newyorker--2020-04-24--Ritchie Torres Represents the Bronx from his Apartment

Ritchie Torres , the youngest member of the New York City Council , is thirty-two years old and lives alone in an apartment near Fordham University .
He represents one of the city ’ s poorest council districts , in the central Bronx , and , in political circles , he has risen quickly .
Last summer , he announced plans to run for an open seat in Congress and has since raised $ 1.2 million , far more than any other candidate .
In February , City & State ranked him No .
77 on its “ New York @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 swept through the city , and , on March 17th , Torres became the first member of the City Council to announce that he had been infected .
His symptoms were fairly mild , and he quarantined himself in his apartment .
“ I slept through it , ” he said .
In his district , though , the impact of COVID-19 has been devastating .
Torres has two offices—one near City Hall , one in his district—but these days he works from a desk in his living room .
His workday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lasts until midnight .
When he peers outside his living-room window , Torres sees empty sidewalks .
“ I feel like I ’ m living in a ghost town , ” he said .
He hardly ever leaves his apartment except to visit a bodega nearby .
Meals seem to be an afterthought .
On April 15th , two empty pizza boxes sat atop a trash can in his kitchen ; the refrigerator held milk , orange juice , a few containers of leftover Chinese food—and five cartons of mint chocolate-chip ice cream @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a gray sweater , jeans , and worn dress shoes , held his weekly meeting with his staff .
They used to gather in a conference room , but now they met on a call .
“ The Bronx is on the deadliest curve .
We have the highest death rate per capita , ” Torres said .
The staffers described problems that they had been hearing about in the district .
The Bronx has more public-school students residing in homeless shelters than any other borough—about thirteen thousand at last count—and one staffer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ access , which makes it impossible for children to continue their schooling remotely .
After everyone else spoke , Torres called on Ronn Jordan , his first deputy chief of staff , who has worked for him longer than anyone else .
When Torres was twenty-five and first running for office , Jordan , a neighborhood activist who uses a wheelchair , met him and was so impressed that he volunteered for him every day .
Jordan became a fixture outside schools and subway stations , collecting signatures to help Torres get on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his wheelchair .
On the phone , Jordan , who is fifty-five and lives in an assisted-living facility , did not sound like himself .
“ I ’ ve lost fifteen to twenty friends and family members and family members of friends , ” Jordan told his co-workers .
“ My roommate , who you know I ’ ve been friends with here since we came into this place together , in 2011—he just passed away March 31st.
” He added , “ He was in a frozen truck out in our loading @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there have been a total of sixteen deaths , including six on the assisted-living floors .
Jordan said , “ We just keep hearing these announcements going off , saying , ‘ Code Blue , ’ and , when we hear ‘ Code Blue , ’ we know someone else has passed away.
” He went on , “ My floor is on complete lockdown .
We ’ re not allowed to leave the floor .
I don ’ t even leave my room.
” His main reprieve has been the calls he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ That ’ s been a good distraction because it takes my mind off of things , ” he said .
That day , each of Torres ’ s phone calls brought more bad news .
Frank Franz , who founded the Belmont Business Improvement District , told him about the scene on Arthur Avenue , the main street in the Bronx ’ s Little Italy .
“ You go down the street—it ’ s almost like a horror movie from the sixties after World War III , ” he said .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virtually nobody on the street , even though we are heavy with food stores .
There are a lot of stores that are open , and they ’ re doing some business .
But to say it was even one per cent of normal would probably be an exaggeration.
” Almost all the neighborhood ’ s restaurants had closed .
“ The last time we did a survey , we had almost fifteen hundred full-time jobs in this neighborhood , ” he said , “ so I ’ m sure the majority of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” At 11:30 A.M. , Torres called David Perlstein , the president and C.E.O .
of St. Barnabas Hospital , who was joined on the call by Eric Appelbaum , the chief medical officer .
St. Barnabas is a small , private hospital that serves Torres ’ s district .
He described it as a “ fragile institution ” that was “ teetering on the verge of collapse ” even before COVID-19 .
St. Barnabas had its first case of COVID-19 on March 13th and was quickly inundated with patients .
But now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ re definitely seeing a slowing.
” In late March , he said , “ we hit a point , sort of a peak , and then it went on a straight line .
Now it ’ s just starting to come off a little bit .
It ’ s a drop-off , but it ’ s not a huge drop-off.
” “ We normally may have an average of two fatalities in the hospital a day , ” Appelbaum said , “ and we ’ re averaging anywhere from six , eight , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a good day—seven .
The day before , ten.
” ( Between March 19th and April 22nd , there were two hundred coronavirus-related deaths at the hospital , but the number per day has dropped significantly .
