Goop Coronavirus Guide

Hello , all !
Your pal Gwyneth Paltrow here !
Welcome to another issue of Goop .
As you know , the world is in turmoil .
But COVID-19 is a great equalizer .
Young or old , rich or poor , we are all the same : rich , staying in a fifteen-thousand-square-foot home , remembering the time we starred in “ Contagion.
” As you adjust to your new life , we at Goop are with you every step of the way .
Here ’ s our guide to quarantine essentials .
ORGANIC HAND SOAP ( $ 170 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like me , you use your hands all the time .
Whether it ’ s weaving a lilac menstrual shawl or handing your child off to a nanny , your hands take the lead , and you need to protect them .
Normal soap can be really irritating to hands that have never touched a large door or buckled an overall .
Our Goop bar soap is made in a gentle oval shape so that you don ’ t cut the paper-thin skin of your hand on the sharp edges of a rectangle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your mind like the badass mommy you are !
ALL-NATURAL DISINFECTING CLEANER ( $ 390 ) : We all know that we ’ re supposed to bleach our second kitchen ’ s tarragon forks twice a day , but bleach can be super harsh .
This cleaner , made from purified H O , rose hips , and saffron threads , is an all-natural alternative that ’ s light and fragrant and kills almost some of germs !
Safe to use on prosciutto desks , wheat-free necklaces , and birthing tongs .
Life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just add a dash of this disinfectant to a gallon of bleach !
FIRST-RESPONDERS GRATITUDE TIARA ( $ 1,875 ) : It ’ s not easy to stand out from the crowd when you ’ re poking your head out the window , but this headwear will make you the belle of the plague .
Our tiara , encrusted with rubies , diamonds , and blood diamonds , will make you feel feminine and brave every night as you clap from your Central Park-adjacent balcony for the selfless first responders !
CLAPPING PHONOGRAPH @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be stressful , especially if you ’ re cooped up with little ones .
( I mean bills under fifty . )
You might not even have time to clap for the first responders if you ’ re busy teaching your daughter to embroider # girlboss on the maid .
This clapping phonograph is weather resistant and plays a ton of really awesome celebrity-clapping tracks—just set it on your veranda and let it do your gratitude for you !
Throw on Lizzo ’ s clapping to get your groove on while you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their freakin ’ jobs !
BIRKIN LAMBSKIN FACE MASK ( $ 120,000 ) : The C.D.C .
recommends wearing a mask and standing six feet away from others .
But that doesn ’ t mean you have to stand six years behind the current fashion !
This non-reusable face mask is made from a lamb ’ s mouth that has been expertly detoothed and molded to a human woman ’ s natural curves .
Nearly three full lamb faces go into each mask .
The lambskin ’ s natural oils will help keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as your yoni .
And the best part ?
There is a hole in the middle , so you can show off your perfect lip color !
MWAH !
MOTHER-OF-PEARL TEAR JAR ( $ 470 ) : Let ’ s face it—this corona stuff is sad !
Let it out , girlfriend !
This trinket jar is lined with mother-of-pearl harvested from bivalves that were mommies , so you know they care .
Collect your daily tear in it and watch the colors shimmer .
The tears will keep , so you can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re not quite “ feeling ” it .
Also great for storing earrings or doubloons .
TUTOR VACUUM SEAL ( $ 29,140 ) : Feel overwhelmed that your child ’ s tutor can ’ t teach during lockdown ?
This easy-to-use vacuum seal will keep your little darling ’ s holistic-math teacher ( only free-range variables ! )
germ-free so that she can keep coming to your house without risking your family ’ s health !
Comes in three sizes : small , medium , and SAT .
CHAMPAGNE BIDET ( $ 6,705 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and everyone is looking for an eco-friendly way to cope .
This bidet uses whatever you have lying around—champagne , California sparkling wine , whatever !
My booty is so cultured now , it can tell the difference between a 2013 and a 2017 pinot gris !
OPEC MEMBERSHIP ( $ 25,000,900- $ 50,001,700 ) : The cost of oil has fallen so low that OPEC is actually considering individual membership !
Available for either single membership ( $ 25,000,900 ) or dual membership for couples ( $ 50,001,700—save a hundred dollars @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or gift it to your mom for Mother ’ s Day .
Now that ’ s what I call essential oil !
COVID-19 VACCINE ( $ 4,000,000,000 ) : As we “ splurgers ” know , a vaccine already exists for people who can afford it .
Included in the cost is a private stay at the U.S. naval base on Guam to have the shot administered and the injection site covered with a bandage made from the Shroud of Turin .
Truly the gift to get the girl who has everything—especially @ @ @

Hello, all! Your pal Gwyneth Paltrow here! Welcome to another issue of Goop. As you know, the world is in turmoil. But COVID-19 is a great equalizer. Young or old, rich or poor, we are all the same: rich, staying in a fifteen-thousand-square-foot home, remembering the time we starred in “Contagion.” As you adjust to your new life, we at Goop are with you every step of the way. Here’s our guide to quarantine essentials.
ORGANIC HAND SOAP ($170): If you’re anything like me, you use your hands all the time. Whether it’s weaving a lilac menstrual shawl or handing your child off to a nanny, your hands take the lead, and you need to protect them. Normal soap can be really irritating to hands that have never touched a large door or buckled an overall. Our Goop bar soap is made in a gentle oval shape so that you don’t cut the paper-thin skin of your hand on the sharp edges of a rectangle. Give that virus a piece of your mind like the badass mommy you are!
ALL-NATURAL DISINFECTING CLEANER ($390): We all know that we’re supposed to bleach our second kitchen’s tarragon forks twice a day, but bleach can be super harsh. This cleaner, made from purified H 2 O, rose hips, and saffron threads, is an all-natural alternative that’s light and fragrant and kills almost some of germs! Safe to use on prosciutto desks, wheat-free necklaces, and birthing tongs. Life hack: to increase germ-fighting power, just add a dash of this disinfectant to a gallon of bleach!
FIRST-RESPONDERS GRATITUDE TIARA ($1,875): It’s not easy to stand out from the crowd when you’re poking your head out the window, but this headwear will make you the belle of the plague. Our tiara, encrusted with rubies, diamonds, and blood diamonds, will make you feel feminine and brave every night as you clap from your Central Park-adjacent balcony for the selfless first responders!
CLAPPING PHONOGRAPH ($2,700): Quarantine can be stressful, especially if you’re cooped up with little ones. (I mean bills under fifty.) You might not even have time to clap for the first responders if you’re busy teaching your daughter to embroider #girlboss on the maid. This clapping phonograph is weather resistant and plays a ton of really awesome celebrity-clapping tracks—just set it on your veranda and let it do your gratitude for you! Throw on Lizzo’s clapping to get your groove on while you’re waiting for the nurses to do their freakin’ jobs!
BIRKIN LAMBSKIN FACE MASK ($120,000): The C.D.C. recommends wearing a mask and standing six feet away from others. But that doesn’t mean you have to stand six years behind the current fashion! This non-reusable face mask is made from a lamb’s mouth that has been expertly detoothed and molded to a human woman’s natural curves. Nearly three full lamb faces go into each mask. The lambskin’s natural oils will help keep your lips and philtrum as perfectly smooth as your yoni. And the best part? There is a hole in the middle, so you can show off your perfect lip color! MWAH!
MOTHER-OF-PEARL TEAR JAR ($470): Let’s face it—this corona stuff is sad! Let it out, girlfriend! This trinket jar is lined with mother-of-pearl harvested from bivalves that were mommies, so you know they care. Collect your daily tear in it and watch the colors shimmer. The tears will keep, so you can reuse them any day when you’re not quite “feeling” it. Also great for storing earrings or doubloons.
TUTOR VACUUM SEAL ($29,140): Feel overwhelmed that your child’s tutor can’t teach during lockdown? This easy-to-use vacuum seal will keep your little darling’s holistic-math teacher (only free-range variables!) germ-free so that she can keep coming to your house without risking your family’s health! Comes in three sizes: small, medium, and SAT.
CHAMPAGNE BIDET ($6,705): Toilet paper is still scarce, and everyone is looking for an eco-friendly way to cope. This bidet uses whatever you have lying around—champagne, California sparkling wine, whatever! My booty is so cultured now, it can tell the difference between a 2013 and a 2017 pinot gris!
OPEC MEMBERSHIP ($25,000,900-$50,001,700): The cost of oil has fallen so low that OPEC is actually considering individual membership! Available for either single membership ($25,000,900) or dual membership for couples ($50,001,700—save a hundred dollars!). Buy one for yourself, or gift it to your mom for Mother’s Day. Now that’s what I call essential oil!
COVID-19 VACCINE ($4,000,000,000): As we “splurgers” know, a vaccine already exists for people who can afford it. Included in the cost is a private stay at the U.S. naval base on Guam to have the shot administered and the injection site covered with a bandage made from the Shroud of Turin. Truly the gift to get the girl who has everything—especially COVID-19! ♦
More on the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-10-26--Grouptherapy Embodies a New Model of Cultural Versatility

