. Neal pulled in major donations from Blackstone executives at the same time he went to work against surprise billing — an unusually close link between campaign contributions and congressional action. Many private equity executives are known to own vacation homes in the Berkshires, which Neal represents.
Surprise billing happens when a patient is in a hospital or medical facility that is within their insurance network but is treated, perhaps only during a single round, by a doctor who is out of network. Patients, of course, have no way of knowing or checking whether the doctor making rounds is in their network or not, so private equity firms have purchased providers and arranged service to maximize the number of times an out-of-network doctor can treat a patient. Those bills are then exponentially higher, landing at the feet of both patients — in the form of copays and deductibles — and insurance companies, who pay the remainder.
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the issue, with people who went to the emergency room for Covid-19 symptoms receiving surprise bills even when insurers have promised to cover out-of-network care related to the novel virus.
Neal tried to muscle his own version of the bill through, even though Energy and Commerce Committee had a proposal that would have relied on median-in network insurance rates to institute federal benchmarks for payment disputes. Under the proposal, bills over $750 would go to independent arbitration.
The Neal proposal would allow providers and insurance companies to settle disputes through an open negotiation process. If that fails, they could move to an independent mediation process, with a suggestion to consider the mean network rate — regardless of the size of the bill. That cumbersome process would do little to reform the system, leaving provider profits in place and potentially leading to higher premiums. Neal told reporters he wanted to punt the issue to next year, Politico reported Tuesday.
“Providers really want arbitration, because they want the ability to be able to get more money,” said one congressional aide close to the process. “Especially through private equity, because they know they can win this process. Because it almost always goes toward the provider.”
A Ways and Means Committee spokesperson defended Neal’s bill in a statement. “The Chairman wants to find a balanced path forward on this issue that prioritizes patients but also treats fairly community doctors and hospitals that have been completely overwhelmed by the COVID crisis. He has repeatedly asked for the other committees to make the updated legislative text of their proposal public, but they have not agreed to that transparency.”


theintercept--2020-12-08--The Great Reset Conspiracy Smoothie

The Great Reset Conspiracy Smoothie

“ The Great Reset ” is not easy .
It has turned into a viral conspiracy theory purporting to expose something no one ever attempted to hide , most of which is not really happening anyway , some of which actually should .
It ’ s extra confusing for me to unpick this particular knot because at the center of it all is a bastardization of a concept I know a little something about : the shock doctrine .
Back in June , the World Economic Forum , best known for its annual Davos summit , kicked off a lunge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was already clear that , for the foreseeable future , packing thousands of people , injected-cheek by lifted-jowl , into a Swiss ski resort to talk about harnessing the power of markets to end rural poverty was a nonstarter .
The effort was called the Great Website — I mean the Great Reset .
And through articles , videos , webinars , podcasts , and a book by WEF founder Klaus Schwab , it provided a coronavirus-themed rebranding of all the things Davos does anyway , now hastily repackaged as a blueprint @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ seeking a better form of capitalism.
” The Great Reset was a place to hawk for-profit technofixes to complex social problems ; to hear heads of transnational oil giants opine about the urgent need to tackle climate change ; to listen to politicians say the things they say during crises : that this is a tragedy but also an opportunity , that they are committed to building back better , and ushering in a “ fairer , greener , healthier planet.
” Prince Charles , David Attenborough , and the head of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
That kind of thing .
In short , the Great Reset encompasses some good stuff that won ’ t happen and some bad stuff that certainly will and , frankly , nothing out of the ordinary in our era of “ green ” billionaires readying rockets for Mars .
Indeed , anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Davos speak , and the number of times it has attempted to rebrand capitalism as a slightly buggy poverty alleviation and ecological restoration program , will recognize the vintage champagne in this online carafe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an excellent new book and film by the law professor Joel Bakan , “ The New Corporation : How ‘ Good ’ Corporations Are Bad for Democracy.
” ) Through its highly influential Global Competitiveness Report , the WEF has played a leading role in the transnational campaign to liberate capital from all encumbrances ( like robust regulation , protections for local industries , progressive taxation , and — heaven forbid — nationalizations ) .
Long ago , however , Schwab realized that if Davos didn ’ t add some do-gooding to its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amassing at the foot of the mountain would eventually storm the gates ( as they came close to doing during the 2001 summit ) .
The Great Reset is merely the latest edition of this gilded tradition , barely distinguishable from earlier Davos Big Ideas , from “ Shaping the Post-Crisis World ” ( 2009 ) to “ Rethink , Redesign , Rebuild ” ( 2010 ) to “ The Great Transformation ” ( 2012 ) and , who can forget , “ Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World ” ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t “ seeking a better form of capitalism ” to solve the spiraling crises Davos itself systematically deepened , it wouldn ’ t be Davos .
And yet search for the term “ global reset ” and you will be bombarded with breathless “ exposés ” of a secret globalist cabal , headed by Schwab and Bill Gates , that is using the state of shock created by the coronavirus ( which is probably itself a “ hoax ” ) to turn the world into a high-tech dictatorship that will take away your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if the Reset exposé is coming from the far right , and a Big Pharma/GMO/biometric implants/5G/robot dog/forced vaccine dictatorship if the exposé hails from the far left .
Confused ?
That ’ s not on you .
Less a conspiracy theory than a conspiracy smoothie , the Great Reset has managed to mash up every freakout happening on the internet — left and right , true-ish , and off-the-wall — into one inchoate meta-scream about the unbearable nature of pandemic life under voracious capitalism .
I ’ ve been doing my best to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ various Reset “ researchers ” have insisted that all of this is an example of the shock doctrine , a term I coined a decade and a half ago to describe the many ways that elites try to harness deep disasters to push through policies that further enrich the already wealthy and restrict democratic liberties .
There has been a tsunami of examples of the real shock doctrine since the pandemic began : Trump ’ s attacks on Washington ’ s regulatory architecture ; Education Secretary Betsy DeVos ’ s amped-up campaign for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , say , giving public schools the resources they need to keep children safe ; Silicon Valley ’ s multiheaded power grab , which I wrote about as the Screen New Deal ; the Modi government ’ s cruel attacks on price protections for India ’ s farmers ( setting off a wave of heroic protests ) — and so many more .
