Smoke and mirrors: I’ve been debating Vivek Ramaswamy for 2 years. Here’s how I got past his diversionary tactics
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld
Thu, August 31, 2023
As the great illusionist Harry Houdini once said, “The secret of showmanship consists not of what you really do, but what the mystery-loving public thinks you do.” Entrepreneurial huckster Vivek Ramaswamy has graduated from being the court jester of corporate governance to now becoming a serious contender for the GOP presidential nomination as some 5% of primary Republican voters indicate they are entertained by his antics.
As one of the few people who have debated Ramaswamy in multiple public appearances and studied the reality of his business resume, I have repeatedly cleared the diversionary smoke he deploys by revealing the reality of his pump-and-dump business playbook. Now Ramaswamy seems to have retrofitted it for politics.
I always knew that Ramaswamy would excel on the debate stage by running circles around his more experienced rivals who are more likely to be grounded by facts and dignity. Attention-seeking is core to the Ramaswamy playbook. He thrives on it–whether that attention is positive or negative.
Two years ago, Ramaswamy, as a Harvard College and Yale Law School alumnus, desperately begged me through mutual friends to debate him on campus in a bid to promote his book attacking business ESG practices. Even then, he indicated a smoldering interest in running for president on the GOP ticket, according to emails I possess, by exploiting his anti-woke branding.
He claimed he was drawn to me based upon three back-to-back pieces I had recently written in defense of corporate leaders who took courageous positions on corporate social impact, showing that doing well for shareholders doesn’t have to come at the expense of doing good for society. In fact, I demonstrated how social harmony was important to fortify the trust needed for free markets to thrive.
He wanted to debate, and I declined. However, I could not avoid him for long as he charmed his way onto cable TV, and a year later, as a CNBC contributor, I had my first on-air live debate with him. The fiery debate ignited viral Twitter reviews. Angry MAGA sympathizers were thrilled by his pugnaciousness–and CEOs were relieved that someone knew how to respond to him. Off stage, he was charming and gracious. In email and Twitter exchanges, he was provocative, trying to bait me into endless fights.
He succeeded in doing so at a different forum a year later–last December, before the National Association of Attorneys General. At the time, he was still honing his debate technique: Make an outrageous claim (the injustice of the SEC following any EPA guidelines on toxic emissions), find an irrelevant point where it could apply (one arcane trace chemical where the rulemaking might need revision), and then recast that into condemnation of all regulation. If you go down that rabbit hole with him, you’re trapped–unless you are an expert chemist who is prepared to give the full context.
Just this weekend, he employed this technique with CNN’s Dana Bash who skillfully led him to label as “a fringe comment” his own shameful attack on a Black congressional leader. When Bash asked him about his claim that scientifically well-documented climate change is a hoax, he said that the same people who warn us of global warming used to warn of a coming ice age–as if they were now contradicting themselves.
Of course, that is nonsense as a future ice age would be one of the results of global warming melting polar ice caps, as NASA has confirmed. Then, Bash had to go into a break, leaving Ramaswamy’s smug gotcha reply–and misinformation–unchallenged.
Last year, Ramaswamy penned an anti-woke screed in the Economist in response to my own Economist article on corporate social impact, while actively pitching media with ridiculous attacks on the 1,000+ companies that exited Russia, which I helped encourage since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as snipping away at me unprovoked on Twitter.
Earlier this year, after I exposed his shady business track record of brazen pump-and-dump schemes, his campaign staff bizarrely threatened me by email, over the phone, and in Twitter taunts, interspersed with provably false claims. Here’s what the facts show about Ramaswamy’s business record, as we earlier exposed, and which Ramaswamy inadvertently confirmed to us, revealing his talents as an illusionist.
Ramaswamy’s tax records show that the first time he ever made big money was when he hyped up an Alzheimer’s drug candidate, Axovant, which had been discarded by other pharmaceutical companies. Axovant, which was 78% owned by Ramaswamy’s corporate holding company Roivant, blew up after failing FDA tests, with the stock crashing from $200 to 40 cents, fleecing thousands of mom-and-pop investors who bought into the hype. Ramaswamy himself profited handsomely (even if the Ramaswamy campaign took a while to acknowledge the truth).
Ramaswamy spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin first told us that “the idea that Vivek made any money on [Axovant’s] failure is a total lie” before finally acknowledging that Ramaswamy did indeed cash out, claiming “[Ramaswamy] and other shareholders were forced to sell a tiny portion of their shares in 2015 to facilitate an outside investor entering Roivant.” The facts are that Ramaswamy’s own tax returns show he opportunely sold out of nearly $40 million of Roivant stock right as Axovant’s hype was peaking. Meanwhile, Roivant was raising $500 million driven largely by Axovant. As Ramaswamy was busy selling his own personal stake, Roivant gradually reduced and diluted its Axovant stake from 78% to just 25%.
Clearly, the facts show Ramaswamy’s words did not match his actions as he was busy cashing out while shamelessly hyping Axovant’s prospects in media interviews–almost resembling a classic pump-and-dump scheme. Some $40 million in personal windfalls is hardly “tiny.” Ramaswamy was not “forced to sell” as that was clearly a personal choice without anyone holding a gun to his head. Amazingly, Ramaswamy’s spokesperson further confirmed to us that Ramaswamy was aware that 99.7% of all drugs tested for Alzheimer’s fail even though he was relentlessly hyping Axovant’s chances of success with nary a mention of that inconvenient truth.
Similarly, in 2020, Ramaswamy reduced his stake in Roivant Sciences, with his tax returns showing he made nearly $200 million in a sweet deal with Sumitomo right before the company’s valuation shrank fivefold after its SPAC-driven public listing. Meanwhile, Ramaswamy’s pharma companies are behaving like patent trolls, persistently suing both Pfizer and Moderna and weirdly claiming ownership of their mRNA COVID vaccines. Ramaswamy’s campaign claims that Ramaswamy has helped develop countless new drugs, but Roivant’s own SEC filings show the company has only ever commercialized one drug, the obscure skincare drug VTAMA.
Ramaswamy’s most lucrative stock investments when he was working for QVT Investments, including Pharmasset and Inhibitex, shared the same underlying attributes of improbably spectacular timing, buying into the stocks ahead of mergers.
It is noteworthy that convicted “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli who first came to prominence by jacking up the price of a life-saving 62-year-old drug frequently used by HIV and malaria patients by more than 5000% before going to prison for securities fraud has called Ramaswamy “a friend” and one of his “biggest investors.” (The presidential hopeful says it was during his tenure as an investment analyst at QVT Financial.)
Ramaswamy’s other business, Strive Asset Management, is even more of an illusion. Its assets under management have stagnated as the company is reduced to begging for consulting contracts from politicos in state governments, an obvious conflict of interest given Ramaswamy’s political activities. Strive has some of the highest fees of any of its peers and is now facing multiple lawsuits from former employees who say they were aggressively pressured into violating securities laws and that Ramaswamy routinely exaggerated his company’s abilities.
