As COVID Surges, Bars Suffer
Everything you need to know for Thursday, Dec. 10: Alamance vs. the First Amendment + COVID behind bars + Zuck’s evil empire + shaming the porn biz
Thursday, Dec. 10, 2020
**Happy Hanukkah**
4 days until the Electoral College votes
15 days until Christmas
22 days until this cursed year ends
42 days until this cursed presidency is over
FYI: I’m taking tomorrow off to focus on, well, work that subsidizes PRIMER. Help me do that less by clicking the “Subscribe Now” button below. ⬇️
Today’s Numbers: 15,690 / 304
Estimated COVID cases and deaths, respectively, linked to the lifting of North Carolina’s eviction moratorium from June 20 through Sept. 3. The CDC’s eviction moratorium began on Sept. 4.
+ ABOVE THE FOLD
—> As COVID Surges, Bars Suffer
Few economic sectors have been hit harder by the pandemic than bars and restaurants. In North Carolina, bars—i.e., “private clubs,” not breweries or wineries or restaurants that serve liquor—have especially been treated like the bastard children of the hospitality industry.
So on Tuesday, when Cooper announced that he was extending phase 3 restrictions through Jan. 8 and imposing a 9 p.m. curfew on on-premises alcohol consumption, Zack Medford, who co-owns a few DTR bars and founded the North Carolina Bar and Tavern Association early in the pandemic, lashed out:
“Bars and restaurants are low-hanging fruit for politicians,” he tweeted. “The alcohol curfew will do nothing to stop the spread of covid-19. It is a hollow gesture by @NC_Governor.”
Cooper “is scapegoating an entire industry built on small business owners so it at least LOOKS like he’s ‘doing something.’”
“Most people contract covid-19 AT HOME OR WORK. Bars & restaurants are not the issue.”
To support that claim, Medford tweeted a graphic, from NCDHHS, that attributes three COVID clusters and zero cluster-related deaths to bars and breweries and 28 clusters and five cluster-related deaths to restaurants—much fewer than religious gatherings, for example.
I’m not sure Medford is right. There’s considerable evidence showing that bars (and restaurants) have been primary drivers of COVID outbreaks across the country. In any event, the DHHS data only address clusters—five or more connected cases—and capture fewer than 100 of the state’s more than 5,600 deaths, so we’re not getting the whole picture.
He’s correct about one thing, however.
“No matter what side you fall on, enacting MORE restrictions on bars and restaurants without financial support is CRIMINAL.”
Forcing businesses to close for months on end without compensation is dooming them to failure.
I asked Medford how much longer bars could hold out before they’re unable to bounce back.
“I think we are way past most being able to bounce back,” he replied.
—> OTOH: Restaurateur Sean Degan, who temporarily closed Koan Public Table in Cary after Cooper’s announcement, says the gov made the right call.
“He feels for the 50 or so employees who are now out of work just before the holidays. Still, he doesn’t blame the governor. ‘The reservations have dropped off,’ Degnan said. ‘Gov. Cooper isn’t making it so people are not going out. People are not going out. Gov. Cooper is trying to let everyone know now is the time to shut it down.’”
—> LEAP OF FAITH: In the midst of all of this, Jon Seelbinder is reopening Raleigh taco and cocktail bar Virgil’s. He’s preparing to open a new speakeasy, too.
+ LOCAL & STATE
—> First Amendment Doesn’t Apply in Alamance, Says Judge
There was a court hearing on Tuesday in the case of Sandrea Brazee, who drove her pickup truck toward two Black girls. (She pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon.) Journalists planned to attend. Judge Fred Wilkins refused to let them. Then he had the publisher of the Alamance News handcuffed.
From the N&O: “Tom Boney Jr. was delivering a document written by C. Amanda Martin, an attorney representing him, along with The News & Observer and Triad City Beat, requesting a hearing on whether it’s appropriate to close the court to the media.”
“The reporters each asked for a hearing before the judge, but were told by deputies that Wilkins had already made his decision. Like Boney, they had also been kept from attending a high-profile court hearing the week before involving the leader of an October march to the polls, which ended with police pepper-spraying attendees.”
“In court on Tuesday, Wilkins said he would hold Boney in contempt of court after Boney tried to explain his objection. ‘The courtroom is not closed,’ the judge said, gesturing to the people in the room, who numbered more than two dozen, according to Boney. ‘It’s closed to you.’”