What Schwab and the WEF are doing with the Great Reset is both more subtle and more insidious .
Schwab is , of course , absolutely right when he says @ @ @ @ @ @ @ structural failures of capitalism as usual , as does the accelerating climate crisis and the hoovering of the planet ’ s wealth up toward the Davos class , even in the midst of a global pandemic .
But like the WEF ’ s earlier big themes , the Great Reset is not a serious effort to actually solve the crises it describes .
On the contrary , it is an attempt to create a plausible impression that the huge winners in this system are on the verge of voluntarily setting greed aside to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that are radically destabilizing our world .
Why ?
For the same reason I keep hearing Facebook ads on NPR podcasts telling me how much Facebook wants to be regulated .
Because if our corporate overlords can create this impression , it is less likely that governments will listen to the rising chorus of voices calling on them to do what is required to actually combat spiraling poverty , joblessness , climate breakdown , and informational degeneration : regulate the companies that have created these crises , and tax them , break them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , put them under public control .
So no , the Great Reset is not just another name for the Green New Deal , as many a right-winger with a digital chalkboard and an unhealthy AOC obsession is absurdly claiming .
It is , first and foremost , about blocking a real Green New Deal , which most assuredly would not have the support of BP , Mastercard , the Prince of Wales , and all of the other Great Reset partners .
And yet , in recent weeks , a slew of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well as Brazil ’ s minister of foreign affairs and prominent opposition politicians in Australia and Canada , have claimed to be confused about this and are suddenly giving oxygen to what was , until recently , a marginal conspiracy .
Laura Ingraham , Tucker Carlson , and Ben Shapiro have all been terrifying their huge audiences with claims that green socialism is about to be forced down their throats via Schwab ’ s Great Reset , which , they explain , is the very same thing as President-elect Joe Biden ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which is itself a thin cover for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ’ s Green New Deal .
( Like an early fan of an indie punk band , Glenn Beck has been using his perch at The Blaze to point out that he was ranting about the Great Reset when it was just a gleam in Schwab ’ s eye . )
Do these people honestly think that Schwab is in cahoots with AOC and using the pandemic to put BP out of business — with the full cooperation of BP ?
Of course @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on his way out , and the Green New Deal is popular — precisely because it is as far away from Davos as it could be , grounded in a polluter-pays ethos and in programs like a jobs guarantee and universal health care that enjoy broad working-class support .
For right-wing politicians and the oil companies that back them , the more climate action can be conflated with an organization known for its traffic jams of private jets and its Bond villain founder , the easier it will be to resist any climate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ why the earliest alarmism about the Great Reset came from the Heartland Institute , ground zero of the climate change denial machine .
This messaging is gaining traction not because people are suckers but because they are mad — and they have every right to be .
Lockdown policies have demanded months of individual sacrifice for the collective good without providing the most basic collective protections to keep families from slipping into starvation and homelessness , or to keep small businesses afloat .
Meanwhile , trillions have been spent to backstop markets and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is rampant .
Is it any wonder that so many find it entirely plausible that the same elites who expect them to swallow all the coronavirus-related sacrifices while they party in the Hamptons and on private islands would also be willing to exaggerate the risks of the disease to get them to the accept more bitter “ green ” medicine , for the common good ?
As that first Davos theme made clear , trust between the people and the mountaintop has been broken — and it most certainly has not been rebuilt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of this fits together , take a look at what is going on in Alberta , Canada , under its truly reprehensible premier , one Jason Kenney .
Kenney came to power pledging to serve as a shameless valet for the Alberta oil patch , specifically its extra-fast-planet-cooking tar sands .
He promised to ram through all pipelines , no matter the opposition , and create a “ war room ” to surveil all opponents .
Back in March , in the early days of the pandemic , I observed that Kenney deserved @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disaster capitalist because he had just laid off 20,000 education workers , supposedly to cover pandemic costs , even as he lavished $ 7 billion in public subsidies on the Keystone XL pipeline , despite the lockdowns having created a massive glut in crude oil .
He followed up in the fall by laying off 11,000 health care workers , a clear effort to use the Covid-19 crisis to open the door to partial U.S.-style health care privatization .
It has surprised no one that Kenney has also presided over a U.S.-style coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ positivity rate recently topping 10 percent ( higher than the average south of the border ) .
Now Kenney , a self-proclaimed big-government-bashing libertarian , has been reduced to begging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for funds to build field hospitals .
Is it any wonder he has been looking to change the subject ?
Last week , Kenney did exactly that , selecting a question about the Great Reset during a Facebook livestream .
The premier feigned horror at the idea that Klaus Schwab could possibly see Covid-19 as an opportunity to advance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a “ grab bag of left-wing ideas for less freedom and more government ” and “ failed socialist policy ideas.
” Warming up to his subject , he declared : “ I ’ m not going to be taking any policy direction from Klaus Schwab and his ilk .
… Heck no !
We are not going to exploit or take advantage of a crisis to advance a political agenda .
… It ’ s very distasteful and regrettable that influential people would explicitly seek to take advantage of a crisis like this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ values.
” The online right rejoiced : “ Jason Kenny Shows Real Leadership Rejecting Klaus Schwab ’ s New World Order !
” declared one outlet , and I can ’ t bear to link to the many , many others .
Sadly , Kenney ’ s aversion to crisis opportunism comes late for the thousands of newly unemployed education and hospital workers in his province , or for the hundreds of patients who will soon be getting treatment in its field hospitals .
And though Kenney was quick to say that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and that the coronavirus is real , his statements were immediately seized upon by the growing numbers of people who are seriously convinced that Covid-19 is a hoax cooked up by Davos globalists to eliminate their private property , poison their brains with 5G , and take away their right to go to the gym .
In Alberta , thousands of those people participated in maskless “ Walk for Freedom ” marches last week .
I have no doubt that Kenney meant it when he told them to cut it out , just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stop ravaging his province , along with his reputation .
But what he wants far more is to stop the momentum toward climate action in coronavirus recovery plans so the oil companies that underwrite his party and government can wring out a few more profitable quarters .