In every era of entertainment , performers have been described as “ triple threats , ” signifying that they can excel beyond their chosen creative field .
Everyone wants the license to sing , dance , act , and more .
It ’ s a term that has , in previous decades , been easy to deride—the absurd claim of a performer who dared to dabble outside of her native universe .
Now , though , it merely describes the table stakes for many young artists in a media-saturated landscape .
Between albums , they might consider launching a diaristic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mxmtoon did , earlier this year .
Trapped at home during a global pandemic , you might start a cooking show , as Selena Gomez did , with her new series , “ Selena + Chef , ” on HBO Max .
And then there is the laundry list of pop stars who have partnered with apparel companies and assumed titles such as “ brand ambassador ” or “ creative director.
” Versatility no longer indicates a lack of focus or conjures the notion of “ selling out ” ; it is now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Pinballing among mediums can yield delightful or unexpected new material , but too often there ’ s a hollow excess to it , producing the kind of content whose sole purpose is to maximize exposure .
One of the more exceptional cases of cultural lane-hopping is Grouptherapy , a new pop-music project born from the fatigue and disappointment that its members experienced as multi-hyphenate child entertainers .
Jadagrace Michiko Gordy-Nash , Tyrel J. Williams , and Coy Stewart—whose stage names are Jadagrace , TJW , and KOI—are all in their early twenties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of earned disillusionment , as if they had already lived many lives .
In some sense , they have .
By the time Jadagrace , the group ’ s acrobatic vocal talent , was in middle school , she had already been through a rigorous dance academy , appeared in a “ Terminator ” film , and signed a major-label record deal .
She was mentored by Motown Records ’ Berry Gordy from a young age , and released a series of campy , heavily produced singles .
These were an attempt to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a moment when the music industry was beginning to capitulate to the forces of algorithms and online virality .
KOI , the group ’ s hyperverbal and professorial rapper , was a child actor , who appeared on networks like Nickelodeon and TBS .
In the music world , he might be better recognized as the star of the music video for the socially conscious rapper Logic ’ s hit song about suicide , “ 1-800-273-8255 , ” in which he plays Don Cheadle ’ s depressive son .
TJW , the group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came up as an actor through Disney ’ s talent pipeline .
This type of path , via familiar institutions and formats , has become increasingly outmoded .
Many charismatic Hollywood kids who might previously have started out auditioning for television shows or record labels have chosen to leapfrog conventional entertainment mediums altogether , producing snappy , often comical D.I.Y .
videos on social media .
It ’ s become such a common endeavor that a new establishment is forming : Los Angeles is experiencing a boom in content-creator collectives , giant groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Many of these collectives , like the nineteen-member Hype House , live in rented mansions with plenty of mirrors , cultivating new ideas and social dynamics to broadcast on TikTok and YouTube .
Grouptherapy represents a departure from both the old Hollywood model and the new guard of social-media creatorship .
In 2019 , after crossing paths at parties and auditions , the group ’ s members began to make music individually and together .
In the eyes of Grouptherapy , pop music provides a refuge from the financial stressors and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ presents an opportunity to reclaim ownership of their own talents .
On “ there goes the neighborhood ” —a new collection of songs that the members have described as a “ mixtape , ” even though it has much of the polish and meticulousness of a major studio album—Grouptherapy examines the condition of being in the Hollywood machine while feeling underpaid and unfulfilled .
“ I must reflect on my passions , deflect all the bad things , ” Jadagrace sings on “ watercolor , ” a whispering and sensuous R. & B.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ leads the group in the album ’ s more militant and defiant moments , like “ blackout ” —a rumbling song with a refrain more reminiscent of an activist march than a radio banger .
It ’ s a song about being creatively undersold , but it ’ s also a rejection of the materialist tropes that come with success .
“ I don ’ t want nothing when I ’ m rich , ” he announces .
“ I don ’ t have a single rock on my neck or wrist.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he begins to speak , as if at a lectern .
“ I ’ m sick of flexing , can I vent ?
” he asks .
“ I just sold a show and still ain ’ t made a fuckin ’ cent .
That don ’ t make no sense.
” In theory , Grouptherapy was formed as a reaction to the commercialization and professionalization of creative energy .
( “ Suit and ties on my line / Had to decline / Click !
” KOI says on a track called “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is thornier than , say , the outrageously saccharine music of Jadagrace ’ s earlier career , Grouptherapy has not shaken the ethos of its members ’ formal training .
Their stage-readiness , honed over many years , is what distinguishes them from all the other young musicians expressing such familiar forms of disillusionment .
“ there goes the neighborhood ” has a frothy musical theatricality to it , with a structure and a buoyancy that suggest each song is ready for its accompanying choreography .
While so many of their peers in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of studied disaffectedness , Grouptherapy rejects—whether intentionally or not—any kind of glib cool .
This can make the project feel gimmicky in its wholesome eagerness , like a teen-age movie soundtrack or a church-choir act .
There ’ s enough pitch-perfect harmonizing to make a college a-cappella group envious .
But the album is also refreshing in its effortfulness .
The anthemic sweetness of the centerpiece , “ raise it up , ” harkens to the late-nineties and early-two-thousands heyday of pop and R. & B. girl groups .
( The music video @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cheerleading outfits , seemingly a nod to the film “ Bring It On.
” ) It ’ s a triumphant pop do-over from Jadagrace , who handles both the buttery chorus and the nimble rap verses .
On the surface , a chorus of “ Raise it up ” seems like an energetic party cry , but a close listen reveals a message about self-worth and restitution : “ My shit comes with benefits you can not afford / You done made me have to raise it up.
” Aesthetically , “ there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pre-streaming era of pop .
In those days , pop groups were often formed by labels through auditions and molded for stardom by a select group of powerful people .
( The record executive Lou Pearlman , for example , developed a model that he applied successfully to a handful of groups , including ’ NSync and the Backstreet Boys , before he was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme . )
But this is precisely the system that Grouptherapy wants to reject .
They ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rock and the K-pop industrial complex , groups are unfashionable entities .
This is probably why , on the album , the members of Grouptherapy refer to themselves as an “ art collective.
” Grouptherapy , for now , is fully independent , a quality that is vanishingly rare .
They ’ re self-funded and without a record deal .
( Their principal connection to the mainstream is through their executive producer , a Chicago songwriter and producer named Dee Lilly , who ’ s worked with acts like Big Sean and Snoh @ @ @ @ @ @ @ form of freedom that allows them to record such polished pop as a matter of choice , rather than out of obligation .
♦

In every era of entertainment, performers have been described as “triple threats,” signifying that they can excel beyond their chosen creative field. Everyone wants the license to sing, dance, act, and more. It’s a term that has, in previous decades, been easy to deride—the absurd claim of a performer who dared to dabble outside of her native universe. Now, though, it merely describes the table stakes for many young artists in a media-saturated landscape. Between albums, they might consider launching a diaristic podcast, as the ukulele-playing bedroom-pop queen mxmtoon did, earlier this year. Trapped at home during a global pandemic, you might start a cooking show, as Selena Gomez did, with her new series, “Selena + Chef,” on HBO Max. And then there is the laundry list of pop stars who have partnered with apparel companies and assumed titles such as “brand ambassador” or “creative director.” Versatility no longer indicates a lack of focus or conjures the notion of “selling out”; it is now a matter of creative and financial survival. Pinballing among mediums can yield delightful or unexpected new material, but too often there’s a hollow excess to it, producing the kind of content whose sole purpose is to maximize exposure.
One of the more exceptional cases of cultural lane-hopping is Grouptherapy, a new pop-music project born from the fatigue and disappointment that its members experienced as multi-hyphenate child entertainers. Jadagrace Michiko Gordy-Nash, Tyrel J. Williams, and Coy Stewart—whose stage names are Jadagrace, TJW, and KOI—are all in their early twenties, but they perform with a degree of earned disillusionment, as if they had already lived many lives. In some sense, they have. By the time Jadagrace, the group’s acrobatic vocal talent, was in middle school, she had already been through a rigorous dance academy, appeared in a “Terminator” film, and signed a major-label record deal. She was mentored by Motown Records’ Berry Gordy from a young age, and released a series of campy, heavily produced singles. These were an attempt to bottle talent and manufacture conventional pop at a moment when the music industry was beginning to capitulate to the forces of algorithms and online virality. KOI, the group’s hyperverbal and professorial rapper, was a child actor, who appeared on networks like Nickelodeon and TBS. In the music world, he might be better recognized as the star of the music video for the socially conscious rapper Logic’s hit song about suicide, “1-800-273-8255,” in which he plays Don Cheadle’s depressive son. TJW, the group’s sombre and resolute rapper, came up as an actor through Disney’s talent pipeline.
This type of path, via familiar institutions and formats, has become increasingly outmoded. Many charismatic Hollywood kids who might previously have started out auditioning for television shows or record labels have chosen to leapfrog conventional entertainment mediums altogether, producing snappy, often comical D.I.Y. videos on social media. It’s become such a common endeavor that a new establishment is forming: Los Angeles is experiencing a boom in content-creator collectives, giant groups of aspiring or already successful social-media stars. Many of these collectives, like the nineteen-member Hype House, live in rented mansions with plenty of mirrors, cultivating new ideas and social dynamics to broadcast on TikTok and YouTube.
Grouptherapy represents a departure from both the old Hollywood model and the new guard of social-media creatorship. In 2019, after crossing paths at parties and auditions, the group’s members began to make music individually and together. In the eyes of Grouptherapy, pop music provides a refuge from the financial stressors and the structural limitations of Hollywood. It also presents an opportunity to reclaim ownership of their own talents. On “there goes the neighborhood”—a new collection of songs that the members have described as a “mixtape,” even though it has much of the polish and meticulousness of a major studio album—Grouptherapy examines the condition of being in the Hollywood machine while feeling underpaid and unfulfilled. “I must reflect on my passions, deflect all the bad things,” Jadagrace sings on “watercolor,” a whispering and sensuous R. & B. song with a drip-drop beat. KOI leads the group in the album’s more militant and defiant moments, like “blackout”—a rumbling song with a refrain more reminiscent of an activist march than a radio banger. It’s a song about being creatively undersold, but it’s also a rejection of the materialist tropes that come with success. “I don’t want nothing when I’m rich,” he announces. “I don’t have a single rock on my neck or wrist.” Eventually, the beat cuts out and he begins to speak, as if at a lectern. “I’m sick of flexing, can I vent?” he asks. “I just sold a show and still ain’t made a fuckin’ cent. That don’t make no sense.”
“Sweetheart, I think we should break out.” Cartoon by Justin Sheen Copy link to cartoon Copy link to cartoon Shop Shop
In theory, Grouptherapy was formed as a reaction to the commercialization and professionalization of creative energy. (“Suit and ties on my line / Had to decline / Click!” KOI says on a track called “yessir.”) But though their music is thornier than, say, the outrageously saccharine music of Jadagrace’s earlier career, Grouptherapy has not shaken the ethos of its members’ formal training. Their stage-readiness, honed over many years, is what distinguishes them from all the other young musicians expressing such familiar forms of disillusionment. “there goes the neighborhood” has a frothy musical theatricality to it, with a structure and a buoyancy that suggest each song is ready for its accompanying choreography. While so many of their peers in today’s mainstream favor a kind of studied disaffectedness, Grouptherapy rejects—whether intentionally or not—any kind of glib cool.
This can make the project feel gimmicky in its wholesome eagerness, like a teen-age movie soundtrack or a church-choir act. There’s enough pitch-perfect harmonizing to make a college a-cappella group envious. But the album is also refreshing in its effortfulness. The anthemic sweetness of the centerpiece, “raise it up,” harkens to the late-nineties and early-two-thousands heyday of pop and R. & B. girl groups. (The music video features a trio of female dancers in cheerleading outfits, seemingly a nod to the film “Bring It On.”) It’s a triumphant pop do-over from Jadagrace, who handles both the buttery chorus and the nimble rap verses. On the surface, a chorus of “Raise it up” seems like an energetic party cry, but a close listen reveals a message about self-worth and restitution: “My shit comes with benefits you cannot afford / You done made me have to raise it up.”
Aesthetically, “there goes the neighborhood” is nostalgic for a pre-streaming era of pop. In those days, pop groups were often formed by labels through auditions and molded for stardom by a select group of powerful people. (The record executive Lou Pearlman, for example, developed a model that he applied successfully to a handful of groups, including ’NSync and the Backstreet Boys, before he was sentenced to twenty-five years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme.) But this is precisely the system that Grouptherapy wants to reject. They’re a little late: outside of indie rock and the K-pop industrial complex, groups are unfashionable entities. This is probably why, on the album, the members of Grouptherapy refer to themselves as an “art collective.” Grouptherapy, for now, is fully independent, a quality that is vanishingly rare. They’re self-funded and without a record deal. (Their principal connection to the mainstream is through their executive producer, a Chicago songwriter and producer named Dee Lilly, who’s worked with acts like Big Sean and Snoh Aalegra.) It’s a form of freedom that allows them to record such polished pop as a matter of choice, rather than out of obligation. ♦
An earlier version of the photo caption misstated Dee Lilly’s title.


