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Civil rights movementRobert Parris Moses, civil rights activist, dies aged 86Moses was beaten and jailed in Mississippi in mid-1960s‘Second chapter’ saw foundation of Algebra Project in 1982 A More
CoronavirusMichigan Republicans will return Covid relief funds used to pay own bonuses
Six commissioners voted to pay themselves $65,000 in total
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US Capitol attackPelosi will ask anti-Trump Republican Kinzinger to join 6 January panel
Speaker wants Illinois representative to join Liz Cheney
Minority leader withdrew support after Trump allies rejected
I Alone Can Fix It: Leonnig and Rucker on Trump bestseller
Martin Pengelly in New York@ More
FloridaFlorida urged to ramp up vaccination effort amid ‘alarming’ Covid rise State accounts for almost a quarter of new US infections as frustration grows at what experts say is governor’s mixed messagingRichard Luscombein Miami@ More
BooksPerversion of Justice review: how Julie K Brown brought Jeffrey Epstein downThe Miami Herald reporter is unsparing in her depiction of a life above the law – and the lives that were ruined because of it Lloyd GreenSun 25 Jul 2021 01.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 25 Jul 2021 01.12 EDTIn Perversion of Justice, Julie K Brown recounts the plight of the victims of the deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein and, allegedly, his sometime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, and how both avoided life-altering prosecution for a decade and more.Ken Starr helped Jeffrey Epstein with ‘scorched-earth’ campaign, book claimsRead moreThe author is a reporter at the Miami Herald. In November 2018, her three-part series injected Epstein into the public’s conscience, leading to sex-trafficking charges. For her work, Brown won a Polk award.She tracked down more than 60 women who claimed to be victims of abuse, and delivered the back story on an all-too-cozy relationship between prosecutors and Epstein’s lawyers.A sample headline: “How a future Trump cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime.”Days after Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, that cabinet member, Alexander Acosta, Donald Trump’s labor secretary, was forced to resign his post.In 1994, Acosta clerked for Samuel Alito, then an intermediate federal appellate judge, now a supreme court justice. In the 2000s, during the administration of George W Bush, when Epstein was first charged, Acosta was the US attorney for the southern district of Florida. His remit included Palm Beach.Another Brown headline: “Even from jail, sex abuser manipulated the system. His victims were kept in the dark.”Under the deal done by Acosta, Epstein was technically imprisoned but cleared for work release. That was more about keeping an eye on his own finances – and as it turned out continuing his criminal behavior – than community service.With her book, Brown provides a vomit-inducing guide to how a criminal with deep pockets and zealous lawyers repeatedly manipulated and circumvented the American criminal justice system. And how his victims never stood a chance.In Brown’s telling, two nationally prominent legal figures, Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz, stand atop Epstein’s legal heap. One chapter is titled Starr Power, another Dershowitz v Brown. Both are spotlight moments.In the 1990s, Starr supplied congressional Republicans with the legal fuel to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. “Starr’s a freak,” Trump told Maureen Dowd in 1999. “I bet he’s got something in his closet.”In the 2000s, Starr and his minions at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis drove a deal with prosecutors that would keep Epstein out of federal custody until 2019.In 2016, Starr left his post as president of Baylor, as the Texas college grappled with a rape scandal. In 2020, Starr joined Trump’s defense in his first impeachment.Dershowitz is now an 82-year-old former Harvard law professor. Back in the 2000s, he negotiated a “non-prosecution agreement” which permitted Epstein to do little more than a year in a local Florida jail, under the most comfortable conditions.The legal scholar, who also represented Trump at his first impeachment trial, is now suing Netflix in connection with Filthy Rich, a series based on Brown’s reporting. Whether Dershowitz simply received a massage at Epstein’s house from a “large Russian woman” while keeping his underwear on, or had sex with one or more underage girls, is a point of contention. He denies all wrongdoing. Furthermore, he and Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein victim, are suing each other for defamation in federal court in Manhattan.William Barr also appears in Epstein’s life. Why not?Epstein graduated from high school at 16 but never finished college. Regardless, Donald Barr, father to Trump’s second attorney general, gave Epstein his first job, as a math teacher at the Dalton school on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. The elder Barr, as it happens, also