Category: Politics and American Democracy

Wisconsin workers fight factory move to Mexico: ‘Anxiety is through the roof’

Wisconsin workers fight factory move to Mexico: ‘Anxiety is through the roof’

Steven Greenhouse                 

 

For most of her 36 years at the Hufcor factory in Janesville, Wisconsin, Kathy Pawluk loved working there, at least until a private-equity firm took over four years ago. There were Christmas parties and summer picnics, and workers could listen to the radio as they built accordion-style room partitions for convention centers and hotel ballrooms.

“They treated people like they were family, not a number,” said Pawluk, 62. “We had the best health benefits. We had HR people who really cared about us.”

But Pawluk said things deteriorated soon after OpenGate Capital acquired Hufcor, a family-owned company founded in Janesville 120 years ago. “They basically told us ‘We don’t want to get to know you’ in so many words,” Pawluk said.

In late May, things took a turn for the worse. The company announced it was shuttering the sprawling plant and moving operations to Monterrey, Mexico, wiping out the jobs of 166 workers.

“They told us, ‘We can make a lot more money in Mexico. The labor is too high here. Parts cost too much here,’” Pawluk said “They’ll get away with paying dirt wages in Mexico.” Until she was laid off last week, she earned $20.92. Union officials now estimate that Hufcor’s workers in Mexico will make less than one-fifth that.

“I wasn’t so worried about myself. I’m close to retirement,” Pawluk said. “I’m more worried about the others. The rest of us are like family. We know each other’s kids. We know each other’s grandkids. Some friends have 30 years in, and they’re now forced to find another job. That sucks.”

The workers and their union – the IUE-CWA, the industrial division of the Communications Workers of America – sprang into action to try to get OpenGate to reverse itself. They held protests that called OpenGate a “vampire” private-equity company. They asked lawmakers to pressure Los Angeles-based OpenGate. They ran a full-page ad in the Los Angeles Times. They framed things as greedy Wall Street against needy Main Street.

Some friends have 30 years in, and they’re now forced to find another job

Kathy Pawluk

“It was definitely trying to pressure them to change their mind,” said Tom Casey, the president of the factory’s union local. “Hufcor has been in this community 120 years. OpenGate really didn’t have a stake in the community.” Casey has worked at the plant for 31 years, his mother worked there for 38 years.

Janesville, a city of 64,000 in south central Wisconsin, was slowly recovering from repeated plant closings and the pandemic. In 2008, General Motors closed its huge assembly plant in Janesville, costing more than 2,500 jobs, while Parker Pen, founded in Janesville, closed its factory in 2009.

“It seems like we were finally able to bounce back. But it seems like this will have a big effect on Janesville,” said Michelle Hilt, who has worked at the factory for 23 years, while her husband worked there for 36 years. They met at the plant.

Founded in 2005, OpenGate has made many acquisitions, the most famous being TV Guide. On its website, OpenGate says it “strives to acquire and optimize lower-to-middle market businesses” and “leverage our in-house investing” to “drive long-term value creation”.

OpenGate and Hufcor defended the decision to close the Janesville factory, saying in a statement: “Hufcor is suffering significant negative economic effects related to the Covid-19 pandemic … When considering these impacts, and Hufcor’s aging manufacturing facility in Janesville, the future of the entire business is in jeopardy. Therefore, to ensure Hufcor’s survival and long-term viability, the difficult decision was made to relocate manufacturing to an alternate facility.” Hufcor says it’s keeping its R&D and customer service operations in Janesville.

Casey, the union president, said management appeared to be making preparations to shut the plant even before Covid hit: “It wasn’t a complete shock because we had researched OpenGate and knew what we’re dealing with.”

The Janesville closing isn’t the first time OpenGate has angered communities and workers.

In 2013, OpenGate suddenly closed the Golden Guernsey Dairy in Waukesha, Wisconsin, providing no advance notice to the 100-plus workers who showed up at work and found the doors locked. In 2014, it shut Fusion Paperboard in Connecticut, soon after receiving a 10-year loan from the state and signing a six-year union contract. In 2015, OpenGate again without advance notice, closed the PennySaver newspaper in California, laying off 678 workers.

The Wisconsin senator Tammy Baldwin wrote to OpenGate, saying it “has a history of shutting down businesses and giving workers pink slips in Wisconsin”. In a Facebook post, Baldwin wrote: “It’s clear to me we need to take legislative action in Congress to rip up the predatory playbook that these private equity firms use to leave workers with nothing but pink slips and lost livelihoods.”

Rosemary Batt, the Alice Cook professor of women and work at Cornell and an expert on how private equity affects workers and communities, said: “OpenGate Capital does the same playbook we’ve seen again and again from private equity.” She said those firms buy out companies with good fundamentals and then cut costs and stop investing in new technologies and in maintaining and modernizing facilities. “Their financial tactics set this up and weakened the company so that the next step is Mexico,” Batt said.

The factory closing has many workers wondering what they will do next. “At first I was scared and then I was angry and now my anxiety level is through the roof,” said Michelle Hilt, alarmed that both she and her husband are losing their jobs. She plans to study to become a radiology assistant.

If there’s any silver lining, it’s that the Hufcor workers will receive federal trade adjustment assistance to help return to school. Pawluk plans to study accounting. Richard Hampton, a Hufcor worker for 14 years, hopes for some small business aid to open a soul food restaurant. “As soon as they [OpenGate] came in, they said we’re overpaid,” Hampton said. “It really sucks. They take our jobs and move them to another country.”

The workers still haven’t given up: “We’ve all been fighting this like crazy,” Hilt said.

