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Does everybody need a booster shot?

The Biden administration has been working for weeks on plans for <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/22630979/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shots-delta-variant">Covid-19 booster shots</a>, as <a href="https://www.vox.com/22547537/delta-coronavirus-variant-covid-19-vaccines-masks-lockdown">the delta variant</a> drives <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/2021/8/5/22608142/us-covid-19-cases-deaths-delta-variant-vaccines">a new pandemic wave</a> across the country. The debate recently spilled out into the open when two top FDA officials <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/31/biden-booster-plan-fda-508149">stepped down over reported concerns</a> that the decision-making process was being driven by politics instead of science.
Israel is already pushing ahead with booster shots, with most of that country’s population <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/30/israel-doubles-down-on-covid-booster-shots-as-breakthrough-cases-rise.html">currently eligible for a third shot</a>, based on data that indicates vaccine effectiveness wanes over time. The country is even preparing for <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-12/israel-preparing-for-possible-fourth-covid-vaccine-dose">the possibility that patients will require a fourth shot</a>. The Biden administration has <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2021/09/13/israel-booster-shot-covid-19-biden-fauci-newday-vpx.cnn">reportedly been influenced</a> by the data out of Israel and, for a time, it looked as though the US would quickly take the same path. In a speech last month, President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?514148-1/president-biden-remarks-booster-shots">laid out a plan</a> for every vaccinated American to receive a booster shot — pending FDA approval.
But recently, there has been pushback from parts of the scientific community, who argue that the case for booster shots is not as clear-cut as it may seem at first.
The public debate will likely intensity after the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c95611ae-3c2d-46ae-a196-e790a5767537?shareType=nongift">voted</a> that there was not enough evidence to authorize a booster shot for all Americans 16 and older, as Pfizer had requested. Panel members, however, expressed support for boosters for people over 65 and for people at higher risk of Covid-19 illness, whether because of their health or occupation.
The vote is only a recommendation to the FDA officials who will make a final decision; the CDC will also weigh in on who should be the priority for booster shots.
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<figcaption>Israeli residents wait to receive a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in Tel Aviv. Israel has expanded its coronavirus booster drive, lowering the minimum age to 30.</figcaption>
<cite>Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite></figure>
A group of 18 scientists, including the two FDA officials who stepped down, outlined their position in a letter published this week in <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02046-8/fulltext">The Lancet</a>.
“COVID-19 vaccines continue to be effective against severe disease, including that caused by the delta variant,” they wrote. “Current evidence does not, therefore, appear to show a need for boosting in the general population.”
Other experts I spoke to shared that assessment of the evidence. There may be some waning effectiveness against any symptomatic disease but, for most people, the vaccines continue to do an excellent job of preventing hospitalizations and deaths.
“The science right now tells us that for most people, boosters probably aren’t needed to protect against severe disease or death,” Angela Rasmussen, a research scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, told me over email.
Many experts <a href="https://twitter.com/ashishkjha/status/1437714676767502337">believe</a> boosters do make sense for at least some individuals. The debate has been whether they should be okayed for every vaccinated person — as Biden announced last month — or whether they should be limited to certain vulnerable populations. Should the US focus its vaccine supply on boosting all of its citizens or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ty2J0s2W0c">should more vaccines be shared with the developing world</a>, where vaccination rates remain much lower than in the United States and Europe?
The vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths in the current wave have been concentrated among unvaccinated people. But <a href="https://www.vox.com/22602039/breakthrough-cases-covid-19-delta-variant-masks-vaccines">the number of “breakthrough” infections</a> among the vaccinated population has also been rising.
That is to be expected when <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html">three out of four US adults</a> have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. There are simply more vaccinated people out there than unvaccinated, and while the vaccines provide strong protection against infection, they are not perfect. Sometimes, the virus slips through, though vaccinated people remain <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/9/11/22668360/unvaccinated-covid-delta-variant-hospitalizations-deaths-cdc">much less likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19</a> or die from it.
But how often does that happen? Is vaccine effectiveness starting to decline, especially with the delta variant now dominant? The answers to those questions influence the debate over booster shots. And we are starting to get some clearer evidence of how well the vaccines are holding up in the real world.
A <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/22630979/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shots-delta-variant">recent CDC study</a> tracked new Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations from early May to late July in New York state. The study period covers the transition from the “alpha” variant to delta, which became dominant by the start of July, but only includes part of the recent surge in reported cases.
The Covid-19 vaccines became somewhat less effective in preventing any illness as the delta variant took over, the CDC researchers concluded. Back in May, vaccines had an estimated 90 percent effectiveness at preventing new infections. But by mid-July, the estimated effectiveness had dropped to just under 80 percent. By that point, vaccinated people were more likely to get infected and <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/11/22611272/what-breakthrough-covid-19-feels-like">feel sick</a>.
But the vaccines remained resilient against the most severe symptoms, with the estimated effectiveness against hospitalization holding steady around 95 percent from the start to the end of the study period.
<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7034e2.htm?s_cid=mm7034e2_w">A second CDC study</a> examined national data on whether the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are becoming less effective at stopping severe illness over time. Like the New York study, it found vaccines are extremely good at their most important job — about 90 percent effective in preventing hospitalization due to Covid-19. They did not find a meaningful decline almost six months after patients received a second dose of the vaccine.
<a href="https://khub.net/documents/135939561/338928724/Vaccine+effectiveness+and+duration+of+protection+of+covid+vaccines+against+mild+and+severe+COVID-19+in+the+UK.pdf/10dcd99c-0441-0403-dfd8-11ba2c6f5801">More recent research out of the United Kingdom</a> reached generally the same conclusions: modest waning in effectiveness against any symptomatic illness but little (if any) against the most severe outcomes for most people.
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<figcaption>A health care worker prepares Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines for third doses at a senior living facility in Worcester, Pennsylvania, on August 25.</figcaption>
<cite>Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images</cite></figure>
The exception to those broad findings has been for people who have serious medical conditions, people who are otherwise immunocompromised, and seniors.