wrote Space Relations, a gothic novel from 1973 that contains alien sex.As reported by the Herald and repeated by Brown, one Dalton alumna, Karin Williams, recalled that “Epstein was considered a little creepy”. Another remarked: “You could see how maybe he was looking for young nymphs.”The younger Barr’s law firm – Kirkland & Ellis – came to represent Epstein, a fact which eventually led to Barr’s recusal from the case as attorney general to Trump. Epstein hanged himself in federal custody: on Barr’s watch.Brown pays attention to social connections. Once upon a time, Trump said Epstein was “a lot of fun to be with” and “a terrific guy” and marvelled at his interest in underage girls. According to Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury, Trump, Epstein and Tom Barrack – a businessmen went on to chair Trump’s inauguration then, this week, to be indicted and bailed on lobbying charges – were a “1980s and 90s set of nightlife Musketeers”.Ultimately, Trump and Epstein parted ways. The predator wasn’t good for business. But there was a coda. Standing in the White House press room nearly two decades later, Trump told reporters he wished Maxwell “well”.Harvey Weinstein extradited to Los Angeles for sexual assault chargesRead moreEpstein was a Democrat and came to befriend Bill Clinton. In Giuffre’s telling, the other living impeached president visited Epstein’s island in the Caribbean with two young girls and flew on Epstein’s plane. Clinton vehemently denies it. Infamously, Prince Andrew was another Epstein buddy. So was Harvey Weinstein, until the two men reportedly had a falling out over Weinstein allegedly abusing one of Epstein’s “favorite” girls. Like Epstein, Claus von Bulow and OJ Simpson, Weinstein came to be represented by Dershowitz. Brown reminds us the rich and powerful can act badly. As if we didn’t know.Epstein is dead. Maxwell, his alleged partner in crime, faces trial in Manhattan. The opening sentence of the operative indictment says plenty: “The charges set forth herein stem from the role of Ghislaine Maxwell, the defendant, in the sexual exploitation and abuse of multiple minor girls by Jeffrey Epstein.” She denies the charges.The coroner said Epstein killed himself. Apparently, Brown isn’t completely convinced. One chapter is titled Jeffrey Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself and the book chronicles the inconsistencies surrounding his death. Brown wishes someone would examine “how and why” Epstein died.Regardless of whether Epstein killed himself or not, he left a world of carnage. But for Julie K Brown, he would quite likely have beaten the rap.TopicsBooksJeffrey EpsteinGhislaine MaxwellUS politicsUS crimereviewsReuse this content More
OpinionJoe BidenWhy isn’t Joe Biden doing all he can to protect American democracy?Robert ReichBoth parties are beholden to an anti-democratic coalition. This is stopping real change Sun 25 Jul 2021 01.00 EDTLast modified on Sun 25 Jul 2021 01.12 EDTYou’d think Biden and the Democratic party leadership would do everything in their power to stop Republicans from undermining democracy.Why are Frito-Lays workers working suicide shifts on the job? | Indigo OlivierRead moreSo far this year, the Republican party has passed roughly 30 laws in states across the country that will make voting harder, especially in Black and Latino communities. With Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen, Republicans are stoking white people’s fears that a growing non-white population is usurping their dominance.Yet while Biden and Democratic leaders are openly negotiating with holdout senators for Biden’s stimulus and infrastructure proposals, they aren’t exerting similar pressure when it comes to voting rights and elections. In fact, Biden now says he won’t take on the filibuster, which stands firmly in the way.What gives? Part of the explanation, I think, lies with an outside group that has almost as much influence on the Democratic party as on the Republican, and which isn’t particularly enthusiastic about election reform: the moneyed interests bankrolling both parties.A more robust democracy would make it harder for the wealthy to keep their taxes low and profits high. So at the same time white supremacists have been whipping up white fears about non-whites usurping their dominance, America’s wealthy have been spending vast sums on campaign donations and lobbyists to prevent a majority from usurping their money.They’re now whipping up resistance among congressional Democrats to Biden’s plan to tax capital gains at 39.6% – up from 20% – for those earning more than $1m, and they’re on the way to restoring the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes, of which they’re the biggest beneficiaries.In recent years these wealth supremacists, as they might be called, have quietly joined white supremacists to become a powerful anti-democracy coalition. Some have backed white supremacist’s efforts to divide poor and working-class whites from poor and working-class Black and brown people, so they don’t look upward and see where most of the economic gains have been going