newyorker--2020-05-12--A Few Words About Jerry Stiller

A Few Words About Jerry Stiller

Jerry Stiller , who died on Monday , at the age of ninety-two , was one of the grownups in my New York apartment building whom I would sometimes see in the elevator , or in his apartment , where he might come upon me staring into his fridge before I retreated to his son ’ s room .
When you are a kid , the parents of your friends , classmates , and neighbors are not distinct .
They are more like benign features of a local scenery that might otherwise be unfriendly , even harsh , as was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nineteen-sixties and seventies in which I grew up .
But these parents occasionally distinguish themselves in some memorable , lasting way , which was the case with Stiller and me .
The Stillers lived on the fifth floor .
We lived on fourteen .
I first grasped what Stiller and his wife , Anne Meara , did , and what they were about , while visiting another friend , on fifteen .
The parents of that household hosted a regular group that included Mel Brooks , Zero Mostel , Joseph Heller , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fifteenth floor that I first heard Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner ’ s “ 2000 Year Old Man ” comedy albums ( the reanimated caveman ’ s favorite inventions are Saran Wrap and the nectarine ) and through those grasped the tones of the Borscht Belt comedy-circuit sensibility and its manifestations on television .
Also on fifteen , I heard some of Stiller and Meara ’ s comedy records , which seemed of a similar cast to Brooks and Reiner , but organized around the husband-and-wife dynamic .
At that time , Stiller @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Eddie of wine , because their radio ads for Blue Nun were on heavy rotation .
It was from these comedy roots that Jerry drew the over-the-top performances for which he is well known—on “ Seinfeld , ” primarily , but elsewhere , too .
A rube , a man of appetites , insistent , confused , but also innocent—that was the vibe of his characters .
I don ’ t wish to take anything away from the qualities that make him beloved , but I valued him for other reasons .
Jerry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spiritual solemnity and warmth , on account of what his face was like at rest , the deep lines .
I know him , and cherish him , most of all for an exchange that we had when we were alone in the elevator shortly after I turned ten , when my father had just died .
I was going down .
The elevator stopped on the fifth floor .
Jerry got on , turned to me , his face very still , and looked at me .
I had no sense of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t know my father .
They certainly weren ’ t close , but who knows ?
Maybe they once shared a cab .
The sheer camaraderie of raising kids who were the same age in the same building would have meant something .
Perhaps my father ’ s status as a refugee from Vienna added to Jerry ’ s feelings about him .
After a moment of looking at me , he said , “ Your father ’ s death is a tragedy .
A tragedy.
” I saw a tear coming down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this show of emotion , not because I didn ’ t think of Jerry as emotional but because I had never much thought of him .
This tear , and the words , consoled me enormously and move me still .
It meant a lot that another dad , a grownup in the building with some sense of my life and my world , would recognize the gravity of the situation .
I don ’ t recall my response .
But even as I was brought anew into my grief about my father @ @ @ @ @ @ @ face , I felt powerfully that I had an ally who could participate in the impossible task of remembering my father , or at least remembering that feeling of loss .
The second phase of my relationship with Jerry and , to some extent , Anne began after I moved out of New York , because that is when I started spending a lot of time at my mother ’ s apartment .
During the summer and over winter holidays , we would pile into her apartment on fourteen : my pregnant wife @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my wife , baby , and I ; then a second baby—all of us setting up in my childhood bedroom .
Most of the parents of the old gang were still in residence , Jerry and Anne included .
To my surprise , I made friends with Anne .
She had always frightened me a little , so brassy and direct !
But , one day , I escorted my brassy and direct five-year-old daughter on a trick-or-treating mission in the building , and Anne opened the door dressed as a witch , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ daughter and Anne had a kind of conversation in which Anne gave the kid as good as she got .
I was thrilled to have found someone who could at last stand up to my daughter .
At some point , Anne wrote a personal essay about her childhood for a publication that I edited .
It was called “ Old Nuns.
” It toggles between the present and snatches of past memory , including a reminiscence about her and Jerry ’ s infrequent experiments with pot .
That tossed-off line about Jerry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at me as both funny and familiar somehow .
Once , as adults , Ben Stiller and I went back to his childhood apartment to look for some of the Super 8 tapes he had made as a kid , which were the basis for a project that we were working on .
There , I passed a framed drawing of Jerry done by Al Hirschfeld , with the “ Nina ” s that Hirschfeld drew into his compositions .
It was very spare and had that Hasidic lion quality that I associate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ones he struck in his acting .

Jerry Stiller, who died on Monday, at the age of ninety-two, was one of the grownups in my New York apartment building whom I would sometimes see in the elevator, or in his apartment, where he might come upon me staring into his fridge before I retreated to his son’s room. When you are a kid, the parents of your friends, classmates, and neighbors are not distinct. They are more like benign features of a local scenery that might otherwise be unfriendly, even harsh, as was the Upper West Side of the late nineteen-sixties and seventies in which I grew up. But these parents occasionally distinguish themselves in some memorable, lasting way, which was the case with Stiller and me.
The Stillers lived on the fifth floor. We lived on fourteen. I first grasped what Stiller and his wife, Anne Meara, did, and what they were about, while visiting another friend, on fifteen. The parents of that household hosted a regular group that included Mel Brooks, Zero Mostel, Joseph Heller, and some others. It was on the fifteenth floor that I first heard Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner’s “2000 Year Old Man” comedy albums (the reanimated caveman’s favorite inventions are Saran Wrap and the nectarine) and through those grasped the tones of the Borscht Belt comedy-circuit sensibility and its manifestations on television. Also on fifteen, I heard some of Stiller and Meara’s comedy records, which seemed of a similar cast to Brooks and Reiner, but organized around the husband-and-wife dynamic. At that time, Stiller and Meara were like the married Crazy Eddie of wine, because their radio ads for Blue Nun were on heavy rotation.
It was from these comedy roots that Jerry drew the over-the-top performances for which he is well known—on “Seinfeld,” primarily, but elsewhere, too. A rube, a man of appetites, insistent, confused, but also innocent—that was the vibe of his characters. I don’t wish to take anything away from the qualities that make him beloved, but I valued him for other reasons. Jerry was for me a figure of nearly spiritual solemnity and warmth, on account of what his face was like at rest, the deep lines. I know him, and cherish him, most of all for an exchange that we had when we were alone in the elevator shortly after I turned ten, when my father had just died.
I was going down. The elevator stopped on the fifth floor. Jerry got on, turned to me, his face very still, and looked at me. I had no sense of how much he did or didn’t know my father. They certainly weren’t close, but who knows? Maybe they once shared a cab. The sheer camaraderie of raising kids who were the same age in the same building would have meant something. Perhaps my father’s status as a refugee from Vienna added to Jerry’s feelings about him. After a moment of looking at me, he said, “Your father’s death is a tragedy. A tragedy.”
I saw a tear coming down his cheek. I was shocked by this show of emotion, not because I didn’t think of Jerry as emotional but because I had never much thought of him. This tear, and the words, consoled me enormously and move me still. It meant a lot that another dad, a grownup in the building with some sense of my life and my world, would recognize the gravity of the situation. I don’t recall my response. But even as I was brought anew into my grief about my father as I stared into Jerry’s face, I felt powerfully that I had an ally who could participate in the impossible task of remembering my father, or at least remembering that feeling of loss.
The second phase of my relationship with Jerry and, to some extent, Anne began after I moved out of New York, because that is when I started spending a lot of time at my mother’s apartment. During the summer and over winter holidays, we would pile into her apartment on fourteen: my pregnant wife and I, at first; then my wife, baby, and I; then a second baby—all of us setting up in my childhood bedroom. Most of the parents of the old gang were still in residence, Jerry and Anne included. To my surprise, I made friends with Anne. She had always frightened me a little, so brassy and direct! But, one day, I escorted my brassy and direct five-year-old daughter on a trick-or-treating mission in the building, and Anne opened the door dressed as a witch, or was it a nurse? My daughter and Anne had a kind of conversation in which Anne gave the kid as good as she got. I was thrilled to have found someone who could at last stand up to my daughter.
At some point, Anne wrote a personal essay about her childhood for a publication that I edited. It was called “Old Nuns.” It toggles between the present and snatches of past memory, including a reminiscence about her and Jerry’s infrequent experiments with pot.
I was one of those straights who inhale a joint and announce to everyone around me that, “I don’t think this is working . . . I don’t feel anything.” Then one of our friends would say something innocuous like, “Lets leave the kids with the sitter and eat dinner at Scandia.” I would immediately burst into uncontrollable laughter: “My God, that is so hilarious, the wit, the insight!” Jerry would get very Hasidic and claim he was allergic to marijuana, that it infected his gums or something.
That tossed-off line about Jerry getting “very Hasidic” jumped out at me as both funny and familiar somehow. Once, as adults, Ben Stiller and I went back to his childhood apartment to look for some of the Super 8 tapes he had made as a kid, which were the basis for a project that we were working on. There, I passed a framed drawing of Jerry done by Al Hirschfeld, with the “Nina”s that Hirschfeld drew into his compositions. It was very spare and had that Hasidic lion quality that I associate with Jerry, a different note than the ones he struck in his acting.
After Anne died, in 2015, Jerry began to spend time sitting outside the building in a chair, a kind of mayoral position, greeting people on their way in or out and also the occasional passersby, some of whom would recognize him and respond with excitement. Naturally, I would stop and chat, and my kids would, too. Jerry had become foggy by then—you were never sure if he recognized you or remembered you—but he carried it lightly, and was always able to keep a conversation going. The front-door sidewalk encounters were precious.
But there is another moment that stays with me, nearly as vividly as the elevator scene. It took place a few years earlier, when Anne was still alive, late one Saturday night. I was walking up to the newsstand on Broadway to buy a copy of the Sunday paper, which had something of mine in it, and who should I see coming in the opposite direction down the hill from Broadway but Jerry Stiller. It was a balmy night, but Jerry had on a long winter coat, and he was pulling a carry-on suitcase along on two wheels. Although it was after midnight, he was wearing a huge pair of Anna Wintour-like sunglasses. I suppose it’s possible that he had flown in from somewhere and asked the cab to stop on Broadway so he could walk the last few blocks. At the time, this possibility did not occur to me. I just assumed that Jerry had decided that he wanted to take a walk at midnight in sunglasses, and had brought a carry-on bag. We greeted each other warmly, and before I could ask what he was doing, he asked me what I was doing.
“Going to get the paper,” I said. “I have a piece in it. I suppose I just wanted to see my name in print.”
Something about the bashfulness with which I conveyed this provoked him.
“Have you ever heard of the word nachas?” he asked, pronouncing it with the harsh sound at the back of the throat that one hears in Hebrew and Yiddish.
“No,” I said.
He launched into a long disquisition, explaining how it was a Yiddish word that meant being proud of somebody.
With his fist raised he said, “Sometimes you have to have nachas for yourself!”
I found this quite uplifting, and we parted ways with a wave and in good spirits, me up to the newsstand on Broadway, and Jerry in his sunglasses, dragging along the carry-on bag, which zig-zagged this way and that behind him, full of life.


