31 May 20
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31 May 20
David Sirota | Who Exactly Is Doing the Looting, and Who's Being Looted?
David Sirota, Jacobin
Sirota writes: "We live in an Orwellian era, in which working-class people pilfering convenience store goods is called 'looting.' Rich people stealing hundreds of billions of dollars, on the other hand, is just well-functioning 'public policy.'"
David Sirota, Jacobin
Sirota writes: "We live in an Orwellian era, in which working-class people pilfering convenience store goods is called 'looting.' Rich people stealing hundreds of billions of dollars, on the other hand, is just well-functioning 'public policy.'"
eadlines this morning are all about looting — specifically, looting in Minneapolis, after the police killing of an unarmed African-American man was caught on video. In the modern vernacular, that word “looting” is loaded — it comes with all sorts of race and class connotations. And we have to understand that terms like “looting” are an example of the way our media often imperceptibly trains us to think about economics, crime, and punishment in specific and skewed ways.
Working-class people pilfering convenience-store goods is deemed “looting.” By contrast, rich folk and corporations stealing billions of dollars during their class war is considered good and necessary “public policy” — aided and abetted by arsonist politicians in Washington lighting the crime scene on fire to try to cover everything up.
To really understand the deep programming at work here, consider how the word “looting” is almost never used to describe the plundering that has become the routine policy of our government at a grand scale that is far larger than a vandalized Target store.
Indeed, if looting is defined in the dictionary as “to rob especially on a large scale” using corruption, then these are ten examples of looting that we rarely ever call “looting”:
- “The Fed Bailed Out the Investor Class“: “Thanks to this massive government subsidy, large companies like Boeing and Carnival Cruises were able to avoid taking money directly — and sidestep requirements to keep employees on.”
- “Millionaires To Reap 80% of Benefit From Tax Change In Coronavirus Stimulus“: “The change — which alters what certain business owners are allowed to deduct from their taxes — will allow some of the nation’s wealthiest to avoid nearly $82 billion of tax liability in 2020.”
- “Stealth Bailout’ Shovels Millions of Dollars to Oil Companies“: “A provision of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law gives [companies] more latitude to deduct recent losses. . . . The change wasn’t aimed only at the oil industry. However, its structure uniquely benefits energy companies that were raking in record profits.”
- “The Tax-Break Bonanza Inside the Economic Rescue Package“: “As part of the economic rescue package that became law last month, the federal government is giving away $174 billion in temporary tax breaks overwhelmingly to rich individuals and large companies.”
- “Wealthiest Hospitals Got Billions in Bailout for Struggling Health Providers“: “Twenty large chains received more than $5 billion in federal grants even while sitting on more than $100 billion in cash.”
- “Airlines Got the Sweetest Coronavirus Bailout Around“: “The $50 billion the government is using to prop up the industry is a huge taxpayer gift to shareholders.”
- “Large, Troubled Companies Got Bailout Money in Small-Business Loan Program“: “The so-called Paycheck Protection Program was supposed to help prevent small companies from capsizing as the economy sinks into what looks like a severe recession. . . . But dozens of large but lower-profile companies with financial or legal problems have also received large payouts under the program.”
- “Public Companies Received $1 Billion Meant For Small Businesses“: “Recipients include 43 companies with more than 500 workers, the maximum typically allowed by the program. Several other recipients were prosperous enough to pay executives $2 million or more.”
- “Firms That Left U.S. to Cut Taxes Could Qualify for Fed Aid“: “Companies that engaged in so-called corporate inversion transactions while maintaining meaningful U.S. operations appear to be eligible for two new programs.”
- “The K Street Bailout“: “Lobbyists already got bailed out, in effect, when corporations got bailed out. This is kind of the ultimate in double dipping; corporations are nursed back to health by the sheer force of Federal Reserve commitments, this allows them to keep their lobbying expenses up, and then lobbyists lobby for free money for themselves.”
This looting is having a real-world effect: as half a billion people across the globe could be thrown into poverty and as 43 million Americans are projected to lose their health care coverage, CNBC reports that “America’s billionaires saw their fortunes soar by $434 billion during the U.S. lockdown between mid-March and mid-May.”
Apparently, though, all of that pillaging is not enough. The looting is now getting even more brazen: President Trump is floating a new capital gains tax cut for the investor class, while the New York Times notes that House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s new proposal “to retroactively lift a limit on state and local tax deductions would largely funnel money to relatively high earners.”
