Novelty Sense

California Governor Gavin Newsom's Commitment to Federalism Falters Under President Trump's Weighty Tariffs

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 03:44:00 +0000

Image Credit: Geralt/Pixabay & Gage Skidmore/Flickr

President Trump declared April 2, 2025, Liberation Day. Financial power players and the American public waited quietly in anticipation for an America First symbolic gesture. However, once the burdensome tariffs were announced, they proved to be far steeper than just a symbolic statement. The Financial Times editorial board ominously projected, “If it endures, Donald Trump’s decision on April 2, 2025, to enact sweeping ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on U.S. trade partners will go down as one of the greatest acts of self-harm in American economic history.” These realizations prompted the market to rage back in a dramatic sell-off, plunging its value by trillions, according to Reuters. The chaotic headlines depict an economic scene of absolute destruction. A headline from The Atlantic laments, “Wall Street Blew It.” The anti-tariff billboards affixed by Canada protest, “Tariffs are a tax.” The experts and public officials are predicting near apocalyptic economic and political consequences. Which includes Jeremy Siegel, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, who stamped doom in the CNBC article, stating, “I think this is the biggest policy mistake in 95 years.”

In the midst of the tariff fiasco, President Trump reacted calmly and remained resolute, lambasting America’s trade rivals. According to the New York Times, he confidently boarded Air Force One headed towards Florida for a relaxing retreat at his renowned Miami resort to attend his fundraising event. What was even more calmly reported was the tariff’s impact on federalism, which has more crucial consequences for America’s political future. Federalism is structured so that state governments predominantly tend to domestic affairs while the central government has the enumerated and implied powers inscribed within the Constitution to address foreign affairs. But what happens when economic imperatives compel an economic powerhouse of a state to act beyond these bounds, provoked by the belief that the central government is unjustly infringing on their financial growth? In this particular situation, California Governor Newsom has adopted the necessary and proper clause, explicitly granted to the central government by the Constitution, to govern California’s economy. His actions signal that the circumstances have made it necessary and proper for him to save the economic vitality of California by negotiating directly and developing relationships with international trade partners in a bid to bypass President Trump’s tariffs. Especially after former Trump spokesperson Anthony Scaramucci explained on Governor Newsom’s podcast, “What he’s doing is taking us back to the 1930s, with the Smoot-Hawley Act,” evoking the possibility of the tariffs triggering another Great Depression.

Although Governor Newsom is not engaging in an unconstitutional affront to federalism and he has the legal allowance to embark on these actions, Governor Newsom’s actions are very close to usurping the central government’s role in conducting foreign affairs. He is infringing on the spirit of federalism, in which the central government and state governments have balanced yet differentiated responsibilities. As Governor Newsom continues to directly appeal to global leaders, this series of slight infringements has grave effects on the core structures upholding American democracy. The Sacramento Bee questioned Governor Gavin’s efforts and motives with the headline, “Gavin Newsom wants California exempted from foreign tariffs. Can he do that?” The article neatly created a loophole by explaining that while Governor Newsom cannot directly negotiate tariff deals with other countries, “… he can negotiate with private companies in other countries and give the incentives to do business with California.” Despite Governor Newsom’s declaration that he will fight back against President Trump’s tariffs, the Constitution restricts him from “entering into treaties, alliances, or confederations” with foreign nations. Governor Newsom is applying a direct blow to the Constitution by disregarding the boundaries created by federalism, which is reminiscent of the nullification crisis that besieged early America during Andrew Jackson’s administration as South Carolina aggressively resisted the Tariff Acts of 1828 and 1832. Despite the threats of military retaliation, President Andrew Jackson ultimately conceded with the Compromise Tariff Act of 1833. It is troubling that America has regressed to experiencing the same crisis as in its youth.

In a press release, Governor Newsom boldly positioned California against the tariffs: “California leads the nation as the #1 state for agriculture and manufacturing — and it’s our workers, families, and farmers who stand to lose the most from this Trump tax hike and trade war. To our international partners: As the fifth largest economy in the world, the Golden State will remain a steady, reliable partner for generations to come, no matter the turbulence coming out of Washington. California is not Washington, D.C.” If the predictions are correct and President Trump’s tariffs cause America to descend economically, it can spell doom for federalism as California and other economic powerhouse states take increasingly aggressive actions, angling to save themselves at the expense of the nation’s political system. Ted Cruz narrowed in on the terrible political aftermath awaiting the Republicans if the tariffs induce a recession. A bloodbath for the Republicans could be a graveyard for American federalism as we know it if President Trump does not possess the political prowess, desire, or intention to maintain the integrity of federalism.

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Taunts by Conservatives Targeting the U.S. Department of Education, Remain Resilient Through the Throes of Time

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 23:57:00 +0000

Has the U.S. Department of Education been bullied? Image Credit: Gerd Altmann/Pixabay.

In 1982, the Christian Science Monitor, in the article “US Department of Education, down but not out” presented a humbling scene. The U.S. Department of Education was essentially labeled the delinquent student by President Reagan and forced to resort to timidly attending school while under the constant threat of being banished forever. Now that President Trump has disassembled the U.S. Department of Education in one sweeping executive order signed March 20, 2025, it beckons a sobering question: Did the U.S. Department of Education ever have a fair chance at securing a long and prosperous future? I doubt it. The vicious attacks on its identity ensured that the U.S. Department of Education always had one foot steeped in the grave.

President Ronald Reagan was highly skilled at assembling scathing political symbols that roused the American electorate. These striking symbols have haunted the American political consciousness for decades, and they still manage to generate a visceral response, whether in agreement or disagreement. Once President Reagan targeted the U.S. Department of Education for elimination and transformed the image of this fledgling federal agency into a lurid symbol of “all that was wrong with a bloated and intrusive federal bureaucracy,” it was guaranteed that the U.S. Department of Education’s future would remain permanently imperiled. Although The Christian Science Monitor reported that bipartisan opposition to closing the department remained strong in 1982, these symbols created by President Reagan inserted a seed that solidly rooted itself into public discourse. Opposition against the U.S. Department of Education is now strongly implanted in conservative political culture. Once President Trump was granted the “dramatic shift of power... in the... congressional elections” that Reagan pined for, he was able to finally carry out President Reagan’s vow to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. In fact, he adopted President Reagan’s template to declaw the federal agency with crippling funding cuts, installing personnel who were antagonistic to the department, rewriting regulations that weakened the department’s scope of power, and redistributing integral responsibilities of the department to other governmental agencies.

What the U.S. Department of Education’s seal symbolizes, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, “... the tree expresses the confidence and strength imparted to the individual through the development of the mind and the assimilation of knowledge. The glory and satisfaction of achievement are exhibited in its leaves. The background of sun and rays suggests the role of the Department in the promotion, nurturing, and encouragement of the best in all aspects of the nation’s educational system.” Image Credit: Maryland GovPics/Flickr.

The U.S. Department of Education has survived due to the Democratic Party’s insistence on its practical usefulness. The United States is a geographically and ethnically diverse territory that happens to be sitting on top of a massive landmass. A federal agency seems to be the most suited to facing these momentous challenges. In the report published in 1967, “The Case for a Federal U.S. Department of Education,” the author, Rufus E. Miles, Jr., implored the federal government to cease stalling on establishing the U.S. Department of Education. According to Miles, Jr., the complex social issues that assaulted urban areas struggling with decay desperately required a national spotlight and resources. In addition to addressing the issues that besieged the urban areas, Miles, Jr., envisioned that the U.S. Department of Education could embark on an important mission to be the “full-time spokesman” that solely focused on advocating for the educational fitness of Americans. Despite these practical concerns thoughtfully presented in the public administration review, President Reagan’s disparaging symbolism prevailed. Miles, Jr., acknowledged that in order for a particular federal agency to be endeared by the public, they must believe that this federal agency is recognized as valuable by other prestigious federal agencies. I imagine that in the early 1980s, this acknowledgment was especially crucial for the burgeoning U.S. Department of Education. These factors, according to Miles, Jr., could ultimately determine if the organizational structure of the U.S. Department of Education would be designed to enhance or decrease its power. President Reagan’s constant vows throughout the 1980s to abolish this vulnerable department most likely significantly weakened its ability to grow in power over time since its organizational structure was routed for the curtailment of its scope.

President Reagan conspicuously demonstrated to the American public that the U.S. Department of Education was undeserving of being a high priority. President Reagan’s attitude was that this department should undergo swift termination for wasting even a dime. The Christian Monitor illustrated a sobering scene of the U.S. Department of Education possibly being relegated to tiptoeing around its own school. This is contrary to Miles, Jr.’s recommendations to ensure the U.S. Department of Education’s success, which included being “well-staffed, and with national and international respect.” He conjoined respect for the U.S. Department of Education with its ability to enhance educational progress and opportunity for Americans.

The symbolic attacks that were blasted by various politicians, including President Reagan, throughout the 1980s have fractured American politics. Its sharp shards were repurposed to construct the current American political scene that is dominated by extreme political polarization. According to The Christian Monitor, during President Reagan’s tenure, both the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-controlled Senate protected the U.S. Department of Education and actively worked to reduce any further budget cuts to this department. But now the political cleavages have disabled the ability for both political parties to express a shared value for the same governmental agency. President Reagan’s political symbols seem to have taken on an even more crucial role in American politics. The survival of conservative politicians is contingent on whether they support positions on politicized issues or institutions that are amiable to the Republican political party’s symbolic interpretations. Historically, Democratic administrations saved the U.S. Department of Education, but bipartisanship was the core component of these frequent rescues. The Democratic Party’s efforts to resume saving the U.S. Department of Education will be an almost insurmountable endeavor if polarization continues its dominion over American politics.

Did you or do you work for the U.S. Department of Education? Share you story with Novelty Sense at: Contact Form: Story Submission 📢

REFERENCES:

Bencivenga, J. (1982). US Department of Education, down but not out. The Christian Science Monitor (1983).

Miles, Jr., R. E. (1967). The Case for a Federal Department of Education. Public Administration Review, 27(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.2307/973178

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) Pieces Together the Playbook for Corporate Corruption

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 21:36:00 +0000

For over 20 years, the documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) has been treasured as the media’s boldest attempt to piece together Enron’s tricky playbook for fraud and corruption. Despite the accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, illegally shredding tons of documents, the documentary courageously forged ahead with the clues available to piece together corporate crime of epic proportions. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) reviews the corporate corruption playbook to enhance the public’s ability to recognize financial abuse and, in turn, open up a safer economic future for us all.


Dick Cheney held tremendous authority as an expert on the economy domestically and internationally. Dick Cheney delivers his speech at the Annual Meeting 2004 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 24, 2004. (Image Credit: World Economic Forum/Flickr)

ENABLING POLITICIANS

Fraudsters finagle ways to place themselves higher on the totem pole than their “lowly and distressed” victims. The victims of financial fraud are often voiceless, isolated, and unorganized. Once the fraudsters complete a campaign to slander and incite hatred against their victims, ample opportunity opens for the highly organized financial predators to exploit their disempowered victims. Financial predators will craft and champion economic philosophies rationalizing financial abuse to political elites before financial abuse is set to commence. The goal is to preemptively undermine each victim’s attempt to reach out for help.

The unethical relationship Kenneth Lay, founder and former CEO for Enron Corp., nurtured between Big Government and Big Energy seemed provincial, uneventful, innocent, and almost boring. Lay managed to portray his connection to the Bush family as a genuine friendship based on shared political priorities. He expunged almost all mentions of money in regards to this convenient friendship. It was just a coincidence that Lay chose to establish a relationship with a political family located in Texas, the location of Enron’s headquarters, and that this family shared the same financial interest in energy.

According to the documentary, Enron was the largest corporate donor to former President George W. Bush’s political campaigns. Once former President Bush was elected as the Governor of Texas, he aggressively campaigned for Lay’s economic agenda in gratitude for his generous campaign donations. Bush’s actions implicitly informed key economic players that Lay was a top priority. As the corrupt bromance continued to blossom, the Bush family secured billions in subsidies for Enron Corporation. Bush also supported Lay as an “ambassador for deregulation.” The bromance, wielded together by money and greed, was in full bloom, complete with former President George W. Bush affectionately expressing his feelings of loss upon being notified of executive Rich Kinder’s departure from Enron. In the video valentine, former President George W. Bush acted like a forlorn suitor, beckoning Kinder to stay close. Kevin Phillips, author of American Dynasty and former Republican strategist, speaks on the bromance between Lay and Bush. “This absolutely has no precedent. This is by far and away the most important major relationship of a presidential family with a single corporation in American history.” In another video valentine, former President George H. W. Bush expressed his heartfelt sentiments to the Enron executive. “Rich, you have been fantastic to the Bush family. I don’t think anybody did more than you did to support George. And of course, at this stage in my life and Barbara’s too, that’s what really matters: your family and your friends.”

Over time, Lay secured a solid bromance with former President George W. Bush. He convinced the media that the bromance was a wholesome connection originating from their discipleship in the doctrine of deregulation and unmotivated by money. Lay’s nonstop advocacy for deregulation drowned out the voices of his victims. As the energy crisis that Enron Corporation instigated scorched California’s economy, public officials reached out to former President George W. Bush to beseech him for help. It was too late. Kenneth Lay already installed himself as the top priority years ago. The Californians embattled by Enron’s fraud were characterized as weak liberals who were enemies of business and unwilling to sacrifice for economic development. Kenneth Lay essentially marched into the White House and asked Vice President Dick Cheney not to impose federal price caps in California. His request was granted without much fanfare. Cheney enabled Enron’s corruption by accepting Enron’s narrative that the spiraling prices reflected the free market. He adamantly refused to consider the possibility of unbridled fraud. Cheney proceeded to openly chide California, “We’re doing everything we can to help California on a short-term basis. There’s not a lot you can do. You can’t manufacture kilowatts in the West Wing in the White House.”

Former President Bush released a pointed statement against California’s appeals for federal price controls and defended Enron’s position. It’s almost as if Lay wrote the retort for him. “They know full well my administration’s belief that price controls will not solve the problem.” In another media conference, former President George W. Bush explains his decision using Enron’s economic standpoint as a reference: “As I said from the very beginning of my administration, we’ll work to help California in any way we can. And the best way we can is to be good citizens.” The documentary demonstrates Enron Corporation’s powerful grip on the federal government. FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates energy in America, refused to intervene on California’s behalf to implement federal price controls or even investigate the prices. Why? Former President Bush installed Pat Wood III as FERC’s chairman at the recommendation of his rich buddy Kenneth Lay.

MAGIC MATH

Corporate fraudsters tend to introduce “inventive and innovative” accounting techniques that trick the system with their complexity and opaqueness. In the documentary, former President Ronald Reagan spoke highly of the magic of the marketplace and its ability to facilitate the achievement of the “most spectacular broad-based economic progress in the shortest period of time.” I’m not totally convinced Reagan was referring to the magic math that Enron Corporation conjured and dispensed at their will. I could be wrong. Skilling refused to onboard at Enron Corporation as CEO without their approval of a new accounting technique, namely, mark-to-market. Enron and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) conceded to his suspicious demand. Enron executives were riveted that Skilling was onboard with his magic math, or as he characterized in his spoof skit, “Hypothetical Future Value” accounting. Amanda Martin-Brock, a former executive for Enron Corp., recalls the celebrations: “I remember walking in and going, ‘What’s going on?’... I mean, everyone was so excited and in came the champagne, and we had got mark-to-market accounting treatment. And I often think about how clear my memory was about that event, and that was the beginning of a major cog in the downfall, ultimately, of Enron.”

Magic math enabled Enron Corporation to spend invisible money by “booking stated profits from a deal signed that day” without the money actually existing in Enron’s coffers. Mike Muckleroy, a former executive for Enron Corp., explains the magic of mark-to-market accounting: “And they were saying that we’re going to sell power out of this power plant in ten years for X dollars per kilowatt, and there was no way anybody could prove that they could do it.”

Enron successfully shifted and shielded the public’s focus away from the shell companies through powerful branding, symbolism, and imagery. Enron portrayed themselves as energetic trailblazers on the cusp of innovation. (Image Credit: Hanne Therkildsen/Flickr)

SHELL COMPANIES

Shell companies are timeless tools for corporate fraudsters. The spotlight is fixated on visible corporations. So, corrupt corporations prefer to hide illicit financial activity in the murky territory of shell companies. Since shell companies exist in the shadows, financial victims are unable to assemble enough information to detect any issues. It’s also harder for regulatory bodies to hold these shadowy entities accountable. Many victims may not even be aware that these shell companies orbit the corporation as the sacrificial entities spearheading the bulk of the financial fraud. Keeping in line with Enron’s mission to be inventive, Andy Fastow, a former chief financial officer for Enron Corp., invented hundreds of fake shell companies. He used them to cover up, according to the documentary, Enron’s dwindling profits and $30 billion in debt. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) maps out how Fastow used this confusing network of shell companies with bizarre names such as Jedi, Chewco, and Raptors to pretend to be legitimate companies joining in deals with Enron and to stash the billions in debt.

Enron’s Code of Ethics was just one of many convincing props used to bolster Enron’s image as a legitimate corporation and hide their toxic behavior. (Image Credit: Lianza/Flickr)

TOXIC CULTURE

Enron Trader to another Enron Trader: “Gettin’ Rich?”

Response: “Tryin’ to.”

Fraudsters enjoy manipulating complex concepts found in biology, philosophy, or other difficult disciplines to mint a toxic corporate culture that intellectualizes financial abuse, fraud, and unethical behavior. These are often principles with a high degree of name-brand recognition but lack the coinciding level of understanding by the general public. Skilling’s misapplication of Darwin’s belief in survival of the fittest animated Enron’s corporate culture. According to Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005), the foundation of Enron’s culture was built on his beliefs that greed and competition are encoded in human DNA to ensure the passing of our genes. Skilling managed to spin the toxicity into positivity in an interview. “Our culture is a tough culture. It is a very aggressive culture,” Skilling boasted.

The Enron traders were observably the demographic most acculturated by the ideals of toughness and aggressiveness. Enron’s traders justified abusing California’s energy system by misapplying Darwinism to justify financial fraud. As California’s economy and energy industry began to falter from the fraud, an Enron trader rationalized, “It weeds out the weak people in the market. Get rid of ‘em, and you know what? The people who are strong will stick around.” The documentary points to another recording of Enron traders bragging about the theft and exploitation of politically disempowered Californians. “All that money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers in California.” The abusive chatter among the Enron traders continues as they convulse into laughter. “Yeah, Grandma Millie, man.” “She’s the one who couldn’t figure out how to fucking vote on the butterfly ballot.” “Now she wants her fucking money back for all the power you’ve charged up her ass.”

EXECUTIVE PARACHUTES

“In the Titanic, the captain went down with the ship.

In Enron, it looks to me like the captain first gave himself and some friends a bonus, then lowered himself and the top folks down in the lifeboat,

and then hollered up and said, ‘By the way, everything’s gonna be just fine.’”

North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan (Democratic)

Executives of corrupt corporations demand assurance that they can mastermind the raiding of the corporate coffers and the global economy while evading accountability. They demand unfettered and unobstructed access to effective executive parachutes. When the predatory executives feel the weight of the corruption fatally bearing down on the corporation, they want to collect the remaining cash, pull the parachute’s strings, and hop out at their discretion unscathed while their victims suffer from the crash. While other stakeholders are kept in the dark about the financials, the fraudsters reward themselves with a front seat to the true financials. They use their access to this information not to save the company but to calculate the best moment to disinvest. Bill Lerach, a former attorney for Enron Corp. shareholders, describes this phenomenon: “We very quickly determined that the insiders had sold off a billion dollars of their stock in the preceding several months.”

During a Senate hearing, Skilling was pressured about his $66 million financial escape from Enron’s collapse as a result of converting stock. Skilling denied knowing these figures and tried to escape culpability for Enron’s misdeeds. Representatives also commented on Fastow’s strategic steps for financial preservation at the expense of others. Rep. Ted Strickland observed how Fastow stealthily liquidated $30 million. Since the first $30 million failed to satiate Fastow’s appetite, he moved forward with extracting another $30 million from Enron through dubious side deals.

According to Amanda Martin-Brock, a former executive for Enron Corp. and attorney from Vinson & Elkins, “Jeff, as time went on, had a harder time admitting things were wrong. And I have to believe that when the lights went out at night, he knew what was coming.” Unlike the public, Skilling had exclusive access to the sham financials and knowledge of Enron’s crumbling inner workings. Enron tottered on the edge of bankruptcy without the awareness of rank-and-file employees. The deceptive depictions of Enron’s grandiosity that shaped their knowledge of the company betrayed Enron’s true reality. Charles Wickman, a former energy trader for Enron Corp., speaks about the general reaction to Enron’s eventual bankruptcy. “There was a lot of disbelief. Very few of the rank-and-file people ever dreamed that Enron would actually go bankrupt. And then all of a sudden it was like a ghost town.”

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) describes how top Enron executives watched the victims of their fraud fall to their financial ruin without intervening. “While Enron stock was plummeting, the retirement accounts of Enron’s rank-and-file workers were frozen.” According to an employee from the Portland General Electric Company of the Gresham Service Center, “We were frozen out of our accounts. It was right about $32, I believe, and over that time from when it was frozen to when it opened up, I think it went down to nine dollars and we could not access it. And what came up later that was so bad was the fact that Ken Lay and Skilling and all the top people were moving their money then, but we couldn’t.” While Enron executives continued to advertise themselves as innovators and inventors who were bubbling with a ton of money-making ideas, they slowly cashed out. At the conclusion, Ken Rice had sold stock totaling $53 million, Ken Lay sold $300 million, Cliff Baxter sold $35 million, and Jeff Skilling sold $200 million.


After covering Kenneth Lay’s astronomical rise, the media also covered his dramatic downfall. (Image Credit: MyEyesSees/Flickr)

MEDIA ADULATION

Enron spent substantial amounts of money to grab headlines accompanied by gripping tales about Enron’s admirable leadership. These tales energized the manipulation of the investor community. The documentary showcases a flurry of media outlets selling Enron to the investor community. Enron tasked the media industry to camouflage their press releases featuring optimistic numbers as well-researched news articles. These were the same media outlets that the community depended on and trusted as unbiased sources of information. The headline, “It took Enron four years to add $50 billion in market cap,” overlaid on a dramatic chart to appear mathematical. The USA Today headlined Enron in the Money section with a bold quote proclaiming, “Saying Enron trades gas and power is like saying Edison sold records. Enron invented the very concept.” In this instance, Enron’s skyrocketing profits are associated with science.

The Global 500 depicted Enron executives as bold “Power Players.” The author, Harry Hurt III, starts off the article with Enron’s supposed innovation. “Enron has shaken up the sleepy gas pipeline and power businesses by aggressively embracing risk and continually remaking itself. So what’s not to like?” The idea of mysterious men playing with my power unsettles me, but corporate America and the investor community largely accepted these facts without question because, in the words of Hurt III, “What’s not to like?” Another publication, “The Dynamo at Enron,” included a section in the article, “Key Achievements,” to promote Lay. It was littered with false facts. “Earnings should jump 32% for 1999, to $902 million, on revenue of $42 billion.” “Shares rose about 50 percent last year, quadrupling the S&P Natural Gas Index.” This publication portrayed Kenneth Lay as a humble Republican fundraiser who chose to “rub shoulders with the rank-and-file.” Businessweek introduced Jeffrey Skilling as a “Power Broker.” The publication enabled his fraud by undermining the crisis Enron created. “California’s energy crisis has put deregulation under fire. But Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling remains a true believer.” The media continued to repeat the same narrative about Jeffrey being powerful, electric, and a true embodiment of a power player. Another publication headlined “Power Play: Enron, the nation’s largest energy merchant, won’t let California stand in its way,” scolds California as an enemy of progress.

A line graph of Enron’s closing stock price from 1997 to 2002 shows how quickly Enron spiraled downward. Data from Enron Securities Litigation. (Image Credit: 0xF8E8/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons)

ILLUSIONARY PROFITS

“[Bethany] asked a simple question in the article that no one could seem to answer:

How Exactly Does Enron Make their Money?”

California Representative Henry Waxman (Democratic)

The standard procedure adopted by white collar criminals from all industries is to convince targets that they will soon be rich beneficiaries from their share of the generous profits. Enron is no exception. The illusionary profits Enron touted tricked the market into sending their stock prices soaring. Enron’s fake quarterly profits always seem to mysteriously meet or exceed projections. This continually pushed Enron’s stock price upward to unsustainable levels. Enron reportedly nurtured an unhealthy obsession with their stock performance. Images of Enron’s stock price besieged Enron employees at the workplace. The stock price ominously stalked them everywhere.

Enron’s playbook for fraudulently increasing the stock price included a template for hiding the billions that were lost globally due to poor performance. The archive footage shows Skilling lying about these costly international failures. “But in other places in the world, in India, a great quarter and a great year in India.” This was an easy scam because they knew that most investors and rank-and-file employees were unfamiliar with international markets. The Dabhol plant in India lost $1 billion, yet Enron managed to distribute millions of bonuses to executives based on imaginary profits. According to the documentary, after another deal soured with Blockbusters, Enron shuffled along and used “future projections to book $53 million in earnings on a deal that didn’t make a penny.”

Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan, receiving a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005. In November 2001, Kenneth Lay presented the Enron Prize to Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve for distinguished public service at the Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University.

INSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION

Corporate corruption cannot survive in a vacuum. Corrupt corporations attach themselves to an ecosystem of renowned organizations to drain resources and support. Even if the fraud is blatant, corrupt corporations thrive when status, legitimacy, and trust are conferred to them by a multitude of honored establishments, institutions, and gatekeepers. It is difficult for the fraudulent dealings of a corrupt corporation to arouse suspicion if the general public is bombarded with images of trusted organizations willingly engaging with corrupt corporations and treating them as resourceful partners. Wall Street stock analysts were the gatekeepers of the investor community who held tremendous influence. They privileged Enron with their approval. According to Bethany McLean, co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room, these stock analysts electrified the Enron frenzy with an exciting flow of “buy ratings or strong-buy ratings on the company stock.”

In an Enron hearing regarding their bankruptcy, Senator Joseph Lieberman pressed for answers, “Why were the analysts blinded to the company’s deceit?” Curt Launer, analyst for CS First Boston, responded confidently, “We relied on the information that was available at the time.” What information, you ask? Well, according to Ray Niles, an analyst at Salomon Smith Barney, “They trust the integrity of the company’s certified financial statements and the representations of the company’s management.” Chanos recalled the sell-side stock analysts’ reliance on Skilling and their tendency to echo his outlook on Enron. Whenever they couldn’t answer a question, the typical response was, “I’ll give Jeff a call. I’ll run this by Jeff.”

DISCOURAGE ACCOUNTABILITY

“Wheel Out”, “Get Shorty”, “Fat Boy”, “Death Star” , “Ricochet”

Tim Belden outlines “super smart” strategies to exploit California’s deregulated energy market in a confidential memo.

