Trump says he will ‘do everything’ at McDonald’s during Pennsylvania visit

FRY COOK TRAINEE

Filip Timotija
Sat, October 19, 2024 

Trump says he will ‘do everything’ at McDonald’s during Pennsylvania visit

Former President Trump quipped in a recent interview that he will “do everything” at a McDonald’s during his visit to battleground Pennsylvania over the weekend.

“A friend of mine owns a McDonald’s someplace,” Trump said Friday during his in-person interview with “Fox & Friends.”

“Oh, I’m going. I’m going to do everything,” he added.


Trump claimed during the interview, and on the campaign trail, that his Democratic rival, Vice President Harris, did not work at the popular food chain. The comments came after the Harris campaign issued an ad over the summer highlighting her upbringing and outlined her time working at McDonald’s.

“I’m going because she lied,” Trump said Friday.

“You don’t think she ever worked in McDonald’s?” he was pressed by “Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade.

“I know she didn’t. We checked it out,” the former president said. “They said she never worked here. She even picked the store. We went to the manager. The manager’s been there forever. ‘You remember her. No, she never worked here.’”

Harris has repeatedly said that she has worked at the fast-food chain during her time as an undergraduate student.

“Part of the reason I even talk about having worked at McDonald’s is because there are people who work at McDonald’s in our country who are trying to raise a family,” the vice president said last month during an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle. “I worked there as a student.”

“I think part of the difference between me and my opponent includes our perspective on the needs of the American people and what our responsibility, then, is to meet those needs,” she added at the time.

The former president will visit the McDonald’s on Street Road in Lower Southampton Township, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to The Hill.

Trump’s visit to the golden arches comes as the two party nominees make their way through the key battleground states. With less than three weeks left until the election, Trump will rally voters Saturday evening in Latrobe, Pa. — about an hour outside of Pittsburgh.

President Biden won the Keystone State by just more than 1 percentage point in 2020, raking in the state’s 19 Electoral College votes.

The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s aggregate of polls shows Harris ahead in Pennsylvania by less than half a point — with 48.7 percent support to Trump’s 48.3 percent.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

Trump cooks fries at McDonald's as he attempts to cast doubt on Harris' earlier employment at the chain

John L. Dorman,Lauren Edmonds
Sun, October 20, 2024


Donald Trump visited a McDonald's in a key Pennsylvania county on Sunday.


Kamala Harris said she once worked at a McDonald's, which is a key part of her biography.


Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that Harris did not work at McDonald's.

Former President Donald Trump has long been known for his love of the Golden Arches.

After landing at the Philadelphia International Airport on Sunday, Trump and his team traveled to a McDonald's franchise in Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, where he donned an official employee apron and began handing out orders to customers waiting in the drive-thru line. He also helped cook the restaurant's signature fries.

Trump's visit, however, had little to do with his fondness for the food.

For weeks, Trump has attempted to sow doubt — without providing evidence — that Vice President Kamala Harris ever worked at McDonald's, which has become a key part of her biography.

Harris said she worked the cash register and made fries during the summer of 1983. At the time, Harris was an undergraduate at Howard University, and her campaign says she worked at a McDonald's in Alameda, California, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The former president said in Detroit on Friday that Harris "lied about working at McDonald's."

Trump senior advisor Jason Miller also cast doubt on Harris' McDonald's employment on Saturday, telling reporters that Trump was going to the restaurant "so that one candidate in this race could have actually worked at McDonald's."

Trump needled Harris again on Sunday. While at the drive-thru window, he said he worked at McDonald's for "15 minutes more than Kamala" and once again accused her of never having worked at the chain.

Harris has firmly pushed back against Trump's accusation.

The Harris campaign has promoted the vice president's experience at McDonald's as a part of a middle-class upbringing that might resonate with millions of Americans — and that separates her from the affluent life led by Trump.

"When Trump feels desperate, all he knows how to do is lie," Harris campaign spokesman Ian Sams told The New York Times. "He can't understand what it's like to have a summer job because he was handed millions on a silver platter, only to blow it."

Harris and Trump remain locked in a historically tight race. Trump has sought to promote his handling of the economy, an issue he used to his advantage when President Joe Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee.

But when Biden exited the race in July, and Harris became the nominee, she quickly went to battle with Trump on the economy and succeeded in eroding his once huge advantage on the issue in key swing states.

McDonald's, which is headquartered in Chicago, is the world's largest fast-food chain, with more than 40,000 locations. The chain plans to have 50,000 locations around the globe by the end of 2027, according to its company website.

McDonald's is also a major employer. In Pennsylvania alone, the company says its franchises employ over 25,000 people. In a statement provided to Business Insider on Sunday, the owner of the McDonald's location that Trump visited said he was honored to "showcase" the restaurant chain.

"As a small, independent business owner, it is a fundamental value of my organization that we proudly open our doors to everyone who visits the Feasterville community. That's why I accepted former President Trump's request to observe the transformative working experience that 1 in 8 Americans have had: a job at McDonald's," Derek Giacomantonio said.

"As a former crew member, I can attest this job is more than burgers and fries, but a meaningful pathway to opportunity."

Trump's appetite for McDonald's — and other fast food chains — has been well documented.

After winning the requisite number of GOP delegates needed to secure the party's 2016 presidential nomination, Trump was photographed eating a McDonald's Big Mac on his private jet.

And in January 2019, Trump hosted the college championship-winning Clemson University football team at the White House, where he ordered an assortment of fast-food staples from McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, and Domino's Pizza for the players.

Business Insider reached out to the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment.

 Business Insider


Donald Trump visits Pennsylvania McDonald's, alleges without evidence Kamala Harris lied about college work

JD Mullane, Bucks County Courier Times
Sun, October 20, 2024 

Former President Donald Trump showed up for his quick shift at McDonald's in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, on Sunday − and doubled down on accusations he's made without evidence that Vice President Kamala Harris lied about working at the fast food chain.

“I’ve now worked at McDonald’s 15 minutes longer than Kamala Harris,” Trump said, as reporters shouted questions while he worked the window at the restaurant in his apron.

With just over two weeks to Election Day, and Pennsylvania still hotly contested as possibly the swing state needed to capture the White House, Trump came to the pivotal Bucks County to woo undecided voters in hopes of securing the state's critical 19 electoral votes.

Trump's visit was prompted by a claim by the vice president, who has said she had worked at a McDonald’s in the 1980s. Trump said he doesn’t believe it, and agreed to “work the fries” at a McDonald’s as a campaign stop. The fast food mainstay has not confirmed whether the vice president was employed by the chain.

Trump, the Republican, and Harris, the Democrat, are locked in a tight race in Pennsylvania. Both are barnstorming the state in the waning days of the campaign ahead of Nov. 5, and while Pennsylvania voters are already returning mail-in ballots.

The event, arguably the most unique campaign stop in Bucks County in decades, brought out crowds, tight security and had the national media watching.

Trump handed McDonald's McNuggets, burgers and fries in signature brand brown bags to customers, all pre-selected and pre-screened, in maybe a half-dozen cars. “What a beautiful family,” he said to the first car full.

Trump also wished Harris a happy birthday. The vice president turned 60 on Sunday.

