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<title>13 December, 2021</title>
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<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
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<body>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
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<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Secret History of the U.S. Diplomatic Failure in Afghanistan</strong> - A trove of unreleased documents reveals a dispiriting record of misjudgment, hubris, and delusion that led to the fall of the Western-backed government. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/12/20/the-secret-history-of-the-us-diplomatic-failure-in-afghanistan">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>An Astounding List of Artists Helped Persuade the Met to Remove the Sackler Name</strong> - Richard Serra, Kara Walker, and Ai Weiwei were among a group of more than seventy that quietly pressured the museum to end its association with the family that made a fortune on the opioid crisis. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/an-astounding-list-of-artists-helped-persuade-the-met-to-remove-the-%20sackler-name">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Man Who Predicted Climate Change</strong> - In the nineteen-sixties, Syukuro Manabe drew a graph that foretold our world today—and what’s to come. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/persons-of-interest/the-man-who-predicted-climate-change">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>How Former BuzzFeed Employees Missed Their Big Payday</strong> - When the company went public this past week, ex-staffers learned something alarming: they were unable to sell the stock that they had waited years to trade. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-communications/how-former-buzzfeed-employees-missed-their-big-payday">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Vegan Bodega Sandwiches That Eric Adams Wants to See in the World</strong> - A New York City startup is putting plant-based chopped cheese, butter rolls, and egg sandwiches on the menu at deli counters around town. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-vegan-bodega-sandwiches-that-eric-adams-wants-to-%20see-in-the-world">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><strong>The state of the shrinking Build Back Better Act</strong> -
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<figure>
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<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/a8xA8Jf_Z12qD9aLKNqbdlwsB2w=/369x0:4029x2745/1310x983/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70263998/GettyImages_1237125430.0.jpg"/>
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<figcaption>
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Activists gather near where Senator Joe Manchin’s boat is docked in Washington, DC, on December 9. They are encouraging him to help pass the Build Back Better Act. | Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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It’s still quite large, but it’s been compromised down, and more changes lie ahead in the Senate.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LLiDIw">
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All of the twists and turns in the saga of the Build Back Better Act have just been prologue. Now, it’s time for Democratic senators to determine what will really make it in the final product and whether President Joe Biden’s signature bill will pass at all.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="reIGgD">
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Much of that comes down to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who <a href="https://twitter.com/awprokop/status/1468350457496190980/photo/1">expressed skepticism</a> about Build Back Better Wednesday. The bill, he said, would make major changes to three main areas: the tax system, social services, and the energy sector. “We should all be very careful what we do,” Manchin said. “We get any of those wrong, and we’re in trouble.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bKEhN5">
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Back in August, I wrote that the proposed bill would be “<a href="https://www.vox.com/22577374/reconciliation-bill-biden-medicare-climate">a big fucking deal</a>” if it passed. Various changes and compromises have been made to it since then, weakening or eliminating some — but certainly not all — of its most significant provisions. What remains in the House-passed bill does break down mainly into the three areas Manchin described.
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li id="CIH0wC">
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<strong>Social spending</strong>: A compromised effort to expand the social welfare state and help families with children, with several new programs created but set to expire in a few years (this includes <a href="https://www.vox.com/22744837/house-senate-democrats-build-back-better-child-care">child care funding</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22796061/universal-preschool-pre-k-biden-build-back-better">pre-K expansion</a>, and a continuation of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22543868/biden-child-tax-credit-
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july-15-monthly-payment">expanded child tax credit</a>) as well as various funding for health care programs (like home- based care through Medicaid and hearing for seniors through Medicare)
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</li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jCejhg">
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<strong>Climate</strong>: A lot of money aimed at fighting climate change, primarily through tax credits for clean energy, but not including many punitive policies toward dirty energy
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</li>
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<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HFQgXl">
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<strong>Taxes</strong>: New tax changes that are projected to raise much more money from the very wealthy and corporations but also a large tax cut for well-off people in high-tax (mostly blue) states
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Zz5BkG">
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Then there’s various other spending on a plethora of different issues and projects, including more money for existing affordable housing programs, and measures to give unauthorized immigrants temporary work permits and increase legal immigration.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="4cHMS0">
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But major changes will lie ahead as the Senate hammers out its own version. Manchin’s vote is essential, and he’s said he’s worried the bill creates too many temporary social programs and may seek additional changes to the climate provisions too. That tax change benefiting wealthy blue state residents <a href="https://itep.org/latest-proposal-from-senate-democrats-would-bar-the-rich-from-
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salt-cap-relief/">may be scaled back</a> by senators. And the chamber’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/9/12/22669790/budget-reconciliation-democrats-immigration-senate-
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parliamentarian">parliamentarian</a> has to determine whether major provisions on immigration and other issues comply with the chamber’s rules. So none of this is set in stone just yet.
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</p>
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<h3 id="ZPyonC">
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New social spending programs — many of which may not last long
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lpxMlL">
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Most of the bill’s spending — more than half in the House’s version — is devoted to expanding the social welfare state. (All cost estimates quoted in this article are from the <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57627">Congressional Budget Office’s analysis</a>.) We can think of that spending as falling into two main buckets: spending to help families with children and spending on health care.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f2qPpu">
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First, many of the most sweeping provisions in the bill have the common goal of financially helping families with children. But there’s a catch: In an effort to please moderates who demanded the overall cost of the bill be kept down, Democrats have set several of these programs to last for only a limited time, gambling that they’ll end up being popular and that Republicans will agree to let them continue if they hold power later. They include:
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FAHMc6">
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<strong>The expanded child tax credit</strong>: As a pandemic relief measure, Congress expanded the child tax credit for this year, making it significantly larger (for all families except the rich) and having it go out in monthly payments. They also made the credit available even to poor families earning no taxable income at all (who had so often been left out of previous antipoverty policies due to work requirements). But these changes are set to expire at the end of this year.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NMUYj4">
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The Build Back Better Act would also make the credit’s increased availability to the poorest families permanent. Many antipoverty crusaders and policy wonks think this latter part is the best social spending in Build Back Better, with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/03/extending-this-provision-of-the-child-tax-
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credit-will-slash-poverty-by-19percent.html">one estimate</a> saying it could cut child poverty in the US by 19 percent.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dk1WxN">
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The bill would also keep the “supersized” child tax credit for all but the wealthiest families going — but just for one more year. So overall this adds up to a cost of about $184 billion over 10 years. (If the expanded child tax credit was expanded for a full decade, it would cost more than $1 trillion in that span.)
