newyorker--2020-01-27--What We Lost in the Museum of Chinese in America Fire

As the story goes , it was the late seventies , and Jack Tchen and Charlie Lai began noticing all the old junk left out on the curb in New York ’ s Chinatown .
It was left behind by the neighborhood ’ s old-timers as they passed away : luggage , clothing , personal papers , mementos .
Many of them had come to America for work in the first half of the twentieth century , only to never make their way back home .
They never imagined themselves as part of a history here ; some were in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ place a home at all .
Tchen , a historian , and Lai , a community organizer , had met in the early seventies at the Basement Workshop , a Chinatown hub for activists and artists .
Tchen was often frustrated by how hard it was to find the documents , photographs , and letters necessary to write a history of Chinatown .
It turns out that many of these materials weren ’ t in libraries but in dumpsters .
Tchen , Lai , and others began salvaging as much stuff as they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Project began at 44 East Broadway in 1980 .
Four years later , it moved to 70 Mulberry Street , taking up the second floor of a rickety old schoolhouse .
In 2009 , the newly renamed Museum of Chinese in America ( MOCA ) relocated to a large , custom-designed space on Centre Street .
The bulk of its collections stayed behind at the schoolhouse .
Last Thursday night , 70 Mulberry Street caught on fire , likely destroying much of the museum ’ s collection of some eighty-five thousand items .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ which was owned by the city , also houses a dance center , a senior citizens ’ center , a vocational training office , and an athletics association .
As of now , the cause of the fire remains unknown .
Firefighters worked through the night to contain the damage .
There were a few injuries , but nobody died .
MOCA staffers kept a vigil , watching water pour through the building .
They won ’ t be allowed back in for weeks , at which point most of the materials will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thousand items had been catalogued and digitized .
Among the objects in danger of being lost : paper fans , books and magazines , photographs , printing blocks ; old records , recital programs , and musical instruments ; flyers announcing social services and open jobs ; restaurant menus and signage ; suitcases , cigarette cartons , old newspapers , immigration documents , and passports ; film reels and lobby posters from legendary Chinatown theatres ; irons , washboards , spool holders , and laundry tickets ; wooden dolls , a plastic toy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rickshaw , opera costumes , silk jackets , embroidered slippers ; a hand-painted T-shirt from a comedy troupe that only ever performed once .
As Nancy Bulalacao , who formerly worked as the museum ’ s director of public programs , wrote on Instagram , the heart of MOCA has always been its collection .
The museum ’ s name changes and the staff turns over , the mandate evolves .
Even the meaning of who is centered in the “ Chinese in America ” part shifts over time .
These immigrants came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ laundries and restaurants , and now they ’ re engineers .
Now they ’ re from Hong Kong and Taiwan , and not the mainland .
Now they ’ re from Fujian .
Now they ’ re young , middle-class college students , not old laundry workers .
Now they settle first in Sunset Park or Flushing or Elmhurst , not Manhattan .
Now to call it Chinese sounds monolithic and strange .
Every new generation contributes to the collection in their own way .
I co-curated “ The Moon Represents My Heart @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Chinese-immigrant experience , at MOCA last year , and , when we were gathering materials , I was genuinely shocked at how difficult it was to locate good ephemera—family photos of recitals , old mixtapes or concert T-shirts , ticket stubs .
Admittedly , I am a pack rat who , until recently , kept a folder of my family ’ s old phone bills from 1985 .
( I liked the typefaces . )
But , at a time when there ’ s no greater social currency than a photo of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your favorite CD , I found it odd that very few people still had those physical photographs , let alone any of the items in them .
( Admittedly , I also still have my favorite jacket from when I was three . )
When I asked my parents and their friends , I often heard the same answer : nothing seemed worth keeping .
Perhaps , as I wrote in a piece last August , it was simply a part of the immigrant mentality .
You might save soap by fusing together @ @ @ @ @ @ @ control in plastic to protect it from dust and wear .
But you view yourself as marginal , and self-archiving can feel like a waste of time , or a bit too hubristic .
All that remains of MOCA ’ s archive might be what is currently on premises at the museum .
Somewhat ironically , its current show , “ Gathering : Collecting and Documenting Chinese American History , ” is about the very nature of preservation and collection .
The curators Herb Tam and Andrew Rebatta , assisted by Sojin Kim @ @ @ @ @ @ @ societies and museums across the country to lend them a single item from their respective collections .
Some of these artifacts vibrate more than others .
There ’ s an old clothing iron , a horseshoe modified by Chinese workers to help their horses trudge through mud , a calendar from a local herbalist .
And there are event calendars and commemorative T-shirts of more recent vintage .
As a whole , one gets a sense of the collective spirit uniting these organizations .
For some , it ’ s about the mystical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in far-away locales , it ’ s just about having a space for people to come together .
“ Gathering ” hints at some of the challenges of keeping historically minded organizations viable at a time when people seem uninterested in the past .
We live in a moment when minimalism is a virtue , when it ’ s become a mantra to keep around only things that , in the words of the tidying guru Marie Kondo , “ spark joy.
” The past is joy , but it also consists of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ easy emotional categorization .
Places like MOCA stand a bit outside of the rhythms and currents of our present , in order to point at unfollowed paths of possibility .
American life , the Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong remarked , is about looking forward .
He visited the United States in the forties and was especially bemused by Superman , the human embodiment of possibility , hurtling ever forward .
Americans believed in superheroes , but not in ghosts .
Ghosts draw you into the past .
They are history .
The fire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ MOCA .
It moved from Mulberry to its current location , which was designed by the architect Maya Lin , in 2009 .
Over the past decade , institutions and nonprofit spaces throughout New York have felt the pinch of development and rising rents , and MOCA , which leases its current location , is no exception .
For decades , those who lived outside of Chinatown regarded it as an exotic enclave , and it was largely left alone .
It certainly didn ’ t represent opportunity .
Outside of the Financial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hard by 9/11 than Chinatown .
Things change .
The cafeteria that once sold impossibly cheap Chinese food becomes an upscale diner .
Chinatown is transforming , occasionally at the hands of people with roots in the neighborhood , and the museum has been a part of debates about who is benefitting .
In October , city officials went against local sentiment and moved forward with plans for a new jail in Chinatown .
To soften the blow , the city , often seen as a half-hearted supporter of Chinatown arts and culture @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and parks .
MOCA would receive a substantial grant toward finding a permanent home .

