newyorker--2020-12-18--The Veterans Organizing to Stop Trumpism

Prisoners broke .
Nearly every American “ divulged something , ” according to a report , published in 1955 , by the Secretary of Defense ’ s Advisory Committee on Prisoners of War .
A hundred and ninety-two P.O.W.s were found to have committed serious offenses against their fellow-prisoners or their country .
A sergeant was accused of “ beating a sick prisoner , stealing a wallet from a dying man , forcing a fellow prisoner out into the snow and leaving him there to die.
” An officer who “ allegedly courted favors ” from his captors was charged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ eating more than his share of the food.
” Another officer was accused of willingly delivering anti-American speeches and teaching classes in Communism .
An enlisted man volunteered to oversee a prison “ spy system ” and revealed fellow-prisoners ’ plans to escape .
“ To the combat veterans , ‘ ratting ’ was a crime as unforgivable as treason , ” the report noted .
Aiding the enemy by harming other captives was considered one of the most despicable acts that a P.O.W .
could commit .
After the war , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prisoners who returned to the United States ; nearly two dozen others had defected .
Stories about the ex-P.O.W.s appeared in American newspapers and magazines , raising questions about whether the worst of the behavior was fundamental ( poor character ) or circumstantial ( survival , coercion ) .
Many of the service members were teen-agers— “ effectively children , ” Lech wrote .
Troops had been trained to wage combat but not , over all , to withstand the mental and physical brutality of prolonged captivity .
The American prisoners were especially @ @ @ @ @ @ @ described as “ menticide.
” Ignorance among the captives advantaged the enemy .
“ When plunged into a Communist indoctrination mill , the average American POW was under a serious handicap , ” the advisory committee reported .
“ He had to tell what he knew about American politics and American history .
And many times the Chinese or Korean instructors knew more about these subjects than he did.
” The American prisoners “ were generally ignorant of how democracy functions ” and knew little about “ the workings of the economic system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bill of Rights , ” Lech later wrote .
In fact , many of the P.O.W.s were “ barely literate.
” In Korea , the enemy was “ not so much reeducating ” the Americans as “ educating them for the first time.
” The advisory committee recommended the military ’ s first comprehensive Code of Conduct , establishing guidelines for captured troops .
President Dwight Eisenhower signed the code into existence , by executive order , in 1955 .
The code consisted of six short articles reminding service members that battle extends @ @ @ @ @ @ @ required to reject special favors and to make every effort to resist indoctrination .
The highest-ranking officer was instructed to lead .
Every soldier , airman , sailor , and marine was expected to take responsibility for his actions .
Civilians were urged to embrace these precepts as well .
“ The conscience and heart of all America are needed in the support of this Code , ” the advisory committee noted .
Now that modern warfare had “ brought the challenge to the doorstep of every citizen , ” the code could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problem of survival should ever come to our own main streets.
” During Plebe Summer—seven gruelling weeks of drills and instruction that precede the first academic year—Barkhuff and his classmates were drilled in P.O.W .
case studies , particularly from the Vietnam War , the first major conflict since the creation of the Code of Conduct .
They learned about James Stockdale , the Navy fighter pilot who became the highest-ranking naval officer in captivity .
During his seven and a half years as a prisoner , Stockdale famously resisted .
To avoid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ himself severely in the face , with a stool .
Stockdale , having studied philosophy , believed that physical torture was nothing compared to what he cited Epictetus , a former slave , as calling the “ greater harm ” of “ destroying the trustworthy , self-respecting , well-behaved man within you.
” The plebes learned about the tap code that Stockdale and the other P.O.W.s had used to secretly communicate .
On the second or third day of Plebe Summer , the midshipmen were bused from the Naval Academy campus , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ D.C. , to tour the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum .
Barkhuff told me , “ The message is clear : ‘ This is what you are here to prevent ; this is what you are now sworn to prevent.
’ ” Barkhuff grew up in Yarmouth , Maine , and Groton , Massachusetts .
His father was an accountant ; his mother was a substitute schoolteacher .
No one in Barkhuff ’ s immediate family had served in the military , but committing to the armed forces and attending a service academy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do .
He initially thought he might join the Marine Corps , but he became a Navy SEAL instead .
After graduation , he spent eight years as an operator in Iraq , Afghanistan , and various other locations .
After leaving the Navy , Barkhuff attended medical school , at Harvard , and later completed a residency in emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico .
He and his wife , Whittney , a neonatologist , now live in Vermont with their three daughters .
Barkhuff is a conservative .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saw insurmountable character deficiencies in Donald Trump .
He noted that , as Stockdale endured torture as a P.O.W.
, Trump , who dodged the draft , was “ enjoying the comforts ” of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce .
As troops risked their lives in Afghanistan after 9/11 , Trump was bragging about grabbing women “ by the pussy.
” The thought of Trump becoming President disgraced the friends that Barkhuff had lost to combat and the peers he had watched make “ countless small choices : to be truthful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of honor and duty , and to choose a harder right over the easier wrong.
” Barkhuff thought it reasonable to expect any leader to respect courage , self-sacrifice , and service .
He did not vote for Trump .
When Trump took office , Barkhuff decided to give him a chance , hoping that the President “ would rise to the level of the office.
” But , Barkhuff told me , Trump was “ worse than I thought he would be—and I thought he was going to be terrible.
” Barkhuff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where his posts were seen only by his relatives and Navy pals .
When he discovered that other veterans shared his concerns , he created a page—Veterans for Responsible Leadership—where like-minded members could vent .
Service members are trained to remain apolitical when in uniform , but veterans are free to espouse their views .
The V.F.R.L .
members chatted online about diversity in the military ( “ transgender people should obviously be allowed to serve ” ) , athletes kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice ( kneeling “ is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and the President ’ s divisiveness ( “ Trump wins only by creating controversy and firing up people .
.
.
.
It ’ s dictatorship 101 ” ) .
Most of the members were Navy vets , yet V.F.R.L .
hoped to recruit from all branches and ranks .
Glenn Schatz , one of the V.F.R.L .
leaders and a former nuclear-submarine officer , told me that the Trump Administration ’ s assault on established norms called veterans back to service .
“ Once you ’ re out of uniform it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when you see the Constitution being violated , ” he said .
In June , 2017 , Barkhuff registered Veterans for Responsible Leadership as a political-action committee .
He seeded the organization himself , with five hundred dollars .
The group had three fundamental goals : to “ promote integrity and rational thought in politics , ” to “ support veterans who demonstrate these qualities as they run for office , ” and to “ defeat candidates who don ’ t show these qualities , the most obvious of which is Donald Trump.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Facebook , that V.F.R.L .
seemed “ solely aligned with the Democratic Party , ” Barkhuff replied , “ Not aligned with either party .
In fact most of the early interest in our group is from Republicans disgusted with Trump.
” Barkhuff wanted V.F.R.L .
to be a group that lauded candidates who chose “ the harder right.
” He often thought of Cincinnatus , “ the guy who doesn ’ t want to run for office , and is out with his plow , when people come to him and say @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ ” Barkhuff could acknowledge that politics was professionalized , but he thought it reasonable to expect service to outweigh financial and political self-interest .
In the 2018 midterms , V.F.R.L .
backed one candidate , Dan McCready , a Democrat and former Marine Corps captain , in North Carolina , who ultimately lost his congressional race .
By 2020 , “ there were no Republicans left to support , ” Barkhuff told me .
“ They had all gone all in on Trump.
” V.F.R.L .
did not endorse the high-profile veterans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dan Crenshaw , of Texas , because , the organization argued , by aligning themselves with Trump , they had “ sacrificed foundational principles for political expediency.
” Barkhuff and the other V.F.R.L .
members often discussed why service members continued to embrace Trump .
At a panel discussion at M.I.T.
, titled “ Republican Resistance in the Age of Trump , ” Barkhuff theorized that in geographic regions that disproportionately populate the military , such as the South , there is “ much more comfort with combat , with these notions of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , exist.
” Such voters seemed to like candidates with “ a chip on their shoulder , ” he said , adding that , for them , the 2016 election , in some ways , was “ one big eff-you to the establishment.
” On Facebook , one V.F.R.L .
member wrote , “ These folks support this asshole because it provides them a social group , a tribe.
” Barkhuff replied , “ The idea of V.F.R.L .
is we provide a tribe to compete with the white nationalism of Trump.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Dozens of replies piled up , highlighting other affronts : Trump had disparaged Gold Star families ; publicly ridiculed Senator John McCain , a former P.O.W.
, for being captured in Vietnam ; appeared to make unilateral policy decisions by tweet ; asked for a military parade ; and inappropriately involved Army General Mark Milley , the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , in a photo op .
Later discussions would mention Trump retweeting a post from an account linked to QAnon conspiracy theories , alleging that the SEALs never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ O ’ Neill , the former SEAL who said he fired the kill shot , had to tweet assurances that the bin Laden operation had happened , and that the target was dead . )
Barkhuff had started V.F.R.L .
right before joining the faculty of the University of Vermont , where he is the director of trauma and mass-casualty-incident education .
His op-eds appeared in outlets like the Daily Beast and the Baltimore Sun , but , in November , 2019 , he turned to a new medium .
“ We need @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) vets willing to go on camera and talk about why we shouldn ’ t reelect this clown , ” Barkhuff told the group .
“ The perfect candidate would be a red state combat vet who voted for Trump in 2016 and now realizes it can ’ t happen again .
Anybody know anybody ?
” Combat veterans learn that there are two kinds of courage—physical and moral .
“ Many military people are great at the physical courage , but the moral courage is harder to find , ” Barkhuff told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re motivated by a group bond ; moral courage requires breaking that bond , in some aspects.
” Stockdale , after surviving imprisonment and torture , had tried to understand what he called “ the rising of the few.
” Barkhuff similarly believed that “ leadership requires personal risk , and a willingness to go first.
” Veterans had a unique responsibility to step forward , denounce Trump , and stop the degradation of the constitutional principles that they had fought to protect .
Barkhuff eventually decided to appear in an anti-Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Sarah Longwell , the founder of Republican Voters Against Trump , and also had become friendly with Stuart Stevens , the veteran G.O.P .
operative who had served as Mitt Romney ’ s chief strategist in 2012 .
Like Barkhuff , Stevens lived in Vermont ; both wound up working with the Lincoln Project , an anti-Trump super PAC whose leaders were former and current Republicans .

