In Russia’s Ukraine plans, how much does the mud matter?
Vladimir Isachenkov and Yuras Karmanau – February 14, 2022
MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian expression “tanks don’t fear mud” is common enough that it’s been the title of a short-lived Russian television series and can be found stenciled on car windows.
And it’s yet another reason why any Russian decision to invade Ukraine is likely to depend very little upon fears that a spring thaw will hinder tanks from crossing boggy ground. Russia’s military has, in addition to tanks and other armored vehicles that are well equipped for mud, a range of fighter jets and missiles that are the hallmarks of any modern military.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said that Russia is essentially in position for an invasion of Ukraine “assuming that the ground is frozen above Kyiv,” the Ukrainian capital that is only 75 kilometers (47 miles) from the border of Belarus, a key Russian ally. It’s not the first time an American official has invoked Russia’s need for frozen ground to stage an invasion.
“If (Russian President Vladimir) Putin agrees to an invasion, then it won’t be tanks or ships in the vanguard, but rather aircraft and missile forces. The first targets for them will be air defense systems and the missile defense force, command posts, critical infrastructure, after which the advantage of Russian forces in the air and upper hand on land and sea are guaranteed,” said Mykola Sunhurovskyi, a military analyst at the Kyiv-based Razumkov Center think tank.
Some Ukrainian analysts have acknowledged that the country’s air defenses are insufficient in case of a massive Russian assault. Kyiv has prodded its Western allies to provide the country with modern air defense systems in addition to ground combat weapons provided by the U.S., Britain and others.
Sunhorovskyi said “the only deterrent is the West’s position and the readiness of millions of Ukrainians to fight to the end.”
The Kremlin, which has denied having any Ukraine invasion plans, has scoffed at an argument that it wants to see the ground frozen to launch an attack on Ukraine. Ukrainian officials agree that frozen ground or mud isn’t an issue.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed at the argument to taunt British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss following their icy talks in Moscow on Thursday.
“They say that Russia is waiting for the ground to freeze like a stone so that tanks could easily roll into Ukrainian territory,” Lavrov told reporters. “The ground was like that with our British colleagues, with numerous facts we cited bouncing off them.”
Konstantin Sivkov, a Russian military analyst, said even if there were a ground incursion, Russian battle tanks are significantly lighter than Western armored vehicles and don’t get bogged down.
“Our tanks are much better suited for advancing on muddy terrain, there is nothing to worry about,” Sivkov said in remarks carried by the FAN news outlet. “A thaw can only stop Western tanks.”
Accounting Firm Drops Trump Organization Over Dubious Financial Docs
Jose Pagliery – February 14, 2022
Mario Tama
The Trump Organization’s trusted outside accounting firm has taken the unprecedented step of ditching its client, explaining that the former president’s family company has a decade of financial statements that can’t be trusted.
The bombshell move by Mazars USA—the accounting firm that has long worked with former President Donald Trump’s family and friends—was revealed in court filings in New York on Monday.
The decision to drop Trump follows last month’s aggressive move by New York Attorney General Letitia James to publicly file documents detailing accounts of what it called “significant evidence” of financial fraud.
The AG’s office is in the midst of two similar investigations of the Trump empire: A civil lawsuit exploring potential bank fraud by the company, and a joint criminal probe with the Manhattan District Attorney into alleged tax dodging and financial fraud.
While the criminal case is proceeding quietly before a grand jury in New York City, Monday’s revelations stem from the AG’s civil lawsuit, which seeks to force Trump and two of his adult children to testify about business dealings.
In a letter to the Trump Organization on Feb. 9, the U.S. branch of the global accounting firm Mazars told the company that “the statements of financial condition for Donald J. Trump” ranging between 2011 and 2020 “should no longer be relied upon and you should inform any recipients thereof… that those documents should not be relied upon.” The firm explained that the decision was made in light of the AG’s revelations as well as “our own investigation.”
The letter goes on to sever all future business ties. “We have also reached the point such that there is a non-waivable conflict of interest with the Trump Organization,” Mazars wrote. “As a result, we are not able to provide any new work product to the Trump Organization.”
The AG’s office, which got a hold of the letter, filed it in court to bolster its case that Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Don Jr. should be forced to testify about how so many family real estate development projects and properties had wildly fluctuating values that seemed high whenever they needed loans but low whenever it came time to pay taxes.
The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The letter also alluded to another matter that criminal investigators reviewed with the Manhattan DA’s office: A Trump building apartment in New York City that was provided to Matt Calamari Jr.—a family insider who is now the corporate director of security.
Junior, the son of Trump Organization COO Matthew Calamari Sr., received immunity from a criminal prosecution when he testified before the grand jury investigating company benefits—such as corporate apartments—that may have run afoul of taxing laws, according to a source with direct knowledge of his testimony.
In the firm’s Feb. 9 letter, Mazars general counsel William J. Kelly described how accountants had not yet been able to finish preparing the tax paperwork for the former president and first lady, Melania, because they hadn’t answered questions about Calamari Jr.’s fringe benefits.
“We believe the only information left to complete those returns is the information regarding the Matt Calimari Jr. apartment. As you know, Donald Bender has been asking for this information for several months but has not received it,” Kelly wrote.
Donald Bender, a partner at Mazars, has served as the trusted accountant for Trump and his lieutenants for years, a role that has since drawn scrutiny from law enforcement, according to sources with firsthand knowledge of the transactions and current investigations.
Mazars has found itself in the spotlight since at least 2016, when Trump successfully ran for president but broke with tradition and refused to disclose his tax returns. The firm successfully protected Trump’s tax returns from seeing the light of day, receiving widespread rebuke in the process. And the precedent-establishing Supreme Court fight that ultimately handed those tax documents to the Manhattan DA—but not Congress—bears the firm’s name.
Ukraine crisis: miscalculation could trigger unintended wider conflict
Julian Borger in Washington – February 13, 2022
Photograph: AP
The unprecedented Russian military encirclement of Ukraine has not only brought closer the prospect of a devastating war in that country, it has also raised the risks of triggering an unintended wider conflict.
The US and Nato have been adamant that their troops will not enter Ukraine no matter what happens, and the Pentagon has pulled out the 160 national guard soldiers who were acting as military advisers.
Even during the cold war, Washington and Russia made sure their forces did not clash, and Joe Biden has made clear he would seek to keep it that way.
“That’s a world war when Americans and Russia start shooting at one another,” Biden said.
However, the massing of Russian troops in Belarus and the deployment of a substantial Russian naval force in the Black Sea, matched on a smaller scale by Nato land, sea and air reinforcements on the alliance’s eastern flank, means there is far more military hardware in close proximity than is normal. And with proximity comes the increased danger of accidents and unintended consequences.
“The risk of something going down like a mid-air collision, or a trigger-happy Russian or American, can really escalate things quickly,” said Danny Sjursen, a former army major and director of the Eisenhower Media Network.
“You’re setting yourself up for accidents and miscalculation, and that’s when you can get out of control real quick, because there are domestic considerations both in Russia and in the United States. An American pilot dies – now what? I’m not saying that necessarily means we go to cataclysmic nuclear war but it escalates things.”