As the story goes, it was the late seventies, and Jack Tchen and Charlie Lai began noticing all the old junk left out on the curb in New York’s Chinatown. It was left behind by the neighborhood’s old-timers as they passed away: luggage, clothing, personal papers, mementos. Many of them had come to America for work in the first half of the twentieth century, only to never make their way back home. They never imagined themselves as part of a history here; some were in denial that you could call this new place a home at all.
Tchen, a historian, and Lai, a community organizer, had met in the early seventies at the Basement Workshop, a Chinatown hub for activists and artists. Tchen was often frustrated by how hard it was to find the documents, photographs, and letters necessary to write a history of Chinatown. It turns out that many of these materials weren’t in libraries but in dumpsters. Tchen, Lai, and others began salvaging as much stuff as they could. The New York Chinatown History Project began at 44 East Broadway in 1980. Four years later, it moved to 70 Mulberry Street, taking up the second floor of a rickety old schoolhouse. In 2009, the newly renamed Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) relocated to a large, custom-designed space on Centre Street. The bulk of its collections stayed behind at the schoolhouse.
Last Thursday night, 70 Mulberry Street caught on fire, likely destroying much of the museum’s collection of some eighty-five thousand items. Besides the collection, the building, which was owned by the city, also houses a dance center, a senior citizens’ center, a vocational training office, and an athletics association. As of now, the cause of the fire remains unknown. Firefighters worked through the night to contain the damage. There were a few injuries, but nobody died. MOCA staffers kept a vigil, watching water pour through the building. They won’t be allowed back in for weeks, at which point most of the materials will likely be unsalvageable. Only about forty thousand items had been catalogued and digitized. Among the objects in danger of being lost: paper fans, books and magazines, photographs, printing blocks; old records, recital programs, and musical instruments; flyers announcing social services and open jobs; restaurant menus and signage; suitcases, cigarette cartons, old newspapers, immigration documents, and passports; film reels and lobby posters from legendary Chinatown theatres; irons, washboards, spool holders, and laundry tickets; wooden dolls, a plastic toy of a man being pulled in a rickshaw, opera costumes, silk jackets, embroidered slippers; a hand-painted T-shirt from a comedy troupe that only ever performed once.
As Nancy Bulalacao, who formerly worked as the museum’s director of public programs, wrote on Instagram, the heart of MOCA has always been its collection. The museum’s name changes and the staff turns over, the mandate evolves. Even the meaning of who is centered in the “Chinese in America” part shifts over time. These immigrants came for the railroads, or to run laundries and restaurants, and now they’re engineers. Now they’re from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and not the mainland. Now they’re from Fujian. Now they’re young, middle-class college students, not old laundry workers. Now they settle first in Sunset Park or Flushing or Elmhurst, not Manhattan. Now to call it Chinese sounds monolithic and strange. Every new generation contributes to the collection in their own way.
I co-curated “The Moon Represents My Heart,” a show about music and the Chinese-immigrant experience, at MOCA last year, and, when we were gathering materials, I was genuinely shocked at how difficult it was to locate good ephemera—family photos of recitals, old mixtapes or concert T-shirts, ticket stubs. Admittedly, I am a pack rat who, until recently, kept a folder of my family’s old phone bills from 1985. (I liked the typefaces.) But, at a time when there’s no greater social currency than a photo of you as a power-clashing twelve-year-old holding up your favorite CD, I found it odd that very few people still had those physical photographs, let alone any of the items in them. (Admittedly, I also still have my favorite jacket from when I was three.) When I asked my parents and their friends, I often heard the same answer: nothing seemed worth keeping. Perhaps, as I wrote in a piece last August, it was simply a part of the immigrant mentality. You might save soap by fusing together old bars, or sheath your remote control in plastic to protect it from dust and wear. But you view yourself as marginal, and self-archiving can feel like a waste of time, or a bit too hubristic.
All that remains of MOCA’s archive might be what is currently on premises at the museum. Somewhat ironically, its current show, “Gathering: Collecting and Documenting Chinese American History,” is about the very nature of preservation and collection. The curators Herb Tam and Andrew Rebatta, assisted by Sojin Kim and David Lei, asked Chinese historical societies and museums across the country to lend them a single item from their respective collections. Some of these artifacts vibrate more than others. There’s an old clothing iron, a horseshoe modified by Chinese workers to help their horses trudge through mud, a calendar from a local herbalist. And there are event calendars and commemorative T-shirts of more recent vintage. As a whole, one gets a sense of the collective spirit uniting these organizations. For some, it’s about the mystical bonds of history. For others, in far-away locales, it’s just about having a space for people to come together.
“Gathering” hints at some of the challenges of keeping historically minded organizations viable at a time when people seem uninterested in the past. We live in a moment when minimalism is a virtue, when it’s become a mantra to keep around only things that, in the words of the tidying guru Marie Kondo, “spark joy.” The past is joy, but it also consists of struggle, confusion, moments that evade easy emotional categorization. Places like MOCA stand a bit outside of the rhythms and currents of our present, in order to point at unfollowed paths of possibility. American life, the Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong remarked, is about looking forward. He visited the United States in the forties and was especially bemused by Superman, the human embodiment of possibility, hurtling ever forward. Americans believed in superheroes, but not in ghosts. Ghosts draw you into the past. They are history.
The fire comes at a particularly odd time for MOCA. It moved from Mulberry to its current location, which was designed by the architect Maya Lin, in 2009. Over the past decade, institutions and nonprofit spaces throughout New York have felt the pinch of development and rising rents, and MOCA, which leases its current location, is no exception. For decades, those who lived outside of Chinatown regarded it as an exotic enclave, and it was largely left alone. It certainly didn’t represent opportunity. Outside of the Financial District, few neighborhoods were hit as hard by 9/11 than Chinatown.
Things change. The cafeteria that once sold impossibly cheap Chinese food becomes an upscale diner. Chinatown is transforming, occasionally at the hands of people with roots in the neighborhood, and the museum has been a part of debates about who is benefitting. In October, city officials went against local sentiment and moved forward with plans for a new jail in Chinatown. To soften the blow, the city, often seen as a half-hearted supporter of Chinatown arts and culture, pledged to improve nearby housing developments and parks. MOCA would receive a substantial grant toward finding a permanent home.
The museum’s leadership and board of directors were heavily criticized for their coöperation with these efforts, even if they were meant to insure the institution’s survival. In the absence of a meaningful response, rumor and innuendo filled the void. There was one story circulating that the new jail would include a MOCA performance space. It was inevitable that Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to close Rikers Island would result in the construction of smaller jails throughout the city. (Perhaps it was inevitable, too, that they would see a museum, parks, and public housing as opportunities for good P.R.) Many were disappointed by MOCA’s willingness to enter into conversations with the Mayor, let alone extract something material. MOCA was accused of straying from its community roots. Though there’s been an outpouring of support in the wake of the fire, those concerns will probably resurface quite soon.
Last Thursday night, a fire at 70 Mulberry Street, MOCA’s former location, likely destroyed much of the museum’s collection of some eighty-five thousand items. Photograph by Robert Bumsted / AP
With more scrutiny on the systems of largesse that keep arts and cultural institutions afloat, the controversy around MOCA seemed a way of localizing similar movements against powerful donors, such as Warren Kanders, the former Whitney Museum board member who was perceived to be profiting from the Trump Administration’s border policy, and the Sackler family, who converted pharmaceutical profits into art-world capital, predominantly at the Guggenheim. Of course, one imagines that those mainstream institutions, with their global brands, innate prestige, and non-stop donor cultivation, will survive.
Independent of these current controversies, I’ve sometimes wondered if spaces like MOCA will remain vibrant in a future where notions of community grow more abstract. Similar questions have encircled El Museo Del Barrio, another cultural institution with modest roots. MOCA is the kind of place without a preëxisting base of Chinese-American donors—they are the ones who often need the museum to see themselves as such in the first place. The museum’s challenge has always been the eclecticism of its core audience; MOCA promotes awareness around traditions and lineages unfamiliar to many, who may even include those who live down the street. Beyond this community-oriented or educational function, its curators must also participate in more sophisticated, art-and-museum-world conversations around, say, representation or patronage. The controversy around the jails has called into question the purpose of MOCA itself—whether its survival is worth going against the will of some of its neighbors and constituencies; whether it can still abide by its hyper-local, dumpster-diving roots at a time of constant global exchange; and who such a museum is for in the first place.
When we did our music show, I would often hear about people who walked in off the street, or e-mailed from afar, wondering why we had left something out. What about our band? Why didn’t you include this party? I loved these responses. Our show wasn’t comprehensive; it couldn’t be. But, at a basic level, it was about encouraging people to see themselves in a museum space, to see themselves as characters in a larger story, and it wasn’t the final word.
MOCA did that for me, too. I once gave a lecture and slide-show presentation on my own clutter. I had a book party there, and, in that glorious winter of 2012, there were all those screenings of N.B.A. games starring Jeremy Lin, full of youngsters who’d only ever been to the museum for a school trip and older folks drawn by the free refreshments. Of course, there have also been shows about the railroads, Chinese food, fashion designers—the stuff that makes Chinese people visible to others. But I’ve also gone there to learn about the short, transfixing history of the Chinese typewriter, and to marvel at the paper boats constructed by the undocumented immigrants who were kept in detention after their cargo ship ran aground in Queens, in 1993—an echo of the poetry that immigrants carved on the walls of Angel Island, at the beginning of the twentieth century.
“When I open a box of these materials, pick up an object and examine, I can almost visualize the history behind it,” Yue Ma, the director of collections at MOCA remarked, in 2014. Ma and Tam co-curated “Waves of Identity: 35 Years of Archiving,” a show that saw them pull items from their vast collection and place them in unlikely conversations. The most mesmerizing part of “Waves of Identity” involved the personal effects of Shuck Wing Chin, one of the many early-twentieth-century immigrant laborers who lived alone, as a bachelor, in Chinatown’s cramped apartment buildings. He had come to the United States in his twenties and served in the Air Force during the Second World War. After that, he lived on Mott Street for about forty years, working in restaurants. The contents of his apartment were salvaged by MOCA, and now they were on display as part of this show. You couldn’t help but wonder who he was—the scale of his imagination, what he would think of those of us who followed, trying to convert his life into a narrative. How would you even explain this museum to him?
Around this time, my friend Herb took me to the archive warehouse on Mulberry. I met him on a busy corner, clueless as to where it was. He pointed at the sky, and I saw the fading sign of MOCA. The door closed behind us, and we were sealed in the past. Compared to Lin’s modern museum, full of aesthetic gestures and seamless surfaces, the old building on Mulberry felt airy and bright, neglected yet well-loved. We weren’t looking for anything in particular. It was the thrill one feels rummaging through second-hand clothes or digging through a stack of old records: underneath a layer of dust, the possibility of treasure. We climbed on top of boxes to get at other boxes, we un-jigsawed things that the archivists had carefully stowed away for latter-day explorers. There were hand-painted signs that weren’t created as art, suitcases that were only meant for a one-way passage across the ocean, tiny mementos that outlived the reasons for their aura. It was all so worthless, yet so priceless.


newyorker--2020-01-27--Trump Says He Has No Intention of Having Bolton’s Book Read Aloud to Him

