RSN: FOCUS: Robert Reich | Unlike Republicans, Democrats Can Govern. But Can They Fight?

 

 

18 August 20

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FOCUS: Robert Reich | Unlike Republicans, Democrats Can Govern. But Can They Fight?

Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog
Reich writes: "It's important to understand the real difference between America's two political parties at this point in history."

s America heads into its quadrennial circus of nominating conventions (this year’s even more surreal because of the pandemic), it’s important to understand the real difference between America’s two political parties at this point in history.

Instead of “left” versus “right,” think of two different core competences. 

The Democratic Party is basically a governing party, organized around developing and implementing public policies. The Republican Party has become an attack party, organized around developing and implementing political vitriol. Democrats legislate. Republicans fulminate.

In theory, politics requires both capacities – to govern, but also to fight to attain and retain power. The dysfunction today is that Republicans can’t govern and Democrats can’t fight.

Donald Trump is the culmination of a half century of GOP belligerence. Richard Nixon’s “dirty tricks” were followed by Republican operative Lee Atwater’s smear tactics, Newt Gingrich’s take-no-prisoners reign as House speaker, the “Swift-boating” of John Kerry, and the GOP’s increasingly blatant uses of racism and xenophobia to build an overwhelmingly white, rural base.

Atwater, trained in the southern swamp of the modern Republican Party, once noted: “Republicans in the South could not win elections by talking about issues. You had to make the case that the other guy, the other candidate, is a bad guy.” Over time, the GOP’s core competence came to be vilification.  

The stars of today’s Republican Party, in addition to Trump, are all pugilists: Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio; Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Georgia’s Brian Kemp; Fox News’s Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson; and attack dogs like Rudolph Giuliani and Roger Stone.  

But Republicans don’t have a clue how to govern. They’re hopeless at developing and implementing public policies or managing government. They can’t even agree on basics like how to respond to the pandemic or what to replace Obamacare with. 

Meanwhile, the central competence of the Democratic Party is running government – designing policies and managing the system. Once in office, Democrats spend countless hours cobbling together legislative and regulatory initiatives. They overflow with economic and policy advisers, programs, plans, and goals. 

But Democrats are lousy at bare knuckles political fighting. Their campaigns proffer policies but are often devoid of passion. (Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid was little more than a long list of detailed proposals.) Democrats seem stunned when their GOP opponents pillory them with lies, rage, and ad hominem attacks. 

This has put Democrats at a competitive disadvantage. Political campaigns might once have been about party platforms, but today’s electorate is angrier and more cynical. Policy ideas rarely make headlines; conflict does. Social media favor explosive revelations, including bald lies. No one remembers Hillary Clinton’s policy ideas from 2016; they only remember Trump’s attacks on her emails.

As a result, the party that’s mainly good at attacking has been winning elections – and pushed into governing, which it’s bad at. In 2016, the GOP won the presidency, along with control over both chambers of Congress and most governorships. On the other hand, the party that’s mainly good a governing has been losing elections – pushed into the role of opposition and attack, which it’s bad at. (House speaker Nancy Pelosi, however, seems to have a natural gift for it.)

This dysfunction has become particularly obvious – and deadly – in the current national emergency. Trump and Senate Republicans have let the pandemic and economic downturn become catastrophes. They have no capacity to develop and implement strategies for dealing with them. Their knee-jerk response is to attack – China, Democrats, public health officials, protesters, “lazy” people who won’t work. 

Democrats know what to do – House Democrats passed a comprehensive coronavirus bill in May, and several Democratic governors have been enormously effective – but they’ve lacked power to put a national strategy into effect. 

All this may change in a few months when Americans have an opportunity to replace the party that’s bad at governing with the one that’s good at it. After all, Joe Biden has been at it for most of the past half century. 

Trump and the GOP will pull out all the stops, of course. They’ve already started mindless, smarmy attacks. 

The big question hovering over the election is whether Democrats can summon enough fight to win against the predictable barrage. Biden’s choice of running mate, Kamala Harris, bodes well in this regard. Quite apart from all her other attributes, she’s a fierce fighter.

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POLITICO NIGHTLY: What Kamala Harris means to Padma Lakshmi

 

BY RENUKA RAYASAM

Presented by Facebook

With help from Myah Ward NIGHT 2 —The Democratic National Convention rolls on tonight, with speeches from Bill Clinton and Jill Biden. Pregame starts with a live episode of “Four Square” at 8:30 pm ET. For live video, instant analysis, chats with POLITICO reporters and interviews with newsmakers, head to POLITICO’s convention hub: politico.com/dnc 'WE WALKED THE SAME STREETS' — When Kamala Harris became Joe Biden’s running mate, Padma Lakshmi posted a picture of herself and her mom on Instagram, next to a picture of Harris with her mother and sister. “The importance of having someone in the White House who looks like you cannot be overstated,” Lakshmi wrote. Like Harris, Lakshmi has grandparents who lived in the Besant Nagar neighborhood in Chennai in South India. And like Harris, Lakshmi grew up in California, though the “Top Chef” host moved to the U.S. as a child. South Asian culture has become only slightly more mainstream since Lakshmi — and your host — were children. (Turns out both of us spent last week bingeing on the Netflix reality show Indian Matchmaking.) Your host talked to Lakshmi about how she feels about the first woman of color on a presidential ticket. This conversation has been edited. What was your reaction when Biden picked Harris as his running mate? It was the first thing that has given me any excitement or made me engaged in the campaign for a really long time. From a personal point of view, I was really happy because the other major Indian Americans in politics that I know of on any national level are Nikki Haley and Bobby Jindal. Both are people who I do not agree with politically whatsoever. I’m happy also not because she’s Indian American, but because she’s African American and Indian American and the daughter of two immigrants. She ticks off a lot of boxes for the rest of us, the non white-Caucasian-male group. Do you feel like you and Harris share a lot of similarities? Harris’ grandfather lived literally around the corner from mine. So we walked the same streets. We went to the same beach. Our family doctor lives above their apartment, so I went to that apartment building where they live. We shopped at the same stores. The way I feel a kinship with her is through her history through her mother. Her mother came here as a grad student, but has a similar trajectory to my mother. I don't think that I can compare my experience in this country because while she is also half Indian, she experienced life as a Black girl and a Black woman, and that is very, very different from my experience. I would venture to say that she probably had it a lot harder than I did. What do you think it means for the South Asian community to have Harris on the ticket? I felt a huge swell of pride for every immigrant little girl. It would have never occurred to me that I could run for public office. It just was never in my radar. As immigrants you always have this feeling you were a second-class citizen. I can tell you that when I was even 20 or 30 I would have never thought that I would live to see the day that somebody who came from my grandfather’s neighborhood would be on a presidential ticket. I also think it’s great because a lot of Indians are very racist as we know especially against African Americans and darker skin people. The added benefit is that hopefully all these parents out there won't be so upset when their daughter brings home an African American boyfriend. What was the idea behind Taste the Nation, your new Hulu series? We’ve had a lot of vilification of immigrants and immigrant culture in the last four years coming out of Washington and I was sick of the rhetoric. You can tell a lot about a culture by looking at the way it eats. Taste the Nation is really a political show. It’s just masquerading as a food show. That is just an excuse to get to some deeper issues. In the first episode you speak with a Trump supporter — why did you think that was important to do? Maynard Haddad is emblematic of a lot of people in this country. A lot of people who are much more progressive, like myself, have those people in our families, in our friendship circles and at work. A lot of Indian families are Republican, so it was important to show that. Would you ever run for office? There are too many sexy photos of me on the internet for me to run. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly: Coronavirus Special Edition. Nightly is now an interview with Gail Simmons away from a Top Chef judges trifecta. Reach out rrayasam@politico.com or on Twitter at @renurayasam.

A message from Facebook: Facebook launches new Voting Information Center. Facebook is building the largest voter information effort in US history, starting with the new Voting Information Center, where you can find the latest resources about voting in the 2020 election. Our goal is to help register 4 million voters. Explore our new Voting Information Center now.

The control room where live feeds are managed is in operation for the virtual DNC convention at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee. | Getty Images

FIRST IN NIGHTLY

TEACHERS UNIONS TEST GOODWILL — Teachers won newfound respect at the start of the pandemic as parents learned just how difficult it was to teach their kids at home. But teachers unions now risk squandering the outpouring of goodwill by threatening strikes, suing state officials and playing hardball during negotiations with districts, Megan Cassella, Nicole Gaudiano and Mackenzie Mays write. In California, unions fought Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom hard for teacher protections and job security as campuses were shuttered, and are demanding tax hikes to fill education budget shortfalls. In New York City, a caucus within the United Federation of Teachers called on the union to threaten “severe disruption” if the governor and the mayor implement what they describe as “reckless reopening plans.” The Florida Education Association is in a legal battle with state officials to try to overturn an order requiring schools to physically open five days a week or risk losing state funding. Safety concerns have been at the heart of union objections to reopening as they confront teachers getting sick or even dying from Covid-19. Many union leaders have worked collaboratively with management on contracts and reopening plans, and they have spent months calling for additional federal money to secure personal protective equipment and allow for socially distanced instruction. But more recently, a coalition including some local unions has pushed further, laying out demands such as police-free schools, a cancellation of rents and mortgages, and moratoriums on both new charter programs and standardized testing. Those threats and demands have angered some lawmakers, school districts, parents and conservative groups who argue that teachers are taking advantage of the chaos the pandemic has caused to push policy changes the unions have wanted for years.

PLUG IN WITH PLAYBOOK AT THE DNC : Join POLITICO Playbook Co-authors Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman from Aug. 18 to 20 for "Plug in with Playbook," our new political show making its virtual debut at this year's conventions. Get the latest developments on presumptive nominee Joe Biden's campaign, analysis of down-ballot races, a look at this cycle’s swing states, along with other election-related updates. Featured guests include DNC chair Tom Perez, convention CEO Joe Solmonese, Biden campaign senior adviser Symone Sanders, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and others. REGISTER HERE.