Red Tide, stench of dead fish hangs over Fort De Soto beaches

Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla

Red Tide, stench of dead fish hangs over Fort De Soto beaches

Matt Cohen, Tampa Bay Times                                

 

TIERRA VERDE — A handful of anglers cast their lines off Fort De Soto’s fishing pier on Friday into Red Tide-infested waters.

 

In the sand below them lay dead snook and tarpon, grouper and horseshoe crabs, eels and pufferfish. The stench of dead marine life filled the air at Fort De Soto Park on Friday, one of the crown jewels of Pinellas County beach tourism.

One family waded out and tried putting their baby in the water. The baby cried.

They all drove past an 8 foot by 11 foot sign at the toll both with this warning in bold, italicized capital letters: RED TIDE.

None of those anglers or beach-goers wished to speak to a Tampa Bay Times reporter about why they had braved fish kills and Red Tide to visit the beach. Not many chose to join them on a summer morning in July.

While huge fish kills are being cleaned from St. Petersburg’s shoreline, Red Tide remains a problem for the Pinellas beaches as well.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Red Tide map shows high concentrations of the Karenia brevis cells that cause Red Tide were found along the county’s Gulf shores at Fort De Soto Bay Pier, Bunces Pass near the Pinellas Bayway, the 7th Avenue Pier near Pass-A-Grille Channel and as far north as Indian Shores Beach.

There were also areas of medium concentrations in water samples taken near Madeira Beach and Clearwater Beach.

The fish kills within Fort De Soto Park appeared to be mostly limited to the southern edge of the beaches, but the smell was everywhere.

While there are high concentrations of Red Tide found near Pass-a-Grille Beach, hardly any fish had washed ashore there.

Inside Fort De Soto, signs for Saturday’s Top Gun Triathlon — the biking is set to take place along the park’s roads, while the water will be used for swimming — remained in place on Friday. The organizers did not return calls for comment, but its Facebook page indicated the event will still be held.

Just outside the park, Peter Clark, president of Tampa Bay Watch in Tierra Verde, said the area is seeing far more dead fish over the last few days.

“There is a pretty strong Red Tide blooming right now,” Clark said.

Clark said the Red Tide is now killing fish in the Tierra Verde waters itself, whereas before dead fish from Tampa Bay washed ashore. He said he’s seen poisoned fish struggling on the surface of the water.

This week, his walks outside have been met with the pungent odor of dead sea life. He urges residents to check the Red Tide levels of whatever beaches or waterfront spot they visit before they go out there.

Red Tide resources

There are several online resources that can help residents stay informed and share information about Red Tide:

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a website that tracks where Red Tide is detected and how strong it is.

Florida Poison Control Centers have a toll-free 24/7 hotline to report illnesses, including from exposure to Red Tide: 1-800-222-1222

To report fish kills and get them cleaned up in Tampa Bay, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 1-800-636-0511 or file a fish kill report online.

To report them in St. Petersburg, call the Mayor’s Action Center at 727-893-7111 or use St. Petersburg’s seeclickfix website.

Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, the county’s tourism wing, runs an online beach dashboard at www.beachesupdate.com.

Pinellas County shares information with the Red Tide Respiratory Forecast tool that allows beachgoers to check for warnings.

How to stay safe near the water
  • Beachgoers should avoid swimming around dead fish.
  • Those with chronic respiratory problems should be particularly careful and “consider staying away” from places with a Red Tide bloom.
  • People should not harvest or eat mollusks or distressed and dead fish from the area. Fillets of healthy fish should be rinsed with clean water, and the guts thrown out.
  • Pet owners should keep their animals away from the water and from dead fish.
  • Residents living near the beach should close their windows and run air conditioners with proper filters.
  • Visitors to the beach can wear paper masks, especially if the wind is blowing in.

Source: Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County

Former Trump official says the GOP is the ‘number 1 national security threat’ to the US, bigger than ISIS or Russia

Former Trump official says the GOP is the ‘number 1 national security threat’ to the US, bigger than ISIS or Russia

John Haltiwanger                   
  • An ex-Trump official said the GOP is the top national security threat to the US.
  • “Unless my Party reforms, its extremist elements represent the leading threat to our democracy,” he said.
  • Democracy scholars have issued similar warnings about the GOP, particularly since January 6.

A former Trump administration official on Thursday said the Republican party is the top national security threat to the US, as the party’s rank-and-file lawmakers continue to support former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud that incited the Jan. 6 insurrection and use it as a rationale to impose voting restrictions.

“I’ve spent my whole career not as a political operative. I’ve never worked on a campaign in my life other than campaigning against Trump. I’m a national security guy. I’ve worked in national security against ISIS, al Qaeda and Russia,” Miles Taylor, a former Homeland Security official, said in an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Reid Out.”

“And the number one national security threat I’ve ever seen in my life to this country’s democracy is the party that I’m in – the Republican Party. It is the number one security national security threat to the United States of America,” Taylor added.

The former Homeland Security official has been an outspoken critic of Trump and his influence in the GOP. Taylor launched an anti-Trump GOP group and endorsed President Joe Biden during the 2020 campaign season, and in October was revealed as the anonymous author of a 2018 New York Times op-ed article that said there was a “resistance” in the Trump administration.

Read more: Where is Trump’s White House staff now? We created a searchable database of more than 328 top staffers to show where they all landed

Though Trump is no longer in the White House, he continues to wield unparalleled authority in the Republican party. Taylor on Thursday warned Americans that they should be concerned for the future of the country if this trend continues.

