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RSN: FOCUS: Minority Rule Cannot Last in America. It Never Has
02 December 20
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FOCUS: Minority Rule Cannot Last in America. It Never Has
Kenneth Owen, The Atlantic
Owen writes: "Minority rule is fast becoming the defining feature of the American republic."
In 2000 and 2016, presidential candidates who received fewer votes than their opponents were nevertheless sent to the White House. Joe Biden’s 2020 victory came not because he won nearly 7 million more votes nationally than President Donald Trump, but rather because he won about 200,000 votes more in a handful of swing states. Congress has seen a similar dynamic: Though Republican senators make up the majority in the chamber, they represent more than 20 million fewer Americans than Democratic senators do. Such lopsided electoral calculus seems to fly in the face of both parties’ principles. It cannot last.
Though this period of minority rule is new since World War II, it is far from unprecedented. Unequal legislative apportionment has been a recurring quality of American government since its establishment. Parties who have found themselves in power by institutional oddities rather than overall weight of vote have refused to reach across the aisle, instead using their institutional advantage to further consolidate their hold on power. Although such tactics have been successful in the short term, they have ultimately been only temporary expedients. When the minority parties were finally removed from power, the backlash against them was swift and strong.
Begin at the nation’s founding. At the time when American colonists started actively considering independence from Britain, Pennsylvania’s legislature no longer proportionally represented its population. The Pennsylvania Assembly had proved efficient and professional throughout the 18th century, defending the interests of the colonial population against British imperial officials, but as the colony’s population expanded westward, eastern elites refused to extend representation to the predominantly Scotch-Irish and German immigrants living in the new settlements. Additionally, while Philadelphia had grown to become the most populous city in North America, political leaders from the surrounding counties refused to increase the city’s number of representatives. By the early 1770s, the state’s most radical voices in favor of revolution—Philadelphians and westerners—were systematically underrepresented in the legislature.
In the short term, the denial of proportional representation worked: Pennsylvania’s government, designed to amplify moderate and conservative voices, was notoriously slow to endorse resistance to Britain, and in 1776 refused to allow its delegates in the Continental Congress to vote for independence. By this point, though, Pennsylvania’s radicals had taken matters into their own hands. Drawing on protest movements that had gathered pace in 1774 and 1775, they organized a series of conventions giving greater voice to the marginalized. When, in May 1776, the Continental Congress called on states to form their own governments, Pennsylvanians bypassed the colonial assembly entirely, and used the convention and committee movements to send pro-independence delegates to Congress and to write their own state constitution.
In September 1776, Pennsylvania’s radicals took their revenge. Each county was given more or less equal representation in the first legislature. This measure was about as biased toward the western counties as the previous arrangements had been toward eastern ones. But having been shut out of power for so long, the radicals were keen to ensure they held the reins. Pennsylvania’s first constitution, by a long shot the most radically democratic of all the original 13 states’, was bitterly contested for the next decade. Conservative opponents tried, and failed, to revise the state constitution four times from 1776 until 1783. Though they finally succeeded in writing a new constitution in 1790, it came at the cost of 14 years of unstable and rancorous government.
Just decades later, in the antebellum period, similar dynamics played out once again. Slaveholding states sought to use constitutional arrangements to maintain minority power. The Missouri Compromise of 1820, which admitted slaveholding Missouri to the union at the same time as free Maine, maintained balance in the Senate between free and slave states. Southern politicians considered this balance vital, as it gave a de facto veto to slaveholding states. But demographic change over the ensuing decades quickly meant that northerners outnumbered southerners. Yet only in the aftermath of the notorious Compromise of 1850, and the admission of California as a free state, did the balance between free and slave states snap—at a time when the population of free states was 13.4 million, well exceeding the 9.7 million inhabitants of slave states (of whom 3.2 million were enslaved and couldn’t vote). In the decade that followed, the South attempted to re-create its minority veto, with disastrous results.
The politics of the 1850s became consumed with the question of slavery. Southern slaveowners insisted on a new Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, which compelled northern authorities and other residents to actively participate in arresting and returning fugitive slaves to their enslavers. Northerners responded furiously, adopting antislavery politics in greater numbers. Southerners, fearful of the growing strength of the abolitionist movement and the specter of a permanent electoral minority, demanded more slaveholding territory as the nation expanded westward—many called for slavery to be legal in all federal territories, and advocated foreign war to annex new slaveholding territory, such as Cuba.
In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois attempted to broker a compromise between North and South with his Kansas-Nebraska Act. Allowing residents of the Kansas and Nebraska territories to vote on whether to allow slavery within their borders, the act was seen in the North as a naked attempt to extend slavery beyond the Missouri Compromise line and give greater weight to slaveholders in the Senate. Voters in the North turned out in force, leading to the creation of the Republican Party and, ultimately, the election of Abraham Lincoln as president. The South’s attempts to continually impose minority rule on the North failed, leading to secession, the Civil War, and the greatest number of military casualties for a single war in American history.