COVID-2020

NEW DEMOCRAT GROWS OLD — Nightly’s Myah Ward spoke with founding editor John Harris about Democrats’ relationship with Bill Clinton after #MeToo and the rise of Bernie Sanders, and what Biden’s nomination means for the future of Clintonism. This conversation has been edited. The Democratic Party has a more complex relationship with Bill Clinton than it did four years ago. His reputation is considerably depressed over its high point when he left office. Close to 75 percent of Americans approved of his job performance, and that was overwhelmingly high among Democrats. And so he's roughed up around the edges, for two reasons. One, ideologically, the party has moved to a good bit left of what his record was in the 1990s. But I’d make clear that’s the record. That’s not necessarily what Bill Clinton himself would have wished for, if he wasn't governing against a Republican Congress. And it doesn’t necessarily reflect how he, like the party, has moved left in the 20 years since then. But ideologically his record is not progressive enough for today's generation of progressives. And obviously the #MeToo allegations. Sexual indiscretion haunted his political career even before the presidency. It haunted it during the presidency. And I think in the #MeToo context, people take an even more grave view of those weaknesses. So his reputation is down, but it’s not out. I think he’s still respected and admired by a large number of Democrats. What does the nomination of Biden mean for Clintonism? If you separate Clintonism from Bill Clinton, it involved trying to find a progressive center. It involved not defying institutions and the established order, but reforming institutions and reforming the political status quo. And doing it from a position of respect, rather than contempt. Certainly not the contempt that Donald Trump has toward establishment politics, but I’d say also the contempt of a different sort on the left. I think Joe Biden really comes from that same place as Clinton. I don’t think Joe Biden is as fluent and articulate of a politician as Bill Clinton, and I don’t think he’s got the kind of robust, fertile, creative policy mind that Bill Clinton at his best had. But fundamentally, I think Biden is a contemporary version of Clintonism. What parts of Clinton’s legacy do you think the new generation of Democrats will carry forward? There’s a fundamental optimism about Bill Clinton’s approach to life and his approach to politics that doesn't reflect the country’s mood at the moment. He acted on the belief that we’ve got problems, but we’re solving them. That the future is going to be better than the present if we work hard. His phrase that there’s nothing wrong with America that can't be solved by what’s right with America. That was the emblematic Clinton line that really does echo for me. Clinton spoke and practiced the politics of persuasion. He believed if reasonable people could listen to reasonable argument, they could be moved. That’s distinct from the politics of mobilization: “I just want to energize people who share my grievances and get them as jacked up as I can. I’m not really trying to change minds. I’m just trying to mobilize minds that are already sympathetic to me.” One doesn't need to excuse the inexcusable in Bill Clinton’s personal life or embrace a set of issue positions that were designed to solve the problems of the 1990s. You can separate yourself from Bill Clinton the person and Bill Clinton the politician, and still see that there was something in his approach to politics that has value. PURPLE REIGN — During the next two weeks, POLITICO reporters will examine the six key states that most observers think will decide who will win November’s election. The series starts with Michigan, and senior politics editor Charlie Mahtesian, Michigan’s own Tim Alberta and Eugene Daniels dive into the state’s Black voter intensity, white working class loyalty to Trump and suburban voters’ move away from the GOP.

Tune in to “Plug in with Playbook” on Wednesday at 9 a.m. ET when Charlie and Holly Otterbein take a look at Pennsylvania. Mea culpa: In Monday’s newsletter, we misidentified who Jeff Weaver was assisting with DNC speechwriting. Weaver helped Sen. Bernie Sanders write his Monday night remarks.

FROM THE EDUCATION DESK

Notre Dame administered 418 coronavirus tests Monday, according to school-provided statistics. Of those, 80 were positive, a rate of 19 percent. Michigan State University also announced today that it was cancelling nearly all in-person classes for undergraduates, as well as closing residence halls to undergrads, with few exceptions.       AROUND THE NATION RETURN TO SENDER — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced today that he was suspending “longstanding operational initiatives” at the United States Postal Service. “To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded,” DeJoy said in a statement. He said “mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are” and that “overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed.” DeJoy’s statement does not address whether changes that have already been made — like removed equipment or changes in operational practices — would be rolled back, Zach Montellaro and Daniel Lippman write. DeJoy also announced that the USPS would expand its task force on election mail, saying “leaders of our postal unions and management associations have committed to joining the task force.” DeJoy is scheduled to testify Friday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The other group concerned about mail — Cannabis reporter Natalie Fertig wrote for POLITICO's Morning Cannabis newsletter: Alongside those concerned about ballot integrity and election security is another group of Americans who care deeply about a successful and functioning Postal Service: the thousands of people in the United States who mail marijuana every year. A quick search of Quora or Reddit turns up long discussions on how to successfully mail marijuana, and the top tip is often the same: use USPS, and mask the scent. “If you like smoking good weed, you should give af about the USPS,” Twitter user Zion Selassie said in a tweet that has been reshared over 32,000 times since Sunday. An investigation by a local Boston TV station in 2018 found that Massachusetts postal inspectors confiscated 434 marijuana packages between January and November that year. A similar investigation by a Colorado news station found that 934 packages of marijuana were confiscated in Colorado in 2017. In both cases, the number of confiscated parcels increased after marijuana was legalized. The reason people use USPS to mail weed: First-class letters and packages are protected under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, and can’t be opened without a search warrant. Parcels sent using private shipping companies such as UPS or FedEx do not have the same protections. Is it legal? Not at all, even in states that have legalized marijuana. The USPS is a federal agency, and mailing marijuana breaks both federal laws against drug distribution and misuse of the mail. If you live in Canada, however, it is legal to mail up to 30 grams of recreational marijuana flower within the country. FROM THE HEALTH DESK COALITION OF THE WILLING — Two weeks ago, while struggling to reopen schools and drive down infection rates without a federal effort to coordinate access to testing, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan pulled together six state leaders to take a drastic step: Try to build one on their own. So many governors were eager to join the coalition that Hogan paused enrollment at 10 out of fear that it would be unable to obtain enough tests. Now, the group is nearing an agreement to purchase 5 million rapid coronavirus tests, in a first-of-its-kind deal designed to slash turnaround times for test results. On the latest POLITICO Dispatch, health care reporter Adam Cancryn gives an inside look at the coalition — and how it hopes to beat the clock ahead of a potentially devastating fall and winter. Listen to the latest POLITICO Dispatch podcast ON THE ECONOMY HUD EXTENDS EVICTION BAN — The Department of Housing and Urban Development will extend a ban on evictions and foreclosures for homes backed by the Federal Housing Administration through the end of the year, administration officials told POLITICO. The ban applies to the roughly 8.1 million homeowners with single-family mortgages insured by the FHA, a HUD agency that backs loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers, financial services reporter Katy O’Donnell writes. ASK THE AUDIENCE Nightly asked you: How have your convention viewing plans shifted with the changes in format and location? Do you plan on watching more or less? Do you have any traditions that you've had to alter or cancel? Send us your thoughts, and we'll include select responses in Friday's edition.   INTRODUCING POLITICO MINUTES: An unprecedented campaign season demands an unconventional approach to news coverage. POLITICO Minutes is a new, interactive content experience that reveals the top takeaways you need to know in an easy-to-digest, swipeable format delivered straight to your inbox. Get a breakdown of what's been learned so far, why it matters, and what to watch for going forward. Sign up for POLITICO Minutes, launching at the 2020 Conventions.     NIGHTLY NUMBER $18 The average interest payments the IRS will begin issuing this week to about 14 million taxpayers who filed their tax returns on time and are due refunds. The interest payments are the result of the extension of this year’s April 15 tax return deadline to July 15. (h/t Tax reporter Aaron Lorenzo) PARTING WORDS PUTTING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC — Nightly’s Tyler Weyant writes: About five decades ago, back in 2016, there was a presidential election. I was a fresh copy editor a few years out of school, working my first presidential contest. When I needed to relax and clear the brain, I’d go play a quick nine holes of golf, alone, at East Potomac Golf Course in the heart of D.C. In 2020, this has a name: The “Emergency 9,” an afternoon or evening half-round of golf. It’s up 15 percent over last year, the National Golf Foundation industry group reports. Like Netflix and Amazon, golf seems to be one of the pandemic’s big winners: In June, golf rounds nationwide were up 14 percent over last year, equaling about 7 million to 8 million more rounds played. This has meant an extra $400 million for course operators. I played twice last week, on vacation in West Virginia and western Maryland, for the first time since early March. People easily distanced. They wore masks in the pro shop. No one pulled the flags out of the holes, avoiding an oft-touched surface. The PGA Tour’s three-tournament playoffs also start this week, capping a mostly successful comeback that saw full travel and only a few positive cases. The return of one of the four majors, the PGA Championship, saw the highest TV ratings for the sport in a year.   A message from Facebook: How Facebook is preparing for the US 2020 election — Launched new Voting Information Center — More than tripled our safety and security teams to 35,000 people — Implemented 5-step political ad verification — Providing greater political ad transparency Learn about these efforts and more.   Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter Renuka Rayasam @renurayasam   FOLLOW US

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RSN: FOCUS | Senate Intelligence Panel Report: Manafort 'Was a Grave Counterintelligence Threat'

 

 

18 August 20

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FOCUS | Senate Intelligence Panel Report: Manafort 'Was a Grave Counterintelligence Threat'

Karoun Demirjian and Ellen Nakashima, The Washington Post
Excerpt: "President Trump's 2016 campaign chairman posed a 'grave counterintelligence threat' due to his interaction with people close to the Kremlin, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday that found extensive contacts between key campaign advisers and officials affiliated with Moscow's government and intelligence services." 

The Senate Intelligence Committee report states that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intelligence officer “on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election,” including the idea that Ukrainian election interference was of greater concern.

The report states that a Russian attorney who met with Manafort, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., and his son-in-law Jared Kushner at Trump Tower in 2016 had “significant connections” to the Kremlin. The information she offered to them was also “part of a broader influence operation targeting the United States that was coordinated, at least in part with elements of the Russian government,” the report states.