“If [House Minority Leader] Kevin McCarthy continues to pay homage to a twice-impeached presidential loser, I think should give all Americans pause and make them worry about the future of this country and national security,” Taylor said.

-The ReidOut (@thereidout) July 15, 2021

 

Taylor doubled-down on his remarks in a tweet on Friday.

“I stand by my statement. Unless my Party reforms, its extremist elements represent the leading threat to our democracy,” he said.

Scholars on democracy have issued stark warnings following the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, as the GOP vies to whitewash the fatal attack and Republican-led legislatures nationwide take extraordinary steps to restrict voting.

“With Trump gone, I hoped the Republican party might recalibrate, moving away from his illiberal, anti-democratic and irrational behavior and embracing a conservative, but firmly reality-based and small ‘d’ democratic politics,” Sheri Berman, a professor of political science at Barnard College and author of “Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancient Régime to the Present Day,” told Insider last month.

“That the Republican party has proven to be a greater threat than Trump – a single individual – bodes poorly for the health of American democracy,” Berman added.

How the wealthy use debt ‘as a tool to screw the government and everybody else’

MarketWatch – Extra Credit

How the wealthy use debt ‘as a tool to screw the government and everybody else’

An interview with the professor who coined the term ‘Buy, Borrow, Die,’ and a look at how debt destabilized Haiti.

Elon Musk and other billionaires frequently use debt to their advantage, according to recent reporting by ProPublica. But for other Americans, debt can lead to jail time. Brendan Smialowski/Agent France – Press/Getty Images.

Hello and welcome back to MarketWatch’s Extra Credit column, a weekly look at the news through the lens of debt.

This week we’re tackling the economic forces luring borrowers into debt and how a centuries’-old debt imposed on Haiti is still affecting the country today. But first up, how the rich use borrowing to their advantage.

Debt can mean a tax advantage for some and jail for others

ProPublica’s investigation into billionaires’ tax returns has more people paying attention to the strategies wealthy Americans use to avoid paying taxes. As it turns out, one of those tactics involves the advantageous use of debt. There’s even a catchphrase for it — Buy, Borrow, Die — that was the subject of a recent Wall Street Journal article.

In both the ProPublica and Wall Street Journal articles, I was struck by the way the wealthy opted to use debt as a strategy, when many borrowers I encounter in my reporting are relying on loans because they have to. I called Edward McCaffery, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law, who says he coined the phrase Buy, Borrow, Die decades ago, to learn more about it.

McCaffery said he first started thinking about the idea a few years into his tax law teaching career, when he noticed how certain tax law doctrines could benefit the wealthy. For example, the realization requirement, which means you don’t pay taxes on an asset until it produces cash.

That allows for the wealthy to build up their assets tax free. To most of us, it would seem that the problem with that method is that “sooner or later you’re going to have to sell,” he said. But that’s actually not the case. As long as someone is wealthy enough to live on a percentage of their assets, they never have to sell.

Instead, they can borrow against those assets at an interest rate that’s much lower than the rate at which the assets will appreciate over time, McCaffery said, and use those funds as spending money. But unlike the wages and salary most people use to pay for living expenses, the borrowing isn’t taxed, so they face a relatively low tax bill. Once they die, the assets pass to their descendents tax-free or with minimal tax treatment.

‘Need debt, you get screwed, don’t need debt you can use it as a tool to screw the government and everybody else.’

— Edward McCaffery, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law, who says he coined the phrase Buy, Borrow, Die

When McCaffery first started talking about Buy, Borrow, Die, 25 years ago, he said many were skeptical. For one, there wasn’t evidence that wealthy people were engaging in this behavior. In addition, the approach runs so counter to the way the 99% think about borrowing that it was hard to believe.

“They’ve been trained since birth, they’ve been trained in the womb, never a borrower nor a lender be, debt is bad, debt will cripple you,” he said.

And indeed, middle-class borrowers face higher interest rates than what billionaires are offered and they have bills coming due now; that means they have to tap their assets or earn money from work, which is taxed. For the poor, debt can often come in the form of loans that prey on their need for funds quickly. “Need debt, you get screwed, don’t need debt you can use it as a tool to screw the government and everybody else,” McCaffery said.

What the News Means for You and Your Money

For some, the consequences can be even more pernicious than high interest rates. Just ask Charles Anderson, who spent 28 days in jail over $2,500 in fines and unpaid court fees, AL.com reported this week. He was only freed after his mother took $1,000 from her Social Security check and put it toward his debt.

“In my opinion, it’s debtors’ prison because I owe money and you’re gonna lock me up for it,” he told AL.com. “How is this the United States, where we’re supposed to have more freedoms than anywhere else in the world, and we’re incarcerating people for not having money?”

Society’s focus on credentials is fueling student debt

The Wall Street Journal published an excellent article last week highlighting the debt students take on for graduate degrees offered by elite universities and the money those degrees make for the schools.

Though the focus was largely on film, acting and other arts programs — which typically don’t require licenses — the story also had me thinking about President Joe Biden’s recent executive order that would clamp down on occupational licensure requirements. Stay with me here.

As many on Twitter pointed out, the prestigious schools that were the focus of the WSJ piece are using some of the same tactics and benefiting from the same economic forces as for-profit colleges offering the certifications, education for licensure and degrees that students need — or at least think they need — to get a job or boost earnings.

A big driver of this trend is credentialization, or the idea that jobs require higher levels of education than they used to even though workers are performing the same tasks as in the past. In some cases, that can mean a license that didn’t used to be necessary to perform a job, in others, it means a graduate degree is a ticket to standing out because bachelor’s degrees are increasingly common.