“According to the publisher, he was handcuffed, then told that if he would leave the courthouse, Wilkins would not pursue the contempt charge.”
—> No Vaccines for Inmates
Twenty-eight North Carolina prison inmates and five staff members have died of COVID, including four in the last week. More than 6,000 inmates have tested positive for coronavirus, half in the last 10 weeks; one in six incarcerated people are currently infected. Another 27 inmates and one staff member at the state’s only federal prison in Butner have died.
Inmates have been three times more likely to contract the virus than prison staff, in fact. Yet when the first limited supply of vaccines becomes available, both the federal Bureau of Prisons and the state will prioritize prison staff, NC Health News reports.
“Under the state’s tentative plan, prison staff and high-risk incarcerated people will be first to get shots. Thousands of remaining inmates, the majority of the prison population, will wait.”
“When asked by NC Health News at a press conference on Thursday, state Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen, declined to answer why the state had determined all staff should be offered the vaccine ahead of all prisoners. She also declined to clarify who would initially be prioritized should there not be enough vaccine doses for both staff and vulnerable inmates.”
—> RELATED: A judge recently appointed a special master to ensure the state was complying with court orders to reduce the prison population.
—> In Other News: NC
Still doing this: No Republican members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation are willing to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory. (WRAL)
Two members of Roy Cooper’s Cabinet—Military and Veterans Affairs Secretary Larry Hall and DNCR Secretary Susi Hamilton—are stepping down. (N&O)
An equity task force says the state should expand Medicaid. This time, Phil Berger will listen. (N&O)
Relatedly, because the General Assembly doesn’t care, advocates of stronger child seatbelt laws say they won’t even try to lobby for new legislation. (WRAL)
This counts as a campaign announcement, no?
How about this?
—> In Other News: Triangle
The Triangle’s Christmas tree lots are running out. (N&O)
Weather: Mostly sunny and milder. High of 60. (ABC11)
+ NATION & WORLD
—> The Lede: FTC, 48 States Sue Zuck’s Evil Empire
The feds and 48 state AGs (yes, including Josh Stein) sued Facebook yesterday, claiming that the social media behemoth illegally “maintains [its] monopoly power by deploying a buy-or-bury strategy that thwarts competition and harms both users and advertisers.”
“The state and federal complaints chiefly challenge Facebook’s past acquisition of two companies: Instagram, a photo-sharing tool, and WhatsApp, a messaging service,” The Washington Post reports. “Investigators said the purchases ultimately helped Facebook remove potential potent rivals from the digital marketplace, allowing the tech giant to enrich itself on advertising dollars at the cost of users, who had fewer social-networking options at their disposal.”
“Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg … has argued that the Web remains sufficiently competitive, bolstered by new companies including TikTok that did not exist years ago. Privately, he has told employees he would ‘go to the mat’ to defend against an antitrust lawsuit he saw as an ‘existential’ threat to the company, according to audio unearthed last year.”
—> The White House’s $600 Poison Pill
First, the (what passes for) good news: The House approved a one-week spending bill yesterday, and the Senate will likely do the same before Friday, giving lawmakers more time to figure out a stimulus deal before the government shuts down.
The bad news: The White House has inserted a poison pill into the stimulus negotiations—a proposal it knows is a nonstarter with Dems but will generate positive headlines from uncritical media outlets and allow Mitch McConnell to blame Nancy Pelosi when things go south.
White House: Include $600 stimulus checks for every person and child.
The fine print: In exchange, eviscerate federal unemployment benefits.
What economists say: “Some economists point out that millions of stimulus checks were received by families that are prospering economically and have not lost jobs or suffered pay cuts, arguing that they were poorly targeted for the current crisis. Other economists have said that the checks helped stabilize a turbulent economy and reached many people struggling economically who were denied unemployment benefits or other forms of social insurance.”
What Dems say: “[Chuck] Schumer told reporters Tuesday that many Democrats support the stimulus payments but that they should be added to the $908 billion framework, rather than included in exchange for another provision. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (Ill.), the second-ranking Senate Democrat, told reporters that it would be hard to include the checks without cutting other priorities from the package, given Republicans’ insistence on keeping the bill’s price tag below $1 trillion.”
