newyorker--2020-06-03--Donald Trump’s Photo-Op War

Donald Trump’s Photo-Op War

On Tuesday morning , a day after Donald Trump crossed Lafayette Square for an awkward photo op in front of St. John ’ s Episcopal Church , I met an outraged Lutheran pastor there—he was in a cassock , parking his bike .
Only a few hours earlier , on Monday evening , heavily armed federal troops had beaten with batons and fired smoke grenades and chemical irritants at a stunned crowd of peaceful protesters , to make way for the President .
Now it was a lovely June morning , and the square was quiet , punctuated only by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ standups and the distant hum of buzz saws , as carpenters installed plywood boards on the front of nearby office buildings .
The pastor , Michael Wilker , is one of the leaders of the Washington Interfaith Network , and he had been summoned from St. John ’ s sister parish , a Lutheran church on Capitol Hill .
His bishop had already denounced Trump ’ s Monday-night actions as “ a desecration of the church.
” Wilker told me that he considered them not only an “ abomination ” but an effort @ @ @ @ @ @ @ point of the protests that have followed the murder of George Floyd : police brutality and racial injustice .
As a Lutheran , Wilker said , he felt especially upset by Trump ’ s clumsy wielding of the Bible as he stood in front of St. John ’ s , a scene that was soon turned into a campaign-ad-style montage by the White House .
“ During Nazi Germany , Adolf Hitler used the symbols of the Lutheran church—our own church—as a way to divide Christians from one another , and especially to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It ’ s the same thing Trump is doing here : he is using the symbols of the church , ” Wilker said , “ as a way to divide the church from one another and to divert our attention from the actual suffering and killing that ’ s going on.
” It was , he concluded , “ a demonic act.
” With that , Wilker rushed off to join a group of African-American clergy who had gathered in front of St. John ’ s to denounce Trump ’ s actions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Street , to a graffiti-covered wall bearing “ Fuck Donald Trump ” in giant letters , that the President had walked past en route to the church .
There was a new black chain-link fence , barring access to Lafayette Park , that had been installed overnight .
Burly men from the F.B.I.
, Secret Service , and Park Police stood guard in the middle of the street .
The President was inside the White House , a few hundred yards away .
“ D.C .
had no problems last night , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ ( thank you President Trump ! )
” A few hours later , I returned to the plaza in front of St. John ’ s , where there was a growing crowd of hundreds who had come to protest before the District ’ s 7 P.M. curfew .
The major difference from the morning , aside from the large number of people , was the presence of armored military Humvees in the streets of downtown Washington , guarded by young soldiers who had been trained for combat in places like Afghanistan and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ orders of the President .
“ Did you ever think you would be asked to do this in your own country ?
” I asked one guy in combat fatigues , a bandanna tied around his face in a nod to the still-raging coronavirus pandemic .
All around us there were young people , black and white , wearing face masks as they streamed toward the White House .
There were people walking dogs and parents pushing baby strollers .
He shook his head .
It was another unthinkable moment of the Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them .
But what is it , exactly , that we have been experiencing these past few days here in Washington ?
Should we disregard the peaceful mass protests against the oppression of black people and focus , as Trump would have us do , exclusively on the lawlessness and looting that the self-styled “ LAW & ORDER ” President claims to be cleaning up ?
Is this an authoritarian crackdown by Trump or merely another politicized spectacle from a leader who craves them ?
Just as he did this spring , during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against an “ Invisible Enemy ” but denied “ any responsibility at all ” for its outcome , the President has talked tough but seems most interested in being seen to “ dominate , ” as he has put it repeatedly , rather than actually doing so .
He has mustered a major show of force in the District , but although he has invoked the possibility of ordering the U.S. military to deploy to certain states—whether they ask for the military or not—he has not actually done so .
At least not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there ’ s an intense element of farce mixed with rage .
On Monday , there was a cringe-inducing moment when Trump , having marched across the emptied park , stood awkwardly in front of the church while his daughter Ivanka , in heels and a spangly face mask , extracted the Bible from her oversize white purse , a fifteen-hundred-dollar number from Max Mara .
The whole affair seemed to have been precipitated at least in part by the President ’ s fury at being mocked as “ # BunkerBoy , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the White House ’ s underground bunker on Friday , when protests got heated .
On Wednesday , the President admitted in an interview that he had gone into the White House bunker , but claimed that it was “ more for an inspection ” that had lasted only a “ tiny , little , short period of time ” which , completely coincidentally , happened to take place during the protests .
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper , meanwhile , admitted during a press conference that he had not , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to inspect alongside the President a looted toilet when he ended up at Trump ’ s controversial church photo op , as he had claimed in an interview .
This was all before 11 A.M. Wednesday .
By early afternoon , Trump ’ s press secretary , Kayleigh McEnany , announced to reporters with a straight face that Trump ’ s walk to St. John ’ s was just like when Winston Churchill toured London during the Blitz .
Washington has never been a more tragic combination of the menacing and the absurd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and big men in combat fatigues in the streets of the capital .
There are thousands of protesters clamoring for action over police abuses and racial inequality .
And then there is Trump , bashing CNN on Twitter and claiming , without irony , that he has personally done more for African-Americans than “ any President in U.S. history , with the possible exception ” of Abraham Lincoln .
What struck me , though , wasn ’ t that the President and his Pentagon chief were lying so shamelessly to the public , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lies .
This is , in fact , a farce with consequences .
There are checkpoints being patrolled by combat units , and images of armed thugs targeting and beating students and journalists on live TV in the name of protecting the President .
Admiral Mike Mullen , the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , said he was “ sickened ” by the use of security personnel to clear the way for Trump—and that it was a gross misuse of American military might .
On Wednesday , Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ silence about the President to denounce his “ bizarre photo op ” and to call the action a violation of protesters ’ “ constitutional rights.
” Trump may be a clown , but he has managed , in the week since Floyd ’ s killing , to present the world with dystopian images of America as Egypt or Russia or Turkey or any of the other unfree places that we Americans are used to smugly lecturing about freedom .

