newyorker--2020-08-24--Steve Bannon Selling Ten-Thousand-Dollar Passes to View Live Stream of Republican National Conventio

Steve Bannon Selling Ten-Thousand-Dollar Passes to View Live Stream of Republican National Convention

CHARLOTTE ( The Borowitz Report ) —In what he is calling “ the opportunity of a lifetime , ” Steve Bannon is offering an exclusive ten-thousand-dollar pass to view a live stream of the 2020 Republican National Convention .
The pass , which Bannon is marketing as the MAGAViewPass™ , will offer customers “ a one-of-a-kind chance to see the R.N.C .
live , as it happens , ” according to his promotional Web site .
“ With the MAGAViewPass™ , you ’ ll be able to bring the excitement of the R.N.C .
into your own home , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ National Convention on your TV , tablet , or phone , ” the Web site promises .
Additionally , Bannon ’ s site claims , those who purchase the MAGAViewPass™ will get “ unprecedented access ” to live speeches by Vice-President Mike Pence , Melania Trump , and “ Donald J. Trump himself.
” “ You won ’ t see these amazing speeches anywhere else , ” the site boasts .
The MAGAViewPass™ site asserts that “ nearly one hundred per cent ” of proceeds will be donated to Trump ’ s reëlection @ @ @ @ @ @ @ miscellaneous expenses , including but not limited to Bannon ’ s bail .

CHARLOTTE (The Borowitz Report)—In what he is calling “the opportunity of a lifetime,” Steve Bannon is offering an exclusive ten-thousand-dollar pass to view a live stream of the 2020 Republican National Convention.
The pass, which Bannon is marketing as the MAGAViewPass™, will offer customers “a one-of-a-kind chance to see the R.N.C. live, as it happens,” according to his promotional Web site.
“With the MAGAViewPass™, you’ll be able to bring the excitement of the R.N.C. into your own home, as you experience the pageantry of the Republican National Convention on your TV, tablet, or phone,” the Web site promises.
Additionally, Bannon’s site claims, those who purchase the MAGAViewPass™ will get “unprecedented access” to live speeches by Vice-President Mike Pence, Melania Trump, and “Donald J. Trump himself.”
“You won’t see these amazing speeches anywhere else,” the site boasts.
The MAGAViewPass™ site asserts that “nearly one hundred per cent” of proceeds will be donated to Trump’s reëlection effort, with a small fraction covering miscellaneous expenses, including but not limited to Bannon’s bail.


newyorker--2020-08-24--How to Save the Post Office

How to Save the Post Office

Give your local branch ten bucks for every time you ’ ve used the phrase “ going postal.
” Buy @ @ @ @ @ new “ Forever ?
?
” stamps .
Learn to love junk mail and circulars @ @ @ @ @ Hardware catalogue—I mean , there are limits ) .
Host a bake sale featuring gingerbread @ @ @ @ @ the cutest ?
!
And wee sugar-cookie stamps !
Charge , like , a hundred @ @ @ @ @ all your social-justice work via mail ( a twofer ! )
.
Tip your mail @ @ @ @ @ , or weed .
Set up a GoFundMe and try to forget the creeping feeling @ @ @ @ @ completed its slide into total anarchy .

Give your local branch ten bucks for every time you’ve used the phrase “going postal.”
Buy a twenty-four pack of the new “Forever??” stamps.
Send texts exclusively via postcard.
Form a human shield around mailboxes, softly singing protest songs like “Please Mr. Postman.”
Order tons of Post Office swag, including shirts, bags, and decommissioned mail trucks.
Learn to love junk mail and circulars (except maybe that Restoration Hardware catalogue—I mean, there are limits).
Host a bake sale featuring gingerbread letters—wouldn’t that be the cutest?! And wee sugar-cookie stamps! Charge, like, a hundred bucks per treat.
Conduct all your social-justice work via mail (a twofer!).
Tip your mail carrier in money, booze, or weed.
Set up a GoFundMe and try to forget the creeping feeling that the U.S. has almost completed its slide into total anarchy.


newyorker--2020-08-24--Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Limits of Representation

Joe Biden began his speech to accept the Democratic Party ’ s nomination with a quote from the civil-rights radical and Black revolutionary Ella Baker : “ Give people light and they will find a way.
” Though Baker may have been commenting on her particular approach to organizing , Biden used the line as an analogy for his campaign to replace Donald Trump .
Biden ’ s reference to Baker did not surprise so much as it confirmed that Party leaders have a central fear about his candidacy : that Biden , like Hillary Clinton , fails to excite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ insure victory against Donald Trump .
In the 2016 Presidential election , Black voter turnout declined for the first time in twenty years , dropping from sixty-seven to sixty per cent .
But , in his speech , Biden recognized Baker ’ s person while ignoring her anti-capitalist politics .
That choice only accentuated his selection of a Black woman , Kamala Harris , as a running mate without offering an explanation of how such gestures toward change will turn into the material goods that millions of Black women desperately need .
Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in many ways , quite remarkable .
Black women are , in general , one of the most oppressed and marginalized groups in the United States .
The median wealth of a single Black woman in this country is a mere two hundred dollars .
Black women are overrepresented in the ranks of the poor , in part because they make only sixty-two cents to every dollar made by white men .
Nearly a quarter of Black women live under the official poverty line .
If the well-being of Black children may be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ , then the facts that twenty-nine per cent of Black children live under the poverty line and that another fifty-seven per cent are classified as low-income are dark reminders that inequality in this country is deeply bound up with race and gender .
For any Black woman to rise to become a major party ’ s nominee for Vice-President of the United States is certainly evidence that some things , indeed , have changed in this country .
But it is surprising , if not ironic , that Biden was the candidate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as Democrats beat a race-baiting retreat from the explosion of civil-rights legislation in the nineteen-sixties , Biden , as a senator from the country ’ s second-smallest state , Delaware , carved out a space for himself as a cultural warrior who was particularly adept at exploiting racial resentment for political gain .
In the eighties , as political winds were blowing to the right , Biden staked out his opposition to welfare as an entitlement .
In 1988 , he remarked about public assistance in the United States , “ Unfortunately @ @ @ @ @ @ @ failed to meet the goal of self-improvement and has relieved the recipients of the incentive to take control of their future.
” By 1996 , when then President Bill Clinton signed landmark legislation that ended welfare as a public entitlement , Biden was one of twenty-four Democratic senators who voted for the regressive legislation .
The attack on welfare in the nineteen-eighties and nineties used poor Black women as fodder to dismantle the country ’ s barely existent welfare state .
White women were the majority of welfare recipients in 1996 , yet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had two Black women who had been recipients standing beside him .
Biden ’ s role as the architect of the 1994 Crime Bill has been well interrogated , but his rhetoric painting Black communities as nests of crime has not been properly acknowledged , as part of a pattern of demonizing poor Black women and mothers for political gain .
In 1993 , as Biden drummed up support for his crime bill , he described Black juvenile offenders—otherwise known as children—as “ predators on our streets.
” He went on to describe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tens of thousands of them , born out of wedlock , without parents , without supervision , without any structure , without any conscience developing , because they literally .
.
.
have not been socialized , they literally have not had an opportunity.
” He added , “ It doesn ’ t matter whether or not they were deprived as a youth .
It doesn ’ t matter whether or not they had no background that enabled them to become socialized into the fabric of society .
It doesn ’ t matter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ victims of society .
The end result is they ’ re about to knock my mother on the head with a lead pipe , shoot my sister , beat up my wife , take on my sons.
” This , of course , was not only about supposedly out-of-control youngsters ; it was also an indictment of Black families and Black mothers as a source of disorder that , if unchecked , threatened to undermine white families as well .
Biden has never taken responsibility for his overheated rhetoric and its role in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Unlike Bill and Hillary Clinton , who both accepted some modicum of responsibility for their role in promoting racist narratives about African-Americans and crime , Biden has blithely offered that , “ I haven ’ t always been right .
I know we haven ’ t always gotten things right , but I ’ ve always tried.
” Finally , consider Biden ’ s performance at the congressional hearing to adjudicate Anita Hill ’ s charges of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas .
At the hearing , in 1991 , Biden , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Committee , would not allow three women to testify in corroboration of Hill ’ s version of events ; he also stood by as white men from the Republican Party verbally pummelled Hill in an effort to discredit and undermine her claims .
Last year , in response to renewed criticism of his passivity in the face of the Republicans ’ orchestrated harassment of Hill , Biden once again averted responsibility .
“ I ’ m sorry for the way she got treated , ” he said .
“ Look at what I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I don ’ t think I treated her badly.
” Given this history , it is , as Kamala Harris has said , absolutely audacious that Biden has selected her , a Black woman , as his running mate .
Biden has avoided any clear apology for his role in deepening the systemic racism in public policy that he now pledges to oppose .
Nonetheless , his defenders dismiss his critics on the left as puerile and pedantic for rehashing this history .
“ Don ’ t let perfect be the enemy of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden ’ s failure to meaningfully acknowledge his role in constructing the “ color-blind ” racial regime of the post-civil-rights era , structured around calls for law and order and the coded deprecation of poor Black women , has clouded his newfound epiphany concerning racial justice .
It has obscured the credibility of his claims that , as President , he would essentially abandon the most notable feature of his political past : weaponizing reactionary thinking about poor Black women in order to curry favor with white voters , during a period when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could hate Black people , too .
Biden has pointed to his selection as Barack Obama ’ s Vice-President , and his dutiful embrace of the role , as evidence that he has abandoned his provocative past positions .
Now he has chosen Kamala Harris to perform the same perfuming role .
There is an assumption that the selection of Harris means that her racial and gender identities will guide the policymaking of a Biden-Harris White House .
This is the heralded power of representation in politics , and it is a powerful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans .
The rise of Barack Obama convinced many Black voters that they might finally get a fair shake .