Interestingly while he attacks ESG hiring priorities in the name of meritocracy, he happily staffs his enterprise leadership ranks through cronyism (hiring his high-school pal as president of one firm) and nepotism (hiring his brother and mother to help lead another firm).
Claiming he “didn’t have the money” to afford law school, Ramaswamy benefited from a Soros Fellowship. However, his tax returns show he was apparently earning several million dollars as an investment analyst while simultaneously being a full-time student–before reportedly paying a Wikipedia editor to delete any reference to Soros.
Similarly, Ramaswamy has bragged about building a successful multi-million dollar business when he was still an undergraduate in college while moonlighting as a lyric-belting Eminem-knock-off rapper. However, his tax returns show that he apparently sold that company for merely a few thousand dollars.
This opportunistic, dual Ivy-Leaguer with well-educated professional parents was so desperate to be recast as a populist that he sued the Davos World Economic Forum to purge him from the participant lists.
After CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins revealed the falsehood of his denials of disgraceful statements implying 9/11 was an inside job, he called her “a petulant teenager.”
Obviously, he can’t handle the truth. Hopefully, Ramaswamy’s GOP rivals and political reporters can avoid his diversionary maneuvers–and focus on the truth.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is the Lester Crown Professor in Management Practice at Yale School of Management. He was named “Management Professor of the Year” by Poets & Quants magazine.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
Friday, September 01, 2023
US will regulate nursing home staffing for first time, but proposal lower than many advocates hoped
MATT SEDENSKY
Updated Fri, September 1, 2023
FILE - Tina Sandri, CEO of Forest Hills of DC senior living facility, left, helps resident Courty Andrews back to her room, Dec. 8, 2022, in Washington. The federal government will, for the first time, dictate staffing levels at nursing homes, the Biden administration said Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, responding to systemic problems bared by mass COVID deaths.
MATT SEDENSKY
Updated Fri, September 1, 2023
FILE - Tina Sandri, CEO of Forest Hills of DC senior living facility, left, helps resident Courty Andrews back to her room, Dec. 8, 2022, in Washington. The federal government will, for the first time, dictate staffing levels at nursing homes, the Biden administration said Friday, Sept. 1, 2023, responding to systemic problems bared by mass COVID deaths.
(AP Photo/Nathan Howard, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — The federal government will, for the first time, dictate staffing levels at nursing homes, the Biden administration said Friday, responding to systemic problems bared by mass COVID-19 deaths.
While such regulation has been sought for decades by allies of older adults and those with disabilities, the proposed threshold is far lower than many advocates had hoped. It also immediately drew ire from the nursing home industry, which said it amounted to a mandate that couldn't be met.
With criticism expected, a promise made with fanfare in President Joe Biden’s 2022 State of the Union speech had its details revealed as many Americans turned away from the news for a holiday weekend.
“We are working to make sure no nursing home can sacrifice the safety of their residents just to add some dollars to their bottom line,” the president said in a USA Today opinion piece.
The American Health Care Association, which lobbies for care facilities, called the proposal “unfathomable,” saying it will worsen existing problems and cost homes billions of dollars.
“We hope to convince the administration to never finalize this rule as it is unfounded, unfunded, and unrealistic,” said AHCA's president, Mark Parkinson, the former Democratic governor of Kansas.
The proposed rules, which now enter a public comment period and would take years more to fully take effect, call for staffing equivalent to 3 hours per resident per day, just over half an hour of it coming from registered nurses. The rules also call for facilities to have an RN on staff 24 hours a day, every day.
The average U.S. nursing home already has overall caregiver staffing of about 3.6 hours per resident per day, according to government reports, including RN staffing just above the half-hour mark.
Still, the government insists a majority of the country’s roughly 15,000 nursing homes, which house some 1.2 million people, would have to add staff under the proposed rules.
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, who heads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, called the move “an important first step.” CMS oversees nursing homes.
A senior White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity ahead of the announcement, said the Biden administration was open to revisiting the staffing threshold once implemented.
“I would caution anyone who thinks that the status quo — in which there is no federal floor for nursing home staffing — is preferable to the standards we’re proposing,” said Stacy Sanders, an aide to Health Secretary Xavier Becerra. “This standard would raise staffing levels for more than 75% of nursing homes, bringing more nurse aides to the bedside and ensuring every nursing home has a registered nurse on site 24/7.”
The new thresholds are drastically lower than those that had long been eyed by advocates after a landmark 2001 CMS-funded study recommended an average of 4.1 hours of nursing care per resident daily.
Most U.S. facilities don’t meet that threshold. Many advocates said even it was insufficient, not taking into account quality of life, simply determining the point at which residents could suffer potential harm.
After the Democratic president elevated the issue in his State of the Union speech, advocates were initially elated, expecting the most significant change for residents since the Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987. That changed after a copy of a new CMS-funded study on the subject was inadvertently posted this week, claiming there is “no obvious plateau at which quality and safety are maximized.”
Advocates were bereft, saying they felt betrayed by administration officials they thought to be allies. As word of the proposal became public early Friday some were even more blistering.
Richard Mollot, who leads the Long Term Care Community Coalition, called it “completely inadequate” and a blown chance of “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” that “flouts any evidence” of what residents need and fails to make good on the heart of Biden’s promise. He begrudgingly acknowledged the 24/7 RN rule could bring small improvements to the worst facilities, but he otherwise was withering in his criticism.
Calling the move “heartbreaking” and “nauseating,” he said it would do more harm than good, putting a government imprimatur on poorly staffed homes and imperiling wrongful-death lawsuits.
“It is a tremendous dereliction of duty,” he said. “We are continuing to allow nursing homes to warehouse people and to rip the public off.”
Current law requires only that homes have “sufficient” staffing, but it leaves nearly all interpretation to states. Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia have their own staffing regulations. Some are so low that advocates say they’re meaningless, and, across the board, enforcement is often toothless.
The problem has long been apparent to front-line nurse aides — the low-paid, overwhelmingly female and disproportionately minority backbone of facility staffs — and to residents themselves, whose call bells go unanswered, whose showers become less frequent and who lie hungry, awaiting help with meals.
The coronavirus pandemic, which claimed more than 167,000 U.S. nursing home residents, brought the greatest attention to poor staffing in history. But, in its wake, many homes saw their staffing grow even thinner.
Across all job types, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows nursing homes have 218,200 fewer employees than in February 2020, when the first U.S. outbreak of the coronavirus arrived at a nursing home outside Seattle.
AHCA has waged a relentless campaign claiming facilities were teetering, with Medicaid subsidies insufficient, widespread hiring issues and rampant home closures. While there have been scattered closures, the profitability of homes has repeatedly been exposed and critics have argued, if they just paid better, the workers would come.
Katie Smith Sloan, the head of LeadingAge, which represents nonprofit nursing homes, said it was meaningless to create a rule requiring facilities to hire additional staff when the industry was already in a workforce crisis and “there are simply no people to hire.”
“To say that we are disappointed that President Biden chose to move forward with the proposed staffing ratios despite clear evidence against them is an understatement,” she said.