Population shifts contributed to a third episode of minority rule in the early 20th century. Rapid industrialization in the years after the Civil War saw the growth of megacities that fundamentally transformed the demographics of several states. In Illinois, Chicago’s population grew from 112,000 in 1860—6 percent of total state residents—to 2.7 million in 1920, or 40 percent of total state residents. According to the state’s constitution, the state legislature should have reapportioned following each decennial census; from 1900 onwards, downstate leaders refused to do so, leaving Chicago heavily underrepresented and overtaxed.
In the 1920s, the repeated refusal of the downstate minority to reapportion the legislature was met with increasing frustration from Chicago representatives. Throughout the decade, the city council passed angry resolutions condemning the malapportionment. In 1925, with more and more time at council meetings devoted to the topic, the council passed a resolution calling for the city to secede from Illinois, and to form the State of Chicago.
Downstate defenders of the status quo continued to dig their heels in, even forming organizations such as the League for the Defense of Downstate Voters. Only in 1955 did the Illinois legislature finally bow to the inevitable, redistricting for the first time since 1901. Even then, downstate leaders struck a deal to maintain control in the state Senate, until Supreme Court rulings in Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Sims (1964) decreed that state legislative-district populations be “of roughly equal size.” Ever since, Chicago and Cook County politicians have dominated Illinois elections.
What, then, of the prospects of minority rule at the federal level in the coming years? The coming years seem likely to see Republicans attempt to strengthen their grip on power despite their weakness at the ballot box. With the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, conservatives have a 6–3 majority on the bench, and important rulings loom on issues such as health care, abortion rights, and gay marriage. Policies supported by a majority of Americans in opinion polls could be ruled unconstitutional, all because a president who lost the popular vote nominated three justices, and senators representing a minority of the American population confirmed them. With President-elect Biden likely facing a divided Congress, Democrats have no institutional means of turning electoral support into legislative action, to say nothing of fixing underlying representation issues.
But Republicans may not be able to sustain their power for long—at least not peacefully. As the cases above show, when parties commit themselves to minority rule, the backlash can be severe. While the letter of the law allows Republicans to control the Senate and the judiciary, the spirit of republican government demands otherwise. The two cannot long exist in tension with each other. Though the 2020 election did not result in a blue tidal wave, it did suggest emerging Democratic majorities in formerly red states such as Arizona and Georgia. If, eventually, demographic change adds North Carolina and Texas to the mix, national elections would more accurately reflect the national popular vote. History suggests that Republicans would then pay—dearly—for their years of minority rule. If Republicans hope for greater success than their historical counterparts, they would do well to heed the message that a party cannot maintain power forever, and embark on a more genuinely collaborative and bipartisan approach to government. Short of that, they risk much more than their political careers.
POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: POLL: Proposed MBTA CUTS are UNPOPULAR — Virus cases at RECORD HIGH — ELLIS seeks NEW TRIAL
Presented by the American Heart Association
GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS.
POLL: MBTA'S PROPOSED SERVICE CUTS UNPOPULAR — The MBTA is preparing to cut service to make up for steep drops in ridership and revenue due to Covid-19.
But a new poll finds almost two-thirds of Massachusetts residents surveyed oppose slashing service across the system. And those who used the MBTA before the coronavirus pandemic are most opposed.
Overall, 64% of Massachusetts residents surveyed oppose cuts to the MBTA. That percentage increases among transit users: 73% of subway riders, 72% of bus riders and 79% of commuter rail riders oppose cuts to service. Sixty-six percent of all people surveyed said the legislature should boost MBTA funding to avoid cuts to the system. The MassINC poll released this morning surveyed 1,340 Massachusetts residents from Nov. 19 to Nov. 30.
The MBTA is facing a $579 million budget deficit due to Covid-19 and steep drops in ridership. To make up the difference, officials have proposed eliminating some bus routes, reducing subway service, closing six commuter rail stations with low ridership, and getting rid of all ferry service. The MBTA's Fiscal and Management Control Board will vote on the changes Dec. 7. And MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak will talk about the transportation agency and proposed cuts during a WBUR interview this afternoon, according to the station.
The commuter rail was top of mind for survey-takers. Three-quarters of respondents said they oppose cutting weekend service on the commuter rail. Seventy percent oppose closing the six stations, and the same percentage of people oppose eliminating 25 bus routes. Eliminating ferry service and increasing wait times between subways, trains and buses was met with similar opposition.
Those polled are not optimistic the transit agency would return to pre-pandemic service if cuts are made. More than half (54%) said they believe it is likely the MBTA would not restore the service it eliminates. That's even as 80% of people who used public transit on a daily basis pre-pandemic say they'll return to the MBTA after a vaccine is widely available.
Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: smurray@politico.com.
TODAY — Boston Mayor Marty Walsh speaks to the press about Covid-19. Boston hosts a virtual countdown for its Boston Common tree lighting. The Harvard Institute of Politics hosts its final JFK Jr. Forum of 2020 featuring Peter Hamby of Snapchat’s “Good Luck America,” Nse Ufot of the New Georgia Project and Ashley Allison, former national coalitions director on President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign.