More than seven thousand American service members were captured during the three years of the Korean War, which ended in 1953. The P.O.W.s were subjected to various forms of torture—beatings, wire bindings. They were held in rooms fouled with human waste and were not allowed to wash for as many as eight months. Denied medical care, and rarely fed, nearly three-thousand American P.O.W.s died between the fall of 1950 and spring of 1951, during what Raymond Lech, the author of “Broken Soldiers,” called “the starvation months.” In one camp, where the daily meal consisted of ten ounces of birdseed, with beans and boiled seaweed occasionally added “as a treat,” prisoners would search each other’s feces for undigested morsels that could be rinsed and eaten again. An officer who survived captivity later said, “I have never seen human beings come so close to being animals.” Lech wrote that “many captives shed a logical defense, and all that we call civilization collapsed.”
Prisoners broke. Nearly every American “divulged something,” according to a report, published in 1955, by the Secretary of Defense’s Advisory Committee on Prisoners of War. A hundred and ninety-two P.O.W.s were found to have committed serious offenses against their fellow-prisoners or their country. A sergeant was accused of “beating a sick prisoner, stealing a wallet from a dying man, forcing a fellow prisoner out into the snow and leaving him there to die.” An officer who “allegedly courted favors” from his captors was charged with confiscating peers’ tobacco rations and “eating more than his share of the food.” Another officer was accused of willingly delivering anti-American speeches and teaching classes in Communism. An enlisted man volunteered to oversee a prison “spy system” and revealed fellow-prisoners’ plans to escape. “To the combat veterans, ‘ratting’ was a crime as unforgivable as treason,” the report noted. Aiding the enemy by harming other captives was considered one of the most despicable acts that a P.O.W. could commit.
After the war, the military court-martialled fourteen of the former prisoners who returned to the United States; nearly two dozen others had defected. Stories about the ex-P.O.W.s appeared in American newspapers and magazines, raising questions about whether the worst of the behavior was fundamental (poor character) or circumstantial (survival, coercion). Many of the service members were teen-agers—“effectively children,” Lech wrote.
Troops had been trained to wage combat but not, over all, to withstand the mental and physical brutality of prolonged captivity. The American prisoners were especially vulnerable to indoctrination, which a physician described as “menticide.” Ignorance among the captives advantaged the enemy. “When plunged into a Communist indoctrination mill, the average American POW was under a serious handicap,” the advisory committee reported. “He had to tell what he knew about American politics and American history. And many times the Chinese or Korean instructors knew more about these subjects than he did.”
The American prisoners “were generally ignorant of how democracy functions” and knew little about “the workings of the economic system and the contents of the Constitution and Bill of Rights,” Lech later wrote. In fact, many of the P.O.W.s were “barely literate.” In Korea, the enemy was “not so much reeducating” the Americans as “educating them for the first time.”
The advisory committee recommended the military’s first comprehensive Code of Conduct, establishing guidelines for captured troops. President Dwight Eisenhower signed the code into existence, by executive order, in 1955. The code consisted of six short articles reminding service members that battle extends to captivity. Prisoners of war were required to reject special favors and to make every effort to resist indoctrination. The highest-ranking officer was instructed to lead. Every soldier, airman, sailor, and marine was expected to take responsibility for his actions.
Civilians were urged to embrace these precepts as well. “The conscience and heart of all America are needed in the support of this Code,” the advisory committee noted. Now that modern warfare had “brought the challenge to the doorstep of every citizen,” the code could apply to “all Americans if the problem of survival should ever come to our own main streets.”
Dan Barkhuff spent part of his plebe year at the U.S. Naval Academy learning the history of the Code of Conduct. “It’s something we all had drummed into our heads,” he told me recently. Barkhuff, a member of the class of 2001, had entered the Academy the way that all military members begin their service, by swearing an oath to the Constitution and vowing to protect it from enemies “foreign and domestic.” Plebes also internalized the Academy’s Honor Concept, which begins, “Midshipmen are persons of integrity: They stand for that which is right.”
During Plebe Summer—seven gruelling weeks of drills and instruction that precede the first academic year—Barkhuff and his classmates were drilled in P.O.W. case studies, particularly from the Vietnam War, the first major conflict since the creation of the Code of Conduct. They learned about James Stockdale, the Navy fighter pilot who became the highest-ranking naval officer in captivity. During his seven and a half years as a prisoner, Stockdale famously resisted. To avoid being co-opted for propaganda, he beat himself severely in the face, with a stool. Stockdale, having studied philosophy, believed that physical torture was nothing compared to what he cited Epictetus, a former slave, as calling the “greater harm” of “destroying the trustworthy, self-respecting, well-behaved man within you.”
The plebes learned about the tap code that Stockdale and the other P.O.W.s had used to secretly communicate. On the second or third day of Plebe Summer, the midshipmen were bused from the Naval Academy campus, in Annapolis, Maryland, to Washington, D.C., to tour the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Barkhuff told me, “The message is clear: ‘This is what you are here to prevent; this is what you are now sworn to prevent.’ ”
Barkhuff grew up in Yarmouth, Maine, and Groton, Massachusetts. His father was an accountant; his mother was a substitute schoolteacher. No one in Barkhuff’s immediate family had served in the military, but committing to the armed forces and attending a service academy was all he had ever wanted to do. He initially thought he might join the Marine Corps, but he became a Navy SEAL instead. After graduation, he spent eight years as an operator in Iraq, Afghanistan, and various other locations. After leaving the Navy, Barkhuff attended medical school, at Harvard, and later completed a residency in emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico. He and his wife, Whittney, a neonatologist, now live in Vermont with their three daughters.
Barkhuff is a conservative. He voted Republican until 2016, when he saw insurmountable character deficiencies in Donald Trump. He noted that, as Stockdale endured torture as a P.O.W., Trump, who dodged the draft, was “enjoying the comforts” of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce. As troops risked their lives in Afghanistan after 9/11, Trump was bragging about grabbing women “by the pussy.” The thought of Trump becoming President disgraced the friends that Barkhuff had lost to combat and the peers he had watched make “countless small choices: to be truthful, to stay committed to a code of honor and duty, and to choose a harder right over the easier wrong.” Barkhuff thought it reasonable to expect any leader to respect courage, self-sacrifice, and service. He did not vote for Trump.
When Trump took office, Barkhuff decided to give him a chance, hoping that the President “would rise to the level of the office.” But, Barkhuff told me, Trump was “worse than I thought he would be—and I thought he was going to be terrible.” Barkhuff often expressed his dismay on Facebook, where his posts were seen only by his relatives and Navy pals. When he discovered that other veterans shared his concerns, he created a page—Veterans for Responsible Leadership—where like-minded members could vent.
Service members are trained to remain apolitical when in uniform, but veterans are free to espouse their views. The V.F.R.L. members chatted online about diversity in the military (“transgender people should obviously be allowed to serve”), athletes kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice (kneeling “is NOT disrespectful to our troops”), and the President’s divisiveness (“Trump wins only by creating controversy and firing up people. . . . It’s dictatorship 101”). Most of the members were Navy vets, yet V.F.R.L. hoped to recruit from all branches and ranks. Glenn Schatz, one of the V.F.R.L. leaders and a former nuclear-submarine officer, told me that the Trump Administration’s assault on established norms called veterans back to service. “Once you’re out of uniform it’s your obligation to speak up when you see the Constitution being violated,” he said.
In June, 2017, Barkhuff registered Veterans for Responsible Leadership as a political-action committee. He seeded the organization himself, with five hundred dollars. The group had three fundamental goals: to “promote integrity and rational thought in politics,” to “support veterans who demonstrate these qualities as they run for office,” and to “defeat candidates who don’t show these qualities, the most obvious of which is Donald Trump.” When one member complained, on Facebook, that V.F.R.L. seemed “solely aligned with the Democratic Party,” Barkhuff replied, “Not aligned with either party. In fact most of the early interest in our group is from Republicans disgusted with Trump.”
Barkhuff wanted V.F.R.L. to be a group that lauded candidates who chose “the harder right.” He often thought of Cincinnatus, “the guy who doesn’t want to run for office, and is out with his plow, when people come to him and say, ‘You need to do this.’ ” Barkhuff could acknowledge that politics was professionalized, but he thought it reasonable to expect service to outweigh financial and political self-interest.
In the 2018 midterms, V.F.R.L. backed one candidate, Dan McCready, a Democrat and former Marine Corps captain, in North Carolina, who ultimately lost his congressional race. By 2020, “there were no Republicans left to support,” Barkhuff told me. “They had all gone all in on Trump.” V.F.R.L. did not endorse the high-profile veterans Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, or Dan Crenshaw, of Texas, because, the organization argued, by aligning themselves with Trump, they had “sacrificed foundational principles for political expediency.”