People who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was shown to be less effective at stopping symptomatic illness, may also warrant boosters, though long-range data on that vaccine’s effectiveness is still coming in. <a href="https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/so-you-got-jj-vaccine-here-s-what-you-should-know-about-delta-variant-boosters-and-more">Studies so far</a> indicate that the vaccine still offers good protection against hospitalization, but that it may not be quite as robust against the delta variant as it was against prior iterations of the virus. <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7038e1.htm?s_cid=mm7038e1_w">New research from the CDC</a> found the vaccine was 71 percent effective in preventing hospitalization from March to August 2021, lower than Pfizer or Moderna.
A <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7034e3.htm?s_cid=mm7034e3_w">third CDC study</a> evaluated vaccine effectiveness for nursing home residents, a population particularly vulnerable to Covid-19 and one of the first groups to get vaccinated at the beginning of this year. That study did find a significant decline in vaccine effectiveness over time against any illness for those Americans, from 75 percent pre-delta to about 50 percent post-delta. So they enjoyed less protection than younger people did from the start and that protection did decline much more than in their younger counterparts.
Likewise, the new UK study found that the most significant drop in the vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalization was among people 80 years and older, from about 95 percent two to nine weeks after becoming fully vaccinated to about 70 percent more than 20 weeks after. For younger age groups, that protection against severe illness stayed above 90 percent over the study period.
With that in mind, “I think you can make the argument that people who are high risk for severe Covid-19 would benefit from a booster given at least six months after completion of their initial vaccine regimen,” Rasmussen said.
The case for immediately giving everybody a vaccine six or eight months after their second dose, however, is less clear.
<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-research-3rd-vaccine-dose-produces-10-times-more-antibodies-than-2nd/">Data from Israel</a> suggests that people who receive a third dose have substantially more antibodies than people who have received “only” two doses. But the human immune system is complex. The number of antibodies a person has may not tell you everything about their level of immunity against Covid-19.
“Memory responses and cell-mediated immunity ... are generally longer lived” than antibody responses, the authors of the Lancet letter noted, and any drop in antibodies does not necessarily indicate a drop in efficacy against hospitalization or death.
We may end up in a world where everybody eventually receives a third shot, as more data rolls in suggesting that a longer interval between doses does lead to more robust protection. In that case, giving people that third dose could “lock in” long-term immunity, Rasmussen said.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1631912188_7824_69904" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22855524,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Pe37dDvObto89w7cNIBTZdLCG2s=/0x0:3000x2000/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/44MI0XhArYfRepz0pwhs1E6kXNo=/0x0:3000x2000/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZysVZY_51QI1jC96JTPpXQhVS8c=/0x0:3000x2000/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Xo_mHmO0RAozDLtOG9RjKbRA51U=/0x0:3000x2000/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o67mL1GfpwTDxlye2u1GEK05Zic=/0x0:3000x2000/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SYm7lgPhrvxjc91tr1dHA36d2TE=/0x0:3000x2000/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/sw10mpbC0D2em9dsDg44YosfgdI=/0x0:3000x2000/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/7ZDyVXSdQO-XXcHk3UxFUOLYDa0=/0x0:3000x2000/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8yRFo0J79sVXaSrKBHlpRICq_9w=/0x0:3000x2000/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="" data-upload-width="3000" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/RKpIz3GXgMlrmcUMWrJG5D7GN1E=/0x0:3000x2000/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cIGytwg57TkPuQR7_h4tgm19HfY=/0x0:3000x2000/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/icjfdwYqk4Qmw_UH5MpfrUYTWgM=/0x0:3000x2000/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pnLFmdGCmj7t8NE7DNcixfekDPQ=/0x0:3000x2000/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NUi3blughRwIPj9jMAlMsVq6tyM=/0x0:3000x2000/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/k3-NyK4XAhMkebjHbOFxYfOonG4=/0x0:3000x2000/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/xbrMuro4KMYhp8dd7jLamtRLhBc=/0x0:3000x2000/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/r8yGT6YnBqiOYsRo3JIzzMFB54U=/0x0:3000x2000/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/l1DS7cMTHnzc_s2MJYACq8iCcTY=/0x0:3000x2000/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6zfZiv4E-T5tBoZQ-mdVbjrX5ec=/0x0:3000x2000/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2000):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855524/GettyImages_1234769375_copy.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>People wait after receiving Covid-19 vaccines at a Pasadena, California, clinic that offers third shots to people with immunological conditions.</figcaption>
<cite>AFP via Getty Images</cite></figure>
But the question is where should the current vaccination drive be: Should it be focused on third shots? Or should it be directed at unvaccinated people or sending more vaccines to poorer parts of the world where vaccination rates remain much lower than they are in the US or Europe? The WHO <a href="https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-4-august-2021">has specifically urged</a> wealthy countries not to authorize booster shots until more people in the developing world receive their initial vaccine regimen.
The Lancet letter’s authors argue that vaccinating the unvaccinated would help stave off future variants that may prove more elusive to the existing vaccines.
“Even if some gain can ultimately be obtained from boosting, it will not outweigh the benefits of providing initial protection to the unvaccinated,” they wrote. “If vaccines are deployed where they would do the most good, they could hasten the end of the pandemic by inhibiting further evolution of variants.”
There are questions about how much America’s internal vaccine decisions would actually influence global supply. And the Biden administration, perhaps anticipating these concerns, is reportedly planning to purchase and distribute <a href="https://t.co/ajJhfnPy3t">hundreds of millions of doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine</a> for other countries around the world.
Also, one in four people in the United States have not been vaccinated, and the push is still on to get shots in their arms. It remains to be seen what effect the Biden White House’s new rules requiring employers to mandate vaccines or regular testing for their employees will have on vaccination rates. Cities and states are introducing more vaccine mandates of their own. The FDA is also expected to consider approval for vaccinating children ages 5 to 12 in the coming weeks, with approval for younger kids possible later this year.
“I’d argue that it’s more important to get vaccines to unvaccinated populations and offer boosters to high-risk people for now than it is to get a third booster six months out for all,” said Rasmussen.
Polling suggests vaccinated people are <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/04/poll-vaccinated-more-concerned-than-unvaccinated-covid-variant/5467066001/">more concerned about Covid-19</a> than the unvaccinated. It’s understandable that they would worry about breakthrough cases and see booster shots as important protection to avoid getting infected at all. But there is no foolproof protection against Covid-19.
The virus is well on its way toward becoming endemic; eradication became an unrealistic goal long ago. <a href="https://www.vox.com/22621760/covid-19-risk-delta-vaccines-provincetown-study">Some level of risk will have to be tolerated</a>.
“Vaccines don’t create magical virus-proof force fields around you,” Rasmussen said, “and they aren’t 100 percent perfect.”
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source <a href="https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/22675485/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shot-fda-approval">https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/22675485/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shot-fda-approval</a>

