Raleigh Chickens Out on LGBTQ Protections
Wall Street rigs the game + the Fern sues after getting evicted + Madison Crawford’s MAGA 2.0 + mask up … twice + the worst GDP since WW2 + the TBJ <3s sprawl
Friday, Jan. 29, 2021
TGIF, friends. … The power just went out at my house, so I’m now typing like a madman to finish this thing before the laptop dies. Power is currently at 24%. …
Today’s weather will be sunny and cool, with a high of 42. We could get a wintry mix on Saturday night and Sunday, so that will be fun. (National Weather Service) …
The newsletter should take you about 10 minutes to read. … 22% …
Today’s Numbers:
1
Percentage by which GDP grew in the fourth quarter of 2020 (an annualized rate of 4%). That’s down from 7.5% growth in Q3, indicating a slowing recovery.
GDP ended the year down 3.5% from 2019, the worst decline since World War II.
BUT: Personal income and savings were up, thanks to government intervention.
“Both the recession and the recovery have been highly unequal. Many white-collar workers have kept their jobs, have been able to work from home, and have built up savings by cutting back on vacations and restaurant meals.”
“Low-wage service workers — disproportionately Black or Hispanic — have borne the brunt of both the job losses and the virus itself, because many of them had to risk exposure at work.” (NYT)
1,300,822
People who filed initial claims for state unemployment benefits or Pandemic Unemployment Compensation last week.
On This Day
1595: William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was (possibly) performed for the first time. The play was published two years later.
1829: John Louis Taylor, who became the first chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1818, died.
1886: Karl Benz patented the world’s first automobile with a burning motor.
1892: Coca-Cola was incorporated in Atlanta.
1901: U.S. Rep. George H. White, the last of four Black congressmen who represented the state’s 2nd District in the late 19th century, gave his famous farewell address: “This, Mr. Chairman, is perhaps the Negroes' temporary farewell to the American Congress; but let me say, phoenix-like he will rise up some day and come again. These parting words are in behalf of an outraged, heartbroken, bruised, and bleeding, but God-fearing people, faithful, industrious, loyal people-rising people, full of potential force.” The state had passed legislation disenfranchising African Americans. No Black person was elected to Congress until 1928. No Black Southerner was elected until 1972.
1964: Dr. Strangelove premiered.
2002: George W. Bush declared that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea comprised an “Axis of Evil.”
2019: Tehran banned public dog walking.
One Year Ago
Top Google Search rising queries, Raleigh-Durham MSA, Jan. 29. 2020:
What dinosaur has 500 teeth?
Speed test
Null
+TODAY’S TOP 5
1. Rigged for Their Pleasure
Until yesterday morning, I’d been watching this week’s turmoil on Wall Street — Reddit day traders buying cheap stocks that hedge funds were shorting, driving up the prices and costing the hedge funds billions — with a sublime combination of bemusement and schadenfreude. Who cares if Wall Street bros got outsmarted by “Dumb Money”? They were in the casino. Shit happens.
But then Big Money decided that Dumb Money — who had done nothing more than beat Big Money at their own game — needed to be crushed. So they rigged the game to protect their own, a gross display of the worst kind of capitalism.
“Robinhood, the fee-free investment app that has helped Redditors and other retail investors pump dark horse stocks like GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, and Nokia, has stopped allowing users to buy those stocks and other YOLO picks,” Vice reported Thursday morning.
“This is likely to have a massive impact on Robinhood users and ultimately the company. Holders are now unable to freely trade it; the app is only allowing users to close out their positions, meaning they can sell it but not buy more.”
A massive impact, indeed. With other apps and trading services following Robinhood’s lead, GameStop shares closed down 44% after being up 30% earlier in the day. Other stocks that were part of the Reddit purchasing spree, including AMC Theaters, tanked, too.
“This is unacceptable,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “We now need to know more about @RobinhoodApp’s decision to block retail investors from purchasing stock while hedge funds are freely able to trade the stock as they see fit.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: “For years, the same hedge funds, private equity firms, and wealthy investors dismayed by the GameStop trades have treated the stock market like their own personal casino while everyone else pays the price. It’s long past time for the SEC and other financial regulators to wake up and do their jobs.”
The SEC: “We are aware of and actively monitoring the ongoing market volatility … [and are] working with our fellow regulators to assess the situation and review the activities of regulated entities, financial intermediaries, and other market participants.”
