USPS SABOTAGED
Postal Workers Decry Changes And Cost-Cutting Measures
The U.S. Postal Service has had financial problems for years, but the new postmaster general is making changes and some workers are alarmed.Scott Olson/Getty Images
Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's plans to shake up the agency are gathering opposition from some of its workers.
The U.S. Postal Service has had financial problems for years. It lost $9 billion last year. It's not supported by tax dollars; it's funded by postage and services.
DeJoy, who formerly headed a logistics company, said the agency is in a "financially unsustainable position, stemming from substantial declines in mail volume, and a broken business model."
DeJoy has already prohibited postal workers from working overtime. He noted that an inspector general report found billions of dollars spent on overtime costs in fiscal year 2019.
He wants late-arriving mail to be left behind and delivered the following day. On Friday, he announced a new organizational structure for the agency's executives.
Postal workers and their unions are alarmed.
"Mail is beginning to pile up in our offices, and we're seeing equipment being removed," said Kimberly Karol, president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union and a postal clerk in Waterloo, Iowa.
POLITICS
Pending Postal Service Changes Could Delay Mail And Deliveries, Advocates Warn
As a result of the recent changes, Karol told NPR's Noel King on Morning Edition, a mail processing machine was removed from her facility in Waterloo and others have been removed across Iowa.
Of the policy to leave some letters behind for the following day, another postal worker told NPR last month: "I am sick to my stomach," knowing that means medication could be delayed in getting to recipients.
Karol echoed that point: "I grew up in a culture of service where every piece was to be delivered, to be delivered every day." She said the Postal Service's new polices are "not allowing us to deliver every piece every day, as we've done in the past."
Other postal workers "all across the country" agree, she said.
A letter carrier in Cincinnati was told to leave mail behind if it would require using overtime.
"We are already short-handed," she told Government Executive. "We don't have enough people to get all the routes done without using overtime."
Karol argues that the measures won't save money either. "I see this as a way to undermine the public confidence in the mail service," she said. "It's not saving costs. We're spending more time trying to implement these policy changes, and it's, in our offices, costing more overtime."
ELECTIONS
Postmaster General Touts Postal Service Overhaul But Promises On-Time Election Mail
Perhaps the biggest alarms are being sounded by members of Congress, who are concerned about the prospect of big changes at the Postal Service during an election that's expected to see more mail-in voting than ever before.
On this point, however, Karol is confident.
"The Postal Service has been in place for 200 years," she said. "We have a history of being able to process mail, and we've been developing and perfecting our methods for all that time. So although the postmaster general is taking actions that are starting to impact that, by having that preparation in advance of these elections, we still have the system that will do that."
Jeevika Verma produced the audio interview.
USPS SABOTAGED
How Are Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's Changes Affecting Workers?
August 11, 20205
Heard on Morning Edition
Download
NPR's Noel King talk to Kimberly Karol, president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union, about changes Postmaster General DeJoy is implementing. Karol, a postal clerk, says mail is piling up in her office.
TRANSCRIPT
NOEL KING, HOST:
Mail-in voting will likely be a big part of this year's election. And the new leader of the U.S. Postal Service is making major changes to that agency. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is a donor to President Trump's campaign, and he made his first public remarks on Friday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LOUIS DEJOY: We are at the beginning of a transformative process. Our goal is to change and improve the Postal Service.
KING: He has reassigned or displaced 23 postal executives. He's changed delivery policies, banned overtime and done other things to cut costs. So what has this all meant for employees? Kimberly Karol is the president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union and a postal clerk herself in Waterloo, Iowa. Hi.
KIMBERLY KAROL: Good morning.
KING: Are you feeling these changes that are being made in Iowa?
KAROL: Yes, we are beginning to see those changes and how it is impacting the mail. Mail is beginning to pile up in our offices, and we're seeing equipment being removed. So we are beginning to see the impact of those changes.
KING: Curious - I hadn't heard about this one - equipment being removed. What equipment?
KAROL: The sorting equipment that we use to process mail for delivery. In Iowa, we are losing machines. And they already in Waterloo were losing one of those machines. So that also hinders our ability to process mail in the way that we had in the past.
KING: Sure. Sounds like it would. You've been a postal worker for 30 years? How do you feel about Louis DeJoy?
KAROL: I am not a fan. I grew up in a culture of service, where every piece was to be delivered every day. And his policies, although they've only been in place for a few weeks, are now affecting the way that we do business and not allowing us to deliver every piece every day, as we've done in the past.
KING: Do you get the impression that your feelings about him are shared broadly among postal workers? Do people agree with you?
KAROL: Yes, all across the country. We are trying to activate people all across the country and notify the public because we will - my opinion is that the PMG is trying to circumvent the rules that have been set in place to safeguard the public by making changes that don't require public comment but have the same impact as closing offices and/or changing delivery standards. And so this is a way to avoid that kind of public comment. And we're trying to make sure that the public understands that they need to make comment.
KING: Is the Postal Service equipped to handle this this upcoming election?
KAROL: Yes. Keep in mind the Postal Service has been in place for 200 years. We have a history of being able to process mail. And we've been developing and perfecting our methods for all that time. So although the postmaster general is taking actions that are starting to impact that, by having the preparation in advance of these elections, we still have the system that will do that.
KING: Last question for you real quick - the Postal Service is dealing with financial pressures. And the argument is, you know, these are cost-cutting measures. We need them. What do you say to that?
KAROL: Well, unfortunately, I don't see this as cost-saving measures. I see this as a way to undermine the public confidence in the mail service. It's not saving costs. We're spending more time trying to implement these policy changes. And it's, in our offices, costing more over time.
KING: Over time, that, we understand, is also one of the things being cut. Kimberly Karol, president of the Iowa Postal Workers Union, thank you for your time.
KAROL: Thank you.