newyorker--2020-12-18--The Influence of the Anti-Vaccine Movement

To try to understand why anti-vaccine sentiment is so prevalent in the United States , I recently spoke by phone with Dr. Peter Hotez , a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine , and the co-director of the Texas Children ’ s Center for Vaccine Development .
In March , he will publish a book called “ Preventing the Next Pandemic : Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.
” During our conversation , which has been edited for length and clarity , we discussed the historical reasons for vaccine skepticism among many Black Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without appearing political , and how the fight over vaccines became so similar to the fight over every political issue in America .
When we ’ re talking about why people are resistant to vaccines , how much is that a question for doctors to answer , and how much is it a question for social scientists or other people to answer ?
Not all vaccines are created equal , and each vaccine has its own set of issues around hesitancy .
In general , when we ’ re talking about vaccines , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for kids .
And the three vaccines that are primarily targeted are the M.M.R .
vaccine for measles , mumps , rubella ; the H.P.V .
vaccine ; and the flu vaccine .
What ’ s happened in the United States is that , historically , there has been a rise and fall of anti-vaccine sentiment ever since colonial times , with smallpox vaccinations .
But the modern piece of this really started to accelerate in the early two-thousands , after a paper by Andrew Wakefield and his colleague was published in The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , mumps , and rubella vaccine had the ability to cause autism .
Back then they called it pervasive developmental disorder .
That whole thing was debunked by a journalist for the Times of London , a guy named Brian Deer , who wrote a series of articles , first in the Times and then in the British Medical Journal , the BMJ .
And that Lancet paper ultimately got retracted , but not until 2010 .
So that period enabled an anti-vaccine movement to flourish in the U.K. , and then it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And in the United States it acquired its own flavor , in that , starting around 2014 or 2015 , it got linked to the political right under this fake banner that they called “ health freedom , medical freedom.
” It started in Southern California , but it really got amplified here in Texas , and we started to see a steep increase in parents who were opting their kids out of getting vaccinated .
And it coincided with the formation of these political-action committees , Texans for Vaccine Choice , Oklahomans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they started getting money from organizations that traditionally would support the Tea Party and other far-right-wing causes .
So they gave money , and power , and strength , and political alliances .
And then it really took off with Robert F. Kennedy and his anti-vaccine group , Children ’ s Health Defense , which became one of the first major national anti-vaccine groups .
One of the things that seems interesting about anti-vaccine sentiment is that it is a far-right thing in certain ways , but it also crosses certain ideological lines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the places where opposition to vaccinations for children is highest , it ’ s places like Santa Monica and Marin County , which I don ’ t think of as part of a right wing— Yeah , or in Seattle .
So there ’ s a Pacific Northwest flavor to that , which is linked more to the health-and-wellness industry .
The point is the anti-vaccine lobby doesn ’ t all speak with one voice .
That ’ s absolutely true .
That ’ s why I sometimes call it a confederacy more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gets to the sources of funding as well , which we don ’ t really understand .
Some of it ’ s coming from the health-and-wellness industry selling fake supplements and autism cures , while a lot of it is getting money from far-right-wing political causes .
But it ’ s gotten very powerful now , to the point it really dominates the Internet .
You alluded to anti-vaccination sentiment rising and falling since colonial times .
Is there a through line that can help us understand why sentiment rises or falls , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them rise or fall ?
Or is it just things like this Lancet paper , about which it would be hard to come up with some sort of historical explanation ?
It comes from different causes .
So for instance , because I have a daughter with autism , I wrote this book “ Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel ’ s Autism.
” In the book , I report on doing a PubMed search , where you type in key words like autism and vaccines , and you do see one paper comes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who was looking at smallpox vaccination and wondering , “ Could there be a link to autism ?
” And then nothing .
And then all of a sudden the Wakefield paper comes , and this thing just blows up after that .
So clearly it ’ s that Wakefield paper that was the trigger .
But what gave it momentum , though , I think , was the political alliances and links .
And again , under this banner of health freedom , we ’ re seeing that stuff expand this year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on vaccines —which , by the way , started bringing people like Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones into it—in 2020 it glommed on to the protest against masks and social distancing .
So what was an anti-vaccine movement then morphed into a full-on anti-science movement .
And then the other thing that happened this year , which I hadn ’ t seen before , was it went outside the U.S. and North America .
It went to western Europe .
So you started seeing these protests in Paris and Berlin and London , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And we have anti-mask and anti-vaccine rallies .
There are other versions of anti-vaccine activities globally , but this one had that American spin to it that I hadn ’ t seen before .
According to polls , if you ask people about their skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines , you see that Black and Latino adults are more skeptical .
At the same time , you see Republicans as much more skeptical than Democrats .
The explanation for the former has traditionally been that the medical community has a very checkered history with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Is that how you see it ?
It ’ s the thing you mentioned .
I think the other is the absence of African-American health-care providers , especially physicians , especially male physicians .
We really are doing a very bad job training African-American physicians .
But the third piece that no one really talks about , which I think is quite important , if you start looking into it , is that these anti-vaccine groups staged anti-vaccine rallies in Harlem in 2019 .
So I think there was specific targeting of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ groups .
It went after the Somali-immigrant community in Minnesota in 2017 , and it basically generated a measles epidemic .
Then they went after the Orthodox Jewish community in New York in 2018 , 2019 .
And they use very inflammatory , exploitative language , comparing vaccines to the Holocaust .
Most people in the United States in 2020 don ’ t have an experience with measles , but COVID-19 is something that everyone has had some experience with .
What are the unique challenges or unique advantages of getting Americans to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is it different ?
Well , I think that you now have a couple of challenges .
One , you have the anti-vaccine lobby , the anti-vaccine groups .
One of the things that they ’ ve been doing the last few years is specifically targeting new vaccines .
So they really went after , for instance , the H.P.V .
vaccine for cervical cancer and other cancers .
And now they ’ re going after the COVID-19 vaccine and coming up with all sorts of outrageous assertions .
Then on top of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while the White House and Operation Warp Speed did a good job in terms of the scientific rigor and integrity of the clinical trials , they never had a communication plan .
And that left a big vacuum .
So I think those things really combined to work against us in a big way .
Because intuitively you would think that people would be clamoring for a vaccine , and it ’ s surprising how many aren ’ t .
What can medical professionals do to ameliorate some of these things you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ degree is this now a political matter , and medical professionals can ’ t do much ?
Well , first of all , I think the federal government needs to do two things , one of which I think they ’ re starting , and the other , which so far they ’ ve resisted , and most people have resisted .
The first thing they need to do is implement a communications plan .
And I know it ’ s going to start with a series of public-service announcements .
I don @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be adequate .
I think because there are going to be issues on a regular basis , they ’ re going to need government scientists out there on a frequent basis , sort of like what Cuomo did in New York in March and April , but for vaccines .
And I ’ m prepared to do that as much as possible .
But I think having government scientists , people whose faces get familiar , is going to make a big difference .
That ’ s No .
1 .
No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have the appetite for , is you ’ ve got to take down the confederacy , the anti-vaccine empire .
You ’ ve got to take the content off social media , off Facebook .
I mean , Amazon right now is the single largest promoter of fake anti-vaccine books .
That ’ s got to stop .

This week, Americans began receiving COVID-19 vaccines, with the hope that by the middle of next year a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than three hunded thousand Americans will be brought under control. Misinformation about the virus has been a staple of both the Trump Administration’s messaging and much of the junk science found on the Internet. Now, that misinformation will intersect with an American public that is already somewhat skeptical about vaccines, potentially imperilling the effort to get a sufficient number of Americans vaccinated. (The Times reported on Wednesday that many of the people spreading false claims about voter fraud have switched their messaging to the dangers of vaccines.)
To try to understand why anti-vaccine sentiment is so prevalent in the United States, I recently spoke by phone with Dr. Peter Hotez, a professor of pediatrics and molecular virology at Baylor College of Medicine, and the co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development. In March, he will publish a book called “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science.” During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the historical reasons for vaccine skepticism among many Black Americans, how doctors can speak the truth without appearing political, and how the fight over vaccines became so similar to the fight over every political issue in America.
When we’re talking about why people are resistant to vaccines, how much is that a question for doctors to answer, and how much is it a question for social scientists or other people to answer?
Not all vaccines are created equal, and each vaccine has its own set of issues around hesitancy. In general, when we’re talking about vaccines, we’re usually talking about vaccines for kids. And the three vaccines that are primarily targeted are the M.M.R. vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella; the H.P.V. vaccine; and the flu vaccine. What’s happened in the United States is that, historically, there has been a rise and fall of anti-vaccine sentiment ever since colonial times, with smallpox vaccinations. But the modern piece of this really started to accelerate in the early two-thousands, after a paper by Andrew Wakefield and his colleague was published in The Lancet, falsely claiming that the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine had the ability to cause autism. Back then they called it pervasive developmental disorder.
That whole thing was debunked by a journalist for the Times of London, a guy named Brian Deer, who wrote a series of articles, first in the Times and then in the British Medical Journal, the BMJ. And that Lancet paper ultimately got retracted, but not until 2010. So that period enabled an anti-vaccine movement to flourish in the U.K., and then it took off in the United States. And in the United States it acquired its own flavor, in that, starting around 2014 or 2015, it got linked to the political right under this fake banner that they called “health freedom, medical freedom.” It started in Southern California, but it really got amplified here in Texas, and we started to see a steep increase in parents who were opting their kids out of getting vaccinated. And it coincided with the formation of these political-action committees, Texans for Vaccine Choice, Oklahomans for Vaccine and Health Choice. And they started getting money from organizations that traditionally would support the Tea Party and other far-right-wing causes. So they gave money, and power, and strength, and political alliances. And then it really took off with Robert F. Kennedy and his anti-vaccine group, Children’s Health Defense, which became one of the first major national anti-vaccine groups.
One of the things that seems interesting about anti-vaccine sentiment is that it is a far-right thing in certain ways, but it also crosses certain ideological lines. If you look at some of the places where opposition to vaccinations for children is highest, it’s places like Santa Monica and Marin County, which I don’t think of as part of a right wing—
Yeah, or in Seattle. So there’s a Pacific Northwest flavor to that, which is linked more to the health-and-wellness industry. The point is the anti-vaccine lobby doesn’t all speak with one voice. That’s absolutely true. That’s why I sometimes call it a confederacy more than one single organization. And that gets to the sources of funding as well, which we don’t really understand. Some of it’s coming from the health-and-wellness industry selling fake supplements and autism cures, while a lot of it is getting money from far-right-wing political causes. But it’s gotten very powerful now, to the point it really dominates the Internet.
You alluded to anti-vaccination sentiment rising and falling since colonial times. Is there a through line that can help us understand why sentiment rises or falls, or why distinct populations see sentiment within them rise or fall? Or is it just things like this Lancet paper, about which it would be hard to come up with some sort of historical explanation?
It comes from different causes. So for instance, because I have a daughter with autism, I wrote this book “Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism.” In the book, I report on doing a PubMed search, where you type in key words like autism and vaccines, and you do see one paper comes out of 1976, and a guy who was looking at smallpox vaccination and wondering, “Could there be a link to autism?” And then nothing. And then all of a sudden the Wakefield paper comes, and this thing just blows up after that.
So clearly it’s that Wakefield paper that was the trigger. But what gave it momentum, though, I think, was the political alliances and links. And again, under this banner of health freedom, we’re seeing that stuff expand this year. Because while it was very focussed on vaccines —which, by the way, started bringing people like Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones into it—in 2020 it glommed on to the protest against masks and social distancing. So what was an anti-vaccine movement then morphed into a full-on anti-science movement.
And then the other thing that happened this year, which I hadn’t seen before, was it went outside the U.S. and North America. It went to western Europe. So you started seeing these protests in Paris and Berlin and London, again using that same health-freedom language. And we have anti-mask and anti-vaccine rallies. There are other versions of anti-vaccine activities globally, but this one had that American spin to it that I hadn’t seen before.
According to polls, if you ask people about their skepticism of COVID-19 vaccines, you see that Black and Latino adults are more skeptical. At the same time, you see Republicans as much more skeptical than Democrats. The explanation for the former has traditionally been that the medical community has a very checkered history with nonwhite populations in this country and elsewhere. Is that how you see it?
It’s the thing you mentioned. I think the other is the absence of African-American health-care providers, especially physicians, especially male physicians. We really are doing a very bad job training African-American physicians. But the third piece that no one really talks about, which I think is quite important, if you start looking into it, is that these anti-vaccine groups staged anti-vaccine rallies in Harlem in 2019. So I think there was specific targeting of African-American groups. The movement targets specific groups. It went after the Somali-immigrant community in Minnesota in 2017, and it basically generated a measles epidemic. Then they went after the Orthodox Jewish community in New York in 2018, 2019. And they use very inflammatory, exploitative language, comparing vaccines to the Holocaust.


