Subterms
California‘A literal return to the earth’: is human composting the greenest burial?California may legalize human composting, a process in which the body breaks down into soil over the course of about 30 days Dani Anguiano@ More
Biden administrationMeet Joe Biden’s secret weapon: the woman who wrangles with CongressLouisa Terrell, White House director of legislative, is the tip of the spear of Biden’s team as she fulfils one of the most difficult jobs in a deeply divided political landscape Daniel Strauss in Washington DC@ More
Kathy HochulKathy Hochul vows to change ‘toxic’ culture as she waits to become New York governor‘I will fight like hell for you,’ says Democrat, who is set to become state’s first female governor Maya Yang and agencyWed 11 Aug 2021 16.53 EDTLast modified on Wed 11 Aug 2021 16.54 EDTKathy Hochul, who is set to become New York’s first female governor after Andrew Cuomo resigned over sexual harassment allegations, has said she will work to change the “toxic” work culture in the state’s top office.“The promise I make to all New Yorkers, right here and right now, I will fight like hell for you every single day, like I’ve always done and always will,” the Democrat who has served as Lieutenant Governor since 2015, but remains an unfamiliar face to many in the city, told a press conference on Wednesday.Hochul, 62, said that she and Cuomo “have not been close – physically or otherwise”.She said there would be no place in her administration for any Cuomo aides who were implicated in unethical behavior by the state attorney general’s investigation into his behavior toward women.“At the end of my term, whenever it ends – no one will ever describe my administration as a toxic work environment,” Hochul said.Cuomo, 63, announced Tuesday that he would quit rather than face a likely impeachment trial after state attorney general Letitia James released a report concluding he sexually harassed 11 women, including one who accused him of groping her breast.Cuomo denies that he touched anyone inappropriately. But he said that with the state still in a pandemic crisis, it was best for him to step aside so the state’s leaders could “get back to governing”.Hochul is set to become the state’s first woman governor in 13 days, when Cuomo’s resignation takes effect. She acknowledged that she was not pleased with the two-week transition period, saying, “It was not what I asked for. However, I’m looking forward to a smooth transition, which he promised,” referring to Cuomo.Hochul has maintained a modest profile as lieutenant governor in a state where Cuomo commanded and dominated the spotlight. Nevertheless, she is a seasoned veteran on retail politics and is said to be well-liked by her colleagues. From 2011 to 2013, Hochul served in Congress representing a Buffalo-area district.“Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will be an extraordinary governor,” Senator Kisten Gilibrand, a New York senator, told reporters at the US Capitol on Tuesday. “She understands the complexities and needs of our state, having been both a congresswoman and having been lieutenant governor for the last several years.”Various district attorneys in New York have been requesting information about the investigation overseen by attorney general Letitia James’ office as they weigh criminal charges against Cuomo. Hochul was asked whether she would consider pardoning Cuomo if charges were brought. “I’m going to tell you right now, I’m talking about my vision for the state of New York. It is far too premature to even have those conversations,” she said.Leaders in the state legislature have yet to say whether they plan on dropping an impeachment investigation that has been ongoing since March, and which had been expected to conclude in the coming weeks.In addition to examining his conduct with women, lawyers hired by the state assembly had been investigating whether the administration manipulated data on Covid-19 deaths in nursing homes and whether Cuomo improperly got help from his staff writing a book about the pandemic.Republicans have urged the Democratic-controlled legislature to go ahead with impeachment, possibly to prevent Cuomo from running for office again.At the press conference, Hochul also acknowledged the growing threat of the Delta variant and urged New Yorkers to unite against the fight against it. “It’s going to take all of us to defeat it,” Hochul said, before acknowledging the need to keep the incoming school populations safe. “It’s going to take all of us working together,” she said.