___
UN envoys tour Tibet on China-organised trip amid rights scrutiny
Fri, September 1, 2023
By Emma Farge and Laurie Chen
Fri, September 1, 2023
By Emma Farge and Laurie Chen
GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) - A group of U.N. ambassadors are touring Tibet on a trip arranged by China, diplomats said, an apparent push by Beijing to counter mounting criticism of its human rights record ahead of a review by the global body in early 2024.
Photos posted on the social media platform X suggested the trip was mostly attended by close Chinese allies.
U.N. experts have this year voiced repeated concerns over Tibet, which is administered by Beijing as an autonomous region within China, most recently in August when they raised the plight of jailed Tibetan rights defenders.
The United States last week imposed visa sanctions on unnamed Chinese officials for allegedly taking part in "forced assimilation" of Tibetan children through state-run boarding schools seeking to eliminate Tibet's traditions, according to a statement from U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
China's foreign ministry on Thursday vowed "reciprocal" measures and condemned U.S. "lies on Tibet".
China has also faced criticism for its treatment of Muslims in its Xinjiang region, which the U.N. said a year ago may constitute crimes against humanity.
China vigorously denies any wrongdoing in Tibet or Xinjiang.
U.N. member states are set to publicly examine its rights record in early 2024 as part of a review process at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
A letter sent by China's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva seen by Reuters invited diplomats to Beijing and the "XiZang Autonomous Region", using China's term for Tibet.
"I trust this trip will allow you to better understand China's human rights policies and practices," Chen Xu said, mentioning meetings and field visits on education, culture, religion, employment and children's rights.
China's diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday that vice foreign minister, Ma Zhaoxu, met with a delegation of developing countries on human rights, without mentioning Tibet.
Reuters could not determine who was invited on the Tibet trip, although two diplomats said the invitation had been distributed widely. Photos posted on X by Cuba and China showed envoys from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Belarus and Pakistan among the group.
Official trips to Tibet have been much rarer than to Xinjiang. This week, Xinjiang Communist Party Secretary Ma Xingrui met with a representative from the International Labour Organization, state media said, in what it said was a sign of the region's "open attitude".
The ILO confirmed in an email that it had conducted a mission and discussed China's implementation of labour conventions covering discrimination and forced labour.
(Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva and Laurie Chen in Beijing; editing by John Stonestreet and Conor Humphries)
The Congolese military is accused of a deadly crackdown on a religious sect, killing at least 43
ZANE IRWIN
Updated Fri, September 1, 2023
Arrested members of the Wazalendo sect are sat and lined up in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. More than 40 people died and dozens were injured in clashes in the Congolese city of Goma between protesters from the Wazalendo religious sect and the armed forces, national authorities said.
ZANE IRWIN
Updated Fri, September 1, 2023
Arrested members of the Wazalendo sect are sat and lined up in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. More than 40 people died and dozens were injured in clashes in the Congolese city of Goma between protesters from the Wazalendo religious sect and the armed forces, national authorities said.
(AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — More than 40 people died and dozens were injured while protesters from a religious sect gathered in the Congolese city of Goma, national authorities said.
Congo’s communications ministry said violence related to planned protests led to 43 deaths and 56 injuries, raising the preliminary death toll of seven announced by the army on Wednesday.
Dozens were being treated for severe injuries in nearby hospitals, and the UN human rights office said Friday more than 220 people were arrested.
“People have a right to express themselves freely and to assemble peacefully, even if in protest at the United Nations and other actors,” UN human rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday.
The protest was organized by a sect called the Natural Judaic and Messianic Faith Towards the Nations and known colloquially as Wazalendo. Its supporters were demonstrating against the regional East African Community organization and the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, called MONUSCO, which is in the process of being drawn down by the end of the year.
Goma’s Mayor Faustin Napenda Kapend had banned the protest on Aug. 23 soon after it was announced. Congolese security and defense forces had amassed at major intersections in anticipation when violence broke out around 4 a.m. Wednesday.
Wednesday’s events were “an apparent massacre” according to Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group. “Security forces used live ammunition seemingly to break up a gathering of people preparing to demonstrate in the streets of Goma,” said Thomas Fessy, a senior Congo researcher at Human Rights Watch.
“The unnecessary use of lethal force is callous as well as unlawful,” Fessy said, calling on authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into senior military officials who ordered the use of unlawful lethal force.
U.N. peacekeeping missions began operating in Congo in 1999. Three decades of conflict in the northeastern region have displaced over 6 million people, according to the U.N., with the crisis intensifying since 2021.
“The Wazalendo don’t have a problem with the authorities; they’re people who just want peace in their country,” said protester Nsimire Sifa on Wednesday. The religious sect and other critics say the U.N. peacekeeping mission MONUSCO, which was the target of deadly protests in July 2022, has done little to help protect civilians from overlapping conflicts in eastern Congo.
“MONUSCO remains concerned by the threats of violence made prior to the demonstration and reiterates the importance of the peaceful resolution of disputes and concerns through inclusive dialogue,” the mission said in a statement Thursday.
Red Cross surgical coordinator Max Maietti said men, women and children, the majority of whom had bullet wounds in the chest and stomach, overloaded the capacity of CBCA Ndosho hospital in Goma on Wednesday.
“It was a very complicated case because our hospital has 64 beds, but by the end of the day we had 90 patients,” he said on Friday at the hospital. Maietti said a bullet struck the hospital gate near where injured civilians were waiting to seek treatment.
———
Associated Press reporters Justin Kabumba in Goma, Congo and Sam Mednick in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this story
THE COVER UP
Reuters
Thu, August 31, 2023
GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) -Over 40 people were killed and 56 wounded in an army crackdown on violent anti-United Nations demonstrations in eastern Congolese city of Goma on Wednesday, the government said.
Congolese troops forcibly dispersed the protest against the U.N. peacekeeping mission and other foreign organisations after footage of an attack on a policeman circulated on social media. Reuters was unable to verify the footage.
Earlier, authorities said the policeman was stoned to death, and that six protesters were killed when the army intervened.
But in a statement on Thursday, the government said the death toll stood at 43, while 158 people were arrested. It said a military investigation had been opened.
Unverified footage posted on social media showed soldiers piling bodies into a lorry and driving them through Goma in a convoy.
The head of the local branch of the International Red Cross in Goma, Anne-Sylvie Linder, said her clinic had received a high number of people with serious stab and gunshot wounds after the protest.
"Some were dead when they arrived," she said.
The U.N.'s peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo, known as MONUSCO, expressed its condolences in a statement and said it remained concerned by the threats of violence.
It also said it "encourages the Congolese authorities to conduct a prompt and independent investigation and calls them to treat those detained humanely and to respect their rights."
The mission has faced protests since 2022 spurred partly by complaints that it has failed to protect civilians against decades of militia violence.
An anti-MONUSCO protest in July 2022 resulted in more than 15 deaths, including three peacekeepers in Goma and the city of Butembo.