Joe Biden began his speech to accept the Democratic Party’s nomination with a quote from the civil-rights radical and Black revolutionary Ella Baker: “Give people light and they will find a way.” Though Baker may have been commenting on her particular approach to organizing, Biden used the line as an analogy for his campaign to replace Donald Trump. Biden’s reference to Baker did not surprise so much as it confirmed that Party leaders have a central fear about his candidacy: that Biden, like Hillary Clinton, fails to excite young Black voters in ways necessary to insure victory against Donald Trump. In the 2016 Presidential election, Black voter turnout declined for the first time in twenty years, dropping from sixty-seven to sixty per cent. But, in his speech, Biden recognized Baker’s person while ignoring her anti-capitalist politics. That choice only accentuated his selection of a Black woman, Kamala Harris, as a running mate without offering an explanation of how such gestures toward change will turn into the material goods that millions of Black women desperately need.
Biden’s selection of Harris is, in many ways, quite remarkable. Black women are, in general, one of the most oppressed and marginalized groups in the United States. The median wealth of a single Black woman in this country is a mere two hundred dollars. Black women are overrepresented in the ranks of the poor, in part because they make only sixty-two cents to every dollar made by white men. Nearly a quarter of Black women live under the official poverty line. If the well-being of Black children may be taken as a barometer of their mothers’, then the facts that twenty-nine per cent of Black children live under the poverty line and that another fifty-seven per cent are classified as low-income are dark reminders that inequality in this country is deeply bound up with race and gender. For any Black woman to rise to become a major party’s nominee for Vice-President of the United States is certainly evidence that some things, indeed, have changed in this country.
But it is surprising, if not ironic, that Biden was the candidate to make this selection. For decades, as Democrats beat a race-baiting retreat from the explosion of civil-rights legislation in the nineteen-sixties, Biden, as a senator from the country’s second-smallest state, Delaware, carved out a space for himself as a cultural warrior who was particularly adept at exploiting racial resentment for political gain. In the eighties, as political winds were blowing to the right, Biden staked out his opposition to welfare as an entitlement. In 1988, he remarked about public assistance in the United States, “Unfortunately, our current system of welfare has failed to meet the goal of self-improvement and has relieved the recipients of the incentive to take control of their future.” By 1996, when then President Bill Clinton signed landmark legislation that ended welfare as a public entitlement, Biden was one of twenty-four Democratic senators who voted for the regressive legislation. The attack on welfare in the nineteen-eighties and nineties used poor Black women as fodder to dismantle the country’s barely existent welfare state. White women were the majority of welfare recipients in 1996, yet when Clinton signed the legislation, he had two Black women who had been recipients standing beside him.
Biden’s role as the architect of the 1994 Crime Bill has been well interrogated, but his rhetoric painting Black communities as nests of crime has not been properly acknowledged, as part of a pattern of demonizing poor Black women and mothers for political gain. In 1993, as Biden drummed up support for his crime bill, he described Black juvenile offenders—otherwise known as children—as “predators on our streets.” He went on to describe “a cadre of young people, tens of thousands of them, born out of wedlock, without parents, without supervision, without any structure, without any conscience developing, because they literally . . . have not been socialized, they literally have not had an opportunity.” He added, “It doesn’t matter whether or not they were deprived as a youth. It doesn’t matter whether or not they had no background that enabled them to become socialized into the fabric of society. It doesn’t matter whether or not they’re the victims of society. The end result is they’re about to knock my mother on the head with a lead pipe, shoot my sister, beat up my wife, take on my sons.”
This, of course, was not only about supposedly out-of-control youngsters; it was also an indictment of Black families and Black mothers as a source of disorder that, if unchecked, threatened to undermine white families as well. Biden has never taken responsibility for his overheated rhetoric and its role in demonizing Black families and thoroughly racializing crime. Unlike Bill and Hillary Clinton, who both accepted some modicum of responsibility for their role in promoting racist narratives about African-Americans and crime, Biden has blithely offered that, “I haven’t always been right. I know we haven’t always gotten things right, but I’ve always tried.”
Finally, consider Biden’s performance at the congressional hearing to adjudicate Anita Hill’s charges of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas. At the hearing, in 1991, Biden, then the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, would not allow three women to testify in corroboration of Hill’s version of events; he also stood by as white men from the Republican Party verbally pummelled Hill in an effort to discredit and undermine her claims. Last year, in response to renewed criticism of his passivity in the face of the Republicans’ orchestrated harassment of Hill, Biden once again averted responsibility. “I’m sorry for the way she got treated,” he said. “Look at what I said and didn’t say; I don’t think I treated her badly.”
Given this history, it is, as Kamala Harris has said, absolutely audacious that Biden has selected her, a Black woman, as his running mate.
Biden has avoided any clear apology for his role in deepening the systemic racism in public policy that he now pledges to oppose. Nonetheless, his defenders dismiss his critics on the left as puerile and pedantic for rehashing this history. “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good,” they hector. But Biden’s failure to meaningfully acknowledge his role in constructing the “color-blind” racial regime of the post-civil-rights era, structured around calls for law and order and the coded deprecation of poor Black women, has clouded his newfound epiphany concerning racial justice. It has obscured the credibility of his claims that, as President, he would essentially abandon the most notable feature of his political past: weaponizing reactionary thinking about poor Black women in order to curry favor with white voters, during a period when Democrats felt compelled to prove that they could hate Black people, too.
Biden has pointed to his selection as Barack Obama’s Vice-President, and his dutiful embrace of the role, as evidence that he has abandoned his provocative past positions. Now he has chosen Kamala Harris to perform the same perfuming role. There is an assumption that the selection of Harris means that her racial and gender identities will guide the policymaking of a Biden-Harris White House. This is the heralded power of representation in politics, and it is a powerful corral for the hopes of many Black Americans. The rise of Barack Obama convinced many Black voters that they might finally get a fair shake.
Of course, any reminder of Obama’s Presidency should introduce a moment of sobriety into the ebullient celebrations of Harris as a heralded first. By the end of his first term, Obama insisted that he was “not the president of Black America.” In an attempt to deflect the heavy demands that were gathering across Black America during and after the 2008 financial crisis, he took to publicly chastising poor and working-class Black families for what he believed they were not doing. Obama’s vexing disposition towards ordinary Black people could be found in his patronizing remarks about Black parents when he was on the campaign trail in 2008. At one stop, in Beaumont, Texas, he famously said, “I know how hard it is to get kids to eat properly. . . . But I also know that folks are letting our children drink eight sodas a day, which some parents do, or, you know, eat a bag of potato chips for lunch or Popeyes for breakfast. Buy a little desk or put that child at the kitchen table. Watch them do their homework.” Between the eruption of Occupy Wall Street in the first few years of his Presidency and the explosion of Black Lives Matter in its twilight, the limits of Obama’s Blackness to alleviate suffering was a font of disappointment for ordinary Black people. By 2016, fifty-two per cent of African Americans said that Obama’s policies had not gone far enough to improve their situation, an increase of twenty per cent from his first year as President.
The demand for racial representation in government has been a crucial part of politics in the post-civil-rights United States. It reflects the recognition that no one can speak for another group of people, let alone a group of people suffering from centuries of oppression and exploitation. They must be allowed to speak for themselves. As Black populations swelled in American cities, they demanded to be represented by people who came from their own neighborhoods, on the assumption that those people would be most familiar with and sympathetic to a political agenda that would advance the needs of Black communities. In the nineteen-sixties, it was reasonable to assume that Black elected officials would advance an agenda that supported African-Americans, because of their proximity to the insurgent Black movement. But, fifty years later, that assumption no longer holds true.
The end of legal segregation and the rise of a small Black political class and Black élite has resulted in tangible differences between those who hold elected office and the people they represent. We are living through a period of ascendant Black political power. Today, there are fifty-six Black members of Congress and thousands of other Black elected officials throughout the country. In a sharp departure from the politics of the nineteen-sixties, many of the large cities that exploded in fury over the murder of George Floyd this summer are governed by Black leaders. We are living in the recent shadow of a two-term Black President and two Black Attorneys General. And, despite this unprecedented concentration of Black political power, not much has changed for the vast majority of Black people. This was certainly true before the ravages of COVID-19 measured the exact depths of racial injustice in the country. There may be a multitude of contextual factors and contingencies that explain the impotence of the Black political class to change the conditions experienced by ordinary Black people, but those explanations do not change that basic reality.
Black Americans, especially the insurgent youth of the Black Lives Matter generation, are being asked to put that very recent history aside, to ignore precedent and their own lived experience under Obama, in order to believe that having a Black woman as Vice-President will be especially beneficial to Black women. Of course, those who champion this line also decry critiques of Harris’s dubious record as the California Attorney General and San Francisco’s District Attorney. They say that it’s unfair and unrealistic to expect that one Black woman would have the clout to challenge decades of ingrained racism in the California criminal-justice system. As Peter Beinart of The Atlantic put it when Harris exited the Presidential race, “had Harris—especially as a black woman—been the crusading criminal-justice reformer that Democrats now want to see, she would likely never have been in a position to run for president in the first place.” But if ascending to public office necessitates adapting to the prevailing political wisdom, even when it is harmful to those you claim to represent, then what is the point?
It is often assumed that race and gender alone impart empathic insights into the conditions of marginalization and oppression. This, of course, is what drove the demand that a Black woman be placed on the Democratic ticket and underlies much of the enthusiasm for Harris. But class position also dictates or, at least, guides political choices and commitments. There was a time when, if a Black woman was running for political office, then it could be assumed that she was working class, like the New York representative Shirley Chisholm. But this is no longer the case. The median net wealth in the U.S. Congress is just over a million dollars, and Harris’s wealth has been estimated at six million dollars, after her marriage to the attorney Douglas Emhoff. There is an expectation that, by way of lived experience, Black women will have particular insight into the plight of poor and marginalized people. But there, rightly, is almost no expectation that a millionaire would naturally understand the plight of poor women, summoning the long-standing complaint about the influence of money in politics.
There is little consideration of how a municipal administrator’s class standing may complicate solidarities with those it is simply assumed they will represent. This is especially true for Black elected officials, many of whom come from working-class origins but whose class standing shifts when they move into political office. In May, 2018, LaToya Cantrell became the first Black woman to be elected as mayor of New Orleans. Cantrell, who first moved to New Orleans in 1990, in order to attend Xavier, a historically Black university, was deeply involved in community organizing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and served on the city council for six years before ascending to the position of mayor. Despite this background of community engagement, Cantrell has stood on the sidelines during a strike by a small group of Black sanitation workers, over demands for hazard pay and P.P.E. during the pandemic. Sanitation work is outsourced in New Orleans, allowing contracting companies to pay workers less than the city’s living-wage ordinance allows. In this case, when the sanitation workers decided to strike, one of the subcontractors procured a contract for prison laborers, who worked for even less than the striking workers. Even as these “essential workers” have called upon the mayor to help them secure P.P.E. and better pay, Cantrell has refused to intervene directly, saying that these issues are between the contractor and the workers. There is no inherent solidarity along the lines of race, and, when class conflict is introduced into the calculation, it is even more fraught.