vox Does everybody need a booster shot?

The Biden administration has been working for weeks on plans for Covid-19 booster shots , as the delta variant drives a new pandemic wave ...

Apple shut down a voting app in Russia. That should worry everyone.

<div><img class="ff-og-image-inserted" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/rsa60D5f_k14-CFLo3L-OwnIBWw=/0x646:5568x3561/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22858614/1235291316.jpg" /></div>
Apple and Google shut down a voting app meant to help opposition parties organize against the Kremlin in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/world/europe/russia-navalny-app-election.html">a parliamentary election in Russia</a> that’s taking place over the weekend. The companies removed the app from their app stores on Friday after the Russian government accused them of interfering in the country’s internal affairs, a <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/google-apple-remove-russian-opposition-app-election-rcna2065">clear attempt</a> by President Vladimir Putin to obstruct free elections and stay in power.
The <a href="https://apnews.com/article/europe-russia-elections-voting-vladimir-putin-a6e00789816f93b224a69074d3999568">Smart Voting</a> app was designed to identify candidates most likely to beat members of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/world/europe/navalny-smart-voting-russia-election.html">the government-backed party, United Russia</a>, as part of a broader strategy organized by supporters of the imprisoned Russian activist Alexei Navalny to bring together voters who oppose Putin. In a bid to clamp down on the opposition effort, the Russian government told Google and Apple that the app was illegal, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/world/europe/russia-navalny-app-election.html">reportedly threatened to arrest</a> employees of both companies in the country.
The move also comes amid a broader crackdown on Big Tech in Russia. Earlier this week, a Russian court fined Facebook and Twitter for not removing “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-fines-facebook-not-deleting-banned-content-2021-09-14/">illegal</a>” content, and the country is <a href="https://fortune.com/2021/09/16/russia-elections-google-docs-navalny-putin-smart-voting/">reportedly</a> blocking peoples’ access to Google Docs, which Navalny supporters had been using to share lists of preferred candidates.
<div>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Removing the Navalny app from stores is a shameful act of political censorship. 
Russia's authoritarian government and propaganda will be thrilled.<a href="https://twitter.com/Google?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@google</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Apple?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Apple</a>
— Ivan Zhdanov (@ioannZH) <a href="https://twitter.com/ioannZH/status/1438738677371482126?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 17, 2021</a></blockquote>
</div>
Critics say the episode serves as an example of why Apple, specifically, can’t be trusted to protect people’s civil liberties and resist government pressure. The company strictly controls the software allowed on to millions of devices and has recently faced allegations of <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22412725/apple-fortnite-epic-antitrust-court-case">monopolistic behavior</a> with regard to how it manages its App Store, which is the only way people can install apps on iPhones and iPads. While Google is also being accused of caving to censorship demands, Android users can still access the Russian voting app without relying on the Google Play store, though it’s more difficult.
“Android users in Russia can find other ways to install this app, whereas Apple is actively helping the Russian government make it impossible for iOS users to do so,” Evan Greer, the director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future, told Recode. “Apple’s top-down monopolistic approach is at the root of their harm.”
Apple insisted just last month that it did, in fact, have the ability to defy this type of government influence. The company said so when it announced a <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/8/10/22617196/apple-ios15-photo-messages-scanned">new photo-scanning iPhone feature</a> meant to identify images containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The tool, Apple explained, would involve downloading a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) photo database, in the form of numerical codes, onto every iPhone. The update would have run those codes against photos stored in users’ iCloud accounts, looking for matches that would be reported to human reviewers, and then to the NCMEC.
Though stopping the abuse of children is certainly worthwhile, the tool raised <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/8/10/22617196/apple-ios15-photo-messages-scanned">a lot of concerns for privacy advocates</a>. Some said the update amounted to Apple building “<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/apples-plan-think-different-about-encryption-opens-backdoor-your-private-life">a backdoor</a>” into iPhones, one that could easily be exploited by bad actors or governments seeking data about their citizens. In the face of mounting criticism, Apple put the update on hold. But the company also insisted that it would never bow to government pressure.
“We have faced demands to build and deploy government-mandated changes that degrade the privacy of users before, and have steadfastly refused those demands,” the company <a href="https://www.apple.com/child-safety/pdf/Expanded_Protections_for_Children_Frequently_Asked_Questions.pdf">said</a>. “We will continue to refuse them in the future.”
Apple has long marketed privacy as a feature of its products. After the San Bernardino terrorist attack, Apple famously refused the FBI’s demand that the company build a back door into the iPhone. Earlier this year, Apple updated the iPhone’s operating system to <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22254815/facebook-apple-privacy-ios-14-lawsuit">allow users to opt out of the app-based trackers</a> deployed by platforms like Facebook. Nevertheless, the company’s move on Friday to take down a voting app in Russia shows that Apple’s actual willingness to oppose government interference has its limits.
<div>
<div class="caption">The Smart Voting app was meant to help supporters of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in this weekend’s parliamentary elections.</div>
</div>
Neither Apple nor Google provided a comment for this story.
Apple’s ambiguous commitment to protect its users’ civil liberties is especially concerning because the company still insists that it should control large swaths of the software available on the iPhone. While developers like Epic Games <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22666897/apple-epic-trial-verdict">have been pushing back against</a> this “walled garden” approach, Apple still manages to maintain wide-ranging discretion over what programs and apps run on its devices. But as recent events in Russia make clear, Apple’s tight control over its App Store can be abused by authoritarian governments.
“Apple was trying to bake censorship into the operating system, adding technology that could search our own phones for banned files,” warned Albert Fox Cahn, the director of STOP, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “But if one government can search for CSAM, another can search for religious texts and political discourse.”
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source <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22680010/russia-apple-app-store-smart-voting-monopoly">https://www.vox.com/recode/22680010/russia-apple-app-store-smart-voting-monopoly</a>

vox Apple shut down a voting app in Russia. That should worry everyone.

Apple and Google shut down a voting app meant to help opposition parties organize against the Kremlin in a parliamentary election in Russia...

California is ending a rule that helped cause its housing crisis

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With a stroke of his pen, Gov. Gavin Newsom has officially ended the over 100-year scourge of single-family-only zoning in California.
Single-family-only zoning laws make it illegal to build anything but a single-family home on a particular lot of land. Now (with small exceptions like for fire-prone areas) it is also legal to build duplexes.
That change was part of a suite of <a href="https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/09/16/governor-newsom-signs-historic-legislation-to-boost-californias-housing-supply-and-fight-the-housing-crisis/">housing production bills Newsom signed into law late yesterday afternoon</a>, continuing a yearslong trend of California pushing forward as one of the few states attempting to tackle the housing supply crisis.
The bills had remained unsigned on the governor’s desk, presumably until after Newsom had a chance to handily <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/9/15/22662487/newsom-wins-california-recall-elder">deal with the recall challenge that had threatened his tenure</a>. California’s housing affordability crisis and resulting homelessness crisis were key parts of the frustration building in a state where Zillow <a href="https://www.zillow.com/ca/home-values/">says</a> the typical home is valued at $708,936 (more than double the typical US home value of $303,288).
While overhauling single-family-only zoning sounds revolutionary, the bills are actually gentle attempts at increasing density: legalizing duplexes and quadplexes and making it easier to build small apartment buildings that provide up to 10 homes. This doesn’t mean single-family homes are outlawed or can no longer be built, but it provides homeowners the option to convert their homes into duplexes or sell their homes to people who want to do so. Before now, it was illegal for someone to convert their home to a duplex on a lot zoned for single-family zoning. Not anymore.
This isn’t a panacea for housing production. UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation <a href="https://ternercenter.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/SB-9-Brief-July-2021-Final.pdf">found</a> that SB 9 (the bill that legalizes duplexes) will “modestly accelerate the addition of new units relative to the status quo.” Other laws that restrict the building of new and more affordable homes are still in effect — in particular, local laws around minimum lot sizes will continue to make it illegal to turn single-family homes into duplexes if the existing lot is too small to subdivide while still adhering to the size regulations.
However, the Terner Center finds that “approximately 700,000 new, market-feasible homes would be enabled under SB 9.” That’s a lot! But also because many people won’t want to sell their homes or subdivide them themselves, “only a share of that potential is likely to be developed, particularly in the near term. ... As such, while important, the new units unlocked by SB 9 would represent a fraction of the overall supply needed to fully address the state’s housing shortage.”
Previous incremental progress on housing production came in the form of ADU (accessory dwelling unit) legalization — for constructing backyard apartments or converting garages into homes. This <a href="https://www.aducalifornia.org/#:~:text=The%20number%20of%20ADU%20permits,to%20the%20state's%20housing%20supply.">added more than 20,000 new homes to the state’s housing supply</a>.
This is still the beginning of a very long fight to make it easier to build affordable housing in California, but this moment signals a shift. Ending single-family-only zoning had long been thought of as impossible. California is pushing the possibilities frontier of states taking action where localities have failed with respect to producing enough housing for their populations. And they’re not the first to pursue a policy in this vein: In 2019, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/07/01/737798440/oregon-legislature-votes-to-essentially-ban-single-family-zoning">Oregon passed a bill</a> mandating that any city with over 10,000 people allow duplexes in areas zoned for single-family-only housing. This effectively banned single-family-only zoning in the state as well.
This moment was hard-won by legislators and pro-housing advocates that helped elect them, and it also marks a growing shift in who is responsible for fixing the housing crisis. Housing is still largely seen as a local issue, but as the regional and even national effects begin to be widely recognized, states are feeling the pressure to take action.
“The end of exclusionary, single-unit zoning in California is a historic moment — we’ve taken a huge step toward making California a more affordable, equitable, and inclusive state,” Brian Hanlon, CEO of California YIMBY, said in a <a href="https://cayimby.org/california-yimby-celebrates-signing-of-historic-housing-legislation/">statement</a>.
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To our delight, you, our readers, helped us hit our goal of adding 2,500 financial contributions in September in just 9 days. So we’re setting a new goal: to add 4,500 contributions by the end of the month. Reader support helps keep our coverage free, and is a critical part of sustaining our resource-intensive work. <a href="http://vox.com/pages/support-now?itm_campaign=fall2021&itm_medium=article&itm_source=article-footer">Will you help us reach our goal by making a contribution to Vox with as little as $3?</a>
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source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/9/17/22679358/california-newsom-duplex-single-family-zoning">https://www.vox.com/2021/9/17/22679358/california-newsom-duplex-single-family-zoning</a>

vox California is ending a rule that helped cause its housing crisis

With a stroke of his pen, Gov. Gavin Newsom has officially ended the over 100-year scourge of single-family-only zoning in California. Sin...