A message from the American Heart Association:
The facts on sugary drinks are simple. They pose a real health risk. Kids especially are drinking too many of them. All those sweet drinks contribute to major health problems, like diabetes and heart disease. And with Massachusetts already spending nearly $2 billion per year treating obesity-related diseases, we need to address the problem. Massachusetts should take a page from a growing number of places across the country and adopt a tax on sugary drinks. Learn more here.
TRACK THE TRANSITION: President-elect Biden has started to form a Cabinet and announce his senior White House staff. The appointments and staffing decisions made in the coming days send clear-cut signals about Biden's priorities. Transition Playbook is the definitive guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history. Written for political insiders, it tracks the appointments, people, and the emerging power centers of the new administration. Track the transition and the first 100 days of the incoming Biden administration. Subscribe today.
 | THE LATEST NUMBERS |
– “Numbers continue to climb as Massachusetts reports 4,613 new COVID cases, 46 deaths, while hospitalizations increase to 1,259,” by Tanner Stening, MassLive.com: “State health officials confirmed another 4,613 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, pushing six days this month into the state’s record for the highest number of cases since the start of the pandemic. That brings the number of active cases statewide to 45,390.”
– RELATED: “Massachusetts reports new daily record for COVID-19 cases — but it’s probably a Thanksgiving backlog,” by Mark Gartsbeyn, Boston.com. Link.
| DATELINE BEACON HILL |
– “What’s in the 129-page policing bill on Governor Baker’s desk?” by Matt Stout, Boston Globe: “In mid-June, as calls proliferated to tighten accountability of law enforcement, Governor Charlie Baker unveiled a 16-page proposal to create the first certification system for police officers in state history. Six months later, a splintered Legislature delivered to Baker a proposal for a so-called Peace Officer Standards and Training system.”
– “Springfield, Boston council presidents urge Gov. Charlie Baker to sign police reform bill,” by Peter Goonan, Springfield Republican: “The City Council presidents of Boston and Springfield are urging Gov. Charlie Baker to swiftly sign a sweeping police reform bill, saying it will enhance public safety and racial justice. Boston City Council President Kim Janey and Springfield City Council President Justin Hurst submitted a letter to Baker on Wednesday.”
– “Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine could get approved as soon as Dec. 10, sending vaccines to Massachusetts by mid-December,” by Steph Solis, MassLive.com: “Massachusetts health officials expect Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to get approved as soon as Dec. 10 and send shipments to the state’s largest hospitals as early as Dec. 15, Massachusetts Medical Society President David Rosman said Wednesday, citing a state official.”
– “Black trooper in Deval Patrick’s gubernatorial security detail was removed because of his race, state agency rules,” by Andrea Estes, Boston Globe: “The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has ruled that a Black state trooper working on the security detail of then-Governor Deval Patrick was the victim of racial discrimination when he was removed from the team in 2013, awarding him a judgment that has grown to $1.29 million. The MCAD did not blame Patrick, Massachusetts’ first Black governor, in its June decision, but concluded that State Police supervisors discriminated against Sergeant Cleveland Coats when they removed him, instead of less-experienced white officers, from the security detail.”
– “'Consider rolling back a step' White House Coronavirus Task Force tells Massachusetts, WCVB: “The White House Coronavirus Task Force recently suggested that Massachusetts consider a statewide rollback of the economic reopening, rather than imposing restrictions specific to regional COVID-19 hot spots. ‘Consider rolling back a step in the state reopening plan as a whole and not just in high-risk areas,’ task force officials wrote in a Nov. 29 briefing document for governors, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News.”
– “Amid a tsunami of COVID-19 infections, strain on contact tracing grows. Should we keep trying?” by Kay Lazar, Boston Globe: “Local health departments in Massachusetts, striving to track and prevent new COVID-19 infections amid an onslaught of new cases, are growing frustrated as testing turnaround times now stretch to a week in some cities and towns. The delays have made it more difficult for tracers to quickly reach potential contacts of infected residents, and increase the chances those infected will spread the virus in the interim.”
– “Coronavirus cases rise at Tewksbury and other state-run hospitals,” by Jessica Bartlett, Boston Business Journal: “Months after a surge of coronavirus cases hit Tewksbury Hospital last spring, the facility is facing a new outbreak. According to a memo sent out from Tewksbury Hospital Incident Command on Tuesday, 25 staff and 12 patients had tested positive for Covid-19 at Tewksbury Hospital, an inpatient psychiatric hospital overseen by both the Department of Public Health (DPH) and Department of Mental Health (DMH).”
– “DOC: Few inmates would qualify for home confinement,” by Sarah Betancourt, CommonWealth Magazine: “Under pressure to release prisoners to home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic, the Massachusetts Department of Correction is downplaying the program’s impact, saying only about 20 to 25 of the state’s 6,700 inmates would be eligible.”