newyorker--2020-08-24--The North Carolina Republicans Who Are Defecting from Trump

Lemel joined Hawkins on the commission after the 2012 election , and Guice followed six years later , each earning a yearly salary of twelve thousand four hundred and four dollars for their service .
Lemel ’ s father had formerly chaired the commission , and been elected to the state legislature .
Guice had previously served on the commission , before being elected to two terms in the state legislature , where he worked across the aisle to pass criminal-justice reform .
Lemel said that , as they watched Trump in action , “ we were mortified .
All @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deep history of true conservative thinking and good moral integrity and lots of strong values in our families.
” They saw little of that in the President or the national Republican leadership , whether it was Trump ’ s relentlessly demeaning behavior or the G.O.P .
sponsorship of tax cuts that would never pay for themselves and disproportionately benefitted the wealthy .
Lemel , whose focus is on early education and mental health , said , “ It ’ s such a struggle—wanting to do what I feel is really right in my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Party that ’ s become overly federalized , and overly loyal to a man who , in my personal opinion , doesn ’ t deserve it.
” I spoke with Lemel on a shaded porch at Keystone Camp , a private girls ’ sleepaway camp tucked into a wooded hillside in Brevard .
Founded in 1916 , the camp is open for business this summer , but with fewer girls , to allow for social distancing .
Lemel , who is fifty-eight , lives year-round at the camp with her husband , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collecting sayings , many of them about the perpetual challenges faced by women , including “ a whole list of quotes that probably infuriate my husband.
” She said that , these days , “ we joke a lot around here about mansplaining.
” One of the speeches she most admires is Margaret Chase Smith ’ s Declaration of Conscience , from 1950 , when the freshman Republican senator attacked the anti-Communist crusade led by Senator Joseph McCarthy .
Smith warned of “ totalitarian techniques ” and said that Republicans should not be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ignorance , Bigotry , and Smear.
” Lemel , who stuffed envelopes for Gerald Ford ’ s Presidential campaign years before she was eligible to vote , has trouble fathoming that Trump , with his bullying and his bluster , has captured the Republican Party .
And then there are elected officials , men and women she once respected , who are now “ playing petty politics for self-preservation.
” Many episodes have fuelled her dismay , including the Republican-led Senate ’ s refusal to consider the nomination of Merrick Garland to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ damage inflicted by the Administration ’ s rudderless foreign policy , calling it “ humiliating.
” Then there is the bigotry .
“ We can ’ t continue to think that being over sixty and being white , ” she said , “ entitles you to be better than everybody else.
” And then there ’ s the recent array of measures designed to suppress the vote .
“ The fact that the President of the United States can vote absentee and he ’ s not willing to let other people to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Brevard is a small town .
When two of the commissioners ran into one another , they would shake their heads at the latest remark or policy announcement from the White House .
Little of it made sense .
“ I ’ d also say it was the daily dishonesty and utter lack of integrity that we saw from the leaders of the Party , ” Hawkins said .
“ It was just a drip-drip that became unbearable.
” Last December 4th , after sharing their decision with a few close friends @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saying that they were leaving the G.O.P .
Guice said that some friends warned him that he was ruining his career .
Nearly sixty-five years old , he was unconcerned about any potential electoral consequences , but he did have his legacy in mind , and that proved to be a deciding factor .
“ To me , it was based on principle , on my belief system , ” he said .
“ I want my children and my grandchildren to know where I stand.
” Bob Orr , the former State @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Buncombe County Republican Party , would like to see more local leaders publicly oppose the President .
With recent polls showing Joe Biden ahead by a narrow margin in a state that Trump won in 2016 , Orr has been urging anti-Trump Republicans to speak out and give cover to conservatives who reluctantly chose Trump last time , or who have soured on him since .
Orr is working with Stand Up Republic , an organization headed by Evan McMullin and Mindy Finn , Republicans who ran for the White House four @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was more political statement than serious candidacy .
Now they are recruiting Republicans to vote for Biden , or at least not to vote for Trump , in North Carolina and Arizona , two battleground states that the Democrats hope to win .
Finn told me that their target is “ soft Trump supporters , ” including suburban women , veterans and military voters , and white Christian evangelicals , especially younger ones .
It ’ s a difficult task , she said , “ just because of the muscle memory when you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ always voted for a Republican .
It ’ s extremely emotional for people to step outside their tribe and party .
They need somebody they know , or if they don ’ t know them personally , they have a shared affinity.
” Orr made clear his opposition to Trump early , when he went to the 2016 Republican National Convention as a John Kasich delegate and criticized Trump as “ dangerous ” and “ unqualified.
” He regularly hears from Republicans who say that they have had enough , but his project @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a Saturday morning in Burnsville , near a cabin he owns .
After we had spoken , he proposed lunch at the Country Club of Asheville .
We arrived on the back deck at the same time as a group of men , who were travelling by private plane to play three courses in three states in three days .
As we sat down , one of the men joked that Orr was making some good Republicans angry , and called out to me , “ I hope you ’ ve got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ out with Bob Orr !
” Orr traces his Republican roots to his great-grandfather , Robert F. Orr , who fought on the Union side during the Civil War after first being pressed into the Confederate Army .
He is buried in the Beulah Baptist Church Cemetery , south of Asheville , overlooking a lake and a winding , two-lane country road .
Beneath his name , the stone marker reads , “ A plain man true to his Country , Church and family.
” Orr thinks of his ancestor ’ s brave @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As he scanned the surrounding landscape , he said , “ This is Republican country.
” He didn ’ t mean it as a compliment .
As we drove , we passed a yard sign that said , “ Stop Socialism .
Trump 2020.
” The effort of Orr and friends in North Carolina is distinctly “ nuts and bolts , ” as he puts it , unlike the high-profile , thumb-in-your-eye social-media work of the Lincoln Project .
One local recruit is Charles Jeter , a Republican former state legislator , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that he is “ angry that the party I love has so easily and completely turned over its principles in the quest for power.
” Another is Penny Slade-Sawyer , the former U.S. Assistant Surgeon General and North Carolina director of public health , who told me that she believes that Trump ’ s poor leadership during the coronavirus pandemic has “ cost people their health , their wealth , and some of them their lives.
” She added , “ I ’ m no liberal , but I think the Republican Party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speaking out where she can , including at the counter-convention in Charlotte .
“ I ’ m an old lady and I ’ m going to say exactly what I think , ” she said .
“ Maybe a few people will listen .
”