(Reporting by Sonia Rolley, Ange Kasongo and Erikas Mwisi Kambale; Editing by Sofia Christensen, Andy Sullivan, Alessandra Prentice and David Gregorio)
South Africa fire: What are Johannesburg's hijacked buildings?
Lucy Fleming - BBC News
Fri, September 1, 2023
A child walk downs the stairs of a hijacked building in Berea, Johannesburg, South Africa - May 2023
Many buildings in the centre of the South African city of Johannesburg, where a horrific fire has killed more than 70 people, are deemed unfit to live in.
Yet these old blocks, abandoned by their owners or the city authorities, are full of families often paying rent to criminal gangs who run them.
The buildings, which lack running water, toilets or a legal electricity connection, are then said to have been "hijacked".
Scores of people often live in one room, often former offices. Fires are common - though nothing on the scale of the one that went up in flames overnight.
A firefighter at the scene of the five-storey building, in an area called Marshalltown, said many shack-like structures had been erected inside - making things even more combustible.
People tend to cook on paraffin stoves and during the cold winter months - June to September - fires are often lit in large metal drums with wood and other scavenged items thrown in for fuel.
Candles are often used and the numerous illegal electricity connections rigged up to provide power for those inside also pose a fire hazard. It is common to see satellite dishes hanging by windows.
One person who escaped the recent inferno told the BBC the fire had started during a power cut - which happen frequently throughout the country.
She said the cut in the electricity supply triggered a bunch of gunshot-like sounds followed by a massive explosion.
The fire broke out in the five-storey building overnight
The woman asked not to be named - this is because the occupants of these buildings are there illegally, and they tend to shun the authorities and media.
Two years ago, photographer Shiraaz Mohamed gained the trust of some residents of an infamous building in Johannesburg's Hillbrow area - and published a piece on the BBC about their lives.
They told him about the unsanitary conditions - the smell of faeces permeating the corridors as occupants relieved themselves in the building's empty spaces or sometimes on the pavement.
Those living there, who did their best to keep their own areas clean, were a mix of poor South Africans as well as migrants from across Africa - some of whom lack documents and are in the country illegally.
The city centre of Johannesburg is a dangerous place to be - with high levels of crime. It is still referred to as the Central Business District (CBD), though many businesses have long fled.
This happened around the time that white-minority rule ended in 1994. During apartheid, the government imposed strict racial segregation of cities - pushing black and mixed-raced communities into townships outside.
In fact 80 Albert Street, the site of the blaze, opened in 1954 as the office of the Non-European Affairs Department, where black South Africans went to collect a passbook, known as a "dompas", that controlled where they could travel. There is a blue heritage plaque at its entrance marking the historical significance of the building.
When apartheid was dismantled, those who had been pushed to the edges of cities could move in. Poor people looking for affordable housing moved close to where they worked to avoid high transport costs.
With some businesses and wealthier residents of the CBD moving to the more affluent northern suburbs, including the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, old commercial buildings in the city centre were turned into low-rent apartments.
The building which has burnt down was later turned into the Usindiso Women's Shelter before it fell into disuse and was taken over by criminal gangs.
Africa's largest stock exchange moved to Sandton in northern Johannesburg in 2000 from the city centre
The newly liberated country also attracted migrants, some fortune-seekers, some refugees - many of whom settled in this cheap housing in the city centre.
South Africa faced and still faces a critical housing shortage - a legacy of apartheid and one of the governing African National Congress's greatest challenges.
The country remains one of the most divided and unequal societies in the world.
In Johannesburg, the country's largest city, 15,000 people were estimated to be homeless earlier this year, the provincial department told fact-checking website Africa Check.
Following the exodus of businesses, the CBD became a no-go area with a reputation for crime and violence, and some buildings were reportedly abandoned by owners as rates owed to the council exceeded their value.
Johannesburg city authorities began efforts to rejuvenate things more than a decade ago. They declared buildings unfit for human habitation and - often after court cases - rehoused some of the residents.
By law property owners must offer a building's occupants alternative accommodation before evicting them, even if they are undocumented migrants.
Some parts of the CBD have been redeveloped - with private investment.
Those living in derelict hijacked buildings often light fires in drums to keep warm
Yet as derelict buildings proliferated - some owned by the council and tied up in legal wrangles - criminal syndicates spotted an opening to make money, further exploiting those desperate for accommodation.
The rent can be fairly high - but these kind of landlords overlook a bad credit history or the fact that the tenants have no official documents.
It is a tough life for those living in a hijacked building. Drugs and addiction proliferate - and outsiders are at risk when they venture in.
Yet for the occupants, when they open up about their lives, it is clear the abandoned buildings offer a roof over their heads and a chance to dream of a better future.
A map locates the scene of the fire in Johannesburg, South Africa
Lucy Fleming - BBC News
Fri, September 1, 2023
A child walk downs the stairs of a hijacked building in Berea, Johannesburg, South Africa - May 2023
Many buildings in the centre of the South African city of Johannesburg, where a horrific fire has killed more than 70 people, are deemed unfit to live in.
Yet these old blocks, abandoned by their owners or the city authorities, are full of families often paying rent to criminal gangs who run them.
The buildings, which lack running water, toilets or a legal electricity connection, are then said to have been "hijacked".
Scores of people often live in one room, often former offices. Fires are common - though nothing on the scale of the one that went up in flames overnight.
A firefighter at the scene of the five-storey building, in an area called Marshalltown, said many shack-like structures had been erected inside - making things even more combustible.
People tend to cook on paraffin stoves and during the cold winter months - June to September - fires are often lit in large metal drums with wood and other scavenged items thrown in for fuel.
Candles are often used and the numerous illegal electricity connections rigged up to provide power for those inside also pose a fire hazard. It is common to see satellite dishes hanging by windows.
One person who escaped the recent inferno told the BBC the fire had started during a power cut - which happen frequently throughout the country.
She said the cut in the electricity supply triggered a bunch of gunshot-like sounds followed by a massive explosion.
The fire broke out in the five-storey building overnight
The woman asked not to be named - this is because the occupants of these buildings are there illegally, and they tend to shun the authorities and media.
Two years ago, photographer Shiraaz Mohamed gained the trust of some residents of an infamous building in Johannesburg's Hillbrow area - and published a piece on the BBC about their lives.
They told him about the unsanitary conditions - the smell of faeces permeating the corridors as occupants relieved themselves in the building's empty spaces or sometimes on the pavement.
Those living there, who did their best to keep their own areas clean, were a mix of poor South Africans as well as migrants from across Africa - some of whom lack documents and are in the country illegally.
The city centre of Johannesburg is a dangerous place to be - with high levels of crime. It is still referred to as the Central Business District (CBD), though many businesses have long fled.
This happened around the time that white-minority rule ended in 1994. During apartheid, the government imposed strict racial segregation of cities - pushing black and mixed-raced communities into townships outside.
In fact 80 Albert Street, the site of the blaze, opened in 1954 as the office of the Non-European Affairs Department, where black South Africans went to collect a passbook, known as a "dompas", that controlled where they could travel. There is a blue heritage plaque at its entrance marking the historical significance of the building.