– “Mass. Deploys Mobile Testing Unit To School Clusters In 13 Cities and Towns,” by Meg Woolhouse, GBH News: “Thirteen Massachusetts communities, including Boston, Worcester and Lawrence, have had COVID-19 clusters in schools and received state testing services, officials said. The state Executive Office of Education told GBH News that as of Dec. 1 the state has deployed its rapid mobile testing unit to those schools and ones in Braintree, Acton/Boxborough, Milton, Malden, Rockland, Southwick, Haverhill, Winchester, Billerica and Marshfield.”
– “New bill limits facial scans,” by Christian M. Wade, Eagle-Tribune: “Police agencies will be sharply limited in using facial recognition technology to solve crimes, detect threats or find suspects under a sweeping police reform proposal approved by the Legislature. The raft of legislation, which passed the state House and Senate on Tuesday, includes a provision banning most government agencies from using the technology.”
| FROM THE HUB |
– “As public health experts advise keeping schools open, superintendents grapple with logistics, politics, and the second wave,” by Stephanie Ebbert and Naomi Martin, Boston Globe: “If there was any school district determined to follow Governor Charlie Baker’s pleas to stay open in the face of the state’s second surge of COVID-19 this fall, it was this city’s. Serving mostly low-income families, it provides a safety net as much as an education to many, so even as Fall River’s infection rates climbed to the third-highest in the state in mid-November, far past the points where other districts closed, Superintendent Matt Malone kept schools open.”
– “Why a Boston church got Anthony Fauci to speak to its congregation,” by Nik DeCosta-Klipa, Boston.com: “Despite the recent promising news about a COVID-19 vaccine, a growing body of evidence has found that the drug faces high levels of distrust among Black and Latino populations — the same communities that have been hit hardest by the pandemic. So a Boston church decided to enlist the nation’s most trusted health expert to overcome that skepticism: Dr. Anthony Fauci.”
– “As COVID Cases Rise, Hospitals Again Move To Limit Visitors,” by Isaiah Thompson, GBH News: “Some of Massachusetts' biggest hospitals have announced new, strict limitations on patient visitation as the recent surge in COVID-19 infections continues across the state and the region. On Wednesday, Massachusetts General Hospital issued updated guidance aimed at minimizing contact with visitors.”
– “Most PPP money in Mass. went to a small number of companies,” by Anissa Gardizy, Boston Globe: “More than half the money that Massachusetts companies received as part of the federal Paycheck Protection Program went to fewer than 5 percent of the loan recipients, according to data released Tuesday night by the Small Business Administration.”
– “Once Bustling, Boston's Commercial Real Estate Now Fuels Fears Of A Slow Economic Recovery,” by Adrian Ma, WBUR: “Several months into the pandemic, many companies have vacated their leased offices, pushing the office vacancy rate to a seven-year high of over 10% in downtown Boston, and 13.5% across the metro region, according to a recent report by Newmark. Meanwhile, many remaining office tenants are trying to sublet their spaces.”
– “As students leave district schools, charters and vocational schools see growth,” by Shira Schoenberg, CommonWealth Magazine: “Massachusetts public schools have seen a large decline in enrollment this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. But the drop is not spread evenly across the public school system. Both charter schools and vocational technical schools have actually seen population increases, even as attendance at traditional district public schools dropped precipitously.”
– “Food aid centers face high demand,” by Morgan C. Mullings, Bay State Banner: “Lines at food pantries and soup kitchens normally grow around this time of year, but the pandemic has doubled them, aid workers say. With an unprecedented amount of need, relief centers are pooling their resources to make sure everyone is fed, though it may not be enough.”
– “Top Walsh aide heading to Amazon’s Boston office,” by Sean Philip Cotter, Boston Herald: “Boston Mayor Martin Walsh’s departing chief of civic engagement is shipping out to Amazon. Jerome Smith, who is departing from Walsh’s Cabinet at the end of the week, will be senior manager of external affairs for Boston at the e-commerce giant. Amazon continues to expand around Boston, adding new delivery and sorting centers.”
– “Study: Affordable Housing In Mass. Among Most Vulnerable To Flooding,” by Simón Rios, WBUR: “Affordable housing in Massachusetts ranks among the most vulnerable to flooding, according to a new study and mapping tool from the nonprofit Climate Central. Researchers say it’s the first study to overlay affordable housing data — including both subsidized and free market low-income units — with sea level rise and flood risk data.”
– “In The Age of Black Lives Matter, New England Faces Its Own Role In Slavery,” by Phillip Martin, GBH News: “L’Merchie Frazier says she was not surprised to see her event drowned out by a busy news cycle this fall. During the week of October 12, the U.S. was experiencing dramatic increases in coronavirus cases, Amy Coney Barrett went before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss her Supreme Court nomination, President Trump and Joe Biden held dueling nationally televised town halls and hundreds marched again in Boston and elsewhere asserting that Black Lives Matter.”