newyorker--2020-05-12--The Coronavirus Crisis Will Lead to “Catastrophic” Hunger

Every year , nearly a billion people suffer from some form of hunger , brought about by war or climate change or simply a lack of means .
But now , according to the United Nations , the number of people who are classified as having acute food insecurity—a level of hunger at which a person ’ s inability to consume adequate food endangers their life or livelihood—could rise from more than a hundred and thirty million to nearly three hundred million , owing to the coronavirus pandemic , which has brought world economies and supply chains to a standstill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ begin to address the millions of people whose means of achieving a decent living have evaporated .
I recently spoke by phone with Arif Husain , the chief economist and director of research , assessment , and monitoring at the United Nations World Food Programme , which tracks hunger around the world and delivers food to the neediest people in more than eighty countries .
During our conversation , which has been edited for length and clarity , we discussed what countries should be doing to alleviate the coming crisis , the different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ why the coronavirus poses a threat unlike any other .
Is this a problem , primarily , of people losing access to their jobs and their means of paying for food , or is it a problem of global supply chains ?
To what degree can you separate those two things out ?
What we need to understand is that hunger in the world has not been a pretty picture for the last four years .
We measure hunger in two ways .
One is what we call chronic hunger , meaning that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , they go to bed hungry ; it ’ s just normal for them .
And that number , four years ago , in 2016 , was seven hundred and ninety-six million .
At the end of 2019 , that number was eight hundred and twenty-one million .
That ’ s one number .
The second thing which we always look at is what we call acute hunger , meaning that people were O.K .
but then something happened , and , because of that , they are in trouble , and they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in 2016 , was eighty million .
At the end of 2019 , that number was a hundred and thirty-five million .
That ’ s almost a seventy per cent increase .
The first thing people have to realize is that , to begin with , this was a bad situation .
Before you go on , is there a theory or theories as to why the last four years have been particularly bad ?
The first theory is wars and conflicts .
Think about Yemen , Syria , northeast Nigeria , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far , the biggest reason for this hunger and poverty and misery is war .
The second one is climate shocks—large-scale hurricanes , droughts , those types of things .
The third one is economic instability—devaluations of currencies , high debt , all of that .
And then the fourth , which is the biggest , is that there ’ s never only one—it ’ s always a combination of these three , which puts millions upon millions of people into destitution .
So the reason why we are where we are , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hunger , is these three things .
But then comes COVID-19 .
So this is making an already really bad situation catastrophically bad .
And what we are projecting , as we speak , is that there will be an additional hundred and thirty million people who will become acutely hungry in 2020 .
I ’ ll break it down in people and in countries .
Think of countries which heavily rely on tourism , or on remittances , or on exports of raw materials like oil , like copper , things like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as we speak .
And , obviously , it goes without saying , I ’ m talking about low- and middle-income countries .
And , within these countries , think about people who work in the informal sector—that ’ s the service sector , the manufacturing sector .
Think of the garment industry in Bangladesh , for example .
Think of the mining industry in Zambia .
People in these sectors usually are already living hand to mouth—if they don ’ t work , they don ’ t eat , their families don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , they have a situation where they ’ re not only dealing with losses of tourism and things like that but also lockdowns .
So the combination of these two things means that their purchasing power very , very , very quickly is gone .
And that ’ s the “ people ” side of this crisis .
What we are also seeing is that there are about thirty million people in this world who are trapped in war zones .
Think of places like Yemen , like Syria .
And these people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ almost completely reliant on humanitarian assistance .
So if , for any reason , we are unable to reach them—whether it is that we don ’ t have enough money or because the supply chains are not working—they will pay the ultimate price , disease or no disease .
It may seem intuitive that famines are caused by total shortages of food , but a lot of scholarly work , by Amartya Sen and others , shows that that is not often the case .
It seems like , in the cases you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ applies .
Yeah , absolutely .
It ’ s not about the availability of food .
It is access to food , whether it is physical access or it is economic access .
And that is absolutely true in this scenario .
Right now , we have ample global stocks of food to feed everybody .
The problem is the movement of those commodities .
The problem is how we can get the food from where it is produced to where it is needed .
And , in the humanitarian world , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial resources to actually do that ?
This is why what I ’ m saying to people is that commercial supply chains must work , because those are the economic lifelines of the world .
If commercial supply chains won ’ t work , for any reason , humanitarian supply chains will not work either .
Period .
Let me ask you about that , because obviously these commercial supply chains have not been shut down right now because people are greedy , or hoarding food , or selfish .
They ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t want people to get sick , and we ’ re all supposed to be sheltering at home , except for essential workers .
And , even then , things take more time now .
So does the pandemic expose fundamental problems with the supply chain , or is there a better way we should be thinking about getting food to people ?
It ’ s basically an issue of treating supply chains as essential services .
This also is very , very similar to an argument for lockdowns , because you can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to put people in lockdowns .
Is that a good thing ?
” Yes , it is a good thing , but only if governments are able to assist them during the lockdowns .
These two things go hand in hand .
If you ’ re going to do lockdowns , then you need to make sure that you are able to help people who are in the lockdowns , so they don ’ t have to make these tough choices , to see themselves and their children starving in the lockdown or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a living .
Same thing on the commercial side .
While taking all the precautions , we need to make sure that commodities and products move from point A to point B .
So , if , for example , the airlines are not working , then people are not moving , and neither is cargo , as it was moving before .
When you look at shipments , ships may be moving , but they ’ re moving slower .
Why ?
Because it ’ s a quarantine , or because of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So governments have to come together and basically say that supply chains are going to be created in a way which makes sure that essential commodities are moving from point A to point B.
That ’ s one thing .