Donald Trump works the drive-through at McDonald’s on Street Road in Feasterville On Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.

Trump could be seen on national news networks wearing an apron and learning how to make fries from an employee. He also talked about Sunday's Steelers game and asked about how to "shake" the grease off the fries, according to multiple reports. Trump is expected to attend the Steelers' game on Sunday against the Jets.


Donald Trump works the drive-through at McDonald’s on Street Road in Feasterville
Supporters of Trump and Harris come out to McDonald's campaign stop

The unconventional campaign stop brought out thousands of supporters of the former president and a smaller group of Harris supporters, who carried signs and stood nearby the McDonald's.

As with other Trump events, it was a party atmosphere. The weather was sunny and warm, and signs and flags were everywhere, including “Cats for Trump.”

It was also loud, with chants of “USA, USA” amid breaks for music Trump often plays at rallies, including “God Bless the USA” and the Village People’s “YMCA.” Supporters danced and bounced. Passing cars rigged with freight train horns blasted the crowd, which whooped and cheered.

Donald Trump works the drive-through at McDonald’s on Street Road in Feasterville.

At least three dozen Kamala Harris supporters stages a protest against the appearance of former President Donald Trump at a Feasterville McDonald's restaurant on Sunday Oct. 20, 2024

John and Kate Devlin of Huntington Valley said they came to the campaign stop just to get a glimpse of Trump. “It’s really a chance for our kids to see history,” Kate Devlin said.

John Devlin said he moved his barber shop from Northeast Philadelphia to Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, because of crime. “There was a shooting in front of my shop. This country needs better policing on crime,” he said.

Families were everywhere Sunday, along with small business owners. But the crowd was mostly filled working people who want the economy fixed. “I believe Donald Trump holds the future for us,” said Luba Kaun, of Holland. She was with her son, Donald Julian, 3.

“He has the same name — Donald J,” she said.

At the McDonald's, customers chosen to be served by Trump waited in line at the drive thru well before the former president arrived Sunday afternoon. The first car, a black Jeep Wrangler driven by a man who identified himself as Jim from Bucks County, said his order would be fries and McNuggets.

Security was tight, with sniper teams on top of the McDonald's and atop Guy’s Bicycles next door. Secret Service agents and K-9 dogs patrolled, and local police wore military green SWAT gear.

Former President Donald Trump dons an apron at the McDonald’s on Street Road in Feasterville on Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024.
Why was Donald Trump at a McDonald's in Pennsylvania today?

In interviews since at least 2019, Harris has said she worked at a McDonald's while in college in the 1980s.

"I did fries and then I did the cashier," she told an interviewer earlier this year. Asked what she'd order at McDonald's at a drive-through, she said, "Probably the Quarter Pounder with cheese and fries," she said.

Trump has for months claimed without evidence that Harris did not work at the fast food establishment.

Buh-bye birtherism Trump finally says Obama born in U.S., blames Clinton for controversy

McDonald's has stayed out of it.

Jim Worthington, a Trump supporter and owner of the Newtown Athletic Club, said he arranged the McDonald’s visit through franchise owner and friend Derek Giacomantonio, who declined to speak, and a spokesman said all communication had to be approved by corporate offices in Chicago.

However, a McDonald's executive on site declined to answer when a reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times, part of the USA TODAY Network, asked him if Harris had ever worked for the company. In a statement distributed to the press on Sunday, McDonald’s said, “As a brand, McDonald's does not endorse candidates for elected office and that remains true in this race for the next President. We are not red or blue — we are golden.”

Trump and Harris are in a battle for Pennsylvania in the presidential race, which could turn on white working-class voters, people who tend to be familiar with minimum or lower-paying wage jobs such as McDonald's.
A pivotal part of Pennsylvania

Trump's Sunday's appearance in Bucks County was the second in the Philadelphia area since last Monday.

In Oaks, in Montgomery County, Trump stopped taking questions at a town hall event after a pair of medical emergencies in the crowd, instead dancing and playing music for 39 minutes as supporters trickled out.

Harris held an event in Washington Crossing Historic Park in Bucks on Thursday urging "country over party," appearing with more than 100 Republicans.

Bucks County is the narrowest of the swing counties in southeastern Pennsylvania and, apart from Luzerne County, has the smallest divide between Republicans and Democrats as a percent of total voters. Pennsylvania is critical to the 2024 election with its 19 electoral votes.

Out of 486,740 voters in Bucks County, Republicans make up about 41.6% of voters while Democrats make up about 41% of voters. Democrats lost their voter advantage over the GOP for the first time in at least a decade in July. Luzerne County has Republicans leading by just 0.46%.

While Trump hasn’t managed to win Bucks County in either of the last two presidential elections – Clinton took the county 48.7% to 47.6% and Biden won with a four-point lead at 51% of the vote – he does have a strong following of supporters.

JD Mullane can be reached at jmullane@couriertimes.com.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Trump visits PA McDonald's, alleges Harris lied about college work





Trump Makes Fries at McDonald’s in Bizarre Attempt to Troll Harris
Peter Wade
Sun, October 20, 2024 at 12:29 PM MDT·2 min read
105




Donald Trump is spending part of his Sunday afternoon behind the counter at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s. The former president, who has frequently said he loves the chain’s food, donned an apron to work the fry machine and hand food to customers at the drive thru. It’s an attempt to bring attention to his unfounded allegations that his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, did not work there during college.

When asked why he wanted to come to the fast food restaurant, Trump responded, “I like McDonalds. I like jobs. I like to see good jobs and I think it’s inappropriate when someone puts down that they worked at McDonalds… She [Harris] never worked at McDonalds.”

“Should I give them extra salt?” Trump asked a McDonald’s worker while salting fries.

Rolling Stone has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment. A campaign official told CNN that she worked at a McDonald’s in Alameda, California, in the summer of 1983 while a student at Howard University, working the register as well as the fry and ice cream machines.

“I did fries. And then I did the cashier,” Harris said on Drew Barrymore’s talk show in April.

Trump, who recently complained that he “used to hate to pay overtime” to his employees, has proposed a policies that would end taxes on overtime and tips. Harris has proposed a similar no tax on tips policy for hospitality and service industry workers.

“I know a lot about overtime. I hated to give overtime, I hated it. I’d get other people—I shouldn’t say this, but I’d get other people in. I wouldn’t pay,” Trump said at a Pennsylvania rally last month, basically confessing to committing wage theft.

Reacting to Trump’s remarks at the time, the Harris campaign said in a statement to The Daily Beast, “Donald Trump is finally owning up to it: He’s built an entire career on screwing over workers. It’s exactly what he did in the White House — trying to rip away tips and overtime pay for millions of workers — and exactly what he plans to do in a second term.”

 Rolling Stone


Trump thrusts McDonald’s into the political arena in final days of campaign

Steve Contorno, CNN
Sun, October 20, 2024 

Trump thrusts McDonald’s into the political arena in final days of campaign


Donald Trump is pulling one of the most iconic American companies – McDonald’s – into the political arena in the final days of his third White House bid.

The former president stopped by one of the fast-food chain’s Pennsylvania franchises during his Sunday swing through the Keystone State, where he swapped his suit jacket for an apron to work as a fry attendant. He later handed customers food through the drive-thru window, telling them he had made it himself and that it was all on him.