Cartoon Caption Contest

Each week , we provide a cartoon in need of a caption .
You , the reader , submit your @ @ @ @ @ three finalists , and you vote for your favorite .
Anyone age thirteen or older @ @ @ @ @ To read the complete rules , click here .

Each week, we provide a cartoon in need of a caption. You, the reader, submit your caption here, we choose three finalists, and you vote for your favorite. Anyone age thirteen or older can enter or vote. To read the complete rules, click here.
Suerynn Lee Copy link to cartoon Copy link to cartoon Shop Shop


newyorker--2020-10-26--We May Need the Twenty-fifth Amendment If Trump Loses

On October 9th , House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a new bill to establish a Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office , which would help carry out the Twenty-fifth Amendment process in the event that the President becomes incapable of doing his job .
( Sponsored by the Democratic representative and former constitutional-law professor Jamie Raskin , of Maryland , the House bill is similar to one he introduced in 2017 . )
Announcing the bill only a week after disclosure of the President ’ s COVID-19 diagnosis and three weeks before the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a “ path for preserving stability if a President suffers a crippling physical or mental problem.
” She added , “ This is not about President Trump .
He will face the judgment of the voters , but he shows the need for us to create a process for future Presidents.
” Section four of the Twenty-fifth Amendment provides two distinct avenues for removing a President against his will .
In one , the Vice-President joins with a majority of the Cabinet to send Congress a written declaration that the President is unable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Vice-President does so along with a majority of “ such other body as Congress may by law provide.
” The purpose of the House bill is to provide the congressionally appointed body that the Amendment contemplates , by creating a commission of seventeen members to be chosen by both parties , consisting of physicians and former high executive-branch officials .
According to the Twenty-fifth Amendment , once Congress receives a declaration of the President ’ s incapacity , both houses could then decide , by two-thirds votes , to replace him with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to unveil the bill so close to the election may be , as Republicans have claimed , intended to harm Trump at the polls by drawing more attention to concerns about his health .
On October 19th , Senator Kelly Loeffler , a Republican from Georgia , introduced a nonbinding Senate resolution to condemn House Democrats for “ politicizing the Twenty-fifth Amendment ” and the President ’ s health “ during a global pandemic in order to influence the upcoming November election.
” In truth , it is all too easy , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time of immense crisis and fear , to transform vehement political or moral disapproval of a leader into a conviction that he or she is mentally unsound and therefore dangerous—and should be overthrown through non-electoral means .
That is likely why the Twenty-fifth Amendment has been invoked only in temporary and limited ways , and only in cases of physical incapacity .
George W. Bush invoked it twice for colonoscopies , each time making Vice-President Dick Cheney the acting President .
When Ronald Reagan was shot and in surgery , in 1981 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ George H. W. Bush but soon decided against it .
Four years later , Reagan did transfer power to his Vice-President before surgery for colon cancer .
In the realm of mental incapacity , as Richard Nixon faced likely impeachment , his staff feared that his unravelling state might lead him to order a nuclear launch , and his Defense Secretary went so far as to tell the Joint Chiefs not to execute such a military order if it came directly from the President .
But Nixon ’ s Cabinet did not seek @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Twenty-fifth Amendment .
Reagan ’ s staff considered invoking the Amendment when his dementia became evident to them , late in his second term , but decided against it .
In 2017 , Rod Rosenstein , then Trump ’ s Deputy Attorney General , reportedly suggested that the Cabinet invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment , shortly after Trump fired the F.B.I .
director , James Comey .
The questioning of Trump ’ s fitness has persisted throughout his Presidency , as members of his party and his close associates fed the narrative of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then Senator Bob Corker , a Republican from Tennessee who was then the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee , called the White House an “ adult day care center ” ; he went on to say , “ I know for a fact that every single day at the White House , it ’ s a situation of trying to contain him.
” In “ A Warning , ” published in 2019 , an anonymous senior Trump official reported : “ He stumbles , slurs , gets confused , is easily irritated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not occasionally but with regularity.
” Similarly to Corker , the Administration official added that working with Trump was “ like showing up at the nursing home at daybreak.
” Other senior officials have said that Trump , who is seventy-four , appeared to be suffering from some form of dementia .
Trump ’ s former White House adviser Omarosa Newman stated in her book “ Unhinged , ” in 2018 , that Trump ’ s “ mental decline could not be denied.
” Trump ’ s former White House communications director Anthony @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump “ has declining mental faculties.
” Others , including Trump ’ s niece Mary L. Trump , a clinical psychologist , have said that Trump ’ s behavior shows the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder .
A number of mental-health experts have also suggested that he may suffer from malignant narcissism , a term that was coined by the psychologist Erich Fromm , in 1964 , in order to describe Hitler and Stalin .
John Gartner , the psychologist who spearheaded the Duty to Warn movement in 2017 and has advocated removing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me that malignant narcissism is a “ psychiatric condition that makes you evil , ” combining narcissism ( which features the extremes of poor self-esteem and distorted self-enlargement ) , paranoia ( which Gartner sees in “ the crazy conspiracy theories , sense of victimization , and demonization of minorities ” ) , psychopathy ( “ lying and exploiting people ” ) , and sadism .
The condition is considered dangerous because the combination of aggression , suspiciousness , lack of empathy , and a fragile ego might result in vindictive and destructive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Shortly before Trump ’ s impeachment trial , in February , more than eight hundred mental-health professionals signed a letter to Congress , warning that “ failing to monitor or to understand the psychological aspects ” of humiliating Trump “ could lead to catastrophic outcomes.
” Trump has repeatedly flipped the conversation about mental deterioration onto his opponent , who many have claimed also shows signs of senility .
At a March rally , Trump said , of Biden , “ They ’ re going to put him in a home , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country.
” Talk of Biden ’ s mental decline began during the Democratic primary campaign last year , as other candidates observed that Biden garbled sentences , misspoke , and failed to finish trains of thought in some debates .
( Biden has spoken about having a lifelong stutter . )
Last spring , Bernie Sanders ’ s surrogates and supporters promoted the hashtag # WhereIsJoe , implying that Biden ’ s campaign was keeping him out of sight to hide mental infirmity .
Glenn Greenwald , founder of the Intercept and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ the steadfast , wilful refusal of Dem political & media elites to address what is increasingly visible to the naked eye — Biden ’ s serious cognitive decline — is frightening.
” Biden , who has said he would not seek a second term as President , released his physician ’ s report that he is healthy and “ fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency ” but offered nothing specific about his cognitive health .
As a result , the theme of the two septuagenarian presidential candidates ’ fitness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ season .
Susan Page , the moderator of the Vice-Presidential debate , even asked both Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris about whether they had “ had a conversation , or reached an agreement with ” their running mates “ about safeguards or procedures when it comes to Presidential disability.
” Pence and Harris both completely dodged the question .
If a President were , in fact , impaired to a serious degree , it would , of course , be responsible for lawmakers to treat that as a grave threat to national @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stable transition of power to the Vice-President .
That is the reason the Twenty-fifth Amendment is in the Constitution in the first place .
How we have dealt with Trump thus far , though , has only strengthened the constitutional norm that even widespread and persistent public alarm about a President ’ s mental fitness does not warrant the use of the Amendment to remove him .
More to the point , the bar for mental acuity and stability for Presidents has lowered along with much else in the past four years .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Times , “ Please tell me why I should care whether Joe Biden is declining mentally when Donald Trump bottomed out morally long ago.
” Trailing Biden in polls , Trump has continually triggered shock waves around election integrity , claiming election fraud , attacking confidence in the process ’ s legitimacy , urging his supporters to “ go into the polls and watch very carefully , ” and , most alarmingly , at times refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power .
( When pressed by NBC News ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did commit to a peaceful transfer of power . )
If , as seems likely , voters deliver a loss for Trump , the Twenty-fifth Amendment comes into different focus , as an essential support to the democratic electoral process rather than an end run around it .
In the event that the President ’ s mental state leads him to try to circumvent the election result in order to stay in power , having Congress remove him via the Twenty-fifth Amendment as “ unable to discharge the powers and duties of his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ function of constitutional democracy as can be imagined .