Associated Press contributed to this report
TopicsKathy HochulAndrew CuomoNew YorkUS politicsnewsReuse this content More
OpinionJoe BidenThe Guardian view on Biden’s bipartisan bill: one battle won, many more to goEditorialTo emerge truly victorious the US president will have to win over the right of the Democratic party and push for big, bold change Wed 11 Aug 2021 14.09 EDTLast modified on Wed 11 Aug 2021 15.47 EDTOn Tuesday, 19 Republican senators, including minority leader Mitch McConnell, joined with Democrats to pass Joe Biden’s $550bn infrastructure bill. In a polarised age, this act of bipartisan politics seems miraculous. To vote for the bill, Senate Republicans had to go against the wishes of Donald Trump, who had warned against handing Mr Biden a victory before midterm polls in 2022. They also U-turned on a core Republican principle: that private investment is superior to government intervention.Yet the Republicans’ vote was rooted in self-interest. Only four will face the voters next year and the spending was popular, even with Republicans. Crucially Mr McConnell had protected the filibuster. Unless Republicans relented, Mr Biden might have done away with legislative tool that preserves the Senate’s 60-vote threshold for legislative success. Instead Mr Biden thanked his opponents for their courage in backing his proposal. This moment represents a test of Biden’s faith that Congress, and democracy, can still work and get things done.In many ways this looks like a defining battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic party. The infrastructure bill now goes to the House of Representatives, which has a Democratic majority and a bigger progressive bloc. The House Democratic leadership has said it will only move after the Senate passes a $3.5tn spending bill to reduce poverty, improve elderly and childcare as well as protect the environment. The biggest expansion of the US’s social safety net since the Great Society of the 1960s is needed to help flatten the inequalities wrought by decades of pro-market policies. The same can be said for rolling back the tax cuts for corporations and wealthy households that were Mr Trump’s signature legislative achievement.It is important to note that leftwing Democrats have had to trim their demand for a $6tn package. But some on the right of the party appear more in tune with Republican arguments that characterise the $3.5tn bill as “reckless”. After agreeing to vote for the bill’s framework, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin said he had “grave concerns” about such a price tag. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona last month made it clear she could not support a bill that size. They are not the only ones: in the House moderate Democrats would rather take an easy win and dump any attempt to enact big, bold social change.The criticism the US cannot afford the spending is wrong. The economist Stephanie Kelton wrote that Mr Trump’s tax cuts added $1.9tn to the country’s fiscal deficit with little effect on the country’s ability to spend. The other concern is inflation. Prof Kelton noted many experts thought “Congress could enact both the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the proposed $3.5tn reconciliation bill without exacerbating inflation”.Perhaps the greatest obstacle to Mr Biden’s ambition is not the politicians, but the ideological orientation of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which scores the spending and revenues. Under reconciliation rules, measures cannot add to the deficit after a decade. In a sign of what lies ahead, Mr Biden’s treasury team has already claimed that tax enforcement will raise more cash than the CBO projects. The president knows that the New Deal and Great Society programmes passed into law without a CBO score. Mr Biden would like to change America on a such a scale. But transformations like that cannot be bought. They must be fought for.TopicsJoe BidenOpinionUS SenateUS politicsDemocratsRepublicanseditorialsReuse this content More
YouTubeYouTube suspends Rand Paul for video claiming masks ‘don’t prevent infection’Video platform suspends Republican senator, in latest move against a public figure who has spread Covid disinformation Maya YangWed 11 Aug 2021 13.26 EDTLast modified on Wed 11 Aug 2021 15.04 EDTYouTube suspended Republican senator Rand Paul on Tuesday for seven days over a video claiming that masks are ineffective against Covid-19.It is the latest move against a prominent public figure who has spread disinformation about ways to protect against the virus or about the vaccines developed to fight it.