In Transylvania County, which is part of the House district once held by Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, it took gumption for the three commissioners to oppose the President and ditch the G.O.P. They made their move in December, before the arrival of COVID-19, and before polls showed Trump losing support almost everywhere. Hawkins and Lemel will both be on the ballot in November, facing Republican challengers who have aligned themselves with Trump. “Page and I were talking the other day, and we said we were glad we did what we did, when we did it. We are ahead of the curve,” Hawkins said. “We know a lot of people would say, ‘Big deal, they’re just small-town.’ But in many ways, that makes it harder. We see people and hear from people every day, and we really exposed ourselves through what we did.”
Hawkins, who is sixty-two, dates his frustration with the direction of the Republican Party to 2012, when Tea Party Republicans launched a campaign against Agenda 21, a nonbinding United Nations resolution that advocated for sustainable development. The measure had been signed in 1992 by President George H. W. Bush and the leaders of more than a hundred and seventy-seven other countries; twenty years later, it was attacked by the Republican National Committee, which warned that it was a “destructive and insidious” policy that would lead to a “socialist/communist redistribution of wealth.” Conservative activists in western North Carolina invoked the spectre of Agenda 21 and used the same logic to attack a local agreement called GroWNC, a voluntary planning effort that was designed to improve coöperation among five neighboring counties. Meadows, a Tea Party favorite and first-time congressional candidate, warned that, just as Agenda 21 supposedly threatened U.S. sovereignty, regional arrangements posed “a threat to our freedoms and to our property rights,” and must not be allowed to usurp local authority.
To Hawkins, a business owner and good-government moderate, the criticism was claptrap. Transylvania County and its neighbors simply wanted to work together, try new ideas, and maybe find some efficiencies on such issues as transportation, energy, health care, and the environment. No one’s authority would be usurped. But the fuss caused Transylvania to withdraw from the partnership; Hawkins believes that the county is still suffering from the decision. He became a Republican because he admired pragmatic local politicians who thought first of the community, but he noticed that they were fading from the scene as hard-liners ascended. In North Carolina, Party leaders refused to expand the Medicaid provisions of the Affordable Care Act, a missed opportunity to provide health care to working-class residents. Fed up, Hawkins stopped going to local Republican gatherings where, he said, the messaging was not only “harmful” but “nutty.”
Lemel joined Hawkins on the commission after the 2012 election, and Guice followed six years later, each earning a yearly salary of twelve thousand four hundred and four dollars for their service. Lemel’s father had formerly chaired the commission, and been elected to the state legislature. Guice had previously served on the commission, before being elected to two terms in the state legislature, where he worked across the aisle to pass criminal-justice reform. Lemel said that, as they watched Trump in action, “we were mortified. All three of us come from a very deep history of true conservative thinking and good moral integrity and lots of strong values in our families.” They saw little of that in the President or the national Republican leadership, whether it was Trump’s relentlessly demeaning behavior or the G.O.P. sponsorship of tax cuts that would never pay for themselves and disproportionately benefitted the wealthy. Lemel, whose focus is on early education and mental health, said, “It’s such a struggle—wanting to do what I feel is really right in my heart and feeling left behind by a Party that’s become overly federalized, and overly loyal to a man who, in my personal opinion, doesn’t deserve it.”
Page Ives Lemel has been particularly dismayed by the Trump Administration’s foreign policy, bigotry, and voter suppression.
I spoke with Lemel on a shaded porch at Keystone Camp, a private girls’ sleepaway camp tucked into a wooded hillside in Brevard. Founded in 1916, the camp is open for business this summer, but with fewer girls, to allow for social distancing. Lemel, who is fifty-eight, lives year-round at the camp with her husband, a doctor. She has a habit of collecting sayings, many of them about the perpetual challenges faced by women, including “a whole list of quotes that probably infuriate my husband.” She said that, these days, “we joke a lot around here about mansplaining.” One of the speeches she most admires is Margaret Chase Smith’s Declaration of Conscience, from 1950, when the freshman Republican senator attacked the anti-Communist crusade led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Smith warned of “totalitarian techniques” and said that Republicans should not be allowed to triumph through “Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.”
Lemel, who stuffed envelopes for Gerald Ford’s Presidential campaign years before she was eligible to vote, has trouble fathoming that Trump, with his bullying and his bluster, has captured the Republican Party. And then there are elected officials, men and women she once respected, who are now “playing petty politics for self-preservation.” Many episodes have fuelled her dismay, including the Republican-led Senate’s refusal to consider the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court in 2016. She sees damage inflicted by the Administration’s rudderless foreign policy, calling it “humiliating.” Then there is the bigotry. “We can’t continue to think that being over sixty and being white,” she said, “entitles you to be better than everybody else.” And then there’s the recent array of measures designed to suppress the vote. “The fact that the President of the United States can vote absentee and he’s not willing to let other people to do that? Oh, grow up!”


newyorker--2020-08-24--The Missing Melodrama of “Lovecraft Country”

