Rachel Maddow on Tuesday ripped the GOP as a “dumpster fire,” accusing the Republican Party of being gripped by post-Trump turmoil and unable to contribute to governing the country.
“We are now quite suddenly and clearly at this place where the two parties have totally different tasks at hand,” said the host of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”
“On the Republican side, it is some scary and kind of unnerving stuff about whether or not they are a party that endorses violence and whether they are a party that still believes that democracy and elections are the way that we decide things as a country,” she said.
Democrats, meanwhile, are “just trying to govern,” Maddow continued. “They’re trying to figure out how to get something done without having to deal with that dumpster fire on the other side.”
“Because how can that be your governing partner?” she added.
“The Democrats have to prove they can do this or they’re going to have to contend with the dumpster fire over there again in terms of what the people of the United States have to choose from between the two options available to them,” Maddow concluded. “Just an incredible situation that we are in.”
US companies using pandemic as a tool to break unions, workers claim
Michael Sainato in Florida
Photograph: Anthony Vazquez/AP
Dalroy Connell has worked as a stagehand for the Portland Trailblazers since 1995 when the basketball team began playing games at the Rose Garden Arena. When the pandemic hit the US in March 2020, public events were shut down and NBA games were briefly suspended before the season moved to a “bubble” in Orlando, Florida, and the season recommenced without fans in July 2020.
Connell and his colleagues have been on unemployment ever since, but when the 2020-2021 NBA season began in December 2020, instead of bringing back several of these workers, the Portland Trailblazers replaced most of the unionized crew who work their games with non-union workers, even as their jobs running the sound and lighting equipment are required whether or not fans are in attendance.
Like many workers around the US Connell believes he has been locked out from his job by a company that has used the coronavirus pandemic as a tool to break unions.
“It’s a blatant slap in the face,” said Connell. “They’re using positions in the house, people who already work there to do things we normally do.”
The workers’ union, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 28, has filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board and held protests outside of Portland Trailblazers home games.
Connell alleged management at the Portland Trailblazers has frequently fought the union over the past several years, with the latest refusal to recall union workers an extension of this trend.
“Here we are wasting a ton of money on legal fees just to give a few guys some work. It’s a five-hour job. It’s so easy to work this out,” he added.
The Portland Trailblazers and Rip City Management did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Lockouts are work stoppages initiated by the employer in a labor dispute where the employer uses replacement workers.
Earlier in the pandemic, some employers resorted to conducting mass layoffs of workers after union organizing drives surfaced, such as at Augie’s Coffee Shop in California and Cort Furniture in New Jersey. Several workers have claimed they had been fired in retaliation due to worker organizing efforts by employers such as Amazon, Trader Joe’s and most recently Instacart. Now some employers are beginning to use lockouts as a tactic to seemingly suppress organizing efforts.
“Lockouts are an economic weapon employers use to take the initiative in collective bargaining,” said Alex Colvin, dean of the school of industrial and labor relations at Cornell University. “During the pandemic, lockouts pose a greater threat to unions due to the high unemployment rate and greater availability of replacement workers.”
According to an analysis by Bloomberg Law, no employer lockouts were conducted in 2020 during the first several months of the pandemic, but after previous economic recessions in the US, lockouts rebounded as disputes over wages and benefits became more intense.
“The intent of many lockouts is to actually try to break the workers’ unions by showing that the union’s position has led to the loss of work, and the only way to restore work is through unconditional surrender,” said Moshe Z Marvit, a labor and employment lawyer and fellow at the Century Foundation.
In Los Angeles, California, dozens of workers at Valley Fruit and Produce represented by Teamsters Local 630 went on strike in May 2020 in protest of intimidation of union members and efforts to decertify the union during new contract negotiations.
Amid negotiations to end the strike and bring back workers, Valley Fruit and Produce replaced several workers with non-union members, while the union alleges workers who did return to work were coerced into signing declarations against the union.
The union is currently pursuing unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board for the produce distribution company circumventing the union to directly negotiate with workers, in addition to several allegations of intimidation and harassment.
“Through their union buster lawyer, Valley Fruit talked to foremen to call workers on the picket line, using intimidation and scare tactics to get them back to work., When workers went back inside, they were forced to sign documents to say they didn’t want to be a part of the union any more,” said Carlos Santamaria, divisional representative for Teamsters Local 630.
The Portland Trail Blazers meet the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2020 NBA playoffs in Orlando, Florida, in August after the pandemic forced games to be relocated.Photograph: Kim Klement/USA Today Sports
“I’m disappointed in what Valley has done to all the workers,” said Rene Gomez, who worked at Valley Fruit and Produce for 21 years and has been locked out of his job since last year. “My family and I are having a hard time economically because of everything going on. We’ve gone to food banks. We’ve been stressed because we don’t know how we’re going to keep paying rent at the end of the month.”
