#TRUMPTV
Trump-friendly Newsmax seeks to cut into Fox’s viewership
By DAVID BAUDER

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This 2018 photo shows Chris Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax. The network's rise in popularity has been astonishingly swift and could indicate the first serious threat to Fox News Channel's iron grip on conservative viewers in two decades. (Newsmax via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Now that his largely invisible network has suddenly been flooded by fans of President Donald Trump, Newsmax television personality Grant Stinchfield is puffing out his chest.

“They don’t know what to do with all of us,” Stinchfield said on the air Monday night. “We’re killing it here on Newsmax with a tactic they’ve never tried. It’s called the truth, the stone-cold truth, and once you get a taste of it, you will never tolerate being lied to again.”

The conservative network’s critics suggest the opposite is true, that Newsmax’s viewers are being presented discredited stories such as a voting system that changed or deleted votes, questions about how closely Republicans were able to monitor vote-counting and the volume of absentee ballots being accepted.

There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In fact, election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well and international observers confirmed there were no serious irregularities.

Newsmax’s burst, whether or not it lasts, has been astonishingly swift and could foreshadow significant competition to Fox News Channel’s dominance with conservative viewers in two decades.

This image released by Newsmax shows Greg Kelly, a former personality at Fox's New York affiliate who is Newsmax's most polished broadcaster. (Newsmax via AP)

“We’ve really cornered Fox from the right,” said Chris Ruddy, Newsmax founder and friend of Trump. “They’ve never had that.”

From the beginning of July to the week before Election Day, Newsmax averaged 58,000 viewers from 7 to 10 p.m. on weekdays. That jumped to 568,000 the week after the election, the Nielsen company said. In the same period, daytime viewership increased from 46,000 to 450,000.

For the same dates, Fox News averaged 3.6 million viewers in the evening, Nielsen said. Fox’s prime-time viewership during the two weeks after the election was up 50 percent over last year.

“We love competition. We have always thrived on competition,” Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said on an Election Day earnings call.

Ruddy traced much of Newsmax’s increase to Trump supporters angered by Fox’s election night call that Democrat Joe Biden had won Arizona — ahead of any other news organization. While that call proved correct, for the president’s backers it was an ill-timed sign of insufficient loyalty from their favorite network.

Trump, who criticized Fox throughout the campaign, has driven the point home with repeated tweets suggesting his followers check out Newsmax or a smaller rival that also presses a conservative viewpoint, One America News Network.


 - One America News Network reporter Chanel Rion asks a question of White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington on May 22, 2020. President Donald Trump, who criticized Fox throughout the campaign, has driven the point home by suggesting his followers check out Newsmax or a smaller rival, One America News Network. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)


“There’s a large part of the country that wants to have a voice, the same people who gave birth to what turned into a very robust Fox News,” said Michael Clemente, Newsmax’s CEO until last April and a former Fox News executive. “Now, more than ever, they want to be heard, and have influence equal to their peers on the coasts. Their loyalty is to that voice and not to any place or another.”

Newsmax says it has an editorial staff of 70, including those attached to its website, which at midday Wednesday led with stories about Trump’s press secretary calling restrictions on Thanksgiving gatherings “Orwellian,” and the president’s latest false tweet claiming an election victory.

The television network is running a clever ad telling conservative viewers not to be “out-foxed,” but it was telling on Monday that both Newsmax and OANN spent considerable time discussing an interview that was conducted on Fox, where a Trump lawyer predicted her client would win by millions of votes.

Programming generally consists of news talk shows, and it’s not difficult to see where the loyalty lies.

“Donald Trump is the most powerful person in the world,” said Greg Kelly, a former personality at Fox’s New York affiliate who is Newsmax’s most polished broadcaster. “Not because he’s president, but because he’s loved by so many people.”

In this image released by Newsmax, co-hosts Sean Spicer and Lyndsay Keith pose for a photo on the set of "Spicer & Co." The network's rise in popularity has been astonishingly swift and could indicate the first serious threat to Fox News Channel's iron grip on conservative viewers in two decades. (Newsmax via AP)


When Newsmax’s Chris Salcedo asked a question about Biden during an interview Monday with Trump aide Peter Navarro, he was quickly brushed off.

“As far as I’m concerned, President Trump is going to have a second term,” Navarro said.

Newsmax hasn’t declared Biden the president-elect, unlike other news organizations, including Fox and The Associated Press. They say they are waiting for final certification of the vote before doing so.

Even though Ruddy conceded in an interview that Trump has an extremely narrow chance of overturning the results, he said it’s up to the states, not media organizations, to declare a winner. When that process is done, Newsmax will accept the winner, he said.

This image shows Newsmax television personality Grant Stinchfield. The network's rise in popularity has been astonishingly swift and could indicate the first serious threat to Fox News Channel's iron grip on conservative viewers in two decades. (Newsmax via AP)


But if Trump’s chances of overturning the results are so small, why should a discussion about them dominate Newsmax’s airtime?

“I think that people that are not pro-Trump or don’t like him think we should get past it or they are tired of it,” he said. “But conservatives are quite anxious to hear about developments.”

He said he differs from Trump in believing the administration should be cooperating in a transition, even if the president holds out hope that the results could somehow be overturned.

“I would tell him if I speak to him that I think they should engage in a transition,” he said.

