newyorker--2020-04-24--Mike Davis in the Age of Catastrophe

Mike Davis in the Age of Catastrophe

After burning his draft card , in Oakland , to protest President Lyndon B. Johnson ’ s deployment of U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic , Mike Davis arrived in Los Angeles .
It was 1965 .
He wasn ’ t a student , but he had been sent by Students for a Democratic Society to help organize protests of the 210 Freeway , which was being constructed through a historically black neighborhood in Pasadena .
The leader of the protest movement was Jackie Robinson ’ s mother .
When Davis went to meet her for coffee , he told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ put her hand on my knee and said , ‘ I think we can do this ourselves .
Why don ’ t you go organize some white kids against racism or something ?
’ ” The Watts Rebellion happened two months later , and Davis was swept into its vortex and spit out in Austin , Texas .
He returned to Los Angeles in 1968 , at which point he joined the Communist Party .
Davis , who lives in San Diego , is the author of “ City of Quartz ” and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ books that , by fiercely and exuberantly defining the shadow side of sunstruck Los Angeles , have become as central to the L.A. canon as anything that Carey McWilliams wrote in the forties or Joan Didion wrote in the seventies .
Davis ’ s new book , “ Set the Night on Fire : L.A. in the Sixties , ” is steeped in the mellower light of reminiscence , though , given Davis ’ s attraction to moments of catalytic disruption and unrest , the scenes are lit by muzzle flash rather than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the intended audience of which is the young organizers of today , many of them the children and grandchildren of his friends and heroes in the sixties .
“ I realized eight years ago , when I started this project , that the experience of that generation had to be recovered , and recovered in a way that would provide lessons and balance sheets to the current generation of activists , ” he told me .
“ To understand what people fought for and what strategies they used and why , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were defeated in every important sense.
” The Chicano Moratorium , protesting the Vietnam War , the killing of two Black Panthers at U.C.L.A.
, the trial of the U.C.L.A .
philosophy professor Angela Davis : he was there , the freak with the crewcut who didn ’ t smoke dope , cheering on the emergent radical left .
Presented as a “ movement history ” celebrating forgotten efforts of mostly young , black and brown , working-class Angelenos as they struggled for housing and education equality , gay rights , reproductive rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bodies charged with controlling their protests , “ Set the Night on Fire ” is as close to memoir as Davis will ever write .
( Davis was given two cancer diagnoses five years into the project , which was a collaboration with Jon Wiener , an L.A.-based historian and writer for The Nation . )
“ I was like Zelig in the events of the period , ” Davis said .
“ I was at every demonstration and several riots , just there in the crowd , rank and file .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ used as pretext for attacking in the Chicano Moratorium .
Through Angela Davis , I knew the Panthers .
But I ’ m distrustful of my own memory , because I ’ m Irish and Welsh and something of a fabulist.
” ( After “ Ecology of Fear , ” Davis ’ s enthusiastic and possibly uncritical affection for damning factoids was scrutinized by the Los Angeles Times , which he has often attacked as a propaganda arm for regional boosters .
The L.A. Times also ran an excerpt of the book .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ bios that refers to his past employment as a meatcutter and a truck driver ( and , since 1998 , to his receiving a MacArthur grant ) .
“ I grew up where the city ends and the backcountry begins , ” he said .
“ It ’ s a peripheral view—of a white guy , a blue-collar guy , who came into some money.
” His childhood was spent in a Southern California cow town full of evangelical Republicans—some of whom are still his closest friends—southeast of L.A. , in San Diego @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patriotic of his peers , a devoted reader of military histories .
That gave him a way to think about the past , and also a style—history as a battle of opposites , in which the result of each skirmish shapes and delimits the possibilities for the future .
His narratives are always about power : its potential , when harnessed by the masses , to create lasting social change , and also the tendency of the élite to deploy it violently against those seeking that change .
After meat-cutting in the late @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( He didn ’ t begin his undergraduate education in earnest until he was almost thirty . )
A low-ranking employee , he was sent on the routes of drivers who called in sick .
“ I saw every nook and corner of L.A. County and much of the rest of Southern California , ” he said .
A decade later , he spent a year delivering furniture and discovered the sweatshop economy of downtown L.A. “ City of Quartz ” was the result of his trucking stints .
“ I realized @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real places in greater Los Angeles , and each of them could tell a story about some part of the whole universe , ” he said .
Published two years before the police beating of Rodney King sparked citywide riots , “ City of Quartz ” explored the fortification of L.A. against its poor , nonwhite residents—its transformation into a “ carceral ” city , with observation towers and security cameras—and characterized the Los Angeles Police Department as the harsh wardens of public space .
Los Angeles , as Davis saw it , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that made real the dystopian fantasies explored in movies such as “ The Running Man ” and “ Blade Runner.
” When the riots broke out , Davis was hailed as a prophet of apocalypse—Cassandra vindicated by Troy on fire .
In 2018 , when the Woolsey Fire engulfed Malibu , I , like many people , turned to “ Ecology of Fear , ” which explores the always-pending disaster of a volatile natural environment and a stubborn development culture that seeks to dominate it , to reread a chapter called “ The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ again , reality is catching up with Davis ’ s instinct for prognostication .
In 2005 , he wrote “ The Monster at Our Door , ” a book about the avian flu .
The book scared him so much that he was unable to keep a copy in his house ; recently , in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic , he had to order himself a new copy .
( The other book he can ’ t keep in the house ?
Nathanael West ’ s “ The Day of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is engulfed in chaos and goes up in flames . )
I asked him if he thought Los Angeles was likely to erupt again , at a time of intense economic hardship .
“ The socioeconomic conditions that produced the ’ 92 riots are still with us , ” he said .
“ The Rodney King beating and police detonated it , but the riots came in the midst of a recession , and revealed a city in which hundreds of thousands of people were living day by day , with no reserves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people became desperate .
If this depression continues , this enlarges the number of people living in dangerous and precarious circumstances .
There is no reason we couldn ’ t see another uprising or similar event .
You just ask yourself , How are people going to live a month without a paycheck ?
”