There were four such deaths on April 21st and six on April 22nd . )
The doctors spoke about how the virus caused not only respiratory but also cardiac problems .
“ That ’ s what ’ s really tough on the staff , ” Appelbaum said .
When patients are put on ventilators , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a grieving process , or an understanding process , where they say , ‘ Hey , this person came in , they deteriorated on the vent.
’ Their brains , their mind , their emotions start preparing for the fact that this patient might not make it .
But they ’ re not prepared for the people who they just walk in on and find , ‘ Oh , my God , this guy is in cardiac arrest !
What happened ?
He ’ s not even on the vent !
’ ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be “ really , really significant , ” he said .
“ You can ’ t just have five people die on the shift as a nurse and think that ’ s nothing .
And they ’ re dying alone—there ’ s no family at the bedside .
It ’ s awful.
” Perlstein said , “ I think the impact in New York especially , and in neighborhoods such as ours , which is poor communities of color—I think it ’ s going to be a lot worse than we know .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ it.
” He knew of two hospital staff members who died , and he , too , was worried about the psychological toll on his employees .
“ We all recently lost a very good friend of ours , a trauma surgeon , whom I ’ ve known for twentysomething years , ” he said .
“ This guy was a phenomenal soul .
He was from Haiti , and , after the earthquake , he went to Haiti and volunteered there .
”

Ritchie Torres, the youngest member of the New York City Council, is thirty-two years old and lives alone in an apartment near Fordham University. He represents one of the city’s poorest council districts, in the central Bronx, and, in political circles, he has risen quickly. Last summer, he announced plans to run for an open seat in Congress and has since raised $1.2 million, far more than any other candidate. In February, City & State ranked him No. 77 on its “New York City Power 100” list. Then COVID-19 swept through the city, and, on March 17th, Torres became the first member of the City Council to announce that he had been infected. His symptoms were fairly mild, and he quarantined himself in his apartment. “I slept through it,” he said. In his district, though, the impact of COVID-19 has been devastating.
Torres has two offices—one near City Hall, one in his district—but these days he works from a desk in his living room. His workday begins at about 8 A.M. and usually lasts until midnight. When he peers outside his living-room window, Torres sees empty sidewalks. “I feel like I’m living in a ghost town,” he said. He hardly ever leaves his apartment except to visit a bodega nearby. Meals seem to be an afterthought. On April 15th, two empty pizza boxes sat atop a trash can in his kitchen; the refrigerator held milk, orange juice, a few containers of leftover Chinese food—and five cartons of mint chocolate-chip ice cream.
That morning, Torres, wearing a gray sweater, jeans, and worn dress shoes, held his weekly meeting with his staff. They used to gather in a conference room, but now they met on a call. “The Bronx is on the deadliest curve. We have the highest death rate per capita,” Torres said. The staffers described problems that they had been hearing about in the district. The Bronx has more public-school students residing in homeless shelters than any other borough—about thirteen thousand at last count—and one staffer explained that the shelters typically lack Wi-Fi access, which makes it impossible for children to continue their schooling remotely.
After everyone else spoke, Torres called on Ronn Jordan, his first deputy chief of staff, who has worked for him longer than anyone else. When Torres was twenty-five and first running for office, Jordan, a neighborhood activist who uses a wheelchair, met him and was so impressed that he volunteered for him every day. Jordan became a fixture outside schools and subway stations, collecting signatures to help Torres get on the ballot and attaching campaign posters to his wheelchair. On the phone, Jordan, who is fifty-five and lives in an assisted-living facility, did not sound like himself. “I’ve lost fifteen to twenty friends and family members and family members of friends,” Jordan told his co-workers. “My roommate, who you know I’ve been friends with here since we came into this place together, in 2011—he just passed away March 31st.” He added, “He was in a frozen truck out in our loading dock.”
According to the facility, there have been a total of sixteen deaths, including six on the assisted-living floors. Jordan said, “We just keep hearing these announcements going off, saying, ‘Code Blue,’ and, when we hear ‘Code Blue,’ we know someone else has passed away.” He went on, “My floor is on complete lockdown. We’re not allowed to leave the floor. I don’t even leave my room.” His main reprieve has been the calls he gets from constituents asking for help. “That’s been a good distraction because it takes my mind off of things,” he said.