Throughout the past four years, there has been chatter about Donald Trump’s mental health and stability, but little political will to make use of the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which allows Congress to deem a President “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and remove him from power. The discussion resurfaced more seriously this month, however, in light of Trump’s hospitalization for COVID-19 and the White House’s lack of transparency around his treatment. The news that he was medicated with the steroid dexamethasone, used for seriously ill COVID-19 patients, also alarmed many because its known side effects include aggression, agitation, and “grandiose delusions”—behaviors that, judging from the President’s Twitter account, at least, he already seemed to exhibit.
On October 9th, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a new bill to establish a Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office, which would help carry out the Twenty-fifth Amendment process in the event that the President becomes incapable of doing his job. (Sponsored by the Democratic representative and former constitutional-law professor Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, the House bill is similar to one he introduced in 2017.) Announcing the bill only a week after disclosure of the President’s COVID-19 diagnosis and three weeks before the election, Pelosi invoked the Amendment as a “path for preserving stability if a President suffers a crippling physical or mental problem.” She added, “This is not about President Trump. He will face the judgment of the voters, but he shows the need for us to create a process for future Presidents.”
Section four of the Twenty-fifth Amendment provides two distinct avenues for removing a President against his will. In one, the Vice-President joins with a majority of the Cabinet to send Congress a written declaration that the President is unable to serve. In the other, the Vice-President does so along with a majority of “such other body as Congress may by law provide.” The purpose of the House bill is to provide the congressionally appointed body that the Amendment contemplates, by creating a commission of seventeen members to be chosen by both parties, consisting of physicians and former high executive-branch officials. According to the Twenty-fifth Amendment, once Congress receives a declaration of the President’s incapacity, both houses could then decide, by two-thirds votes, to replace him with the Vice-President.
Pelosi’s decision to unveil the bill so close to the election may be, as Republicans have claimed, intended to harm Trump at the polls by drawing more attention to concerns about his health. On October 19th, Senator Kelly Loeffler, a Republican from Georgia, introduced a nonbinding Senate resolution to condemn House Democrats for “politicizing the Twenty-fifth Amendment” and the President’s health “during a global pandemic in order to influence the upcoming November election.”
In truth, it is all too easy, in a fragile democracy, especially in a time of immense crisis and fear, to transform vehement political or moral disapproval of a leader into a conviction that he or she is mentally unsound and therefore dangerous—and should be overthrown through non-electoral means. That is likely why the Twenty-fifth Amendment has been invoked only in temporary and limited ways, and only in cases of physical incapacity. George W. Bush invoked it twice for colonoscopies, each time making Vice-President Dick Cheney the acting President. When Ronald Reagan was shot and in surgery, in 1981, his Administration took steps to install Vice-President George H. W. Bush but soon decided against it. Four years later, Reagan did transfer power to his Vice-President before surgery for colon cancer.
In the realm of mental incapacity, as Richard Nixon faced likely impeachment, his staff feared that his unravelling state might lead him to order a nuclear launch, and his Defense Secretary went so far as to tell the Joint Chiefs not to execute such a military order if it came directly from the President. But Nixon’s Cabinet did not seek to set in motion his removal under the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Reagan’s staff considered invoking the Amendment when his dementia became evident to them, late in his second term, but decided against it. In 2017, Rod Rosenstein, then Trump’s Deputy Attorney General, reportedly suggested that the Cabinet invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment, shortly after Trump fired the F.B.I. director, James Comey.
The questioning of Trump’s fitness has persisted throughout his Presidency, as members of his party and his close associates fed the narrative of a deteriorating mind. In 2017, then Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee who was then the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, called the White House an “adult day care center”; he went on to say, “I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him.” In “A Warning,” published in 2019, an anonymous senior Trump official reported: “He stumbles, slurs, gets confused, is easily irritated, and has trouble synthesizing information, not occasionally but with regularity.” Similarly to Corker, the Administration official added that working with Trump was “like showing up at the nursing home at daybreak.” Other senior officials have said that Trump, who is seventy-four, appeared to be suffering from some form of dementia. Trump’s former White House adviser Omarosa Newman stated in her book “Unhinged,” in 2018, that Trump’s “mental decline could not be denied.” Trump’s former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said, in 2019, that Trump “has declining mental faculties.”
Others, including Trump’s niece Mary L. Trump, a clinical psychologist, have said that Trump’s behavior shows the symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder. A number of mental-health experts have also suggested that he may suffer from malignant narcissism, a term that was coined by the psychologist Erich Fromm, in 1964, in order to describe Hitler and Stalin. John Gartner, the psychologist who spearheaded the Duty to Warn movement in 2017 and has advocated removing Trump through the Twenty-fifth Amendment, told me that malignant narcissism is a “psychiatric condition that makes you evil,” combining narcissism (which features the extremes of poor self-esteem and distorted self-enlargement), paranoia (which Gartner sees in “the crazy conspiracy theories, sense of victimization, and demonization of minorities”), psychopathy (“lying and exploiting people”), and sadism. The condition is considered dangerous because the combination of aggression, suspiciousness, lack of empathy, and a fragile ego might result in vindictive and destructive acts when the sufferer is wounded. Shortly before Trump’s impeachment trial, in February, more than eight hundred mental-health professionals signed a letter to Congress, warning that “failing to monitor or to understand the psychological aspects” of humiliating Trump “could lead to catastrophic outcomes.”
Trump has repeatedly flipped the conversation about mental deterioration onto his opponent, who many have claimed also shows signs of senility. At a March rally, Trump said, of Biden, “They’re going to put him in a home, and other people are going to be running the country.” Talk of Biden’s mental decline began during the Democratic primary campaign last year, as other candidates observed that Biden garbled sentences, misspoke, and failed to finish trains of thought in some debates. (Biden has spoken about having a lifelong stutter.)
Last spring, Bernie Sanders’s surrogates and supporters promoted the hashtag #WhereIsJoe, implying that Biden’s campaign was keeping him out of sight to hide mental infirmity. Glenn Greenwald, founder of the Intercept and an outspoken Sanders supporter, tweeted that “the steadfast, wilful refusal of Dem political & media elites to address what is increasingly visible to the naked eye — Biden’s serious cognitive decline — is frightening.” Biden, who has said he would not seek a second term as President, released his physician’s report that he is healthy and “fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency” but offered nothing specific about his cognitive health.


newyorker--2020-10-26--“Red Squad”: An Investigation of the N.Y.P.D.’s Crackdown on Dissent, Fifty Years Ago

For those who believe that the New York Police Department ’ s crackdown on dissent and targeting of protesters exercising their constitutional rights is a newborn response to the Black Lives Matter movement or an anti-Muslim aftereffect of the 9/11 attacks , Metrograph is here with a corrective .
On its Web site , through its virtual-cinema program , the New York movie theatre will be showing ( on Monday night , to members , and this Tuesday through Thursday , to the general public ) the 1972 documentary “ Red Squad , ” which reveals the extraordinary and brazen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the aggressive , intrusive targeting of individual protesters by the N.Y.P.D .
in the early nineteen-seventies .
The film , made by the Brooklyn-based Pacific Street Film Collective ( consisting of Howard Blatt , Steven Fischler , Francis Freedland , and Joel Sucher ) , is an extraordinary work of investigative journalism , in which the filmmakers themselves and their process become part of the story—in fact , become more of the story than they had intended or hoped .
( Full disclosure : in the mid-eighties , I briefly worked for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . )
In “ Red Squad , ” the four filmmakers , sitting at a table in their office , discuss the background to their project—the prevalence of surveillance of protesters at all levels of government and , particularly , by the N.Y.P.D .
The surveillance was largely conducted by a special bureau that , in the course of filming , changed its name from one bureaucratic deadener to another ( Bureau of Special Services , Special Services Division , Security Investigation Squad ) but that was widely known as the Red Squad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surveillance of suspected Communists .
The Squad was already the subject of lawsuits ( the filmmakers interview the attorney Martin Stolar , who had filed one ) and of newspaper reports ( the movie shows clippings from the Times and other publications ) , but Pacific Street decides to find out for itself and photographs the unmarked downtown Manhattan building where the Squad was headquartered .
They ’ d driven there in a car registered to Blatt ’ s mother , and the next day two police officers showed up at Blatt ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his father , under the pretense of a hit-and-run accident , then disclosed that they wanted to speak to Blatt .
Blatt agreed to meet the officers—but only in public—and he and the Collective used the occasion to surveil the surveillers , covertly filming and recording the rendezvous , which took place on the corner of Thirty-eighth Street and Broadway .
( Fischler was spotted with the camera , arrested , but released without charges . )
Then the group decided to extend its investigation to the F.B.I.—then headquartered at Third Avenue and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with one camera ( operated by Blatt , wearing a hidden microphone ) placed conspicuously in front of the building to attract agents ’ attention while other Collective members , working in a van at some remove , covertly filmed the interactions .
In another such setup , the filmmakers recorded from the window of a building across the street .
( Spoiler alert : the agents noticed . )
As a result , F.B.I .
agents questioned Blatt ’ s parents about his activities—and also interrogated the neighbors about the family @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filmmakers , attending a variety of protests taking place in the city , notice the presence of the same plainclothes officers whom they ’ d met and filmed , as well as others whom they recognized by their attire ( including a special lapel pin ) , their demeanor , their placement , and their cameras ( which had no identifying logos of any news-gathering organization ) .
The filmmakers pursue and film these officers , seeking interviews that , for the most part , highlight the tragic absurdism of authoritarian menace .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Congress named Ed Koch—later , the mayor of New York , from 1978 to 1989—who rails against the police surveillance of protesters as an illegal effort at deterring dissent and calls on the City Council to vote to end it . )
Then the filmmakers raise the stakes .
They interview protesters who were the victims of physical violence committed or supervised by members of the Red Squad and , with careful visual analysis of photos and film footage taken at protests , show undercover officers attacking protesters .
The filmmakers also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saw one particularly prominent Red Squad officer posing as a TV news reporter at a protest where a group of construction workers ( “ alleged construction workers , ” she adds ) attacked antiwar demonstrators .
Sucher offers a sharply insightful parsing of that officer ’ s conspicuous exertions ( he ’ s seen in action throughout the film ) .
Then , following up on press reports , the filmmakers manage to interview officers who were involved in infiltrating political groups .
The series of sequences is a micro-masterwork of political psychology @ @ @ @ @ @ @ put special emphasis on the infiltration and disruption of Black activist groups .
The filmmakers , who are white , present an extended interview with a Black officer who worked as an infiltrator ( and he expresses a particular animus toward the Black Panthers ) ; their extended discussion reveals a vertiginous vortex of motives and conflicts .
The filmmakers ’ analysis suggests that , far from dispassionately discharging their duties , many Red Squad officers appear to be acting on the basis of personal political commitments that the city government tacitly endorses—and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rights of protesters , the police and the government both seek to delegitimize dissent and to legitimize repression of it .
Plus ça change .