Roberto Juarez, who has worked for Valley Fruit and Produce for six years before getting locked out of his job, argued the company has attempted to “destroy the union in the workplace”, through negotiating in bad faith by pushing for reduction in benefits, wage freezes, hiring union avoidance attorneys, while receiving between $2m and $5m in paycheck protection program loans from the federal government.
“When the pandemic started and hit hard, we never stopped working and we were working a lot of hours. We were exposing ourselves, coming to work, exposing our families, and they didn’t really care,” said Juarez.
Valley Fruit and Produce did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Earlier this month in Chicago, Illinois, the Chicago public schools district began locking out dozens of teachers who are being ordered to return in-person to schools, which have been conducting virtual learning since the pandemic hit the US in March 2020.
Kirstin Roberts, a preschool teacher at Brentano elementary math and science academy in Chicago, refused to return to in-person teaching due to unsafe working conditions, even as all of her students had opted to continue remote learning.
The city of Chicago remains under a stay-at-home advisory with travel restrictions in place to try to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. Chicago public schools threatened to declare teachers ordered to work in school buildings who do not show up as “absent without leave”, and docking their pay.
Teachers across Chicago and the Chicago Teachers Union held a virtual teach-in protest of a return to in-person teaching outside of the board of education president’s home on 13 January.
Roberts attended the protest and taught on Facebook live because she was locked out of her Chicago public schools Google account, banning her access to continue teaching her students remotely and shutting her out of her work email account.
“They’ve been trying to impose conditions on the workforce without input from the union,” said Roberts. “Even though we’re in the middle of a pandemic, Chicago public schools is willing to use our students, hurt our students, and deny students things they need like access to their teachers in a game to one-up the Chicago Teachers Union and that’s ridiculous.”
According to Chicago public schools, 87 teachers and staff are currently considered absent without leave, with an attendance rate of about 76% of school district employees in attendance who were expected to return to work in-person, not including employees who had an approved accommodation.
“We are grateful to the teachers and school-based staff who have returned to their classrooms, and we are continuing to meet regularly with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU),” said a spokesperson for Chicago public schools in an email.
Final ‘Fact-Checker’ Numbers Show Just How Nuts Trump’s Last Year Really Was
Ed Mazza, Overnight Editor, HuffPost January 25, 2021
Former President Donald Trump made steady news during his presidency for the sheer and often overwhelming number of lies he told daily. But a Washington Post analysis shows just how much worse his final year in office was compared to all the others.
According to the Post, Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his four years in office, with nearly half of them coming during his final year.
Glenn Kessler, who pens the newspaper’s Fact Checker column, wrote that Trump averaged six false claims a day during his first year in office, 16 a day during his second, 22 a day during his third and 39 a day during his last year.
“Put another way, it took him 27 months to reach 10,000 claims and another 14 months to reach 20,000,” Kessler wrote. “He then exceeded the 30,000 mark less than five months later.”
Some of Trump’s most infamous moments include his declaration last year that the coronavirus would disappear “like a miracle” as well as his lies about the election, culminating in the rally in which the president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol during a deadly insurrection.
The persistent lies have taken a toll, not just on the office but on the public.
“As a result of Trump’s constant lying through the presidential megaphone, more Americans are skeptical of genuine facts than ever before,” presidential historian Michael Beschloss told the newspaper.
Goodbye, gas heat? Proposals in Washington state seek to phase out fossil fuel heating in buildings
By Tom Banse (Northwest News Network) January 26, 2021
A long goodbye to natural gas furnaces and water heating — and possibly other gas appliances — could begin with action by the Washington Legislature this winter. Separately, the Seattle City Council this week begins consideration of a similar proposal to eliminate fossil fuel-based heating in new commercial buildings.
“Buildings are one of our state’s most significant and fastest growing sources of carbon pollution. We must do better — and we can do better,” testified Michael Furze, head of the state energy office, on behalf of Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee.
Natural gas utilities and major business associations spoke against the state legislative proposal during an initial public hearing on Friday. The opponents said they want to preserve consumer choice and questioned whether the Pacific Northwest electric grid could handle a big increase in winter heating load.
In December, Inslee unveiled a package of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including this proposal to phase out natural gas for space and water heating. As initially conceived, Washington state would have forbidden use of fossil fuels for heating and hot water in new buildings by 2030. The plan sought to convert existing buildings to electric heat by 2050.
The scope of the measure was revised earlier this month when Inslee’s allies in the state legislature introduced identical proposals in the House and Senate to amend the state energy code. The 2030 date to ban heating with fossil fuels in new construction remains. There is no mandate to convert existing buildings from gas to electric heat, but an expectation that utilities will offer incentives for conversions.