After burning his draft card, in Oakland, to protest President Lyndon B. Johnson’s deployment of U.S. troops to the Dominican Republic, Mike Davis arrived in Los Angeles. It was 1965. He wasn’t a student, but he had been sent by Students for a Democratic Society to help organize protests of the 210 Freeway, which was being constructed through a historically black neighborhood in Pasadena. The leader of the protest movement was Jackie Robinson’s mother. When Davis went to meet her for coffee, he told me recently, “She very gently put her hand on my knee and said, ‘I think we can do this ourselves. Why don’t you go organize some white kids against racism or something?’ ” The Watts Rebellion happened two months later, and Davis was swept into its vortex and spit out in Austin, Texas. He returned to Los Angeles in 1968, at which point he joined the Communist Party.
Davis, who lives in San Diego, is the author of “City of Quartz” and “Ecology of Fear,” two books that, by fiercely and exuberantly defining the shadow side of sunstruck Los Angeles, have become as central to the L.A. canon as anything that Carey McWilliams wrote in the forties or Joan Didion wrote in the seventies. Davis’s new book, “Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties,” is steeped in the mellower light of reminiscence, though, given Davis’s attraction to moments of catalytic disruption and unrest, the scenes are lit by muzzle flash rather than hearth glow. These are war stories, the intended audience of which is the young organizers of today, many of them the children and grandchildren of his friends and heroes in the sixties.
“I realized eight years ago, when I started this project, that the experience of that generation had to be recovered, and recovered in a way that would provide lessons and balance sheets to the current generation of activists,” he told me. “To understand what people fought for and what strategies they used and why, at the end of the day, we were defeated in every important sense.” The Chicano Moratorium, protesting the Vietnam War, the killing of two Black Panthers at U.C.L.A., the trial of the U.C.L.A. philosophy professor Angela Davis: he was there, the freak with the crewcut who didn’t smoke dope, cheering on the emergent radical left.
Presented as a “movement history” celebrating forgotten efforts of mostly young, black and brown, working-class Angelenos as they struggled for housing and education equality, gay rights, reproductive rights, and—frustratingly, distractingly—reform of the policing bodies charged with controlling their protests, “Set the Night on Fire” is as close to memoir as Davis will ever write. (Davis was given two cancer diagnoses five years into the project, which was a collaboration with Jon Wiener, an L.A.-based historian and writer for The Nation.) “I was like Zelig in the events of the period,” Davis said. “I was at every demonstration and several riots, just there in the crowd, rank and file. I witnessed the events that sheriffs and police used as pretext for attacking in the Chicano Moratorium. Through Angela Davis, I knew the Panthers. But I’m distrustful of my own memory, because I’m Irish and Welsh and something of a fabulist.” (After “Ecology of Fear,” Davis’s enthusiastic and possibly uncritical affection for damning factoids was scrutinized by the Los Angeles Times, which he has often attacked as a propaganda arm for regional boosters. The L.A. Times also ran an excerpt of the book.)
Davis has one of those swashbuckling-nonfiction-author bios that refers to his past employment as a meatcutter and a truck driver (and, since 1998, to his receiving a MacArthur grant). “I grew up where the city ends and the backcountry begins,” he said. “It’s a peripheral view—of a white guy, a blue-collar guy, who came into some money.” His childhood was spent in a Southern California cow town full of evangelical Republicans—some of whom are still his closest friends—southeast of L.A., in San Diego County. He was considered the most patriotic of his peers, a devoted reader of military histories. That gave him a way to think about the past, and also a style—history as a battle of opposites, in which the result of each skirmish shapes and delimits the possibilities for the future. His narratives are always about power: its potential, when harnessed by the masses, to create lasting social change, and also the tendency of the élite to deploy it violently against those seeking that change.
After meat-cutting in the late sixties, Davis started his trucking job. (He didn’t begin his undergraduate education in earnest until he was almost thirty.) A low-ranking employee, he was sent on the routes of drivers who called in sick. “I saw every nook and corner of L.A. County and much of the rest of Southern California,” he said. A decade later, he spent a year delivering furniture and discovered the sweatshop economy of downtown L.A. “City of Quartz” was the result of his trucking stints. “I realized that there are a couple of hundred real places in greater Los Angeles, and each of them could tell a story about some part of the whole universe,” he said. Published two years before the police beating of Rodney King sparked citywide riots, “City of Quartz” explored the fortification of L.A. against its poor, nonwhite residents—its transformation into a “carceral” city, with observation towers and security cameras—and characterized the Los Angeles Police Department as the harsh wardens of public space. Los Angeles, as Davis saw it, was “post-liberal,” a place that made real the dystopian fantasies explored in movies such as “The Running Man” and “Blade Runner.” When the riots broke out, Davis was hailed as a prophet of apocalypse—Cassandra vindicated by Troy on fire. In 2018, when the Woolsey Fire engulfed Malibu, I, like many people, turned to “Ecology of Fear,” which explores the always-pending disaster of a volatile natural environment and a stubborn development culture that seeks to dominate it, to reread a chapter called “The Case for Letting Malibu Burn.”
Once again, reality is catching up with Davis’s instinct for prognostication. In 2005, he wrote “The Monster at Our Door,” a book about the avian flu. The book scared him so much that he was unable to keep a copy in his house; recently, in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic, he had to order himself a new copy. (The other book he can’t keep in the house? Nathanael West’s “The Day of the Locust,” in which Hollywood is engulfed in chaos and goes up in flames.) I asked him if he thought Los Angeles was likely to erupt again, at a time of intense economic hardship. “The socioeconomic conditions that produced the ’92 riots are still with us,” he said. “The Rodney King beating and police detonated it, but the riots came in the midst of a recession, and revealed a city in which hundreds of thousands of people were living day by day, with no reserves. When they lost their jobs, people became desperate. If this depression continues, this enlarges the number of people living in dangerous and precarious circumstances. There is no reason we couldn’t see another uprising or similar event. You just ask yourself, How are people going to live a month without a paycheck?”
On the day I spoke to Davis, Bernie Sanders had announced that he was suspending his Presidential campaign. Yet Davis was uncharacteristically optimistic, a catastrophist with proof. Maybe people would finally listen. “I’m a wild, extreme leftist, but to me it’s clear that global capitalism can no longer guarantee the survival of the human race, in three ways,” he said. “It can’t generate jobs. It cannot guarantee the public health of the world. And it cannot decarbonize the economy or transfer the resources to adapt the countries that bear the brunt of greenhouse gases.” He went on, “This seems an age of catastrophe, but it’s also an age equipped, in an abstract sense, with all the tools it needs. Utopia is available to us. If, like me, you lived through the civil-rights movement, the antiwar movement, you can never discard hope. I’ve seen social miracles in my life, ones that have stunned me—the courageousness of ordinary people in a struggle. Eleven years ago, Bill Moyers brought me on his show and presented me as the last socialist in America. Now there are millions of young people who prefer socialism to capitalism.”
But any disaster-minded screenwriter, or military historian, could see another possible turn of the plot: the asteroid that hits when you were expecting a zombie plague. Davis kept worrying it over, the alternative ending that might reorder everything again. “What if the big one happened now?” he said. I’ve already plundered my earthquake kits for face masks and hand sanitizer. And now Davis has said my midnight fear out loud.


newyorker--2020-04-24--The Dangerous Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories Targeting 5G Technology, Bill Gates, and a World of Fe

The Dangerous Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories Targeting 5G Technology, Bill Gates, and a World of Fear

Over Easter weekend , arsonists set more than twenty 5G cellular towers in the United Kingdom on fire—forming a pattern of bunny-eared infernos that points to one of the many conspiracy theories surrounding the spread of the novel coronavirus .
The basic idea is that 5G , a new generation of wireless communication , is responsible for the coronavirus crisis , and the idea has spread rapidly .
According to some surveys , it is now the most widely disseminated pandemic-related conspiracy theory in the U.K. , and has spread in Europe ( there have been cell-tower attacks in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States ( where the actor Woody Harrelson posted about it on Instagram , albeit with a note saying that he hadn ’ t “ fully vetted it ” ) .
The theory is false : the illness COVID-19 is caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 , which is highly contagious .
But the first question when confronting the theory is how people could even believe that 5G could be responsible .
The answer provides the framework for something of a general taxonomy of conspiracy theories , each of which is disorienting and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are , it turns out , many 5G coronavirus theories , and no simple hierarchy of plausibility .
Some adherents have adopted the notion that the 5G frequency spectrum somehow transmits and spreads the virus , as if in a wireless miasma .
This variety of theory doesn ’ t posit any rational connection between the cause and the supposed effect ; it seems to rely solely on the perception that both are new and frightening .
It is scoffed at by those who prefer to believe that there is no such thing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the virus ’ s emergence was cooked up to hide the disastrous health effects of 5G itself .
Here , bad faith and coördinated lying on a mass scale are assumed to be simpler explanations than those offered by virology .
Both these ideas are looked down on by conspiracy theorists whose medical knowledge , such as it is , tends to be garnered from online venues , and who have decided that 5G destroys the immune system and has thus transmuted a harmless coronavirus into something deadly .
( This group @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and includes some people whose suspicions about the health effects of 5G predate the current crisis . )
These theorists display as “ proof ” side-by-side maps showing the density of COVID-19 cases and of 5G towers .
But , as the A.P .
noted , all the maps show is that places with more people have more of both .
However , even arguing about maps misses the basic point that there is no scientific basis for the idea that waves from towers could harm the immune system .
In any event @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amateurs by those who argue not only that powerful people are deploying 5G towers to spread the virus but that the proof of this scheme is to be found on the United Kingdom ’ s new twenty-pound note , which began circulating in February .
Social-media videos point out that a metallic element on the note includes the image of a tower , which , when you tilt it , seems to be emitting rays—5G , of course—and that a design above the tower resembles the circle-with-spines shape of the SARS-CoV-2 virus .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ lighthouse in the seaside town of Margate and a stylized view of the rotunda of the Tate Gallery , in London , both places associated with the artist J. M. W. Turner , whose portrait is on the new bill .
But even the theorists ’ basic message is unclear : Is the idea that the notes are a call to action , to rouse a doomsday cult that has somehow infiltrated the Bank of England ?
Perhaps , in the end , many of those sharing the videos are doing nothing more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this is harmless : if people believe that they are being deceived—or even targeted—by public-health authorities , why would they follow their directives ?
Why , to note another widely prevalent family of coronavirus conspiracy theories , would they allow their children to eventually receive a COVID-19 vaccine if they believe that the pandemic was engineered by , say , Bill Gates , in an effort to depopulate an overcrowded planet and , while he ’ s at it , to inject people with free-will-subduing microdots ?
One version of this theory has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ posted by the Law of Liberty Baptist Church , which now has almost two million views , and another is featured in social-media posts by Diamond and Silk , who are fixtures at Trump rallies , but other variations have popped up around the world .
( Needless to say , this is absurd .
Gates has pledged a quarter of a billion dollars to the effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine ; as thanks , he has been subject to death threats . )
But the corollary is that when politicians and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real harm by creating a space that conspiracy theorists rush to fill .
In that sense , not all the blame can be placed on the most credulous members of the public .
The human imagination abhors a vacuum .
And , in dysfunctional political cultures , much like the present one , there is a conspiratorialist feedback loop : the less you trust , the more you search for alternative authorities , and the more susceptible you are to untrustworthy figures who maintain their position by attacking what is true .
People @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus , for several reasons .
One is that the economic effect of closures has been devastating , and has left people desperate for alternatives—perhaps it is all being exaggerated , and it would be fine to go back to work ?
And why aren ’ t more powerful , better-situated people doing more to help them—is someone benefitting from their distress ?
Another reason is that so much about COVID-19 remains unclear .
As more has become known , advice from government authorities ( regarding masks , for example ) has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a single White House briefing .
( Alongside the conspiracy theories , there is a realm of speculative quackery , with unproven assertions that various medicines or chemicals—or bright light , ultraviolet rays , or injected disinfectants , treatments that Trump mooted this week—can fend off or cure coronavirus . )
Conspiracy theories should , in that context , be taken seriously as a symptom of underlying , often structural problems with the pandemic response .
To take another example , China has not been a model of openness with regard to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are still questions about how SARS-CoV-2 initially took hold , such as precisely how and where it jumped from an animal , presumably a bat , to a human , and what other species might have served as intermediaries in the chain of transmission .
Chinese officials also gave misleading accounts of the initial outbreak in Wuhan , and these reports served to underplay how common human-to-human transmission was .
But those real failures have been exploited by President Trump , who regularly mentions them as a way to distract from his own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alone in this regard : anger at China is rising in India ( where the country ’ s Muslim minority has also been scapegoated for the virus ’ s spread ) .
But it is fair to say that the center of super-spreaders in what has been an epidemic of attacks on Asian-Americans has been Washington .