That day, each of Torres’s phone calls brought more bad news. Frank Franz, who founded the Belmont Business Improvement District, told him about the scene on Arthur Avenue, the main street in the Bronx’s Little Italy. “You go down the street—it’s almost like a horror movie from the sixties after World War III,” he said. “A lot of times, there is virtually nobody on the street, even though we are heavy with food stores. There are a lot of stores that are open, and they’re doing some business. But to say it was even one per cent of normal would probably be an exaggeration.” Almost all the neighborhood’s restaurants had closed. “The last time we did a survey, we had almost fifteen hundred full-time jobs in this neighborhood,” he said, “so I’m sure the majority of those people are laid off right now.”
At 11:30 A.M., Torres called David Perlstein, the president and C.E.O. of St. Barnabas Hospital, who was joined on the call by Eric Appelbaum, the chief medical officer. St. Barnabas is a small, private hospital that serves Torres’s district. He described it as a “fragile institution” that was “teetering on the verge of collapse” even before COVID-19. St. Barnabas had its first case of COVID-19 on March 13th and was quickly inundated with patients. But now, Applebaum said, “We’re definitely seeing a slowing.” In late March, he said, “we hit a point, sort of a peak, and then it went on a straight line. Now it’s just starting to come off a little bit. It’s a drop-off, but it’s not a huge drop-off.”
“What about the fatalities?” Torres asked.
“We normally may have an average of two fatalities in the hospital a day,” Appelbaum said, “and we’re averaging anywhere from six, eight, ten, twelve, thirteen. Yesterday was a good day—seven. The day before, ten.” (Between March 19th and April 22nd, there were two hundred coronavirus-related deaths at the hospital, but the number per day has dropped significantly. There were four such deaths on April 21st and six on April 22nd.)
The doctors spoke about how the virus caused not only respiratory but also cardiac problems. “That’s what’s really tough on the staff,” Appelbaum said. When patients are put on ventilators, “the staff goes through sort of a grieving process, or an understanding process, where they say, ‘Hey, this person came in, they deteriorated on the vent.’ Their brains, their mind, their emotions start preparing for the fact that this patient might not make it. But they’re not prepared for the people who they just walk in on and find, ‘Oh, my God, this guy is in cardiac arrest! What happened? He’s not even on the vent!’ ” The P.T.S.D. among staff members would be “really, really significant,” he said. “You can’t just have five people die on the shift as a nurse and think that’s nothing. And they’re dying alone—there’s no family at the bedside. It’s awful.”
Perlstein said, “I think the impact in New York especially, and in neighborhoods such as ours, which is poor communities of color—I think it’s going to be a lot worse than we know. I have a really bad feeling about it.” He knew of two hospital staff members who died, and he, too, was worried about the psychological toll on his employees. “We all recently lost a very good friend of ours, a trauma surgeon, whom I’ve known for twentysomething years,” he said. “This guy was a phenomenal soul. He was from Haiti, and, after the earthquake, he went to Haiti and volunteered there.”
“How old was he?” Torres asked.
“Fifty-nine,” Perlstein said. “His name was Ronald Verrier, and I’m going to miss him. I still see his face, and he always had a smile on. He just was so committed to the community.” He added, “You know what I’ve said to my staff multiple times? That we are all sad, and we don’t have time yet, but, when the time is right, we will all mourn individually; we’ll all mourn with our friends and family, and then we’ll mourn with each other. But we can’t do it yet.”
Memorializing the dead, treating the P.T.S.D. of front-line workers, preventing mass evictions when residents don’t have enough money to pay the rent, finding jobs for the newly jobless—the list of tasks that will need to be accomplished in the months ahead grows longer every day. After disbanding for five weeks, the City Council held its first virtual meeting on April 22nd. Torres said, “Just like hospitals have become COVID-19 emergency rooms and I.C.U. units, the City Council has become a COVID-19 legislature. There’s nothing else on the agenda.” He added, “According to the Independent Budget Office, we could face fourteen billion dollars’ worth of deficits over the next three years.” Mayor Bill de Blasio has already announced some budget cuts—this summer, the city’s public pools will stay shut and its youth-jobs program will not operate—and he warned that many more cuts are to come. “We’re more accustomed to governing in times of prosperity,” Torres said. “We have monumental challenges ahead of us.”


newyorker--2020-04-24--The Beloved Taste of Persia Finds a Second Life

According to one school of culinary thought , the best way to prepare vegetables is barely at all ; they should be eaten as fresh and as close to raw as possible .
Lately , I ’ ve been appreciating the opposite : the power of a long , slow cook .
The other night , I marvelled at the way pods of okra split open into silky starbursts when simmered as long as the chef Saeed Pourkay does for his khoresht bamieh , a traditional Iranian dish .
The stew , which I ordered for delivery , was thick @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , yellowish seeds ; every few bites yielded a tender morsel of shaggy beef , too .