Every year, nearly a billion people suffer from some form of hunger, brought about by war or climate change or simply a lack of means. But now, according to the United Nations, the number of people who are classified as having acute food insecurity—a level of hunger at which a person’s inability to consume adequate food endangers their life or livelihood—could rise from more than a hundred and thirty million to nearly three hundred million, owing to the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought world economies and supply chains to a standstill. And this estimate does not even begin to address the millions of people whose means of achieving a decent living have evaporated.
I recently spoke by phone with Arif Husain, the chief economist and director of research, assessment, and monitoring at the United Nations World Food Programme, which tracks hunger around the world and delivers food to the neediest people in more than eighty countries. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed what countries should be doing to alleviate the coming crisis, the different causes of hunger and starvation, and why the coronavirus poses a threat unlike any other.
Is this a problem, primarily, of people losing access to their jobs and their means of paying for food, or is it a problem of global supply chains? To what degree can you separate those two things out?
What we need to understand is that hunger in the world has not been a pretty picture for the last four years. We measure hunger in two ways. One is what we call chronic hunger, meaning that, regardless of people’s circumstances, they go to bed hungry; it’s just normal for them. And that number, four years ago, in 2016, was seven hundred and ninety-six million. At the end of 2019, that number was eight hundred and twenty-one million. That’s one number.
The second thing which we always look at is what we call acute hunger, meaning that people were O.K. but then something happened, and, because of that, they are in trouble, and they’re hungry. And that number, in 2016, was eighty million. At the end of 2019, that number was a hundred and thirty-five million. That’s almost a seventy per cent increase. The first thing people have to realize is that, to begin with, this was a bad situation.
Before you go on, is there a theory or theories as to why the last four years have been particularly bad?
The first theory is wars and conflicts. Think about Yemen, Syria, northeast Nigeria, Burkina Faso, South Sudan. By far, the biggest reason for this hunger and poverty and misery is war. The second one is climate shocks—large-scale hurricanes, droughts, those types of things. The third one is economic instability—devaluations of currencies, high debt, all of that. And then the fourth, which is the biggest, is that there’s never only one—it’s always a combination of these three, which puts millions upon millions of people into destitution. So the reason why we are where we are, in terms of global poverty and global hunger, is these three things. But then comes COVID-19. So this is making an already really bad situation catastrophically bad. And what we are projecting, as we speak, is that there will be an additional hundred and thirty million people who will become acutely hungry in 2020.
I’ll break it down in people and in countries. Think of countries which heavily rely on tourism, or on remittances, or on exports of raw materials like oil, like copper, things like that. These countries are in trouble as we speak. And, obviously, it goes without saying, I’m talking about low- and middle-income countries. And, within these countries, think about people who work in the informal sector—that’s the service sector, the manufacturing sector. Think of the garment industry in Bangladesh, for example. Think of the mining industry in Zambia. People in these sectors usually are already living hand to mouth—if they don’t work, they don’t eat, their families don’t eat. Now, suddenly, they have a situation where they’re not only dealing with losses of tourism and things like that but also lockdowns. So the combination of these two things means that their purchasing power very, very, very quickly is gone. And that’s the “people” side of this crisis.
What we are also seeing is that there are about thirty million people in this world who are trapped in war zones. Think of places like Yemen, like Syria. And these people are stuck, and they’re almost completely reliant on humanitarian assistance. So if, for any reason, we are unable to reach them—whether it is that we don’t have enough money or because the supply chains are not working—they will pay the ultimate price, disease or no disease.
It may seem intuitive that famines are caused by total shortages of food, but a lot of scholarly work, by Amartya Sen and others, shows that that is not often the case. It seems like, in the cases you are talking about, that insight also applies.
Yeah, absolutely. It’s not about the availability of food. It is access to food, whether it is physical access or it is economic access. And that is absolutely true in this scenario. Right now, we have ample global stocks of food to feed everybody. The problem is the movement of those commodities. The problem is how we can get the food from where it is produced to where it is needed. And, in the humanitarian world, the problem is: Do we have enough financial resources to actually do that? This is why what I’m saying to people is that commercial supply chains must work, because those are the economic lifelines of the world. If commercial supply chains won’t work, for any reason, humanitarian supply chains will not work either. Period.
Let me ask you about that, because obviously these commercial supply chains have not been shut down right now because people are greedy, or hoarding food, or selfish. They’re being shut down because we don’t want people to get sick, and we’re all supposed to be sheltering at home, except for essential workers. And, even then, things take more time now. So does the pandemic expose fundamental problems with the supply chain, or is there a better way we should be thinking about getting food to people?
It’s basically an issue of treating supply chains as essential services. This also is very, very similar to an argument for lockdowns, because you can say, “Oh, you want to put people in lockdowns. Is that a good thing?” Yes, it is a good thing, but only if governments are able to assist them during the lockdowns. These two things go hand in hand. If you’re going to do lockdowns, then you need to make sure that you are able to help people who are in the lockdowns, so they don’t have to make these tough choices, to see themselves and their children starving in the lockdown or to try to go out and earn a living.
Same thing on the commercial side. While taking all the precautions, we need to make sure that commodities and products move from point A to point B. So, if, for example, the airlines are not working, then people are not moving, and neither is cargo, as it was moving before. When you look at shipments, ships may be moving, but they’re moving slower. Why? Because it’s a quarantine, or because of shortages of labor at different ports. So governments have to come together and basically say that supply chains are going to be created in a way which makes sure that essential commodities are moving from point A to point B. That’s one thing.


newyorker--2020-05-12--The Joys of Korean Baseball and the Risks of Bringing Back Sports

The bases are empty .
Koo Chang-mo , a slender southpaw , is on the mound for the N.C. Dinos , facing Kim Dong-yub , the leadoff hitter for the Samsung Lions .
A 1–2 count .
The pitch comes , and Kim lunges across the plate , clipping the ball as it dives out of the strike zone , driving it into the ground in front of the catcher .
Then he twirls around and settles back into the batter ’ s box .
Koo stands calmly on the first-base side of the rubber .
His fastball only hits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guile .
He tries the same pitch , well off the plate and in the dirt , and Kim goes for it again—strike three .
It ’ s all there : the pitcher ’ s smooth delivery , in the spotlight of the mound and framed by emerald green ; the thump of the ball against the mitt ; the umpire ’ s bark , a universal language .
It ’ s easy to forget that the faint hum of the crowd is manufactured noise , that the stands are empty , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A.M. where I am , in Boston .
One half of the broadcast team , Karl Ravech , is at his house in Connecticut .
The other half , Eduardo Perez , is in Miami .
The game is in Daegu , South Korea .
On May 4th , ESPN announced that it had reached a deal to broadcast six regular-season Korean Baseball Organization games per week , live , in the U.S. , starting with Opening Day , which was that night , at 1 A.M. on the East Coast .
Most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the ESPN App , with a broadcasting lineup of M.L.B .
regulars : Ravech , Perez , Jon Sciambi , Jessica Mendoza , Kyle Peterson .
Perez and Ravech are easy company .
By the time I tuned in , three days into the K.B.O .
season , they had figured out how to deal with the lag between the broadcast ’ s audio and video feeds , which , on Opening Day , had sometimes led them to talk over each other .
( The solution : watching each other on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the feed . )
They seem genuinely happy to be watching baseball , even if it ’ s not quite major-league level .
They watch the way that fans often watch , with one eye on the game .
At one point in the ninth , Ravech admitted that he lost track of where they were in the batting order , and it sounded more like a confession of pleasure than of dereliction .
He and Perez noted the drumbeat in the stands—cheerleaders were there , even though fans weren ’ t—and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , an allusion to the Houston Astros ’ sign-stealing scandal .
It was hard to imagine such a lighthearted reference being made during an M.L.B .
broadcast .
Earlier , Adam Jones , the former Baltimore Orioles star , had joined via Zoom , and described life as a thirty-four-year-old rookie with the Orix Buffaloes , in Japan ’ s Nippon league , and how much he likes Kobe beef .
Ravech and Perez clearly loved talking with him , and they seemed to take the same delight in other demonstrations of emotion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a dramatic head toss .
The morning is full of small moments like that—hardly life changing , but , taken together , evocative of real human communion .
I ’ d been expecting dissonance—a lack of energy from the players , with no fans to fuel them ; the strangeness of empty seats .
What ’ s striking is how normal it feels .
Which also makes me a little worried .
Sports are creeping back .
The Bundesliga , Germany ’ s professional soccer league , is set to restart this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slowly reopening .
Regional tennis events—with elaborate precautions and no fans—have begun popping up .
Swimmers are diving back into the pool , keeping an empty lane between one another .
Players in the National Women ’ s Soccer League will report to training camp this week .
In the U.K. , the government has approved a restart of the Premier League after June 1st .
The N.F.L .
recently announced a schedule with a full slate of games .
Some people have been watching the K.B.O .
as a kind of trial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ baseball is being played today in Taiwan and South Korea , and players have reported that they feel safe and protected in their environment , ” the superagent Scott Boras wrote in an Op-Ed for the Times .
“ We can do it here , and for the sake of America , we should.
” He might have said “ for the sake of my bank account ” instead : Boras negotiated most of the biggest contracts in major league history .
Still , he ’ s not alone in arguing , however @ @ @ @ @ @ @ purpose .
Even Anthony Fauci has sounded wistful for the return of the Washington Nationals .
But , if you listen to Fauci carefully , one ’ s optimism about such a prospect dims a little .
We can do it here , but not by bringing normalcy back .
It will require testing , contract tracing , a slow rollout , and uncomfortable restrictions .
“ If we let our desire to prematurely get back to normal , we can only get ourselves right back in the same hole we were in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recently told two sportswriters for the Times .
What would it take ?
Perhaps the K.B.O .
does offer a good model—and a daunting one .
The first case of COVID-19 appeared in South Korea a month after the first one showed up in the United States—but the two countries ’ responses were wildly different .
South Korea implemented a widespread testing regime .
It trained a small army of contract tracers .
Privacy concerns have not been paramount : the government tracks positive cases through smartphone apps , credit-card transactions , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about new cases .
Some people in quarantine wear tracking devices on their ankles or their wrists .
Thermal scanners , monitoring the temperatures of passersby , are prevalent .
And it appears to work : so far , South Korea has had fewer than eleven thousand cases , and two hundred and fifty-six deaths .
Massachusetts , where I live , and which has a population roughly one-eighth as large , has seventy-eight thousand confirmed cases , and nearly five thousand deaths .
During the Dinos-Lions broadcast , Ravech and Perez interviewed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pitcher who threw a shutout for the Dinos on Opening Day , about the daily routines and restrictions of ballplayers in South Korea .
They asked him about COVID-19 testing and temperature checks , sounding as though they were going to file a report on reopening for the league office .
Later , during the seventh inning , Jeff Passan , ESPN ’ s M.L.B .
whisperer , jumped on the broadcast from his home .
He wore a tan suit and a pale blue tie , even though it was seven-thirty in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He was there to talk about reports of the M.L.B.
’ s return-to-play proposal .
Ravech and Perez , who had been optimistically alluding to rumors of a second spring training in June and a rumored start date of July 1st , turned cool to the idea , and pushed him on the logistics .
They told him that they ’ d been talking to Rucinski about the situation in Korea , where the restrictions are more severe and monitoring is more widespread .
Is the M.L.B .
prepared to take those steps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ League Baseball is going to follow all those protocols , but we also have to understand , Ravi , how different the climate is in South Korea when it comes to COVID-19 infections compared to the United States right now , ” Passan said .
Outside of New York , the infection rate is rising in the U.S .
Hot spots are breaking out .
Baseball can ’ t be totally insulated .
A study of more than five thousand M.L.B .
employees ( and some family members ) revealed coronavirus antibodies in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tested , a sign that the suspension of baseball was perhaps helping to keep the virus at bay—and also that most of those employees are still vulnerable to infection .
“ I ’ ve been talking to a lot of players around the country in the last forty-eight hours , and where they have come down is , if we come back , it ’ s not going to be safe , ” Passan continued .
“ Because achieving safety in this country right now—the idea that you can go around and not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a question of risk mitigation : what the players will accept , and what level of compensation they believe will make it worth it .