And he , along with growing numbers of similarly craven politicians the world over , sees fueling the Great Reset conspiracy as the most effective means of achieving that goal .
None of this is to say that Schwab ’ s Reset push is benign and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dangerous ideas are lurking under its wide brim , from a reckless push toward more automation in the midst of a joblessness crisis , to the steady move to normalize mass surveillance and biometric tracking tools , to the very real ( though not new ) problem of Bill Gates ’ s singular power over global health policy .
The irony , though , is that the fact-Vitamix currently whirring around the Great Reset actually makes it harder to hold the Davos set accountable for any of this , since legitimate critiques have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anti-vaccination fantasies and outright coronavirus denialism .
It also makes it harder to talk about the profound realignment our economies and societies desperately need , a vision a group of us laid out in the short film we released way back in October called “ The Years of Repair ” — because now all talk about how we change for the better in response to the cruelties that Covid-19 has unveiled is immediately smeared as part of the Great Reset .
As the historian Quinn Slobodian recently wrote , years after “ The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the right was now appropriating this narrative for its own ends.
” Meanwhile , the less fantastical but extremely real shock doctrine maneuvers currently waging war on public schools , hospitals , small farmers , environmental protections , civil liberties , and workers ’ rights receive a fraction of the attention they deserve .
Is it all a plan , another kind of elaborate conspiracy ?
Nothing so elegant .
As Steve Bannon kindly told us , the informational strategy of the Trump era has always been to “ flood the zone with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can see what this looks like in practice .
It looks like far-left and far-right conspiracists sitting down over a tray of information-shit sandwiches to talk about how the Great Reset is Gates ’ s plan to use the DNA from our Covid-19 tests to turn the United States into Venezuela .
It makes no sense , and that ’ s just fine by the likes of Bannon , and Kenney as well .
Because if you want to keep waging war on the Earth ’ s life-supporting ecology , a great way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its democracy-supporting information ecology .
In fact , the pollution is the point .

Writing about “The Great Reset” is not easy. It has turned into a viral conspiracy theory purporting to expose something no one ever attempted to hide, most of which is not really happening anyway, some of which actually should.
It’s extra confusing for me to unpick this particular knot because at the center of it all is a bastardization of a concept I know a little something about: the shock doctrine.
But here goes nothing.
Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chair of the World Economic Forum, delivers a welcome message on the eve of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 20, 2020. Photo: Markus Schreiber/AP
Back in June, the World Economic Forum, best known for its annual Davos summit, kicked off a lunge for organizational relevance at a time when it was already clear that, for the foreseeable future, packing thousands of people, injected-cheek by lifted-jowl, into a Swiss ski resort to talk about harnessing the power of markets to end rural poverty was a nonstarter.
The effort was called the Great Website — I mean the Great Reset. And through articles, videos, webinars, podcasts, and a book by WEF founder Klaus Schwab, it provided a coronavirus-themed rebranding of all the things Davos does anyway, now hastily repackaged as a blueprint for reviving the global economy post-pandemic by “seeking a better form of capitalism.” The Great Reset was a place to hawk for-profit technofixes to complex social problems; to hear heads of transnational oil giants opine about the urgent need to tackle climate change; to listen to politicians say the things they say during crises: that this is a tragedy but also an opportunity, that they are committed to building back better, and ushering in a “fairer, greener, healthier planet.” Prince Charles, David Attenborough, and the head of the International Monetary Fund all figured prominently. That kind of thing.
In short, the Great Reset encompasses some good stuff that won’t happen and some bad stuff that certainly will and, frankly, nothing out of the ordinary in our era of “green” billionaires readying rockets for Mars. Indeed, anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Davos speak, and the number of times it has attempted to rebrand capitalism as a slightly buggy poverty alleviation and ecological restoration program, will recognize the vintage champagne in this online carafe. (This history is explored in an excellent new book and film by the law professor Joel Bakan, “The New Corporation: How ‘Good’ Corporations Are Bad for Democracy.”)
Through its highly influential Global Competitiveness Report, the WEF has played a leading role in the transnational campaign to liberate capital from all encumbrances (like robust regulation, protections for local industries, progressive taxation, and — heaven forbid — nationalizations). Long ago, however, Schwab realized that if Davos didn’t add some do-gooding to its well-doing, the pitchforks that had started amassing at the foot of the mountain would eventually storm the gates (as they came close to doing during the 2001 summit).
Left/Top: Demonstrators walk over a WEF logo during a rally of opponents of globalization and the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, on Jan. 24, 2003. Right/Bottom: Riot police officers attack students during a rally to protest a meeting of the World Economic Forum near the Shilla Hotel where the Geneva-based WEF opened a two-day summit in Seoul, on June 13, 2004. Photo: Martial Trezzini/Keystone/AP; Ahn Young-Joon/AP
And so the giddy sessions on new markets in Malaysia and new startups in California were complemented with somber ones on melting ice caps, United Nations development goals, “impact investing,” “stakeholder capitalism,” and “corporate global citizenship.” In 2003, Schwab introduced the tradition of each January summit having a big theme, starting with the appropriately chastened “Building Trust.” The new Davos tone, though, was truly set in 2005, when actor Sharon Stone, upon hearing Tanzania’s president speak of his nation’s need for mosquito nets to battle malaria, leapt to her feet and turned the session into an impromptu charity auction to purchase the nets. She raised $1 million in five minutes, and a new Davos era was on its way.
If Davos wasn’t “seeking a better form of capitalism” to solve the spiraling crises Davos itself systematically deepened, it wouldn’t be Davos.
The Great Reset is merely the latest edition of this gilded tradition, barely distinguishable from earlier Davos Big Ideas, from “Shaping the Post-Crisis World” (2009) to “Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild” (2010) to “The Great Transformation” (2012) and, who can forget, “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World” (2018). If Davos wasn’t “seeking a better form of capitalism” to solve the spiraling crises Davos itself systematically deepened, it wouldn’t be Davos.