Over Easter weekend, arsonists set more than twenty 5G cellular towers in the United Kingdom on fire—forming a pattern of bunny-eared infernos that points to one of the many conspiracy theories surrounding the spread of the novel coronavirus. The basic idea is that 5G, a new generation of wireless communication, is responsible for the coronavirus crisis, and the idea has spread rapidly. According to some surveys, it is now the most widely disseminated pandemic-related conspiracy theory in the U.K., and has spread in Europe (there have been cell-tower attacks in the Netherlands and Belgium) and in the United States (where the actor Woody Harrelson posted about it on Instagram, albeit with a note saying that he hadn’t “fully vetted it”). The theory is false: the illness COVID-19 is caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which is highly contagious. But the first question when confronting the theory is how people could even believe that 5G could be responsible. The answer provides the framework for something of a general taxonomy of conspiracy theories, each of which is disorienting and distinct but in related ways.
There are, it turns out, many 5G coronavirus theories, and no simple hierarchy of plausibility. Some adherents have adopted the notion that the 5G frequency spectrum somehow transmits and spreads the virus, as if in a wireless miasma. This variety of theory doesn’t posit any rational connection between the cause and the supposed effect; it seems to rely solely on the perception that both are new and frightening. It is scoffed at by those who prefer to believe that there is no such thing as SARS-CoV-2, and that the story of the virus’s emergence was cooked up to hide the disastrous health effects of 5G itself. Here, bad faith and coördinated lying on a mass scale are assumed to be simpler explanations than those offered by virology.
Both these ideas are looked down on by conspiracy theorists whose medical knowledge, such as it is, tends to be garnered from online venues, and who have decided that 5G destroys the immune system and has thus transmuted a harmless coronavirus into something deadly. (This group bears a family resemblance to anti-vaxxers, and includes some people whose suspicions about the health effects of 5G predate the current crisis.) These theorists display as “proof” side-by-side maps showing the density of COVID-19 cases and of 5G towers. But, as the A.P. noted, all the maps show is that places with more people have more of both. However, even arguing about maps misses the basic point that there is no scientific basis for the idea that waves from towers could harm the immune system. In any event, these theorists would be viewed as amateurs by those who argue not only that powerful people are deploying 5G towers to spread the virus but that the proof of this scheme is to be found on the United Kingdom’s new twenty-pound note, which began circulating in February. Social-media videos point out that a metallic element on the note includes the image of a tower, which, when you tilt it, seems to be emitting rays—5G, of course—and that a design above the tower resembles the circle-with-spines shape of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In fact, the images depict a lighthouse in the seaside town of Margate and a stylized view of the rotunda of the Tate Gallery, in London, both places associated with the artist J. M. W. Turner, whose portrait is on the new bill. But even the theorists’ basic message is unclear: Is the idea that the notes are a call to action, to rouse a doomsday cult that has somehow infiltrated the Bank of England? Perhaps, in the end, many of those sharing the videos are doing nothing more than looking for omens.
None of this is harmless: if people believe that they are being deceived—or even targeted—by public-health authorities, why would they follow their directives? Why, to note another widely prevalent family of coronavirus conspiracy theories, would they allow their children to eventually receive a COVID-19 vaccine if they believe that the pandemic was engineered by, say, Bill Gates, in an effort to depopulate an overcrowded planet and, while he’s at it, to inject people with free-will-subduing microdots? One version of this theory has been promoted in a YouTube video, posted by the Law of Liberty Baptist Church, which now has almost two million views, and another is featured in social-media posts by Diamond and Silk, who are fixtures at Trump rallies, but other variations have popped up around the world. (Needless to say, this is absurd. Gates has pledged a quarter of a billion dollars to the effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine; as thanks, he has been subject to death threats.) But the corollary is that when politicians and public-health authorities forfeit trust, they cause real harm by creating a space that conspiracy theorists rush to fill. In that sense, not all the blame can be placed on the most credulous members of the public. The human imagination abhors a vacuum. And, in dysfunctional political cultures, much like the present one, there is a conspiratorialist feedback loop: the less you trust, the more you search for alternative authorities, and the more susceptible you are to untrustworthy figures who maintain their position by attacking what is true.
People are especially vulnerable to unfounded theories regarding the coronavirus, for several reasons. One is that the economic effect of closures has been devastating, and has left people desperate for alternatives—perhaps it is all being exaggerated, and it would be fine to go back to work? And why aren’t more powerful, better-situated people doing more to help them—is someone benefitting from their distress? Another reason is that so much about COVID-19 remains unclear. As more has become known, advice from government authorities (regarding masks, for example) has shifted; sometimes it lurches around in a single White House briefing. (Alongside the conspiracy theories, there is a realm of speculative quackery, with unproven assertions that various medicines or chemicals—or bright light, ultraviolet rays, or injected disinfectants, treatments that Trump mooted this week—can fend off or cure coronavirus.) Conspiracy theories should, in that context, be taken seriously as a symptom of underlying, often structural problems with the pandemic response.
To take another example, China has not been a model of openness with regard to the early spread of the virus. There are still questions about how SARS-CoV-2 initially took hold, such as precisely how and where it jumped from an animal, presumably a bat, to a human, and what other species might have served as intermediaries in the chain of transmission. Chinese officials also gave misleading accounts of the initial outbreak in Wuhan, and these reports served to underplay how common human-to-human transmission was. But those real failures have been exploited by President Trump, who regularly mentions them as a way to distract from his own failings. The United States is not alone in this regard: anger at China is rising in India (where the country’s Muslim minority has also been scapegoated for the virus’s spread). But it is fair to say that the center of super-spreaders in what has been an epidemic of attacks on Asian-Americans has been Washington.
Wuhan is not only where the pandemic first emerged; it is also home to a high-level virology-research lab, and that fact has inspired even more theorizing. One widely circulated notion is that China engineered SARS-CoV-2 and deliberately released it as part of a plan to bring down the world economy and increase its own power. This doesn’t make sense scientifically, since SARS-CoV-2 has the hallmarks of a virus that emerged naturally, rather than one that was engineered. The theory doesn’t even make sense on its own terms: Why would China release such a thing in its home territory first, rather than sending agents on a plane? And how could it count on the weakness of the response in other nations, including this one? (As an example of how politically and jingoistically malleable such theories are, many in China believe that the United States engineered and spread the virus, using a bicycling G.I. who attended the Military World Games, which were held in Wuhan last October, as a vector.)
The biowarfare theory has not been entertained just on the fringes. Earlier this week, Robert O’Brien, the U.S. national-security adviser, was asked about it. “Well, look, I hope it wasn’t done on purpose,” he said. “That’s not something that, that we’re propagating. But I think the point that the President’s making is that there’s a burden on China to allow folks to come in and investigate what actually happened. Did it come from a wet market? Did it come from a lab?” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed those sentiments in remarks on Wednesday, when he complained that China hadn’t given other countries full access to the Wuhan lab. Both their remarks illustrate how distrust can be used, or manipulated, as a bridge between valid questions and wild answers. It’s a dangerous game at a dangerous time.
A Guide to the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-04-24--A City at the Peak of Crisis

A City at the Peak of Crisis

Experts predicted that Wednesday , April 15th , would be a peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City , its epicenter .
On that day , a crew of New Yorker writers talked with people all over the city , in many circumstances and walks of life , to form a portrait of a city in crisis .
A group station manager for the subway talks about keeping the transit system running for people who rely on it ; a respiratory therapist copes with break-time conversations about death and dying ; a graduating class of medical students get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crisis in generations ; and a new mother talks about giving birth on a day marked by tragedy for so many families .
The hour includes contributions from writers including William Finnegan , Helen Rosner , Jia Tolentino , Kelefa Sanneh , and Adam Gopnik , who says , “ One never knows whether to applaud the human insistence on continuing with some form of normal life , or look aghast at the human insistence on continuing with some form of normal life .
That ’ s the mystery of the pandemic.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from responding to a sick housemate to the pros and cons of ordering food .
• Can survivors help cure the disease and rescue the economy ?
• The long crusade of Dr. Anthony Fauci , the infectious-disease expert pinned between Donald Trump and the American people .
• The success of Hong Kong and Singapore in stemming the spread holds lessons for how to contain it in the United States .
• The coronavirus is likely to spread for more than a year before a vaccine is widely available .
• With @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a new treatment .
Can we prepare antivirals to combat the next global crisis ?
• How pandemics have propelled public-health innovations , prefigured revolutions , and redrawn maps .
• What to read , watch , cook , and listen to under coronavirus quarantine .