Buildings account for the second biggest share of carbon pollution in Washington, after transportation, largely due to gas furnaces and water heaters such as these. Tom Banse / NW News Network
“If we don’t start with clean new buildings, we’re going to be bailing water out of a boat while we’re still drilling holes in the bottom of it,” said state Rep. Alex Ramel (D-Bellingham), the prime sponsor in the House. “That’s why we need to accelerate and strengthen our state’s energy code.”
The legislation is silent about use of natural gas for cooking and clothes dryers. In an interview, Ramel said lawmakers want to transition those appliances to clean energy as well. However, the details may be worked out later between natural gas utilities and regulators at the state utilities commission.
During the well-attended virtual public hearing before the state House Environment and Energy Committee, Cascade Natural Gas, Puget Sound Energy and the utility trade group Northwest Gas Association raised objections.
“[This bill] would jeopardize energy reliability, drive up costs to customers and put gas industry employees across Washington out of work,” said Alyn Spector, energy efficiency policy manager for Cascade Natural Gas. “This is not the time to eliminate good paying jobs.”
Business lobbying groups, including the influential Association of Washington Business and the home builders’ Building Industry Association of Washington, also voiced their opposition.
“As we saw this summer in California, we cannot take a healthy grid for granted and losses from even short-lived interruption of power supply can run into the billions,” said Peter Godlewski with AWB. “Shifting consumers and businesses away from natural gas to electricity puts severe pressure on the electric grid as a time when we’re retiring more generating capacity than ever.”
At this juncture it is hard to gauge the prospects for the gas heat phaseout proposal. Inslee, who made combating climate change a central plank of his brief run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, has the benefit of large, supportive Democratic majorities in both chambers of the state legislature. But the capacity of lawmakers to get much done beyond the basics of passing new state budgets and dealing with the coronavirus pandemic while conducting most business virtually remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, an assortment of West Coast cities are tackling carbon pollution from buildings independently. Around 40 climate-conscious California cities and counties have already passed laws or codes to require new buildings to be all-electric.
Later this week, the Seattle City Council begins consideration of an ordinance to ban the use of fossil fuels for heating in new commercial and large apartment buildings. The proposed policy change does not apply to single family homes and duplexes because the city’s energy code that is open for amendment pertains only to commercial buildings. The effective date of Jan. 1, 2022, is much sooner than the state legislature’s proposal in the same vein.
“In Seattle, 35 percent of carbon emissions are from the building sector and they are rising,” Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment Director Jessica Finn Coven told state legislators in testimony Friday. “Constructing homes and buildings right the first time reduces the likelihood of costly retrofits in the future.”
The Bellingham City Council has also teed up electrification of buildings as part of a broader climate action package. In an email, Bellingham City Council member Michael Lilliquist said the pandemic had slowed down the work, but it is proceeding. He said city staff were running all of the proposed climate measures through a rigorous, multi-step evaluation process.
“We are not yet at the stage to offer specifics that can be incorporated into an ordinance or program,” Lilliquist said.
In Rural Montana, a Hope That Biden Will Reopen the Rails
By Jim Robbins January 24, 2021
A former train station on Amtrak’s North Coast Hiawatha route, in Deer Lodge, Mont.Credit…Tailyr Irvine for The New York Times. The North Coast Hiawatha hasn’t run through Montana since 1979. Now cities like Billings, Bozeman, Helena and Missoula are hoping that “Amtrak Joe” will help fund new rail service.
DEER LODGE, Mont. — For nearly a century, passenger trains rumbled three times weekly through this broad, grass-rich mountain valley in central Montana, home to more cattle than people, until Amtrak pulled the plug on the North Coast Hiawatha in 1979.
But with a new president known as “Amtrak Joe” and Democratic control of both houses of Congress, a dozen counties across the sparsely populated state are hoping that a return to passenger train service through the cities of Billings, Bozeman, Helena and Missoula, and whistle stops like Deer Lodge in between, is closer than it has been in four decades.
“Residents of the very rural parts of the state have to travel 175 miles to get on a plane or to seek medical services,” said David Strohmaier, a Missoula County commissioner who is one of those behind the newly formed Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority to raise money and lobby for a return to passenger rail in southern Montana. “Rural communities see it as an economic development opportunity but also as a social lifeline for residents who might not have any other means to travel long distances for necessities.”
Making the journey between Chicago and Seattle, the Hiawatha served the largest cities in Montana. Its absence left a gap in a state where cities and services are widely scattered and public transportation is poor to nonexistent, especially for low-income residents.