For those who believe that the New York Police Department’s crackdown on dissent and targeting of protesters exercising their constitutional rights is a newborn response to the Black Lives Matter movement or an anti-Muslim aftereffect of the 9/11 attacks, Metrograph is here with a corrective. On its Web site, through its virtual-cinema program, the New York movie theatre will be showing (on Monday night and Tuesday through Thursday, for Metrograph members) the 1972 documentary “Red Squad,” which reveals the extraordinary and brazen surveillance of protests against the Vietnam War—and the aggressive, intrusive targeting of individual protesters by the N.Y.P.D. in the early nineteen-seventies.
The film, made by the Brooklyn-based Pacific Street Film Collective (consisting of Howard Blatt, Steven Fischler, Francis Freedland, and Joel Sucher), is an extraordinary work of investigative journalism, in which the filmmakers themselves and their process become part of the story—in fact, become more of the story than they had intended or hoped. (Full disclosure: in the mid-eighties, I briefly worked for the company, then called Pacific Street Films.) In “Red Squad,” the four filmmakers, sitting at a table in their office, discuss the background to their project—the prevalence of surveillance of protesters at all levels of government and, particularly, by the N.Y.P.D. The surveillance was largely conducted by a special bureau that, in the course of filming, changed its name from one bureaucratic deadener to another (Bureau of Special Services, Special Services Division, Security Investigation Squad) but that was widely known as the Red Squad, because its roots were in the surveillance of suspected Communists.
The Squad was already the subject of lawsuits (the filmmakers interview the attorney Martin Stolar, who had filed one) and of newspaper reports (the movie shows clippings from the Times and other publications), but Pacific Street decides to find out for itself and photographs the unmarked downtown Manhattan building where the Squad was headquartered. They’d driven there in a car registered to Blatt’s mother, and the next day two police officers showed up at Blatt’s parents’ house and spoke to his father, under the pretense of a hit-and-run accident, then disclosed that they wanted to speak to Blatt. Blatt agreed to meet the officers—but only in public—and he and the Collective used the occasion to surveil the surveillers, covertly filming and recording the rendezvous, which took place on the corner of Thirty-eighth Street and Broadway. (Fischler was spotted with the camera, arrested, but released without charges.)
Then the group decided to extend its investigation to the F.B.I.—then headquartered at Third Avenue and Sixty-ninth Street—and conceived a set of schemes, with one camera (operated by Blatt, wearing a hidden microphone) placed conspicuously in front of the building to attract agents’ attention while other Collective members, working in a van at some remove, covertly filmed the interactions. In another such setup, the filmmakers recorded from the window of a building across the street. (Spoiler alert: the agents noticed.) As a result, F.B.I. agents questioned Blatt’s parents about his activities—and also interrogated the neighbors about the family. Throughout the forty-one-minute film, the filmmakers, attending a variety of protests taking place in the city, notice the presence of the same plainclothes officers whom they’d met and filmed, as well as others whom they recognized by their attire (including a special lapel pin), their demeanor, their placement, and their cameras (which had no identifying logos of any news-gathering organization). The filmmakers pursue and film these officers, seeking interviews that, for the most part, highlight the tragic absurdism of authoritarian menace. (The filmmakers also interview a member of Congress named Ed Koch—later, the mayor of New York, from 1978 to 1989—who rails against the police surveillance of protesters as an illegal effort at deterring dissent and calls on the City Council to vote to end it.)
Then the filmmakers raise the stakes. They interview protesters who were the victims of physical violence committed or supervised by members of the Red Squad and, with careful visual analysis of photos and film footage taken at protests, show undercover officers attacking protesters. The filmmakers also interview a protester who says that she saw one particularly prominent Red Squad officer posing as a TV news reporter at a protest where a group of construction workers (“alleged construction workers,” she adds) attacked antiwar demonstrators. Sucher offers a sharply insightful parsing of that officer’s conspicuous exertions (he’s seen in action throughout the film). Then, following up on press reports, the filmmakers manage to interview officers who were involved in infiltrating political groups. The series of sequences is a micro-masterwork of political psychology. The film suggests that the police put special emphasis on the infiltration and disruption of Black activist groups. The filmmakers, who are white, present an extended interview with a Black officer who worked as an infiltrator (and he expresses a particular animus toward the Black Panthers); their extended discussion reveals a vertiginous vortex of motives and conflicts. The filmmakers’ analysis suggests that, far from dispassionately discharging their duties, many Red Squad officers appear to be acting on the basis of personal political commitments that the city government tacitly endorses—and that, far from protecting the civil rights of protesters, the police and the government both seek to delegitimize dissent and to legitimize repression of it. Plus ça change.


newyorker--2020-10-26--How Pro-Trump Disinformation Is Swaying a New Generation of Cuban-American Voters