Copyright © 2020 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
QAnon Supporter Who Made Bigoted Videos Wins Ga. Primary, Likely Heading To Congress
August 12, 2020
CAMILA DOMONOSKE Twitter
Marjorie Taylor Greene (right) poses with a supporter in Rome, Ga., late Tuesday. Greene, criticized for promoting bigoted videos and supporting the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, won the GOP nomination for Georgia's 14th Congressional District.Mike Stewart/AP
A Georgia Republican who has said that Muslims do not belong in government and expressed her belief in the baseless conspiracy theory called QAnon has won her primary runoff and is all but certain to win a seat in the House of Representatives in November.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a construction executive, won 57% of the vote in Georgia's heavily-Republican 14th Congressional District, handily defeating neurosurgeon John Cowan, who had pitched himself as, "All of the conservative, none of the embarrassment."
President Trump congratulated Greene on Wednesday morning, calling her a "future Republican Star" who is "strong on everything."
Congratulations to future Republican Star Marjorie Taylor Greene on a big Congressional primary win in Georgia against a very tough and smart opponent. Marjorie is strong on everything and never gives up - a real WINNER!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2020
Many high-ranking Republicans in the House of Representatives distanced themselves from Greene earlier this summer, after Politico highlighted videos in which Greene expressed anti-Muslim sentiments. A spokesman for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called her views "appalling."
Facebook took down an ad in which Greene brandished a rifle and threatened antifa protesters, saying it violated its policies against inciting violence. And many media outlets have covered her support for the outlandish QAnon conspiracy theory.
ELECTIONS
GOP Candidates Open To QAnon Conspiracy Theory Advance In Congressional Races
As Emma Hurt of member station WABE reports, "all of it only fueled her message."
"The fake news media hates me. Big Tech censors me," Greene said in a video on Twitter. "The DC Swamp fears me. And George Soros and the Democrats are trying to take me down."
In videos spotlighted by Politico, Greene called the election of two Muslim women to Congress "an Islamic invasion into our government."
In one video message, Greene acknowledged that U.S. laws protect freedom of religion — and then said, "but I'm sorry, anyone that is a Muslim, that believes in Sharia law, does not belong in our government."
"Let me explain something to you, Muhammad," she said in one video. "We already have equality and justice for all Americans. Muslims are not being held back in any way ... what you people want is special treatment. You want to rise above us."
Greene also said that generations of Black and Hispanic men have been held down by "being in gangs and dealing drugs," not by anything white people have done; that both white supremacists and members of the Black Lives Matter movement are "idiots"; and that in seeking the Black vote, Democrats are "trying to keep the Black people in a modern-day form of slavery."
Democrats are the real racists, Greene said, stating that "the most mistreated group of people in the United States today are white males."
Greene made national headlines in early June, when The Washington Post reported on her support for the QAnon conspiracy.
The once-fringe conspiracy has made inroads into the mainstream, with multiple GOP candidates expressing, at a minimum, openness to the QAnon narrative.
The conspiracy includes a wide variety of shifting and often-contradictory predictions and allegations, but it centers on an anonymous figure named "Q" who asserts that a wave of mass arrests are about to take down high-ranking Trump opponents.
POLITICS
What Is QAnon? The Conspiracy Theory Tiptoeing Into Trump World
Followers of "Q" often believe that the world is controlled by elite members of a secretive satanic child sex-trafficking ring.
"Q is a patriot, we know that for sure," Greene said in a video from 2017, in which she recapped some of Q's predictions and why she supports them.
"There's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out, and I think we have the president to do it," she said, referring to Trump.
Republicans called her videos ‘appalling’ and ‘disgusting.’ But they’re doing little to stop her.
Outside groups haven't worked to squash Marjorie Taylor Greene's controversial candidacy, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is remaining neutral in the runoff.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks to a GOP women's group in March. | John Bailey/Rome News-Tribune via AP
By MELANIE ZANONA and ALLY MUTNICK
08/09/2020
House GOP leaders raced to disavow a Republican congressional candidate who made racist Facebook videos and embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory. But less than two months later, the party has done little to block Marjorie Taylor Greene from winning a seat in the House.
Now, Republicans could be days away from adding their most controversial member yet to the conference in a runoff election in Georgia on Tuesday — a scenario that some lawmakers say should have been entirely avoided.
Of the top three GOP leaders in the House, only House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana has helped Greene’s opponent, neurosurgeon John Cowan, raise money and contributed to his campaign. Outside groups have not made any significant investments in the primary runoff for the solidly red seat, despite pleas from rank-and-file Republicans. And there hasn’t been a tweet from President Donald Trump that could signal to his supporters that they should oppose her.
POLITICO reported in June that Greene had posted hours of Facebook videos in which made a trove of racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic comments — including an assertion that Black people “are held slaves to the Democratic Party,” and that George Soros, a Jewish Democratic megadonor, is a Nazi.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said in June — through his spokesman, Drew Florio — that he found those comments “appalling,” and he had “no tolerance for them.” But Florio said last week that McCarthy is remaining neutral and letting the primary process play out — a stance that likely does not signal urgency to donors or outside groups.
“This is the kind of race and kind of situation where you need those groups,” said Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), who is actively supporting Cowan. “So often, they only get involved when they have someone that they are trying to get in. But I think it’s just as important they get involved when there’s someone they’re trying to get out.”
2020 ELECTIONS
House Republican leaders condemn GOP candidate who made racist videos
BY ALLY MUTNICK AND MELANIE ZANONA
The lack of intervention from national Republicans — despite their public rebukes of Greene — has frustrated and baffled GOP lawmakers, strategists and donors, who worry Greene’s victory would be a black eye for the party at a time when they are still grappling with a national reckoning over racial inequality.
And it would diminish the impact of the party’s successful efforts in June to oust GOP Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a member with a long history of racist remarks. If Greene, a vocal QAnon conspiracy theorist and businesswoman, earns the party’s nomination in the deeply conservative district in northwest Georgia, she is almost guaranteed to win a seat in the House.