Illustration by Golden Cosmos
Experts predicted that Wednesday, April 15th, would be a peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City, its epicenter. On that day, a crew of New Yorker writers talked with people all over the city, in many circumstances and walks of life, to form a portrait of a city in crisis. A group station manager for the subway talks about keeping the transit system running for people who rely on it; a respiratory therapist copes with break-time conversations about death and dying; a graduating class of medical students get up the courage to confront the worst crisis in generations; and a new mother talks about giving birth on a day marked by tragedy for so many families. The hour includes contributions from writers including William Finnegan, Helen Rosner, Jia Tolentino, Kelefa Sanneh, and Adam Gopnik, who says, “One never knows whether to applaud the human insistence on continuing with some form of normal life, or look aghast at the human insistence on continuing with some form of normal life. That’s the mystery of the pandemic.”
A Guide to the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-04-24--Stephon Marbury Has His Own Story to Tell

Stephon Marbury is the only professional basketball player I first learned about from a book .
“ The Last Shot , ” a deeply empathetic work of narrative nonfiction by Darcy Frey , which was published in 1994 , portrays Marbury during his freshman year at Coney Island ’ s Lincoln High School , as he and his older teammates on the basketball team—Marbury was the point guard—navigated urban poverty , lacklustre schooling , and the joys , teasing cruelties , and insidious corruption of high-level “ amateur ” sports .
Early in the book , at the end of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Marbury takes a few dribbles , throws up an arcing alley-oop , and a teammate—who happens to be Marbury ’ s elder cousin—dunks the pass home for a win .
“ Then he raises his arms jubilantly and dances a little jig , ” Frey writes , of Marbury , “ rendered momentarily insane by the sheer , giddy pleasure of playing this game to perfection.
” That early perfection made Marbury renowned within New York ’ s five boroughs and , eventually , far beyond .
He was drafted into the N.B.A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which immediately traded him to Minnesota , where he briefly formed a talented duo with the rising superstar Kevin Garnett .
But his departure from the team—during his third season , he asked for a trade—was a bigger story than his impressive stat lines had been , and , although Marbury became an All-Star , bad press followed him to his next team , the New Jersey Nets , then to the Phoenix Suns , and , most memorably , to his home-town New York Knicks , where he was coached by Larry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comically bad relationship , one already soured by their losing effort together at the 2004 Summer Olympics .
Brown was fired , and the Knicks ’ general manager , Isiah Thomas , took over coaching duties ; he clashed with Marbury , too .
By the end of Marbury ’ s time in New York , he had been asked not to practice or play with the team .
He spent part of a year coming off the bench for the Boston Celtics , then made the surprising choice to play in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a new , highly successful life as an expatriate ex-N.B.A.-er .
No overseas second act has done so much to change a player ’ s perception among basketball fans .
Marbury eventually won three championship titles with the Beijing Ducks , and has become a kind of national culture hero in China .
A statue of him stands in Beijing , outside the arena where he played ; he was given the keys to the city ; and , after his last game as a professional , the crowd stood and applauded .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , given his earlier troubles with management , he is a coach for the Beijing Royal Fighters .
Marbury has been analyzed and discussed as much as he has been watched—Spike Lee ’ s “ He Got Game , ” released in 1998 , was widely assumed to be based in part on Marbury ’ s life—and he has displayed a concomitant passion for self-presentation .
As a rookie , rather than sign an endorsement deal with Nike or Adidas , he opted for the small streetwear brand And1 .
Later , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Steve & Barry ’ s , where he designed and marketed the Starbury sneaker , which sold for just fifteen dollars .
In 2009 , Marbury recorded an angry , imprecatory live stream for twenty-four hours , railing against the Knicks , listening to gospel music , and occasionally weeping .
( At one point , Marbury , complaining of a sore throat , ate several gobs of Vaseline . )
In 2014 , he starred in a musical called “ I Am Stephon Marbury , ” and , in 2017 , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” an autobiographical movie about his adventures in China .
Now comes a new documentary about his life , called “ A Kid from Coney Island , ” which gallops from Brooklyn to China and takes scrupulous , almost legal , care to point out the myriad ways in which Marbury has been , from his perspective , misunderstood and maligned .
It is largely narrated by Marbury ’ s friends and family , though the ESPN anchor Stephen A. Smith also appears .
The movie premièred at the Tribeca Film Festival @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus effectively shut down the American box office .
It ’ s now available to stream .
Recently , I spoke to Marbury on the phone .
He had just returned to his home in Beijing after a short promotional trip to New York .
Shortly before we spoke , the New York Post had reported that Marbury was working with Eric Adams , Brooklyn ’ s borough president , to coördinate a large shipment of medical masks to his home town .
Our conversation has been edited and condensed .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get some masks sent from China to New York—thank you for that .
I also read that your cousin passed away .
I ’ m very sorry for your loss .
How is your family doing ?
It ’ s been devastating for us .
It ’ s breaking a lot of families down , and it ’ s traumatizing .
And your aunt ’ s been hospitalized , right ?
How is she ?
She ’ s the same right now .
She hasn ’ t changed .
The scary part is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people off of ventilators who have been on them for a certain amount of time and aren ’ t getting better .
So we ’ re just praying that she can get some strength so that she can continue to stay on .
What ’ s the status with getting the masks shipped ?
We ’ re getting closer .
You ’ ve got ta follow the protocols , so I put them in contact with the people they need to be in contact with , and now they ’ re finishing up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from what I ’ m hearing .
How was it being in China for some of this , where it hit first ?
I actually was here right when it started , and then I went to America when it started there .
Right when it started to get bad in America , I came back to China .
And China is O.K .
now .
I first heard about you from a book , years ago : “ The Last Shot , ” by Darcy Frey , which came out when you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a few years later , I saw Spike Lee ’ s movie about a basketball prospect from Coney Island , “ He Got Game , ” which is partly based on you , a few years later .
[ Lee has said , of suggestions that the Marbury family inspired the movie , “ It ’ s not about them.
” But the parallels are hard to ignore . ]
And there were documentaries about you when you were a kid , too .
What is it like to have your life @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you decide that you wanted to tell it this way , now , with this documentary ?
You know , you got people like Spike Lee , who tried to take my story and tell it without us having any part in telling our story—tried to do that and failed , but was able to write a good script for people to watch a movie .
And then guys like Darcy Frey , who made up stuff which people thought was true—a lot of it was false , because he just started to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
[ Frey said that he didn ’ t make up anything in “ The Last Shot , ” adding , “ It ’ s a work of journalism , and I applied the same standards to the reporting and writing of the book as I ’ d have applied writing for a daily newspaper .
” ]

