NC Republicans: Teaching About Racism Is Anti-American
SNOW! + Biden’s Iran sh*t sandwich + San Fran’s loss, Raleigh’s gain + another month of COVID curfew + the Durham company cataloging Trump’s tweets
Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021
Happy Thursday … Unless the weather wizards were wrong, you are waking up to an inch or two of snow. If you’re driving, be careful. … It will get sunny quickly. High of 45. … Heads up: It might snow this weekend, too. Or not. (WRAL’s forecast thinks it will rain instead.)
Today’s newsletter is an eight-minute read. … First, a blast from the past:
Today’s Number: 92.7
Percentage by which the stock price of GameStop increased on Tuesday after a bunch of Redditors bought it en masse to “fight back against the huge levels of short interest.” (Bloomberg)
GameStop opened at $88.28 on Tuesday and closed at $147.98, with its market cap exceeding $10 billion. It opened at $352.13 on Wednesday morning, and closed at $347.51 on Wednesday afternoon, though it dropped in after-hours trading. GameStop began the year around $19.
This isn’t illegal, since they’re coordinating in the open.
They’ve crippled hedge funders: “Gabe Plotkin, the hedge fund trader whose Melvin Capital was shorting GameStop … confirmed to CNBC this morning that he was throwing in the towel and had exited his position.” (NYT)
Blockbuster stock — technically, BB Liquidating Inc., since Blockbuster is bankrupt — shot up 774% on Wednesday morning to just under 5 cents a share. It closed at 4.5 cents per share. (Bloomberg)
Short-sellers lost $5 billion on GameStop alone and are down $91 billion for the month. (CNBC, Business Insider)
In response, Ameritrade restricted transactions. (Twitter)
WaPo: “This isn’t simply disconnected from investing fundamentals. This is disconnected from reality. Yes, some will make money along the way, but this is going to end in a financial catastrophe for many. … GameStop’s stock rise is also hurting the hedge funds and professional Wall Street outfits betting on GameStop’s continued subpar performance. And, for some, this might be the point.”
Capitalism is weird.
On This Day
1813: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was published.
1878: Yale Daily News, the first college newspaper, was first published.
1933: German Chancellor Kurt Von Schleicher resigned and endorsed Adolf Hitler as his replacement — one of many miscalculations that led to the Nazis’ rise. Hitler had him murdered a year later.
1935: Iceland became the first Western country to legalize abortion.
1986: The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven on board — including Beaufort County native Michael Smith.
2011: Hundreds of thousands of protesters participated in the “Friday of Anger” demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak.
One Year Ago
Top Google Search rising queries, Raleigh-Durham MSA, Jan. 28. 2020:
UNC basketball: The night before, UNC defeated N.C. State 75–65.
Chase Rice: The country singer was involved in some Bachelor drama.
PayPal: No clue why this trended.
+TODAY’S TOP 4
1. Biden’s Iran Dilemma
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been reading — listening to the audiobook, rather — Gambling with Armageddon, a history of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the nuclear brinksmanship that preceded it. What struck me isn’t merely how close we came to the abyss but how the jingoistic swagger and tunnel vision of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations — and JFK’s campaign-trail habit of letting his mouth write checks his ass couldn’t cash — led to a crisis that, but for the whims of fate, would have annihilated countless millions.
Fun fact: Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker’s father, Leonard, was the State Department lawyer who conceived of calling the U.S. blockade a “quarantine,” as a blockade was an act of war.
No conflict exists in isolation.
In 1953, the CIA toppled Iran’s government, which was insufficiently servile to Western oil needs, and installed the friendlier shah. Twenty-six years later, the shah was deposed in the Iranian revolution. Then came the Iran hostage crisis, the U.S.-backed Iraqi invasion of Iran, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Bush administration named Iran in the Axis of Evil and accused it of developing nuclear weapons. The Obama administration negotiated a deal to lift sanctions on Iran in exchange for the country halting uranium enrichment.
As soon as he took office, Trump abrogated the deal. He implemented sanctions designed to exert “maximum pressure” on the regime. A year ago, he assassinated a high-ranking Iranian official. Just before leaving office, Trump piled on additional sanctions.