The Eyes of Tammy Faye captures the moment the GOP got in bed with the Christian right

The Eyes of Tammy Faye, starring Jessica Chastain in the title role, is the latest in a burgeoning cultural project: the ongoing attempt to reexamine and reclaim the legacies of <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22350286/2000s-pop-culture-misogyny-britney-spears-janet-jackson-whitney-houston-monica-lewinsky">women who were wronged in recent history</a>. Monica Lewinsky. Britney Spears. Marcia Clark. Podcasts (like <a href="https://slate.com/podcasts/slow-burn/s2/clinton">Slow Burn</a> and <a href="https://yourewrongabout.com/">You’re Wrong About</a>), documentaries (<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22276585/framing-britney-spears-us-weekly-perez-hilton-daniel-ramos">Framing Britney Spears</a>), and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2788432/">based-on-a-true-story TV dramas</a> reframe the stories that sensation-seeking media and late-night comedians pitched to the American public as a clown show, a train wreck, a lady who’s in trouble and worthy only of our gawking.
In this way, Tammy Faye Messner, formerly Tammy Faye Bakker, was ahead of her time. In 2000, she was the subject of a documentary, also called <a data-cdata="{"rewritten_url":"https://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Tammy-Faye-RuPaul/dp/B002WG6DLU?ascsubtag=[]vx[p]22416361[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":99,"subtag_delim_length":2,"subtag_key":"ascsubtag","subtag_data":{"ascsubtag":"[]vx[p]22416361[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}" has-subtag="true" href="https://www.amazon.com/Eyes-Tammy-Faye-RuPaul/dp/B002WG6DLU">The Eyes of Tammy Faye</a>, that aimed to reintroduce audiences to a woman they’d previously encountered as either a scandal or a punchline. (Technically, the new film is a lightly fictionalized adaptation of the older documentary.) It’s a weird, campy, wonderful little film. Sock puppets introduce various sections of the story; RuPaul narrates.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1631912820_8460_79337" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22855530,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/q-y7pJqoduuVCcONebrjvoepDuc=/0x0:3000x2106/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IGJKPISkbxQSfDFTwPjrqWA5S7g=/0x0:3000x2106/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/kitThN9FICGoqk9y4LyyXuMXrTc=/0x0:3000x2106/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WyYCV_7eW1Z_Ht07Ysl6qIAeapQ=/0x0:3000x2106/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/R2j98ICOjHDmIa6gV2YEkPdG7h0=/0x0:3000x2106/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aKERRNwCYNNTBNpcap2dp2WL3Vg=/0x0:3000x2106/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/v-6BTCfz7uPxkkHdh7JwzWKuWAE=/0x0:3000x2106/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nqzP6Z7AzzstSbgPvByXZkGkJx8=/0x0:3000x2106/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zvjmuY0P4wrgbomFFwL_gR-Ru6E=/0x0:3000x2106/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="Sundance Film Festival Archives by Fred Hayes" data-upload-width="3000" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ySU3PSxzUprmJayEJSUad1EVP1s=/0x0:3000x2106/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/E9uxWQRZwK9IknZLyfiZFksqDkw=/0x0:3000x2106/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/666XAxEogFixaWwxPej0yvru5Uo=/0x0:3000x2106/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vfh4NYCWtV36tTKEGpgIQgwMrfU=/0x0:3000x2106/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ygNo-rPHVO6IJp_XBPRxmZIa848=/0x0:3000x2106/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/OfPoaTEXNtkr-LB4IAHi8SU94ZM=/0x0:3000x2106/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zTCskxBKO7HxquTaflXALtw-C_w=/0x0:3000x2106/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/p2Z3MTozfwZ0UTHsKtaC-JhNjyA=/0x0:3000x2106/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mR9p2x1j7GO8ZlTKSecDoPiYTNk=/0x0:3000x2106/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/TC7Uov5jXyLRy2ClvhLv1HXw_jw=/0x0:3000x2106/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:3000x2106):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855530/75591477.jpg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Tammy Faye Messner with a poster for The Eyes of Tammy Faye at Sundance in 2000.</figcaption>
<cite>Fred Hayes/WireImage</cite></figure>
At the documentary’s center is Tammy Faye herself, one-half of an infamous televangelist couple who saw their reputations and empire fall after Faye’s then-husband, Jim Bakker, was <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/jim-bakker-is-indicted-on-federal-charges">convicted of mail and wire fraud</a>. Allegations of improper financial dealings had dogged the Bakkers for years, but they came to a head in 1987 when allegations that Jim raped a young woman named Jessica Hahn and then used ministry funds to pay for her silence became public.
The allegations sent shock waves through not just the conservative Christian community but also the country at large. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the pair had been at the head of the PTL Network, a massively popular TV network that aired, among other programming, the Bakkers’ own daily variety shows. PTL stood for both “Praise the Lord” and “People That Love,” though some joked it meant “pass the loot”: Its broadcasts were friendly and inspiring, filled with music and celebration and encouragement directed toward at-home viewers. They were also filled with pleas for donations from their “partners,” Jim’s affectionate but calculated term for viewers who gave money. For a long time, that formula bore fruit; the Bakkers’ constant telethons raised many millions of dollars and garnered an audience of 20 million viewers.
The Bakkers also leveraged their PTL platform to launch many other projects, the most famous of which may be <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/upper-room-chapel">Heritage USA</a>, a kind of Christian Disneyland that in the ’80s was one of America’s most popular vacation destinations. The park featured, among other things, a 12-acre waterpark and a recreation of the Upper Room (where Jesus had his last supper before his crucifixion). At the time, the park was 10 times larger than California’s Disneyland and 20 times larger than Orlando’s Magic Kingdom, <a href="https://religionandpolitics.org/2014/10/28/a-theme-park-a-scandal-and-the-faded-ruins-of-a-televangelism-empire/">according to Religion & Politics</a>. The Bakkers envisioned it as a pilgrimage site.
When the allegations became public in 1987, fellow televangelist Jerry Falwell took over the Bakkers’ empire after Jim stepped down. Falwell was the founder of both the Moral Majority (with Pat Robertson) and Liberty University, and an architect of the then-new alliance between conservative Christians and the Republican Party. At the time, Falwell broadcasted his own sermons via the Liberty Broadcasting Network, which he claimed reached about 3 million people — a paltry number compared to PTL’s 20 million. It seems he saw an opportunity and offered to help Jim by taking over PTL briefly in March 1987.
The Bakkers always maintained that they believed Falwell’s control of PTL was temporary, but within a month, Falwell had <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/04/29/falwell-takes-control-bars-bakker-from-ptl/d01bd818-5fea-411f-964f-5c80d2c903e5/">barred Jim from returning as the organization’s head</a>. He declared that the Bakkers’ lavish lifestyle and other illicit behavior (including allegations that Jim had made sexual advances toward men) made the couple unfit to return, and called Jim “the greatest scab and cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history.” Soon, the Bakkers were a joke, with Tammy Faye’s makeup, campy performances, penchant for excess, and supposed airheadedness often <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqxJqnoKD_A">taking the brunt of it</a>.
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<figcaption>Dana Carvey, right, plays the Church Lady in a 1987 Saturday Night Live sketch with Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, played by Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks.</figcaption>
<cite>Jacques M. Chenet/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images</cite></figure>
(Falwell passed away in 2007; his son, Jerry Falwell Jr., was the president of Liberty University until the summer of 2020, when he <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/8/25/21399954/jerry-falwell-jr-resigns-scandal-liberty">resigned amid scandal</a>.)
By the time the documentary was shot in the late 1990s, Heritage USA had closed permanently and Tammy Faye and Jim’s divorce was in the past, the papers signed while Jim was in prison. Most of the film features Tammy Faye telling her story. She still speaks with hurt about Falwell, and suggests that she didn’t trust him or his views from the start, years before he ousted the Bakkers from PTL. Yet she also speaks with a buoyancy and guileless affect that’s surprising for a woman who’s both in love with the camera and has really been through the wringer. (Her second husband, Roe Messner, also went to prison for fraud connected to PTL; as a contractor, he was the developer of Heritage USA.)
Her pep and vigor aren’t surprising if you’ve watched Tammy Faye do her thing on TV or listened to her many inspirational, upbeat Christian albums. The descriptor “live wire” seemed to have been invented just for her. In the early 1960s, when she and Jim were newlyweds, Tammy Faye sang and mounted puppet shows at the churches the couple traveled to as young preachers in the Assemblies of God. When they started working in television in 1966, taking jobs at Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network (where Jim would launch The 700 Club, which Robertson later took over after ousting the pair) she brought her effervescence and joy with her. She also brought her signature over-the-top eye makeup: spidery mascara, thick black liner, gleaming shadow.