Manning the fry machine is the same job Vice President Kamala Harris has said she held as a young woman, a biographical detail revealed during her first campaign for president. It has since become a centerpiece of the middle-class origin story she has made key to her pitch to voters as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

Trump, whose deep affection for the Golden Arches and its offerings is well documented, has meanwhile grown fixated on Harris’ employment there. In interviews and on the campaign trail, he regularly accuses Harris – without evidence – of making up the factoid. His visit to the restaurant is his latest attempt to sow doubt about the Democrat’s work history.

“I’m looking for a job,” Trump said to the owner of the McDonald’s in Feasterville-Trevose on Sunday. “And I’ve always wanted to work at McDonald’s, but I never did. I’m running against somebody that said she did, but it turned out to be a totally phony story.”

Harris has largely ignored Trump, as well as calls from his supporters and inquiries from conservative news outlets to provide proof of her time there. Her campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment about Trump’s accusation and his upcoming visit to McDonald’s.

A campaign official told CNN that Harris worked at a McDonald’s in Alameda, California, during the summer of 1983 when she was still a student at Howard University in Washington. She worked the register and manned the fry and ice cream machines, according to the official.

On Drew Barrymore’s talk show earlier this year, Harris told the actor, “I did fries. And then I did the cashier.” And as a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris mentioned her work at the fast-food chain while joining striking McDonald’s workers on the picket line.

Her time there was repeatedly referenced onstage at this summer’s Democratic National Convention as her allies contrasted her upbringing with Trump’s upper-class roots. Former President Bill Clinton joked that Harris would “break my record as the president who has spent the most time at McDonald’s.” Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett asserted that “one candidate worked at McDonald’s,” while “the other was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.”

“Can you simply picture Donald Trump working at a McDonald’s?” said Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. “He couldn’t run that damn McFlurry machine if it cost him anything.”

Trump over the years has repeatedly questioned the biographies of his rivals, often without merit. He was one of the loudest voices in the debunked “birther” movement that falsely questioned Barack Obama’s citizenship and eligibility for the White House, eventually leading the Hawaiian-born president to release his long-form birth certificate. During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump pushed an unfounded conspiracy theory that Sen. Ted Cruz’s father aided in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This election cycle, Trump wrongly suggested his Republican primary opponent, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, wasn’t a natural-born US citizen and falsely claimed that Harris has only lately embraced her Black heritage.

Yet, even as he lobbed these accusations, Trump littered his own personal story with exaggerations and fabrications. He coined the phrase “truthful hyperbole” in his best-selling autobiography “The Art of the Deal,” an oxymoronic term that nevertheless illustrates his relationship with facts about himself.

“It’s an innocent form of exaggeration,” he wrote, “and a very effective form of promotion.”

During a 2007 deposition, lawyers caught Trump lying at least 30 times over two days, mostly over mundane facts about his businesses such as the size of his workforce, a payment for speaking fees and the cost of his golf membership. He also once claimed that he stood on the rubble at ground zero after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that he paid his workers to clear away the debris, neither of which is backed by public record.

And there are multiple accounts of Trump calling reporters under the alias “John Barron,” a supposed executive at his company who once duped a Forbes reporter into inflating Trump’s fortune on the magazine’s list of wealthiest people.

It’s unclear why Trump has latched on to Harris’ McDonald’s employment or why a visit there was warranted during one of his few remaining weekends before Election Day. But in recent interviews, Trump has suggested that a small detail about his rival’s past shouldn’t be dismissed.

“We would say, well, that’s not a big lie. It’s a huge lie,” Trump said, “because McDonald’s was part of her whole thing.”

Trump also visited a McDonald’s early in his presidential campaign, this one in East Palestine, Ohio, after a train carrying hazardous materials derailed there, sparking an environmental and public health crisis. There, he joked to a woman working the register, “I know this menu better than you do. I probably know it better than anybody in here.”

The former president has long stated his affinity for fast food. During a 2016 CNN town hall, Trump, a self-described “very clean person,” attributed his preference for their offerings to the quality control, saying, “You’re better off going there than someplace you have no idea where the food is coming from.”

“I think the food is good. I think all of those places, Burger King, McDonald’s, I can live with it,” he added. “The other night I had Kentucky Fried Chicken. Not the worst thing in the world.”

Trump brought that affection into the White House, where he once served Clemson’s national championship football team a smorgasbord of burgers and pizza. His son-in-law Jared Kushner quipped in his autobiography that he knew Trump had turned the corner in his battle with the coronavirus when he requested his favorite McDonald’s order.

“McDonald’s Big Mac, Filet-O-Fish, fries and a vanilla shake,” Kushner recounted.

In an appearance last week on Fox News, Donald Trump Jr. bemoaned that the network in its interview with Harris didn’t ask her which McDonald’s she worked at. He also asserted that his father’s familiarity with the chain’s offerings would surpass the Democratic nominee’s.

“I think my father knows the McDonald’s menu much better than Kamala Harris ever did,” Trump Jr. said.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Kristen Holmes, Kate Sullivan and Ebony Davis contributed to this story.

Donald Trump Does Time Working at a McDonald’s to Troll Kamala Harris | Video
Stephanie Kaloi
Sun, October 20, 2024 

Donald Trump stopped by a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania Sunday to work the fryer, give orders at the drive-thru and neg Kamala Harris about her time working at the fast food chain years ago.

Trump appeared to swing by the french fry station first, where he pulled a basket of fries out of oil and positioned it so the fries could be salted.

The Republican presidential nominee also spent time at the drive-thru window, where he greeted customers, passed out their orders and spoke about his campaign to attending media.

“It’s a great franchise, it’s a great company, and they’ve been very, very nice,” Trump said.

“And, you know, if you look at really what’s happening, look right over there, look at how happy everybody is,” he continued. “They’re happy because they want hope. They need hope. And that’s what we’re doing.”

Watch highlights below:

Trump also alluded to his previous assertions that Harris never actually worked at McDonald’s when she was young. “Now I have worked at McDonald’s,” he added. “I’ve now worked for 15 minutes more than Kamala. She never worked here.”

In another clip from the visit, Trump is seen telling reporters, “I could do this all day.” He added, “I wouldn’t mind this job. I like this job, I think I might come back and do it again.”

Trump was then greeted by two customers who appeared happy to see him. “Thank you, Mr. President,” an unidentified man told him. “You made it possible for ordinary people like us to meet you. Thank you so much for everything you are doing. We pray for you.” A woman traveling with the man added, “Thank you for taking a bullet for us.”

Trump also told reporters he will accept the results of the election next month “if it’s a fair election … We’re leading in all the polls now, we’re leading in every swing state.”

After he was asked about raising minimum wage, Trump offered, “Well I think this. These people work hard. They’re great. And I just saw something … a process that’s beautiful.”

You can watch a 13-minute video from Trump’s McDonald’s visit in the video below.

The post Donald Trump Does Time Working at a McDonald’s to Troll Kamala Harris | Video appeared first on TheWrap.