The spotlight on smaller rivals comes at an extraordinarily tumultuous time at Fox. There’s always been a tension between the news and opinion sides of the network, but this time it’s reflected in the ultimate “unspinnable” story of election results, said Nicole Hemmer, a Columbia University professor and author of “Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics.”

In some respects, the surge in Newsmax’s viewership represents a temper tantrum by some Fox viewers, she said.

For Newsmax, a big question is whether its programming is compelling enough to hold viewers who are clearly sampling. Besides Kelly, former Trump press secretary Sean Spicer is Newsmax’s best-known personality. Both their shows are aired twice a night; Ruddy said a new prime-time show will start next month and another is in the works.

“It’s going to be a challenge for (Newsmax) to grow their numbers in the way that Fox did because of the lack of a news operation,” Hemmer said.

___

Associated Press Television Writer Lynn Elber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Report finds Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghans
By NICK PERRY

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A shocking Australian military report into war crimes has found evidence that elite Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers and civilians.

Australian Defence Force Chief Gen. Angus Campbell said Thursday the shameful record included alleged instances in which new patrol members would shoot a prisoner in order to achieve their first kill in a practice known as “blooding.” He said the soldiers would then plant weapons and radios to support false claims the prisoners were enemies killed in action.

Campbell told reporters in Canberra the illegal killings began in 2009, with the majority occurring in 2012 and 2013. He said some members of the elite Special Air Service encouraged “a self-centered, warrior culture.”

The chief was announcing the findings of a four-year investigation by Maj. Gen. Paul Brereton, a judge and Army reservist who was asked to look into the allegations and interviewed more than 400 witnesses and reviewed thousands of pages of documents. Brereton recommended 19 soldiers be investigated by police for possible charges, including murder.

“To the people of Afghanistan, on behalf of the Australian Defence Force, I sincerely and unreservedly apologize for any wrongdoing by Australian soldiers,” Campbell said.

He said he’d spoken directly to his Afghan military counterpart to express his remorse.

“Such alleged behavior profoundly disrespected the trust placed in us by the Afghan people who had asked us to their country to help them,” Campbell said. “It would have devastated the lives of Afghan families and communities, causing immeasurable pain and suffering. And it would have put in jeopardy our mission and the safety of our Afghan and coalition partners.”

As well as the 39 killings, the report outlines two allegations of cruel treatment. It says that none of the alleged crimes were committed during the heat of battle.

Only parts of the report have been made public. Many details, including the names of alleged killers, remain redacted.

The report said a total of 25 current or former troops were involved as perpetrators or accessories in 23 separate incidents, with some involved just once and a few multiple times.

It said some Australian troops would regularly carry “throw downs” — things like foreign pistols, radios and grenades that they could plant on those they killed so the Afghan civilians would appear like combatants in photographs.

The report said most of the alleged crimes were committed and concealed at a patrol commander level by corporals and sergeants, and that while higher-level troop and squadron commanders had to take some responsibility for the events that happened on their watch, they weren’t primarily to blame.

The report paints a picture of a toxic culture in which soldiers were competing against those from other squadrons, accounts of deaths were sanitized or embellished, and many procedures to ensure safety and integrity had broken down.

“Those who wished to speak up were allegedly discouraged, intimidated and discredited,” Campbell said.

The report recommended 19 soldiers be referred to federal police for criminal investigation. Campbell said he’s accepting all the report’s recommendations.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has already announced a special investigator will help pursue possible prosecutions because the workload would overwhelm existing police resources.

Many troops are also likely to be stripped of their medals and the defense force will undergo significant structural changes. The report says that where there is credible evidence of unlawful killings, Afghan families should be compensated immediately by Australia without waiting for the criminal cases to proceed.

“This will be an important step in rehabilitating Australia’s international reputation, in particular with Afghanistan, and it is simply the right thing to do,” the report states.

Dolly Parton adds pandemic hero to list of accomplishments

FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2019 file photo, Dolly Parton performs at the 53rd annual CMA Awards in Nashville, Tenn. Parton's $1 million gift to Vanderbilt University Medical Center helped researchers develop Moderna's experimental coronavirus vaccine, announced this week. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)


BOSTON (AP) — Dolly Parton is being celebrated in song — a rewritten version of her own “Jolene” — for her contribution to an experimental coronavirus vaccine.

Northeastern University associate English professor Ryan Cordell posted a video on Twitter of himself performing a tweaked version of Parton’s signature song, renamed “Vaccine,” that has drawn tens of thousands of views.

The lyrics, “Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine / I’m begging of you, please go in my arm / Vaccine, vaccine, vaccine, vaccine / Please just keep me safe from COVID harm,” were written by linguist and author Gretchen McCulloch, who posted them online and invited people to record them.

“I love that song. I love Dolly Parton. And I don’t know — I was inspired,” Cordell told The Boston Globe on Tuesday. “So I went and grabbed my guitar.”

Parton’s $1 million gift to Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center helped researchers develop Moderna’s experimental coronavirus vaccine, announced this week.

Cordell grew up with Parton’s music, thanks to his parents and grandparents, and he called Parton’s appearance at the 2019 Newport Folk Festival as one of his “favorite musical memories.”

“So I was just thrilled to see this news that she had contributed to COVID vaccine research — I thought that was amazing,” he said.

The positive reaction to his video from doctors, nurses and other medical professionals is particularly gratifying, he said.