The Olympian Hiawatha, operated by the Milwaukee Road and a predecessor to the North Coast Hiawatha, cruising through a Montana valley in 1961.Credit…Courtesy the Milwaukee Road
The Empire Builder, a daily Amtrak train reduced to three times a week during the coronavirus pandemic, travels from Chicago to Seattle and Portland, Ore., through northern Montana, serving only small towns in one of the most remote parts of the state.
Defending the current funding for Amtrak’s routes is a constant battle, so the notion of adding new ones is seen as a long shot. It is less so now, some say, because of the new president and Democratic control of both chambers.
President Biden’s infrastructure plan, for example, promises to “spark the second great railroad revolution.”
“Passenger rail is a vital component to America’s transportation network,” the incoming transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, said in a statement to The New York Times. “I believe that the department should promote, help to develop, and fund passenger rail in order to bring America’s railroads into the 21st century.”
Expanding service to new cities “is a tough leap for a lot of people,” said Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president for policy and government affairs for the Rail Passengers Association. “At the same time it feels like the stars are starting to align. We might get an honest-to-God infrastructure bill and that could mean money for expansion.”
The North Coast Hiawatha in Butte, Mont., in 1977. Amtrak canceled the line two years later.Credit…Frank Florianz
Amtrak officials said they were “supporting” the efforts of local officials to expand service. “There are many places around the country that could benefit from restoration of service or new service,” said Marc Magliari, a spokesman for the company.
There has been encouraging news for passenger rail recently, including the recently remodeled Moynihan Train Hall next to Penn Station in New York and the new, next generation of Acela trains due to enter service this year in the Northeast Corridor.
The pandemic, though, has caused financial havoc for Amtrak, as it has for other forms of transportation. Ridership has been down 80 percent. The railroad received $1 billion from the 2020 stimulus.
And the once ambitious plans for high-speed rail in California have been considerably downsized amid soaring cost overruns, which may hurt the cause for expanded rail.
New long-distance service in Montana, if it happened, would not be high speed. Amtrak’s long-distance trains have a top speed of 79 miles per hour, though sections of some routes have requisite safety equipment in place to reach top speeds of 90 miles per hour.
Small communities across the country see economic hope in an Amtrak connection. Northern Montana still has the Empire Builder, which a recent analysis said contributes up to $40 million a year to the small communities it serves. It is the busiest of Amtrak’s long-distance routes and last year carried some 433,000 passengers.
The Empire Builder, a daily Amtrak train reduced to three times a week during the pandemic, travels through northern Montana, serving small towns in a remote part of the state.Credit…George Rose/Getty Images
A ballpark figure for the start-up cost of reinstituting new service along Montana’s southern route, Mr. Jeans-Gail said, is $50 million for better signaling, upgrading track and station improvement.
Nostalgia is no small part of the support for train travel. The history of the last 150 years in the West has been entwined with the railroads, the first mode of transportation to bridge the long distances in trips that took days, rather than weeks or months. They brought a radically different world to a wild and remote land — for good and for ill. Homesteaders, miners, buffalo hunters and others came to develop and plunder a rich landscape and occupy the land.
The railroads were also instrumental in the creation of the national parks and park infrastructure, which their originators saw as destinations for passengers.
The town of Deer Lodge was integral in the early days of railroading in Montana and is steeped in rail history. The Northern Pacific came in the 1880s, and in 1907 the now defunct Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, known as the Milwaukee Road, located its Rocky Mountain division headquarters here.
“Both of my grandfathers and my father were locomotive engineers on the Milwaukee Road,” said Terry Jennings, who lives in Deer Lodge and is on the board of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority. “When the Milwaukee Road pulled out it busted the back of this town financially.”
Terry Jennings and the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority want to see rail service return to the region.Credit…Tailyr Irvine for The New York Times
Since then the town’s population has dwindled, from nearly 5,000 to less than 3,000, and there is a yearning to recapture some of its railroad past and buttress its tourist economy. Deer Lodge is home to the state prison, and the imposing, castle-like stone territorial prison, retired in 1979, is a tourist attraction. The Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site on the edge of town operates as a cattle ranch did in the 19th century.
Even if rail service returns to the southern route, Deer Lodge might not get service right away, though the train would likely stop nearby. If the railroad does make it here, it would need new infrastructure. The town’s two wood-frame, track-side train stations are now the Depot Church and the Powell County Senior Center.
While some cities in Montana have boomed in recent years, many small towns are in an existential battle. The long distances and sparse population of parts of Montana, sometimes called the Big Empty, make travel difficult and expensive.
Flying from Missoula to Billings, for example, requires flying first to Salt Lake City or Seattle and connecting back; a round-trip flight can cost $500 or more. Bus service is spotty. Spending hours behind a steering wheel is often the only alternative.