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</p></li>
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</ul>
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<figure class="e-image">
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<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/thumbor/5_vqGJVnbfxyXa3lxICoDd6_8ng=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23080138/AP21342045831831.jpg"/> <cite>AP</cite>
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<figcaption>
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A demonstrator blocks Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, on December 7 to call for the continuation of the expanded child tax credit in the Build Back Better bill.
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</figcaption>
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</figure>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hsVMUg">
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<strong>The child care plan</strong>: The bill includes an ambitious plan to help millions of families with children under age 6 get affordable child care for the first time, subsidizing most or all of the cost of their care at licensed providers. It’s also a plan that’s been the subject of intense debate, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22744837/house-senate-democrats-build-back-
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better-child-care">as I wrote recently</a> — critics fear it could lead to shortages or drive up prices while supporters argue that an influx of federal money would improve a broken system.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uFuTOf">
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The catch here is that the bill only fully funds this plan for three years — 2025 to 2027. In the three years before that, subsidies will gradually be expanded to more Americans. But in 2028, the subsidies vanish. So on paper, the childcare plan costs $273 billion over 10 years, per CBO, but a fully funded version would likely cost more than $600 billion.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f4c3Gs">
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<strong>Expanded pre-K</strong>: The bill also devotes about $109 billion to funding state expansions of pre-K programs — though here too, the federal money will vanish after six years, in 2028. The White House argues that this would provide “universal pre-K” but there are questions about whether they can truly make good on that promise, as my colleague <a href="https://www.vox.com/22796061/universal-preschool-pre-k-biden-build-back-better">Fabiola Cineas has written</a>.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Rum4C2">
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<strong>Paid leave: </strong>Finally, the House bill also has the federal government, working through private insurers, help fund paid leave for workers who become new parents or who are seriously ill. But Manchin has said he is opposed to including this at all, and the White House has already <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/28/president-biden-announces-the-build-back-
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better-framework/">agreed to drop it</a>, at his behest. So it seems this won’t end up in the final version.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LpcAU6">
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Health care is the other major category of the bill’s new social spending. The biggest-ticket item is about $146 billion for in-home care for seniors and the disabled <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/11/19/elder-care-biden-spending-plan/">through Medicaid</a>. The bill would also expand Medicare <a href="https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/potential-costs-and-impact-of-health-
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provisions-in-the-build-back-better-act/">to cover hearing benefits</a>, <a href="https://www.kff.org/health-
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costs/issue-brief/potential-costs-and-impact-of-health-provisions-in-the-build-back-better-act/#one">fund the subsidies </a>that help people pay for Obamacare individual insurance plans for a few more years, allow the federal government to <a href="https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/explaining-the-prescription-drug-provisions-in-the-build-back-better-
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act/">negotiate some prescription drug prices</a> in the hopes of driving those prices down, and <a href="https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/potential-costs-and-impact-of-health-provisions-in-the-build-back-
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better-act/#five">pay for coverage</a> for low-income individuals in states that did not expand Medicaid.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="57Zkmt">
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The potential trouble ahead is that Manchin <a href="https://twitter.com/awprokop/status/1468350457496190980">has said he’s not thrilled</a> with the approach of funding many programs only for a few years (though this is not uncommon congressional budgeting practice). He <a href="https://reason.com/2021/11/01/manchin-bidens-new-spending-plan-relies-on-shell-games-and-budget-gimmicks/">said Democrats</a> have relied on “shell games” and “budget gimmicks” to hide the true costs of their bill. If he holds firm on this, it could mean major changes to this part of the bill — certain programs may have to be dropped entirely.
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</p>
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<h3 id="9LLy28">
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Democrats have protected a lot of money to clean energy
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LMM2BQ">
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Significantly, as Democrats have been forced to pare back the overall size of Build Back Better, they have protected the overall amount of money they’re devoting to climate: Nearly $500 billion over 10 years (about a quarter of the bill’s spending) is devoted to green energy or other measures meant to fight climate change.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tVheGh">
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The bulk of that money goes to tax credits meant to incentivize clean electricity and transportation as well as energy efficiency for property owners. And in contrast to their treatment of social policy programs, Democrats are not setting their new clean energy tax credits to expire after just a few years. The bill would create a tax regime for clean energy that would last the next 10 years. (More specifically, <a href="https://www.novoco.com/notes-from-novogradac/house-passed-17-trillion-build-back-better-
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reconciliation-legislation-includes-325-billion-green">the bill would</a> extend and enhance existing tax credits, which are often targeted to specific technologies, for the next five years, but it would create a new technology-neutral approach for such tax credits after that.) There’s also spending on reducing pollution, forest restoration, and other conservation programs.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LDhJoI">
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Yet while the amount of money devoted to climate has stayed the same, the form of that spending has changed. At Manchin’s behest, Democrats have backed down from proposals that would be punitive toward dirty, emission-heavy energy. Most notably, they’ve abandoned what had been their centerpiece climate proposal: a “<a href="https://www.vox.com/22579218/clean-energy-standard-electricity-infrastructure-democrats">clean electricity payment program</a>” that would <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/payments-or-fines-how-dems-ces-would-affect-
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utilities/">make payments</a> to utilities that rely on clean energy, while fining those that aren’t making progress toward reducing carbon emissions. That’s out. Loose talk of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/16/climate/democrats-carbon-tax-climate.html">including a carbon tax of some kind </a>never went anywhere, either.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LUalrT">
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The major punitive policy toward dirty energy that remains in the bill is a fee on methane emissions associated with oil and gas production and transmission. Though carbon dioxide emissions are mostly responsible for climate change, methane emissions play a significant role as well — they’re at least 80 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide, <a href="https://www.vox.com/22613532/climate-
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change-methane-emissions">my colleague Rebecca Leber recently wrote</a>. Democrats hoped to discourage such emissions with a new fee, but they need Manchin’s approval, so they’re working to win him over. (He <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/584962-manchin-says-good-adjustments-have-been-made-on-democrats-
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methane">said Wednesday</a> that Democrats have made “some good adjustments” on the methane fee but didn’t sound completely won over just yet.)