The fact that Pourkay , who is sixty-seven , is managing to make and deliver large quantities of food on his own during a pandemic will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his life story , which he himself describes , rather matter-of-factly , as “ very inspirational.
” For decades , he and his four brothers , émigrés from Tehran , ran a printshop in Manhattan .
In 2010 , Pourkay sold his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ visit , where he rediscovered a latent childhood interest in cooking .
Back in New York—broke after a series of bad investments and sleeping in a friend ’ s warehouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard—he decided to try making a living from his newfound hobby .
He persuaded the organizers of the Union Square Holiday Market to give him a stall rent-free : he ’ d sell Iranian food and pay them retroactively , at the end of the season .
The owners of a nearby pizzeria let him use their kitchen after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ experiment worked , and the pizzeria owners agreed to let him stay beyond the holidays and even to rent him a stretch of their counter .
Taste of Persia was born , a restaurant within a restaurant , beloved especially for Pourkay ’ s ash reshteh , a dense soup packed with lentils , split peas , noodles , onions , and herbs , topped with caramelized garlic , mint , and fermented whey .
All was well until a few months ago , when the pizzeria changed hands .
According to Pourkay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pay half their monthly rent , instead of the quarter he had been contributing .
He declined , and so they asked him to leave .
They were on good terms , he thought , until he learned that Taste of Persia had been replaced with a knockoff—Tasty Persia .
After protests and press coverage , the pizzeria quickly closed Tasty Persia , and , in February , Pourkay began making plans to reopen Taste of Persia in a home of its own , with the help of tens of thousands of dollars @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But , just as he was preparing to sign a lease , New York ’ s dining rooms were forced to close .
By the end of March , he said , “ I was constantly getting phone calls from my customers— ‘ Can you cook for us ?
’ ” He was happy to oblige ; the Middle Eastern markets near his home in New Jersey were open , which meant he had access to all the ingredients he needed .
Every week since , Pourkay has posted a short menu on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tasteofpersianyc ) : three or so dishes , sold in quart containers , with a side of saffron-laced basmati rice , to be ordered via e-mail for weekend delivery .
On a recent Saturday , he delivered sixty orders throughout Manhattan himself ; couriers made drop-offs in Brooklyn , Queens , and the Bronx .
The family printshop , Print Icon , is closed to customers , but Pourkay ’ s brothers have adapted quickly , too : they ’ re using the shop ’ s laser cutters to produce protective face shields @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In addition to the khoresht bamieh , my haul included two other slow-cooked stews that use vegetables to stretch a bit of beef : khoresht aloo esfenaj , a luscious mix of spinach and prunes brightened with lemon and pomegranate juice , and khoresht karafs , with slippery , parsley-and-mint-flecked segments of celery and artichoke that had nearly dissolved , yet still tasted of spring .
Persian food is perfect for these times because it “ doesn ’ t go bad that fast , ” Pourkay noted when we spoke on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ your refrigerator , three or four days—tastes even better.
” ( Dishes $ 17- $ 25 . )
♦

According to one school of culinary thought, the best way to prepare vegetables is barely at all; they should be eaten as fresh and as close to raw as possible. Lately, I’ve been appreciating the opposite: the power of a long, slow cook. The other night, I marvelled at the way pods of okra split open into silky starbursts when simmered as long as the chef Saeed Pourkay does for his khoresht bamieh, a traditional Iranian dish. The stew, which I ordered for delivery, was thick with the okra’s perfectly round, yellowish seeds; every few bites yielded a tender morsel of shaggy beef, too.
Pourkay makes drop-offs in Manhattan himself, and hires couriers to bring food to Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. Photograph by Bryan Anselm / Redux for The New Yorker
The fact that Pourkay, who is sixty-seven, is managing to make and deliver large quantities of food on his own during a pandemic will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his life story, which he himself describes, rather matter-of-factly, as “very inspirational.” For decades, he and his four brothers, émigrés from Tehran, ran a printshop in Manhattan. In 2010, Pourkay sold his share and returned to Iran for a visit, where he rediscovered a latent childhood interest in cooking.
Dishes like fesenjan (a thick stew of chicken, pomegranate molasses, walnut, and turmeric), Pourkay says, keep well in the refrigerator and taste even better on the third or fourth day. Photograph by Bryan Anselm / Redux for The New Yorker
Back in New York—broke after a series of bad investments and sleeping in a friend’s warehouse in the Brooklyn Navy Yard—he decided to try making a living from his newfound hobby. He persuaded the organizers of the Union Square Holiday Market to give him a stall rent-free: he’d sell Iranian food and pay them retroactively, at the end of the season. The owners of a nearby pizzeria let him use their kitchen after hours to do the cooking.