and don’t join together to demand a fair share of those gains.Similarly, white supremacists have quietly depended on wealth supremacists to donate to lawmakers who limit voting rights, so people of color continue to be second-class citizens. It’s no accident that six months after the insurrection, dozens of giant corporations that promised not to fund members of Congress who refused to certify Biden as president are now back funding them and their anti-voting rights agenda.Donald Trump was put into office by this anti-democracy coalition. According to Forbes, 9% of America’s billionaires, together worth a combined $210bn, pitched in to cover the costs of Trump’s 2020 campaign. During his presidency Trump gave both parts of the coalition what they wanted most: tax cuts and regulatory rollbacks for the wealth supremacists; legitimacy for the white supremacists.The coalition is now the core of the Republican party, which stands for little more than voter suppression based on Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and tax cuts for the wealthy and their corporations.Meanwhile, as wealth supremacists have accumulated a larger share of the nation’s income and wealth than at any time in more than a century, they’ve used a portion of that wealth to bribe lawmakers not to raise their taxes. It was recently reported that several American billionaires have paid only minimal or no federal income tax at all.Tragically, the supreme court is supporting both the white supremacists and wealth supremacists. Since Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito joined in 2005 and 2006, respectively, the court has been whittling away voting rights while enlarging the rights of the wealthy to shower money on lawmakers. The conservative majority has been literally making it easier to buy elections and harder to vote in them.The Democrats’ proposed For the People Act admirably takes on both parts of the coalition. It sets minimum national standards for voting, and it seeks to get big money out of politics through public financing of election campaigns.Yet this comprehensiveness may explain why the Act is now stalled in the Senate. Biden and Democratic leaders are firmly against white supremacists but are not impervious to the wishes of wealth supremacists. After all, to win elections they need likely Democrats to vote but also need big money to finance their campaigns.Some progressives have suggested a carve-out to the filibuster solely for voting rights. This might constrain the white supremacists but would do nothing to protect American democracy from the wealth supremacists.If democracy is to be preserved, both parts of the anti-democracy coalition must be stopped.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a columnist for Guardian US
TopicsJoe BidenOpinionUS politicsDemocratscommentReuse this content More
DemocratsAmericans are paying more for gas, hotels and cars – will Biden pay the price of inflation? Republicans sense an opportunity to inflict a political wound upon the DemocratsJoan E Greve in Washington@ More
OpinionCaitlyn JennerIs Caitlyn Jenner serious – or is her bid for California governor a grubby PR stunt?Arwa MahdawiThe reality star’s run seems completely depressing – especially as she’s aligned with a party that wants to erode LGBTQ rights Sat 24 Jul 2021 09.00 EDTLast modified on Sat 24 Jul 2021 09.13 EDTWhat in the world is Caitlyn Jenner up to?Looks like Caitlyn Jenner needs to drum up some cash quick. When it comes to her finances, the reality TV star is no longer Keeping Up With the Kardashians – she’s trailing miserably behind her famously flush extended family. According to her tax filings the 71-year-old’s annual income has dropped from $2.5m in 2015, when she had her own reality TV show, to $555,000 in 2018 and 2019. Barely enough to pay the pool boy!We got the bill for having a baby – $37,000. Welcome to life in America | Arwa MahdawiRead moreJenner’s tax returns wouldn’t normally be in the public domain; however, she was obliged to release them because she’s running for office. In late April Jenner, a Republican, announced that she would be challenging California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, in a special recall election. The last time California held a gubernatorial recall election, by the way, was in 2003. That famously resulted in the actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, replacing Democrat Gray Davis. Will we see history repeat itself? Will Jenner, a political ingenue, oust Newsom? It’s highly unlikely. As Republic strategist and Lincoln Project co-founder Mike Madrid noted to the LA Times, Jenner’s bid is “more Gary Coleman than Arnold Schwarzenegger”; the late Coleman being a former child star who ran as a joke in 2003. Madrid added that Jenner’s campaign appears to lack any obvious strategy or rationale.I’ve got to disagree with Madrid on that last bit. Jenner’s strategy seems very obvious: shoehorn herself in the headlines by whatever means possible, and turn that attention into money. It’s ripped straight out of Donald Trump’s political playbook. Jenner’s