WASHINGTON ( The Borowitz Report ) —Donald J. Trump has “ no intention whatsoever ” of having John Bolton ’ s book read aloud to him , Trump confirmed on Monday .
Speaking to reporters at the White House , Trump said that his daughter , Ivanka Trump , had obtained a draft manuscript of the Bolton book and had offered to read it aloud to him “ like she does with all of the other books , ” Trump said .
“ She reads the books to me slowly and stops when there ’ s a long word to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump said .
“ But I told her that the Bolton book was the last book in the world that I wanted to hear.
” Trump acknowledged that Ivanka had previously read aloud to him other books that he had not enjoyed , such as “ A Warning , ” by Anonymous .
“ That Anonymous guy has to be the worst writer , ” he said .
“ After Ivanka read ten pages of that crap to me , I told her to throw the book across the room , and she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ many books ” a week , and that sometimes his son-in-law , Jared Kushner , takes turns with Ivanka reading them aloud to him .
“ I ’ ve enjoyed hearing Sean Hannity ’ s books and Laura Ingraham ’ s books , ” Trump said .
“ But John Bolton ’ s ?
Please .
That ’ s the last book I want to hear when Ivanka and Jared tuck me in at night .
”

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump has “no intention whatsoever” of having John Bolton’s book read aloud to him, Trump confirmed on Monday.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said that his daughter, Ivanka Trump, had obtained a draft manuscript of the Bolton book and had offered to read it aloud to him “like she does with all of the other books,” Trump said.
“She reads the books to me slowly and stops when there’s a long word to tell me what it means,” Trump said. “But I told her that the Bolton book was the last book in the world that I wanted to hear.”
Trump acknowledged that Ivanka had previously read aloud to him other books that he had not enjoyed, such as “A Warning,” by Anonymous.
“That Anonymous guy has to be the worst writer,” he said. “After Ivanka read ten pages of that crap to me, I told her to throw the book across the room, and she did.”
Trump said that he hears “many books” a week, and that sometimes his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, takes turns with Ivanka reading them aloud to him.
“I’ve enjoyed hearing Sean Hannity’s books and Laura Ingraham’s books,” Trump said. “But John Bolton’s? Please. That’s the last book I want to hear when Ivanka and Jared tuck me in at night.”


newyorker--2020-01-28--A New Backlash to Gun Control Begins in Virginia

In the seven years since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School , in Newtown , Connecticut , pressure on lawmakers by a surging gun-control movement has resulted in the passage of hundreds of new gun-safety laws .
Momentum to regulate guns accelerated again after the shooting , almost two years ago , at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School , in Parkland , Florida , which marked the end of what might be called the “ thoughts and prayers ” era .
In the months since Parkland , more than thirty states and the District of Columbia signed gun-safety bills @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the National Rifle Association , was an exception .
Last spring , after a mass shooting at a municipal building in Virginia Beach , Republicans voted down a proposed slate of gun-control bills in an emergency legislative session that lasted less than ninety minutes .
In November , Democrats won control of the Virginia general assembly for the first time in more than two decades , after campaigning heavily on gun-control measures , including universal background checks , an assault-rifle ban , and “ red flag ” laws that allow authorities to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ poses a threat .
Everytown for Gun Safety , the gun-control group founded by Michael Bloomberg , spent two and a half million dollars in Virginia in 2019 , eight times more than the National Rifle Association .
Virginia is a polarized state , with a dense liberal population in Richmond , the Washington suburbs , and around its universities , and a conservative majority in its rural areas .
In the weeks after the election , a backlash began .
Dozens of counties and municipalities declared themselves gun-rights “ sanctuaries , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The gun-rights group known as the Virginia Citizens Defense League tripled in size , from eight thousand to twenty-four thousand members , and called for gun-rights activists to rally on January 20th , Martin Luther King , Jr. , Day , in Richmond .
The holiday is known as Lobby Day in Virginia , when citizens roam the halls of the Pocahontas State Office Building and speak with their legislators about their concerns .
V.C.D.L .
has attended Lobby Day since 2002 , and in recent years has drawn a few hundred members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grow among government officials that the ranks of the activists would include people intent on violence .
Groups promoting Lobby Day included the anti-government militia organizations the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters ; Alex Jones , the right-wing conspiracy theorist and founder of InfoWars ; and several organizers of the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in August , 2017 .
Online , people threatened violence .
Accelerationist neo-Nazis described the occasion as a possible spark to a second Civil War .
On January 15th , the state ’ s Democratic governor , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of emergency , banning all weapons on capitol grounds .
On January 16th , the F.B.I .
arrested three members of the white-supremacist group the Base who were allegedly heading to Richmond for Lobby Day with hundreds of rounds of ammunition .
As news of the arrests spread , the V.C.D.L .
announced that several militias had “ graciously ” offered to provide security , but that the group would rely on the police , “ not to mention enough citizens armed with handguns to take over a modern mid-sized country.
” The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both touting how safe the event would be and preparing for it as if for a battle .
As unprecedented as the protest was , it was happening because the gun-rights movement had lost its foothold in a purple state .
A disaster would ruin them .
A success might offer a template for gun-rights activism in Virginia and around the country .
On the evening of Sunday , January 19th , the V.C.D.L .
gathered for its annual pre-Lobby Day dinner , at the Hibachi Sushi and Supreme Buffet , inside the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tables , a koi pond beneath painted murals , prawns glistening under heat lamps , sweet-and-sour sauces , stainless-steel vats of quivering jello , and weapons in holsters .
In a back room , the gun-rights activists ate from plates piled with egg rolls , breaded shrimp , lo mein , peanut brittle , pineapple , and French fries .
The dinner , which is usually a local affair , had the feeling of a national banquet .
There were supportive state legislators visiting from North Carolina and activists who had driven from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ These are normal American people , not fringe , racist haters , ” Pam Liner , from Morven , Georgia , told me .
Liner sells livestock for a living and has a special affection for donkeys , which she delivers to customers up and down the East Coast .
She heard about the rally on television and decided to come by herself ; her friends were too scared to join her .

In the seven years since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, Connecticut, pressure on lawmakers by a surging gun-control movement has resulted in the passage of hundreds of new gun-safety laws. Momentum to regulate guns accelerated again after the shooting, almost two years ago, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland, Florida, which marked the end of what might be called the “thoughts and prayers” era. In the months since Parkland, more than thirty states and the District of Columbia signed gun-safety bills into law. Virginia, the home of the National Rifle Association, was an exception. Last spring, after a mass shooting at a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Republicans voted down a proposed slate of gun-control bills in an emergency legislative session that lasted less than ninety minutes.
In November, Democrats won control of the Virginia general assembly for the first time in more than two decades, after campaigning heavily on gun-control measures, including universal background checks, an assault-rifle ban, and “red flag” laws that allow authorities to temporarily confiscate weapons from a person who poses a threat. Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun-control group founded by Michael Bloomberg, spent two and a half million dollars in Virginia in 2019, eight times more than the National Rifle Association.
Virginia is a polarized state, with a dense liberal population in Richmond, the Washington suburbs, and around its universities, and a conservative majority in its rural areas. In the weeks after the election, a backlash began. Dozens of counties and municipalities declared themselves gun-rights “sanctuaries,” language lifted from the immigrant-rights movement. The gun-rights group known as the Virginia Citizens Defense League tripled in size, from eight thousand to twenty-four thousand members, and called for gun-rights activists to rally on January 20th, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, in Richmond. The holiday is known as Lobby Day in Virginia, when citizens roam the halls of the Pocahontas State Office Building and speak with their legislators about their concerns. V.C.D.L. has attended Lobby Day since 2002, and in recent years has drawn a few hundred members. This year, fear began to grow among government officials that the ranks of the activists would include people intent on violence. Groups promoting Lobby Day included the anti-government militia organizations the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters; Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist and founder of InfoWars; and several organizers of the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in August, 2017. Online, people threatened violence. Accelerationist neo-Nazis described the occasion as a possible spark to a second Civil War. On January 15th, the state’s Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, declared a temporary state of emergency, banning all weapons on capitol grounds. On January 16th, the F.B.I. arrested three members of the white-supremacist group the Base who were allegedly heading to Richmond for Lobby Day with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. As news of the arrests spread, the V.C.D.L. announced that several militias had “graciously” offered to provide security, but that the group would rely on the police, “not to mention enough citizens armed with handguns to take over a modern mid-sized country.” The gun-rights groups that planned to attend were both touting how safe the event would be and preparing for it as if for a battle. As unprecedented as the protest was, it was happening because the gun-rights movement had lost its foothold in a purple state. A disaster would ruin them. A success might offer a template for gun-rights activism in Virginia and around the country.
On the evening of Sunday, January 19th, the V.C.D.L. gathered for its annual pre-Lobby Day dinner, at the Hibachi Sushi and Supreme Buffet, inside the Westland strip mall. There were steam tables, a koi pond beneath painted murals, prawns glistening under heat lamps, sweet-and-sour sauces, stainless-steel vats of quivering jello, and weapons in holsters. In a back room, the gun-rights activists ate from plates piled with egg rolls, breaded shrimp, lo mein, peanut brittle, pineapple, and French fries. The dinner, which is usually a local affair, had the feeling of a national banquet. There were supportive state legislators visiting from North Carolina and activists who had driven from as far away as Missouri and Florida. “These are normal American people, not fringe, racist haters,” Pam Liner, from Morven, Georgia, told me. Liner sells livestock for a living and has a special affection for donkeys, which she delivers to customers up and down the East Coast. She heard about the rally on television and decided to come by herself; her friends were too scared to join her.