Corrupt corporations are the most successful at fraud if they are able to seduce the victims into internalizing intellectual arguments against accountability, instill fear to terrify potential whistleblowers into silence, and promise vast rewards to manipulate victims into not questioning the lies. Peter Elkind, co-author of The Smartest Guys in the Room, describes Lay as a “real apostle for deregulation.” Lay pushed his stance on deregulating the energy market as a visible deregulation advocate in Washington, D.C. By push, I mean he donated strategically to key political campaigns and the Republican Party. Public officials shaped policy to reflect Lay’s viewpoint that the natural gas industry was “shackled by deregulation.” The documentary explains further, “In Washington, Lay became part of the new crusade to liberate businessmen from the rules and regulations of government.”

Although most analysts would not dare utter a word against Enron and incite the ire of Enron’s executives, some bolder analysts quickly turned into Enron’s enemies by challenging their numbers, such as John Olson, stock analyst at Sanders Morris Harris. Andy Fastow, a former CFO for Enron Corp., targeted Olson for refusing to be “on board with Enron’s story.” Merrill Lynch understood that angering Enron meant losing their business. According to the documentary, the fear of losing profits motivated Merrill Lynch to fire Olson. Olson refused to divvy out the strong buy recommendations needed to enhance the “Enron Illusion.” Skilling denigrated another analyst during an Enron Conference Call on April 17, 2001, after he questioned, “You’re the only financial institution that can’t produce a balance sheet or cash flow statement with their earnings.” Instead of answering the question, Skilling stumbled into offering a thank you and appreciation as fake as Enron’s shell companies and then slipped in the snide insult, “asshole.”

Enron finally had the chance to dig their fangs into California’s newly deregulated energy markets and bite a generous chunk out of the economy through a buyout of Portland General Electric. In response to the energy industry hungrily circling California’s energy market, California Governor Pete Wilson and the California Legislature passed the Electric Utility Industry Restructuring Act (Assembly Bill 1890) in 1996 “allowing for the deregulation of electricity.” Harvey Rosenfield, a consumer advocate, detailed how Enron instigated an energy crisis in California that cost the state $30 billion over the year. Deregulation granted Enron traders the freedom to move power around the western energy grid in bad faith. Traders forced artificial price increases by exporting power out of California and arbitrarily shutting down power plants. Traders unleashed despotic power over California’s power without accountability. Deregulation hindered the capacity of public institutions to rein in the maniacal greed of ruthless Enron traders and executives. Loretta Lynch, California Public Utilities Commissioner, observed, “Those guys, at the flip of a switch, could just yank the California economy on its leash whenever they wanted to, and they did it and did it, and they made so much money.” The fraud allowed Enron to haul in $2 billion by distracting the public with the reasoning that California’s chaotic energy crisis would eventually find a resolution through market correction.

Mug shot of Jeffrey Skilling. Penalty: 14 years in federal prison (originally 24 years), $45 million fine. (Image Credit: United States Marshals Service/Flickr)

CHARISMATIC LEADER

Just like cults, corporate scam operations are dependent on charismatic leaders who are adept at gently misleading the public. It was noted in the documentary that Skilling drove the “Enron Illusion.” Jim Chanos, President of Kynikos Associates, recounted how Jeff Skilling’s untimely departure from Enron reverberated across Enron, Wall Street, and the investor community. Sherron Watkins, a former Vice President for Enron Corp., explains further, “August 14, 2001, Jeff Skilling abruptly resigns, and that made me angry. It made loads of employees angry. I mean, there was a real sense of betrayal by the employees. This was Jim Jones feeding us the Kool-Aid and then deciding not to drink it himself.” The Jim Jones reference is an eerily appropriate comparison.

Skilling wasn’t a relatively unknown CEO who settled with anchoring the corporation from behind the scenes. He clamored for more star power, more trust, more influence, more fame, and more adulation from the public. He latched onto the dual roles as a charismatic corporate titan and celebrity CEO who embodied Enron’s beating heart. Therefore, the departure of Enron’s charismatic leader signaled that something was offbeat. The company could not last long without Skilling at the helm to steer the “Enron Illusion.” The day after Skilling departed, Sherron Watkins, a former Vice President for Enron Corp., delivered an anonymous memo to Kenneth Lay detailing that the irregularities in Enron’s numbers indicated immense fraud and crime. About six weeks after Skilling ceased commanding Enron’s playbook for strategic manipulation and scheming, Enron began to implode. Then, short four months later, on December 2, 2001, Enron declared bankruptcy.

Overall, greedy Enron executives cannibalized the U.S. economy and caused retirees to lose $2 billion in pension and retirement funds; 20,000 employees lost jobs; and employees lost $1.2 billion in retirement funds. Although not necessarily exhaustive, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) provides a comprehensive list of the signs to watch for to detect corporate fraud.

Further Exploration:

Enron Ethics (Or Culture Matters More than Codes)

Website for Enron Corporation

Government Exhibit: 2590 for Enron Corporation

Vice President Kamala Harris’s Post Election Wish List for Her 2024 Presidential Campaign

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 10:04:00 +0000

Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz present a joyful and united front at a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. (Image Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Kamala Harris’s unstoppable presidential campaign seemed to speed toward an assured victory. The polls in her favor, the flush of never-ending campaign donations, a mountain of glowing endorsements, and her steady grasp of the issues declared her a winner. Then the numbers trickled in from the election results. They shocked the nation. President-elect Donald Trump won the presidency with the popular vote and electoral vote. As dedicated Democrats ponder what caused Kamala Harris’s campaign to falter so hard without even an inkling of a fatal flaw, I posit that Vice President Kamala Harris was missing key resources that, in retrospect, could have saved her presidential bid.

Deflated Perceptions of Inflation

Consumers often found themselves racing against inflation in a ill-fated attempt to maintain their standard of living. (Image Credit: Petra Wessman/Flickr)

Economic optimism and satisfaction about personal finances correlated strongly with polling success for Kamala Harris. Another marker of a Kamala Harris supporter is whether the individual believed gas prices in the local neighborhood were decreasing. In order for Kamala Harris to dominate the 2024 election, it was imperative for voters to believe that they experienced a positive boost in their personal finances, or at least optimism that financial fortunes would improve in their foreseeable futures. Likewise, the national polls detected a pattern of decreased polling success for Harris with voters who felt pessimistic about their financial futures. The effects of inflation on grocery prices and rising bills still felt dramatic for voters nationwide, even though peak inflation faded away. Harris’s presidential bid was undeniably compromised by voters in the throes of financial precariousness and who survived paycheck to paycheck.

Whenever Trump lambasted the Biden administration’s record on the economy, a slew of economists often retorted Trump’s claims by presenting official data that placed inflation at 2.9 percent. Yet, the memory of inflation outpacing incomes at nine percent is still fresh in Main Street’s memory. “Inflation has not faded as an issue,” said Justin McCarthy, a spokesperson for Gallup. Samuel Negron, a Pennsylvania state constable and member of the large Puerto Rican community in the city of Allentown, discussed how inflation affected him negatively. “Out here, you pay $5 for a dozen eggs. It used to be $1, or even 99 cents.” He added, “A lot of us have woken up, in my opinion, from Democratic lies that things have been better. We realized things were better then.”

Many Democratic strategists acknowledge the official figures that point to lowered inflation. According to them, the electorate’s discontent was attributed to Kamala Harris’s failure to adjust their perspective on the economy and accept these facts. “Where I don’t think she’s done a good enough job is, [Trump] gets away with saying, ‘The economy is the worst it’s ever been, there’s more unemployment, inflation is the highest it’s ever been.’ None of that is true,” said Steve Jarding, a Democratic strategist. It appears that Kamala Harris hesitated to initiate conversations about the economy. Another donor explained, “Her economic message hasn’t broken through,” the donor said. “And the economy is the issue most people care about. She narrowed the gap a little on the issue, but she’s left a lot of people wondering about her vision.”

The economic proposal Kamala Harris introduced seemed to sidestep concerns about inflation by identifying price gouging as the focal point for rising prices. The focus on price gouging attempted to conjure populist sentiment against corrupt corporations colluding against the American people. The proposal to combat price gouging is weakened by conservatives who successfully lodged narratives into the public political discourse that the Biden administration mishandled the economy and was unable to tame inflation. The price gouging proposal also does not alleviate concerns about high interest rates. “I went to go purchase a car—the interest rates had skyrocketed,” said Nahim Uddin, a delivery driver and former Ford worker. The 34-year-old added, “That’s the whole reason I voted for him.”

Robert Reich, who served as secretary of labor under President Clinton, offered advice that Harris’s message needs to “center on anti-elitist economics. She needs to respond forcefully to the one issue that continues to be highest on the minds of most Americans: the economy.” Economic elites do not necessarily care about a three-dollar rise in eggs. Yet, for individuals surviving paycheck to paycheck, even a small rise in grocery prices determines whether they will be able to eat and pay bills or will need to forgo a few extra meals that week. The refusal to adequately address or empathize with the alarm that price rises inflict, no matter how minute, can be perceived as elitist. Ted Dietzler remarks, “Inflation is a big deal, and I don’t think Harris quite gets it. I think we’ll all just be better off with Trump back.”

More Months to Campaign

Kamala Harris built a fort composed of celebrities around her, which is a dramatic departure from the occasional sighting with a celebrity or influencer. Vice President Kamala Harris poses with singer Olivia Rodrigo Wednesday, July 14, 2021, in the Vice President’s West Wing Office of the White House. (Image Credit: Official White House Photo/Lawrence Jackson/Wikimedia Commons)

Kamala Harris embarked on a historically steep uphill climb in hopes of winning the presidency. When President Joe Biden handed the baton to Harris for the 2024 presidential bid, “she had the lowest approval rating of any Vice-President since its records began.” Harris refused to be intimidated despite these shortcomings. Even before Kamala Harris was chosen as the 2024 presidential candidate, she was poised to steer an aggressive campaign. At an event in D.C. last spring, she exclaimed, “Sometimes people will open the door for you and leave it open. Sometimes they won’t. And then you need to kick that fucking door down.” In time, the fundraising dollars funneled to the Harris campaign raced ahead of these initially somber outlooks. The immense cash flow posed a worthy substitute for the lack of time to campaign. The stakes were high since a massive presidential campaign was uncomfortably being squeezed into one hundred and six days. Obviously, each day would be monumental and have a major impact on the overall 2024 campaign. In just two days, Harris inspired fifty thousand volunteers to hop onboard, and in July 2024, her campaign hosted the largest Zoom call in history.

By August, Vice President Kamala Harris enjoyed widespread support from women, who made up 60 percent of her donors for the $361 million raised in August. Since July 2024, a staggering total of $615 million was raised by August 2024. Shortly afterwards, Kamala Harris set an all-time record by raising an unfathomable $1 billion only months into her campaign. Harris’s campaign also spent $1 billion in record time, perhaps in an effort to decompress the short presidential campaign. Millions of dollars were funneled into high-profile, high-visibility advertising to counteract the electorate’s lack of familiarity with Vice President Kamala Harris. For example, it cost her presidential campaign millions of dollars to fly banners over four NFL games in October to pique the interest of male voters for Kamala Harris in swing states. Then $450,000 was reportedly expended daily from October 30, 2024, to the election day to display larger-than-life ads on the Las Vegas Sphere to fascinate voters in another swing state. Another $360 million was generously poured into TV and digital ads from Labor Day through Election Day.

Harris’s presidential campaign grappled with its limited time but was simultaneously bestowed a large war chest, beguiling the Kamala Harris campaign to unwisely channel the funds into unintentionally insulting voters with spectacles and a circus of celebrities. The campaign hoped the popularity from celebrities could transfer to Kamala Harris. These grand and superficial displays, intended to camouflage the vulnerabilities of a 106-day campaign, undermined efforts that could have boosted Kamala Harris the most—authentic connections. For example, questions about Kamala Harris’s position on fracking remained unresolved, and a conversation with the people could have helped. In response to questions about her reversal on key issues such as fracking, Jeff Nobers, executive director of the Builders Guild of Western Pennsylvania, a union headquartered outside Pittsburgh, noted that “she really needs to have face-to-face conversations with union leaders in the areas most affected by this and go on the record of being a supporter and proponent of natural gas—not just someone who won’t ban fracking.” Face-to-face conversations had the potential to reach voters more effectively and earnestly than the splashy ads she opted to hide behind.

Less money and more time might have sharpened her campaign strategy and nudged Kamala Harris to embrace a more intimate approach to build her voter base. Harris’s fleeting campaign left her with little time to connect with the voters, which provided ample opportunity for the opposing party to distribute misleading and disparaging images of her. Mark Shanahan, an American politics expert who teaches at the University of Surrey in the U.K., explains that “Harris had too little time to introduce herself to America. She never really landed her messages on the economy with great clarity, and the one area we really thought would boost her, around reproductive rights, really didn’t get the expected cut-through with voters.”

Perfected Pollsters

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. (Image Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Faulty polling dimishes a presidential candidate’s ability to fine-tune the campaign’s approach. Many polls consistently offered compelling data proving why Kamala Harris had clinched the popular vote, especially in the battleground states. When inaccurate polls overestimate the success of a presidential campaign, it creates overconfidence for that candidate and validates misguided political strategies. The past several months preemptively predicted Kamala Harris’s victory, even if the advantage was slim. The elections were almost depicted as a simple formality to respect and defend America’s democracy. Early into Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign in August 2024, a USA Today/Suffolk University Poll showed her amassing massive momentum with a five percent “surge” ahead of Donald Trump. The USA Today/Suffolk University Poll’s validated the decision to gracefully end President Joe Biden’s campaign: “She has succeeded in doing what Biden never could this year: lead Trump.”

In September 2024, in the thicket of the presidential campaign, polls clamored to report that Harris was widening her lead over Trump. These polls created an optimistic scenario that Kamala Harris had overcome her initial likeability issues and found her stride. The Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that Harris was leading the floundering Trump at 47 percent to his meager 40 percent. Reuters/Ipsos gathered data from an online, nationwide survey of 1,029 adults, which included 871 registered voters. A NBC News national poll once again revealed numbers claiming that Harris held a five percent lead over Donald Trump. According to NBC News, a convergence of factors “vaulted” Kamala Harris ahead of Donald Trump, who, according to the polls, was fumbling at 44 percent due to perceptions of his incompetency. Harris’s low favorability appeared to no longer cripple her campaign since her favorability rating made a historical 16-point jump since July 2024. The advantage that Trump held on the economy and inflation with the electorate was downplayed as a petty footnote.

Optimism for Kamala Harris soared to unimaginable heights after the debate. National news outlets collectively declared Harris’s debate a victory. These declarations insinuated that the polls, such as Yahoo News/YouGov polls, were simply reflecting her resounding debate win. According to the Yahoo News/YouGov’s poll conducted after September 10, 2024, Harris secured a five percent lead over Donald Trump at 50 percent to his 45 percent. These polls were accompanied by explanations that her debate performance endeared her to the public and validated her as a viable candidate. Another post-debate poll suggested that Harris had surpassed Trump by six percent due to her outstanding debate performance. The Morning Consult pollster surveyed 11,022 “likely US voters from Sept. 13-15” and found that support for Harris was 51 percent while for Trump was 45 percent. Once again, winning the debate was cited as the reason for her lead over Trump. In October 2024, a New York Times/Siena poll of 3,385 voters reported that Kamala Harris was leading Donald Trump nationally by three percent. Another well-respected poll, the Economist/YouGov Poll, showed that Vice President Kamala Harris led former President Trump by four percent from 1,604 surveyed through online interviews from October 6-7.

The final polls in November 2024 continued to present data affirming that Vice President Kamala Harris sustained a slight edge over former President Donald Trump. Just a few days before the election, the Marist Poll graphed out her four percent lead over Trump nationally, which I’m sure caused the Harris campaign to share a sigh of relief. Even international polls leaned toward a Harris victory, such as the renowned British pollster, Focaldata. The Focaldata researchers actually admonished other pollsters for “giving the impression Trump is stronger than he really is.” They touted an innovative polling technique to generate more confidence in their data and had access to 31,000 voters across the United States. Focaladata’s novel MRP model, which stands for “multilevel regression and post-stratification,” builds precise predictions based off demographic data derived from a nationwide sample. James Kanagasooriam, Focaldata’s chief research officer, authoritatively noted this MRP model “has shown a Trump win throughout the campaign and only in the final update has it nudged Democrat.” ABC News/Ipsos promoted an image of a faltering Donald Trump against a valiant Kamala Harris, with Trump barely trailing her 49 percent lead at 46 percent. Research conducted by Langer Research Associates consistently linked high polling numbers to Harris, from 49 percent in August 13, 2024, to 50 percent in October 8, 2024, and stabilizing at 49 percent on November 1, 2024. For Donald Trump, there was a peak at 48 percent on October 8, 2024, and the eventual decline on November 1, 2024, to 46 percent.

Policy Positions that Pleases the Battleground Voters

Kamala Harris announces her VP running mate, Tim Walz in Philadelphia PA on August 6th 2024. Josh Shaprio, the Governor of Pennsylvania, speaks prior to the announcement. Many speculated that she would announce the Pennsylvania Governor to strengthen her position in the battleground state and demonstrate her support for fracking. (Image Credit: Jared Polin/Flickr)

Historically, presidential candidates change their policy stances to better align with the electorate, in response to new information, or to address the nation’s shifting needs. However, for a candidate with a little more than one hundred days to campaign, switching one slight stance or applying a cosmetic adjustment to the platform can feel seismic to the stressed-out electorate. Kamala Harris adamantly stated in a CNN interview with Dana Bash, Chief Political Correspondent, on August 29, 2024, that despite a recent shift in her policy perspectives, the core values that influence her policy decisions have not changed. Although Harris expressed an honorable sentiment, voters were not convinced. Many voters do not possess the experience or knowledge to trace complex policy changes and confirm that they match stable values. Therefore, candidates should understand that all policy changes are accepted at face value.

In this same interview, Dana Bash challenged Kamala Harris on a notable shift regarding fracking. Dana Bash asked, “When you were in Congress, you supported the Green New Deal, and in 2019, you said, quote, ‘There’s no question, I’m in favor of banning fracking’. Fracking, as you know, is a pretty big issue, particularly in your must-win state of Pennsylvania. Do you still want to ban fracking?” Kamala Harris responded in the affirmative for fracking and reiterated that her switch was made public in 2020. The willingness to change a strongly held stance can be interpreted positively as political maturity and flexibility. But Harris’s inability to capture the presidency suggests that voters were too afraid to risk the presidential office on a politically flighty candidate who might change stances that voters depend on once inducted as president.

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks on water infrastructure investment, Friday, February 3, 2023, at the Belmont Water Treatment Plant in Philadelphia. Kamala Harris’s well-known commitment to environmental issues caused her shift to support fracking to appear dubious. (Image Credit: Official White House Photo/Lawrence Jackson)

Pennsylvania is the country’s second-highest gas-producing state. The livelihoods of Pennsylvanians are too intertwined with the fossil fuel industry to accept Harris’s reversal without substantial evidence that her reversal is permanent. David Taylor, head of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, a Harrisburg-based industry group, commented on Harris’s fracking reversal. “Simply to flip flop and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t mean that, my position is the opposite now,’ that just strikes me as being completely opportunistic and insincere.” David Taylor alludes to the harrowing possibility that Harris may flip again once in office if it is politically advantageous. It was too easy for conservatives to drill the message that her reversal was contrived and fleeting. “She specifically said she wants to ban fracking. She said it,” Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), the chief deputy whip in the U.S. House who represents the Pittsburgh area. “The problem for Harris is her track record is too long to sidestep it in a sprint to win Pennsylvania.”

Even if many vehemently oppose Donald Trump’s platform, he has consistently stuck to each of his policy positions with confidence, even if misguided. In the Hill’s article, “What does Kamala Harris really stand for?” Trump’s longstanding policy goals are outlined by verbatim: “Specifically, Trump has consistently fought to secure our border; reduce taxes; beef up law enforcement and make our streets safe; lighten regulation, allowing businesses to thrive; oppose unfair trade policies that send jobs overseas; strengthen our military; exit globalist treaties, such as the Paris climate accord, that disadvantage the U.S.; promote school choice; support Israel; and yes, make America great again.” His policy positions are the core components of his well-known political brand.

In August 2024, as a new presidential candidate, Kamala Harris was still teasing out policy goals in a bid to win over the battleground voters and move closer to the center. In 2019, according to the Hill “She backed a ban on fracking; mandatory gun buybacks, i.e. gun confiscation; taxpayer-funded sex-change surgeries for prison inmates; racial reparations; decriminalizing illegal immigration; defunding the police; eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement; “Medicare for All”; the Green New Deal; and allowing felons to vote.” Harris has now disavowed or denied these left-leaning policy positions, including her stance to defund the police. Harris has cooked up policy positions that are more palpable to the general electorate. These positions contrast sharply with her historical advocacy of liberal policies. Her position would have been stronger if she adopted these moderate policy aims before the presidential campaign, not just when they were politically advantageous. Even post-election, a sizeable amount of voters still feel too confused to pinpoint whether they agreed with her policies or not. For example, a Democratic strategist agreed that Harris’s messaging on the economy “left a lot to be desired.” “I still think there are folks out there who can’t tell you what she plans to do,” the strategist said. “That should have been something our side hammered home every day.”

A Manual for the Manosphere

Kamala Harris supporters in Minneapolis, Minnesota jokingly poke at JD Vance’s slander against childless woman with a ‘Cats for Kamala’ campaign meme. (Image Credit: Cocoabiscuit/Flickr)

High-profile endorsements from Jimmy Carter, 82 U.S. Nobel Peace Prize winners, 111 former Republican officials, and Rudy Giuliani’s daughter, Caroline Rose Giuliani, uplifted Kamala Harris as a political superstar. But the manosphere’s cold snub of Vice President Kamala Harris eclipsed them all and dimmed her star power. Harris also garnered the endorsements of 400 economists and former policymakers who warned that former President Trump’s policy proposals would damage the U.S. economy. “It is a choice between inequity, economic injustice, and uncertainty with Donald Trump or prosperity, opportunity, and stability with Kamala Harris, a choice between the past and the future.” The exhortation continued, “With Kamala Harris in the White House, workers, families, and businesses can be confident that they have a president who will work relentlessly to build a strong, pro-growth economy for all Americans.” These lofty insights from economic advisers were no match for the manosphere’s harsh commentary on the struggles of everyday men. The manosphere dismissed 400 economists in lieu of infamous figures who, in their opinion, embody toughness and masculinity, such as Dana White, the president of the UFC fighting league. At Donald Trump’s victory party, Dana White praised Trump as one of “the most resilient, hardworking men I’ve ever met in my life.” Then White acknowledged the manosphere, saying, “I wanna thank the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, ‘Bussin with the Boys,’ and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan!” These are the men who matter to the manosphere. The absence of women in leading or prominent roles in such an influential space is noticeable. The manosphere is able to appeal to men all across the political spectrum and then maneuver them to the far right over time.

Wikipedia defines the manosphere as “a diverse collection of websites, blogs, and online forums promoting masculinity, misogyny, and opposition to feminism.” Kamala Harris needed an unprecedented template to connect with the manosphere without endorsing or enabling their troubling misogyny. The Independent’s title alone confirms the influence of the manosphere: “How Joe Rogan and the right-wing ‘manosphere’ helped propel Trump to victory in 2024.” Elon Musk, a key fixture of the manosphere, wrote on X on election day, “The cavalry has arrived. Men are voting in record numbers. They now realize everything is at stake.” Reaching out to the manosphere on multiple online platforms was central to Trump’s campaign strategy to win the bro vote. Trump’s ability to secure the approval of these vast male audiences who feel alienated partially explains Trump’s resilience against his gaping vulnerabilities, such as his criminal conviction. The strategy worked impeccably. Van Ricker, a 21-year-old student who follows the Nelk Boys, told the Times he “really [wants] Trump to win.” Another young male commented on their impact: “These guys have an influence on us young guys—we want to be like them when we grow up,” Rylan Bogue, 22, told the Times. “They’re dominating right now.” Kamala Harris’s attempted involvement with the manosphere would have been fraught with uncertainty and missteps but would have added a powerful woman’s presence in these male-exclusive spaces and given her the chance to confront the manosphere one-on-one.

World Peace

Kamala Harris, on July 25, 2024: “Today, I had a frank and constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu about a wide range of issues, including my commitment to Israel’s security, the importance of addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and the urgent need to get the ceasefire and hostage deal done.” (Image Credit: Office of the Vice President of the United States/Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons)

The geopolitical crisis in the Middle East unexpectedly spilled over into the U.S. mainstream political scene. The ensuing emotional trauma tumbled directly into the Democratic Party and fatally fractured the coalitions within by creating irreconcilable identity crises. According to Palestinian American organizer Linda Sarsour, Kamala Harris’s unwavering support of Israel was a predominant obstacle that prevented her from appealing to undecided voters and a large segment of Democratic voters. Democrats “made a calculation that they did not need Arab American, Muslim American and Palestinian American voters.” The conflict in the Middle East interrupted her campaign frequently. Harris’s speech in Chandler, Arizona, was quickly interrupted by a woman screaming, “Free, Free Palestine!” Rowan Imran, a Palestinian community activist, explained why the Harris-Walz lost her vote. “We can’t support anyone who enables the killing of our people,” Imran said. “Our votes cannot be taken for granted any longer.” Azza Abuseif, the executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations of Arizona, said, “(Harris) has to do some serious work on this issue if she wants to win a lot of these votes. “It has been a deal-breaker for many voters... and it’s a situation that’s going to define her legacy later on.”

The same sentiments were echoed in a rally in Michigan as protesters chanted, “Kamala! Kamala! You can’t hide! We won’t vote for genocide!” Layla Elabed, a co-founder of Uncommitted, told Harris, according to the group, “Michigan voters want to support you, but we need a policy that will save lives in Gaza right now. I meet with community members every day in Michigan who are losing tens and hundreds of family members in Gaza. Right now, we need an arms embargo.” In an interview with 60 minutes, Harris reiterated her support for Israel. Harris said, “I maintain Israel has a right to defend itself. We would. And how it does so matters. Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. This war has to end.” Voters have been unsure about Harris’s stances on many key issues, but Harris’s willingness to take sides regarding the conflict in the Middle East and refuse to retract her unwavering support of Israel deeply divided the Democratic party.

Understanding Automatic Thoughts: How They Automate Negative Behavior and Addiction

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 20:17:00 +0000

Updated November 5, 2024

Widespread social behavior significantly impact how the schema organizes
information and the intensity of automatic thoughts.

Exploring the Relationship Between Automatic Thoughts and Addictions

The concept of automatic thoughts provides valuable insight into how people accomplish their daily activities, develop routines, and cope with hardships. Negative behavior, such as addiction or substance abuse, is often initiated and reinforced by automatic thoughts. Aronson, Wilson, and Akert (2010) characterize automatic thoughts as “nonconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless.” Automatic thoughts make up a significant portion of decision-making, even if they do not encourage the most rational or ideal behavior. There are so many small stressors, complex daily tasks, and social norms that if our brains attempted to completely diverge from automatic thoughts, our brains would suffer from sensory overload. Unhealthy attempts to mentally escape feelings of frustration and sadness can lead to addiction, especially if automatic thoughts are tormenting the person with a flood of intense frustration and sadness. Then cognitive processes, such as automatic thoughts, begin to unconsciously aid in the individual’s destruction through negative behavior and addiction.