Each week, Pourkay devises a menu of several dishes, all of which come with saffron-laced basmati rice, and posts it to Instagram and Facebook; orders can be placed via e-mail and paid for in cash or on Venmo. Photograph by Bryan Anselm / Redux for The New Yorker
The experiment worked, and the pizzeria owners agreed to let him stay beyond the holidays and even to rent him a stretch of their counter. Taste of Persia was born, a restaurant within a restaurant, beloved especially for Pourkay’s ash reshteh, a dense soup packed with lentils, split peas, noodles, onions, and herbs, topped with caramelized garlic, mint, and fermented whey.
His ingredients all come from the many Middle Eastern grocery stores in Paterson, New Jersey, not far from where he lives. Photograph by Bryan Anselm / Redux for The New Yorker
All was well until a few months ago, when the pizzeria changed hands. According to Pourkay, the new owners asked that he pay half their monthly rent, instead of the quarter he had been contributing. He declined, and so they asked him to leave. They were on good terms, he thought, until he learned that Taste of Persia had been replaced with a knockoff—Tasty Persia.
After protests and press coverage, the pizzeria quickly closed Tasty Persia, and, in February, Pourkay began making plans to reopen Taste of Persia in a home of its own, with the help of tens of thousands of dollars raised from loyal customers via GoFundMe. But, just as he was preparing to sign a lease, New York’s dining rooms were forced to close. By the end of March, he said, “I was constantly getting phone calls from my customers—‘Can you cook for us?’ ” He was happy to oblige; the Middle Eastern markets near his home in New Jersey were open, which meant he had access to all the ingredients he needed.
Every week since, Pourkay has posted a short menu on his Facebook and Instagram accounts (@tasteofpersianyc): three or so dishes, sold in quart containers, with a side of saffron-laced basmati rice, to be ordered via e-mail for weekend delivery. On a recent Saturday, he delivered sixty orders throughout Manhattan himself; couriers made drop-offs in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. The family printshop, Print Icon, is closed to customers, but Pourkay’s brothers have adapted quickly, too: they’re using the shop’s laser cutters to produce protective face shields, available to hospitals at a discount.
In addition to the khoresht bamieh, my haul included two other slow-cooked stews that use vegetables to stretch a bit of beef: khoresht aloo esfenaj, a luscious mix of spinach and prunes brightened with lemon and pomegranate juice, and khoresht karafs, with slippery, parsley-and-mint-flecked segments of celery and artichoke that had nearly dissolved, yet still tasted of spring. Persian food is perfect for these times because it “doesn’t go bad that fast,” Pourkay noted when we spoke on the phone. “You keep it in your refrigerator, three or four days—tastes even better.” (Dishes $17-$25.) ♦
A Guide to the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-04-24--It’s Time to Grow Your Own Beans

It’s Time to Grow Your Own Beans

Everyone is cooking with beans now .
Why doesn ’ t everyone grow them ?
I ’ m deadly serious ; it ’ s not too late .
Rancho Gordo might be out of stock , but there ’ s another way .
As Jack , of beanstalk fame , knew , it ’ s frighteningly easy .
The dense nut of any old dried bean is tight with potential .
Give a child a broad bean to sprout and she ’ ll be checking it hourly from the moment the shoot emerges : the gratifying speed of growth , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unit in school biology lessons when we “ dissected ” them , revealing the radicle and the cotyledons , gave me not only a window into the complex and astonishing natural world but also an opening for a George Eliot-related joke so pitifully nerdy I can ’ t repeat it , even here , among friends .
Cooked beans all look more or less the same .
Fresh and raw , they are art .
Look at this single Borlotto Sanguino ( Bloody ) bean , creamily skinned , freckled with red like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like a foetal killer whale ; Gaia , the rare black soy bean with a bright-green stripe ; Jacob ’ s Cattle Gold , the blotched gold/white drying beans of the Passamaquoddy Indians ; Annelino Verde , its pods like a curly speckled prawn .
Their names embody histories both terrible and banal : Trail of Tears , said to have been carried by the Cherokees as they were forced off their land ; Taiwan , allegedly found on a Taiwanese plane by a Heathrow cleaner in the nineteen-seventies ; Blue Prussian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The tendrils of a bean plant are beautiful glories of engineering .
( On gardening forums , my secret shame and passion , the question of whether the stems twine clockwise or counterclockwise around the world remains a tinderbox . )
In order to grow them , one needs merely a pot or a pile of soil and a couple of sticks to allow the plants to twine their way up .