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told CBS News on Sunday that the US had sought to be transparent about its troop deployments in eastern Europe in order “to avoid mistake, miscalculation or escalation and also to send a very clear message to Russia we will defend every inch of Nato territory”.
There is a long history of close encounters over the Baltic and Black Seas. Earlier this month US jet fighters scrambled to intercept Russian warplanes operating close to Nato airspace while British and Norwegian planes took off to monitor Russian aircraft flying into the North Sea.
While Russia has shut off large parts of the Black Sea to conduct its manoeuvres, Nato navies have stayed out of the immediate vicinity for now, while building up their presence in the Mediterranean. If they do decide to go through the Bosphorus in a show of strength, or to safeguard commercial shipping, the risk will rise again.
Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said the danger was further heightened by Russia’s suspected use of “GPS spoofing”, interference with the navigational equipment of other vessels.
On several occasions recently, civilian ships traveling in the Black Sea have encountered mysterious GPS troubles that showed the vessels being in a different part of the Black Sea or even on land. It was widely though the incidents were caused by Russia testing its technology.
“It raises the risk for naval vessels that are in the Black Sea, which we should remember is not that big, and it’s crowded,” Braw said. “There’s enormous shipping activity in the Black Sea, and so all those crews face the risk of having no GPS.”
The transfer of combat troops from Russia’s far east to Belarus has not only significantly increased the imminent threat to Ukraine, but also made eastern European Nato members increasingly nervous.
“The closest training ranges in Belarus are 150 to 200km from Vilnius or Warsaw,” said Kristjan Mäe, the head of the Nato and EU department at Estonia’s ministry of defence. “This is a Russian force posture that hasn’t been there previously.”
A refugee crisis at the Polish-Belarus border last year led to a close encounter between the troops facing each other, with Warsaw complaining that Belarus forces opened fire in the direction of their soldiers.
“We have to remember that the people who are actually out on the frontline are very young men and women and they face enormous responsibility,” Braw said. “Yes there is a chain of command but if there is some sort of provocation or aggression, intentional or unintentional, that is directed against them, then they have to respond.”
The close encounters so far have occurred in peacetime. In the event of war, nerves will be far more on edge, communications could be hampered or flooded with disinformation.
“We cannot be entirely confident that in the lead-up to or during a conflict that Nato and Russia will be able to communicate, especially as current civil and military communication systems between them are not as robust or technically resilient as they should be,” Sahil Shah, a policy fellow at the European Leadership Network, said.
“The world’s two largest nuclear-armed states have returned to the brink of conflict exactly 60 years after the Cuban missile crisis. If diplomacy is not pursued to the fullest extent, the risks of miscalculation and miscommunication could potentially pull in wider Europe into a devastating war. Without dialogue on how to manage de-escalation, it will be as if our leaders are running into a monsoon with newspapers over their heads.”
Manchin wants Sinema to take a fresh look at tax rate hikes on corporations and the rich, but she’s not budging
Joseph Zeballos-Roig – February 14, 2022
Sen. Joe Manchin speaks with Sen. Kyrsten SinemaJacquelyn Martin/AP Photo
Manchin wants Sinema to revisit her opposition to hiking tax rates on the rich and corporations.
“Why can’t we just get a good solid tax plan that works?” he told the Wall Street Journal.
But Sinema doesn’t appear like she’s dropping her opposition to those tax increases anytime soon.
Sen. Joe Manchin is starting to turn up the heat on another Democratic holdout with competing demands on President Joe Biden’s spending bill.
The conservative West Virginia Democrat has ramped up calls this month to step up taxes on the richest Americans and large firms. But he’s likely to encounter resistance from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who shut the door on hiking tax rates on both of those groups last fall.
“I respect her and what her concerns may be, but I think basically our financial situation is getting worse, not better, so maybe we can take another look at it,” Manchin told The Wall Street Journal. “I would hope so.”
“Why can’t we just get a good solid tax plan that works? That’s the first thing to do.” he told the Journal.
The Arizona Democrat doesn’t seem like she’ll budge anytime soon and it’s unclear whether she’d drop her opposition when Democrats take another swing at passing a skinnier spending bill later this year. A spokesperson for her office opened the door to other plans that strengthen economic competitiveness and add jobs.
“There are many ways to pay for such ideas that do not include tax-rate increases that hurt small businesses and our economic competitiveness while we continue to emerge from a pandemic and economic downturn,” a Sinema spokesperson told the Journal.
The competing demands from the pair underscore the difficult and tricky path ahead for Democrats trying to resuscitate the spending plan. Manchin torpedoed the House bill in December, and all Senate Democrats must coalesce around another package to muscle it through the 50-50 chamber along party lines.
Sinema’s opposition to tax rates prompted Democrats to scramble in the fall for new ways to finance their plans to expand healthcare, childcare and education. Many in the party appeared taken by surprise at the prospect that Democrats could blow a campaign pledge to roll back the Republican tax law.
“Boy, oh boy, that would be a great irony — if a Democratic president, House and Senate embraced the 2017 tax cuts,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia told Insider last October.
Manchin has said he backs hiking the corporate tax rate to 25% as part of a future spending bill. He told NBC News earlier this month that he’s onboard with a 15% corporate minimum tax, a 28% capital gains tax, and closing other loopholes.
Election-integrity watchdogs are sounding the alarm as Trump allies take control of swing states’ election machinery. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is the concern?
Acolytes of Donald Trump, galvanized by his false claims of voter fraud, are laying the groundwork for overturning future elections by commandeering state and county election systems. A major reason Trump failed in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election is that state and local election officials, many of them Republicans, certified the results over Trump’s objections and threats. In response, Trump allies such as far-right nativist Steve Bannon have launched a campaign to replace principled officials with Trump allies, from the lowest county volunteer up to states’ top election officials. Next time, the battered guardrails that held firm in 2020 might be gone, said Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice. “This is a giant crisis,” she said. “We’ve never seen anything like that before.”
How are Trump’s allies doing this?
The most visible effort is being made by scores of Stop the Stealers who are running to be secretaries of state — in most states, the top election official. An NPR analysis counts at least 20 current Republican secretary of state candidates who question the legitimacy of the 2020 election, running in 17 states. In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who famously resisted Trump’s entreaties to “find” 11,780 Trump votes, is being challenged by Jody Hice, a Trump-endorsed congressman who opposed certifying the 2020 vote. In Michigan, among those running in the Republican primary is Kristina Karamo, a community college professor who has called the Jan. 6 uprising a “false flag” operation by leftists and says Democrats are following “a Satanist agenda.” Running in Arizona is Mark Finchem, a member of the Oath Keepers militia who was present at the Capitol insurrection and has links to QAnon. “There’s a lot of crazy going around,” said Trey Grayson, a Republican former secretary of state in Kentucky. “You have people running for these offices where the most important duty is counting the votes and accepting the results even if you don’t like the outcome, and these folks don’t appear to be well-positioned to do that.” There are also efforts to replace lower-level elections officials.
Where is that happening?
