Do No Farm
May 3, 2022
Some Good News
- New Zealand welcomes back tourists as it eases pandemic rules (NPR)
- US pediatricians’ group moves to abandon race-based guidance (AP)
“Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.” – Albert Camus
Tucker Punch
The Department of Homeland Security has set up a Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) to try to counter the spread of false information. The board’s immediate focus will be on disinformation coming from Russia and from human smugglers who circulate false claims targeting migrants hoping to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border. Nina Jankowicz, an authority on Russian misinformation and online harassment, will lead the DGB. This is a laudable and necessary undertaking, but maybe the DGB should also be tackling toxic disinformation spewed every night of the week by one cable television host.
“American Nationalist,” a definitive expose of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson penned by investigative reporter Nicholas Confessore, ran in the New York Times last weekend. The Times did an exhaustive examination of the 52-year-old’s career, including interviews with dozens of friends and former colleagues, and analyzed more than 1,100 episodes of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” The analysis shows how every weeknight Carlson weaponizes his viewers’ fears and grievances to create what could be the most racist show in cable news history – and arguably, the most successful.
Carlson’s rise in popularity traces the transformation of American conservatism itself. He’s filled the vacuum left by Donald Trump, championing the former president’s most ardent followers and their most extreme views. Carlson implanted doubt and suspicion around immigrants, Black Lives Matter protesters, and Covid-19 vaccines, and fervently raced to defend January 6 rioters. Last spring, Carlson caused an uproar when he promoted the notion of the “great replacement,” once a far-right racist conspiracy theory that Western elites are importing “obedient” immigrant voters to disempower the native-born. In more than 400 episodes, Carlson amplified the idea that a cabal of elites want to force demographic change through immigration. He invoked the “ruling class” in more than 800 shows, insisting “they” want “you” to “shut up and obey.”
Carlson’s playbook is described this way: “Go straight for the third rail, be it race, immigration or another hot-button issue; harvest the inevitable backlash; return the next evening to skewer critics for how they responded. Then, do it all again.” This feedback loop has driven up ratings, boosted viewers’ loyalty, and allowed Carlson to fend off critics outside Fox and shut down anyone within – from news anchors to junior employees – who’ve objected to his dangerous rhetoric. (AP, NYT ($), Axios)
A Meth Wish
- Afghanistan’s economy continues to crumble under Taliban rule; almost all foreign aid, bank business, and financial transactions are halted, and small businesses struggle to hang on. But the one sector that is thriving is the illicit drug industry.
- Five hours west of Kandahar is a row of dusty shops topped with Taliban flags – it’s one of the drug trade’s most bustling hubs. Wholesalers work here openly, moving dozens of kilos of shisha, the Afghan term for methamphetamine, every week. A half-kilo bag of long glassy shards of meth sells for about $250; its street value in Europe is tens of thousands of dollars.
- Afghanistan has been a global hub for opium production for decades, estimated to supply 80% of the world’s opiate users. The country’s economic crisis has forced some Afghans to find new revenue streams. The meth industry began growing at breakneck speed after drug traffickers discovered a potential bonanza in a native plant called ephedra, known here as oman, which grows wild and is a natural source of the drug’s key ingredient. (WaPo, $)
Heat Of The Moment
- Temperatures in parts of India and Pakistan have reached record levels, putting the lives of millions at risk as the effects of the climate crisis are felt across the subcontinent. The average maximum temperature for northwest and central India in April was the highest since records began 122 years ago, reaching 96.62 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively.
- In April, New Delhi saw seven consecutive days over 104 degrees Fahrenheit, three degrees above the average temperature for the month. Last Friday, Jacobabad and Sibi, in Pakistan’s southeastern Sindh province, recorded highs of 116.6 Fahrenheit – the highest temperature recorded in any city in the Northern Hemisphere on that day.