The Decline of Union Hall Politics

By Michael Kazin

October 17, 2024

Source: Dissent Magazine

Everybody knows most white working people no longer vote for Democrats, but there’s no agreement why. Leftists blame neoliberals for enacting policies that deregulated business instead of redistributing wealth. Conservatives and some liberals argue that the fault lies in cultural ideas and principles that progressives have compelled Democrats to embrace—from transgender rights and restrictions on gun ownership to critical race theory and a dismissal of religious faith. Others, echoing the Marxist notion of “false consciousness,” accuse ordinary white people of fearing Black Americans and undocumented immigrants instead of making common cause with fellow workers of different racial or national backgrounds.

Whatever insights these explanations offer should be qualified with a healthy dose of historical perspective. Back in the middle of the last century, Democrats routinely won the votes of white working people who were, if anything, more culturally conservative and accepting of racist myths and structures than they are now. And despite having tiny majorities in Congress or none at all, Democrats during the tenure of Joe Biden have made a serious effort to enact policies on trade, infrastructure, child care, student loan forgiveness, green jobs, and labor law that represent a decisive turn away from the corporate-friendly stance Bill Clinton adopted three decades ago. Still, the president from Arkansas surged to reelection in 1996 with huge majorities among white voters with a high school education or less. They backed him even though, with the help of Republicans, he had pushed a free trade agreement through Congress that shrank the number of good union jobs available in U.S. factories.

A primary reason why the “party of the people” once secured the allegiance of working-class Americans was that a sizeable number belonged to labor unions in the private sector. Through their leaders and official periodicals, those unions routinely taught them that the Democrats, whatever their flaws, were the only party that looked out for their interests instead of catering to those of wealthy Americans. Who had enacted Social Security and Medicare, protected the right to organize, and called for lowering their taxes and raising them on corporations and the rich? Some of the biggest industrial unions—the United Auto Workers (UAW), United Steelworkers (USW), and United Mine Workers (UMW)—were also interracial oases in a segregated society. The gradual but steady decline of unions in the private sector, from 35 percent in the mid-1950s to a mere 6 percent today, cleared the way for conservative churches, right-wing networks and social media, and the National Rifle Association to conduct their own kind of political education—and quite effectively too.

The modest revival of unions, ardently supported by Biden and his appointees to the National Labor Relations Board, stirs hope that Democrats might win back a sizeable percentage of those white voters again. If the party also retained its growing edge among college-educated voters of all races, Democrats would be able to forge a new majority coalition—something that has not existed in the United States since the New Deal order crumbled at the end of the 1960s.

However, as Lainey Newman and Theda Skocpol argue in their recent book, Rust Belt Union Blues: Why Working-Class Voters Are Turning Away from the Democratic Party, it is not the mere fact of belonging to a union but the character of the organization that can make an electoral difference. A local where members build a community of shared interests outside the workplace can sway white workers to stick with Democrats. But one that treats them mainly as anonymous dues-payers can leave them either indifferent or hostile to the party the union’s leaders still endorse. Genuine solidarity gives members a reason to trust the choice those leaders make; indifference breeds suspicion and a search for other kinds of networks in which to find friendship and meaning. Newman and Skocpol study a richly detailed microcosm of the problem: steelworkers and electrical workers in western Pennsylvania—a bastion of liberal Democrats during the New Deal Era that, outside of Pittsburgh, has become a Donald Trump stronghold.

Back in the 1960s, they write, “Being a union man did not stop when a worker left the gates of the steel mill or auto factory.” Members of the USW in Aliquippa, home to a big Jones and Laughlin mill, also “read the local labor newspaper”—which circulated to a majority of residents—and “played in or watched the union’s softball or bowling league.” The union hall was just one of thirty-seven that served steel towns in the region. The Aliquippa local and others like it also had overlapping memberships with fraternal lodges and ethnic organizations built by immigrants whose progeny toiled in the mills of western Pennsylvania. The strong union also ensured its members a relatively secure job at a wage high enough to buy a modest home and take a paid vacation—achievements enjoyed by few American factory workers before the 1940s.

That the union played a pleasing and often essential role in their lives also gave credence to its advice about how to use the government and for whom they should vote. The union’s Aliquippa Steelworker informed its readers about hunting regulations as well as how to navigate Medicare and reminded them that Republicans in their state and nation were close allies of anti-labor employers. The result, recalled one retiree, was that he “could not go to the steel mill or mine and find a guy who would vote for a Republican. . . . They figure there was not a Republican in the world who took care of a working guy.” This leads Newman and Skocpol to make a point many pundits neglect, although its wisdom should be obvious: most people vote according to “constantly reinforced involvements that informed who they were.” For steelworkers and those living near them, this meant their “social identities as union men or union family members and their regional identities as good neighbors in union-influenced communities.”

As the union-centered world of steelworkers and their friends and families eroded, their preference for Democrats vanished along with it. Competition from more efficient and lower-wage facilities abroad led to plant closings across the region that, to the anxious frustration of its residents, became known as the Rust Belt. The United Steelworkers rallied communities to fight plant shutdowns but failed to withstand market forces and the diffidence of most politicians in the Reagan era. The mill in Aliquippa that had once employed close to 10,000 people shut down for good in 1984.

A few steel factories still operate across western Pennsylvania, but the once mighty union now represents fewer than 10,000 employees in the region and no longer holds a central place in their lives. Company towns have disappeared, so wage-earners often have longer commutes and don’t frequent the union hall after the workday ends. As a result, most of those gathering places have closed down. “We used to have meetings at 7:30 at night,” recalls a USW official poignantly, but members weren’t coming, “so we started having them right after work at 4:15. We tried cooking food, we tried to get pizzas, give tickets away or jackets—it still doesn’t entice the people to come.”

That human beings long to participate in a community may be a cliché, but many white workers who used to have one in their unions have found alternatives where the political talk leans hard to the right. They join gun clubs where NRA membership is required and attend megachurches whose pastors inveigh against marriage equality and abortion (and are wary of “secular” unions). Early in 2021, to learn something about the causes that move steel unionists, Newman, a sociologist, walked around the parking lots of three plants in the region to photograph what types of stickers workers were plastering on their cars. Most touted hunting, guns, Trump, or the GOP. A smaller number championed the union, while just over 1 percent saluted any Democratic candidate, and nearly all of those were for candidates the USW had endorsed.

Something of the old emotional solidarity continues to thrive in a different type of union, however. The skilled workers who belong to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) find high-wage employment in a variety of industries—from construction and public utilities to manufacturing and media. That versatility means they bond more through a common craft than by sharing the same workplace or living in the same town. Given that reality, the IBEW has long cultivated a sense of community by publishing magazines and newsletters stuffed with photos of local members and their families and by scheduling meetings and outings in a variety of places where clusters of electricians live. That the IBEW plays an active and welcome role in the lives of its members gives officials a better chance of persuading them to vote for Democrats, while the USW struggles to retain a dwindling number of dues-payers and expends little effort to shape their political views.

To learn that most members of a craft union still lean to the party of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Biden while those in an industrial union have migrated to Trump defies the conventional wisdom of many labor historians and left activists. The latter have often bashed craft unions as havens of “labor aristocrats” who allegedly look down on or actively discriminate against workers who are not white or male—and oppose big industrial organizing drives as too costly or risky.