We don’t call this “looting” because it is being done quietly in nice marbled office buildings in Washington and New York.
We don’t call this “looting” because the looters wear designer suits and are very polite as they eagerly steal everything not nailed down to the floor.
We don’t call this “looting,” but we should — because it is tearing apart our nation’s social fabric, laying waste to our economy, and throwing our entire society into chaos.
NYPD Officers Drive SUV Into Black Lives Matter Protesters
What We Know About the Nationwide Protests Over George Floyd's Death
Dylan Scott and Libby Nelson, Vox
Excerpt: "Protests over the police killing of George Floyd, and the larger problem of racial prejudice in American criminal justice, spread across the country on Friday night and continued Saturday."
READ MORE
Dylan Scott and Libby Nelson, Vox
Excerpt: "Protests over the police killing of George Floyd, and the larger problem of racial prejudice in American criminal justice, spread across the country on Friday night and continued Saturday."
READ MORE
New York City police officer vehicles driving into a crowd of protesters. (photo: Screenshot/Pier Garapon)
NYPD Officers Drive SUV Into Black Lives Matter Protesters
Blake Montgomery, The Daily Beast
Montgomery writes: "Video said to be taken Saturday night amid protests in Brooklyn shows New York City Police Department vehicles driving into a crowd of protesters."
READ MORE
Blake Montgomery, The Daily Beast
Montgomery writes: "Video said to be taken Saturday night amid protests in Brooklyn shows New York City Police Department vehicles driving into a crowd of protesters."
READ MORE
Dana Boente during a county sheriff listening session with President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb. 7, 2017. (photo: Andrew Harrer/Getty Images)
FBI's Top Lawyer, Dana Boente, Ousted Amid Fox News Criticism for Role in Flynn Investigation
Julia Ainsley and Pete Williams, NBC News
Excerpt: "After a 38-year career with the Justice Department, the FBI's top lawyer Dana Boente was asked to resign on Friday. Two sources familiar with the decision to dismiss Boente said it came from high levels of the Justice Department rather than directly from FBI Director Christopher Wray."
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Julia Ainsley and Pete Williams, NBC News
Excerpt: "After a 38-year career with the Justice Department, the FBI's top lawyer Dana Boente was asked to resign on Friday. Two sources familiar with the decision to dismiss Boente said it came from high levels of the Justice Department rather than directly from FBI Director Christopher Wray."
READ MORE
Revelers celebrate Memorial Day weekend at Osage Beach of the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri. (photo: Twitter/Lawler50/Reuters)
Social Distancing Strictures Fall Away as Crowds Gather to Party and Protest
Karen DeYoung, Chelsea Janes, Gregory S. Schneider and Scott Farwell, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "'We're not in L.A. or New York,' she observed. 'We're at Lake of the Ozarks, and if there were as many people here as there was last weekend, we'd leave. Besides,' Shapiro said,'we're millennials, we're healthy,' and she and her friends planned to isolate themselves for 14 days after returning home to St. Louis."
Karen DeYoung, Chelsea Janes, Gregory S. Schneider and Scott Farwell, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "'We're not in L.A. or New York,' she observed. 'We're at Lake of the Ozarks, and if there were as many people here as there was last weekend, we'd leave. Besides,' Shapiro said,'we're millennials, we're healthy,' and she and her friends planned to isolate themselves for 14 days after returning home to St. Louis."
EXCERPT:
inneapolis.
“We are still in the middle of a pandemic,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) reminded demonstrators in a news conference where he announced the full mobilization of the state National Guard to control the violent unrest.
Warning that hospitals were “on the verge of being overrun,” Walz said “demonstrators should wear masks and try to practice social distancing.”
Far from the demonstrations, highways were gridlocked and beaches and roadsides were crowded around Cape Canaveral, Fla., as thousands gathered to view the launch of the SpaceX capsule carrying NASA astronauts to the International Space Station. In some spots, the waterfront was crammed with no social distancing, even as beachside restaurants took temperatures and spaced tables far apart.
President Trump, Vice President Pence and their official parties who gathered with other VIPs to watch the launch at the Kennedy Space Center were not seen wearing face masks.
Ace Speedway in Elon, N.C., was rebuked last weekend by Gov. Roy Cooper (D) for “dangerous and reckless” flouting of state regulations banning outdoor gatherings of more than 25 people, after maskless thousands stood together in the grandstands. On Saturday, however, the speedway parking lot was overflowing, and hundreds more stood in line two hours before the 7 p.m. race time.