newyorker--2020-12-18--The Republican Rift in Georgia, and Season’s Greetings from Ian Frazier

President Trump ’ s supporters in Georgia are falsely accusing election officials of throwing the race to Joe Biden .
Our Georgia correspondent explains how those same supporters may be a critical factor in the upcoming Senate runoff elections .
Plus , Helen Rosner cooks a vegan favorite of the chef and food activist Bryant Terry , and Ian Frazier continues a New Yorker tradition : a Christmas poem called “ Greetings , Friends.
” Trump supporters in Georgia are threatening violence against Republican state officials who certified the vote for Biden .
Will their outrage sink the Republican candidates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Movement Against Police Brutality Explodes in Nigeria Protests against police violence took place around the world this year .
In Nigeria , they might lead to the undoing of a notoriously lawless and brutal police unit .
The Chef Bryant Terry on How To “ Blackify ” Fennel Helen Rosner talks with the cookbook author and food-justice activist about uplifting diverse traditions in Black cooking and reclaiming veganism from white hipsters .
Ian Frazier Says Goodbye to 2020 , in Verse The New Yorker staff writer reads a poem written for the holiday @ @

Illustration by Golden Cosmos
President Trump’s supporters in Georgia are falsely accusing election officials of throwing the race to Joe Biden. Our Georgia correspondent explains how those same supporters may be a critical factor in the upcoming Senate runoff elections. Plus, Helen Rosner cooks a vegan favorite of the chef and food activist Bryant Terry, and Ian Frazier continues a New Yorker tradition: a Christmas poem called “Greetings, Friends.”
The Republican Rift in Georgia
Trump supporters in Georgia are threatening violence against Republican state officials who certified the vote for Biden. Will their outrage sink the Republican candidates in the Senate runoff election?
The Movement Against Police Brutality Explodes in Nigeria
Protests against police violence took place around the world this year. In Nigeria, they might lead to the undoing of a notoriously lawless and brutal police unit.
The Chef Bryant Terry on How To “Blackify” Fennel
Helen Rosner talks with the cookbook author and food-justice activist about uplifting diverse traditions in Black cooking and reclaiming veganism from white hipsters.
Ian Frazier Says Goodbye to 2020, in Verse
The New Yorker staff writer reads a poem written for the holiday season.


newyorker--2020-12-18--A Treasure Trove of Jazz and Soul Concert Videos on Quincy Jones’s Streaming Site

Earlier this year , an enriching but minor Thelonious Monk discovery , “ Palo Alto , ” from 1968 , emerged , but the Monk concert that has surfaced on Qwest— “ Thelonious Monk Quartet : Live in Amiens , France , ” from 1966—is major .
( Like many of the concerts in the collection , it ’ s divided into two parts . )
Monk performs in his regular quartet of the time—the tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse , the bassist Larry Gales , and the drummer Ben Riley—and they play many of his best-known compositions ( including “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) , but they do so with a collective inspiration that ’ s fuelled by Monk ’ s energetic enthusiasm .
This is on view from the start , in his fierce accompaniment to Rouse , and continues in his solos—which are seen from a camera perched overhead , displaying his command of the entire keyboard and revealing , in his darting reach along its length , the process of musical thought in action .
“ Duke Ellington and His Orchestra : Live at the Pleyel Concert Hall , Paris , ” from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ form , both at the piano and in his conversational interludes with the audience .
The concert spotlights his great soloists from the time—notably , Johnny Hodges on “ M .
C. Blue ” and Paul Gonsalves on several numbers , particularly “ Take the A Train , ” the band ’ s theme song .
In the latter piece , after Ray Nance ’ s exuberant scat singing , Ellington pulls the vigorous tune down-tempo , and the tenor saxophonist Gonsalves solos , in a slow and sinuous slide that he ornaments @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ardent rush to the finish .
“ Nina Simone : Live at the Olympia , Paris , ” from 1970 , presents her with a sextet ( four other musicians and two backing singers ) and finds her radiant and reflective ; she ’ s energetic and rhapsodic at the piano , and when , in the middle of “ My Eyes Can Only Look at You , ” she gets up to dance , it ’ s as if she ’ s both casting a spell and bestowing a benediction .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Live at the Olympia , Paris , ” from 1966 , the camerawork is part of the story .
Brown is , as ever , in exhilarating overdrive , and very long and very extreme closeups of him , from the side , singing “ Prisoner of Love ” and “ Maybe the Last Time , ” find him on the verge of a frame-shattering frenzy—one that ’ s realized sonically in “ Please , Please , Please ” when he drops to his knees and keens into the mike to create @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( Also , at the end , the camera fixes its attention on a notable member of the audience , Serge Gainsbourg . )
The pianist Ahmad Jamal , a key influence on Miles Davis in the fifties , arranged , in effect , orchestrally for his piano trio ; the group , in “ Ahmad Jamal Trio : Live in Paris , ” from 1971 , showcases the teeming orchestral power of Jamal ’ s own pianism through two extended pieces in which his solos display an overwhelming yet unfailingly lyrical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with sheer sonic majesty .
There are three performances by Miles Davis in the archive , all of them recommended .
The earliest , “ Miles Davis Quintet : Live at Antibes Jazz Festival , ” from July of 1969 , features his great “ Lost Quintet ” ( including Wayne Shorter , Chick Corea , Dave Holland , and Jack DeJohnette ) , so called because the group never recorded in the studio .
The heat of this concert is palpable in the tension between Davis and Shorter—Davis plays with a tautly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a fury that tends toward free jazz , and the rhythm section is all too happy to follow along into the vortex .
( It ’ s also among Davis ’ s last recordings of his longtime standards “ Milestones ” and “ ’ Round Midnight.
” ) Later in 1969 , “ Miles Davis Quintet : Live at Newport Jazz Festival , Paris , ” features the same group in shifting repertory and with a different tone—tighter , fiercer , more rock-oriented .
The contrast of Davis ’ s work with Shorter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group ’ s is all the more conspicuous here , and presages the break that was about to occur : this is the quintet ’ s last recorded performance .
Meanwhile , the misnamed video “ Miles Davis Quintet : Live at Newport Jazz Festival , Paris , ” from 1973 , doesn ’ t feature a quintet ; it features the trumpeter with a new band ( a septet ) and a new style—an electric trumpet , as the announcer explains , with a wah-wah pedal ; a new funkified and percussion-heavy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( as well as an electric organ that Davis himself plays ) ; and a new group concept , in which his leadership becomes a kind of conducting through long , freely flowing performances that morph from one into another at a nod of his head .
Davis ’ s own solos are radically fragmented into blasts and runs that both mesh with the hefty beat and burst through it .
“ Aretha Franklin : Live at Antibes Jazz Festival , ” from 1970 , finds her as a jazz singer , backed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the show with pliable and breezy renditions of “ There ’ s No Business Like Show Business ” and “ Come Back to Me , ” before launching jubilantly into her regular repertory— “ ( I Can ’ t Get No ) Satisfaction , ” “ Respect , ” “ ( You Make Me Feel Like ) A Natural Woman , ” and “ I Say a Little Prayer ” —and then sitting down at the piano to accompany herself , thrillingly , in “ Eleanor Rigby , ” “ ( Sweet Sweet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gone , ” and “ Dr .
Feelgood ( Love Is a Serious Business ) , ” in which her gospel-inspired piano playing launches her singing with a special fervor .
The four parts of “ Jazz at the Philharmonic : Live at the Pleyel Concert Hall , Paris , ” from 1960 , feature a variety of groups , ranging from the taut and bluesy ferocity of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet to an octet of ( nearly ) all-stars , including the founding artist of jazz tenor saxophone , Coleman Hawkins , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more or less invented the modern concept of swing , with Count Basie , in the thirties ) .
In Part 2 , Jones cuts loose with one of the most imaginative and entertaining drum solos I ’ ve ever observed—he starts with the percussive whisper of brushes , switches to sticks , and then drums with his hands , delighting in the power of the drums themselves and in the hold that they exert over his amazed audience .
The trumpeter Charles Tolliver formed an unusual group , Music Inc. , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and drums , but no other horn , placing an extraordinary physical demand on him .
He meets it , excitingly , in two different concerts .
In “ Charles Tolliver ’ s Music Inc. : Live in Paris , Part 1 , ” from 1971 , he ’ s with his longtime associate , the pianist Stanley Cowell ( who died on December 17th , at the age of seventy-nine ) , and the band , which plays hard-rhythmic , complex post-bop with a tinge of the heaven-storming clamor of free @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when Cowell switches to electric piano , the energy overflows into Tolliver ’ s blazing trumpet fanfares .
In the second concert , “ Charles Tolliver Quartet : Live in Paris , ” from 1973 , the rhythm trio is different , and Tolliver stands out in front of it , energetically carrying the bulk of solo space ( and seemingly pushing himself to the edge of exhaustion ) with some harrowingly long and spectacularly high-energy cadenzas .
The trumpeter Don Cherry—a founding member of Ornette Coleman ’ s revolutionary quartet from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two-part set , “ Don Cherry Trio : Live in Paris , ” from 1971 , that distills a kaleidoscopic and comprehensive sensibility into his tightly meshed interactions with the bassist Johnny Dyani and the drummer Okay Temiz .
Cherry starts out on the wood flute and then moves to the piano , where he plays jauntily rhythmic and catchy melodies , which he also sings , in a breathy chant that ’ s reminiscent of Pharoah Sanders ’ s world-music cosmos of the late sixties .
Then he brings out his pocket @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bell ) for some darting , Cubistic improvisations , before returning to the rocking , songful groove .
I ’ m saving the best—and the biggest surprise—for last .
The great Bud Powell , the onetime associate and pianistic peer of Charlie Parker , appears with the bassist Pierre Michelot and the American drummer Kenny Clarke ( the seminal bebop drummer ) to exhilarating effect in a pair of videos , “ 1959 : A Night at the Club Saint-Germain ” and “ Live from the Blue Note Paris , ” from 1960 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In the latter , they ’ re joined by the saxophonist Lucky Thompson ( also an associate of both Parker and Davis on historic recordings ) and , more surprisingly , by another pianist , who ’ s billed in the credits as Alice McCloud but whose name was actually Alice McLeod—and who ’ s better known by her married name , Alice Coltrane .
She was about twenty-three at the time of the recording , and her profound originality—in evidence from the very start , when she accompanies the singer Billie Poole—is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s part of a trio , a quartet , and a quintet , and throughout she delivers rich and complex chords , scintillating dissonances , and irregularly shaped melodic phrases that resound with spiritual yearning ; her uniquely oceanic , questing sound is suggested in the distinctive position of her hands at the keyboard .
She ’ s already playing in a way that links her , from across the ocean , to what John Coltrane ( whom she hadn ’ t yet met ) was doing ; this performance makes clear that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ artistic , and intellectual partnership even before it happened .
• The funniest New Yorker cartoons , as chosen by our Instagram followers .
• Helen Rosner on the best cookbooks .
• Ian Crouch recounts the best jokes of the year .
• Sheldon Pearce on the albums that helped him navigate a lost plague year .
• New Yorker writers on the best books they read this year .