An individual lacking strong exposure to alcohol or alcoholism would require a deliberate act to begin drinking alcohol, which is contrary to automatic thinking. Since this is an unfamiliar situation, controlled processing takes command in navigating this novel circumstance. Controlled processing is defined in Schneider & Shiffrin (1977) as “a conscious, intentional, and effortful method of information processing used when dealing with novel or complex situations or learning new skills.” The brain is apt to utilize automatic thinking to conserve energy because controlled processing requires the brain to be fully engaged and employ conscious effort to complete a mental or cognitive task. An individual who is new to the party scene and accustomed to participating in the same activities as their friends could automatically observe, “All my friends are drinking at this party” and then decide, “I should drink too.” The conscious decision to drink may be eased by automatic thoughts influenced by cultural knowledge that outlines social behavior at a party and that individual’s relationship with their friends. After the brain uses controlled processing to learn how to react to new situations that are deemed appropriate and reasonable to drink alcohol, the person will begin to automatically relate drinking to that specific situation. Soon the person will not need deliberate thought to drink, since unconscious thoughts already support and map out the behavior.

Addiction stamps a stronger imprint on the schema of an individual who grew up in a home with drug addicts as opposed to an individual who grew up in a drug-free zone. The brain sustains and automates patterns of thoughts and behavior with the schema. Specific patterns of thoughts and behavior are categorized and continuously fed by new information even if the new information does not apply. Everyday new information is assigned to existing mental structures and beliefs. Succumbing to a drug addiction would be a largely unconscious effort for this person. Many drug addicts consciously acknowledge that substance abuse is detrimental to their well-being. However, the destructive behavior continues and the addiction grows stronger because the schema has made substance abuse more accessible through automatic thoughts. Now these same automatic thoughts that were inputted into the schema are streaming from the same schema without the individual’s awareness. For example, if an individual develops a of pattern of abusing drugs to respond to hardship, the individual will build a schema that connects hardship to indulging in drugs. In due time, the individual will not need to think before turning to substance abuse for stress alleviation. Similarly, if someone responds to stress by drinking, unfortunately each stressful situation will be characterized as the opportune time to abuse alcohol and soon the individual will consume alcohol in response to insignificant daily stressors. In other words, the individual will automatically behave similarly to other stressful events unrelated to the first stressful situation that prompted drug abuse without any conscious effort.

The schema strengthens these automatic thoughts and reinforces the behavior for future situations. These mental structures set the precedent for any other knowledge gained about similar circumstances. This has dangerous implications for the individual and the people who are directly and indirectly affected by the individual grappling with drug or alcohol addiction. Recovery will be an immensely difficult endeavor. Socialization also has a huge impact on our behavior and the development of the schema. The media, our authority figures, our parents, and culture each have a role in inputting easily accessible data into our mental framework which formulates our automatic thoughts. This is one reason why a child who is raised by a parent battling alcoholism is more susceptible to becoming an alcoholic.

I think those who play music have a stronger innate understanding of the schema. At first music demands intense learning. For example, if you were a novice violin player you may use tape to guide your fingers to play the correct notes and constantly glance at your fingers. However, after a while you can play the notes perfectly by touch without even thinking. Just like any other habit, you do not have to think about what you are doing, your brain automatically know what needs to be done because of past situations. Some people are even more musically inclined if they were raised by a musical family. Then if that same individual has a music teacher, the music lessons are reinforced again. Similarly, for some people, especially those with addictive personalities or grew up in households where addictions control daily life, addiction is highly developed in the schema before any substance is personally abused.

Exploring the Relationship Between Automatic Thoughts and Relapse

Even after time has passed, a familiar song is so strongly embedded in the schema of a skilled musician that the individual’s brain can unconsciously create the impulses for the hands movement needed to play the song correctly. I think this partly explains many relapses, aside from other psychological and biological causes of relapses. Even if the person has been abstaining from drugs or alcohol for some time, the automatic thoughts influencing such behavior can be strong. The person may succumb to the familiar urges that present themselves if the situation matches the information in the schema calling to engage in substance abuse. Then once they relapse, they feel like they have been drinking alcohol or consuming drugs the whole time.

Harold Kelley (1950) demonstrates that individuals can be primed with prior knowledge given to us by others. This priming can be encoded into our schema and used to help interact with a new situation. Familiar situations will always take precedence over complex and new situations which causes recovery to be challenging. Recovery is undermined since the brain has plenty more mental connections to support substance abuse. It is more effective to take action before an individual becomes an addict. A phenomenon that could counteract these challenges by taking a proactive and preventative approach to substance abuse is priming. The goal of priming would be to teach the youth effective methods of handling everyday life before they are presented with the option to abuse substances or confronted by stressful events. For individuals who are already struggling with substance abuse, therapists can help change the addict’s perspective on the addiction, hardship, and coping techniques. Support groups can create experiences for the addict that alters the schema and automatic thoughts. The combined effort of these individuals and groups can enable stronger recovery efforts. It would be important for the addict to expose themselves to as many coping and therapy experiences as possible to reinforce coping in the schema and replace the automatic thoughts associated with substance abuse. It would be especially helpful to form friendships or observe people without addictions to further positively impact their schema. A healthy schema results in healthy automatic thoughts.

Controlled processing is also offered as a remedy to flawed automatic thinking. It takes a degree of controlled processing to begin a new activity, such as abstaining from substance abuse, instead of engaging in familiar negative habits or ruminating on negative automatic thoughts. The effectiveness of controlled processing does depend on many factors, such how significant are the perceived consequences or benefits, the person’s willpower, the amount of support the person is receiving, and etc. In some instances a person’s controlled processing can be faulty due to the corrupted automatic thoughts that have damaged the schema. An addict could reshape their schema to consider the consequences of their behavior and transform their automatic thoughts.

Conclusion

There are many factors that influence the initiation, reinforcement, and recovery from addiction. The schema has a strong impact on the likelihood of an addiction being avoided or started. A child that grew up in a household full of addiction will have a schema that is slanted towards addiction. While children that were primed against drugs, alcohol, and other substances or activities which can encourage invasive addictions are less likely to suffer from addiction or be tempted by addiction.

Caligula Documentary Etches Out a Regal Image from Scandalous Myths and Ancient Roman Rumors

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Sat, 02 Nov 2024 05:36:00 +0000

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus. (Image Credit: Manel/Flickr)

The documentary Caligula: Paranoia and Brutality in Ancient Rome (2013) sets out on a journey to find clues across the Roman world to discover if many of the myths that overshadow Caligula’s image and characterize his short reign are true. Caligula: Paranoia and Brutality in Ancient Rome (2013) takes on the role of a detective seeking to answer the question that has lingered into modern times: if Caligula deserves to be remembered as a depraved monster.

“Oderint dum metuant.”
“Let them hate, as long as they fear.”
― Caligula

MYTH: CALIGULA INFLICTED UNPARALLELED BRUTALITY IN ROME.

On 31 August AD, 12 Caligula was born as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus in Antium, Italy, to the revered Roman military commander Germanicus and the esteemed granddaughter of Augustus, Agrippina the Elder. Mary Beard, the documentary’s narrator, an English classicist from Newnham College, University of Cambridge, explains that Caligula was exposed to the brutality of war since he was two years old. He frequently accompanied his father, Germanicus, to war campaigns across northern Germania, traveling “from army camp to army camp.” On these battlegrounds, he became even more acquainted with the horrors of war and the power of glory and triumph. His presence was such a mainstay at these various army camps that he earned the nickname Caligula, or “Little Boots”, from the Roman soldiers stationed across northern Germania.

Soon after Germanicus’ death, Caligula and his family’s home became their tomb. The conflict with the powerful rival, Emperor Tiberius, turned deadly. The family was violently targeted as competitors to the throne. Imagine the anguish of an adolescent Caligula onlooking or overhearing helplessly as his family was eliminated one by one. At the time, he was never allowed to show or express the depth of his grief. Despite the anguish of experiencing such violence, it became his norm. Caligula learned to speak the language of violence. Violence was his destiny, and thus the immovable destiny of Rome.

Caligula and his three sisters survived as hostages of a paranoid Emperor Tiberius. Emperor Tiberius’s systematic slaughter of Caligula’s immediate family concluded after his death. As a hostage at Emperor Tiberius’s court on the island of Capri, Caligula became a diligent student of violence after witnessing the emperor ruthlessly mete out various punishments on perceived enemies. Soon Caligula became an insatiable connoisseur of the violence that eventually engulfed his life. Beard details how the enemies of Emperor Tiberius met their savage ends over the edge of a cliff. Those who were lucky enough to survive the death plunge were subsequently bludgeoned with oars by sailors stationed at the bottom of the cliff.

As a nascent empire, Rome grappled with the complexities of succession. Unrelenting violence was a tool to solve the enigma of succession and impose one’s claim to the throne. Beard explains, “Even though Roman power had now become a family business, since the founder, Caesar Augustus, there was no fixed system of passing the power on.” Professor Greg Woolf of the University of St. Andrews explains how the instability surrounding succession to the throne produced a culture of violence that each emperor embraced and readily reproduced. He goes on to answer the question from Beard about how the uncertainty produced violence and rumors of violence with an example: “First thing that Tiberius does when he succeeds Augustus is he sends a boat to an island on which one of his relatives has been kept in exile for decades, to have the boy killed, because he couldn’t been an alternative, and what does Caligula do when he takes power? One of the first things he does is he has his cousin, a boy named Tiberius Gemellus, murdered because he’s somebody else who could’ve been emperor.”

Anthony Barret recalls in his book Caligula: The Abuse of Power how early into Caligula’s reign he grew ill and then turned against the same Roman officials who seemed desperate for his recovery. His paranoia about the origin of his illness prompted him to even blame family members and soak the palace with their blood or exile them. Then there were the string of forced Senate suicides for no apparent reason and the forced suicide of a key ally, a Praetorian prefect named Quintus Naevius Cordus Sutorius Macro. Caligula was simply embodying the ominous slogan paraded about ancient Rome: “Eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow you’ll die.”

MYTH: CALIGULA’S SOLE TOOL TO DEMONSTRATE HIS LEGITIMACY TO THE IMPERIAL THRONE WAS BRUTALITY.

Beard notes that Caligula strategically highlighted how his bloodline shaped and destined him for the Roman imperial throne. He boldly proclaimed his connection to the celebrated Germanicus, a descendant of the Roman Empire’s founders. Caligula generated spectacle by giving the ashes of his mother a victorious return to Rome and burying her with his own hands in the sacred ancestral tomb. On her tombstone, he inscribed honor to his mother’s legacy by pronouncing her relation to Augustus, the first Roman emperor, that Caligula now deemed a god. In doing so, he bolstered his image and boasted of his legitimacy.

Front: C CAESAR DIVI AVG PRON AVG P M TR P III P P. Head of Caligula with laurel wreath. Back: ADLOCVT // COH. Caligula stands in a toga on a pedestal in front of a chair. His hand is raised before five soldiers in full gear accompanied by four legionary eagles. (Image Credit: Reinhard Saczewski/Wikimedia Commons)

Caligula: Paranoia and Brutality in Ancient Rome (2013) details how he “stamped with his portrait” on the Roman currency to spread news far and wide of his imperial reign. Due to his generosity, the coins proliferated throughout Rome and beyond, spreading messages in his favor. The image of Caligula on the collection of coins, coupled with images celebrating his bloodline, reinforced his claim to the throne daily. The coins depicted magnificent images of “Caligula on one side, his father, the great Germanicus on the other. Another shows a carriage parading a statue of his mother in celebrations founded in her honor, and even more important, this one shows Caligula sacrificing a bull at the temple of his great grandfather, the god Augustus.”

Caligula then embedded his imperial brand into the very structures of Rome with “iconic, ancient monuments.” Caligula spearheaded the construction of two aqueducts in Rome, the Aqua Claudia and Anio Novus. These structures improved water accessibility by “bringing water from over 40 miles away to the center of Rome.” The obelisk “that now stands in front of St. Peters, is also Caligulan, shipped from over Egypt on an enormous, specially built boat” was placed in Circus Caligula. He invested tremendously in imperial building projects on Palatine Hill. Caligula vigorously embarked on more building projects that drained the palace coffers, such as completing the temple of Augustus and the theater of Pompey in the city of Rome. Other endless projects included initiating the construction of an amphitheater beside the Saepta Julia, only for it to be cleared and filled with water. He then turned his attention to repairing the city walls and temples in Syracuse and maintaining the roads throughout the empire and extended territories. More ambitious construction projects were in the works before his assassination, such as rebuilding palaces and temples, all extolling the glory of Rome and his adjacent power.

Print of Caligula by Etienne Charpentier, 1750-1760, France. (Image Credit: Smithsonian Design Museum)

MYTH: CALIGULA BESTOWED HIS FAVORITE IMPERIAL HORSE, INCITATUS, WITH HIS OWN PALACE AND GRANTED THE HORSE A TITLE AS A CONSUL OF ROME.

Questions regarding Caligula’s supposed order to appoint an imperial racehorse as a Roman consul taunt historians to this day. Was Caligula’s humor ahead of his time? Was he sarcastically making a sly observation about the deteriorating state of Roman political affairs that was misinterpreted by his more somber aristocratic peers? Was Caligula truly mad? Or was the joke on him? Perhaps the rumor was spread about Caligula in jest? Or in a vicious response to his insulting jest? Beard clarifies that there is no evidence from ancient historians from his time period who confirmed that a horse actually rose to power as a consul of Rome. In fact, it is not definitive whether he planned to appoint his imperial racehorse or if these mad plans were simply false rumors.

More likely, the Senators were not in the mood for jokes after the last spate of forced Senator suicides. Since Caligula was also a consul, the court probably refused to consider that the brutal and paranoid ruler would reference his position in a joking manner, thus undermining his own power just for the sake of a laugh. Emperors were to be taken at their word by their subjects no matter how outrageous the command. Disobedient subjects who mocked the orders of their emperors faced the threat of death. Therefore, the recollection in the ancient text, Roman History by Cassius Dio, a Roman historian and senator, says of the matter, “One of the horses, which he named Incitatus, he used to invite to dinner, where he would offer him golden barley and drink his health in wine from golden goblets; he swore by the animal's life and fortune and even promised to appoint him consul, a promise that he would certainly have carried out if he had lived longer.”

MYTH: CALIGULA DISHONORED THE ROYAL PALACE WITH HIS UNBRIDLED PERVERSIONS.

Ancient rumors spread that Caligula tainted the palace by misusing the majestic abode as his personal brothel. Scandalous stories floated throughout ancient Roman consciousness and now even the modern imagination about the excessive amounts of intimate partners he collected, his penchant for wearing women’s clothing, and the intensity at which he pursued his nonstop perversions. The rumor that tarnished his image more than a rusty imperial coin was the possibility that he engaged in improper intimate relations with his own twin sisters and with his favorite sister, Julia Drusilla. Cassius Dio speculates in “Book 59” of Roman History how his deified self image inspired the relentless debauchery. “Indeed, even before this he had been demanding that he be regarded as more than a human being, and was wont to claim that he had intercourse with the Moon, that Victory put a crown upon him, and to pretend that he was Jupiter, and he made this a pretext for seducing numerous women, particularly his sisters; again, he would pose as Neptune because he had bridged so great an expanse of sea; he also impersonated Hercules, Bacchus, Apollo, and all the other divinities, not merely males but also females, often taking the role of Juno, Diana, or Venus.”

Even the grand images on Caligula’s coins could not protect the legacy of a young emperor besieged by such astonishing and damaging rumors. Caligula: Paranoia and Brutality in Ancient Rome (2013) challenges the validity of these rumors. Beard hints that the rumors were deliberately spread years after his assassination in a campaign to desecrate his reign. The sources for these wild rumors did not appear in written texts until years after his death, “by the second century biography, Centonius.” According to Beard, no historians during Caligula’s time corroborated the rumors. Perhaps nostalgia for his reign reignited in Rome, and the rumors were unleashed to undermine the nostalgia. According to Peter Wiseman, Caligula remained popular with the ordinary citizens who were enamored by his relation to heroes such as Julius Caesar, Germanicus, and Augustus.

As Beard noted in the beginning of Caligula: Paranoia and Brutality in Ancient Rome (2013), those in the imperial court were encouraged to remain desensitized and unemotional to violent and unfortunate circumstances. The documentary recounted the ghastly tale of a Roman princess who stoically continued to dine at an imperial feast after her brother was fatally poisoned next to her. Professor Catherine Edwards of Birkbeck, University of London, describes to Beard how Caligula’s excessive grief over Drusilla’s death was viewed with suspicion. By now, it had become the standard response to perceive all of Caligula’s excess as a connection to depravity, even excessive grief. His departure from the stoic composure usually demanded from imperial rulers and even the royal court seemed to imply that the rumors were true. Especially since Caligula managed to be stoic for the other deaths in his family. Edwards further dissected how the same anxieties about succession that instigated violence also compelled aristocrats to blanket elite Roman society with damaging rumors about rivals. Due to Rome’s recent changes to succession, there was growing resentment over how one family could monopolize the throne through the increased utilization of women.

Caligula poses triumphantly in a winged helmet and holds double-headed arrows before a military scene in the background, despite the emperor’s lack of military experience. From ‘Roman Emperors on Horseback’. (Image Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Whether true or not, the buildup of the myths and rumors in Rome about Caligula killed his image and contributed significantly to Caligula’s eventual assassination at the age of 28 in January 41 AD by Praetorian tribunes Cassius Chaerea and Cornelius Sabinus, and a sizable amount of centurions. I noticed a pattern that his deepest favorites—the people, things, and animals he trusted—often became targets of scandals and rumors. This realization only beckons more questions. Did the elite not trust Caligula to have wholesome favorites? Did Caligula’s favorites undermine their power? Or was Caligula so damaged that his cherished favorites only derived from perversion?

Since Caligula did not have experience as a great military leader to define his personal legacy, these secondhand myths and rumors easily weighed down his reign. Caligula was deprived of being the hero of well-circulating stories of military valor that could contend with the wild ancient rumors and safeguard his reputation. Due to his lack of political experience, Caligula was unable to develop his political prowess to better deal with envious Senators and quell these rumors. To overcome these deficiencies, Caligula turned to declarations of divinity to bolster his power, even dressing up as various deities. These declarations only invited more vicious rumors of madness. His death occurred less than four years into his reign as the victim of a tragic attempt to end imperial rule and return Rome to a republic. Despite the assassins’ brutal maneuvering, the Roman Empire prevailed. Claudius was installed as the new Roman Emperor shortly afterwards. Imperial rule was too entrenched in the inner workings of Rome for the assassination of one young emperor to topple the Roman Empire.

Democrats pile on harsh criticisms of Project 2025 as conservative groups tout its capacity to make America great again

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Fri, 26 Jul 2024 03:29:00 +0000

“Project 2025 will not be stopped,” Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation and Heritage Action for America, declared in a statement. He said the Democrats fighting Project 2025 are “more than welcome to try. We will not give up and we will win.” (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

For many conservative groups, Project 2025 is the revolutionary agenda America needs to restore herself and become great again. However, Democrats and progressives share the perspective that Project 2025 outlines a terrifying installation of an authoritarian regime. It symbolizes a final dystopian blow to what makes America great—her democracy. The Heritage Foundation president, Kevin Roberts, doesn’t believe Project 2025 forcibly transports America to a new, uncharted, and autocratic territory but instead patriotically returns America to a familiar scene, her roots. In his viewpoint, it is simply another American Revolution, and much like the previous revolution, it will be tasked with taking this country back. However, Democrats believe that Project 2025 is linked to a political regime, authoritarianism, that is in direct opposition to America’s current political structure, democracy.

The conservatives linked to Project 2025 define themselves as true patriots, but Democrats such as James Singer, a spokesperson for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, lament that Trump and his allies are “dreaming of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of America.” He recanted the spirit of the American Revolution and explained how Project 2025 misrepresents this spirit: “248 years ago... America declared independence from a tyrannical king, and now Donald Trump and his allies want to make him one at our expense.” Other Democrats share the same sentiments, with former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson writing on the social media platform X, “This is chilling. Their idea of a second American Revolution is to undo the first one.”

“The stakes just couldn’t be higher,” Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California told The Associated Press. Huffman said the Project 2025 agenda will hit “like a Blitzkrieg” and lawmakers need to be ready. (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

This depiction of Project 2025 sharply contrasts with conservative groups who view the agenda as returning America to her revolutionary roots. Project 2025, according to them, is about securing America’s independence from the tyrannical enemies of American values, or, as Roberts described, “carrying out the Second American Revolution to take back power from the elites and despotic bureaucrats.” The confusion from voters who aren’t clinging to the far ends of either political spectrum must be immense. For example, Roberts portrays the left as bloodthirsty with a “long history of violence” who may not allow a peaceful transfer of power. However, much of the left, such as Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, are deeply troubled by the idea of a second, possibly violent, American Revolution. She described Roberts’ comments as “a bit terrifying but also elucidating.” The engaged voters on both sides are warning and being warned that the opposite end of the political spectrum is occupied by terrifying, violent, and bloodthirsty rivals.

Even though 922 pages are openly offered by Project 2025, few are on the same page. The communication channels between the Democrats and conservatives have deteriorated. The aggressive tug-of-war for power has left the electorate dissatisfied and alienated. They are discouraged from being involved and do not know where to place themselves in between the supposed extremes. Just like many conservatives, Roberts feels that America has been pushed far away from her original core values, but many Democrats, such as Beirich, are convinced that “Roberts, the Heritage Foundation, and its allies in Project 2025 want to reorder American society and fundamentally change it. He’s said the quiet part out loud.”

The routine political disagreements and cultural clashes over the meaning of the American Revolution, definitions of true American values, and whether America is progressing or declining have not been resolved or reconciled. These tensions have culminated into both sides of the political spectrum cowering further away from each other in mistrust, and other times even hatred. If there is no consensus on what are American values, then the capacity to productively discuss how to preserve and promote American values will be incapacitated. Each side will seem too unfamiliar and threatening to the other to possess a valid argument. The disparate views on even basic policy ideas will escalate into each political group being terrified of one another.

As of now, few political leaders are willing to agree on what the general American public wants. While conservatives are convinced that Americans desire the policy goals in Project 2025, for Democrats the core issue is their belief that the majority of Americans are absolutely opposed to the aims within Project 2025. Therefore, Democrats assume that conservatives possess an undisclosed plan to install authoritarianism and force the agenda’s implementation. Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, explained that “JD Vance embodies MAGA—with an out-of-touch extreme agenda and plans to help Trump force his Project 2025 agenda on the American people.” However, Trump praised the Heritage Foundation as a “great group” that would “lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do” when “the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”

“I will do everything in my power to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our nation— to defeat Donald Trump and his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Kamala Harris, Vice President and Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee as of July 25, 2024. (Image Credit: Lorie Shaul, Wikimedia Commons)

According to progressives, the most disconcerting aspects of Project 2025 include the recommendation to replace 50,000 government workers, according to conservatives, the “deep state” bureaucracy, with loyalists for former President Donald Trump. For Democrats, the intent of the architects of Project 2025 is to override the will of the American public with an army of loyalists who will eagerly implement a unified right-wing agenda without question, resistance, or hesitation. Republican operative and director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, Paul Dans, is investing crucial resources to scan social media platforms for potential loyalists and create a committee specifically designed to recruit “conservative warriors.” These efforts are depicted as extreme political behavior outside conservative circles. But within conservative circles, these efforts are normalized and justified as non-threatening. They are touted as necessary measures to ensure that government workers can work in unison to make America great again and cohesively repudiate the “woke” agenda that many conservatives assume Americans are quietly dissatisfied with. Dans boldly remarked, “We need to flood the zone with conservatives.”

While this seems like an extreme takeover, the aims appear to be formulated from a rational strategy. Kevin Kosar, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, complains that there are not enough conservatives in government. Likewise, Trump presents the concern that the federal workforce is filled with too many liberals. So will Project 2025 carve out a fairer ideological balance or usher in an autocratic monarchy poised to only do the bidding of Trump? Well, according to Kathryn Dunn Tempas, a senior fellow at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, the federal service isn’t in need of these seemingly self-serving reforms. “It’s just a dangerous sign. It really suggests that a president wants to aggrandize more authority and more power. And that should make everybody nervous.”

Due to the Heritage Foundation’s and allies’ perception of American roots, values, and culture, they believe there is no reason to fear. According to their perspective, the American public should celebrate these actions as a victory. The majority of Democrats and progressives resonate with Mary Guy, a professor of public administration at the University of Colorado Denver, who admits, “It frightens me.” For conservatives, this is a return to a fairer system. But for most Democrats and progressives, including Guy, it would bring a “return to a political spoils systems” and invite immense corruption.

July 5, 2024: “I have no idea who is behind it,” former President Donald Trump said. He continued, “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” July 11, 2024: “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it,” Trump wrote. “The Radical Left Democrats are having a field day, however, trying to hook me into whatever policies are stated or said. It is pure disinformation on their part. By now, after all of these years, everyone knows where I stand on EVERYTHING!” (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Other aims include abolishing the United States Department of Education and banning abortion. This extremism is the result of political factions within America clashing over what the education system should resemble and its purpose, and consequently refusing to accept any input from the other side that could balance policy recommendations. Is the United States Department of Education integral to America’s value system, or is it a parasitic entity that drains an oversized portion of our country’s resources and weakens America’s dominance in education? It is admittedly a relatively new creation that was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter as recently as October 17, 1979. But perhaps the formation of the U.S. Department of Education, with verifiable origins from 1867, sprung from a genuine need due to America’s culture and economy. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of unfettered access to abortion on January 22, 1973, with Roe v. Wade, also relatively new. However, as early as the 1930s, about 800,000 abortions were being performed annually by licensed physicians, and from the 1950s to the 1960s, an estimated 1.2 million illegal abortions were performed each year. So although abortions were intermittently illegal in many states throughout America’s history and the decision from Roe v. Wade is relatively recent, abortion is still a significant part of America’s cultural history. Does change or progress mean that America is betraying her true identity or finally recognizing herself and establishing new institutions such as the U.S. Department of Education to accommodate her growth?

The Heritage Foundation is also relatively new, with its founding in 1973. If new institutions and policy initiatives are to be viewed with suspicion and as a threat to original American values, then the Heritage Foundation meets the criteria for such suspicion. However, the Heritage Foundation has been the predominant conservative think tank, releasing conservative agendas that most progressives consider extreme since the 1980s. In addition, the political actors who assisted with crafting Project 2025 are quite notable. According to Vox, two-thirds of authors and editors already served in the Trump administration, such as HUD Secretary Ben Carson, acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, deputy White House chief staff Rick Dearbear, and top DHS official Ken Cuccinelli. Conservative politicians who support Project 2025 are also influential and familiar faces on the political landscape, such as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), Sen. Josh Hawley (R.-Mo.), Gov. Jim Justice (R-W.VA.), and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). So should the Heritage Foundation be looked at with suspicion? How about abortion? How about the U.S. Department of Education, or 50,000 federal workers? And how about Medicaid, enacted on July 30, 1965, even before the Heritage Foundation was founded? Many voters can’t seem to agree and are too collectively confused to confidently pinpoint American identity, values, and goals and hold all politicians accountable to them.