But the panel also found that the FBI’s handling of Russian threats to the election were “flawed,” and that the FBI gave “unjustified credence” to other allegations regarding Trump’s Russia ties that were made in a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, “based on an incomplete understanding of Steele’s past reporting record.”

The Senate Intelligence Committee’s three and a half year investigation stands as Congress’s only bipartisan examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election. But the panel’s leaders were noticeably divided along party lines in how they interpreted the significance of the report — particularly concerning Trump’s Russia contacts — a sign that their tome will likely not put to rest the political fights over its substance.

“We can say, without any hesitation, that the Committee found absolutely no evidence that then-candidate Donald Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russian government to meddle in the 2016 election,” acting chairman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said in a statement Tuesday morning, though the acknowledged the “what the Committee did find however is very troubling” and included “irrefutable evidence of Russian meddling.”

Vice Chairman Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), meanwhile, noted “a breathtaking level of contacts between Trump officials and Russian government operatives that is a very real counterintelligence threat to our elections,” and he encouraged “all Americans to carefully review the documented evidence of the unprecedented and massive intervention campaign waged on behalf of then-candidate Donald Trump by Russians and their operatives and to reach their own independent conclusions.”

The committee’s past chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who oversaw the bulk of the investigation, struck a position in the middle.

“One of the Committee’s most important — and overlooked — findings is that much of Russia’s activities weren’t related to producing a specific electoral outcome, but attempted to undermine our faith in the democratic process itself,” he said in a statement. “Their aim is to sow chaos, discord, and distrust. Their efforts are not limited to elections. The threat is ongoing.”

Burr and Warner launched the committee’s probe before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, and sustained the bipartisan investigation over the following three and a half years, even as other congressional investigations into the same matter faltered along partisan lines. Since the Senate Intelligence Committee began its probe, former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III also released a 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, and Trump was impeached and acquitted after Democrats accused him of coercing Ukrainian leaders to interfere in the 2020 election.

The Senate panel’s probe was mostly driven by the committee’s bipartisan staff, who interviewed more than 200 witnesses and wrote thousands of pages detailing their findings. The committee previously released four volumes of their report examining U.S. election security, Russia’s use of social media in disinformation campaigns, the Obama administration’s response to the perceived threat in 2016, and the intelligence community’s joint assessment that Russia had interfered in an attempt to tip the scales in Trump’s favor.

Yet the panel’s effort to maintain a bipartisan approach also not saved it from partisan scrutiny. Last year, the panel came under fire from Senate Republicans after issuing a subpoena for Donald Trump Jr. to come in for a second round of testimony. Some directed their ire specifically at then-chairman Burr; Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), even suggested that Trump Jr. ought to flout the summons.

After his testimony, Trump Jr. was one of several witnesses that the panel referred to the Justice Department for closer scrutiny over discrepancies between their testimony and that of former deputy Trump campaign manager, Rick Gates, a key witness in Mueller’s probe.

Earlier this year, Burr stepped aside as panel chairman after coming under scrutiny over stocks he sold in industries hit badly by the coronavirus pandemic. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has been serving as acting chairman in his place.

Graham also claimed earlier this month that FBI officials had lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee regarding the reliability of information in a dossier of Trump’s alleged Russia ties prepared by British spy Christopher Steele. But Graham never informed the panel of his suspicions before taking them public, and Republicans and Democrats on the committee dispute his assertion.

The report comes as Democrats and Republicans head into their party conventions.

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RSN: Bernie Sanders and the Squad Are Being Marginalized at the DNC

 

18 August 20

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18 August 20 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News CAN ANYONE DONATE $100? - August is turning out to be an uphill battle. We have to avoid another day of flat fundraising. Even a donation as large as $100 would make a big difference. Is there someone? / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Bernie Sanders and the Squad Are Being Marginalized at the DNC Sophia Tesfaye, Salon Tesfaye writes: "Bernie Sanders [spoke] on opening night, but the virtual DNC seems crafted to tune out progressive voices." READ MORE Former first lady Michelle Obama speaks during the first night of the Democratic National Convention. (photo: Democratic National Convention/AP) 'It Is What It Is': Michelle Obama Picks Trump Apart in Gripping DNC Speech Joan E. Greve and Lauren Gamibino, Guardian UK Excerpt: "Michelle Obama eviscerated Donald Trump during her keynote speech at the opening night of the virtual Democratic convention, accusing him of being the 'wrong president for our country' and 'clearly in over his head.'" The former first lady sharply contrasted Joe Biden’s competency and character with that of the president In her most political address and her most pointed criticism of Trump to date, the former first lady called on Americans to “vote for Joe Biden like our lives depend on it” in the November election. “Let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country,” she said. “He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.” The phrase echoed Trump’s own words earlier this month, who, when asked about the United States’ staggering death toll from coronavirus, responded: “is what it is.” Liberals, progressives, moderates and some Republicans came together at the virtual event on Monday night to warn of the threats four more years of a Trump administration pose, and promote visions for a better future. In her address, Michelle Obama specifically referenced her words at the 2016 convention, in which she told Democrats: “When they go low, we go high.” Obama said tonight, “Going high is the only thing that works.” She then added: “But let’s be clear: going high does not mean putting on a smile and saying nice things when confronted by viciousness and cruelty. Going high means taking the harder path. It means scraping and clawing our way to that mountain top.” Nearly four years after leaving the White House, the former first lady remains hugely popular figure within the party, and among Black women in particular, as well as with some of those outside the party.  In recent years, she published a best-selling memoir called Becoming, traveled the country on a book tour that was later made into a documentary, helped found a new voting rights organization, and recently launched a podcast. “You know I hate politics,” she said in her speech, repeating a truism that has always disappointed her most ardent supporters, some of whom attempted to draft her into the 2020 primary race. But it appeared to make her an even more powerful character witness, as she sharply contrasted Joe Biden’s personality record with Trump’s, calling the former vice-president, who served under her husband president Barack Obama, a “profoundly decent man” who will “tell the truth and trust science”. “He knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic and lead our country,” she said. Trump succeeded Barack Obama in 2017 and promptly set out to undo many of Obama’s achievements on health care, the environment and foreign policy, among others. Trump also routinely criticizes Obama’s job performance. Biden’s sense of empathy was also a key focus of Michelle Obama’s speech. Speaking of the national reckoning on racism sparked by the police killing of George Floyd in May, she said: “whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy”. Tragedy has followed Biden, from the deaths of his first wife and baby daughter after he was elected to the Senate in 1972, to the death of his son Beau from brain cancer in 2015. “His life is a testament to getting back up, and he is going to channel that same grit and passion to pick us all up, to help us heal and guide us forward,” she said of Biden. A speech like that would typically be met with thunderous applause. But this year, praise was recorded online. Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris praised Obama for “speaking truth to power” while Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called her remarks “incredibly powerful” and “deeply moving.” “Because she is not a politician and doesn’t think or speak like one, @MicheleObama is such a powerful communicator,” tweeted David Axelrod, political consultant and former advisor to Barack Obama. “As she is showing again here, she speaks with a moral authority few in public life can summon.” Michelle Obama, who leads an effort to help register people to vote, also spoke about the importance of voting in the 3 November election, which will take place amid a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 170,000 Americans and infected more than 5 million in the US. In the video, she wore a gold chain necklace that said “VOTE.” Her remarks came as Democrats in Washington have also railed against recent cuts to the US Postal Service, which is headed by a Trump ally and Republican donor. The changes are delaying mail deliveries around the country, raising concerns about whether mail-in ballots will be sent out and returned on time ahead of the election. Trump, who lags Biden in some national and state polls, has denounced efforts by some states to expand voting-by-mail options and spread misinformation to undermine the practice, which is seeing huge demand due to the coronavirus pandemic. Due the coronavirus, Michelle Obama’s remarks were recorded before Biden’s announcement last Tuesday that he had chosen Harris as his running mate. But the former first lady wrote lengthy posts on her Facebook and Instagram accounts praising Harris, a Black woman born to Jamaican and Indian parents, after she joined the Democratic ticket. Monday’s speech was the fourth Democratic convention address by Michelle Obama, who first introduced herself to the nation during her husband’s groundbreaking campaign. She spoke again in 2012 to urge voters to give him a second term. Michelle Obama returned to the convention stage in 2016, backing former first lady Hillary Clinton over Trump, who had spent years pushing the lie that Barack Obama was not born in the US and was ineligible for the presidency.

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A police vehicle passes protesters in Pittsburgh. (photo: Jared Wickerham/Pittsburgh City Paper)

Pittsburgh Police 'Abduct' Protest Organizer in Broad Daylight (Video)
Graig Graziosi, Independent
Graziosi writes: "Protesters in Pittsburgh are demanding answers from the city's mayor after an activist was abducted by plainclothes officers into an unmarked van on Saturday." 

A video captured the moments after the protester, Matthew Cartier, 25, was pulled into an unmarked van by the city's police.

Mr Cartier was helping to lead the protest at the time of his arrest.

The next day, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto held a press conference during which a city police incident commander explained the department's rationale for abducting the protester.

"Watching these tactics, [Mr Cartier's] refusal to cooperate and the information that we were given ... we decided to effect a low visibility arrest of the individual because when high visibility stuff takes places with these marches, it tends to attract a crowd and incite them further," the police commander said. "So we decided low visibility was the best way to do it and it also gave us the ability if he suddenly started cooperating to call the arrest off."

Ryan Deto, a reporter for the Pittsburgh City Paper, obtained the criminal complaint against Mr Cartier, which police used to justify their arrest.

"According to the criminal complaint, Pittsburgh Police's rational for rolling up & arresting Matthew in an unmarked van, was that he 'startled drivers' because he was marshaling the protest," Mr Deto wrote on Twitter."According to the criminal complaint, Pittsburgh Police's rational for rolling up & arresting Matthew in an unmarked van, was that he 'startled drivers' because he was marshaling the protest," Mr Deto wrote on Twitter.