newyorker--2020-01-28--Mapping Northern Ireland’s Post-Brexit Future

In the first episode of the most recent season of “ Derry Girls , ” the sitcom about Catholic schoolgirls growing up in Northern Ireland in the nineteen-nineties , at the tail end of the Troubles , an effort is made to bring the teen-agers of Derry together .
A group of local Protestant boys are bussed in from a nearby school , and the students are asked to list their similarities and differences on a chalkboard .
They start large ( “ Protestants are British and Catholics are Irish !
” someone calls out ) and end small ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ; “ Protestants hate ABBA !
” ) until the board is full of differences .
No similarities .
“ It just resonated with me so much , ” Alistair Hamill , who teaches teen-agers of a similar age in Lurgan , about forty-five minutes outside of Belfast , in Northern Ireland , told me recently .
Hamill is fifty-one , and genial , with a shock of white hair .
He moved to Lurgan in 1992 , several years before the Good Friday Agreement brought a tentative peace to the area .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ College , a red-brick , majority-Protestant school founded in the eighteen-seventies , with some trepidation .
Because it was built before the town was segregated , the school is located on the Catholic side of town , and Hamill , housed in teachers ’ quarters nearby , often felt nervous about his safety .
During the Troubles , County Armagh , where Lurgan is located , suffered five hundred and twenty fatalities—more than anywhere outside of Belfast .
So-called tit-for-tat murders filled the news : One day , in Belfast , in 1998 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his carpet shop , and , hours later , in retribution , a Catholic taxi-driver was killed .
Six months before Hamill arrived in Lurgan , a bomb set by the Irish Republican Army destroyed several buildings in the center of town .
“ Totally decimated , ” Hamill said .
“ And that was my introduction to Lurgan.
” Today , Lurgan is a mostly quiet town of about thirty-five thousand residents , split between Protestants and Catholics .
There ’ s a main street that ’ s lined with shops and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the holiday season .
There are no peace walls separating the two populations , as there are in Belfast , but evidence of Lurgan ’ s past is everywhere , if you know where to look .
An invisible line runs down Union Street , in the center of town , dividing Catholics and Protestants .
They have separate housing , schools , sports fields , and green spaces .
Most shops and restaurants close at 5 P.M. , a practice intended to avoid outbursts of late-night violence , though it also leaves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It is possible for a Catholic teen-ager to leave for university without ever having met a Protestant her age .
“ Even if they wanted to meet up an evening in their own town , ” Hamill said , “ Where are they going to go ?
” Recently , in the frenzied run-up to Brexit , the divide has been made more visible .
In Lurgan , as elsewhere in Northern Ireland , party allegiance tends to fall along religious lines .
When I visited in early December , just before the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the D.U.P , or the Democratic Unionist Party , which has historically fought to keep close ties with the U.K. , hung in the Protestant area .
Signs for Sinn Féin , the Irish republican party , which wants a united Ireland , hung in the Catholic neighborhoods .
( The Sinn Féin signs were written in both English and Irish ; the Irish Language Act , which would make Irish a second official language , has become another lightning rod for debate about the region ’ s future . )
Many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Brexit will involve a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland , which would undermine the Good Friday Agreement .
Boris Johnson ’ s new plan could instead put an economic border in the Irish Sea , cutting Northern Ireland off from the rest of the U.K. , infuriating many Protestants .
The uncertainty has reinvigorated questions of identity in the region that might otherwise have continued to recede , slowly , into the past .
In April , in Derry , a journalist named Lyra McKee was killed during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intercepted a bomb in Craigavon , on the outskirts of Lurgan , believed to have been set by the Continuity I.R.A .
In Lurgan , old fears of violence are rising to the surface again .
“ There ’ s still very definitely an undercurrent of fear , ” Michael Walters , a police officer who has served the area for ten years , told me .
At Lurgan College , in addition to teaching geography , Hamill oversees the school ’ s Shared Education Programme , part of an initiative across Northern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Catholic backgrounds together .
Last year , he enlisted Hannah Murtagh , a geography and religion teacher at St. Ronan ’ s College , a Catholic school across town , to take part in a mapping project .
Walters signed on to help .
One snowy day , they rented a bus and took forty-five students on a tour of Lurgan , stopping at sites that are meaningful to each community .
Some of the stops were obviously related to the Troubles—like an I.R.A .
memorial—but others were not : a section @ @ @ @ @ @ @ center .
The students were asked to rank how safe they felt in each place , anonymously , on an app on their phones .
They created a map of their fears in real time and then analyzed the data .
The final product was a rendering of the town ’ s sectarian segregation .
The students found that both Protestant and Catholic teen-agers could identify the town ’ s invisible dividing line and felt uncomfortable when crossing it .
All of the students felt comfortable in both schools , which felt like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dimly lit underpass outside of St. Ronan ’ s , where everyone wanted out .
After word spread about the project , three student representatives , along with Hamill , Murtagh , and Walters , were invited , improbably , to a conference in San Diego , where they presented the project at a conference , in front of nineteen thousand people .
In a video of the presentation , the students look a little shocked to be there , but they are serious about the data .
“ We can see the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at each location , which I will analyze next , ” Leon Van Der Westhuizen , then thirteen , told the audience .
( “ We did a lot of practice , ” he told me later .
“ It was still a bit scary.
” ) “ As geographers , and citizen scientists , our data adds another layer on top of the census data , representing our lived experiences , ” Hannah Trew , from Lurgan College , said .
She mentioned her fellow-presenter , Aiesha Mouhsine , who wore a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Aiesha and I are both the same age , live in the same town , ” she said .
“ However , if it weren ’ t for this project , we would have never met.
” Nearly a year after the study , on a bright , cold morning last month , Hamill and Murtagh set out to repeat it .
This time , they were working with researchers from Queen ’ s University Belfast , and they had refined some of their questions , including adding options for gender and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of students from each school in a classroom at Lurgan Junior High .
Laminated posters on the wall listed desirable character traits ( “ kind , ” “ sensible ” ) and translations for the word “ welcome.
” Hamill , who wore a suit , addressed the group .
He described the route , which would run through fifteen stops and end at Lurgan College , where they would analyze the data .
He asked the students to be honest with their answers .
He turned a little emotional .
“ The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ listening , ” he said .
“ You guys have a voice today , and I think that ’ s tremendously exciting.
” The students , in their uniforms , shifted uncomfortably , then formed groups , of two Protestants and two Catholics each , and left for the bus .
The first stop was a community center on the Protestant side of town .
It was decorated with a large plaque for the Ulster Volunteer Force ( U.V.F . )
, a loyalist paramilitary organization that ’ s now classified as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Troubles , the U.V.F .
planted bombs and staged targeted attacks , killing some five hundred people , before formally decommissioning its weapons , in 2009 .
The building was squat and on the main road out of town , with cars whizzing by .
Below the U.V.F .
sign was a poster for the Craigavon Protestant Boys Flute Band , established in 1966 , with the inscription “ Our only crime is loyalty.
” The students logged their emotional responses on their phones .
At a later stop , near the entrance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stopped at another Ulster memorial .
Laura Butler , a cheerful seventeen-year-old from Lurgan College , who had two pencils tucked into her blazer pocket , said she felt just fine .
“ Everywhere we ’ ve been so far has been on our side , you know what I mean ?
” she said .
Scott Morrow , who wore a “ Head Boy ” badge , said , “ We ’ re so used to it .
Our primary school is just up the road .
”