And yet search for the term “global reset” and you will be bombarded with breathless “exposés” of a secret globalist cabal, headed by Schwab and Bill Gates, that is using the state of shock created by the coronavirus (which is probably itself a “hoax”) to turn the world into a high-tech dictatorship that will take away your freedom forever: a green/socialist/Venezuela/Soros/forced vaccine dictatorship if the Reset exposé is coming from the far right, and a Big Pharma/GMO/biometric implants/5G/robot dog/forced vaccine dictatorship if the exposé hails from the far left.
Confused? That’s not on you. Less a conspiracy theory than a conspiracy smoothie, the Great Reset has managed to mash up every freakout happening on the internet — left and right, true-ish, and off-the-wall — into one inchoate meta-scream about the unbearable nature of pandemic life under voracious capitalism. I’ve been doing my best to ignore it for months, even when various Reset “researchers” have insisted that all of this is an example of the shock doctrine, a term I coined a decade and a half ago to describe the many ways that elites try to harness deep disasters to push through policies that further enrich the already wealthy and restrict democratic liberties.
There has been a tsunami of examples of the real shock doctrine since the pandemic began: Trump’s attacks on Washington’s regulatory architecture; Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s amped-up campaign for “school choice,” rather than, say, giving public schools the resources they need to keep children safe; Silicon Valley’s multiheaded power grab, which I wrote about as the Screen New Deal; the Modi government’s cruel attacks on price protections for India’s farmers (setting off a wave of heroic protests) — and so many more.
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks at a school choice event in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on May 3, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
What Schwab and the WEF are doing with the Great Reset is both more subtle and more insidious. Schwab is, of course, absolutely right when he says that the pandemic has revealed many deadly structural failures of capitalism as usual, as does the accelerating climate crisis and the hoovering of the planet’s wealth up toward the Davos class, even in the midst of a global pandemic. But like the WEF’s earlier big themes, the Great Reset is not a serious effort to actually solve the crises it describes. On the contrary, it is an attempt to create a plausible impression that the huge winners in this system are on the verge of voluntarily setting greed aside to get serious about solving the raging crises that are radically destabilizing our world.
Why? For the same reason I keep hearing Facebook ads on NPR podcasts telling me how much Facebook wants to be regulated. Because if our corporate overlords can create this impression, it is less likely that governments will listen to the rising chorus of voices calling on them to do what is required to actually combat spiraling poverty, joblessness, climate breakdown, and informational degeneration: regulate the companies that have created these crises, and tax them, break them up, and, in some cases, put them under public control.
The Great Reset is an attempt to create a plausible impression that the huge winners in this system are on the verge of voluntarily setting greed aside to get serious about solving the raging crises that are radically destabilizing our world.
So no, the Great Reset is not just another name for the Green New Deal, as many a right-winger with a digital chalkboard and an unhealthy AOC obsession is absurdly claiming. It is, first and foremost, about blocking a real Green New Deal, which most assuredly would not have the support of BP, Mastercard, the Prince of Wales, and all of the other Great Reset partners.
And yet, in recent weeks, a slew of right-wing commentators on Fox News, as well as Brazil’s minister of foreign affairs and prominent opposition politicians in Australia and Canada, have claimed to be confused about this and are suddenly giving oxygen to what was, until recently, a marginal conspiracy. Laura Ingraham, Tucker Carlson, and Ben Shapiro have all been terrifying their huge audiences with claims that green socialism is about to be forced down their throats via Schwab’s Great Reset, which, they explain, is the very same thing as President-elect Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan, which is itself a thin cover for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal. (Like an early fan of an indie punk band, Glenn Beck has been using his perch at The Blaze to point out that he was ranting about the Great Reset when it was just a gleam in Schwab’s eye.)
Do these people honestly think that Schwab is in cahoots with AOC and using the pandemic to put BP out of business — with the full cooperation of BP? Of course not. But President Donald Trump is on his way out, and the Green New Deal is popular — precisely because it is as far away from Davos as it could be, grounded in a polluter-pays ethos and in programs like a jobs guarantee and universal health care that enjoy broad working-class support. For right-wing politicians and the oil companies that back them, the more climate action can be conflated with an organization known for its traffic jams of private jets and its Bond villain founder, the easier it will be to resist any climate plan at all. That’s why the earliest alarmism about the Great Reset came from the Heartland Institute, ground zero of the climate change denial machine.
Jason Kenney, leader of the United Conservative Party, speaks during a news conference in Calgary, Canada, on April 5, 2019. Photo: Todd Korol/Bloomberg/Getty Images
This messaging is gaining traction not because people are suckers but because they are mad — and they have every right to be. Lockdown policies have demanded months of individual sacrifice for the collective good without providing the most basic collective protections to keep families from slipping into starvation and homelessness, or to keep small businesses afloat. Meanwhile, trillions have been spent to backstop markets and bail out multinationals, and pandemic profiteering is rampant. Is it any wonder that so many find it entirely plausible that the same elites who expect them to swallow all the coronavirus-related sacrifices while they party in the Hamptons and on private islands would also be willing to exaggerate the risks of the disease to get them to the accept more bitter “green” medicine, for the common good? As that first Davos theme made clear, trust between the people and the mountaintop has been broken — and it most certainly has not been rebuilt.
For a glimpse of how all of this fits together, take a look at what is going on in Alberta, Canada, under its truly reprehensible premier, one Jason Kenney. Kenney came to power pledging to serve as a shameless valet for the Alberta oil patch, specifically its extra-fast-planet-cooking tar sands. He promised to ram through all pipelines, no matter the opposition, and create a “war room” to surveil all opponents.
Back in March, in the early days of the pandemic, I observed that Kenney deserved the award for the most craven Covid-19 disaster capitalist because he had just laid off 20,000 education workers, supposedly to cover pandemic costs, even as he lavished $7 billion in public subsidies on the Keystone XL pipeline, despite the lockdowns having created a massive glut in crude oil. He followed up in the fall by laying off 11,000 health care workers, a clear effort to use the Covid-19 crisis to open the door to partial U.S.-style health care privatization.
It has surprised no one that Kenney has also presided over a U.S.-style coronavirus explosion, with the province’s positivity rate recently topping 10 percent (higher than the average south of the border). Now Kenney, a self-proclaimed big-government-bashing libertarian, has been reduced to begging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for funds to build field hospitals.