Mr Cartier was marching with the youth activist organisation Black, Young, and Educated, which has led 11 demonstrations in the city in recent weeks. He said the police lured him towards the van by pretending to be lost and in need of directions.

"The Pittsburgh Police approached the bike perimeter in an unmarked van and lured me closer by pretending to need directions around the march," he wrote on Twitter. "@billpeduto answer for this you rat."

Mr Peduto said the video of the arrest made him "uncomfortable," according to CBS affiliate KDKA 2 Pittsburgh.

"When we look at pop-out as a tactic, especially with officers who are in plain clothes, we have to examine when that is appropriate," Mr Peduto said. "We have to have an understanding if that is a tactic that should be utilised for a protest, and if so, when. And if when, why."

In a tweet on Saturday, Mr Peduto suggested that a protest blocking traffic was in violation of the city's code.

"The right to assemble is a guaranteed right, the right to shut down public streets, is a privilege," he wrote. "That privilege is sanctioned by laws and codes. In Pittsburgh, we worked w ACLU & CPRB to create our codes."

The ACLU of Pennsylvania confirmed that they worked on the codes alongside the city's leadership, but also said it appeared the officers were in violation of those guidelines.

"However, based on eyewitness accounts, the arresting officers were in clear violation of their own guidelines. According to those who were there, the law enforcement officers involved made no effort to work with protest leaders to clear the area and gave no clear dispersal order," an ACLU spokesperson wrote on Twitter. "Instead, they tricked a protest leader to approach them and then whisked him away. The ACLU of Pennsylvania has never suggested that the snatch-and-stash arrest of a peaceful demonstrator is ever acceptable."

Police officials claim they warned Mr Cartier "several times" not to block intersections during the group's march.

Mr Cartier said that the individual sitting in the passenger seat grabbed him as several other men "sprang out of the back of the van heavily armed" and arrested him. He said he was searched and then taken to the county jail.

"The actions taken by the city's police department and tacitly endorsed by @billpeduto are horrifying. Every protester must now live in fear of getting grabbed by the police in such a violent and terrifying manner," he said.

Mr Cartier is being charged with failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and obstructing highways and other public passages. He was initially facing five total charges, which included risking a catastrophe and being an unauthorized person directing traffic, but the city dropped those charges.

Mr Cartier's legal representation, attorney Lisa Middleman, issued a statement on social media condemning the city's actions.

"I have no intention of trying my client's case in the court of public opinion, but I am disturbed by leadership's failure to admit the errors in judgement and tactics that are designed to have a chilling effect on the exercise of civil liberties and constitutional rights," she wrote. "If we are to have any meaningful dialogue about the future of policing in this city and county, a better effort must be made to address the concerns of the community. Demanding communication under threat of arrest is not an honest effort to encourage dialogue."

She said that the leadership's failure to "meaningfully engage with the actual people whose day-to-day lives are impacted by our broken legal system" is why so many people fear and distrust the police.

"The responsibility to change that lies with our elected and appointed officials," she wrote. "And the mayor's 'serious concerns' must result in serious action."

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Purdue Pharmaceutical is the Maker of OxyContin. (photo: CBS News)

US States Seek $2.2 Trillion From OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma - Filings
Mike Spector, Reuters
Spector writes: "In filings made as part of Purdue's bankruptcy proceedings [...] the states said Purdue, backed by the wealthy Sackler family, contributed to a public health crisis that has claimed the lives of roughly 450,000 people since 1999." 

EXCERPT:

.S. states claimed they are owed $2.2 trillion (1.68 trillion pounds) to address harm from OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP's alleged role in America's opioid epidemic, accusing the drugmaker in new filings of pushing prescription painkillers on doctors and patients while playing down the risks of abuse and overdose.

In filings made as part of Purdue's bankruptcy proceedings that were disclosed on Monday, the states said Purdue, backed by the wealthy Sackler family, contributed to a public health crisis that has claimed the lives of roughly 450,000 people since 1999 and caused strains on healthcare and criminal justice systems. The filings cited more than 200,000 deaths in the U.S. tied directly to prescription opioids between 1999 and 2016.

In large states such as California and New York, claims alone totaled more than $192 billion and $165 billion, respectively. Forty-nine U.S. states, Washington, D.C. and various territories are making the claims. Oklahoma settled litigation with Purdue last year.

Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019 under pressure from more than 2,600 lawsuits brought by cities, counties, states, Native American tribes, hospitals and others. The lawsuits said the company, and in some cases the Sacklers, used deceptive marketing and took other improper steps to flood communities with prescription opioids.

The company and family have denied the allegations and pledged to help combat the opioid epidemic, including by providing addiction treatment drugs and overdose reversal medications under development.

In response to the state claims, Purdue said it continues to work toward resolving litigation and emerging from bankruptcy, and that it is typical for claims from various creditors to be "filed in amounts substantially larger than what is ultimately allowed by the court."

Sackler representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Purdue and the Sacklers have pointed to fentanyl and heroin as more significant culprits in the opioid crisis. States in their filings, though, pointed to National Institute on Drug Abuse research estimating that about 80% of heroin abusers previously took prescription opioids.

In addition to the assertions from states, Purdue faces claims exceeding $18 billion from the U.S. Justice Department on account of potential penalties resulting from criminal and civil investigations.

In filings tied to Purdue's bankruptcy case, federal prosecutors said Purdue contributed to false claims being made to federal healthcare insurance programs by allowing doctors to write medically unnecessary opioid prescriptions that were at times tainted by illegal kickbacks, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

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'Losing custody of her son had plunged Cynthia Abcug head-first into the world of QAnon YouTube.' (image: The Daily Beast/Getty Images)

QAnon Incited Her to Kidnap Her Son and Then Hid Her From the Law
Will Sommer, The Daily Beast
Excerpt: "Beguiled by far-right conspiracy theories that foster care was a front for child sex-trafficking, Cyndie Abcug allegedly planned to kidnap her son."

art Two of a Two-Part Series

Cyndie Abcug had a gun, a QAnon conspiracy theorist for a bodyguard, and a conviction that “deep state” cabal agents had abducted her 7-year-old son.

Abcug, 50, also had a plan, according to a police report: an armed assault on a Colorado foster home to “free” her son. Abcug’s 15-year-old daughter had tipped off sheriff’s deputies to the alleged scheme, fearful that people would be hurt in what Abcug purportedly called the “raid.” 

Soon, there would be an arrest warrant with Abcug’s name on it. The motley assortment of conspiracy theorists surrounding Abcug convinced her it was time to flee her suburban Denver home and go on the run. And there was only one man they thought could help them: QAnon YouTube star Field McConnell. And so, in September 2019, Abcug embarked on a months-long, peripatetic journey of more than 5,500 miles through the heart of the American conspiracy-theorist underground.

In Part One of this two-part series, The Daily Beast reported on the clandestine hub of QAnon believers orbiting around McConnell, a former airline pilot who’s reinvented himself as a QAnon YouTuber with an organization called the Children’s Crusade. 

McConnell and his allies in “E-Clause,” a fringe law group that deploys bizarre legal tactics reminiscent of far-right “sovereign citizen” groups, have focused on Abcug and other mothers who have lost custody of their children. In rambling YouTube videos, McConnell and his associates turn these mothers and their children into cause célèbre victims of the supposed deep state—while collecting donations and views along the way.

“It’s kind of this bastard mix of conspiracy theories, sovereign [citizens], and just straight-up scamming people,” said Meko Haze, an independent journalist who has tracked McConnell’s group.

Fans of McConnell and his associates have been charged with a series of bizarre crimes. In March, a Kentucky mother who subscribes to E-Clause’s strange legal theories about child custody laws allegedly abducted her twin daughters. An Illinois woman obsessed with theories about tortured “mole children” promoted by McConnell associate Timothy Charles Holmseth allegedly traveled to New York City with a car full of illegal knives, reportedly talking about a plan to kill former Vice President Joe Biden. 

And in June, a Massachusetts man allegedly led police on a high-speed chase with his five children in a minivan, all the while begging QAnon for help and talking about a Holmseth video about Hillary Clinton eating babies.

Abcug’s long run from the law suggests something even more dangerous about QAnon. According to police and court records, as well as published YouTube interviews with people around McConnell and Abcug, QAnon has inspired the creation of an entire network devoted to abetting fugitive QAnon believers and hiding them from law enforcement.

It’s not clear why Abcug lost custody of her son in January 2019. After she did, though, she turned her lurid beliefs about child sex-trafficking in Colorado’s child welfare system into a budding career as a QAnon star. She became a hit on QAnon YouTube shows. Her story resonated with people who believe the pro-Trump mega-conspiracy’s claims that Trump is poised to execute his opponents and destroy a world-spanning cabal of cannibal-pedophiles.  

Losing custody of her son had plunged Abcug head-first into the world of QAnon YouTube, where a web of QAnon personalities comfort mothers who have lost custody of their children. In this telling, children who are put in the court-ordered custody of relatives or foster parents have in fact been kidnapped so a cabal that controls the Democratic Party and Hollywood can sexually abuse them or drink their blood in Satanic rituals. 

Abcug met with a group of QAnon believers in her state who promised they could help her regain custody of her son and gave her a stack of QAnon awareness bracelets. And then she caught the attention of McConnell and the Children’s Crusade.

McConnell, a retired Navy and commercial airline pilot who lived in Wisconsin until his arrest on stalking charges last November, is the high chief of a particular flavor of QAnon focused on demonizing child-welfare workers as agents of the cabal.

In an August 2019 episode of his YouTube show, McConnell warned Abcug not to get a lawyer to fight for custody of her son. Instead, McConnell said, he would just tell Donald and Melania Trump about her case.

“You’re not going to need an attorney,” McConnell said. “Attorneys are not the solution, they’re the problem. I will get all your information where it needs to go, which is Trump.” 

In mid-September, McConnell’s group dispatched Ryan Wilson, a QAnon supporter from Arkansas, to protect Abcug from what she and her fans increasingly saw as a deep-state attempt to destroy her. 