That condemnation was always too simplistic. In the early twentieth century, the American Federation of Labor, most commonly known as the home of craft unions, included large industrial unions in coal, beer-making, and the garment trades and waged an epic but unsuccessful strike to organize the steel industry after the end of the First World War. The UMW opened its ranks to Black people before most unions did, and a large number of clothes makers were women. Even after the Congress of Industrial Organizations managed to organize workers in such basic industries as auto and steel in the 1930s, the AFL outpaced its numbers. When the two federations merged in 1955, the AFL’s unions boasted twice as many members as the newer organization.

And today it is probably the industrial unions, most with roots in the CIO, that struggle to convince their members that the portion of their dues that goes to political campaigns is well spent. Such workers, write the authors, “have developed a new sense of shared identity rooted in . . . resentments against the places and constituencies they see now at the core of the Democratic Party.” The targets of their anger include environmentalists and college-educated professionals. Many Pennsylvanians who belong to the Steelworkers feel that the leaders and staffers in the Pittsburgh headquarters care more about fundraising for political goals than about reviving the kind of union spirit that helped motivate their earlier counterparts to vote for Democrats. “Sheer staff growth and more money shoveled into political campaigns do not necessarily translate into rank-and-file votes,” Newman and Skocpol write.

The UAW appears to be an exception to this unfortunate trend. Under the leadership of Shawn Fain, the UAW won sizeable wage increases from the Big Three carmakers and union recognition at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga—the first such union victory at a foreign-owned vehicle plant in the notoriously anti-labor, right-to-work South. Whether the UAW’s endorsement of Kamala Harris will lift her to victory in Michigan, where it has far more members than in any other state, remains an open question. Anxiety about the transition to electric cars, pushed hard by the Biden administration, runs deep there. And if Harris can’t win Michigan, she almost certainly won’t be elected.

The old division between craft and industrial unions has also become increasingly obsolete. Some of the largest unions in the private sector now are hybrids of the two. The Service Employees International Union began as an organization of janitors, but its 2 million members include child- care providers, aircraft cleaners, and physicians. And over a quarter of the members of the UAW hold jobs in academia, not car plants. Moreover, the educated professionals who belong to the biggest unions in the public sector—the American Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees—are among the most stalwart Democratic campaigners and progressive activists in the nation. Today, even the building trades have rejected their racist heritage and rush to sign up African-American and Latino apprentices.

Drives among workers who identify with a trade have also been among the most successful in the embryonic union revival. At dozens of universities, public and private, graduate students have chosen to organize by lopsided margins. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, led by the charismatic Sara Nelson, represents nearly 50,000 workers employed by most U.S. airlines and is aggressively seeking to sign up those at Delta, which has the largest nonunionized workforce in the industry. Some 10,000 baristas at over 400 Starbucks outlets have gone union. And with the support of other Hollywood crafts, the long strike by writers and actors in 2023 compelled the big studios to settle on more favorable terms than expected. This fall, such zealous unionists will surely vote for Democrats—if they vote at all.

What Newman and Skocpol discovered about the politics of IBEW members in Pennsylvania may be occurring nationally. Workers enmeshed in cultural networks based on the jobs they perform—often with pride—are more likely to cherish their unions and support Democrats who want to expand the power of labor in American life. Some industrial unions have nurtured these connections too. In Las Vegas, the officials of Local 226 of the Culinary Workers help the largely immigrant workforce that staffs most of the hotels and casinos to prepare for citizenship exams and runs a pharmacy where members get their prescriptions filled for free. The union also holds political education sessions, rents buses to transport members to the polls, and organizes a massive house-to-house canvas during every campaign. Without the local’s efforts, Democrats would lose nearly every big race in Nevada, one of the swingiest states in the nation.

To boost their electoral fortunes as well as improve the lives of wage earners, Democrats should, of course, do all they can to make it possible for the roughly 60 million Americans who want to join a union to do so. But politicians cannot organize workers; they can only fight to remove some of the barriers thrown up by corporations, courts, and right-wing lawmakers to that purpose. The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which passed the House of Representatives in 2021 but predictably failed to overcome a filibuster in the Senate, would help achieve that aim.

But neither a good law nor better messaging will be enough to turn “union blues” into a solid, progressive, working-class bloc in the Rust Belt and elsewhere. As Newman and Skocpol suggest, partisan commitment often springs from local roots, particularly among working people who spend most of their lives in a single part of the country and, either by choice or necessity, do not move around to pursue their careers. To become a party based among workers again, Democrats will need not just social movements on their side but networks, clusters, and affinity groups on the job and in neighborhoods upon whom people can rely for companionship and support in hard times.

How to connect those emotional attachments to the political decisions individuals make is a difficult, if urgent, question. At a time when so many Americans engage more with their phones than with any collective endeavor, that will not be easy. But the alternative is to submit to the designs of celebrity politicians who spout lies and conspiracy theories.

The notion of some leftists that unions can revive without aid from the state and from a major governing party is and has always been a fantasy. Since its birth in the nineteenth century, the American labor movement has been endorsing politicians and fighting for laws that would improve workers’ lives on and off the job. Support from the state continues to be critical to a healthy and enduring revival of the movement. As the historian Nelson Lichtenstein wrote recently, “The union movement’s comeback in recent years could not have taken place without the existence of a set of political initiatives that generated both low unemployment and a high level of government-guided business investment.”

In 1903, Clarence Darrow, the renowned left-wing attorney, was representing the UMW before a commission empowered to arbitrate the wages and conditions of the men who mined the black rock that heated millions of American homes. He extolled unions as “the greatest agency that the wit of man has ever devised for uplifting the lowly and the weak, for defending the poor and the oppressed, for bringing about genuine democracy amongst men.” It’s a grand sentiment. But unionists can only generate the force they need if they and the Democrats who support them learn how to build true solidarity in a society that does everything to discourage it.

Trump re-ups ‘Barack Hussein Obama’ conspiracy when asked about tariffs at economic forum

Gustaf Kilander
Tue, October 15, 2024 

Former President Donald Trump referred to President Barack Obama by his middle name Hussein when asked about tariffs during an interview at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday.

Trump was speaking to Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait when he started to ramble about a variety of subjects, such as the importance of steel production during war times before he began to brag about his record of keeping the US out of armed conflict.

As Trump jumped from one subject to another, Micklethwait sought to bring the subject back to tariffs, saying one of the issues with Trump’s proposed tariff policy is geopolitics. He noted that the former president has received some credit for saying that there’s effectively a cold war with China.

The Bloomberg editor went on to note that the US won the Cold War with the Soviet Union “because it rallied allies to it” but that Trump is suggesting “slamming allies with 20 percent, 30 percent tariffs.”

Micklethwait asked how it would help the US take on China if it turned its allies against itself.

“China thinks we’re a stupid country, a very stupid country,” Trump said. “They can’t believe that somebody finally got wise to them. Not one president, Bush, Obama, Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him? Think of it. Not one president charged China anything.”

Donald Trump speaks during an interview with Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago, in Chicago, Illinois, on October 15, 2024. Trump emphasized former President Barack Obama’s middle name during the interview (AFP via Getty Images)

Trump has long used Obama’s middle name in an attempt to make him appear un-American.

