July 26, 2024 ❧ Police murder Sonya Massey, J.D. Vance attacks the "childless," and Netanyahu comes to town

Plus: South Africa's new climate law, an important request from the Starbucks workers' union, and swimming armadillos

Do you now, or have you ever, read the news?

CROOKS vs. SICKOS (Or, “What's going on with our politicians and oligarchs?”)

❧ If you don’t have biological children, vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance thinks your vote should count for less. Over the past week a clip emerged of Vance, in a 2021 Fox News interview, insulting several Democratic politicians including now-presumptive nominee Kamala Harris, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for not having biological children: 

We are effectively run in this country via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too… How does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it?

For the record, Harris has two stepchildren (and after these comments were unearthed, the biological mother of those children told the New York Times that the vice president was a “loving, nurturing, fiercely protective” co-parent). Buttigieg and his husband Chasten, meanwhile, have two adopted children. So Vance’s implication with these comments is that people who adopt or raise stepchildren are somehow not real parents, which is a massive insult to tens of millions of parents.

Vance, of course, is a proud father to his beard and collection of Diet Mountain Dew cans.

(Image: Wikimedia Commons)

But it gets worse. Vance doesn’t just have personal ill will towards those without children and think they are ruining the country. He suggested that those without children should be taxed at a higher rate than those with them, not because children are expensive and parents with them often need the extra help. (In fact, he’s attacked programs like universal day care as a “class war against normal people.”) Rather, he seems to view it as a method of social engineering, saying we need to “reward the things that we think are good” and “punish the things that we think are bad.” Being childless is one of those things “we think” are bad.

 In a speech that same year, he also stated that he thinks that the votes of those without children should count for less: 

Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of those children. When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power — you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic — than people who don’t have kids. Let’s face the consequences and the reality: If you don’t have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn’t get nearly the same voice.

Vance later clarified that people who are incapable of having children for medical reasons are not the subject of his ire. But what he says here is gross enough. For one thing, not having children does not make someone lack a “direct stake” in the future. If you live and work in this country, you have a direct stake in the future. Additionally, it assumes an extremely individualistic worldview: that people do not have any sense of investment in the good of their country as a whole, but only care about the good of their own immediate offspring. But perhaps most importantly, not having children is a totally valid decision for someone to make. Not everybody wants to be a parent. In a free society, they should have the ability to make that choice without facing “punishment.”

From Issue 29 of Current Affairs Magazine, Jan/Feb 2021

PAST AFFAIRS

Last year, Stephen Prager wrote that “Republicans Are Starting to Discuss Which Groups To Cast Out of Democratic Society.”

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the man currently perpetrating the genocide in Gaza, was greeted by rapturous applause by hundreds of members of Congress in both parties. It was not just applause, but “fifty-eight standing ovations, lasting about half of the speech’s duration and marking a record in US history, or perhaps any country’s history, at more than 400 percent the number Kim Jong Un receives in North Korea.” (Jacobin)
  
  
• About half of the Democratic caucus boycotted the speech. In a profound show of courage, the only Palestinian member of Congress, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, chose to attend the speech and held up a sign that called Netanyahu a “war criminal” and “guilty of genocide.” Tlaib was the one person present who did not cheer a man whose army just committed a “week of massacres,” in which it attacked at least five separate U.N.-run schools in just eight days. (Axios)

• Meanwhile, thousands of protesters flooded Washington demanding an end to America’s support for the destruction of Gaza. The night before Netanyahu’s speech, 400 Jewish activists, including more than a dozen rabbis, were arrested during a sit-in inside the U.S. Capitol complex. (Truthout)

Photo: Jewish Voice for Peace, via Truthout

NEW IN CURRENT AFFAIRS

Editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson writes that Netanyahu’s speech was “One Of the Most Shameful Moments in American History.”

“The pictures from Gaza are burned into my memory and will be with me for the rest of my life. Little children’s bodies just turned into a pulpy mass. A beheaded toddler. A father holding pieces of his child in a bag. People burned and squashed and pulverized. Even from thousands of miles away, I feel such sickness and anger and pain. What it’s actually like for those there, for the parents of the children themselves, or the children wandering the rubble after their whole families have been gruesomely killed, that is literally unimaginable—it is beyond the power of my imagination to even conceive of the experience…

 What would you do if you stood face to face with the single man most responsible for it? Well, if you are the United States Congress, you would give him a standing ovation.” 

• Since Kamala Harris replaced Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, Republican leaders like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson have essentially held a racism intervention for their party, urging their members not to call her things like “our DEI vice president.” That’ll surely go well. (Politico)
  
  
• J.D. Vance has also left his Venmo account public, and his friends list is a veritable Who’s Who of right-wing weirdos. (Wired)

FINALLY, THE IMPORTANT ISSUES

ARE BEING DISCUSSED

• Elon Musk is now claiming that he never intended to donate $45 million a month to the Trump campaign, as the Wall Street Journal had reported, saying he doesn’t subscribe to a “cult of personality.” That will be news to the legions of weird men online who make liking Elon their entire personality. (Fortune)
  
  
• The Biden administration has claimed to put people before corporations, but has quietly pushed half a dozen countries to loosen health regulations for baby formula to benefit the multi-billion dollar industry. According to a new investigation from ProPublica: 

In the European Union, the U.S. opposed an effort to reduce lead levels in baby formula. In Taiwan, it sought to alter labeling that highlighted the health benefits of breastfeeding. And in Colombia, it questioned an attempt to limit microbiological contaminants — the very problem that shut down a manufacturing plant in Michigan in 2022, leading to a widespread formula shortage.