Temperatures were taken at the entrance, where a sign advised patrons to cover their mouths when sneezing and to wash their hands or use sanitizers. Limits were posted on how many mechanics could gather around cars in the pit — where most wore face masks. But up in the stands, there was neither social distancing nor masks.
“It’s not a crisis. The actual virus is real, but the pandemic is made up,” said Joe Florio, standing in line with his daughter and grandson. A reporter’s interview was cut short when an employee at the gate, speaking for track owner Jason Turner, ordered journalists off the property.
A pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong in December. (photo: Lam Yik Fei/NYT)
In Hong Kong, China Threatens Businesses and Workers
Alexandra Stevenson, The New York Times
Stevenson writes: "China and its allies are using threats and pressure to get business to back Beijing's increasingly hard-line stance toward Hong Kong, leading companies to muzzle or intimidate workers who speak out in protest."
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Alexandra Stevenson, The New York Times
Stevenson writes: "China and its allies are using threats and pressure to get business to back Beijing's increasingly hard-line stance toward Hong Kong, leading companies to muzzle or intimidate workers who speak out in protest."
READ MORE
A bald eagle. (photo: Sonya/Creative Commons)
The Trump Presidency Is the Worst Ever for Public Lands
Wes Siler, Outside
Siler writes: "An analysis conducted by the Center for American Progress (CAP) published on May 21 calculates that the total area of public lands that have already lost protections during Donald Trump's presidency, or which his administration is working to reduce protections for, amounts to almost 35 million acres. That's nearly the size of the entire state of Florida."
Wes Siler, Outside
Siler writes: "An analysis conducted by the Center for American Progress (CAP) published on May 21 calculates that the total area of public lands that have already lost protections during Donald Trump's presidency, or which his administration is working to reduce protections for, amounts to almost 35 million acres. That's nearly the size of the entire state of Florida."
“President Trump is the only president in U.S. history to have removed more public lands than he protected,” reads the analysis.
Our nation’s unique system of public lands are not traditionally a partisan issue: 12.5 million acres of public land were protected during the Reagan administration. George H.W. Bush protected 17.8 million acres. His son protected 3.8 million acres. And, of course, President Obama protected 548 million acres both on land and at sea, by far the most of any president in history.
Six hundred and forty million acres of land in the United States—about 28 percent of our nation’s total land area—are owned by the American people and managed on our behalf by the federal government. The foundational principle of that management is called multiple use. Public lands are used for resource extraction, but that extraction must be balanced with ecosystem conservation, recreation, and the need to maintain these lands so that future generations of Americans can continue to make the most of them. Public lands contribute to the federal government’s bottom line, reducing the amount of taxes all of us must pay to fund our government’s operation. They support industries like oil, gas, and outdoor recreation, and provide plant and animal biodiversity, helping to protect the environment we live in. In short, these wild places, where we camp, run, hunt, climb, and ride, contribute to our quality of life.
Our system is utterly unique. No other country has the same amount of public land that we do, nor anything that approaches our equality of access. This is why it’s so galling that, according to the CAP analysis, “Trump has led the most anti-nature presidency in U.S. history.”
While reducing protections to areas of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah have garnered the most headlines, CAP finds that the Trump administration’s actions in Alaska have covered a much larger area. In that state, 9.2 million acres of old growth forest, 1.5 million acres of polar bear denning habitat, and 6.5 million acres of migratory bird nesting grounds—together our country’s largest areas of unspoiled wilderness—are being threatened by resource extraction.
In total, CAP details 19 projects in various states of completion that spread across 12 states. Only current projects (not simply proposed ones) are included. The administration is also threatening an additional 50 million acres in Alaska. Those active projects include Trump’s border wall, which has destroyed 150 miles of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge, drilling and mining efforts that impact Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and mineral extraction in the California Desert Conservation Area, among others.
CAP’s assessment does not take into account proposed offshore projects, like the draft-form National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which proposes removing protections against oil and gas drilling from a whopping 1.5 billion acres of ocean.
That this scale of degradation to our nation’s natural heritage has taken place in less than a single presidential term is incredibly concerning. Our public lands are a finite resource that, once destroyed, are gone forever. So, here’s another comparison that hopefully puts the scale of this attack in context: Trump has already removed protections from 16.6 times the amount of land that Theodore Roosevelt managed to protect in the form of parks and monuments. Roosevelt’s legacy has survived for more than a century. How long will Trump’s last?
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