Stephon Marbury is the only professional basketball player I first learned about from a book. “The Last Shot,” a deeply empathetic work of narrative nonfiction by Darcy Frey, which was published in 1994, portrays Marbury during his freshman year at Coney Island’s Lincoln High School, as he and his older teammates on the basketball team—Marbury was the point guard—navigated urban poverty, lacklustre schooling, and the joys, teasing cruelties, and insidious corruption of high-level “amateur” sports. Early in the book, at the end of a nighttime game in Coney Island, Marbury takes a few dribbles, throws up an arcing alley-oop, and a teammate—who happens to be Marbury’s elder cousin—dunks the pass home for a win. “Then he raises his arms jubilantly and dances a little jig,” Frey writes, of Marbury, “rendered momentarily insane by the sheer, giddy pleasure of playing this game to perfection.”
That early perfection made Marbury renowned within New York’s five boroughs and, eventually, far beyond. He was drafted into the N.B.A. in 1996, by Milwaukee, which immediately traded him to Minnesota, where he briefly formed a talented duo with the rising superstar Kevin Garnett. But his departure from the team—during his third season, he asked for a trade—was a bigger story than his impressive stat lines had been, and, although Marbury became an All-Star, bad press followed him to his next team, the New Jersey Nets, then to the Phoenix Suns, and, most memorably, to his home-town New York Knicks, where he was coached by Larry Brown, with whom he had a comically bad relationship, one already soured by their losing effort together at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Brown was fired, and the Knicks’ general manager, Isiah Thomas, took over coaching duties; he clashed with Marbury, too. By the end of Marbury’s time in New York, he had been asked not to practice or play with the team.
He spent part of a year coming off the bench for the Boston Celtics, then made the surprising choice to play in the Chinese Basketball Association, where he built a new, highly successful life as an expatriate ex-N.B.A.-er. No overseas second act has done so much to change a player’s perception among basketball fans. Marbury eventually won three championship titles with the Beijing Ducks, and has become a kind of national culture hero in China. A statue of him stands in Beijing, outside the arena where he played; he was given the keys to the city; and, after his last game as a professional, the crowd stood and applauded. Some wept. Now, somewhat improbably, given his earlier troubles with management, he is a coach for the Beijing Royal Fighters.
Marbury has been analyzed and discussed as much as he has been watched—Spike Lee’s “He Got Game,” released in 1998, was widely assumed to be based in part on Marbury’s life—and he has displayed a concomitant passion for self-presentation. As a rookie, rather than sign an endorsement deal with Nike or Adidas, he opted for the small streetwear brand And1. Later, he entered a partnership with the clothing retailer Steve & Barry’s, where he designed and marketed the Starbury sneaker, which sold for just fifteen dollars. In 2009, Marbury recorded an angry, imprecatory live stream for twenty-four hours, railing against the Knicks, listening to gospel music, and occasionally weeping. (At one point, Marbury, complaining of a sore throat, ate several gobs of Vaseline.) In 2014, he starred in a musical called “I Am Stephon Marbury,” and, in 2017, he played himself in “My Other Home,” an autobiographical movie about his adventures in China.
Now comes a new documentary about his life, called “A Kid from Coney Island,” which gallops from Brooklyn to China and takes scrupulous, almost legal, care to point out the myriad ways in which Marbury has been, from his perspective, misunderstood and maligned. It is largely narrated by Marbury’s friends and family, though the ESPN anchor Stephen A. Smith also appears. The movie premièred at the Tribeca Film Festival last year and showed in theatres before the coronavirus effectively shut down the American box office. It’s now available to stream. Recently, I spoke to Marbury on the phone. He had just returned to his home in Beijing after a short promotional trip to New York. Shortly before we spoke, the New York Post had reported that Marbury was working with Eric Adams, Brooklyn’s borough president, to coördinate a large shipment of medical masks to his home town. Our conversation has been edited and condensed.
I read that you’re trying to get some masks sent from China to New York—thank you for that. I also read that your cousin passed away. I’m very sorry for your loss. How is your family doing?
It’s been devastating for us. It’s breaking a lot of families down, and it’s traumatizing.
And your aunt’s been hospitalized, right? How is she?
She’s the same right now. She hasn’t changed. The scary part is, they’re talking about taking people off of ventilators who have been on them for a certain amount of time and aren’t getting better. So we’re just praying that she can get some strength so that she can continue to stay on.
What’s the status with getting the masks shipped?
We’re getting closer. You’ve gotta follow the protocols, so I put them in contact with the people they need to be in contact with, and now they’re finishing up. Soon, it should be, from what I’m hearing.
How was it being in China for some of this, where it hit first?
I actually was here right when it started, and then I went to America when it started there. Right when it started to get bad in America, I came back to China. And China is O.K. now.
I first heard about you from a book, years ago: “The Last Shot,” by Darcy Frey, which came out when you were still in high school. Then, a few years later, I saw Spike Lee’s movie about a basketball prospect from Coney Island, “He Got Game,” which is partly based on you, a few years later. [Lee has said, of suggestions that the Marbury family inspired the movie, “It’s not about them.” But the parallels are hard to ignore.] And there were documentaries about you when you were a kid, too. What is it like to have your life told so many different ways—and why did you decide that you wanted to tell it this way, now, with this documentary?
You know, you got people like Spike Lee, who tried to take my story and tell it without us having any part in telling our story—tried to do that and failed, but was able to write a good script for people to watch a movie. And then guys like Darcy Frey, who made up stuff which people thought was true—a lot of it was false, because he just started to write about what he wanted to write. [Frey said that he didn’t make up anything in “The Last Shot,” adding, “It’s a work of journalism, and I applied the same standards to the reporting and writing of the book as I’d have applied writing for a daily newspaper.”]
So it was good to be able to give people this visual—this was the real story.
It occurred to me for the first time while watching it that you were like a child star: when you were sixteen and seventeen, at Lincoln High School, in Coney Island, people all over the city knew your name. Was that hard to deal with?
It wasn’t hard. It wasn’t hard because I had my mom, my dad, my brothers and sisters. I never really had any space to get a big head. I think, because of the way I was as a basketball player, that sometimes people got the person mixed up with the personality.
I was a little bit ahead of everyone’s time because I had older brothers that played the game, and went to college, and had different experiences—whereas some guys, they don’t have older brothers to teach them, to tell them the things that they need to know, as far as how to navigate, guys like LeBron James and Kevin Garnett. You know, who were their mentors? Kobe Bryant, you could see that he had a different type of acceleration, because his dad played professional basketball—he played in Italy. Whereas these other guys were being groomed by guys like Worldwide Wes, you know what I’m saying?


newyorker--2020-04-24--What to Stream: Three Online Releases of Movies That Would Have Come to Theatres

Hollywood ’ s response to the coronavirus lockdown and the resulting shutdown of movie theatres is , so far , mainly , to do nothing—i.e.
, to wait the shutdown out in the hopes of eventually presenting major releases in theatres , whenever that might be .
The availability of new movies online has come mainly from independent distributors , and they ’ re so far only a trickle , but the streaming schedule will grow richer in the coming weeks .
Here are three—two new releases and one revival—now streaming .
Tayarisha Poe ’ s ambitious and atmospheric first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” ( which is available on Amazon Prime ) , is a fascinating and daring hybrid of tones and moods , and , if they don ’ t always mesh , their individual moments are nonetheless often striking and memorable .
Selah Summers ( Lovie Simone ) is the queen bee of a prep school ( with both boarding and day students ) called Haldwell , and the head of the Spades , one of the five so-called factions that run the school ’ s social life .
They do so in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ divided responsibilities ( such as drugs , gambling , and cheating ) and spoils ( seemingly not money but power and prestige ) , and with a prevailing law of omertà that allows their reign of violence to endure with impunity .
The movie is a vaguely anachronistic period piece , set in an age of push-button landlines and handwritten ledgers and 35-mm .
S.L.R.s , with no cell phones or personal computers .
Selah is a high-school senior who grooms Paloma ( Celeste O ’ Connor ) , a recent transfer student @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but—with her drive for control—she also tries to keep Paloma subordinate and deferential .
Meanwhile , Selah ’ s trusted associate Maxxie ( Jharrel Jerome ) has screwed up , and , in dispatching Paloma to clean up the mess , she begins to suspect Paloma of disloyalty .
The tightly tangled lines of power and practical motives on which the movie runs are sketched plainly—even too conspicuously .
The film distills even its protagonist ’ s key experiences in short scenes that are meant to stand for a lifetime of complexes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by phone that she got a ninety-three on a calculus exam and her mother—who has her heart set on Selah attending a particular prestigious college called Redwood—retorts , “ What happened to the other seven points ?
” The student life of Haldwell as depicted in the film is ahistorical , apolitical , culturally undefined , hermetically sealed , ignoring the loose ends peeking out from under the factions ’ reign and within their members ’ disciplined and overcontrolled habits .
In short , “ Selah and the Spades ” presents a grindingly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wonderful young cast into its narrow confines , allowing them little margin for inventive performance—only to overcome its own rigidity with a sense of style and a subjective energy that ’ s altogether rare in the current cinema .
Poe , working with the cinematographer Jomo Fray , crafts a noteworthy array of moments within moments , of fleeting impressions seized from the high-pressure course of daily life to create an instant nostalgia , a forging of its characters ’ memories that will endure long after the earnest yet absurd drama of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the Spades ” plays like a distanced and third-person effort to recapture intense first-person emotions and experiences ; its artistic personality is divided against itself , yet its very tensions unleash creative energy that is itself moving and invigorating .
“ To the Stars , ” directed by Martha Stephens , is another period piece—this one more clearly specified in its place and time .
( It was released on Friday on Amazon , iTunes , and other services . )
It ’ s set around 1960 , in a small Oklahoma @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thrown together by circumstance .
Iris ( Kara Hayward ) is a socially awkward , introverted intellectual who is ostracized by girls and sexually harassed by boys .
Maggie ( Liana Liberato ) is a seemingly sophisticated newcomer to the neighborhood whose family just moved there to get a fresh start—in order to cover up for Maggie ’ s ostracism in their former town , as a result of some unspecified transgression , clearly sexual in nature , the specifics of which are revealed only drop by drop until a grand dénouement pulls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , before that happens , Maggie defends and befriends Iris , gives her a hand with hair styles and clothing , and draws her out of her shell .
Sill , the grace notes , found in occasional tossed-off phrases , gestures , and glances , are as strong and significant as the overdetermined and undercharacterized action ; if the direction of “ To the Stars ” tends toward the literal , it , too , offers a notable and distinctive element of style .
The movie ’ s reconstruction of the period @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outfits and props , and with the over-all design of its color palette , offers the impression of having been conceived in relation not to movies of the period but to snapshots and home movies , to reflect the casual immediacy of vernacular material experience .
Unfortunately , the style of the performances is less redolent of discovery and reinvention than of inherited convention .
Yet the styles of this movie , too , leave strong traces in memory that reach beyond the boundaries of its dramaturgy .
What good is an Oscar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feature “ Down and Out in America ” won one ( tying with a film about the bandleader Artie Shaw ) , but it has remained long unavailable regardless .
It came to Film Forum ’ s Web site on Friday , and it ’ s a powerful , bracing , mournful film .
Specifically , its subject is the age of Ronald Reagan and the installation of a new era of calculated cruelties toward the poor and the powerless .
Grant , working with the cinematographer Tom Hurwitz , visits farmers in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ farms and their homes by banks that are engaging in predatory practices ( chicanery involving the assessment of land ) and , in the process , voiding the Midwest of tens of thousands of family farms to the benefit of corporate concerns .
She documents their organized protests , which even garner the support of the state ’ s government—to no avail .
She talks with unemployed people , former employees of local factories that have moved their manufacturing operations to Southern states—what ’ s unstated is , to states where unions are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she observes the desolation of towns that results .
In Los Angeles , Grant films homeless people who have developed a well-organized and orderly shanty town on a vacant lot—which is visited by a police officer who ’ s the advance guard for a whole battalion of officers that comes by soon thereafter to evict the residents and demolish the structures .
In New York , she visits formerly homeless residents of the Lower East Side who have transformed abandoned buildings into quality housing but fear their eviction by the authorities in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ films outside a midtown hotel—and , unable to enter , obtains footage by way of residents ’ hidden cameras—where the homeless are housed in grossly substandard conditions , at an absurdly inflated cost to the city .
And , in an extended , pain-filled concluding sequence , she speaks with a young homeless couple with five young children who were burned out of their Coney Island apartment and are enduring a bureaucratic runaround and the squalor of their officially assigned hotel .
In her voice-over commentary , Grant traces the rise of unemployment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the closing of farms , and the dispossession of city dwellers to the early nineteen-eighties , to the time of the first Reagan Administration .
She makes clear that the lack of a federal policy is itself a policy , that inaction regarding the well-being of those in danger is itself a form of cruel action , that economic and social phenomena masked as in some way natural or self-generating ( such as the increase in inequality and the upward transfer of wealth ) are the product of politics—and that the effects @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political , too .
In “ Down and Out in America , ” the current state of American politics is seen in its first monstrous stages .