Even W. B. Yeats ( not usually a man with whom I identify ) wanted to live alone with “ nine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” I like to grow seven or eight kinds of beans , particularly the lilac-flowered Cosse Violette and the buttery , flattish Cornetti Meraviglia de Venise , because purple and yellow pods are easier to spot on the plant ; Cobra , for its lilac flowers ; Borlotti , because I ’ m pretentious ; and unnamed Greek and Ukrainian beans , which tend to escape and roam loose in the bottom of the seed tin .
Even before lockdown , I was hoarding toilet paper for their inner rolls ; they are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which are long and frisky and need space .
Beans are simple yet mysterious .
Their leaves have strange adhesive qualities .
They even carry a whiff of danger , because eating them raw exposes us to low levels of a chemical called phytohemagglutinin ; if the body accumulates it , an interesting but rather short future awaits .
Nevertheless , I ’ m generally too excited to save my crop for the kitchen .
Promiscuous as I am with French climbing beans , other varieties don ’ t tempt me .
Dwarf @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my overstuffed garden , height is key , giving me the maximum number of beans from the tiniest possible soil space .
Likewise green peas , which require space , time , and handsome hazel branches from one ’ s own woodland coppice in order to yield more than a handful .
Broad beans are heartbreakers ; blackfly will devour them more quickly than I can , which is no small feat .
Unusually for a relatively British gardener , I can not be bothered with Runner beans , the most English of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they ’ re mainly grown for their peach and scarlet flowers , which my compatriots think is a terrible mistake .
They devote their weekends to harvesting , de-stringing , slicing , freezing , and , in the fullness of time , throwing them away .
Only in England would we think to name a long , flat , rough pod with neon-red flowers Lady Di .
My favorite , admittedly eccentric , edible-gardening magazine still features articles suggesting the best varietal for entering in your village ’ s Longest Bean competition .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ coarse and useless ?
I ’ d prefer a loofah , and they ’ re as easy to grow .
Beans need support , yes , I know , and building plant supports requires practical talents which I entirely lack .
My toppling towers , cobbled together from fallen branches of London plane tree , are interestingly twisted and impossible to tie together ; I have devoted long hours to whittling corks for their tops , erecting fragile and feeble scaffolds .
I ’ ve studied countless diagrams , and exchanged heated hand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elegant multi-stranded bean frame will not be mine .
Only my annual , heartbreaking attempt to cage my berries from the birds vexes me more .
It ’ s fine ; stick a broom handle in a pot .
Grab a toilet-paper roll from your recycling bin , if you still have toilet paper .
Scatter a few beans : try the cannellini sitting in your pantry , or investigate the more esoteric varieties available online .
Push them into whatever compost you ’ ve bought or stolen .
Water , wait .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ can you .
When one plants a bean , one tethers oneself to the future .

Everyone is cooking with beans now. Why doesn’t everyone grow them? I’m deadly serious; it’s not too late. Rancho Gordo might be out of stock, but there’s another way. As Jack, of beanstalk fame, knew, it’s frighteningly easy.
The dense nut of any old dried bean is tight with potential. Give a child a broad bean to sprout and she’ll be checking it hourly from the moment the shoot emerges: the gratifying speed of growth, the heartbreakingly vulnerable seed-pod cap. The unit in school biology lessons when we “dissected” them, revealing the radicle and the cotyledons, gave me not only a window into the complex and astonishing natural world but also an opening for a George Eliot-related joke so pitifully nerdy I can’t repeat it, even here, among friends.
Cooked beans all look more or less the same. Fresh and raw, they are art. Look at this single Borlotto Sanguino (Bloody) bean, creamily skinned, freckled with red like the evidence of a crime; Orca, like a foetal killer whale; Gaia, the rare black soy bean with a bright-green stripe; Jacob’s Cattle Gold, the blotched gold/white drying beans of the Passamaquoddy Indians; Annelino Verde, its pods like a curly speckled prawn. Their names embody histories both terrible and banal: Trail of Tears, said to have been carried by the Cherokees as they were forced off their land; Taiwan, allegedly found on a Taiwanese plane by a Heathrow cleaner in the nineteen-seventies; Blue Prussian, a favorite of Thomas Jefferson.
The tendrils of a bean plant are beautiful glories of engineering (though on gardening forums, my secret shame and passion, the question of whether the stems twine clockwise or counterclockwise around the world remains a tinderbox). In order to grow them, one needs merely a pot or a pile of soil and a couple of sticks to allow the plants to twine their way up. Even W. B. Yeats, not usually a man with whom I identify, wanted to live alone with “nine bean-rows” in a “bee-loud glade.”