“I have been very involved in the John Cowan race. I’ve pushed House leadership to get involved, without having success,” added one GOP lawmaker, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters.
The reluctance of McCarthy — who could face a leadership challenge if Trump goes down in November — to get involved in the contest underscores the tough position leadership is in: While it wants to distance the party from the deeply controversial views espoused by Greene, it also don’t want to alienate the hard-line conservative voters who are a key part of Trump’s base heading into the election.
And it’s not just Greene’s race that has spooked House GOP operatives. The primary runoff field for Rep. Doug Collins’ (R-Ga.) neighboring open seat includes state Rep. Matt Gurtler, who came under fire after he posed for a photo with a man with white supremacist ties. But that race, which is also on Tuesday, has seen a rush of outside spending by various PACs.
GOP leadership and the party’s campaign arm don’t typically play in primaries, and it can be risky to take a shot at a fellow Republican and miss: GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming recently came under fire from some House Freedom Caucus members and other Trump allies for supporting a primary opponent to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), among other comments that riled Trump's most loyal House foot soldiers. Cheney — who was one of the most vocal Republicans in calling on King to step down — later pulled her endorsement of Massie's primary opponent after past racist tweets from the candidate resurfaced.
When it comes to the matchup between Greene and Cowan, GOP lawmakers and strategists believe that outside help could easily tip the scales. While Greene won the first round of the primary in June by a wide, 19-point margin, the race has drastically tightened in the following weeks: An internal Cowan campaign survey from late July found a tied race between him and Greene.
Plus, Cowan has outspent Greene on TV by about $50,000, according to a source tracking media spending, and outraised her by nearly a 4-to-1 margin in July, signs that point to a well-run campaign.
In an interview, Cowan framed the outcome of the runoff in dire terms, warning that a victory by Greene would endanger Republican candidates who would have to answer for her comments up and down the ballot in Georgia, from the House battlegrounds in suburban Atlanta to the two Senate contests on the November ballot.
“I want to win this race,” he said. “But more than that I want to protect the Republican Party. She is the antithesis of the Republican Party. And she is not conservative — she’s crazy.”
And he warned that Democrats could use her comments to juice up fundraising for their candidates. “She deserves a YouTube channel, not a seat in Congress. She’s a circus act,” Cowan said.
Greene’s campaign did not respond to a request to interview the candidate for this story. Throughout the campaign, she has cast Cowan as insufficiently supportive of Trump because he donated to former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the 2016 presidential race. She also has accused him of misrepresenting his role as a reserve deputy in the Floyd County sheriff's office.
Despite the slew of racist Facebook videos uncovered by POLITICO, Greene still has some high-profile support in Washington: She is backed by the House Freedom Fund, the political arm of the Freedom Caucus; Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a top Trump ally; and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and his wife, Debbie. When the Georgia seat's incumbent, Rep. Tom Graves, announced his retirement, the Freedom Caucus encouraged Greene to abandon her run in the competitive 6th District, where former GOP Rep. Karen Handel was making a comeback bid, and run for the open seat, which was more conservative, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Greene said in a recent interview with a local news station that she and McCarthy have spoken “several times” since the POLITICO story was published, and they have a “great relationship.” She also claimed that McCarthy’s statement of condemnation — which was distributed by a staffer — was just a “miscommunication.”
McCarthy’s spokesman confirmed that he has “spoken several times on the phone with both Greene and Cowan in recent weeks” and has “a good and productive relationship with both,” but did not comment on the veracity of Greene’s statement.
Cowan described his communication with McCarthy as a “good conversation,” according to Carter. “Now, what happened after that, I don’t know,” Carter added.
But if Cowan was expecting the cavalry, it never came.
In the absence of national intervention, a dozen members have worked to boost Cowan through public endorsements, making calls on his behalf or joining his Zoom campaign events. That group includes Scalise, Carter and Reps. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), Austin Scott (R-Ga.), Rick Allen (R-Ga.), Greg Murphy (R-N.C.), Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), James Comer (R-Ky.), Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.) and Mark Walker (R-N.C.).
“John Cowan is a great candidate,” Carter said, but “we are very concerned about the other candidate as well. … And certainly, I don’t want someone making those kinds of comments in my conference.”
By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Scalise, who immediately endorsed Cowan after Greene's previous comments — which he called "disgusting" — came to light, appeared at a virtual fundraiser for Cowan in late July. But no help has come in the form of major outside spending.
Walker, a former pastor who is retiring this year after court-ordered redistricting transformed his seat into safe Democratic territory, unsuccessfully lobbied the conservative Club for Growth to get involved, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Club considered playing in the race and polled, but ultimately declined to endorse Cowan or spend. (It is, however, making a large investment in the primary runoff in Georgia’s 9th District for Gurtler.)
A new super PAC, dubbed A Great America PAC, formed in June, and operatives behind the group cut a TV ad casting Greene as a threat to Trump’s reelection. The group reported spending $30,000 on media production — but booked only about $17,000 on a cable buy, according to media buying sources.
Republicans in D.C. and Georgia attribute some of the lack of spending to the worsening political environment. Donors are too distracted by Trump’s flailing poll numbers and the precarious Senate majority to pay attention to a congressional primary runoff for a deep-red seat — particularly because it seems increasingly unlikely that Republicans will reclaim the majority, and McCarthy has not publicly signaled that Greene should be stopped.
Some House Republicans are angry at the Freedom Caucus for boosting Greene’s candidacy in the first place and think the group should have rescinded its endorsement. Only Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) publicly pulled his endorsement; Jordan said in a brief statement he disagreed with her comments.
If Greene wins, she could create a constant stream of headaches — and controversies — for the House GOP. Republican leaders had to strip King of his committee assignments and formally rebuke him on the House floor after he defended white supremacy and white nationalism in an interview with The New York Times last year.