Across numerous battleground states, at every level. In Michigan, the state Republican Party replaced Aaron Van Langevelde, a member of the state board of canvassers who cast a decisive vote to certify the state’s election results in favor of Biden. In eight of the state’s largest counties, Republicans have replaced members of the boards of canvassers — who certify results — with Trump partisans. “They’re laying the groundwork for a slow-motion insurrection,” said local Democratic election lawyer Mark Brewer. In Horry County, South Carolina, a longtime Republican election official, Mike Connett, lost his position after an unprecedented crush of citizens showed up for a county convention and elected a QAnon supporter. In Pennsylvania, hundreds of Trump supporters recruited by Stop the Steal groups won county election inspector positions in November, some through write-in campaigns. There and in many other states, Trump-linked newcomers are filling positions vacated by veteran officials who are walking away after being inundated with threats and harassment. Officials in many counties say they’ve been deluged with Trump loyalists volunteering to serve as precinct officers, many of them rallied by Bannon. In some states, proposed new laws might help them contest or overturn any results they don’t like.
What would those laws do?
They’d give state legislatures unprecedented power to exert control over local election boards and the certification of results. At least 148 such bills were introduced in 36 states last year, according to a report by three nonpartisan watchdog groups called “A Democracy Crisis in the Making.” Bills were proposed in seven states, including Arizona, Missouri, and Nevada, that would have given legislatures the power to change or overturn election results. “We are at code red,” said Jena Griswold, Colorado’s Democratic secretary of state. “We are seeing a coordinated effort by extreme Republicans to undo American democracy.” Much of this legislation has not yet passed, but three states have enacted laws giving partisan legislators pathways to control county election administration. They include Georgia, which passed a sweeping election bill last March. It allows a state board appointed by the Republican legislature to take control of county vote tallying, and to replace a local board with a handpicked administrator who could invalidate ballots.
What can be done?
Election-integrity experts say federal legislation is needed that would restrict a state legislature’s ability to insert itself into election administration or vote certification — but Senate Republicans oppose federal rules over how states run elections. That leaves one realistic strategy for those opposed to the MAGA organizing campaign: a counter-movement of principled Republicans and Democrats to prevent a Trumpist takeover of election machinery. Bannon, meanwhile, crows that Trump populists are making great inroads. “It’s about winning elections with the right people — MAGA people,” he said. “We will have our people in at every level.”
Bannon’s volunteer army
For Rick Barnes, the Republican Party chair in Texas’ Tarrant County, the barrage of calls was baffling. People were suddenly clamoring to know how they could become volunteer precinct officers, a low-level role that’s never drawn much interest. The reason, Barnes soon learned, was Steve Bannon. On his popular War Room podcast, the former Trump adviser had issued a “call to action,” beseeching Trump supporters to volunteer at local election boards — part of a “precinct strategy,” aimed at taking the reins of election administration “village by village.” Bannon’s effort has yielded big dividends. When ProPublica reached out to Republican leaders in 65 counties, 41 reported an unprecedented surge in volunteers, one unmatched on the Democratic side. “People are coming out of the woodwork,” said Polk County, Florida, party chair J.C. Martin. Their motivation is simple, said Palm Beach County GOP chair Michael Barnett, who’s seen a similar surge. They feel Trump was defrauded of his rightful win, and that “their involvement in upcoming elections will prevent something like that from happening again.”
Team USA’s Erin Jackson becomes first Black woman to win Olympic speed-skating gold after teammate gave up her spot
February 14, 2022
Erin Jackson has become the first Black woman to win a speedskating medal at the Winter Olympics. A gold one, at that.
Jackson won the 500 meters Sunday with a time of 37.04 seconds, giving the American speedskating program its first speedskating medal of the Beijing Games and first individual medal since 2010.
But this one meant much more than national pride.
Erin Jackson of the United States celebrates with the national flag of the United States after winning gold at the Beijing Winter Olympics, Feb. 13, 2022.FABRIZIO BENSCH / REUTERS
The 29-year-old Jackson, a former inline skater who switched to the ice shortly before the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, joined fellow American Shani Davis as the only Black athletes to win speed-skating medals at the Olympics.
The silver went to Miho Takagi of Japan, while Angelina Golikova of the Russian team took the bronze.
Jackson’s gold came after the native of balmy Ocala, Florida, slipped at the U.S. trials and shockingly finished third, putting her spot on the Olympic team in jeopardy.
But teammate Brittany Bowe, who finished first at the trials, gave up her spot on the team to ensure Jackson would get to skate in Beijing.
At the time, Jackson praised Bowe, calling her an “amazing friend, teammate and mentor.”
“This is an act I’ll never forget,” she wrote. “You can bet I’ll be the loudest voice in the oval cheering for her in the 1000 and 1500 next month.”
As it turned out, the Americans received a third place in the 500 when the final allocations were made, so Bowe got to skate as well. She finished 16th.
Jackson skated in the next-to-last of 15 pairs with Takagi’s time of 37.12 – set about a half-hour earlier in the fourth pairing – in her sights.
If she was still thinking about that slip at the U.S. trials, it sure didn’t show.
Jackson bolted off the line and was under Takagi’s time as she veered into the first turn. She kept up her speed through the crossing straight and into the final turn, swinging both arms furiously as she came to the finish of speedskating’s shortest race.
As soon as her skates crossed the line, Jackson’s head turned toward the scoreboard.
She broke into a big smile when she saw the “1” beside her name. Her coach, Ryan Shimabukuro, pumped his arms and slapped hands with her as she glided by.
There was still one pairing left, but Jackson knew she could do no worse than bronze.
A few minutes later, the gold was hers.
Jackson sat on the padding along the infield, appearing to shed a few tears with her head bowed.
USA’s Erin Jackson celebrates victory in the women’s 500m speed skating event during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing on February 13, 2022.SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
She was no doubt reflecting, too, on her remarkable journey.
The inline and roller derby skater knew she would have to trade her wheels for blades if she wanted to go for Olympic glory.
Making the switch just months before the Pyeongchang Games, she was such a fast study that she earned a spot on the U.S. team. She finished 24th in the 500, but it was clear that she had barely tapped into her potential.
During the current World Cup season, Jackson suddenly emerged as one of the world’s best sprinters. She won four of eight 500 races – the first Black woman to earn one of those titles, as well – and came to the Olympics as one the favorites.
She lived up to the billing in Beijing, becoming the first American woman to win an individual Olympic medal since 2002.
She grabbed an American flag and did a victory lap around the Ice Ribbon oval, the stars and stripes fluttering above her head.
‘Natural Wine’ Brings Artistic Sensibility to American Viticulture
Cristen Hemingway Jaynes – February 14, 2022
Zinfandel grapes on a vine in Lodi, California. Maguey Images / DigitalVision / Getty Images
The idea of winemaking may evoke an image of a hilly, sun-blanketed vineyard; a vision of humans working with nature to produce something blissful and decadent. What could be more natural than crushing grapes so that their skins naturally ferment, creating a beverage with a taste that represents the personality of the region where it was grown?
According to Geoff Scollary, an adjunct professor at Charles Sturt University in Australia whose first experience with “natural” wines was 20 years ago in Paris, when making natural wine the general objective is that there be “as little human intervention as possible” during the entire process, The Conversation reported.
The idea of “natural wine” was born, as all things gastronomique, in France. According to Old Liquors Magazine, the natural wine movement began with a group of Loire Valley growers in the 1950s.