“And that’s really amazing because those folks are under so much pressure and stress, and especially right now as hospitals are getting overwhelmed,” Cordell said. “And so if they watched the video, and it made them happy for a minute, that’s all I need.”

America’s bellwethers crumbled in aligning with Trump in ’20

HOME OF EUGENE DEBS SOCIALIST PARTY CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT 1912 SEE FOOTNOTES

By CLAIRE GALOFARO

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TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — A glass case in the history museum on the main street through this city celebrates its curious place in American lore: There’s a photo of John F. Kennedy Jr. on the courthouse steps, and Richard Nixon at Terre Haute’s little airport. A newsreel playing on a loop describes it as “magic town.”

Vigo County, with about 107,000 people on the western edge of Indiana, long had some mysterious mix of quirky politics, demographics, geography, religion, labor and luck so that it had become America’s most reliable presidential bellwether.

Since 1888, this exhibit boasts, the county voted in line with the nation in every presidential election but two. It missed in 1908 and 1952, then remained a perfect predictor of the U.S. mood, a rare place to toggle between Republicans and Democrats in harmony with America.

“That’s wrong now. We’re going to have to change that poster,” said Susan Tingley, the executive director of the museum, which is in an old overalls factory that closed long ago, like most of the local factories.

Vigo County’s most recent winning streak ended this year, as it did for nearly all the country’s reliable bellwethers, most of them blue-collar, overwhelmingly white communities in the Rust Belt. Of the 19 counties that had a perfect record between 1980 and 2016, all but one voted to reelect President Donald Trump, who lost to Joe Biden in both the national popular vote and in nearly every battleground state.

The country’s tribalized politics seem to have finally reached these places that used to routinely swing from one party to the other. The only county that maintained its place as a bellwether is Clallam County, in Washington state.

The ones in the middle all crumbled, leaving many here wondering whether this was merely a Trump-fueled fluke or whether the country has cleaved itself so firmly into two opposing camps that these old political standard-bearers are obsolete. Is Vigo County just one more reliably red square in the red middle of America?

“It speaks to an evolution in American politics,” said David Niven, a political scientist at the University of Cincinnati who analyzed the state of Ohio’s fall from bellwether status this year.

Niven notes these bellwethers were born when political battle lines tended to be drawn more cleanly along economic lines. These middle-class communities were in the center and up for grabs. But as national politics become less about economics and more about culture wars and identity, Democrats have lost their grip in places such as Vigo County that are overwhelmingly white, he said.

Now the places emerging as possible new bellwethers have more racially diverse populations. Delaware’s Kent County last missed in 1992. Its population is 60% white and 27% Black. Blaine County in Montana, which last missed in 1988, is more than 50% Native American.

Vigo County doesn’t look much like America, and its place as its foremost presidential predictor relied on a certain degree of luck, said Matt Bergbower, a political scientist at Indiana State University. It is not as diverse as the nation, with a population that is 85% white. It is not as wealthy or highly educated, either.

But for generations its conservative tilt on social issues was balanced by left-leaning idiosyncrasies. There are four colleges in Terre Haute, a remarkable number for a city its size. It is the birthplace of Eugene V. Debs, a champion for workers’ rights who ran for president as a socialist five times in the early 20th century. The county’s blue-collar workforce was heavily organized and union halls dotted the city.

Terre Haute was once so defined by its factories it even smelled of them. Big industrial plants lined the banks of the Wabash River, and the odor of fermentation and chemicals was in the air. People are happy that the smell is gone now. But it drifted away as the plants closed down, and with it went countless good-paying jobs.

The Democratic-leaning ingredients in town diminished, too. Many young people now leave, seeking better jobs in bigger cities. As industry crumbled, union membership declined.

Trump won in Terre Haute by 15 percentage points, holding his margin of victory in 2016. But local political observers on both sides of the aisle marveled at the dramatic spike in straight-ticket Republican ballots: 11,744, more than one-quarter of all the presidential votes cast. The county government, for the first time anyone can remember, will now be controlled almost entirely by Republicans.

“If you would have told me 10 years ago we would have more straight-ticket Republicans in this county than Democrats, I’d have said you’re a liar,” said Frank Rush, a Republican radio talk show host who voted for Trump.

Rush said Vigo County might be saying goodbye to its bellwether history, but it remains a barometer for the worries and values of the geographic middle of America. People in growing big cities just can’t understand life in a place like this, where it feels like the country is moving on without them.

“And Trump, love him or hate him, approve or disapprove, he at least gave the impression that he really cared about these folks that thought they were left behind and ignored,” Rush said. “That’s why they rallied to his side.”

Todd Thacker, business manager of the local International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said he’s willing to take part of the blame for the way this election turned out. He tried mightily to persuade his members to “vote your paycheck” and elect Democrats who support organized labor. But he watched as many instead aligned themselves based on polarizing wedge issues — “God, guns and gays,” he derides it.

Thacker is an avid hunter, he has a concealed carry permit and owns many guns. But the polarized political landscape today has, he said, “brainwashed people to think that if you’re a Democrat, you can’t be a patriotic gun-owning flag-waving American.”

Trump managed to stoke that fear and people listened, fueled by misinformation on social media and pundits bellowing all day about how the other side will destroy democracy.

