Today’s Lineup
We are ninety seconds from midnight, abortion bans are killing pregnant people, the junk science of hair analysis leads to false convictions, companies steal wages from their workers, we must ask if Republicans denounce political violence, why the world is betting against American democracy, the threats created by disinformation, the $6 trillion difference between the parties, Sam Mewis transitions from soccer icon to editor-in-chief, and the size of the U.S. increased last month.
#1
A moment of historic danger: It is still 90 seconds to midnight (Science and Security Board, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
The members of the Science and Security Board have been deeply worried about the deteriorating state of the world. That is why we set the Doomsday Clock at two minutes to midnight in 2019 and at 100 seconds to midnight in 2022. Last year, we expressed our heightened concern by moving the Clock to 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been—in large part because of Russian threats to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.
Today, we once again set the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight because humanity continues to face an unprecedented level of danger. Our decision should not be taken as a sign that the international security situation has eased. Instead, leaders and citizens around the world should take this statement as a stark warning and respond urgently, as if today were the most dangerous moment in modern history. Because it may well be.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists—an organization founded by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and other University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons—has a Science and Security Board that resets the Doomsday Clock each year to call attention to how vulnerable we are to a global catastrophe caused by human-made technologies. The clock has been moved 25 times since its debut in 1947—with the furthest from midnight coming at 17 minutes in 1991 with the end of the Cold War. I think we should be alarmed that the Doomsday Clock is now set closer to midnight than it was at any point during that conflict. We are seeing the world’s most significant nuclear powers (the United States, Russia, and China) possibly entering a three-way nuclear arms race. The impacts of the climate emergency continue to intensify. Artificial intelligence advances create various potential dangers—including its use to create disinformation to impact elections, autonomous military weapons, and biological threats. The current international political situation does not make me optimistic about improvements in 2024. But we should be aware of the stakes of being so close to midnight, especially in countries having elections this year.
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#2
How to Report Post-Dobbs Deaths (Jessica Valenti, Abortion, Every Day)
The New Yorker published a heart-breaking piece about Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick, a 29 year-old woman who died a few weeks after Roe was overturned. In the headline, the magazine asks, “Did An Abortion Ban Cost a Young Texas Woman Her Life?”
The answer, without a doubt, is yes. So why is it so hard to say so?
Anyone who works in the abortion rights world knows that bans have killed multiple people since Roe was overturned. The public hasn’t heard their stories, though, because families understandably don’t want their loved ones’ lives and deaths picked apart by reporters and anti-abortion activists.
It’s only a matter of time, for example, before Republicans and conservative groups claim that Yeni’s death had nothing to do with Texas’ abortion ban. They’ll point to how the young woman could be inconsistent taking her hypertension medication, or the time she missed an appointment with a maternal fetal medicine specialist. They will find a way to blame her.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Valenti has regularly made this point since the six Supreme Court liars Justices overturned Roe. We must not allow Republicans to shift the blame for these deaths from their policies to the victims or healthcare workers. Forced-birth advocates worked for fifty years to get this result. Republican policies have created what are, in effect, death panels for women. They need to own what they have done—and what they plan to do. And I am relieved that President Biden and Vice President Harris are starting to emphasize what’s at stake during the 2024 election.
#3
How the Junk Science of Hair Analysis Keeps People Behind Bars (Rene Ebersole, Mother Jones)
In courtrooms across America, “scientific evidence” used to imprison people for heinous crimes has been increasingly discredited. Blood-spatter patterns, arson analysis, bite-mark comparisons, even some fingerprint evidence have all turned out to be unreliable.
A quarter of the 3,439 exonerations tracked by the National Registry of Exonerations involved false or misleading forensic evidence.
But these exonerations are only the tip of the iceberg, some experts say. Many more people remain incarcerated despite questions about the forensic analysis of evidence used against them. Cases are not automatically reopened when a field of forensics is questioned or even discredited. That’s true of hair analysis, which has been under scrutiny for decades: Government studies have found that in hundreds of cases, hair analysts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation exaggerated their findings in reports and court testimony.
A new report by the exoneration registry found 129 cases in which people were falsely convicted at least partly because of flawed hair analysis and testimony. Fifteen of the defendants were sentenced to die. Exonerees lost almost 2,000 years of their lives in prison and cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. And there may be many more people behind bars who were convicted because of bad hair evidence.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Think about the ramifications of the statistics included in the last quoted paragraph from this story—129 false convictions, with 15 including death sentences. This story focuses on how Gerald Delane Murray is struggling to be exonerated three decades after his conviction despite the case against him crumbling. The National Academy of Sciences has warned there is “no scientific support” for using hair comparisons without DNA. Yet courts continue to make it difficult for people convicted based on this junk science to appeal and seek exonerations. Far too many judges and prosecutors believe that defending a conviction is more important than seeking the truth. We must do more to help people seek exoneration upon discovering new evidence or when there are updates to scientific understanding.