The bases are empty. Koo Chang-mo, a slender southpaw, is on the mound for the N.C. Dinos, facing Kim Dong-yub, the leadoff hitter for the Samsung Lions. A 1–2 count. The pitch comes, and Kim lunges across the plate, clipping the ball as it dives out of the strike zone, driving it into the ground in front of the catcher. Then he twirls around and settles back into the batter’s box. Koo stands calmly on the first-base side of the rubber. His fastball only hits the low nineties, but he has guile. He tries the same pitch, well off the plate and in the dirt, and Kim goes for it again—strike three.
It’s all there: the pitcher’s smooth delivery, in the spotlight of the mound and framed by emerald green; the thump of the ball against the mitt; the umpire’s bark, a universal language. It’s easy to forget that the faint hum of the crowd is manufactured noise, that the stands are empty, or that it’s not even 6 A.M. where I am, in Boston. One half of the broadcast team, Karl Ravech, is at his house in Connecticut. The other half, Eduardo Perez, is in Miami. The game is in Daegu, South Korea.
On May 4th, ESPN announced that it had reached a deal to broadcast six regular-season Korean Baseball Organization games per week, live, in the U.S., starting with Opening Day, which was that night, at 1 A.M. on the East Coast. Most games would be aired on ESPN2 or on the ESPN App, with a broadcasting lineup of M.L.B. regulars: Ravech, Perez, Jon Sciambi, Jessica Mendoza, Kyle Peterson. Perez and Ravech are easy company. By the time I tuned in, three days into the K.B.O. season, they had figured out how to deal with the lag between the broadcast’s audio and video feeds, which, on Opening Day, had sometimes led them to talk over each other. (The solution: watching each other on Facetime instead of looking at each other on the feed.) They seem genuinely happy to be watching baseball, even if it’s not quite major-league level. They watch the way that fans often watch, with one eye on the game. At one point in the ninth, Ravech admitted that he lost track of where they were in the batting order, and it sounded more like a confession of pleasure than of dereliction. He and Perez noted the drumbeat in the stands—cheerleaders were there, even though fans weren’t—and joked that perhaps it was telegraphing pitches, an allusion to the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. It was hard to imagine such a lighthearted reference being made during an M.L.B. broadcast. Earlier, Adam Jones, the former Baltimore Orioles star, had joined via Zoom, and described life as a thirty-four-year-old rookie with the Orix Buffaloes, in Japan’s Nippon league, and how much he likes Kobe beef.
Ravech and Perez clearly loved talking with him, and they seemed to take the same delight in other demonstrations of emotion: a bat flip after a flyout, a dramatic head toss. The morning is full of small moments like that—hardly life changing, but, taken together, evocative of real human communion. I’d been expecting dissonance—a lack of energy from the players, with no fans to fuel them; the strangeness of empty seats. What’s striking is how normal it feels. Which also makes me a little worried.
When watching Korean Baseball Organization games, it’s easy to forget that the faint hum of the crowd is manufactured noise, that the stands are empty. Photograph by Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
Sports are creeping back. The Bundesliga, Germany’s professional soccer league, is set to restart this week. N.B.A. practice facilities are slowly reopening. Regional tennis events—with elaborate precautions and no fans—have begun popping up. Swimmers are diving back into the pool, keeping an empty lane between one another. Players in the National Women’s Soccer League will report to training camp this week. In the U.K., the government has approved a restart of the Premier League after June 1st. The N.F.L. recently announced a schedule with a full slate of games.
Some people have been watching the K.B.O. as a kind of trial run for sports elsewhere. “Professional baseball is being played today in Taiwan and South Korea, and players have reported that they feel safe and protected in their environment,” the superagent Scott Boras wrote in an Op-Ed for the Times. “We can do it here, and for the sake of America, we should.” He might have said “for the sake of my bank account” instead: Boras negotiated most of the biggest contracts in major league history. Still, he’s not alone in arguing, however pompously, that sports serves some higher purpose. Even Anthony Fauci has sounded wistful for the return of the Washington Nationals.
But, if you listen to Fauci carefully, one’s optimism about such a prospect dims a little. We can do it here, but not by bringing normalcy back. It will require testing, contract tracing, a slow rollout, and uncomfortable restrictions. “If we let our desire to prematurely get back to normal, we can only get ourselves right back in the same hole we were in a few weeks ago,” he recently told two sportswriters for the Times. What would it take? Perhaps the K.B.O. does offer a good model—and a daunting one. The first case of COVID-19 appeared in South Korea a month after the first one showed up in the United States—but the two countries’ responses were wildly different. South Korea implemented a widespread testing regime. It trained a small army of contract tracers. Privacy concerns have not been paramount: the government tracks positive cases through smartphone apps, credit-card transactions, and security-camera footage, and alerts the public about new cases. Some people in quarantine wear tracking devices on their ankles or their wrists. Thermal scanners, monitoring the temperatures of passersby, are prevalent. And it appears to work: so far, South Korea has had fewer than eleven thousand cases, and two hundred and fifty-six deaths. Massachusetts, where I live, and which has a population roughly one-eighth as large, has seventy-eight thousand confirmed cases, and nearly five thousand deaths.
During the Dinos-Lions broadcast, Ravech and Perez interviewed Drew Rucinski, a former M.L.B. pitcher who threw a shutout for the Dinos on Opening Day, about the daily routines and restrictions of ballplayers in South Korea. They asked him about COVID-19 testing and temperature checks, sounding as though they were going to file a report on reopening for the league office. Later, during the seventh inning, Jeff Passan, ESPN’s M.L.B. whisperer, jumped on the broadcast from his home. He wore a tan suit and a pale blue tie, even though it was seven-thirty in the morning on the East Coast. He was there to talk about reports of the M.L.B.’s return-to-play proposal. Ravech and Perez, who had been optimistically alluding to rumors of a second spring training in June and a rumored start date of July 1st, turned cool to the idea, and pushed him on the logistics. They told him that they’d been talking to Rucinski about the situation in Korea, where the restrictions are more severe and monitoring is more widespread. Is the M.L.B. prepared to take those steps?
“I would think that Major League Baseball is going to follow all those protocols, but we also have to understand, Ravi, how different the climate is in South Korea when it comes to COVID-19 infections compared to the United States right now,” Passan said. Outside of New York, the infection rate is rising in the U.S. Hot spots are breaking out. Baseball can’t be totally insulated. A study of more than five thousand M.L.B. employees (and some family members) revealed coronavirus antibodies in less than one per cent of those tested, a sign that the suspension of baseball was perhaps helping to keep the virus at bay—and also that most of those employees are still vulnerable to infection. “I’ve been talking to a lot of players around the country in the last forty-eight hours, and where they have come down is, if we come back, it’s not going to be safe,” Passan continued. “Because achieving safety in this country right now—the idea that you can go around and not be infected—is impossible.” It’s a question of risk mitigation: what the players will accept, and what level of compensation they believe will make it worth it.
The tone had noticeably shifted. “I’ll be honest, the hurdles that you present, the concept of as close to safe, or, if you’re using Korea as the blueprint, I’m very skeptical,” Ravech told Passan. “It doesn’t sound like we’re close to anything near Korea, and these concepts are just concepts; unless Major League Baseball through their health officials have some knowledge of some ability to test, and temperature-take and secure hotels, I’m really skeptical of this.” A few days later, more details of the proposal emerged: an eighty-two-game season, expanded playoffs, a regionalized schedule to reduce travel. Some teams might relocate, at least for a time. (Canada requires international travellers to quarantine for fourteen days, which would make for very long road trips if the Toronto Blue Jays had any home games.) Two giant hurdles remain, which Ravech, Perez, and Passan had discussed on air: How could Major League Baseball guarantee frequent fast testing without depriving front-line workers of needed tests? And how would players and owners work out who would bear the risk financially?
As great a relief as it was to watch live sports again, it was, unexpectedly, even more of a relief to hear three people grappling, on live television, with the idea that normalcy may not be what we need most right now. That, more than the baseball, made me feel hopeful. As the game progressed, Ravech decided to adopt the N.C. Dinos as his team. They won, 8–2.
A previous version of this post misidentified Adam Jones.
A Guide to the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-05-12--Tara Reade, Megyn Kelly, and the Politics of Believability