That makeup, along with her love of flamboyant clothing and gaudy decor, would become a convenient butt of many late-night comedy jokes when the Bakkers fell from grace. In the 2000 documentary, however, more than a decade has passed since the PTL scandals, and Tammy Faye is working her way back to public prominence.
She’d guest-starred on The Drew Carrey Show in the late 1990s and found an unlikely new life as a <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2007/07/how-did-tammy-faye-messner-get-to-be-a-gay-icon.html">gay icon</a>, beloved for her support of the LGBTQ community. After she was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1996, her illness became the basis for several interviews on Larry King Live. A few years after the documentary, she would appear on the VH1 reality show <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Surreal_Life">The Surreal Life</a>. By the time she died in 2007, Tammy Faye had become a star again, one more beloved than her ex-husband.
(Jim Bakker is still alive and married to televangelist Lori Beth Graham; he also has a TV show. Most recently, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kelseymckinney/second-coming-of-televangelist-jim-bakker">he’s been hawking</a> apocalypse preparedness kits, fake Covid-19 cures, and Donald Trump to his viewers. <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/jim-bakker-televangelist-democrats-kill-donald-trump-if-impeachment-fails-prison-1472437">It’s gotten pretty dark</a>.)
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1631912820_8994_79339" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22855534,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/YTg_DOmcbK3x4TktQOtihhPCjVE=/0x0:1000x600/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/FsbaecYRj6GWTMGes-VE8bBqkP0=/0x0:1000x600/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4uicEsKmUuL7nub1_4F_b9bVCSA=/0x0:1000x600/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mwAvXUK_c5AF3P2M4k3JQTmvmlM=/0x0:1000x600/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5Zmu7btftspEDRfvMhh3vEMgOGY=/0x0:1000x600/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SoIvBVA0UH_LPQwVzYD8gSnN9iY=/0x0:1000x600/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pJLetVjFuiGwSIP7KbuljFZnuNQ=/0x0:1000x600/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Sbf5wRYDVURbX2lwjkh1IGUxt3o=/0x0:1000x600/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/d40r8MFVga_I41VquIVxV-G3kAY=/0x0:1000x600/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="A man and a woman in ‘80s garb, talking straight into a TV camera." data-upload-width="1000" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qjiA2UkfmOY0f5ZhOVY__u1tJfk=/0x0:1000x600/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/QKuoWMfT-_XuNJPjtYv3RXHYNU8=/0x0:1000x600/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3rYKRVnbDRWa7fPzB5Dz9A4VAY0=/0x0:1000x600/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/aLyt8ktXNxiD3PGPpiLg7_Eyyl0=/0x0:1000x600/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6DTlx-OSCYqKSAevswMklNOOR3g=/0x0:1000x600/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/L7u_sx_Lv_Pj8fpamsYTTJ6Hoyg=/0x0:1000x600/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/G_tckLA0LBC--lEiEyvVOktXg3Y=/0x0:1000x600/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/JQhmRrjEPA8Y7a_GvgN2aWFW7Qg=/0x0:1000x600/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mYLKV666AHGiuC79B-IZWrsed0w=/0x0:1000x600/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/IEUbtxTfKINKujkr1HZikOKlwlI=/0x0:1000x600/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1000x600):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855534/tammyfaye3.jpeg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.</figcaption>
<cite>Searchlight Pictures</cite></figure>
When it first came out, some reviewers dinged the documentary — which has since become a cult favorite — <a href="https://variety.com/2000/film/reviews/the-eyes-of-tammy-faye-1200460180/">for being entirely one-sided</a>, completely slanted in favor of its eponymous subject. But that approach was clearly on purpose. The goal wasn’t to offer a skewed version of events but to let a fascinating woman simply talk, leaving any interrogation of the veracity of her account for another day. There’s an aspect of having fun at her expense; she is larger than life, a woman who adores the camera and, to some extent, seems to feel most at home when she knows people are watching her. (Also, I mean: sock puppets.)
Yet it’s not a mean film. Tammy Faye is a bit of a joke, but she’s in on the joke too.
With all that history in mind, what’s the value in a new, more scripted version of The Eyes of Tammy Faye? Why retell the story again? Her cultural status has already shifted from punching bag to campy but beloved icon, and this film doesn’t shed much additional light on its central figure. It’s an engaging enough introduction to the Bakkers, the fraud scandal, and the milieu of 1980s televangelism. But aside from spotlighting Tammy Faye’s support of LGBTQ people even in the face of vocal opposition from Falwell, there’s not a lot to surprise anyone with a passing understanding of the story.
Directed by Michael Showalter from a screenplay by Abe Sylvia, The Eyes of Tammy Faye will at least reach a wider audience than the quirky, low-budget documentary could have managed, and Chastain’s performance brings affectionate warmth to a woman who did, in the end, always seem to be performing. (Anyone looking for more should listen to <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/show/youre-wrong-about/episode/tammy-faye-bakker-and-jessica-hahn-58390564">this excellent episode of the You’re Wrong About podcast</a> centered on Tammy Faye and Jessica Hahn, the young woman who accused Jim Bakker of rape and whom he allegedly used PTL funds to silence.)
Still, this exceptionally well-cast version of Tammy Faye’s story does manage to tap into a cultural moment with reverberations we continue to feel today.
Chastain, who optioned the feature rights to the documentary and serves as the film’s producer, plays Tammy Faye from a round-cheeked, bright-eyed Bible college student to a 50-something woman tentatively working her way back into the limelight. Andrew Garfield is a spot-on Jim Bakker, sporting the same smile (I’ve always thought Jim’s grin resembled the Grinch) and slightly desperate look in his eyes. Vincent D’Onofrio is the film’s villain: Falwell.
In centering Tammy Faye’s version of events, the documentary sidestepped a looming shadow over the whole matter: the battle taking place at the time over conservative American Christianity’s link to the Republican Party. Tammy Faye doesn’t seem to have given the matter, or her role in it, much thought. In her telling, Jerry Falwell appears — and not inaccurately so — mainly as the man Jim trusted to rescue PTL when accusations of fraud hit the media.
That’s not what Falwell is primarily remembered for, though. In American history, he goes down as one of the men instrumental in handing Ronald Reagan the presidency in 1980 by delivering conservative Christians, especially evangelicals and fundamentalists, as stalwart party members. Prior to that time, right-leaning Christians were not counted upon as lockstep GOP voters; after it, they grew to become the party’s most reliable base.
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<figcaption>Jerry Falwell denounces Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker at a press conference in 1987.</figcaption>
<cite>NBC News Archives via Getty Images</cite></figure>
Many Christians’ support of Reagan was all the more surprising given that Reagan, who had been a Hollywood actor, was running against Jimmy Carter, a deeply committed, self-described “born again” Christian whose ability to attract evangelical voters during his 1976 presidential campaign was so notable that Newsweek declared 1976 “<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/editors-desk-106637">the year of the evangelical</a>.”
The term “born again” had emerged to describe a certain variety of devout evangelical Christians; first popularized by the Jesus Movement (kind of a hippie Christian movement in the 1960s), it became even more prominent after former Nixon adviser Chuck Colson used the term in <a data-cdata="{"rewritten_url":"https://www.amazon.com/Born-Again-Charles-W-Colson/dp/0800794591?ascsubtag=[]vx[p]22416361[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder","subtag_max_length":99,"subtag_delim_length":2,"subtag_key":"ascsubtag","subtag_data":{"ascsubtag":"[]vx[p]22416361[m]m-placeholder[s]s-placeholder[t]w[c]c-placeholder[r]r-placeholder[d]d-placeholder"},"encode_subtag":false}" has-subtag="true" href="https://www.amazon.com/Born-Again-Charles-W-Colson/dp/0800794591">his 1975 memoir describing his conversion in prison</a>. Carter was the first presidential candidate to describe himself as “born again.” In 1980, all three presidential candidates used the term to describe their faith.
When Reagan won the presidency over Carter, his victory was, in no small part, thanks to Falwell’s ability to solidify a coalition around the Republican Party and its candidate. The marriage of American evangelicalism and Republican politics occurred at that moment. Christians who became joined at the hip to the GOP often pointed to Democrats’ support for abortion rights, gay rights, and feminism, as well as a desire to support “family values” as the key factors in that union. (Historians have since shown that, at the start, evangelical support of the Republican ticket was even <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/06/20/734303135/throughline-traces-evangelicals-history-on-the-abortion-issue">more linked to anti-desegregation efforts</a> than to anti-abortion sentiment.)