In a concert film now available on Qwest TV, Nina Simone performs live at the Olympia, in Paris, in 1970.
Watching a video recording of a concert is never quite the same as being there, yet at its best a filmed show can amplify the music with a cinematic dimension, creating revelatory images and foregrounding charismatic presences. That’s what an extraordinary new trove of sixty-six concert films, sourced from France’s national audiovisual archive and released on the Qwest TV Web site, offers. (Qwest is a streaming site and TV channel, founded in 2017 by Quincy Jones and the music producer Reza Ackbaraly.) The performances, ranging from the nineteen-fifties through the nineteen-eighties, feature many of the twentieth-century heroes of Black music, from Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald to Aretha Franklin and James Brown, but the rediscoveries of rarely seen artists (in particular, jazz artists) are as significant as the spotlighting of celebrated ones. The Qwest collection is perhaps the most significant treasure chest of archival jazz concerts to emerge in years.
Earlier this year, an enriching but minor Thelonious Monk discovery, “Palo Alto,” from 1968, emerged, but the Monk concert that has surfaced on Qwest—“Thelonious Monk Quartet: Live in Amiens, France,” from 1966—is major. (Like many of the concerts in the collection, it’s divided into two parts.) Monk performs in his regular quartet of the time—the tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, the bassist Larry Gales, and the drummer Ben Riley—and they play many of his best-known compositions (including “Blue Monk” and “Rhythm-a-Ning”), but they do so with a collective inspiration that’s fuelled by Monk’s energetic enthusiasm. This is on view from the start, in his fierce accompaniment to Rouse, and continues in his solos—which are seen from a camera perched overhead, displaying his command of the entire keyboard and revealing, in his darting reach along its length, the process of musical thought in action.
2020 in Review New Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows.
“Duke Ellington and His Orchestra: Live at the Pleyel Concert Hall, Paris,” from 1958, features the bandleader in expansive form, both at the piano and in his conversational interludes with the audience. The concert spotlights his great soloists from the time—notably, Johnny Hodges on “M. C. Blue” and Paul Gonsalves on several numbers, particularly “Take the A Train,” the band’s theme song. In the latter piece, after Ray Nance’s exuberant scat singing, Ellington pulls the vigorous tune down-tempo, and the tenor saxophonist Gonsalves solos, in a slow and sinuous slide that he ornaments with filigreed intimacies before bursting into an ardent rush to the finish.
“Nina Simone: Live at the Olympia, Paris,” from 1970, presents her with a sextet (four other musicians and two backing singers) and finds her radiant and reflective; she’s energetic and rhapsodic at the piano, and when, in the middle of “My Eyes Can Only Look at You,” she gets up to dance, it’s as if she’s both casting a spell and bestowing a benediction.
In “James Brown and the Famous Flames: Live at the Olympia, Paris,” from 1966, the camerawork is part of the story. Brown is, as ever, in exhilarating overdrive, and very long and very extreme closeups of him, from the side, singing “Prisoner of Love” and “Maybe the Last Time,” find him on the verge of a frame-shattering frenzy—one that’s realized sonically in “Please, Please, Please” when he drops to his knees and keens into the mike to create a bone-splintering sound akin to natural-voiced feedback. (Also, at the end, the camera fixes its attention on a notable member of the audience, Serge Gainsbourg.)
The pianist Ahmad Jamal, a key influence on Miles Davis in the fifties, arranged, in effect, orchestrally for his piano trio; the group, in “Ahmad Jamal Trio: Live in Paris,” from 1971, showcases the teeming orchestral power of Jamal’s own pianism through two extended pieces in which his solos display an overwhelming yet unfailingly lyrical virtuosity, an outpouring of imagination along with sheer sonic majesty.
There are three performances by Miles Davis in the archive, all of them recommended. The earliest, “Miles Davis Quintet: Live at Antibes Jazz Festival,” from July of 1969, features his great “Lost Quintet” (including Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette), so called because the group never recorded in the studio. The heat of this concert is palpable in the tension between Davis and Shorter—Davis plays with a tautly focussed intensity, but Shorter plays with a fury that tends toward free jazz, and the rhythm section is all too happy to follow along into the vortex. (It’s also among Davis’s last recordings of his longtime standards “Milestones” and “ ’Round Midnight.”) Later in 1969, “Miles Davis Quintet: Live at Newport Jazz Festival, Paris,” features the same group in shifting repertory and with a different tone—tighter, fiercer, more rock-oriented. The contrast of Davis’s work with Shorter’s and the rest of the group’s is all the more conspicuous here, and presages the break that was about to occur: this is the quintet’s last recorded performance. Meanwhile, the misnamed video “Miles Davis Quintet: Live at Newport Jazz Festival, Paris,” from 1973, doesn’t feature a quintet; it features the trumpeter with a new band (a septet) and a new style—an electric trumpet, as the announcer explains, with a wah-wah pedal; a new funkified and percussion-heavy sound that also includes two electric guitars (as well as an electric organ that Davis himself plays); and a new group concept, in which his leadership becomes a kind of conducting through long, freely flowing performances that morph from one into another at a nod of his head. Davis’s own solos are radically fragmented into blasts and runs that both mesh with the hefty beat and burst through it.
“Aretha Franklin: Live at Antibes Jazz Festival,” from 1970, finds her as a jazz singer, backed by a jazz band. She opens the show with pliable and breezy renditions of “There’s No Business Like Show Business” and “Come Back to Me,” before launching jubilantly into her regular repertory—“(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “Respect,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and “I Say a Little Prayer”—and then sitting down at the piano to accompany herself, thrillingly, in “Eleanor Rigby,” “(Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone,” and “Dr. Feelgood (Love Is a Serious Business),” in which her gospel-inspired piano playing launches her singing with a special fervor.
The four parts of “Jazz at the Philharmonic: Live at the Pleyel Concert Hall, Paris,” from 1960, feature a variety of groups, ranging from the taut and bluesy ferocity of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet to an octet of (nearly) all-stars, including the founding artist of jazz tenor saxophone, Coleman Hawkins, and the drummer Jo Jones (who more or less invented the modern concept of swing, with Count Basie, in the thirties). In Part 2, Jones cuts loose with one of the most imaginative and entertaining drum solos I’ve ever observed—he starts with the percussive whisper of brushes, switches to sticks, and then drums with his hands, delighting in the power of the drums themselves and in the hold that they exert over his amazed audience.
The trumpeter Charles Tolliver formed an unusual group, Music Inc., in 1969—it featured him with piano, bass, and drums, but no other horn, placing an extraordinary physical demand on him. He meets it, excitingly, in two different concerts. In “Charles Tolliver’s Music Inc.: Live in Paris, Part 1,” from 1971, he’s with his longtime associate, the pianist Stanley Cowell (who died on December 17th, at the age of seventy-nine), and the band, which plays hard-rhythmic, complex post-bop with a tinge of the heaven-storming clamor of free jazz. In the last two numbers, when Cowell switches to electric piano, the energy overflows into Tolliver’s blazing trumpet fanfares. In the second concert, “Charles Tolliver Quartet: Live in Paris,” from 1973, the rhythm trio is different, and Tolliver stands out in front of it, energetically carrying the bulk of solo space (and seemingly pushing himself to the edge of exhaustion) with some harrowingly long and spectacularly high-energy cadenzas.