Since then, natural wine has become part of French culture and has been given formal recognition under the designation “Vin Méthode Nature.”
In the glossary of his upcoming book Lodi!: The Definitive Guide and History of America’s Largest Winegrowing Region — to be released next month — California wine journalist and photographer Randy Caparoso describes “Natural wine” as basically fitting the description of the requirements for a Vin Méthode Nature designation in France.
“Vin Méthode Nature wines must be produced by hand-picked grapes from certified organic vines and vinified with indigenous yeast,” the glossary of Lodi! states. “In the winery, cross-flow filtration, flash pasteurisation, thermovinification and reverse osmosis are prohibited.”
The glossary goes on to say that a maximum of 30 milligrams per liter of sulfites are permitted for a wine to qualify as “natural” in France, and there are two different logos, one for natural wines with sulfites and one for those without.
But why add sulfites to wine at all?
“Sulfur dioxide is naturally found in wines and is a byproduct of fermentation, but most winemakers choose to add a little extra to prevent the growth of undesirable yeasts and microbes, as well as to protect against oxidation,” said Dr. Vinifera of Wine Spectator.
Caparoso told EcoWatch in an email that while some “natural” winemakers skip the addition of sulfites, they are in the minority.
“If anything, most natural style wine producers in the U.S. utilize sulfites. They generally apply sulfites with more restraint than conventional wine producers, but they utilize sulfites for the same reason as conventional producers, which is because sulfites are necessary to produce fresh, clean, stable wines,” Caparoso said.
So, how do natural wines differ from “conventional” wines?
“What makes many natural style wines different is that usually the objective is to produce wines to meet a different expectation, such as the expression of a specific appellation or vineyard, or in a different (yet often related) case, the artistic sensibilities of a winemaker or winery owner — placing the pursuit of commercial expectations in a position of secondary importance,” Caparoso told EcoWatch.
Once the grapes used to make natural wine have fermented, a cloth filter is sometimes used to catch larger grape or yeast material, but more technologically advanced filtration processes are not permitted in the natural winemaking process, according to Scollary, as The Conversation reported. Thus, the end product of natural winemaking has a cloudy appearance in the bottle.
While the cloudiness of natural wine might be unfamiliar, that complexity of appearance might just lead to some delightfully intricate taste results.
“Natural wines are different in appearance and taste. Although my early experience to these wines was not always favourable, production methods have matured. While many remain cloudy, as they are unfiltered, the palate structure can show the length and depth that I chase when selecting wine,” Scollary stated, as reported by The Conversation.
As with conventional wines, natural wines offer a sparkling variety, which Scollary said recalls the origins of fermentation.
“Natural sparkling wines — commonly referred to [as] Pétillant-Naturel or simply Pet Nat — are one of my favourites. Made by the ancestral method, fermentation begins in an open tank and, at some point, it is transferred to bottle to finish,” Scollary said, The Conversation reported. “The wine is amazingly refreshing, albeit cloudy and lightly sparkling (about half the pressure of champagne). There is no secondary fermentation and no additives – the yeast is indigenous to the grape.”
Caparoso told EcoWatch that some of his favorite wines in the world are those that convey a feeling of the region where their grapes were grown.
“I personally do, in fact, favor wines that express terroir, or ‘sense of place’ (could be an appellation or region, or it could be a specific vineyard or block) over wines that do not because, in my mind, the most interesting wines in the world are those that remain as faithful as possible to their vineyard sources. Wines that taste like where they come from are simply more interesting to me,” said Caparoso.
Some of Caparoso’s favorite natural wines are, not surprisingly, from France, a place that has been making wine into an artform since the sixth century B.C.
“[W]ines produced by, say, Domaine Tempier in France’s Bandol, the Cassis blanc from Clos Ste. Magdelaine, whites made by Marcel Deiss in Alsace, or wines crafted by Greg La Follette from grapes grown in Sonoma Coast and Lodi — these are some of my favorite wines in the world,” Caparoso said to EcoWatch.
For Caparoso, the enjoyment of wine is, it seems, akin to an artistic appreciation of beauty.
“Like many people, I drink wine for pleasure, but when I think of pleasure I also think of intellectual stimulation, since the best wines, to me, also appeal to my sense of aesthetics. Therefore, to me, the most interesting wines not only taste good, they also represent something that goes well beyond their actual taste,” Caparoso said.
Caparoso added that an increasing number of Americans have begun to recognize the virtues of natural wines.
“[T]here is a growing minority of consumers in the U.S. who have come to appreciate natural tastes reflecting place rather than ‘product’ appeal, a winemaker’s vision rather than a brand’s predictable or consistent style,” said Caparoso. “As Americans increase their appreciation of wines in terms of where they’re grown and how they are made, they naturally gravitate towards wines that are made less as commercial products and more as artistic expressions.”
Since natural wines have a much longer history in European countries, Caparoso said appreciation for natural wines in the U.S. is bound to grow.
“I always point to wine regions in Europe as sufficient evidence for how wine appreciation is bound to evolve in places like the U.S. Consumers in the U.S. are bound to increase their appreciation of natural style wines in the same way as Europeans because this is how wine industries and wine appreciation naturally evolve over time,” Caparoso said. “The Europeans have had at least a 100-years head start on Americans, but Americans will eventually catch up… ”
Wine has become a fixture in cultures all over the world as much more than a beverage; it is often an ingredient of cardinal importance to the symphonic balance of a meal — sometimes even the melody that holds its components together. And with subtleties that can be lost in commercial winemaking, natural wines seem especially suited to this purpose.
“[W]ine has endured as a beverage of choice for over 2,000 years precisely because, fundamentally, it is as natural a product as an alcoholic beverage can be,” Caparoso told EcoWatch. “Wine becomes a craft and art form once someone endeavors to influence this natural process… But when all is said and done, it is the sensory make-up of wine that has proven to be so compatible with the foods we love to prepare and eat, fitting into the endless social settings in which wines are consumed.”
Can I Recycle This? A Guide to Recycling Paper, Plastic and Everything in Between
Linnea Harris – February 14, 2022
AnnaStills / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Can I put this pizza box in with the cardboard? What about that oat milk container? Does this envelope have plastic in it?
The recycling system in the U.S. is far from perfect, and recycling is often used as a scapegoat to justify overconsumption. The oil and gas industries – producers of virgin plastic – spent millions on advertising in the 80s to advocate for recycling, knowing that it wouldn’t be a large-scale solution to our waste problem and would encourage consumers to purchase more plastic. Fast forward to 2018, when 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste were generated in the U.S. in a single year: 4.9 pounds per person per day. Of this waste, 69 million tons were recycled and 25 million tons were composted, amounting to a meager 32.1% recycling and composting rate.
Furthermore, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that only 10% of all plastic thrown in recycling bins over the last 40 years has actually been recycled. Some of this waste, however, comes from incorrect sorting on the part of the consumer. Because there are no universal rules for recycling – which is handled by individual counties and municipalities – the process is extremely complex and variable. While recycling is not the end-all-be-all of waste reduction, it is an important tool for keeping waste out of landfills.
It is always necessary to check your regional recycling rules, as the specifications for individual items vary widely. New York City even has a search tool to find common products and how they should be disposed of, and most counties will have this information on their website.