Democrats are ready to pounce on a Greene victory and yoke her controversial statements to Republican House candidates across the country — particularly Handel and Rich McCormick, who is running in an open battleground seat in the Atlanta suburbs. McCormick's wife donated to Greene when she was still running in the 6th District against Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.).
"Marjorie Taylor Greene is an extreme, far-right voice enabled and embraced by Georgia Republicans like Karen Handel and Rich McCormick and her views have no place in Congress," Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Avery Jaffe said in a statement. "Georgia Republicans, and Republican candidates running across the country, will have to answer for her hateful views in their own campaigns."
And Greene is already signaling that she has no interest in playing nice with her potential future colleagues, doubling down on some of her most controversial remarks and lashing out at Scalise and Cheney in her recent interview with a local news station.
“Steve Scalise, I was very surprised by, especially since he’s been called a racist and things like that in the past,” Greene said, an apparent reference to the Louisiana Republican's 2002 speech to a white supremacist group. “Liz Cheney, I’ve never met or talked to her. I think that was unfortunate that they were pressured, probably pressured so to speak, maybe by people in the media, to make statements about me and they just hadn’t learned about me yet.”
ASIA
Kamala Harris Pick For VP Is Hailed As 'A Moment Of Pride' In India
August 12, 2020
LAUREN FRAYER
Sen. Kamala Harris is Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden's pick as his running mate — a choice that many are celebrating in India, where Harris' mother was from.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Many Indians are tweeting support Wednesday for Kamala Harris, celebrating their connection to the new presumptive Democratic nominee for vice president, whose mother was from India.
Harris is not only the first woman of color to appear on a major U.S. presidential ticket, but she is also the first person of South Asian descent.
"This is a historical, transformational, and proud moment for... all women of colour, all Black women, and all South Asian women," Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra tweeted. "Pride for India!!" says another.
Harris' mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who died in 2009, was a Hindu whose family hails from Tamil Nadu, a state in southern India. Gopalan moved to California for graduate school before Harris was born.
"It is a moment of pride for Indians and Tamil Nadu especially," tweeted the state's deputy chief minister, Thiru O. Panneerselvam.
It is a moment of pride for Indians and TamilNadu especially, as Kamala Harris, the first Indian senator, whose mother hails from TamilNadu has been nominated as the Vice Presidential candidate by the US Democratic party. My hearty wishes to her. #KamalaHarris pic.twitter.com/6le16uS0oV— O Panneerselvam (@OfficeOfOPS) August 12, 2020
While Harris has most often identified herself as Black, and on occasion, as African American, she wrote about her Indian mother's influence on her in her 2019 memoir, The Truths We Hold. Harris has previously spoken about her family's Indian heritage, including in a giggly cooking video with actor Mindy Kaling. Harris has said she has fond memories of strolling Tamil Nadu's beaches with her late grandfather.
But some supporters of India's Hindu nationalist government also took to social media Wednesday to criticize Harris for her stance on Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority region.
"This is one of the reasons I don't support #KamalaHarris. She's the favorite candidate of those who want to break my ancestral homeland of #Kashmir away from India," one tweet read.
This is one of the reasons I don't support #KamalaHarris. She's the favorite candidate of those who want to break my ancestral homeland of #Kashmir away from India. Kashmir is the seat of Hindu spirituality. I can't support any candidate who goes to bat for Kashmiri terrorists. https://t.co/bUEu9S3VY4— Sheenie Ambardar, M.D. (@DrAmbardar) August 11, 2020
Last year, the Indian government canceled the special autonomy of what was then the state of Jammu and Kashmir and put the region under direct central government control. Afterward, Rep. Pramila Jayapal — a Democrat and Indian American congresswoman — introduced a U.S. House resolution urging India to uphold human rights and refrain from the use of violence in Kashmir. Harris then tweeted her support for Jayapal when India's foreign minister abruptly canceled a meeting with U.S. lawmakers because Jayapal was included.
In September 2019, as a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Harris also responded to a question from a Kashmiri American at a campaign event by saying: "[Kashmiris] are not alone. We are all watching. So often, when we see human rights abuses... the abuser will convince those that they abuse that nobody cares, and that nobody's watching, and that nobody is paying attention — which is a tool of an abuser."
Still, the national general secretary of India's ruling Hindu nationalist party on Wednesday tweeted his congratulations to Harris for her nomination.
First Indian and Asian woman to get the nomination as official VP candidate. 👍 https://t.co/zrGa612Rio— Ram Madhav (@rammadhavbjp) August 12, 2020
Rep. Ilhan Omar Wins Congressional Primary
August 11, 2020
ELENA MOORE Twitter
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., pictured in January, made history in 2018 as the first Somali American elected to Congress.Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Rep. Ilhan Omar has won her primary, informally securing a hold on Minnesota's historically Democratic-run 5th Congressional District, The Associated Press projects.
After a high-profile first term in Congress, the freshman representative faced several primary challengers, the most prominent being Antone Melton-Meaux, a first-time political candidate who runs a mediation company.
Melton-Meaux ran a campaign "focused on the fifth," telling Minnesota Public Radio's Mark Zdechlik that Omar is "out of touch with the district and has been focused on her own personal pursuits and celebrity to the detriment of the work that needs to be done."
Omar and Melton-Meaux were nearly tied in fundraising totals, both raising just over $4 million — with Omar holding a slight edge. Both candidates were also heavily funded by out of state donors (which made up 91% of Omar's funds and 85% of Melton-Meaux's.)
Omar's 2018 win marked several firsts for the U.S. Congress. She made history as the first Somali American elected and was the first of two Muslim women elected to Congress that same year.
Shortly after taking office, Omar came under fire and then apologized for making comments over Twitter that were interpreted as anti-Semitic. Her tweets sparked a backlash from Republican and Democratic leaders alike, prompting her to issue an apology.