New train service would open up secluded parts of the vast state. “There’s a big part of Montana that is virtually untouched, that can only be seen from the railroad,” Mr. Jennings said.
Freight trains now run on the tracks between Missoula and Deer Lodge.Credit…Tailyr Irvine for The New York Times
And with an aging population for whom long-distance driving is becoming more difficult, train service looks increasingly attractive. “My husband’s family lives in Terry, 400 miles east,” said Deer Lodge’s mayor, Diana Solle. “We are in our 70s and it’s a long drive.”
Montana is only one of many places working toward new long-distance train service. There is research and planning underway to provide Amtrak service along Colorado’s Front Range; new service between Mobile, Ala., and New Orleans; and additional service between Chicago and St. Paul, Minn. Virginia is adding tracks to expand high-speed train service between Richmond and Washington, connecting to the Northeast Corridor.
Mr. Strohmaier said Montana officials would like to open new rail service to connect to places like Salt Lake City and Denver, especially for people who cannot afford to fly.
“There are economic and social disparities” in travel, he said. “This is the definition of transportation equity. It would provide a more affordable means of transportation for a larger slice of the public than is currently served.”
The historic train station in Missoula, which could benefit from a re-established commuter line.Credit…Tailyr Irvine for The New York Times
Scientists Launch ‘Four Steps for Earth’ to Protect Biodiversity
Olivia Rosane January 25, 2021
A dugong, also called a sea cow, swims with golden pilot jacks near Marsa Alam, Egypt, Red Sea. Alexis Rosenfeld / Getty Images.
In 2010, world leaders agreed to 20 targets to protect Earth’s biodiversity over the next decade. By 2020, none of them had been met. Now, the question is whether the world can do any better once new targets are set during the meeting of the UN Convention on Biodiversity in Kunming, China later this year.
To help turn the tide, a group of 22 research institutions have come together to develop four steps to protect life on Earth, the Environment Journal reported.
“The upcoming Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting, and adoption of the new Global Biodiversity Framework, represent an opportunity to transform humanity’s relationship with nature,” the researchers wrote in One Earth Friday. “Restoring nature while meeting human needs requires a bold vision, including mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in society.”
By mainstreaming biodiversity, the researchers mean that biodiversity should be considered by everyone who makes decisions about the use of natural resources, not just specialized conservation organizations.
To help with this goal, the researchers, led by the University of Oxford’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, developed a framework they are calling the “4Rs,” according to a University of Oxford press release. The point of the 4Rs is that they can be used by any group or individual, from the national to the local level, that needs to make a decision that will impact species and ecosystems.
The 4Rs are:
Refrain: Avoiding negative impacts on nature.
Reduce: Minimizing the harm caused by any unavoidable impacts.
Restore: Acting to quickly counteract any harm caused to nature.
Renew: Working to improve damaged ecosystems.
“This paper represents a real team effort, with authors from academia, business and government,” lead author and Oxford professor E.J. Milner-Gulland said of the goals in the press release. “We’re excited to launch this idea and hope that it will be useful to many different groups as they work to realise the vision of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. It’s a huge challenge, with many different facets, and we hope that Four Steps for the Earth will provide an intuitive and flexible framework for tying all the threads together.”
In the paper, the researchers provided examples of how the framework has been used by groups ranging from the city of London to Indigenous communities. In one example, a fishery in Peru used it to reduce the accidental catching of sea turtles. Goals were set for limiting the number of different species of sea turtle accidentally caught at the local level, and this was connected to regional conservation efforts for the animals.
The researchers also explained how different institutions could use their framework to guide their actions in the future.
“This framework will, hopefully, present a turning point in the way institutions such as Oxford think about their biodiversity impact,” Oxford project coordinator Henry Grub said in the press release. “Our impacts cannot be overlooked because of the positive research we do – rather we hope the ‘4Rs’ will transform efforts to tackle the environmental impacts of the food we eat in canteens, the paper we put in printers, the land we build on, and much more.”
Trump shuns ‘ex-presidents club’ — and the feeling is mutual
Trump left the White House without attending Biden’s swearing-in, the first president to skip his successor’s inauguration in 152 years.
By The Associated Press January 23, 2021
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — It’s a club Donald Trump was never really interested in joining and certainly not so soon: the cadre of former commanders in chief who revere the presidency enough to put aside often bitter political differences and even join together in common cause.
Members of the ex-presidents club pose together for pictures. They smile and pat each other on the back while milling around historic events, or sit somberly side by side at VIP funerals. They take on special projects together. They rarely criticize one another and tend to offer even fewer harsh words about their White House successors.
Like so many other presidential traditions, however, this is one Trump seems likely to flout. Now that he’s left office, it’s hard to see him embracing the stately, exclusive club of living former presidents.