• In a new op-ed, Ben Burgis argues that Bernie Sanders should be Kamala Harris’ VP pick. (Jacobin)

AROUND THE STATES

❧ [CONTENT WARNING: Police violence, death, sexist language] A cop in Illinois murdered Sonya Massey. Like so many other people in the United States, Massey called the police for help, and wound up on the receiving end of their brutality instead. She made a 911 call on the night of July 6, frightened that a “prowler” might be lurking around her home in Springfield. When the police turned up, they talked to her cordially enough, taking her name and report—until she happened to pick up a pot of water from her stove. 

As bodycam footage shows, deputy Sean Grayson got hostile, ordering Massey to step away and drop the pot. She tried to make a joke, telling Grayson “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus,” to which he responded “You better fucking not or I swear to God I’ll fucking shoot you in the fucking face,” drawing his gun. She cowered, and tried to apologize—but it was too late, as Grayson fired three times, killing her on the spot. The footage is hard to watch, but it shows how terrifyingly quickly an encounter with the police can turn deadly: 

The old epithet “pig” is too kind to be used here. Pigs don’t do this; only the worst of human beings do. Soon after the killing, Grayson would use obscene language about Massey, saying that “this fucking bitch is crazy.” As CNN reports, he had worked at six different police departments across Illinois since 2020. More details about why he shuffled between so many jobs have yet to come out, but “wandering cops” who abuse people in one area, get fired, and are soon rehired by another department are a well-documented phenomenon. (For instance, Myles Cosgrove, the cop who killed Breonna Taylor in a similar case in 2020, is now working again in rural Kentucky.) Grayson also had two DUI charges on his criminal record, and was discharged from the military for “misconduct (serious offense),” making it an outrage that he was ever hired in the first place. 

Worse still, Massey’s father reports that the Sangamon County sheriff’s department initially lied to him about his daughter’s death, saying “I was under the impression that a prowler had broken in and killed my baby. Never did they say that it was a deputy-involved shooting until my brother read it on the internet.” CNN politely calls this “conflicting information,” but again, it shouldn’t be surprising to discover that cops lie about all kinds of things. 

In fact, none of this is new. From Breonna Taylor, to Atatiana Jefferson, to literally hundreds of other cases that don’t attract as much media attention, police killings are a common feature of American policing. After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, it seemed like we might actually get meaningful change—but since that point, many reforms have been quietly rolled back. 

The solutions are not mysterious, and police abolitionists have been shouting about them for decades: Disarm the police. Defund the police. Dismantle the “blue wall of silence” that shields killer cops from consequences. Address the root causes of crime, poverty foremost among them, rather than throwing more and more violence at it. How many more horrifying deaths will it take before our leaders listen? 

In other news…

• Following last month’s Supreme Court decision allowing for the criminalization of homeless people, California governor Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order authorizing local officials to clear thousands of homeless encampments around the state, endangering as many as 180,000 people. The Republican mayor of Lancaster, CA, R. Rex Parris, said he was “warming up the bulldozer” in response to Newsom’s order. (New York Times)
  
  
• The American Federation of Teachers has passed a resolution to have all their contracts expire on May Day, 2028, putting them in alignment with UAW president Shawn Fain’s ambitious plan for a general strike on that date. (Common Dreams)
  
  
• The Starbucks Workers United union is holding a “Red for Bread” event this weekend. From the 26th to the 29th, they’ve asked that people go into unionized Starbucks locations wearing something red, and make an order with the name “UNION STRONG” as a show of solidarity while they try to negotiate a good contract. (Starbucks Workers United)

• Despite the passage of the Texas CROWN (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act, 51 Texas school districts are still discriminating against students with traditionally Black hairstyles, often using loopholes in the law that allow them to prohibit hair longer than two inches. (Texas Tribune)
  
  
• Montgomery County, Maryland is freezing rent increases at 6 percent yearly—although there are still some carve-outs for the cities of Gaithersburg and Rockville, and for anyone renting 2 or fewer units. (WUSA)
  
  
• Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer has signed a law banning the “gay panic” argument, which allowed defendants to claim someone’s gender or sexual identity was inherently a “provocation” that caused a violent response, in criminal cases. It’s about time! (PinkNews)

Whitmer also banned conversion therapy in Michigan, repealed “right-to-work”, and has generally been pretty reasonable on policy. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

• A conservative pro-charter school group from out of state is pouring dark money into Tennessee’s congressional races. (Tennessee Lookout)
  
  
• As the popularity of weight loss drugs like Ozempic skyrocket, thousands of websites have emerged selling fake versions. (New York Times)
  