“He’s not a politician, he’s a scam artist,” said Thacker, who tried to remind people that President Barack Obama didn’t come take people’s guns, President Bill Clinton didn’t, either.

His union supported a program called “Unity in the Community,” that as a response to the national reckoning on racism tried to bring together the police and the Black community. One of his members accused him of supporting a “Marxist” movement.

Thacker says typically about 35% of his members vote Republican. This year, he thinks it increased.

The Trump supporters in the union include Craig Rudisel, who spent 23 years in the military before joining the electricians’ local and has a Trump sign as big as a bathtub on his front lawn.

“I’ve had conversation with people I work with and they say ‘you need to support your brotherhood, you need to support your paycheck,”’ said Rudisel, 50. “And I say ‘I have to support my conscience.’”

Rudisel is drawn to Trump’s position on guns, abortion and taxes. He wears a Make America Great Again cap every day, and was unfazed to receive an anonymous typewritten letter in the mail from someone who described in vulgar terms how much they disapprove of his Trump sign. He likes that Trump upsets people, and he doesn’t mind doing it, either.

“He wants to make America great again, and that’s what we want,” he said. “We are tired of liberal progressive ideals. That’s not what our country was founded on and that’s not how this county should be going in the future. I want the country that I grew up in for my grandson and granddaughter.”

Rudisel is proud of Vigo County’s bellwether history. Like many here, he can off the top of his head rattle off the details of the few elections it missed and that is part of why he has clung to the hope that Trump hasn’t lost. Trump has claimed there was widespread voter fraud, despite offering no evidence to support that charge.

Rudisel thinks what happened here is proof. Vigo County and the rest of the bellwethers always get it right and opted for Trump, so he must be the rightful winner, Rudisel thinks.

Other Trump supporters also pointed to Vigo’s past performance as a sign that the election fight might not be over.

Ken Warner, a stockbroker, said he will accept a Biden presidency but he wonders how so many bellwethers could get it wrong, all at once.

Warner, 64, has toggled between Republicans and Democrats, and wasn’t terribly excited about Trump in the 2016 primary. Warner remains uneasy about the president’s personality. He cringed when Trump antagonized governors during the pandemic and hurled childish insults at people such as the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

But he grew more enthusiastic about Trump throughout his presidency. He cheered for Trump’s economic policies. He supported the tax cuts, the tariffs and his tough stance on China.

The Trump era hasn’t been a boon for Indiana’s factory towns. The sector was recovering from the Great Recession when Trump took office, but that began to stall in 2019. Then the coronavirus caused a plunge in factory jobs in the state, which are now down by almost 40,000 from a year ago.

Warner believes if Trump had gotten a second term, things might have improved. He worries the economy will stagnate under a Democratic administration.

“I think his tweets were part of his downfall,” Warner said. “But the people that voted for Trump didn’t vote for him for his personality. They voted for results.”

Joe Etling was certain that the people of Vigo County would punish Trump for his temperament. Every four years, Etling, who has run the county’s Democratic Party for 24 years, is asked by pundits and politicians to guess who will win the presidential election. This year he said Biden.

“People in this county are good, decent people. They treat people with respect, they’re polite and if you’re out and about, people on the streets are going to welcome you. Well, when you hear some of the things that the president says publicly, they’re not real friendly, they’re not real polite, they’re not real courteous,” he said. “My sense is if you had Joe Biden and Donald Trump in a room with people in Vigo County, they would have substantially more in common with Joe Biden than they ever would have Donald Trump. And yet.”

Etling refuses to accept that his county is fully Republican now.

In 2008, he saw how excited this community was about Obama. When Obama came to town, people packed a school gymnasium and screamed like he was a rock star. The county had from 1960 to 2004 voted within 3 percentage points of the national vote, but it broke that streak to vote overwhelmingly for Obama, who won this county by 16 percentage points. That margin narrowed considerably in 2012, when Obama won Vigo County by just a few hundred votes.

Then it swung wildly rightward, awarding Trump huge margins of victory, twice.

“And you would have to agree that those two gentlemen are about as diametrically opposed as anybody that you could think about. And yet people still did that,” Etling said, and so he thinks they can turn it around again.

There was a bright spot for him in 2020. One of the few Democrats elected was Dr. Janie Myers, the new coroner and the first Black woman in history to win countywide office here.

So Etling is already starting to recruit Democratic candidates to run in local races in 2022, and he thinks it can reclaim its bellwether status.

But Tingley, at the county history museum, isn’t sure this place or any place can be a bellwether these days.

“It is all politics of fear and passion. It’s not about voting for who’s right for you. It’s about avoiding the candidate that scares you the most,” she said. “If it gets back to what’s best for the country, what’s best for individuals, what’s best for communities, I think that’s when the bellwether counties all across the country can hit it again.”

In the meantime, the city is trying rebrand itself.

The signs leading into town welcome visitors to the birthplace of the Coca-Cola bottle. A glass company here invented Coke’s iconic contoured container in 1915.

There’s a mural of the bottle painted on the side of the history museum, and around the town are 39 6-foot-tall brightly-painted bottle sculptures. The goal is to promote Terre Haute as a cultural destination, steeped in Americana history.

Tingley would be happy if the city became known for that. It probably would be more reliable than predicting the president every four years.

___

Associated Press writer Josh Boak and Associated Press data journalist Angeliki Kastanis contributed to this report.