Here are a few pointers on how to recycle those common items – whether it be a pizza box, toothpaste tube, or hairspray can – that have you stumped.
Why Does It Matter?
The U.S. leads the world in plastic waste. With so many recyclable materials already ending up in landfills, incorrectly recycled items can impact the fate of the small percentage of waste that is recycled.
For our current recycling system to continue functioning, the operation must be profitable. After dragging your bins out to the curb, they’re taken away by the recycling truck on pick-up day, and the county or municipality pays for it to be brought to recycling plants for processing. Paper, plastic, glass, and metal are separated and consolidated into bales that are sold, and buyers use the recycled material to create new products, like post-consumer paper, pellets, etc. – all those products stamped with a “made out of recycled material” sticker. However, when a batch is too riddled with trash, it might be too dangerous or costly to sort it out, so it must be sold for a lower price. Sometimes, the whole batch is thrown away.
So, “wishful” or “aspirational” recycling – that is, wishfully throwing items in the recycling just in case they can be recycled, especially in single-stream recycling – can lead to even more waste. According to David Biderman, CEO and executive director of the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), 10-15% of all waste sent to recycling centers in the U.S. isn’t actually recyclable. Correctly separating recycling can prevent some of this waste and make sure all recyclables meet their proper fate.
Plastic
The Basics
The plastic bin is home to most rigid plastic containers. However, the recycling code dictates all. Every plastic recyclable will be stamped with a little triangle emblem and a number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7, which indicates the type of plastic it’s made from, and ultimately how difficult it is to recycle (1 being the easiest, 7 the hardest). #1, for example, is the code for PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) products, like water bottles, and many other containers for oil, soft drinks, etc.
New York City, for one, accepts essentially all plastic bottles, jars, jugs, and containers, regardless of number, but not all municipalities are as inclusive; most accept at least numbers 1 and 2, but it’s important to know what codes you should divert to the trash instead.
While you can peel the paper labels off of these plastics before recycling them, it isn’t necessary, so save yourself some time and skip that step.
Milk, Juice, and Soup Cartons
These liquid cartons are an infamously confusing recyclable: are they paper? Plastic? Trash?
Unlike some mixed-material products, these cartons are luckily accepted as recyclables in 62% of American communities, reports TreeHugger.
There are two types of recyclable cartons: gable tops (usually found in the refrigerated section) and aseptic (shelf-stable containers of soup, stock, or other liquids). Chicago – which utilizes a single-stream recycling system – accepts these cartons, as does NYC in the plastic, metal, and glass bin. As always, however, don’t aspirationally recycle until you’ve checked recycling rules for your region, especially if you live in a place that doesn’t accept all types of recycling, or are serviced by a smaller recycling center; a misplaced carton could compromise the whole batch of recycling,
Bottles With Pumps
If a shampoo, soap, cleaning product, or lotion bottle is labeled as recyclable – which most are – you can put it in the recycling bin after rinsing out the remaining product. The pump, however, should be thrown away.
Clamshell Containers
The clamshell containers holding your takeout salad and sandwich are made of the highly-recyclable #1 plastic, but the process by which they are made is much different from that of #1 plastic bottles, so some centers won’t accept them. Put them in your curbside container if your county or municipality’s website specifics that clamshell containers are allowed. Otherwise, save them in a separate bin and find a collection center near you where they are.
Coffee Pods
As of 2020, Keurig-brand K-Cups are newly recyclable – if your recycling center accepts #5 plastic, that is. The company transitioned the pods from #7 plastic to #5, so new K-cups can go in the plastics bin after removing the foil.
Nespresso capsules, on the other hand, are made from 100% aluminum and can be easily recycled with other metals. The company also offers free bags to customers, which can be filled and sent back to the company as a part of their recycling program.
Or, sidestep the pod problem and try out a French press. They’re plastic-waste free.
Glass
Glass is very easy to recycle, which means most municipalities will accept common glass containers.
Jars
No need to get all the paper or glue off. If you don’t have a single-stream system and must separate metals and glass, remove metal lids and place them in the correct bin. If the lid is larger – at least 3 inches in diameter – most centers will capture them during sorting, so there’s no need to remove it.
Glass Beverage Containers
Kombucha bottles and non-jar-sized glass beverage containers can also be recycled. The little plastic caps are too small to recycle and are hard to sort out of the glass recycling, so make sure to put those in the trash.
Metal
The Basics
Tin and aluminum cans from vegetables, fruit, soup, paint (if fully cleaned), and pet food are a safe bet for the metals bin.
Aerosol Cans
The clean, empty can itself is recyclable. Simply remove the nozzle (which goes in the trash) and recycle along with the rest of your metal.
Wire Hangers
Some major cities will accept them curbside, if any attached paper or plastic is removed. Otherwise, donate to a local thrift store or dry cleaner, or bring to a scrap metal collector. Remember, however, that most recycling centers will not accept plastic hangers.
Tinfoil
Despite its name, tinfoil is made of aluminum, which can be recycled and used over and over again. In fact, according to the Aluminum Association, 75% of all aluminum ever produced in the U.S. is still in use today. As always, however, be sure to check your regional recycling rules.
Make sure the foil is fully clean – with no oil, food, or residue at all – then wad it up before tossing into the bin. If you use foil frequently, it’s best to wad several pieces together, since the material is quite light and can easily blow away when put outdoors.
Foil wrappers can also be recycled if they incorporate no plastic, like yogurt lids and some gum wrappers. If a wrapper stays crumbled when you squeeze it in your hand, it’s foil; if it unfolds, it’s plastic, and should be thrown away. If it’s a really small wrapper – like the foil on a Hershey’s kiss – crumple several together to make a larger clump that won’t clog up a sorting machine.
Aluminum Takeout Trays / Baking Dishes
If a facility takes aluminum foil, it’ll probably take these trays too. Likewise, they must be perfectly clean before they go in the bin.
Metal Caps
Beer and soda bottle caps are made of metal, and can go into the bin with those materials. If your recycling center requires metals to be separated by type, sort out steel and aluminum caps (steel will stick to a magnet, aluminum won’t), fill steel and aluminum cans halfway with their respective caps, then crimp the cans closed. This process keeps the small caps from wrecking machinery at the recycling center.
Alternatively, some bottle retailers collect caps and will dispose of them properly when brought back by customers.
Paper recycling bins are for just that: paper, and corrugated cardboard (that multi-layer stuff that shows a few layers when ripped apart). Some cities require cardboard to be broken down to specific dimensions and bound with twine. Regardless, these items will generally always be accepted in curbside recycling.
Books
First of all, if they are in decent condition, consider donating books to a local library or thrift store. As a last resort, they can be recycled as paper in some cases. Hardcovers can’t be put in the bin unless all of the pages are removed and the cover thrown away, or books of mixed materials, such as those with laminated pages.
Phonebooks and whole paperbacks can be recycled by many centers, but check with your municipality to make sure there are no book bans.
Envelopes
Most envelopes can go in the paper recycling. For those with plastic windows and stamps, it doesn’t hurt to peel them off, but the plastic and glue will be filtered out in the sorting process, so it can be left attached. Jiffy paper-padded envelopes can also go in with paper. However, any mailing materials with bubble wrap should be tossed, as should heavily dyed goldenrod envelopes.