On Tuesday morning, a day after Donald Trump crossed Lafayette Square for an awkward photo op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, I met an outraged Lutheran pastor there—he was in a cassock, parking his bike. Only a few hours earlier, on Monday evening, heavily armed federal troops had beaten with batons and fired smoke grenades and chemical irritants at a stunned crowd of peaceful protesters, to make way for the President. Now it was a lovely June morning, and the square was quiet, punctuated only by the sound of TV reporters’ live standups and the distant hum of buzz saws, as carpenters installed plywood boards on the front of nearby office buildings.
The pastor, Michael Wilker, is one of the leaders of the Washington Interfaith Network, and he had been summoned from St. John’s sister parish, a Lutheran church on Capitol Hill. His bishop had already denounced Trump’s Monday-night actions as “a desecration of the church.” Wilker told me that he considered them not only an “abomination” but an effort by the President to distract from the point of the protests that have followed the murder of George Floyd: police brutality and racial injustice. As a Lutheran, Wilker said, he felt especially upset by Trump’s clumsy wielding of the Bible as he stood in front of St. John’s, a scene that was soon turned into a campaign-ad-style montage by the White House. “During Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler used the symbols of the Lutheran church—our own church—as a way to divide Christians from one another, and especially to deny the humanity of Jews in Germany. It’s the same thing Trump is doing here: he is using the symbols of the church,” Wilker said, “as a way to divide the church from one another and to divert our attention from the actual suffering and killing that’s going on.” It was, he concluded, “a demonic act.”
With that, Wilker rushed off to join a group of African-American clergy who had gathered in front of St. John’s to denounce Trump’s actions, and I looked back across H Street, to a graffiti-covered wall bearing “Fuck Donald Trump” in giant letters, that the President had walked past en route to the church. There was a new black chain-link fence, barring access to Lafayette Park, that had been installed overnight. Burly men from the F.B.I., Secret Service, and Park Police stood guard in the middle of the street. The President was inside the White House, a few hundred yards away. “D.C. had no problems last night,” he tweeted minutes earlier, continuing, “(thank you President Trump!)”
A few hours later, I returned to the plaza in front of St. John’s, where there was a growing crowd of hundreds who had come to protest before the District’s 7 P.M. curfew. The major difference from the morning, aside from the large number of people, was the presence of armored military Humvees in the streets of downtown Washington, guarded by young soldiers who had been trained for combat in places like Afghanistan and were now patrolling D.C., on the orders of the President. “Did you ever think you would be asked to do this in your own country?” I asked one guy in combat fatigues, a bandanna tied around his face in a nod to the still-raging coronavirus pandemic. All around us there were young people, black and white, wearing face masks as they streamed toward the White House. There were people walking dogs and parents pushing baby strollers. He shook his head.
It was another unthinkable moment of the Trump era, in a time full of them. But what is it, exactly, that we have been experiencing these past few days here in Washington? Should we disregard the peaceful mass protests against the oppression of black people and focus, as Trump would have us do, exclusively on the lawlessness and looting that the self-styled “LAW & ORDER” President claims to be cleaning up? Is this an authoritarian crackdown by Trump or merely another politicized spectacle from a leader who craves them? Just as he did this spring, during the pandemic, when he declared war against an “Invisible Enemy” but denied “any responsibility at all” for its outcome, the President has talked tough but seems most interested in being seen to “dominate,” as he has put it repeatedly, rather than actually doing so. He has mustered a major show of force in the District, but although he has invoked the possibility of ordering the U.S. military to deploy to certain states—whether they ask for the military or not—he has not actually done so. At least not yet.
As always with Trump, there’s an intense element of farce mixed with the fury. On Monday, there was a cringe-inducing moment when Trump, having marched across the emptied park, stood awkwardly in front of the church while his daughter Ivanka, in heels and a spangly face mask, extracted the Bible from her oversize white purse, a fifteen-hundred-dollar number from Max Mara. The whole affair seemed to have been precipitated at least in part by the President’s fury at being mocked as “#BunkerBoy,” following reports that he had been taken to the White House’s underground bunker on Friday, when protests got heated. On Wednesday, the President admitted in an interview that he had gone into the White House bunker, but claimed that it was “more for an inspection” that had lasted only a “tiny, little, short period of time” which, completely coincidentally, happened to take place during the protests. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, meanwhile, admitted during a press conference that he had not, in fact, thought that he was going to inspect alongside the President a looted toilet when he ended up at Trump’s controversial church photo op, as he had claimed in an interview. This was all before 11 A.M. Wednesday. By early afternoon, Trump’s press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, announced to reporters with a straight face that Trump’s walk to St. John’s was just like when Winston Churchill toured London during the Blitz.
Washington has never been a more tragic combination of the menacing and the absurd. There are helicopters and drones overhead and big men in combat fatigues in the streets of the capital. There are thousands of protesters clamoring for action over police abuses and racial inequality. And then there is Trump, bashing CNN on Twitter and claiming, without irony, that he has personally done more for African-Americans than “any President in U.S. history, with the possible exception” of Abraham Lincoln. What struck me, though, wasn’t that the President and his Pentagon chief were lying so shamelessly to the public, nor even the embarrassing lameness of their lies. This is, in fact, a farce with consequences. There are checkpoints being patrolled by combat units, and images of armed thugs targeting and beating students and journalists on live TV in the name of protecting the President. Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he was “sickened” by the use of security personnel to clear the way for Trump—and that it was a gross misuse of American military might. On Wednesday, Trump’s former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis broke his silence about the President to denounce his “bizarre photo op” and to call the action a violation of protesters’ “constitutional rights.” Trump may be a clown, but he has managed, in the week since Floyd’s killing, to present the world with dystopian images of America as Egypt or Russia or Turkey or any of the other unfree places that we Americans are used to smugly lecturing about freedom.
Under the cover of the chaos that he is so adept at generating, Trump has made several decisions in recent days that amount to a radical reordering of the international scene, as well as an intimidating show of force at home. On Friday, before his “inspection” of the bunker, he held a press conference to announce that he was pulling the United States out of the World Health Organization, in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, because he claims that it is too pro-China. On Saturday, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would not attend, Trump cancelled the G-7 summit of world leaders that he planned to hold in Washington later this month, called the collection of close U.S. allies “very outdated,” and invited Russia to rejoin the group for a September gathering. Europeans quickly rejected the idea, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a Trump ally whose unlikely premiership had been boosted by the American President. Undeterred, Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday morning to formally propose the plan, hours before he announced that he was ordering the U.S. military to Washington to defend his White House from American protesters.
Inviting Putin to the United States just weeks before the American Presidential election and torching the G-7 alliance at a moment of international economic crisis are no less malevolent acts because they are being carried out by a clown. These past few days have shown, once again, that Trump is in permanent burn-it-down mode. It’s just that he is smashing windows in the way that rich, entitled types do, and the damage will be much harder to fix than broken glass and looted sneaker stores.
On Tuesday night, as I headed back toward my car, just before the city’s curfew, I ran across protesters shouting across Sixteenth Street at a group of D.C. police officers who seemed to be arresting someone in a car that they had pulled over. The protesters begged the police to reconsider and demanded to know what the suspect had done wrong. “It’s not your concern,” one of the cops said testily. “It is my concern,” one young woman yelled back, from across the road. “It’s all of our concern,” a young man shouted. The police officer ignored them. A helicopter buzzed overhead, and, less than a block away, soldiers were blocking traffic. I could not help but notice that this surreal scene, so redolent of every display of police-state might that I covered as a foreign correspondent in the former Soviet Union, was unfolding in front of the Russian Ambassador’s ornate Beaux-Arts residence. Vladimir Putin would have loved it.


newyorker--2020-06-03--A Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Explains Why This Time Is Different

In 2013 , the community organizers Opal Tometi , Patrisse Cullors , and Alicia Garza started the Black Lives Matter movement .
What began as a hashtag in response to Trayvon Martin ’ s death became a nationwide phenomenon , with protests in response to the killings of African-Americans and chapters across the country .
Now , after the death of George Floyd , at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer , and a week of nationwide protests to an extent unseen in a half century , Black Lives Matter is once again the biggest story in the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by phone with Tometi , who advises a number of black-led organizations and previously served as the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration .
During our conversation , which has been edited for length and clarity , we discussed what it would mean to defund police departments , how the coronavirus pandemic has shaped the American response to the protests , and what ’ s next for Black Lives Matter .
How are these protests different from what came before , and why do you think they are different from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that a lot of anger and outrage and frustration was sparked by the barbaric murder of George Floyd , it ’ s also clear to me that we have been sitting in our homes , navigating the pandemic , dealing with loved ones being sick , dealing with a great deal of fear and concern about what the day and the future will hold .
We have millions of people who have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment and are living paycheck to paycheck and hand to mouth , and I believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thoroughly beside themselves with grief and concern and despair because the government does not seem to have a plan of action that is dignified and comprehensive and seeks to address the core concerns that the average American has .
And so my belief and my view of these protests is that they are different because they are marked by a period that has been deeply personal to millions of Americans and residents of the United States , and that has them more tender or sensitive to what is going on .
People who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have time to go to a protest or a rally , and have time to think about why they have been struggling so much , and they are thinking , This actually isn ’ t right and I want to make time , and I have the ability to make time now and make my concerns heard .
So I think it is markedly differently in terms of the volume of demands we are hearing .
People are absolutely lifting up names like Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the streets for themselves and their family members because they don ’ t know who is next , and they are also concerned about the economic realities that they are faced with .
It ’ s interesting that your answer focussed so little on criminal justice specifically .
Is it just that the criminal-justice issues have been going on forever and so these additional things were needed , or is there something different about the way society is reacting to criminal-justice outrages in 2020 ?
I absolutely think people are concerned with police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clear .
We have been fighting and advocating to stop a war on black lives .
And that is how we see it—this is a war on black life .
And people understand that this system is filled with all sorts of inequality and injustice , and that implicit bias and just outright racism is embedded in the way that policing is done in this nation—and when you think about it historically , it was founded as a slave patrol .
The evolution of policing was rooted in that .
People recognize that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the policing and the criminal-justice system writ large and the racial dimensions of it , and its lethal impact on our communities .
But I would say that there is something about the economic conditions in addition to the lethal force we are seeing every day that makes this moment feel different , where people are making different kinds of demands .
We do a lot of work with the Movement for Black Lives and a number of organizations and individuals and different leaders who are part of that formation , and we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ police , a moratorium on rent , a moratorium on mortgages and utilities .
We need to not have people ’ s utilities shut off—their light , their water , and just basic needs that people have .
So our demands are also reflective of the fact that when we started Black Lives Matter , it wasn ’ t solely about police brutality and extrajudicial killing .
That was a spark point , but it was very intentional for us to talk about the way that black lives are cut short all across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the quality of our life in terms of housing and education and health-care systems and the pandemic and what we are seeing there .
So for us it has been more comprehensive than just the criminal-justice system and policing .
It ’ s bigger than that .
Is it important that a specific agenda is heard from protesters , or is that the job of other people ?
People showing up at protests with signs listing specific reforms .
You know , I think it is important that we have those types of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what we are witnessing now is the opening up of imaginations , where people are beginning to think more expansively about what the solutions could be .
We have our solutions .
We want the rights of protesters to be respected .
We want a divestment from the police and an investment in black communities .
We are demanding immediate relief for our communities .
We want community control .
We want an end to this war against black people .
So we are clear in our demands , and we have demands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has its own unique demands , especially cities that are very active in these protests right now .
You will see that local organizers have been working on the ground for years , and have already had their own reports and series of policies , and so what we are looking to do is amplify those .
I have seen African-American activists say two things about the protests becoming more violent—and in this case I don ’ t mean the violence from the police .
The first is that talking about this is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the other is that it is bad and takes attention away from the peaceful majority .
How do you feel about that conversation ?
I think that conversation is complicated , and , generally speaking , I just don ’ t equate the loss of life and the loss of property .
I can ’ t even hold those two in the same regard , and I think for far too long we have seen that happen .
We have had these conversations where we are conflating very different realities and operating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for me , that ’ s how I view it , and a lot of my colleagues and peers as well as mentors have similar views .
We are really focussed on how to get our demands out and stay focussed on the main thing , which is people , and we want to value our love of people over property .