In the book “ Blood Talk , ” from 2003 , the scholar Susan Gillman describes a category of fin-de-siècle literature that she calls the “ race melodrama , ” a genre defined by its occultish grapplings with the Negro question .
It includes , on the one hand , such marvels as “ Of One Blood ; or , The Hidden Self , ” a serial novel by Pauline Hopkins , the editor of Colored American Magazine ( until she was supplanted as part of a hostile acquisition orchestrated by Booker T. Washington ) , in which a passing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ travels to Ethiopia for an archeological expedition and ends up claiming his birthright at the helm of an ancient civilization responsible for all men , Black and white .
On the other hand , the genre includes “ The Clansman ” ( better known for its cinematic adaptation , “ The Birth of a Nation ” ) , the novel in which Thomas Dixon , Jr. , stokes white-supremacist fears with mystic science , as in a scene involving the hypnotism of a Black man to extract a criminal confession .
This strain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ uniquely poised to flutter the veil between Black and white , conscious and subconscious , known and unknown .
What better mode than melodrama , maligned then and now for its flights and fits of fancy and passion—secret kinships , twins and twinned fates , inklings , hallucinations , miscegenation , dead ends , and ancient dictums—to contain the excesses of racial meaning ?
H. P. Lovecraft , the acknowledged forebearer of modern-day supernatural fiction , is still best renowned as a stylist , the warden of eldritch horrors that expressed an especial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exploded to the scale of the cosmos .
But his racism has grown notorious in an era when we have a mind to care about such things .
In his story “ The Horror at Red Hook , ” to take one common example , the occult rituals of a reclusive scholar are the result of his perilous embrace of mongrel urbanity .
And a psychological reading of his oeuvre presents the compelling case that he sublimated his xenophobia and anti-Blackness into his tales of ancient aliens .
Lovecraft ’ s storytelling , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , was not untouched by a stroke of melodrama , either .
But behind his work , in which the unknown is too horrible to bear , was a faith in the value of dwelling in mystery—a faith that is more scarcely held in our present , when we prefer to see ourselves as one reading list away from mastery .
“ Lovecraft Country , ” both the novel by Matt Ruff , from 2016 , and the television adaptation of the same name , which premiered on HBO last Sunday , are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surer about what they think is known about the psychic warfare that Sutton E. Griggs , a Black contemporary of Lovecraft ’ s , called “ racial hypnotism.
” “ Lovecraft Country ” also presents an account of segregated America tinged with strangeness : there are supernatural elements aplenty , but the mythos is subdued—terror comes from the human agents of racism and the dread of those who have something to fear .
The author Victor LaValle accomplished a similar maneuver in his novella “ The Ballad of Black Tom ” ( 2016 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at Red Hook ” from the point of view of Tommy Tester , a Harlem man drawn into the shadowy practices of Robert Suydam , the scholar of the original story .
But whereas LaValle works quietly , writing a pastiche that needles the Lovecraft story for its prejudices just by shifting its perspective , “ Lovecraft Country ” blasphemes racism by putting racism on show in the plainest terms .
The requisite eggs have been laid : a cephalopodic creature that can only be Lovecraft ’ s Cthulhu appears in a main @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Outsider and Others ” is pulled off of a shelf .
But such references do not mean that the series is interested in torquing the qualities of what ’ s called Lovecraftian , nor inheriting them .
Misha Green , the showrunner , who has said that she bonded with the executive producer , Jordan Peele , over a love of horror , acknowledges the historical influence of the show ’ s namesake , but told the Times that she isn ’ t “ a huge fan.
” The series follows Atticus “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a young Korean War veteran and avid reader of weird fiction , in what starts as a quest to find his disappeared father , who he at first believes went to Arkham , Massachusetts , the fictional town of Lovecraft ’ s creation .
Tic is accompanied on this trip by his Uncle George ( Courtney B. Vance ) and his childhood friend Leticia ( Jurnee Smollett ) , who become implicated in a family drama that soon converges with supernatural , occultist activity .
The first episode , “ Sundown , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reverie : scenes of trench warfare in black-and-white morph into a technicolor battle for the planet , a sci-fi paradiso starring Jackie Robinson and a princess from Mars .
We are brought out of the dream and back to reality with a bump .
Tic is on a bus , riding from his post-service landing place of Jacksonville back to his home town of Chicago , “ just going over another bridge named after some dead slave owner , ” as a fellow-traveller , an older woman in horn-rimmed glasses , near-yells from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the moving vehicle .
“ Good riddance to Old Jim Crow , ” Tic responds , offering the retreating Kentucky state line the bird .
Both the bridge line and the gesture have been pulled from Ruff ’ s novel , as narrated during the final leg of a solo trip Tic takes in a used ’ 48 Cadillac Coupe .
The new setting allows for some even noisier social-studies material : after Tic and his companion exchange a look , the camera pulls back , bringing white passengers sitting in front @ @ @ @ @ @ @ importantly , a sign : “ THIS PART OF THE BUS FOR THE COLORED RACE.
” Signs , often literal in nature , are crucial to the world-building of “ Lovecraft Country.
” In the five episodes available for advanced screening , these include maps and road posts that demarcate segregated territory with lethal purpose , on buildings such as the Southside Colored Library , reminders of the thin line between de facto and de jure .
In the show ’ s dialogue , too , America ’ s divisions are unambiguous .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ episode—also a haunted-housing episode—logs , with title cards , the initial days of a real-estate experiment .
Leticia , Tic ’ s friend , has purchased a run-down three-story boarding property as a “ safe haven for colored folks ” in a white , Northside Chicago neighborhood .
“ Safe ?
” her sister Ruby responds , “ Just last year there was almost a riot across town because a Negro couple moved into an all-white building.
” This is the sort of plainspoken aside that may be welcome from the narrator in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but apart from the action .
In the mouths of characters en scène , it is clumsily expository .
The show ’ s script is weighed down by historical annotations ; characters refer to themselves and others using the nomenclature of the time ( Negro , white ) instead of the unqualified pronouns— “ we , ” “ us , ” “ them ” —of actual talk .
Innuendo , a staple of melodrama , and a mode in which racialized language thrives , is missing .
Neither this nor the show ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , racists turn cartoonish in the light—would be so distracting if they didn ’ t deprive mesmerizing talents of their room to work .
Majors , who brought such quiet unease to his role in “ The Last Black Man in San Francisco , ” is consistently nonplussed , with less of a grasp than other characters on the mystical dimensions they ’ re uncovering .
Jurnee Smollett , if given more space for the zaniness of which she shows herself capable , could have made Leticia the show ’ s comedic pillar @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the dogged expeditions of the men around her .
But “ Lovecraft Country ” is not pulp ( like “ iZombie ” ) or soap ( like “ Buffy ” ) or tragicomedy ( “ Atlanta ” ) .
With fewer voiceovers from the annals of Black History Month perhaps it could have been camp , not of the knowing Ryan Murphy variety but something genuinely Sontagian—a “ failed , ” instead of slick , “ seriousness , ” etc .
More Scooby Doo ghost chases , more impromptu intercourse , more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grinning as if her cheeks might break .
Green ’ s previous series , “ Underground , ” a delectable period drama loosely structured around exploits along the Underground Railroad , dodged the impossible burdens of representing slavery faithfully by drawing on telenovela techniques .
( It was cancelled by WGN after two well-received seasons . )
In “ Lovecraft Country , ” there are revelations but seldom awe .
The creepiest moment in “ Lovecraft Country ” thus far takes place in its opening episode .
The trio—George , Leticia , Tic—is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s New England nowheres , tired , fed up , and traumatized by a recent run-in with lynch-hungry locals .
They pull over in the woods and Tic exits Woody , the family Packard , for a look around , Leticia on his heels with a warning plea : “ I don ’ t think we want to be out here after dark.
” There ’ s a rustling in the trees .
“ A shoggoth , ” Tic says , playfully calling up one of Lovecraft ’ s creatures .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , creeps along , comes to a stop behind Woody : a cop car .
You wish that Leticia and Tic would turn around already—not that having the monster within their sights would do much good .
A shotgun-toting Sheriff emerges from the vehicle with questions , all routine of course : “ Who are you ?
Where y ’ all from ?
” Then another : “ Any of you all know what a sundown town is ?
” And the spell is broken , smashed in the cogs of the writers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ answering with gusto a question the audience was not given the space to ask .