Amid Obama’s rise, many on the right, including Trump, pushed the baseless “birther” conspiracy theory that he was a Muslim born in Kenya, and thus ineligible to be commander-in-chief.

Earlier in the conversation about tariffs, Trump said: “I was the only president in 82 years that kept you out of a war, except I defeated ISIS, but I inherited that war.”

The former president explained his veering from subject to subject by returning to the concept of “the weave.”

“You have the weave, as long as you end up in the right location at the end,” he said. “We have never been so close to World War III as we are right now with what's going on in Ukraine and Russia and the Middle East.”

“I had no wars in the whole world ... I talked plenty of countries out of wars ... And I knocked out ISIS in a matter of weeks. It was supposed to take four to five years. I did it in a matter of weeks,” he added. “We actually have a great military but we don't know how to use it.”

Obama slammed Trump and some of his supporters as he hit the trail for Vice President Kamala Harris last week.

“I’m sorry, gentlemen, I’ve noticed this, especially with some men who seem to think some of Trump’s behavior — the bullying and the putting people down — is a sign of strength. And I am here to tell you – That is not what real strength is. It never has been,” Obama said in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“Real strength is about working hard. And carrying a heavy load without complaining. Real strength is about taking responsibility for your actions and telling the truth even when it’s inconvenient,” Obama added. “Real strength is about helping people who need it and standing up for those who can’t always stand up for themselves. That is what we should want for our daughters and our sons, and that is what I want to see in a president of the United States of America.”

‘Sleeper agent’ bots on X fuel US election misinformation, study says


By AFP
October 10, 2024

Researchers analyzed accounts that shared posts favoring Republican candidate Donald Trump, while targeting Democratic nominee Kamala Harris 

- Copyright AFP Mauro PIMENTEL

Anuj CHOPRA

Hundreds of apparent pro-Russian bot accounts on X are pushing US election misinformation and amplifying false narratives about Democratic contender Kamala Harris, a research group said Thursday, calling them “sleeper agents” for having evaded detection for years.

The findings by the Washington-based American Sunlight Project (ASP) demonstrate how bot-like activity plagues X, previously called Twitter, despite pledges by billionaire owner Elon Musk to crack down on the digital manipulation.

ASP analyzed nearly 1,200 accounts, a long-standing network that generated more than 100 million posts as of July, including pro-Kremlin propaganda, content favoring Republican nominee Donald Trump, and misinformation about Harris’s campaign.

The accounts, some of which have escaped detection and moderation on the site for as long as 15 years, retweeted such content within seconds of its posting, indicating bot activity, the group said in a report shared with AFP ahead of its public release.

“We were not surprised to find another pro-Russian bot network, but we were shocked to learn that some of the accounts in the sleeper agent network have been active for more than a decade,” Nina Jankowicz, the group’s co-founder and chief executive, told AFP.

Jankowicz, the former Department of Homeland Security disinformation chief, called on X to take down the network, which has seen an uptick in “abusive and false content” targeting Harris.

One account created in 2020 promoted the falsehood that Harris had admitted that she will be a “puppet” of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky if elected president.

It also touted the unfounded claim that the White House was pushing for regime change in Lebanon, taking advantage of Israel’s recent attacks on the militant group Hezbollah.

– Data restrictions –

Another account created in 2011 shared a post by Musk — who has endorsed Trump and courted criticism for amplifying political falsehoods through his influential personal account — that pushed the debunked narrative that migrants were being imported into the United States to manipulate the November 5 election.

Hundreds of accounts in the network are not attributable to real social media users, with some creating fake personas using images from stock photo websites such as Shutterstock, ASP said.

To disguise their objectives and more easily “inject themselves into larger X/Twitter conversations,” some accounts regularly shared content about subjects such as sports and cryptocurrency, the report said.

It was not possible to determine the precise entity behind the pro-Russian accounts.

With data restrictions imposed by X since Musk purchased the company in 2022 for $44 billion, it was also difficult to assess their exact reach.

Researchers are now required to pay a hefty fee for access to its API, which allows third-party developers to gather the social platform’s data.

“If researchers had data access restored, more of such activity would likely be visible,” the ASP report said.

– ‘Platform manipulation’ –

Bots and other automated accounts, researchers say, are a cornerstone of the Kremlin’s efforts to spread misinformation, in some cases supplanting state media accounts which have been restricted across several countries since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

X did not reply to AFP’s request for comment.

Ahead of his purchase of the platform, Musk pledged to “defeat the spam bots or die trying.”

But bot activity remains entrenched on the platform, a report from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology said last year, after an analysis of about one million posts.

The platform has gutted trust and safety teams and scaled back content moderation efforts, making it what researchers call a hotbed for misinformation.

“Despite the fact that Musk has an avowed goal of ridding his platform of bots, we’ve found that they persist on X, even coming from networks that are likely state-affiliated,” said Jankowicz.

“This is behavior that is fairly easy to identify, and yet this multi-billion dollar corporation has not cracked down on these accounts that violate its platform manipulation and spam policies.”


X says ‘alert’ to manipulation efforts after pro-Russia bots report


By AFP
October 11, 2024

Disinformation researchers say bot-like activity plagues X 

- Copyright AFP/File Alain JOCARD

X was “alert” to any platform manipulation attempts, the Elon Musk-owned site told AFP Friday, following a report that hundreds of apparent pro-Russian bot accounts were amplifying US election misinformation.

In a study shared exclusively with AFP earlier this week, the Washington-based American Sunlight Project (ASP) said it found nearly 1,200 accounts on X that pushed pro-Kremlin propaganda, content favoring Republican nominee Donald Trump, and misinformation about Democratic contender Kamala Harris.

ASP called them “sleeper agents” as some of the accounts had escaped detection and moderation on the site –- previously known as Twitter — for as long as 15 years and retweeted content within seconds of its posting, indicating bot activity.

“Our safety team remains alert to any attempt to manipulate the platform by bad actors and networks,” an X spokesman said in a statement.

“We have a robust policy in place to prevent platform spam and manipulation, and we routinely take down accounts engaged in this type of behavior.”

Without directly addressing ASP’s findings, the spokesman added that in the first half of 2024, the platform had suspended more than 460 million accounts under its manipulation and spam policy.

Nina Jankowicz, ASP’s co-founder and chief executive who is the former Department of Homeland Security disinformation chief, has called on X to take down the pro-Russian network that was pushing out “abusive and false content” targeting Harris.

Musk — who has endorsed Trump ahead of the November 5 presidential election –- has also courted criticism for amplifying political falsehoods through his influential personal account on X, which has over 200 million followers.

Among the accounts analyzed by ASP was one created in 2020 that promoted the falsehood that Harris had admitted she will be a “puppet” of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky if elected president.

It also touted the unfounded claim that the White House was pushing for regime change in Lebanon, taking advantage of Israel’s recent attacks on the militant group Hezbollah.

Ahead of his purchase of the platform in 2022 for $44 billion, Musk pledged to “defeat the spam bots or die trying.”

But apparent bot activity remains entrenched on the platform, according to several disinformation researchers, including a report last year from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology that analyzed about one million posts.