“He’s trying to hide his connections to his allies’ extreme Project 2025 agenda,” President Joe Biden said of Trump. “The only problem? It was written for him, by those closest to him. Project 2025 should scare every single American.” (Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Navigator Research, a progressive messaging and polling resource, attempted to discover how Americans felt about Project 2025 and unsurprisingly discovered that the electorate overall was clueless about its existence due to being disconnected from the political sphere altogether. Navigator Research found that seven in 10 Americans were too uninformed to have an opinion about Project 2025. Four in five Americans claimed that they never heard about Project 2025. So the American public does not appear terrified or galvanized by Project 2025. For Americans who are informed about Project 2025, there is either the extreme opinion that it “represents the next conservative Republican president’s last chance to save the republic, rescuing the country from the grip of the radical left through the right governing agenda and right leadership,” with the other side perceiving the project as “an extreme Republican plan that will give the president new and unchecked powers over federal agencies, eliminate abortion access, and roll back action on climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, and other areas.” The general consensus from Navigator Research is that once the previously uninformed learn more about Project 2025, their opposition grows exponentially, but historical political research has revealed that political apathy is the general state of the American public. Danielle Alvarez, a campaign spokesperson, stated, “Team Biden and the DNC are lying and fearmongering because they have nothing else to offer the American people.”

Overall, the American people don’t appear particularly frightened about Project 2025. Trump also downplayed the alarm with the quip that after Day One, once he closes the border and begins drilling, he will eschew the role as dictator. However, most Democrats and progressives feel that they are honestly informing the public about the danger of an authoritarian regime looming, especially after Trump commented in an interview with Glenn Beck that he will have no choice but to lock up political opponents. But will this be viewed with alarm and signal Trump’s secret ambition to be a dictator to the average voter, or be casually dismissed since Trump is also on the verge of being locked up by a political opponent? To the uninformed, it might be considered part of an intense political game that both sides willingly play. Despite it all, Democrats and progressives will continue to sound the alarm about the many dangers of Project 2025 far and wide to a largely disinterested, disengaged, confused, and politically apathetic American public.

TMZ Proceeds with Caution with the Documentary “The Downfall of Diddy”

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 09:27:00 +0000

TMZ’s The Downfall of Diddy takes a cautious approach to exposing Sean “Diddy” Combs. (Image Credit: Flickr)

The jarring title of TMZ’s first installment of The Downfall of Diddy suggests that this documentary was a front seat to an epic, almost Shakespearean demise of rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. However, within a couple of minutes, the documentary, released on April 30, 2024, lightens the load from the avalanche of lawsuits and accusations of criminality with a set of balanced perspectives from supporters and entertainment experts. Initially, the TMZ documentary almost appears sympathetic to P. Diddy. The explosive raid on his properties in Los Angeles and Miami by Homeland Security Investigations is placed under a critical lens by entertainment experts, who question in unison whether he poses a significant enough threat to society to justify such an aggressive show of force. But this sympathy is abruptly challenged when TMZ slyly inserts a cringe-inducing video clip of P. Diddy yelling manically, “I’m a savage! Whatever I want, I have to get!” So perhaps a self-proclaimed savage does need a military-grade force from law enforcement? The court of public opinion will decide, and TMZ will report it...cautiously.

TMZ ruminates over whether Sean “Diddy” Combs’ star power is fading.

Shortly afterwards, even the very title of this documentary is undermined as Stevie J., a loyal supporter of Sean “Diddy” Combs, expresses doubt that the backlash will cumulate into P. Diddy’s life-shattering downfall. Aubrey O’Day, a longstanding voice of opposition against P. Diddy, offers more justification for the downfall and the raid. She comments that if you incite his anger, your vehicle might just inexplicably and spontaneously explode. TMZ speculates about what P. Diddy’s downfall could entail and cautiously envisions different scenarios, such as maybe... perhaps... he might be sentenced to prison for life. TMZ once again betrays the title that boldly pronounced his downfall. TMZ is careful to not claim that it has all the answers, even as the public prods for more answers.

If there actually is a downfall of P. Diddy, TMZ pinpoints the source of his downward slide to Cassie Ventura’s lawsuit filed on November 16, 2023. Ventura’s lawsuit detailed allegations so disturbing that they motivated P. Diddy to swiftly settle with her the next day. Her lawsuit may have also motivated the raid. Marc Lamont Hill, BET News host, explained how Ventura’s lawsuit breathed new life into the numerous rumors that possess the capacity to permanently damage P. Diddy’s reputation. According to Lamont Hill, P. Diddy’s mistake was his refusal to settle the lawsuit before it was disclosed publicly. His mistake alludes to the Shakespearean characters whose uncontrollable pride and relentless hubris fuel blunders that result in their epic fall and eventual demise. Ventura’s lawsuit emboldened other alleged victims to file their lawsuits, and Lamont Hill notes that her lawsuit also activated the radars of law enforcement. Then TMZ slyly inserts another clip, perhaps as a stealth allegory to insinuate that P. Diddy’s head was getting too big from his swelling pride. He repeatedly brags about his hat, displaying an odd fixation with his gloriously decorated head.

Despite Sean “Diddy” Combs’ many controversies, he has been able to establish himself as a respected businessman. Sean “Diddy” Combs, Co-Founder and Chairman of Revolt, speaking at The Cable Show. (Image Credit: The Cable Show)

For a second, TMZ departs from caution and showcases opinions from the ever-dramatic and reckless social media voices who predict the high likelihood of Sean “Diddy” Combs going to jail. Just as it gets heated, TMZ carefully uses Stevie J.’s input to extinguish the flames. According to Stevie J., Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr.’s petition is riddled with holes because ultimately he is a fraud who is making a poor attempt at extortion. Stevie J.’s insights echo the statement from P. Diddy’s lawyer, Shawn Holley, who lambasted Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr. as nothing more than a “shameless fraudster looking for an undeserved payday” with false and fictional allegations. So is this a downfall of epic proportions? Or is this an unethical and multifaceted extortion scheme that P. Diddy has the capacity to disassemble by honestly proving his alleged innocence using his usual strategic prowess?

TMZ aggressively offers balance by legitimizing P. Diddy’s claims of an extortion attempt and detailing crucial issues with Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr.’s lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn. The New York federal court district issued an order on April 3rd placing Blackburn under investigation by a disciplinary committee. Federal Judge Denise Cote justified the order due to his penchant for improperly filing “cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly.” Lamont Hill offered more criticism of Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr.’s lawsuit. He observed that Jones Jr.’s civil lawsuit more resembled a tell-all rag.

The March 25th raid on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ properties resulted in the arrest of his associate Brendan Paul on suspicion of drug possession...but per usual not the arrest of P. Diddy.

Just when hope of a tangible downfall eclipses, TMZ outlines a history of P. Diddy’s extensive run-ins with the law and a timeline of intense controversies. TMZ professes that after each incident, he moves on unscathed and without being convicted of a serious crime. Usually, another less invincible individual from P. Diddy’s circle takes the fall, or the case is simply dismissed, and the stain on P. Diddy’s reputation fades from public consciousness. For example, many rumors have circulated about Jamal Barrow, a former Grammy Award-winning musician who was a Bad Boy Entertainment artist. He was sentenced to ten years in prison for assault and reckless endangerment. A few vocal members of the hip-hop community speculate that he may have served jail time on P. Diddy’s behalf. Natania Reuben, an NYC club shooting victim, maintains that it was P. Diddy who shot her in the face in 1999. So if history repeats itself, the allegations, lawsuits, and raids may not necessarily result in the downfall of Diddy but another less powerful accomplice.

Then there is the noticeable silence from Diddy’s vast and influential social circle. TMZ ponders whether the silence is due to the collapse of social support that usually precedes a downfall or whether the silence is their way of proceeding with caution due to their own fears of being exposed. TMZ briefly profiled an anonymous supporter of P. Diddy who wanted to openly support him but remained hidden because of P. Diddy’s enemies. TMZ concluded the documentary with Suge Knight showing support for P. Diddy due to their shared connection to hip-hop and the culture. I suspect that many others will remain loyal to Sean “Diddy” Combs for the same reasons even if they are or were adversaries.

Sean “Diddy” Combs appears to be in pursuit of reconciliation. In May 2021, he legally changed his name to Sean Love Combs. His explained recent efforts to The Breakfast Club in 2023, “You don’t have to make changes in the world, but if you have a chance to do the right thing, you do the right thing. That’s a world I want to live in. I want to be the change that I want.” Many individuals such as Aubrey O’Day question his true motives.

Despite TMZ’s title, the documentary keeps it safe by scrutinizing itself. Therefore, the question remains: Is P. Diddy truly experiencing a downfall? With so many powerful entities and individuals proceeding with caution, perhaps a Sean “Diddy” Combs downfall will not be as fast or as imminent as it seems.

Methods Landlords Nationwide Use to Illegally Evict Tenants

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Mon, 13 May 2024 07:10:00 +0000

Image by Mariah Hernandez via 500px

Illegal and Threatening Self-Help Methods Landlords are Using Nationwide to Evict Tenants

Despite the evictions moratoriums that have been implemented across America to stem the occurrence of homelessness during a pandemic that involves a contagious virus, many landlords are predominantly concerned about the bottom line. These landlords may be dealing with the pressure of paying for mortgages and are resentful of their non paying tenants even though the circumstances surrounding Covid-19 are beyond their tenants’ control. Other landlords have agendas beyond collecting money such as coercing their tenants into offering sexual favors. Whatever the agenda, many landlords are disregarding the evictions moratoriums, in favor of what is called self-help evictions.

Self-help evictions are defined as “when a landlord retakes possession of a property without using the eviction process. The use of self-help may amount to landlord harassment. Nearly every state prohibits a landlord from using self-help to evict a tenant.” Essentially a self-help eviction is when the landlord attempts to circumvent the court and legal processes to force a non paying tenant from the unit. By using this method, the landlord assumes that the eviction process can be faster and with less accountability. Amanda Golob, managing attorney of the housing law unit at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services in New Orleans, provides more insight, “They are creating an environment that forces the tenant to leave on their own.” Here are few methods that landlords having been utilizing during Covid-19 to force tenants from their units:

1. Pretending to be Supported by Law Enforcement

Location: Cobb County, Georgia
Even though Covid-19 is running rampant throughout the nation, this has not softened the stance of many landlords concerning rent. Generally legal evictions are supported by local law enforcement, but what if the eviction is illegal and the landlord simply wanted the eviction to appear legal? Economy Hotel Marietta, an extended-stay-hotel, found their solution by hiring someone to pose as a sheriff. Jeremy Rooks and his wife were abruptly kicked out by a man wearing a uniform with the likeness of a sheriff and a gun. The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office verified to Rooks “the gentleman in the video clip that you sent me is not Cobb County Sheriff’s Deputy.” The implication of violence added an element of danger to the situation, but that was the landlord’s intended effect. “When I found out they weren’t actually sheriff deputies, you know right then and there, I felt like me and my wife were in danger,” explained Rooks.

Prior to the pretend sheriff deceptively forcing them from the unit Brooks noted, “Every day they tried to basically get us out of there. It was basically like a game to them.” The landlord used relentless harassment to convince the tenants to leave in lieu of using the legal process. Atlanta Legal Aid summarized the legal implications of their landlords behavior: this was an illegal eviction and could be considered criminal.

Sources:
CBS46: Mystery ‘sheriff’ evicts couple from extended stay during COVID-19 crisis
KSTP: Tenants behind on rent in pandemic face harassment, eviction
KTLA 5: U.S. tenants behind on rent face evictions, harassment despite SCOTUS ruling

2. Illegal Lockouts

Location: Santa Clara County, California
Peloton Technology filed a lawsuit against landlord, Kelly Ventures, in the Santa Clara County Superior Court for allegedly locking them out the premises. According to the lawsuit, this lockout violates the countywide coronavirus eviction moratorium. Peloton Technology is at an economic disadvantage because their business was not deemed essential; despite their disadvantage if Kelly Ventures did lock out their commercial tenant they have violated the current eviction moratorium. Due to the lockout, now Peloton Technology is at risk of getting further behind. In addition to locking out the employees, Kelly Ventures allegedly shut off the power, “disabling servers and related systems to the extent that most Peloton employees can’t do key tasks,” the suit claimed. If too many businesses are illegally evicted from their spaces it could cause a sudden collapse of the economy. Aggressive eviction moratoriums have been put in place nationwide to prevent an economic cataclysm. In addition, like many businesses, Peloton Technology has had most of their employees working at home. Many businesses are balking at the idea of paying full rent for a space the stay-at-home orders prevented them from using.

Sources:

Marin Independent Journal: Silicon Valley trucking-tech firm claims landlord broke coronavirus eviction ban: lawsuit
The Mercury News: Silicon Valley trucking-tech firm claims landlord broke coronavirus eviction ban: lawsuit

Location: Chicago, Illinois
According to the Metropolitan Tenants Organization, in Chicago, calls about illegal lockouts has doubled from Mid-March to Mid-June. John Barlett, the executive director of the tenants group, explained that he has fielded 125 calls about illegal lockouts from March 18 and June 18. However it is not just the illegal evictions that this advocacy group is most concerned about. They are concerned about the amount of landlords that will be conducting legal evictions in the midst of a pandemic. Advocates believe that housing was already in crisis, but now the pandemic will worsen this crisis creating a cascade of homelessness.

Source:
Chicago Sun Times: Despite coronavirus eviction ban, some Chicago landlords are locking out tenants

3. Shutting Off Utilities

Location: Chicago, Illinois
Dean Thompson of Chicago Illinois, is a prime example of those who were already feeling the impacts of the housing crisis before the pandemic. Dean Thompson and her daughter were already two months behind on rent and owed $1350. In addition, her daughter’s small business declined even worse during the stay-at-home order which almost ensured that their financial woes will only deepen. Despite these issues, Thompson’s landlord violated the eviction moratorium by shutting off electricity to their apartment on her 67th birthday. The daughter called 311 and a city worker advised that the shut off was illegal. In addition to the utilities illegally being shut off, the rental company sent a male employee to intimidate them. Thompson remembers the unsettling encounter, “It made me real scared. I didn’t know what he was going to do. I was scared to leave the building.”

Source:
Chicago Sun Times: Despite coronavirus eviction ban, some Chicago landlords are locking out tenants

Location: New Orleans Area, Louisiana
Sada Jones, a 23 year old hotel cook, was furloughed on March 19th. Jones’ landlord, Joshua Bruno, has been taking aggressive measures against her such as cutting off her utilities. Jones described the dilemma, “I’m scared because I don’t want to move with the situation that’s going on with COVID, but I also don’t want to live in these conditions. I’m constantly anxious and paranoid about what they’ll do next. I don’t feel safe.” A few days later after Jones missed her April payment and after he sent maintenance workers to harass her, her landlord began to cut off an variety of utilities. He disconnected her air conditioning cables despite the hot weather and turned off power in parts of her apartment, including her kitchen. Jones reports that she no longer has a working stove. She concluded, that “I want to pay and I’ll pay as soon as I can, but I can’t give you something I don’t have.” Bruno’s harassment does not change that for now Jones should be protected until July 25, 2020 by a federal moratorium through the CARES ACT due to Bruno’s mortgage for the property being a Fannie Mae Loan.

Source:
NBC News: Some landlords are using harassment, threats to force out tenants during COVID-19 crisis

4. Manipulation and Illegal Use of Law Enforcement

Location: Orange County, North Carolina
Instead of hiring an individual to pose as law enforcement, more strategic landlords will misrepresent the tenants as trespassers. Many tenants may not realize that despite not paying rent, under the law they are still recognized as tenants until the court formally terminates this status. Jamie Paulen, founder of Paulen Solidarity and President of Tenant Rights, Inc., explained that landlords target low income tenants who do not know their rights. Joshua Bruno claimed that Sada Jones was trespassing and that there was an “open police investigation into her breaking back into her apartment.” Jones and attorneys with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services say that there was no evidence that Bruno has filed a police report or that there was an ongoing police investigation. However in some cases, landlords can successfully utilize the police to assist in an illegal self-help eviction.

“On April 15, a deputy knocked on my door and told us we were trespassing,” Barbara of Orange County, NC told ABC11. Barbara and her husband were unable to pay rent since her husband’s business, painting houses, dwindled. Prior verbal agreements that her husband would work in lieu of paying rent seemed to have been forgotten, negotiations broke down and the landlord’s daughter began harassing them and screaming at them. Despite the invalid orders from the deputy, Paulen said, “I actually did tell (Barbara) that she did not have to leave. I understand I’m the attorney and not the one living in those circumstances. I can only tell a client what the law is. And the law says your landlord can not do that. It’s unlawful.”

Sources:
ABC11: North Carolina’s Covid-19 eviction moratorium not stopping some landlords from forcing renters out
NBC News: Some landlords are using harassment, threats to force out tenants during COVID-19 crisis

5. Damaging Quality of Life

Location: Conway, Arkansas
Landlords may seek to damage your quality of life inside the unit by refusing to do maintenance work. Lease violations does not mean that the landlord is exempt from providing a livable environment, noted Hannah Adams, a legal aid attorney with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, who is representing Jones. In addition, instead of simply refusing to do maintenance work, landlords may use maintenance workers to break appliances. Bartlett described that at times landlords may even remove the toilets out of the unit. Maintenance workers may also be used as a tool for harassment which Sada Jones experienced.

Milton Light received a barrage of illegal attempts by his landlord to remove him from the property. Once Light lost his full time job as a coiled tube operator, he approached his landlord with honesty. However as an intimidation tactic, his landlord used this admission as a cue to begin showing the property to future tenants. Light said. “There were families coming through here to look at the house. Some of them didn’t know I was living in the house and I was under a lease and everything. She even got a new tenant to sign a lease, she texted him to say that the planned move-in date was April 7.

Frank Jenner, a Center for Arkansas Legal Services attorney who is representing Light states,“His landlord began a campaign to terrorize him.” Milton Light also claims that his landlord used every trick in the book to bully him into moving away from the property. His landlord tried to have his vehicle towed from his home by placing no trespassing signs around the home then calling the police. She filed a complaint with the Arkansas Department of Human Services alleging that his home was unsafe for his four young children. She aimed to ruin his reputation, “It’s in his best interest to figure this out quickly because if something gets on his record, it’s hard to remove,” Walker-Macklin wrote Sharika on April 12 in regards to falsely reporting Light for improper living conditions. Then while Light was away from his home Walker-Macklin had movers remove his items from the home and load them into a truck. Police had to intervene and place his belongings back into his home. “I was gone for an hour and I come back, and my stuff is moved,” Light said. “My living room set was loaded up on a trailer getting ready to move, I pulled my truck in front of that truck, as soon as I pulled up the landlord [started] fake crying.” According to Jenner, without a court order or Writ of Possession, Walker-Macklin is not legally authorized to remove Light or his belongings. Even though Arkansas has no statewide eviction moratoriums, there is suspicion that Walker-Macklin’s mortgage is an FHA loan thus placing Light under federal eviction protection until July 25, 2020. For now the property continues to be listed for rent while Light spends much of his time guarding his property from the next onslaught of attacks.

Sources:
Arkansas Times: No shelter in place: Conway renter says landlord tried to illegally force him out of his home
Chicago Sun Times: Despite coronavirus eviction ban, some Chicago landlords are locking out tenants
KATV: Conway landlord accused of 'self-help eviction’ caught removing tenant’s belongings
Legal Services Corporation: Conway Renter Says Landlord Tried to Illegally Force Him Out
NBC News: Some landlords are using harassment, threats to force out tenants during COVID-19 crisis

Institutionalized Food Waste in the Midst of Covid-19 Food Insecurity

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Mon, 13 May 2024 05:22:00 +0000

“I’ve never seen it so challenging before,” says James Caldwell, who has been the head of the Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank for more than 25 years. “Our distribution is up 30-50% over last year during this time frame. Even if you can only donate $1, $5, or $10, it all counts. We can do a lot with a few dollars.”

How America's Food Systems Struggled to Meet the Diverse Challenges of Covid-19

Novel Covid-19 presented an array of novel challenges that many systems within the U.S. struggled to meet. A significant system that is straining to meet these challenges include America’s national food system. It is widely acknowledged that America’s food system is structured to capture profit at every turn, but not necessarily structured to handle issues outside the profit motive such as reducing food insecurity. Unfortunately, public policy was not able to expend the necessary resources in time to distribute food to households whose income cause them to fall outside this profit structure. The policies that were enacted early on the Covid-19 pandemic were disjointed with the reality that the Covid-19 pandemic wrought.

Feeding America, through the Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap, projected that 17 million more people would be food insecure by the end of 2020 in comparison to 2018. They used very widely known and historically relevant variables that cause households within a specific geography to be vulnerable to food insecurity. The metrics that enabled Feeding America to formulate the projection that 54 million Americans would be food insecure by the end of 2020 included the poverty rate, median income, unemployment rate and percent of homeowners within a particular geography. When considering the effect of the Covid-19 on employment and incomes, these metrics provided a dire outlook for 2020 in terms of food insecurity. The ensuing unemployment rate from the lock-downs provided enough evidence alone that substantial policy solutions would be required to help the food system adjust to the demands of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, by April 25, 2020 the first time filing for unemployment benefits in just six weeks was 30 million. In the month of April, the first time weekly filings for unemployment benefits were above 3 million per week which was actually an improvement from the 6.9 million filed in the last week of March. Income, another metric used by Feeding America, dropped by two percent according to the Commerce Department. Many individuals were simply without income such as Tammy Devitoe, a single mother who was living on the financial margins as a waitress in New York lamented in early April, “How are people supposed to live a whole month without income. I’ve had to resort to begging online to complete strangers just so I can have enough money to eat and pay my bills.” A wave of articles detailed that a wave of bankruptcies were to be expected in the oil and retail industries which would further contract the economy and cause another wave of lost income. The expectation was that this contraction would add on the previously made prediction that the economy had contracted 40 percent within the April-June quarter.

Hey Y'all Detroit, a grassroots organization formed last summer by Charmane Neal, has been delivering free food boxes to Detroit neighborhoods since September. “The need for food has gotten worse,” Neal said. “I’ve had families reach out to me and say they haven’t really had a full meal in the last two weeks, which is breaking my heart,” said Neal. “I don’t know how it got bad again, but it’s pretty bad.” “People are filing unemployment, not getting their unemployment, they’re literally choosing between eating and paying their rent and so food insecurity has become a more prevalent issue,” she said. Image by Georgia National Guard on Flickr.

To make matters worse, only a small subset of people who filed for unemployment were actually receiving unemployment benefits. Nick Bunker, director of economic research at Indeed Hiring Lab, explained in April “Many workers are not eligible for unemployment insurance or continue to have difficulty getting through state systems. These numbers are staggering, but the reality of joblessness is even more dire.” It was also acknowledged by officials that America was in a dire economic situation with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell commenting in early April “that the U.S. economy is in an emergency and is deteriorating ‘with alarming speed’”. However, the metric that caused the food system to respond was the pronouncement that consumer spending had fell and most importantly the numbers showed that spending on groceries would not fill in the gap for consumption in restaurants. The response showed no regard for the impending food insecurity crisis. So, while the stories floated from all directions that unemployment was skyrocketing, poverty was increasing, evictions were increasing and household income was cratering the message to the food system prioritized was that consumer spending was down and the best response to minimize profit loss was to destroy millions of pounds of food.

“When the pandemic hit the supply chain, that spigot just shut off,” says Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks. She added, “We don’t have enough food in the system to keep up with this demand. We just don’t.”

The millions of pounds of food that were destroyed were the same millions of pounds of food that could have assisted with alleviating the expected food insecurity crisis. While food was being destroyed 30 million Americans filed for unemployment, and instead of a swift nationwide solution to address food insecurity there was a nationwide effort to destroy valuable food sources. In Wisconsin and Ohio, thousands of gallons of fresh milk were dumped. An Idaho farmer buried 1 million pounds of onions. When profit is the predominate concern, the insufficient or lack of buyers that could generate profit means no distribution even in the midst of a pandemic. The statistics were unbelievable, farmers were dumping about 3.7 million gallons of milk and smashing 750,000 unhatched eggs per week according to the Dairy Farmers of America. In Delaware and Maryland alone, 2 million chickens were depopulated according to the Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc. Although the Maryland Department of Agriculture was aware of the situation, nothing was done in terms of distribution, only to “continue to monitor for any developments.” All the metrics pointed to fact that more than monitoring the destruction of food sources was needed yet the profit motive prevailed. Eric Holt-Gimenez, former director of Food First and author of Can We Feed the World Without Destroying It, provides more insight, “The dairy industry has been in crisis for decades because of overproduction and consolidation. Low prices and thin margins have made farmers vulnerable to even small market disruptions. The Covid-19 is the straw that broke the camel’s back. One hopes this will lead to the reforms dairy badly needs – reforms that ensure a healthy, sustainable industry that can help rebuild a more decentralized, family farmer-friendly industry.” Although private industry was not structured to handle immediate changes, sadly no broad policy solutions were readily dispatched to assist food banks to possibility being able to store more perishable food or distribute more items to households who according to the metrics outlines by Feeding America, will be food insecure very soon. For example, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank alone has distributed 135 million pounds of food from March until November 2020. The need increased by a staggering 145 percent in compared to the need prior to the pandemic.

Lawrence DeHart, president of the Terrebonne Churches United Good Samaritan Food Bank in Houma, said the number of people his agency serves has doubled.“ The year before last, we did 10,500 people,” DeHart said. “In the last 12 months, we did 21,800.” Image of Edmonton Food Bank by Mack Male on Flickr.

The food system was primarily concerned with recouping the cost for “harvesting, processing and transporting produced and milk” and there were no mechanisms set in place to accommodate pandemic conditions even though it was warned that a worldwide pandemic was due. The emotional toll was heavy on farmers, with Paul Allen, co-owner of R.C. Hatton who said, “It’s heartbreaking” after having to destroy millions of beans and cabbage at his farms in South Florida and Georgia. Amanda Stone, PhD. Stone, a dairy scientist at Mississippi State University and an extension specialist, commented, “The psychological…damage that this is doing to producers is unfathomable, really,” in response to the realization that instead of reaping profit from recovering milk prices, they would have to destroy the product instead. Food insecurity also had a tremendous impact on the mental health of individuals who have to suffer through it. The Agriculture Department Coordination Center needed to anticipate that these food sources would be better utilized if they were preserved to feed future food insecure populations and to take an aggressive stance against simply destroying food. This was also realized in a letter to Trump as producers requested resources to help them shift operations to supply retailers, “This kind of transition, even if temporary, takes time and investment as we adjust our warehousing, logistics and purchasing processes to meet a consumer-facing market.” Since, it appears that the private food industry resists moving beyond profit, federal, state and local policies would need help to fill in this gap. The $19 billion relief Coronavirus Food Assistance Program provided $16 billion payments to farmers and $3 billion to be distributed but these funds are too little, too late to deal with the surpluses in the food system and the rising food insecurity. More needed to be done to connect the surplus to communities deprived of food because the food system is not able to achieve these aims on their own, because as Mike Cockrell, the chief financial officer said in response to the notion that he should donate some of his chickens to food banks, “We’re set up to sell that chicken. That would be an expensive proposition.”