newyorker--2020-12-18--Daily Cartoon: Friday, December 18th

Daily Cartoon: Friday, December 18th

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newyorker--2020-12-18--Betsy DeVos Warns That Biden Will Pick Education Secretary with Background in Education

WASHINGTON ( The Borowitz Report ) —Calling the prospect a “ nightmare scenario , ” Betsy DeVos warned that President-elect Joe Biden will pick an Education Secretary with a background in education .
The outgoing Education Secretary warned that putting someone with a “ pro-education bias ” in her job would be like “ naming a fox to be Secretary of Hens.
” “ For the past four years , I have worked tirelessly to keep our schools free from education , ” she said .
“ It deeply saddens me to think that all of my hard work will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , she said , Biden may name a “ knowledgeable person ” to replace her , a decision she called “ disastrous.
” “ In order to be impartial toward education , an Education Secretary must be as ignorant as possible , ” she said .
“ I don ’ t mean to boast , but I am going to be a tough act to follow in that respect.
” In total , she said , Biden ’ s plans for education may be the “ most radical aspect ” of the Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the police , ” she said .
“ He is talking about funding the schools.
” Read More Satire from the Borowitz Report • Dr. Fauci says that alcohol may help people survive coronavirus briefings .
• Scientists say that Earth is endangered by a new strain of fact-resistant humans .
• Obama proposes cancelling cable at the White House to get Trump to leave .
• Ivanka Trump applies for the job of daughter to Joe Biden .
• Queen Elizabeth II offers to restore British rule over the United States .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ be controlled by Americans .
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WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Calling the prospect a “nightmare scenario,” Betsy DeVos warned that President-elect Joe Biden will pick an Education Secretary with a background in education.
The outgoing Education Secretary warned that putting someone with a “pro-education bias” in her job would be like “naming a fox to be Secretary of Hens.”
“For the past four years, I have worked tirelessly to keep our schools free from education,” she said. “It deeply saddens me to think that all of my hard work will go to waste.”
Even more alarming, she said, Biden may name a “knowledgeable person” to replace her, a decision she called “disastrous.”
“In order to be impartial toward education, an Education Secretary must be as ignorant as possible,” she said. “I don’t mean to boast, but I am going to be a tough act to follow in that respect.”
In total, she said, Biden’s plans for education may be the “most radical aspect” of the Democratic Party agenda. “Forget about defunding the police,” she said. “He is talking about funding the schools.”
Read More Satire from the Borowitz Report


newyorker--2020-12-18--The Outdated Law that Republicans Could Use to Upend the Electoral College Vote Next Time

Since November 3rd , news organizations have routinely described Trump ’ s efforts to hijack the Electoral College—filing baseless lawsuits , strong-arming state election officials , and mobilizing state legislatures to intervene—as “ unprecedented.
” That ’ s accurate , but it ’ s a lawyer ’ s word that can ’ t capture the shock and disorientation of watching an elected American President attempt a coup d ’ état , however ineptly .
Trump ’ s method has a heedless , staggering , operatic quality familiar from the strongman coups I used to cover in countries such as Afghanistan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump ’ s assaults , but this week the institution did its part .
Biden welcomed the outcome and said that it affirmed the country ’ s democratic integrity .
“ Once again in America , the rule of law , our Constitution , and the will of the people prevailed , ” the President-elect said on Monday evening .
“ Our democracy—pushed , tested , threatened—proved to be resilient , true , and strong.
” That verdict sounds optimistic .
Trump ’ s coup attempt may have been haplessly improvised , lacking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but , by repeating baseless claims of electoral fraud and by taking aim at weaknesses in the Electoral College , the President has laid out a map by which he and other Republicans can attempt more plausible antidemocratic action in the run-up to the 2022 and 2024 elections .
They are likely to do this by seeking new laws to roll back early and mail-in voting , practices that grew this year in response to the pandemic .
Among other efforts to expand access to the ballot , civil-rights organizations will have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become permanent at the state and local level , ” Hannah Fried , the national-campaign director of All Voting is Local , a project of the Leadership Conference , told me .
But the more novel struggle will involve the continuing attempts of Trump allies to exploit the ambiguous constitutional role of state legislatures in the Electoral College system .
The problem with the legislatures begins with Article II , Section 1 , Clause 2 of the Constitution , which provides that “ each State shall appoint , in such Manner as the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Electors ” who cast ballots for President .
At the time that the article was written , those words meant what they said : the Constitutional Convention had not fully resolved how Presidents should be elected , and the matter was kicked to the states .
Today , most state laws require the appointment of electors who vote in accordance with the outcome of the popular vote in each state , and that is what happened in all fifty states when the electors voted on Monday .
Yet the presence in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct ” has given rise to speculation about how legislatures may act if they judge an election to be illegitimate .
The Supreme Court has not had occasions to clarify all the potential ambiguities .
“ There was a norm that , even though the state legislatures had this power , ” on paper , to appoint their own electors , “ they didn ’ t exercise it , ” Alexander Keyssar , a historian at Harvard and the author of the recent book “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ College ?
” told me .
The norm may have held this time , “ but it ’ s been diminished , ” he said .
“ This year has opened the door to future manipulations and to future gamesmanship with state legislatures .
That worries me a good deal.
” The efforts by Trump and his lawyer Rudolph Giuliani to persuade Republican-controlled legislatures to create Trump-loyal slates of electors , without regard to their state ’ s certified voting results , failed , in part , because they sought to impose unprecedented @ @ @ @ @ @ @ votes of citizens had been cast , without explicit grounding for any intervention in state law .
Yet these are obstacles that Republican legislatures could now seek to reduce for future elections .
The claim that state legislatures may have powers to intervene in disputed elections is not , in fact , a crackpot theory .
The Electoral Count Act ( E.C.A . )
of 1877 , an outdated federal law governing the Electoral College , contains a number of kludgy , untested provisions that future Republican opportunists might seek to exploit .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to authorize state legislatures to act in the case of a “ failed ” election .
This provision was initially applied to specific problems of election administration in the horse-and-buggy era , such as requirements in some states for time-consuming runoffs if no candidate received a majority of votes in the first round .
But the plain language in the law can be seen as open-ended .
Republican allies of Trump could follow the map drawn by Central European countries such as Hungary , which has used its parliament and the courts to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ notional fealty to the democratic norms of the European Union .
Republican legislatures , for example , could attempt to pass state laws that define “ failed elections ” under the E.C.A .
and empower themselves to investigate allegations of election fraud—and to intervene in the Electoral College process if they judge the evidence to be sufficient .
If Democrats were to win control of both the House and the Senate , following next month ’ s runoff Senate elections in Georgia , “ It would be super-wise to rewrite the E.C.A.
, @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Harvard and a democratic-reform activist , told me .
“ We need to clear up what exceptional cases there are ” that could ever allow state legislatures to intervene on the basis of a “ failed election , ” how such a determination would be made , and how judgments by legislatures would be subject to review by other political authorities and courts .
There are other provisions of the E.C.A .
that bear rewriting , too , Lessig said , such as a complicated tie-breaking procedure if disputed slates of electors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , of course , Band-Aid fixes to the Electoral College .
Biden overcame the Republican advantage in the current system , reflecting how it gives disproportionate influence to small and rural states .
But the gap between his margin of victory in the national popular vote—more than seven million votes—and his narrow margins in several of the swing states that gave him a victory in the Electoral College—fewer than twenty-five thousand in Georgia , Arizona , and Wisconsin—was the widest in decades .
That discrepancy will only increase Republican incentives , during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ votes in the cities , manufacture fraud allegations , and mobilize state legislatures .
The Electoral College will plunge the country into a constitutional crisis sooner or later .
Not only does it undermine the core democratic principle of “ one person , one vote , ” but it is an artifact of racial injustice initially designed , by way of the three-fifths compromise , to give disproportionate weight to states that allowed slavery .
Yet it won ’ t be easy to fix or replace .
The most promising current reform proposal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which , if adopted by enough states , and upheld as constitutional , would guarantee that each state would award its electoral votes to the candidate who won the largest share of the national popular vote .
In November , Colorado ’ s voters passed a referendum adopting the compact , solidifying its adoption by states and the District of Columbia that , between them , account for a hundred and ninety-six electoral votes out of the two hundred and seventy needed to bring it into force .
To the extent that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the polarization that Trump ’ s Presidency has exacerbated has made the project harder , for now .
But it is the only plausible path for reform available anytime soon .
On Tuesday , the Senate Majority Leader , Mitch McConnell , after weeks of alternating between silence and vocal support for Trump ’ s legal challenges based on claims of fraud , declared that the “ Electoral College has spoken , ” and offered his congratulations to President-elect Biden .
McConnell and other Senate leaders also moved to try to head off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , when it is submitted to Congress .
Under the E.C.A.
, individual members can object to the vote , and , if just one from each chamber does so , votes must be held in both chambers to decide whether to accept the disputed electoral votes ( with a majority of both houses required for an objection to prevail ) .
McConnell reportedly urged senators not to issue any objections , arguing that the intervention would fail even as it forced every Republican in Congress to publicly declare loyalty or disloyalty to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was hardly a moment of constitutional heroism .
The unwieldy infrastructure of American democracy survived this week , but it will be stress-tested again all too soon .
Read More About the Presidential Transition • Donald Trump has survived impeachment , twenty-six sexual-misconduct accusations , and thousands of lawsuits .
His luck may well end now that Joe Biden is the next President .
• With litigation unlikely to change the outcome of the election , Republicans are looking to strategies that might remain even after rebuffs both at the polls and in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ending , we need to talk about how to prevent the moral injuries of the past four years from happening again .
• If 2020 has demonstrated anything , it is the need to rebalance the economy to benefit the working class .
There are many ways a Biden Administration can start .
• Trump is being forced to give up his attempt to overturn the election .
But his efforts to build an alternative reality around himself will continue .
• Sign up for our daily newsletter for insight and analysis from @ @ @ @ @