Over the past several years, this phenomenon has pushed students towards more schooling, research indicates. And the higher education industry is capitalizing on it. Douglas Webber, an associate professor of economics at Temple University, said it’s not uncommon to see schools using buzzwords like “jumpstart your career” in marketing materials.

Those messages are “trying to get at people who, they have some job, but it’s maybe not the job that they envisioned,” he said. “You definitely see that, and not just from for-profit, or typically predatory institutions, you see that type of marketing from virtually everywhere, even publics.”

Students see accruing another degree as a way to improve their prospects in part because employers are demanding extra credentials at all levels of the labor market, Webber said.

“There’s just been this trend over time of firms and industries that have been trying to shift the cost of training to higher education and that is occupational licensing and that is also graduate education,” he said.

Biden announced last week that he would ban burdensome occupational licenses, as a way to improve workers’ ability to switch jobs, even when it requires moving across state lines. That could make it easier for workers without the funds to pay for school to get into those fields, said Kim Weeden, a sociology professor at Cornell University.

“If it takes you $400 to get a license and you have to sign up for very expensive continuing education courses every year, that’s a barrier to entry into either acquiring the skills, or keeping the skills up to date, or applying the skills that you already have,” she said.

There are some questions as to how getting rid of occupational licenses, or at least tamping down on them, could impact inequality. Occupations with licenses typically have a wage premium, even at the lower paying end of the labor market. Other research indicates that women and racial minorities who have occupational licenses experience smaller wage gaps than those without the licenses.

The debt forced onto Haiti centuries ago

Debt is not only a force in individuals’ lives, it can also destabilize an entire country. The recent turmoil in Haiti in the wake of the assassination of the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse, highlights the role financial exploitation by the international community has played in Haiti’s political and economic challenges.

Haiti declared its independence from France in 1804, after a slave-led rebellion wrested power from colonial occupiers. But in 1825, France, backed by the threat of war, ordered Haiti to pay 150 million francs in exchange for recognizing the country’s independence. To make the payments, Haiti had to borrow money from French banks — a debt it didn’t pay off until 1947.

That weight prevented Haiti’s economy from taking off. The economist Thomas Piketty has said France should repay Haiti a minimum of $28 billion to cover the debt and its consequences.

“We are talking about 122 years that a young nation had to pay money for the only crime it committed: To fight and to get its independence in order to lead a free life, a dignified life,” said Jean Eddy Saint Paul, the founding director of the Haitian Studies Institute at the City University of New York.

The debt owed to France was followed by decades of economic and political meddling into Haiti by the international community that laid the groundwork for today’s turmoil, Saint Paul, a professor at Brooklyn College, said. For example, The United States began a nearly 20-year occupation of Haiti in 1915, following the assassination of Haiti’s president, in part out of fear that the money owed to France would tie Haiti too closely to the country. The U.S. also moved Haiti’s financial reserves to the United States.

In more recent years, Haiti’s economy has been victim to, among other things, a neoliberal economic program “on steroids” that pushed the country to open its economy to the world, allowing goods to flood in and devastate the agricultural sector, said Robert Fatton Jr., a professor of politics at the University of Virginia.

“We have a long history of foreign involvement in Haiti,” said Fatton, who has written multiple books about the country. “You can’t understand Haitian politics without understanding foreign entanglements in Haiti’s affairs — not only in terms of the politics of the place, but also in terms of the economy.”

We’ve plummeted from dumb to dumber — to proud and unapologetically ignorant | Opinion

We’ve plummeted from dumb to dumber — to proud and unapologetically ignorant | Opinion

We live in ignorant times.

By now, surely this is obvious beyond argument to anyone who’s been paying attention. From the Capitol insurrectionist who thought he was storming the White House to Sen. Tim Scott’s claim that “woke supremacy is as bad as white supremacy” to whatever thing Tucker Carlson last said, ignorance is ascendant.

Yet, even by that dubious standard, what happened recently in Tennessee bears note. According to a story by Brett Kelman of the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, the state, under pressure from Republican lawmakers, fired its top immunization official, Dr. Michelle Fiscus, and shut down all vaccine outreach to young people. Fiscus’ sin? Doing her job, working to increase access to the COVID-19 shot among kids.

Specifically, she sent a letter to healthcare providers reminding them that under the state’s “Mature Minor Doctrine,” they are legally allowed to vaccinate children 14 years or older without parental consent. According to Fiscus, the letter, written in response to requests for guidance made by those administering the shots, utilized language drafted by an attorney for the department of health and was vetted by the governor’s office.

All that notwithstanding, it infuriated some state lawmakers. They used words like “extreme disappointment” and “reprehensible” and talked of closing the health department. Some anonymous person even sent Fiscus a dog muzzle. Then she was fired, and the state shut down all vaccine publicity efforts targeting young people.

This means no postcards sent out to remind kids to get their shots, no nudges on social media, no flyers or advertisements, no events at schools, no outreach whatsoever. And not just for COVID, mind you, but for everything — measles, mumps, tetanus, diphtheria, hepatitis, polio.

In a pandemic.

In a state with a less-than-stellar COVID vaccination rate.

At a time when experts are tracking the rise of a deadlier new COVID variant.

It is hard to imagine behavior dumber, more dangerous, more short-sighted and more downright bass-ackward than that exhibited by Tennessee and its lawmakers.

Which is, unfortunately, right on brand for this country in this era. It was in the 2000s that Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness” to describe the right wing’s secession from objective fact, and some of us began to speak of them as living in an “alternate reality.” How, we wondered in newspaper columns and speeches, can we have meaningful discourse if we cannot agree on basic facts?