In the first episode of the most recent season of “Derry Girls,” the sitcom about Catholic schoolgirls growing up in Northern Ireland in the nineteen-nineties, at the tail end of the Troubles, an effort is made to bring the teen-agers of Derry together. A group of local Protestant boys are bussed in from a nearby school, and the students are asked to list their similarities and differences on a chalkboard. They start large (“Protestants are British and Catholics are Irish!” someone calls out) and end small (“Catholics have more freckles!”; “Protestants hate ABBA!”) until the board is full of differences. No similarities.
“It just resonated with me so much,” Alistair Hamill, who teaches teen-agers of a similar age in Lurgan, about forty-five minutes outside of Belfast, in Northern Ireland, told me recently. Hamill is fifty-one, and genial, with a shock of white hair. He moved to Lurgan in 1992, several years before the Good Friday Agreement brought a tentative peace to the area. He took up a post at Lurgan College, a red-brick, majority-Protestant school founded in the eighteen-seventies, with some trepidation. Because it was built before the town was segregated, the school is located on the Catholic side of town, and Hamill, housed in teachers’ quarters nearby, often felt nervous about his safety. During the Troubles, County Armagh, where Lurgan is located, suffered five hundred and twenty fatalities—more than anywhere outside of Belfast. So-called tit-for-tat murders filled the news: One day, in Belfast, in 1998, a Protestant man was shot inside his carpet shop, and, hours later, in retribution, a Catholic taxi-driver was killed. Six months before Hamill arrived in Lurgan, a bomb set by the Irish Republican Army destroyed several buildings in the center of town. “Totally decimated,” Hamill said. “And that was my introduction to Lurgan.”
Today, Lurgan is a mostly quiet town of about thirty-five thousand residents, split between Protestants and Catholics. There’s a main street that’s lined with shops and restaurants and strung with festive lights during the holiday season. There are no peace walls separating the two populations, as there are in Belfast, but evidence of Lurgan’s past is everywhere, if you know where to look. An invisible line runs down Union Street, in the center of town, dividing Catholics and Protestants. They have separate housing, schools, sports fields, and green spaces. Most shops and restaurants close at 5 P.M., a practice intended to avoid outbursts of late-night violence, though it also leaves the streets eerily dark and empty. It is possible for a Catholic teen-ager to leave for university without ever having met a Protestant her age. “Even if they wanted to meet up an evening in their own town,” Hamill said, “Where are they going to go?”
Recently, in the frenzied run-up to Brexit, the divide has been made more visible. In Lurgan, as elsewhere in Northern Ireland, party allegiance tends to fall along religious lines. When I visited in early December, just before the U.K.’s general election, posters for the D.U.P, or the Democratic Unionist Party, which has historically fought to keep close ties with the U.K., hung in the Protestant area. Signs for Sinn Féin, the Irish republican party, which wants a united Ireland, hung in the Catholic neighborhoods. (The Sinn Féin signs were written in both English and Irish; the Irish Language Act, which would make Irish a second official language, has become another lightning rod for debate about the region’s future.) Many Catholics in the region have been worried that Brexit will involve a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which would undermine the Good Friday Agreement. Boris Johnson’s new plan could instead put an economic border in the Irish Sea, cutting Northern Ireland off from the rest of the U.K., infuriating many Protestants.
The uncertainty has reinvigorated questions of identity in the region that might otherwise have continued to recede, slowly, into the past. In April, in Derry, a journalist named Lyra McKee was killed during a riot. In July, police intercepted a bomb in Craigavon, on the outskirts of Lurgan, believed to have been set by the Continuity I.R.A. In Lurgan, old fears of violence are rising to the surface again. “There’s still very definitely an undercurrent of fear,” Michael Walters, a police officer who has served the area for ten years, told me.
At Lurgan College, in addition to teaching geography, Hamill oversees the school’s Shared Education Programme, part of an initiative across Northern Ireland to bring young people from Protestant and Catholic backgrounds together. Last year, he enlisted Hannah Murtagh, a geography and religion teacher at St. Ronan’s College, a Catholic school across town, to take part in a mapping project. Walters signed on to help. One snowy day, they rented a bus and took forty-five students on a tour of Lurgan, stopping at sites that are meaningful to each community. Some of the stops were obviously related to the Troubles—like an I.R.A. memorial—but others were not: a section of a public park, the town center. The students were asked to rank how safe they felt in each place, anonymously, on an app on their phones. They created a map of their fears in real time and then analyzed the data. The final product was a rendering of the town’s sectarian segregation. The students found that both Protestant and Catholic teen-agers could identify the town’s invisible dividing line and felt uncomfortable when crossing it. All of the students felt comfortable in both schools, which felt like neutral territory. Not so at a dimly lit underpass outside of St. Ronan’s, where everyone wanted out.
Students recorded their reactions to various sites in Lurgan, creating a map of their fears in real time. The final product was a rendering of the town’s sectarian segregation. Photograph Courtesy Esri
After word spread about the project, three student representatives, along with Hamill, Murtagh, and Walters, were invited, improbably, to a conference in San Diego, where they presented the project at a conference, in front of nineteen thousand people. In a video of the presentation, the students look a little shocked to be there, but they are serious about the data. “We can see the clusters of surveys that have been collected at each location, which I will analyze next,” Leon Van Der Westhuizen, then thirteen, told the audience. (“We did a lot of practice,” he told me later. “It was still a bit scary.”) “As geographers, and citizen scientists, our data adds another layer on top of the census data, representing our lived experiences,” Hannah Trew, from Lurgan College, said. She mentioned her fellow-presenter, Aiesha Mouhsine, who wore a red St. Ronan’s jacket. “Aiesha and I are both the same age, live in the same town,” she said. “However, if it weren’t for this project, we would have never met.”
Nearly a year after the study, on a bright, cold morning last month, Hamill and Murtagh set out to repeat it. This time, they were working with researchers from Queen’s University Belfast, and they had refined some of their questions, including adding options for gender and age. They gathered a new set of students from each school in a classroom at Lurgan Junior High. Laminated posters on the wall listed desirable character traits (“kind,” “sensible”) and translations for the word “welcome.” Hamill, who wore a suit, addressed the group. He described the route, which would run through fifteen stops and end at Lurgan College, where they would analyze the data. He asked the students to be honest with their answers. He turned a little emotional. “The people that are making decisions genuinely are listening,” he said. “You guys have a voice today, and I think that’s tremendously exciting.” The students, in their uniforms, shifted uncomfortably, then formed groups, of two Protestants and two Catholics each, and left for the bus.
The first stop was a community center on the Protestant side of town. It was decorated with a large plaque for the Ulster Volunteer Force (U.V.F.), a loyalist paramilitary organization that’s now classified as a terrorist group by the U.K. During the Troubles, the U.V.F. planted bombs and staged targeted attacks, killing some five hundred people, before formally decommissioning its weapons, in 2009. The building was squat and on the main road out of town, with cars whizzing by. Below the U.V.F. sign was a poster for the Craigavon Protestant Boys Flute Band, established in 1966, with the inscription “Our only crime is loyalty.” The students logged their emotional responses on their phones. At a later stop, near the entrance of a large public park, we stopped at another Ulster memorial. Laura Butler, a cheerful seventeen-year-old from Lurgan College, who had two pencils tucked into her blazer pocket, said she felt just fine. “Everywhere we’ve been so far has been on our side, you know what I mean?” she said. Scott Morrow, who wore a “Head Boy” badge, said, “We’re so used to it. Our primary school is just up the road.”
Walters, the police officer, had come along to provide context for the locations, and, at the center of the park, he stopped and said a few words. “This park is unusual in that it’s not open in the evening time,” he said. “If you’re in here at night, you shouldn’t be.” A Catholic student named Aaron O’Hanlon, walking with his friend Caoimhe McNally, said that they normally entered the park through the opposite end, which opens onto the Catholic side of town. “And then we’d get to that building”—he pointed to a cricket hut across a field—“and that’s sort of our time to turn around and go back.” “We’re kind of used to walking in from our end,” McNally added. O’Hanlon said, “You’re just sort of brought up that way.”
We stopped in the center of town, on the dividing line, where Walters asked, “Can anyone think of any cafés or restaurants that are open after 5 P.M. around here?” “McDonald’s?” someone offered. We stopped at the police station, which was protected by a netting to catch bottles thrown over the fence, and everyone screamed in delight when Walters turned on a police car’s siren. (“I think I would love to be a policewoman,” one girl said, admiringly.) Walking through the Catholic part of town, Anna Long and Rachel Black started to feel uncomfortable in their Lurgan College uniforms, which are a different color from the Catholic-school uniforms. “You feel really watched,” one said. “That history should be over and done with, but it’s still there.”


newyorker--2020-01-28--The Bolton Bombshell, Impeachment, and the Unwaveringly Pro-Trump G.O.P.