Chipboard or Paperboard
This material reveals itself as grey-ish or brown when torn, and is less sturdy than corrugated cardboard. It’s typically used for cereal, snack, gift, and tissue boxes. If it tears white, however, check with your municipality to see if it’s accepted as recycling.
Cardboard Egg Cartons
Egg cartons are easily recycled if made of 100% paper or cardboard. Some can even be composted, and will break down quickly in a home pile while delivering carbon to the compost. Plastic egg cartons are more complicated; check the number on the bottom to see if it should go in with the plastic.
Glossy Cardboard
Toothbrushes, for one, are usually packaged in glossy cardboard, which can be recycled with paper. Waxy cardboard has a similar appearance, but is actually a completely different material, and is usually used for transporting groceries to stores rather than for products on the shelves. Make sure the recycling-bound cardboard is “glossy” rather than “waxy” by scraping the material with your fingernail; if it comes away with residue, the cardboard should be thrown away.
Wrapping Paper and Gift Bags
If it has foil, glitter, or other decorative elements, send it to the trash. Wrapping paper must be 100% paper with no plastic layers to be recycled. If you can rip through the wrapping paper easily, it’s probably just glossy paper, which can be recycled. Unfortunately, it’s best to play it safe and throw it away if you’re not sure. Large pieces of un-recyclable paper in a recycling batch could send the whole lot to the landfill. If you can, make sure to wrap gifts with only 100% paper so you know everything being unwrapped at the holiday is recyclable. Remove ribbons or other adornments before putting in the recycling bin.
The same rules apply for gift bags: if it’s just paper, it’s recyclable, but if you can’t rip through it cleanly or it has a plasticky feel, keep the bags to reuse them, or put them in the trash.
Greeting Cards
Anything made with photo paper – including any family pictures that come in Christmas cards – should go in the trash, as should cards with adornments or glitter. If one half of the card is plain paper, however, tear the card in half and recycle it. Better yet, if the front piece is not written on, separate it from the second half and use it as a gift tag for next year. All-paper cards can certainly be recycled.
Instant Soup Cups
If they’re completely clean, some recycling centers will accept them in the paper bin – but only those that are wax-lined, and not completely wax-coated. The rules vary widely by location, but almost no centers will accept the cups if they are Styrofoam.
Trash
Alas, not all waste can be given a second life. Some items must be trashed, but by keeping non-recyclables out of recycling bins, we can help ensure that no recycling batches are contaminated and sent to landfills.
Plastic Bags and Packaging
Americans use hundreds of billions of plastic bags a year, and while technically recyclable, they should never be paced with other plastics in curbside recycling bins. These thin bags are considered “tanglers” in the machinery that sorts recycling, and can shut down entire recycling operations. Follow the “poke test” to determine whether a piece of plastic could be a tangler: if you can stick your finger through it with little resistance – like plastic sandwich bags, plastic wrap, bubble wrap, etc. – it should go in the trash. Unless required by your municipality, you shouldn’t even put recycling in plastic bags. At the Montgomery County recycling center in Maryland, for example, workers aren’t allowed to open plastic bags, so anything in them is considered trash, reports the Earth Day Network.
Single-use plastic bags and plastic packaging need to be taken to a collection center to be properly recycled. Use the Plastic Film Directory or How2Recycle’s search tool to find a drop-off site near you. Alternatively, check your local grocery stores; 18,000 plastic bag drop-off bins are located at major grocery store chains, reports NPR, and bringing a sack of plastic bags to recycle can easily be incorporated into your grocery-shopping routine.
To-Go Coffee Cups
Buying a coffee on the go is convenient, but, in most cases, the disposable, polyethylene-lined cup for your latte needs to go in the trash.
Some companies might tout the recyclability of their to-go cups, but not all areas will treat them as recycling. A Stand.earth experiment in 2018 studied this waste by placing trackers inside Starbucks cups in Denver, Colorado, and putting them in recycling bins. The cups were all ultimately traced to landfills, reports the New York Times. The plastic lid and cardboard sleeve, luckily, are usually recyclable.
Some cities do accept these cups as recycling. NYC, for one, will take paper cups with non-paper lining in the green paper bin, according to the Department of Sanitation. However, if you are unsure, it’s best to assume that the cup should go in the trash, rather than risk contaminating an entire batch.
Plastic cups for iced beverages are often a #1 plastic, and can be recycled regardless if the number stamped on the bottom is accepted at your facility.
Bottle Caps (and Other Tiny Things)
Earth Day Network reports that small items can shut down recycling machinery more than a dozen times a day. Anything smaller than a credit card – bottle caps, tiny condiment containers lighters, plastic cutlery, etc. – should be thrown away. Bottle caps can be recycled if screwed back onto their respective bottle, which is allowed by many facilities.
Toothpaste, Lotion, and Cosmetics Tubes
While lotion bottles can be recycled, the more flexible, squeezable tubes can’t. Some specific brands, however, might be recyclable: Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, for example, can be recycled as a #2 plastic. If you are unsure though, throw it out.
Paper Plates
After a party or a picnic, don’t bother collecting paper plates to be recycled; instead, direct your guests to the trash can. Like paper cups, these plates have a protective layer of plastic, and become too soiled to be recyclable.
Plastic plates can go in the plastic bin if they are fully cleaned, but at that point, it might be worth it to just use regular plates.
Pens, Markers, Mechanical Pencils
These writing utensils are made of too many materials (ink, plastic, metal, etc.) to be recycled, and the individual components are too small to be put into their respective bins alone. BIC does, however, have a Stationery Recycling Program with Terracycle, through which individuals can send in all brands of utensils to be recycled.
Pizza Boxes
They’re cardboard, yes, but whole pizza boxes should go in the trash. Alternatively, remove any parts (like the top flap) not covered in cheese or grease and put those in with the paper recycling. Any soiled cardboard should be thrown away, as food residue can ruin a batch of recycling.
Styrofoam
Packing peanuts, foam egg cartons, and other Styrofoam packaging is generally not accepted in curbside recycling. It also breaks apart readily and can easily contaminate an entire batch of recycling if incorrectly placed with plastics.
Anything made with multiple materials – for example, a paper envelope lined with bubble wrap – that can’t be separated is considered a “mixed material.” Send these to the trash.
Black Plastics
Unless you have clear guidance from your municipality that your recycling center can accept black plastic, trash it. Black plastics are less valuable than their clear or white counterparts; it’s a less versatile material and can only be remade into other black plastic, so it goes for a cheaper price. Many facilities also sort plastic by beaming lights onto the waste, and black absorbs the light and thus can’t get properly sorted.
Mirrors
Mirrors are treated with a chemical that makes them un-recyclable, but be sure to throw it away safely. Wrap mirrors in bubble wrap or paper and label it before putting in the trash. If it’s cracked, crisscross the mirror with tape to hold in the splinters.
Flexible Packaging
Chip bags, granola bar wrappers, and squeeze-able packs for kids’ food like apple sauce and yogurt unfortunately have to be thrown away.