“We removed content from Senator Paul’s channel for including claims that masks are ineffective in preventing the contraction or transmission of Covid-19, in accordance with our Covid-19 medical misinformation policies,” a YouTube spokesperson said. “This resulted in a first strike on the channel, which means it can’t upload content for a week, per our longstanding three strikes policy,” the spokesperson added.In the removed video, Paul cast doubt on the effectiveness of masks, saying, “Most of the masks you get over the counter don’t work. They don’t prevent infection,” before adding, “Trying to shape human behavior isn’t the same as following the actual science, which tells us that cloth masks don’t work.”Many public health experts have advised using masks, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) first recommended the public wear cloth masks in April 2020. More recently the CDC advised vaccinated people to wear masks indoors in Delta surge areas.Last month Paul clashed with Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, during a heated discussion about the virus. At one point Fauci said, “Senator Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly.”Responding to the YouTube ban, the Republican senator said on Twitter: “A badge of honor … leftwing cretins at Youtube banning me for 7 days for a video that quotes 2 peer reviewed articles saying cloth masks don’t work.”Last week, YouTube removed a Newsmax interview with Paul in which he said that “there’s no value” in wearing masks.Paul’s current strike will be lifted from his account after 90 days if there are no more violations. A second strike within the 90 days will result in a two-week suspension, followed by a permanent ban if his account accrues a third strike.YouTube’s suspension of Paul’s account was issued a day after Twitter suspended Republican Senator Marjorie Taylor Greene’s account for one week for violating the platform’s Covid-19 misinformation rules.TopicsYouTubeRand PaulCoronavirusUS politicsnewsReuse this content More
Rudy GiulianiRudy Giuliani sells personalized video messages on Cameo for $199: ‘It can be arranged’Staunch Trump ally facing multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit related to his attempts to undermine the US presidential elections Maya YangWed 11 Aug 2021 11.53 EDTLast modified on Wed 11 Aug 2021 15.41 EDTRudy Giuliani, the staunch ally of Donald Trump who is facing a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit related to his attempts to undermine the US presidential elections, has embraced a new potential earning stream.Internet users, should they be inspired to do so, can now buy customized video messages from Giuliani, who has joined Cameo, a service that sells personalized videos recorded by celebrities.“Hi. It’s Rudy Giuliani and I’m on Cameo” Giuliani says in a video posted on his Cameo page on Tuesday.He goes on to say: “If there is an issue you want to discuss or a story you’d like to hear or share with me or a greeting that I can bring to someone that would bring happiness to their day, I would be delighted to do it. It can be arranged. We can talk through the magic of Cameo.”The price? That starts at $199 (£140).Giuliani’s Cameo profile lists him as the “Former Associate Attorney General of the United States, Mayor of New York City 1994-2001, and Host of the Rudy Giuliani Common Sense podcast.”On 24 June, the former attorney for President Trump was suspended from practicing law in New York over his efforts in leading Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 election results. His law license in Washington DC was suspended shortly after.Giuliani is also facing a $1.3bn defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems. The company has accused him of having “manufactured and disseminated” a conspiracy theory related to the company’s voting machines. TopicsRudy GiulianiUS politicsNew YorkDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More
The history of American slavery generally conjures a set of familiar images: sprawling plantations white with cotton, gangs of enslaved African Americans stooped low over the fields, bullwhips cracking in the summer heat. It’s a strictly southern story – or so we’re told.
But that narrative misses a huge swath of the North American map and a crucial chapter in US history. American slavery wasn’t confined to the cotton fields and sugar plantations of the south. By the mid-19th century, it had reached the western end of the continent.
Human bondage had already been outlawed in California for two years when Robert Givens, a gold prospector and rancher, began planning to bring a black slave named Patrick into the state from Kentucky in 1852. Givens understood California’s antislavery law, but wasn’t concerned. Send Patrick west anyway, he urged his father, a Kentucky slaveholder. “When he gets in,” Givens wrote in a letter that resides at the University of California, Berkeley: “I should like to see any one get him out.”
Givens’ confidence was justified. Perhaps as many as 1,500 enslaved African Americans were forcibly transported to California between 1849 and 1861. Hundreds arrived before the state’s constitutional ban on slavery went into effect in 1850, but many others came after. California, as Givens realised, was a free state in name only.
I’m a scholar of slavery in the American far west. My new book, West of Slavery, explains how southerners, including Givens, transformed California and neighbouring territories into an appendage of the plantation states. Despite some excellent earlier works on the subject, the history of slavery in the American west hasn’t received the public attention it desperately warrants. Amid the ongoing global dialogue on slavery and its legacies, the American west is often left out of the conversation.