Hollywood’s response to the coronavirus lockdown and the resulting shutdown of movie theatres is, so far, mainly, to do nothing—i.e., to wait the shutdown out in the hopes of eventually presenting major releases in theatres, whenever that might be. The availability of new movies online has come mainly from independent distributors, and they’re so far only a trickle, but the streaming schedule will grow richer in the coming weeks. Here are three—two new releases and one revival—now streaming.
Tayarisha Poe’s ambitious and atmospheric first feature, “Selah and the Spades” (which is available on Amazon Prime), is a fascinating and daring hybrid of tones and moods, and, if they don’t always mesh, their individual moments are nonetheless often striking and memorable. Selah Summers (Lovie Simone) is the queen bee of a prep school (with both boarding and day students) called Haldwell, and the head of the Spades, one of the five so-called factions that run the school’s social life. They do so in the manner of five Mafia families, with divided responsibilities (such as drugs, gambling, and cheating) and spoils (seemingly not money but power and prestige), and with a prevailing law of omertà that allows their reign of violence to endure with impunity. The movie is a vaguely anachronistic period piece, set in an age of push-button landlines and handwritten ledgers and 35-mm. S.L.R.s, with no cell phones or personal computers. Selah is a high-school senior who grooms Paloma (Celeste O’Connor), a recent transfer student and a sophomore, as her successor, but—with her drive for control—she also tries to keep Paloma subordinate and deferential. Meanwhile, Selah’s trusted associate Maxxie (Jharrel Jerome) has screwed up, and, in dispatching Paloma to clean up the mess, she begins to suspect Paloma of disloyalty.
The tightly tangled lines of power and practical motives on which the movie runs are sketched plainly—even too conspicuously. The film distills even its protagonist’s key experiences in short scenes that are meant to stand for a lifetime of complexes, as when Selah tells her mother by phone that she got a ninety-three on a calculus exam and her mother—who has her heart set on Selah attending a particular prestigious college called Redwood—retorts, “What happened to the other seven points?” The student life of Haldwell as depicted in the film is ahistorical, apolitical, culturally undefined, hermetically sealed, ignoring the loose ends peeking out from under the factions’ reign and within their members’ disciplined and overcontrolled habits.
In short, “Selah and the Spades” presents a grindingly mechanical and impersonal plot and presses a wonderful young cast into its narrow confines, allowing them little margin for inventive performance—only to overcome its own rigidity with a sense of style and a subjective energy that’s altogether rare in the current cinema. Poe, working with the cinematographer Jomo Fray, crafts a noteworthy array of moments within moments, of fleeting impressions seized from the high-pressure course of daily life to create an instant nostalgia, a forging of its characters’ memories that will endure long after the earnest yet absurd drama of their adolescent lives washes away. “Selah and the Spades” plays like a distanced and third-person effort to recapture intense first-person emotions and experiences; its artistic personality is divided against itself, yet its very tensions unleash creative energy that is itself moving and invigorating.
“To the Stars,” directed by Martha Stephens, is another period piece—this one more clearly specified in its place and time. (It was released on Friday on Amazon, iTunes, and other services.) It’s set around 1960, in a small Oklahoma town, where two high-school students are thrown together by circumstance. Iris (Kara Hayward) is a socially awkward, introverted intellectual who is ostracized by girls and sexually harassed by boys. Maggie (Liana Liberato) is a seemingly sophisticated newcomer to the neighborhood whose family just moved there to get a fresh start—in order to cover up for Maggie’s ostracism in their former town, as a result of some unspecified transgression, clearly sexual in nature, the specifics of which are revealed only drop by drop until a grand dénouement pulls the secret into the open. Yet, before that happens, Maggie defends and befriends Iris, gives her a hand with hair styles and clothing, and draws her out of her shell.
“To the Stars.” Photograph Courtesy Samuel Goldwyn Films
Sill, the grace notes, found in occasional tossed-off phrases, gestures, and glances, are as strong and significant as the overdetermined and undercharacterized action; if the direction of “To the Stars” tends toward the literal, it, too, offers a notable and distinctive element of style. The movie’s reconstruction of the period, with the specifics of hairdos and outfits and props, and with the over-all design of its color palette, offers the impression of having been conceived in relation not to movies of the period but to snapshots and home movies, to reflect the casual immediacy of vernacular material experience. Unfortunately, the style of the performances is less redolent of discovery and reinvention than of inherited convention. Yet the styles of this movie, too, leave strong traces in memory that reach beyond the boundaries of its dramaturgy.
What good is an Oscar? Lee Grant’s 1986 documentary feature “Down and Out in America” won one (tying with a film about the bandleader Artie Shaw), but it has remained long unavailable regardless. It came to Film Forum’s Web site on Friday, and it’s a powerful, bracing, mournful film. Specifically, its subject is the age of Ronald Reagan and the installation of a new era of calculated cruelties toward the poor and the powerless. Grant, working with the cinematographer Tom Hurwitz, visits farmers in Minnesota who are being dispossessed of their farms and their homes by banks that are engaging in predatory practices (chicanery involving the assessment of land) and, in the process, voiding the Midwest of tens of thousands of family farms to the benefit of corporate concerns. She documents their organized protests, which even garner the support of the state’s government—to no avail. She talks with unemployed people, former employees of local factories that have moved their manufacturing operations to Southern states—what’s unstated is, to states where unions are weak—or out of the country, and she observes the desolation of towns that results.
In Los Angeles, Grant films homeless people who have developed a well-organized and orderly shanty town on a vacant lot—which is visited by a police officer who’s the advance guard for a whole battalion of officers that comes by soon thereafter to evict the residents and demolish the structures. In New York, she visits formerly homeless residents of the Lower East Side who have transformed abandoned buildings into quality housing but fear their eviction by the authorities in the interest of real-estate companies. She also films outside a midtown hotel—and, unable to enter, obtains footage by way of residents’ hidden cameras—where the homeless are housed in grossly substandard conditions, at an absurdly inflated cost to the city. And, in an extended, pain-filled concluding sequence, she speaks with a young homeless couple with five young children who were burned out of their Coney Island apartment and are enduring a bureaucratic runaround and the squalor of their officially assigned hotel.
In her voice-over commentary, Grant traces the rise of unemployment and homelessness, the displacement of factories, the closing of farms, and the dispossession of city dwellers to the early nineteen-eighties, to the time of the first Reagan Administration. She makes clear that the lack of a federal policy is itself a policy, that inaction regarding the well-being of those in danger is itself a form of cruel action, that economic and social phenomena masked as in some way natural or self-generating (such as the increase in inequality and the upward transfer of wealth) are the product of politics—and that the effects of those policies is likely to be political, too. In “Down and Out in America,” the current state of American politics is seen in its first monstrous stages.


newyorker--2020-04-24--America’s Four-Year-Olds Warn Against Following Trump’s Medical Advice