Deodorant Tubes
As a whole, they should be thrown away. The outer tube itself might be recyclable, though; check the number, and if your recycling plant takes it, remove the lid and the different components inside the tube and recycle it.
Glassware
While you can recycle glass bottles, drinkware is a bit different. Glass cups and wine glasses are often treated with chemicals so they can withstand high heat, which makes them ineligible for curbside recycling. Make sure to check with your recycling center, however.
Light Bulbs
Rules for disposing of light bulbs vary, but they can’t always be recycled or put into residential trash bins. Halogen and LED bulbs can be thrown away at home, or LEDs can be recycled at drop-off sites, including IKEA, Lowe’s, or local recycling centers. Florescent tube lighting and CFLs (compact fluorescents) can’t be thrown in regular household trash, but Bartell Drugs, Lowe’s, and Home Depot will take CFLs to be recycled.
Paper Towels and Napkins
They often get too soiled, and the fibers in disposable napkins and towels are too short to be recycled anyway.
Ceramics
Ceramics generally won’t be accepted curbside, but some recycling plants will accept them if brought in. Consider donating ceramic goods to nearby thrift shops if they are still in good condition.
‘Tanglers‘
Besides plastic bags, all kinds of cables, cords, hoses, and string lights can cause issues at recycling plants, and should be trashed. Christmas lights are made of recyclable materials, and some recycling centers might accept them, or you can send them to a mail-in service like Holiday LEDs and Christmas Light Source to be recycled. Best Buy will also accept cables and cords to be properly disposed of.
Straws
Single-use straws are usually made of plastic #5, which is more difficult to recycle, and thus not accepted in many areas. The straws are also too small for recycling machines to accurately sort. If you find yourself with a plastic straw, toss it in the trash, or equip yourself with one of the many cute reusable straws on the market to avoid this waste.
Alternative Recycling Methods
Curbside recycling, luckily, isn’t the final option for unwanted items.
It’s time to become more mindful of what we’re putting in the trash. Before throwing something away, research how that item might be recycled, especially if it’s one you confront on a regular basis. Earth911’s search tool allows users to search by material and zip code to find drop-off sites for all kinds of items, be it empty ink cartridges, used tires, or broken smoke detectors. Textile recycling is an excellent option for old rags, worn clothing, rugs, or other fabrics (although donation or resale is a good first option for clothes). Retailers and recycling centers often collect old electronics, which usually can’t be thrown in residential trash anyway. Construction materials – which are a huge source of waste – can even be recycled. The Construction and Demolition Recycling Association has a search tool to find a recycling source for various materials by location.
Companies and organizations are finding new ways to recycle what’s normally considered trash, like Terracycle. Individuals or businesses can purchase a box for certain types of items – like plastic packaging, face masks, and beauty products – fill it up, and send it back to be properly recycled. They also maintain public drop-offs to bring your waste; you can find one close to you on their website.
In the end, to reduce our waste, it’s best to start at the source, and remember the other two elements of our favorite mantra: Reduce and Reuse, as well as Recycle. Keep the lifecycle of the product in mind from the moment you buy it: how will you recycle this when you no longer need it? Maybe go for the cardboard carton of eggs instead of Styrofoam, the 100% recycled wrapping paper, or the clear plastic container instead of the black. Reduce what you buy, reuse what you can, and recycle the rest.
Canada’s trucker blockade is a right-wing fantasy made real
Recent protests at the U.S.-Canada border are just the visible part of a larger right-wing occupation movement.
Ryan Cooper, MSNBC Opinion Columnist – February 14, 2022
On Sunday, the Ambassador Bridge on the U.S.-Canada border between Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, was reopened after a weeklong protest, in which a handful of right-wing fanatics had been blocking the bridge and holding up some $355 million in goods in protest against a vaccine mandate for the trucking industry.
These events show that when law enforcement is genuinely needed to quash a far-right insurgency, it is timid and reluctant to do anything — a dangerous precedent to set indeed.
Protesters had taken over another nearby crossing into Sarnia, and one in Alberta, as well. As a result, Ford, Toyota, Stellantis and Honda idled some six Canadian car factories for several days, with knock-on effects creating even more snarls in supply chains. With one of Canada’s major cities paralyzed, and three key economic arteries between it and the world’s mightiest empire clogged, a severe shortage of new cars has been jacking up inflation and thus tanking President Joe Biden’s approval rating.
But these protests are just the visible part of a larger right-wing occupation movement, and indicative of a worrying anti-government trend. And equally as worrying is how law enforcement on both sides of the border have responded.
Canadian police finally cleared off Ambassador Bridge after the blockaders defied a court order to disperse. But throughout this process, law enforcement in both countries were astoundingly timid in their responses. Canadian cops had been walking on eggshells; we “are taking a diplomatic approach,” the Windsor police chief told reporters. Meanwhile, Ottawa police tried to coax the city occupiers out by cutting off their fuel and getting an injunction against honking horns instead of arresting them. As for U.S. law enforcement, there was no sign that the country’s gigantic security apparatus would crack down on the demonstration.
These events show that when law enforcement is genuinely needed to quash a far-right insurgency, it is timid and reluctant to do anything — a dangerous precedent to set indeed. Because these blockades are very likely just the start.
To be clear, as I have previously written, in the U.S. there definitely is far too much money spent on cops and courts, far too little spent on welfare benefits and social services that actually prevent crime, and far too little accountability for abusive cops. American police and jails are de facto charged with warehousing the social dysfunction caused by extreme inequality rather than actually doing much to control crime. But as we saw in Ottawa and Windsor, a democratic government does at least need some kind of armed service just in case some deranged violent minority tries to impose its will by force.
Inside McConnell’s Campaign to Take Back the Senate and Thwart Trump
Jonathan Martin – February 13, 2022
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., center, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. Standing with McConnell is Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., left, and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., right. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
PHOENIX — For more than a year, former President Donald Trump has berated Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, savaging him for refusing to overturn the state’s presidential results and vowing to oppose him should he run for the Senate this year.
In early December, though, Ducey received a far friendlier message from another former Republican president. At a golf tournament luncheon, George W. Bush encouraged him to run against Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, suggesting the Republican Party needs more figures like Ducey to step forward.
“It’s something you have to feel a certain sense of humility about,” the governor said this month of Bush’s appeal. “You listen respectfully, and that’s what I did.”
Bush and a band of anti-Trump Republicans led by Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky are hoping he does more than listen.
As Trump works to retain his hold on the Republican Party, elevating a slate of friendly candidates in midterm elections, McConnell and his allies are quietly, desperately maneuvering to try to thwart him. The loose alliance, which was once thought of as the GOP establishment, for months has been engaged in a high-stakes candidate recruitment campaign, full of phone calls, meetings, polling memos and promises of millions of dollars. It’s all aimed at recapturing the Senate majority, but the election also represents what could be Republicans’ last chance to reverse the spread of Trumpism before it fully consumes their party.
McConnell for years pushed Trump’s agenda and only rarely opposed him in public. But the message that he delivers privately now is unsparing, if debatable: Trump is losing political altitude and need not be feared in a primary, he has told Ducey in repeated phone calls, as the Senate leader’s lieutenants share polling data they argue proves it.