On Monday, amid heightened security measures spurred by threats of violence, the electors of the Electoral College cast their votes to affirm that Joe Biden will become the forty-sixth President of the United States. That vote is a ritual typically of interest only to the electors and their friends and families, but this year the major wire services moved news bulletins as the states tallied their counts. It was one more case of how Donald Trump’s denialism about his electoral defeat, and his continuing attempts to retain power by conjuring a constitutional crisis, have brought Americans into anxious acquaintance with the anachronistic mechanisms of a democracy that they can no longer take for granted.
Since November 3rd, news organizations have routinely described Trump’s efforts to hijack the Electoral College—filing baseless lawsuits, strong-arming state election officials, and mobilizing state legislatures to intervene—as “unprecedented.” That’s accurate, but it’s a lawyer’s word that can’t capture the shock and disorientation of watching an elected American President attempt a coup d’état, however ineptly. Trump’s method has a heedless, staggering, operatic quality familiar from the strongman coups I used to cover in countries such as Afghanistan.
The Electoral College has wobbled under Trump’s assaults, but this week the institution did its part. Biden welcomed the outcome and said that it affirmed the country’s democratic integrity. “Once again in America, the rule of law, our Constitution, and the will of the people prevailed,” the President-elect said on Monday evening. “Our democracy—pushed, tested, threatened—proved to be resilient, true, and strong.”
That verdict sounds optimistic. Trump’s coup attempt may have been haplessly improvised, lacking a sufficient number of determined allies, but, by repeating baseless claims of electoral fraud and by taking aim at weaknesses in the Electoral College, the President has laid out a map by which he and other Republicans can attempt more plausible antidemocratic action in the run-up to the 2022 and 2024 elections. They are likely to do this by seeking new laws to roll back early and mail-in voting, practices that grew this year in response to the pandemic. Among other efforts to expand access to the ballot, civil-rights organizations will have to battle to insure “that COVID-19-era reforms become permanent at the state and local level,” Hannah Fried, the national-campaign director of All Voting is Local, a project of the Leadership Conference, told me. But the more novel struggle will involve the continuing attempts of Trump allies to exploit the ambiguous constitutional role of state legislatures in the Electoral College system.
The problem with the legislatures begins with Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the Constitution, which provides that “each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of Electors” who cast ballots for President. At the time that the article was written, those words meant what they said: the Constitutional Convention had not fully resolved how Presidents should be elected, and the matter was kicked to the states. Today, most state laws require the appointment of electors who vote in accordance with the outcome of the popular vote in each state, and that is what happened in all fifty states when the electors voted on Monday. Yet the presence in the Constitution of such sweeping-sounding language as “in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct” has given rise to speculation about how legislatures may act if they judge an election to be illegitimate. The Supreme Court has not had occasions to clarify all the potential ambiguities.
“There was a norm that, even though the state legislatures had this power,” on paper, to appoint their own electors, “they didn’t exercise it,” Alexander Keyssar, a historian at Harvard and the author of the recent book “Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?” told me. The norm may have held this time, “but it’s been diminished,” he said. “This year has opened the door to future manipulations and to future gamesmanship with state legislatures. That worries me a good deal.”
The efforts by Trump and his lawyer Rudolph Giuliani to persuade Republican-controlled legislatures to create Trump-loyal slates of electors, without regard to their state’s certified voting results, failed, in part, because they sought to impose unprecedented actions by legislatures retroactively, after the votes of citizens had been cast, without explicit grounding for any intervention in state law. Yet these are obstacles that Republican legislatures could now seek to reduce for future elections.
The claim that state legislatures may have powers to intervene in disputed elections is not, in fact, a crackpot theory. The Electoral Count Act (E.C.A.) of 1877, an outdated federal law governing the Electoral College, contains a number of kludgy, untested provisions that future Republican opportunists might seek to exploit. In one passage, the law appears to authorize state legislatures to act in the case of a “failed” election. This provision was initially applied to specific problems of election administration in the horse-and-buggy era, such as requirements in some states for time-consuming runoffs if no candidate received a majority of votes in the first round. But the plain language in the law can be seen as open-ended. Republican allies of Trump could follow the map drawn by Central European countries such as Hungary, which has used its parliament and the courts to fashion a proto-authoritarian state even while expressing notional fealty to the democratic norms of the European Union. Republican legislatures, for example, could attempt to pass state laws that define “failed elections” under the E.C.A. and empower themselves to investigate allegations of election fraud—and to intervene in the Electoral College process if they judge the evidence to be sufficient.
If Democrats were to win control of both the House and the Senate, following next month’s runoff Senate elections in Georgia, “It would be super-wise to rewrite the E.C.A.,” Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Harvard and a democratic-reform activist, told me. “We need to clear up what exceptional cases there are” that could ever allow state legislatures to intervene on the basis of a “failed election,” how such a determination would be made, and how judgments by legislatures would be subject to review by other political authorities and courts. There are other provisions of the E.C.A. that bear rewriting, too, Lessig said, such as a complicated tie-breaking procedure if disputed slates of electors are sent to Congress.
These are, of course, Band-Aid fixes to the Electoral College. Biden overcame the Republican advantage in the current system, reflecting how it gives disproportionate influence to small and rural states. But the gap between his margin of victory in the national popular vote—more than seven million votes—and his narrow margins in several of the swing states that gave him a victory in the Electoral College—fewer than twenty-five thousand in Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin—was the widest in decades. That discrepancy will only increase Republican incentives, during the next two election cycles, to suppress votes in the cities, manufacture fraud allegations, and mobilize state legislatures.
The Electoral College will plunge the country into a constitutional crisis sooner or later. Not only does it undermine the core democratic principle of “one person, one vote,” but it is an artifact of racial injustice initially designed, by way of the three-fifths compromise, to give disproportionate weight to states that allowed slavery. Yet it won’t be easy to fix or replace. The most promising current reform proposal is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which, if adopted by enough states, and upheld as constitutional, would guarantee that each state would award its electoral votes to the candidate who won the largest share of the national popular vote. In November, Colorado’s voters passed a referendum adopting the compact, solidifying its adoption by states and the District of Columbia that, between them, account for a hundred and ninety-six electoral votes out of the two hundred and seventy needed to bring it into force. To the extent that adopting the compact requires cross-party consensus, the polarization that Trump’s Presidency has exacerbated has made the project harder, for now. But it is the only plausible path for reform available anytime soon.


newyorker--2020-12-18--The Anti-Shutdown Lawyer Suing New York on Behalf of Small Businesses

