September 6, 2024 ❧ Half of U.S. elections have one candidate, socialists on trial in Florida, and India threatens Wikipedia

Plus: Russia dumps truckloads of money into right-wing Youtube, another blow to the Internet Archive, Santa Maduro, and Soviet space tortoises! 

Alexander wept, for there was no more news left to read.

CROOKS vs. SICKOS (Or, “What’s going on with our politicians and oligarchs?”)

❧ If there’s any single aspect that defines “democracy,” it’s that voters get to choose their leaders. But in about half of U.S. elections, that isn’t actually the case. A new report from three nonprofit organizations looked at the elections for 29,400 partisan offices at the federal, state and local level in 2022, and found that an astonishing 14,450 had a single candidate running uncontested. According to the New York Times, “Democrats failed to field a single candidate for fully half of all partisan offices — well over three times the rate of Republican no-shows.” Part of this is due to a structural imbalance, as the Times reports: 

Republicans control more statehouses that have gerrymandered Democrats out of contention for legislative seats. But much of the disparity exists because voters have left the Democratic Party in many rural counties that are sparsely populated, but have as many elective posts as larger ones.

It’s not just local dog-catcher races, but critical seats in swing states that Democrats are choosing to cede: 

On November’s ballot, three of four elections to the Georgia Supreme Court — which seems almost certain to decide whether the Fulton County election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump will proceed — have but one candidate. All three Nevada Supreme Court races are uncontested; so are all five in Oregon.

In Wisconsin, the online publication Bolts reports, 67 of 71 races this fall for county district attorney — the office that decides who is and is not charged with a crime — are uncontested. In Ohio, 73 of 88 county prosecutors are running unopposed. In Texas, only 31 of 254 county sheriff races are contested.

Not a lot going on in these booths, it turns out.

(Image: Phil Roeder via Flickr)

We can see how harmful this lack of accountability is in places like Wisconsin, where many of those uncontested district attorneys have run wild with power. Some have attempted to intimidate election officials who certified the 2020 election by launching meritless investigations. And a Wisconsin Watch investigation found that many Wisconsin DAs failed to keep “Brady lists” of police officers who were caught lying or breaking the law, leaving the public with no idea how many of them are still on the force. These officials might still be corrupt and careless regardless, but without any threat of losing their seats—which some have not faced in decades—what incentive do they have to act responsibly at all? 

At first glance, it’s understandable that donors and state party operations do not want to waste resources on candidates who are almost assured to lose. But this is also a self-fulfilling prophecy: If you never run candidates, then you guarantee that those seats will remain unwinnable forever. Thankfully, there have been some efforts to remedy this. The Times highlights the group Contest Every Seat, which has worked to recruit Democrats to run for local seats in rural areas the party had long abandoned. On their website, the group says it has “recruited over 7,000 candidates to run for local office across 37 states, with 38% of them winning their race” since 2018. Even if it were not effective, though, it would still be better for as many safe Democratic and Republican seats to be competitive. Our elected officials should fear the people’s wrath when they screw up. But more fundamentally, if you only get to vote for one person, can you really claim to live in a democracy at all?

PAST AFFAIRS

Even when the Democrats do run a candidate, it doesn't help when that candidate has no campaign materials and no photos of themselves online, leading observers to wonder whether they actually exist or not. But that's exactly what happened in the strange case of Rodney Stooksbury in 2017. Read all about it in Nathan J. Robinson's article “Ghost Candidates are Not Acceptable”:

In other news…

• The DOJ has charged two Russian nationals with illegally pouring nearly $10 million into a Tennessee company, Tenet Media, which funded prominent right-wing YouTubers—including Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, and Lauren Southern—to unwittingly produce pro-Kremlin propaganda. Tenet was founded by another well-known right-wing YouTuber, Lauren Chen, and her husband, who did know that it was a front for the Russian government, according to the indictment. 

What sticks out the most here are the obscene sums of money these influencers received. For instance, as the Washington Post writes: “Rubin received $400,000 a month for 16 videos, plus a performance bonus and a $100,000 signing bonus — all for a series in which Rubin commented on dumb internet clips that often received just roughly 1,000 views per episode.” It’s the kind of money that independent left publications like our humble little operation don’t even dream of. 

Our only shadowy benefactors are our wonderful readers!

Not convinced? Check out this pamphlet on why you should support our magazine!

• Kamala Harris has watered down her proposal for a capital gains tax, calling for a rate of just 28 percent compared to the 40 percent President Biden had wanted. As Kevin T. Dugan writes for New York magazine, 28 percent is the exact same rate Ronald Reagan set in 1986, and the decision “signals that easing income inequality, at least as it is reinforced through the tax code, will not be one of her priorities.”
  