In the book “Blood Talk,” from 2003, the scholar Susan Gillman describes a category of fin-de-siècle literature that she calls the “race melodrama,” a genre defined by its occultish grapplings with the Negro question. It includes, on the one hand, such marvels as “Of One Blood; or, The Hidden Self,” a serial novel by Pauline Hopkins, the editor of Colored American Magazine (until she was supplanted as part of a hostile acquisition orchestrated by Booker T. Washington), in which a passing medical student with a talent for mesmerism travels to Ethiopia for an archeological expedition and ends up claiming his birthright at the helm of an ancient civilization responsible for all men, Black and white. On the other hand, the genre includes “The Clansman” (better known for its cinematic adaptation, “The Birth of a Nation”), the novel in which Thomas Dixon, Jr., stokes white-supremacist fears with mystic science, as in a scene involving the hypnotism of a Black man to extract a criminal confession. This strain of storytelling, Gillman argues, was uniquely poised to flutter the veil between Black and white, conscious and subconscious, known and unknown. What better mode than melodrama, maligned then and now for its flights and fits of fancy and passion—secret kinships, twins and twinned fates, inklings, hallucinations, miscegenation, dead ends, and ancient dictums—to contain the excesses of racial meaning?
H. P. Lovecraft, the acknowledged forebearer of modern-day supernatural fiction, is still best renowned as a stylist, the warden of eldritch horrors that expressed an especial dread of the twentieth century—Edgar Allan Poe exploded to the scale of the cosmos. But his racism has grown notorious in an era when we have a mind to care about such things. In his story “The Horror at Red Hook,” to take one common example, the occult rituals of a reclusive scholar are the result of his perilous embrace of mongrel urbanity. And a psychological reading of his oeuvre presents the compelling case that he sublimated his xenophobia and anti-Blackness into his tales of ancient aliens. Lovecraft’s storytelling, with its cosmic impressions on the psyche, was not untouched by a stroke of melodrama, either. But behind his work, in which the unknown is too horrible to bear, was a faith in the value of dwelling in mystery—a faith that is more scarcely held in our present, when we prefer to see ourselves as one reading list away from mastery.
“Lovecraft Country,” both the novel by Matt Ruff, from 2016, and the television adaptation of the same name, which premiered on HBO last Sunday, are of the present, and thus much surer about what they think is known about the psychic warfare that Sutton E. Griggs, a Black contemporary of Lovecraft’s, called “racial hypnotism.” “Lovecraft Country” also presents an account of segregated America tinged with strangeness: there are supernatural elements aplenty, but the mythos is subdued—terror comes from the human agents of racism and the dread of those who have something to fear. The author Victor LaValle accomplished a similar maneuver in his novella “The Ballad of Black Tom” (2016), which retells “The Horror at Red Hook” from the point of view of Tommy Tester, a Harlem man drawn into the shadowy practices of Robert Suydam, the scholar of the original story. But whereas LaValle works quietly, writing a pastiche that needles the Lovecraft story for its prejudices just by shifting its perspective, “Lovecraft Country” blasphemes racism by putting racism on show in the plainest terms.
The requisite eggs have been laid: a cephalopodic creature that can only be Lovecraft’s Cthulhu appears in a main character’s subconscious; “The Outsider and Others” is pulled off of a shelf. But such references do not mean that the series is interested in torquing the qualities of what’s called Lovecraftian, nor inheriting them. Misha Green, the showrunner, who has said that she bonded with the executive producer, Jordan Peele, over a love of horror, acknowledges the historical influence of the show’s namesake, but told the Times that she isn’t “a huge fan.” The series follows Atticus “Tic” Freeman (Jonathan Majors), a young Korean War veteran and avid reader of weird fiction, in what starts as a quest to find his disappeared father, who he at first believes went to Arkham, Massachusetts, the fictional town of Lovecraft’s creation. Tic is accompanied on this trip by his Uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) and his childhood friend Leticia (Jurnee Smollett), who become implicated in a family drama that soon converges with supernatural, occultist activity.
The first episode, “Sundown,” begins in a transhistorical, trans-planetary reverie: scenes of trench warfare in black-and-white morph into a technicolor battle for the planet, a sci-fi paradiso starring Jackie Robinson and a princess from Mars. We are brought out of the dream and back to reality with a bump. Tic is on a bus, riding from his post-service landing place of Jacksonville back to his home town of Chicago, “just going over another bridge named after some dead slave owner,” as a fellow-traveller, an older woman in horn-rimmed glasses, near-yells from across the aisle, over the din of the moving vehicle. “Good riddance to Old Jim Crow,” Tic responds, offering the retreating Kentucky state line the bird. Both the bridge line and the gesture have been pulled from Ruff’s novel, as narrated during the final leg of a solo trip Tic takes in a used ’48 Cadillac Coupe. The new setting allows for some even noisier social-studies material: after Tic and his companion exchange a look, the camera pulls back, bringing white passengers sitting in front of them into view and, more importantly, a sign: “THIS PART OF THE BUS FOR THE COLORED RACE.”
Signs, often literal in nature, are crucial to the world-building of “Lovecraft Country.” In the five episodes available for advanced screening, these include maps and road posts that demarcate segregated territory with lethal purpose, on buildings such as the Southside Colored Library, reminders of the thin line between de facto and de jure. In the show’s dialogue, too, America’s divisions are unambiguous. “Holy Ghost,” a haunted-house episode—also a haunted-housing episode—logs, with title cards, the initial days of a real-estate experiment. Leticia, Tic’s friend, has purchased a run-down three-story boarding property as a “safe haven for colored folks” in a white, Northside Chicago neighborhood. “Safe?” her sister Ruby responds, “Just last year there was almost a riot across town because a Negro couple moved into an all-white building.” This is the sort of plainspoken aside that may be welcome from the narrator in a novel, who is privy to but apart from the action. In the mouths of characters en scène, it is clumsily expository. The show’s script is weighed down by historical annotations; characters refer to themselves and others using the nomenclature of the time (Negro, white) instead of the unqualified pronouns—“we,” “us,” “them”—of actual talk. Innuendo, a staple of melodrama, and a mode in which racialized language thrives, is missing.
Neither this nor the show’s cartoonish whites—as viral videos have shown, racists turn cartoonish in the light—would be so distracting if they didn’t deprive mesmerizing talents of their room to work. Majors, who brought such quiet unease to his role in “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” is consistently nonplussed, with less of a grasp than other characters on the mystical dimensions they’re uncovering. Jurnee Smollett, if given more space for the zaniness of which she shows herself capable, could have made Leticia the show’s comedic pillar, lending an element of wry incredulity to the dogged expeditions of the men around her. But “Lovecraft Country” is not pulp (like “iZombie”) or soap (like “Buffy”) or tragicomedy (“Atlanta”). With fewer voiceovers from the annals of Black History Month perhaps it could have been camp, not of the knowing Ryan Murphy variety but something genuinely Sontagian—a “failed,” instead of slick, “seriousness,” etc. More Scooby Doo ghost chases, more impromptu intercourse, more sillies, more willies, more Smollett grinning as if her cheeks might break. Green’s previous series, “Underground,” a delectable period drama loosely structured around exploits along the Underground Railroad, dodged the impossible burdens of representing slavery faithfully by drawing on telenovela techniques. (It was cancelled by WGN after two well-received seasons.) In “Lovecraft Country,” there are revelations but seldom awe.
The creepiest moment in “Lovecraft Country” thus far takes place in its opening episode. The trio—George, Leticia, Tic—is lost in another one of America’s New England nowheres, tired, fed up, and traumatized by a recent run-in with lynch-hungry locals. They pull over in the woods and Tic exits Woody, the family Packard, for a look around, Leticia on his heels with a warning plea: “I don’t think we want to be out here after dark.” There’s a rustling in the trees. “A shoggoth,” Tic says, playfully calling up one of Lovecraft’s creatures. In the background, another car enters the frame, creeps along, comes to a stop behind Woody: a cop car. You wish that Leticia and Tic would turn around already—not that having the monster within their sights would do much good. A shotgun-toting Sheriff emerges from the vehicle with questions, all routine of course: “Who are you? Where y’all from?” Then another: “Any of you all know what a sundown town is?” And the spell is broken, smashed in the cogs of the writers’ bibliography. The scene proceeds, answering with gusto a question the audience was not given the space to ask.


newyorker--2020-08-24--Here Comes the “All Trump, All The Time” Republican National Convention

Over the years , there have been some unusual Presidential conclaves , but this year ’ s Republican National Convention , which starts today , will be the first one at which a candidate running for reëlection goes into the event having just been labelled a serial liar and opportunist by his big sister , and then abandoned by one of his top aides .
“ All he wants to do is appeal to his base .
He has no principles .
None .
None , ” Maryanne Trump Barry , a retired federal judge , said in a conversation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mary L. Trump , and published by the Washington Post over the weekend .
Barry went on , “ I ’ m talking too freely , but you know .
The change of stories .
The lack of preparation .
The lying .
Holy shit.
” Holy shit , indeed .
But that wasn ’ t all .
On Sunday night , Kellyanne Conway , one of the few White House aides to have stayed by Trump ’ s side since the 2016 campaign , informed him that she was leaving at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time with her family , which includes a husband and daughter who have been highly critical of the President .
“ This is completely my choice and my voice , ” Conway said in a statement .
“ In time , I will announce future plans .
For now , and for my beloved children , it will be less drama , more mama.
” Drama—real and fabricated—is the essence of this reality-show Presidency , of course .
Even by Trump ’ s standards , though , the past few days have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chief political strategist , Steve Bannon , was arrested on charges of conspiring to defraud We Build the Wall , an online fund-raising organization that was set up to help fund the President ’ s barrier across the southern border .
Bannon pleaded not guilty and subsequently described the case against him as a “ political hit job.
” Still , Trump and his oldest son , Donald , Jr. , both tried to distance themselves from this grubby affair .
On Friday , I noted that their attempts at self-preservation were pretty @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a public endorsement for We Build the Wall , and Donald , Jr. , appeared at one of its events .
The Trumps were clearly concerned about being linked to a scheme that allegedly bilked some of the President ’ s most zealous supporters .
Then came the Washington Post story about the Maryanne Trump Barry tapes , which Mary Trump , the President ’ s niece , recorded secretly in 2018 and 2019 , as she was working on a recently published tell-all .
In the recordings , Barry , who is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , called Trump “ cruel , ” talked about his “ phoniness , ” and said “ You can ’ t trust him.
” She recalled how , more than half a century ago , he got into the University of Pennsylvania .
“ He was a brat , ” Barry said .
“ I did his homework for him .
.
.
I drove him around New York City to try to get him into college .
.
.
he went to Fordham for one year ” —it was actually two years— @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams.
” On Sunday morning , as the brouhaha over the tapes was threatening to overshadow the opening of the Convention , Trump ’ s aides went into damage-limitation mode—one they are intimately familiar with , of course .
Appearing on ABC News ’ s “ This Week , ” Mark Meadows , the White House chief of staff , dismissed the release as “ politics as usual by a niece who was written out of a will , that .
.
.
just has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , an adviser to the Trump campaign , took a different tack .
Noting that the funeral for Trump ’ s younger brother Robert was held on Friday , he told NBC News ’ s “ Meet the Press ” that it was “ shameful ” for the contents of the recordings to be released a day later .
The timing of the Post story was certainly awkward for Trump , as was the announcement that Conway is quitting .
One of the President ’ s most ardent and high-profile defenders , she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Convention on Wednesday night , and she reportedly spent some of Saturday at the Trump campaign ’ s headquarters .
In recent months , the fierce criticisms of Trump that Conway ’ s husband , George , and fifteen-year-old-daughter , Claudia , have lobbed from their social-media accounts have turned into an unwelcome distraction for the White House .
In the short term , though , the sudden departure of such a well-known figure is only likely to draw more attention to the dysfunction surrounding the President , which is unceasing .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it remains to be seen whether Conway will go ahead with her appearance .
One thing that we are sure to see is speeches from practically every Trump family member who is still on cordial terms with the President .
Donald , Jr. , will speak tonight .
Melania Trump , the First Lady , will speak tomorrow ; so will Tiffany Trump , the President ’ s youngest daughter .
Lara Trump , who is married to Eric Trump , Trump ’ s second-oldest son , will speak on Wednesday .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ oldest daughter , will speak on Thursday , before her father delivers his set-piece address .
Unless you are partial to family dynasties of the kind that Kim Il Sung , François Duvalier , and Enver Hoxha established , you may think that is more than enough Trumps for one Convention .
But wait , there ’ s more .
According to Trump aides , the paterfamilias himself will appear on Monday , Tuesday , Wednesday , and Thursday .
“ You ’ ll have President Trump speaking at various parts of each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told “ Meet the Press.
” Trump ’ s first appearance will be later today , at the Charlotte Convention Center , where he and Vice-President Pence will attend the only non-remote part of the four-day event : a roll-call vote to nominate him , featuring three hundred and thirty-six delegates .
The organizers of the Convention , who include a couple of former producers of “ The Apprentice , ” are keeping under wraps what role the President will play on Tuesday and Wednesday .
But such is his craving for attention @ @ @ @ @ @ @ showed up as the host for a while .
Or perhaps as a critic reviewing the previous segment .
He is , after all , an avid television viewer .
As Peter Baker , of the Times , pointed out on Sunday , an “ all-Trump , all-the-time ” Convention would be perfectly in keeping with the approach that Trump has adopted for the past four years .
From the beginning , his political strategy has seemed to rely on making himself so ubiquitous that members of the MAGA nation wouldn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few hours without hearing from him , and that his critics would either die of exhaustion or give up and move to Canada .
With a new CBS News/YouGov poll showing him running ten points behind Joe Biden nationwide , it might seem self-defeating to extend this strategy into the final leg of the campaign , but there is a certain twisted logic to it .
With any hope of winning the popular vote having virtually disappeared , Trump is now gambling everything on eking out another narrow victory in the Electoral College @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is more focussed than ever on the strategy that his older sister Mary outlined : rallying the MAGA faithful , and stoking their racial and cultural grievances .
Among other things , that explains why the Convention will feature appearances by Mark and Patricia McCloskey , the St. Louis couple who brandished an assault rifle at Black Lives Matter protesters earlier this year , and Nicholas Sandmann , a college Republican who was involved in a confrontation with a Native American protester in 2019 , when he was still in high school .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ any real discussion of Trump ’ s record in confronting the coronavirus , and a number of embattled Senate Republican incumbents who need to appeal to the center ground , including Thom Tillis , of North Carolina , and Cory Gardner , of Colorado .
In an interview that aired Sunday night on Fox News , Trump said , “ I think we are going to see something that is very uplifting and positive .
That ’ s what I ’ d like the ( Convention ) to be.
” Here ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the next few days will be tough to watch .