Left to its own devices, the Reddit buying spree could trigger a broader selloff, which nobody wants. However:
Shorting stocks is a high-risk, high-reward wager. What happened yesterday was effectively a hedge fund bailout.
With investors only allowed to sell, the price was destined to crash, harming their investment. I can’t help but think that will lead to lawsuits. If nothing else, it seems horribly unfair.
The Dow and S&P 500 both ended Thursday up 1%, so there’s that.
—> OTHER BUSINESS NEWS
General Motors says it will stop making gasoline-powered cars, vans, and SUVs by 2035 and be fully carbon-neutral by 2040. (NYT)
Owners of 75,746 franchise businesses — including 4,278 Subways, 2,445 Dunkin’s, 2,217 McDonald’s — received $15.6 billion in PPP funds. (WaPo)
So far, only 38 Democrats have signed on to Joe Biden’s proposal to hike the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. With all Republicans likely to oppose it, Biden would need all 50 Dems in the best-case scenario. (WaPo)
Six people died following a liquid nitrogen leak at a Georgia poultry plant. (NYT)
Facebook’s new oversight board released its first set of decisions, overruling the company if four of five content-moderation rulings. (WaPo)
2. Get a Better Mask
With new mutations of the coronavirus popping up in the U.S., experts say it’s a good idea to either upgrade your mask to a high-quality KN95 or N95 or wear two instead of one, especially a fabric mask over a surgical mask.
Former CDC director Tom Frieden: “The existence of more-transmissible viruses emphasizes the importance of us upping our game and doing not more of the same but better of the same.”
The government isn’t quite on the same page, however.
“Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, touted double-masking during a Monday appearance on the Today show, saying two layers ‘just makes common sense that it likely would be more effective.’”
“But on a Wednesday town hall appearance on CNN, Fauci appeared to reverse course and instead stressed following CDC guidance, which does not call for wearing two masks or N95s. New CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, appearing alongside Fauci, also warned that N95 masks are uncomfortable to wear and may dissuade consistent use if expanded to the general public.”
“Behavioral psychologists say public health authorities must be mindful of a backlash as they start to shift mask guidance. When people living through a crisis are confused, they often stick to their habits.” (WaPo)
—> OTHER COVID NEWS
A highly transmissible variant first found in South Africa is spreading in South Carolina. (WaPo)
A new COVID vaccine made by Novavax had an efficacy rate of almost 90% in a UK trial. But it only has 50% efficacy against the South African variant. (NYT)
Republican lawmakers are pushing legislation to force the state’s schools to operate in-person classes. It’s unclear whether it would survive a veto. (N&O)
The Butner federal prison, where 28 inmates have died, didn’t follow proper quarantine protocols. (N&O)
North Carolina has surpassed 9,000 COVID deaths. (CBS 17)
3. Raleigh Chickens Out on LGBTQ Protections
When she announced her first campaign for mayor in 2019, Mary-Ann Baldwin told me how much she admired what Steve Schewel was doing in Durham:
“Every time I go to Durham, I’m like, wow, this is happening. And that is leadership, plain and simple. Steve Schewel has thrown down the gauntlet, and he has got people supporting him and supporting moving forward on some very bold ideas, and that’s what I think leadership is. That’s what a mayor should be doing. You have a bully pulpit. You can have that voice — you can have that strong voice — and you can bring forward ideas. That’s what I think the role of the mayor should be.”
Fast-forward 22 months, and let’s see what MAB’s doing with her bully pulpit:
“The city of Raleigh will wait to expand protections for LGBTQ people, Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said, despite other governments expanding their non-discrimination ordinances now that a state ban has ended. ‘My understanding is that there are going to be lawsuits involving some of these other ordinances,’ Baldwin told The News & Observer in an interview. ‘We are waiting to see how this plays out.’”
In December, the prohibition on local nondiscrimination ordinances expired. Since then, a number of municipalities — Carrboro, Hillsborough, Greensboro, Chapel Hill, and, yes, Durham — have passed local NDOs.
Instead of doing that, Raleigh “reaffirmed its existing ordinance, which encourages community members to ‘oppose discrimination in all forms.’”
The UNC School of Government told the N&O that, without a statute or case law, the issue is a legal gray area. No lawsuits have been filed. But if and when they come, they’ll wind up before a state Supreme Court with a Democratic majority.
Baldwin is by no means anti-LGBTQ. (Her sister is gay.) But she is, on this issue, exceedingly — and, I’d argue unduly — cautious. Whether her caution is based on advice from the city attorney or Raleigh’s longstanding tradition of avoiding the NCGA’s crosshairs, I don’t know.