Omar is part of the widely known "squad," a group of four progressive freshman congresswomen of color including New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib
.@IlhanMN get it done sis!
We got you. #OurSquadisBig— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) August 11, 2020
President Trump has loudly voiced his opposition to the "squad" as a whole. He has also aimed his criticism specifically at Omar, referring to her as "an America-hating socialist" at a fall rally last year in Minneapolis.
Omar received endorsements from progressive allies including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Notably, despite policy disagreements within the party, Omar also secured the support of key establishment Democratic leaders such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Black Power Scholar Illustrates How MLK And Malcolm X Influenced Each Other
August 12, 2020
Heard on Fresh Air
TERRY GROSS
A man walks past a mural of Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr. in London.SOPA Images/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Gett
Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are frequently seen as opposing forces in the struggle for civil rights and against white supremacy; King is often portrayed as a nonviolent insider, while Malcolm X is characterized as a by-any-means-necessary political renegade. But author and Black Power scholar Peniel Joseph says the truth is more nuanced.
"I've always been fascinated by Malcolm X and Dr. King ... and dissatisfied in how they're usually portrayed — both in books and in popular culture," Joseph says.
In his book, The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., Joseph braids together the lives of the two civil rights leaders. He says that King and Malcolm X had "convergent visions" for Black America — but their strategies for how to reach the goal was informed by their different upbringings.
"Malcolm X is really scarred by racial trauma at a very early age," Joseph says. "King, in contrast, has a very gilded childhood, and he's the son of an upper-middle-class, African-American family, prosperous family that runs one of the most important churches in Black Atlanta."
What's really extraordinary is that the Black Lives Matter protesters really are protesting for radical Black dignity and citizenship and see that you need both. So Malcolm and Martin are the revolutionary sides of the same coin, and really the BLM movement has amplified that.
Peniel E. Joseph
Joseph says that, over time, each man became the other's "alter ego." Malcolm X, he says, "injects a political radicalism on the national scene that absolutely makes Dr. King and his movement much more palatable to mainstream Americans."
Now, with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Joseph says that King and Malcolm X's visions have converged: "What's really extraordinary is that the Black Lives Matter protesters really are protesting for radical Black dignity and citizenship and see that you need both. So Malcolm and Martin are the revolutionary sides of the same coin, and really the BLM movement has amplified that."
Interview highlights
Basic Books
On what Malcolm X meant by racial separatism
This idea of separatism is really interesting. The deeper I investigated Malcolm X, the more I understood what he meant and what the Nation of Islam meant by racial separatism. It wasn't segregation. It was separatism, they argued, and Malcolm does this in a series of debates against Bayard Rustin, against Jim Farmer, against James Baldwin, Louis Lomax. He says that racial separatism is required because white people do not want Black people to be citizens and have dignity. And if they did, you wouldn't have to protest and experience police violence and police brutality: small children trying to integrate Little Rock High School, young people trying to integrate lunch counters, and they're arrested and brutalized, sometimes people were killed, of course. So what's interesting about this idea of separatism, Malcolm argues separatism is Black people having enough self-love and enough confidence in themselves to organize and build parallel institutions. Because America was so infected with the disease of racism, they could never racially integrate into American democracy.
On Malcolm X's vision of "by any means necessary" protest
CODE SWITCH
Malcolm X's Public Speaking Power
Malcolm is making the argument that, one, Black people have the right to self-defense and to defend themselves against police brutality. It's really striking when you follow Malcolm X in the 1950s and '60s, the number of court appearances he's making, whether it's in Buffalo, N.Y., or Los Angeles or Rochester, N.Y., where members of the Nation of Islam have been brutalized [and], at times, killed by police violence. So Malcolm is arguing that, one, Black people have a right to defend themselves. Second part of Malcolm's argument — because he travels to the Middle East by 1959, travels for 25 weeks overseas in 1964 — is that because there [are] anti-colonial revolutions raging across Africa and the Third World in the context of the 1950s and '60s, he makes the argument that the Black revolution in the United States is only going to be a true revolution once Black people start utilizing self-defense to end the racial terror they're experiencing both in the 1950s and '60s, but historically. And one of the reasons Malcolm makes that argument, obviously, is because his father and his family had experienced that racial terror.
On King's policy of non-violent protest v. self defense
One thing that's important to know is that when we think about nonviolence versus self-defense, it's very, very complex, because even though Martin Luther King Jr. is America's apostle and a follower of Gandhi and believes in nonviolence, there are always people around King who are trying to protect him and in demonstrations, who actually are armed, they're not armed in the same way that, say, the Black Panthers would arm themselves later, but they're armed to actually protect and defend peaceful civil rights activists from racial terror. And of course, King famously had had armed guards around him in Montgomery, Ala., after his home was firebombed during the bus boycott of 1955 to '56. And it's Bayard Rustin who famously told him he couldn't have those armed guards if he wanted to live out the practice of nonviolence.
CODE SWITCH
The Power Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Anger
So King usually does not have his own people being armed. But when he's in the Deep South, there are civil rights activists who actually are armed and at times protecting him. They're not necessarily connected to his Southern Christian Leadership Conference, but the movement always had people who were trying to protect peaceful demonstrators against racial terror.
On King's response to Malcolm X's argument against non-violent civil disobedience
Enlarge this image
Peniel E. Joseph, Ph.D., is the founding director of the LBJ School's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the University of Texas, Austin.Kelvin Ma/Basic Books
King has several responses: One is that nonviolence is both a moral and political strategy. So the morality and the religious argument is that Black people could not succumb to enemy politics. And this idea that when we think about white racism, we would become as bad as the people who are oppressing us. So he pushes back against that. Politically, he says, well, then there aren't enough Black people, even if they arm themselves to win some kind of armed conflict and struggle. And then finally, he says and there's a great speech in 1963 in Los Angeles where he doesn't mention Malcolm X, but he's speaking out against Malcolm X in terms of what's happening in Birmingham. And Malcolm has called him an Uncle Tom and all kinds of names. He says that non-violence is the weapon of strength. It's the weapon of people who are powerful and courageous and brave and heroic and disciplined. It's not the weapon of the weak, because we're going to use this non-violent strategy to actually transform the United States of America against its own will. ...