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sE72I2">
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The big picture is that the climate provisions of the current bill fall short of what progressives hoped was possible earlier this year, but they’re still sweeping, important, and would be quite impressive for a Senate that needs a vote from <a href="https://www.vox.com/22339531/manchin-filibuster-
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bipartisanship-senate-west-virginia">Manchin</a> — who represents a state where the coal industry is tremendously important and who himself has <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/09/03/joe-manchin-coal-fossil-fuels-
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pollution/">made millions</a> from coal companies he founded.
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="aVLyou">
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But of course, nothing is final.
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</p>
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<h3 id="I69qDO">
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A tax hike for the very wealthy and corporations, a tax cut mostly benefiting wealthy blue staters
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</h3>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QUDVA5">
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On the one hand, the Build Back Better Act would raise a great deal of revenue from higher taxes on some of the wealthiest people in the country and on corporations. On the other hand, the bill would massively cut taxes for many less wealthy but still quite well-off people — because of its changes to what’s known as the SALT (state and local tax) deduction.
|
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</p>
|
|||
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CeES3f">
|
|||
|
|
The background here is that President Trump’s 2017 tax cut bill made a significant change limiting how much state and local taxes were deductible on federal tax returns. This meant a bigger tax bill for well-off people who live in places where taxes are high — usually blue states or cities. (The change mostly hits well- off people because they often itemize their taxes and pay higher rates.)
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="K4uFsd">
|
|||
|
|
So House Democrats representing these high-tax areas (for instance, New Jersey) demanded a significant portion of the bill’s spending be devoted to rolling back this change over the next five years. This change would cost $229 billion in that span, making it of comparable size to Democrats’ childcare plan. “Roughly 98 percent of the benefit from the increase would accrue to those making more than $100,000 per year, with more than 80 percent going to those making over $200,000,” per the <a href="https://www.crfb.org/blogs/build-back-better-salt-gains-rich-eclipse-child-credit-boost">Committee for Responsible Federal Budget analysis</a>.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<figure class="e-image">
|
|||
|
|
<img alt=" " src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/YTQHtXHR7DWAXmi7hRwVT0Qntg4=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23080047/GettyImages_1237125032.jpg"/> <cite>Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</cite>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill advocates for inclusion of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction in the Build Back Better Act reconciliation bill, outside the US Capitol on December 8.
|
|||
|
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</figcaption>
|
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</figure>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="kP8Oah">
|
|||
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|
The Senate Democratic Caucus, which includes several Democrats in rural lower-tax states, is less “SALT-y,” and key senators have discussed scaling back this change. It isn’t clear where they’ll land yet. For now, though, one of the groups that benefits most clearly from the House-passed bill is wealthy people in blue states.
|
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</p>
|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2Q5O9h">
|
|||
|
|
To be clear, though, the overall bill is no giveaway for the richest. Changes to taxes on high- income individuals would raise an estimated $640 billion more in revenue over the next decade, per CBO. This breaks down into about $252 billion from changes to the net investment income tax, $160 billion from limiting excess business losses, and $227 billion from a “surcharge” on wealthy individuals, estates, and trusts, which would apply to about the wealthiest <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/28/president-biden-announces-
|
|||
|
|
the-build-back-better-framework/">0.2 percent of Americans</a>. These tax policies were crafted to please Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who opposed plans to raise tax rates and preferred these somewhat more obscure workarounds.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DPDRZP">
|
|||
|
|
Additionally, corporate tax changes would raise an estimated $813 billion more revenue over the next decade. This includes about $318 billion from a corporate alternative minimum tax, $124 billion from an excise tax on the repurchase of corporate stock, and $211 billion from changes to how foreign-derived income is taxed. All that totals to about $1.4 trillion in new revenue from taxes on corporations and the wealthy, far more than the SALT tax change will cost.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="ZzuCgF">
|
|||
|
|
And there’s more
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bqHeJs">
|
|||
|
|
The social welfare state, climate, and tax changes make up the most significant chunks of the bill in dollar terms, but there’s, of course, a great more in it that would affect millions of people — far too much to fully outline here. The bill would also spend billions on housing, public health, higher education, and transportation projects, and it would <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/11/22/e-cigarettes-nicotine-tax-smoking-vaping-health/">tax e-cigarettes</a>.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LZDDZS">
|
|||
|
|
Democrats hope the bill will make significant changes to immigration policy too. They’ve been negotiating with the Senate parliamentarian to try to find a version of their proposed changes that she says can go through the special, filibuster-proof <a href="https://www.vox.com/22242476/senate-filibuster-budget-
|
|||
|
|
reconciliation-process">budget reconciliation</a> process being used for this bill.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yZLQP0">
|
|||
|
|
As <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/11/15/22770255/democrats-immigration-budget-reconciliation-plan-c">my colleague Nicole Narea has written</a>, the parliamentarian has also rejected the Democrats’ first two proposals — creating either a path to citizenship or a green card for millions of unauthorized immigrants. Their current plan would allow unauthorized immigrants to apply for temporary deportation protection that would let them work and last for five years. The proposal would also expand legal immigration, in part by “recapturing” millions of green cards that have gone unused in recent decades.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jA32NZ">
|
|||
|
|