In 2013, the community organizers Opal Tometi, Patrisse Cullors, and Alicia Garza started the Black Lives Matter movement. What began as a hashtag in response to Trayvon Martin’s death became a nationwide phenomenon, with protests in response to the killings of African-Americans and chapters across the country. Now, after the death of George Floyd, at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, and a week of nationwide protests to an extent unseen in a half century, Black Lives Matter is once again the biggest story in the country.
On Tuesday afternoon, I spoke by phone with Tometi, who advises a number of black-led organizations and previously served as the executive director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed what it would mean to defund police departments, how the coronavirus pandemic has shaped the American response to the protests, and what’s next for Black Lives Matter.
How are these protests different from what came before, and why do you think they are different from what came before?
While we see that a lot of anger and outrage and frustration was sparked by the barbaric murder of George Floyd, it’s also clear to me that we have been sitting in our homes, navigating the pandemic, dealing with loved ones being sick, dealing with a great deal of fear and concern about what the day and the future will hold. We have millions of people who have lost their jobs and filed for unemployment and are living paycheck to paycheck and hand to mouth, and I believe they are just thoroughly fed up and thoroughly beside themselves with grief and concern and despair because the government does not seem to have a plan of action that is dignified and comprehensive and seeks to address the core concerns that the average American has.
And so my belief and my view of these protests is that they are different because they are marked by a period that has been deeply personal to millions of Americans and residents of the United States, and that has them more tender or sensitive to what is going on. People who would normally have been at work now have time to go to a protest or a rally, and have time to think about why they have been struggling so much, and they are thinking, This actually isn’t right and I want to make time, and I have the ability to make time now and make my concerns heard. So I think it is markedly differently in terms of the volume of demands we are hearing. People are absolutely lifting up names like Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, but I think they are very clearly in the streets for themselves and their family members because they don’t know who is next, and they are also concerned about the economic realities that they are faced with.
It’s interesting that your answer focussed so little on criminal justice specifically. Is it just that the criminal-justice issues have been going on forever and so these additional things were needed, or is there something different about the way society is reacting to criminal-justice outrages in 2020?
I absolutely think people are concerned with police brutality. Let me make that absolutely clear. We have been fighting and advocating to stop a war on black lives. And that is how we see it—this is a war on black life. And people understand that this system is filled with all sorts of inequality and injustice, and that implicit bias and just outright racism is embedded in the way that policing is done in this nation—and when you think about it historically, it was founded as a slave patrol. The evolution of policing was rooted in that. People recognize that. So their frustration is absolutely about the policing and the criminal-justice system writ large and the racial dimensions of it, and its lethal impact on our communities.
But I would say that there is something about the economic conditions in addition to the lethal force we are seeing every day that makes this moment feel different, where people are making different kinds of demands. We do a lot of work with the Movement for Black Lives and a number of organizations and individuals and different leaders who are part of that formation, and we have been calling for the defunding of police, a moratorium on rent, a moratorium on mortgages and utilities. We need to not have people’s utilities shut off—their light, their water, and just basic needs that people have.
So our demands are also reflective of the fact that when we started Black Lives Matter, it wasn’t solely about police brutality and extrajudicial killing. That was a spark point, but it was very intentional for us to talk about the way that black lives are cut short all across the board. You can talk about the quality of our life in terms of housing and education and health-care systems and the pandemic and what we are seeing there. So for us it has been more comprehensive than just the criminal-justice system and policing. It’s bigger than that.
Is it important that a specific agenda is heard from protesters, or is that the job of other people?
A specific agenda like?
People showing up at protests with signs listing specific reforms.
You know, I think it is important that we have those types of things, but I also believe that what we are witnessing now is the opening up of imaginations, where people are beginning to think more expansively about what the solutions could be. We have our solutions. We want the rights of protesters to be respected. We want a divestment from the police and an investment in black communities. We are demanding immediate relief for our communities. We want community control. We want an end to this war against black people. So we are clear in our demands, and we have demands for each city, so each city has its own unique demands, especially cities that are very active in these protests right now. You will see that local organizers have been working on the ground for years, and have already had their own reports and series of policies, and so what we are looking to do is amplify those.
I have seen African-American activists say two things about the protests becoming more violent—and in this case I don’t mean the violence from the police. The first is that talking about this is a distraction from what really matters, and the other is that it is bad and takes attention away from the peaceful majority. How do you feel about that conversation?
I think that conversation is complicated, and, generally speaking, I just don’t equate the loss of life and the loss of property. I can’t even hold those two in the same regard, and I think for far too long we have seen that happen. We have had these conversations where we are conflating very different realities and operating from different value systems. So, for me, that’s how I view it, and a lot of my colleagues and peers as well as mentors have similar views. We are really focussed on how to get our demands out and stay focussed on the main thing, which is people, and we want to value our love of people over property.


newyorker--2020-06-03--Trump Says Inspection Revealed Bunker Was Dusty Because Obama Never Used It

WASHINGTON , D.C. ( The Borowitz Report ) —After conducting a thorough “ inspection ” of the White House bunker on Friday night , Donald J. Trump discovered that the underground facility was covered in dust because Barack Obama never used it , Trump has confirmed .
“ There were dust bunnies everywhere , ” Trump told reporters .
“ Obama was President for eight years , and he didn ’ t set foot in that bunker once.
” “ Here you have a world-class bunker , maybe the best bunker in the world , and Obama didn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump said .
“ I think that ’ s very disrespectful to the bunker.
” Trump said that he opened the bunker ’ s fridge and found it “ stocked to the brim with soft drinks , totally untouched.
” “ What kind of a person has a well-stocked bunker and just stays upstairs at his desk working ?
” Trump asked .
“ A bad or sick guy.
” Trump noted that , in addition to his failure to avail himself of an “ amazing bunker , ” Obama never once used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entire time in office .
“ I don ’ t even know why Obama wanted to be President , ” Trump said .
“ Obama is a mess .
”

WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Borowitz Report)—After conducting a thorough “inspection” of the White House bunker on Friday night, Donald J. Trump discovered that the underground facility was covered in dust because Barack Obama never used it, Trump has confirmed.
“There were dust bunnies everywhere,” Trump told reporters. “Obama was President for eight years, and he didn’t set foot in that bunker once.”
“Here you have a world-class bunker, maybe the best bunker in the world, and Obama didn’t use it, even once?” Trump said. “I think that’s very disrespectful to the bunker.”
Trump said that he opened the bunker’s fridge and found it “stocked to the brim with soft drinks, totally untouched.”
“What kind of a person has a well-stocked bunker and just stays upstairs at his desk working?” Trump asked. “A bad or sick guy.”
Trump noted that, in addition to his failure to avail himself of an “amazing bunker,” Obama never once used the Insurrection Act of 1807 in his entire time in office.
“I don’t even know why Obama wanted to be President,” Trump said. “Obama is a mess.”