When apartheid was dismantled, those who had been pushed to the edges of cities could move in. Poor people looking for affordable housing moved close to where they worked to avoid high transport costs.
With some businesses and wealthier residents of the CBD moving to the more affluent northern suburbs, including the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, old commercial buildings in the city centre were turned into low-rent apartments.
The building which has burnt down was later turned into the Usindiso Women's Shelter before it fell into disuse and was taken over by criminal gangs.
Africa's largest stock exchange moved to Sandton in northern Johannesburg in 2000 from the city centre
The newly liberated country also attracted migrants, some fortune-seekers, some refugees - many of whom settled in this cheap housing in the city centre.
South Africa faced and still faces a critical housing shortage - a legacy of apartheid and one of the governing African National Congress's greatest challenges.
The country remains one of the most divided and unequal societies in the world.
In Johannesburg, the country's largest city, 15,000 people were estimated to be homeless earlier this year, the provincial department told fact-checking website Africa Check.
Following the exodus of businesses, the CBD became a no-go area with a reputation for crime and violence, and some buildings were reportedly abandoned by owners as rates owed to the council exceeded their value.
Johannesburg city authorities began efforts to rejuvenate things more than a decade ago. They declared buildings unfit for human habitation and - often after court cases - rehoused some of the residents.
By law property owners must offer a building's occupants alternative accommodation before evicting them, even if they are undocumented migrants.
Some parts of the CBD have been redeveloped - with private investment.
Those living in derelict hijacked buildings often light fires in drums to keep warm
Yet as derelict buildings proliferated - some owned by the council and tied up in legal wrangles - criminal syndicates spotted an opening to make money, further exploiting those desperate for accommodation.
The rent can be fairly high - but these kind of landlords overlook a bad credit history or the fact that the tenants have no official documents.
It is a tough life for those living in a hijacked building. Drugs and addiction proliferate - and outsiders are at risk when they venture in.
Yet for the occupants, when they open up about their lives, it is clear the abandoned buildings offer a roof over their heads and a chance to dream of a better future.
Johannesburg fire: 'Others jumped too, but they didn't make it'
Samantha Granville - Johannesburg
BBC
Thu, August 31, 2023
Mr Hamissa and his family escaped - but they have nowhere to go
Mussi Hamissa woke up to the sound of a massive roar. His bed was shaking and he heard people shouting "Fire! Fire! Fire!"
In shock, he rubbed his eyes open to see the orange glow of flames coming into his makeshift apartment on the third floor of the building, formerly owned by the South African city of Johannesburg, that had become an informal home to migrants.
Mr Hamissa got his wife and their one-year-old baby out of bed. He realised that their only chance of survival was to jump out of the window.
So that is exactly what he did.
It was a rough landing on concrete and he is quite bruised. But he is alive.
Mr Hamissa's wife dropped their baby from the window and he caught him safely. His wife then tied a bed sheet to the satellite dish and shimmied down to the footpath.
"People started copying us. They jumped too, but they didn't make it," he said, eyes welling up.
"There were a lot of dead bodies... So many dead bodies. And I couldn't help them."
Mr Hamissa, from Tanzania, had lived in the building for three years. He knew all the other Tanzanians in the apartment block and said a lot of them had not made it out.
"I lost so many brothers and sisters. My family. They were all there, but I could only take my wife and baby."
the burned building
The guilt would stay with him forever, he said.
The family also lost their money, passports and all their possessions.
Living in this building as a squatter, Mr Hamissa had not had to pay rent. And now with his important documents gone and a low-paying job, he is not sure what to do or where to go.
So he is sitting across the street from his home, smoke still rising from its shell, just hoping he has a roof for his son tonight.
"I don't know what they're going to do to us, but we don't know where it can go. The government should help us because we lost all of our things," he said.
Many were less fortunate than Mr Hamissa.
Sphiwe Ngcobo was outside the building at her street vending stand when the fire erupted. It happened so quickly, she says, that by the time she ran across the street to the building's entrance, the flames were already blocking the way.
She had two children inside - both on the second floor, both unreachable.
Ms Ngcobo waited for what felt like hours as people started to evacuate the burning building.
Finally her five-year-old son was carried out by a neighbour. He was foaming at the mouth. He had inhaled so much smoke and was in such a state of shock that he was unable to stand up unaided.
Ms Ngcobo does not know where her children, one of whom is dead, are
The paramedics took him to hospital and she has not heard about his condition since.
Ms Ngcobo stayed behind, waiting at the scene of the fire for more information on where her two-year-old's body has been taken.
She wants to say goodbye, to have some closure.
"I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go," she said. "I don't know what hospital my child is in, and I don't know what mortuary my other child is in. So I'll wait here for news."
Mr Hamissa and Ms Ngobo were sitting in a group of about 50 people, all trying to get some sleep while they waited for officials to tell them what would happen.
There was a stench in the air of old smoke and expired food. The pavement was littered with rubbish and unknown liquids.
For now, that is where they will be staying.
Thu, August 31, 2023
Mr Hamissa and his family escaped - but they have nowhere to go
Mussi Hamissa woke up to the sound of a massive roar. His bed was shaking and he heard people shouting "Fire! Fire! Fire!"
In shock, he rubbed his eyes open to see the orange glow of flames coming into his makeshift apartment on the third floor of the building, formerly owned by the South African city of Johannesburg, that had become an informal home to migrants.
Mr Hamissa got his wife and their one-year-old baby out of bed. He realised that their only chance of survival was to jump out of the window.
So that is exactly what he did.
It was a rough landing on concrete and he is quite bruised. But he is alive.
Mr Hamissa's wife dropped their baby from the window and he caught him safely. His wife then tied a bed sheet to the satellite dish and shimmied down to the footpath.
"People started copying us. They jumped too, but they didn't make it," he said, eyes welling up.
"There were a lot of dead bodies... So many dead bodies. And I couldn't help them."
Mr Hamissa, from Tanzania, had lived in the building for three years. He knew all the other Tanzanians in the apartment block and said a lot of them had not made it out.
"I lost so many brothers and sisters. My family. They were all there, but I could only take my wife and baby."
the burned building
The guilt would stay with him forever, he said.
The family also lost their money, passports and all their possessions.
Living in this building as a squatter, Mr Hamissa had not had to pay rent. And now with his important documents gone and a low-paying job, he is not sure what to do or where to go.
So he is sitting across the street from his home, smoke still rising from its shell, just hoping he has a roof for his son tonight.
"I don't know what they're going to do to us, but we don't know where it can go. The government should help us because we lost all of our things," he said.
Many were less fortunate than Mr Hamissa.
Sphiwe Ngcobo was outside the building at her street vending stand when the fire erupted. It happened so quickly, she says, that by the time she ran across the street to the building's entrance, the flames were already blocking the way.
She had two children inside - both on the second floor, both unreachable.
Ms Ngcobo waited for what felt like hours as people started to evacuate the burning building.