Abcug described Wilson to her daughter as a trained sniper, and Abcug’s daughter told police that Wilson was armed. Abcug began to only leave her home for meetings with other QAnon believers, according to the police report, and Wilson went with her everywhere. Abcug bought a gun and made plans to train at a shooting range.

“Abcug had gotten into some conspiracy theories and she was ‘spiraling down it,’” a police report about Abcug reads.

Wilson and Abcug allegedly began planning what they described as a “raid,” according to statements Abcug’s daughter later made to police, an alleged attack on the foster home where Abcug’s son was living. The QAnon believers claimed to have figured out the address of the foster home and described the people running the home as “evil Satan worshipers” and “pedophiles.” 

Abcug’s YouTube appearances had won her another supporter: Joseph Ramos, a Colorado medical student who became a sort of assistant to Abcug after seeing her case on McConnell’s show. According to YouTube interviews with Ramos, who didn’t respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment, the Children’s Crusade convinced Abcug that her situation was more dangerous than it actually was.

“They believe or they make Cyndie believe that things are escalating in terms of consequences or in terms of danger,” Ramos said in a series of interviews with NorthWest Liberty News, a right-wing YouTube channel whose host has feuded with McConnell.

Worried that someone would be hurt in the raid, Abcug’s daughter alerted police. But before they could execute an arrest warrant on Abcug, she fled the state with Ramos and Wilson in tow on Sept. 27.

McConnell was surprised to discover Abcug, Ramos, and Wilson at his front door in Plum City, Wisconsin, according to Ramos. 

While staying with McConnell, Ramos heard McConnell talking in what Ramos called “hokey codenames” to a network of associates around the country and in the United Kingdom. A silver-haired Wilson appeared on one of McConnell’s livestreams, where he told McConnell he was carrying a 9mm pistol. 

While at a store in Plum City, Abcug and Ramos received a call from McConnell warning them that law enforcement officials had shown up at his house. Ramos speculated the call might have just been a scheme by McConnell to get them to leave his house, but they fled anyway. 

After leaving Plum City, Abcug and Ramos moved in with a Children’s Crusade supporter in Osceola, Wisconsin, a small town on the Minnesota border. Then, as Children’s Crusade members continued to promise to win custody back for Abcug, she and Ramos traveled to stay with another McConnell ally in Northern Virginia.

While they were on the run, Ramos claims, the Children’s Crusade network wired him and Abcug at least $7,500. The pair was visited intermittently by various McConnell allies, according to Ramos. Sometimes they’d be met by Wilson or Juan O. Savin, a McConnell ally who some Children’s Crusade fans believe is secretly John F. Kennedy Jr. in disguise. 

Along the way, Abcug and Ramos stayed in motel rooms they could pay for with cash and worried about being pulled over by a state trooper who could discover that Abcug was wanted on a warrant. 

“The thing we were most afraid of was being pulled over or having to speak to any authority,” Ramos said. 

As the weeks passed, Abcug became fed up with the Children’s Crusade’s lack of progress on her legal case, according to Ramos. On Oct. 23, having seen no action from the Children’s Crusade action, they drove to Ocala, Florida, where E-Clause chief Christopher Hallett works. 

“I’m really intrigued by this Mr. Hallett and his company E-Clause and what they might do,” Abcug said, according to a Ramos recollection in an interview posted on YouTube.

Eventually, Abcug grew disillusioned with Hallett, too. So, in early November 2019 she and Ramos drove to the small town of Dumas, Arkansas, to see Children’s Crusade board member Sarah Dunklin. Dunklin is described in Arkansas family court records as Wilson’s girlfriend.

Unlike many of McConnell’s associates, Dunklin does have political connections. She’s the county GOP chair in Desha County, Arkansas, and was appointed to a USDA committee by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Dunklin’s father, farmer Bill Dunklin, narrowly lost a Republican state Senate primary in March. 

“My father’s politically connected, I’m politically connected—no one’s going to come after you in Desha County,” Dunklin told Abcug, according to Ramos. 

Dunklin’s belief in QAnon has played into her own custody fight with her ex-husband over their daughter. Dunklin has filed bizarre, sovereign citizen-style documents describing herself as a “Woman by the calling of Sarah.” She also sent rambling emails to her ex-husband’s attorney and her former mother-in-law about QAnon, McConnell, and Holmseth, who is himself wanted on a warrant for allegedly violating a restraining order. 

Dunklin has claimed that her daughter is surveilled at all times by a U.S. Space Force ship with an invisibility cloak and said the day she received her Children’s Crusade position was one of her proudest. In July, a disheveled Dunklin appeared at family court clutching a dirty piece of women’s clothing and frightening a court employee who worried Dunklin might attack her, according to a sworn affidavit from a court clerk.

“Are you aware that Q is a military intelligence information dissemination program aimed at defeating the Deep State of which President Trump continually speaks?” she wrote in an email to her ex-husband’s attorney. “Are you aware that President Trump retweeted Q followers 20 times in one day?”

The judge in Dunklin’s case called Dunklin’s emails “very disturbing” and “almost manic.” In July, Dunklin passed a court-ordered psychological evaluation—albeit one administered by another QAnon believer and Children’s Crusade supporter.

Dunklin’s ex-husband has claimed in court records that Dunklin is wanted on a Colorado warrant over her role in the Abcug case. But despite the allegations made against her in court and her own behavior, Dunklin has maintained both her USDA and county GOP positions.

Dunklin and Abcug didn’t respond to requests for comment. Wilson couldn’t be reached for comment, while Ramos declined to speak about his flight with Abcug.

The Children’s Crusade network revolves around a handful of towns, places like Plum City, or Osceola, or Ocala. According to police records, Abcug isn’t the only fugitive QAnon believer to receive support from the Children’s Crusade.

The group is also tied to the mysterious flight of Danielle Stella, a one-time Minnesota Republican congressional candidate and QAnon believer who ran for the seat held by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) until losing her primary on Tuesday. Stella was briefly a favored candidate among the fringe right to take Omar’s seat, until The Guardian reported in July 2019 that she was wanted on a warrant for allegedly shoplifting more than $2,300 worth of goods from Target.

Rather than face the warrant, Stella traveled to a motel in Osceola, Wisconsin, the same town to which Abcug and Ramos had fled after leaving McConnell’s house and the hometown of McConnell associate and chiropractor Michael Olson, who believes God ordered him to help McConnell. Stella’s stay in the hotel was paid for at least partially by Dunklin, the motel’s manager told police.

On the afternoon of Feb. 16, a tipster warned the Osceola Police Department that Stella was being held in the motel against her will. An officer arrived and, based on the tip, asked Stella about her ties to the Children’s Crusade. 

“She said that she has heard of QAnon and that she was slightly involved with the Children’s Crusade movement until she determined that they do not help children,” the report reads. 

A series of strange events ensued. Stella claimed to police that McConnell’s friend Olson had somehow accessed her room. Later that night, another officer was called to the motel over reports of people demanding information on Stella. A woman who identified herself as a friend of Dunklin arrived at the motel and demanded to know Stella’s room number. Later, the same woman called 911 and gave a different name. When a police officer asked why she was using an alias, she said she did it so “nothing would be traced back to her.” 

The Osceola Police Department ultimately decided there was no proof Stella was being held against her will. Stella denied any association with McConnell or the Children’s Crusade. When contacted by The Daily Beast and asked whether she had traveled to Arkansas while a fugitive, Stella dodged the question and accused The Daily Beast of running a “psyop.”

“Do you not want to save our country from the current Bolshevik revolution taking place in our streets?” Stella texted.

Stella’s campaign manager, Alex Rountree, told The Daily Beast that he’s friends with Dunklin but said he didn’t know about McConnell or the Children’s Crusade.

“There were some shady things in Osceola,” Rountree said. 

By mid-November, both Abcug and Ramos were sick of living in a partially burned-out motel by the Arkansas River and had become convinced the Children’s Crusade was stringing them along. Stories of federal agents discovering the homes they had stayed at earlier in their journey were trickling in, with their Virginia host claiming she had been visited by the FBI.

“We were living in a glass cage,” Ramos said in an interview with Northwest Liberty News.

Ramos claims the QAnon group provided Abcug with a presumably bogus “diplomatic immunity passport” for fleeing to the Dominican Republic and urged him to buy a fake passport at a flea market. Ramos’ medical school had filed a missing person report on him. 

“Sarah’s starting to get caught up in some of her own lies,” Ramos said in a YouTube interview about Dunklin, the woman from whom he and Abcug had sought help in Arkansas. 

Tired of Arkansas and receiving no actual legal help from the Children’s Crusade, the pair traveled to Kalispell, Montana, apparently to meet another contact. On Dec. 30, Kalispell police and FBI agents with guns drawn pulled Abcug and Ramos out of a car and arrested Abcug. 

Abcug now faces a felony conspiracy to commit kidnapping charge. She attempted to file a petition for habeas corpus using some of the strange legal tactics popular with her associates, but a federal judge rejected the filing and called it “frivolous.” In early August, Abcug, in a mask and jail jumpsuit, appeared for a video-streamed court hearing, where her bail was set at $250,000. 

On Thursday, a Colorado judge ruled Abcug could stand trial on the conspiracy charge, based primarily on the evidence her daughter provided to police. At a December hearing, a judge will decide whether Abcug’s parental rights to her son should be terminated entirely.

Back in Arkansas, Dunklin has become the latest mother to have her child custody case completely derailed by her ties to QAnon and the Children’s Crusade.

But she has not given up on QAnon.

“Q represents a mainstream political and religious view, which we all have the freedom to choose in this country,” Dunklin wrote in a recent email to her ex-husband’s attorney.

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A pro-China supporter holds a Chinese national flag during a rally. (photo: Kin Cheung/AP)

Trump Is Trying to Put Us on War Footing With China. It's Up to the Left to Stop It.
Tobita Chow and Jake Werner, In These Times
Excerpt: "The Trump campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee formalized their sinophobic strategy in April."

ec­re­tary of State Mike Pom­peo cast China’s rela­tion­ship with the Unit­ed States in apoc­a­lyp­tic terms dur­ing his speech at the Richard Nixon Pres­i­den­tial Library and Muse­um in Yor­ba Lin­da, Calif., in late July. “Secur­ing our free­doms from the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty is the mis­sion of our time,” Pom­peo warned. “If we bend the knee now, our children’s chil­dren may be at the mer­cy of the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Party.”