#4
The fleecing of America’s hourly workers (Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria)
More than 200,000 workers across the country are owed $163.3 million in back pay, according to a website maintained by the Department of Labor (DOL). This is money companies have paid after they were found liable for wage theft violations — like withholding tips from workers — but has not been claimed. Workers who believe they are owed wages can check the DOL website, Worker Owed Wages. Other forms of wage theft include pressuring workers to work off-the-clock, cutting lunch breaks short, deliberately paying below the minimum wage, and failing to pay overtime.
Currently, the largest amount of unclaimed back wages is in food services. More than 36,000 food service workers have yet to claim wages that they are owed, USA Today reports. DOL data reveals that since 2020, investigators have recovered more than $130 million in back wages in the industry. In November 2023, officials ordered Plaza Azteca, an East Coast restaurant chain, to pay “$11.4 million in back wages and liquidated damages for more than 1,000 employees.” According to the DOL, the restaurant was aware of its “legal obligation to pay workers minimum wage and overtime…and yet, willfully disregarded federal law.”
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
I’ve previously covered how the retail industry created a media frenzy about crime by lying about the number of thefts in their businesses. But there hasn’t been enough coverage of a crime we know happens every day: the theft of wages from workers. Our governments do not have the inspectors or administrative capacity to provide punishments to companies or timely relief to workers. Few states even make wage theft a criminal offense—it’s often a crime subject to minor civil penalties. Abuses of the arbitration process make it so challenging for workers to recover their stolen wages that few even try. The federal and state governments should do more to change this dynamic and protect workers. The owners, executives, and managers should face serious criminal penalties for stealing from their workers. Stealing is stealing.
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#5
Reporters should ask Republicans if they renounce political violence (Dan Froomkin, Press Watch)
President Biden spoke out against violence in his first major campaign speech last week: “I’ll say what Donald Trump won’t. Political violence is never, ever acceptable in the United States political system. Never, never, never. It has no place in a democracy. None,” he said.
But that’s hardly going to persuade people on the right.
“Democrats can rail about political violence all they want, but the only way to tamp it down is for Republican leaders to speak out,” Alex Theodoridis, a political science professor at UMass Amherst, said at a Kettering Foundation event on political violence on Tuesday. “They need to hear from elites on their own side that political violence is not OK.”
The absence of that message, Theodoridis said, is a “permission slip” for those “who might engage in criminal and violent behavior.”
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Where do Republicans stand on the use of threats of violence against their political adversaries? Trump refuses to denounce the idea—and has directly warned of bedlam if he does not get his way. This should be a campaign issue. We need to hear whether Republicans condone these threats. We know that the fear of what Trump supporters might do kept Representatives and Senators from voting against Trump during his second impeachment. Local elected officials are resigning from their positions because they cannot handle the stress created by harassment and threats of violence. I am grateful that President Biden was so clear in rejecting violence. Reporters should ask every elected official where they stand—and an interview should end if the politician refuses to denounce it.
#6
Why the World Is Betting Against American Democracy (Nahal Toosi, Politico)
When I asked the European ambassador to talk to me about America’s deepening partisan divide, I expected a polite brushoff at best. Foreign diplomats are usually loath to discuss domestic U.S. politics.
Instead, the ambassador unloaded for an hour, warning that America’s poisonous politics are hurting its security, its economy, its friends and its standing as a pillar of democracy and global stability.
The U.S. is a “fat buffalo trying to take a nap” as hungry wolves approach, the envoy mused. “I can hear those Champagne bottle corks popping in Moscow — like it’s Christmas every fucking day.”
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
The world is looking skeptically at the United States. Can we really blame it? It’s not just that Donald Trump could become president again. Yeah, that’s a problem! But global diplomats have also noticed (among other issues) that the United States cannot keep its commitment to provide aid to Ukraine, has a Republican majority in the House of Representatives more likely to kick out its Speaker than pass a budget, and has a broken confirmation process for ambassadors and other officials. They also expressed concern to Toosi about how moral or national security arguments no longer seem to work with MAGA politicians. How can other countries trust the United States with long-term agreements under these circumstances?
#7
Disinformation poses an unprecedented threat in 2024 — and the U.S. is less ready than ever (Brandy Zadrozny, NBC News)
Disinformation poses an unprecedented threat to democracy in the United States in 2024, according to researchers, technologists and political scientists.
As the presidential election approaches, experts warn that a convergence of events at home and abroad, on traditional and social media — and amid an environment of rising authoritarianism, deep distrust, and political and social unrest — makes the dangers from propaganda, falsehoods and conspiracy theories more dire than ever.
The U.S. presidential election comes during a historic year, with billions of people voting in other elections in more than 50 countries, including in Europe, India, Mexico and South Africa. And it comes at a time of ideal circumstances for disinformation and the people who spread it.