Tara Reade ’ s first televised sit-down interview did not happen on cable network news but on YouTube , in the form of a forty-two-minute conversation with Megyn Kelly .
The interview , which has gained more than five hundred thousand views , was shot last week in a hotel somewhere in Northern California , where Reade resides .
Kelly , the former Fox News megastar who drew the ire of Donald Trump , moved to NBC in 2017 ; eighteen months later , the network cancelled her show “ Megyn Kelly Today ” after she questioned whether blackface was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , somewhat adrift in the constellation of personality-anchors , has only sporadically updated her YouTube channel .
The previews on her Instagram page of the interview with Reade emitted the gleam of a reality-TV reunion—seemingly ring-lit , with dramatic cuts .
It was the first interview that Reade , who has accused Joe Biden of sexual harassment and assault in 1993 , had given since Biden publicly denied her allegations .
But more than anything that emerged from the exchange , it was Reade ’ s choice of Kelly ’ s YouTube channel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
On April 30th , in a column in the Times , the media columnist Ben Smith asked why no network besides Fox News had sought to book Reade for an interview .
In this , Smith saw echoes of NBC ’ s decision , in 1999 , to hold Lisa Myers ’ s interview with Juanita Broaddrick , who accused Bill Clinton of raping her in 1978 .
NBC ’ s decision to delay airing the interview , taped in January , until after the Senate voted not to convict the President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comparison , an interview with Reade , who had already shared her allegations on the independent news show “ Democracy Now !
, ” would have been “ essentially symbolic , ” Smith wrote .
Still , he argued , not engaging with Reade risked later damage to the credibility of the mainstream media .
By early May , the networks seemed to be coming around : Reade was scheduled to appear on Fox News with Chris Wallace , and on CNN with Don Lemon .
Then , at the last minute , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to her safety .
Reade , who is active on Twitter , was perhaps also responding to a sense of unease about the reception of her story thus far .
She first brought complaints of harassment against Biden in April , 2019 , in her local newspaper , claiming that , in 1993 , while she was working in Biden ’ s Senate office , “ he used to put his hand on my shoulder and run his finger up my neck.
” These accusations squared with complaints by seven other women , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who accused Biden of kissing her on the back of her head without her consent at a 2014 campaign event .
In a video , Biden apologized for his behavior , explaining that he had only ever sought to create an environment of connection .
“ I will be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future , ” he said .
Then , in March of this year , Reade appeared on the podcast “ The Katie Halper Show , ” coming out with the more serious allegation , which Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against a wall , penetrated her digitally , and had spoken to her cruelly .
( Reade claims that Biden said , “ You ’ re nothing to me.
” ) To some people , the evolution of Reade ’ s story has made her less than credible ; others , such as the reporter Laura McGann , have acknowledged that an inability to share experiences as “ a linear narrative ” is also a common symptom of trauma .
In her excellent piece in Vox , McGann wrote about the “ agonizing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s claims and being met with various dead ends .
“ It is not fair to an individual survivor that their claims require an extraordinary level of confirmation , but it ’ s what reporters have found is necessary for their stories to hold up to public scrutiny and successfully hold powerful men accountable , ” she wrote .
“ So we are here.
” It is easy enough to imagine why Reade , who left D.C. in the nineties , may have been drawn to Kelly—a freelancer now , but still a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ singular place during the height of the # MeToo movement , at once instrumental in the exposure of Roger Ailes , who subjected her and her female colleagues at Fox News to sexual harassment , and unwilling to present herself as a feminist crusader .
Victimhood , particularly her own , seems to offend her .
Kelly ’ s reporting on Trump , and her interviews , in 2017 , on NBC ’ s “ Today , ” of women who accused him of sexual misconduct , have always been couched as old-school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ critics of Reade have cited her support of Bernie Sanders as a cause for suspicion ; to Reade , Kelly ’ s slippery kind of devil ’ s advocacy might have seemed to offer some escape from partisan politics .
( Kelly told the Daily Beast last week , about Reade , “ She said , ‘ I knew you ’ d ask me tough questions.
’ ” ) Meanwhile , to Kelly , who has aired just three interviews on her YouTube channel since November , 2019 , Reade must have seemed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this time as some grizzled media watchdog , an independent agent taking an orphaned story into her own hands .
There was a stilted rhythm to the women ’ s conversation ; it is not a judgment on Reade to say that the exchange followed a script .
“ First , I just want people to get a sense of who you are , ” Kelly began , a pen waving between her fingers .
Reade—smiling politely , her hair big and brown—described her marriage to a man who she says was violent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to flee , changing her name and her Social Security number .
( Her former husband has denied her claims . )
In 1992 , Reade went to work in the Biden office , where she was in charge of the interns .
One of the aides informed her that Biden requested that she serve cocktails at an event because Biden liked her legs .
One day , Reade claimed , she was asked to run after Biden to give him a gym bag .
When she reached him , Reade claimed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a wall .
“ I can ’ t remember everything he said , ” she told Kelly , hesitating , before adding that he had said “ something vulgar.
” Kelly pressed her on it : “ May I ask what ?
” Reade replied , “ He said , ‘ I want to fuck you.
’ ” Kelly expresses herself in eyebrow raises ; she enjoys the performance of asking what appear to be uncomfortable follow-up questions .
“ Were you wearing underwear ?
” she asked , responding to Reade ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reade said , evasively , that she was wearing “ lingerie , ” the eyebrow went up again .
“ Are you saying that they were crotchless ?
Did he push the underwear to the side , or was that not an issue ?
” One could sense that Kelly was searching for the headline—and yet , for all her combative style , she failed to extract specifics .
At times , Reade gently contradicted herself , saying both that she said that she didn ’ t care what anyone thought of her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quit the Presidential race .
Kelly , impassive , did not pursue a deeper understanding of her position .
As a whole , the interview yielded little new information , offering viewers a chance to put a face to a name and to decide for themselves , based on not much more than a feeling in the gut , whether they would grant Reade their sympathy .