newyorker--2020-06-03--Donald Trump’s Fascist Performance

Donald Trump’s Fascist Performance

Donald Trump thinks power looks like masked men in combat uniforms lined up in front of the marble columns of the Lincoln Memorial .
He thinks it looks like Black Hawk helicopters hovering so low over protesters that they chop off the tops of trees .
He thinks it looks like troops using tear gas to clear a plaza for a photo op .
He thinks it looks like him hoisting a Bible in his raised right hand .
Trump thinks power sounds like this : “ Our country always wins .
That is why I am taking immediate Presidential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ security and safety in America .
.
.
dominate the streets .
.
.
establish an overwhelming law-enforcement presence .
.
.
.
If a city or state refuses .
.
.
I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them .
.
.
.
We are putting everybody on warning .
.
.
.
One law and order and that is what it is .
One law—we have one beautiful law.
” To Trump , power sounds like the word “ dominate , ” repeated over and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It sounds like the silence of the men in uniform when they are asked who they are .
Trump got these ideas from television and Hollywood movies , and he had the intuition to recognize them .
He knew what he wanted to imitate .
We know that he likes the military and its parades .
( A senior Administration official , speaking with the Daily Beast , attempted to downplay the President ’ s interest in tanks : “ I think that is just one of the military words he knows.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ movies that feature the Black Hawk , that monster of military-industrial production , the metal embodiment of brute force .
Perhaps Trump heard that , when Russia occupied Crimea , it flooded the peninsula with men in unmarked uniforms—they dominated without ever identifying themselves .
Perhaps he heard the word “ dominate ” in his recent telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin .
Perhaps he had seen a picture of Hitler in a similar pose , or perhaps he just conflated two gestures that symbolize power in American politics : one hand raised , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the slight uncertainty of his display , as if he weren ’ t sure how much the book was supposed to weigh .
The President is a talented performer who plays an exaggerated version of an idea of who he is .
On “ The Apprentice , ” he played what he thought a wildly successful real-estate developer would be like .
He made inane pronouncements with great aplomb , and , as my colleague Patrick Radden Keefe wrote , in a Profile of the creator of “ The Apprentice , ” Mark @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the makers of the show then scrambled to make look credible in the editing room .
When the show started , Trump was a has-been , an occasional butt of tabloid jokes ; by the time it ended , he and the audience both believed that he was one of the wealthiest and most successful businessmen on the planet .
That , in turn , made his Presidential campaign if not immediately plausible then at least imaginable .
A power grab is always a performance of sorts .
It begins with a claim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is accepted—if the performance is believed—it takes hold .
Much as he played a real-estate tycoon in the most crude and reductive way , Trump is now performing his idea of power as he imagines it .
In his intuition , power is autocratic ; it affirms the superiority of one nation and one race ; it asserts total domination ; and it mercilessly suppresses all opposition .
Whether or not he is capable of grasping the concept , Trump is performing fascism .

Donald Trump thinks power looks like masked men in combat uniforms lined up in front of the marble columns of the Lincoln Memorial. He thinks it looks like Black Hawk helicopters hovering so low over protesters that they chop off the tops of trees. He thinks it looks like troops using tear gas to clear a plaza for a photo op. He thinks it looks like him hoisting a Bible in his raised right hand.
Trump thinks power sounds like this: “Our country always wins. That is why I am taking immediate Presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America . . . dominate the streets . . . establish an overwhelming law-enforcement presence. . . . If a city or state refuses . . . I will deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them. . . . We are putting everybody on warning. . . . One law and order and that is what it is. One law—we have one beautiful law.” To Trump, power sounds like the word “dominate,” repeated over and over on a leaked call with governors. It sounds like the silence of the men in uniform when they are asked who they are.
Trump got these ideas from television and Hollywood movies, and he had the intuition to recognize them. He knew what he wanted to imitate. We know that he likes the military and its parades. (A senior Administration official, speaking with the Daily Beast, attempted to downplay the President’s interest in tanks: “I think that is just one of the military words he knows.”) Perhaps he has seen many movies that feature the Black Hawk, that monster of military-industrial production, the metal embodiment of brute force. Perhaps Trump heard that, when Russia occupied Crimea, it flooded the peninsula with men in unmarked uniforms—they dominated without ever identifying themselves. Perhaps he heard the word “dominate” in his recent telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin. Perhaps he had seen a picture of Hitler in a similar pose, or perhaps he just conflated two gestures that symbolize power in American politics: one hand raised, the other on the Bible—this may explain the slight uncertainty of his display, as if he weren’t sure how much the book was supposed to weigh.
The President is a talented performer who plays an exaggerated version of an idea of who he is. On “The Apprentice,” he played what he thought a wildly successful real-estate developer would be like. He made inane pronouncements with great aplomb, and, as my colleague Patrick Radden Keefe wrote, in a Profile of the creator of “The Apprentice,” Mark Burnett, Trump made bizarre decisions that the makers of the show then scrambled to make look credible in the editing room. When the show started, Trump was a has-been, an occasional butt of tabloid jokes; by the time it ended, he and the audience both believed that he was one of the wealthiest and most successful businessmen on the planet. That, in turn, made his Presidential campaign if not immediately plausible then at least imaginable.
A power grab is always a performance of sorts. It begins with a claim to power, and if the claim is accepted—if the performance is believed—it takes hold. Much as he played a real-estate tycoon in the most crude and reductive way, Trump is now performing his idea of power as he imagines it. In his intuition, power is autocratic; it affirms the superiority of one nation and one race; it asserts total domination; and it mercilessly suppresses all opposition. Whether or not he is capable of grasping the concept, Trump is performing fascism.
Race, Policing, and Black Lives Matter Protests


newyorker--2020-06-03--Donald Trump Represents a Bigger Threat Than Ever to U.S. Democracy

The former Vice-President Joe Biden , in a speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday , said many of the right things , including issuing promises to ban police choke holds and create a national police-oversight commission .
He also grabbed headlines by accusing President Donald Trump of having “ turned this country into a battleground riven by old resentments and fresh fears.
” But the passage of the speech that really stuck with me came when Biden talked about Trump “ preening and sweeping away all the guardrails that have long protected our democracy.
” Rather than brandishing the Bible , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Episcopal Church on Monday evening , he should read it , and the U.S. Constitution , too , Biden stated .
In the latter document , he added , the President would discover a reference to “ the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition their government for redress of grievances.
” His voice dropping almost to a whisper , Biden went on , “ That ’ s kind of an essential notion built into this country .
Mr. President , that ’ s America .
That ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their hind legs to push back peaceful protest .
Not using the American military to move against the American people .
This is a nation of values .
Our freedom to speak is a cherished knowledge that lives inside every American , almost from the time when you are a kid .
We ’ ll not allow any President to quiet their voice.
” After sheltering in place at his home in Delaware for much of the past three months , Biden had finally rediscovered his voice .
If he makes it to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out to be an ineffectual President or a great one , but the country can rest assured that he will show a great deal more respect than the current incumbent does for the right to protest and the civilian-military divide .
At this stage , though , the question is whether Biden will get the opportunity to succeed Trump in a free and fair election .
Not so long ago , raising this question may have been dismissed as alarmist .
Over the past three and a half years , many people , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s bumbling and lack of focus served to contain some of his authoritarian instincts .
But his response to the protests of George Floyd ’ s killing has brought back to the fore the warnings about “ democratic erosion ” that a number of political scientists issued immediately after his election , in 2016 .
“ If anything , the isolation and pressures of the Oval Office might further warp his ego and exaggerate his dictatorial tendencies , ” I wrote , in a column that referenced some of these warnings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could well be tempted to try to expand his powers , especially when things go wrong , as they inevitably do at some point in any Presidency.
” One of the political scientists I cited in that 2016 piece was Jeff Colgan , of Brown University .
He had posted online a useful list of “ warning signs of democratic breakdown , ” which included several that seem particularly pertinent now .
One of them was “ Identification of crises or political paralysis to justify emergency measures.
” Another one was “ Significant @ @ @ @ @ @ @ On Tuesday , I called up Colgan , whose research focusses on international order , and he didn ’ t hide his alarm about the situation in the United States .
“ Warning lights for democracy are flashing all over the dashboard , ” he said .
“ There are just multiple threats.
” He cited Trump ’ s provocative statements but also pointed to the presence of General Mark Milley , the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , on the streets of Washington , D.C. , on Monday night , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and to the request from Mark Esper , the Secretary of Defense , to “ dominate the battle space ” during a conference call with governors on Monday .
“ In short , things are a lot more alarming than they seemed even a couple of weeks ago , ” Colgan said .
Other experienced observers have reached a similar conclusion .
“ The ‘ battle space ’ of America ?
?
?
Not what America needs to hear .
.
.
ever , unless we are invaded by an adversary or experience @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Civil War .
.
.
” General Tony Thomas , a retired head of the U.S. Special Operations Command , said , on Twitter , on Monday .
After U.S. Park Police used smoke cannisters and pepper balls ( observers say they used tear gas ) to clear Lafayette Park of peaceful protesters on Monday evening , so that Trump could stage a photo op outside St. John ’ s Episcopal Church , Marc Polymeropoulos , a former case officer for the C.I.A.
, tweeted to register his concern .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for years in the third world .
Saddam .
Bashar .
Qaddafi .
They all did this , ” Polymeropoulos wrote .
Former generals and former C.I.A .
officers don ’ t have much influence , of course .
It would have been a far more powerful gesture if General Milley , after Trump handed him the responsibility of dealing with the protests , had turned down the assignment and resigned , on the grounds that dealing with domestic political unrest isn ’ t his role .
It might also have helped the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republican leadership on Capitol Hill had summoned the guts to criticize Trump , or to assert Congress ’ s position as an equal branch of government during a national emergency .
But , of course , Trump trampled down that particular guardrail many moons ago .
Let ’ s hope that the President ’ s talk of militarizing the response to the protests represented political posturing , rather than an actual plan he intends to follow through on .
One can never underestimate his B.S .
factor , or the possibility of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Wednesday morning , that he doesn ’ t support invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act , which allows the President to deploy the military on U.S. soil for certain purposes , represented a welcome display of independence on his part , especially after his earlier remarks to the governors .
But , on the other hand , there is no end in sight to the protests , Trump is consistently trailing Biden in the polls , and he is also surrounded by dangerous intriguers , such as Attorney General William Barr .
Right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he would go ahead and overrule local officials to send in the U.S. Army .
If that happened , it would probably take an emergency stay from the Supreme Court to stop him .
And how likely is this Court to issue such a ruling ?
Even if Trump draws back from this precipice , the danger to U.S. democracy that he represents will remain in place for at least another five months .
From today—June 3rd—the election is precisely that far away , and Trump is not the type to give @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of evidence suggests he will lose in a fair fight , ” Colgan told me .
“ The conclusion that follows from that is we know with near certainty it is not going to be a fair fight .
I think we will face ongoing threats to American democracy right up to Election Day , and possibly after that , too .
”