Theoretically, Democrats could override a ruling by the parliamentarian, but <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/manchin-says-he-wouldnt-defy-parliamentarian-on-
|
|||
|
|
immigration/">Manchin has said</a> he will not do so. Even if Democrats’ proposals get a thumbs-up from the parliamentarian, they’d still have to get Manchin’s vote. So what lies ahead for immigration in Build Back Better is unclear.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sMO3PV">
|
|||
|
|
Then again, that’s true for the entire bill. With no votes to spare in the Senate, everything hinges on what Manchin and Sinema will accept. Nothing is final until everything is final. And a great deal more intense negotiation lies ahead.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>How California plans to copy Texas abortion tactics for gun control</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="California Gov. Gavin Newsom gestures while speaking to a crowd of students outdoors in
|
|||
|
|
Oakland, California, on September 15, 2021." src="https://cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/thumbor/-IZC8zfAhsQFK539YEv4kw_fblY=/312x0:5176x3648/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70262504/1340600714.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks to students at Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland, California, in September. | Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to let Californians sue some firearm manufacturers and sellers.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="15zXSA">
|
|||
|
|
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Saturday that his administration will push for a new measure, modeled after Texas’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/31/22650303/supreme-court-
|
|||
|
|
abortion-texas-sb8-jackson-roe-wade-greg-abbott">controversial abortion ban</a>,<strong> </strong>to limit the sale of assault weapons and “ghost guns” in the state.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="uTK92b">
|
|||
|
|
The proposed bill, <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/12/11/governor-newsom-statement-on-supreme-court-decision/">according to a press release</a> from Newsom, would allow Californians to sue “anyone who manufactures, distributes, or sells an assault weapon or ghost gun kit or parts” for damages — the same injunction-skirting mechanism Texas has used to <a href="https://www.vox.com/22444100/texas-bans-abortion-6-weeks-supreme-court">ban all abortions after six weeks</a>, which has so far been permitted by the Supreme Court.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mIrnDj">
|
|||
|
|
“If that’s the precedent then we’ll let Californians sue those who put ghost guns and assault weapons on our streets,” Newsom said <a href="https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1469865185493983234?s=20">in a tweet</a> Saturday. “If TX can ban abortion and endanger lives, CA can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="LqVnPz">
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote class="twitter- tweet">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
|
SCOTUS is letting private citizens in Texas sue to stop abortion?!<br/><br/>If that’s the precedent then we’ll let Californians sue those who put ghost guns and assault weapons on our streets.<br/><br/>If TX can ban abortion and endanger lives, CA can ban deadly weapons of war and save lives. <a href="https://t.co/N5Iur9PEUZ">https://t.co/N5Iur9PEUZ</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
— Gavin Newsom (<span class="citation" data-cites="GavinNewsom">@GavinNewsom</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1469865185493983234?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 12, 2021</a></blockquote></div></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KuEQTm">
|
|||
|
|
Newsom’s statement comes on the heels of a Friday Supreme Court ruling, which further entrenched Texas’s ability to ban virtually all abortions in the state, despite allowing a suit against Texas state health officials to advance. <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/12/10/22827899/supreme-court-texas-abortion-law-
|
|||
|
|
sb8-decision-whole-womens-health">As Vox’s Ian Millhiser explained</a>:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KmBypb">
|
|||
|
|
The upshot of this decision is that, while the abortion provider plaintiffs in <em>Jackson</em> may be able to get a federal court order declaring that SB 8 is unconstitutional, the only real relief they are likely to win is an order preventing a few state health officials from carrying out the minor role they play in enforcing the law. The most important provisions of the law — the ones that effectively prevent anyone from performing an abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy by threatening them with financial ruin if they do so — will most likely remain in effect.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rwPJJF">
|
|||
|
|
Currently, few details are known about the proposed California legislation other than its enforcement mechanism; according to Newsom’s announcement, plaintiffs suing firearms manufacturers could be awarded at least $10,000, plus attorney’s fees if they win their case. <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-11/in-
|
|||
|
|
response-to-texas-abortion-law-newsom-calls-for-legislation-to-restrict-assault-weapons">As the LA Times reports</a>, however, the California State Assembly and Attorney General Rob Bonta won’t be able to move on putting together a bill until January 3, when the legislature reconvenes after the holiday break.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="ADILsc">
|
|||
|
|
Newsom wants to use Texas’s abortion tactics for gun control
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SUkIsw">
|
|||
|
|
SB 8, the law that Newsom references in Saturday’s announcement, hinges on a novel, convoluted enforcement scheme. Though it functionally bans all abortions after a mere six weeks of pregnancy, Texas officials are prohibited from directly enforcing the law, according to its text. Instead, SB 8 is constructed so that an individual — who doesn’t even have to be a Texas resident or have anything to do with the abortion in question — can sue an abortion provider or someone suspected of aiding an abortion performed after the six- week window.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yz58DG">
|
|||
|
|
As <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/31/22650303/supreme-court-abortion-texas-
|
|||
|
|
sb8-jackson-roe-wade-greg-abbott">Vox’s Millhiser explained in August</a>, SB 8 is an intentionally perplexing piece of legislation, designed to thwart legal challenges:
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7rqg6r">
|
|||
|
|
The anti-abortion law, which is before the Supreme Court in a case called <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21A24/189841/20210830120232143_WWH%20v%20Jackson%20-%20emergency%20application%20with%20appendix.pdf"><em>Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson</em></a>, presents a <a href="https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1432682606248747009">maze of procedural complexities</a> that are rarely seen in even the most complicated litigation. The law appears to have been drafted to intentionally frustrate lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. And Texas, with an assist from a right-wing appellate court, has thus far manipulated the litigation process to prevent any judge from considering whether SB 8 is lawful.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gerbyY">
|
|||
|
|