Over the years, there have been some unusual Presidential conclaves, but this year’s Republican National Convention, which starts today, will be the first one at which a candidate running for reëlection goes into the event having just been labelled a serial liar and opportunist by his big sister, and then abandoned by one of his top aides.
“All he wants to do is appeal to his base. He has no principles. None. None,” Maryanne Trump Barry, a retired federal judge, said in a conversation that was recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump, and published by the Washington Post over the weekend. Barry went on, “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.”
Holy shit, indeed. But that wasn’t all. On Sunday night, Kellyanne Conway, one of the few White House aides to have stayed by Trump’s side since the 2016 campaign, informed him that she was leaving at the end of this month to spend more time with her family, which includes a husband and daughter who have been highly critical of the President. “This is completely my choice and my voice,” Conway said in a statement. “In time, I will announce future plans. For now, and for my beloved children, it will be less drama, more mama.”
Drama—real and fabricated—is the essence of this reality-show Presidency, of course. Even by Trump’s standards, though, the past few days have been eventful. On Thursday, his former chief political strategist, Steve Bannon, was arrested on charges of conspiring to defraud We Build the Wall, an online fund-raising organization that was set up to help fund the President’s barrier across the southern border. Bannon pleaded not guilty and subsequently described the case against him as a “political hit job.” Still, Trump and his oldest son, Donald, Jr., both tried to distance themselves from this grubby affair. On Friday, I noted that their attempts at self-preservation were pretty unconvincing: in 2019, Trump gave a public endorsement for We Build the Wall, and Donald, Jr., appeared at one of its events. The Trumps were clearly concerned about being linked to a scheme that allegedly bilked some of the President’s most zealous supporters.
Then came the Washington Post story about the Maryanne Trump Barry tapes, which Mary Trump, the President’s niece, recorded secretly in 2018 and 2019, as she was working on a recently published tell-all. In the recordings, Barry, who is nine years older than the seventy-four-year-old President, called Trump “cruel,” talked about his “phoniness,” and said “You can’t trust him.” She recalled how, more than half a century ago, he got into the University of Pennsylvania. “He was a brat,” Barry said. “I did his homework for him . . . I drove him around New York City to try to get him into college . . . he went to Fordham for one year”—it was actually two years—“and then he got into University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams.”
On Sunday morning, as the brouhaha over the tapes was threatening to overshadow the opening of the Convention, Trump’s aides went into damage-limitation mode—one they are intimately familiar with, of course. Appearing on ABC News’s “This Week,” Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, dismissed the release as “politics as usual by a niece who was written out of a will, that . . . just has an axe to grind.” Jason Miller, an adviser to the Trump campaign, took a different tack. Noting that the funeral for Trump’s younger brother Robert was held on Friday, he told NBC News’s “Meet the Press” that it was “shameful” for the contents of the recordings to be released a day later.
The timing of the Post story was certainly awkward for Trump, as was the announcement that Conway is quitting. One of the President’s most ardent and high-profile defenders, she’s scheduled to speak at the Convention on Wednesday night, and she reportedly spent some of Saturday at the Trump campaign’s headquarters. In recent months, the fierce criticisms of Trump that Conway’s husband, George, and fifteen-year-old-daughter, Claudia, have lobbed from their social-media accounts have turned into an unwelcome distraction for the White House. In the short term, though, the sudden departure of such a well-known figure is only likely to draw more attention to the dysfunction surrounding the President, which is unceasing.
As the Convention opens, on Monday evening, it remains to be seen whether Conway will go ahead with her appearance. One thing that we are sure to see is speeches from practically every Trump family member who is still on cordial terms with the President. Donald, Jr., will speak tonight. Melania Trump, the First Lady, will speak tomorrow; so will Tiffany Trump, the President’s youngest daughter. Lara Trump, who is married to Eric Trump, Trump’s second-oldest son, will speak on Wednesday. Ivanka Trump, the President’s oldest daughter, will speak on Thursday, before her father delivers his set-piece address.
Unless you are partial to family dynasties of the kind that Kim Il Sung, François Duvalier, and Enver Hoxha established, you may think that is more than enough Trumps for one Convention. But wait, there’s more. According to Trump aides, the paterfamilias himself will appear on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. “You’ll have President Trump speaking at various parts of each of the nights,” Jason Miller told “Meet the Press.”
Trump’s first appearance will be later today, at the Charlotte Convention Center, where he and Vice-President Pence will attend the only non-remote part of the four-day event: a roll-call vote to nominate him, featuring three hundred and thirty-six delegates. The organizers of the Convention, who include a couple of former producers of “The Apprentice,” are keeping under wraps what role the President will play on Tuesday and Wednesday. But such is his craving for attention that it would be unsurprising if he showed up as the host for a while. Or perhaps as a critic reviewing the previous segment. He is, after all, an avid television viewer.
As Peter Baker, of the Times, pointed out on Sunday, an “all-Trump, all-the-time” Convention would be perfectly in keeping with the approach that Trump has adopted for the past four years. From the beginning, his political strategy has seemed to rely on making himself so ubiquitous that members of the MAGA nation wouldn’t be able to survive more than a few hours without hearing from him, and that his critics would either die of exhaustion or give up and move to Canada. With a new CBS News/YouGov poll showing him running ten points behind Joe Biden nationwide, it might seem self-defeating to extend this strategy into the final leg of the campaign, but there is a certain twisted logic to it.


newyorker--2020-08-24--Republican National Convention to Air on Syfy Channel

CHARLOTTE ( The Borowitz Report ) —The 2020 Republican National Convention will make history this week when it airs on @ @ @ @ @ ever .
Harland Dorrinson , a programming executive for the science-fiction channel , called the @ @ @ @ @ perfect fit for Syfy.
” “ We ’ d been looking for some fresh science @ @ @ @ @ our summer schedule , ” he said .
“ We feel like we ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ the science-fiction scenarios that the R.N.C .
will likely feature , he said , “ @ @ @ @ @ Trump unveils some of his amazing mad-scientist potions and Pence does something cool about Space @ @ @ @ @ is very on brand for us.
” The decision to broadcast the R.N.C.
, however @ @ @ @ @ from Syfy viewers who were furious to see the Convention preëmpt their favorite programs .
@ @ @ @ @ does not belong on Syfy , ” one irate viewer complained .
“ Science fiction @ @ @ @ @ based on science .
”