The former Vice-President Joe Biden, in a speech in Philadelphia on Tuesday, said many of the right things, including issuing promises to ban police choke holds and create a national police-oversight commission. He also grabbed headlines by accusing President Donald Trump of having “turned this country into a battleground riven by old resentments and fresh fears.” But the passage of the speech that really stuck with me came when Biden talked about Trump “preening and sweeping away all the guardrails that have long protected our democracy.”
Rather than brandishing the Bible, as Trump did outside St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday evening, he should read it, and the U.S. Constitution, too, Biden stated. In the latter document, he added, the President would discover a reference to “the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition their government for redress of grievances.” His voice dropping almost to a whisper, Biden went on, “That’s kind of an essential notion built into this country. Mr. President, that’s America. That’s America. No horses rising up on their hind legs to push back peaceful protest. Not using the American military to move against the American people. This is a nation of values. Our freedom to speak is a cherished knowledge that lives inside every American, almost from the time when you are a kid. We’ll not allow any President to quiet their voice.”
After sheltering in place at his home in Delaware for much of the past three months, Biden had finally rediscovered his voice. If he makes it to the White House, he may turn out to be an ineffectual President or a great one, but the country can rest assured that he will show a great deal more respect than the current incumbent does for the right to protest and the civilian-military divide. At this stage, though, the question is whether Biden will get the opportunity to succeed Trump in a free and fair election.
Not so long ago, raising this question may have been dismissed as alarmist. Over the past three and a half years, many people, myself included, had reassured themselves that Trump’s bumbling and lack of focus served to contain some of his authoritarian instincts. But his response to the protests of George Floyd’s killing has brought back to the fore the warnings about “democratic erosion” that a number of political scientists issued immediately after his election, in 2016. “If anything, the isolation and pressures of the Oval Office might further warp his ego and exaggerate his dictatorial tendencies,” I wrote, in a column that referenced some of these warnings. “Surrounded by yes-men, he could well be tempted to try to expand his powers, especially when things go wrong, as they inevitably do at some point in any Presidency.”
One of the political scientists I cited in that 2016 piece was Jeff Colgan, of Brown University. He had posted online a useful list of “warning signs of democratic breakdown,” which included several that seem particularly pertinent now. One of them was “Identification of crises or political paralysis to justify emergency measures.” Another one was “Significant increase in the internal security forces.”
On Tuesday, I called up Colgan, whose research focusses on international order, and he didn’t hide his alarm about the situation in the United States. “Warning lights for democracy are flashing all over the dashboard,” he said. “There are just multiple threats.” He cited Trump’s provocative statements but also pointed to the presence of General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the streets of Washington, D.C., on Monday night, apparently to check out the situation, and to the request from Mark Esper, the Secretary of Defense, to “dominate the battle space” during a conference call with governors on Monday. “In short, things are a lot more alarming than they seemed even a couple of weeks ago,” Colgan said.
Other experienced observers have reached a similar conclusion. “The ‘battle space’ of America??? Not what America needs to hear . . . ever, unless we are invaded by an adversary or experience a constitutional failure . . . ie a Civil War . . .” General Tony Thomas, a retired head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, said, on Twitter, on Monday. After U.S. Park Police used smoke cannisters and pepper balls (observers say they used tear gas) to clear Lafayette Park of peaceful protesters on Monday evening, so that Trump could stage a photo op outside St. John’s Episcopal Church, Marc Polymeropoulos, a former case officer for the C.I.A., tweeted to register his concern. “It reminded me of what I reported on for years in the third world. Saddam. Bashar. Qaddafi. They all did this,” Polymeropoulos wrote.
Former generals and former C.I.A. officers don’t have much influence, of course. It would have been a far more powerful gesture if General Milley, after Trump handed him the responsibility of dealing with the protests, had turned down the assignment and resigned, on the grounds that dealing with domestic political unrest isn’t his role. It might also have helped the situation if a single member of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill had summoned the guts to criticize Trump, or to assert Congress’s position as an equal branch of government during a national emergency. But, of course, Trump trampled down that particular guardrail many moons ago.
Let’s hope that the President’s talk of militarizing the response to the protests represented political posturing, rather than an actual plan he intends to follow through on. One can never underestimate his B.S. factor, or the possibility of a reversal. Esper’s statement, on Wednesday morning, that he doesn’t support invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act, which allows the President to deploy the military on U.S. soil for certain purposes, represented a welcome display of independence on his part, especially after his earlier remarks to the governors. But, on the other hand, there is no end in sight to the protests, Trump is consistently trailing Biden in the polls, and he is also surrounded by dangerous intriguers, such as Attorney General William Barr. Right now, it seems far from inconceivable that he would go ahead and overrule local officials to send in the U.S. Army. If that happened, it would probably take an emergency stay from the Supreme Court to stop him. And how likely is this Court to issue such a ruling?
Even if Trump draws back from this precipice, the danger to U.S. democracy that he represents will remain in place for at least another five months. From today—June 3rd—the election is precisely that far away, and Trump is not the type to give up power readily. “Every bit of evidence suggests he will lose in a fair fight,” Colgan told me. “The conclusion that follows from that is we know with near certainty it is not going to be a fair fight. I think we will face ongoing threats to American democracy right up to Election Day, and possibly after that, too.”