Already, SB 8 has resulted in a number of <a href="https://www.thelily.com/lawmakers-are-racing-to-mimic-
|
|||
|
|
the-texas-abortion-law-in-their-own-states-they-say-the-bills-will-fly-through/">copycat bills</a>. According to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/12/09/alabama-lawmakers-latest-to-introduce-texas-abortion-copycat-
|
|||
|
|
bill---here-are-all-the-states-weighing-a-similar-ban/?sh=2538b2905f52">Forbes</a>, state legislatures in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Ohio have all introduced similar abortion bans, and even more <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/09/23/citizen-enforcement-of-texas-
|
|||
|
|
abortion-ban-could-spread-to-other-laws">could be on the way</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7jRpoL">
|
|||
|
|
The proposed California legislation, however, would be the first measure to use a SB 8-style enforcement mechanism for a different goal. Newsom’s proposal would empower private citizens to sue the manufacturers of assault rifles and so-called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/us/politics/ghost-guns-explainer.html?partner=slack&smid=sl-share">ghost guns</a> — firearms made from kits, which are difficult to track because they don’t have serial numbers like those that come from licensed companies and are sold by licensed dealers. Ghost gun kits are sold online, are easy to assemble, require no background check to buy, and are impossible for authorities to trace, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/09/us/politics/ghost-guns-explainer.html?partner=slack&smid=sl-share">the New York Times’s Annie Karni</a> explained in April.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lrxP7L">
|
|||
|
|
California’s longstanding ban on assault weapons <a href="https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-california-courts-us-supreme-court-
|
|||
|
|
health-1c09f80feb967be7c52bec1e2f1b88a4">was overturned</a> by a federal district court judge, Robert Benitez, in June; the same judge ruled in 2017 against a ban on magazines with a capacity of more than 10 bullets, and last year blocked a 2019 law requiring background checks for people purchasing ammunition.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="wnkAam">
|
|||
|
|
Benitez overturned the previous ban on the grounds that it violated the Second Amendment, and explicitly pointed to the AR-15’s military utility <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/firearmspolicycoalition/pages/5381/attachments/original/1622850515/Miller_v_Bonta_Opinion.pdf?1622850515">in his decision</a>. “Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment,” Benitez wrote. “Good for both home and battle.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="C7ZlBU">
|
|||
|
|
As Vox’s Dylan Matthews <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/7/31/17475072/guns-explained-assault-weapons-bans-guide-to-
|
|||
|
|
guns">explained in 2019</a>, the AR-15 “is not a specific model — it gets its name from ArmaLite, the company that originally manufactured the rifle,” but the design is no longer patented.<strong> </strong>Though the AR-15 was initially designed as a military weapon, it has since become one of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/health/ar15-rifle-history-trnd/index.html">the most popular rifles in the US</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="blrA99">
|
|||
|
|
<a href="https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1401039242113949697?s=20">At the time</a>, Newsom called Benitez’s ruling “a direct threat to public safety and innocent Californians.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="zyRdaK">
|
|||
|
|
Newsom’s new tactic — adapting the SB 8 model to gun control — would ostensibly circumvent Benitez’s June ruling, taking enforcement of the law out of the hands of the state and shielding the ban itself from judicial challenge in the same way SB 8’s enforcement mechanism does.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="2SXp65">
|
|||
|
|
California legislation could be a political win-win for Newsom
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FSlLuA">
|
|||
|
|
In some ways, the proposed legislation could be a no-lose strategy for Newsom, who is running for reelection next year after surviving a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/9/15/22662487/newsom-wins-california-recall-elder">recall effort</a> in September. It’s a way for him to take aim at the June ruling overturning the assault rifle ban, and to rebuke the Texas law that both infringes on the right to an abortion and presents an alarming subversion of legal and judicial processes.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2HHoXk">
|
|||
|
|
While Newsom’s proposed bill probably stands a good chance in the California legislature, where Democrats have a supermajority in both chambers, it’s also proof positive of the warning that SB 8 presents a slippery legal precedent, as gun rights group the Firearms Policy Coalition described in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/21/21-463/197884/20211027164758725_21-463%20tsac%20WWH%20-amicus-FPC-
|
|||
|
|
final.pdf">an amicus brief</a> in <em>Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson. </em>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="iup9Hl">
|
|||
|
|
“To the extent this tactic is effective at evading or outright blocking pre-enforcement review, while still deterring protected behavior, it will easily become the model for suppression of other constitutional rights, with Second Amendment rights being the most likely targets,” the group’s attorney, Erik Jaffe, wrote in the brief.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oYnGqW">
|
|||
|
|
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor echoed that assessment in her dissent to Friday’s ruling, which allows SB 8 to stand while another legal challenge is argued before the Court, <a href="https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=21152077-scotus-
|
|||
|
|
soto">saying</a> the Texas law would create a path for other states to “reprise and perfect Texas’ scheme in the future to target the exercise of any right recognized by this court with which they disagree.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xZvpkZ">
|
|||
|
|
With Newsom’s Saturday announcement, that now appears more likely to come to pass.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dvSMSN">
|
|||
|
|
“Gov. Newsom is following through on the threat,” UC Berkeley School of Law professor Khiara Bridges <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-11/in-response-to-texas-abortion-law-newsom-calls-for-
|
|||
|
|
legislation-to-restrict-assault-weapons">told the LA Times</a>. “It’s just been academic up until now.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5sPdI5">
|
|||
|
|
As Bridges points out, the proposed bill won’t necessarily succeed. Should it become law and end up before the Supreme Court, it’s still possible judges could strike it down while leaving SB 8’s citizen enforcement mechanism intact.
|
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|
</p>
|
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|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EM4rmt">
|
|||
|
|
“I have no doubt whatsoever that the Supreme Court will find some bizarre, disingenuous argument to distinguish gun rights from abortion rights,” Bridges told <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-12-11/in-response-to-texas-abortion-law-newsom-calls-for-
|
|||
|
|
legislation-to-restrict-assault-weapons">the Times</a>.