brazenness is also classically Trumpian; when she launched her campaign her website had just two components: “Shop” and “Donate”. She’s also hired a film crew to follow her around on the campaign trail. Jenner has said she doesn’t have a deal “for any television show or documentary” right now – but she’s clearly angling for one.To be fair, Jenner’s campaign isn’t completely devoid of policy proposals. She doesn’t want trans women to participate in women’s sports; she doesn’t want tax increases; and she doesn’t want homeless people anywhere near her. Don’t think she’s completely heartless, though, she’s thought long and hard about that last point and come up with some innovative solutions for homelessness. Namely, move the unhoused people living in Venice Beach to somewhere where she never needs to see them. “We can find some open land; this is where you pitch your tent,” she explained in an interview. A very generous offer.While Jenner may not have much political experience, she has proved herself adept at multitasking. She’s managed to balance running for governor of California with an appearance on Big Brother in Australia. Her trip down under, which comes just a couple of months before the election, hasn’t gone down very well with locals. The pandemic has led to Australia implementing tight border restrictions, leaving thousands of its citizens stranded abroad. Seeing Jenner waltz right in is something of a kick in the teeth to Australians desperate to go home and see their families. Particularly since Jenner isn’t exactly being a model visitor. She was recently caught chucking a cigarette butt off her hotel balcony in Sydney.After sullying the streets of Sydney, Jenner plans to jet back to California for a statewide campaign bus tour. The whole exhausting charade is a depressing reflection of the way in which reality TV has merged with politics. It’s also sad to see Jenner, who is probably the most high-profile trans woman in the world, align herself with a party that wants to roll back LGBT rights. Particularly as a lot of Republicans don’t even bother hiding their disdain for Jenner: she was bombarded with transphobic abuse at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas.Jenner’s political aspirations are also a reminder that being from a marginalised group doesn’t automatically make you a progressive. Rather, it often makes you a useful pawn for conservatives who want to pink-wash their bigotry. While it’s very clear that Jenner’s campaign is a joke, nothing about it is funny.Female athletes still battle sexist dress codesThe Norwegian women’s beach handball team have been fined for competing in bikini bottoms that weren’t skimpy enough for the International Handball Federation’s (IHF) liking. The team, by the way, have been complaining to the IHF about being forced to compete in a very revealing uniform since at least 2006. Meanwhile, Paralympian Olivia Breen was told her shorts were “too short and inappropriate” by an official while competing at the recent English Championships. You really can’t win as a woman.New York Times shocked by women wearing crop tops in summerSpeaking of the policing of women’s clothes … the Times ran a bizarre article (written by a guy called Guy) about summer fashion. “Bralettes, itty-bitty bandeaus and crocheted bikinis are everywhere,” it gasps. It pairs the handwringing with lots of candid shots of scantily clad New Yorkers going about their business in a massive heatwave. The whole thing is creepy and weird.UK politicians to examine lack of support for menopausal womenAlmost one million women in the UK have left jobs as a result of menopausal symptoms, the Guardian reports. Now, a parliamentary inquiry will look into the economic impact of menopause discrimination, as well as how practices addressing workplace discrimination relating to menopause can be implemented.Argentina introduced a new gender-neutral ID cardIt now includes an “X” option in the gender field alongside “male” and “female”. Argentina is the first country in Latin America to officially recognize nonbinary people.Activision Blizzard’s ‘frat boy’ problemCalifornia regulators have filed a lawsuit against the video game company, which is behind popular titles like Call of Duty, for alleged gender-based discrimination stemming from a “frat boy” workplace culture. As Kotaku note, the case “against Activision Blizzard is proving what many women already knew – misogyny in the industry doesn’t come down to just a few bad apples at a few companies. It’s deeply ingrained in the culture at the heart of how the games business has operated for decades.”The week in penis-archyI’m sure I don’t need to inform you of this week’s big billionaire news: Jeff Bezos touched the tip of space with the most phallic object that ever existed. While I can’t deny the rocket was large, his intergalactic joyride was somewhat underwhelming. Still, Bezos came back to Earth with some good ideas about how to make the world even more dystopian. He now wants to pollute space.TopicsCaitlyn JennerOpinionCaliforniaUS politicsRepublicanscommentReuse this content More