By the time Kenneth Starr started speaking at the Senate impeachment trial of Donald John Trump on Monday afternoon , it was hard not to wonder whether the whole thing was meant as a monumental distraction .
Certainly , it was a bizarre spectacle : the man who brought us the last impeachment of a President lecturing the Senate on the dangerous evils of impeachment .
I ’ m old enough to remember when , in 1998 , Starr produced the most X-rated document ever to be printed under congressional seal , in service of lobbying for an impeachment .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ known as the Starr report , detailed Bill Clinton ’ s Oval Office trysts in painfully graphic detail .
( Google “ Starr report ” and “ cigar ” if you don ’ t remember . )
Now , in 2020 , the author of that report is acting as the sanctimonious guardian of congressional dignity , lecturing us all on the floor of the Senate about the unfair , improper charges against Donald Trump ?
Within seconds of opening his mouth on the Senate floor , Starr had his liberal critics—and lots @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In his remarks as a member of Trump ’ s legal team , Starr inveighed against what he called the “ Age of Impeachment , ” saying that it is happening “ too frequently ” and is “ inherently destabilizing ” and “ acrimonious.
” He reserved particularly scathing words for the “ runaway House ” and its conduct during Trump ’ s impeachment , which he called “ dripping with fundamental process violations.
” Starr seemed especially upset about the partisan nature of the Trump proceedings by the Democratic-controlled House .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he said .
Remember , this is the man who advocated for the impeachment of Bill Clinton , by a Republican-controlled House , for lying under oath about an extramarital affair .
Irony is dead .
Very , very dead .
But in the end Starr ’ s comments , trolling as they were , seemed inconsequential and destined to be quickly forgotten , even by the senators required to sit quietly at their desks and listen to them “ on pain of imprisonment , ” as the Senate sergeant at arms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the trial each afternoon .
On this day , the only words that mattered were two that never crossed Starr ’ s lips : John Bolton .
Sometimes , it ’ s what happens outside the courtroom that throws a trial into turmoil—even in a Senate impeachment proceeding whose outcome we all think we know .
This was the case with what even Fox News called the “ Bolton bombshell , ” the news , reported late Sunday by the Times , that Bolton , in his book manuscript , confirms that Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ military aid to Ukraine on politically motivated investigations .
Bolton , who served as Trump ’ s national-security adviser until September , claims that the President told him this directly , and has said that he is prepared to testify under oath about the Ukraine matter .
But Senate Republicans—aside from a handful of undecided ones , such as Mitt Romney and Susan Collins—have so far balked at calling Bolton and other Trump Administration witnesses who abided by the President ’ s order not to testify when they were called to do so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bolton was swift and predictable .
Bolton was a disgruntled former employee , a neocon , a money-grubber with a two-million-dollar book to sell .
The President himself led the mob , beginning to tweet and retweet anti-Bolton statements around midnight .
By 9 a.m. , he had sent out about a dozen critiques of the man he employed to oversee America ’ s national security for a year and a half , including the false statement that the House had never called Bolton to testify in its impeachment inquiry .
On the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Trump & Company “ strikes back ” against Bolton for the “ manuscript leak , ” without saying what the leak actually said .
By midday , the Republican National Committee was sending out official talking points attacking Bolton .
The assault on Bolton , though , may not have its intended effect .
It only takes four Republican votes to buck Party leaders and call for witnesses .
By Monday morning , it was clear that a vote for witnesses had become much more likely , and that the fight was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s ally Lindsey Graham laid it out starkly , threatening to call witnesses such as former Vice-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden , whose work in Ukraine Trump wanted investigated , as a way of embarrassing the potential 2020 Democratic Presidential nominee .
Graham tweeted , “ If there is a desire and decision by the Senate to call Democratic witnesses , then at a minimum the Senate should allow President @ realDonaldTrump to call all relevant witnesses he has requested.
” In other words , let the floodgates open .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ senators who have been most interested in hearing witnesses may or may not want to join in that exercise .
Romney told reporters he had always wanted to hear from Bolton , and that it was “ increasingly likely ” that enough Republicans would now join him .
Collins said that the Bolton revelations “ strengthen the case ” for witnesses .
Lisa Murkowski , of Alaska , another key vote , said that she had always been “ curious ” about Bolton ’ s testimony .
What their fellow-Republicans had to say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Trump ’ s most fervent defenders in the Senate said they didn ’ t care that the former national-security adviser was accusing Trump of doing exactly what the first article of impeachment charges him with doing .
“ We learned nothing new .
We learned nothing new .
This is no different than what we ’ ve heard from several of the seventeen witnesses that the House has brought forward , ” John Barrasso , of Wyoming , told reporters on Monday morning .
Soon , the rhetoric in Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Louisiana senator John Kennedy ’ s suggestion to his colleagues that they “ pop a Zoloft.
” Kelly Loeffler , the newly appointed Republican senator from Georgia , did not take his advice .
She tweeted a statement torching Romney and anyone who would dare consider calling witnesses : “ After 2 weeks , it ’ s clear that Democrats have no case for impeachment .
Sadly , my colleague @ SenatorRomney wants to appease the left by calling witnesses who will slander the @ realDonaldTrump during their 15 minutes of fame .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ s time to move on !
” Loeffler ’ s tweet said , in a more confrontational tone , essentially the same thing that most Republican senators said on Monday .
At any other moment in Washington in my lifetime , I would have predicted with absolute confidence that the Bolton revelation would force Republican senators to switch their position and support witnesses .
And not just a few , but almost all of them .
But this is now , and the unthinkable and inconceivable have become increasingly routine .
Here it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right in the middle of the trial , crucial evidence that Trump , his advisers , his lawyers , and his enablers on Capitol Hill knew about and were trying to suppress .
Just last week , Trump ’ s legal team told senators that “ not a single witness with actual knowledge ever testified that the President suggested any connection between announcing investigations and security assistance.
” In fact , the President and his aides knew that Bolton had done more than suggest it .
He had put it in writing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on December 30th , and was prepared to raise his right hand and swear to it under oath .
But we have had so many smoking-gun moments in the last few years .
This is the post– “ Access Hollywood ” tape G.O.P.
, which elected as President of the United States a man who bragged of grabbing women by their genitals on tape , just a few weeks after the recording came to light .
In the Ukraine scandal , we have seen this process repeat itself .
Facts emerge that show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inappropriate , outrageous , and clearly , straightforwardly wrong .
At first , even Republicans on the Hill seem to waver .
But again and again and again they find a way to accommodate themselves to the unpleasant new information , to rationalize and to justify .
On Monday , after watching all this play out , Amy Klobuchar , the Minnesota Democrat who has been forced to forego Presidential campaigning in Iowa in order to attend the Senate trial , said that listening to the Trump defense was like a visit to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proved once again that this alternative universe has become the new normal in Trump ’ s G.O.P .
It is not the exception but the rule .
The post-Bolton-bombshell Republican Party will be largely the same as the pre-Bolton-bombshell Republican Party .

By the time Kenneth Starr started speaking at the Senate impeachment trial of Donald John Trump on Monday afternoon, it was hard not to wonder whether the whole thing was meant as a monumental distraction. Certainly, it was a bizarre spectacle: the man who brought us the last impeachment of a President lecturing the Senate on the dangerous evils of impeachment.
I’m old enough to remember when, in 1998, Starr produced the most X-rated document ever to be printed under congressional seal, in service of lobbying for an impeachment. The document, which will forever be known as the Starr report, detailed Bill Clinton’s Oval Office trysts in painfully graphic detail. (Google “Starr report” and “cigar” if you don’t remember.) Now, in 2020, the author of that report is acting as the sanctimonious guardian of congressional dignity, lecturing us all on the floor of the Senate about the unfair, improper charges against Donald Trump? Within seconds of opening his mouth on the Senate floor, Starr had his liberal critics—and lots of non-liberals, too—sputtering with outrage.
In his remarks as a member of Trump’s legal team, Starr inveighed against what he called the “Age of Impeachment,” saying that it is happening “too frequently” and is “inherently destabilizing” and “acrimonious.” He reserved particularly scathing words for the “runaway House” and its conduct during Trump’s impeachment, which he called “dripping with fundamental process violations.” Starr seemed especially upset about the partisan nature of the Trump proceedings by the Democratic-controlled House. “Like war, impeachment is hell,” he said. Remember, this is the man who advocated for the impeachment of Bill Clinton, by a Republican-controlled House, for lying under oath about an extramarital affair. Irony is dead. Very, very dead.
But in the end Starr’s comments, trolling as they were, seemed inconsequential and destined to be quickly forgotten, even by the senators required to sit quietly at their desks and listen to them “on pain of imprisonment,” as the Senate sergeant at arms solemnly reminds them at the start of the trial each afternoon. On this day, the only words that mattered were two that never crossed Starr’s lips: John Bolton.
Sometimes, it’s what happens outside the courtroom that throws a trial into turmoil—even in a Senate impeachment proceeding whose outcome we all think we know. This was the case with what even Fox News called the “Bolton bombshell,” the news, reported late Sunday by the Times, that Bolton, in his book manuscript, confirms that Trump conditioned nearly four hundred million dollars in military aid to Ukraine on politically motivated investigations. Bolton, who served as Trump’s national-security adviser until September, claims that the President told him this directly, and has said that he is prepared to testify under oath about the Ukraine matter. But Senate Republicans—aside from a handful of undecided ones, such as Mitt Romney and Susan Collins—have so far balked at calling Bolton and other Trump Administration witnesses who abided by the President’s order not to testify when they were called to do so in the House.
The attack on Bolton was swift and predictable. Bolton was a disgruntled former employee, a neocon, a money-grubber with a two-million-dollar book to sell. The President himself led the mob, beginning to tweet and retweet anti-Bolton statements around midnight. By 9 a.m., he had sent out about a dozen critiques of the man he employed to oversee America’s national security for a year and a half, including the false statement that the House had never called Bolton to testify in its impeachment inquiry. On the Fox Web site, a headline trumpeted that Trump & Company “strikes back” against Bolton for the “manuscript leak,” without saying what the leak actually said. By midday, the Republican National Committee was sending out official talking points attacking Bolton.
The assault on Bolton, though, may not have its intended effect. It only takes four Republican votes to buck Party leaders and call for witnesses. By Monday morning, it was clear that a vote for witnesses had become much more likely, and that the fight was now over the terms. Trump’s ally Lindsey Graham laid it out starkly, threatening to call witnesses such as former Vice-President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, whose work in Ukraine Trump wanted investigated, as a way of embarrassing the potential 2020 Democratic Presidential nominee. Graham tweeted, “If there is a desire and decision by the Senate to call Democratic witnesses, then at a minimum the Senate should allow President @realDonaldTrump to call all relevant witnesses he has requested.” In other words, let the floodgates open. But will they? The four Republican senators who have been most interested in hearing witnesses may or may not want to join in that exercise. Romney told reporters he had always wanted to hear from Bolton, and that it was “increasingly likely” that enough Republicans would now join him. Collins said that the Bolton revelations “strengthen the case” for witnesses. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, another key vote, said that she had always been “curious” about Bolton’s testimony.
What their fellow-Republicans had to say was even more revelatory. Within hours, Trump’s most fervent defenders in the Senate said they didn’t care that the former national-security adviser was accusing Trump of doing exactly what the first article of impeachment charges him with doing. “We learned nothing new. We learned nothing new. This is no different than what we’ve heard from several of the seventeen witnesses that the House has brought forward,” John Barrasso, of Wyoming, told reporters on Monday morning.