Eugene V. Debs and the Endurance of Socialism | The New ...

www.newyorker.com › magazine › 2019/02/18 › euge...

Feb 18, 2019 — Eugene Victor Debs left school at the age of fourteen, to scrape paint and grease off ... turned that into the Social Democratic Party, and ran for President of the United ... “I was walking by the house where I was born,” he wrote.

Left Americana in Trumpland - Jacobin

jacobinmag.com › eugene-debs-socialism-indiana

Jan 21, 2018 — ... footnote in presidential history, as the birthplace and lifelong home of the American socialist movement's most iconic figure, Eugene V. Debs.

Eugene V. Debs - Definition, 1912 Election & S

ocialism ...

   

Dec 2, 2009 — Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) was a labor organizer and socialist leader. In 1885 he ... After embracing socialism, he became the Socialist party's ... Upon his death he was buried in Terre Haute, his home throughout his life.

Eugene Debs | American Experience | Official Site | PBS

www.pbs.org › wgbh › features › wilson-eugene-debs

An outspoken leader of the labor movement, Eugene Debs opposed Woodrow Wilson as the Socialist Party candidate in the 1912 presidential election.

Convict 9653 at 100
POSTED SEPTEMBER 25, 2020 ALLISON DUERK


Update: The recorded and captioned program is now available to stream at this link.

100 years ago, Eugene V. Debs made his fifth and final bid for the presidency as Convict No. 9653. Imprisoned for condemning war, Debs campaigned from his Atlanta prison cell on issues that still resonate today: “real democracy and self-government and the essential rights and liberties of the people.”

“Convict 9653 at 100” will stream live on our Facebook page on October 11th at 3 pm Eastern.


Political Activist


Debs’ first experience in politics was as a young man in Terre Haute, where he served two terms as City Clerk beginning in 1879. In 1884, he ran successfully as a Democrat to represent Terre Haute in the Indiana General Assembly. History considers the 1885 State Assembly a productive legislature, but Debs did not see it that way and chose not to run for another term. By this time his official duties in the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen were demanding much of his time and energy, and the labor movement seemed to Debs to be a promising way to the achievement of his reformist goals

1904 Debs/Hanford Presidential Campaign Poster

The experience of the Pullman Strike taught Debs that major changes were necessary in our laws if workers’ rights were to be advanced, so after his release from Woodstock his efforts were turned more to the political arena. He eventually aligned with the American Socialist Party and ran five times as the party’s Presidential candidate.

Debs progressive idealism showed itself in his political activities. As City Clerk he shocked the morality of citizens by refusing to assess fines on prostitutes since the police were not bringing in the pimps or the business men customers of the women of this illicit trade. In the Socialist Party, Debs was not one for the intra-party squabbles and personal rivalries which often split the party. Debs was the idea man and the great communicator, the never-tiring campaigner and spell-binding orator. He was great at mixing and touching, or in setting down and persuading on a one to one basis. Through the first two decades of the 20th century, the Socialist Party was split over power struggles and differences of opinions, but always united in supporting Debs as its presidential candidate and leading symbol.

During these campaigns the Socialist Party put a number of issues on the national agenda and advanced perhaps by decades the legislation which achieved a number of objectives for working class America. The list includes women’s suffrage (large numbers of Debs supporters were women). It includes legislation restricting child labor, and protecting workers’ rights to join unions and when necessary to strike. It would also include workplace safety, on the railroads and in the mines and factories.

Debs was a tireless campaigner, but the pshysical demands of a presidential campaign were excessive. With no radio and television spots, and with little sympathetic coverage of Progressive, Third Party causes, there was no alternative but to travel incessantly, one city or whistle-stop at a time, in searing heat or numbing cold, before crowds large or small, in whatever hall, park or train station where a crowd could be assembled.

Different from the fury of the campaign trail during these years was his guest editorials for Appeal to Reason. Published in Girard, Kansas, Debs forceful journalism worked wonders for this progressive weekly as it had done earlier for Locomotive Firemens Magazine. Debs’ popularity built the readership of Appeal to as much as a million readers, and spread progressive, Socialist ideas to a readership coming from all walks of life and all social strata.

Debs of course wanted a good vote count, but he saw his presidential campaigns also as educational and his real concern was to spread awareness of his vision of a better society, where justice, fraternity and equality would prevail. Debs ran in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912 and 1920, the last race from Atlanta Prison. The slogan on a campaign poster in 1920 read: “From Atlanta Prison to the White House, 1920,” and a popular campaign button showed Debs in prison garb, standing outside the prison gates, with the caption: “For President Convict No. 9653. “Debs received nearly one million votes that year!



Perhaps the most colorful campaign was in 1908, when Debs used the Red Special Train to whistle-stop the country. There also was a Red Special Band. Debs spoke from the train to enthusiastic crowds dozens of times a day as he toured the country. Political campaigns before television generated interesting and sometimes novel memorabilia. A 1912 almanac (calendar) printed by the Socialist Party has the months of the year bordered by quotes from Debs such as “I’d rather vote for what I want and not get it, than for what I don’t want and get it.”