Sources:

Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy: Food Insecurity during Covid-19, journal article published by Craig Gundersen, Monica Hake, Adam Dewey and Emily Engelhard, October 2, 2020.

CNBC: Wasted milk, euthanized livestock: Photos show how coronavirus has devastated US agriculture, article published May 2, 2020.

CNN: 30 million Americans have filed initial unemployment claims since mid-March, article published April 30, 2020.

CNN: 2 million chickens will be killed in Delaware and Maryland because of lack of employees at processing plants, article published April 26, 2020.

Common Dreams: As Food Banks Face Shortages and Fresh Produce Rots, Pandemic Spurs Calls for Sustainable Supply Chain, article published April 17, 2020.

Forbes: Farmers Face Their Worst-Case Scenario: ‘Depopulating’ Chickens, Euthanizing Pigs and Dumping Milk, article published April 28, 2020.

The Guardian: Farmers are destroying mountains of food. Here’s what to do about it, article published May 7, 2020.

News Center Maine: 30 million people have sought US jobless aid since virus hit, article published April 30, 2020.

The New York Times: Dumped Milk, Smashed Eggs, Plowed Vegetables: Food Waste of the Pandemic, article published April 11, 2020.

Politico: Food goes to waste amid coronavirus crisis, article published April 5, 2020.

Southern California Public Radio: Food Banks Struggle to Meet Demand During Covid Thanksgiving, article published November 26, 2020.

U.S. News: Record 30 million Americans File for Unemployment in Six Weeks Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, article published April 30, 2020.

Washington Post: America is in a depression. The challenge now is to make it short-lived, article published April 9, 2020.

Silent Social Pandemic: Sexual Harassment by Predatory Landlords

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Fri, 10 May 2024 02:45:00 +0000

Behind the sunny public service announcements admonishing happy middle class families and comfortable wealthy families to shelter-in-place to stay safe from Covid-19, there is another side to America that has been hidden, the struggles of financially vulnerable women. According to the surveys conducted by the National Fair Housing Alliance, its 80 fair housing groups across the country have experienced a 13% increase in sexual harassment complaints. Many of the images circulating during the pandemic are associated with warmth, safety and love however for many low income women who are a part of the percentage who have not paid rent or are at risk of not being to afford rent, these images betray reality. As opposed to comfort and safety, predatory landlords have deliberately transformed these womens’ homes into a virtual dungeon of terror, psychological torture and sexual violence in a perverted effort to abuse tenants who are financially trapped.

Landlords and Power

Silent yet Dominant Housing Culture Empowering Predatory Landlords

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, landlords are latently experiencing the most unprecedented rise in power in recent history. The power imbalance between low income tenants and predatory landlords have grown, creating fertile ground for dangerous and abusive conditions. Many landlords have sensed this increase in power and are quickly moving to capitalize on it by unveiling their predatory natures through abusive sexual demands. While Covid-19 has granted landlords power, the cultural acceptance of preying on financially vulnerable women has been a primary force in bolstering their power and writing the script on how landlords should react to their own power.

A news headline detailing sexual harassment by landlords showcases this acceptance with the featured quote by Jabola-Carolus, “Landlord coercion has always been a reality, but we’ve never seen anything like this" . The poignant statement that landlord coercion has always been a reality was not addressed in depth and instead the focus seemed to be the shock that this sexualized aspect of housing culture that has guided how many landlords treated women has now become overt and more widespread. According to Sandra Park, senior attorney at ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project, sexual harassment related to housing has historically received little attention since the issue predominately targets low income women. Sandra Park, explains, “If you think about #MeToo and attention to sexual harassment and employment, that affected women of all economic classes. This issue has always targeted low-income women particularly…”

Therefore despite the presence of robust and aggressive housing laws, culture is providing sexually predatory landlords the protection they need to continue harming women. In addition, Covid-19 is a novel phenomenon and new untested laws such as eviction moratoriums have been propped up to protect tenants while cultural norms validating sexual exploitation are already deeply entrenched in housing. In fact society almost appears content with sexual predators harming members of a socially stigmatized group and stigmatized individuals. Therefore the eviction protection policies have been constructed on shaky foundation and have been easily undermined by the dominant quiet narratives that shape attitudes about housing access. Rachel Garland, an attorney at Community Legal Services in Philadelphia outlined the situation, “Even if they can’t be evicted right now, if the courts are closed, the landlords are sending threatening emails, text messages, asking for rent, threatening to lock tenants out.” Financial duress already causes a sense of disempowerment but with landlords holding such much cultural power many low income women feel too disempowered to report such behavior enabling the landlord to be a repeat offender.

The culture of sexual exploitation should not be allowed to dominate how housing is distributed and rewarded, instead knowledge of various laws such as the Fair Housing Act, state tenant-landlord laws and the Justice for Victims of Sex Trafficking Act of 2015 need to have a place in casual discussions about housing. The knowledge of these laws need to compete with the idea that men are sexually entitled to financially vulnerable women. When Attorney General William Barr outlined in a memo to an audience of attorneys the action to take against landlords sexually harassing tenants, the tone was more aligned to the law and less compliant. Barr declared, “Such behavior is despicable, and it is illegal. This behavior is not tolerated in normal times, and certainly will not be tolerated now”. These law based attitudes that recognize that sexually harassing tenant is illegal need to be more common in society.

Collapse of Mainstream Resources

Institutional resources to combat sexual harassment associated with housing was already limited due to the issue largely being a quiet part of housing culture, but the very institutions themselves are now invisible due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Shelter-in-place laws have systematically distanced tenants from institutions external to the home that could provide some accountability and even competition for the landlord. For example, in Hawaii a tenant normally could report the offending behavior to the Hawaiʻi Civil Rights Commission (HCRC) however they were closed due to the pandemic up until June 10. In addition many courts were closed which encouraged inaction by victims and other institutions that remained opened such as the Legal Aid Society were more likely than not stressed.

The sudden lapse of funds resulting from the hasty shelter-in-place policies have assisted in the collapse of entire industries which in turn has caused a collapse of social and financial resources for the low income women targeted. For example, “Jabola-Carolus noted that in Hawaii the now-collapsed tourism industry has created a particularly volatile situation for its many Latino, immigrant, and Native Hawaiian women workers.” The collapse of industries has been concentrated in the retail and the food service sector which employs a vast amount of women and provides valuable services to many women. More frightening the pandemic has caused a visible absence of resources which removed the ability of financially vulnerable women to hide their economic struggles while they discreetly improve their situation. These circumstances encourage predatory landlords to be more emboldened with their efforts, to feel invincible and feel above the law. In addition, the eviction moratoriums provide some assistance but did not address a multi-set of issues such as harassment and the impacts of owing months of rent. A solid plan was not put in place beforehand to provide solutions for sexual harassment that may ensue due to how the efforts to contain Covid-19 has inadvertently isolated vulnerable women. More importantly, resources other than just having a job to make enough money to pay rent or being able to report predatory landlords are needed. Renee Williams, a senior staff attorney at the National Housing Law Project explained, "Landlords have all the leverage in the landlord-tenant relationship and in these types of situations, they especially prey on women who are vulnerable, who are housing insecure, have bad credit or who don't have anywhere to go. We've already seen that the pandemic is exacerbating a lot of systemic issues and sexual harassment targeted at tenants by landlords is likely to be one of these issues." This indicates that solutions need to be multifaceted such as providing personal financial classes in high school to lessen the occurrence of bad credit within vulnerable communities and affordable housing to alleviate housing insecurity. Overall despite the assurance by advocates that solutions and resources are plentiful, the process for getting justice and to gain access to resources that shield oneself from predators appear nebulous.

A Closer Look

Savvy predators are experts at not providing proof of their behavior through sexually explicitphotos, written date requests or asking for other ‘sexual’ arrangements while witnesses who support the victimized tenant are present however overt predators do provide some insight. A sexually predatory landlord named Eddie who became so emboldened that he flagrantly broke the law was recently investigated by the Department of Justice. The Craigslist ad which dripped with illegal intentions detailed his demands, entitled “Room Share for Submissive Female.” “If you are a submissive female 20-50 years old and into the SM lifestyle on a moderate to extreme level and looking for a safe place to stay … and wanting to barter session/playtime once per week in lieu of rent we should talk. During these hard times Covid-19 has thrown many in a tailspin. But if you don’t mind the situation for a simple safe clean environment why not.” This predator, as many predators, was selecting a victim that would submit to his sexualized demands without question. He also is searching for a desperate woman who is more willing to engage in activity than many would not be in mainstream society. He assumed that he was taking advantage of future victims that do not have a safe place to stay at. These facts do not invoke a sense of compassion but instead a hardened desire to exploit them. Then he pretends as if these terms are fair or will be fair by suggesting he will negotiate with usage of the word barter. He is explicitly and knowingly taking advantage of a worldwide pandemic that is killing thousands and acting as if this is a flippant decision. However his behavior is anything but simple. He then lies and claims that this situation will be safe and clean when sexual predators who exploit others in difficult times to take advantage of the power imbalance are incapable of providing safety. In fact the primary objective of the predator is to find a victim who they can disregard the safety of, not provide safety.

Alycia Powers, a producer for "Inside Edition", posed as a future tenant and responded to the ad. Eddie quickly took control demanding she “wear my hair down, no jewellery, and minimal makeup. And then meet him in the room, undress and put on a pair of stilettos he got me.” As most abusers, his appetite for control started with the victims appearance but overtime would have extended to other intimate aspects of her life. I doubt that the quality of the housing he is providing is worth giving someone this type of control over their life. Despite his depravity he was still able to maintain that he was “really a decent guy”. If institutions can utilize enough resources to change this unhealthy culture, then any individual as depraved as Eddie will be less able to convince themselves of their decency, his social group will be less accepting his behavior and more vulnerable women can be protected.

Sources:

The Baltimore Sun: A tidal wave of bankruptcies is coming, article published June 21, 2020.

Buzzfeed.News:Her Landlord Asked To Spend The Night With Her After She Lost Her Job And Couldn’t Afford Rent, article published May 14, 2020.

Buzzfeed.News:Landlords Are Allegedly Asking For Sex From Tenants Who Can't Afford To Pay Rent Right Now, article published April 15, 2020.

CBS News: Justice Dept targets landlords demanding sexual favors in lieu of rent during pandemic, article published April 23, 2020.

Independent:New York landlord caught offering rent-free accommodation in exchange for sex, article published May 1, 2020.

JDSUPRA:Retail Industry Turns to Bankruptcy Due to COVID-19, article published June 11, 2020.

KTLA5: Tenants behind on rent face harassment, eviction across U.S. amid pandemic, article published June 13, 2020.

Medium: Property Pimps: What to Do If Your Landlord Pressures Sex for Rent During COVID-19, article published April 8, 2020.

NBCNews:Landlords are targeting vulnerable tenants to solicit sex in exchange for rent, advocates say, article published April 17, 2020.

Time:Renters Are Being Forced From Their Homes Despite Eviction Moratoriums Meant to Protect Them, article published April 15, 2020.

The United States Department of Justice: DOJ Increases Efforts to Combat Sexual Harassment in Housing During the COVID-19 Pandemic, article published May 5, 2020.

The United States Department of Justice: U.S. Attorney asks public to report predatory housing practices amid COVID-19 pandemic, article published May 4, 2020.

Vice: The Department of Justice Is Going After Landlords Asking Tenants for Sex When They Can't Pay Rent, article published April 24, 2020.

The Wall Street Journal: More Tenants Paid Rent on Time in May, but Activists Press On With Strikes, article published May 8, 2020.

The Case Against Ultra-Processed Snacks Being Displayed in Checkout Aisles

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Thu, 09 May 2024 23:11:00 +0000

Prior exposure to images or advertisements of sweets and sugary beverages can prime consumers to purchase ultra-processed snacks on impulse once inside of a grocery store.

An Overview of Why Many Public Health Experts are Against Ultra-Processed Snacks Being Located in Checkout Aisles.

        Public health officials are educated on how to examine public health issues from a broader perspective and investigate dysfunctional systems. The sentiment that individuals are deficient in self control and need to exercise more will power does not qualify as a sufficient response or adequate solution to a public health crisis that vexes a large portion of the nation such as obesity. Therefore, when tackling obesity public health officials and researchers opt for reform within adjoined systems, such food systems, to alleviate major public health issues.

        Covid-19 has exposed obesity as a public health issue that invites a host of other public health epidemics. For example, a major factor that determines the mortality rate from Covid-19, the severity of the symptoms inflicted by Covid-19, and the difficulty in recovery for those infected with Covid-19 is obesity. This realization set in motion Berkeley, California’s ordinance which will prohibit the sale of ultra-processed snacks such candy and chips in the checkout aisle for retailers greater than 2,500 square feet starting March 2021. The sale of candy in the checkout aisle is a familiar and even expected sight. The display of ultra-processed snacks at first glance seem to be a minor issue and this ordinance just a superficial fix for obesity. However, those who understand behavioral economics know what is at stake. Councilmember Kate Harrison, who voted for the ordinance stated in a meeting that the ordinance was, “really good behavioral economics. It facilitates better choices for consumers but does not limit what they can buy.” Her comment suggests she is confident that this ordinance is a significant triumph and will help to shift how the food system operates in Berkeley, California and in turn change how consumers are influenced. This is a change that seeks to dislodge the advent of unhealthy snacking from American diets. According to research by Masterfoods, TDS, Wrigley, Dechert-Hampe & Co. in 2010, when 1,300 shoppers were interviewed, 60 percent said they had bought candy from the checkout aisles in the past six months. This gives a clue into the driving force in the increase in snacking by Americans. Public health officials and experts believe that the recent pervasiveness of placement marketing is causing a deadly transformation in the American diet. This ordinance is a first step in reversing this damage.

        Those who oppose banning ultra-processed snacks from checkout aisles, argue that the lack of self control is the primary obstacle to purchasing healthy food and that the lapse of self control should not invalidate that the item was desired at that moment of purchase. In addition, they contend that overall consumers are making rational decisions when they shop for food. However, self control can be compromised by many uncontrollable factors such as willpower fatigue, fatigue from over-stimulation at the store, stress, distractions and even decision fatigue. These overwhelming forces can cause one to purchase items that are not necessarily desired. In addition, rational thought requires a significant amount of effort when under duress and many shoppers towards the end of their trip succumb to the lure of impulse marketing which profits from the “spur of the moment” and emotionally charged purchase. To compound matters even more, these are the exact circumstances that cause our primal instincts to gravitate toward foods with high sugar, “The food industry has made a fortune because we retain Stone Age bodies that crave sugar but live in a Space Age world in which sugar is cheap and plentiful. Sip by sip and nibble by nibble more of us gain weight because we can’t control normal, deeply rooted urges for a valuable, tasty and once limited resource,” explains Daniel E. Lieberman, who is a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University.

        However, the phenomenon that public health officials are most grappling with are the mass influx of impulse purchases of ultra-processed snacks. Impulse decisions, which are made without conscious awareness, are fueled by automatic unconscious responses. While retailers claim that these impulse purchases reflect the consumers’ wants, many public health officials doubt this claim and would rather honor the consumers’ conscious food based goals which are often made prior to entering the store. For example, regret is the conscious aftermath that many shoppers feel after the unhealthy checkout purchase. A survey by the nonprofit nutrition advocate the Center for Science in the Public Interest found that 76% of shoppers who purchased unhealthy food or beverages at the checkout counter experienced regret.

        Many public health officials believe these impulse buys are particularly dangerous because it is a shot of impulse calories, sugar and sodium that can accumulate under the radar and cause slow damage to the body until a visible and debilitating ailment is detected. Even though shoppers make rational goals before entering the grocery stores like a New Years resolution to lose weight, the deliberate placement of tempting items can beckon impulses to override this rationality. A shopper, Lauren Crabb, explained this brief process that is having long term consequences on public health, “I spend a ton actually buying – I fall for the, ‘oh, I’ll just grab one candy as a treat,’” she said. Rafael Del Rio who is a store manager at Mi Tierra, a store that already limits the display of ultra-processed snacks in the checkout aisle, also noticed the impact of the impulse, “We noticed that people tend to purchase that which is accessible to them at the last minute or they’re about to pay, out of impulse or just out of visually attracted to the product or being hungry or whatever the situation may be.” Jessica Almy, the Director of Policy for The Good Food Institute, believes that such exploitation of our vulnerabilities is unethical, violates consumer rights and like many other public health officials, she concludes that since our external environment has a tremendous influence over us, public policy must be implemented to make our environment more amicable to good health.

Many public health experts want to replace the consistent exposure of unhealthy foods in checkout aisles with healthier options to create food environments that support good health.

Food retailers have skillfully evaded any morsel of responsibility for the obesity epidemic by refocusing the attention to the consumers and laying the blame squarely on their shoulders …or in this case on their eyes. However, many public health officials are committed to providing a food environment that supports healthy decisions. For example, Ashley Hickson, a senior policy associate at Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a national consumer advocacy organization hopes this ordinance will clean up the food environment at checkout aisles by reshaping grocery stores to be a “more neutral and health-promoting space for consumers.” Public health officials and experts doubt that personality flaws are the main reason why consumers pay more attention to ultra-processed snacks than healthy food. Instead, many public health professionals recognize that the attention grabbing characteristics and strategic placements of the displays are constructed to capture and then direct shoppers’ attention in any given direction. Even in the midst of blaming shoppers for their lack of control, food manufacturers are intimately familiar with the power of placement and by 2003 collectively spent $9 billion on placement fees just to be on the shelf of a particular grocery store. The result of all these placements all vying for our attention? Deborah Cohen, senior physician policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and the author of “A Big Fat Crisis: The Hidden Influences Behind the Obesity Epidemic—and How We Can End It” offers some insights, “The food environment has become a tsunami. If it doesn’t drown us, it waterlogs even the strongest of swimmers, who have to exert more energy, be more alert and more conscientious than ever before just to stay afloat.”

Unbeknownst to many, behind the scenes retailers are employing eye tracking equipment and technology to learn how to manipulate shoppers’ eyes towards a display to guarantee that they are not overlooked. Public health officials realize that people often do not have full control over their gaze. Therefore, many public health officials aim at reducing the bombardment of what many call pollution in the food environment, even in micro environments such as checkout aisles. Berkeley, California’s healthy checkout ordinance indirectly defines this pollution as food with more than 5 grams of added sugar and more than 200 milligrams of sodium added per serving. A 2015 research study by the University of Illinois’ Bridging the Gap program conducted a review of 8,617 stores—including supermarkets, drug stores, convenience stores, and dollar stores—across 468 communities throughout the United States. The study revealed that 88 percent of those stores displayed candy at checkout, 97 percent of supermarkets displayed candy and 93 percent of supermarkets sold sugar-sweetened beverages in the checkout aisles. This is a dangerous finding once put into context. When suffering from fatigue and especially towards the end of a mentally exhausting shopping trip, the brain begins to rely on mental shortcuts to make purchases. These large displays of ultra-processed snacks at the checkout aisle force visual interaction with items that has the potential cause diabetes and obesity and the location at the register provides easy access for a quick thoughtless purchase.

Our collective food environment shapes our lifestyles and dominates our perception of what is normal, even if not healthy. The food environment can be reshaped by changing what is available. “We need to clean up the food environment the way environmentalists have been cleaning up our natural environment,” says Jessica Almy, “We need to get rid of all of this pollution in our food environment, and the checkout is a good place to start. These are not foods people need, and they are not planned purchases. There is no reason that stuff needs to be there.”

Sources:

Berkeleyside: Berkeley will be first in the nation to ban candy, soda at checkout aisles, article published September 23, 2020.

Canadian Medical Association Journal: Call to reduce junk food at checkouts, article published January 6, 2015.

CBS SF Bay Area: Berkeley Approves ‘Healthy Checkout Ordinance’ Banning Junk Food Sales By Grocery Registers, article published September 23, 2020.

Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI): Sugar Overload: Retail Checkout Promotes Obesity, report published by Priya Fielding‐Singh, M.A., Jessica Almy, J.D., M.S., Margo G. Wootan, D.Sc., October 2014.

Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI): Temptation at Checkout: The Food Industry’s Sneaky Strategy for Selling More, report published by Jessica Almy, J.D., M.S., and Margo G. Wootan, D.Sc., August 2015.

NBC Bay Area: Checkout Stand Junk Food Banned From Large Grocery Stores in Berkeley, article published September 23, 2020.

The New England Journal of Medicine: Candy at the Cash Register — A Risk Factor for Obesity and Chronic Disease, perspective published by Deborah A. Cohen, M.D., M.P.H., and Susan H. Babey, Ph.D., October 11, 2012.

New York Post: This city just banned candy from supermarket checkout aisles, article published September 25, 2020.

Supermarket News: Retailers should remove junk food from checkout aisles, article published July 24, 2014.

Love Me (2014) Documentary Discussion

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 05:17:00 +0000

Photo by Ben Rosett on Unsplash

Love Me

USA, 93 min.

Directed by Jonathon Narducci

“Love Me” is a delightful documentary that follows four Western men, Travis Needham, Eric Ireton, Bobby Cannon and Ron Kirby on a painful yet hopeful quest for love...or they thought they were on a quest for love. When the interviewer asked the men at the beginning of the documentary to define love, the men at first seemed cynical and grappled with answers but soon idealistic definitions of love began to flow. One man defined love as “When you can look in each other’s eyes and just know they’re gonna- she’s gonna be there for you.” Another defined love as “It’s that feeling of I can’t live without her. Don’t want to live without her.” While another man described love as, “You wanna be with someone, take care of someone, be close with someone”. These were definitions of love that could only flourish in a utopia or with determined couples with large amount of awareness of themselves and their environment. Then I realized a secret to the success of the featured mail order bride service, A Foreign Affair with the tag line “where true love knows no boundaries”. A secret was the men’s refusal to perceive society for what it is and their ignorance of how members of society organize themselves socially. Usually these codes of organization are based on ideals which are directly opposed to idealized versions of love. In fact, much of society organize themselves on ideals more aligned with resource acquisition and status. Most importantly was the men's unyielding inability to be honest about themselves and what they are truly looking for. All of these conditions lead to the men maintaining unrealistic expectations, which in turn create the perfect conditions for A Foreign Affair to profit handsomely.

The idealistic definitions mentioned in the beginning of the movie faded into the background the further these men were away from America. While at the location, Ukraine, where they were to find love, these idealistic definitions were ironically supplanted with the age-old pursuit of beautiful women. The men recanted with nervous excitement of their newfound access to beautiful women. The first qualities Cannon stated in his search for a bride were based on appearance. He specifications pinpointed, “women that have black hair, blue eyes.” It appeared to me that beauty, esteem, status, sexuality, fun and a big party grew to become the object of their pursuit in lieu of love for most of the men. Kirby, who was apprehensive about dancing due to his Southern Baptist upbringing, debated with the interviewer on he whether dance but when an attractive women walked by he sized her up and declared, “If I find the right one, I might,” suggesting that a beautiful woman might have the power to change his stance to dance.

The dating service website, A Foreign Affair, has helped to promote the idea that Ukrainian women care more about family than work and the men fed into this idea without abandon. Per usual, instead of genuinely engaging with the society in which they live, they have ignored how history has shaped how American and Ukrainian society function. For example, it is not necessarily feminism that is the cause of American women being introduced to the world of work but instead World War II. Housewives were being implored from all angles to help with the war effort. If Ukrainian women had experienced similar conditions as American women, then Ukrainian women may have organized themselves and how they express their values more similarly to American women. In addition, the economy in the Ukraine is simply not as robust as America. According to the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine is now recognized poorest country in Europe as of 2019. The GDP per capita in 2018 was $2,963. Due to the fall of communism, Ukraine’s GDP fell 61 percent between 1989–99. While Ukraine’s is economy is steadily emerging, perhaps women participate less in the workforce because they have no choice.

It is hard for many of these Western men to move beyond shallow stereotypes of Eastern European women because they remain uneducated about global affairs and they are not thoughtful about affairs in their own nation. Men such as Eric who “really didn’t even know what Ukraine was” is an easy target of the fantasies promoted by the dating services which continually claim that dating these women is like dating a woman from the 1950s. This claim was expertly juxtaposed with a scene of several Ukrainian women engaging in a near strip tease with one jubilant man in the background. Speaking of promoted... I wondered how Needham’s innocent search to find a romantic partner led to the scandalous hunt for a mail order bride. At first, I thought Needham may have been dishonest about how he came cross the site. But after a bit a more thought I realized that his frequent visits to dating sites may have made him a target market demographic for the seductive ads that lured him to opt for a mail order bride.

Then it all made sense! How will these men ever find their idealized versions of love from dating services that earn more from packaging sellable traits. But can love be packaged and sold? The business models of each dating website that the men engaged with, including A Foreign Affair, have dictated how the women interacted with them. I don’t think the men have made this connection yet. For example, Cannon was excited that ten women wrote back to him. It seemed believable to him due to the widespread stereotypes that Eastern European women are more agreeable and submissive than American women. However, he failed to recognized that for A Foreign Affair there was more profit to be earned from the women writing back because of the imposed translating fee that the site collected. Perhaps the American dating websites are more profitable where the conditions lead to the woman appearing more elusive even if these conditions were artificially created.

Since I doubt love can be packaged and sold by ruthless businesses, these men’s look for love may have been slyly converted into a look for a beautiful, long term sex partner without their awareness. Based on how the women were advertised, I think I might be right. When one of the men gave an inside of A Foreign Affair website, it was an influx of small sexy profiles. Their name, age, weight and height were listed like specifications on a merchandise such as a car. I believe a website like this with the hundreds of beautiful women waiting to be messaged being shown on one screen alone, could be very addictive to men. This site sells the idea of accessibility to beautiful women to increase their profit margin. A Foreign Affair gave the men more faith in Eastern European women and with more faith equals more money they are will to part with. These emotional investments, which were made before meeting the women, allowed the men to stay in a fantasy land. While Ron became disenchanted with the American based dating websites because the dates only last five minutes, it is easier for a dating service to drain money in a situation where the men do not meet the women for a while and can maintain the mental image of a fault free mail order bride.

Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash

One man, Bobby Cannon, exemplified a target demographic for such a site. He was in a deep pursuit of a woman named Julia, that he claimed looked like Angelina Jolie. On his featured Romance Tour, he was left standing alone and seemingly unwanted with a thoughtful gift in the midst of happy, partying matches. To add to the pain, he had emotionally and financially invested with daily letters over several months which costed $9,854. The mail order service bestowed a lot of hope but somehow managed to recreate the same disappointingly rejection he had in America which will most likely deepen his feelings of undesirability and sink him deeper in the financial hole. The site most likely wanted to continue his mental fantasy and kept Julia elusive. However, in the end A Foreign Affair finally set up the date. As described by the man, the Julia seemed disconnected from him and did not recognize any of the photos of the life events he discussed in the letters which made it obvious to me that she probably never wrote the letters. Despite the potential that she never read the letters or wrote back he rushed in a proposal for marriage to which she accepted with nervous excitement. The confusing interaction ended with a hasty engagement. He remains in denial of the site but even worse he remains in denial of himself and his own aims. He does not want to confront the reality that his feelings of affection and that the fact that he "cannot get this girl out his mind" probably does not derive from the emotional connection from the questionable letters. Ultimately the engagement was broken when Julia was unable to provide personal details about herself and his demands for answers caused a schism in the supposed relationship. I suspect that a translator was writing and reading all the letters to drain more money from Cannon despite the claim from John Adams, the president of A Foreign Affair that this is a “very real process”.

After the engagement was broken, he suffered from what he described as a depressed state. This depressed state created the perfect conditions for the dating service to continue to profit from him since after the depressed state he became hooked on the website again. He of course had another sexualized photo of an attractive brunette, Vita, to boost his esteem after such a humiliating endeavor with Julia. The cycle continues but this time the site has fined tuned how to extract more money out of Cannon and is more attuned to his desire for personable letters. The interviewer asked if he was writing to a photo and after pondering a bit, Cannon said yes. The melancholy expression in his eyes shows that he has sadly accepted this circumstance as a part of his online “dating” life. The ending scene returns back to the question of defining of love with interviewer directing the question to the wife of the president of A Foreign Affair, Tanya Adams. Adams cried while offering her heartfelt and idealistic definition of love, “Love is when you can say that I will just give my life for somebody,” which of course is full contradiction to the ideals promoted by the very dating site she earns a living from.

Labor Union Idealism versus Chicago Teamster Corruption

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 03:29:00 +0000

Image from Matt Michalski

        Narratives about the income gap between the 1 percent and the 99 percent, and now possibly between the 20 percent and the 80 percent have proliferated since the Great Recession. These prominent narratives have helped usher the rise of minimum wage across key cities and may have indirectly bolstered President Trump's presidential campaign. As cities suffer from de-industrialization and "gig economy" becomes an actual term to describe post modern employment, solutions bounce from think tanks, colleges, governmental institutions and even around dinner tables. Some solutions directly oppose one another, other solutions are deconstructed only to be reconstructed to fit the problems enumerated in these consistent narratives, while other solutions circulate within the channels of popular discourse.

        The focus on labor has dominated the core of many proposed solutions. The mainstream thought is that if labor conditions improve, income will invariably increase, which could close many troubling gaps such as the education gap. The closing of these gaps would assuage many other issues associated with political and social disenfranchisement. Who are the most likely experts and heroes of labor, well of course labor unions. Even labor unions offer themselves up as solutions, with the Teamsters touting themselves as the guardian of social justice. Many videos, articles and books point to the decline of aggressive labor movements and union membership as major obstacles to improving labor conditions and sustaining the middle class. In fact many experts correlate the decline of union membership to the decline and the increased vulnerability of the middle class. The history of labor unions have been sanitized and glamorized to the benefit of their collective legacies, especially the Teamsters and in particular Chicago Teamsters. The historical figures who scorned at and sought to destroy the Teamsters may have inadvertently strengthened the movement for the present times. The scorn was often baseless, callous and ran contrary to labor realities thus rendering them useless. Ironically it may be labor union idealism , drained of constructive criticism, that could damage the movement, as the Chicago Teamsters shuffle from one corruption scandal to the next. In a sense idealism could be more dangerous than scorn as it is based on a very real historical legacy, a tool that the Chicago Teamsters now use to shield themselves from scrutiny.

        The idealists highlight what the collective labor unions can and have accomplished but the Chicago Teamster corruption runs contrary to these ideals. Idealists have neglected to address or confront that the culture of corruption throughout history has festered for decades and into 2017, cannibalizing the union just when the labor needs another movement. The union is under the threat of tearing itself apart with the disillusioned members forming a side movement, called Teamsters for a Democratic Union. David Bernt, a rank-and-file union member from Chicago, remarked that the, "Members hate corruption and the givebacks and sellouts at contract time. Backed by Teamsters for a Democratic Union, the reform movement is rising to take power from ineffective and corrupt officials who are killing the unions.” Idealists claim that dedication to union membership will pay off in time with higher wages but does this accommodate reality when corrupt Teamster officials in Chicago conspire to accelerate the rise of non-unionized workers who earn 1/3 third of what Teamster union members earn. For example, In 2011 John T Coli Sr. assisted in allowing jobless Teamsters to be displaced by exploited workers to save the city money, which adds credence to the theory that union workers add less value than non union workers. Union leaders are supposed to advocate for the advancement of union workers, not tarnish their image by agreeing with the enemies of unions.

        We learn from the idealists that most voices and forces who appear to be in defense of labor and labor unions can be trusted, because historically there was little to gain from defending an organization in war with powerful business leaders. However, according to a federal investigation individuals who were fired from the Teamsters were still allowed to remain active in the labor union. Their participation was largely unquestioned and their determination to remain visible overlooked. However it's probably because they desired to remain connected with the Teamsters, now a well financed and powerful institution. The geographical concentration and the penetration of the Teamster legacy within the hearts and minds of the people give them real power to cause economic harm. Now corrupt Chicago Teamster leaders deliberately wield this same power against labor, forcing them to be unknowing pawns for the deals made between themselves, business leaders and political figures.

        In a recent corruption scandal, John T Coli betrayed the labor union by extorting $100, 000 in cash from Cinespace Chicago Film Studio. This ill gained money was not distributed among the members nor was the business economically harmed due to labor abuses but simply because Coli Sr. was endowed with enough power from the Chicago Teamsters to financially gain. He was willing to threaten work stoppages and labor unrest against the interest of the people. Sadly in a city that is de-industrializing as rapidly Chicago, the creative fields are exactly the type of employment that could assist in the city's redevelopment.

        The very institutions that historically victimized the labor unions now silently accept the abusive presence of corrupt Chicago Teamsters in hopes of cashing out. For example, the Chicago Teamsters contributed $35,000 to Mayor Rahm Emanuel for a 2011 campaign and to support Emanuel's second term a massive $134, 700. In 2003 the Chicago Teamsters under Coli Sr. leadership contributed $100, 000 to the Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. In fact the National Teamster base has contributed over $1 million dollars to federal candidates in the 2016 cycle. However the narrative of the victimized union leader remain, stifling any true criticism. This political clout earned Coli, Sr. an appointed seat with the Illinois Labor Advisory Board in 2015 for Governor Rauner. Now that the Teamster coffers are full, it can accommodate the combined salaries of $615, 000 for Coli and his two sons in 2012 and in 2014 Coli Sr. alone was paid more than $347, 000 solidly placing him and his family in the top 1 percent. Do idealist conceptions of labor unions offer perspectives and solutions for this troubling scenario? Unlikely. Once again the narratives are squarely centered on when the Teamster union was a humble organization, and when Chicago was the base for aggressively defending abused labor. Teamster made it's mark in Chicago when in 1905, they backed 100 day strike that costed $1 million dollars and tragically 20 lives. It was action like this that bestowed them with the legacy of standardizing better treatment across America, through increase benefits, increased pay and reduced hours. However this narrative must be balanced with other unsavory historical details and the idealists must be more flexible and less broad in their promotion of labor unions. Lastly economic harm must be formally recognized as a powerful tool that must be carefully applied and investigated. Corrupt officials must be held accountable or unscrupulous individuals will continue to infiltrate the Teamsters and spoil the organization for the inside out.

Sources:
Chicago Sun Times: Chicago Teamsters leader John T. Coli Sr. charged in extortion scheme
Chicago Tribune: City Teamster linked to a chain of corruption
Chicago Tribune: History of Great Teamster Strike Filled with Sensational Events
Chicago Tribune: Teamster boss indicted on charges of extorting $100, 000 from business
Deseret News: Unions agree to Chicago convention
Fight Back News: Corrupt Teamster leader John Coli faces federal charges for extorting $100, 000
National Leader and Policy Center: Chicago Teamster Boss John Coli Indicted for Extortion
Open Secrets: Teamsters Union, Federal Contributions
Teamster: The Early Years, Teamster History
Teamster Local 492: Teamster History Legacy Full Length
*The Jimmy Dore Show: How Amazon Crushes Local Economies & Get Tax Breaks To Do It*
Starting at 10:46 the commentary becomes about the importance of unionizing
United States Department of Justice: Teamsters Indicted for Attempted Extortion of of Reality Television Production Company
United States District Court: John T Coli Sr. Indictment
United States District Court: Teamster Coli, Rico Complaint

Did Donald Trump Have a Rally or a Rowdy Tea Party?

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Sun, 20 Sep 2015 04:01:00 +0000

The elections as a revolutionary Boston Tea Party?? You decide. Image Courtesy of the US Capitol via Flickr

Speeches and rallies crackle with the concentrated, potent and passionate energy which pours from charismatic individuals who are invited to be the opening "performance" before the presidential candidate's speech. These individuals represent the groups and institutions who make up the candidate's cultural and ideological alliances or coalitions. These alliances and coalitions can be direct or indirect, informal or formal and official or unofficial, nevertheless they are unveiled before a mass audience to complement a presidential candidate's campaign. These opening performances can often connect with the people better because the opening performers are more entrenched within these cultural and ideological communities unlike the presidential candidates who can be a distant and unknown figurehead. These performances are meant to strike at the audience like lightening bolts setting ablaze inspiration that has the fiery power to ignite America.

At mass political events during election seasons, the soundbites from the "performers" are like morsels seasoned with the new cultural regime and then disseminated from the stage to the audience to be consumed by their awakened senses. These morsels are digested and internalized by the emotional powerhouse, the heart, and then converted into the particular emotional energy needed for the presidential candidate. This simultaneous digestion of the morsels and the energy it provides to the intertwined political hearts will help to feed a new regime, a new national political culture which will fuel the new political machine. This consumption of the experience, fed by the alliances and coalitions, set the cultural parameters and strengthens the presidential candidate's ideological positions on key issues. Their presence is a rich illustration of what the presidential candidate unabashedly promotes and will fight to invest in once in office, by who he gives status to at his events.

Paging DC ...

The Dallas Rally was like a rowdy, ceremonial tea party inducting Donald Trump into an official and tangible position as a powerful and vocal political and ideological outsider. His clown costume has been torn asunder to be exchanged for a new uniform, a revolutionary agenda. Now symbolically he can join the ranks of great men who are a part of a deep American historical tradition: an "outsider" whose truthful representation of the people demolished the status quo. After a heartfelt, shaken anthem, Katrina Pierson, a Steering Committee member for the Dallas Tea Party and Founder of the Garland Tea Party, sharply charged that the "Republican Party has failed its base!". Now I was taken off guard because I expected more attacks on the Democrats! The more the Tea Party polarizes the left from right, the more it solidifies the linkages within the far right and strengthens the conservative core's resolve. But then I realized that would had been too easy. We need electricity, a shock! In just one statement, she positioned Donald Trump as a double outsider ...as far removed from the White House as possible and almost as if he were in the audience himself ...a holy distance. This statement also allowed for greater intimacy...no need to deal with how disappointing the left is, this is assumed, it's time to focus on the mainstream right, the GOP.

She commented on how the Republican Party profits from the authentic and grassroots fringe through their votes and their passionate dedication to allocating resources for their projects only to be abandoned as extremist in favor of the "popular think thanks." But now, she insinuated, the outsiders should back another outsider, the fringe will have to push into the national administration and grab official power to hold the mainstream accountable. Mainstream Republicans can no longer be trusted to represent the audience. She attempted to marginalize Donald Trump from the mainstream Republicans and commented he should tear up the loyalty pledge to them. She made a battle cry, "This is not a phenomenon. It is a revolution!" She ensured, that if Donald Trump won the presidency, it would be revolutionary, another historical movement resembling the Boston Tea Party that will even outsize Barack Obama's racially historic win.

But a revolution for whom?

The revolution symbolically marched in with a baby blue dress armed with a bullet point of conservative identities. The same identities who are routinely mocked and who conservative political and ideological outsiders, like the Tea Parties, feel are marginalized by the elite liberal media. Scottie Nell Hughes, the News Director for the Tea Party News Network, called out each outsider political and cultural identity (God Fearing, Gun Toting, Baby Loving, Benghazi Truth Seeking, Army Wife Loving, Border Fence Building, Common Core Fighting, One Nation Under God Pledging Mom) and conscripted their emotions into the election battle. Her proud representation of these constellation of conservative identities was like a rescue mission, breaking their chains from mainstream politics by enriching them with status. These valued social identities will collectively, once uncensored, transform from being the silent majority and boldly usher in a new culture. Her pride challenges what is means to be extreme. She insinuated this is not extremism, but the truth. Sadly in the mainstream media, the people's truth are dismissed as extreme. However, according to her, these identities and grassroots political groups are more poised for legitimate rule than the think tanks and they will decided what is truly wrong with America. Katrina Pierson had previously outlined what was "really, really bad," and explained the dire situation America is in, "Iran has a weapon and we know what they are going to do with it. We are in Texas and our borders are being invaded. We have a government that spends relentlessly and our economy is on fumes."

So what is exactly the revolutionary agenda?

According to Scottie Nell Hughes, the revolutionary agenda is to "make America great again" by "representing the people to the government, not the government to the people." But how? Katrina Pierson enumerated on how Donald Trump "knows how to run a business, that know that we have to get back to the rule of law and handle illegal immigration and to bring back what we've lost and all witnessed recently, we have to restore the Judeo-Christian foundation of this nation." Wait back up .... restore the Judeo-Christian foundation of this nation? There it is! The new national political and cultural regime will be founded on re-establishing the rule of the Judeo-Christian identity. From that, a war like mentality (due to the framing of the invaded borders like we're Romans under siege from the barbarians) and anemic social support from the government as Scottie Nell Hughes screams "hard work equals good life." This culture will be represented overseas since Donald Trump was deemed the ideal leader who will not bow down to world leaders whose countries kill Christians ...a valued, cornerstone identity for this new culture.

Donald Trump approves the Christian identity being the guiding force for politics and policies as he invited Pastor Jeffers to the stage and openly thanked him for support. These identities can make America great again ..without the need of successful people paying "one three of their hard working dollars to the federal government". The activation of the silent majority will make America great again, not sleek government policy. This is identity politics supercharged! To get people energized to vote, Donald Trump is being characterized and celebrated as a political incorrect, tough man who can champion these identities. Once in office they won't have to undergo a disappointing identity crisis but can remain untainted, intact and undiluted by the mainstream. By not having to be represented by a mainstream GOP presidential candidate, they can maintain their unsoiled and uncorrupted outsider identities and usurp the White House through Donald Trump from the outside in. Even more Donald Trump is a winner, so the outsiders don't have to suffer as a perpetual losers.

Will the Outsiders be Disappointed?

To be fair, neither of the women mentioned their affiliations with the Tea Party, in fact Katrina Pierson focused on her identity as a mother and announced she was not representing a group. However they did declare overt Tea Party sentiments and they support Tea Party identities. Now will Donald Trump actually be a strong Tea Party candidate and stamp their ideology, by verbatim, into his policy? I doubt, nor is the Tea Party necessarily requesting this. This was mostly about consolidating the ideological outsiders and confirming that he is not a social climbing outsider grasping to be embraced by the mainstream. Once again he is proving that he doesn't need the mainstream unlike other politicians because he is a winner without them; he has his own prestige and money from business. His social status and resources are from business so he can afford to be a powerful political outsider.

Left with More Questions

I'm interested in how Donald Trump will broaden or narrow his definition of political and ideological outsiders. Will he support all these outsiders to broaden his possible electorate and if this happens will these outsiders collide and clash or feel betrayed. How will Donald Trump balance this and will people who are officially a part of a political group be willing to continue to hide their direct affiliations and only advertise their sentiments? Can all these outsiders be represented by one person and will the balancing act dilute his appeal? This will definitely be interesting!

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related entries:
Presidential Election Seasons and Political Culture ....Don't Let Apathy Cause You to Tune Out!

Is Donald Trump Really the Popular Candidate...

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 01:30:00 +0000

Image Courtesy Gage Skidmore via Flickr.

The Figures are Off

Media and news outlets are clamoring for a generous sip of the turbulent yet refreshing revenue streams in this heated presidential election season. Ironically as the election season inspires viewers to approach the media with dutiful civic intent and gather objective information, media outlets are motivated to profile political affairs with less delicacy. The ridiculous resembles an irresistibly profitable siren call. Brute force methods are collectively employed by these media and news outlets to generate sustained interest in the presidential elections and then selfishly funnel this interest into their specific channels. The growth imperative, incentivizes attracting and prioritizing demographics who constitute a new, energetic (and less critical) market. This priority is the gateway in prioritizing insanity and parading the infamous. For example, a flurry of articles from media ( from a broad spectrum of ideologies, but all driven by the profit motive) have descended by the supposedly bizarre triumph of the Trump. Although these articles continue to spin around Donald Trump like salaried entourage, the media feigns surprise at his sudden surge in popularity.

However New York Times, revealed a minor crack in this mysterious momentum... According to the Civis Analytics data among those who regularly cast ballots in primary elections, Trump is at 16 with Ben Carson at 11 and Bush at 10 percent ...less than dominant. But in the demographics that is media is aggressively catering to, less frequent voter and unaffiliated voters, Trump captures 18 of voters unaffiliated with a party and 22 of Republicans leaning adults who did not vote in the 2012 general election. They can be attributed to the bulk of Trump's surge. Although I appreciate the media efforts to generate long term interest in the elections and I'm sensitive to their revenue needs, I'm disheartened that integrity is sacrificed in favor of interpreting political affairs that meet viewership goals. Perhaps the polls numbers don't tell the who story and are being manipulated to manufacture a narrative that conveniently generates controversy.

Donald Trump's superficial sound bites about illegal immigration carved out a stage for both parties to safely and boldly perform ideology. The Democrats were able to champion an opposing position and openly chastise him for being racist. While the Republicans confidently planted themselves in a position polar to the Democrats and shame them for being too soft to be patriotic. This performance, freely broadcast throughout the media, impelled party solidarity. Donald Trump's personalized outlook on illegal immigration were devoid of any abstract concepts and invited both parties to interpret his statements based on narrow and demagogue like conceptions their ideologies. His blasts about illegal immigration silenced other complex issues that risked fracturing parties such as the heated debate over the Patriot Act. Illegal immigration is a complex issue that is interconnected with a host of other issues such as globalization, poverty and the market's need for a cheap, controlled and marginalized labor. Yet his soundbites attacking identities, a personal aspect of someone, were removed from an economic or political context and instead he disassembled illegal immigration into an one dimensional issue. This would increase the ease to form a hearty opinion about and that is reinforced by prior sentiments about those particular identities. This bestows possible voters with the internal resources and intrinsic will to confidently vote. In addition, there is broader incentive during election seasons to recklessly simplify complex issues in hopes of demarcating demographic who will be predictably loyal to your candidate and an irritate army of vocal enemies who will produce an urgency to vote against.

So Is Donald Trump a Popular Candidate?

The first question is whether Donald Trump is a candidate. Yes a baffling question! Officially Donald Trump is a candidate but his treatment by the media and both parties and even how he strategically represents himself, suggests that he is not a multidimensional candidate holding stances on a collection of convenient and ... inconvenient issues. But instead a one dimensional figure representing a complex issue that has been conveniently disassembled into a one dimensional opinion, a pseudo issue. In fact Donald Trump is not even really representing a pseudo issue but according to the New York Times, emotions such as anger, or as I term angst and disenchantment with the system. Donald Trump is presenting himself as a powerful outsider who can give a one dimensional voice to the multidimensional multitudes whose frustration are mounting from all angles.

Donald Trump could had embarked on his campaign trail saddled with another bold, controversial and obviously conservative personal opinion however illegal immigrants were suited to the task. For example, abortion who had been too risky since it is framed as both a woman's and moral issue. This splits a gender (identity) across political lines and risks destroying cohesiveness. Instead lambasting illegal immigration endeared him to the Republican Party and even working class Democrats, since it is an issue that has been framed as a purely economic issue caused by the unsavory other who can easily disposed of. But surprisingly, no word on disposing on the powers that drew up the NAFTA agreement or businesses that continue to hire illegal immigrants.

Donald Trump can connect with raw yet suppressed poignant emotions about government in a manner that appears dangerous for candidates but his figure status (heightened by his celebrity) shelters him from the full impacts of his behavior. Now he appears more appealing and stronger in comparison to the candidates who are playing it safe and balancing their stances on a number of issues. The core problem is that people's angst is not one dimensional but developed from three dimensional sources, experiences and perspectives. They will be disappointed if this complexity if stuffed into a one dimensional pseudo issue, represented by a one dimensional figure who is actually representing the one dimensional emotions of an archetypal outsider. A whole candidate, represents people who are affected by a myriad of complex and interacting issues, who have contradictory outlooks, beliefs, opinions, histories and yet even emotions.Unfortunately the media's sacrifice of integrity could have ripple effects. Other candidates may be tempted to mimic representing pseudo issues to capitalize on emotion. Although the poll numbers appear to reflect cold hard reality they are most likely inflated.

Escapism is Our Business

Instead of being judged as a weak political candidate he appears to be strong and powerful outsiders, a convenient escape from politics primarily due to his business background (as if one professional identity makes him wholly divergent from other political actors). Once again he is not being held accountable by the critical lens used for political candidates but through the forgiving and ambiguous lens for a businessman. Hilary Clinton is deservingly mired in a political scandal and has been silently branded and dismissed as corrupt. We understand that political corruption is violating the public interest for personal gain. Clinton moved her server from the place of public interest to a private place for private interest. However, Donald Trump is not as deeply scrutinized because pursuing private interest is the capstone in business. His methods for becoming successful in business will clash with how to be a successful president, but people believe that his business skills can be neatly transferred. He has been implicated for being involved in a scam by endorsing fake colleges but this has not been fodder for the media that consumes his image. As a politician would it be acceptable that he has admitted to taking advantage of the bankruptcy laws? Economic survival within a capitalistic economic order is rooted in self interest so this coincides with business, while for politicians economic gains seems contradictory thus Wall Street Journal pointing how Hillary Clinton charges $250,000 for speeches, takes donations from countries that whip rape victims and support Keystone. All these actions seem contradictory for a politicians.

Once again Donald Trump the candidate is concealed but his popularity rests on him not actually being a candidate and especially not a political candidate. For example Jan Mannarino, commended Donald Trump to New York Times stating, "Even if he doesn't win, he's teaching other politicians to stop being politicians. He comes on strong. He could say it gently. But I think no one would listen." Or As Tom Krzyminski revealed to New York Times, "We don't need a politician for president; we need a businessman". That's what we need to get out of the mess we're in." Business cloaks him from scrutiny just as Obama's freshness did unlike Clinton and other political candidates who have years to make horrible mistakes that permanently tarnish their image.

Will Donald Trump ride this wave to the presidency only to disappoint the electorate once in office, like other one dimensional figures ? Only time will tale.

Presidential Election Seasons and Political Culture: Why You Should Resist Apathy

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Sat, 29 Aug 2015 00:23:00 +0000

Key components to the emerging national political culture are developed from national political events, such as this 2008
Democratic Convention, which created collective experiences and memories. Image Courtesy of PBS NewsHour via Flickr

Don't Flip the Channel!

The pull and tug of warring organized interests on the fragmented political processes and institutions, fray the delicate social fibers that structure the stability and functionality of national government. The invisible arena of competition, which is disproportionately accessible to the privileged interests who possess the disposable resources to economically enrich the actors within government, is the avenue to access the visible arena where organized privileged groups contend to harness the political processes to service their long term agenda. In these seemingly chaotic contests information circulates in the exclusive invisible arena. Consequently knowledge and intellectual barriers are too magnanimous for the low resourced populations (without disposable income to risk involvement in these destabilizing contests) to overcome. These realities form the basis and context from which the underrepresented and unrepresented, unorganized majority determine that national government lacks efficacy. Thus they dismiss political affairs and their participation in national government is preemptively neutralized from this presumption that participation is futile. Furthermore, for the unorganized majority, the law may appear dangerously out of sync with their needs, or carelessly infringe on daily life or even oppress elements crucial for survival and expression. But this reproach of and disengagement from national politics and government, especially during presidential and national congressional election seasons, fuels the vicious cycle of information depletion and deepens the intellectual incapacity to effectively engage.

Why?

Presidential election seasons are the fertile grounds from which the culture of the next national government bloom. Critical awareness funnels rich deposits of information from this reservoir of culture to those who remain tuned into political events. The elected national government establishes the new cultural regime, which is openly represented by the president elect and majority party in congress. However the president elect’s cultural regime is more concentrated and visible than the majority party in congress. Each presidential candidate present vocal stances on an assortment of salient and contested national issues that have symbolic and historical implications. This portfolio of public stances and statements form the national political culture that the elected national administration will usher in once in office. Although these macro issues appear too distant, impersonal or one dimensional to have nuanced relevance in your complex daily life, the candidates' position on these broad macro issues indirectly set the culture for how micro issues will be viewed and then handled. Remember the macro, or national has the prestige and resources to impose its cultural will on the micro or local. The national political culture also shapes economic and social possibilities. This national political culture directs which people are to be hired into the new administration, and these people are connected to others who embody the new cultural regime. These relationships and networks will penetrate this cultural regime into society by reaching into distant places and spaces.

This cultural regime becomes the template from which policy springs. This culture guides what is possible for powerful institutions to do without scandal or regulation. Across the population, the social norms derived from this national political culture determines what is acceptable or unacceptable, since it shapes perceptions on what behavior is justified or condemned. This culture confers social status to individuals who adhere to its principles. This culture even chooses which issues deserve to be bestowed status and the types of institutions to be awarded with recognition and funding. It determines what protests can be silenced or become a platform for the public policy agenda. For example, a candidate's public and macro stance on abortion implicitly, declares what would be deemed acceptable nationally which spirals down to local issues. A resounding yes or no for abortion symbolically represents a yes or no for an assemblage of related issues. The related issues depend on how the main issue is framed by the nation's current political culture, and currently abortion is increasingly being framed as a women's issue as opposed to a moral issue. This stance would also impact seemingly unrelated and intricate issues such as protecting obscure endangered species, if teacher assistants are viewed extraneous expenses and terminated en masse, whether there should be a curfew on sidewalks connected to bars or if the local library suffers defunding.

In Franklin D. Roosevelt's address to Address at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia, on May 22, 1932, his stance to solve the Great Depression by departing from tradition and engaging in “bold, persistent experimentation” set the precedent for the expansive New Deal which impacted large segments of society and changed the course of America. The Republican Party's Platform of 1948, pledged to enact, "a vigorous enforcement of existing laws against Communists and enactment of such new legislation as may be necessary to expose the treasonable activities of Communists and defeat their objective of establishing here a godless dictatorship controlled from abroad." This helped to set the precedent for the McCarthyism Post World War II Red Scare and provided justification for the invasive investigations of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The Red Scare jumped from the political arena and infiltrated society, affecting Hollywood, thousands who lost their jobs and millions others desperate to conform and evade persecution. State of Union Address is also a key piece that highlights the new culture and provides the template of what is to be ushered in.