From Tesla to Trump: Behind Musk’s giant leap into politics


By AFP
October 11, 2024

Tesla CEO Elon Musk jumps on stage as he joins former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally - Copyright AFP TIMOTHY A. CLARY
Alex PIGMAN

With his no-holds-barred embrace of Donald Trump, Elon Musk is not only backing the former president’s bid to return to the White House but also signaling his own ambition to command the world stage on his terms.

At a recent Trump rally in Pennsylvania, the world’s richest man bounded onto stage with pogo-like energy, sparking a torrent of memes on social media and driving engagement on X, the platform he owns.

The following day, Musk leaned into his provocative persona during an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, laughing that Vice President Kamala Harris had not faced assassination attempts and expressing concern about his own future.

“If (Trump) loses, I’m fucked,” Musk quipped, still chuckling.

Musk is “all-in” for the former president as the US election enters its final stretch.

He’s poured tens of millions of dollars into the campaign and is positioned for a key role in a second Trump administration, where the former president has said he will be tasked with ripping up government bureaucracy and firing civil servants.

Observers point to various factors behind Musk’s hard turn to the right.

Some highlight his upbringing in apartheid-era South Africa, suggesting it influences his views on immigration and demographic change.

Musk frequently argues, without evidence, that an influx of undocumented immigrants threatens US democracy, echoing the “Great Replacement” theory prevalent among many whites in his childhood South Africa.

“The white South African nightmare in the 1980s, hanging over everything, was that one day Black people would rise up and massacre whites,” wrote essayist Simon Kuper in the Financial Times.

More recent personal experiences also appear to have shaped Musk’s politics.

In 2022, his daughter Vivian, then aged 18, legally changed her name and gender.

Musk later claimed his child was “killed” by the “woke mind virus” instilled at an elite California school, marking a significant hardening of his political stance.

Musk’s business interests may also help explain his allegiance to Trump.

His companies operate in highly regulated industries and have frequently clashed with authorities.

Tech analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group suggests that in a Trump White House, Musk might even “be in charge of his own oversight, giving him the potential power to do anything he wanted.”

– X at your service? –

The billionaire’s influence extends beyond his wealth.

Musk uses his X account, with more than 200 million followers, to amplify misinformation and controversial narratives that align with Trump’s campaign messaging.

The platform’s light-touch content moderation allows Trump-backed distortions and lies to thrive that might be restricted on other social media sites.

“It’s very different to have a figure like Musk who owns a social media platform, versus him just being out there as his own individual,” said Sophie Bjork-James, assistant professor of anthropology at Vanderbilt University.

“Musk is helping to mainstream these racist conspiracy theories and bring in mainly white men who may either be disengaged or former political liberals.”

In a recent get-out-the-vote initiative, Musk’s America super PAC, a political action committee, promised to pay $47 to anyone who gets a registered swing-state voter to sign a petition supporting free speech and the right to bear arms.

“Easy money,” Musk posted about the potentially multi-million-dollar effort.

– ‘King of the world’ –

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, summarized Musk’s political toolkit: “Musk’s influence is money, his super PAC and X. He’s not shy about using all three to push Trump — and even push misrepresentations and falsehoods that help Trump.”

For supporters, Musk’s political involvement is an extension of his successful track record with companies like SpaceX, which now plays a central role in the US space program.

“In almost every case, Musk’s innovations paralleled things the government was trying to do, but he did it better,” Youngstown State University political science professor Paul Sracic told the Washington Examiner.

But Musk’s political stance is affecting public perception of his businesses.

Mark Hass, an Arizona State University professor who has advised major corporations, noted that driving a Tesla is no longer “the first choice if you want to demonstrate your environmental bona fides, because of his association with Trump.”

As the 2024 election approaches, Musk’s political evolution represents a new force in American politics: a tech titan with vast wealth, media influence and authoritarian leanings, Hass added.

His actions in the coming weeks could significantly affect both the election outcome and the future landscape of politics.

Musk could become a “king of the world,” said Hass.

AMERIKA

Meteorologists Get Death Threats as Hurricane Milton Conspiracy Theories Thrive

Lorena O'Neil
Wed, October 9, 2024 

People at an Orlando, Florida, bar watch the local news as the community prepares for Hurricane Milton on Oct. 8, 2024. - Credit: Saul Martinez/Getty Images

As Hurricane Milton approaches Florida, meteorologists are staying awake for days at a time trying to get vital, life-saving information out to the folks who will be affected. That’s their job. But this year, several of them tell Rolling Stone, they’re increasingly having to take time out to quell the nonstop flow of misinformation during a particularly traumatic hurricane season. And some of them are doing it while being personally threatened.

“People are just so far gone, it’s honestly making me lose all faith in humanity,” says Washington, D.C.-based meteorologist Matthew Cappucci, in a phone interview conducted while he was traveling down to Florida for the storm. “There’s so much bad information floating around out there that the good information has become obscured.”

More from Rolling Stone

Hurricane Milton Makes Landfall in Florida, Spawning Tornados and Destruction


TikTok Is a Hellscape of People Staying in Hurricane Milton's Path For Clout


Florida Republicans Who Voted Against Funding FEMA Are Now Facing Disaster


Cappucci says that he’s noticed an enormous change on social media in the past three months: “Seemingly overnight, ideas that once would have been ridiculed as very fringe, outlandish viewpoints are suddenly becoming mainstream, and it’s making my job much more difficult.”

He says meteorologists and disaster relief experts have to strike a balance between putting out helpful, high-quality information while also squashing misinformation. “Nowadays, there’s so much bad information out there that if we spent our time getting rid of it, we’d have no more time.”

This hurricane season, Cappucci and the other meteorologists I spoke with say, conspiracy theories have been flooding their inboxes. The main one that people have seemed to latch onto is the accusation that the government can control the weather. This theory seems to be amplified with climate change creating worsening storms combined with a tense election year, and the vitriol is being directed at meteorologists. “I’ve been doing this for 46 years, and it’s never been like this,” says Alabama meteorologist James Spann. He says he’s been “inundated” with misinformation and threatening messages like “Stop lying about the government controlling the weather or else.”

“For me to post a hurricane forecast and for people to accuse me of creating the hurricane by working for some secret Illuminati entity is disappointing and distressing, and it’s resulting in a decrease in public trust,” says Cappucci. He says he hasn’t slept in multiple days and is exhausted. This past week he received hundreds of messages from people accusing him of modifying the weather and creating hurricanes from space lasers.

“Ignorance is becoming socially acceptable. Forty or 50 years ago, if I told you I thought the moon was pretend, people would have laughed at me. Now, people are bonding over these incredibly fringe viewpoints.”

“An average hurricane’s life cycle burns through the energy of roughly 10,000 nuclear bombs,” says Cappucci. “The idea that we can even influence something like that, never mind direct it, is just so outlandish that it’s almost, sadly, funny.”
‘Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes’

Meteorologist Katie Nickolaou went viral after correcting a male commenter who tried to claim a Category 5 hurricane can turn into a Category 6, at which point it becomes a tornado.

“Those are different storms with different processes,” clarified Nickolaou. “Though hurricanes can produce tornadoes, it doesn’t affect the overall categorical rating.”