Finally her five-year-old son was carried out by a neighbour. He was foaming at the mouth. He had inhaled so much smoke and was in such a state of shock that he was unable to stand up unaided.
Ms Ngcobo does not know where her children, one of whom is dead, are
The paramedics took him to hospital and she has not heard about his condition since.
Ms Ngcobo stayed behind, waiting at the scene of the fire for more information on where her two-year-old's body has been taken.
She wants to say goodbye, to have some closure.
"I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go," she said. "I don't know what hospital my child is in, and I don't know what mortuary my other child is in. So I'll wait here for news."
Mr Hamissa and Ms Ngobo were sitting in a group of about 50 people, all trying to get some sleep while they waited for officials to tell them what would happen.
There was a stench in the air of old smoke and expired food. The pavement was littered with rubbish and unknown liquids.
For now, that is where they will be staying.
A map locates the scene of the fire in Johannesburg, South Africa
CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
Faith, trade behind Papua New Guinea’s Jerusalem embassy
Fri, September 1, 2023
By Kirsty Needham and Dan Williams
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Papua New Guinea will join a handful of countries to open an embassy in Jerusalem, a decision long sought by pro-Israel church groups in the deeply Christian Pacific nation, and as Prime Minister James Marape seeks to boost foreign investment.
Marape has pledged to voters to make Papua New Guinea (PNG), a resource-rich but largely undeveloped nation north of Australia, the "richest black Christian nation".
He previously told parliament Israel was important because of its agriculture technology, however church groups have long lobbied for a Jerusalem embassy.
Marape announced he would travel to Israel for the embassy opening on Sept. 5 in a speech on PNG's national holiday for prayer, Aug. 26, when he also said a law would be introduced to officially declare PNG a Christian country.
A delegation of pastors is travelling to Israel for the opening, PNG government and church officials said.
"We have to have the relationship with Israel. This is what the people have been dreaming of," Pastor Peter Harut, PNG delegate for International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, a Christian Zionist group, said in a telephone interview.
The majority of countries with an official diplomatic presence in Israel have their embassies in Tel Aviv, with only the United States, Kosovo, Guatemala and Honduras basing theirs in Jerusalem.
Citing Jewish biblical roots, Israel deems Jerusalem its indivisible capital. That status has not won wide recognition abroad, and Palestinians want the east of the city - which Israel captured in a 1967 war, and is the site of major Jewish, Christian and Muslim shrines - as capital of their hoped-for future state.
A Florida-based Zionist group with pastors in PNG, United Nations for Israel, wrote to Marape to congratulate him.
In the letter viewed by Reuters, the group's president Dominiquae Bierman, who has visited PNG several times to preach, said she was "very involved in bringing the Biblical Message to your nation about the importance of honouring Israel".
"This includes positioning the embassies of all the nations in the eternal capital of Israel, Jerusalem," Bierman said.
'FOREIGN POLICY AGENDA'
Israel has yet to formally announce the embassy opening, but an Israeli official told Reuters Marape's visit would be on Sept. 4-6, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attending the Sept. 5 opening.
The visit will allow Netanyahu to burnish his statesman credentials amid diplomatic deadlock on other fronts for his hard-right government.
An Israeli official who requested anonymity said the PNG embassy would have 200 square metres of floorspace and can expect to get a discount of abound 70% on municipal property tax as part of standing policy meant to draw embassies and corporations to Jerusalem.
The office space was previously used by an Israeli government ministry in south Jerusalem, next to the city's biggest mall. An assessment of a property of comparable size in the same building suggests PNG will pay a monthly rent of about $20,000.
PNG-Israel Jewish Council chairman, businessman Douveri Henao, will attend the ceremony, he said on social media.
Henao is on PNG's six-person Foreign Policy White Paper drafting team, tasked with "shaping Papua New Guinea's foreign policy agenda", Marape's office said in a statement last month.
The council said in January a close relationship with Israel was "essential" for PNG's economic goals in agriculture, health and technology, and a mission in Jerusalem recognised "Israel's claim to Jerusalem as its capital based on biblical and secular history".
Marape is seeking to widen PNG's international links, and this year hosted visits by the leaders of India, France and by the U.S. secretaries of state and defense.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; editing by Robert Birsel)
Mysterious 2,800-year-old discovery in Jerusalem leaves experts puzzled. See it
Moira Ritter
Wed, August 30, 2023
An ancient and unique discovery has left experts and officials in Israel puzzled — they can’t figure out its purpose.
Archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority said they have unearthed two mysterious channel installations from about 2,800 years ago in the City of David National Park in Jerusalem, according to an Aug. 30 Facebook post.
Experts said the channels flow in different directions and do not deposit to a central drainage point.
Despite intensive investigations, including help from a police forensic unit, no one can determine what the channels were used for, officials said.
Experts said they first discovered a structure of “unique and large-scale installations carved out of the rock.” Then, a second installation was found about 30 feet away atop a rocky cliff that encloses the first structure.
Officials said they called in the police forensics unit to help determine the use of the structures, but they were unsuccessful.
The first structure was found at the northeastern end of the Givati Parking Lot, according to officials. It contains a series of at least nine smoothed channels.
Archaeologists were puzzled by the discovery, according to senior researcher Yiftah Shalev.
“We looked at the installation and realized that we had stumbled on something unique, but since we had never seen a structure like this in Israel, we didn’t know how to interpret it,” he said in the antiquities authority’s social media post. “Even its date was unclear.”
The installations date back to the ninth century B.C., but archaeologists said they were likely built decades earlier.
Things only got more confusing when a second structure — which includes about seven drain pipes and at least five channels that appear to have carried liquid from atop the cliff to the first set of channels — was discovered, archaeologists said.
“The mystery only grew deeper when we found the second installation to the south,” Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University’s Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations Department said in the Facebook post.
Experts said they determined that the second installation was in use until the end of the ninth century B.C.
“Despite some differences in the way the channels were hewn and designed, it is evident that the second installation is very similar to the first,” Gadot said in the post. “This time, we also managed to date when the facility fell out of use – at the end of the 9th Century BCE, during the days of the biblical kings of Judah - Joash and Amaziah. We assume that the two installations, which, as mentioned, may have been used in unison, were constructed several decades earlier.”
Although the purpose of the two installations is unclear, experts have some ideas.
“Since the channels don’t lead to a large drainage basin and the direction of their flow varies, it is possible that the channels, at least in the northern installation, were used to soak products – and not to drain liquids,” Shalev said in the post.
Shalev said the channels could have been used for the production of linen or held products that needed to be heated by the sun.
Moira Ritter
Wed, August 30, 2023
An ancient and unique discovery has left experts and officials in Israel puzzled — they can’t figure out its purpose.
Archaeologists with the Israel Antiquities Authority said they have unearthed two mysterious channel installations from about 2,800 years ago in the City of David National Park in Jerusalem, according to an Aug. 30 Facebook post.
Experts said the channels flow in different directions and do not deposit to a central drainage point.
Despite intensive investigations, including help from a police forensic unit, no one can determine what the channels were used for, officials said.