But Raleigh is the state capital and North Carolina’s second-largest city. A citywide NDO matters, both for the message it sends and the practical effect it would have on the city’s residents.
Let them sue, MAB. To quote a wise woman: “That’s what a mayor should be doing. You have a bully pulpit.”
—> OTHER RALEIGH NEWS
How many of you just learned Cameron Village was named after a plantation owner? Anyway, it’s Village District now, though I suspect no one will call it that for some time. (WRAL)
George Floyd’s family unveiled plans to build a memorial center in Raleigh. (ABC 11)
Triangle home prices rose 6.6% in 2020 over 2019. (ABC 11)
TBJ editor Sougata Mukherjee argues that the answer to rising housing costs is to let developers build and accept sprawl as an inevitability and accommodate it: “While density provides efficiency, Covid-19 certainly has changed the overall macro conversation about people living on top of each other.” (There’s a part of me that wants to tell you all the ways that’s wrong, but there’s a bigger part of me that doesn’t want to write 5,000 words right now.) (TBJ, sub. req.)
Speaking of density, the real estate firm that bought the property on which Legends Nightclub sits will soon file a rezoning application asking for permission to build up to a 40-story skyscraper, the tallest building Raleigh’s code allows. The building probably won’t go that high, and they say they’re not planning to build it anytime soon. (TBJ, sub. req.)
4. The Atomic Fern Sues State, Durham
This lawsuit isn’t going to work; the law is firmly on the government’s side. But maybe it should. At the very least, it should shame the state into helping the bar owners who’ve been wiped out not just by the pandemic but by government orders that forced them to close for nearly a year without any sort of compensation while their landlords demand rent and the ABC Commission has its hand out for liquor license renewals.
Atomic Fern owner Kevin Slater’s downtown Durham bar closed in March.
Governor Cooper allowed bars limited-capacity outdoor seating in October, but that didn’t help the Fern, which doesn’t have outdoor seating. Cooper allowed to-go cocktails in December, but that’s not enough to sustain a business.
Now Slater’s been evicted and locked out of his own place.
His lawsuit contends that the city and state violated his 14th Amendment rights by treating businesses unequally and his 5th Amendment rights by taking his property without compensation.
“Slater’s attorney, Daniel Meier, said he knows the lawsuit is a long shot, but he is hoping it will draw attention to the issue. The government has essentially shut down Slater’s business and handed it to the landlord, he said.”
Meier: “There is just something fundamentally unfair of shutting down only select businesses, but then doing nothing to protect those businesses. Because it’s a public health emergency, you can shut down a bar. Why can’t you also shut down a landlord?” (N&O)
It’s a good question. Here’s another one:
In addition to the Fern, Bar Brunello, Criterion, and the Social have closed. Arcana and Pinhook are (God willing) temporarily closed. 106 Main is getting by on to-go orders and very limited outdoor seating. And that’s not even getting into restaurants.
What’s downtown Durham going to look like on the other side of this thing?
—> OTHER BAR NEWS
Depending on whom you ask, Cooper’s order allowing to-go cocktails has either been a slight help or none at all. (N&O)
5. Madison Cawthorn’s Trumpism 2.0
North Carolina’s 25-year-old congressman got a less-than-flattering profile in Time, which is worth a read if only for how it illuminates his exceedingly shallow approach to politics.
One day, he’s preaching about respecting the office of the Presidency and vowing to work across the aisle with Democratic colleagues. The next, he’s trumpeting dangerous conspiracies to right-wing crowds and commentators. While offering different messages to different audiences is hardly unique inside the Beltway, Cawthorn’s brand of shape-shifting is emblematic of this broader moment in national politics. As the Trump era ends, the Republican Party is struggling to chart a future course in which it both retains the support of Trump’s expansive base, while jettisoning the controversial former President.
Cawthorn has little in the way of a college education or work history. He’s also a consummate fabulist who tends to let his mouth outrun his brain. And in a very Trumpian way, he’s much more focused on hyping himself than doing things.
“Cawthorn’s outsized focus on messaging isn’t incidental to his rise to power; it is central to his success. As a new legislator, he is not working on churning out new bills. He is, instead, presenting himself as a useful messaging megaphone for the legislators that do. ‘I have built my staff around comms rather than legislation,’ he wrote to Republican colleagues in a Jan. 19 email obtained by TIME.”
Just a thought, but maybe that crackerjack comms staff should screen his tweets.