- Experts say the climate crisis will cause more frequent and longer heatwaves, affecting more than a billion people across the two countries. Extreme heat has caused crop losses, power failures, and school closures, and will test the “limits of human survivability.” (CNN)
Additional World News
- Can Sri Lanka dig itself out of a $50 billion debt? (Vox)
- Assam state leader pushes to replace India’s religion-based laws (Reuters)
- Russia strikes US weapons at airfield near Odesa, defence ministry says (Reuters)
- Sydney man admits to pushing American off cliff in 1988 gay hate crime (NBC)
- EU may offer Hungary, Slovakia exemptions from Russian oil embargo (Reuters)
- Thousands rally in Armenia warning against Karabakh concessions (Al Jazeera)
- Pakistan, Saudi Arabia to discuss extending term of $3bn deposit (Al Jazeera)
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Email Intuition
- In a landmark ruling late Sunday, U.S. District Court Judge Tim Kelly rejected a Republican National Committee lawsuit that attempted to block the January 6 select committee’s effort to obtain internal RNC data about efforts to fundraise off claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
- The judge said the committee had demonstrated its need for the party’s data on its fundraising emails between November 3, 2020, and January 6, 2021, when the RNC and the Trump campaign sent supporters messages falsely suggesting the election was stolen.
- The select committee contends those emails helped sow the seeds of the violence that erupted at the Capitol Building. The RNC plans to appeal the ruling. (Politico)
Union-Eyes On The Prize
- Last month, workers at an Amazon facility in Staten Island, New York, won a landmark union election. But hopes that the same scenario would be repeated at a neighboring building were dashed Monday when a second group of Amazon employees at that smaller neighboring building voted not to unionize. The ballot count showed that 380 workers were in favor of joining the independent Amazon Labor Union, but 618 were against it.
- One worker at the second facility who voted in favor of unionizing said many of his colleagues didn’t know much about the implications of the organizing campaign. “I think people are very uneducated about what unions are about,” he said. “There is no job security at Amazon, and they really don’t understand the workings of Amazon.” The outcome is a major win for Amazon, which invested millions in thwarting unionization efforts nationwide over the past year. (NBC News)
Additional USA News
- US Marshals offer reward for information on escaped inmate Casey White, “missing” correctional officer Vicky White (CBS)
- Biden honors Walter Mondale as one of America’s ‘great giants’ at memorial service (CNN)
- 2022 midterms: What to know about Ohio, Indiana primaries (AP)
- Trump defends Nebraska gubernatorial candidate facing groping allegations (CNN)
- Man Fatally Stabbed in Dispute Over Prize at Times Square Arcade (NYT, $)
- Top Biden health official says trans youth being ‘driven to depths of despair’ (The Hill)
Do No Farm
- Russian troops’ widespread looting of residences in Ukrainian cities is well documented, and lately, reports have been growing of Russian forces stealing farm equipment, grain, and even building materials. Then came the huge theft of a lot of very valuable agricultural equipment – at least $5 million worth – from a John Deere dealership in Melitopol, which Russian troops have occupied since March.
- The thieves then sent all that valuable equipment – the giant combine harvesters alone are worth $300,000 each – via Russian military transport to Chechnya, over 700 miles away. The audacity of that thievery suggests the criminal operations are becoming increasingly organized.
- And that would be the end of the story – if the Ukrainians hadn’t pulled off a much deserved Gotcha. Because once the equipment arrived in Chechnya, none of it could be used, as it had all been locked remotely. (CNN)
Additional Reads
- Kathy Boudin, Radical Imprisoned in a Fatal Robbery, Dies at 78 (NYT, $)
- Trevor Noah roasts pretty much everyone at White House Correspondents’ Dinner (LAT, $)
- Terahertz imaging reveals hidden inscription on 16th-century funerary cross (Ars Technica)
- Bill Murray speaks out about ‘Being Mortal’ film shutdown, saying ‘I did something I thought was funny, and it wasn’t taken that’ (CNN)
- “Elephant in the room”: Clean energy’s need for unsustainable minerals (Ars Technica)
- Catch and Release: Rocket Lab Grabs Booster Falling From Space With a Helicopter (NYT, $)