|
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|
|
</p>
|
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|
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="s1oaMQ">
|
|||
|
|
Newsom’s proposal does, however, have the potential to underscore the absurdity of the mechanism behind SB 8, whatever the actual outcome for the gun bill. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote Friday in a <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/21-463_3ebh.pdf">minority opinion</a>, “If the legislatures of the several states may, at will, annul the judgments of the courts of the United States, and destroy the rights acquired under those judgments, the constitution itself becomes a solemn mockery.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>The best $210 I ever spent: My sobriety</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="An illustration of an open laptop displaying a window that says “sobriety.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/guShtblwkcXjXYe0m06IMT0_XvU=/500x0:3500x2250/1310x983/cdn.vox-
|
|||
|
|
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/70261329/Sobriety.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Dana Rodriguez for Vox
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The glossy online program wasn’t perfect, but it was what I needed just then.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JzeoyW">
|
|||
|
|
There is footage of me as a middle school girl in Los Angeles that aired nationally in the late ’90s.<strong> </strong>In the clip, which was part of a <em>Candid Camera</em> gotcha segment, the comedian Richard Lewis and I sit alone at a long rectangular table in an unused room on campus, a map of the solar system hanging behind us. He tells me he has analyzed me and determined I will grow up to work as a manufacturer of waste disposals. While in front of Lewis — a tall self-assured man, telling me who I could be — I shrug, as if to say, “Seems reasonable.” My frame is cowed, hands in lap, lips pursed in consideration of the news, eyes dead, a little sad. I bow to male authority. I look as though I’m folding in on myself.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="r6sd7O">
|
|||
|
|
When Lewis leaves, however, my entire body unlocks. I make an animated face of disbelief, and later tell a friend who visits me in the room where I’ve been cloistered by producers what Lewis said. I do so with an admirable amount of gumption.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="3Ppvr2">
|
|||
|
|
In the beginning, that unlocking is what drinking felt like. I took my first tequila shots as a freshman in high school, only a few years after that video was shot, to put myself in that supplicating state around boys, but also to access that salty girl, the one who came out when I could no longer feel the energy of male power in the room, pressing into my throat. I didn’t go into manufacturing, but I did become a writer and an academic, which meant I was always surrounded by those who used substances to find their way in or out of their bodies. By the spring of 2020, now a <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/wine-mom-covid-19-pandemic_n_611bd2f5e4b0ff60bf7a192b">wine mom</a>, I was eyeing an expensive online program for those who wanted to “rethink” their drinking.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lWnFSP">
|
|||
|
|
I applied for a scholarship to the program on July 2, just missing the window for Dry July, but it was fine, I had a birthday coming up anyway! I was on unemployment, having lost work in the pandemic, so I requested as much financial assistance as possible. I got word a week later that I would receive a 75 percent scholarship for the program. This meant I would only be responsible for paying $70 three times over the course of one year, instead of the nearly $1,000 annual price tag paid by top-tier members who are unfunded. I planned to stop drinking after that birthday.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8i2D9u">
|
|||
|
|
I found the progressive, for-profit recovery program after buying a popular book that took a feminist approach to addiction. The book drew on research and work that has been happening in addiction and recovery spaces for years but used jaunty language and a personal story to make brain science and concepts like harm reduction colloquial, accessible, relevant.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="2FUgOH">
|
|||
|
|
I read the book in a matter of days. I could feel the dread that had always circled around the prospect of quitting peeling off me. The program I joined soon after had been founded by the book’s author and had a website that was chic and modern. It did exactly what the book suggested sobriety culture needed to do: It rebranded recovery.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dZFtjZ">
|
|||
|
|
With my membership, I got themed and curated educational content — videos and readings, but also meditations and virtual meeting options organized around various identity groups. The mission eschewed rock-bottom narrative arcs and heavy labels like “alcoholic” in exchange for lemon water, affirmations, and self-care practices. But I was not as reproving as I sound now. I was in need.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qZIpJ9">
|
|||
|
|
Everything about the program had an inclusive, safe-space ambiance, including the community forum, a social platform for members. I found a familiar private succor in the message boards. They reminded me of forums I had prowled in new motherhood. I didn’t have to show up as a whole person there — or maybe I arrived whole, in a way I couldn’t in daily life. I could just slip into the space as an anyone and say what I needed to say.<strong> </strong>It wasn’t quite the anonymity that I liked or needed, but rather the disembodiment that came with the internet exchanges. I carried guilt about the many years I had spent drinking — I am a woman and a mother, I always feel I am to blame for everything — but also, I didn’t feel that way at all. I could see addiction happening all around me and felt generally unseen by pathology frameworks. Wanting too much of anything just seemed like a logical outgrowth of a culture that preaches overconsumption.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AprZw4">
|
|||
|
|
And I had grown up around it:<strong> </strong>Not long after I started drinking, when I was a teenager, I Mapquested my first Al-Anon meeting, which I walked to using my little printed pages as a guide. The meeting was held in a school down the street from the house I shared with my single mother, who was struggling with addiction. Years later, she got sober by committing to the 12 steps. Before long, her world — and so my world — was ruled by AA chips and moralizing decrees related to powerlessness and disease. Addiction, she told me, ran in our blood; she was asked to repent and began to see the world as bifurcated into normies and drunks. Her abstinence seemed, to me but also often to her, like a kind of damnation. I had helped get her into treatment, so I wanted her to be well, but I also hated seeing her like that, living in shame.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6SOEzq">
|
|||
|
|
My mother got sober when I was in my 20s, so I had spent a long time turning over my issues with AA by the time I invested in my recovery a decade and a half later. I knew AA had helped many people: It was free and decidedly not-for-profit; meetings provided community and recognition. But its membership seemed to come with a misdirected indignity, especially for those who <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/the-irrationality-of-alcoholics-anonymous/386255/">fell off the wagon</a> or had addictions to <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/3/11/21171736/alcoholics-
|
|||
|
|
anonymous-cochrane-study-research">other substances</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="hpqanh">
|
|||
|
|
My drinking felt so clearly contextual, conditioned by the performance of sexuality that was requested of me young, which told me to accommodate and satisfy men’s voices and desires. It had been about not letting the labor of gender show, that work I learned even before I learned to drink, work that had made my body — and the voice that emerged from it — timid, stilted, glitchy, untrustworthy.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9UIP36">
|
|||
|
|
Moving within a recovery space online, I didn’t have to worry about how I presented. One of the central tenets of the program was that many of us are led to addiction not simply because we are powerless against one integrally addictive substance (obviously we are), but because our bodies are also shaped by the world we move through. We are often made to feel powerless and get high to help with that feeling. This was an idea I was willing to pay to identify with.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="c-float-right c-float-hang">