Minutes later , Otaola was addressing twenty-seven thousand fans , from a red leather armchair on his set .
“ Hola , Hola !
” he shouted , thrusting his arms into the air .
After offering a generous dose of Cuban gossip , he dove into domestic politics .
“ Gentlemen , they tried to poison Trump !
” he exclaimed , feigning shock at the ricin-laced letter sent to the White House .
Otaola then turned to a Times exposé on the President ’ s tax avoidance and burgeoning debt : “ Trump has denied it .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lie , therefore it is fake news , ” he told his audience .
There was no reason to fret—someone from the Florida Republican Party had recently called Otaola to say that a record number of young people were registering to vote .
As a “ Latinos for Trump ” image appeared onscreen , the host questioned the safety of voting by mail .
“ Get in line to take part in the world ’ s greatest democracy , ” he proclaimed , his rhythm building .
“ Register !
Vote !
Participate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I Like to Move It , ” mixed with the lyrics “ Es hora de que votes , ” or “ It ’ s time to vote , ” started blasting through the studio ’ s walls .
Karma , the monkey , shrieked loudly .
For years , the majority of post-1995 émigrés favored loosening restrictions on Cuba and moving away from the United States ’ embargo against the island .
According to Florida International University ’ s Cuba Poll , recent émigrés were the most likely to support Barack Obama in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump in 2016 .
But newer polling numbers tell a dramatically different story .
In less than four years , members of the post-1995 generation , who supported both parties almost equally in 2016 , became more than forty points likelier to identify as Republican , according to the polling group Equis Labs .
What ’ s behind this swing is unclear , but many experts have drawn their own conclusions .
Some point to a profound disillusionment with the results of Obama ’ s policy of rapprochement ; others signal a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to “ Democratic Socialism , ” and a political identity yet to be defined .
The shift is perplexing and alarming to Florida Democrats .
They find it hard to understand why members of the post-1995 generation , who fled an authoritarian regime , would be lured in by an American leader who embraces strongman tactics .
“ What do they see ?
What do they hear ?
” Carmen Pelaez , a Cuban-American filmmaker and political consultant , said .
“ A language they recognize : el caudillismo ” —rule by strongman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carlos Odio , the co-founder of Equis Labs , has been studying the partisan shift among this generation .
Odio said that , in focus groups , recent émigrés expressed strong support for Trump ’ s handling of the economy , and also a fear of socialism .
“ The Trump brand lives independently of a good economy , ” he said .
“ It ’ s tied with the notion that he is a bulwark against socialist ideas , which are somehow aligned against their own entrepreneurship.
” Florida liberals point out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of work since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and rely heavily on signature social-welfare programs enacted by Democrats .
Hialeah , a city north of Miami which is home to the largest Cuban diaspora in the country , has some of the nation ’ s highest numbers of Obamacare enrollees , yet is solidly Republican .
At an early-voting location in the city , a Cuban-American couple wearing matching Trump hats said that their vote for the President was a vote against Communism .
“ We ’ re Cubans .
We come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any of that here , ” the man , who left the island in the early two-thousands , said .
Odio pointed out that the narrative created by Trump backers such as Otaola , who shifted to the G.O.P .
after the 2016 election , has helped change the post-1995 generation ’ s view of Democrats .
“ It has been filtered through this very one-sided media ecosystem , which is pulling together all of those loose strings and telling a cohesive narrative about why this generation of Cubans needs to move away @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
After arriving in Miami , Otaola held different jobs , ranging from Walmart cashier to telenovela supporting actor .
In 2017 , he began airing his one-man show before a small audience .
Within months , his audience soared .
As a recent émigré himself , Otaola knows how to address a generation that is yearning to belong .
He speaks in their preferred language , from a platform that is accessible to all .
But he also spreads vast amounts of disinformation , telling his viewers that Obama and Anthony Fauci @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that Communism is inexorable under Biden , and that Antifa has infiltrated the Democratic Party .
( Otaola denied that he spreads disinformation , and described his work as “ analysis.
” ) At that late-September taping of his show , Otaola made a big deal out of an “ analysis ” of Biden ’ s senility .
He referred to it repeatedly and urged his producers to get out a copy of it .
No one inside the recording booth seemed to know what he was referring to .
Ultimately , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but the show went on regardless .
Although polls show that Biden has a slight edge over Trump in Florida , the President leads overwhelmingly with Cuban-American voters .
The latest F.I.U .
Cuba Poll , which was released earlier this month , shows Trump trouncing Biden by thirty-four points .
His support is strongest among older Cuban-Americans ; younger members of the community and those who were born outside of Cuba tend to lean toward the Democratic Party .
The pro-Trump shift observed in the post-1995 generation has rekindled a debate on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the Republican Party .
“ When people set foot in Miami , ” Guillermo Grenier , a sociologist at F.I.U .
who leads the Cuba Poll , said , “ they see this success story brought about according to their creation myths—by embracing the Republican hard line.
” Such “ creation myths ” reach far back in time .
They ’ re behind the notion that Cubans have always embraced Republicans and that only the G.O.P.
’ s tough stance on Cuba has been fruitful .
Grenier pointed out that , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the seventies were Democrats .
After Watergate , a significant number turned toward the Democratic Party , in reprisal for Richard Nixon ’ s perceived mistreatment of several Cuban exiles who participated in the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters .
What ’ s more , the Democratic Party is behind numerous policies that have given Cuban immigrants unique privileges , including the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 , which puts Cuban immigrants on a path to citizenship just one year after their arrival to the U.S. “ What strikes me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Michael Bustamante , an F.I.U .
scholar of Cuban-American history , told me .
“ The Obama policy was criticized from a month in about not having produced its results .
But Lord knows embargo defenders shouldn ’ t talk about timelines , given how long they ’ ve waited for their policy to have results.
” Although Trump has officially taken a hard line on Cuba , several of his associates have sought business opportunities on the island over the years , and the President even registered his company ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with other issues , he has tried to overturn Obama ’ s legacy .
Five months after taking office , Trump announced his plans to reverse his predecessor ’ s détente policy , and said , “ With God ’ s help , a free Cuba is what we will soon achieve.
” But the revolution will soon outlive twelve U.S .
Administrations , including , most certainly , Trump ’ s own .
Asked why such misconceptions have endured , Grenier blamed Democrats in Florida and Washington .
“ The Democratic Party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said , referring to its scant presence in South Florida .
In its absence , Republicans have seized the political narrative and built a large audience for themselves .
Ric Herrero , the executive director of the Cuba Study Group , which advocates engagement with the island , explained that Republicans were present in the state year-round , actively organizing and advocating for their policy agenda .
“ Among Democrats , there is this lingering attitude that reaching out to the Cuban vote and trying to cultivate that vote is just not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who briefly led the Miami-Dade Democratic Party , said .
In the final weeks before the 2020 election , the Biden campaign has ramped up its investment in Florida and outspent Trump in Spanish-language television ads .
But Democrats concede the limits of their strategy .
“ It ’ s been hard to break through the noise , ” Felice Gorordo , an adviser to Biden , said , arguing that Republicans have had three years to roll out a disinformation campaign that preys on people ’ s fears .
“ Absent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has filled that vacuum.
” Herrero echoed this concern : “ You have a President and a Party that are only messaging voters on the Red Scare—the threat of a socialist takeover in the United States .
That ’ s how they ’ re trying to win them over on policy .
It ’ s all about triggering the identity of an exile.
” Although winning the Cuban vote is likely beyond Biden ’ s reach at this point , some see a limit to Trump ’ s approach .
“ A lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jobs and health care , ” Odio , the pollster , said .
“ Many are holding back because , frankly , they haven ’ t heard enough about Biden .
And because they ’ re seeing so much negativity in their social media , in their families , and in their networks that there needs to be a permission structure where it ’ s O.K .
to vote for Joe Biden.
” In Herrero ’ s view , the shift among the post-1995 generation is conditional .
“ These migrants are a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ growing up that the way to get ahead is to align yourself with power , ” he said .
“ A takeaway of this radical shift is that it can also be undone.
” Frustrated with a lack of moderate voices , Rodriguez started his own YouTube show , this summer , and founded 23yFlagler , a news site crafted for a Cuban-American audience .
Stories on the site counter false narratives , but they also don ’ t present easy answers .
“ What Bothers Us Cubans About Black Lives Matter ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Capitalist Idea ” are among the articles published recently on 23yFlagler .
Rodriguez , who has hosted pro-Trump Cuban influencers on his show , hopes to foster conversations in which ideas are exchanged rather than preached .
“ We ’ ll see if it works out , ” he said .
“ I don ’ t know if it will , but I need to trust in the power that the truth has to persuade.
” Rodriguez recognizes that Otaola has become the primary source of information for many in his generation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s influence has allowed him to discredit opposing voices .
On October 15th , before participating in an NBC News town hall , in Miami , Trump stopped by a fund-raising reception at his golf course in nearby Doral .
There , the President met briefly with Otaola and took a couple questions from the host .
The conversation , which was moderated by the Republican congressman Mario Díaz-Balart , mostly revolved around Trump exaggerating his role in countering Communism .
“ Biden and Obama gave everything away , ” Trump said , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cuba .
“ Now this regime is very , very poor.
” As Trump spoke , Otaola recorded his words and nodded affirmingly .
The host also had a request of the President .
“ In our show , we ’ ve put together a red list of celebrities with ties to the Cuban dictatorship who enter the United States with a visa , ” Otaola said .
“ Can we send it to you , so that you can vet these people and their visas ?
” Trump interrupted Díaz-Balart , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I would.
” The President followed up with a question to Díaz-Balart : “ So these are people you don ’ t want to have ?
” The congressman nodded .
“ I ’ ll take it , ” Trump said to Otaola , referring to the list , and urged the host to reach out to him directly , just as the congressman had .
“ He has immediate access .
You do , too.
” Rodriguez called the exchange brazen demagoguery .
He said that the list included the names @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dissidents , some of whom had spoken out against Otaola .
They were , in essence , the host ’ s personal enemies .
“ It ’ s the return of a witch-hunt culture , where people are censored for the way they think , ” Rodriguez said , adding that such lists were common in Cuba and had silenced opposing views .
“ It ’ s the kind of culture where prisoners of conscience abound.
” Otaola was signalling that people would stay out of trouble as long as they sided with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said the list was made up of people who benefitted from the Cuban government at the expense of Cubans . )
In the eyes of Rodriguez , this was , at its core , an effort to intimidate Trump opponents ahead of the election , one that was reminiscent of McCarthyism and the Cuban regime that both he and Otaola had fled .