So although the presidential and national congressional elections seem distant, its effects will grip even the most peripheral localities and issues, most obviously by influencing who is elected in local and state government. It shapes perspectives on life and materializes the sentiments of the people. The macro and micro reinforce and evolve with each other.

references:
Donaldson, Gary A. (2004). The Cold War Comes Home. The Making of Modern America: The Nation from 1945 to the Present. pp. 40-44.

Smith, Jason Scott. (2014). The New Deal at the High Tide, 1934-6 & Society and Culture in the 1930s. A Concise History of the New Deal. pp. 62-123.

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Ozymandias Analysis: Percy Shelley Challenges Human Conceptions of Power

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Wed, 12 Aug 2015 23:09:00 +0000

Image courtesy of Mark Scott via 500px

What Does Honorable Power Mean to Percy Shelley?

In Ozymandias, Percy Shelly unabashedly scrutinizes the power bestowed to humans who are embellished with glory, titles, and high social status by illustrating how its inherently transient state embeds vulnerability. Shelley characterizes invulnerable, yet moral power as being able to survive and even transcend the ravages of time. Time is identified as one of the most powerful natural forces. Although time resides in the shadows of Shelley's explicit narrative, it graces the center stage visually as we witness the glorious power of the king delegitimized, dethroned and disempowered into a subject of time. Time's purity uplifts it as the obviously wise, respected and trusted character despite its consuming power. Therefore a likely candidate who is entrusted to deliver time's lesson is a traveler from an antique land, a character who has a relationship with time.

Shelley challenges the notion (which has numbed society to deceptive spectacles of power that obscure vulnerability) that seemingly noble figures whose power succumbs to time, unquestionably deserves the authority to compel concentrated human effort that conjures reverence and awe. Time uses its position to transgress against this human intellectual tradition by ruthlessly and fearlessly exposing this power as fruitless. Time, a trusted and moral authority poses a question to humanity, do these figures deserve to navigate our motives and be the recipient of our heartfelt obedience. Time advocates for the nameless forces and untitled sources who are depleted of social status and yet add timeless value to be recognized as deserving.

The introduction of the traveler from an antique land hints that the poem encapsulates a message that gifts knowledge to humanity. The trust conferred to the traveler by time and Shelley was not earned by titles but by his identity which is intertwined with and defined by nature. In this instance the traveler is defined by unbiased land and time. We can assume that the mature traveler is unencumbered with loyalty to a specific land or its ruler but instead welcomes being inundated by a diffusion of unnamed sources and forces; intriguing characters, rich customs, befuddling yet riveting interactions and consistent exposure to viewpoints that diverge from the character's own. The traveler is not beholden to a culture but is rejuvenated by exploration and collecting contrasting experiences. The word antique suggests that the traveler has access to ancient wisdom enriched with competing experiences that escapes most people who are comfortably settled or even unwillingly trapped in their culture.

A universal theme crystallizes as Shelley mocks social status and nobility by visually presenting bold and ironic contrasts. In the vast, uncompromising terrain we witness elements of nature, stone, standing confidently in a landscape that terrifies even the most adventurous souls. However the human consciousness of the standing stone with legs adds life to this barren desert devoid of human life. In contrast to the confident almost conscious and living standing, there is a half sunk shattered visage that lies like a corpse slayed by thirst. The deafening cold command and image of an arrogant sneer contradicts the visage's defeated half sunk position and exposes its power as a mirage. The vastness of the landscape evokes its everlasting presence and in it the stone stands. The sneer communicates that the shattered figure assumed his legacy would inevitability inflame the imaginations of future generations. But instead the vulnerability of lying in the sand isolated from human civilization or admiration amongst the powerful nature who detract from his power betrays this confidence and reveals it as hollow.

The visage's demand for our allegiance is undermined by Shelley as he abruptly shifts the lyrical lens to the anonymous sculptor, another timeless character. Shelley muddles which character is the main subject of the poem. The passions of the deadened figure are immortal due to the timelessness of the stone and the sculptor's abilities. The visage is half sunk and its withering legacy slowly engulfed by the terrain but the artist's hand has reached from the depths of gaping destruction, gripped the surface and stamped life into the lifeless. But who is lifeless, the stone or the human the stone was sculpted to represent? According to Shelley, the sculpted stone is animated. He challenges our conceptions of life and what the living consumes by declaring the sculptor's heart, his love for the art, fed the living almost deified stone. The sculptor's heart livens the living stone, not the figure who deadens the stone. This anonymous and unrecognized power was commissioned to accurately portray this figure but now this portrayal mocks him. This same art recedes and offers critical evidence against this figure's power.

The pedestal indicates that the sculpted stone is in direct competition to the standing stone. However the stone, this element, stands out as the most powerful since the memory of the human is feasible solely due to the stone. Then there is the visual contrast between the words announcing the social status as kings or kings, the name of the figure Ozymandias and the bold proclamation "look on my works, ye mighty and despair" versus the visual emptiness where nothing beside remains. There is double mockery, the mocking of the Ozymandias and even the other kings and who this figure envisions as mighty. The rivalry between “powers” is dead. The king's verbal legacy is forced to live through sculpted stone since his works, visible evidence of his immense power is invisible. The decay of the colossal wreck visually represents titled human power. It is not the desert that is barren but the great works of a great figure as boundless and bare.

Percy waited until the end of the poem to reveal the identity of the half sunk figure deliberately. Nobility and prestige are such normalized emblems in society that if Shelley had preemptively exposed the wrinkled sneer as connected to a title, the ridiculous scene would have been justified and the meaning of the poem blunted. The reveal or ironic climax of the poem raises more questions, as we grapple with contrasts between the timeless and the decaying. Then the drama falls to the stable, level and unassuming sand that stretches far away until forever. The vast space also symbolizes time. Percy ends the poem demonstrating that true invulnerable yet virtuous power can defy and even become time. The lone and level stand has no pedestal but its presence commands. The collective forces and sources have true power, not necessarily a single figure on a pedestal.

Back Talk: Nursing Injuries as a Symptom of Constraining Gender Views

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Wed, 24 Jun 2015 19:27:00 +0000

The stereotypical and feminized historical imagery of nursing routinely subverts the complex modern challenges that nurses now face, often without adequate resources. Image Credit: Seattle Municipal Archives/Flickr

When I first read NPR’s investigative reports about nursing injuries, I was shocked that this injustice had been festering so profusely, yet these deep wounds remained invisible to the public. How could this be?? Especially since nurses are such a beloved fixture in American culture. They are often visible figures of professional femininity within popular culture, and they grace the screens of both movies and television shows. In That 70s Show, the lovable Kitty was a devoted nurse. Even in The Notebook, the fiery love interest, Allie, briefly nursed injured soldiers in the Red Cross. Perhaps this is why nurses were used by NPR as figureheads for this issue, although data from the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that the more marginalized nursing assistants and orderlies “are injured more than any other occupation, followed by warehouse workers, truckers, stock clerks and registered nurses.” But then I realized that was the issue! These dominant and one-dimensional images of nursing feed society with cultural narratives about “feminine” professions, thus inducing a blind spot to the full realities of nursing and stifling society’s ability to respond to the suffering of nursing employees. Society is rendered unable to hold key institutions accountable. It’s difficult for reality to compete with and push against the flood of box office illusions.

I decided to google images for nurses and was inundated with a collection of smiling faces engaged in “safe” tasks like holding a stethoscope, calmly writing on a pad, holding the hand of a frail yet healthy elderly woman, holding a clean baby, and taking the temperature of “safe” patients. When I used the keyword “nursing,” the smile remained superimposed on faces while taking the heartbeat of a seemingly healthy girl holding a cuddly teddy bear, giving bedside comfort, and holding a needle. The smile dominated and was a static feature despite who was posing as a nurse. Other features or aspects of nursing were hidden, including distress, danger, or daunting tasks, and any pain associated with nursing. For example, there was no imagery depicting a nurse grasping her back after a particularly brutal lifting or appearing exhausted after a long shift. Only one type of expression was showcased, which gives the misleading perception that nurses only deal with one type of scenario. While the nursing profession is multifaceted, the one-dimensional dominant images of nursing crowd out and subvert the reality. Consequently, spines are crushed in silence beneath an omnipresent smile.

This one-dimensional conception of nurses and nursing has gender implications. According to the Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 90 percent of nursing employees are women, while almost 70 percent of physicians are men. Historically based structures, attitudes about gender, and the logistical challenges of motherhood reproduce these gender divisions. Therefore, nursing is overlaid with themes about womanhood and nurturing. Since nursing is represented as a feminine profession, it is intertwined with harsh dichotomies between masculine and feminine. These dichotomies reinforce sharp divisions between nursing, safety, and femininity versus power, danger, and masculinity. However, in reality, nursing requires a delicate balance of feminine and masculine qualities. Yes, there is smiling, but the heavy lifting shouldn’t be a mere footnote in society’s narrative of this profession. There needs to be acknowledgment of both stories and the realization that nursing and nurturing are also dangerous. Since these gendered views of nurses are implanted within cultural narratives, their workplaces and their hospitals are not structured to support the full realities of nursing. The policies within most hospitals do not demand recognition or support of these heavy realities, which contrasts with workplaces associated with masculinity, such as auto factory workplaces. James Collins, a research manager in the NIOSH Division of Safety Research, discovered that his subjects, who were “93 percent men, heavily tattooed, macho workforce, Harley-Davidson rider type guys, and they were prohibited from lifting over 35 pounds through the course of their work.”

Proper body mechanics, which were developed more than 100 years ago to “safely” move patients, were formulated under the context of these anarchic and one-dimensional gender views that normalized undermining women in the workplace. In 1898, the textbook Nursing: Its Principles and Practices made light of the fact that women “occasionally” complained about injuring their backs. The fact that hospitals refuse to invest in equipment to offer some support indicates they could be as equally far behind in their view of nurses. Thus, nursing employees suffer back and musculoskeletal injuries three times more than construction laborers, according to the BLS. The machines that could assist with moving patients, who could weigh up to 400 pounds, are viewed as an expensive luxury and not a necessity. Despite that, “The bottom line is, there’s no safe way to lift a patient manually,” says William Marras, director of The Ohio State University’s Spine Research Institute, which has conducted landmark studies on the issue. “The magnitude of these forces that are on your spine are so large that the best body mechanics in the world are not going to keep you from getting a back problem.”

Nursing imagery being used to sell Coca-Cola products is a testament to nurses’ elevated position in pop culture.

Myth: Nursing and Nurturing are wholly safe and feminine endeavors.

Nurturing is often dangerous during emergencies because nurturers and caregivers are on the front lines to face sickness. In the chaos, their wellness can be dangerously neglected. Oftentimes the situation can overwhelm the resources that are available since emergencies are so unexpected. In fact, NPR reports that, “most patients staying in hospitals today are sicker than the patients of 20 years ago.” Tove Schuster, in March 2010, raced to lift a fallen patient who weighed more than 300 pounds at Crozer-Chester Medical Center near Philadelphia, and that’s when she felt something pop. Another nurse can attest to feeling this ominous pop after lifting a patient without adequate equipment. Sunny Vespico, a registered nurse, moved an overweight patient who was having trouble breathing during her night shift at the intensive care unit at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia on March 31, 2012. “Immediately I felt a pop in my back and pain down my leg,” Vespico says. “As a nurse, and understanding the mechanics of the body, I knew that there was something very wrong.” Leesa Evans, a registered nurse, rushed to lift a 300-pound patient who was dying of congestive heart failure and couldn’t move to relieve himself. Her nurturing spirit intensified the rush, and days later she couldn’t walk.

Nurturing can be a major burden that slowly crushes caretakers and weighs them down. Professions deemed masculine are more prone to the one-time catastrophic injury and thus are perceived as more dangerous. For example, David Michaels, the assistant secretary of Labor who heads the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), sends agency inspectors mainly to factories and construction sites where workers suffer amputations and can get killed. However, the wear and tear over time, which is described as the buildup of microscopic tears that block nutrients to discs and eventually cause the discs to collapse, is just as catastrophic and deadly. Nurturing can be dangerous, because just like the horrific one-time deaths of factory and construction workers, lives are lost. But unlike the construction or factory workers, they lost their lives due to their commitment to nurturing, which is supposed to be feminine and safe.

Many injured nursing employees become physically detached from their lives permanently. Terry Cawthorn couldn’t celebrate her own birthday, even though she helped in the birth of another patient. Her birthday flowers and pink cake sat dejected while she was “on the floor, in tears, in so much pain.” She was transformed from having an active life to one filled with grief and debilitating pain. Abigail Velez, a nurse who was repeatedly injured while performing routine tasks, such as moving patients, at Kaiser’s Walnut Creek hospital in California, told NPR, “The pain got so intense and her motion was so restricted that she couldn’t pick up a glass of water. ‘I could not lift my arm. I couldn’t even raise it up to brush my hair’.” Leeza Evans’ relationship with her husband has been negatively affected since they can no longer garden, ski, and hike together. David Michaels, chief of the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, explained to NPR, “They go home and have real disabilities. They have trouble lifting up their kids. They have trouble doing a lot of the daily tasks of life because of back injuries, arm injuries, shoulder injuries.”

Since these gendered views of women and femininity in the media and within dominant culture overwhelmingly appear celebrated, many women overestimate how much they will be rewarded and genuinely appreciated for their efforts. Many don’t even understand the oppressive implications of this “celebration” until it is too late. In fact, in another twist of cruel irony, so many girls and young women have internalized these glamorized and one-dimensional gender expectations that nurses and nursing employees are treated as expendable or, as Suzanne Gordon, author of Nursing Against the Odds, explained to NPR, a “disposable labor force.” Even if a supervisor testifies under oath that a nurse like Cawthorn, with 20 years of service at the Mission Hospital at Asheville, North Carolina, was “one of my most reliable employees.” Cawthorn lamented to NPR, “I really thought that I was someone to Mission. I had poured my life into nursing. And when I got hurt, I meant nothing. I was absolutely nothing to the hospital.” This devaluation is unchallenged due to the expectation that every year will generate a guaranteed supply of eager young women who aspire to be nurses because social norms continue to reproduce these aspirations. This produces a harsh combination of institutional betrayal and, in a broader sense, cultural betrayal.

When Cawthorn was ruthlessly terminated, she was “so emotionally destroyed.” According to her, “Nursing was not just a job, it’s who you are.” The institutional and cultural betrayal creates a betrayal of one’s identity. Tragically, the same culture and structures that helped to create this gendered identity has now injured and discarded them. What is the first step that society can take to rectify this issue? I believe that Ashley Moore, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at Kaiser’s hospital in Walnut Creek, California, sums up the situation the best: “It helps to know that they [nursing employees] do more than measure patients’ blood, hook them up to IV and assess how patients are faring. Their work is also physically grueling, and the surging rate of obesity is making it worse.”

Sourced from the NPR Special Series Injured Nurses:
Despite High Rates of Nursing Injuries, Government Regulators Take Little Action
Even ‘Proper’ Technique Exposes Nurses ’ Spines to Dangerous Forces
Hospitals Fail to Protect Nursing Staff From Becoming Patients
Hospital to Nurses: Your Injuries Are Not Our Problem

Fast Food Banned out of Sight but not out of Minds in Los Angeles

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Mon, 23 Mar 2015 02:07:00 +0000

Image via We Heart It

The 2008 ordinance in South Los Angeles, to ban free standing fast food restaurants, was a heartfelt attempt to weaken unhealthy behavior by reducing the tempting physical presence of fast food restaurants. The authors of this zoning regulation hoped that depriving fast food restaurants of visibility would translate into them losing power over individuals. Do you know who else was feeling heartfelt...the residents for fast food. According Roland Sturm's study, fast food consumption actually increased from 2007 to 2012. LA Times subtly reveals the crux of the issue by profiling Otis Wright, a minister at the West Los Angeles Church of God in Christ and probably a cornerstone figure in the community. He commented, while snacking on chicken nuggets at a Burger King in Baldwin Hills, that "they are wholesome and fill a spot." According to Wright, fast food restaurants such as the Burger King he frequents, can fulfill the need to have a clean environment for leisurely conversation. This is especially important in neglected or under-resourced communities. This Burger King is obviously lodged into Wright's social experience and lifestyle.

Although it may just be a fast food restaurant to outsiders, for the residents these restaurants serve an unique cultural purpose and thus fast food establishments will almost effortlessly maintain their soft power as cultural institutions. In addition, the fast food ordinance only targeted new restaurants, even though it is the old restaurants that are fully integrated into the residents’ daily lives and embedded in their deeper personal histories. The Great Recession also was in full bloom between 2007 and 2012; I imagine that it would be difficult to redirect comfortable behavior and change social norms during such a crucial time. Familiarity is soothing in difficult times.

But why did the city hone in on reducing the external visibility of the fast food restaurants when it is clear that it is the more powerful invisible forces sustaining fast food as the fuel of South Los Angeles? Well the city's agency is compromised by their limited their funds, especially in comparison to the fast food industry. According to Roland Sturm’s study, low income communities are situated within South Los Angeles. Therefore the city probably lacked the funds to implement more comprehensive plans and programs that could strategically complement the ordinance. Officials just hoped that this ordinance would carve out ample space for market solutions. However even this plan is proving futile. The fast food industry has probably dominated the space for such a long time that now the city’s structure maintains its success. Councilman Bernard C. Parks, who co-wrote the zoning restriction, explained to LA Times that, 'the ordinance was meant to be a part of a larger strategy that includes bringing grocery stores and farmers markets to replace fast-food restaurants, but that part has been more difficult to accomplish." It definitely would be difficult for less powerful market forces, like farmer markets, to boldly take on the cultural and structural monopoly held by the fast food industry. So a main component of this plan, to cement the physical transformation of South LA's environment, has been hampered by invisible economic and social forces.

The residents, which are predominately made up of the working poor and working class, could probably identify with this lack of agency which contributes to the city's collective compromised agency. For example, the working poor and working class generally have less agency over their schedules and therefore it's understandable how fast food restaurants could be used as an accessible antidote to this issue. Wright explained how, "It’s convenient way to eat when you are moving around." Especially under the context of the Great Recession, job insecurity added pressure on this particular lack of agency.

The study and news articles repeatedly commented on how restricted and limited the ordinance was, suggesting that the ordinance was almost guaranteed to fail. Even Barry Popkin, a professor of global nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, declared to NPR, "That little ban was just too trivial.” Despite how weak this ordinance appeared, according to LA Times, this law, "marked the first time a big city had succeeded in taking on fast food restaurants in an attempt to improve its residents' health." If such a weak ordinance is considered such a huge deal, then cultural, economic and political forces and the clout of the fast food industry had already preemptively reduced the efficacy of the zoning regulation. If the fast food industry has this much concentrated power to suppress cities, imagine how much power they have over individual lives. Fast food's strong hold over the city resembles their stronghold over hearts, minds and lifestyles. It's easy to ignore how the industry has literally changed the culture and make up of America. If South Los Angeles could of had a stronger ordinance, then all new fast food restaurants could have been blocked, not just the free standing restaurants which according to NPR "were rare to start with." If the older fast food restaurants, could have been eliminated this would had given the ordinance its intended effect by removing the institutions who are facilitating the deep entrenched habits and social norms. But obviously the chances of that policy being enacted is impossible, such an expansive policy would be considered inconceivable.

The city’s lack of agency and power gives clues to why the citizens appear to have such a lack of agency to eat healthier. It’s just that the residents' lack of agency against the fast food industry is affecting them in a different manner from the city. The city is consolidating their limited resources but are severely restrained by a myriad of invisible forces. The residents are also restrained by a myriad of invisible forces. The city doesn’t have the power the make grander gestures but instead they are forced to wait for slow change in the midst of a public health crisis and "just give it more time," as Gwendolyn Flynn, policy director for nutrition services at Community Health Council advised. Similarly, the residents like Otis Wright understand, even if only from a shallow standpoint, that fast food "may not be the most nutritional" but their lack of agency firmly plants the fast food in their hearts, minds and thus behavior.

The Covert College Bubble, Why the Burst Will be "Invisible"

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 20:10:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered about when you should take cover before the bursting of a bubble?

Well impending doom is sly peeking over the horizon when debt for a specific industry (especially a new industry or an old industry being used under a new context) is normalized. You should especially prepare for rainy destruction when this debt is declared a guaranteed investment and when people cease solemnly perceiving this debt as a risk. Before the Great Depression, burying oneself in debt to acquire stocks was the obvious choice since the economy was obviously expanding. Before the Great Recession, mortgage culture caused so many individuals to grow comfortable with loans that many causally promenaded into fraud's clenches while predators savagely feasted on the credit frenzy. It is when individuals blindly walk into debt that can't be discharged at bankruptcy and then are mired in confusion when life happens and now their interest rate payments are "unexpectedly" higher than the principle. It is when people can peddle grand claims about debt being the obvious choice that is guaranteed to eventually work out over a lifetime, then present outdated information to support their grand claims and they don't raise eyebrows. It is when 70 percent of college students are burdening their nascent adult lives with overpowering debt and number 1 trillion is not raising comparable panic. Then one can safely surmise that an industry is probably a bubble. But wait... there's a twist. There is a new type of bubble. It doesn't float and bounce around ominously as the public helplessly watches in anticipation. It's the covert bubble popping inconspicuously and spreading its wet disaster while victims and bystanders remain unaware.

The Covert Bubble Pops Solidarity Before Solidarity Can Pop It

The college bubble offers the illusion of social solidarity. Students cheer at the same games, they share the same venomous and irrational rivalries, they share the experiences of oscillating between passion and sleepiness in classes, and they collectively cringe at memories of pulling the infamous all-nighter; but with the exception of the broke college student meme, financial solidarity is quite shallow. College costs appear to be rising for all students and families, but it will be hard to generate a mass movement because there is a high degree of invisible stratification in financial experiences. In fact many students don't even pay ticket price. Other students at elite colleges may not even know their colleges’ ticket price due to their families’ economic advantages. These differentiated financial college experiences constrain the idea of financial solidarity, especially since social solidarity is deemed more exciting and less contentious. The varied financial experiences bluff patterns, so families remain too paralyzed to act.

Articles about rising college tuition are too generalized and thus are ineffectual to offer targeted insight into such varied (and possibly unbelievable) predicaments. This contributes to the paralysis. Since most articles are too generalized and nationalized, they don't probe into specific experiences so students fall into the trap of assessing their situation as uniquely shameful. Depleted of targeted information, most incoming students are restricted from developing the strategies and conjuring the confidence to make the rational choice about student loans.

The Covert Bubble Settles into the Dark and Neglected Corners of Your Collective Wallets

While debtors in these varied experiences subconsciously wait to recognized and saved by a cataclysmic, apocalyptic bursting ( perhaps because of the fear of judgment, perceptions of powerlessness and the structural constraints on being proactive), I'm going to predict (oh dear) that the college bubble won't be as visible as the housing bubble. I'm serious...it literally won't be visible. The housing bubble popped on our screens and then our consciousness with iconic images of lonely and depressed houses, eerie boarded up communities drained of residents and economic vitality and evicted weeping families as keepsakes were ruthlessly strung across a lawn with the media detailing (sensationalizing) the traumas of having to desert a place filled with intimate memories. The nation watched as urban municipalities deteriorated and gasped at the shocking stories of suburban poverty. The widespread visibility of these scenes fomented into the contentious Occupy Movement and then the backlash Tea Party Movement. Then there were prominent banks collapsing like dominoes, the stock market dramatically dropping as if relieved to let go of a heavy weight and blame being tossed around like a hot potato.

I predict that the college bubble will be a more private and individualized experience. Firstly, the distribution of student loans is structured differently than mortgage loans. The bulk of the burden from student loans are placed out of prestigious colleges, and are externalized on the more powerless students; as opposed to how banks shared the shame of the foreclosure crisis. This mass externalization of the burden adds to the isolating experience. Secondly, the culture surrounding housing and mortgage loans is more public than college and student loans. Families avoid discussing too much in detail the nuances of their college costs and student loan debt to protect themselves from scathing judgment and even from jealousy.

Thirdly, a geographical concentration of housing foreclosures is a dramatic, photography worthy, tangible and seemingly straightforward social issue. Its noticeably ruinous effect on the makeup and monetary value of whole communities is too visible to be denied. But with the college bubble, lives that haven’t bloomed will be covertly ruined. There is not a boarded up house to gawk at but a fallible human being whose story can be denied and refuted by more seemingly credible sources. There will be a hidden and struggling demographic whose marginalized and confused cries will go unheard of and even unarticulated. Initially, there will not be an explosive bubble but an unsettling and disconcerting stifling of lives and activity. It will be a type of covert financial oppression that dampens more than just economic activity.

The Covert Bubble Pounces Wildly on Valuation and Flounces Being Quantified

The convert bubble maintains its stealth power through the inability to standardize the mechanisms to determine the value of college for an individual’s specific needs. The stifling of lives and popping of bubbles will vary in intensity according to individuals. Some students in 100,000 in debt will interact so successfully with an enriching college experience that it will be worth it long term while for other students just 15,000 is an overvaluation of their college experiences and their capacity to interact with intellectual enrichment. Since houses are a commodity (even with complex valuation mechanisms) they can be quantified, so Americans could confidently declare a bubble. Humans and intellectual enrichment provided by college are not commodities. This variation in value, which depends on the college and student ability, will hamper a collective bubble that could constructively mobilize the public. Due to this difficulty in quantifying the worth of an educational experience, there is much room for fraud, self-delusions and narratives to obstruct the debate, thus intensifying the student loan crisis.

Yes, technically for profit colleges are exploitative and liberal arts degrees are a huge risk but how can this be reasonably quantified. Especially since the valuation of college can be dependent on factors outside that individual’s college’s control. College tuition can’t suddenly be declared a bubble and collapse. The mechanisms for setting tuition sharply deviate from how housing prices are determined. So as I shuttle myself from class to class, with each step the student loan bubble will be bouncing happily and covertly among unaware students.

How Abusers Trap their Victims by Manipulating an Audience

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 23:36:00 +0000

The abuser needs background pressure that influences the victimized individual's perceptions of his or her environment, belief of available options and then induces subsequent dis-empowered behavior. One form of background pressure is creating and manipulating an audience for the relationship. Abusers deploy what I call, public entrapment. Public entrapment derives its efficacy and power from tools used privately to entrap a victim which usually involves teaching the individual to dishonor him or herself. I will focus on public entrapment because Chris Brown and Karrueche Tran offer a timely case study.

A predominate tool in the toolbox is how the abuser manipulates their shared social environment so that the victimized individual ceases to generate sympathy from the public. This is why Chris Brown consciously or unconsciously prefers for his breakups with Karrueche Tran to be on the stage for public consumption, despite the ridicule of both parties that invariably ensues. Depleting the sympathy of the public whether it’s the victims’ family, mutual friends or in this case fans is used as a trap by abusers.