WASHINGTON ( The Borowitz Report ) —In an unprecedented move , the nation ’ s four-year-olds have issued an official @ @ @ @ @ J. Trump ’ s medical advice .
Asserting that their communiqué was “ not about @ @ @ @ @ said that they were issuing the statement out of concern for public health .
“ @ @ @ @ @ you have heard Donald Trump making medical recommendations from the White House , ” the @ @ @ @ @ ’ s important for you to know that these recommendations have no basis in medical @ @ @ @ @ Right now , millions of you are stuck at home with nothing to do , @ @ @ @ @ “ Still , that ’ s no excuse to do anything that Donald Trump tells @ @ @ @ @ four-year-olds ’ communiqué ended with a general advisory for the future : “ Whenever Donald @ @ @ @ @ something , ask yourself : If Donald Trump jumped off a bridge , would you @ @ @ @ @ Of course not .
”

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In an unprecedented move, the nation’s four-year-olds have issued an official communiqué warning against following Donald J. Trump’s medical advice.
Asserting that their communiqué was “not about politics,” the four-year-olds said that they were issuing the statement out of concern for public health.
“By now, many of you have heard Donald Trump making medical recommendations from the White House,” the statement read. “It’s important for you to know that these recommendations have no basis in medical or scientific fact.”
“Right now, millions of you are stuck at home with nothing to do,” the statement continued. “Still, that’s no excuse to do anything that Donald Trump tells you to do.”
The four-year-olds’ communiqué ended with a general advisory for the future: “Whenever Donald Trump tells you to do something, ask yourself: If Donald Trump jumped off a bridge, would you jump off a bridge? Of course not.”


newyorker--2020-04-24--Daily Cartoon: Friday, April 24th

Daily Cartoon: Friday, April 24th

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newyorker--2020-04-24--Mapping the Sidewalks of New York City for Social Distancing

Last month , as the coronavirus pandemic was just starting to be felt in New York City , the urban planner and architect Meli Harvey thought it would be useful to analyze how difficult social distancing might be on any given section of the city ’ s nearly thirteen thousand miles of sidewalks .
“ You might have fewer people in the street , but you still have all these obstacles that you have to negotiate , ” Harvey said , before listing some of the hindrances that she found herself contending with while walking through her neighborhood of Boerum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ People walking dogs is a big one , there are lines for some of the grocers , you might have people walking side by side.
” Harvey has a long-standing interest in how people navigate sidewalks .
At one point last year , while teaching as an adjunct at Columbia ’ s Graduate School of Architecture and Planning , she and two students explored how mounds of black plastic trash bags , piled up at curbs for the Sanitation Department to collect , impeded pedestrians .
As the virus spread , Harvey ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for people trying to maintain six feet of distance from other pedestrians while travelling through a city where right of way is often subjective , obliviousness is not uncommon , and every bit of space can be seen as territory to be occupied .
Eventually , the pandemic prompted Harvey to leave Brooklyn for New Hampshire , where her family lives , but she kept thinking about how her interest in sidewalks and her experience as an urban planner might help those who stayed behind .
In early April , she went to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which includes an almost encyclopedic range of municipal information .
There , Harvey found a set of sidewalk outlines based upon aerial photographs taken in 2014 .
In the course of two weeks , she developed a formula to figure out the width of each one .
On Sunday night , Harvey ’ s interactive project , Sidewalk Widths NYC , was published online .
It allows users to glide over a map of the city ’ s five boroughs and zoom in on neighborhoods and intersections .
Wider sidewalks are marked in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , yellow , orange , and red .
All sidewalks , of course , are not equal .
“ This path is great for social distancing !
” the map says of a section of Delancey Street , on the Lower East Side , that is listed as being about twenty-five feet wide .
Part of the sidewalk on the north side of Barrow Street , near Bedford Street in the West Village , meanwhile , is listed as a little over five feet wide , or , as the map says , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Many other sidewalks fall somewhere in between .
Although New York has long been known as a pedestrian ’ s city , its sidewalks , in general , are not of particularly generous proportions .
The dark , winding streets of the oldest parts of Lower Manhattan tend to have narrow sidewalks .
Practically all the sidewalks along the roughly five-mile length of Utopia Parkway , in car-centric Queens , are red or orange and measure on the map between five and ten feet wide .
Smith Street , one of Boerum Hill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where Harvey had her sidewalk-measurement epiphany , is not much more accommodating , the map shows , with only a few stretches of sidewalk wider than ten feet and one section of about three and a half feet wide .
The most consistently wide sidewalks , it appears , are along Broadway north of West 72nd Street , Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard , and Malcolm X Boulevard .
Sometimes both very wide and very narrow sidewalks can be found in close proximity .
The map shows that Rikers Island includes sidewalks of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little under two feet .
And it shows that , on East Fordham Road , in the Bronx , a stretch of sidewalk that measures just over twenty-nine feet wide gives way within a few yards , near Crotona Avenue , to a section that is just over two feet wide .
Harvey said that sidewalk width is not the only factor that plays into social distancing .
Features like tree pits , fire hydrants , light poles , and mailboxes take up room .
“ On top of that , ” Harvey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of people vying for the same sidewalk space.
” Since she published her map , Harvey has received messages from people who have viewed it .
Some , she said , pointed out that the map doesn ’ t account for recent alterations .
Others have told her that the map closely matches what they have observed .
One person responded to Harvey ’ s announcement of the project on Twitter by suggesting that she include information about permits for construction that can take up sidewalk space .
( “ That ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . )
A man from France said that he was working on a similar project for Paris .
Harvey is clear that the map is not meant as an infection-avoidance guide or a reliable way for anyone to know which routes may be the safest .
Rather , the map provides a set of information that was not easily available to the public .
Some of those who could have use for the map , Harvey suggested , include city officials interested in evaluating sidewalk width when considering whether to close roadways to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pedestrians .
Ultimately , Harvey hopes that the map—which she said is a sort of “ document of the ways we ’ ve planned and built cities over two centuries ” —can have a purpose beyond the pandemic , by offering ideas for how to look at the city ’ s growth and development as it went from being a Dutch outpost in the New World to the most populous city in the United States .
Already , Harvey said , she had noticed elements of the streetscape that she planned to examine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are sidewalks along certain avenues in Harlem extra wide while sidewalks on intersecting streets are extra narrow ?
And why is it that sidewalks appear to be narrower the farther they are from the city ’ s center ?
“ A lot of the artifacts that show up in this map result from decisions , ” she said .
“ I really do hope it ’ s the doorway into new insight and new questions .
”

Last month, as the coronavirus pandemic was just starting to be felt in New York City, the urban planner and architect Meli Harvey thought it would be useful to analyze how difficult social distancing might be on any given section of the city’s nearly thirteen thousand miles of sidewalks. “You might have fewer people in the street, but you still have all these obstacles that you have to negotiate,” Harvey said, before listing some of the hindrances that she found herself contending with while walking through her neighborhood of Boerum Hill, near downtown Brooklyn. “People walking dogs is a big one, there are lines for some of the grocers, you might have people walking side by side.”
Harvey has a long-standing interest in how people navigate sidewalks. At one point last year, while teaching as an adjunct at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, she and two students explored how mounds of black plastic trash bags, piled up at curbs for the Sanitation Department to collect, impeded pedestrians. As the virus spread, Harvey’s academic interest became a real-life concern for people trying to maintain six feet of distance from other pedestrians while travelling through a city where right of way is often subjective, obliviousness is not uncommon, and every bit of space can be seen as territory to be occupied.
Eventually, the pandemic prompted Harvey to leave Brooklyn for New Hampshire, where her family lives, but she kept thinking about how her interest in sidewalks and her experience as an urban planner might help those who stayed behind. In early April, she went to the NYC Open Data Web site, which includes an almost encyclopedic range of municipal information. There, Harvey found a set of sidewalk outlines based upon aerial photographs taken in 2014. In the course of two weeks, she developed a formula to figure out the width of each one.
On Sunday night, Harvey’s interactive project, Sidewalk Widths NYC, was published online. It allows users to glide over a map of the city’s five boroughs and zoom in on neighborhoods and intersections. Wider sidewalks are marked in blue. Successively narrower sidewalks are green, yellow, orange, and red. All sidewalks, of course, are not equal. “This path is great for social distancing!” the map says of a section of Delancey Street, on the Lower East Side, that is listed as being about twenty-five feet wide. Part of the sidewalk on the north side of Barrow Street, near Bedford Street in the West Village, meanwhile, is listed as a little over five feet wide, or, as the map says, “too narrow for social distancing.” Many other sidewalks fall somewhere in between.
Although New York has long been known as a pedestrian’s city, its sidewalks, in general, are not of particularly generous proportions. The dark, winding streets of the oldest parts of Lower Manhattan tend to have narrow sidewalks. Practically all the sidewalks along the roughly five-mile length of Utopia Parkway, in car-centric Queens, are red or orange and measure on the map between five and ten feet wide. Smith Street, one of Boerum Hill’s main thoroughfares and the street where Harvey had her sidewalk-measurement epiphany, is not much more accommodating, the map shows, with only a few stretches of sidewalk wider than ten feet and one section of about three and a half feet wide. The most consistently wide sidewalks, it appears, are along Broadway north of West 72nd Street, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, and Malcolm X Boulevard. Sometimes both very wide and very narrow sidewalks can be found in close proximity. The map shows that Rikers Island includes sidewalks of a little over thirty-three feet and a little under two feet. And it shows that, on East Fordham Road, in the Bronx, a stretch of sidewalk that measures just over twenty-nine feet wide gives way within a few yards, near Crotona Avenue, to a section that is just over two feet wide.
Harvey said that sidewalk width is not the only factor that plays into social distancing. Features like tree pits, fire hydrants, light poles, and mailboxes take up room. “On top of that,” Harvey said, “you might have dozens of people vying for the same sidewalk space.” Since she published her map, Harvey has received messages from people who have viewed it. Some, she said, pointed out that the map doesn’t account for recent alterations. Others have told her that the map closely matches what they have observed. One person responded to Harvey’s announcement of the project on Twitter by suggesting that she include information about permits for construction that can take up sidewalk space. (“That’s a great idea,” Harvey replied.) A man from France said that he was working on a similar project for Paris.
Harvey is clear that the map is not meant as an infection-avoidance guide or a reliable way for anyone to know which routes may be the safest. Rather, the map provides a set of information that was not easily available to the public. Some of those who could have use for the map, Harvey suggested, include city officials interested in evaluating sidewalk width when considering whether to close roadways to cars and trucks and open them to pedestrians.
Ultimately, Harvey hopes that the map—which she said is a sort of “document of the ways we’ve planned and built cities over two centuries”—can have a purpose beyond the pandemic, by offering ideas for how to look at the city’s growth and development as it went from being a Dutch outpost in the New World to the most populous city in the United States. Already, Harvey said, she had noticed elements of the streetscape that she planned to examine further. Why, for instance, are sidewalks along certain avenues in Harlem extra wide while sidewalks on intersecting streets are extra narrow? And why is it that sidewalks appear to be narrower the farther they are from the city’s center? “A lot of the artifacts that show up in this map result from decisions,” she said. “I really do hope it’s the doorway into new insight and new questions.”