That’s partly because myths of the west – as a landscape of freedom and rugged individualism – are rooted deep in popular thinking. And today, Californians tout their reputation for cosmopolitan liberalism and cultural pluralism. Slavery has little place in the stories Americans tell about the west. Scratch beneath the veneer of this mythology, however, and a much darker history emerges.
Legalising slavery in a free state
In America before the civil war, enslaved people “were moved around like checkers”, as the Nobel prize-winning author Toni Morrison writes in her 1987 novel, Beloved. California may have been the far end of the board, but it was still in play.
Black chattel slavery came to California with the gold rush in the 1840s, but it persisted long after the rush had passed. Through most of the 1850s, enslaved African Americans could be found working in the gold fields and domestic spaces of California. They toiled alongside thousands of captive Native Americans.
This was despite the state’s constitution, which read: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for the punishment of crimes, shall ever be tolerated in this state.”
‘Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude … shall exist within the United States.
Henry Ford Museum, CC BY-SA
That law, however, required active enforcement by antislavery activists. And, as Givens and others discovered, such activists were in short supply, especially in the remote mining districts where slaveholders often clustered and forced their enslaved labourers to dig for gold.
More often than not, California slaveholders had the agents of the law on their side. Five of the seven justices who sat on the California Supreme Court between 1852 and 1857 hailed from the slave states. The chief justice during this period, Hugh C Murray, was a native of Missouri, known for his fierce pro-slavery views and hair-trigger temper. In San Francisco and Sacramento, he publicly assaulted anti-slavery opponents with canes and Bowie knives.
In dozens of cases, California courts ruled in favour of slaveholders and against the freedom claims of African Americans, as historian Stacey Smith has illustrated. Even previously emancipated black people were returned to those who claimed them as property.
A lack of antislavery policing allowed a slaveholding colony in San Bernardino to flourish in plain sight in the early 1850s. Mormon migrants, with at least two dozen enslaved African American in tow, built a settlement that rivalled neighbouring Los Angeles in size and, by most metrics, surpassed it in agricultural output. Only in 1856 did the settlement’s largest slaveholder come to trial, and only because he attempted to leave the state with his 14 enslaved labourers.
Slavery in the western territories
The story was much the same in Utah and New Mexico. Enslaved African Americans were among the first settlers of what would become Mormon Utah. They arrived in the late 1840s as the chattel property of a group of Mormons from the deep south, known as the Mississippi Saints.
Slave labour: gold mining ikn Spanish Flat, California.
California State Library
In 1852, Utah’s territorial legislature passed a slave code to protect the right of fellow Mormons to hold black people as property.
Seven years later, the territory of New Mexico followed with a slave code of its own. With 31 sections, “An Act to Provide for the Protection of Property in Slaves in this Territory” was far and away the longest bill passed by the legislature that session.
It detailed a litany of punishable offences for enslaved people and several protections for their enslavers. It also outlawed emancipation within the borders of the territory. According to a US senator from Kentucky, John J Crittenden, New Mexico’s law “is as complete on the subject as the law of any state that I know of”.
Aspiring slaveholders in New Mexico could also acquire the labour of bound Native Americans, either by purchasing indigenous captives from slave traders or by trapping peasants in inescapable cycles of debt. The enslavement of native people in New Mexico was so deeply entrenched that the practice survived the civil war and the passage of the 13th amendment. Enslaved Indians could be found in New Mexican households into the late 19th century.
Slave country
The history of slavery in the American west is easy to miss. Whereas enslaved people in the south were often concentrated on large plantations, the bound labourers of the west generally worked behind closed doors or in remote mining regions. Some were smuggled illegally and held clandestinely.
Yet their experiences deserve closer scrutiny. Contrary to popular perception and regional mythology, the long arm of slavery reached across the United States in the 19th century. And thousands were caught in its grip. More