  
• In a surprise twist, Hunter Biden has pled guilty to nine federal tax charges. The president’s son is accused of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes and has already been convicted on federal gun charges. The decision to plead guilty without a deal came as a shock. But it makes sense, given that a trial could have uncovered even more unflattering details about Hunter’s shady business dealings with foreign governments. (Associated Press)

• Some wild advertising has appeared for Kamala Harris over the past week. In an apparent effort to maintain the attention of America’s ADHD-riddled iPad kids, the Harris campaign published a split screen video on TikTok: on one side was a montage of Donald Trump bragging about overturning abortion rights, on the other side was Subway Surfers gameplay. (Daily Dot)

• Philadelphia residents, meanwhile, were befuddled to find bus stop ads claiming that Harris was the “official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles.” The beloved football team put out a statement clarifying that the ads were “counterfeits” and that they were working to have them removed. The placement of the ads is illegal and the Harris campaign has denied any involvement with placing them. (Fox 29)

Kamala would win every county in Eastern Pennsylvania by Saddam Hussein margins if this were real. (Photo: sarahmce on Instagram)

AROUND THE STATES

❧ In Florida, four left-wing activists are on trial for allegedly spreading “Russian propaganda.” As Patricia Mazzei reports for the New York Times, prosecutors in the case are claiming that:

Russia, in relatively low-tech fashion, sought out a sympathetic group in the United States, invited its leader to visit Moscow and established a long-term relationship through calls, email and electronic messages. The group, which has long had a presence in St. Petersburg, Fla., then promoted Russian views on its website, social media accounts and radio station.

The group in question is the African People’s Socialist Party and its activist arm, the Uhuru Movement. If the prosecution is successful, party chairman Omali Yeshitela and fellow activists Penny Joane Hess and Jesse Nevel could face up to 10 years in prison. So could Augustus C. Romain Jr., a former APSP member who left the party and founded his own (unfortunately rather cult-like) Black nationalist organization, the Black Hammer Party, in 2019. 

Yeshitela in 2020. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

As Mazzei tells it, the evidence against Yeshitela, Hess, and Nevel is pretty thin. The accusation is that ​​Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian citizen with connections to the FSB (formerly KGB) intelligence service, “paid the Uhuru Movement nearly $7,000 to conduct a four-city protest tour in 2016 drawing attention to a ‘Petition on Crime of Genocide Against African People in the United States,’ which it had previously submitted to the United Nations.” The prosecution also claims that Ionov paid for Yeshitela to visit Russia for political conferences in 2015, and that he urged all four of the defendants “to make pro-Russian statements while he backed their unsuccessful campaigns for the St. Petersburg City Council in 2017 and 2019.” 

With Romain, the case is only marginally stronger. Here, Ionov allegedly donated $3,000 for a Black Hammer protest against a social-media company that had removed pro-Russia posts from its platform, and helped to design the protest signs. For his part, Romain claims he “never knew he was dealing with the Russian government,” considering Ionov simply a supporter who happened to be Russian. Likewise, Yeshitela and the other two APSP members deny acting on Russia’s behalf. But nevertheless, all four are being charged with illegal activity as unregistered foreign agents. 

The obvious flaw in the prosecution is that, where the first three defendants are concerned, the supposed “propaganda” is simply political opinion that the African People’s Socialist Party already had, before any of its members ever spoke to Ionov. The party has been around since 1972, and consistently criticized U.S. foreign policy, racial injustice, and imperialism throughout that time. A protest tour accusing the U.S. of “Genocide Against African People” is just business as usual for them; it’s not some scary Russian idea that came out of nowhere. (The closest thing to actual “Russian propaganda” the prosecution could come up with was a single post arguing that Russian athletes shouldn’t be banned from the 2016 Olympics—not exactly earth-shaking stuff.)  Even with Romain and Black Hammer, it’s perfectly plausible that they opposed the censorship of social media for its own sake, and simply accepted a donation to express a belief they already had. 

The offices of the APSP's California branch in 2010. (Image: Curtis Cronn via Flickr)

There’s a real danger here, because the prosecution is essentially arguing that it can tell the origin of people’s thoughts, and that people should be legally prevented from expressing political ideas if the government decides that some type of  “foreign” influence is involved. A few months ago, Nancy Pelosi claimed—utterly without evidence—that protests against the slaughter of civilians in Gaza were “connected to Russia,” and that “For them to call for a cease-fire is Mr. Putin’s message,” urging an FBI investigation into the protesters. That’s ominously close to 1950s Red Scare rhetoric, and any policing of people’s fundamental right to free speech needs to be viewed with deep skepticism. 