One evening in late September, the YouTube celebrity Alex Otaola and three of his producers huddled in their Miami studio to concoct an episode of his online show, “Hola! Ota-Ola.” At forty-one, Otaola has become a popular and bitterly divisive figure among young Cubans in South Florida. Before going live, the host, who wore a turban and a black Mickey Mouse shirt, sat on the set scrolling through his phone in silence. To his right, a “Latinos for Trump” sign rested on a chair; next to it stood a cutout of the President with his thumbs up. Inside the recording booth, Otaola’s producers rushed to gather enough content to liven up his nearly three-hour-long performance. Sipping coffee from thimble-sized cups, they scoured social media in search of images, videos, and audio clips to accompany the host’s galloping script. A clipboard listed all the points Otaola was meant to hit that day: “Protests,” “Elections/Dumped ballots,” and “Pompeo/AIS”—a reference to the State Department’s newly announced sanctions against Cuba. Suddenly, Otaola walked into the booth with a bundle of flannel blankets in his arms. Inside them was a live squirrel monkey. “Her name is Karma,” the host announced, with a proud smile.
Minutes later, Otaola was addressing twenty-seven thousand fans, from a red leather armchair on his set. “Hola, Hola!” he shouted, thrusting his arms into the air. After offering a generous dose of Cuban gossip, he dove into domestic politics. “Gentlemen, they tried to poison Trump!” he exclaimed, feigning shock at the ricin-laced letter sent to the White House. Otaola then turned to a Times exposé on the President’s tax avoidance and burgeoning debt: “Trump has denied it. He’s said it’s a lie, therefore it is fake news,” he told his audience. There was no reason to fret—someone from the Florida Republican Party had recently called Otaola to say that a record number of young people were registering to vote. As a “Latinos for Trump” image appeared onscreen, the host questioned the safety of voting by mail. “Get in line to take part in the world’s greatest democracy,” he proclaimed, his rhythm building. “Register! Vote! Participate!” The nineties hit song “I Like to Move It,” mixed with the lyrics “Es hora de que votes,” or “It’s time to vote,” started blasting through the studio’s walls. Karma, the monkey, shrieked loudly.
Nearly two decades ago, Otaola, then a young state-media worker in Havana, won an American visa in a lottery for Cuban citizens, and moved to Miami in search of work. He belongs to what pundits refer to as the “post-1995 generation.” For many Cuban émigrés, the year one fled the island is telling enough to serve as a rough demarcation between generations. Among Miami’s Cuban old guard, those who started arriving in the nineties are seen as Comunistas arrepentidos, or repentant Communists. The pioneers of the post-1995 generation fled amid revolt in the mid-nineties, when more than thirty-five thousand people left the island in homemade rafts and rickety boats, spurring la crisis de los balseros, or the rafters’ crisis. Others arrived after the creation of the “wet foot, dry foot” policy, which Bill Clinton enacted to deter further arrivals by sea and which ended a three-decade practice of automatically allowing Cuban immigrants who arrived by boat into the country. Democrats saw the post-1995 generation as an opportunity to make inroads with the Cuban-American electorate in South Florida, which has been dominated by hard-line conservatives who fled the island in the late nineteen-fifties, after Fidel Castro’s revolution.
For years, the majority of post-1995 émigrés favored loosening restrictions on Cuba and moving away from the United States’ embargo against the island. According to Florida International University’s Cuba Poll, recent émigrés were the most likely to support Barack Obama in 2012 and the least likely to support Donald Trump in 2016. But newer polling numbers tell a dramatically different story. In less than four years, members of the post-1995 generation, who supported both parties almost equally in 2016, became more than forty points likelier to identify as Republican, according to the polling group Equis Labs. What’s behind this swing is unclear, but many experts have drawn their own conclusions. Some point to a profound disillusionment with the results of Obama’s policy of rapprochement; others signal a special reverence for Trump, an aversion to “Democratic Socialism,” and a political identity yet to be defined.
The shift is perplexing and alarming to Florida Democrats. They find it hard to understand why members of the post-1995 generation, who fled an authoritarian regime, would be lured in by an American leader who embraces strongman tactics. “What do they see? What do they hear?” Carmen Pelaez, a Cuban-American filmmaker and political consultant, said. “A language they recognize: el caudillismo”—rule by strongman. For more than a year, Carlos Odio, the co-founder of Equis Labs, has been studying the partisan shift among this generation. Odio said that, in focus groups, recent émigrés expressed strong support for Trump’s handling of the economy, and also a fear of socialism. “The Trump brand lives independently of a good economy,” he said. “It’s tied with the notion that he is a bulwark against socialist ideas, which are somehow aligned against their own entrepreneurship.”
Florida liberals point out that many recent émigrés have been out of work since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and rely heavily on signature social-welfare programs enacted by Democrats. Hialeah, a city north of Miami which is home to the largest Cuban diaspora in the country, has some of the nation’s highest numbers of Obamacare enrollees, yet is solidly Republican. At an early-voting location in the city, a Cuban-American couple wearing matching Trump hats said that their vote for the President was a vote against Communism. “We’re Cubans. We come from a dictatorship—we don’t want any of that here,” the man, who left the island in the early two-thousands, said. Odio pointed out that the narrative created by Trump backers such as Otaola, who shifted to the G.O.P. after the 2016 election, has helped change the post-1995 generation’s view of Democrats. “It has been filtered through this very one-sided media ecosystem, which is pulling together all of those loose strings and telling a cohesive narrative about why this generation of Cubans needs to move away from the Democrats,” he said.
After arriving in Miami, Otaola held different jobs, ranging from Walmart cashier to telenovela supporting actor. In 2017, he began airing his one-man show before a small audience. Within months, his audience soared. As a recent émigré himself, Otaola knows how to address a generation that is yearning to belong. He speaks in their preferred language, from a platform that is accessible to all. But he also spreads vast amounts of disinformation, telling his viewers that Obama and Anthony Fauci were seen together in a Wuhan lab, that Communism is inexorable under Biden, and that Antifa has infiltrated the Democratic Party. (Otaola denied that he spreads disinformation, and described his work as “analysis.”) At that late-September taping of his show, Otaola made a big deal out of an “analysis” of Biden’s senility. He referred to it repeatedly and urged his producers to get out a copy of it. No one inside the recording booth seemed to know what he was referring to. Ultimately, they failed to produce the analysis, but the show went on regardless.
During this Presidential election in Florida, pro-Trump disinformation has become the norm. It’s being widely disseminated on the airwaves, spread on social-media platforms, and echoed at the highest levels, from the White House to the Republican National Convention. If there’s a notion that Trump has been sure to exploit in Florida, it’s that a Biden Presidency would bring anarchy to the country and lead it down a path to Communism. Speaking at a recent rally in Ocala, in central Florida, Trump accused Democrats of wanting to “ruin the lives” of Latinos living in the country. “They want to turn America into a Communist country or a socialist country,” Trump said. “We’re not letting it happen. We’re going to have a big victory, and that’ll be the end of it.”
Although polls show that Biden has a slight edge over Trump in Florida, the President leads overwhelmingly with Cuban-American voters. The latest F.I.U. Cuba Poll, which was released earlier this month, shows Trump trouncing Biden by thirty-four points. His support is strongest among older Cuban-Americans; younger members of the community and those who were born outside of Cuba tend to lean toward the Democratic Party. The pro-Trump shift observed in the post-1995 generation has rekindled a debate on whether the Cuban-American identity is inextricably linked to the Republican Party. “When people set foot in Miami,” Guillermo Grenier, a sociologist at F.I.U. who leads the Cuba Poll, said, “they see this success story brought about according to their creation myths—by embracing the Republican hard line.”
Such “creation myths” reach far back in time. They’re behind the notion that Cubans have always embraced Republicans and that only the G.O.P.’s tough stance on Cuba has been fruitful. Grenier pointed out that, in fact, many Cubans living in Florida in the seventies were Democrats. After Watergate, a significant number turned toward the Democratic Party, in reprisal for Richard Nixon’s perceived mistreatment of several Cuban exiles who participated in the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. What’s more, the Democratic Party is behind numerous policies that have given Cuban immigrants unique privileges, including the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which puts Cuban immigrants on a path to citizenship just one year after their arrival to the U.S.
“What strikes me is just how short memory is,” Michael Bustamante, an F.I.U. scholar of Cuban-American history, told me. “The Obama policy was criticized from a month in about not having produced its results. But Lord knows embargo defenders shouldn’t talk about timelines, given how long they’ve waited for their policy to have results.” Although Trump has officially taken a hard line on Cuba, several of his associates have sought business opportunities on the island over the years, and the President even registered his company’s trademark there, in 2008. As with other issues, he has tried to overturn Obama’s legacy. Five months after taking office, Trump announced his plans to reverse his predecessor’s détente policy, and said, “With God’s help, a free Cuba is what we will soon achieve.” But the revolution will soon outlive twelve U.S. Administrations, including, most certainly, Trump’s own.
Asked why such misconceptions have endured, Grenier blamed Democrats in Florida and Washington. “The Democratic Party is not to be seen,” he said, referring to its scant presence in South Florida. In its absence, Republicans have seized the political narrative and built a large audience for themselves. Ric Herrero, the executive director of the Cuba Study Group, which advocates engagement with the island, explained that Republicans were present in the state year-round, actively organizing and advocating for their policy agenda. “Among Democrats, there is this lingering attitude that reaching out to the Cuban vote and trying to cultivate that vote is just not worth the trouble,” Herrero, who briefly led the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, said.
In the final weeks before the 2020 election, the Biden campaign has ramped up its investment in Florida and outspent Trump in Spanish-language television ads. But Democrats concede the limits of their strategy. “It’s been hard to break through the noise,” Felice Gorordo, an adviser to Biden, said, arguing that Republicans have had three years to roll out a disinformation campaign that preys on people’s fears. “Absent of us doing that, the other side has filled that vacuum.” Herrero echoed this concern: “You have a President and a Party that are only messaging voters on the Red Scare—the threat of a socialist takeover in the United States. That’s how they’re trying to win them over on policy. It’s all about triggering the identity of an exile.”
Although winning the Cuban vote is likely beyond Biden’s reach at this point, some see a limit to Trump’s approach. “A lot of people actually want to hear about jobs and health care,” Odio, the pollster, said. “Many are holding back because, frankly, they haven’t heard enough about Biden. And because they’re seeing so much negativity in their social media, in their families, and in their networks that there needs to be a permission structure where it’s O.K. to vote for Joe Biden.” In Herrero’s view, the shift among the post-1995 generation is conditional. “These migrants are a product of a post-totalitarian system—they know from growing up that the way to get ahead is to align yourself with power,” he said. “A takeaway of this radical shift is that it can also be undone.”
Outside of the Democratic Party, members of the post-1995 generation are also trying to figure out how to counter the right’s rhetoric. Among them is Guennady Rodriguez, a thirty-nine-year-old Cuban lawyer who settled in Miami a little less than a decade ago. In the past several years, Rodriguez has watched with angst as Otaola and others have spread falsehoods to lure voters away from Democrats. “They’ve manipulated people’s traumas,” he said. The vehemence of this year’s political debate has been on display during early voting in Florida. Many Cuban Trump supporters claim that the race is all but a moral choice between Communism and anti-Communism. The mere sight of a Biden supporter prompted bitter anger, and, in some cases, screaming. Conversations devolve because there is complete disagreement on basic facts. “In the absence of dialogue, democracy dies,” Rodriguez said.
Frustrated with a lack of moderate voices, Rodriguez started his own YouTube show, this summer, and founded 23yFlagler, a news site crafted for a Cuban-American audience. Stories on the site counter false narratives, but they also don’t present easy answers. “What Bothers Us Cubans About Black Lives Matter?” and “Guaranteeing Health Care Is a Capitalist Idea” are among the articles published recently on 23yFlagler. Rodriguez, who has hosted pro-Trump Cuban influencers on his show, hopes to foster conversations in which ideas are exchanged rather than preached. “We’ll see if it works out,” he said. “I don’t know if it will, but I need to trust in the power that the truth has to persuade.” Rodriguez recognizes that Otaola has become the primary source of information for many in his generation, and that the YouTube star’s influence has allowed him to discredit opposing voices.
On October 15th, before participating in an NBC News town hall, in Miami, Trump stopped by a fund-raising reception at his golf course in nearby Doral. There, the President met briefly with Otaola and took a couple questions from the host. The conversation, which was moderated by the Republican congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, mostly revolved around Trump exaggerating his role in countering Communism. “Biden and Obama gave everything away,” Trump said, of his predecessor’s policy on Cuba. “Now this regime is very, very poor.” As Trump spoke, Otaola recorded his words and nodded affirmingly.
The host also had a request of the President. “In our show, we’ve put together a red list of celebrities with ties to the Cuban dictatorship who enter the United States with a visa,” Otaola said. “Can we send it to you, so that you can vet these people and their visas?” Trump interrupted Díaz-Balart, who was translating, and quickly replied, “I would.” The President followed up with a question to Díaz-Balart: “So these are people you don’t want to have?” The congressman nodded. “I’ll take it,” Trump said to Otaola, referring to the list, and urged the host to reach out to him directly, just as the congressman had. “He has immediate access. You do, too.”
Rodriguez called the exchange brazen demagoguery. He said that the list included the names of musicians, professionals, and even dissidents, some of whom had spoken out against Otaola. They were, in essence, the host’s personal enemies. “It’s the return of a witch-hunt culture, where people are censored for the way they think,” Rodriguez said, adding that such lists were common in Cuba and had silenced opposing views. “It’s the kind of culture where prisoners of conscience abound.” Otaola was signalling that people would stay out of trouble as long as they sided with him and his views. (He said the list was made up of people who benefitted from the Cuban government at the expense of Cubans.) In the eyes of Rodriguez, this was, at its core, an effort to intimidate Trump opponents ahead of the election, one that was reminiscent of McCarthyism and the Cuban regime that both he and Otaola had fled.


newyorker--2020-10-26--The Future of Trumpism

The Future of Trumpism

Nicholas Lemann ’ s “ The Republican Identity Crisis After Trump ” explores what will happen to the movement Donald @ @ @ @ @ In his 2016 campaign , Trump ran as a populist insurgent against Wall Street , @ @ @ @ @ the Republican Party itself , mobilizing voters against their traditional leadership .
But , in @ @ @ @ @ largely according to the Party ’ s priorities .
If Trump loses next month ’ @ @ @ @ @ become of the movement he created ?
Lemann spoke with David Remnick about three possible @ @ @ @

Download a transcript.|||
Photograph by Jim Watson / AFP / Getty
Nicholas Lemann’s “The Republican Identity Crisis After Trump” explores what will happen to the movement Donald Trump created among Republicans. In his 2016 campaign, Trump ran as a populist insurgent against Wall Street, “élites,” and the Republican Party itself, mobilizing voters against their traditional leadership. But, in office, he has governed largely according to the Party’s priorities. If Trump loses next month’s election, what will become of the movement he created? Lemann spoke with David Remnick about three possible scenarios for Republicans.


