Newsletter 2.18.20

Hi all,

Thank you so much for your support as always. Here's this fortnight's newsletter, we hope you enjoy. Look out for a new episode tomorrow and, in the coming weeks, more News Brief reactions to 2020's bizarro world media coverage.

-- Nima, Florence, Marco, Julianne, Adam 

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You Do Know Amy Klobuchar Is an Abusive Boss, Right? Emma Roller, In These Times (February 14, 2020)

The media rushed to create a narrative of momentum for Amy Klobuchar’s presidential campaign after she exceeded expectations in New Hampshire. These narratives neglected to bring up her reputation as a cruel and vindictive boss. Workplace abuse should be treated as a serious issue by the media rather than as a side note.   

Buttigieg and Centrist Dems Want a Military Response to Climate Change. That’s Dangerous. Sarah Lazare, In These Times (February 12, 2020)

Pete Buttigieg and centrist Democrats have said the U.S. should look to the military and the intelligence community to address climate change––institutions that have tended to view climate change solely from the perspective of how it affects military interests and those of U.S. allies. This approach could exclude nations who are on the forefront of climate change that are not U.S. allies and climate change could be used as an excuse to further balloon the Pentagon’s budget.

We Talk About One U.S.-Backed Coup. Hondurans Talk About Three. Meghan Krausch, In These Times (February 11, 2020)

Thousands of Hondurans have attempted to flee the country recently. The current crisis in Honduras can be linked back to the 2009 coup military that the U.S. tacitly approved of. After the coup, the U.S. has failed to recognize anti-Democratic behavior of the new government on at least two other major moments where it consolidated power. 

How Pundits Manipulate Math to Dismiss Sanders Alex Shephard, The New Republic February 13, 2020

Pundits have tried to manipulate the election math anyway they can to suggest that Bernie Sanders’ New Hampshire victory was the least important story of the night. They used dubious comparisons to Sanders’ 2016 results and added up candidate results based whether they were moderates or liberals in order to make Sanders look like a weaker candidate. This trickery is an obvious effort to prop up some moderate candidate as the eventual savior of the primary against Sanders. 

Michael Bloomberg's Stop-and-Frisk Legacy Came Back to Haunt Him this Week Aaron Morrison, The Appeal (February 12, 2020)

Michael Bloomberg’s presidential campaign has renewed scrutiny over the racist policing policy known as stop-and-frisk that Bloomberg championed. Bloomberg has tried to apologize for and distance himself from the policy as recordings of him calling for me racially targeted policing have been circulating. Stop-and-frisk’s legacy continues to be felt in New York, where stop-and-frisk procedures increased by 22% last year from 2018.   

New York Schools Gang Unit Criminalizes Children Alice Speri The Intercept (February 13, 2020)

A New York City Department of Education unit tasked with gang and youth violence uses a set of guidelines that is ignorant of childlike behavior and promotes racist stereotypes. The guidelines include spurious warning factors for gang activity such as underage drinking and personality changes and repeats sensationalized folklore about gang initiations. 

The Path to Liberation Does Not Go through Pretrial Punishment Vaidya Gullapalli, The Appeal (February 12, 2020)

Cash bail is functionally similar to a pretrial preventative detention, a punishment that the Supreme Court found should be used under limited circumstances. Cash bail has allowed preventive detentions to boom, allowing law enforcement to use jail as a punishment for people who have not had their day in court.

TV Executives Celebrate Bloomberg's Unprecedented Spending Lee Fang, The Intercept (February 15, 2020)

Billionaire Mike Bloomberg’s massive spending campaign of TV and radio advertisements has broadcast executives thrilled at the profits. The profit incentives of promoting a campaign that makes major ad buys for executives clashes with the supposed ethics of independent journalism, which was an issue during the last presidential election as well. 

Trump Doesn’t Hate Welfare When It Goes to Wealthy White Farmers Bryce Covert, The Nation (February 14, 2020)

Donald Trump has disparaged welfare recipients since the 1970s and the rhetoric carried into his presidential campaign and presidency. However, Trump’s use of direct payments to farmers who have suffered from his tariff policies reveal the racial and class-based biases in anti-welfare rhetoric. The discrepancy is especially clear as Trump’s newest budget proposal calls for cuts and restrictions to welfare programs.  

Customs and Border Protection Gains an Extra Layer of Secrecy Ken Klippenstein, The Nation (February 4, 2020)

The Trump administration designated U.S. Customs and Border Patrol as a security agency. The designation allows CBP to exempt certain records from disclosure to the public. The new designation could result in less transparency for an agency whose practices have been criticized for their cruelty.