Newsletter 11.20.18

Dearest patrons,

Here's the latest newsletter. We are thankful for each and every one of our listeners and supporters and, as such, wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, if that's your bag – and if not, have a good week anyway!

- Sophia, Nima, Florence, and Adam

*****

Camp Fire: 48 funerals and counting… ‘It’s beyond words, really’ - Julia Prodis Sulek, Mercury News (11/13/18)

If you’ve been frustrated by mainstream coverage of the wildfires in California, Mercury has been doing an excellent job with people on the ground at the sites. They also have analysis like this piece from Paul Rogers.

The Other Victims of California’s Fires: Workers Inhaling Toxic Fumes - Brooke Anderson, In These Times (11/13/18)

The language from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health is vague, “Employers with operations exposed to wildfire smoke must consider taking appropriate measures...” As a result, thousands of farmworkers and construction workers across northern California have been exposed to record levels of air toxicity with no access to preventative measures from their employers.

Beto Didn’t Make it to the Senate, But Massive Turnout Turned Important Texas Courts Blue - Sarah Lustbader and Vaidya Gullapalli, The Appeal (11/8/18)

For some some positive news from the midterm elections, we head to Texas, where in Harris County constituents voted out 59 judges. Of the newly elected judges, an unprecedented 19 are Black women. With the election of 15 out of 16 new judges in misdemeanor court, we could see significant changes to the county’s cash bail system.

Israeli incursions into Gaza are the rule, not the exception- Henriette Chacar, +972 (11/13/18)

As anyone who closely follows the ongoing occupation and siege of Gaza knows, Israel incursions and violence are a regular occurrence. However, on November 11th, The New York Times described recent Israeli attacks on Gaza as “the first since Operation Protective Edge, in July 2014.” Such assertions are not only false, but further violence against Palestinians as they perpetuate a media narrative that such attacks are exceptions to the rule of Israeli “restraint” in the region.

The HQ2 Scam: How Amazon Used a Bidding War to Scrape Cities’ Data - David Dayen, In These Times (11/9/18)

With the announcement of the two new Amazon headquarters in Crystal City, VA, and Queens, NY, last week, there’s still a lot we don’t know and that’s largely on purpose. Dayen crunches some numbers on what this move will mean for these cities and communities, and how the whole courting project was a big scam, as we discussed in Episode 19: Lotteryism Part I.

More on Scamazon:

• Amazon’s HQ2 Spectacle Isn’t Just Shameful--It Should Be Illegal - Derek Thompson, The Atlantic (11/12/18)
• The New York Hustle of Amazon’s Second Headquarters - Anand Giridharadas, The New Yorker (11/17/18)

Indigenous women kept from seeing their newborn babies until agreeing to sterilization, says lawyer - CBC Radio (11/13/18)

In Saskatchewan, 60 indigenous women are pursuing a class-action lawsuit alleging they were coerced or forced into sterilization over the past 25 years.

No One Wants It - Andrea Long Chu, affidavit (11/5/18)

Jill Soloway’s new memoir She Wants It: Desire, Power, and Toppling the Patriarchy gives a behind-the-scenes look at the acclaimed Amazon series Transparent. In this review, Chu breaks down Soloway’s book as, “incompetent, defensive, and astonishingly clueless.” Transparent has been widely heralded as ground-breaking for the trans community, but which trans community? 

STUDY: Trump’s phony caravan “crisis” consumed - Matt Gertz, Media Matters (11/2/18)

An analysis of mainstream media (NYT, WaPo, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) coverage of Trump’s migrant caravan hysterics leading up to the midterm election.

How the 2020 Census Citizenship Question Ended Up in Court - Hansi Lo Wang, NPR (11/4/18)

A detailed timeline of the Trump’s citizenship question as it goes to trial in New York. For more on the Census listen to last week’s episode of FAIR’s CounterSpin.

Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris Both Fall Short on Abolishing Money Bail - Sarah Lazare, In These Times (11/13/18)

Potential 2020 presidential hopefuls Harris and Sanders have both put forward bills attempting to reform the money bail system, but in both cases the legislation fails to ban monetary bail at the state or local level. Advocates and activists worry that such “reforms” will either fail to improve the system, or simply replace money bail with a worse alternative.

Google’s “Smart City of Surveillance” Faces New Resistance - Ava Kofman, The Intercept (11/13/18)

Following the resignation of Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s former privacy commissioner, from the (Google-owned) Sidewalk Labs smart city project in Toronto, residents and experts have launched the Toronto Open Smart Cities Forum to educate community members about the realities and dangers of giving total control to tech companies.

Airbnb says removing listings in West Bank settlements - Dan Williams, Reuters (11/19/18)

The newest win for BDS, and a result of over two years of campaigning by various groups. Now we just gotta get Airbnb out of our own cities!

*****