Years later, that concern feels too abstract. The threat turns out to be more visceral and urgent than any of us could have imagined. Yes, some people live in alternate realities. What’s worse, though, is when they have power to impose those realities on the rest of us. That’s what we’re seeing in Tennessee and elsewhere, and the results will be as tragic as they are predictable and preventable.

Ignorance is bliss, they say. But it isn’t.

Ignorance is fever.

Ignorance is chills.

Ignorance is trouble breathing.

Ignorance is an empty seat at the table, a bedroom come suddenly available.

Because ignorance is death.

And while the aphorism isn’t true, can you imagine if it were, if ignorance really were bliss? Disney theme parks would have to find a new slogan.

Right now, Tennessee would be the happiest place on Earth.

Heffernan: Donald Trump just won’t go away

Heffernan: Donald Trump just won’t go away

Virginia Heffernan                          
President Trump arrives at the White House on Thursday after returning from Bedminster, N.J.
In his new book “Landslide,” journalist Michael Wolff argues that former President Trump is a madman in want of a straitjacket. (Associated Press)

 

Maybe the word “Trump,” a century from now, will no longer designate a man — or even a presidential administration.

Perhaps it will be the name of an epoch. A decisive period in human history when the United States suffered a near-death experience and did or didn’t regain its cognitive faculties.

As one of history’s speediest first-drafters, the journalist Michael Wolff has been narrating the Trump epoch from the start. Now he has a new book that clinches his case: Donald Trump hit the nation like a wrecking ball, and it will be a long, long time before we recover.

“Landslide” is the third in a remarkable trilogy of Wolff White House potboilers. The first, “Fire and Fury,” was published in 2018. “Siege” came out in 2019. This new one, subtitled “The Final Days of the Trump Presidency,” is out this month.

I’m calling it a trilogy, optimistically, because who knows where this thing ends? Maybe we will someday see an omnibus from Wolff, with new titles like “Phoenix: Trump from the Ashes,” “King: Trump Enthroned” and “Afterlife: Trump Reigns from the Grave.”

But even if the future is not that bleak, epochs don’t have “hard outs,” as the executives say, and if the former president has shown us anything, it’s that he can’t ever, ever, ever manage the disappearing act implied by a hard out.

Or even a soft one.

“Landslide,” in fact, is a chronicle of Trump’s hysterical inability to leave. It takes its title from Trump’s groundless insistence that he triumphed in an election that he in fact lost.

But it also implies an avalanche of another sort: one that started when Trump’s psychological convulsions triggered a rolling collapse of the linchpins of the U.S. government.

Wolff is a hustler with a high tolerance for general venality, vulgar locker-room talk, and the company of armpit sources like dark-arts master Steve Bannon and lawyer Rudy Giuliani, now unlicensed in New York and Washington. But his patience with carnies allows him astonishing access. He’s great at picking up insider images, too, as when Bannon describes Giuliani, in his aphasic periods, as in the “mumble tank.”

Wolff also has a hard-won thesis. Donald Trump, he argues, is not crazy like a fox. He’s just crazy, a madman in want of a straitjacket. He’s not playing chess or even checkers; he’s covering pages with Sharpie Xs and calling it tic-tac-toe.

Worse yet, Trump insists the law should turn his scrawls into winning legal briefs and triumph over all. A motif of the book is how much Trump despises all his lawyers. It’s only their incompetence, in his view, that is keeping him from his rightful role as America’s forever president.

If you want to relive it, the book covers the throes of the 2020 presidential election and the Trump campaign falling into splinters.

Trump refused to come up with a platform, admit the scope of the pandemic or wear a mask. He got COVID-19.

An overhyped rally in Tulsa, Okla., was met with banks of empty seats. The Republican Party put on a Spinal Tap-caliber convention starring Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend screaming.

Brad Parscale, the president’s campaign manager, had what Wolff calls a “psychotic break.” He was carted away by police.

Trump seethed and glowered in debates. He encouraged the neofascist Proud Boys.

But somehow, according to Wolff’s sources, Trump remained convinced Joe Biden couldn’t beat him. Trump declared defeat unimaginable, which allowed his brain to seize on an imaginary victory.

The scrum of Trump’s bootlickers features prominently in “Landslide” — concentric circles that include the plausibly OK (then chief of staff Mark Meadows, campaign spokesman Jason Miller) to the floridly not OK (MyPillow magnate Mike Lindell, Kraken lawyer Sidney Powell). The scrum’s election-night competition to see who could “yes Trump” the loudest set the stage for the Big Lie and the attempted coup/insurrection of Jan. 6.

But this down-is-up position was ultimately unsustainable for at least some Trump’s stalwarts. In Wolff’s telling, Rupert Murdoch deliberately gave Trump the middle finger by having Fox News call Arizona early for Biden.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner vanished; Mitch McConnell, then the Senate majority leader, and Atty. Gen William Barr acknowledged Biden’s clean victory.

Wolff represents those who stuck it out with Trump as groveling desperados, their wits dulled by the Trump treatment — oily flattery and savage cruelty. At the vanguard: Powell, Giuliani and another lawyer of questionable ethics, Jenna Ellis. Also, these “Star Wars” barflies: Republican Reps. Jim Jordan, Louie Gohmert, Matt Gaetz and Paul Gosar.

The whole story plays out like a Greek tragedy because we know where it’s going — the desecration of the Capitol and U.S. democracy. Here and there, in passing moments of half-clarity, it seems Trump might be deterred from inciting violence, but it doesn’t happen.