– “Built For And By The Community, New Racial Justice Grant Program Launches,” by Cristela Guerra, WBUR: “A new grant program is awarding $250,000 to 16 artists, sowing seedlings of funding, encouraging artists to imagine radically, and through their work, build toward a racially just society. This three-year program is called ‘Radical Imagination for Racial Justice.’”
| THE RACE FOR CITY HALL |
– “Matt O’Malley, environmental reform advocate, won’t seek reelection to Boston City Council,” by Milton J. Valencia, Boston Globe: “He’s been known as the Plastic Bags Guy, Mr. Environment, and the Councilor Who Brought Sunblock to City Parks. Matt O’Malley, the district city councilor from Jamaica Plain, has cultivated a progressive image over the years while spearheading some of the city’s biggest environmental protection initiative. But after 10 years on the council, O’Malley will not seek reelection next year.”
| DAY IN COURT |
– “Serge Georges Jr. appointment would bring ‘promise of possibility’ to Supreme Judicial Court,” by Erin Tiernan, Boston Herald: “The Governor’s Council could cap a year defined by the coronavirus pandemic, racial strife, social injustice and a ‘great loss’ on the state’s high court with ‘hope and the promise of possibility’ by confirming Boston Municipal Court Judge Serge Georges Jr., former U.S. Sen. Mo Cowan said.”
– “Defendant demands in-person, not virtual, day in court,” by Shira Schoenberg, CommonWealth Magazine: “The question of whether to schedule an in-person court hearing during the COVID-19 pandemic may be a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins recently harshly criticized a Boston Municipal Court judge for requiring a defendant to appear in person during the pandemic. With Rollins’s support, the Supreme Judicial Court in early November vacated that same judge’s order requiring a defendant who lives out of state to show up in a Boston court.”
– “Sean Ellis Seeking New Trial To Erase Gun Conviction Linked To Detective's 1993 Murder,” by Phillip Martin, GBH News: “GBH News has learned that Boston attorney Rosemary Scapicchio is filing for a new trial for Sean Ellis to clear her client of a gun conviction that remains even after his conviction in the 1993 murder of Boston Police detective was overturned after he spent more than 22 years in jail.”
| DATELINE D.C. |
– “Colleges seek $120 billion for higher education in coronavirus relief bill,” The Associated Press: “A coalition of U.S. colleges and universities is urging Congress to pass a new coronavirus relief bill with at least $120 billion for higher education, saying the sector faces a crisis of ‘almost unimaginable’ scale.”
| MEANWHILE IN RHODE ISLAND |
– “Raimondo emerges as frontrunner for HHS secretary,” by Alice Miranda Ollstein, Adam Cancryn, and Tyler Pager, POLITICO: “Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo is now a top contender to be President-elect Joe Biden’s pick to run the Department of Health and Human Services, according to two people close to the transition. Raimondo’s rise comes as New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is no longer favored for the role, according to one of those sources and another familiar with the discussions.”
| ABOVE THE FOLD |
— Herald: “HERE IT COMES!” — Globe: “Trying to unify in Ga., GOP braces for Trump," "Contact tracing marred by test delays.”
| FROM THE 413 |
– “‘Deeply concerned’ Springfield city councilors urge Gov. Charlie Baker to give more COVID-19 attention to Western Mass.” by Peter Goonan, Springfield Republican: “Ten city councilors have urged Gov. Charlie Baker to ensure that Western Massachusetts gets its fair share of attention regarding COVID-19 testing and vaccines, including representation on a new state coronavirus advisory board.”
| THE LOCAL ANGLE |
– “Opinions among Cape Cod legislators differ on police reform bill,” by Ethan Genter, Cape Cod Times: “A police reform bill that was spurred on by the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this year made it through the state legislature and onto the desk of Gov. Charlie Baker this week. Locally, the Cape’s legislative delegation was split along party lines on the 129-page bill.”
– “AG sues Marshfield real estate company, alleging housing discrimination,” by Wheeler Cowperthwaite, The Patriot Ledger: “The state Attorney General's Office is suing a Marshfield real estate company and broker accused of discriminating against a disabled man receiving housing assistance. The Attorney General's Office recently filed a lawsuit in Norfolk Superior Court against Success! Real Estate and broker Zilda Faria, of Canton.”
– “Worcester councilors want a fresh look at homelessness as the coronavirus surges and winter approaches,” by Steven H. Foskett Jr., Telegram & Gazette: “The City Council this week called for an examination of how the unique challenges of COVID-19 and financial pressures in the current economic climate have impacted the city's approach to dealing with homelessness.”
– “Lawrence General Hospital pauses elective surgeries to devote resources to COVID-19 care,” by Allison Corneau, Eagle-Tribune: “With coronavirus cases on the rise across the Merrimack Valley, Lawrence General Hospital has temporarily halted elective surgeries to use all resources to care for patients ill with COVID-19 and other urgent health issues.”
– “Area lawmakers call on governor to establish free COVID testing site in Attleboro,” by George W. Rhodes, Sun Chronicle: “With coronavirus spreading across the area, particularly in Attleboro, legislators called on Gov. Charlie Baker Wednesday to establish a free testing site in the city. Sen. Becca Rausch, D-Needham, and Rep. Jim Hawkins, D-Attleboro, both describe the area as a ‘testing desert.’”