newyorker--2020-01-28--What It’s Like to Try to Get Treatment for the Coronavirus in China

On the morning of January 18th , a seventy-nine-year-old resident of the central Chinese city of Wuhan , whom I ’ ll call Li , eagerly awaited the arrival of his daughter and her family , who were travelling from Shanghai to join him for the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar : the Lunar New Year .
The festivities revolve around family meals , and , that afternoon , according to Phoenix Weekly , a political and cultural weekly magazine based in Hong Kong , Li rode his bicycle to the store to buy groceries .
Halfway there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fell off his bike .
He was taken to a district clinic , where , owing to a lack of medical equipment—only X-ray machines were available—it was recommended that he go to a larger hospital .
Around 5 P.M. , he arrived with his daughter at the Wuhan Central hospital , where he waited five hours to see a doctor , who told him that he needed a CT scan of his lungs , for which there was a four-hour wait .
Li went home , and , when he returned later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see someone in the pulmonology department , where he finally got a scan .
A pulmonologist said that the scan was worrying and told him to go to the emergency room , but there was a six-hour wait there , so Li went home again .
The next day , a report showed an infection in sixty per cent of his lungs .
Doctors suspected that he had contracted the new coronavirus , known as 2019-nCoV , the first cases of which had been reportedly identified in December , but they could not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The hospital was not an infectious-disease hospital , and , furthermore , Li ’ s family was told , staff members didn ’ t have the authority to make diagnoses themselves ; they had to report cases to superiors and seek further consultation .
Nor were there any quarantine rooms available .
Thus , according to Phoenix Weekly , began an ordeal , during which Li was bounced from one medical institution to another without being given a diagnosis or a bed .
One night , when his fever had climbed and he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ daughter called the equivalent of 911—in China , the number is 120—for an ambulance .
The dispatcher told her that , without confirmation of a diagnosis from a receiving hospital , he could not help her .
Finally , an ambulance was sent , but Li was turned away from a couple of hospitals , which were already full .
One told him that he should go back to Wuhan Central and insist on being admitted there , or get a transfer notice from it .
Finally , at the fourth hospital the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and her husband , despondent and frustrated , started shouting in the E.R .
waiting room .
“ If you don ’ t take my father , ” she said , “ he will die.
” The family camped out in the waiting room , along with a crowd of other people .
Li ’ s story is not unique .
Phoenix Weekly also reported on a thirty-six-year-old Wuhan resident who said that he had been refused by six hospitals in two weeks while battling symptoms of the coronavirus .
Discussions of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but in recent days many people have posted similar accounts .
Early cases of the virus were thought to have originated in a wholesale seafood market in Wuhan , a city of more than eleven million people , where live animals such as dogs , cats , rats , hedgehogs , and marmots are also sold .
It is closely related to coronaviruses found in horseshoe bats , and health officials thought it may have migrated to humans from one of the species in the market .
The coronavirus , which gets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surface , is a type of common virus that causes pneumonia .
Those who contract this strain report fever , coughing , and difficulty breathing .
Its incubation period is thought to be between one and fourteen days , and it can be passed by a sneeze or a cough before symptoms appear .
As of Tuesday , it had claimed more than a hundred lives in China , and more than forty-five hundred cases had been confirmed across the country .
The virus has also found its way to Taiwan , Hong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Malaysia , Cambodia , South Korea , Thailand , Japan , Nepal , Australia , Canada , France , Germany , and the United States , where there are five documented cases .
So far , there have been no deaths outside of China .
The Wuhan coronavirus belongs to the same family as severe acute respiratory syndrome , or SARS , which broke out in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong , in November , 2002 , and spread , through infected travellers , to twenty-six countries , killing almost eight @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was finally contained in the summer of 2003 , by isolating suspected carriers around the world and breaking the path of person-to-person transmission .
SARS created a global panic and caused an estimated forty billion dollars in losses to the global economy , owing to sharp drops in travel and consumer spending .
China concealed the epidemic for several months .
( Scientists in North America were only able to sequence the genome that caused the virus that April , following intense pressure from the international community for China to share information about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a source of immense embarrassment for Beijing ; at a moment when it was attempting to prove its economic prowess to the world , its mismanagement of a public-health emergency called into question the health of its political leadership .
Last week , when President Xi Jinping urged an “ all-out effort ” to contain the “ grave situation ” of the coronavirus , and to disseminate information about it in a timely fashion , he was almost certainly thinking about the comparisons that would be made between this epidemic and SARS .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ from that experience .
The World Health Organization has credited Chinese officials with identifying and sharing the genome sequencing of the virus just days after the illness was first reported .
The government leaped into action with a series of bold and sometimes unnerving experimental measures .
Travel in and out of Wuhan and nearby cities was banned .
The largest lockdown in modern public-health history has been put into effect , which , essentially , has isolated fifteen cities in central China , with a combined population of more than fifty-seven million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sale of flight and hotel packages for Chinese citizens headed overseas have been suspended .
The government plans to erect within weeks two emergency hospital facilities to accommodate thousands of patients .
Meanwhile , Beijing has sent four hundred and fifty military medical staff to Wuhan to assist exhausted doctors and nurses in the effort .
An ability to marshal resources and initiate massive undertakings has often been viewed as one of the few advantages of an authoritarian regime .
But it is part and parcel of a government that concentrates power so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tend to become more political lackeys than leaders attuned to the changing needs of their constituents .
Since Xi abolished term limits on the Presidency , and began waging an aggressive war on dissent , he has accelerated the top-down approach to governance , maintaining that a diversity of opinion creates chaos , and that only his firm , steady hand will guide the country through peace and prosperity .