In other news…

• Louisiana’s Governor Jeff Landry wants the LSU football team to use a live tiger mascot at its home games, something they haven’t done since 2015. Veterinarians and animal-rights advocates say this is obviously a bad idea, as being shoved in a tiny trailer and shouted at by football fans could stress a tiger out and damage its health. (Louisiana Illuminator)

As an alternative, how about we put Governor Landry in this thing

and make him growl for the crowd? (Image: LSU Sports)

• The Internet Archive just lost an appeal in its court case against Hachette, which sued the online library for copyright violation after it digitized many of its books and lent them out without fees or limits during the pandemic. The verdict is a major setback, not just for the Archive, but for libraries and the free flow of information everywhere. (Wired)

PAST AFFAIRS

In 2023, Stephen Prager wrote about the importance of the Internet Archive case for the fate of all libraries: 

“It’s clear that the legal assault on the Internet Archive does not exist in isolation. It is one battle in a larger war being waged by publishers who seek a transfer of wealth from the hands of the public into their own pockets.”

• In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams’ government has built a huge tent encampment to house more than 2,000 immigrants on Randall’s Island. Residents of the tent shelter say conditions are “like a jail,” with cramped and overcrowded sleeping quarters, trash piling up uncollected, and period police raids for “contraband.” (Gothamist)
  
  
• Police misconduct lawsuits have cost Philadelphia taxpayers $60 million over the past 18 months. The payouts have been meant to compensate for wrongful convictions, false arrests, excessive force, and the use of tear gas against racial justice protesters in 2020. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
  
  
• Police departments in Arizona are charging people steep fees to view bodycam footage—up to $46 per hour, which can be multiplied several times if more than one cop is involved in an incident. Lawyers for the ACLU say the charges are “aimed at deterring people from holding law enforcement accountable.” (AZ Mirror)

• In another victory for the U.S. labor movement, around 1,000 workers at an electric-vehicle battery plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee have voted to join the United Auto Workers. (Common Dreams)
  
  
• The Oakland Unified School District in California has become the first in the country to transition to 100 percent electric school buses. Not only do they reduce pollution, but they also function as giant batteries that send energy back into the local power grid. (Grist)
  
  
• Voters in Michigan will get some really excellent “I Voted” stickers when they go to the polls this November, drawn by contest winners from around the state. There are nine different designs, including a deer wearing sunglasses, a big smug cat in a top hat, a trout, and a crazed werewolf ripping off its tank top. (Michigan Live)

(Image: Michigan Live)

AROUND THE WORLD

❧ The High Court of Delhi threatened to have the government shut down Wikipedia in India during a tense hearing on Thursday. In July India’s largest TV news company, Asian News International (ANI), sued the Wikimedia Foundation for defamation because the free encyclopedia was edited to describe ANI as “the propaganda tool” of the Indian government. ANI described this characterization as “palpably false and defamatory content.” 

However, Wikipedia’s characterization of ANI as a pro-government propaganda outlet seems pretty accurate, and it is backed up by several sources. An exposé by the Caravan from 2019 found that ANI’s reporting, particularly that of its editor Smita Prakash, often “amount[s] to public relations for the government.” She often self-describes as independent, but in practice, “there are few issues on which Smita takes a line that is not in sync with the government.” The network she oversees is known to give softball interviews to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his far-right Bharatiya Janata Party, while giving “censure” to his rivals. But ANI is not just biased, it has often published blatant falsehoods that amplify Islamophobic messaging from the BJP, including falsely blaming Muslims for sexual assaults during the violence in Manipur last year and falsely claiming that Pakistan had to lock up a graveyard to prevent necrophilia. The European Union’s DisinfoLab found that it was part of a massive campaign by a Hindu nationalist think tank to “discredit Pakistan internationally” by spreading fake news to dozens of media outlets around the world.

(Image: Jurist.org)

These are all pieces of evidence that Wikipedia provided on its webpage about ANI, so its case of “defamation” is patently ridiculous. But nevertheless, the case has persisted and has reached a dangerous new front. At the request of ANI, the Delhi court ordered Wikipedia to provide information about the three editors responsible for editing the page. After Wikipedia delayed, citing the fact that it is not based in India, Justice Navin Chawla issued a scathing “contempt of court” notice against Wikipedia, saying “We will close your business transactions here. We will ask the government to block Wikipedia...If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India.” The court then adjourned until October 25.