“He kind of laughed at the very notion that he would be accepted in the presidents club,” said Kate Andersen Brower, who interviewed Trump in 2019 for her book “Team of Five: The Presidents’ Club in the Age of Trump.” “He was like, ‘I don’t think I’ll be accepted.’”
It’s equally clear that the club’s other members don’t much want him — at least for now.
Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton recorded a three-minute video from Arlington National Cemetery after President Joe Biden’s inauguration this week, praising peaceful presidential succession as a core of American democracy. The segment included no mention of Trump by name, but stood as a stark rebuke of his behavior since losing November’s election.
“I think the fact that the three of us are standing here, talking about a peaceful transfer of power, speaks to the institutional integrity of our country,” Bush said. Obama called inaugurations “a reminder that we can have fierce disagreements and yet recognize each other’s common humanity, and that, as Americans, we have more in common than what separates us.”
Trump spent months making baseless claims that the election had been stolen from him through fraud and eventually helped incite a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. He left the White House without attending Biden’s swearing-in, the first president to skip his successor’s inauguration in 152 years.
Obama, Bush and Clinton recorded their video after accompanying Biden to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider following the inauguration. They also taped a video urging Americans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Only 96-year-old Jimmy Carter, who has limited his public events because of the pandemic, and Trump, who had already flown to post-presidential life in Florida, weren’t there.
Jeffrey Engel, founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said Trump isn’t a good fit for the ex-presidents club “because he’s temperamentally different.”
“People within the club historically have been respected by ensuing presidents. Even Richard Nixon was respected by Bill Clinton and by Ronald Reagan and so on, for his foreign policy,” Engel said. “I’m not sure I see a whole lot of people calling up Trump for his strategic advice.”
Former presidents are occasionally called upon for big tasks.
George H.W. Bush and Clinton teamed up in 2005 to launch a campaign urging Americans to help the victims of the devastating Southeast Asia tsunami. When Hurricane Katrina blasted the Gulf Coast, Bush, father of the then-current president George W. Bush, called on Clinton to boost Katrina fundraising relief efforts.
When the elder Bush died in 2018, Clinton wrote, “His friendship has been one of the great gifts of my life,” high praise considering this was the man he ousted from the White House after a bruising 1992 campaign — making Bush the only one-term president of the last three decades except for Trump.
Obama tapped Clinton and the younger President Bush to boost fundraising efforts for Haiti after its devastating 2010 earthquake. George W. Bush also became good friends with former first lady Michelle Obama, and cameras caught him slipping a cough drop to her as they sat together at Arizona Sen. John McCain’s funeral.
Usually presidents extend the same respect to their predecessors while still in office, regardless of party. In 1971, three years before he resigned in disgrace, Richard Nixon went to Texas to participate in the dedication of Lyndon Baines Johnson’s presidential library. When Nixon’s library was completed in 1990, then-President George H.W. Bush attended with former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford.
Trump’s break with tradition began even before his presidency did. After his election win in November 2016, Obama hosted Trump at the White House promising to “do everything we can to help you succeed.” Trump responded, “I look forward to being with you many, many more times in the future” — but that never happened.
Instead, Trump falsely accused Obama of having wiretapped him and spent four years savaging his predecessor’s record.
Current and former presidents sometimes loathed each other, and criticizing their successors isn’t unheard of. Carter criticized the policies of the Republican administrations that followed his, Obama chided Trump while campaigning for Biden and also criticized George W. Bush’s policies — though Obama was usually careful not to name his predecessor. Theodore Roosevelt tried to unseat his successor, fellow Republican William Howard Taft, by founding his own “Bull Moose” party and running for president again against him.
Still, presidential reverence for former presidents dates back even further. The nation’s second president, John Adams, was concerned enough about tarnishing the legacy of his predecessor that he retained George Washington’s Cabinet appointments.
Trump may have time to build his relationship with his predecessors. He told Brower that he “could see himself becoming friendly with Bill Clinton again,” noting that the pair used to golf together.
But the odds of becoming the traditional president in retirement that he never was while in office remain long.
“I think Trump has taken it too far,” Brower said. “I don’t think that these former presidents will welcome him at any point.”
Farmers that use land to protect the environment have more stable incomes than those that focus on intensity
Helena Horton January 21, 2021
This is good news for the new environment-led payments scheme championed by the UK government – Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Farmers who use land to protect the environment have more stable incomes than those who focus on intensity, a new study has suggested.
Scientists from Rothampsted Research and Reading and Newcastle Universities has found that farmers who grew diverse crops and livestock, and reduced pesticides, receive more consistent year-to-year incomes.
This will be seen as a boost for the government’s plan to phase out the EU land payment scheme and instead pay farmers for looking after their environment.