Is it any wonder he has been looking to change the subject? Last week, Kenney did exactly that, selecting a question about the Great Reset during a Facebook livestream. The premier feigned horror at the idea that Klaus Schwab could possibly see Covid-19 as an opportunity to advance policy goals, describing the plan as a “grab bag of left-wing ideas for less freedom and more government” and “failed socialist policy ideas.” Warming up to his subject, he declared: “I’m not going to be taking any policy direction from Klaus Schwab and his ilk. … Heck no! We are not going to exploit or take advantage of a crisis to advance a political agenda. … It’s very distasteful and regrettable that influential people would explicitly seek to take advantage of a crisis like this to advance their own political vision and values.”
The online right rejoiced: “Jason Kenny Shows Real Leadership Rejecting Klaus Schwab’s New World Order!” declared one outlet, and I can’t bear to link to the many, many others.
Sadly, Kenney’s aversion to crisis opportunism comes late for the thousands of newly unemployed education and hospital workers in his province, or for the hundreds of patients who will soon be getting treatment in its field hospitals. And though Kenney was quick to say that the Great Reset was not a conspiracy theory and that the coronavirus is real, his statements were immediately seized upon by the growing numbers of people who are seriously convinced that Covid-19 is a hoax cooked up by Davos globalists to eliminate their private property, poison their brains with 5G, and take away their right to go to the gym.
In Alberta, thousands of those people participated in maskless “Walk for Freedom” marches last week. I have no doubt that Kenney meant it when he told them to cut it out, just as he no doubt wants Covid-19 to stop ravaging his province, along with his reputation. But what he wants far more is to stop the momentum toward climate action in coronavirus recovery plans so the oil companies that underwrite his party and government can wring out a few more profitable quarters. And he, along with growing numbers of similarly craven politicians the world over, sees fueling the Great Reset conspiracy as the most effective means of achieving that goal.
Very disappointed by this large event in Calgary. It’s irresponsible to gather in large numbers, especially at this point in the pandemic. It shows a disregard for health care workers & the vulnerable. There are lots of ways to protest govt policies without risking viral spread. https://t.co/uC4dddj6hJ — Jason Kenney ???? (@jkenney) December 5, 2020
None of this is to say that Schwab’s Reset push is benign and unworthy of scrutiny. All kinds of dangerous ideas are lurking under its wide brim, from a reckless push toward more automation in the midst of a joblessness crisis, to the steady move to normalize mass surveillance and biometric tracking tools, to the very real (though not new) problem of Bill Gates’s singular power over global health policy. The irony, though, is that the fact-Vitamix currently whirring around the Great Reset actually makes it harder to hold the Davos set accountable for any of this, since legitimate critiques have now been blended together with truly dangerous anti-vaccination fantasies and outright coronavirus denialism.
It also makes it harder to talk about the profound realignment our economies and societies desperately need, a vision a group of us laid out in the short film we released way back in October called “The Years of Repair” — because now all talk about how we change for the better in response to the cruelties that Covid-19 has unveiled is immediately smeared as part of the Great Reset. As the historian Quinn Slobodian recently wrote, years after “The Shock Doctrine” was published, “the right was now appropriating this narrative for its own ends.” Meanwhile, the less fantastical but extremely real shock doctrine maneuvers currently waging war on public schools, hospitals, small farmers, environmental protections, civil liberties, and workers’ rights receive a fraction of the attention they deserve.
Is it all a plan, another kind of elaborate conspiracy? Nothing so elegant. As Steve Bannon kindly told us, the informational strategy of the Trump era has always been to “flood the zone with shit.” Four years later, we can see what this looks like in practice. It looks like far-left and far-right conspiracists sitting down over a tray of information-shit sandwiches to talk about how the Great Reset is Gates’s plan to use the DNA from our Covid-19 tests to turn the United States into Venezuela.
It makes no sense, and that’s just fine by the likes of Bannon, and Kenney as well. Because if you want to keep waging war on the Earth’s life-supporting ecology, a great way to do it is to deliberately pollute its democracy-supporting information ecology. In fact, the pollution is the point.


theintercept--2020-12-09--Caribbean Islanders: "Environmentalist" Billionaire Building Resort on Protected Wetlands

tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda say a planned luxury resort co-owned by the billionaire philanthropist and self-proclaimed environmentalist John Paul DeJoria could destroy the islanders ’ way of life .
DeJoria ’ s development company would place a golf course and community of seaside vacation homes on top of a wetland protected by an international treaty .
Recognized as vital in a future marked by climate crisis , the lagoon ’ s mangroves , seagrass beds , and coral reefs support a lobster fishery , endangered hawksbill and leatherback turtles , and the largest nesting colony of magnificent frigatebirds in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ helps protect land from eroding during increasingly severe storms , such as Hurricane Irma , which destroyed the island in 2017 .
Locals , who are citizens of the sovereign nation of Antigua and Barbuda , are also raising concerns that the resort constructed by DeJoria ’ s company Peace , Love and Happiness is playing a role in upending the island ’ s collective land ownership system , which has survived since slavery ’ s abolishment .
“ It ’ s being done at the expense of people ’ s lives , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ school principal and marine biologist .
The island ’ s fisheries and its collective land ownership system have been vital to Barbudans ’ resilience throughout the coronavirus pandemic , he noted , offering food and housing security in a place where lobster is abundant and eviction tends to be a nonissue .
“ The philanthropy these persons hide behind , it ’ s not real — it ’ s just an excuse so they can continue what they ’ re doing.
” On Wednesday , the Global Legal Action Network filed a complaint @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Convention , a treaty that recognizes wetlands of international importance .
The complaint , which was filed on behalf of the Barbuda Council , the governing body that oversees internal affairs on the island , alleges that construction has already damaged the Codrington Lagoon .
The Barbuda Council and the Global Legal Action Network are demanding that the Ramsar Secretariat , which has little enforcement power , pressure the government of Antigua and Barbuda to stop any construction on the lagoon .
( The Antigua and Barbuda national government , which is based @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not respond to requests for comment . )
“ Failure to stop the project in its current form will result in the destruction of the Codrington Lagoon National Park and Ramsar Site , ” the complaint quoted Barbuda Council environmental adviser Adelle Blair as saying in a report to the council .