On the morning of January 18th, a seventy-nine-year-old resident of the central Chinese city of Wuhan, whom I’ll call Li, eagerly awaited the arrival of his daughter and her family, who were travelling from Shanghai to join him for the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar: the Lunar New Year. The festivities revolve around family meals, and, that afternoon, according to Phoenix Weekly, a political and cultural weekly magazine based in Hong Kong, Li rode his bicycle to the store to buy groceries. Halfway there, he began to feel weak, and fell off his bike. He was taken to a district clinic, where, owing to a lack of medical equipment—only X-ray machines were available—it was recommended that he go to a larger hospital. Around 5 P.M., he arrived with his daughter at the Wuhan Central hospital, where he waited five hours to see a doctor, who told him that he needed a CT scan of his lungs, for which there was a four-hour wait. Li went home, and, when he returned later, he was told to wait to see someone in the pulmonology department, where he finally got a scan. A pulmonologist said that the scan was worrying and told him to go to the emergency room, but there was a six-hour wait there, so Li went home again. The next day, a report showed an infection in sixty per cent of his lungs. Doctors suspected that he had contracted the new coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, the first cases of which had been reportedly identified in December, but they could not perform the tests to confirm it. The hospital was not an infectious-disease hospital, and, furthermore, Li’s family was told, staff members didn’t have the authority to make diagnoses themselves; they had to report cases to superiors and seek further consultation. Nor were there any quarantine rooms available.
Thus, according to Phoenix Weekly, began an ordeal, during which Li was bounced from one medical institution to another without being given a diagnosis or a bed. One night, when his fever had climbed and he had trouble breathing, Li’s daughter called the equivalent of 911—in China, the number is 120—for an ambulance. The dispatcher told her that, without confirmation of a diagnosis from a receiving hospital, he could not help her. Finally, an ambulance was sent, but Li was turned away from a couple of hospitals, which were already full. One told him that he should go back to Wuhan Central and insist on being admitted there, or get a transfer notice from it. Finally, at the fourth hospital the family tried, Li’s daughter and her husband, despondent and frustrated, started shouting in the E.R. waiting room. “If you don’t take my father,” she said, “he will die.” The family camped out in the waiting room, along with a crowd of other people.
Li’s story is not unique. Phoenix Weekly also reported on a thirty-six-year-old Wuhan resident who said that he had been refused by six hospitals in two weeks while battling symptoms of the coronavirus. Discussions of the virus have been censored on the Internet, but in recent days many people have posted similar accounts.
Early cases of the virus were thought to have originated in a wholesale seafood market in Wuhan, a city of more than eleven million people, where live animals such as dogs, cats, rats, hedgehogs, and marmots are also sold. It is closely related to coronaviruses found in horseshoe bats, and health officials thought it may have migrated to humans from one of the species in the market. The coronavirus, which gets its name from crown-like spikes on its surface, is a type of common virus that causes pneumonia. Those who contract this strain report fever, coughing, and difficulty breathing. Its incubation period is thought to be between one and fourteen days, and it can be passed by a sneeze or a cough before symptoms appear. As of Tuesday, it had claimed more than a hundred lives in China, and more than forty-five hundred cases had been confirmed across the country. The virus has also found its way to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, Nepal, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United States, where there are five documented cases. So far, there have been no deaths outside of China.
The Wuhan coronavirus belongs to the same family as severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, which broke out in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, in November, 2002, and spread, through infected travellers, to twenty-six countries, killing almost eight hundred people around the world. It was finally contained in the summer of 2003, by isolating suspected carriers around the world and breaking the path of person-to-person transmission. SARS created a global panic and caused an estimated forty billion dollars in losses to the global economy, owing to sharp drops in travel and consumer spending. China concealed the epidemic for several months. (Scientists in North America were only able to sequence the genome that caused the virus that April, following intense pressure from the international community for China to share information about the virus.) Its severity was a source of immense embarrassment for Beijing; at a moment when it was attempting to prove its economic prowess to the world, its mismanagement of a public-health emergency called into question the health of its political leadership.
Last week, when President Xi Jinping urged an “all-out effort” to contain the “grave situation” of the coronavirus, and to disseminate information about it in a timely fashion, he was almost certainly thinking about the comparisons that would be made between this epidemic and SARS. In many respects, Beijing has learned from that experience. The World Health Organization has credited Chinese officials with identifying and sharing the genome sequencing of the virus just days after the illness was first reported. The government leaped into action with a series of bold and sometimes unnerving experimental measures. Travel in and out of Wuhan and nearby cities was banned. The largest lockdown in modern public-health history has been put into effect, which, essentially, has isolated fifteen cities in central China, with a combined population of more than fifty-seven million people. All tour groups and the sale of flight and hotel packages for Chinese citizens headed overseas have been suspended. The government plans to erect within weeks two emergency hospital facilities to accommodate thousands of patients. Meanwhile, Beijing has sent four hundred and fifty military medical staff to Wuhan to assist exhausted doctors and nurses in the effort.
An ability to marshal resources and initiate massive undertakings has often been viewed as one of the few advantages of an authoritarian regime. But it is part and parcel of a government that concentrates power so formidably at the top that regional officials tend to become more political lackeys than leaders attuned to the changing needs of their constituents. Since Xi abolished term limits on the Presidency, and began waging an aggressive war on dissent, he has accelerated the top-down approach to governance, maintaining that a diversity of opinion creates chaos, and that only his firm, steady hand will guide the country through peace and prosperity.
But this imperious style of rule deters lower-level bureaucrats from playing decisive roles that can make a meaningful difference in a fast-moving crisis. On January 9th, the World Health Organization issued a report on the virus. But, early that month, rather than raise public awareness about the virus, the Wuhan authorities detained eight people whom they alleged had spread rumors about the virus. For days afterward, local officials insisted there was a low probability of human-to-human transmission, a claim that proved to be false. Dali Yang, a China expert at the University of Chicago, wrote that “the failure to act promptly after the coronavirus was identified on January 9th helped make the number of infected swell.” Any government faced with a serious epidemic might seek to control the flow of information for the sake of averting panic. But, in a repressive regime, inaction can become the local default position. As Jude Blanchette, the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in Washington, D.C., notes, “Central-local relations in the Xi era have seen a severe diminishment of local-level autonomy, which has led to municipal and village officials waiting for clear signals from above before they take action.”
From a bureaucratic perspective, such reluctance makes a certain kind of sense. In this situation, to diagnose a case of 2019-nCoV would mean alerting one’s superiors, arranging a medical quarantine in hospitals that are already overwhelmed, and being held accountable for a patient with a deadly, unfamiliar virus. It is far simpler to give a more general diagnosis, such as “viral pneumonia,” which is, in fact, the illness listed on the charts of many patients since the epidemic began. Under normal circumstances, the centralized system perpetuates a cycle of inefficiency and frustration. In an emergent global-health crisis, however, it could cost lives.
Li’s current status is not known. His daughter and her family members had colds, according to the Phoenix Weekly; she didn’t know whether they had caught any infections at the hospital. Meanwhile, the situation has continued to worsen. On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised American citizens to avoid nonessential travel to China. Chinese financial markets are closed, but the stock market saw its largest decline since last year.
Public-health crises are the unbidden stress tests of governance. On Monday, when the mayor of Wuhan, Zhou Xianwang, and the secretary of the Wuhan Communist Party, Ma Guoqiang, offered to resign amid “public indignation” over their response to the outbreak, Mayor Zhou sounded almost relieved. “Comrade Ma Guoqiang and I are willing to accept responsibility. If in the end you say someone has to be held accountable, you say the masses have opinions, then we’re willing to appease the world by resigning,” he said, in an interview with state television. So far, no one has leaped at the opportunity to take over their jobs.
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newyorker--2020-01-28--The Plants That Make Refugee Camps Feel More Like Home

In July , 2011 , the first Libyan civil war was intensifying , and a United Nations refugee camp called Choucha , just across Libya ’ s border with Tunisia , was uncomfortably packed .
Standard-issue tents billowed in the hot wind , their thick , beige walls barely distinguishable from the sand below .
As refugees—fleeing violence and brutality in Libya ’ s cities and countryside—ambled about in the scorching midday heat , the photographer Henk Wildschut moved slowly through the camp .
He had travelled to Tunisia specifically to see this settlement , and a press officer for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ walked alongside him , pointing out communal bathrooms and wells .
Then , among the monotonous sandy tones , Wildschut spotted bursts of pink , purple , and pale green .
Buckets overflowed with verdant tendrils ; small green shoots poked through the dusty ground .
Outside one tent , someone had carefully wrapped twine around spindly stakes to support a sprig of leaves topped with pastel-purple petals .
It seemed impossible that such plants could survive in the harsh summers of the Tunisian desert , and yet here they were , carefully @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the press officer and asked about the plants .
When did they start appearing ?
The officer stared at him blankly .
“ Gardens ?
” he said .
“ I ’ ve never noticed them.
” Galvanized by this discovery , Wildschut began visiting other camps around the world , including Za ’ atari , in Jordan , and several communities in Lebanon ’ s Bekaa Valley .
He self-published the resulting project in a volume called “ Rooted.
” Wildschut had expected that gardens would be more common in camps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ migrants in Choucha had lived there for a year or more ) , but he was surprised to meet a man in an encampment outside Calais , France , who had carefully tended a small patch of grass , even though he knew he ’ d likely have to leave before too long .
Wildschut ’ s travels revealed that many refugees cultivated green spaces for themselves , regardless of how long they would stay .
“ The gardens allow these people to quite literally put down roots , ” Wildschut told me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says , ‘ I belong here , at least for a short while .
’ ”

In July, 2011, the first Libyan civil war was intensifying, and a United Nations refugee camp called Choucha, just across Libya’s border with Tunisia, was uncomfortably packed. Standard-issue tents billowed in the hot wind, their thick, beige walls barely distinguishable from the sand below. As refugees—fleeing violence and brutality in Libya’s cities and countryside—ambled about in the scorching midday heat, the photographer Henk Wildschut moved slowly through the camp. He had travelled to Tunisia specifically to see this settlement, and a press officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees walked alongside him, pointing out communal bathrooms and wells. Then, among the monotonous sandy tones, Wildschut spotted bursts of pink, purple, and pale green. Buckets overflowed with verdant tendrils; small green shoots poked through the dusty ground. Outside one tent, someone had carefully wrapped twine around spindly stakes to support a sprig of leaves topped with pastel-purple petals. It seemed impossible that such plants could survive in the harsh summers of the Tunisian desert, and yet here they were, carefully tended and meticulously arranged. Wildschut turned to the press officer and asked about the plants. When did they start appearing? The officer stared at him blankly. “Gardens?” he said. “I’ve never noticed them.”
Galvanized by this discovery, Wildschut began visiting other camps around the world, including Za’atari, in Jordan, and several communities in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. He self-published the resulting project in a volume called “Rooted.” Wildschut had expected that gardens would be more common in camps with longer-term residents (some of the migrants in Choucha had lived there for a year or more), but he was surprised to meet a man in an encampment outside Calais, France, who had carefully tended a small patch of grass, even though he knew he’d likely have to leave before too long. Wildschut’s travels revealed that many refugees cultivated green spaces for themselves, regardless of how long they would stay. “The gardens allow these people to quite literally put down roots,” Wildschut told me. “They are a symbol that says, ‘I belong here, at least for a short while.’ ”