The measure of Debs and the Socialist Party is not in vote counts alone. A cartoon from the same 1912 campaign portrays the competition for progressive ideas by the parties, ideas such as voting rights for women, restrictions on child labor, and workers’ right to organize unions. It is highly doubtful if the Republicans and Democratics would have been giving at least lip service to such progressive ideas as early as 1912 had not the Socialists been popularizing these ideas since 1900. In the cartoon just mentioned, Debs is shown skinny dipping, and sees Teddy Roosevelt making off with his cloths. Another candidate is watching from behind bushes, minus his clothes, and says: “Don’t be too upset, Gene, he’s already taken ours.”

In recorded history and in popular imagination Debs is portrayed in extremes either positive or negative. The negative image portrays a radical labor baron, “King Debs,” trying to take over the railroads and destroy property rights, as unpatriotic anti-war extremist who failed miserably five times in tries for the presidency, or less negatively perhaps as a kind, great-hearted idealist who simply did not grasp the realities of economic life and human nature. The positive image shows a highly effective union leader of turn-of-the-century America, a kind, big hearted and deeply loved man, respected even by prominent Terre Haute business men who chose to overlook his radical leanings. Debs case is often cited as an example of the failure of our legal system to protect his constitutional right of freedom of speech. In organized labor there is enduring respect for Debs as one of the giants among the pioneers of the American labor movement. His kiosk stands in the Labor Hall of Fame, Department of Labor, Washington, DC as a tribute to his contributions to American labor. Labor Unions are among the most active supporters of the Eugene V. Debs Foundation and union members from across Indiana and the Midwest are in regular attendance each fall when an annual award banquet is held in Terre Haute.

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Do masks with antiviral coating offer more protection?

By The Associated Press


Do masks with antiviral coating offer more protection?

It’s an intriguing idea, but there haven’t been enough rigorous independent studies to establish whether antiviral masks are better at protecting wearers or preventing the spread of the virus.

Their specifics vary, but many antiviral masks are supposed to be made or coated with materials that have extra virus-fighting properties, such as copper.

Websites for several antiviral masks do not provide detailed information about how researchers tested their safety or effectiveness, said Hyo-Jick Choi, a materials science expert at the University of Alberta.

But it usually takes years to design and test new mask technology, said Choi, who is part of a group that has been developing a different type of antiviral mask since before the pandemic.

Masks marketed as being “antiviral” often cost more than N-95 and surgical masks. A single coated mask can cost up to $10; disposable surgical masks and N-95 masks sell at large retailers for between 35 cents and $3 per mask.

Choi said a simpler way to boost the effectiveness of the masks you’re already using is to ensure you’re putting them on, wearing them and taking them off correctly.

Full Coverage: Viral Questions

And no mask can fully protect wearers, “but almost any mask can help to protect others around the wearers,” said Jiaxing Huang, a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University.

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EXPLAINER: 

What’s with the confusion over masks?

By ANDREW SELSKY

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A sign in multiple languages encourages citizens to wear face coverings to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, in Portland, Maine.

 (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)


A lot of the effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus comes down to a seemingly simple concept: Wearing a mask.

But the issue has proven a thorny one. Health authorities have changed their guidance on who should wear masks and when to wear them. This has led to some confusion and even suspicion.

But since the coronavirus first appeared, authorities have gained a better understanding of how it spreads and how masks can help stop that spread.

Here’s a look at how what we know about masks has changed, and how government officials are increasingly getting behind the idea of mandating the use of masks.

WHAT DO THE EXPERTS SAY?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has long advised people to wear masks because they help prevent people who are infected — whether they know it or not — from spreading the coronavirus.

But last week, the CDC added a new reason: masks can also protect wearers who are not infected, though to a lesser degree.

The agency referred to a study led by Japanese researchers that found masks block about 60% of the amount of virus that comes out of an infected person. When an uninfected person wearing a mask is near an infected person who isn’t wearing one, the amount of virus the uninfected person inhaled fell by up to 50%.

But when BOTH people are wearing masks, that produced the best result. The decline in virus particles reaching the second person was close to 70%.

So, if everyone wears a mask when social distancing is not feasible, the infection rate will be cut, experts say.

A study done in Denmark, published Wednesday in Annals of Internal Medicine, seemed to question whether and to what extent masks protect the wearer. The study had a number of flaws, however, as the researchers acknowledged. For example, study participants who were supposed to wear masks sometimes didn’t. And the work was done at a time when not much coronavirus was spreading in Denmark – meaning there wasn’t a lot of data to draw conclusions from.

Either way, experts say masks, while helpful, are not perfect. Keeping a distance, being in well-ventilated areas, and washing hands are also important ways to reduce risk.

HOW IS THIS DIFFERENT FROM WHAT THEY’VE SAID BEFORE?

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams tweeted on Feb. 29: “Seriously people — STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus”

But today, Adams has a different message pinned to the top of his Twitter account.

“When we can’t stay six feet away from others, please, I’m begging you, wear a face covering,” Adams says in the videotaped July 2 tweet.

And in July, the CDC stressed that cloth face coverings are a critical tool in the fight against COVID-19, particularly when everyone wears them.

Similarly, the World Health Organization early on had recommended against mask-wearing for the general public, saying they might lead to a false sense of security and that people who didn’t know how to use them properly could infect themselves.

The World Health Organization changed its advice in June, and now says people should wear them when they can’t be socially distant.

WHAT ARE THE FEDERAL REQUIREMENTS ON MASKS?

In the United States, there are none. The CDC has made only recommendations.