It is unclear at this time whether the court will move forward with its threats. But the mere possibility is frightening. Under Modi’s rule, sources of critical information about the government have grown increasingly slim, with the number of independent outlets declining and the increased use of anti-terror legislation to jail journalists. The Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index now ranks India 159th out of 180 countries, saying that its free press has been in an “unofficial state of emergency” since Modi’s reign began. Another large TV network, NDTV, was purchased in 2022 by a pro-Modi billionaire. Meanwhile, ANI—despite having journalistic credibility akin to Fox News—has the influence of the Associated Press, often being the sole source that smaller news outlets can rely on for video reporting. Such a monopoly is not a good thing for the world’s largest democracy. If India were to ban Wikipedia, which contains such a profound wealth of independently gathered information, it would further contribute to the nation’s decline in access to free information. 

In other news…

• In Poole, a seaside town in southern England, two protestors tampered with more than 20 signs around town, erasing the last two letters so “Poole” became “Poo.” But they did it for a serious reason: to draw attention to the environmental and public-health hazard that’s been caused by private water companies dumping sewage in their harbor. (Somerset Live)

• At this week’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit in Beijing, where the leaders of more than 50 African nations were present, Chairman Xi Jinping promised to provide Africa with $51 billion for debt relief, infrastructure projects, and the creation of at least 1 million jobs. (Reuters)
  
  
• Israel has expanded its war on Palestine into the occupied West Bank, with assaults on the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps, among other areas. Water, sewage, and hospital infrastructure have been destroyed in the ten-day raid. And as of Wednesday, the United Nations reported that more than two-dozen people, including children and at least one American citizen, had been killed in the attacks, which constitute Israel’s largest assault on the territory since the Second Intifada in the 2000s. Since October 7, nearly 700 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed. (Al Jazeera)

Graphic from Al Jazeera, Sept. 3, 2024

• According to a new report in the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Benjamin Netanyahu personally sabotaged a hostage-exchange deal with Hamas back in July, adding extra demands at the last minute to ensure it would fall through. Had the deal gone forward, at least three of the six hostages who were found dead on Sunday would likely be alive. (CNN)
  
  
• President Nicolás Maduro has declared an early Christmas for Venezuela, to begin on October 1, in a fairly obvious attempt to distract everyone from the contested results of the country’s recent presidential election. (Associated Press)

You definitely don’t want to be on Maduro's “naughty list.”

• Brazil has shut down Twitter/X after Elon Musk refused a judge’s requests to suspend seven accounts who allegedly spread misinformation on the platform. Musk has labelled the judge, Alexandre de Moraes an “evil dictator” and claimed to be defending “free speech.” However, as Rest of World reported back in April, “Twitter’s self-reported data shows that, under Musk, the company has complied with hundreds more government orders for censorship or surveillance — especially in countries such as Turkey and India.”
  
  
• Police in Nigeria have raided the offices of the Nigerian Labour Congress, part of a government crackdown against socialists and trade unionists after the huge protest wave over food prices that swept the country last month. Ten protesters have also been charged with treason. (Socialist Worker)

TORTOISE FACT OF THE WEEK

Soviet space tortoises were the first living creatures to fly around the moon!

You probably know about Laika the dog, the first animal to orbit the Earth. But did you know the USSR and their reptilian comrades also took a trip around the moon before the United States?

The mission was called Zond 5—admittedly, not the catchiest name—and it took place in September 1968, a full three months before the American Apollo 8 achieved lunar orbit. Soviet engineers strapped a modified Soyuz capsule to the top of a huge Proton-K rocket, loaded it up with scientific instruments, and finally inserted the passengers: two tortoises, known only as “Number 22” and “Number 37,” together with some flies and mealworms for them to eat. 

(Image: Energia.ru via Astronomy magazine)

(Image: Energia.ru via Astronomy magazine)

The flight went off seamlessly, and Zond 5 returned some of the highest-quality photos of the Earth from space that had been taken up to that point. The Soviet mission control also took the opportunity to make the world’s biggest prank phone call, broadcasting the voices of two cosmonauts from the capsule so listening Americans would think it had a human crew. (Reportedly, LBJ was so panicked by this that he phoned his White House space advisor and demanded to know: “Why is Popovich reporting from the moon?”) But when the vessel finally splashed down in the Indian Ocean, it was revealed that it was just Tortoise #22 and #37 all along—and unlike Laika, they were alive and well, although a little underweight. 

(Headline: The Journal News, White Plains, New York, via Newspapers.com)

Writing and research by Stephen Prager and Alex Skopic. Editing and additional material by Nathan J. Robinson and Lily Sánchez. Header graphic by Cali Traina Blume. This news briefing is a product of Current Affairs Magazine. Subscribe to our gorgeous and informative print edition here, and our delightful podcast here.

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