newyorker--2020-04-25--How to Spot a Fake

How to Spot a Fake

One of the biggest giveaways that you ’ re dealing with a fake Rolex is that “ Rolex ” is spelled incorrectly on the watch .
If the timepiece has “ Folex , ” “ Nolex , ” or “ Rolexish ” emblazoned on it , then it is likely a counterfeit item .
The same goes for those that say “ Rolex , ” but written “ 5073x , ” using the watch ’ s calculator function .
Also—and this is a telltale sign for all types of fake jewelry—do not even think about purchasing a piece if it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cover it in cheese .
If this is the case , there is a pretty good chance your “ diamond necklace ” is actually made of macaroni .
It is one of the oldest tricks in the book and has made many a shady preschooler unimaginably rich .
As with watches , you can tell a handbag is inauthentic if the designer ’ s name or logo looks off .
Another , perhaps even easier way to tell is if the shop where you are buying an expensive purse also sells those New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know , the ones that stopped really working in 2011 but found a way to stay a staple of the holiday until 2020 , when they became relevant once again , if only for a year ?
Anyway , those are legit .
While art forgery is among the higher-profile , more lucrative scams , it is still quite common for regular people to fall victim to a faux van Gogh , phony Monet , or dummy Duchamp .
Luckily , it is fairly simple to see when someone is de copying de @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the work to check whether the person who sold it to you gets mad or reacts in any other way that might suggest that one of the world ’ s greatest cultural treasures has been used to sop up the grease from a dollar slice of pizza .
It can be tricky to tell if autographs are signed by actual celebrities , but there are certain signs that can alert you to a fraudulent piece of memorabilia—the most obvious being an incongruity between the John Hancock and the item it is Sharpied onto @ @ @ @ @ @ @ glamorous movie star ’ s signature turn up on a paper napkin , but if you spot Babe Ruth ’ s signature on a Peloton stationary bicycle , it probably was not the one he rode every day as a boy , in a Baltimore orphanage at the turn of the century .
For the most part , avoiding fake memorabilia simply requires common sense .
If a dealer purports to be selling the real Baby Yoda puppet for twenty dollars but it looks like a Furby someone spray-painted green , that is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That said , still not a bad deal .
As proved by pirates in hundreds of movies , biting into a coin is one of the best ways to make sure it is not made out of chocolate .
Fugazi paper currency , however , is much harder to identify orally .
To spot a bogus batch , you will need to rely on the feel and weight of the note .
You should also look closely at how it is printed .
Very few , if any , crayon-drawn million-dollar bills have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inconsistencies such as squiggly lines and a smiley face in their center instead of a President or other national icon .
They may also , if you check the lower right-hand quadrant , be issued by the Bank of Tommy or some other childish name .
Counterfeit wine is , without a doubt , the easiest phony luxury item to suss out .
If it tastes good , it is not a bottle of old-ass wine .
If it does not make you find the phrase “ wine o ’ clock ” funny @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in it at all .
Sadly , by the time you realize this , you can not return it for a refund , as the seller has probably found a wine cave to hide out in until the heat dies down .
If you look on the bright side , though , the sweetness of the grape juice pairs well with the acidity of tomato sauce , and even someone who is financially ruined can drum up enough for a dollar slice .
Pained looks can be misleading , since people are often @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to do with you , but the fact that you have put your earbuds back in is making me think that I should shut up and just stare at the flight map for the remainder of this flight from Newark to Singapore .
Yeah , I know there are a ton of movies and shows available to watch , but the actors are all faking it .
I can always tell .

Rolex
One of the biggest giveaways that you’re dealing with a fake Rolex is that “Rolex” is spelled incorrectly on the watch. If the timepiece has “Folex,” “Nolex,” or “Rolexish” emblazoned on it, then it is likely a counterfeit item. The same goes for those that say “Rolex,” but written “5073x,” using the watch’s calculator function. Also—and this is a telltale sign for all types of fake jewelry—do not even think about purchasing a piece if it tastes delicious after you boil it and cover it in cheese. If this is the case, there is a pretty good chance your “diamond necklace” is actually made of macaroni. It is one of the oldest tricks in the book and has made many a shady preschooler unimaginably rich.
Handbag
As with watches, you can tell a handbag is inauthentic if the designer’s name or logo looks off. Another, perhaps even easier way to tell is if the shop where you are buying an expensive purse also sells those New Year’s Eve glasses. You know, the ones that stopped really working in 2011 but found a way to stay a staple of the holiday until 2020, when they became relevant once again, if only for a year? Anyway, those are legit.
Painting
While art forgery is among the higher-profile, more lucrative scams, it is still quite common for regular people to fall victim to a faux van Gogh, phony Monet, or dummy Duchamp. Luckily, it is fairly simple to see when someone is de copying de Kooning. Unfortunately, it involves destroying the work to check whether the person who sold it to you gets mad or reacts in any other way that might suggest that one of the world’s greatest cultural treasures has been used to sop up the grease from a dollar slice of pizza.
Memorabilia
It can be tricky to tell if autographs are signed by actual celebrities, but there are certain signs that can alert you to a fraudulent piece of memorabilia—the most obvious being an incongruity between the John Hancock and the item it is Sharpied onto. Sure, you may see a glamorous movie star’s signature turn up on a paper napkin, but if you spot Babe Ruth’s signature on a Peloton stationary bicycle, it probably was not the one he rode every day as a boy, in a Baltimore orphanage at the turn of the century. For the most part, avoiding fake memorabilia simply requires common sense. If a dealer purports to be selling the real Baby Yoda puppet for twenty dollars but it looks like a Furby someone spray-painted green, that is more than likely what it is. That said, still not a bad deal.
Money
As proved by pirates in hundreds of movies, biting into a coin is one of the best ways to make sure it is not made out of chocolate. Fugazi paper currency, however, is much harder to identify orally. To spot a bogus batch, you will need to rely on the feel and weight of the note. You should also look closely at how it is printed. Very few, if any, crayon-drawn million-dollar bills have been authenticated. Most crayon fakes possess inconsistencies such as squiggly lines and a smiley face in their center instead of a President or other national icon. They may also, if you check the lower right-hand quadrant, be issued by the Bank of Tommy or some other childish name.
Wine
Counterfeit wine is, without a doubt, the easiest phony luxury item to suss out. If it tastes good, it is not a bottle of old-ass wine. If it does not make you find the phrase “wine o’clock” funny, it may not have any alcohol in it at all. Sadly, by the time you realize this, you cannot return it for a refund, as the seller has probably found a wine cave to hide out in until the heat dies down. If you look on the bright side, though, the sweetness of the grape juice pairs well with the acidity of tomato sauce, and even someone who is financially ruined can drum up enough for a dollar slice.
Smile
Pained looks can be misleading, since people are often going through tough times that have nothing to do with you, but the fact that you have put your earbuds back in is making me think that I should shut up and just stare at the flight map for the remainder of this flight from Newark to Singapore. Yeah, I know there are a ton of movies and shows available to watch, but the actors are all faking it. I can always tell.