newyorker--2020-06-03--If Trump Goes Even Lower, We’d Better Be Prepared

Events are now moving at high speed in this country—every day , President Trump and his crew gallop past new lines , so that the morning ’ s flagrant usurpation is legitimized by the evening ’ s even more outrageous improvisation .
( Firing tear gas at a crowd in order to be able to stand menacingly in front of a church holding a Bible is hard to top , but I wouldn ’ t bet against it . )
A danger of this is that we ’ re always reacting to what came before .
So perhaps it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to places where we haven ’ t gone yet but very well may .
What I ’ d like to talk about is civil disobedience , and its uses in authoritarian states .
I ’ m not talking about what ’ s going on in this country this week—I have no more interest in telling people currently in the streets that they shouldn ’ t be destroying property than they have in listening to me .
If you live a life , as black Americans clearly do , in which a police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill , or if you live a life in which the incompetence of the nation ’ s leaders has helped precipitate an economic crisis that has left you with no job and no prospect of one—well , I ’ ve been impressed with how peaceful the vast majority of the people in the streets have been .
In fact , Tuesday night may turn out to have been significant .
Unintimidated by Trump ’ s heavy-handedness and local curfews , lots of people once again took to the streets , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got your riot gear ?
We don ’ t see no riot here ” —was both a powerful taunt and accurate reporting .
What I ’ m talking about is what happens if Trump , indeed , goes further still , and manages to make himself a full-on tyrant .
It wouldn ’ t take much .
The Justice Department seems to have become his Justice Department .
Congressional Republicans seem unwilling to stand up to him about anything ; and , at the moment , some of them , such as Senator @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are egging him on .
The courts are ever more packed , and the Pentagon seemed willing to funnel troops and materiel to D.C. , then participate in Trump ’ s political stunt on Monday , which is a bad sign .
The President ’ s constant shout-outs to “ the Second Amendment people ” are not a dog whistle—they ’ re a clarion call .
Even as Trump keeps escalating , one keeps hoping that he ’ s merely trying to impress his base—but as we near an election in which he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seems to mount .
It ’ s hard to know what , precisely , a coup looks like if the leader is already the President .
Try to imagine troops ordered to use live rounds rather than rubber bullets , no social media on which to talk about it , and Fox News as the only sanctioned TV channel .
It seems a stretch , but such things are commonplace in many parts of the world .
( Indeed , if you ’ re black , facing live ammunition is already an outsize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to pass , Americans would be in a difficult predicament : whether to submit to that rule or stand up to it .
And that ’ s where civil resistance comes in .
I ’ ve spent much of my adult life organizing a certain kind of nonviolent action—I ’ ve been in handcuffs more times than I might have imagined—and it ’ s had some real effect on the paths of pipelines and the flow of money .
( As it happens , the first big civil-disobedience actions I helped organize were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place that Trump cleared for his photo-op stroll . )
But the kind of civil disobedience that I know how to practice happens in the relatively open society that we ’ ve been living in ( and is much harder for people of color ) .
Other people in other places have worked with far less freedom , and accomplished far more—and their faithful chronicler was a man named Gene Sharp , who died two winters ago , at the age of ninety .
I first wrote about him for this magazine thirty-six @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well into his life ’ s work of cataloguing and explaining all the “ methods of nonviolent action ” that people had used to stand up to authority .
He eventually came up with a list of a hundred and ninety-eight , and could describe in great detail how they had been used , singly or in combination .
Some of them are dated—skywriting as a form of resistance—and his list doesn ’ t stretch to cover the myriad possibilities that the Internet presents .
But most of them suggest things that could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , selective boycotts , student strikes , wildcat strikes .
Some have been made harder by the pandemic ( it ’ s hard to stay away from sports and cultural events if there aren ’ t any taking place ) , and some have been made easier ( people are already experimenting with rent strikes in many cities ) .
Sit-ins are on the list ( and stand-ins , wade-ins , mill-ins , pray-ins ) ; so are alternative markets and transportation systems , the “ overloading of administrative systems , ” and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to this list coming from places such as Hong Kong ; there is recent learned history from places such as Standing Rock ; and , if there are not quite leaders on the scale of a Gandhi or a King , there are nonetheless powerful examples and teachers : Greta Thunberg , the Reverend William Barber .
And there are plenty of largely leaderless movements that have stood up and succeeded : Otpor , which brought down Slobodan Milošević , in Serbia , for instance .
Indeed , a whole new area of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and , in recent years , studies of nonviolent civil resistance have made a couple of things very clear : nonviolence is far more effective than violent revolution , and it doesn ’ t take everyone ’ s participation to make it effective .
As the Harvard researcher Erica Chenoweth has shown , less than five per cent of a population engaged in resistance is often enough to cause huge shifts in the zeitgeist and make it much harder for illegitimate authority to rule .
That doesn ’ t mean , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for that five per cent who take part .
Even in the more benign recent American past , getting arrested and sent to jail was physically and psychologically hard ; this would be much harder .
The fact that one acts nonviolently does not guarantee a nonviolent response—in fact , history indicates that it often guarantees the opposite .
( Though the strange alchemy of nonviolence , the moral power of unearned suffering , can bend some hearts ; the images from this week of cops taking a knee with protesters tell a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nowhere near the whole story . )
But the calculation should be figuring out ways to fight—and to live to fight another day .
It ’ s tragic that black Americans have had to think in such terms throughout our history ; it ’ s the definition of both privilege and our current insanity that white Americans now think in them , too .
( And it ’ s certainly a useful education for many about the realities of race . )
But , by now , the illusion that something somehow will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should have been shattered .
So spend some time with Sharp ’ s list .
It could come in handy—soon .

Events are now moving at high speed in this country—every day, President Trump and his crew gallop past new lines, so that the morning’s flagrant usurpation is legitimized by the evening’s even more outrageous improvisation. (Firing tear gas at a crowd in order to be able to stand menacingly in front of a church holding a Bible is hard to top, but I wouldn’t bet against it.) A danger of this is that we’re always reacting to what came before. So perhaps it’s worth skipping a few steps ahead, to places where we haven’t gone yet but very well may.
What I’d like to talk about is civil disobedience, and its uses in authoritarian states. I’m not talking about what’s going on in this country this week—I have no more interest in telling people currently in the streets that they shouldn’t be destroying property than they have in listening to me. If you live a life, as black Americans clearly do, in which a police officer could kill you for allegedly passing a counterfeit twenty-dollar bill, or if you live a life in which the incompetence of the nation’s leaders has helped precipitate an economic crisis that has left you with no job and no prospect of one—well, I’ve been impressed with how peaceful the vast majority of the people in the streets have been. In fact, Tuesday night may turn out to have been significant. Unintimidated by Trump’s heavy-handedness and local curfews, lots of people once again took to the streets, and a frequent chant—“Why you got your riot gear? We don’t see no riot here”—was both a powerful taunt and accurate reporting.
What I’m talking about is what happens if Trump, indeed, goes further still, and manages to make himself a full-on tyrant. It wouldn’t take much. The Justice Department seems to have become his Justice Department. Congressional Republicans seem unwilling to stand up to him about anything; and, at the moment, some of them, such as Senator Tom Cotton and Representative Matt Gaetz, are egging him on. The courts are ever more packed, and the Pentagon seemed willing to funnel troops and materiel to D.C., then participate in Trump’s political stunt on Monday, which is a bad sign. The President’s constant shout-outs to “the Second Amendment people” are not a dog whistle—they’re a clarion call. Even as Trump keeps escalating, one keeps hoping that he’s merely trying to impress his base—but as we near an election in which he trails in the polls, the danger seems to mount. It’s hard to know what, precisely, a coup looks like if the leader is already the President. Try to imagine troops ordered to use live rounds rather than rubber bullets, no social media on which to talk about it, and Fox News as the only sanctioned TV channel.
It seems a stretch, but such things are commonplace in many parts of the world. (Indeed, if you’re black, facing live ammunition is already an outsize reality here.) If they came to pass, Americans would be in a difficult predicament: whether to submit to that rule or stand up to it. And that’s where civil resistance comes in. I’ve spent much of my adult life organizing a certain kind of nonviolent action—I’ve been in handcuffs more times than I might have imagined—and it’s had some real effect on the paths of pipelines and the flow of money. (As it happens, the first big civil-disobedience actions I helped organize were staged from Lafayette Park, the same place that Trump cleared for his photo-op stroll.) But the kind of civil disobedience that I know how to practice happens in the relatively open society that we’ve been living in (and is much harder for people of color). Other people in other places have worked with far less freedom, and accomplished far more—and their faithful chronicler was a man named Gene Sharp, who died two winters ago, at the age of ninety. I first wrote about him for this magazine thirty-six years ago, when he was already well into his life’s work of cataloguing and explaining all the “methods of nonviolent action” that people had used to stand up to authority.
He eventually came up with a list of a hundred and ninety-eight, and could describe in great detail how they had been used, singly or in combination. Some of them are dated—skywriting as a form of resistance—and his list doesn’t stretch to cover the myriad possibilities that the Internet presents. But most of them suggest things that could be tried now: walkouts, silence, selective boycotts, student strikes, wildcat strikes. Some have been made harder by the pandemic (it’s hard to stay away from sports and cultural events if there aren’t any taking place), and some have been made easier (people are already experimenting with rent strikes in many cities). Sit-ins are on the list (and stand-ins, wade-ins, mill-ins, pray-ins); so are alternative markets and transportation systems, the “overloading of administrative systems,” and fasts.
There are remarkable new additions to this list coming from places such as Hong Kong; there is recent learned history from places such as Standing Rock; and, if there are not quite leaders on the scale of a Gandhi or a King, there are nonetheless powerful examples and teachers: Greta Thunberg, the Reverend William Barber. And there are plenty of largely leaderless movements that have stood up and succeeded: Otpor, which brought down Slobodan Milošević, in Serbia, for instance. Indeed, a whole new area of scholarship has followed Sharp’s lead, and, in recent years, studies of nonviolent civil resistance have made a couple of things very clear: nonviolence is far more effective than violent revolution, and it doesn’t take everyone’s participation to make it effective. As the Harvard researcher Erica Chenoweth has shown, less than five per cent of a population engaged in resistance is often enough to cause huge shifts in the zeitgeist and make it much harder for illegitimate authority to rule.
That doesn’t mean, of course, that it’s easy for that five per cent who take part. Even in the more benign recent American past, getting arrested and sent to jail was physically and psychologically hard; this would be much harder. The fact that one acts nonviolently does not guarantee a nonviolent response—in fact, history indicates that it often guarantees the opposite. (Though the strange alchemy of nonviolence, the moral power of unearned suffering, can bend some hearts; the images from this week of cops taking a knee with protesters tell a story, even if it’s nowhere near the whole story.) But the calculation should be figuring out ways to fight—and to live to fight another day.
It’s tragic that black Americans have had to think in such terms throughout our history; it’s the definition of both privilege and our current insanity that white Americans now think in them, too. (And it’s certainly a useful education for many about the realities of race.) But, by now, the illusion that something somehow will stop Trump and his cronies from devolving should have been shattered. So spend some time with Sharp’s list. It could come in handy—soon.
Race, Policing, and Black Lives Matter Protests


newyorker--2020-06-03--Unicorn Riot, the Tiny Media Collective That Is Delivering Some of the Most Vital Reporting from Min