Nine days pri­or, Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump deliv­ered a ram­bling, near­ly hour-long address in the Rose Gar­den, claim­ing “Joe Biden’s entire career has been a gift to the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty. … And it’s been dev­as­tat­ing for the Amer­i­can work­er.” That same week, Peter Navar­ro, the president’s trade advis­er, went one step fur­ther by telling Fox News that Chi­na “hit us with that dead­ly virus, that weaponized virus.”

As Covid-19 rav­ages the Unit­ed States, the Trump White House and its Repub­li­can enablers are lever­ag­ing sino­pho­bia as their best chance to avoid an elec­toral blood­bath in Novem­ber. Act­ing in silent col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment (which itself is turn­ing toward nation­al­ism in the face of intense polit­i­cal and eco­nom­ic pres­sures), they have plunged us into what some call a new Cold War.

The con­se­quences of this pow­er con­flict are already in evi­dence: a sharp rise in anti-Asian racism and forms of McCarthy­ism in the Unit­ed States, and grow­ing xeno­pho­bia and repres­sion in Chi­na. The con­flict is also deeply reshap­ing the Repub­li­can Par­ty; even if the 2020 elec­tion proves a dis­as­ter for the GOP, the con­sol­i­da­tion of right-wing nation­al­ism may offer the par­ty long-term polit­i­cal via­bil­i­ty. In a now zero-sum strug­gle for glob­al growth, it would be naïve to dis­miss the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a U.S.-China mil­i­tary con­fronta­tion erupting.

Biden and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic estab­lish­ment, mean­while, have cho­sen to attack Trump as insuf­fi­cient­ly hawk­ish. Pro­gres­sives and the Left, there­fore, must pro­vide an alter­na­tive path for­ward — one root­ed in glob­al sol­i­dar­i­ty and inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion. Suc­cess in this endeav­or could defeat not only the coro­n­avirus but the scourges of cli­mate change and glob­al pover­ty. Fail­ure all but ensures a future rav­aged by dis­ease, envi­ron­men­tal break­down and nation­al­ist conflicts.

The Trump cam­paign and the Nation­al Repub­li­can Sen­a­to­r­i­al Com­mit­tee for­mal­ized their sino­pho­bic strat­e­gy in April. First, blame Chi­na for the pan­dem­ic, dein­dus­tri­al­iza­tion and the opi­oid cri­sis. Then, accuse Biden and oth­er Democ­rats of all but sur­ren­der­ing to Bei­jing. Plus, vow to restore U.S. man­u­fac­tur­ing while impos­ing sanc­tions on Chi­na, the biggest eco­nom­ic rival to the Unit­ed States. This dem­a­goguery has ener­gized the party’s base and direct­ed atten­tion away from Trump’s fail­ures, allow­ing the GOP to go on the offensive.

Anti-Chi­na mes­sag­ing, echoed in rightwing media, is all over the president’s 2020 cam­paign ads. Amer­i­ca First, a pro-Trump super PAC, has spent mil­lions of dol­lars in swing states to attack Biden as sup­port­ing China’s rise and for label­ing the White House’s Jan­u­ary trav­el ban as xeno­pho­bic. Ads call the for­mer vice pres­i­dent “Bei­jing Biden.” A spon­sored web­site claims the Biden family’s “cor­rupt ties to the Chi­nese elite raise seri­ous ques­tions about Biden’s ethics and the secre­tive motives for his weak stances on China.”

Sim­i­lar pos­tur­ing has per­me­at­ed the rhetoric of Repub­li­cans in the Sen­ate. One spot for Sen. Martha McSal­ly (R‑Ariz.) accus­es Biden and McSally’s oppo­nent, Mark Kel­ly, of “sell­ing out to Chi­na.” One for Sen. Joni Ernst (R‑Iowa) says,“We rely on Com­mu­nist Chi­na for far too much, from tech­nol­o­gy to med­i­cine. So I’m fight­ing to bring it home.”

This brand of sino­pho­bia, por­tray­ing the Demo­c­ra­t­ic agen­da as pro-Chi­na as much as pos­si­ble, has metas­ta­sized beyond dis­cus­sions of dein­dus­tri­al­iza­tion and the pan­dem­ic to include such pro­gres­sive pri­or­i­ties as cut­ting the bloat­ed U.S. mil­i­tary bud­get and tran­si­tion­ing to clean ener­gy. Trump even claimed the Paris cli­mate accord “would have crushed Amer­i­can man­u­fac­tur­ers while allow­ing Chi­na to pol­lute,” call­ing it “one more gift from Biden to the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Party.”

Sim­i­lar­ly, the Right has spu­ri­ous­ly attacked Black Lives Mat­ter as a Chi­nese plot. Lau­ra Ingra­ham of Fox News sug­gest­ed the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty (CCP) “has its hands in the riots and the cur­rent push to desta­bi­lize Amer­i­ca,” while Chad­wick Moore appeared on Tuck­er Carl­son Tonight to argue Chi­na is fund­ing the move­ment. Raheem Kas­sam, a col­lab­o­ra­tor of for­mer White House strate­gist Steve Ban­non, declared Black Lives Mat­ter is “lay­ing the ground­work” for a “CCP invasion.”

Con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries like these help but­tress the Right’s “blame Chi­na” nar­ra­tive. In an MSNBC inter­view in ear­ly July, Navar­ro claimed “the Chi­nese Com­mu­nist Par­ty is respon­si­ble for every bad thing we’re expe­ri­enc­ing” while sug­gest­ing the coro­n­avirus is a “delib­er­ate” attack. Nation­al­ists also argue the World Health Orga­ni­za­tion is run by agents of the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment who col­lud­ed to ensure the virus spreads — a the­o­ry that ulti­mate­ly led Trump to with­draw the Unit­ed States from the orga­ni­za­tion, jeop­ar­diz­ing inter­na­tion­al efforts to con­tain the pandemic.

Beyond mere rhetoric, the Trump admin­is­tra­tion is imple­ment­ing aggres­sive pol­i­cy that reshapes and inflames the U.S.-China rela­tion­ship. The White House has imposed tight restric­tions on Chi­nese jour­nal­ists in the Unit­ed States, declared an end to pref­er­en­tial eco­nom­ic treat­ment of Hong Kong and sanc­tioned Chi­nese offi­cials involved with the per­se­cu­tion of eth­nic Uighurs and oth­er Mus­lims in the Xin­jiang region. More recent­ly, the White House forced Chi­na to shut down its con­sulate in Hous­ton and float­ed plans to impose a trav­el ban on mem­bers of the CCP and their fam­i­lies, which could affect as many as 270 mil­lion peo­ple.

Per­haps most alarm­ing is the increase in U.S.-China mil­i­tary activ­i­ties. In the South Chi­na Sea, two U.S. Navy car­ri­er groups held exer­cis­es for the first time in more than a decade. This year’s Sen­ate debate over the U.S. mil­i­tary bud­get includ­ed mul­ti­ple com­pet­ing pro­pos­als to increase anti-Chi­na spend­ing by bil­lions of dol­lars. Mean­while, the Trump admin­is­tra­tion has threat­ened to engage Chi­na (and Rus­sia) in a new nuclear arms race, with head arms con­trol nego­tia­tor Mar­shall Billingslea promis­ing the Unit­ed States would spend its adver­saries “into oblivion.”

These actions have only suc­ceed­ed in antag­o­niz­ing the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment, whose anti-West­ern nation­al­ism increas­ing­ly mir­rors anti-Chi­na sen­ti­ment in the Unit­ed States. Fur­ther provo­ca­tions risk retal­i­a­tion that the Trump admin­is­tra­tion is like­ly to answer in kind, lock­ing the coun­tries in a feed­back loop of bel­liger­ence and brinks­man­ship. Esca­lat­ing pres­sure to pick a side threat­ens Uighurs, Hong Kongers, Chi­nese Amer­i­cans, and oth­ers caught in between. It also serves the Repub­li­can elec­toral strat­e­gy: As long as the U.S.-China con­flict deep­ens and remains in the head­lines, the GOP can dri­ve vot­ers and increase the pow­er of its xeno­pho­bic campaign.

This rise in sino­pho­bia is not just a cyn­i­cal ploy; it reflects a deep­er shift with­in the U.S. elite toward con­fronta­tion with Chi­na, dri­ven by mil­i­tarists and eco­nom­ic nation­al­ists who insist the Unit­ed States is locked in a zero-sum strug­gle with Chi­na for pow­er and glob­al growth.

Sur­round­ed by U.S. mil­i­tary bases and allies, Chi­na is attempt­ing to estab­lish itself as a region­al mil­i­tary pow­er, a devel­op­ment the U.S. secu­ri­ty estab­lish­ment per­ceives as a threat to its dom­i­nant posi­tion in the Pacif­ic. The size and rapid growth of the Asia mar­ket “increas­ing­ly defines glob­al pow­er and com­merce,” argues promi­nent Asia pol­i­cy fig­ure Kurt Camp­bell, mak­ing U.S. pri­ma­cy essen­tial to “spur domes­tic revival and ren­o­va­tion [in the Unit­ed States] as well as to keep the peace in the world’s most dynam­ic region.”

Sen. Mar­co Rubio (R‑Fla.) — in con­trast with Trump, whose trade war against Chi­na in 2018 led to a reces­sion in the U.S. man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor and a spike in farm bank­rupt­cies — offers a dif­fer­ent, more sophis­ti­cat­ed vision of anti-Chi­na eco­nom­ic nation­al­ism. The sen­a­tor con­tends that con­fronting Chi­na is key to improv­ing the sta­tus of U.S. work­ers, even as his pol­i­cy pro­pos­als care­ful­ly avoid min­i­mum wage increas­es or stronger labor rights. Instead, Rubio’s poli­cies fea­ture tax breaks, sub­si­dies and oth­er con­ven­tion­al­ly pro-busi­ness demands. For Rubio and his ilk, mak­ing U.S. man­u­fac­tur­ing more com­pet­i­tive with Chi­na requires an inten­si­fi­ca­tion of work­er exploita­tion, keep­ing costs low and prof­its high.

