A False Census Of Security
January 17, 2022
The Good News
- 190-year-old Jonathan becomes world’s oldest tortoise ever (Guinness World Records)
- COVID program delivers 1 billion doses to poorer countries (AP)
“The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man.” – Thomas Malthus
A False Census Of Security
The Constitution orders a decennial census, or headcount, of everyone living in the U.S. The results are used to divvy up seats in the House of Representatives, to draw political maps at all governmental levels, and to allot federal funding for key social services. Thomas B. Hofeller, who died in 2018, was a political consultant whose mastery of redistricting strategy, A.K.A. gerrymandering, helped propel the Republican Party from underdog to the dominant force in state legislatures and the U.S. House. In 2015, Hofeller wrote a study concluding that adding a citizenship question to the census would allow Republicans to draft even more extreme gerrymandered maps to stymie Democrats. Early on, the Trump administration began pushing to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. That tactic was blocked by the Supreme Court in June 2019.
In July 2020, Trump directed the federal government not to count undocumented immigrants when allocating House districts; that attempt should also have been declared illegal, as the Constitution says to count “persons,” not “citizens.” A newly disclosed memorandum, written in September 2020, cites “unprecedented” meddling by the Trump administration in the 2020 census. The memo, circulated among top Census Bureau officials, shows how strongly they were trying to resist efforts to manipulate the count for Republican political gain. It enumerated a number of instances of political interference that senior census officials planned to raise with then-Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the bureau. Most issues directly affected the population estimates used for reapportionment. The administration wanted to end the count early so that if Trump lost the election, he could receive population estimates used to reapportion the House before leaving office. Various states and voting rights groups sued, and in December 2020, SCOTUS ducked the issue by saying there were too many unknowns, and therefore a decision would be “premature.”
In the 2021 legislative sessions, more than 425 bills with provisions restricting voting access were introduced in 49 states. Between January 1 and September 27, 2021, at least 19 states enacted 34 laws making it harder for Americans to vote. Republicans aligned with the former president continue pressing ahead at the state level to change voting procedures, conduct partisan investigations of the last presidential contest, and seize more control over the machinery of elections. Democrats and voting rights advocates warn that the unrelenting campaign to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Biden’s 2020 victory could erode voter confidence in elections and increase the chances that losing candidates and their supporters will challenge election results in the future. Even so, Senate Democrats have been unable to come together to enact federal legislation protecting everyone’s right to vote. (NYT, NBC, USA Today, CNN)
Volcano Eruption Leads To Tsunami Warning
- An underwater volcano in the South Pacific erupted violently on Saturday, causing tsunamis to hit Hawaii, Japan, and Tonga’s largest island, Tongatapu, where it sent waves flooding into the capital. The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano, about 18.6 miles southeast of Tonga’s Fonuafo’ou island, first erupted on Friday and a second time on Saturday afternoon.
- The eruptions sent a plume of ash, gas, and steam 12.4 miles into the air; satellite imagery showed a massive ash cloud and shockwaves spreading from the eruption. Ash was falling from the sky in the Tonga capital, Nuku’alofa, on Saturday evening, and phone connections were down.
- The eruption also had effects across the Pacific, with tsunami warnings and advisories issued from parts of New Zealand and Japan to the U.S. and Canada’s British Columbia. Less than 10 months ago, a major magnitude-8.1 earthquake struck about 600 miles northeast of New Zealand, triggering concerns of potentially damaging tsunamis across large portions of the Pacific. That risk spanned from New Zealand and Australia to as far east as Central and South America. (CNN, WaPo)
Running A Tight Ship
- The Philippines has finalized a deal to acquire a shore-based anti-ship missile system from India for nearly $375 million to beef up its navy. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said his country is in the late stages of a five-year, $5.85 billion project to modernize its military’s outdated hardware that includes warships from WWII and helicopters used by the United States in the Vietnam War. Under the deal negotiated with India’s government, Brahmos Aerospace Private Ltd will deliver three batteries, train operators, and maintainers, and provide logistics support.
- Despite friendlier ties between China and the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte, Beijing has remained adamant in claiming large portions of the South China Sea, a conduit for goods in excess of $3.4 trillion every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam also have lodged competing claims. The new anti-ship system aims to deter foreign vessels from encroaching on the Philippines’ 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. (Reuters)
Additional World News
- Turkey, Armenia talk normalising ties after decades of animosity (Al Jazeera)
- Lisbon council fined for sharing protester details with foreign embassies (BBC)
- Italy’s Berlusconi mobilises media empire behind his presidential bid (Reuters)
- UK spy service warns lawmakers over Chinese agent of influence (NBC)
- El Salvador denies responsibility for hacking journalists after report finds Pegasus spyware on their phones (CNN)
- Jakarta Earthquake: Powerful quake shakes Indonesia’s capital (AP)
- Australia records highest temperature in 62 years (Reuters)
- The traditional process of designing and buying an engagement ring is confusing, rigid, and outdated. Wove knows that your relationship is one-of-a-kind, and they believe your ring should be too.