The Eyes of Tammy Faye never actually taps into Falwell’s views on segregation at the time. Instead, it’s his vehement (<a href="https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/29-the-triumph-of-the-right/jerry-falwell-on-the-homosexual-revolution-1981/">and well-established</a>) “anti-homosexual” views that get the spotlight, as well as the implication that those beliefs may have motivated him to come for the Bakkers’ empire. To the movie’s version of Falwell, gay people are wrecking America and deserve to be struck down, pushed back at every turn.
Falwell’s views stand in stark contrast to Tammy Faye’s, at least in some respects. In 1985, she had the gall to invite an AIDS patient to appear on her show Tammy’s House Party, which aired live on PTL, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjXXdQ6VceQ">interview him compassionately</a>. (The interview is a landmark moment, both in religious TV history and in the film.)
The Eyes of Tammy Faye zooms in on an interesting cultural fault line at the time. On one side are hard-liners like Falwell, determined to fight cultural battles with a cudgel and take no prisoners. Falwell was so set on pulling this off through political power that he told Jim Bakker, who <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=SWemaWoAm04">endorsed Reagan for the first time in 1984</a> and was considering supporting Pat Robertson’s presidential bid in 1988, that they need to “keep the evangelicals in the tent” by delivering the victory to George H.W. Bush.
<figure class="e-image"><picture class="c-picture" data-cid="site/picture_element-1631912820_1121_79341" data-cdata='{"asset_id":22855542,"ratio":"*"}'><source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pEk3A9oWwV6S6l6hxQ4oyCWTT14=/0x0:2000x1333/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m_tnbtQi4H-meUqihOlbWJMVeCQ=/0x0:2000x1333/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/BYHwXMsWZZn1aS-zpcwM6N33vIs=/0x0:2000x1333/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/NZqYf9dhQHLJnSKu_ZJa5MSry90=/0x0:2000x1333/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gghZsd7Ep-XjYT6S46Zc4-q42ZM=/0x0:2000x1333/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9HhOqCRA8Cd1PRyECxe8EUVBZDE=/0x0:2000x1333/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/WgpiqmQBfwj11w9KhJ-NTsn2vqY=/0x0:2000x1333/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KrFJYqc7xyACtvt86TI2ORBKVFQ=/0x0:2000x1333/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/qgXyGt1EPM1d3YcD9b2MFgvGplU=/0x0:2000x1333/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" /> <img alt="Jim Bakker sits on his porch while Tammy Faye sings." data-upload-width="2000" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_5HjVjOvjnJXluT3fLszWml3WEs=/0x0:2000x1333/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg" srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/u-fe-TwQ5FmNjxBtJeYOhnjsZn4=/0x0:2000x1333/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vMbWC1TfVzm9VYXrEaBXOLyllbs=/0x0:2000x1333/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/8abC-sVbAaeriskGoIa84gDOh3Q=/0x0:2000x1333/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/CDOtmjtAkZFRmtvT5TDFkoU-CGA=/0x0:2000x1333/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/uJOrLNm_QHsu__7GyRWRMF365Y8=/0x0:2000x1333/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tzWXjbjgY75YoqxI0TI8vGeYwrc=/0x0:2000x1333/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/spUHrFPcflKCrEe-uGh-F96t_O8=/0x0:2000x1333/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/dp7kCwSQ5p60dSrDVNM7PufbJGk=/0x0:2000x1333/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/mpeX0iQ3vK651Eb5doTepbqxsa8=/0x0:2000x1333/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:2000x1333):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22855542/tammyfaye1.jpeg 1920w" /></picture>
<figcaption>Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield as Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker in The Eyes of Tammy Faye.</figcaption>
<cite>Searchlight Pictures</cite></figure>
On the other side is Tammy Faye, who asks why they can’t just stick to Jesus and loving people and leave politics out of it. She speaks, in that moment, for a lot of evangelicals and other conservative stripes of Christianity at the time. (She and Jim were Pentecostals, and the interplay among Pentecostalism, evangelicalism, and fundamentalism is complicated. Many of PTL’s devoted fans — the “partners” lining the Bakkers’ considerable coffers — would certainly have been evangelicals, and in their heyday, the Bakkers lent a new credibility to Pentecostalism.) Until the late 1970s, many evangelical Christians were simply <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/us/religion-politics-evangelicals.html">not involved in politics</a>. But in the period The Eyes of Tammy Faye covers, that was changing.
The Bakkers’ programming, despite Jim’s endorsement of Reagan in 1984, was on the whole apolitical, lacking in the kind of “us versus them” rhetoric that marked Falwell’s preaching and defines a great deal of American Christian media today. To be sure, when investigative journalists were reporting on fraud at PTL, the Bakkers responded by suggesting the media was targeting them raising money on the claim. But politics wasn’t a huge part of their programming — certainly not anything like Bakker’s work today.
Yet the TV programming wasn’t all the Bakkers did, and they didn’t have to engage in on-air partisan politics to lay the groundwork for their rise. For one, they preached and lived a prosperity gospel that equates financial success with spiritual growth, fertilizing ground to be planted by those who benefit from people’s dreams of getting rich. And you can get a full grasp of the Bakkers’ worldview when you recall that they <a href="https://religionandpolitics.org/2014/10/28/a-theme-park-a-scandal-and-the-faded-ruins-of-a-televangelism-empire/">built a theme park</a> explicitly intended to link American patriotism and American Christianity. It’s all of a piece — nostalgia, patriotism, Jesus, and a feel-good, money-driven gospel.
Their ministry came at the dawn of an American era in which faith and triumphalist patriotism became increasingly twined together, reliant on a wistful vision of a golden age. That vision was harnessed by political powers that be to solidify a conservative, partisan base.
So what The Eyes of Tammy Faye may do best is illuminate a crucial moment in American history, a fork in the road. It was a time when a network like PTL could become massively popular, when Christian TV and Christian theme parks could draw huge audiences and, perhaps, even see themselves as part of the mainstream rather than a separate entertainment universe outside of “godless Hollywood.” This was a time before <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/4/3/17180138/gods-not-dead-light-darkness-evangelical-christian-persecution-race">God’s Not Dead</a> and “<a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/09/10/donald-trump-to-join-sean-feucht-worship-concert-on-9-11-at-national-mall/">worship protests</a>” and “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/01/evangelicals-catholics-jericho-march-capitol/617591/">Jericho Marches</a>.” But even PTL, despite steering clear of explicit politics in its programming, was laying the groundwork for what was to come by placing a particularly jingoistic love of country and of God on the same level, painting a fantasy of America as God’s chosen country.
Tammy Faye’s place in that shift is complicated; whatever her personal feelings about Falwell and his politics, it’s inescapably true that she and Jim were instrumental in pushing the right wing of American Christianity toward its partisan state. The Eyes of Tammy Faye gestures at that shift without spending enough time on it for the audience to really understand what’s happening. Falwell comes off as cartoonish, bad mostly because he hates the “homosexual agenda” and feminism, and small and jealous enough of the Bakkers’ success to tear their empire out from under them. Tammy Faye, as a foil to his macho hellfire-and-brimstone demeanor, is the opposite.
But there’s a moment at the end of the movie that complicates her character just a bit more. Having spent some time in obscurity after PTL’s fall, she receives an invitation to perform at Oral Roberts University, named for the famous televangelist who founded it. With trepidation, she agrees to perform and sings “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” In reality, she’s alone on the stage, but in her mind, she’s backed by a full choir clad in pink robes. A giant American flag unfurls behind her; red and blue balloons rain down from heaven. She thanks God for letting her live in this great country, the United States of America.
The scene links spectacle, faith, and patriotism overtly, serving as a reminder of Tammy Faye’s real, complicated legacy. Yes, she ran against the grain of men like Falwell by embracing LGBTQ people wholeheartedly. She sang with a lightness that belied the tumult that followed her throughout her life. She was beloved by many. If Tammy Faye’s version of Christianity had won out, America might look very different today. But all those truths coexist with a syncretism that conflates love of God with love of country and leads straight to where we find ourselves in 2021. Nobody’s legacy, in the end, is simple.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye premiered at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival. It opens in theaters September 17.
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source <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/22652320/eyes-tammy-faye-bakker-explained-jerry-falwell-jessica-chastain-review">https://www.vox.com/culture/22652320/eyes-tammy-faye-bakker-explained-jerry-falwell-jessica-chastain-review</a>