Undeterred, he pushed back, insisting that “anything above a Category 5 would be a tornado,” which is untrue. “I’m going to go scream into an abyss now,” Nickolaou tweeted in response. She tells me her tweet “struck a chord” with meteorologists and people tired of the misinformation.

There is no Category 6 designation for hurricanes, she explains. Designations are based on wind speed, so there has been conversation among scientists that now that hurricanes are getting stronger, we need an additional category. But there are meteorologists that say adding a designation is unnecessary because a Category 5 already means nearly total destruction. They worry that adding a Category 6 would decrease the significance of a four of five and impact people’s decision to evacuate.

“I put on armor every day to try to go online and make sure people aren’t saying things that could harm responses,” says Nickolau. She’s had to fend off rumors that meteorologists should just use giant fans to blow the hurricane away or try nuking it. “You get a person arguing that a hurricane turns into a tornado at a Category 6 and your brain short circuits.”

“Stopping misinformation is becoming an exhausting part of the job which is taking away from spending time forecasting or sending out other information that could be helpful,” says Nickolau. She says her heart sinks when she sees a false post get millions of views because it’s virtually impossible to go back and fact-check it for everyone that’s seen it.

After our phone call, Nickolau received an even more troubling message on her page: “Stop the breathing of those that made them and their affiliates.” She responded that she would not allow people to advocate for murder. “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes,” she tweeted. “I can’t believe I just had to type that.”
‘It beats you down’

Spann, the meteorologist in Alabama, has been doing this work for decades and says he can’t believe what he’s seeing unfold.

“Something has clearly changed within the last year,” says Spann. “We know some of it is bots, but I do believe that some of it is coming from people that honestly believe the moon disappeared because the government nuked it to control the hurricanes, or that the government used chemtrails to spray our skies with chemicals to steer [Hurricane] Helene into the mountains of North Carolina.”

He says the misinformation has gotten so out of control it’s distracting meteorologists from doing their jobs, which involves keeping people safe ahead of, during, and after a devastating hurricane. Spann posted a public service announcement on Facebook that went viral, asking people to stop flooding his page with conspiracy theories.

“We’re trying to push critical information to people that need it and people who are looking for a credible source,” says Spann. He sounds weary as he tells me that if people are going to push conspiracy theories, he wishes they would wait until after the danger has passed. As we’re talking he receives an email from a colleague telling him about an angry caller who demanded to be connected to the folks responsible for stopping the hurricane.

“It affects our mental health,” he adds, saying he’s spoken to the Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore and other meteorologists about it a lot this week. After Spann posted a FEMA website about rumor control, he got multiple private messages telling him to retire or personally threatening him. “You’re working with two to three hours of sleep for multiple weeks under a high stress situation, and then you deal with these threats that come in, it’ll beat you down.”
‘It costs lives’

South Florida meteorologist John Morales made headlines this week when he cried on air while warning Floridians about how strong Hurricane Milton will be. For his part, he’s been getting overwhelmingly supportive messages on social media from people who share his angst and anxiety about the climate crisis. He’s been using the increased attention to spread awareness about global warming, climate action, as well as the dangers of misinformation.

“I’ve seen the reactions of climate dismissives for many, many years, and it’s become particularly vitriolic in the last year or two, especially on X,” says Morales, referring to the former Twitter. He’s Puerto Rican, and said that in Latin countries he’s heard the conspiracy theory that Americans control the weather, but now the belief has exploded.

“This is the post-truth era, and these types of crazy beliefs aren’t just confined to your crazy Uncle Joe,” says Morales. “It seems to spread with greater ease, and I am particularly alarmed that after Hurricane Helene, it’s really spread and truly impacted the work of the emergency management agencies that are trying to help people recover and have to dedicate resources to dispel rumors and trample down on the type of stuff that, sadly, even some politicians are spreading. It costs lives and dishonors first responders and civil servants.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene has doubled down on claims Democrats control the weather, prompting fellow GOP congressperson Carlos Gimenez to tweet she should “have her head examined.” Meanwhile, the White House is launching a Reddit account to keep the public informed on Helene/Milton response and recovery.

“Science is one of the few things that doesn’t care about politics,” says Cappucci. “If a tornado is coming down the road at you, it doesn’t check your voter registration.”

He says every October the bird migration causes fuzzy images on weather radars, but this year conspiracy theorists are convinced that these fuzzy images are actually caused by lasers heating up the atmosphere to create hurricanes. Some experts I spoke with think that misinformation is exceptionally bad this year because we are leading up to a presidential election. Some of the conspiracy theories accuse Democrats of intentionally steering hurricanes to red-leaning swing states, in order to hurt Donald Trump’s chances of winning.

“The 2024 misinformation is being fueled to a certain extent by political polarization,” says Sarah DeYoung, a professor at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. “I think that’s corresponding with there being a presidential election this year.”

DeYoung says there are certain myths that pop up for every disaster. Some of them are well-intentioned, like telling people that hotels have to accept pets in an emergency event, which is not true. Others are misconceptions, like saying looting goes up after natural disasters when in fact the crime rate often goes down, and people are just trying to locate basic essentials like food and water to survive. But in 2024, they are often politically motivated.

“It becomes particularly dangerous because it starts to rile up additional feelings of division and then the false information about FEMA funneling money towards immigrants, that makes people who are immigrants more vulnerable to potential acts of violence and backlash from those kinds of rumors.”

DeYoung says this harms both the people that need help and the people trying to help, by adding confusion, slowing down the recovery process and fomenting mistrust.
‘Platforms are not prepared’

Misinformation and climate change researcher Abbie Richards says she likes to look at the core emotions that drive conspiracy theories.

“When people feel really anxious, really powerless, really uncertain, those are the times where we expect misinformation to thrive,” says Richards, who is also a senior video producer for Media Matters. She says this is exacerbated with a big moment in the news cycle, and then even further inflamed by something as emotionally overwhelming as climate change.

“It’s a problem that by its very nature, makes people feel a wide range of pretty negative emotions — scared, anxious, uncertain — maybe guilty or conflicted if it’s something they’ve been denying,” says Richards. “We are mixing these giant events that are catastrophic and devastating with these big emotions, and it’s really easy for people to fall into scapegoating and blaming conspiracy theories that provide really simple explanations for these super complicated problems.”

Richards explains that in order to regain a sense of control, people drink in whatever information they can get their hands on, even when it’s false. “Sometimes it’s the moon was nuked, but sometimes it’s also just people wanting to help and that can get us into bad situations, too — I’ve seen a lot of hoaxes spread in the name of awareness.”

She says she doesn’t criticize consuming news on TikTok because it is an excellent source for firsthand accounts of events that can fill a different emotional need for people. For example, Richards says TikTok has helped people understand the nuanced challenges of evacuating.

But, she says, social media change is needed.

“The platforms are just not prepared,” says Richards. “They are seemingly very unequipped to handle widespread misinformation that arises in the wake of these events. And if we’re going to learn anything from this experience, it’s that the platforms need to seriously invest in climate-related content moderation, because this is causing harm and it’s impeding relief efforts, and it could hurt people.”

Rolling Stone

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: The Origin of American Conspiracy Theories