The book wraps with a spontaneous interview Trump gives Wolff. In a lightning round, Trump slags McConnell, Mike Pence, Karl Rove, Chris Christie, Kevin McCarthy and Brett M. Kavanaugh.

But Wolff can’t leave it there. And neither can Trump. The former president hints at a comeback, and Wolff ends on a nauseating cliffhanger. Clearly, as long as this low, dishonest epoch persists, Wolff will be there to chronicle it.

Utah’s Great Salt Lake dips to record low, Lake Mead also in crisis amid drought

Utah’s Great Salt Lake dips to record low, Lake Mead also in crisis amid drought

Julia Musto                         

 

Amid the West’s historic and climate-driven megadrought, Utah’s Great Salt Lake has dipped to what some are calling a “historic” low.

While the shallow body of water previously covered an area roughly the size of Delaware, the state’s Utah Rivers Council reported at the end of June that United States Geological Survey data showed the Great Salt Lake had dropped to a level of more than 4,191.2 feet.

CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA FISH MORTALITY PINNED TO DROUGHT, CLIMATE CHANGE

“The #GreatSaltLake just hit a NEW historic low of 4,191.2 ft. Most terminal basin lakes around the world have completely diminished due to upstream diversions & #ClimateChange,” the council tweeted.

However, Utah’s Division of Water Resources said on its website that reports that the Great Salt Lake had dropped below its historic low elevation of 4,191.35 feet are “premature” and that it expects the lake’s elevation would drop below that point in the coming days.

“Conditions like wind, inflow and evaporation can cause the lake’s elevation to fluctuate. Sometimes those swings are extreme. To account for this, the division evaluates daily averages rather than the instantaneous readings recorded every 15-minutes. Taking this approach provides a more accurate reading rather than a single snapshot in time,” the department wrote, adding that the milestone is “concerning.”

Receding waters have impacted local wildlife and sailboats have been hoisted out of the water.

The exposure of additional dry lakebed could send arsenic-laced dust into the air.

As temperatures rise during continuous heat waves and wildfires continue to blaze, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has begged residents to cut back on water usage and “pray for rain.”

Additionally, for years, people in the area have diverted water from the rivers that flow into the lake to water crops and supply homes.

The Great Salt Lake is certainly not the only critical water source affected this summer and state and local governments worried about shrinking lakes, rivers and reservoirs across the region have issued emergency orders and requested federal assistance.

Lake Mead, which provides water for tens of millions of people in California, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico, rests on the main stem of the Colorado River.

The nation’s largest reservoir fell to its record low last month with the surface elevation along the Nevada-Arizona border at 1,071.56 feet – a measurement the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said was 18.5 feet lower than a year ago.

“We’re expecting the reservoir to keep declining until November, then it should start to rebound,” U.S. Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Patti Aaron said.

The San Diego Times reported Monday that the government expected to issue the first-ever shortage on the lake – created from melted snow – in August and that the reservoir had shrunk by 1.4 million acre-feet from April 2020 to April 2021 and 886,000 acre-feet since then.

Hydrogen, ammonia and a clean-fuel standard could help get the world to net-zero emissions

MarketWatch

Hydrogen, ammonia and a clean-fuel standard could help get the world to net-zero emissions

Transportation working group tells Clean Air Task Force that multi-pronged approach beyond electricity is needed

AFP Getty Images

Electrifying global transportation won’t be enough to reach net-zero emissions in coming decades without pushing alternative fuels like hydrogen and ammonia, a large group of industry representatives and climate-change experts told the Clean Air Task Force.

The group, although not perfectly aligned in how best to reach the emissions target backed by President Biden, global leaders and many industry heads, also found some consensus that a clean-fuel standard can play a critical role in driving the carbon intensity of transportation energy down to zero, CATF said in their report out Thursday.

Transportation is the highest emitting sector in the U.S., accounting for 29% of carbon emissions in 2019. Change is urged from commercial vehicle fleets to cargo ships to individually-owned autos.

CATF, along with the Union of Concerned Scientists and other nonprofit groups, created the workshop with representatives from companies who traditionally based their business on the burning of fossil fuels, including Toyota Motor Corp.,  Ford Motor Co.,  Exxon Mobil Corp. and others.

Participants stressed in part their belief a transition to net-zero emissions must not hammer consumers with high costs, nor erode their bottom lines. That will likely mean that the technologies must be either inherently inexpensive or incentivized by government subsidies, the group said.

Read: Why the rush to curb climate change? Damaging carbon dioxide is 50% higher than at the dawn of the industrial era

“We… landed on a consensus that we must pursue parallel paths simultaneously, while pushing for policy change, to maximize our chances of success,” said CATF Senior Counsel Jonathan Lewis, who leads the organization’s work to decarbonize the transportation sector. “We encourage industry leaders, lawmakers, regulators and investors alike to review our findings and consider them when weighing how best to pursue deep decarbonization of the transportation sector.”

Read: Companies boast about big climate change pledges but less than 50% of the S&P 100 lobbies Washington accordingly

As for the alternate fuel focus, a future decarbonized transportation system will likely require net-zero or nearly net-zero-carbon fuels. These include zero-carbon energy carriers such as hydrogen and electricity, and potentially net-zero-carbon liquids that are made from zero-carbon energy sources such as renewables, nuclear power, or fossil combustion with carbon capture and storage (CCS), the report said. They can also include hydrocarbons whose combustion emissions can be net-zero on a lifecycle basis, if the carbon is sourced from biomass (that captures carbon from the atmosphere as it grows) or from carbon captured directly from the atmosphere through engineered systems.