Researchers said the growers did better when they looked after their land because their farms were more resilient to extreme weather events and disease.
The researchers examined data from the government’s Farm Business Survey for 2333 farms in England and Wales, between 2007-2015, for a range of different farm types.
Using statistical models, the team examined the effect of farming practices and subsidies on the stability of farm income, and their relative importance over the nine-year period.
An increase in direct EU subsidies paid to farmers based on the area farmed was associated with less stable farm income, across most farm types.
Dr Jake Bishop, Lecturer in Crop Science and Production from the University of Reading’s School of Agriculture, Policy & Development said: “Our latest research is interesting as it shows that farms that were adopting environmental management actually benefitted financially from their stewardship. This is encouraging news for farmers as the UK moves to the Environmental Land Management scheme.
“Diversifying outputs and more efficient use of agrochemicals is also associated with environmental and ecological benefits, including for soils and pollinators, these benefits may have translated into more stable farm incomes over the nine years we examined.”
Lead author and PhD student, Caroline Harkness added: “Farmers are facing increasing pressures due to changes in climate, government policy and prices. Instability in farm income can be a real challenge. It was interesting, and encouraging, to find that farms adopting environmentally friendly practices also had more stable incomes.
“Farmers may be benefiting financially from their environmental management, while in contrast an increase in direct payments per hectare was associated with less stable farm income.
“Environmentally friendly farming practices including engaging in agri-environment schemes, diversifying outputs, and reducing the use of chemical inputs such as fertilizer and pesticides, are associated with ecological and environmental benefits and importantly could also increase the stability of farm income.”
Trump spends first night as a private citizen ‘looking for lawyers for his impeachment trial’
Josie Ensor January 20, 2021
Outgoing US President Donald Trump waves after landing at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida – AFP
Donald Trump spent his first night as a private citizen settling into his new home at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he has reportedly already begun preparing for his upcoming impeachment hearing.
Mr Trump’s final engagement in Washington DC as president was attending his farewell at Joint Base Andrews in DC, which was attended only by some 250 of his most loyal aides and supporters. Notably absent were close White House aides and his own vice president Mike Pence.
The former president then left for Florida as President Joe Biden was being sworn in, where he received a much warmer welcome.
Supporters lined Mr Trump’s route to Mar-a-Lago, waving “Trump 2020” flags and signs reading “welcome home!”, while others screamed “I love you” as his motorcade drove past. Some still refused to accept the results of the election.
Supporters of Donald Trump gather along the route of his motorcade on Southern Boulevard as he arrives in Florida – AFP
“I am almost in denial,” Willie Guardiola, who had rallied people along the route, told NBC. “I don’t want to believe that this could be his last day.”
Mr Trump was said to have been surrounded by family on his first night back in Florida, where he has spent considerable time over the last few decades. He was joined by his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, his other son Eric and his wife Lara.
Notably absent were daughter Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner, who were not on the Air Force One flight from DC. It was not immediately clear where the family would spend the coming days and weeks, but the couple has purchased a plot of land near Palm Beach to be closer to the former president.
One of Mr Trump’s first calls as a private citizen was reportedly to Lindsey Graham, South Carolina senator and staunch ally, according to the Huffington Post. “He says this is probably the second nicest place other than the White House,” Mr Graham says Mr Trump said of his new full-time residence.
Tiffany Trump with her finance, Michael Boulos, top, and Eric Trump and his wife Lara Trump and Donald Trump Jr., and his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, bottom right, arrive at Palm Beach International Airport – AP
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary said Mr Trump was now “looking for some lawyers” for his impending impeachment trial. “He’s trying to put together a team,” Mr Graham told reporters.
Mr Trump will not be drawing on his usual litigators: Rudy Giuliani, his longtime personal lawyer, has stepped aside as he could be called as a witness in the case, while attorneys who represented him at the first impeachment hearing have reportedly declined.
He will likely spend the coming days preparing for any Senate trial, which could start as early as next week.
Mr Trump will of course no longer have access to White House staff who will now be working under the new administration, but he will still enjoy protection from the US Secret Service.
Before leaving office former President Trump ensured that his extended family would receive protection for the next six months, according to reports. The Secret Service will protect Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, along with their three children; Donald Trump Jr. and his five children; Eric Trump and wife Lara; and Tiffany Trump.
Palm Beach will become Donald Trump’s new home – AP
The arrangement will come at no cost to the Trump family and is funded by taxpayers, the Washington Post reported.
His inner circle of confidences has narrowed significantly since Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6. If indicted in the Senate, Mr Trump will face a ban on ever holding office again.
It would put an end to his purported to plans he has to form a party, known as the Patriot Party, to continue his political career from Palm Beach.