Tara Reade’s first televised sit-down interview did not happen on cable network news but on YouTube, in the form of a forty-two-minute conversation with Megyn Kelly. The interview, which has gained more than five hundred thousand views, was shot last week in a hotel somewhere in Northern California, where Reade resides. Kelly, the former Fox News megastar who drew the ire of Donald Trump, moved to NBC in 2017; eighteen months later, the network cancelled her show “Megyn Kelly Today” after she questioned whether blackface was really racist. Since then, Kelly, somewhat adrift in the constellation of personality-anchors, has only sporadically updated her YouTube channel. The previews on her Instagram page of the interview with Reade emitted the gleam of a reality-TV reunion—seemingly ring-lit, with dramatic cuts.
It was the first interview that Reade, who has accused Joe Biden of sexual harassment and assault in 1993, had given since Biden publicly denied her allegations. But more than anything that emerged from the exchange, it was Reade’s choice of Kelly’s YouTube channel that felt like the real news story. On April 30th, in a column in the Times, the media columnist Ben Smith asked why no network besides Fox News had sought to book Reade for an interview. In this, Smith saw echoes of NBC’s decision, in 1999, to hold Lisa Myers’s interview with Juanita Broaddrick, who accused Bill Clinton of raping her in 1978. NBC’s decision to delay airing the interview, taped in January, until after the Senate voted not to convict the President, had potentially momentous consequences. By comparison, an interview with Reade, who had already shared her allegations on the independent news show “Democracy Now!,” would have been “essentially symbolic,” Smith wrote. Still, he argued, not engaging with Reade risked later damage to the credibility of the mainstream media. By early May, the networks seemed to be coming around: Reade was scheduled to appear on Fox News with Chris Wallace, and on CNN with Don Lemon. Then, at the last minute, Reade cancelled both appearances, citing threats to her safety.
Reade, who is active on Twitter, was perhaps also responding to a sense of unease about the reception of her story thus far. She first brought complaints of harassment against Biden in April, 2019, in her local newspaper, claiming that, in 1993, while she was working in Biden’s Senate office, “he used to put his hand on my shoulder and run his finger up my neck.” These accusations squared with complaints by seven other women, including the Nevada legislator Lucy Flores, who accused Biden of kissing her on the back of her head without her consent at a 2014 campaign event. In a video, Biden apologized for his behavior, explaining that he had only ever sought to create an environment of connection. “I will be more mindful about respecting personal space in the future,” he said. Then, in March of this year, Reade appeared on the podcast “The Katie Halper Show,” coming out with the more serious allegation, which Biden denied, that he had pinned her against a wall, penetrated her digitally, and had spoken to her cruelly. (Reade claims that Biden said, “You’re nothing to me.”) To some people, the evolution of Reade’s story has made her less than credible; others, such as the reporter Laura McGann, have acknowledged that an inability to share experiences as “a linear narrative” is also a common symptom of trauma. In her excellent piece in Vox, McGann wrote about the “agonizing” experience of reporting out Reade’s claims and being met with various dead ends. “It is not fair to an individual survivor that their claims require an extraordinary level of confirmation, but it’s what reporters have found is necessary for their stories to hold up to public scrutiny and successfully hold powerful men accountable,” she wrote. “So we are here.”
It is easy enough to imagine why Reade, who left D.C. in the nineties, may have been drawn to Kelly—a freelancer now, but still a very famous one. Kelly occupied a singular place during the height of the #MeToo movement, at once instrumental in the exposure of Roger Ailes, who subjected her and her female colleagues at Fox News to sexual harassment, and unwilling to present herself as a feminist crusader. Victimhood, particularly her own, seems to offend her. Kelly’s reporting on Trump, and her interviews, in 2017, on NBC’s “Today,” of women who accused him of sexual misconduct, have always been couched as old-school muckraking rather than justice-based truthtelling. Some critics of Reade have cited her support of Bernie Sanders as a cause for suspicion; to Reade, Kelly’s slippery kind of devil’s advocacy might have seemed to offer some escape from partisan politics. (Kelly told the Daily Beast last week, about Reade, “She said, ‘I knew you’d ask me tough questions.’ ”) Meanwhile, to Kelly, who has aired just three interviews on her YouTube channel since November, 2019, Reade must have seemed to present another opportunity for self-reinvention, this time as some grizzled media watchdog, an independent agent taking an orphaned story into her own hands.
There was a stilted rhythm to the women’s conversation; it is not a judgment on Reade to say that the exchange followed a script. “First, I just want people to get a sense of who you are,” Kelly began, a pen waving between her fingers. Reade—smiling politely, her hair big and brown—described her marriage to a man who she says was violent, and from whom she was forced to flee, changing her name and her Social Security number. (Her former husband has denied her claims.) In 1992, Reade went to work in the Biden office, where she was in charge of the interns. One of the aides informed her that Biden requested that she serve cocktails at an event because Biden liked her legs. One day, Reade claimed, she was asked to run after Biden to give him a gym bag. When she reached him, Reade claimed, he forced himself on her, against a wall. “I can’t remember everything he said,” she told Kelly, hesitating, before adding that he had said “something vulgar.” Kelly pressed her on it: “May I ask what?” Reade replied, “He said, ‘I want to fuck you.’ ”
Kelly expresses herself in eyebrow raises; she enjoys the performance of asking what appear to be uncomfortable follow-up questions. “Were you wearing underwear?” she asked, responding to Reade’s description of the assault. When Reade said, evasively, that she was wearing “lingerie,” the eyebrow went up again. “Are you saying that they were crotchless? Did he push the underwear to the side, or was that not an issue?” One could sense that Kelly was searching for the headline—and yet, for all her combative style, she failed to extract specifics. At times, Reade gently contradicted herself, saying both that she said that she didn’t care what anyone thought of her claims and that she thought Biden should quit the Presidential race. Kelly, impassive, did not pursue a deeper understanding of her position. As a whole, the interview yielded little new information, offering viewers a chance to put a face to a name and to decide for themselves, based on not much more than a feeling in the gut, whether they would grant Reade their sympathy.
Reade is an inconvenience for those #MeToo advocates who have fixated on the exhortation to “believe women.” The slogan may have signalled a necessary cultural shift, but “listen to women” would have been a better cornerstone. Still, it is worth noting that few people in the Democratic establishment, which has hitched itself to the election of Biden, have made a show of listening to Reade. Certain politicians have seized the moment of limbo—we know about Reade’s accusations, but they are still being reported out—to pledge their allegiance to Biden. Stacey Abrams, who may be vying to be Biden’s Vice-President, has come out in support of him: “I believe Joe Biden,” she said. Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand have similarly said that they “support Joe Biden.” Reade insists that she has been dismissed unfairly by these politicians and by the media. “If you’re not a known citizen, or a known person, you don’t necessarily get a platform to come forward,” she told Kelly in the second half of the interview. The point of tension interested Kelly. “Was this at all politically motivated?” she asked. “Because that’s what people think, you know. They think you were a Marianne Williamson supporter, you’re a Bernie supporter, that this is about politics.” Reade said it was complicated. “Everything’s political, right?” she said. “But this is deeper than that. This is about watching the person that assaulted me be elevated to the highest office in the land. He’s running on a platform of character, and I just—I found that gross.”
Kelly became most animated when the conversation shifted to a vague critique of mainstream feminism. “Can we talk about the double standard that some believe exists in the way you’ve been treated versus the way some other #MeToo complainants have been treated?” she asked Reade, who nodded, with feeling. Kelly went on, “Some of those who touted the ‘we must believe all women’ line the most, during, for example, the Kavanaugh hearings for the Supreme Court, certainly seem to have changed their tune when it comes to you,” she said. Reade agreed with the non-question; it was, she said, “very discouraging,” adding, “So we can come forward unless it’s a Democrat?” The women shared a look of mutual understanding; each had found a receptive audience.


newyorker--2020-05-12--Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, May 12th

Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, May 12th

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newyorker--2020-05-12--Nebraska Primary Election 2020: Live Results, Maps, and Analysis

The state’s primaries are May 12th. Follow the latest election results ahead of the 2020 Presidential election.


newyorker--2020-05-12--West Virginia Primary Election 2020: Live Results, Maps, and Analysis

The state’s primaries are June 9th. Follow the latest election results ahead of the 2020 Presidential election.