– “Mitchell vetoes pay cut for non-resident New Bedford employees,” by Kiernan Dunlop, Standard-Times: “If there was any doubt about Mayor Jon Mitchell’s stance on an ordinance establishing a 10% pay cut for non-resident city employees, a three-page letter he sent to the city council vetoing the ordinance left little to the imagination.”
TRANSITIONS – Lisa Owens was appointed to serve as the new executive director of the Hyams Foundation. Link.
– Samantha Bennett is Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty's new chief of staff.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY – to Robby Mook, senior fellow at the Kennedy School and president of House Majority PAC; and Dan Marino.
Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com.
A message from the American Heart Association:
The facts on sugary drinks are simple. They pose a real health risk. Kids especially are drinking too many of them. All those sweet drinks contribute to major health problems, like diabetes and heart disease. And with Massachusetts already spending nearly $2 billion per year treating obesity-related diseases, we need to address the problem. Massachusetts should take a page from a growing number of places across the country and adopt a tax on sugary drinks. Learn more here.
NEXT WEEK - DON'T MISS THE MILKEN INSTITUTE FUTURE OF HEALTH SUMMIT 2020: POLITICO will feature a special edition Future Pulse newsletter at the Milken Institute Future of Health Summit. The newsletter takes readers inside one of the most influential gatherings of global health industry leaders and innovators determined to confront and conquer the most significant health challenges. Covid-19 has exposed weaknesses across our health systems, particularly in the treatment of our most vulnerable communities, driving the focus of the 2020 conference on the converging crises of public health, economic insecurity, and social justice. Sign up today to receive exclusive coverage from December 7–9.
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RSN: Jesse Jackson | Georgia Voters Will Decide Fate of Senate and a New South
It's Live on the HomePage Now: Jesse Jackson | Georgia Voters Will Decide Fate of Senate and a New South
Justice Department Investigated Potential 'Bribery-for-Pardon' Scheme Involving White House
Trump Has Discussed With Advisers Pardons for His 3 Eldest Children and Giuliani
Judge Throws Out Trump Rules Limiting Skilled-Worker Visas
'Someone's Going to Get Killed': Georgia Official Blasts GOP Silence on Election Threats |
"Someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get shot, someone's going to get killed," Gabriel Sterling, with the secretary of state's office, said Tuesday afternoon in an emotional and forceful news conference. "It's not right."
Among other things, a Twitter thread accusing a young technician working on the recount of altering votes led to his identity being released and calls for him to be "hung for treason."
Meanwhile, caravans of horn-honking Trump supporters constantly parade past Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's private residence, and his wife has reportedly received sexually explicit threats. The president himself, who has falsely suggested he won Georgia's 16 electoral votes, has called on Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to overturn the election.
In a tweet Tuesday evening responding to Sterling's news conference, Trump again falsely alleged massive voter fraud in Georgia.
Sterling, a fixture in recent weeks as a calm, even-tempered source of election information and factoids about the complicated counting processes, unloaded on Trump, both Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue and other GOP officials that have egged on the party's base to believe in widespread fraud.
"It has to stop," he said. "Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up. And if you take a position of leadership, show some."
Sterling said the situation came to a head with a report that a Gwinnett County technician was outed and receiving death threats after a video circulated online purportedly showing him manipulating data as part of an official recount.
"A 20-something tech in Gwinnett County today has death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches from an EMS to a county computer so he could read it," Sterling said.
"His family is getting harassed now. There's a noose out there with his name on it. And it's not right," he said, adding: "I've got police protection outside my house. Fine. You know, I took a higher-profile job. I get it, the secretary ran for office; his wife knew that, too. This kid took a job. He just took a job, and it's just wrong."
Ron Watkins, the former administrator of extremist site 8kun that played host to posts from the QAnon conspiracy theory, was one of the main boosters of that video. Watkins has also encouraged followers to monitor and livestream several county elections warehouses in search of evidence of impropriety.
Tuesday afternoon, police were called to a Gwinnett County location where a man who was livestreaming video followed workers he believed were secretly transporting voting machines in violation of a court order. In the video, an officer explained that boxes were full of office phones and told the man he was trespassing.
Trump, both of Georgia's U.S. senators, many House members, several GOP state lawmakers and the chair of the Republican Party of Georgia have all cast doubt on the 2020 election process with little to no evidence of fraud or wrongdoing.
Sterling said those leaders, especially Perdue and Loeffler, need to "step up" and fight back against conspiracies.
"You have to be responsible in your rhetoric, you have to be responsible in your statements, you have to be responsible in your deeds," Sterling said. "That shouldn't be too much to ask for people who asked for us to give them responsibility.
In response, Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh said: "The campaign is focused on ensuring that all legal votes are counted and all illegal votes are not. No one should engage in threats or violence, and if that has happened, we condemn that fully."
Both Perdue and Loeffler said they condemn any sort of violence but won't apologize for their harsh questioning of Georgia's election administration.