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="TpIqLj">
|
|||
|
|
<q>We are often made to feel powerless and get high to help with that feeling. This was an idea I was willing to pay to identify with.</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="lGpHL7">
|
|||
|
|
But it was often hard to tease the language of recovery from the language of wellness. Sometimes, all the mantras about staying present and releasing myself from the grip of alcohol felt no different from messages I had placed bets on before, when I had toyed with other forms of temperance. Ever since I was a girl, I had been through many ideological cycles with respect to what I put in my body and what I tried to get out of it. I had tried a variety of restrictive diets, most of which included prohibitions against alcohol (it felt like an impossible ask, but I nevertheless decorated my house with sticky notes and refrigerator reminders). Once, I vowed to do push-ups every day for a month (made it, like, a couple days?).<strong> </strong>I failed every 30-day challenge to which I dedicated a Pinterest board. Even the three-day cleanses ended in disappointment.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="huQFdX">
|
|||
|
|
I was searching, even then, through the spectacle of self-optimization, for some balm for my wounds, the discomfort I felt living in my body. I knew what I was taking in. I could see capitalism grabbing me, shaking me as if to say, “You can be well! I swear it! Just try this one more thing!” But what can I say? For those of us who have been made to feel impure or unraveled, the promise that we can be clean<em> </em>is a hard one to snub.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GtjALK">
|
|||
|
|
When I joined the recovery program, I didn’t want to get clean<em>. </em>Or maybe I did. Maybe I still thought I could or needed to. Either way, by then, AA had taken a shape of its own in my mind. I wanted alcohol completely out of my life, but I knew the emphasis on submission, and on <a href="https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2020/03/alcoholics-anonymous-most-
|
|||
|
|
effective-path-to-alcohol-abstinence.html">complete abstinence</a> or bust, was useful for many, not all. I needed something else.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GEKBRr">
|
|||
|
|
I didn’t want to be<strong> </strong>that cowed girl, doomed by male authority to forever perform work in which I found no pleasure. I wanted the sheen of an unstructured journey, one in which I could falter and not be made to view it as faltering, others lifting me up with slogans that reminded me I wasn’t forgoing indulgence forever but seeking it in a way I never had before. I liked those perspectives. They felt true. And I was beginning to see that choosing to no longer dissolve one’s body feels like that: like locating what makes you fall apart and what holds you together.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gxbryB">
|
|||
|
|
On occasion, I turned to content outside my program to help with the cognitive dissonance of living in a world bathed in booze, but I couldn’t quite make sense of the <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/6/18/18677895/sobriety-influencers-sober-curious-instagram">“new sobriety.”</a> At least what I saw as the depressing disease model of AA had a literary quality to it, a melancholic’s gothic glaze. There was nothing incredibly literary about scrolling through sparkling memes about how fun sobriety is on Instagram. I liked not feeling hungover, truly, but the world I seemed to be entering felt very<em> “</em>living my best life<em>.”</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZrbeoW">
|
|||
|
|
Back inside the warm pocket of my program’s community page, everything felt simpler, and more complicated. No one who shared their stories, their uncertainties, was willing to settle. And though the stories they told were about themselves, they weren’t individualistic. One element of the wellness revolution that was missing from the discourse on the boards was all the talk of willpower. Without bodies, it seemed, everyone showed up shapeless, and there was a lot of encouragement and support between members around simply existing this way, as lumps, flesh and minds trying to live with and among others, amid the grief of living at all right now. We weren’t fitting ourselves into steps or paradigms or even social graces. I cleansed myself with that ordinary language of survival and all the speculative suggestions about how to make a life that felt less like suffering.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="dSPc3N">
|
|||
|
|
I was often preoccupied, though, by the knowledge that I was moving within a virtual community to which only folks of a certain income bracket could belong, while addicts who couldn’t afford glossy private treatment were regularly turned out on the streets, abandoned, or offered the disease model I had the ability to shirk.<strong> </strong>This underlined what had led me to the program, and maybe addiction, in the first place: the painful knowledge that everything — including the ease we feel in our bodies — is up for sale. That’s what capitalism does, too: It provides the good life to some, then rewrites our collective failure to care for all as individual shortcomings.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div>
|
|||
|
|
<aside id="a5ED1J">
|
|||
|
|
<q>That’s what capitalism does: It provides the good life to some, then rewrites our collective failure to care for all as individual shortcomings</q>
|
|||
|
|
</aside>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="A7yWie">
|
|||
|
|
I could see others in the program were pensive with this awareness, too. There were plenty of folks on the community boards pushing back against the program’s model, especially as the space became, over time, more corporate. As we witnessed high employee turnover and some quieting of dissent in the boards, some left, many stayed, fighting for their lives. I stayed, ambivalently, feeling culpable for not putting my money elsewhere, toward those who might need it more, or toward upending the systems that cast aside those who struggle. I knew I had not yet solved the unsolvable problem of how to live in a body, so I continue to shell out $15 a month to pop in and out of forums and online meetings now and then to remind myself that, yes, it’s a journey, but also one that no one can walk alone.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p class="c-end-para" data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Dfx41p">
|
|||
|
|
Sometimes, I suppose, we must move in spaces that are imperfect to save ourselves because all the spaces made available to us, at least at this moment, are imperfect. Obviously, one can’t purchase sobriety or any ongoing relationship with wellness, with the body, even if we are told constantly that we can, and even if one can throw money in that general direction. But paying to rewrite the script I inherited feels so much more sensible than the hundreds of dollars I spent trying to shape my body into what others told me it should be.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="B8m4p0">
|
|||
|
|
<a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.amandamontei.com_&d=DwMFaQ&c=7MSjEE-
|
|||
|
|
cVgLCRHxk1P5PWg&r=K3OysPjapihGd3XjPRBuh7gL1yPrgKgJzffvEhj5_vY&m=hRKf7rSpBxqTsafCIwaFAn9hCEABaoxMUZC3RoZ4rc8&s=DA3hpH9WrqlV12jVb4qHv5OlUdRj_-q93drZsag744I&e="><em>Amanda Montei</em></a><em> is a writer and educator living in California. She is working on her next book, a memoir about care and consent.</em>