Now the Iranians are enriching uranium at five times the rate allowed under the deal.
At the risk of being crude, Trump handed Biden a shit sandwich. And while the risk of escalation is nowhere near as acute as the Cuban Missile Crisis, there’s a similarly awkward dance taking place between two countries that don’t trust each other.
Biden wants to salvage the agreement. But he wants the Iranians to stop enriching uranium as a prerequisite to lifting sanctions.
The Iranians, not unreasonably, say the U.S. has to go first — in other words, lift the sanctions before they talk uranium. They also say any deal can’t be linked to other conditions such as limiting Iran’s ballistic missile program or its support for proxy militias in the Middle East.
The Trump administration’s bellicosity strengthened Iran’s hardliners.
“In November, the Iranian parliament passed a law that would restrict U.N. inspectors’ access to key nuclear facilities in the absence of sanctions relief. It may be implemented as early next month.” (WaPo)
Republicans and Iran’s regional enemies have already accused the administration of being too soft on the regime. They argue that Trump’s approach has given the Biden administration leverage. Experts are dubious.
“Those arguing to maintain sanctions wrongly claim that the Iranian economy is in such dire straits that Tehran will be forced to capitulate. Against the backdrop of unprecedented sanctions and the Covid-19 pandemic, Iran's economy has demonstrated resilience to external shocks and will likely limp along. … As at least one Trump official admitted, there are so many sanctions on Iran that they've become an exhausted tool.” (CNN)
—> OTHER FOREIGN POLICY NEWS
Biden and Vladimir Putin agreed to extend a nuclear treaty. (NYT)
Biden announced that the U.S. will resume contributions to the U.N. agency that provides assistance to the Palestinians, a break from the Trump administration. (NPR)
—> OTHER BIDEN NEWS
The DOJ rescinded a Trump zero-tolerance policy that led to the separation of migrant families at the border. (AP)
Biden’s order directing the DOJ not to renew contracts with private prisons is less than meets the eye. Three tells: The corrections officers’ union supports it. It won’t apply to the hellhole immigration detention facilities run by ICE. And it doesn’t terminate current contracts, so any contract that expires after 2024 could be renewed by the next administration if Democrats lose the White House. (NYT, Twitter)
Polls on 14 of Biden’s executive actions show majority or plurality support. (538)
2. Republicans Want NC Schools to Ignore the Racism Stuff
Remember Trump’s 1776 Commission, the administration’s widely ridiculed last-minute attempt to rewrite American history in a more “patriotic” fashion? This is like that. Yesterday, the State Board of Education reviewed new K-12 social studies standards that — clutch those pearls, ladies — discuss “racism, discrimination, and the perspectives of marginalized groups.”
Guess what happened.
“Republican State Board of Education members charged Wednesday that proposed social studies standards are ‘anti-American’ and will teach North Carolina public school students that the nation is oppressive and racist.”
“State board member Amy White said North Carolina social studies teachers should be telling students that America is the greatest nation on Earth. She blamed the news media for promoting an anti-American viewpoint. ‘While I think some of the revisions have been helpful, I still see an agenda that is anti-American, anti-capitalism, anti-democracy.’”
“[Republican State Superintendent Catherine Truitt] proposed Wednesday replacing the terms ‘systemic racism,’ ‘systemic discrimination,’ and ‘gender identity’ with the words racism, discrimination, and identity. … Truitt contended that leaving systemic racism in the standards would imply that the U.S. government and Constitution are both racist.” (N&O)
Let’s ignore that the Superintendent of Public Instruction:
appears not to understand what “systemic racism” means.
thinks the U.S. government has not functioned as an enforcement mechanism for white supremacy.
is in charge of educating 1.5 million human beings.
Instead, let’s examine what these “anti-American viewpoints” look like:
“Eighth-grade classes would explain how the experiences and achievements of women, minorities, indigenous, and marginalized groups have contributed to the development of the state and nation over time.”
“Civics students would interpret historical and current perspectives on the evolution of individual rights in America over time, including women, tribal, racial, religious, gender identity, and ability.”