Green hydrogen has found renewed traction in recent years though remains expensive enough that subsidies are needed in most cases. Billionaire Bill Gates has included hydrogen in the green portfolio he is backing.

Ammonia has several key properties that make it a possible option, though most likely for use in the marine shipping industry and not personal vehicles given its potency in high concentrations. One cubic meter of liquid ammonia actually provides approximately 50% more energy than the same volume of liquid hydrogen.

The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Program on Climate Change (IPCC) found that decarbonizing the global transportation sector, which accounts for 16% of global carbon emissions, is critical to combatting climate change and keeping the planet from warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The workshop group agreed that the current pace of policy change is too slow. Specifically, the group discussed the way a national low-carbon fuel standard, segueing to or nesting a net-zero-carbon fuel standard by 2050, is likely to be the most viable and adaptive overall framework to decarbonize the transportation sector.

The first low-carbon fuel standard mandate in the world was enacted by California in 2007. New York is pursuing its own.

For now, suppliers whose fuels are above a certain carbon intensity level are required to purchase credits from producers and users of low-carbon fuels.

Red Tide costs swell while St. Petersburg mayor, Gov. DeSantis bicker

Red Tide costs swell while St. Petersburg mayor, Gov. DeSantis bicker

Zachary T. Sampson, Tampa Bay Times                  

 

 

“Our city teams can only keep at this for so long,” he said during a Wednesday news conference held in waterfront Crisp Park, next to a crew scooping dead fish with pool skimmers. He recalled how former Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in 2018 to free up resources when toxic Red Tide afflicted the west coast of Florida.

“We are asking the governor, please … we need your help,” Kriseman said.

Hours later, he got a rebuke from Tallahassee.

“Mayor Kriseman is either unaware of what is actually going on in his own backyard or is deliberately lying and using Red Tide as an attempt to score cheap political points,” read a statement from governor’s spokesman Jared Williams.

The 2018 emergency declaration was necessary because “a dedicated funding source did not exist,” Williams said. “That is not the case now.” The Florida Department of Environmental Protection funds grants to help counties, he said, and it is unnecessary for the governor to declare an emergency.

Pinellas Public Works Director Kelli Hammer Levy said she has been in contact with the interim environmental secretary and his chief of staff to secure state aid. The governor’s office said the state will provide $902,500 to cover clean-up costs for the county and city and will continue helping with future expenses. The state is working on a similar agreement with Hillsborough and has promised about $75,000 to Pinellas, Hillsborough and Manatee counties to cover water sampling.

After the governor’s office responded, Kriseman’s spokesman, Ben Kirby, accused DeSantis of injecting politics into the environmental crisis. He said the city wants help securing more shrimp boats to collect dead fish offshore with wide nets before the rotting remains lap against the coastline.

“Mayor Kriseman is not concerned with the mechanism by which our city receives assistance, as long as it comes,” Kirby said. A council member and a city lobbyist have reached out to the governor’s office, with the first request July 9, according to the mayor and his spokesman. The mayor’s office said it had not heard back by Wednesday.

The governor’s office disputed some of those statements, saying it has been in touch with two unnamed council members since the weekend and that a lobbyist reached out Wednesday on behalf of the city. But DeSantis’ office said it has no record of Kriseman himself reaching out.

Meanwhile the calamity and clean-up bore on: At least 676 tons of dead marine life was gathered throughout Pinellas County by noon Wednesday, Levy said. More than 470 tons has come from around St. Petersburg.

Carcasses plucked from the water are burned at a waste to energy facility to make electricity, Levy said. Dead fish coated in sand and dirt from the ground are dumped at a landfill. Pinellas County spent more than $1 million on its response from June 11 through early this week.

“Our burn rate is somewhere around 100 grand a day,” Levy said.

This clean-up is more challenging than the 2018 bloom, when Red Tide drifted in from the Gulf of Mexico and left dead fish piled on the beaches. More fish are floating through Tampa Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway, moving into narrow canals where they get trapped under docks and mixed up with riprap. Dead catfish may get entangled in small nets and skimmers, Kriseman said, while workers deploy grabber tools to reach carcasses trapped under mangroves.

Roughly 200 St. Petersburg employees are helping, according to the city, which has pulled attention away from regular duties like mowing parks, repairing sidewalks and cleaning gutters.

Eleven boats were combing the water for dead sea animals across Pinellas, Levy said. Four were shrimp boats: two in St. Petersburg, one near Treasure Island and another around Fort De Soto. She expects the county will have to double its effort to keep up with all the decaying fish.

Removing the rotting sea life is a priority because it releases nutrients back into the water, giving the toxic bloom even more fuel.

“You can’t get a handle on Red Tide. You can’t control it,” Levy said. “When will it stop? We don’t know. … It’s going to be a really long summer and a really long fall if this doesn’t stop before then.”

Water samples have shown high levels of Red Tide not just at the surface of the bay but also deeper, she said, which means many plant and animal species are being harmed. Seagrasses, a cornerstone of the bay’s ecology that offer food and habitat, are dying as dark water shades the sun and dissolved oxygen levels plummet, Levy said.

The bloom has frustrated residents of waterfront neighborhoods. At a meeting Tuesday led by the environmental organizations Captains for Clean Water and Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, some complained of brown water and putrid air.

Vahan Takoushian, 43, said he bought a million-dollar home in Redington Shores and a boat three years ago to move from New York City. When a Red Tide bloom passed then, he thought he had seen the worst.