newyorker--2020-10-26--Trump Survived the Coronavirus, but He Can’t Escape It

But with just eight days to go until November 3rd , Trump has run into something he can not escape : an alarming third wave of the coronavirus pandemic .
“ Prolong the pandemic : that ’ s all I hear about now , ” the clearly frustrated President said , at a campaign rally in Lumberton , North Carolina , on Saturday afternoon .
“ Turn on television .
COVID , COVID .
COVID , COVID , COVID , COVID .
A plane goes down .
Five hundred people dead .
They don ’ t talk about it .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
By the way , on November 4th , you won ’ t hear about it anymore.
” The implication of Trump ’ s words was clear : the media is making up , or at least exaggerating , the spread of the coronavirus .
That isn ’ t true .
On Saturday , the number of new cases hit a record high : almost eighty-three thousand , according to the COVID Tracking Project .
Nearly forty-two thousand people were hospitalized with COVID-19 , and there were eight hundred and eighty-five new deaths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of new cases was up 20.6 per cent , the number of hospitalizations up 9.2 per cent , and the number of deaths up 15.8 per cent .
Over the weekend , Trump also repeated another untrue claim : the reason that case numbers are rising so fast is that testing has also increased rapidly .
In the week before Trump ’ s speech on Saturday , total tests were up 3.8 per cent , according to the COVID Tracking Project .
But the percentage increase in the number of new cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ increase in the number of tests—a clear indication that the virus is spreading much more rapidly than it was a few weeks ago .
In an interview with the BBC that was shown on Sunday , Dr. Anthony Fauci , the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , said Trump ’ s assessment that the United States is “ rounding the corner ” on the pandemic was wrong .
“ You can have opinions about what ’ s going on , but the data speak for themselves , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ York Times , fifteen states saw a record number of cases last week—many of which are red states .
( Here ’ s the full list : Alaska , Arkansas , Colorado , Idaho , Illinois , Indiana , Kentucky , Montana , North Dakota , Ohio , South Dakota , Tennessee , Utah , Wisconsin , and Wyoming . )
Even the White House , which has already been hard hit by the coronavirus , seems to be experiencing another wave .
Over the weekend , it emerged that at least five @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including his chief of staff , Marc Short , have tested positive over the past few days .
In an interview with CNN ’ s “ State of the Union ” show , on Sunday , Mark Meadows , the White House chief of staff , seemed to admit that the Trump Administration has largely given up on efforts to contain the virus ’ s spread .
“ We ’ re not going to control the pandemic , ” Meadows told Jake Tapper .
“ We are going to control the fact that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other mitigations.
” When Tapper followed up and asked Meadows why we aren ’ t going to get control of the pandemic , he replied , “ Because it is a contagious virus , just like the flu.
” Also on Sunday , CBS News and the polling firm YouGov published new polls that show Joe Biden holding narrow leads over Trump in Florida and North Carolina , two states that the Trump campaign must win .
Separately , a new survey of registered voters , conducted for the Dallas Morning News and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ showed Biden running two points ahead of Trump in Texas , a state that last voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate in 1976 .
“ Texas remains a tossup because of the public ’ s attitudes toward President Trump , ” Mark Owens , a political scientist who directed the poll , told the paper .
Among independent voters , Trump ’ s approval rating is just thirty per cent , and his disapproval rating is fifty-seven per cent , the poll showed .
This Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler survey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course , and it could turn out to be wrong .
The forecasting models from FiveThirtyEight and The Economist both suggest that Trump is likely to carry Texas .
But , taking the most recent polling as a whole , there is little sign of the big shift in critical states that Trump needs , and there is plentiful evidence that the pandemic is hurting him .
Consider North Carolina , which voted for Barack Obama in 2008 but went Republican in the past two Presidential elections .
In 2016 , Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ based on seniors , whom he carried by twenty-three points—sixty per cent to thirty-seven per cent—according to exit polls .
Fast-forward to today , and the new CBS News/YouGov poll indicates that Biden is leading Trump by two points—fifty to forty-eight—among likely voters aged sixty-five and over .
That ’ s a huge swing .
Though it ’ s hard to say how much of this shift can be attributed to any one factor , the pandemic certainly seems to be playing a role .
According to the same survey , Trump is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seven points on the question of who would best handle the coronavirus outbreak .
In response to other questions from the pollsters , more than half of seniors said that Trump is describing the pandemic as better than it really is , and , of these people , more than three-quarters said that he ’ s doing it because he “ wants to ignore a real problem.
” As Trump crisscrosses the country this week in an effort to rally his base and counteract Biden ’ s big advantage in paid media , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hunter Biden , the economy , immigration , anything but the pandemic .
But nearly sixty million Americans have already voted , and the virus is still spreading rapidly .
In a year defined by the coronavirus , it looks like the election may well be defined by it , too .
More on the Coronavirus • To protect American lives and revive the economy , Donald Trump and Jared Kushner should listen to Anthony Fauci rather than trash him .
• We should look to students to conceive of appropriate school-reopening plans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ask what they really want .
• A pregnant pediatrician on what children need during the crisis .
• Trump is helping tycoons who have donated to his reëlection campaign exploit the pandemic to maximize profits .
• Meet the high-finance mogul in charge of our economic recovery .
• The coronavirus is likely to reshape architecture .
What kinds of space are we willing to live and work in now ?

Donald Trump is a lucky devil. In almost half a century as a self-promoting real-estate developer, reality-television star, and political demagogue, he’s been through so many setbacks and difficulties that he may believe he’s invulnerable. Multiple bankruptcies, divorces, lawsuits, the “Access Hollywood” tape, the Stormy Daniels revelations, the Mueller investigation, impeachment, and contracting COVID-19 as an overweight man of seventy-four—he’s come through them all.
But with just eight days to go until November 3rd, Trump has run into something he cannot escape: an alarming third wave of the coronavirus pandemic. “Prolong the pandemic: that’s all I hear about now,” the clearly frustrated President said, at a campaign rally in Lumberton, North Carolina, on Saturday afternoon. “Turn on television. COVID, COVID. COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID. A plane goes down. Five hundred people dead. They don’t talk about it. COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID. By the way, on November 4th, you won’t hear about it anymore.”
The implication of Trump’s words was clear: the media is making up, or at least exaggerating, the spread of the coronavirus. That isn’t true. On Saturday, the number of new cases hit a record high: almost eighty-three thousand, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Nearly forty-two thousand people were hospitalized with COVID-19, and there were eight hundred and eighty-five new deaths. On a weekly basis, the number of new cases was up 20.6 per cent, the number of hospitalizations up 9.2 per cent, and the number of deaths up 15.8 per cent.
President Obama’s New Memoir Read an excerpt in this week’s issue.
Over the weekend, Trump also repeated another untrue claim: the reason that case numbers are rising so fast is that testing has also increased rapidly. In the week before Trump’s speech on Saturday, total tests were up 3.8 per cent, according to the COVID Tracking Project. But the percentage increase in the number of new cases was more than five times the percentage increase in the number of tests—a clear indication that the virus is spreading much more rapidly than it was a few weeks ago.
In an interview with the BBC that was shown on Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Trump’s assessment that the United States is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic was wrong. “You can have opinions about what’s going on, but the data speak for themselves,” Fauci said. According to the New York Times, fifteen states—many of which are red states—saw a record number of cases last week. (Here’s the full list: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.) Even the White House, which has already been hard hit by the coronavirus, seems to be experiencing another wave. Over the weekend, it emerged that at least five people connected with Vice-President Mike Pence, including his chief of staff, Marc Short, have tested positive over the past few days.
In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” show, on Sunday, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, seemed to admit that the Trump Administration has largely given up on efforts to contain the virus’s spread. “We’re not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows told Jake Tapper. “We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics, and other mitigations.” When Tapper followed up and asked Meadows why we aren’t going to get control of the pandemic, he replied, “Because it is a contagious virus, just like the flu.”
Also on Sunday, CBS News and the polling firm YouGov published new polls that show Joe Biden holding narrow leads over Trump in Florida and North Carolina, two states that the Trump campaign must win. Separately, a new survey of registered voters, conducted for the Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler, showed Biden running two points ahead of Trump in Texas, a state that last voted for a Democratic Presidential candidate in 1976. “Texas remains a tossup because of the public’s attitudes toward President Trump,” Mark Owens, a political scientist who directed the poll, told the paper. Among independent voters, Trump’s approval rating is just thirty per cent, and his disapproval rating is fifty-seven per cent, the poll showed.
This Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler survey is just one of many, of course, and it could turn out to be wrong. The forecasting models from FiveThirtyEight and The Economist both suggest that Trump is likely to carry Texas. But, taking the most recent polling as a whole, there is little sign of the big shift in critical states that Trump needs, and there is plentiful evidence that the pandemic is hurting him.
Consider North Carolina, which voted for Barack Obama in 2008 but went Republican in the past two Presidential elections. In 2016, Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton was largely based on seniors, whom he carried by twenty-three points—sixty per cent to thirty-seven per cent—according to exit polls. Fast-forward to today, and the new CBS News/YouGov poll indicates that Biden is leading Trump by two points—fifty to forty-eight—among likely voters aged sixty-five and over. That’s a huge swing.
Though it’s hard to say how much of this shift can be attributed to any one factor, the pandemic certainly seems to be playing a role. According to the same survey, Trump is trailing Biden among North Carolina seniors by seven points on the question of who would best handle the coronavirus outbreak. In response to other questions from the pollsters, more than half of seniors said that Trump is describing the pandemic as better than it really is, and, of these people, more than three-quarters said that he’s doing it because he “wants to ignore a real problem.”
As Trump crisscrosses the country this week in an effort to rally his base and counteract Biden’s big advantage in paid media, he would love to change the subject—to Hunter Biden, the economy, immigration, anything but the pandemic. But nearly sixty million Americans have already voted, and the virus is still spreading rapidly. In a year defined by the coronavirus, it looks like the election may well be defined by it, too.
More on the Coronavirus