Karrueche Tran's Christmas gifts by Chris Brown

Depletion of Sympathy

The victim must appear to hold an enviable position. Perceptions by the public or the relationship's personal audience of the victim's enviable position creates an illusion of the terms of condition for their eyes. The victim must be in an outwardly enviable position that invites jealously and third party pressure for the victim to feel gratitude for their supposedly good fortune. Never mind that the despite the external rewards, the abuse is destroying the victimized individual inwardly ironically negating the benefits for the enviable position. Never mind also that the external rewards aren't for the victimized individual's long term benefit but a tool of control for the abuser. The abuser doesn't want to provide internal enrichment with genuine love (and may not even have the capacity to provide love) because a healthy mind that loves itself is less easy to trap. Self-love strengthens the capacity and resolve to exit ruin. The abuser wants the victimized individual to continue pursuing external rewards that the abusers use to control the individual and the perceptions of the relationship’s audience. These deceptive rewards obstruct the victimized individual from their healing. But the public doesn't perceive this and the abuser can manipulate this collective blindness to their advantage against the victim. The public can't see these motives but green eyes can gaze upon a luxury vehicle and diamond rings. Many times even the victim will outwardly compare themselves to others and believe this deceptive narrative his or herself, while overlooking the long term damage to their emotional and psychological health.

The abusers are benevolent dictators who have bestowed upon you a platform or designed the template for your only chance at success. Or they abused you for your own good because that was the only way you have achieved, (diminishing your innate drive and qualities). If a person was willing to deal with the abuse to achieve, wouldn't that imply that the individual's intrinsic motivation would had compelled them to strive and thus do not need abuse? Your intangible value becomes invisible; even when a victimized individual is reduced to being a punching bag despite the fact that this resilience has intangible value to the abuser who has someone to absorb their hatred so that they wouldn't unleash the self-destruction on themselves. Without the victim to feel powerful, the abuser wouldn't have the motivation or energy to even build an illusion or the talent to exploit. Chris Brown needs the public to know that he sacrificed for her and without him she wouldn't have her status. Yes, the relationship is not perfect but you have 2 million Instagram followers, and the "haters" who are telling you to leave don't. In abusive households there can be the illusion of upstanding, successful with good parents to assuage the public image while there is private decay. Abusers with less resources are largely limited to providing transient emotional and psychological rewards. But these rewards are conditional and shallow. From the outside the victimized individual can appear loved but are truly despised.

The idea that someone else might be more fulfilling inwardly despite having less external rewards is not discussed. Other scenarios are not presented to the audience, only an image that serves the abuser. Perhaps the abuser noticed the victimized individual’s essence and targeted the individual for exploitation and then lied by pretending they created the individual’s essence. Perhaps the abuser created such an abusive environment they transformed what the individual loved into something painful thus covertly limiting the individual’s potential. Perhaps they stressed the individual which dampened their capacity to capitalize on opportunities the abuser has "showered" on them. Perhaps the abuser took over the individual’s life making it impossible for the individual to realize their full potential or discover their own profitable niche. Perhaps the abuser stunted the individual’s growth or overemphasized one profitable aspect of the while the others remain anemic. Or controlled the individual with bad advice masquerading as caring advice. Perhaps the abuser covertly sabotaged the individual while in front of an audience bragged about what they've done for the individual. Perhaps the individual succeeded in spite of the abuser and not because of their malevolent presence.

But these instances are not presented to the audience and are usually not in the consciousness of the victim who devalued his or her positive attributes while the abuser’s minor "contributions" are disproportionately attributed to their success. Privately the victimized individual has dishonored their capacity to make it as far without the abuser and have emphasized deceptive external rewards over a healthy heart and mind. This narrative diminishes the victimized's intangibles. Abusers will conveniently ignore the initial power and resource imbalance to create the image as a savior even though you actually put more effort in relation your power, time and available resources. The individual's subsequent behavior must honor be them as a savior. Abusers with less resources than Chris Brown will create an enviable situation like telling someone your past successes or achievements. Others may harp on your enviable physical traits or talents in front of others with poor body image and/or low self esteem.

Constant public breakups are opportunities for abusers. Each breakup most be more critical and believable than the next. Not only is this the reorientation process, but it depletes the sympathy of audience the individual desperately needs in support of in such a dangerous and vulnerable time. This works to create universal disappointment and an incredulous social environment that disrespects the individual. If the individual is in an enviable position that the abuser has created, the narrative of a woman desperate to maintain her luxurious lifestyle, despite abuse may float in people's minds. In reality since the audience’s participation is only public and passive yet not private and intimate, their comprehension of events would be impossible.

The public especially stops rooting for the victimized individual when the individual chastises the audience for celebrating the dissolution their demise and then defends the abuser. People hate feeling foolish. Now the public resents the individual and have a natural suspicion of the individual's intentions. Now the abuser has manipulated the individual's identity to the public as a complicit, masochistic and sick individual trying to exploit their sympathies even though the individual secretly knows they are not leaving. Heck maybe even the abuser and the victimized individual are colluding break ups for attention! The individual will be perceived as ready and willing to be punished, who knows exactly what he or she is getting into and is undeserving of continued sympathy. Now when the individual is truly serious about escaping, the support needed is gone and background pressure intensifies.

Entrapment by Dishonor

Now that the victimized individual is depleted of sympathy, the abuser moves to create a hostile environment by "exposing" the individual while they simultaneously become the only person willing to redeem and work with this inherently soiled individual. Victims who are already in vulnerable circumstances, have unfamiliar characteristics or struggles (which can be conveniently defined by the abusers to fit their purpose) or marginalized are easier to control with background pressure because the public is already biased against them. They attach stigmatized behavior that imply the individual’s tainted nature and identity so that no decent individual can identify with them or want to support them. They need to misconstrue the individual’s behavior, failures, struggles and unique characteristics. The individual didn't fail because he or she was depressed and trying to recover from a traumatic event, the individual failed because he or she inherently doesn’t value opportunities and therefore doesn't deserve to be saved by someone loving. Now the abuser and victim are both equally flawed and perfectly suited for each other despite the discrepancy of harm inflicted.

By claiming by Karrueche had threesomes validates that she was willing to the reprehensible to stay in the relationship, so she really doesn't feel abused. Most importantly it implies that she is immoral and too dirty for a stable and loving relationship. Abusers enjoy exposing individual by divulging in the dirty details of what you were willing to for them; never mind that the individual was probably manipulated, didn't understand the implications what they were doing, had low self-worth, was threatened or the abusers has been steadily manipulating perceptions of individual of who they are. Now the victimized individual is punished for obeying, even though abusers demand obedience as love. With enough exposure and humiliation the victim sees her support dissolve and she feels that she has become worthless to her social environment. The fact that she was accused of cheating on him supposedly negates his behavior. Only questions of her loyalty is shared for public scrutiny. Now they are equally perverse. My question... why does he still want her if she so horrible enough to cheat, so soiled, so perverse and enjoys abuse?

Apology Art

Notes about the Victim

Does the victim have perfect intentions in the relationship? No. Was the victim taught these new priorities for the relationship? Yes. Is the abuser being exploited as they claim? Absolutely not. Usually a victim has low self-esteem and/or low self-worth. Their definitions of a loving relationship and their priorities in a relationship are malleable, which is perfect for the abuser. At the beginning the victimized individual is desperately looking for love. The victim might be suffering through a horrible situation and asks for emotional support. But the victim doesn't even know if they truly deserve emotional support or in extreme cases doesn't know what emotional support looks like. So what does the abuser do...well they don't want to give love, they just want power so they'll give the victim money instead of emotional support and tell her that is emotional support. They teach the victim what to accept as love. Eventually the victimized individual with low self-esteem will give up on genuine expressions of love and accept gifts or the controllable external rewards as love. But this works against the victim because this changes her priorities from something honorable to dishonorable. When the victim attempts to escape, the abuser can take on the position as the victim who was exploited.

What the Victim Must Do

The victim must stop responding directly to the abuser and start responding to the overall situation. Victimized individuals usually mull over whether the poor treatment is intentional. Abusers encourage this confusion by explaining why everything they did was uncontrollable. They are young and young people obviously don't know right from wrong. The abuser was so anger they couldn't control themselves even though victimized individuals are not given the right to be uncontrollable. Victims will wonder if they are loved. Abuser assuage this concern. Abusers will constantly declare their enduring love for you despite how much they hurt you or how much pain they cause. Victims need to define what a loving relationship means to them, not respond to the abuser's definition.

A victim’s decision to escape should not be manipulated by these questions. These questions of how much of their partner’s behavior is deliberate are important for planning the escape because they have implications but if the victim doesn't like their treatment, whether it is love does not reduce the damage. For example, financial abuse may not feel like abuse if the abuser can manipulate perceptions and declare it’s for the victims own good, but in the end the damage to credit, work history and personal control is very real. The abuser has already taught you that the core of your identity is being a victim (and/or a child!) and has rewarded you for being a victim (and/or child) by implicitly socializing the individual to the abuser's painful definitions of "love". But now it is time to pan out and evaluate the situation in its entirety. The stories about the uncontrollable yet loving abuser and you the victim can cloud judgment. Eschew these deceptive narratives or you'll remain entangled. Take away narratives about the abusers identity, their implicitly narratives about your identity and peek into reality. Then you can take on rational behaviors.

This post was inspired by the Chris Brown and Karrueche Tran debacle and by the book Stalking the Soul by Marie-France Hirigoyen.

When a Break Up Really Isn't a Break Up

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 21:44:00 +0000

There are millions of pages devoted to prying open the minds of abusers to reveal the venomous thinking patterns directing their behavior. Some are heart-wrenching stories that read like psychological thrillers while others attempt to scientifically probe into the madness using a clinical and detached approach. There is a compulsion to peer into the deceptively irrational to make it rational, intelligible and explainable. Just consider this another one of the millions struggling to decode the enigma that is the abuser (for part two click here).

Abusers rule with confusion. I believe that an abuser's behavior is at the peak of confusion when the individual they are victimizing becomes aware of the toxic dance and starts to wriggle from its cruel grasp. During breakups, it is usually the victim's confusing and seemingly irrational behavior that is scrutinized under judgment’s glaring microscope, but I would like to investigate what victims are directly responding to.

Chris Brown "packing" Karrueche Tran's bags in 2012. Part Two: When Abusers Manipulate Family & Friends

Implicit Reorientation

While for most relationships, breakups signify the messy severing of bonds, for abusers, breakups are the prime opportunity for a power grab in the form of reorientation. The abuser already assumes that the breakup is temporary. Reorientation is the abuser implicitly demanding to increase your threshold for emotional pain, the bulldozing of protective boundaries and the starving any forms of empowerment, all for the comfort of the abuser. The abuser is demanding for more abusive behaviors to be acceptable; for new norms, new lows, even if unpleasant, for the relationship.

Generally the abuser causes so much obvious damage that the individual being victimized is forced to breakup or at least re-evaluate the relationship. For example undeniable betrayal such as cheating that the victimized individual has previously considered as unacceptable and grounds for breakup are directly bluffed by the abuser. The individual may have opened up at the beginning of the relationship by recanting about how the brutal divorce of her parents caused by cheating caused a significant amount of pain that she would never want to go through this, the victim is unknowingly outlining a boundary for the relationship and creating a rule to be broken. The abuser sees this as a threat to his power and using cheating as a tool to obviously challenge this threat.

Instead of being honest about their intentions, abusers takes on the role of the victim, begging for forgiveness and using guilt by implying they are willing to change if the heartless individual would just give them a chance. Little does the individual being victimized knows, is that the abuser secretly feels entitled to abuse the other. The victim dared to exercise a semblance of power and control over their environment; even though in reality the individual is probably just too brokenhearted to continue with the relationship. Unfortunately instead of candidly explaining the victimized individual "I feel entitled to cheat on you even though I expect you to be faithful to me" or "I believe that physical abuse if a great way for me to get what I want while neglecting your needs" the victim is depleted of explicit information and thus the confidence and power to make a rational decision. Just when the victim is putting the last pieces of the frightening puzzle together, the blood stained images and jagged shapes mutate into something soothing. Perhaps what the individual visualized didn't really exist in the first place? There's the confusion of abuse and then there’s abuser's remorse and desire for the relationship.

Now if the victimized individual was to reinitiate a relationship with the abuser, not only will the victim be reoriented into a new acceptable low, but this will slowly manipulate the perceptions of his or her identity. Reorientation implicitly manipulates you by showing you who are really are... a willing victim. Now the abuser doesn't have to risk telling you what they are entitled to, you subconsciously believe it. They are re-orientating you on what is love... them unleashing unbearable abuse and you accepting it, even after some resistance, and eventually moving on. You are now the resilient punching bag. This also increases your emotional investment and psychological ties to the relationship thus increasing their power. The imbalance of hurt and investment is creates a significant power imbalance. Few people would easily walk into these harsher terms of conditions, especially if the abuser started off charming. So the abuser takes out their entrapment toolbox that produces background social pressure even if not obvious to the victimized individual. Read part two of the series: how abusers manipulate the victim's social environment!

This post was inspired by the Chris Brown and Karrueche Tran debacle and by the book Stalking the Soul by Marie-France Hirigoyen.

The Dangers of Using History to Compare with Today's Issues

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 01:47:00 +0000

The Shortcut

Associating and comparing historical events with problematic present issues, attempts to highlight, clarify, enlighten, familiarize, normalize, simplify and even romanticize or inspire. Associations utilize a store of available emotions, instead of compelling the public to sap away potential emotional energy with intellectual pondering needed to grasp the intricacies of complex and perplexing events. By using direct comparisons, seemingly unprecedented issues with a blank slate with imprecise and shallow emotional and intellectual attachments, can take on greater meaning since deep emotional investment to historical events can be applied to new instances that you might not have cared as much about. These emotions make sure to highlight the significance of the new event, convey what is important and make sure that it is not ignored. This is especially important when a shocking crisis when urgency is almost demanded. But this also stifles other emotions and consequently actions that are more suited to the occasion. This dilutes the quality of citizen participation.

But why do some historical events have the capacity to generate such a powerful emotional response? Well, horrific historical events are generally infested with emotional wounds such national regret. Events with a paradox of emotional pain and triumph, are ripe for generating a visceral emotion filled reaction, especially if the negative emotions are suppressed and unresolved. These historical wrongs must have widespread awareness that is infused with cultural meanings and shared understandings on what should have happened. Usually associations manipulate historical traumas when, before the triumph, mass scale efforts were futile, when the masses are perceived to have acted as sheep consenting in their own demise or simply remained as weak bystanders.

Some historical events always with today’s issues more than others because some wounds are more valued than others. For example, events with pain that can remain overlooked since it’s overshadowed by the eventual triumph like in the Great Depression and the Holocaust are frequently evoked as opposed to the Stalin's forced famine that killed millions. Referring to the well-known emotional wounds of other nations that were saved by your nation can be safer and less painful. The goal is not to conjure helpless and paralyzing emotional pain but just enough to scare away the apathy.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress;
.

Beware

Direct comparisons to history bestow the misleading illusion of thorough knowledge and education. The new challenge appears deceptively familiar because nuanced details that don't fit the figure's agenda are slyly escorted out the narrative or strategically misapplied. Thinking you know more than reality stifles genuine curiosity to learn more, demands for more information and encourages you to uphold undeserving demagogues as experts. Then the brain is subconsciously constricted to a narrative that is under a historical context and events appear to neatly reflect one another.

In addition, cultural narratives of history are often riddled with assumptions that tell you how to interpret the new event, thus constricting the meaning and implications of the new crisis. When historical narratives are recklessly applied to new issues, your reaction is framed and misdirected accordingly to the historical crisis. But the dynamics of today are new so updated reactions are required since modern life isn't stagnant.

When a figure uses historical comparisons as a template for comprehension and not as a loosely based guide or reference point, the question should become what is the agenda? What emotions does this figure or entity want me to feel then what type of action based on these emotions to take. For example, if you directly relate the Great Recession to the Great Depression, you'll perceive absolute calamity and sure financial collapse. You might be more willing to accept government intervention in the form of TARP and relate it to the celebrated New Deal. If you truly believe that the Great Recession is directly comparable to the Great Depression, then you will possess perpetual imperfect information since your interpretations of current economic conditions will be faulty and you will be unable to make the rational decisions to survive in the maturing capitalist system.

What's even more disconcerting is that popular understandings about historical events are not wholly accurate. Cultural interpretations of events are often too shallow, biased and filled with imaginations that depart from reality for genuine understanding. For example, background events become nonexistent which creates a lopsided and one dimensional image of history. Overarching lessons about the stock market and greed contributing to the Great Depression erases a background contributor to the bubble, the discrepancy between the maturing manufacturing industries and speculation. As evidenced, focusing on a single factor within a false narrative will completely misconstrue the present.

How can this be combated? Fight it with contemplation and investigation. Broaden your knowledge of history from a variety of perspectives, learn about obscure events with less happy endings and don’t box yourself into any narratives about current events.

Ode to the West Wind Analysis: Stanza by Stanza

noreply@blogger.com (Dianne Heath) — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 01:04:00 +0000

Percy Shelley's Exaltation of Nature's Power

In "Ode to the West Wind", Percy Bysshe Shelley eloquently expresses his private thoughts about nature and humanity by honoring the virtues and power of the Wind. The consistent rhyme scheme demonstrations his dedication to praising the Wind and admiring nature. "Ode to the West Wind" is heavy with descriptions, allegories, stunning imagery and hidden themes which reveal Shelley’s close observation and life long commitment to the subject. Most importantly the poem is brimming with emotion, ranging from adulation, worship, desperate pleading, sadness, and humbleness. Shelley elevates the Wind by treating the Wind as if it's a divine figure so that the underlying message and theme is more pronounced. Just as the ancients recorded their deepest vulnerabilities and fears through open prayer while simultaneously adoring their deity; Shelley also uses the same technique throughout the poem.

Fall at the Dallas Divide, Image Courtesy of Matt Santomarco via Flickr

The untamed, powerful and majestic Wind gifts life to seasons and fuels nature's movement, explains Shelley, "thou breath of Autumn's being" (line 1). The wild Wind has the power and freedom to breathe life into the seasons just like a deity would breathe to life to humans. The Wind is an unseen force yet powerful guardian of nature. It can objectively take away life in one season and lay nature to its death; while spurring reproduction to bestow life in another season. Like a mystic conjuring up a spirit and then fleeing its production, this is how fast the leaves are floating away from the source of their life after contact with the Wind. Shelley uses this metaphor to highlight the incredible & frightening strength of the wind. The leaves anticipate and rapidly accept their morbid fate.

There’s no gloomy mood but a “hectic red” (line 4). Shelley then begins to use human like characteristics to relate nature to our stories and experiences. He uses extensive imagery so that we can see and feel the pertinent message. “Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red pestilence-stricken multitudes,” (line 4) evoke visuals of decaying victims of a deadly plague. Autumn is like a deadly epidemic, slowing sickening and sapping away the life of the leaves that are desperately clinging on. However the Wind, like a king, majestically“chariotest” (line 6) away the deadened leaves and guides them to their grave, "their dark wintry bed," (line 6) with dignity. The phrase, “O thou” is conspicuously unrhymed for distinct reverence and to redirect attention to the subject of exaltation. Shelley manages to compress observations about two seasons in the first two stanzas which sets the tone for the message of the poem; seasons, life, death and power.

Shelley describes the seeds as winged to indicate the freedom they are endowed with once in contact with the Wind. They are “like a corpse within its grave” (line 8) until spring Winds blow new life. Shelley uses blue and azure color imagery throughout the poem to indicate the Wind’s presence in its various forms and to apply Wind-like qualities to other aspects of nature.

Like a loud harmonious trumpet (e.g. religious events, battle cries, festivals, which grabs the attention of multitudes due to its importance and emotional investment by the inhabitants) that fill the city; the spring Wind is boldly declaring a new season by breathing life into seeds. The winged seeds are now described as buds to quickly snapshot the cycle of life from seed to bloom. The buds are driven to the sky "like flocks to feed in air" (line 11) and lifted up by the Wind to reach its nourishment. The spring Wind fills the earth with living hues and sweet odours. This scene contrasts sharply with the autumn colors, signaling death "yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red. (line 4) "

Shelley directly states with reverence, the Wind’s omnipresence "which are moving everywhere" (line 13) and its dual power as "destroyer and preserver" (line 4). He entreats this wild Spirit, to “O hear” his humble request.

The same power who initiated "earth's decaying leaves" (line 16) to shed is the same power bringing more commotion in the sky and loosing up the clouds. The Wind’s power is evident from the heavens and the ocean. Percy uses the word heaven, as if the Wind resides as a deity.

The Wind’s angels are rain and lightning, who are spread on the wind's surface, the sky, like "bright hair on the head". Shelley uses more religious undertones, "some fierce Maenad" (line 21) and "thy congregated might" (line 26) , demonstrating rain's and lightning's strong devotion to the Wind. Shelley also uses death connotations, such a "dirge" and "sepulchre" to express how these elements congregate to end the day. Night is like a dome encompassing the entire earth in its darkness.

Wind is now in the form of vapor, the solid invulnerable sky who directs powerful "black rain, and fire, and hail" (line 28) to burst without fear. The authors uses actions words such as commotion, uplifted, shook and burst to describe the powerful relationship between the Wind and natural processes. The Wind is too powerful to incur damage in the process and not prone to be intimidated by other powerful elements. Once again Shelley is entreating the Wind to hear.

III

Image Courtesy of Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center via Flickr

Shelley continues praise and admire the omnipresent Wind in its many forms. He acknowledges the Wind as a formidable ally and demonstrates why its powers are suited for his humble plea. Once again we see the color blue. The Wind has taken form in the summer within the Mediterranean waves as the engine for stream. The Wind is so powerful that although this function requires a tremendous amount of energy, the Wind is lull'd. There is power in calmness.

Even the grandest man made structures such as "old palaces and towers" (line 33) and "pumice isle in Baiae's bay" (line 32) quivers with the Wind's intense motion when it's just laying down. The word blue, a characteristic of power associated with the Wind, describes the moss and flowers that overtake these structures like a ornament. Their scents are so sweet that you are enamored by what you imagine them to look like. But the powerful vegetation that appear to level with the Atlantic are still at the mercy of the waves produced by the Wind's force. They "cleave themselves into chasms" (line 38) at its presence.

Shelley breaks rhyme scheme again to bring attention back to the subject with the simple yet respectful, "Thou". He uses the "sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear the sapless foliage of the ocean" (line 39, 40) to reflect how is feeling at his lowest state when not beautifully taking over the world like the flowers or moss. At Shelley's strongest and weakest, he respects, trembles and despoils himself with recognition of the Wind's power and role in nature. Shelley has waited so long to make this request that, he "suddenly grow grey with fear" (line 41) line but he courageously asks for the ear of the "Wind, O hear!"

Shelley is now directly addressing the Wind directly as if it were a powerful divine force, a deity worthy of worship. There is no more mention of azure or blue because now we are interacting with the power; we know its forms and force. "If I was a dead leaf thou mightest bear:" (line 43) If Shelley was a leaf, he could still have more power from the benevolent Wind who powerfully guides and generously bestows immortality. Shelley is not interested the illusion of power as a human which can be unpredictably and maliciously swept away. He realizes the limitations of humans and wants pristine freedom. He would love to be lifted up by the by the Wind in a wave or fly with the Wind as a cloud to behold the wonders of nature. He wouldn't be a powerful as the wind and only immortal on borrowed force. But at least more free and protected than as a human since he is under the "impulse of thy strength" (line 46). Yes the elements work tirelessly and pant but they are not brutalized or enslaved by the Wind. Although the Wind can be dangerous and wild it is not deliberately cruel.

Yes the leaves, clouds and waves have less power but they are "only less free" (line 46). The Wind powerfully guides the seasons but it doesn't unduly subdue its subjects but instead invites all of nature to share its majesty. Wind does not target individual elements with death; it objectively guides the process. Shelley acknowledges that the Wind is uncontrollable, but he continues with his request. He refers to an innocent time in boyhood and wishes he could had been a friend of the wind wandering over heaven instead of through the limited experiences of humanity. Nature is Shelley's heaven.

What the wind has the power to do, Shelley couldn't have even strove for. Now Shelley admits that this is an emotional prayer spotted with apprehensive pain. He is desperate yet full of trepidation. He wants to the Wind to lift him up as a "wave, a leaf, a cloud (line 53)." He alludes once again to religious protestant allegory of unpredictable death from prosecution. "I fall upon the thorns of life, I bleed (line 54)."

Time is eloquently described as a "heavy weight of hours" (line 55) who has the power to chain the human existence. The hours are symbolic of impending death. Humans are chained to the passing years; which becomes the enemy of youth and life. Asking for time to stop and death to never come is too bold and a seemingly impossible request. He hopes to circumvent this "tameless and swift and proud" (line 56) character and have the Wind be his protection against this character. The Wind is just as powerful as Time and could be the most formidable defense death by granting immortality and lifting his fruits to another season.

Image Courtesy of Stephan Dann via Flickr

Shelley wants the Wind to artistically use him like instrument; to flow through him creating soothing yet strong melodies just as the forest is a lyre for the Wind to sweep through. Shelley already experiences pain, sickness and death so why not it be for the glory of the Wind as a "tumult for thy mighty harmonies (line 59)."

The deep autumnal tone signals impending death due the upcoming winter, but it isn't as morbid or unpredictable as the human's cold end. The leaves are pale and falling leaving a sad bare tree. However this scene is also sweet and comforting. It's just another appreciated cycle guided by the powerful Wind who provides protection and certainty of rebirth. He entreats the Wind to let its Spirit work through his spirit.

He doesn't want bleak mortality but like the leaves experience the seasons. He wants the wind to drive "my dead thoughts over the universe" (line 63) and chartiotest throughout nature. He longs for the Wind to use his thoughts to "quicken a new birth" (line 64) and provide nourishment to hasten growth for spring. He asks to be immortalized through his words and his poems to fertilize humanity's new insights.

His requests for his words to scatter like "ashes and sparks" (line 67) from a hearth that can't be distinguished among mankind. He wants a guarantee of spring after the autumn and especially after the winter. He wants the wind to lift his words through his lips to "unawken'd earth (line 68)." The Winds' movements are prophetic as it boldly indicates which seasons are next. The Wind is "the trumphet of prophecy" (line 69) spurring the seasons and cycle. Atleast in the natural world if death and winter is looming surely spring and rebirth isn't too far behind. Shelley hopes that this phenomenon is possible for him to.

Percy Shelley is awed by nature's ability to have immense power without intentional cruelty. Thus he feels comfortable being vulnerable to the Wind even though it is wild. The Wind encompasses all the elements without exploiting them. Humans often interpret power as who can procure the most evil but the Wind does not need evil to be powerful. The Wind has no gender identity because it is supposed to be above human concepts of behavior. He wishes that he could fully experience natures power, which although terrifying at times, is emotionally safe and soothing. Shelley praises the seasons and nature's capacity for rebirth. He wishes that he could intimately be a part of it to defy time.