In conversations with senators and would-be senators, McConnell is blunt about the damage he believes Trump has done to the GOP, according to those who have spoken to him. Privately, he has declared he won’t let unelectable “goofballs” win Republican primaries.
History doesn’t bode well for such behind-the-scene efforts to challenge Trump, and McConnell’s hard sell is so far yielding mixed results. The former president has rallied behind fewer far-right candidates than initially feared by the party’s old guard. Yet a handful of formidable contenders have spurned McConnell’s entreaties, declining to subject themselves to Trump’s wrath all for the chance to head to a bitterly divided Washington.
Last week, Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland announced he would not run for Senate, despite a pressure campaign that involved his wife. Ducey is expected to make a final decision soon, but he has repeatedly said he has little appetite for a bid.
Trump, however, has also had setbacks. He’s made a handful of endorsements in contentious races, but his choices have not cleared the Republican field, and one has dropped out.
If Trump muscles his preferred candidates through primaries and the general election this year, it will leave little doubt of his control of the Republican Party, build momentum for another White House bid and entrench his brand of politics in another generation of Republican leaders.
If he loses in a series of races after an attempt to play kingmaker, however, it would deflate Trump’s standing, luring other ambitious Republicans into the White House contest and providing a path for the party to move on.
“No one should be afraid of President Trump, period,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who won in 2020 without endorsing the then-president and has worked with McConnell to try to woo anti-Trump candidates.
But while there is some evidence that Trump’s grip on Republican voters has eased, polls show the former president remains overwhelmingly popular in the party. Among politicians trying to win primaries, no other figure’s support is more ardently sought.
“In my state, he’s still looked at as the leader of the party,” Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said.
The proxy war isn’t just playing out in Senate races.
Trump is backing primary opponents to incumbent governors in Georgia and Idaho, encouraged an ally to take on the Alabama governor and helped drive Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts into retirement by supporting a rival. The Republican Governors Association, which Ducey leads, last week began pushing back, airing a television commercial defending the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, against his opponent, former Sen. David Perdue. It was the first time in the group’s history they’ve financed ads for an incumbent battling a primary.
“Trump has got a lot of chips on the board,” said Bill Haslam, the former Tennessee governor.
McConnell has been careful in picking his moments to push back against the former president. Last week, he denounced a Republican National Committee resolution orchestrated by Trump’s allies that censured two House Republican Trump critics.
As the former president heckles the soon-to-be 80-year-old Kentuckian as an “Old Crow,” Connell’s response has been to embrace the moniker: Last week, he sent an invitation for a reception in which donors who hand over $5,000 checks can take home bottles of the Kentucky-made Old Crow brand bourbon signed by the senator.
McConnell has been loath to discuss his recruitment campaign and even less forthcoming about his rivalry with Trump. In an interview last week, he warded off questions about their conflict, avoiding mentioning Trump’s name even when it was obvious to whom he was referring.
If Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who is an outspoken Trump antagonist running for Senate this fall, wins her primary, it will show that “endorsements from some people didn’t determine the outcome,” he said.
Murkowski appears well-positioned at the moment, with over $4 million on hand while her Trump-backed rival, Kelly Tshibaka, has $630,000.
“He’s made very clear that you’ve been there for Alaska, you’ve been there for the team, and I’m going to be there for you,” Murkowski said of McConnell’s message to her.
Even more pointedly, McConnell vowed that if Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Senate Republican, faces the primary that Trump once promised, Thune “will crush whoever runs against him.” (The most threatening candidate, Gov. Kristi Noem, has declined.)
The Senate Republican leader has been worried that Trump will tap candidates too weak to win in the general election, the sort of nominees who cost the party control of the Senate in 2010 and 2012.
“We changed the business model in 2014 and have not had one of these goofballs nominated since,” he told a group of donors on a private conference call last year, according to a recording obtained by The New York Times.
But McConnell has sometimes decided to pick his battles — in Georgia, he acceded to Herschel Walker, a former football star and Trump-backed candidate, after failing to recruit Perdue to rejoin the Senate. He also came up empty-handed in New Hampshire, where Gov. Chris Sununu passed on a bid after an aggressive campaign that also included lobbying from Bush.
In Maryland, Hogan was plainly taken with the all-out push to recruit him, although he declined to take on Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat.
“Elaine Chao was working over my wife,” Hogan recalled of a lunch, first reported by The Associated Press, between Chao, the former Cabinet secretary and wife of McConnell, and Maryland’s first lady, Yumi Hogan. “Her argument was, ‘You can really be a voice.’ ”
McConnell also dispatched Collins and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah to lobby Gov. Hogan. That campaign culminated last weekend, when Romney called Hogan to vent about the RNC’s censure, tell him Senate Republicans needed anti-Trump reinforcements and argue that Hogan could have more of a platform in his effort to remake the party as a sitting senator rather than an ex-governor.
“I’m very interested in changing the party, and that was the most effective argument,” said Hogan, who is believed to be considering a bid for the White House.
Romney lamented Hogan’s decision and expressed frustration. He claimed most party leaders share their view of the former president, but few will voice it in public.
“I don’t see new people standing up and saying, ‘I’m going to do something here which may be politically unpopular’ — in public at least,” Romney said.
At Mar-a-Lago in Florida, courtship of the former president’s endorsement has been so intense, and his temptation to pick favorites so alluring, that he regrets getting involved in some races too soon, according to three Republican officials who’ve spoken to him.
In Pennsylvania’s open Senate race, Trump backed Sean Parnell, who withdrew after a bitter custody battle with his estranged wife. And in Alabama, the former president rallied to Rep. Mo Brooks to succeed Sen. Richard Shelby, who’s retiring. But Brooks, who attended the rally that preceded the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, is struggling to gain traction.
One Republican strategist who has visited with Trump said the former president was increasingly suspicious of the consultants and donors beseeching him.
“He has become more judicious, so not everybody who runs down to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend gets endorsed on Monday,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, another Trump ally.
Trump has made clear he wants the Senate candidates he backs to oust McConnell from his leadership perch and even considered making a pledge to do so a condition of his endorsement. Few have done so to date, a fact McConnell considers a victory. “Only two of them have taken me on,” he crowed, alluding to Tshibaka in Alaska, and Eric Greitens, the former Missouri governor running for an open seat.
But McConnell biggest get yet would be Ducey.
With broad popularity and three statewide victories to his name, the term-limited governor and former ice cream chain executive would be a strong candidate against Kelly, who has nearly $19 million in the bank — more than double the combined sum of the existing Republican field.
To some of the state’s Republicans, Ducey could send a critical message in a swing state. “It would say we’re getting tired of this,” said Rusty Bowers, speaker of the Arizona state House, who encouraged Ducey to stand up to Trump’s “bully caucus.”
Ducey also has been lobbied by GOP strategist Karl Rove, the liaison to Bush, who sought to reassure the governor that he could win.
Ducey said he believed that this year’s “primaries are going to determine the future of the party.” However, he sounded much like Hogan and Sununu when asked about his enthusiasm for jumping into another campaign.
“This is the job I’ve wanted,” he said.
He noted there was one prominent member of the Trump administration, though, who has been supportive. Former Vice President Mike Pence “encouraged me to stay in the fight,” Ducey said.