Experts said they first discovered a structure of “unique and large-scale installations carved out of the rock.” Then, a second installation was found about 30 feet away atop a rocky cliff that encloses the first structure.
Officials said they called in the police forensics unit to help determine the use of the structures, but they were unsuccessful.
The first structure was found at the northeastern end of the Givati Parking Lot, according to officials. It contains a series of at least nine smoothed channels.
Archaeologists were puzzled by the discovery, according to senior researcher Yiftah Shalev.
“We looked at the installation and realized that we had stumbled on something unique, but since we had never seen a structure like this in Israel, we didn’t know how to interpret it,” he said in the antiquities authority’s social media post. “Even its date was unclear.”
The installations date back to the ninth century B.C., but archaeologists said they were likely built decades earlier.
Things only got more confusing when a second structure — which includes about seven drain pipes and at least five channels that appear to have carried liquid from atop the cliff to the first set of channels — was discovered, archaeologists said.
“The mystery only grew deeper when we found the second installation to the south,” Yuval Gadot of Tel Aviv University’s Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations Department said in the Facebook post.
Experts said they determined that the second installation was in use until the end of the ninth century B.C.
“Despite some differences in the way the channels were hewn and designed, it is evident that the second installation is very similar to the first,” Gadot said in the post. “This time, we also managed to date when the facility fell out of use – at the end of the 9th Century BCE, during the days of the biblical kings of Judah - Joash and Amaziah. We assume that the two installations, which, as mentioned, may have been used in unison, were constructed several decades earlier.”
Although the purpose of the two installations is unclear, experts have some ideas.
“Since the channels don’t lead to a large drainage basin and the direction of their flow varies, it is possible that the channels, at least in the northern installation, were used to soak products – and not to drain liquids,” Shalev said in the post.
Shalev said the channels could have been used for the production of linen or held products that needed to be heated by the sun.
The Most Galling Part of Clarence Thomas’ Latest Ethics Disclosure
Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern
Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern
SALON
Thu, August 31, 2023
Clarence Thomas is blaming the Dobbs leak for his taking a private jet.
Thu, August 31, 2023
Clarence Thomas is blaming the Dobbs leak for his taking a private jet.
When Justice Samuel Alito responded earlier this year to reporting on his 2008 decision to accept, and not disclose, a seat on a private jet owned by a billionaire with business before the Supreme Court, his defense was that the seat he occupied “would have otherwise been vacant.” At the time, it seemed like the Marie Antoinette–iest legal reasoning ever advanced for taking a costly gift. On Thursday, however, his colleague Clarence Thomas went one better. In filing his delayed 2022 financial disclosure forms, the justice—who has failed to disclose dozens of private flights, luxury vacations, loans, gifts, and several real estate deals for the bulk of his time on the court—belatedly reported three 2022 trips on the private jet of his friend Harlan Crow. The reason for at least one spontaneous outbreak of private jet travel? “Because of increased security risk following the Dobbs opinion leak,” the disclosure notes, “the May flights were by private plane for official travel as filer’s security detail recommended noncommercial travel whenever possible.” You see, it’s not him. It’s you. You’re making the justices fly on private flights. Look what you made him do.
To cement the conclusion that Thomas is the real victim of the reporting around his years of nondisclosures and elisions—or, as they are now called, “inadvertent omissions”—Thomas’ attorney Elliot S. Berke attached a statement to the disclosure decrying the reporting as a “partisan feeding frenzy” against the justice. The disclosures and subsequent calls for accountability from “left wing” groups, Berke declared, amounted to “political blood sport … motivated by hatred for his judicial philosophy, not by any real belief in any ethical lapses.”
The same justices who unfailingly see themselves as the only victims in America can’t stop using their own personal safety as a get-out-of-ethics-free card. And that card, it would seem, confers powers that move backward through time and space to justify all past and future violations as well.
At the center of all this, of course, are Thomas’ billionaire benefactors—or, as Berke describes them, “personal friends who happen to be wealthy.” You see, the fact that so many of Thomas’ besties “happen to be” billionaires is incidental. As Berke puts it: “For anyone who knows him at all, it is clear that no one influences Justice Clarence Thomas’s jurisprudence. But friends are dear, close, and separate.” This is Crow’s story as well. Never mind that Harlan’s wife, Kathy Crow, sits on the board of trustees for the Manhattan Institute, which regularly files amicus briefs before SCOTUS. Surely that’s not real business before the court. Or perhaps Kathy doesn’t count as the gift giver, as the friendly offerings extended were Harlan’s alone. Or maybe the mysterious Dobbs leaker did further time traveling to force Kathy’s hand in taking a prominent position on a conservative group that churns out business before the court.
One thing is clear: Scanning the eye-popping number of corrections, updates, and amendments to Thomas’ filing induces a simultaneous sense of wonder and despair. Wonder at the sheer quantity of oopsies, covering millions of dollars’ worth of insurance policies, bank accounts, assets, luxury travel, and ultra-high-end transportation that the justice mysteriously forgot to include in past disclosures; and despair at the entitled and indignant tone of both the disclosure itself and the unhinged letter accompanying it. Berke alleges that the new report “utterly refutes” all criticism of Thomas’ ethics, when it actually validates them: If the justice had been following the law this whole time, there would be no need for pages and pages of major corrections!
And he could not possibly have been caught off guard; it was just last decade that Thomas corrected his failure to report $680,000 of income earned by his wife, Ginni. After more than three decades on the court, the justice, one might expect, would have grasped the ground rules of federal ethics law. Yet in his lawyer’s telling, his extreme noncompliance was an innocent, minor, blameless mistake in a humdrum disclosure process that’s been “weaponized” against Thomas. The excuse at the heart of Thomas’ defense is that the disclose law exempts “personal hospitality”—which, until this year, the Judicial Conference’s guidance defined broadly enough to encompass private flights and paid-for stays at private resorts. But we must stress, again, that the underlying federal statute exempts only “food, lodging, or entertainment” provided by an individual, and that at least some of Thomas’ secret gifts do not fall under the most sweeping definition of these terms. A Supreme Court justice surely has the reading comprehension to grasp this fact. And so, given the sneering and self-righteous tone of Berke’s letter, its subtext seems to be that, at some point long ago, some justices and their pals sat down in a circle, maybe in some Adirondack chairs under a totem pole, and simply decided amongst themselves that the rules as written didn’t apply to travel, gifts, and deals that would benefit them.
This sniffing that a couple of innocent filing errors are just an occupational hazard may be necessary to ward off the more obvious and sensible conclusion to be drawn here, which is that Thomas applies one standard to himself and another to everyone else—and most specifically, to capital defendants who face execution because of errors committed by their attorneys, through no fault of their own, and often without their knowledge.