—> Briefs: 3 Stories to Read Today
“The world’s wealthy will need to reduce their carbon footprints by a factor of 30 to help put the planet on a path to curb the ever-worsening impacts of climate change, according to new findings published Wednesday by the United Nations Environment Program. Currently, the emissions attributable to the richest 1 percent of the global population account for more than double those of the poorest 50 percent.” (WaPo)
“Since the presidential election, CNN has been on one of its best competitive rolls in almost two decades …. Between Nov. 4 and Sunday, CNN has averaged 1.73 million viewers, more than double a year ago, the Nielsen company said. Fox News Channel had 1.56 million and MSNBC had 1.53 million. It’s the first time since December 2001 … that CNN has beaten Fox News in this measurement for as long as a month, Nielsen said.” (AP)
“Newsmax TV has notched a ratings win over Fox News Channel for the very first time.” (CNN)
RELATED: “Much of the US electorate lives in a social media echo chamber saturated by disinformation, with climate change and the Green New Deal prime examples. Conservatives have turned the term ‘Green New Deal’ into an emotional weapon—part of their overall narrative of Democrats as extremist, elitist socialists.” (CJR)
“In October 2019, a teenage boy crossed the U.S. border into Arizona alone, fleeing for his life after being assaulted and threatened by gang members in Mexico. He’d hoped to find safety in the U.S, but instead, according to court filings, he ended up at a Texas children’s hospital where he’s been heavily sedated and forcibly injected multiple times over the past six months. When an attorney visited the 16-year-old in November, she described him as having ‘a glazed over, vacant expression much of the time.’ He told her he’d been taking around 20 pills per day.” (Vice)
—> The Rundown
Just in time for an election that took place five weeks ago, the Senate confirmed three members of the Federal Elections Commission, giving the agency enough members to enforce election laws for the first time since this summer. (Axios)
Biden picked Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary. Vilsack was ag secretary for both of Obama’s terms. (NYT)
In a statement, Hunter Biden said his “tax affairs” are under federal investigation. (WaPo)
The Trump administration is planting loyalists in civil servants’ meetings with the Biden transition team, “chilling the flow of information.” (NYT)
We’ve renamed the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. (Fox 35)
“The cybersecurity firm FireEye says it was hacked by a nation-state, probably Russia. (NYT)
Dumbest Man in Congress Louis Gohmert’s tooth apparently fell out mid-press conference. (People)
Shot:
Chaser:
+ OUR SO-CALLED LIVES
—> Cultured: Turns Out, You Can Shame Pornographers
On Friday, New York Times columnist Nick Kristof laid into the, er, adult entertainment website Pornhub, which he accused of being “infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags.”
How it works, according to Kristof: “Pornhub is like YouTube in that it allows members of the public to post their own videos. A great majority of the 6.8 million new videos posted on the site each year probably involve consenting adults, but many depict child abuse and nonconsensual violence. Because it’s impossible to be sure whether a youth in a video is 14 or 18, neither Pornhub nor anyone else has a clear idea of how much content is illegal.”
“While Pornhub would not tell me how many moderators it employs, I interviewed one who said that there are about 80 worldwide who work on Mindgeek sites (by comparison, Facebook told me it has 15,000 moderators).”
“Pornhub appears to be increasingly alarmed about civil or criminal liability. Lawyers are circling, and nine women sued the company in federal court after spy cam videos surfaced on Pornhub.”
If nothing else, Pornhub—which markets itself as a friendly, community-oriented smut-purveyor—is worried about bad press. On Tuesday, it released a statement outlining “Our Commitment to Trust and Safety”:
“Our core values such as inclusivity, freedom of expression and privacy are only possible when our platform is trusted by our users. This is why we have always been committed to eliminating illegal content.”
“Today, we are taking major steps to further protect our community. Going forward, we will only allow properly identified users to upload content. We have banned downloads. We have made some key expansions to our moderation process, and we recently launched a Trusted Flagger Program with dozens of non-profit organizations. Earlier this year, we also partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and next year we will issue our first transparency report.”
—> Et Cetera
France approves research on implants to boost soldiers’ “cerebral capacity.” (Independent)
UK regulators say people with severe allergic reactions shouldn’t take the COVID vaccine. (Independent)
A Chinese coronavirus vaccine is shown to be 86% effective in early tests. (WaPo)
Johns Hopkins, the namesake of the university and hospital, owned enslaved people. (WaPo)
What Beth thinks you should watch tonight: Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch Musical Special is on NBC at 8 p.m. (Playbill)
Thanks for reading. And thanks to Beth Keena for helping put together today’s newsletter.