Cancel the Rent

It is now clear that the twin prescriptions of social isolation and shuttering large parts of the national economy have lowered the death toll of the novel coronavirus in the United States from the direst predictions .
But in a country where the “ social safety net ” is more a distant memory than a source of actual provision or support , large swaths of the public now face the threat of hunger and homelessness .
Each passing week brings more questions about what our cities and states will look like when the shelter-in-place orders are lifted ; they also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rent coming due .
By May 6th , twenty per cent of tenants had not paid this month ’ s rent , a slight improvement over the twenty-two per cent who did not pay last month ’ s rent in the first week .
This is probably the result of renters receiving increased unemployment and stimulus checks , but it is also unsustainable .
Republicans have vowed not to renew the extra unemployment money when it comes up for a vote again in July , and most states are running out of funding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Meanwhile , in a matter of weeks , a staggering thirty-three million people have filed for unemployment , and the future of millions more hangs in the balance .
April ’ s unemployment rate was nearly fifteen per cent , a height of joblessness not reached since the Great Depression .
The Congressional Budget Office has projected that by the fall , the official unemployment rate could rise even higher , to sixteen per cent .
Threadbare protections against many forms of destitution exist , whether it be unemployment assistance , Medicaid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are virtually no programs people can turn to in a housing emergency .
There are charities here , or an emergency grant from a public agency there , but millions of ordinary people staring down the first of the month are on their own .
Last month , Chicago ’ s Department of Housing offered one-time-only thousand-dollar grants to two thousand residents who need help with the rent ; a staggering eighty-three thousand people applied for them within five days .
The crisis of stagnant wages and rising rents certainly predates COVID-19 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. were already “ cost-burdened , ” meaning that they pay at least thirty per cent of their income in rent .
More than half of African-American and Latino renters are cost-burdened .
Twenty-five per cent of renters are “ severely ” cost-burdened , meaning that they pay at least half of their income in housing .
From June of 2018 to July of 2019 , Harvard researchers found that the median rent for an unfurnished apartment in a new building was sixteen hundred and twenty dollars , a thirty-seven-per-cent increase from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ state the obvious , that ’ s more than Trump ’ s one-off stimulus check .
For almost everyone , housing is their greatest monthly expense .
The mismatch between housing need and costs has been a constant feature of the U.S. economy , with shortages driven by the basic reality that there is little to no money to be made in housing for working-class or poor people .
The dynamic is especially acute for African-Americans .
The real-estate market has been lauded as a race-neutral space , guided only by supply and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of racial discrimination and residential segregation , rooted in the government-inspired perceptions that African-Americans pose an existential threat to property values , belies that myth .
The roots of the current crisis , however , can be found in the Great Recession and the avalanche of foreclosures in its wake .
As millions of struggling homeowners , particularly African-Americans , lost their homes , private-equity firms , like the Blackstone Group , swooped in to buy hundreds of thousands of the properties .
Those homes whose mortgages had been backed by the federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feds , eager to dump these properties , would sell them at a thirty- to fifty-per-cent discount .
These were cheap houses to begin with—they were an entry point for working-class families who wanted to buy a house .
Many of the properties have been turned into rentals , meaning that there are significantly fewer entry points into the ownership market .
This has meant that black and brown families have become especially vulnerable to the changing rental market .
It is a hallmark of private-equity landlords , with their huge haul of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maximizing the return on their investment .
The result is persistent rises in rent , cutting back on repairs and other maintenance , ramping up fees , and casually evicting tenants who can not keep up .
It is housing reduced to its most base exchange value .
Many of the key players in developing this new market of single-family rentals have played large roles in and around the Trump Administration—including the Secretary of the Treasury , Steven Mnuchin , who was known as the “ foreclosure king ” of Southern California .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ housing relief has come from this White House ?
Between 2011 and 2017 , four million units of “ low-cost rentals ” were lost and not replaced .
More than forty per cent of the remaining low-cost units are fifty years old or older .
In Philadelphia , hundreds of apartments and houses have been legally designated as “ unfit for human habitation ” —but hundreds of families do live in these properties , as a last resort against homelessness .
These are the market forces behind the rising rates of homelessness across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of African-Americans , who are returning to the South in search of cheaper housing .
But there is no refuge in this economy : the high cost of renting combined with the lack of tenant protections has resulted in a surge of evictions across the South .
According to Princeton University ’ s Eviction Lab , nine of the ten highest-evicting large cities are in the South and are at least thirty per cent African-American .
Now thousands more will join the ranks of the rent-burdened and the financially distressed .
Some landlords @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , have tried to work with their tenants , but others have used the vulnerability of sudden unemployment and housing insecurity to manipulate them .
There have been stories of violence , intimidation , and illegal evictions , where landlords change locks or remove the belongings of a resident .
And then there are the landlords who have tried to coerce women into exchanging sex for rent .
The directives to stay at home while courts are closed and advocates are stretched to their capacity amplifies the urgency of providing robust financial resources @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can either pay their bills or be freed from their debt and the threat of dispossession .
There has been a little more progress for homeowners , because of the federal government ’ s quick intervention requiring that federally backed mortgages not be foreclosed on in the event of missed payments .
There was also a moratorium on evictions for tenants in federally subsidized rentals , but this provision affects only about twenty-five per cent of rental units .
And most renters are unlikely to be aware of the status of their landlord @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of local and federal officials could result , by late summer , in hundreds of thousands of evictions and foreclosures , which would trigger a new wave of infection and illness .
If anyone thinks this is hyperbole , they are not paying attention .
We already know that poverty is an accelerant for the virus , and eviction is a plunge into American poverty .
Already , nine per cent of people who think they might have COVID-19 won ’ t seek medical attention because of concerns about costs .
Those numbers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial oblivion that is foreclosure and eviction .
Homeless shelters are already major sites of COVID-19 outbreaks ; forcing hundreds of thousands of families into the streets would be throwing gasoline on still-smoldering embers .

It is now clear that the twin prescriptions of social isolation and shuttering large parts of the national economy have lowered the death toll of the novel coronavirus in the United States from the direst predictions. But in a country where the “social safety net” is more a distant memory than a source of actual provision or support, large swaths of the public now face the threat of hunger and homelessness. Each passing week brings more questions about what our cities and states will look like when the shelter-in-place orders are lifted; they also bring us one week closer to the rent coming due.
By May 6th, twenty per cent of tenants had not paid this month’s rent, a slight improvement over the twenty-two per cent who did not pay last month’s rent in the first week. This is probably the result of renters receiving increased unemployment and stimulus checks, but it is also unsustainable. Republicans have vowed not to renew the extra unemployment money when it comes up for a vote again in July, and most states are running out of funding to make their shares of the payments. Meanwhile, in a matter of weeks, a staggering thirty-three million people have filed for unemployment, and the future of millions more hangs in the balance. April’s unemployment rate was nearly fifteen per cent, a height of joblessness not reached since the Great Depression. The Congressional Budget Office has projected that by the fall, the official unemployment rate could rise even higher, to sixteen per cent.
Threadbare protections against many forms of destitution exist, whether it be unemployment assistance, Medicaid, or food stamps, but there are virtually no programs people can turn to in a housing emergency. There are charities here, or an emergency grant from a public agency there, but millions of ordinary people staring down the first of the month are on their own. Last month, Chicago’s Department of Housing offered one-time-only thousand-dollar grants to two thousand residents who need help with the rent; a staggering eighty-three thousand people applied for them within five days.
The crisis of stagnant wages and rising rents certainly predates COVID-19. Forty-seven per cent of renter households in the U.S. were already “cost-burdened,” meaning that they pay at least thirty per cent of their income in rent. More than half of African-American and Latino renters are cost-burdened. Twenty-five per cent of renters are “severely” cost-burdened, meaning that they pay at least half of their income in housing. From June of 2018 to July of 2019, Harvard researchers found that the median rent for an unfurnished apartment in a new building was sixteen hundred and twenty dollars, a thirty-seven-per-cent increase from the median rent in 2000. To state the obvious, that’s more than Trump’s one-off stimulus check. For almost everyone, housing is their greatest monthly expense.
The mismatch between housing need and costs has been a constant feature of the U.S. economy, with shortages driven by the basic reality that there is little to no money to be made in housing for working-class or poor people. The dynamic is especially acute for African-Americans. The real-estate market has been lauded as a race-neutral space, guided only by supply and demand, but more than a century of racial discrimination and residential segregation, rooted in the government-inspired perceptions that African-Americans pose an existential threat to property values, belies that myth. The roots of the current crisis, however, can be found in the Great Recession and the avalanche of foreclosures in its wake. As millions of struggling homeowners, particularly African-Americans, lost their homes, private-equity firms, like the Blackstone Group, swooped in to buy hundreds of thousands of the properties. Those homes whose mortgages had been backed by the federal government were especially attractive, because the feds, eager to dump these properties, would sell them at a thirty- to fifty-per-cent discount.
These were cheap houses to begin with—they were an entry point for working-class families who wanted to buy a house. Many of the properties have been turned into rentals, meaning that there are significantly fewer entry points into the ownership market. This has meant that black and brown families have become especially vulnerable to the changing rental market. It is a hallmark of private-equity landlords, with their huge haul of properties, to be primarily focussed on maximizing the return on their investment. The result is persistent rises in rent, cutting back on repairs and other maintenance, ramping up fees, and casually evicting tenants who cannot keep up. It is housing reduced to its most base exchange value. Many of the key players in developing this new market of single-family rentals have played large roles in and around the Trump Administration—including the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, who was known as the “foreclosure king” of Southern California. Is it any wonder why no real housing relief has come from this White House?
Between 2011 and 2017, four million units of “low-cost rentals” were lost and not replaced. More than forty per cent of the remaining low-cost units are fifty years old or older. In Philadelphia, hundreds of apartments and houses have been legally designated as “unfit for human habitation”—but hundreds of families do live in these properties, as a last resort against homelessness. These are the market forces behind the rising rates of homelessness across the country and the dramatic reverse migration of African-Americans, who are returning to the South in search of cheaper housing. But there is no refuge in this economy: the high cost of renting combined with the lack of tenant protections has resulted in a surge of evictions across the South. According to Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, nine of the ten highest-evicting large cities are in the South and are at least thirty per cent African-American.
Now thousands more will join the ranks of the rent-burdened and the financially distressed. Some landlords, recognizing the enormity of the crisis, have tried to work with their tenants, but others have used the vulnerability of sudden unemployment and housing insecurity to manipulate them. There have been stories of violence, intimidation, and illegal evictions, where landlords change locks or remove the belongings of a resident. And then there are the landlords who have tried to coerce women into exchanging sex for rent. The directives to stay at home while courts are closed and advocates are stretched to their capacity amplifies the urgency of providing robust financial resources for struggling tenants, so that they can either pay their bills or be freed from their debt and the threat of dispossession.
There has been a little more progress for homeowners, because of the federal government’s quick intervention requiring that federally backed mortgages not be foreclosed on in the event of missed payments. There was also a moratorium on evictions for tenants in federally subsidized rentals, but this provision affects only about twenty-five per cent of rental units. And most renters are unlikely to be aware of the status of their landlord’s mortgage.
The incomplete actions of local and federal officials could result, by late summer, in hundreds of thousands of evictions and foreclosures, which would trigger a new wave of infection and illness. If anyone thinks this is hyperbole, they are not paying attention. We already know that poverty is an accelerant for the virus, and eviction is a plunge into American poverty. Already, nine per cent of people who think they might have COVID-19 won’t seek medical attention because of concerns about costs. Those numbers will grow as people cascade into the financial oblivion that is foreclosure and eviction. Homeless shelters are already major sites of COVID-19 outbreaks; forcing hundreds of thousands of families into the streets would be throwing gasoline on still-smoldering embers.
Of course, none of this has to happen. The muted action of the federal government should not be confused with the inability to act. Clearly, federal officials know the meaning of “bailout.” For weeks, Congress has been passing trillion-dollar rescue bills, but most of the dollars are directed at businesses. The premise of the corporate bailouts is always that the money will be redistributed to the public by keeping people employed, but, without a true guarantee, there is simply no reason to believe that it will happen. In late March, hours after Congress passed a bailout bill that would send United Airlines more than five billion dollars, the company announced that it would likely initiate layoffs in the fall, when its government money runs out. There may be bigger issues to come, as the stimulus packages have had very weak oversight provisions.