And the attitude from the White House has been casual at best. Before the election, President Donald Trump often ridiculed his then Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, for wearing one whenever he was out in public. The president also held rallies that brought together thousands of supporters, most of them not wearing masks.

Biden, now president-elect, has said repeatedly that there should be a nationwide mask mandate. He has also promised to ask every governor to impose mask rules. For those who refuse, he’s vowed to go around them to seek similar mandates at the county or local level until the entire country is covered.

Some other countries have already mandated mask use, from requiring them everywhere in public to using them on public transportation and in stores.

Full Coverage: Viral Questions

HOW ARE U.S. STATES HANDLING THE SITUATION?

It’s a mix. As of Tuesday, 36 states have some type of mask mandate.

Republican governors in Iowa, North Dakota and Utah — all states that are being hit hard — have recently reversed course and required at least limited mask use. Others have extended or expanded earlier orders.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds cast some doubt Tuesday on the science behind masks even as she imposed a limited mask rule, noting that neighboring states with mask mandates have seen rising numbers of cases, although not as severely as Iowa.

“If you look, you can find whatever you want to support wherever you are at,” she said.

In California, a more stringent mask mandate took effect on Tuesday. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said residents will be required to cover up outdoors, with limited exceptions.

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AP Medical Writer Mike Stobbe contributed to this story from New York.

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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky

LEARN MORE:
– Do I need to wear a mask if I’m 6 feet away from others?
– Does a face mask protect me, or just the people around me?
– Can I use a face shield instead of a mask?

– Does wearing a mask pose any health risks?
– How should I clean and store my face mask?
– Should runners wear a face mask outdoors?

Review: 

In ‘Collective,’ the rot of government corruption
By JAKE COYLE

This image released by Magnolia Pictures shows Cătălin Tolontan in a scene from "Collective." (Magnolia Pictures via AP)

A politicized healthcare crisis, horrifyingly unnecessary death, a crucial election. “Collective,” a piercing documentary about corruption in Romania, may not directly concern current events but it feels urgent and vital just the same.

In 2015, a fire swept through a Bucharest nightclub without emergency exits. Footage early in “Collective” (in theaters and on-demand Friday) captures the frighteningly fast flames engulfing the crowded club just after, fittingly, a punk band scream a song about endemic corruption in the Eastern European country. The fire left 27 dead and 180 injured. But the real scandal came after; another 37 people died of burn wounds that shouldn’t have been life threatening.


It’s in that aftermath that Romanian director Alexander Nanau began trailing the journalists of Gazeta Sporturilor, a sports tabloid that under editor Cătălin Tolontan consistently advanced the story with dogged reporting. They uncovered the heinous reason for the out-of-control bacteria in Romanian hospitals: a firm called Hexi Pharma, along with a mafia network of politically appointed hospital managers, were diluting disinfectant. Seldom will you find an uglier or more apt metaphor for corruption than — in one of the Sporturilor’s breaks — the image of maggots crawling in uncleaned wound.

This image released by Magnolia Pictures  from "Collective." 

(Magnolia Pictures via AP)

So, no, “Collective” is not a walk in the park. But it’s admirably awake to the cause-and-effect tragedies that can follow seemingly slight or obscure governmental decisions. As a journalism drama, it’s as absorbing as “Spotlight” and more sober than “All the President’s Men.” Filmed in a observation style, there are meetings with whistleblowers, photo stake-outs and deep data dives —the nuts and bolts of reporting. But scoops yield no high-fiving celebrations, just mournful disbelief at the wanton cruelty and ineptitude they uncover. “The story is so mind blowing I’m afraid people will think we’re crazy,” one reporter says.

“Collective” take a turn midway, shifting its focus to a newly installed health minister, Vlad Voiculescu who takes over following the resignation of his under-pressure predecessor. A former patients’ rights activist, Voiculescu is strikingly more candid, and gives Nanau remarkable access to his meetings. He seeks immediate reforms to the hospital system but is continually met by bureaucratic red tape and, eventually, a pseudo scandal propagated by a conservative news network. Still, he ever more bluntly beats back against the rot. After six months, his work hangs in the balance in a national election that will see the populist party easily defeat foes of corruption and turn Voiculescu out of a job. “Collective,” a document of a modern corruption that can fester and thrive anywhere, ends with a mortifying shudder and tears at a gravesite.

“Collective,” a Magnolia Pictures release, is unrated by the Motion Picture Association of America but contains violent imagery. In Romanian with subtitles. Running time: 109 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.

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Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

WHY ALMO WOULDN'T RECOGNIZE BIDEN, YET

US drops case against ex-Mexican general after pressure

“It is ironic ... that Trump began his administration screaming about Mexicans who were bringing in drugs and ends his presidency by preventing the prosecution of a Mexican general who is a drug lord.”

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, MICHAEL R. SISAK and MARK STEVENSON

 In this Sept. 16, 2016 file photo, Defense Secretary Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, left, and Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, salute during the annual Independence Day military parade in Mexico City's main square. U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020, formally dropped a drug trafficking and money laundering case against Gen. Cienfuegos, a decision that came after Mexico threatened to cut off cooperation with U.S. authorities unless the general was sent home. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)


NEW YORK (AP) — The United States on Wednesday dropped a high-profile drug trafficking and money laundering case against a former Mexican defense secretary, an extraordinary reversal that followed an intense pressure campaign from Mexico.