I say Malcolm is Black America's prosecuting attorney. He's prosecuting white America for a series of crimes against Black humanity that date back to racial slavery. Dr. King is Black America's defense attorney — but he's very interesting: He defends both sides of the color line. He defends Black people to white people and tells white people that Black people don't want Black supremacy. They don't want reverse racism. They don't want revenge for racial slavery and Jim Crow segregation. They just want to be included in the body politic and have citizenship. But he also defends white people to Black people. He's constantly telling — especially as the movement gets further radicalized — Black people that white people are good people, that white people, we can redeem the souls of the nation. And we have white allies who have fought and struggled and died with us to achieve Black citizenship. So it's very interesting, the roles they both play. But over time, after Malcolm's assassination, one of the biggest ironies and transformations is that King becomes Black America's prosecuting attorney.
On how Malcolm X and King's visions merged
They start to merge, especially in the aftermath of Malcolm's assassination on Feb. 21, 1965. And in a way, when we think about King, right after Malcolm's assassination, King has what he later calls one of those "mountaintop moments." And he always says there are these mountaintop moments, but then you have to go back to the valley. And that mountaintop moment is going to be the Selma to Montgomery march, even though initially, when we think about March 7, 1965 — Bloody Sunday — demonstrators, including the late Congressman John Lewis, are battered by Alabama state troopers, non-violent demonstrators, peaceful demonstrators on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
CODE SWITCH
'A Proud Walk': 3 Voices On The March From Selma To Montgomery
But by March 15, LBJ, the president, is going to say these protesters are right and they are part of a long pantheon of American heroes dating back to the revolution. And then March 21 to the 25, the Selma to Montgomery demonstration is going to attract 30,000 Americans — including white allies, Jewish allies like Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel — to King and the movement. So King is going to make his last, fully nationally televised speech on March 25, 1965, where he talks about American democracy, racial justice, but the long road ahead. By that August, Aug. 6, 1965, the Voting Rights Act has passed. So these are real high points.
But then five days after the Voting Rights Act is passed, Watts, Los Angeles explodes in really the largest civil disturbance in American history up until that point. And when we think about after Watts, that's where King and Malcolm start to converge, because Malcolm had criticized the March on Washington as the "farce on Washington," because he said that King and the movement should have paralyzed Washington, D.C., and forced a reckoning about race in America. And they didn't do that. By 1965, King says that in this essay, "Beyond the Los Angeles Riots," that what he's going to start doing is use non-violent civil disobedience as a peaceful sword that paralyzes cities to produce justice that goes beyond civil rights and voting rights acts.
Sam Briger and Thea Chaloner produced and edited the audio of this interview. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Meghan Sullivan adapted it for the Web.
The Oil Spill At Mauritius Is A Disaster. And It Could Soon Get Worse
August 11, 2020
CAMILA DOMONOSKE Twitter
A man scoops oil from the coast of Mauritius on Saturday. A Japanese cargo ship ran aground near Blue Bay Marine Park in late July and began to leak fuel oil and diesel into pristine waters.Jean Aurelio Prudence/L'Express Maurice/AFP via Getty Images
A Japanese cargo ship struck a reef off the coast of Mauritius more than two weeks ago and has now leaked more than 1,000 metric tons of oil into the pristine waters and unique ecosystems of the island nation.
Mauritius has declared a state of environmental emergency, and the French government has sent technical support to assist with the disaster response. In addition, independently-organized local volunteers have been working to clean up and protect beaches with improvised materials.
But an even bigger danger looms.
A crack inside the ship's hull has been growing, and government officials warn the entire ship could split in half, releasing all the oil remaining inside the vessel.
Efforts are underway to pump that oil out of the ship before it breaks apart. As of Tuesday, just over 1,000 metric tons of oil had been pumped out of the ship, while some 1,800 metric tons of fuel oil and diesel remain on board, according to the company that owns the ship.
A large patch of leaked oil travels on ocean currents near the Pointe d'Esny in Mauritius on Saturday. The worsening oil spill is polluting the island nation's famous reefs, lagoons and oceans.AFP via Getty Images
The ship, the Wakashio, was a cargo ship, not an oil tanker, carrying 4,000 metric tons of fuel to power its engines (in comparison, supertankers can carry hundreds of thousands of metric tons of oil.) However, any oil spill larger than 700 metric tons is classified by industry groups as a large spill, and this spill has already released more oil than the combined total from every tanker spill documented in 2019.
Mauritius has declared a state of environmental emergency, and the French government has sent technical support to assist with the disaster response.
ENVIRONMENT
How California's Worst Oil Spill Turned Beaches Black And The Nation Green
The Mauritian government has urged residents to stay home and leave the clean-up to authorities, the BBC reports, but residents have organized themselves anyway and assembled home-made oil booms — floating barriers to contain and absorb the toxic spill.
Reuters reports that sugar cane leaves, plastic bottles and human hair (cut off and donated by residents) are being sewn into makeshift booms.
"People have realized that they need to take things into their hands. We are here to protect our fauna and flora," environmental activist Ashok Subron said, according to AFP.
Subron told a local news outlet the collective action by everyday citizens demonstrated "the failure of the state," and other residents are angrily asking why action wasn't taken sooner to prevent this unfolding disaster.
"The authorities did nothing for days," Fezal Noordaully, a taxi driver from a coastal village in Mauritius, told The Guardian. "Now they are but it's too late."