“ This will leave the Barbuda people more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change having decimated all the natural defenses , seriously threatening its livelihood base and survival , to make way for a place for the rich to live @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emailed to the The Intercept , the project president for the development , Justin Wilshaw , told The Intercept that the Ramsar complaint had it backward .
“ The PLH project has had no impact on the Codrington Lagoon , ” he said .
Wilshaw claimed , instead , that it is the Barbuda Council that has allowed environmental destruction in the Ramsar-protected area , through sand-mining and other commercial ventures .
He told The Intercept that the project developers are restoring , rather than destroying , the wetlands and that the project @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ PLH acknowledge that the Barbuda Council are still the process of understanding the benefits of foreign investment , while its general population have been quicker to adapt and benefit from engaging with PLH to open new businesses and take advantage of programs we offer to invest in their homes and future.
” Barbuda Council secretary Paul Nedd said that the local government does mine sand but not on the most sensitive parts of the shoreline .
The project is one of two large developments — for tiny Barbuda , at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disaster capitalism-style legal maneuvers advanced in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma , as Barbudans fled wholesale destruction .
The other project is being led by actor and hotelier Robert De Niro , who plans to build a tony resort called Nobu Beach Inn on a different stretch of sand .
Though the Nobu Beach Inn will not be located on the Codrington Lagoon , locals have decried both projects as part of a “ land grab ” — enabled by a pro-development government in Antigua that lured the resorts in and rammed through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turned the projects into significantly more attractive investments .
Barbudan leaders told The Intercept that they had not heard much recently about De Niro ’ s project , formerly known as Paradise Found , but this month the acclaimed actor again began publicly promoting the development .
“ I knew that if I were going to build something like this , ” he told Town and Country , “ I would have to find the perfect place.
” ( De Niro ’ s Nobu Hospitality , which runs luxury properties across the globe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for comment . )
Although it may be pristine and remote , Barbuda is not a place that ’ s empty of people .
Along with DeJoria , said Mussington , “ Robert De Niro is part of the scheme to change Barbuda ’ s communal land system to facilitate speculative real-estate ventures.
” The luxury projects , he added , “ are designed to convert the people ’ s land and resources into more billions of dollars for their personal bank accounts.
” DeJoria , who amassed a $ 2.7 billion fortune @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Patrón Tequila and John Paul Mitchell Systems hair care , has fashioned himself as a philanthropist and environmentalist .
He sits on the board of trustees of the clean water nonprofit the Waterkeeper Alliance .
In 2017 , Sea Shepherd , the marine conservation organization known for using boats to physically block poachers from harvesting whales and other sensitive species , named a vessel after DeJoria — which he christened with a bottle of Patrón Tequila , a brand he sold to Bacardi a year later in a $ 5.1 billion deal .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to help local fishermen who had sacrificed their livelihood in order to protect the environment .
“ There ’ s about 30 families ( on the island ) there that depend on fishing , and they average about $ 10,000 a year , ” DeJoria was quoted as saying in a post on Sea Shepherd ’ s website .
“ We … are going to ( help them with their income ) for a full year until a resort is built and they have regular work .
This way we find other work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the name Peace , Love and Happiness with the development company financing the Barbudan resort .
“ It is alleged that he believes in protecting the environment , ” Nedd said of DeJoria .
“ But here in Barbuda , he is the head of an organization that is seemingly causing major destruction to an environment .
And not only the environment — major destruction to a people ’ s life , to an entire community.
” The island of Barbuda ’ s tiny population is made up of descendants of enslaved people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ began practicing a form of collective land ownership and management that has endured since and was codified in 2007 by the national government .
The system has helped assure that Barbuda does not turn into the environmentally destructive mass tourism hub that Antigua has come to represent , with huge cruise ships docking daily before the pandemic .
The Barbuda Land Act repeal appeared designed to support DeJoria and De Niro ’ s resort plans .
Both of would-be developers signed agreements before the 2018 repeal that included clauses accounting for the possibility @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In 2016 , Barbudans voted to approve DeJoria ’ s Peace , Love and Happiness project .
However , project opponents argue that the plan presented at that time did not provide a full picture of the potential environmental impact .
The 2017 lease , signed by a previous council chief from the same party as Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne , included a suspicious clause .
It noted that , in line with the Barbuda Land Act , the vacation residences would be leased , not owned , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irma , Browne , whose premiership is seen to be aligned with developers , rammed through a repeal of the Barbuda Land Act , allowing Barbudans to individually purchase their land and eliminating a rule that said leases for major developments must be approved by the Barbuda Council and the majority of the Barbudan people .
Browne claimed that individual land ownership would allow the Barbudans to access bank loans for hurricane recovery — a justification with historical precedence in the U.S. government ’ s late 19th @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collective land ownership systems through the General Allotment Act , a prelude to further dispossession and extractive industry development .
Project president Wilshaw said that the Peace , Love and Happiness beach residences are being leased , not sold , even after the law ’ s repeal .
Browne , who often refers to Barbudan communal land ownership as a “ myth , ” recently shifted his justification for allowing DeJoria ’ s development , now calling it an aid in battling the effects of the pandemic .
“ It will be the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s history when it is completed , ” he told reporters after visiting the site in July .
He claimed that people who lost their jobs because of the pandemic are already finding work building the resort : “ At a time when there is a crisis , here is PLH in Barbuda employing people.
” Barbudans are fighting in court to overturn the land law repeal , but in the meantime DeJoria ’ s project continues to move forward .
Peace , Love and Happiness ’ s development partner , Discovery Land @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Barbuda Ocean Club , an “ heirloom community where you can extend your legacy for generations to come.
” A website for the development advertises a menu of seaside home designs , including a seven-bedroom “ mangrove house , ” with a swimming pool .
A 2018 profile by Business Insider of Discovery Land Company ’ s founder , Mike Meldman , claimed that the Barbuda resort would “ start as a hurricane relief effort re-building schools , hospitals , and infrastructure.