I like to grow seven or eight kinds of beans, particularly the lilac-flowered Cosse Violette and the buttery, flattish Cornetti Meraviglia de Venise, because purple and yellow pods are easier to spot on the plant; Cobra, for its lilac flowers; Borlotti, because I’m pretentious; and unnamed Greek and Ukrainian beans, which tend to escape and roam loose in the bottom of the seed tin. Even before lockdown, I was hoarding toilet paper for their inner rolls; they are the perfect receptacle for bean roots, which are long and frisky and need space.
Beans are simple yet mysterious. Their leaves have strange adhesive qualities. They even carry a whiff of danger, because eating them raw exposes us to low levels of a chemical called phytohemagglutinin; if the body accumulates it, an interesting but rather short future awaits. Nevertheless, I’m generally too excited to save my crop for the kitchen.
Promiscuous as I am with French climbing beans, other varieties don’t tempt me. Dwarf beans seem pointless; here, in my overstuffed garden, height is key, giving me the maximum number of beans from the tiniest possible soil space. Likewise green peas, which require space, time, and handsome hazel branches from one’s own woodland coppice in order to yield more than a handful. Broad beans are heartbreakers; blackfly will devour them more quickly than I can, which is no small feat.
Unusually for a relatively British gardener, I cannot be bothered with Runner beans, the most English of all the legumes. In the U.S. they’re mainly grown for their peach and scarlet flowers, which my compatriots think is a terrible mistake. They devote their weekends to harvesting, de-stringing, slicing, freezing, and, in the fullness of time, throwing them away. Only in England would we think to name a long, flat, rough pod with neon-red flowers Lady Di. My favorite, admittedly eccentric, edible-gardening magazine still features articles suggesting the best varietal for entering in your village’s Longest Bean competition. Why grow an inedible half-metre bean, coarse and useless? I’d prefer a loofah, and they’re as easy to grow.
Beans need support, yes, I know, and building plant supports requires practical talents which I entirely lack. My toppling towers, cobbled together from fallen branches of London plane tree, are interestingly twisted and impossible to tie together. I’ve devoted long hours to whittling corks for their tops, erecting fragile and feeble scaffolds. I’ve studied countless diagrams, and exchanged heated hand gestures with Italian farmers, but an elegant multi-stranded bean frame will not be mine. Only my annual, heartbreaking attempt to cage my berries from the birds vexes me more.
It’s fine; stick a broom handle in a pot. Grab a toilet-paper roll from your recycling bin, if you still have toilet paper. Scatter a few beans: try the cannellini sitting in your pantry, or investigate the more esoteric varieties available online. Push them into whatever compost you’ve bought or stolen. Water, wait. If I can do it, so can you. When one plants a bean, one tethers oneself to the future.


newyorker--2020-04-24--How Will We Reopen the Economy After the Coronavirus Crisis?

The daily coronavirus briefings of Andy Beshear , the governor of Kentucky , used to be sedate affairs .
That changed on April 15th , when protesters began gathering regularly outside the window of his briefing room , in the Capitol building , in Frankfort , and attempting to interrupt the proceedings .
“ Open up Kentucky !
” they chanted .
“ We want to work !
” There were horns , whistles , and signs , including one that said “ Quarantine is when you restrict the movement of sick people !
Tyranny is when you restrict the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ activist stood on the Capitol steps and shouted , “ We ’ re free citizens , and we can ’ t be told we can ’ t support our families .
We can ’ t be told that we can ’ t work .
How unethical is it of our leadership to say , ‘ No , you can ’ t work ’ ?
It ’ s garbage !
If you want to open your business , go open your damn business !
” Beshear , a Democrat , won the governorship by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last November .
On the first day of the protests , he paused his briefing and addressed the people outside the window , trying to appeal to rationality .
“ Folks , that would kill people .
That would absolutely kill people , ” he said .
“ My job isn ’ t to make the popular decision but to make the right decision , and the decision that saves people ’ s lives.
” As of April 23rd , Kentucky has 3,481 confirmed cases and a hundred and ninety-one deaths from COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the list of affected states .
But Beshear ’ s dilemma is the same as the one facing leaders across the country .
Many Americans , understandably , want to return to work .
But reopening the economy would likely accelerate the spread of the virus , straining the health system , causing more deaths , and causing further economic damage .
In the coming months , policymakers will be forced to navigate the complicated relationship between protecting people ’ s health and protecting their livelihoods .
There is no clear path for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been issuing their own , competing plans .
Last Friday , the governor of Minnesota announced that outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing could resume soon and that golf courses and driving ranges could reopen right away .
In Texas , retail stores will be permitted to open back up for curbside shopping .