The full scope of Mexico’s pressure was not clear and officials were vague about what led them to drop charges in a case they celebrated as a major breakthrough just last month, when federal agents nabbed retired Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos in Los Angeles.

Two officials, one Mexican and one American, said Mexico’s tactics involved threatening to expel the Drug Enforcement Administration’s regional director and agents unless the U.S. dropped the case. But they said that was only part of the negotiation. They would not elaborate.

The officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

A judge in New York City approved the dismissal of charges on Wednesday, capping a lightning-fast turnaround in a case that drew loud protests from top officials in Mexico and threatened to damage the delicate relationship that enables investigators in both countries to pursue drug kingpins together.

Mexico depicted the case as a victory for the country’s sovereignty and its demand to be treated as an equal partner by the United States, a striking position given that most think that Mexico’s court system — and corrupt officials — are the weak links in the country’s fight against drug trafficking.

The U.S. cited America’s relationship with Mexico as its reason for dropping the case.

“The United States determined that the broader interest in maintaining that relationship in a cooperative way outweighed the department’s interest and the public’s interest in pursuing this particular case,” Seth DuCharme, the acting U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, told the judge at a hearing.

He said the decision to drop the charges was made by Attorney General William Barr.

Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said Wednesday that he told Barr that the U.S. had to choose between trying Cienfuegos and having continued cooperation.

“It is in your hands. You can’t have both,” Ebrard said he told Barr. “You cannot have close cooperation with all of Mexico’s institutions and at the same time do this.”

The Justice Department declined comment when asked about Ebrard’s account.

By early evening, a charter jet carrying Cienfuegos, accompanied by U.S. Marshals, had landed in Mexico.

Cienfuegos, 72, was secretly indicted by a federal grand jury in New York in 2019. He was accused of conspiring with the H-2 cartel in Mexico to smuggle thousands of kilos of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana while he was defense secretary from 2012 to 2018.

Prosecutors said intercepted messages showed that Cienfuegos accepted bribes in exchange for ensuring the military did not take action against the cartel and that operations were initiated against its rivals. He was also accused of introducing cartel leaders to other corrupt Mexican officials.

Mexican officials complained that the U.S. failed to share evidence against Cienfuegos and that his arrest came as a surprise. It also caused alarm within Mexico’s military, which has played a crucial role in operations against drug cartels.

Gladys McCormick, a history professor at Syracuse University who specializes in the U.S.-Mexico relationship, said prosecuting Cienfuegos would have been enormously fraught for the United States.

“Following through on prosecuting Cienfuegos would have compromised intelligence gathering and joint military operations for years to come, which is part of the reason why the original arrest was so scandalous,” McCormick said. “He truly is untouchable and sacrosanct because of both what he represents and the secrets he carries with him.”

Mexico has repeatedly extradited major drug suspects, including at least some former elected officials, for trial in the United States. In the case of Cienfuegos, Mexican officials have taken no official position on whether he is innocent or guilty, saying that was up to the attorney general’s office to decide.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office would decide whether Cienfuegos was placed in custody once he is returned. But given that there are no charges yet in Mexico, he is likely to be set free.

“This does not signify impunity; it means that an investigation will be started,” López Obrador said.

It is rare for a highly prized defendant in a U.S. case to be arrested and then released in short order for reasons of diplomacy. Historically, it has been more likely to occur in cases involving espionage than drug trafficking.

U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan have recently resisted diplomatic efforts by another U.S. ally, Turkey, to get charges dropped against a large state-owned bank accused of violating sanctions on Iran.

Cienfuegos, a general who led Mexico’s army department for six years under then-President Enrique Peña Nieto, was the highest-ranking former Mexican Cabinet official arrested since top security official Genaro Garcia Luna was arrested in Texas in 2019.

Analysts said Cienfuegos is unlikely to face charges in Mexico.

“That is not going to happen, we all know it,” columnist Carlos Loret de Mola wrote in the newspaper El Universal. “He will return to Mexico and be set free, because that is the promise that President López Obrador made to the army.”

Outside the Brooklyn courthouse, defense attorney Edward Sapone noted that Cienfuegos has pleaded not guilty and had planned to prove his innocence.

Cienfuegos spoke little in court, answering a few questions from the judge through an interpreter.

López Obrador has entrusted Mexico’s army and navy with a broader range of tasks than most other previous Mexican presidents, and he faced pressure to win Cienfuegos’ return.

The old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party had previously called on Mexico’s government to pay Cienfuegos’ legal fees, and on Tuesday it celebrated the decision to drop the charges. Party leader Alejandro Moreno wrote in his Twitter account that the party “resolutely supports Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos. ... We should all congratulate ourselves and always support our armed forces.”

Mike Vigil, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s former chief of international operations, said the decision “is nothing more than a gift, a huge gift” from President Donald Trump to López Obrador, probably given as a favor for past help on immigration issues.

He said the chances of Cienfuegos being convicted in Mexico are “slim to none,” noting the former defense secretary’s political connections in Mexico and the country’s idolization of the military.

U.S. civil rights lawyer Ron Kuby said the Cienfuegos case marks an odd capstone to the Trump administration.

“It is ironic ... that Trump began his administration screaming about Mexicans who were bringing in drugs and ends his presidency by preventing the prosecution of a Mexican general who is a drug lord.”

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Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and E. Eduardo Castillo in Mexico City contributed to this report.