Scooping oil at the beach in Bambous Virieux, in southeast Mauritius, on Saturday.-/L'Express Maurice/AFP via Getty
When the Wakashio initially ran aground on July 25, its hull was intact and no major oil spill was detected. A Dutch company was brought in to refloat the ship and prevent spills.
But late last week, oil began to escape from the ship's tanks; the ship's owners issued a statement blaming bad weather and rough seas for the breach. The vessel's operators acknowledged "the regretful harm to the beautiful nature in Mauritius."
The vessel MV Wakashio was grounded on a reef for nearly two weeks before it began to leak large quantities of oil. The Japanese company that owns the ship says bad weather and rough seas caused one of the tanks of the vessel to be breached. Now a crack inside the hull of the ship has expanded and authorities worry it could break apart.Daren Mauree/L'Express Maurice/AFP via Getty
The island nation of Mauritius is located east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. It's home to a number of endemic species, or plants and animals that live nowhere else — from the pink pigeon, recently saved from extinction, to the blue-tailed day gecko, which pollinates a rare flower that only has 250 plants remaining.
The Mauritian Wildlife Foundation, which is dedicated to protecting endangered plants and animals that exist only in Mauritius, says it has helped lay booms to protect the Ile aux Aigrettes nature preserve as well as protected wetlands on the main island.
THE PICTURE SHOW
'Where The Land Used To Be,' Photos Show Louisiana Coast 10 Years After BP Oil Spill
But the key challenge is stop the flow of oil, the group says; until the source of the leak is addressed, shoreline clean-up will accomplish little.
In addition to environmental devastation, the spill could have "dire consequences for Mauritius' economy, food security and health," Greenpeace Africa warns. Tourism is an important part of the economy and had already taken a hit from the coronavirus pandemic.
SEE
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/locals-in-mauritius-are-going-to-great.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/mauritian-prime-minister-seeks.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-oil-spill-at-mauritius-is-disaster.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/update-mauritius-battles-devastating.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/mauritius-oil-spill-locals-scramble-to.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/oil-spill-off-mauritius-is-visible-from.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/france-offers-aid-as-mauritius-declares.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/mauritius-facing-catastrophe-as-oil.html
'Teeth The Size Of Bananas'; New Study Paints Picture Of 'Terror Crocodiles'
August 12, 2020
GABRIELA SALDIVIA Twitter
A new study of Deinosuchus or "terror crocodiles," led by Adam Cosette, offers a fuller picture of the ancient creature from head to tail. Cossette said Deinosuchus had large, robust teeth, ranging from six to eight inches long, as shown in the photo.Adam Cossette
Enormous "terror crocodiles" once roamed the earth and preyed on dinosaurs, according to a new study revisiting fossils from the gigantic Late Cretaceous crocodylian, Deinosuchus.
The research, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, reiterates that Deinosuchus were among the largest crocodylians ever in existence, reaching up to 33 feet in length. New in this study is a look at the anatomy of the Deinosuchus, which was achieved by piecing together various specimens unknown until now, giving a fuller picture of the animal.
Adam Cossette, a vertebrate paleobiologist at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University, led the study that corrected some misunderstandings about the Deinosuchus.
"Until now, the complete animal was unknown," Cossette said. "These new specimens we've examined reveal a bizarre, monstrous predator with teeth the size of bananas."
Past studies on cranial remains and bite marks on dinosaur bones led paleontologists to believe the massive Deinosuchus were an opportunistic predator, according to the press release. Fossil specimens now make it clear that Deinosuchus did indeed have the head size and jaw strength to have its pick of prey, including large dinosaurs.
"Deinosuchus was a giant that must have terrorized dinosaurs that came to the water's edge to drink," Cossette said.
Deinosuchus were the largest semiaquatic predators in their environments and are known to have fed on large vertebrates, including dinosaurs. The photo shows a Deinosuchus skull in dorsal view (A) and a skull in ventral view (B).Adam Cossette
University of Iowa vertebrate paleontologist Christopher Brochu, the study's co-author, said another important realization from the paper is that there were several species of Deinosuchus that roamed North America between 75 and 82 million years ago.
The study notes Deinosuchus hatcheri and Deinosuchus riograndensis lived in the west, from what is now Montana to northern Mexico. Deinosuchus schwimmeri lived in the east from New Jersey to Mississippi.
"Some of them were separated by a seaway that at one point cut North America in half from what's now the Gulf of Mexico up to the Arctic Ocean," Brochu said. "And that may have driven what we call speciation. There might have been one ancestral Deinosuchus form in North America, and then the seaway cut that population in half and on one side it evolved in one direction, the other side in a different direction."
Despite the nickname "terror crocodiles," Brochu said Deinosuchus were more closely related to alligators than to crocodiles but "didn't look like either one of them."
Deinosuchus had a snout that was long and broad, with the front appearing inflated unlike any other living or extinct crocodylian. On the tip of the snout is a large pair of holes. Researchers are still unsure of their function.
Both Brouchu and Cossette assert this paper disproves the idea that crocodylians are living fossils, or in other words, animals which never evolved.
"There's this concept out there that crocodylians are unchanging forms," Brochu said. "That they appear way back in the distant past and haven't changed since the days of the dinosaurs. That is simply not true."
If you look at the modern species of crocodylian, Cossette explained, there are just a handful and they all look and act very similar. But if you look at the fossil record there is diversity of size, shape, diet and lifestyle.
"Most people think crocodiles haven't changed in 75 million years," Cossette said. "This study shows that the ancestors of today's American alligator didn't look anything like them."
"Crocodiles are actually these incredibly dynamic creatures that have experienced incredible evolutionary histories, have lived in places that modern crocodiles don't live, done things that modern crocodiles don't do and have grown to sizes that modern crocodiles never achieve. That I think is the cool part [of the study], at least for me," Cossette added.