Read Sterling's full remarks below:
"Good afternoon. My name is Gabriel Sterling and I'm the voting system implementation manager for State of Georgia. And just to give you a heads up, this is going to be sort of a two-part press conference today. At the beginning of this, I'm going to do my best to keep it together.
Because it has all gone too far. All of it.
Joe diGenova today asked for Chris Krebs, a patriot who ran CISA, to be shot. A 20-something tech in Gwinnett County today has death threats and a noose put out, saying he should be hung for treason because he was transferring a report on batches from an EMS to a county computer so he could read it.
It has to stop.
Mr. President, you have not condemned these actions or this language. Senators, you have not condemned this language or these actions. This has to stop. We need you to step up. And if you take a position of leadership, show some.
My boss, Secretary Raffensperger — his address is out there. They have people doing caravans in front of their house, they've had people come onto their property. Tricia, his wife of 40 years, is getting sexualized threats through her cellphone.
It has to stop.
This is elections, this is the backbone of democracy, and all of you who have not said a damn word are complicit in this. It's too much.
Yes, fight for every single vote. Go through your due process, we encourage you — use your First Amendment. That's fine. Death threats, physical threats, intimidation — it's too much. It's not right. We've lost the moral high ground to claim that it is.
I don't have all the best words to do this because I'm angry, and the straw that broke the camel's back today is, again, this 20-year-old contractor for a voting system company just trying to do his job. In fact, I talked to Dominion today and they said he's one of the better ones they got. His family is getting harassed now. There's a noose out there with his name on it. And it's not right.
I've got police protection outside my house. Fine. You know, I took a higher-profile job. I get it, Secretary ran for office, his wife knew that, too. This kid took a job. He just took a job, and it's just wrong.
I can't begin to explain the level of anger I have right now over this, and every American, every Georgian, Republican and Democrat alike, should have that same level of anger.
Mr. President, it looks like you likely lost the state of Georgia. We're investigating. There's always a possibility, I get it, and you have the rights to go through the courts. What you don't have the ability to do — and you need to step up and say this — is stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone's going to get hurt. Someone's going to get shot. Someone's going to get killed. And it's not right.
It's not right. And I don't have anything scripted — this is like I said, I will do my best to keep it together. All of this is wrong. DiGenova, who said for Chris Krebs to get shot, is a former U.S. attorney. He knows better. The people around the president know better.
Mr. President, as the secretary said yesterday, people aren't giving you the best advice on what's actually going on the ground. It's time to look forward if you want to run for reelection in four years. Fine, do it. But everything we're seeing right now, there's not a path. Be the bigger man here and stop. Step in, tell your supporters: Don't be violent, don't intimidate. All that's wrong. It's unAmerican.
I don't know what else to say on that front. I mean, these are elections. One of our goals was to make elections boring again. Well, guess what? That didn't happen. This is all wrong. It's all too much, and that's I'll leave that for there."
Police officers sit in the court as suspects are seen behind a fence in Cairo, Egypt, July 28 2018. (photo: Reuters)
Amnesty International: Steep Rise in Executions in Egypt in Past Two Months
Al Jazeera
Excerpt: "Egypt executed 57 men and women in October and November, nearly double the 32 people reported in the whole of 2019, Amnesty International said."
Rights group says executions ‘particularly appalling’ due to ‘systematic breaches of fair trials’ documented in Egypt.
gypt executed 57 men and women in October and November, nearly double the 32 people reported in the whole of 2019, Amnesty International said.
At least 15 of those executed had been sentenced to death in cases related to political violence following what Amnesty called unfair trials, the London-based human rights group said in a report released on Wednesday.
“The Egyptian authorities have embarked on a horrifying execution spree in recent months, putting scores of people to death, in some cases following grossly unfair mass trials,” Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director Philip Luther said.
Luther added that executions in the country were “particularly appalling” considering all the “well documented and systematic breaches of fair trial rights in Egypt with courts often relying on torture-tainted ‘confessions'”.
The Reuters news agency said Egypt’s state news centre and the interior ministry could not be reached for comment on the Amnesty report.
Amnesty said state authorities have also arrested human rights activists dealing with the issue of a death penalty in the country.
Staff members of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) were arrested in November and interrogated about the group’s criminal justice work.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has said there are no political prisoners in Egypt and stability and security are paramount.
Egyptian courts have sentenced some 3,000 people to death since 2014, when el-Sisi became president, according to the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, an independent organisation that documents human rights violations in the Middle East and North Africa.
That is compared with fewer than 800 death sentences in the previous six years, according to Amnesty International.
The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, at the G20 summit on 20 November 2020. (photo: Europa Newswire)
UN Secretary General: Humanity Faces Climate 'Suicide' Without US Rejoining Paris Agreement
Mark Hertsgaard, Guardian UK
Hertsgaard writes: "Joining China and other big polluters, Biden's pledge of 'net zero' emissions by 2050 brings the Paris agreement goals 'within reach.'"
he way we are moving is a suicide,” the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said in an interview on Monday, and humanity’s survival will be “impossible” without the United States rejoining the Paris agreement and achieving “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050, as the incoming Biden administration has pledged.The secretary general said that “of course” he had been in touch with President-elect Biden and looked forward to welcoming the US into a “global coalition for net zero by 2050” that the UN has organized. The US is the world’s largest cumulative source of heat-trapping emissions and its biggest military and economic power, Guterres noted, so “there is no way we can solve the [climate] problem … without strong American leadership.”