newyorker--2020-05-13--Now Is the Time to Cherish the Little Things, by Jeff Bezos

Well , here we are , months into this thing , and in some ways it ’ s getting harder every day .
Sickness and death on an impossible scale .
A hollowed-out democracy fighting for its basic values .
It can feel overwhelming .
But , if there ’ s one thing I ’ ve learned as the founder and C.E.O .
of Amazon , it is that it ’ s in precisely these moments—when you are challenged the most—that you have to take a step back and reflect on what matters .
Right now , that means taking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like the roof over your head , or the sound of a child ’ s laugh , or the six hundred thousand dollars you make every single day .
Though it ’ s true that the pandemic has brought the world to its knees , it also has the power to bring us together , and in little , unseen ways it can even make us billions more dollars than we were making before .
Hey , that ’ s pretty cool .
There are miracles like that everywhere if you just look @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maybe , just maybe , I ’ ll all get through this together .
I know it can be tempting to check the news constantly , to worry yourself to sleep about vital workers not getting basic protections as their bosses thrive financially and , frankly , physically .
But instead , why not take a breath , clear your mind , and , any time you feel anxiety bubbling up , just remind yourself that you could buy an Audi every minute for the rest of your life—that ’ s more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more money than anyone else in the solar system .
I took a walk in my garden recently to gauge whether the lawn staff deserved a tip , and I found myself standing under a magnificent cherry tree in full bloom .
I felt the most profound joy from simply pausing there , listening to the sparrow and goldfinch , taking a cleansing breath , and grunting like a wild boar while ripping my clothes off and yelling “ Fuck yes !
” at the top of my lungs until my throat was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a saying .
It goes , “ More more more more more more more more more more more gim me gim me gim me gim me gim me more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more come in here and close the door Seth I want it done today Seth more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more.
” My advice to you : even though you ’ re stuck at home , try to find more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ learn , more to discover .
Take up a new hobby .
Fly your drone into a cloud and see if you can find it again .
Sue someone who doesn ’ t have the resources to engage .
Sink a yacht just to watch how the water swirls .
Tell your V.P .
of distribution to kill a cow and see if he ’ ll actually do it .
If you ’ re still going a little stir-crazy , why not stay in a different one of your houses every night of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got to get creative here .
The other day , I decided to try my hand at baking some bread , like I ’ ve seen people doing on Instagram .
I had never done it before , but I figured it would be a nice afternoon distraction .
I measured out my flour , my water , then , whoops !
I realized I didn ’ t have any yeast in the house .
I paused for one full hour , staring down at my counter .
Then I thought to myself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get creative .
So I picked up my phone and purchased all two thousand locations of Panera Bread in the U.S. and Canada .
I poured myself a glass of Malbec as I downsized their workforce ( the vibe was a little “ union-y ” ) and voila !
I had a package of yeast sent right over .
I can ’ t tell you how good it felt to use my creativity to solve a problem and take up a new hobby .
I mixed the dough together and was totally amazed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The longer it sat there , the more it grew , seemingly swallowing everything around it .
For a minute , I thought it was getting way too big .
LOL .
Like that ’ s a thing .
Then I baked it .
It wasn ’ t the most perfect loaf—who among us has ever been in their kitchen ?
—but , hey , it was good enough .
And that ’ s my message to you .
Things may not be perfect lately , but maybe what we need right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ good enough.
” It works for my employee-safety protocols , and it ’ ll work for you .
Thank you , God bless you , and may God bless the United States of et cetera .

Well, here we are, months into this thing, and in some ways it’s getting harder every day. Sickness and death on an impossible scale. A hollowed-out democracy fighting for its basic values. It can feel overwhelming. But, if there’s one thing I’ve learned as the founder and C.E.O. of Amazon, it is that it’s in precisely these moments—when you are challenged the most—that you have to take a step back and reflect on what matters. Right now, that means taking time to cherish the little things, like the roof over your head, or the sound of a child’s laugh, or the six hundred thousand dollars you make every single day.
Though it’s true that the pandemic has brought the world to its knees, it also has the power to bring us together, and in little, unseen ways it can even make us billions more dollars than we were making before. Hey, that’s pretty cool. There are miracles like that everywhere if you just look out for them. Helpful reminders that maybe, just maybe, I’ll all get through this together.
I know it can be tempting to check the news constantly, to worry yourself to sleep about vital workers not getting basic protections as their bosses thrive financially and, frankly, physically. But instead, why not take a breath, clear your mind, and, any time you feel anxiety bubbling up, just remind yourself that you could buy an Audi every minute for the rest of your life—that’s more than a thousand Audis a day—and still have more money than anyone else in the solar system.
I took a walk in my garden recently to gauge whether the lawn staff deserved a tip, and I found myself standing under a magnificent cherry tree in full bloom. I felt the most profound joy from simply pausing there, listening to the sparrow and goldfinch, taking a cleansing breath, and grunting like a wild boar while ripping my clothes off and yelling “Fuck yes!” at the top of my lungs until my throat was totally shredded.
At Amazon, we have a saying. It goes, “More more more more more more more more more more more gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more come in here and close the door Seth I want it done today Seth more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more.”
My advice to you: even though you’re stuck at home, try to find more. More to cherish, more to learn, more to discover. Take up a new hobby. Fly your drone into a cloud and see if you can find it again. Sue someone who doesn’t have the resources to engage. Sink a yacht just to watch how the water swirls. Tell your V.P. of distribution to kill a cow and see if he’ll actually do it. If you’re still going a little stir-crazy, why not stay in a different one of your houses every night of the week? We’ve all got to get creative here.
The other day, I decided to try my hand at baking some bread, like I’ve seen people doing on Instagram. I had never done it before, but I figured it would be a nice afternoon distraction. I measured out my flour, my water, then, whoops! I realized I didn’t have any yeast in the house. I paused for one full hour, staring down at my counter. Then I thought to myself, No worries, let’s get creative. So I picked up my phone and purchased all two thousand locations of Panera Bread in the U.S. and Canada. I poured myself a glass of Malbec as I downsized their workforce (the vibe was a little “union-y”) and voila! I had a package of yeast sent right over.
I can’t tell you how good it felt to use my creativity to solve a problem and take up a new hobby. I mixed the dough together and was totally amazed at how the yeast kept expanding it. The longer it sat there, the more it grew, seemingly swallowing everything around it. For a minute, I thought it was getting way too big. LOL. Like that’s a thing. Then I baked it. It wasn’t the most perfect loaf—who among us has ever been in their kitchen?—but, hey, it was good enough. And that’s my message to you. Things may not be perfect lately, but maybe what we need right now is a healing dose of “good enough.” It works for my employee-safety protocols, and it’ll work for you.
Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of et cetera.