  
• In another critical legal decision in a summer full of them, the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that chicken wings advertised as “boneless” can still have bones. (Columbus Dispatch)

RIP Lewis Lapham, 1935-2024

Lewis Lapham was one of the world’s great essayists, magazine editors, and masters of political satire. He edited Harper’s Magazine from 1976 to 1981, left for a brief intermission, and then returned to edit it again from 1983 to 2006. (You might recognize those as “the years it was readable.”) He also founded Lapham’s Quarterly, a delightful magazine that collects the best writing from the past on a variety of themes. But our favorite of his works is Lapham’s Rules of Influence, his wonderfully vicious book of satirical tips for getting ahead in capital-S Society. It’s full of entries like this:

“FLATTERY. Comparable to suntan lotion or moisturizing cream. It cannot be too often or too recklessly applied. The novice careerist might think that very important people grow tired of hearing themselves praised, that they will find the intention too obvious and therefore insincere. The presumption is false. Important people hear little else except praise, and they tend to regard all other forms of speech as un-American.” 

In more recent years, Lapham appeared on the Current Affairs podcast to discuss his book Money and Class in America. Check the episode out today, read the transcript, or pick up any of his many essay collections; you won’t be disappointed. 

(Image: Lapham’s Quarterly)

AROUND THE WORLD

❧ South Africa has passed an ambitious new climate law. As EcoWatch reports, the legislation is sweeping, setting emissions limits for “every high-emitting sector of government, including transportation, agriculture and industry.” It also governs the private sector, requiring the South African environmental ministery to “specify a carbon budget for large companies and set a cap on their emissions”—although it doesn’t specify criminal penalties for going over the caps, something climate advocates had tried to get included. Finally, the law requires every town and municipality to publish an “adaptation plan” showing how it will contribute to bringing down overall emissions, with the ultimate goal of helping South Africa meet its commitments to the international Paris Agreement.

Passing the law is a good step forward, but following it will be another question. Right now, South Africa is the world’s 14th highest emitter of Co2 and other carbon pollution, and it’s on track to miss its decarbonization goals by 2030, as plans to swap coal-burning power plants for renewables and nuclear energy have been moving slowly. According to reporting in Reuters, the country had roughly 10.4 gigawatts of renewable capacity in 2022, but would need “between 190 GW and 390 GW” to achieve net zero emissions by 2050—a monumental upgrade that may not come in time. Additionally, there’s likely to be political gridlock in the current coalition government, as the African National Congress (ANC) and Democratic Alliance (DA) parties have somewhat contradictory policies on climate, with the ANC still having significant commitments to fossil fuel. 

Still, it’s a positive sign that South Africa was at least able to get hard targets for reducing greenhouse gas enshrined in law. Let’s just hope they, and every other nation, can follow through. The consequences of not making the switch to clean power ASAP are too catastrophic for failure to be an option. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (Image: GovernmentZA via Flickr)

In other news…

• Speaking of the climate, this past Tuesday was the second hottest day in world history. It is second only to this past Monday, which was the hottest day in world history. (Washington Post)

• In yet another act of treachery against the U.K. Labour Party’s left wing, Sir Keir Starmer has suspended seven Members of Parliament who pledged to vote against the “two-child benefit cap”—a Conservative party policy that restricts families with more than two children from getting any government assistance for Child #3 and above. He’s looking more like Tony Blair 2.0 by the day. (Morning Star)

Starmer plotting new ways to deprive the poor

(Image: Number 10 Downing Street via Flickr)

• According to a new Oxfam report, the wealth of the world’s top 1 percent grew by $42 trillion over the last decade, nearly $400,000 per person, compared to just $335 for the bottom 50 percent of the population. The organization’s head of inequality policy calls it “obscene,” which sounds about right. (CNN)
  
  
• Defenders of the Israeli government have attempted to claim that the death count in Gaza from the Ministry of Health is exaggerated. But a new study from the organization Airwars, which monitors civilian deaths in conflicts around the world, found that the “figures are broadly reliable.”
  
  
• More than a dozen migrants are dead and at least 150 are missing after their boat collapsed off the coast of Mauritania on their way to Europe. (Africa News)
  
  
• In what Dave Zirin and Jules Boykoff call an “appalling social cleansing,” French police have forced 12,500 people from their homes in advance of this summer’s Olympics. (The Nation)

ARMADILLO FACT OF THE WEEK

Armadillos are amazing swimmers!

You might not associate the noble armadillo with water. They’re burrowing desert animals, after all, with heavy armor-plated shells. But armadillos are actually great at crossing rivers, and they have two separate strategies for doing it. 

In the first, armadillos can hold their breath for as long as six minutes, and simply walk along a riverbed until they pop out on the other side. That’s impressive enough, but their second method is really wild. To swim on the surface, an armadillo can swallow air to inflate its stomach and intestines, creating a naturally buoyant internal life preserver. Afterward, it takes them around three hours to get rid of the excess air and return to normal. (We don’t recommend trying this at the local pool.)

Buoyant armadillo, coming through. (Image: Amelia River Cruises)