An increasing number of voters have proven susceptible to disinformation from former President Donald Trump and his allies; artificial intelligence technology is ubiquitous; social media companies have slashed efforts to rein in misinformation on their platforms; and attacks on the work and reputation of academics tracking disinformation have chilled research.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Gulp. And as Zadrozny explains, there are no easy solutions to the problem. Local news outlets are laying off staff or closing. Social media companies like X/Twitter, Meta/Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok are cutting back from enforcing their trust and safety policies. Technology is making disinformation easier to create (one of the reasons, as Zadronzny writes, that “a World Economic Forum survey named misinformation and disinformation from AI as the top global risk over the next two years — ahead of climate change and war.” But these threats also exist at the local level—as we have seen with attacks against election administrators and school boards. I believe we will all need to make an effort to call out disinformation as soon as we see it. We don’t have to convince every voter, but we must do what we can to keep persuadable friends, family, and colleagues from falling for what is coming.
#8
$6 Trillion in Taxes Are at Stake in This Year’s Elections (Richard Rubin, Wall Street Journal)
There isn’t a dime’s worth of a difference between the political parties. The chasm is more like $6 trillion.
The winners of November’s presidential and congressional elections will quickly face decisions on extending tax cuts scheduled to expire after 2025. President Biden and Republicans support starkly different tax plans.
Republicans generally want to extend all expiring tax cuts from the 2017 law former President Donald Trump signed. The price tag: $4 trillion over a decade.
Biden proposed extending Trump’s tax cuts for households making under $400,000 annually but said the rest should expire. Beyond that, he would raise taxes further on top earners and corporations. That plan, including tax increases the president hasn’t fully detailed, would generate more than $2 trillion beyond current forecasts.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Anyone who claims to be a fiscal conservative or to give a damn about the rising national debt needs to be clear that they oppose extending the Trump tax cuts. I’d love it if we could also go back to the George W. Bush tax cuts that eliminated trillions of projected surpluses. I also wish Biden set a lower floor than $400,000 a year for reversing the tax cuts. But, sigh, I get the political considerations at play in this election year. Let’s be clear, though—we have over 40 years of experience showing that tax cuts do not increase revenues (which even Ronald Reagan demonstrated he understood when he signed a tax increase into law just one year after his famous 1981 tax cuts). Fiscal responsibility is incompatible with tax cuts when the economy is growing.
#9
She Was the World’s Best Player. Now She Won’t Play Soccer Again. (Rachel Bachman, Wall Street Journal)
It was the kind of contact that happens in every soccer game. Playing in a friendly, U.S. midfielder Sam Mewis stretched her right leg toward the ball, an opponent slid to tackle her, and their knees collided. As the months stretched on from that Nov. 12, 2017, game against Canada, however, the damage Mewis’s knee suffered that day eventually would end one of the most quietly spectacular careers in American soccer.
Mewis, who was named the top player in the world during the Americans’ triumphant 2019 Women’s World Cup, announced her retirement from the game on Friday. She is 31 years old.
She’s already started her next career: serving as editor in chief of women’s soccer coverage for the Men In Blazers Media Network. There, she’ll build an operation that Roger Bennett, the network’s co-founder, hopes will equal the size of the network’s men’s soccer coverage by the end of 2025.
WHY I FIND IT INTERESTING:
Sam Mewis’ excellence on the pitch often seemed to fly under the radar. She won everywhere she played: winning a national championship with UCLA, three NWSL titles, an FA Cup with Manchester City, and that 2019 Women’s World Cup title. But recovering from that knee injury became more difficult. I’m not alone in thinking that her inability to play in the 2023 World Cup explains a bunch about the USWNT’s underperformance in that tournament. Like many soccer fans, I was able to experience Mewis in a different environment during that World Cup as I listened to her co-host live streams and podcasts with Men in Blazers’ co-founder Roger Bennett. They were lively and fun conversations, despite starting so early in the morning (given the time zone differences between New Zealand and Australia). So I was looking forward to seeing what she would do when her playing career was over—but I was hoping it wouldn’t be this soon. I am glad Mewis has this opportunity to make this smooth transition at the end of her playing career. And I am excited to see what she will do with Bennett on the Men in Blazers network to increase the coverage of women’s soccer.
The Closer
The United States grew in size by a million square kilometers last month. “America is larger than it was yesterday,” said Mead Treadwell, a former Alaska lieutenant governor and former chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. “It’s not quite the Louisiana Purchase. It’s not quite the purchase of Alaska, but the new area of land and subsurface resources under the land controlled by the United States is two Californias larger.” (Liz Ruskin, Alaska Public Radio)
Quick Pitches
- The Hidden World of Undersea Cables (Brian Klaas, The Garden of Forking Paths)
- The Week in Abortion: 1/15-1/19/24 (Jessica Valenti, Abortion, Every Day)
- That Numbness You’re Feeling? There’s a Word for It. (Adam Grant, New York Times)
- The California Town Owned by a New York Investment Firm (Michael Waters, The New Yorker)
- We Really Don’t Have to “Understand” Trump Voters Anymore (Parker Malloy, The Present Age)
- How Charlie Kirk Plans to Discredit Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Act (William Turton, Wired)
Post-Game Comments
Today’s Thought from my Readwise collection:
“It’s thrilling to be extremely polite to rude strangers.” (Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living)
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