“High school students taking American History could discuss topics such as the Trail of Tears … the 1898 Wilmington Coup … and the 1969 Stonewall Riots.”
The horror. The board will vote on the new standards next week.
—> OTHER NCPOL NEWS
Of the more than $8 billion the N.C. Division of Employment Services distributed in state and federal unemployment benefits last year, $70 million was given out in error — much of it due to honest mistakes. Lawmakers want DES not to go after that money. (N&O)
The state House will stream its sessions and committee meetings live on YouTube this year. The Senate isn’t quite hip to the new tech. The House’s YouTube videos won’t be archived, so if you can’t watch it live, too bad. Only five other states don’t archive video of legislative sessions. (N&O)
NCPOL tweet of the day:
3. Could San Fran’s Loss Be Raleigh’s Gain?
Nearly 90,000 households have decamped from San Francisco since the start of the pandemic. Some went to nearby Oakland or Marin. But with offices going fully remote, tens of thousands of others scattered across the country.
The most popular destinations: Las Vegas, Palm Beach County, and areas near Orlando, Denver, and Portland. (Business Insider)
It’s no secret that San Francisco’s housing prices and cost of living are insane. There’s also a homelessness epidemic, a frayed relationship between the city and tech, and public safety issues.
Some tech companies, while they’ve benefited from Silicon Valley’s networks and incubators, have chafed at big-city expenses, taxes, and regulations. A few are starting to eye new homes.
“Miami and Austin are being praised as the new tech hotspots. While it hasn't caused a bump in startup funding in those cities, according to Pitchbook data, investors from influential firms like Founders Fund and Andreessen Horowitz have set up shop there.” (Axios)
That raises a question: Why not us?
Miami and Austin are both actively touting themselves. There’s no reason the Triangle can’t swim in that pool. We have the infrastructure in place — higher ed, tech money, etc. We’re also relatively cheap and pretty laissez-faire.
We have disadvantages: traffic congestion, deficient mass transit, smaller population, and our state rep hasn’t shaken HB 2. Then again, it’s not like Florida and Texas are bastions of inclusivity.
On that note, have you ever tried to drive in Miami? Or been to Austin in July? I have. I live here.
4. Cooper Extends COVID Curfew
No surprise here, but the curfew and other pandemic restrictions that Governor Cooper put in place in October and were set to expire on Friday have been extended yet again, to Feb. 28. This includes the 10 p.m. curfew enacted in December. The order also keeps most bars closed.
“Cooper said he is asking school boards, superintendents and health officials to look at the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study about safely reopening schools and mitigating COVID-19 spread. The governor did not have a timeline for any decision on schools yet. The state legislature is also looking at what legislation might be needed to help students with learning loss from daily, in-person education.” (N&O)
Cooper also extended the executive order allowing to-go mixed beverage sales and another order that blocks landlords from evicting tenants.
As of yesterday, North Carolina had recorded 733,010 cases and 8,915 deaths. (NCDHHS)
—> OTHER COVID NEWS
The state says 95% of first vaccination doses have been administered. That leaves some 540,000 doses that haven’t been used, including about 340,000 second doses and 200,000 doses intended for long-term care programs. (CBS 17)
A model shows that the best way to reduce COVID transmission is to vaccinate those aged 20–49, but the best way to minimize mortality is to vaccinate everyone 60 and older. (Science Mag)
—> OTHER LOCAL NEWS
The Durham startup ArchiveSocial won a $1.59 million contract to archive Trump’s social media data. (TBJ, sub. req.)
Josh Howard, the former chairman of the State Board of Elections under Pat McCrory, will represent Trump in his impeachment trial. (N&O)
Prosecutors dismissed charges against two men who were appealing their convictions for toppling Silent Sam. Orange-Chatham District Attorney Jim Woodall said the decision was based on the need to prioritize cases amid a backlog in the Orange County court system due to the pandemic. (N&O)
McClatchy — The News & Observer’s parent company, which was acquired by a hedge fund out of bankruptcy last year — fired the editor of the Idaho Statesman after she complained on Twitter that the company wouldn’t pay $100 for an investigative reporter’s Microsoft Excel license. (The Desk)