Veteran GOP Strategist Takes On Trump — And His Party — In 'It Was All A Lie'
August 11, 20201:03 PM ET
DAVE DAVIES
Download
Transcript
"I've never heard any Republican officeholder speak of President Trump as if he should be president," says GOP strategist Stuart Stevens.Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Veteran political consultant Stuart Stevens has spent years working as a strategist for Republican campaigns, including the presidential bids of Bob Dole, George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. But Stevens didn't support the party's candidate in the 2016 presidential election — and he wasn't alone.
"In 2016, when I went out and attacked Trump on television," he says, "I would say maybe a third of the party hierarchy would email me and thank me for doing this."
But Stevens notes that many of the Republicans who had privately voiced concern about Trump changed their tune on election night. "I started getting emails like, 'Could you maybe delete that email?' " he says.
"It's an extraordinary contradiction," Stevens tells Fresh Air in an Internet interview.
He notes, "I've never heard any Republican officeholder speak of President Trump as if he should be president. ... They know he shouldn't be president. [But] he is president, and they still support him."
In his new book, It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump, Stevens argues that the party's support for Trump isn't just a pragmatic choice. Instead, he says, it reflects the party's complete abandonment of principles it long claimed to embrace, such as fiscal restraint, personal responsibility and family values.
Stevens acknowledges his own role in the party's shift: "One of the things that drew me to the Republican Party was the concept of personal responsibility. So I don't know where to begin with personal responsibility except to take responsibility personally."
Interview highlights
On why he believes the leaders of the Republican Party became more extreme and anti-intellectual
It's an abdication of leadership on behalf of Republican Party leaders that have allowed these kooks and lunatics and anti-intellectuals to become dominant in the party.
Stuart Stevens
I think one of the conclusions you have to come to is that leaders really matter in helping shape the party. And I think that it's an abdication of leadership on behalf of Republican Party leaders that have allowed these kooks and lunatics and anti-intellectuals to become dominant in the party. It didn't have to be that way.
There was a time when there was an intellectual core to the Republican Party. We used to say we were the party of big ideas and there was some truth to that. And one of those big ideas was opposing Communism. One of those big ideas was the role of society in helping people become less dependent on government. ... So you can make a good case that the Republican Party was a victim of its own success: We won the Cold War. Bill Clinton passed welfare reform.
Enlarge this image
Penguin Random House
And so around 2000, it was a question of how do you formulate a new policy? And we never really came to grips with that. And it has allowed those with the loudest voices to become dominant in the party. I compare it to sports teams. Who is it in the stands that gets the most attention? It's the person that takes their shirt off and runs out on the field. And that's really what's happened in our politics, but particularly in the Republican Party. And the leaders have not stepped in and stopped it.
On the GOP doing an "autopsy" after the 2012 election when Mitt Romney lost to Obama
CODE SWITCH
Why Did Black Voters Flee The Republican Party In The 1960s?
I think Reince Priebus, who was the chairman of the party then, and there's a lot of credit for initiating that so-called autopsy. It's always difficult to be self-critical. And what's fascinating about that is the conclusions were fairly obvious. You had to appeal more to nonwhite, yet appeal more to younger voters who had to appeal more to women. But it was presented not only as a political necessity to win elections — because we'd only won the popular vote once since [the] 1988 presidential votes — it was presented as a moral mandate, that if you are going to deserve the right to be the governing party of this big, confusing, loud, changing country, you needed to reflect that. So then Donald Trump comes along, and you can almost hear this audible sigh of relief and all that got thrown out and go, "Well, thank God we don't have to pretend we care about this stuff. We can just win with white folks and we can just be comfortable with that." And I mean, it just showed how phony it was.
On Trump's campaign strategy for the fall
It is going to be the ugliest campaign we've ever seen by a desperate man.
Stuart Stevens on Trump's 2020 presidential campaign
It's going to be a racial grievance campaign unlike we have ever seen on the national stage. I think it is going to be the ugliest campaign we've ever seen, by a desperate man. So Donald Trump is behind now and he's talking about suspending the elections. Think about a week out if he's behind: If I was a Canadian minister of defense, I'd be worried he's going to invade Ottawa. This is an unstable man who is headed to potentially a historic defeat. And I think he's going to wave the bloody shirt and try to scare white voters, and I think they're going to do everything they can to suppress nonwhite votes. Legal, illegal, quasi-legal. That's what they're going to try to do because they think that's the only way they can win.
On what he believes is next for the Republican Party
I really am extraordinarily negative on the prospects of the party, and it's an unusual position for me because I've always been sort of the eternal optimist and always thought that we could come back from any deficit. I came across a statistic recently that just absolutely blew my mind: Of Americans 15 years and under, the majority are nonwhite. ... And what does that mean for the Republican Party? It's just a stage 4 cancer warning and the party gives no reason that it's going to change.
So I see the Republican Party, [what will] happening nationally, as what happens to the Republican Party in California. So California was the beating heart and soul of the Republican Party. It was an electoral citadel that we based all victory on. And now where's the Republican Party? It's in third place, not second, third [in registration]. ... And the Republican Party, really, for the most part, became irrelevant in the debate of policy in California. They've made themselves irrelevant. And I see the same thing happening with the national Republican Party.
There is a market for a center-right party and a need for it in America. I think something else will evolve. But to get a sense of how deep Trumpism is instilled, there's another Republican Party out there and that's these governors. So if you look at these very popular governors in blue states like [Larry] Hogan in Maryland, Charlie Baker, Massachusetts, Phil Scott here in Vermont, I work for all these guys. And if the Republican Party had any sense, I'd say, look, these guys are wildly popular in the hardest market. What can we learn from them? Instead, the party kind of treats them with benign neglect. But each of these governors, wildly popular as they are, they can't pick their own party chairman. They're Trump people, and the idea that a governor couldn't pick a party chairman is so mind-boggling, it just shows how deep Trumpism has become in the party.
Sam Briger and Seth Kelley produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Meghan Sullivan adapted it for the Web.