Since the summer , Mermigis has filed more than a half-dozen lawsuits against New York State , Governor Andrew Cuomo , and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on behalf of thousands of small businesses forced to shut down during the coronavirus pandemic .
His clients include restaurants , gyms , Off Broadway theatres , comedy clubs , and pool halls .
In addition to asking judges to loosen or even lift shutdown orders , the lawsuits intend to seek , collectively , up to five billion dollars in damages .
Judges have been skeptical of Mermigis ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cases .
“ I ’ ve slept three and a half hours a night since June , ” Mermigis told me , when I called him recently .
“ It ’ s like a John Grisham novel , to be honest with you.
” I ’ d asked how he ’ d ended up being the lawyer for all these small businesses .
“ It ’ s crazy how I ’ m the only one really that ’ s doing this , ” he said .
“ In Michigan , you have actual @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A similar thing in Pennsylvania .
I have not been approached by one politician in New York to sue the governor.
” Mermigis said his anti-shutdown work began with the gyms .
In mid-May , the owners of Atilis , a gym in Bellmawr , New Jersey , hired Mermigis as they prepared to stay open in defiance of their state ’ s shutdown orders .
( According to the owners , Atilis has since racked up more than a million dollars in fines . )
Not long after , Charlie Cassara , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gyms not far from Mermigis ’ s office , called him , too .
Unlike Atilis ’ s owners , Cassara didn ’ t want to flout public-health guidelines .
But he was increasingly desperate .
His businesses had been closed for months , he told Mermigis , and , as the infection numbers went down in the state and the government announced successive phases of reopening , gyms found themselves left out of the plans .
In mid-June , Cuomo told reporters at a press conference that , although the fourth reopening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shops , piercing parlors , and spas to open with restrictions , gyms would remain closed .
“ At that point in time , we were already back rent , bills coming up , mortgages , the whole nine , ” Cassara told me .
“ I listened to Governor Cuomo ’ s presser .
I woke up the next morning , I called my personal attorney , asked for a recommendation .
She recommended James Mermigis.
” Mermigis and Cassara talked over the possibility of a lawsuit , and Mermigis suggested that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ help cover the cost .
Cassara found ten other owners who wanted in .
That number grew to a hundred , then two thousand .
They formed an organization called the New York Fitness Coalition .
Cassara became the president .
Meanwhile , Mermigis began hunting for a venue to file the lawsuit in .
“ I went to the Politico Web site , ” he said .
“ I looked at the results of the 2018 election , when Cuomo was running for reëlection .
I basically looked at jurisdictions that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jefferson County , where Cuomo got just thirty per cent of the vote .
“ Half the battle is picking the right judge , ” Mermigis said .
The gym lawsuit was filed on July 29th .
It opens with quotes from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and Senator Rand Paul .
It takes aim at this spring and summer ’ s Black Lives Matter protests , asking why “ there is no public health for marches , but someone who wants to open their gyms with CDC safety guidelines is endangering the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ selectively ” enforcing his shutdown orders ; the openings of tattoo and piercing parlors are mentioned often .
It acknowledges that the virus “ caused unease and uncertainty on a scale that has not been witnessed in many years , ” but does not mention the tens of thousands of New Yorkers killed by the virus .
The suit also argues that the plaintiffs risk losing their businesses if things continue in the same way .
As late as August 6th , a week after the lawsuit was filed , the governor was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problematic.
” On August 17th , however , Cuomo announced that he intended to allow gyms to open up with restrictions .
Mermigis claims credit for the reversal , although some members of the state legislature were calling on Cuomo to open the gyms at the same time .
Either way , these developments brought Mermigis new attention and clients .
In early September , “ Fox & Friends ” invited him on for an interview .
A group of restaurant owners in New York City ( including Lady Gaga ’ s father @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trattoria , on the Upper West Side ) asked him for help in reopening indoor dining ; when it did reopen , they began to fight the city-specific restriction that capped indoor dining at twenty-five-per-cent capacity while the rest of the state was at fifty per cent .
The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that Mermigis filed on the restaurants ’ behalf is Il Bacco , an Italian restaurant in Queens , located just five hundred feet from the border with Nassau County .
“ There is absolutely NO SCIENCE that will prove @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one city block east from Plaintiff ’ s restaurant , ” the lawsuit reads .
In November , a Staten Island judge ruled against the restaurants , saying that the state government was “ within its rights to pass quarantine laws for the protection of the public ’ s life and health within its limits to prevent suffering from a contagious disease.
” ( More recently , Mermigis also represented a group of New York City parents who sued de Blasio over the latest school shutdowns .
In that case , one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Staten Island city councilman , who had eleven people over to his house on Thanksgiving . )
Perceived inconsistencies in how coronavirus restrictions have been applied to small businesses , along with a lack of government help , brought other clients to Mermigis .
“ When I read that the bowling alleys opened , I sort of lost it , ” Catherine Russell , an actor and general manager at the Theatre Center , in Manhattan , said .
Russell stars in “ Perfect Crime , ” the murder-mystery show that has played @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has missed just four performances since the show opened—she was once dubbed “ the Cal Ripken of Broadway ” by People magazine . )
A guy who works in the box office at the theatre suggested that she call the lawyer who he ’ d seen was representing restaurants .
Mermigis filed a suit on behalf of Russell ’ s company , as well as five other theatre companies and two comedy clubs .
Russell had paid to install an air-filtration system in her space , and bought plastic masks for her actors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Saturday Night Live ” was allowed to go on in front of an audience—a loophole in the law allows the show to pay audience members as “ extras ” —while theatres like hers sat empty and her cast and crew went without paychecks .
“ It seems like small venues slipped through the cracks , ” Russell said , “ and nobody said anything.
” What made opening her space with restrictions any riskier than opening restaurants with restrictions ?
“ I ’ m asking to be treated equally , ” Russell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brushed off these lawsuits .
“ We get sued virtually every day for virtually every action taken during this pandemic , and frankly I ’ ve lost track of all the frivolous suits filed against us , ” Richard Azzopardi , a senior adviser to Cuomo , said in October .
“ We are moving heaven and earth to contain this virus and we know some people are unhappy , but New York continues to have one of the lowest infection rates in the nation , and better to be unhappy than sick @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s office did not respond to a request for comment for this article . )
“ Unhappy ” doesn ’ t really capture what these business owners are feeling .
Since March , the state has asked them to put their livelihoods on the line for the collective good , with few measures in place to help them economically .
Since passing the CARES Act in the early days of the crisis , the U.S. Congress has spent months debating additional rescue legislation .
The state and the city aren ’ t in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and they ’ re asking Congress to plug their own emergency-level budget deficits .
I asked Cassara , the Long Island gym owner , if he expected to win in court .
“ I think part of it is not really directed at Governor Cuomo , ” Cassara said .
“ I think it ’ s putting pressure on him now to do what he should have been doing over the last eight months .
And that ’ s pressuring Congress and everybody else to do the right thing by New Yorkers , @ @ @ @

The attorney James Mermigis specializes in business, commercial, matrimonial, estate, personal-injury, and constitutional law. He supports Donald Trump and subscribes to the “medical freedom movement,” which opposes vaccine mandates, including any that may be imposed for the coronavirus. Last year, Mermigis, who is based in Syosset, Long Island, made a few headlines while representing an Amish family in western New York State who objected to the state’s ending of religious exemptions for childhood vaccinations. He lost that case. This year, business has picked up anyway.
Since the summer, Mermigis has filed more than a half-dozen lawsuits against New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on behalf of thousands of small businesses forced to shut down during the coronavirus pandemic. His clients include restaurants, gyms, Off Broadway theatres, comedy clubs, and pool halls. In addition to asking judges to loosen or even lift shutdown orders, the lawsuits intend to seek, collectively, up to five billion dollars in damages. Judges have been skeptical of Mermigis’s arguments, but Mermigis keeps filing new cases.
“I’ve slept three and a half hours a night since June,” Mermigis told me, when I called him recently. “It’s like a John Grisham novel, to be honest with you.” I’d asked how he’d ended up being the lawyer for all these small businesses. “It’s crazy how I’m the only one really that’s doing this,” he said. “In Michigan, you have actual politicians who have sued the governor. A similar thing in Pennsylvania. I have not been approached by one politician in New York to sue the governor.”
Mermigis said his anti-shutdown work began with the gyms. In mid-May, the owners of Atilis, a gym in Bellmawr, New Jersey, hired Mermigis as they prepared to stay open in defiance of their state’s shutdown orders. (According to the owners, Atilis has since racked up more than a million dollars in fines.) Not long after, Charlie Cassara, a Long Island man who owns two gyms not far from Mermigis’s office, called him, too.
Unlike Atilis’s owners, Cassara didn’t want to flout public-health guidelines. But he was increasingly desperate. His businesses had been closed for months, he told Mermigis, and, as the infection numbers went down in the state and the government announced successive phases of reopening, gyms found themselves left out of the plans. In mid-June, Cuomo told reporters at a press conference that, although the fourth reopening phase would allow tanning salons, tattoo shops, piercing parlors, and spas to open with restrictions, gyms would remain closed.
“At that point in time, we were already back rent, bills coming up, mortgages, the whole nine,” Cassara told me. “I listened to Governor Cuomo’s presser. I woke up the next morning, I called my personal attorney, asked for a recommendation. She recommended James Mermigis.”
Mermigis and Cassara talked over the possibility of a lawsuit, and Mermigis suggested that Cassara find some other gym owners to help cover the cost. Cassara found ten other owners who wanted in. That number grew to a hundred, then two thousand. They formed an organization called the New York Fitness Coalition. Cassara became the president. Meanwhile, Mermigis began hunting for a venue to file the lawsuit in. “I went to the Politico Web site,” he said. “I looked at the results of the 2018 election, when Cuomo was running for reëlection. I basically looked at jurisdictions that he got demolished in.” He settled on Jefferson County, where Cuomo got just thirty per cent of the vote. “Half the battle is picking the right judge,” Mermigis said.
The gym lawsuit was filed on July 29th. It opens with quotes from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and Senator Rand Paul. It takes aim at this spring and summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, asking why “there is no public health for marches, but someone who wants to open their gyms with CDC safety guidelines is endangering the public.” It accuses Cuomo of “selectively” enforcing his shutdown orders; the openings of tattoo and piercing parlors are mentioned often. It acknowledges that the virus “caused unease and uncertainty on a scale that has not been witnessed in many years,” but does not mention the tens of thousands of New Yorkers killed by the virus. The suit also argues that the plaintiffs risk losing their businesses if things continue in the same way.
As late as August 6th, a week after the lawsuit was filed, the governor was still saying that “gyms are highly problematic.” On August 17th, however, Cuomo announced that he intended to allow gyms to open up with restrictions. Mermigis claims credit for the reversal, although some members of the state legislature were calling on Cuomo to open the gyms at the same time.
Either way, these developments brought Mermigis new attention and clients. In early September, “Fox & Friends” invited him on for an interview. A group of restaurant owners in New York City (including Lady Gaga’s father, Joe Germanotta, who owns Joanne Trattoria, on the Upper West Side) asked him for help in reopening indoor dining; when it did reopen, they began to fight the city-specific restriction that capped indoor dining at twenty-five-per-cent capacity while the rest of the state was at fifty per cent. The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that Mermigis filed on the restaurants’ behalf is Il Bacco, an Italian restaurant in Queens, located just five hundred feet from the border with Nassau County. “There is absolutely NO SCIENCE that will prove that ‘indoor dining’ is safer one city block east from Plaintiff’s restaurant,” the lawsuit reads. In November, a Staten Island judge ruled against the restaurants, saying that the state government was “within its rights to pass quarantine laws for the protection of the public’s life and health within its limits to prevent suffering from a contagious disease.” (More recently, Mermigis also represented a group of New York City parents who sued de Blasio over the latest school shutdowns. In that case, one of his plaintiffs was Joe Borelli, a Staten Island city councilman, who had eleven people over to his house on Thanksgiving.)
Perceived inconsistencies in how coronavirus restrictions have been applied to small businesses, along with a lack of government help, brought other clients to Mermigis. “When I read that the bowling alleys opened, I sort of lost it,” Catherine Russell, an actor and general manager at the Theatre Center, in Manhattan, said. Russell stars in “Perfect Crime,” the murder-mystery show that has played Off Broadway since 1987. (She has missed just four performances since the show opened—she was once dubbed “the Cal Ripken of Broadway” by People magazine.) A guy who works in the box office at the theatre suggested that she call the lawyer who he’d seen was representing restaurants. Mermigis filed a suit on behalf of Russell’s company, as well as five other theatre companies and two comedy clubs. Russell had paid to install an air-filtration system in her space, and bought plastic masks for her actors to wear. She asked me why “Saturday Night Live” was allowed to go on in front of an audience—a loophole in the law allows the show to pay audience members as “extras”—while theatres like hers sat empty and her cast and crew went without paychecks.