- Big jewelry brands are still offering off-the-shelf options, forcing you to conform to their style. Wove makes the engagement ring process a fun, creative, and meaningful collaboration that brings you closer together.
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A Discerning Ballot
- In September 2021, Texas’ Republican Governor Greg Abbot signed elections overhaul legislation that added yet more voting restrictions in the state. More than 11,000 Texans, including U.S. citizens, were sent letters saying they were flagged as potential non-citizens and could be thrown off voting rolls unless they could prove to their local elections offices they are citizens.
- 2,327 voters had their registration canceled for failing to come in within 30 days; of that number, 278 were confirmed as noncitizens. Requesters of mail-in ballots must include either their driver’s license number, or the last four digits of their social security number, or the number of a state-issued I.D. Counties then match those numbers to their records before mailing an actual ballot.
- Local officials said this week hundreds of mail-in ballot applications are being rejected for failure to include the required new information. Harris County officials said they had rejected over 200 of 1,200 applications from voters in the Houston area. In Austin, county election officials put the rate of rejections at 50%. (AP News)
Synagogue Attacker Identified
- A man who took four hostages at a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, northwest of Dallas, has been identified by the FBI as British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, 44. The man interrupted a service Saturday morning; after taking the hostages, Akram demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist currently serving an 86-year prison term in the U.S. for trying to kill U.S. military officers while in custody in Afghanistan.
- The man was shot and killed after a 10-hour standoff with police; the hostages were not injured. Akram’s brother issued a statement apologizing to the victims, saying he had been suffering from “mental health issues.” Sunday evening, two teenagers were arrested in South Manchester, England, as part of the investigation. (BBC)
Additional USA News
- As Omicron fuels surge, US students stage walkouts to protest in-person classes (Reuters)
- FEMA administrator to announce expanded flexibility for National Guard to help support hospitals (CNN)
- GOP Sen. Roger Marshall plans bill to publicize Fauci’s salary (SEATimes)
- Police Presentation in Portland Celebrated Violence Against Protesters (NYT, $)
- 6 people shot outside Oregon concert; suspect not in custody (ABC)
- Snow, ice blasts through South with powerful winter storm (AP)
- President Biden announces new investment in nation’s bridges (ABC)
Cheese Louise
- Geographic indications (GIs) are a subset of trademarks that most often apply to specialized food or beverage products primarily grown or processed in one part of the world. GIs serve the same functions as trademarks because, like trademarks, they are source-identifiers, guarantees of quality, and valuable business interests. International disagreements concerning GIs have resulted in controversies regarding which products earn geographic protection in varying parts of the world. Most of the conflict between the way the U.S and European nations approach GIs stems from what is considered a genuine product.
- European courts interpret many types of foods and beverages as being specific property of a geographic area. For example, even if a brewery in Hungary crafted a beer with identical ingredients and processes as Bayerisches Bier (a beer produced in the Bavaria region of Germany), that brewery could not call their beer “Bayerisches.” The U.S. has historically construed the naming as intellectual property. Therefore, a farm that produces a certain cheese in America could maintain their trademark for that cheese if they also begin to produce it in a completely different region of the country. However, the U.S. has followed the European approach to GIs with respect to some crops, like Florida oranges, Idaho potatoes, and Tennessee whiskey.
- Gruyère is a mild, smooth-melting yellow cheese that was historically produced in the valleys along Switzerland and France’s border for at least 1,000 years. Swiss Gruyère is the most popular Swiss cheese throughout most of Europe. In 2011, Swiss-made Gruyère gained protected geographical indication (PGI) in Europe. In 2012, the European Commission granted French-made Gruyère PGI status. In 2013, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) approved Swiss producers’ identification of their particular Gruyère cheese in the U.S. with the logo “Le Gruyère Switzerland AOC.”
- But in August of 2020, the federal Trademark Trials and Appeals Board denied an application for trademark protection for Gruyère, finding that to Americans, Gruyère is a generic term. A consortium of Swiss and French cheesemakers around the town of Gruyères in Switzerland then filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Virginia. Last week, the judge issued his ruling against the consortium, finding that American consumers don’t associate the gruyère name with cheese specifically from that region. It’s interesting, because trademark protections have been granted for Roquefort cheese and Cognac brandy. (UCLA Law Review, AP News)
Additional Reads
- Cocaine worth £7.5m found in Colombian banana shipment (BBC)
- Scientists discover gene that increases risk of dying from COVID (SEA Times, $)
- Why do astronauts get “space anemia”? This study has an answer. (CBS)
- Spider-Man comic page sells for record $3.36M bidding (AP)
- The Gritty, Underground Network Bringing Japan’s Arcades to the US (Wired)
- ‘Biden’ blames political woes on Spider-Man movie on ‘Saturday Night Live’ (The Hill)