vox The Eyes of Tammy Faye captures the moment the GOP got in bed with the Christian right

The Eyes of Tammy Faye , starring Jessica Chastain in the title role, is the latest in a burgeoning cultural project: the ongoing attempt to...

The Justice for J6 rally is Trump supporters’ attempt at revisionist history

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Two days ahead of a Trump-inspired rally outside the Capitol on behalf of people who have been charged with crimes in connection to the January 6 insurrection, former President Donald Trump released a statement supporting the cause of the Justice for J6 movement.
“Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election,” Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1438562800968900610?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1438562800968900610%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=about%3Asrcdoc">said</a>, invoking his <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/2/28/22306318/trump-cpac-2021-speech-election-lies">oft-repeated lies</a> about the 2020 presidential election, which he lost to Joe Biden. “In addition to everything else, it has proven conclusively that we are a two-tiered system of justice. In the end, however, JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!”
Trump’s statement tosses fuel on a combustible situation. A Monday <a href="https://www.uscp.gov/media-center/press-releases/uscp-prepared-september-18-demonstration">statement</a> from the US Capitol Police warning about “concerning online chatter about a demonstration planned for September 18” already raised worries that Saturday’s Justice for J6 rally could spiral out of control and result in violent scenes reminiscent of January 6. But extremism experts are skeptical.
Jared Holt, a domestic extremism researcher with the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, <a href="https://shtpost.substack.com/p/lets-talk-about-september-18">wrote</a> recently on his website that online chatter indicates the event is likely to be a bust.
“I am highly skeptical that [right-wing extremists] would appear in any kind of significant numbers without at least some kind of indication of that appearing in the communities they so often frequent,” Holt wrote. Reached this week via Twitter direct message, Holt said he still isn’t seeing indications September 18 will amount to much. In fact, he is seeing members of far-right groups warning that the event is likely to be swarming with informants.
Holt’s assessment is backed up by Michael Edison Hayden, a spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center, who <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/5-points-on-the-heightened-concern-over-saturdays-right-wing-rally-at-the-capitol">told</a> Talking Points memo he’s “not witnessed anything that would indicate large numbers of far-right demonstrators, or Proud Boys in particular, will attend this event.”
But Capitol Police’s warning and decision to mobilize extra law enforcement resources illustrates how much of a concern Trump-inspired extremism remains nine months after the insurrection — as well as how focused law enforcement is on preventing another January 6 from happening.
It’s also indicative of how wrapped up a significant faction of Trump supporters continue to be in false beliefs about the election being stolen from the former president.
The September 18 event, which is being organized by a right-wing fundraiser and former minor Trump campaign official named <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahmimms/matt-braynard-jan-6-counternarrative">Matt Braynard</a> under the guise of his Look Ahead America nonprofit, is ostensibly meant to draw attention to the plight of the more than 560 people arrested in connection with the January 6 insurrection. But at its core, it’s about sustaining former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolen from him.
An examination of the numbers actually indicates that January 6 defendants are getting off comparatively light. The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/28/us-capitol-attack-suspects-jail-trial">reported</a> in May that at least 70 percent of the people arrested in connection with the insurrection were sent home pending trial, compared to a typical rate of 25 percent for federal defendants. Talking Points Memo <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/5-points-on-the-heightened-concern-over-saturdays-right-wing-rally-at-the-capitol">added</a> this week that “only a few dozen” people remain behind bars in connection with the insurrection.
Of those convicted, their sentences so far have ranged from probation to a maximum of eight months in jail. The insurrection left 150 officers injured and five people dead.
Braynard, however, has gone as far as to <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahmimms/matt-braynard-jan-6-counternarrative">tell</a> BuzzFeed that the plight of the January 6 defendants is “the modern civil rights struggle of our time.”
In addition to advocating for the J6 defendants, Braynard has also been a leading voice in the Trumpist <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/7/13/22573658/trump-who-shot-ashli-babbitt-january-6-martyr">effort to make a martyr out of Ashli Babbitt</a>. Babbitt was shot and killed on January 6 by a Capitol officer Lt. Michael Byrd as she tried to lead a mob through a glass pane that represented the last barricade between rioters and the government officials.
CNN, citing a law enforcement intelligence report, recently <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/08/politics/capitol-hill-security-september-18-rally/index.html">reported</a> that online chatter about the September 18 event started increasing last month after Byrd revealed his identity in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt. And as Ben Collins of NBC notes, some of that chatter has threatened more violence against law enforcement officers.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none">
Still, the rhetoric on these extremist boards is insanely violent. They're telling fellow users not to go — but if they do, get violent.
It's standard far-right extremist fare: Beg other users to commit terror attacks, but, if it happens, say it was a false flag by the feds. <a href="https://t.co/NjOoGWyFRu">pic.twitter.com/NjOoGWyFRu</a>
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) <a href="https://twitter.com/oneunderscore__/status/1438222357924024321?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 15, 2021</a></blockquote>
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The two focuses serve the same goal. As Holt explained to Vox, what’s really going on here is a “desire to rewrite the history of the January 6 Capitol riot into a story of government over-reaction and political persecution.”
Braynard recently <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints/5-points-on-the-heightened-concern-over-saturdays-right-wing-rally-at-the-capitol">told</a> Steve Bannon as much, saying “this is really about fighting the narrative about what actually happened on January 6.”
Capitol Police is determined not to allow a repeat of January 6, when, for reasons that remain somewhat unclear, the force was caught unprepared by pro-Trump protesters and <a href="https://www.vox.com/22218446/capitol-police-mob-trump-storming-washington-dc">quickly overwhelmed</a>, leading to scenes of chaotic violence in and around the Capitol. Temporary fencing is being <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/fencing-around-us-capitol-returns-ahead-of-saturday-rally/2803836/">reinstalled around the Capitol</a>, all available officers will be on duty on September 18, and Capitol Police have <a href="https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1438246265528066050">reportedly</a> asked the Department of Defense for National Guard support should it be needed.
These preparations, combined with law enforcement’s effort to prosecute the January 6 insurrectionists and monitor far-right groups in order to prevent future insurrectionists, appear to be having an impact.
As Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/paranoia-accusations-cloud-efforts-launch-justice-january-6-rally-rcna2034">report</a> for NBC, “users in extreme far-right Facebook groups and extremist forums such as TheDonald and 4chan, which previously hosted pictures of users streaming into Washington hotel rooms and even maps of the Capitol tunnel system in the days before the Jan. 6 riot, are largely steering users away” from the September 18 event over concerns it’ll be “a setup for a ‘false flag’ event or ‘honeypot,’ in which they’ll be entrapped and coerced to commit violence by federal agents.” That reporting is echoed by Holt, who writes that far-right groups are “scared shitless” to attempt another January 6 and told Vox they’re focused on agitating at the local level.
“Many are instead ... applying that political energy into local and regional scenes,” Holt said.
Still, about 700 people are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/09/02/justice-j6-rally-capitol-riot/">expected</a> to attend the event, and while none may end up being Republican members of Congress, the false idea that Trump had the election stolen from him — and that therefore the January 6 insurrectionists were fighting for a righteous cause — continues to be central to mainstream GOP politics.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) on CNN won't denounce Trump's lies about the election, which are a key issue in Wyoming's Republican congressional primary <a href="https://t.co/7uCl5SqmrR">pic.twitter.com/7uCl5SqmrR</a>
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) <a href="https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1438520655767642114?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2021</a></blockquote>
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So while the September 18 Justice for J6 event may not turn on to be another January 6, it highlights how central antipathy to free and fair elections has become on the American right — as well as how deeply invested Trump’s most fervent supporters, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/07/22/there-was-a-lot-of-love-trump-gushes-about-jan-6-crowd-in-newly-released-audio/">including Trump himself</a>, are in the idea that the insurrectionists’ cause was fundamentally just.
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source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/9/17/22674450/september-18-justice-for-j6-rally-explained">https://www.vox.com/2021/9/17/22674450/september-18-justice-for-j6-rally-explained</a>