” Environmental problems related to the project have already been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the national Development Control Authority issued the project a notice of noncompliance with its environmental plan , citing “ damage to the historic dune and palmetto vegetation.
” Then , in October , a judge temporarily halted Peace , Love and Happiness construction in a sensitive area of the island so the court could consider a complaint by the Barbuda Council regarding the environmental risks .
Since that time , Barbudans captured drone images earth-moving equipment continuing to work , according to the Global Legal Action Network .
The development president Wilshaw @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being carried out in a part of the island that is not party to the court process and that PLH had filed its own injunction to stop the Barbuda Council from sand mining in the project area .
Barbudan leaders do not trust the developers ’ word , said Nedd , the council secretary , without some sort of outside observation to hold the builders to account .
In September , Nedd and another council member were arrested as they attempted to access and inspect the leased area — something he argues he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Council secretary .
He was accused of trespassing , disorderly conduct , and failing to wear a Covid 19-protective mask .
The council members ’ legal cases are currently on hold pending the resolution of the court case involving the construction injunction .
Nedd and others anticipate that the development will only leave them vulnerable to future crises .
Two years after Hurricane Irma , a number of Barbudan families are still living in tents next to their still-destroyed homes , and hubs for services , such as the local police station , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the Peace , Love and Happiness developers have agreed to “ refurnish ” the police station and have provided a “ clinic in a can ” to support the damaged hospital , as well as rebuilding churches and basketball courts .
What Mussington sees is inaction from the national government .
Rather than rebuild basic infrastructure , Mussington said the Antigua and Barbuda government is more interested in the priorities of people like DeJoria .
“ The focus is on development , ” said the school principal .
“ It is all @ @ @ @ @

Residents of the tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda say a planned luxury resort co-owned by the billionaire philanthropist and self-proclaimed environmentalist John Paul DeJoria could destroy the islanders’ way of life. DeJoria’s development company would place a golf course and community of seaside vacation homes on top of a wetland protected by an international treaty.
Recognized as vital in a future marked by climate crisis, the lagoon’s mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs support a lobster fishery, endangered hawksbill and leatherback turtles, and the largest nesting colony of magnificent frigatebirds in the Western hemisphere. The vegetation also helps protect land from eroding during increasingly severe storms, such as Hurricane Irma, which destroyed the island in 2017.
Locals, who are citizens of the sovereign nation of Antigua and Barbuda, are also raising concerns that the resort constructed by DeJoria’s company Peace, Love and Happiness is playing a role in upending the island’s collective land ownership system, which has survived since slavery’s abolishment.
Photo: Christopher Goodney/Bloomberg/Getty Images
“It’s being done at the expense of people’s lives,” said John Mussington, a Barbudan school principal and marine biologist. The island’s fisheries and its collective land ownership system have been vital to Barbudans’ resilience throughout the coronavirus pandemic, he noted, offering food and housing security in a place where lobster is abundant and eviction tends to be a nonissue. “The philanthropy these persons hide behind, it’s not real — it’s just an excuse so they can continue what they’re doing.”
On Wednesday, the Global Legal Action Network filed a complaint to the secretariat that oversees the Ramsar Convention, a treaty that recognizes wetlands of international importance. The complaint, which was filed on behalf of the Barbuda Council, the governing body that oversees internal affairs on the island, alleges that construction has already damaged the Codrington Lagoon. The Barbuda Council and the Global Legal Action Network are demanding that the Ramsar Secretariat, which has little enforcement power, pressure the government of Antigua and Barbuda to stop any construction on the lagoon. (The Antigua and Barbuda national government, which is based on larger, nearby Antigua, did not respond to requests for comment.)
“This will leave the Barbuda people more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change having decimated all the natural defenses.”
“Failure to stop the project in its current form will result in the destruction of the Codrington Lagoon National Park and Ramsar Site,” the complaint quoted Barbuda Council environmental adviser Adelle Blair as saying in a report to the council. “This will leave the Barbuda people more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change having decimated all the natural defenses, seriously threatening its livelihood base and survival, to make way for a place for the rich to live and play golf.”
In a statement emailed to the The Intercept, the project president for the development, Justin Wilshaw, told The Intercept that the Ramsar complaint had it backward. “The PLH project has had no impact on the Codrington Lagoon,” he said. Wilshaw claimed, instead, that it is the Barbuda Council that has allowed environmental destruction in the Ramsar-protected area, through sand-mining and other commercial ventures. He told The Intercept that the project developers are restoring, rather than destroying, the wetlands and that the project actually has wide support on the island: “PLH acknowledge that the Barbuda Council are still the process of understanding the benefits of foreign investment, while its general population have been quicker to adapt and benefit from engaging with PLH to open new businesses and take advantage of programs we offer to invest in their homes and future.”
Barbuda Council secretary Paul Nedd said that the local government does mine sand but not on the most sensitive parts of the shoreline.
The project is one of two large developments — for tiny Barbuda, at least — to benefit from a series of disaster capitalism-style legal maneuvers advanced in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, as Barbudans fled wholesale destruction. The other project is being led by actor and hotelier Robert De Niro, who plans to build a tony resort called Nobu Beach Inn on a different stretch of sand. Though the Nobu Beach Inn will not be located on the Codrington Lagoon, locals have decried both projects as part of a “land grab” — enabled by a pro-development government in Antigua that lured the resorts in and rammed through a post-hurricane change in land laws that turned the projects into significantly more attractive investments.
Barbudan leaders told The Intercept that they had not heard much recently about De Niro’s project, formerly known as Paradise Found, but this month the acclaimed actor again began publicly promoting the development. “I knew that if I were going to build something like this,” he told Town and Country, “I would have to find the perfect place.” (De Niro’s Nobu Hospitality, which runs luxury properties across the globe, did not respond to a request for comment.)
Although it may be pristine and remote, Barbuda is not a place that’s empty of people. Along with DeJoria, said Mussington, “Robert De Niro is part of the scheme to change Barbuda’s communal land system to facilitate speculative real-estate ventures.” The luxury projects, he added, “are designed to convert the people’s land and resources into more billions of dollars for their personal bank accounts.”