In an extraordinary if largely unheralded diplomatic achievement, most of the world’s leading emitters have already joined the UN’s “net zero by 2050” coalition, including the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom and China (which is the world’s largest source of annual emissions and has committed to achieving carbon neutrality “before 2060”). India, meanwhile, the world’s third largest annual emitter, is the only Group of 20 country on track to limit temperature rise to 2C by 2100, despite needing to lift many of its people out of poverty, an achievement Guterres called “remarkable”. Along with Russia, the US has been the only major holdout, after Donald Trump group Climate Action Tracker. If so, temperature rise could be limited to 2.1C, the group said – higher than the agreement’s target of 1.5 to 2C, but a major improvement from the 3 to 5C future that business as usual would deliver.
“The targets set at Paris were always meant to be increased over time,” Guterres said. “[Now,] we need to align those commitments with a 1.5C future, and then you must implement.”
Reiterating scientists’ warning that humanity faces “a climate emergency”, the secretary general said that achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is imperative to avoiding “irreversible” impacts that would be “absolutely devastating for the world economy and for human announced he was withdrawing the US from the Paris agreement soon after becoming president four years ago.
The new pledges could bring the Paris agreement’s goals “within reach”, provided that the pledges are fulfilled, concluded an analysis by the independent research life”. He said rich countries must honor their obligation under the Paris agreement to provide $100bn a year to help developing countries limit their own climate pollution and adapt to the heatwaves, storms and sea level rise already under way. The trillions of dollars now being invested to revive pandemic-battered economies also must be spent in a “green” way, Guterres argued, or today’s younger generations will inherit “a wrecked planet”. And he predicted that the oil and gas industry, in its present form, will die out before the end of this century as economies shift to renewable energy sources.
The secretary general’s interview, conducted by CBS News, the Times of India, and El País on behalf of the journalistic consortium Covering Climate Now, is part of a 10-day push by the UN to reinvigorate the Paris agreement before a follow-up conference next year. That conference, known as the 26th conference of the parties, or COP 26, was supposed to take place this week but was postponed due to the pandemic. On 12 December 2020, Guterres will mark the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Paris agreement by convening a global climate summit with Boris Johnson, who as prime minister of the UK is the official host of COP 26, which occurs in Glasgow, Scotland, next November.
A total of 110 countries have joined the “net zero by 2050” coalition, the secretary general said, a development he attributed to growing recognition of the increasingly frequent and destructive extreme weather events climate change is unleashing around the world and the “tremendous pressure” governments have faced from civil society, including millions of young people protesting in virtually every country as well as more and more of the private sector.
“Governments, until now, thought to a certain extent that they could do whatever they wanted,” Guterres said. “But now … we see the youth mobilizing in fantastic ways all over the world.” And with solar and other renewable energy sources now cheaper than carbon-based equivalents, investors are realizing that “the sooner that they move … to portfolios linked to the new green and digital economy, the best it will be for their own assets and their own clients.”
For a global economy that still relies on oil, gas and coal for most of its energy and much of its food production, moving to “net zero” by 2050 nevertheless represents a tectonic shift – all the more so because scientists calculate that emissions must fall roughly by half over the next 10 years to hit the 2050 target. Achieving those goals will require fundamental shifts in both public and private policy, including building no new coal plants and phasing out existing ones, Guterres said. Governments must also reform tax and subsidy practices.
There should be “no more subsidies for fossil fuels”, the secretary general said. “It doesn’t make any sense that taxpayers’ money is spent destroying the planet. At the same time, we should shift taxation from income to carbon, from taxpayers to polluters. I’m not asking governments to increase taxes. I’m asking governments to reduce the taxes on payrolls or on companies that commit to invest in green energy and put that level of taxation on carbon pollution.”
Governments must also ensure a “just transition” for the people and communities affected by the phase-out of fossil fuels, with workers getting unemployment payments and retraining for jobs in the new green economy. “When I was in government [as the prime minister of Portugal], we had to close all the coalmines,” he recalled. “We did everything we could to make sure that those who were working in those mines would have their futures guaranteed.”
The “cycle of oil as the key engine of the world economy is finished,” Guterres said. By the end of the 21st century, petroleum might still be used “as raw materials for different products … but the role of fossil fuels as [an energy source] will be minimal”. As for fossil fuel companies’ stated ambitions to continue producing more oil, gas and coal, Guterres said that throughout history various economic sectors have risen and fallen and that the digital sector has now displaced the fossil fuel sector as the center of the global economy. “I’m totally convinced that a lot of the oil and gas that is today in the soil,” he said, “will remain in the soil”.
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