The white nation­al­ist fac­tion of the White House shares these broad­er aims while pur­su­ing more bla­tant­ly racist pol­i­cy. Led by Stephen Miller, the fac­tion has used the U.S.-China trade war to lob­by (unsuc­cess­ful­ly) for a total ban on Chi­nese inter­na­tion­al stu­dents, and is almost cer­tain­ly behind the pro­posed trav­el ban on CCP mem­bers and their families.

These cur­rents are push­ing the Repub­li­can Par­ty away from the free-mar­ket fun­da­men­tal­ism that defined it for decades, embold­en­ing Repub­li­cans to declare them­selves cham­pi­ons of so-called reg­u­lar peo­ple and the com­mon good. That these pol­i­tics are inher­ent­ly racist and exclu­sion­ary has not stopped some puta­tive­ly pro­gres­sive com­men­ta­tors from embrac­ing them. Matt Stoller, for exam­ple, author of Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monop­oly Pow­er and Democ­ra­cy, express­es admi­ra­tion for the eco­nom­ic nation­al­ism of Sens. Rubio, Josh Haw­ley (R‑Mo.) and Tom Cot­ton (R‑Ark.), along with Peter Navar­ro, U.S. Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Robert Lighthiz­er and Tuck­er Carl­son. In effect, Steve Ban­non is get­ting what he has want­ed for years: a par­ty for which “the eco­nom­ic war with Chi­na is every­thing” and can be used as a focus for its polit­i­cal realignment.

The worst-case sce­nario is that these trends con­verge to pro­duce a mil­i­tary con­fronta­tion with Chi­na, per­haps as an Octo­ber sur­prise aimed at chang­ing the dynam­ics of the pres­i­den­tial race. As The Nation ’s defense cor­re­spon­dent Michael Klare argues, the South Chi­na Sea is an espe­cial­ly dan­ger­ous locus of ten­sion, where “the U.S. mil­i­tary is pro­ceed­ing down an extreme­ly dan­ger­ous path, and one very like­ly to lead to mis­cal­cu­la­tion and war.” Shock­ing­ly, Rep. Ted Yoho (R‑Fla.) pre­dict­ed as much in a July inter­view with the Wash­ing­ton Exam­in­er: “There will be a clash … peo­ple will die.”

Repub­li­cans are not alone in pur­su­ing anti-Chi­na mes­sag­ing. For a num­ber of years, com­men­ta­tors from across the polit­i­cal spec­trum have argued the “Chi­na threat” could be used to uni­fy an increas­ing­ly unruly pop­u­la­tion. Of course, unit­ing the coun­try around a for­eign threat invari­ably invites big­otry — a real­i­ty that racist respons­es to the pan­dem­ic have thrown into stark relief. Sad­ly, this has not pre­vent­ed Democ­rats from push­ing their own ver­sion of sinophobia.

The Biden campaign’s ini­tial response to Trump’s attacks was to cut an unabashed­ly bel­liger­ent ad claim­ing he would have forced U.S. med­ical per­son­nel into Chi­na ear­ly in the out­break, dark­ly inton­ing the pres­i­dent “rolled over for the Chi­nese” by allow­ing 40,000 pos­si­bly infect­ed trav­el­ers into the Unit­ed States after impos­ing his trav­el ban.

A large num­ber of Asian Amer­i­can and pro­gres­sive groups harsh­ly crit­i­cized the ad, in an open let­ter to the Biden cam­paign, for “play­ing to right-wing nation­al­ism and fan­ning anti-Chi­na sen­ti­ment.” (Full dis­clo­sure: The authors of this arti­cle are sig­na­to­ries.) But Biden has made only cos­met­ic changes in the weeks and months since. After Trump’s Rose Gar­den speech in July, the Biden cam­paign issued talk­ing points reaf­firm­ing the con­ser­v­a­tive premise that Chi­na must be held account­able for the pandemic.

Although Democ­rats claim to oppose “the trap of a new Cold War,” in prac­tice they give promi­nence to inter­na­tion­al ten­sion rather than chart paths for coop­er­a­tion. This atti­tude risks entrench­ing sino­pho­bia as a defin­ing fea­ture of U.S. pol­i­tics, endan­ger­ing pro­gres­sive pri­or­i­ties by favor­ing so-called nation­al secu­ri­ty over, for exam­ple, action on cli­mate change and work­ers’ rights. Per­haps Demo­c­ra­t­ic oper­a­tives see their pos­tur­ing as doing lit­tle more than defus­ing a potent Repub­li­can talk­ing point, imag­in­ing that a Biden admin­is­tra­tion would safe­ly pur­sue a more mod­er­ate approach to Chi­na (as for­mer Pres­i­dents Bill Clin­ton and Barack Oba­ma did) after the elec­tion. Such assump­tions, how­ev­er, may prove ill-found­ed if the pub­lic begins to asso­ciate Chi­na not with low-cost exports and boot­leg DVDs but mass death and U.S. eco­nom­ic collapse.

Pri­or to the pan­dem­ic, Amer­i­cans were already under siege by abstract forces dif­fi­cult to grasp in their immen­si­ty. From work­force casu­al­iza­tion to the opi­oid epi­dem­ic, fears of scarci­ty to an acute sense of eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al insta­bil­i­ty, mil­lions of Amer­i­cans were already feel­ing vul­ner­a­ble and con­fused. Anti-Chi­na Repub­li­cans prey on such feel­ings, giv­ing them a human face — a for­eign face — and offer­ing xeno­pho­bic vio­lence as a sub­sti­tute for gen­uine secu­ri­ty. Polling data indi­cates this mes­sage is tak­ing effect, with a rapid increase in pop­u­lar antipa­thy toward China.

If Democ­rats accept this basic anti-Chi­na propo­si­tion, they ulti­mate­ly risk los­ing their cur­rent elec­toral advan­tage. Stok­ing a fear of for­eign­ers strength­ens Trump’s hand, as his entire polit­i­cal iden­ti­ty is found­ed on xeno­pho­bia. If Trump’s best path to vic­to­ry this Novem­ber is to make the elec­tion about Chi­na, then Biden is blun­der­ing into a trap.

But even if the dis­as­trous Repub­li­can response to the pan­dem­ic secures a large 2020 vic­to­ry for Democ­rats, sino­pho­bia could reorder Amer­i­can pol­i­tics and embold­en the forces of reac­tion. A left-lib­er­al alliance has the chance to break Repub­li­can pow­er once and for all, end­ing a years-long paral­y­sis in U.S. pol­i­tics that has stymied any pro­gres­sive agen­da. If Democ­rats refuse to look beyond Novem­ber, how­ev­er, then they risk win­ning a bat­tle by ced­ing to the Repub­li­cans the ter­rain on which the war will be decided.

And in the process, Democ­rats risk a per­ma­nent break with Chi­na. Such a devel­op­ment would nour­ish anti-Asian racism in the U.S. and could trig­ger a fright­en­ing new era of mil­i­tarism, xeno­pho­bia and large-scale inter­na­tion­al vio­lence, extin­guish­ing pro­gres­sive momen­tum. What’s more, a new Cold War would ren­der impos­si­ble the nec­es­sary inter­na­tion­al coop­er­a­tion to con­tain future pan­demics and cli­mate change. Even if we were to some­how avoid a hot war, tens of mil­lions of peo­ple could become the col­lat­er­al dam­age of a pro­tract­ed conflict.

Pro­gres­sives are ani­mat­ed by equal­i­ty and sol­i­dar­i­ty, essen­tial val­ues that could resolve this bur­geon­ing U.S.-China pow­er con­flict, yet the U.S. Left appears ill equipped for the task. For all the ground­break­ing domes­tic pol­i­cy ideas, the Left lacks a glob­al vision. Pro­gres­sives may reject nation­al­ism, but their think­ing has turned inward just as sure­ly as that of their right-wing counterparts.

Still, a left­ist analy­sis can help us under­stand the recent inten­si­fi­ca­tion of nation­al­ism. Where reac­tionar­ies view U.S.-China ten­sion as racial­ly or cul­tur­al­ly dri­ven and lib­er­als see it as a clash between democ­ra­cy and author­i­tar­i­an­ism, pro­gres­sives must under­stand that our glob­al sys­tem has pit­ted these two coun­tries against each other.

In the 1990s and 2000s, a neolib­er­al vision of free mar­kets, inte­gra­tion and cos­mopoli­tanism flour­ished in both coun­tries. The Unit­ed States and Chi­na com­ple­ment­ed one anoth­er in the glob­al econ­o­my; growth was achieved through coop­er­a­tion. Since the Great Reces­sion, how­ev­er, faith in this sys­tem has steadi­ly erod­ed amid slug­gish growth world­wide, fuel­ing nation­al­ist move­ments across con­ti­nents. Those nation­al­ist move­ments have, in turn, pushed pol­i­tics in a sharply author­i­tar­i­an direc­tion in not just the Unit­ed States and Chi­na, but India, Turkey and many oth­er coun­tries. It’s not just Chi­na that has set up con­cen­tra­tion camps to iso­late those con­sid­ered for­eign and dan­ger­ous — the Unit­ed States has its bor­der camps and the Euro­pean Union its refugee deten­tion sites.

Since the 2008 eco­nom­ic cri­sis, Chi­nese lead­er­ship has accel­er­at­ed its devel­op­ment strat­e­gy, aimed at end­ing China’s eco­nom­ic sub­or­di­na­tion to the West. Chi­na increas­ing­ly threat­ens the dom­i­nance of Amer­i­can cor­po­ra­tions in such high-val­ue sec­tors as robot­ics, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and biotech­nol­o­gy, even as the Unit­ed States becomes depen­dent on those sec­tors to sus­tain its own eco­nom­ic growth.