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Miracle, Parisian, Successor and Mehr catch the eye</strong> - Miracle, Parisian, Successor and Mehr caught the eye when the horses were exercised here on Monday (Dec. 13) morning.Inner Sand: 800m: Angels Trumpet</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Explained | What led to Max Verstappen’s win at Sunday’s Abu Dhabi GP?</strong> - Verstappen won the title with a last-lap pass on Lewis Hamilton under controversial circumstances in safety car period</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Virat led from front for five years, enjoyed each and every moment under him, says Rohit Sharma</strong> - Rohit said he is aware of the challenge and would try to grab that extra inch that has eluded the side in the ICC tournaments</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Kamran Akmal withdraws from PSL following his relegation to silver category</strong> - Akmal was initially demoted from the platinum category to the gold category by the Pakistan Cricket Board</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>West Indies tour of Pakistan | Three test West Indies players test positive for COVID-19</strong> - West Indians Cotrell, Chase and Mayers now in isolaton</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Supersonic missile-assisted torpedo system successfully launched: DRDO</strong> - It’s designed to enhance anti-submarine warfare capability far beyond the conventional range of the torpedo</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Now, file corruption complaints online with Lokpal</strong> - It can be accessed by the citizens of the country and complaints can be filed from anywhere, anytime at lokpalonline.gov.in.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>UDF not to take sides in CM, Governor spat</strong> - Fight against political cronyism in varsities on: Satheesan</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Rahul Gandhi to take part in ‘padyatra’ in former constituency of Amethi</strong> - He will participate in a ‘padyatra’ as part of the party’s ongoing nationwide ‘Jan Jagran Abhiyan’.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Army felicitates government officials for assisting in rescue operations during helicopter crash</strong> - Lieutenant General A. Arun, General Officer Commanding, Dakshin Bharat Area, felicitated members of various government departments; the adoption of the villagers of Nanjappa Sathiram by Headquarters, Dakshin Bharat Area was also announced</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Inger Stoejberg: Jail for Danish ex-minister in impeachment trial</strong> - Inger Stoejberg faces 60 days in prison for separating young asylum-seeking couples in 2016.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Baltic Sea: Two feared dead as British and Danish ships collide</strong> - Shouts were heard in the cold water off the Swedish coast when the Danish vessel capsized.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Russia explosion: Teen detonates device at Orthodox convent school</strong> - At least 12 are reported injured after the blast at an Orthodox school near a nunnery outside Moscow.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Italy: Seven dead as rescuers find bodies in Sicily blast</strong> - Rescuers are still searching for two missing people in the rubble of four collapsed buildings.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>France resists US challenge to its values</strong> - The government is fighting back at what it sees as imported cultural ideas from the UK and US.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Don’t Look Up is fiction. Here’s the real science of that doomsday scenario</strong> - Ars chats with Amy Mainzer about why we don’t need comet and asteroid insurance just yet. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1819879">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Log4Shell 0-day, four days on: What is it and how bad is it really?</strong> - If the max severity 0-day hasn’t already dampened your Xmas spirit, it likely soon will. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1820027">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Take one last look at Google Toolbar, which is now dead</strong> - Google Toolbar is dead, but we took it out for one last spin before it died. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1813243">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>To see proteins change in a quadrillionth of a second, use AI</strong> - Researchers can finally see how protein structures contort in response to light. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1819726">link</a></p></li>
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<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Defending quantum chess champion takes the title again in 2021 tournament</strong> - AWS’ Aleksander Kubica defeated Seneca Meeks from Google Quantum AI in the final match - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1819918">link</a></p></li>
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</ul>
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<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
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<li><strong>Two Nuns are tasked with painting a room.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Two nuns are tasked with painting a bedroom. They are concerned about getting paint all over their outfits, so they lock themselves inside and strip out of them and begin painting in their underwear. All is going well until there is a knock at the door. “Who is it?” They ask. “Blind man,” is the reply. The nuns shrug and decide there is no harm in opening the door for him. They unlock the door and open it. The man says “Nice boobs! Anyways, where do you want the blinds installed?”
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Duckieyupyupyup"> /u/Duckieyupyupyup </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rewn39/two_nuns_are_tasked_with_painting_a_room/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rewn39/two_nuns_are_tasked_with_painting_a_room/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>What does a man who’s had a vasectomy and a Christmas tree have in common?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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Decorative balls.
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/knight-errant52"> /u/knight-errant52 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rezfyd/what_does_a_man_whos_had_a_vasectomy_and_a/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rezfyd/what_does_a_man_whos_had_a_vasectomy_and_a/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>Viruses can mutate over time. Take Covid for example…</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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It started as a pandemic illness and turned into an IQ test.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/FlatulenceIsAVirtue"> /u/FlatulenceIsAVirtue </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rewpp0/viruses_can_mutate_over_time_take_covid_for/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rewpp0/viruses_can_mutate_over_time_take_covid_for/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>Two Brazilian men die in a skydiving accident.</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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A woman is watching the news with her husband when the newscaster says “Two Brazilian men die in a skydiving accident.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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The woman starts crying to her husband, sobbing “That’s horrible!!! So many men dying that way!”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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Confused, he says, “Yes dear, it is sad, but they were skydiving, and there is always that risk involved.”
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</p>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
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After a few minutes, the woman, still sobbing, asks, “How many is a Brazilian?”
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</p>
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-->
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Legenda_069"> /u/Legenda_069 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rf52nl/two_brazilian_men_die_in_a_skydiving_accident/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rf52nl/two_brazilian_men_die_in_a_skydiving_accident/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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<li><strong>Sex for Money</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF -->
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The big difference between sex for money and sex for free is that sex for money costs less.
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</p>
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</div>
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<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/semtexmex"> /u/semtexmex </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rf3ijq/sex_for_money/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/rf3ijq/sex_for_money/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
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</ul>
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