An aerial view of the construction site is seen on Ramsar-listed Codrington Lagoon National Park in Barbuda, on Oct. 10, 2020. Photo: Obtained by Global Legal Action Network
Peace, Love and Happiness
DeJoria, who amassed a $2.7 billion fortune as the co-founder of such brands as Patrón Tequila and John Paul Mitchell Systems hair care, has fashioned himself as a philanthropist and environmentalist. He sits on the board of trustees of the clean water nonprofit the Waterkeeper Alliance. In 2017, Sea Shepherd, the marine conservation organization known for using boats to physically block poachers from harvesting whales and other sensitive species, named a vessel after DeJoria — which he christened with a bottle of Patrón Tequila, a brand he sold to Bacardi a year later in a $5.1 billion deal.
DeJoria described his resort as a means to help local fishermen who had sacrificed their livelihood in order to protect the environment. “There’s about 30 families (on the island) there that depend on fishing, and they average about $10,000 a year,” DeJoria was quoted as saying in a post on Sea Shepherd’s website. “We … are going to (help them with their income) for a full year until a resort is built and they have regular work. This way we find other work for those people.” His foundation shares the name Peace, Love and Happiness with the development company financing the Barbudan resort.
“It is alleged that he believes in protecting the environment,” Nedd said of DeJoria. “But here in Barbuda, he is the head of an organization that is seemingly causing major destruction to an environment. And not only the environment — major destruction to a people’s life, to an entire community.”
Aerial view of Barbuda post-Hurricane Irma on Sept. 22, 2017, in Codrington, Antigua and Barbuda. Photo: Jose Jimenez Tirado/Getty Images
Post-Hurricane Land Grab
The island of Barbuda’s tiny population is made up of descendants of enslaved people. After emancipation in 1834, they began practicing a form of collective land ownership and management that has endured since and was codified in 2007 by the national government. The system has helped assure that Barbuda does not turn into the environmentally destructive mass tourism hub that Antigua has come to represent, with huge cruise ships docking daily before the pandemic.
The Barbuda Land Act repeal appeared designed to support DeJoria and De Niro’s resort plans. Both of would-be developers signed agreements before the 2018 repeal that included clauses accounting for the possibility that the Land Act could be changed.
In 2016, Barbudans voted to approve DeJoria’s Peace, Love and Happiness project. However, project opponents argue that the plan presented at that time did not provide a full picture of the potential environmental impact. The 2017 lease, signed by a previous council chief from the same party as Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne, included a suspicious clause. It noted that, in line with the Barbuda Land Act, the vacation residences would be leased, not owned, “absent new legislation to the contrary.”
In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Browne, whose premiership is seen to be aligned with developers, rammed through a repeal of the Barbuda Land Act, allowing Barbudans to individually purchase their land and eliminating a rule that said leases for major developments must be approved by the Barbuda Council and the majority of the Barbudan people. Browne claimed that individual land ownership would allow the Barbudans to access bank loans for hurricane recovery — a justification with historical precedence in the U.S. government’s late 19th century efforts to undo Native Americans’ collective land ownership systems through the General Allotment Act, a prelude to further dispossession and extractive industry development.
Project president Wilshaw said that the Peace, Love and Happiness beach residences are being leased, not sold, even after the law’s repeal.
Browne, who often refers to Barbudan communal land ownership as a “myth,” recently shifted his justification for allowing DeJoria’s development, now calling it an aid in battling the effects of the pandemic. “It will be the largest project in Antigua and Barbuda’s history when it is completed,” he told reporters after visiting the site in July. He claimed that people who lost their jobs because of the pandemic are already finding work building the resort: “At a time when there is a crisis, here is PLH in Barbuda employing people.”
An excavator is seen moving sand along the coastline of the Ramsar-listed site where the Barbuda Ocean Club will be constructed in Barbuda, on Oct. 10, 2020. Photo: Obtained by the Global Action Legal Network
Relief?
Barbudans are fighting in court to overturn the land law repeal, but in the meantime DeJoria’s project continues to move forward. Peace, Love and Happiness’s development partner, Discovery Land Company, has branded the project as the Barbuda Ocean Club, an “heirloom community where you can extend your legacy for generations to come.” A website for the development advertises a menu of seaside home designs, including a seven-bedroom “mangrove house,” with a swimming pool. A 2018 profile by Business Insider of Discovery Land Company’s founder, Mike Meldman, claimed that the Barbuda resort would “start as a hurricane relief effort re-building schools, hospitals, and infrastructure.”
Environmental problems related to the project have already been documented. At the end of August, the national Development Control Authority issued the project a notice of noncompliance with its environmental plan, citing “damage to the historic dune and palmetto vegetation.” Then, in October, a judge temporarily halted Peace, Love and Happiness construction in a sensitive area of the island so the court could consider a complaint by the Barbuda Council regarding the environmental risks. Since that time, Barbudans captured drone images earth-moving equipment continuing to work, according to the Global Legal Action Network.
The development president Wilshaw told The intercept that any work is being carried out in a part of the island that is not party to the court process and that PLH had filed its own injunction to stop the Barbuda Council from sand mining in the project area.
“The focus is on development. It is all about luxury property.”
Barbudan leaders do not trust the developers’ word, said Nedd, the council secretary, without some sort of outside observation to hold the builders to account. In September, Nedd and another council member were arrested as they attempted to access and inspect the leased area — something he argues he has the right to do as Barbuda Council secretary. He was accused of trespassing, disorderly conduct, and failing to wear a Covid 19-protective mask. The council members’ legal cases are currently on hold pending the resolution of the court case involving the construction injunction.
Nedd and others anticipate that the development will only leave them vulnerable to future crises. Two years after Hurricane Irma, a number of Barbudan families are still living in tents next to their still-destroyed homes, and hubs for services, such as the local police station, remain out of commission. Wilshaw said that the Peace, Love and Happiness developers have agreed to “refurnish” the police station and have provided a “clinic in a can” to support the damaged hospital, as well as rebuilding churches and basketball courts.
What Mussington sees is inaction from the national government. Rather than rebuild basic infrastructure, Mussington said the Antigua and Barbuda government is more interested in the priorities of people like DeJoria. “The focus is on development,” said the school principal. “It is all about luxury property.”