vox The Justice for J6 rally is Trump supporters’ attempt at revisionist history

Two days ahead of a Trump-inspired rally outside the Capitol on behalf of people who have been charged with crimes in connection to the Jan...

Judge in New York Temporarily Halts State’s Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate

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Healthcare workers in New York have been given a temporary reprieve from the state’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate. This decision comes after a <a href="https://thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Verified-Complaint-and-Exhibits-Dr.-A.-et-al.-v.-Hochul-et-al.-Filed-Version.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">group of 17 healthcare professionals sued the state of New York</a> to enjoin the enforcement of its unconstitutional jab mandate.
On August 28th, the state issued its vaccine mandate requiring all healthcare workers in hospitals and care homes to get at least one dose of the vaccine by September 27th. This mandate does not recognise religious exemptions to vaccinations.
The 17 healthcare workers who sued the state believe that a lack of exemption attempts to nullify protections for sincere religious beliefs granted under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The lawsuit states: “The same frontline healthcare workers hailed as heroes by the media for treating COVID patients before vaccines were available, including the plaintiffs herein, are now vilified by the same media as pariahs who must be excluded from society until they are vaccinated against their will.”
The lack of exemptions for this vaccine mandate contrasts the protections for religious beliefs the state of New York provided in its prior health order.
Attorney Christopher Ferrara, of the Thomas More Society, said: “What New York is attempting to do is slam shut an escape hatch from an unconstitutional vaccine mandate. They are doing this while, knowing that many people have sincere religious objections to vaccines that were tested, developed, or produced with cell lines derived from aborted children.”
Ferrara is representing the health workers in the federal case against the state, along with Thomas More Society Vice President and Senior Counsel Peter Breen, Senior Counsel Stephen Crampton, and Counsel Michael McHale.
New York has no right to nullify federal anti-discrimination law, Ferrara pointed out.
“This is a brazen power grab by people who think they can get away with anything,” the attorney said.
Along with citing violations to the Constitution, the lawsuit alleges that the lack of exemptions for people with sincerely held religious beliefs is also a violation of the New York State Human Rights Law and the New York City Human Rights Law.
The medical professionals involved in the lawsuit – including doctors, nurses, a medical technician and physician’s liaison – are now facing termination from employment, loss of hospital admitting privileges, and the destruction of their careers, unless they agree to be vaccinated with jabs that contradict their religious beliefs.
Attorney Ferrara said: “Never in the history of New York state, never in the history of the world, has a government sought to forcibly impose mass vaccination on an entire class of people under threat of immediate personal and professional destruction.
“This is just another example of how COVID regimes are completely out of control. The federal judiciary has a duty under the Constitution to put a straight jacket on this institutional insanity.”
Ferrara added that the healthcare workers suing the state are “not anti-vaxxers” despite what the “fake news” calls them. “They are in fact in favour of voluntary vaccination with informed consent, but they oppose jack-booted coercion by the state to take a vaccine their religion forbids them to take. This is America, not Red China,” Ferrara added.
The medical professionals filing the complaint are doing so <a data-id="https://thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Memorandum-in-Support-Dr.-A.-et-al.-v.-Hochul-et-al.-Filed-Version.pdf" data-type="URL" href="https://thomasmoresociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Memorandum-in-Support-Dr.-A.-et-al.-v.-Hochul-et-al.-Filed-Version.pdf" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">under pseudonyms</a> because of what Ferrara called, “the fear and loathing of the unvaccinated and the hysteria that surrounds vaccine mania.”
Judge David N. Hurd of the District Court for the Northern District of New York ruled in favour of the plaintiffs and issued an order temporarily blocking the state from enforcing its vaccine mandate.
Hurd then gave the state until Sept. 22nd to respond to the lawsuit in federal court. If the state opposes the request of the plaintiffs for a preliminary court order blocking the vaccine mandate, an oral hearing will be held on Sept. 28th to decide the matter.
Attorney Ferrara said: “Without court intervention, these health professionals face loss of occupation, professional status and employability anywhere in the state of New York.”
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<h3 class="jp-relatedposts-headline">Related</h3>
 
 
source <a href="https://theexpose.uk/2021/09/17/judge-in-new-york-temporarily-halts-states-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/">https://theexpose.uk/2021/09/17/judge-in-new-york-temporarily-halts-states-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/</a>

revolution Judge in New York Temporarily Halts State’s Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate

Healthcare workers in New York have been given a temporary reprieve from the state’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate. This decision comes after ...