Unicorn Riot, the Tiny Media Collective That Is Delivering Some of the Most Vital Reporting from Minneapolis

The killing of George Floyd—on May 25th , in Minneapolis , under the weight of Derek Chauvin ’ s knee and a brutally racist police system—precipitated a torrent of images of spectacular violence .
Cell-phone-camera footage of the horror committed against Floyd ignited a wave of protests ; any number of police squads , first in Minneapolis and then in scores of cities across the country , received the protests as an invitation to assault civilians—likewise captured on video , likewise outraging the conscience .
It is a moral duty to witness the scenes of uprising , but it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can glut on the best cable-news coverage of this flaming grief , or the most conscientious and keyed-in correspondents on Twitter , and still feel starved for context .
It may be wiser to attend to this nationwide conflagration as a local news story .
An extremely compelling view of what is happening in—and to—Minneapolis is streaming by way of Unicorn Riot , a not-for-profit media collective that was incorporated in Minnesota five years ago , with a mission to bring attention to social and environmental struggle .
Its reporters regularly cover the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Philadelphia , and have fanned out to cover events such as the Unite the Right rally , in Charlottesville , in 2017 , and the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation .
For the past week in Minneapolis , Unicorn Riot has delivered a sustained act of witness : night after night of vigils and struggle and trouble .
The coverage is impressive for its intimacy with the community and unrivalled in its ability to tell the story patiently , in hour upon hour of searching @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ story ” is the wrong word .
It is implicit—on , say , a five-and-a-half-hour live stream , shot with a single camera—that the creation of a familiar sort of processed journalistic narrative is not on the agenda .
Instead , you get a constantly updating document that accommodates person-on-the-street interviews thriving with unaffected voices .
One night last week , a Unicorn Riot camera crew elicited a succinct commentary on the dynamics of property destruction from a local business owner .
“ I realize why the Third Precinct was burnt down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It wasn ’ t burnt down because people were mad at the police .
It was burnt down because the police were mad at the people ” —meaning that the officers ’ passivity in protecting the building was in fact an aggression , intended to tar the mass of protesters as arsonists .
Unicorn Riot—its members claim they chose the cryptic name for its pure euphony—does reporting across the country , but it was founded in a particular powder keg .
“ Minneapolis has a very contentious past with the police , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the city , Georgiades and six colleagues founded the horizontally organized group in March of 2015 .
That November , a black man named Jamar Clark was shot to death by the Minneapolis Police Department , and Unicorn Riot ’ s ground team covered the reaction to the killing—and the subsequent shooting of Black Lives Matter protesters by white supremacists—twenty hours a day .
In 2016 , outside of St. Paul , a police officer shot and killed a black man named Philando Castile at a traffic stop , within forty-five seconds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ covered the Clark and Castile deaths in a way that earned local respect : these are not haughty correspondents parachuting in but people tethered to the community .
Though Georgiades often goes into the field alone , he is rarely a solitary presence .
This past Friday , he was shooting video in the smoldering streets when he happened upon a familiar source .
At the end of the interview , she said , “ I love you , ” and he said , “ I love you , too.
” These are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on CNN or terrestrial local-news stations .
The depth of those connections generates intimacy and intensity on live stream , and the depth of the problem creates horrible and fascinating pileups of coincidence .
On May 30th , Georgiades and a colleague were live-streaming as they walked down Lake Street—a main thoroughfare , the site of a diversity of small restaurants and , now , a burnt-out precinct house—when they came across a cousin of Castile ’ s , Louis Hunter , on the sidewalk in front of a vegan café that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in riot gear pressed them into the restaurant .
Hunter had been poised to discuss his own history of protest ; the aggression turned his genial warmth into bitter heat .
The bad turn of a chance encounter linked a history of police violence to a new present of authoritarian behavior .
The day after , over the phone , Georgiades apologized for “ feeling a little loopy .
.
.
I got two hours of sleep before the first night of protests , and since then it ’ s been a couple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ couple days of two or three hours of sleep , ” he explained .
He is thirty-eight , a native of small-town southern Minnesota , and came to reporting by way of teaching and youth work , after a stint in the juvenile-justice system .
He had been planning to spend the week working on an interview with an indigenous elder about the coronavirus ’ s impact on his community , and on a documentary about mothers who ’ d lost their children to police violence .
Instead , he ’ d been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raw rage and the context to understand it .
“ What I ’ m trying to do is allow the community to speak , ” he said .
“ But also I want to show a broader audience that this is one community member ’ s perspective at that moment , and that also can change , from person to person , from minute to minute , from action to action .
It ’ s just important to be documented.
” He was trying to assemble his equipment to go out and do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rig , an audio kit , a Teradek backpack to broadcast the material , a helmet , a gas mask , a flak jacket .
He was trying , first of all , to figure out a ride .
“ Our car—a vehicle we had donated to us during our coverage of Standing Rock—actually got a flat tire yesterday , ” he said .
“ We must have run over some shrapnel.
” You could refer to what Unicorn Riot does as “ activist reporting , ” just as you might call a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tossing people to the asphalt or plowing cruisers through crowds “ citizen journalism.
” But you also could decide that these distinctions reflect a certain snobbery and have lost a certain salience .
There is no use in quibbling about objective journalism amid this emergency , when the power of people ’ s voices is our only defense .
To be a good citizen is to be an activist .
To report is to speak up .
To have your eyes open is to witness democracy in action , and its failures in @ @