If these nations find them­selves on a col­li­sion course, nei­ther hom­i­lies about world peace nor promis­es to return to a bygone era are like­ly to alter their tra­jec­to­ries. The source of this con­flict is not racial, cul­tur­al or even polit­i­cal. It is the prod­uct of an increas­ing­ly dys­func­tion­al glob­al econ­o­my, and only by expos­ing this sys­tem can we find a way for both sides — along with the rest of the world — to sur­vive and flourish.

What is the role of the Left in achiev­ing such a transformation?

First, we must ensure the defeat of Trump and the GOP in Novem­ber. While sino­pho­bia is now com­mon in both par­ties, the Repub­li­can ver­sion is unequiv­o­cal­ly more con­spir­a­to­r­i­al, des­per­ate and volatile. A Biden admin­is­tra­tion would not cre­ate an alter­na­tive to the new Cold War of its own accord, but it would pro­ceed more cau­tious­ly and be more recep­tive to pres­sure from pro­gres­sives — if pro­gres­sives mar­shal the req­ui­site sup­port with­in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Party.

The Left must offer a clear and com­pelling alter­na­tive to the grow­ing U.S.-China con­flict and a path beyond the decay­ing glob­al neolib­er­al order. In the short term, this path includes inter­na­tion­al coor­di­na­tion to com­bat the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic; doing so has the poten­tial to counter anti-Chi­na sen­ti­ment among vot­ers, accord­ing to a Morn­ing Consult/ Politico poll from May. When asked to choose between work­ing with Chi­na to defeat the virus or hold­ing Chi­na account­able for its role in the pan­dem­ic, par­tic­i­pants favored coop­er­a­tion over con­fronta­tion by a 28-point margin.

Beyond the cur­rent cri­sis, we must demand the Unit­ed States part­ner with Chi­na (and all oth­er coun­tries) to end cli­mate change and glob­al inequal­i­ty through coor­di­nat­ed, pub­lic invest­ment, and by strength­en­ing the pow­er of labor around the world. Such an agen­da could restruc­ture glob­al growth, dis­man­tling the U.S.-China con­flict at its source.

At the same time, pro­gres­sives must affirm the rights of those threat­ened by the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment — the Mus­lims of Xin­jiang, Hong Kong pro­test­ers, jour­nal­ists and oth­ers. The U.S. Left has, so far, allowed the Right to lead on these issues, which is not just a betray­al of our prin­ci­ples but a strate­gic error. We must make the case that a more coop­er­a­tive, less antag­o­nis­tic stance toward Chi­na may, in fact, open up more space to pres­sure the Chi­nese gov­ern­ment. As for­mer Oba­ma advis­er Ryan Hass and oth­ers have argued, the U.S.-China rela­tion­ship has become so adver­sar­i­al that Chi­na sees no ben­e­fit in yield­ing to U.S. demands.

Strength­en­ing democ­ra­cy in Chi­na and beyond will not be achieved through direct attacks on the CCP’s author­i­tar­i­an­ism, espe­cial­ly when the Unit­ed States has ignored (if not active­ly sup­port­ed) sim­i­lar abus­es from Brazil to India and Sau­di Ara­bia. Instead, we must build a move­ment of transna­tion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty to neu­tral­ize the nation­al­ism and author­i­tar­i­an­ism unleashed by our glob­al eco­nom­ic sys­tem. Only then can we begin the dif­fi­cult work of forg­ing a bet­ter world.

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'Solar panels are composed of photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight to electricity. When these panels enter landfills, valuable resources go to waste.' (photo: EdgeConX)

Solar Panels Are Starting to Die. What Will We Do With the Megatons of Toxic Trash?
Maddie Stone, Grist
Stone writes: "Solar panels are complex pieces of technology that become big, bulky sheets of electronic waste at the end of their lives - and right now, most of the world doesn't have a plan for dealing with that."

But we’ll need to develop one soon, because the solar e-waste glut is coming. By 2050, the International Renewable Energy Agency projects that up to 78 million metric tons of solar panels will have reached the end of their life, and that the world will be generating about 6 million metric tons of new solar e-waste annually. While the latter number is a small fraction of the total e-waste humanity produces each year, standard electronics recycling methods don’t cut it for solar panels. Recovering the most valuable materials from one, including silver and silicon, requires bespoke recycling solutions. And if we fail to develop those solutions along with policies that support their widespread adoption, we already know what will happen.

“If we don’t mandate recycling, many of the modules will go to landfill,” said Arizona State University solar researcher Meng Tao, who recently authored a review paper on recycling silicon solar panels, which comprise 95 percent of the solar market.

Solar panels are composed of photovoltaic (PV) cells that convert sunlight to electricity. When these panels enter landfills, valuable resources go to waste. And because solar panels contain toxic materials like lead that can leach out as they break down, landfilling also creates new environmental hazards.

Most solar manufacturers claim their panels will last for about 25 years, and the world didn’t start deploying solar widely until the early 2000s. As a result, a fairly small number of solar panels are being decommissioned today. PV CYCLE, a nonprofit dedicated to solar panel takeback and recycling, collects several thousand tons of solar e-waste across the European Union each year, according to director Jan Clyncke. That figure includes solar panels that have reached the end of their life, but also those that were decommissioned early because they were damaged during a storm, had some sort of manufacturer defect, or got replaced with a newer, more efficient model.

When solar panels do reach their end of their life today, they face a few possible fates. Under E.U. law, producers are required to ensure their solar panels are recycled properly. In Japan, India, and Australia, recycling requirements are in the works. In the United States, it’s the Wild West: With the exception of a state law in Washington, the U.S. has no solar recycling mandates whatsoever. Voluntary, industry-led recycling efforts are limited in scope. “Right now, we’re pretty confident the number is around 10 percent of solar panels recycled,” said Sam Vanderhoof, the CEO of Recycle PV Solar, one of the only U.S. companies dedicated to PV recycling. The rest, he says, go to landfills or are exported overseas for reuse in developing countries with weak environmental protections.

Even when recycling happens, there’s a lot of room for improvement. A solar panel is essentially an electronic sandwich. The filling is a thin layer of crystalline silicon cells, which are insulated and protected from the elements on both sides by sheets of polymers and glass. It’s all held together in an aluminum frame. On the back of the panel, a junction box contains copper wiring that channels electricity away as it’s being generated.

At a typical e-waste facility, this high-tech sandwich will be treated crudely. Recyclers often take off the panel’s frame and its junction box to recover the aluminum and copper, then shred the rest of the module, including the glass, polymers, and silicon cells, which get coated in a silver electrode and soldered using tin and lead. (Because the vast majority of that mixture by weight is glass, the resultant product is considered an impure, crushed glass.) Tao and his colleagues estimate that a recycler taking apart a standard, 60-cell silicon panel can get about $3 for the recovered aluminum, copper, and glass. Vanderhoof, meanwhile, says that the cost of recycling that panel in the U.S. is anywhere between $12 and $25 — after transportation costs, which “oftentimes equal the cost to recycle.” At the same time, in states that allow it, it typically costs less than a dollar to dump a solar panel in a solid waste landfill.

“We believe the big blind spot in the U.S. for recycling is that the cost far exceeds the revenue,” Meng said. “It’s on the order of a 10-to-1 ratio.”

If a solar panel’s more valuable components — namely, the silicon and silver — could be separated and purified efficiently, that could improve that cost-to-revenue ratio. A small number of dedicated solar PV recyclers are trying to do this. Veolia, which runs the world’s only commercial-scale silicon PV recycling plant in France, shreds and grinds up panels and then uses an optical technique to recover low-purity silicon. According to Vanderhoof, Recycle PV Solar initially used a “heat process and a ball mill process” that could recapture more than 90 percent of the materials present in a panel, including low-purity silver and silicon. But the company recently received some new equipment from its European partners that can do “95 plus percent recapture,” he said, while separating the recaptured materials much better.

Some PV researchers want to do even better than that. In another recent review paper, a team led by National Renewable Energy Laboratory scientists calls for the development of new recycling processes where all metals and minerals are recovered at high purity, with the goal of making recycling as economically viable and as environmentally beneficial as possible. As lead study author Garvin Heath explains, such processes might include using heat or chemical treatments to separate the glass from the silicon cells, followed by the application of other chemical or electrical techniques to separate and purify the silicon and various trace metals.

“What we call for is what we name a high-value, integrated recycling system,” Heath told Grist. “High-value means we want to recover all the constituent materials that have value from these modules. Integrated refers to a recycling process that can go after all of these materials, and not have to cascade from one recycler to the next.”

In addition to developing better recycling methods, the solar industry should be thinking about how to repurpose panels whenever possible, since used solar panels are likely to fetch a higher price than the metals and minerals inside them (and since reuse generally requires less energy than recycling). As is the case with recycling, the E.U. is out in front on this: Through its Circular Business Models for the Solar Power Industry program, the European Commission is funding a range of demonstration projects showing how solar panels from rooftops and solar farms can be repurposed, including for powering e-bike charging stations in Berlin and housing complexes in Belgium.

Recycle PV Solar also recertifies and resells good-condition panels it receives, which Vanderhoof says helps to offset the cost of recycling. However, both he and Tao are concerned that various U.S. recyclers are selling second-hand solar panels with low quality control overseas to developing countries. “And those countries typically don’t have regulations for electronics waste,” Tao said. “So eventually, you’re dumping your problem on a poor country.”

For the solar recycling industry to grow sustainably, it will ultimately need supportive policies and regulations. The E.U. model of having producers finance the takeback and recycling of solar panels might be a good one for the U.S. to emulate. But before that’s going to happen, U.S. lawmakers need to recognize that the problem exists and is only getting bigger, which is why Vanderhoof spends a great deal of time educating them.

“We need to face the fact that solar panels do fail over time, and there’s a lot of them out there,” he said. “And what do we do when they start to fail? It’s not right throwing that responsibility on the consumer, and that’s where we’re at right now.”

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