“Isolated and shunned at the end,” tweeted Maggie Haberman, who has been covering the Trump presidency for the NYT for the last four years. “The former president will be waking up to a very different reality at Mar-a-Lago, with no extensive government-funded staff, no aide following him with a diet coke, and no guarantee people will return his calls.”
There does, however, remain a few loyal lieutenants who continue to stand by him.
Jenna Ellis, the attorney who represented Mr Trump in a number of his election lawsuits, responded to Ns Haberman by saying: “He is neither isolated nor shunned. The beltway isn’t all of America. America by and large loves Donald Trump.”
Trump frees former aides from ethics pledge, lobbying ban
Brian Slodysko January 20, 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump, in one of his final acts as president, released current and former members of his administration from the terms of their ethics pledge, a move that once again laid bare his failure to fulfil his 2016 campaign promise to “drain the swamp.”
Trump won the presidency, in part, on a pledge to take on entrenched special interests in Washington, and his ethics policy was one of his first acts after assuming office.
But in practice it proved to be little more than bluster. Trump instituted a major loosening of ethics standards when compared with the administration of his predecessor, Barack Obama, as well as the rules that will govern President Joe Biden’s White House.
While Trump’s policy ostensibly included a five-year ban on former officials lobbying their former agencies, it also had large loopholes that allowed many to skirt the rules. The administration also avoided enforcing it, government watchdog groups say.
By rescinding his ethics executive order before leaving office, Trump freed former officials from lingering concern that they could face consequences for running afoul of the ethics policy as they return to the private sector. Many of them will now try to leverage their experience to secure high-paying jobs in Washington’s influence industry.
“The first rule of ethics enforcement is you need to have strong standards. Then you need to back them up with intense transparency. And you also need to reinforce the whole thing with tone from the top. Trump did the opposite on all three,” said Norm Eisen, Obama’s former ethics czar. “He made a mockery of it by having a corrupt tone at the top.”
Unlike his predecessors, Trump refused to divest from his sprawling business empire. That set the tone for his tenure, while making it easy for foreign and domestic interests to try to influence U.S. policy by patronizing his hotels, restaurants, golf courses and private clubs.
Trump signed the one-page revocation of the ethics order on Tuesday, and it was released by the White House shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday, hours before his term ended.
The decision is not without precedent. President Bill Clinton signed a similar order with weeks left on his final term.
The Trump White House did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday morning.
Appointees who join Biden’s administration will face far more stringent ethics rules that are more in line with those of Obama’s administration — and in some ways go further.
Under an order Biden is expected to issue, officials who leave the administration will be prohibited from lobbying the White House or executive branch agencies for Biden’s duration in office. Those who depart toward the end of Biden’s tenure will be prohibited from lobbying the White House for at least two years.
One provision prohibits incoming administration officials from accepting “golden parachute” payments from their former employers for taking a government job.
Another restricts former senior level staffers not just from lobbying the administration for at least two years, but also prohibits for a period of one year working behind the scenes to materially assist others who do lobby the executive branch. That’s a practice often referred to as “shadow lobbying.” Typically such people do not have to register as lobbyists, even though they play a key role.
The ethics order was described by a Biden transition official on the condition of anonymity because the order has not yet been made public.
One key area that Biden has not addressed in detail is how his White House will address potential conflicts of interest posed by members of his family, some of whom have personally profited by leveraging the Biden name.
Biden repeatedly said on the campaign trail that during his decades in public office, he has never talked to any family members about their private business dealings. And he promised “an absolute wall” between government and his family’s financial interests.
But specifics of how his pledge will be enforced remain unclear.
A person familiar with the incoming administration’s plans said Biden’s family members will not serve as employees or as board members for foreign companies. Additionally, the person said there will be a review process to ensure the Biden family’s business dealings do not present even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
The person insisted on anonymity to discus internal deliberations.
Biden’s son, Hunter, has worked for foreign entities in the past, including serving on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma when Biden was Obama’s vice president. Hunter Biden is currently under investigation by the Justice Department, which is probing his finances, including some of his Chinese business dealings.
Biden’s son-in-law Howard Krein, who is married to his daughter, Ashley, is a high ranking executive at StartUp Health, a venture capital and health tech firm, which lobbied the government on health industry technology regulations.
And his brother James has repeatedly found lucrative work over the years by invoking the Biden name.
Family members also serve on two nonprofits, The Biden Institute at the University of Delaware, and the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children.
“The conflict of interest is there,” said Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with good-governance watchdog Public Citizen. “As long as the Biden family is in charge of a nonprofit it provides an opportunity for special interests to make large donations to that foundation in the hopes of currying favor.”
Holman otherwise praised Biden’s ethics order as a “night and day” difference from Trump.