The killing of George Floyd—on May 25th, in Minneapolis, under the weight of Derek Chauvin’s knee and a brutally racist police system—precipitated a torrent of images of spectacular violence. Cell-phone-camera footage of the horror committed against Floyd ignited a wave of protests; any number of police squads, first in Minneapolis and then in scores of cities across the country, received the protests as an invitation to assault civilians—likewise captured on video, likewise outraging the conscience. It is a moral duty to witness the scenes of uprising, but it is concussive to take it in. You can glut on the best cable-news coverage of this flaming grief, or the most conscientious and keyed-in correspondents on Twitter, and still feel starved for context.
It may be wiser to attend to this nationwide conflagration as a local news story. An extremely compelling view of what is happening in—and to—Minneapolis is streaming by way of Unicorn Riot, a not-for-profit media collective that was incorporated in Minnesota five years ago, with a mission to bring attention to social and environmental struggle. Its reporters regularly cover the Twin Cities, Boston, Denver, and Philadelphia, and have fanned out to cover events such as the Unite the Right rally, in Charlottesville, in 2017, and the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. For the past week in Minneapolis, Unicorn Riot has delivered a sustained act of witness: night after night of vigils and struggle and trouble. The coverage is impressive for its intimacy with the community and unrivalled in its ability to tell the story patiently, in hour upon hour of searching the streets for clarity.
But perhaps “story” is the wrong word. It is implicit—on, say, a five-and-a-half-hour live stream, shot with a single camera—that the creation of a familiar sort of processed journalistic narrative is not on the agenda. Instead, you get a constantly updating document that accommodates person-on-the-street interviews thriving with unaffected voices. One night last week, a Unicorn Riot camera crew elicited a succinct commentary on the dynamics of property destruction from a local business owner. “I realize why the Third Precinct was burnt down,” the man said. “It wasn’t burnt down because people were mad at the police. It was burnt down because the police were mad at the people”—meaning that the officers’ passivity in protecting the building was in fact an aggression, intended to tar the mass of protesters as arsonists.
Unicorn Riot—its members claim they chose the cryptic name for its pure euphony—does reporting across the country, but it was founded in a particular powder keg. “Minneapolis has a very contentious past with the police,” Niko Georgiades told me. A citizen of the city, Georgiades and six colleagues founded the horizontally organized group in March of 2015. That November, a black man named Jamar Clark was shot to death by the Minneapolis Police Department, and Unicorn Riot’s ground team covered the reaction to the killing—and the subsequent shooting of Black Lives Matter protesters by white supremacists—twenty hours a day. In 2016, outside of St. Paul, a police officer shot and killed a black man named Philando Castile at a traffic stop, within forty-five seconds of approaching his car. Unicorn Riot covered the Clark and Castile deaths in a way that earned local respect: these are not haughty correspondents parachuting in but people tethered to the community. Though Georgiades often goes into the field alone, he is rarely a solitary presence. This past Friday, he was shooting video in the smoldering streets when he happened upon a familiar source. At the end of the interview, she said, “I love you,” and he said, “I love you, too.” These are not connections or exchanges you can see on CNN or terrestrial local-news stations.
The depth of those connections generates intimacy and intensity on live stream, and the depth of the problem creates horrible and fascinating pileups of coincidence. On May 30th, Georgiades and a colleague were live-streaming as they walked down Lake Street—a main thoroughfare, the site of a diversity of small restaurants and, now, a burnt-out precinct house—when they came across a cousin of Castile’s, Louis Hunter, on the sidewalk in front of a vegan café that he owns. Within a minute, patrolmen in riot gear pressed them into the restaurant. Hunter had been poised to discuss his own history of protest; the aggression turned his genial warmth into bitter heat. The bad turn of a chance encounter linked a history of police violence to a new present of authoritarian behavior.
The day after, over the phone, Georgiades apologized for “feeling a little loopy . . . I got two hours of sleep before the first night of protests, and since then it’s been a couple of days of no sleep and a couple days of two or three hours of sleep,” he explained. He is thirty-eight, a native of small-town southern Minnesota, and came to reporting by way of teaching and youth work, after a stint in the juvenile-justice system. He had been planning to spend the week working on an interview with an indigenous elder about the coronavirus’s impact on his community, and on a documentary about mothers who’d lost their children to police violence. Instead, he’d been roving his city to gather video of raw rage and the context to understand it. “What I’m trying to do is allow the community to speak,” he said. “But also I want to show a broader audience that this is one community member’s perspective at that moment, and that also can change, from person to person, from minute to minute, from action to action. It’s just important to be documented.”
He was trying to assemble his equipment to go out and do it again—a Panasonic camcorder on a shoulder rig, an audio kit, a Teradek backpack to broadcast the material, a helmet, a gas mask, a flak jacket. He was trying, first of all, to figure out a ride. “Our car—a vehicle we had donated to us during our coverage of Standing Rock—actually got a flat tire yesterday,” he said. “We must have run over some shrapnel.”
You could refer to what Unicorn Riot does as “activist reporting,” just as you might call a bystander capturing footage of N.Y.P.D. officers tossing people to the asphalt or plowing cruisers through crowds “citizen journalism.” But you also could decide that these distinctions reflect a certain snobbery and have lost a certain salience. There is no use in quibbling about objective journalism amid this emergency, when the power of people’s voices is our only defense. To be a good citizen is to be an activist. To report is to speak up. To have your eyes open is to witness democracy in action, and its failures in abundance.
Race, Policing, and Black Lives Matter Protests


newyorker--2020-06-03--A Homeschool Report Card in the COVID-19 Era

Jake has difficulty comprehending that I have a fraction of the patience that I used to .
The other day , I yelled at my shoe for not slipping off on the first yank .
Hopefully , the shoe learned its lesson so I won ’ t have to scold it again .
Sadly , Jake also fails to understand subtraction , because we have only so much toilet paper and he ’ s using too much .
The way he ’ s plowing through it , you ’ d think the kid had two butts .
Despite repeated warnings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the grocery store is Thunderdome .
Someone stole Charmin from my cart at knifepoint .
Jake demonstrates little knowledge of the relationship between my plunging bank account and him not getting a Nintendo Switch .
With a little imagination , staring out the window is every bit as fun as Mario Kart .
He continues to struggle with ratios when mixing Manhattans .
While it still gets me drunk , he needs to develop a steadier hand with the pour .
I believe that Jake could benefit from paying closer attention to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I work through my existential dread .
He zoned out during the tale of the dragon who wonders what it ’ s all for .
Right at the climax , Jake said that he had to go pee , but I didn ’ t hear a flush .
I think he was ducking me .
Jake has learned to use euphemisms to describe my fraying mental state when talking to concerned relatives .
He is skilled at employing adjectives that soft-pedal the reality .
Recently , he has learned the difference between fact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and now he thinks that he ’ s better than me .
So what if I get my information from a guy wearing Oakleys who broadcasts from his car ?
He tells me what I want to hear , and that soothes me .
I ’ ve been rewatching old Super Bowl broadcasts because I miss my sports , but Jake says that it ’ s “ boring.
” It ’ s not boring , Jake .
You ’ re boring .
I love you , buddy , but it ’ s a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ every day .
I feel horrible admitting it , but there hasn ’ t been a night since this started when I haven ’ t thought about just packing a bag and rolling the dice out there in the world .
Straight up not teaching it .
That ’ s right—I can ’ t understand material designed for children .
The coronavirus has exposed me as a functional idiot .
Jake loses more respect for me with each lesson .
He rolled his eyes when I said volume is “ like mass , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ photosynthesis is how cameras work , he had me repeat it to his friend on Zoom .
Timmy ’ s cackle cut me to the quick .
If you don ’ t have anything nice to say about my smell , then dab some Vicks under your nose and pipe down .
The stench is part of who I am now .
Last night , I caught a puck to the nuts coming out of the bathroom .
I get that Jake has a lot of energy to burn , but he needs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aim .
Jake has excelled at beating me at Uno , which infuriates and emasculates me .
My work hours have been cut and my hair has not—I could really use a win right now .
While capably executed , Jake ’ s pony drawings have zero relevance in a post-COVID world .
How about drawing us a vaccine , Picasso !
Sorry , that ’ s not fair .
I ’ m just stressed .

Mathematics [C-]
Jake has difficulty comprehending that I have a fraction of the patience that I used to. The other day, I yelled at my shoe for not slipping off on the first yank. Hopefully, the shoe learned its lesson so I won’t have to scold it again.
Sadly, Jake also fails to understand subtraction, because we have only so much toilet paper and he’s using too much. The way he’s plowing through it, you’d think the kid had two butts. Despite repeated warnings, he does not seem to realize that the grocery store is Thunderdome. Someone stole Charmin from my cart at knifepoint.
Jake demonstrates little knowledge of the relationship between my plunging bank account and him not getting a Nintendo Switch. With a little imagination, staring out the window is every bit as fun as Mario Kart.
He continues to struggle with ratios when mixing Manhattans. While it still gets me drunk, he needs to develop a steadier hand with the pour.
Language Arts [B]
I believe that Jake could benefit from paying closer attention to the thinly veiled bedtime stories in which I work through my existential dread. He zoned out during the tale of the dragon who wonders what it’s all for. Right at the climax, Jake said that he had to go pee, but I didn’t hear a flush. I think he was ducking me.
Jake has learned to use euphemisms to describe my fraying mental state when talking to concerned relatives. He is skilled at employing adjectives that soft-pedal the reality.
Recently, he has learned the difference between fact and opinion when reading the news, and now he thinks that he’s better than me. So what if I get my information from a guy wearing Oakleys who broadcasts from his car? He tells me what I want to hear, and that soothes me.
History [D]
I’ve been rewatching old Super Bowl broadcasts because I miss my sports, but Jake says that it’s “boring.” It’s not boring, Jake. You’re boring. I love you, buddy, but it’s a slog seeing your face all day, every day. I feel horrible admitting it, but there hasn’t been a night since this started when I haven’t thought about just packing a bag and rolling the dice out there in the world.
Science [N/A]
Straight up not teaching it. That’s right—I can’t understand material designed for children. The coronavirus has exposed me as a functional idiot. Jake loses more respect for me with each lesson. He rolled his eyes when I said volume is “like mass, but wet.” When I taught that photosynthesis is how cameras work, he had me repeat it to his friend on Zoom. Timmy’s cackle cut me to the quick.
Putting a Sock in It [F]
If you don’t have anything nice to say about my smell, then dab some Vicks under your nose and pipe down. The stench is part of who I am now.
Physical Education [B]
Last night, I caught a puck to the nuts coming out of the bathroom. I get that Jake has a lot of energy to burn, but he needs to work on his sportsmanship, and aim.
Jake has excelled at beating me at Uno, which infuriates and emasculates me. My work hours have been cut and my hair has not—I could really use a win right now.
Art [C+]
While capably executed, Jake’s pony drawings have zero relevance in a post-COVID world. How about drawing us a vaccine, Picasso!
Sorry, that’s not fair. I’m just stressed.