In perhaps the most egregious example, 2012’s Maples v. Thomas, two lawyers at the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell volunteered to represent Cory Maples, an indigent defendant contesting his death sentence. The lawyers left the law firm and ended their representation but failed to inform their client. An Alabama court ruled against Maples automatically because his (erstwhile) lawyers failed to appear. Maples had no idea. He then inadvertently forfeited his right to appeal because the clock ran out with no filings from his lawyers—again, without his knowledge. The Alabama court sent copies of its decision to Sullivan and Cromwell, but the mailroom returned them unopened. When Maples finally discovered these mistakes, he asked a federal court for relief, pointing to his lawyers’ blunders. A lower court ruled against him, but the Supreme Court sided with Maples, declaring, “A client cannot be charged with the acts or omissions of an attorney who has abandoned him.”
Thomas dissented. He, along with Justice Antonin Scalia, would’ve let the consequences of Sullivan and Cromwell’s error fall upon Maples, with the resulting death penalty as a consequence. Scalia and Thomas reasoned that Maples had “no right to counsel” to begin with since he had already been convicted. So, they concluded, his counsels’ mistakes did not provide cause for a do-over.
This pattern continues throughout each case involving a lawyer who messes up when seeking post-conviction relief for their client. And, to be sure, most of the oopsies are far less shocking than the conduct diminished by Thomas’ enraged attorney. In 2010’s Holland v. Florida, the defendant, Albert Holland, urged his lawyer to file a petition on time, based on his own, correct understanding of the law. Yet that lawyer missed the deadline—based on his incorrect understanding of the law. The Supreme Court ruled for Holland, suspending the deadline because of the attorney’s mistake. Thomas dissented.
Similarly, in 2015’s Christeson v. Roper, attorneys for a capital defendant, Mark Christeson, didn’t even meet with him until six weeks after the filing deadline had passed. They finally submitted their petition 117 days late. Those same lawyers then refused to seek a deadline extension based on their own malfeasance. So Christeson sought different, more competent lawyers, who did not have a conflict of interest. The lower courts ruled against him and greenlit the execution, but the Supreme Court halted his killing with mere hours to spare. Thomas dissented. Later, the court granted his request for new attorneys. Thomas dissented again.
Unfortunately, Thomas has not always been on the losing side of these cases; in fact, he wrote the majority opinion in Lawrence v. Florida, a particularly egregious 5–4 decision in 2007. The facts were depressingly familiar: A lawyer for Gary Lawrence, who contested his death sentence, missed a deadline that prevented him from seeking relief. Lawrence asked for an extension, equitable tolling, citing his attorney’s error. Thomas refused. Writing for the court, he explained, “If credited, this argument would essentially equitably toll limitations periods for every person whose attorney missed a deadline. Attorney miscalculation is simply not sufficient to warrant equitable tolling, particularly in the postconviction context where prisoners have no constitutional right to counsel.”
Marvel at this irony: Clarence Thomas had the assistance of every lawyer he could ever want in drafting his financial disclosures. Indeed, he subtly threw some of them under the bus in his Thursday amendments, suggesting that any genuine errors can be pinned back on bad advice received from the Judicial Conference of the United States, which advises and adjudicates judicial ethics compliance and which revised its reporting requirements earlier this year in the wake of the Thomas revelations. The justice has—as is increasingly evident—ample resources to pay his lawyers, unlike the indigent defendants who are often given minimal or substandard representation by attorneys with hundreds of other cases to juggle. He also has ample time in which to comply with a standard disclosure process followed by thousands of other public officials, unlike capital defendants who face onerous deadlines with little or no information on how to meet them.
At the bare minimum, Thomas’ new filing proves that even the most powerful jurists and attorneys make errors, grievous ones, all the time. Instead of stating that with humility and offering the same grace to others, the justice has taken the opportunity to remind us that when his errors are pointed out, it’s a weaponization of the legal system by malign haters. For Thomas, equal justice under the law means that to err is human when the powerful do it, and that deciding which errors are trivial, and thus forgivable, is what makes him nothing short of divine.
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M IS SLIMY
Traffickers plead guilty to smuggling over $10,000 in endangered sea cucumbers
AMANCAI BIRABEN
Fri, September 1, 2023
A man holds a sea cucumber in the tide pools at Cabrillo Beach in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles on Dec. 30, 2005. Wildlife traffickers pleaded guilty in federal court in August 2023, to illegally importing endangered sea cucumbers between 2017 and 2019 across the US-Mexico border in the most recent case of the bottomfeeder's rising smuggling rates. (Sean Hiller/The Orange County Register via AP) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wildlife traffickers pleaded guilty this week in federal court in California to illegally importing endangered sea cucumbers — which are prized in China for food and medicine and as a reputed aphrodisiac — from Mexico.
Zunyu Zhao and Xionwei Xiao were charged with conspiracy and illegal importation of brown sea cucumbers worth over $10,000 from 2017 to 2019 and are scheduled to be sentenced in September and November, respectively.
Prosecutors haven't said where in the ocean the sea cucumbers were obtained. But the defendants were allegedly found with the smuggled bottom-feeders as they crossed from Mexico into the U.S. at Calexico. Zhao and Xiao agreed to pay restitution to the Mexican government's environmental protection agency. They could get up to 25 years in prison.
Attorneys for Zhao and Xiao did not respond to requests for comment.
After seizing the sea cucumbers at the border, investigators found text messages and images sent between Zhao and Xiao about the transactions. The sea cucumbers are being held as evidence by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“This office is committed to upholding the twin pillars of marine biodiversity and conservation," acting U.S. Attorney Andrew R. Haden said in a statement. "Criminals considering poaching protected species should be aware that this office will diligently investigate, thoroughly prosecute, and seek restitution no matter the species.”
Sea cucumbers are in the same family as sea stars and sea urchins and can measure up to 7 feet. Brown sea cucumbers have a smooth body dotted by warts and can grow to 2 feet.
The animals operate as a vacuum on the sea floor, breaking down particles that become part of the ocean's nutrient cycle, said Gordon Hendler, Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles curator of echinoderms.
Prosecutors haven't said where the cucumbers were headed. But a thriving black market frequently gets them to China, where they are a delicacy. They are traditionally served dried or fresh and often braised with fish, vegetables and traditional sauces. They are also sought to treat join pain, prevent cancer and serve as anti-inflammatories — medical uses sometimes validated by science. They’re also considered an aphrodisiac.
But the brown sea cucumber — Isostichopus fuscus — is overfished, and that’s cause for regulations around their harvest.
Harvesting sea cucumbers is permitted in the United States and many parts of the world, but in limited quantities and only during high season. Defendants Zhao and Xiao did not have appropriate permits and documentation, according to Kelly Thornton, spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office.
In 2017, a father-son partnership smuggled more than $17 million worth of sea cucumbers from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula to the United States and exported them to Asia. From 2015 to 2020, the Sri Lankan Navy and the Indian Coast Guard made over 500 arrests associated with $2.84 million in sea cucumber thefts. And in a pending case, a defendant illegally trafficked sea cucumbers along with sea horses and totatoba fish bellies in Chula Vista, California, from 2016 to 2021.
“One of the highest priorities of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement is to investigate individuals involved in the unlawful commercial trafficking and smuggling of wildlife here and around the world," said Manisa Kung, an agent for the service.
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