“Maybe I should have gone to Panama or went to Costa Rica somewhere,” he said. “The water’s disgusting. I feel like I’m back on the East River.”

Walking through Vinoy Park on Wednesday, Harvey Moore, 73, watched an excavator drag heaps of dead fish from the bay.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, and this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” he said. “This is just a disaster.”

Florida’s top environmental officials visited the region this week to see the toxic bloom up close. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Executive Director Eric Sutton said he has heard angst from local leaders.

“This community has worked hard over the years to get Tampa Bay back to good conditions, so a lot of folks will see this as a setback,” Sutton told the Tampa Bay Times. “But I’m optimistic this will be only for the short-term.”

While Kriseman wrapped his news conference Wednesday, workers in Crisp Park gathered around a carcass, approximately a few feet long, floating along the seawall. Bloated and gray, it was a goliath grouper — likely a juvenile. Mature adults of the species can grow up to 8 feet and weigh as much as 800 pounds.

The fish were once targeted by anglers. People off Florida have been blocked from keeping them since 1990, according to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The workers stared. They said it was not the first dead goliath they had come across this summer.

Times staff writer Arielle Bader contributed to this report.

Red Tide resources

There are several online resources that can help residents stay informed and share information about Red Tide:

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a website that tracks where Red Tide is detected and how strong the concentrations.

Florida Poison Control Centers have a toll-free 24/7 hotline to report illnesses, including from exposure to Red Tide: 1-800-222-1222

To report fish kills in St. Petersburg, call the Mayor’s Action Center at 727-893-7111 or use St. Petersburg’s seeclickfix website.

Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, the county’s tourism wing, runs an online beach dashboard at www.beachesupdate.com.

Pinellas County shares information with the Red Tide Respiratory Forecast tool that allows beachgoers to check for warnings.

How to stay safe near the water

  • Beachgoers should avoid swimming around dead fish.
  • Those with chronic respiratory problems should be particularly careful and “consider staying away” from places with a Red Tide bloom.
  • People should not harvest or eat mollusks or distressed and dead fish from the area. Fillets of healthy fish should be rinsed with clean water, and the guts thrown out.
  • Pet owners should keep their animals away from the water and from dead fish.
  • Residents living near the beach should close their windows and run air conditioners with proper filters.
  • Visitors to the beach can wear paper masks, especially if the wind is blowing in.

Source: Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County

Florida needs to get its act together to fight Red Tide | Editorial

Tampa Bay Times, St. Petersburg, Fla

Florida needs to get its act together to fight Red Tide | Editorial

Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board, Tampa Bay Times      

 

The awful smell of dead fish across Tampa Bay cries out for a better response. Red Tide is overwhelming St. Petersburg, and the damage to the fisheries, tourism and public health is increasing with no end in sight. State and local officials need to collaborate on the cleanup. Residents, visitors and businesses need to be kept informed. And Florida needs a better strategy for managing these toxic algal blooms. Red Tide may be in Florida to stay, but there are ways to soften the blow.

Governments must work together. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman used a news conference Wednesday to call attention to the worsening situation and appeal for the governor’s help. That prompted a sharp rebuke from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office and a snarky exchange over who called whom. What is this, sixth grade? Nobody cares about the mayor or governor scoring political points. St. Petersburg has worked tirelessly; crews have picked up nearly 500 tons of dead marine life from the coastline in recent weeks, accounting for the vast majority of the 600 tons of dead fish collected across Pinellas County. And the state has brought critical resources to bear. But none of it’s enough. There are high levels of Red Tide throughout the bay, deep in the water column, and models show the bloom will stick around. And not only Pinellas is affected; over the past week, high concentrations of Red Tide were found across Florida’s west coast, including in Hillsborough, Manatee and Sarasota counties. Both state and local agencies have an obligation to get the cleanup effort in higher gear.

Keep the public informed. Nothing is more important to tamping down concerns and maintaining public faith in the state’s response than keeping the community informed. State and local officials need to be visible, meet publicly to answer questions and offer straight information so that people can protect their health, businesses or property. Red Tide has reached not only Pinellas’ gulf beaches, but inland estuaries and waterways, where the fish-killing toxins are entangling dead marine life on public and private property alike, and causing people even blocks from the water to suffer from inflamed eyes, scratchy throats and difficulty breathing. And the circulation of the bay is not likely to flush out the Red Tide soon, meaning the region could be impacted for weeks or months. The public needs help dealing with all that uncertainty. Tourists will need to know what’s safe and open. Residents and property owners need to know the state of the cleanup effort. And businesses, especially in the fishing and hospitality industries, need to see the government acting proactively to protect their livelihoods.

Limit manmade damage. We know that Red Tide occurs naturally. We also know that humans compound the problem. Runoff from sewage breaks and fertilizer-laden lawns and farms gives these blooms the nutrient-rich diet to explode. Other contributors to the spread of Red Tide include a warming planet, the loss of water-filtering wetlands to development, and coastal construction. So given these predictable factors, and the inevitability of Florida growing, what is the state’s long-term strategy to mitigate these outbreaks? Voluntary measures are not enough; industries must be required to reduce their pollutant footprint, state regulators must stand more squarely with science and lawmakers must provide the funding to address the environmental neglect. Hotels, restaurants, charter boat operators and others in the tourist industry still digging out from the pandemic now face a new threat to their futures. These businesses are essential to the Florida economy, and like public health and property, they are worth protecting. But it takes a conscious commitment.

Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Editor of Editorials Graham Brink, Sherri Day, Sebastian Dortch, John Hill, Jim Verhulst and Chairman and CEO Paul Tash.