CHARLOTTE (The Borowitz Report)—The 2020 Republican National Convention will make history this week when it airs on Syfy for the first time ever.
Harland Dorrinson, a programming executive for the science-fiction channel, called the 2020 R.N.C. a “perfect fit for Syfy.”
“We’d been looking for some fresh science fiction/fantasy programming to spice up our summer schedule,” he said. “We feel like we’ve hit the motherlode.”
Previewing the science-fiction scenarios that the R.N.C. will likely feature, he said, “We’re hoping that Trump unveils some of his amazing mad-scientist potions and Pence does something cool about Space Force. The whole show is very on brand for us.”
The decision to broadcast the R.N.C., however, drew howls of protest from Syfy viewers who were furious to see the Convention preëmpt their favorite programs.
“The Republican National Convention does not belong on Syfy,” one irate viewer complained. “Science fiction has to be at least based on science.”


newyorker--2020-08-25--I Thought I Would Have Accomplished a Lot More Today and Also by the Time I Was Thirty-Five

Is it 2 P.M. already ?
Ugh .
I ’ ve done nothing today .
I woke up , stretched , saw that I had six voice mails , ignored them , showered , ate three waffles , and then felt annoyed that I ’ m thirty-five and still don ’ t speak French .
Wait , hang on .
I didn ’ t shower .
That was yesterday .
I tried to buy some Converse Chuck Taylors online , but I couldn ’ t choose between gray and obsidian , because I disliked them equally .
Then I got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ninety minutes .
I ’ m thirty-five !
I thought I would ’ ve purchased cool shoes by now , and been in a movie .
My improv-troupe mate Sanjay was in that indie horse movie .
He ’ s crushing it .
My artistic motto is “ Always write five hundred words before noon.
” My life motto is “ Write one best-seller before age thirty-five.
” Today I ’ ve written one word , a text message to Sanjay that just says , “ Hey !
” —but I didn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ didn ’ t finish my Ph.D. in political science or my engagement to Jennifer in my late twenties .
When I think about all the time I frittered away today , it agitates me , and I jump on Wikipedia to look up famous nineteenth-century circuses .
Wow , the circus of Pépin and Breschard performed for Thomas Jefferson .
God , why did I abandon my doctoral thesis on Jeffersonian democracy ?
!
And why did I waste the past ten minutes staring at a picture of a handsome young Breschard standing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ m haunted by an aborted academic career and a clock that now says 3:12 P.M. ?
Maybe .
I was supposed to renew my car registration today .
I haven ’ t opened the Web site .
I thought that I would ’ ve for sure given a TED talk in my thirties on “ How to Unleash the Infinite Writer ’ s Brain.
” I haven ’ t even given a TEDx .
Damn , I really wasted the morning and the afternoon and the last ten years .
It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ P.M .
I can turn this around , and—oh , my God , Benjamin Latrobe was a circus architect for Pépin and Breschard , and he designed the United States Capitol when he was twenty-nine .
Twenty-nine !
I ’ m thirty-five !
It ’ s 5 P.M. !
Fuck !
Life is strange .
When academia didn ’ t work out , I fantasized about a new career as a famous writer , travelling the world , wearing cool shoes , having deep conversations in French .
I ’ ve never done @ @ @ @ @ @ @ writing half a short story and then celebrating by shouting “ bonjour !
” to my roommate Felix while making myself a crêpe .
Jesus , is it 9 P.M. already ?
Tuesday flew by .
Nope , it ’ s Sunday .
Goddammit .
I honestly thought I would ’ ve mastered dating and finance and reading Camus in his mother tongue and keeping my house plants alive by now .
But I forgot to water my ficus this month , just like I forgot to found , scale , and sell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ side .
April went by so fast .
Is it May ?
No , it ’ s October .
This day and this year are officially hosed .
Why does this keep happening ?
I haven ’ t gone outside today .
I haven ’ t slept a full night this week .
I haven ’ t practiced my guitar this month .
I haven ’ t said “ I love you ” to someone romantically in four years .
Once , I said , “ I love .
.
.
” to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ off , and she said , “ You love .
.
.
?
” And I said , “ Yeah , I love .
.
.
‘ The Lord of the Rings.
’ ” I ’ ve been rehashing that moment for an hour while rewatching the animated version of “ The Two Towers , ” from 1978 , and not writing .
1978—my birth year .
Shit , I ’ m actually forty-one , not thirty-five .
This sucks .
It just frustrates me .
Sanjay is a movie star , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year , and I ’ ve never even eaten at a Moroccan restaurant , and my ficus is dying , and Pépin and Breschard built successful theatres throughout North America , and they had children and wives who loved them before age thirty-five , and I ’ ll never be a professor or an actor or write a book , and my crêpes are so-so but not restaurant quality , and I still haven ’ t learned how a Roth I.R.A .
can make my money work for me , and Jean Baptiste @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two horses at once while dressed in a full Spanish-lace uniform with silk stockings , and he was even a comedian of sorts , telling jokes right from the backs of his horses , and it ’ s 12:01 A.M. , and I literally just turned forty-two while I was thinking this .

Is it 2 P.M. already? Ugh. I’ve done nothing today. I woke up, stretched, saw that I had six voice mails, ignored them, showered, ate three waffles, and then felt annoyed that I’m thirty-five and still don’t speak French. Wait, hang on. I didn’t shower. That was yesterday.
I tried to buy some Converse Chuck Taylors online, but I couldn’t choose between gray and obsidian, because I disliked them equally. Then I got distracted by life-hack articles on Medium for ninety minutes. I’m thirty-five! I thought I would’ve purchased cool shoes by now, and been in a movie. My improv-troupe mate Sanjay was in that indie horse movie. He’s crushing it.
My artistic motto is “Always write five hundred words before noon.” My life motto is “Write one best-seller before age thirty-five.” Today I’ve written one word, a text message to Sanjay that just says, “Hey!”—but I didn’t finish it, just like I didn’t finish my Ph.D. in political science or my engagement to Jennifer in my late twenties.
When I think about all the time I frittered away today, it agitates me, and I jump on Wikipedia to look up famous nineteenth-century circuses. Wow, the circus of Pépin and Breschard performed for Thomas Jefferson. God, why did I abandon my doctoral thesis on Jeffersonian democracy?! And why did I waste the past ten minutes staring at a picture of a handsome young Breschard standing by his horse? Perhaps I’m haunted by an aborted academic career and a clock that now says 3:12 P.M.? Maybe.
I was supposed to renew my car registration today. I haven’t opened the Web site. I thought that I would’ve for sure given a TED talk in my thirties on “How to Unleash the Infinite Writer’s Brain.” I haven’t even given a TEDx. Damn, I really wasted the morning and the afternoon and the last ten years.
It’s O.K.! It’s only 3:40 P.M. I can turn this around, and—oh, my God, Benjamin Latrobe was a circus architect for Pépin and Breschard, and he designed the United States Capitol when he was twenty-nine. Twenty-nine! I’m thirty-five! It’s 5 P.M.! Fuck!
Life is strange. When academia didn’t work out, I fantasized about a new career as a famous writer, travelling the world, wearing cool shoes, having deep conversations in French. I’ve never done that. The closest I came was writing half a short story and then celebrating by shouting “bonjour!” to my roommate Felix while making myself a crêpe. Jesus, is it 9 P.M. already? Tuesday flew by. Nope, it’s Sunday. Goddammit.
I honestly thought I would’ve mastered dating and finance and reading Camus in his mother tongue and keeping my house plants alive by now. But I forgot to water my ficus this month, just like I forgot to found, scale, and sell a business while youth was on my side. April went by so fast. Is it May? No, it’s October. This day and this year are officially hosed.
Why does this keep happening? I haven’t gone outside today. I haven’t slept a full night this week. I haven’t practiced my guitar this month. I haven’t said “I love you” to someone romantically in four years. Once, I said, “I love . . . ” to my ex Meredith, but I trailed off, and she said, “You love . . . ?” And I said, “Yeah, I love . . . ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ ” I’ve been rehashing that moment for an hour while rewatching the animated version of “The Two Towers,” from 1978, and not writing. 1978—my birth year. Shit, I’m actually forty-one, not thirty-five. This sucks.
It just frustrates me. Sanjay is a movie star, and he lived in Morocco for an entire year, and I’ve never even eaten at a Moroccan restaurant, and my ficus is dying, and Pépin and Breschard built successful theatres throughout North America, and they had children and wives who loved them before age thirty-five, and I’ll never be a professor or an actor or write a book, and my crêpes are so-so but not restaurant quality, and I still haven’t learned how a Roth I.R.A. can make my money work for me, and Jean Baptiste Breschard could balance on the back of two horses at once while dressed in a full Spanish-lace uniform with silk stockings, and he was even a comedian of sorts, telling jokes right from the backs of his horses, and it’s 12:01 A.M., and I literally just turned forty-two while I was thinking this.