But the governor of Maryland announced that restrictions there would not be lifted until there was greater access to testing , improved hospital space and equipment , and an effective contact-tracing system .
In California , Governor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in his state might have to have their temperatures taken before being allowed inside .
On April 13th , President Trump suggested that he might force states to reopen their economies but more recently said that he would leave the question up to governors .
The White House also released its own set of guidelines for how to move forward , called “ Opening Up America Again.
” “ I think it ’ ll be really chaotic , ” Dean Baker , the co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of political orientation , agree on a few principles about the recovery .
The first is that the longer the economy stays in its current state of shutdown , the longer it will take to get it going again , and the more protracted the economic depression that will follow .
“ The longer we ’ re shut down , the more businesses we ’ re going to lose , and those businesses are what ’ s going to create the labor demand that will soak up our unemployed workers , ” Michael @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Enterprise Institute , told me .
Baker added , “ Some workers won ’ t be able to come back .
There will be incredibly complicated accounting messes ; all these bills haven ’ t been paid for two or three months .
Just getting a place up and running again takes time.
” The second is that the rescue programs that Congress passed in March could mitigate the damage , but only if implemented effectively , and they still won ’ t go far enough .
( The first stage of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , has already run out of funds . )
The third is that widespread and accessible virus testing and effective infection tracing will be needed before most people will feel confident returning to their pre-pandemic ways of life .
( The guidelines released by the White House mention testing but do not address how it would become more widely available . )
Most likely , the economy will come back online through what Strain described as a “ staged reopening , ” with different sectors switching on at different times .
“ What @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
” Strain said .
“ Continuing to prevent really large crowds , maybe opening up the smaller businesses first , having fewer people inside a store at one time .
Then maybe you open up the restaurants , but people are spread out.
” Larger establishments , such as department stores , would follow , with the time line ideally being driven by what can be determined about the virus ’ s spread through aggressive testing .
It is hoped that the highest-capacity venues , such as stadiums and concert halls , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ governors have pledged to work in regional groups to insure that the transition is as smooth as possible ( such plans are already under way : New York , New Jersey , Connecticut , Pennsylvania , Rhode Island , and Delaware recently joined together to coördinate reopening plans . )
Strain also noted that even a staged reopening will work only if local leaders can be nimble in response to contagion levels .
“ If we ’ re able to do this well , what you should see is pumping the gas pedal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
Schools may reopen in September , for example , and then , if the virus spreads too quickly , close again for two weeks in October .
Social-distancing rules in restaurants may have to be continually adjusted .
“ I think we ’ re likely to see the virus respond to the level of economic activity , and , if the response is more than we would like , we ’ re going to need to slow things down again , ” he said .
“ But I don ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is up to that.
” One proposed plan , published by several of Strain ’ s colleagues at the American Enterprise Institute , outlines the possible phases of a staged reopening .
The first is the one we are currently in , when the focus is on slowing the spread of COVID-19 by shutting down public spaces and ordering residents to shelter at home ; Phase II occurs on a state-by-state basis , “ when they are able to safely diagnose , treat , and isolate COVID-19 cases and their contacts.
” During @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A.E.I .
fellow , and his co-authors write , “ schools and businesses can reopen , and much of normal life can begin to resume.
” Physical-distancing measures may still be in place ; vulnerable individuals may still want to limit their contact with others ; and much more stringent public-hygiene measures should be adopted in public places .
The third phase suggests that physical distancing and other restrictions can be removed when widespread disease tracing , treatment , and vaccines become available .
( Vaccine tests are under way , but nothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . )
After that , the report suggests , we should focus on preparing for the next pandemic .
The authors write , “ After we successfully defeat COVID-19 , we must ensure that America is never again unprepared to face a new infectious disease threat .
”

The daily coronavirus briefings of Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, used to be sedate affairs. That changed on April 15th, when protesters began gathering regularly outside the window of his briefing room, in the Capitol building, in Frankfort, and attempting to interrupt the proceedings. “Open up Kentucky!” they chanted. “We want to work!” There were horns, whistles, and signs, including one that said “Quarantine is when you restrict the movement of sick people! Tyranny is when you restrict the movement of healthy people!” An activist stood on the Capitol steps and shouted, “We’re free citizens, and we can’t be told we can’t support our families. We can’t be told that we can’t work. How unethical is it of our leadership to say, ‘No, you can’t work’? It’s garbage! If you want to open your business, go open your damn business!”
Beshear, a Democrat, won the governorship by a little more than five thousand votes last November. On the first day of the protests, he paused his briefing and addressed the people outside the window, trying to appeal to rationality. “Folks, that would kill people. That would absolutely kill people,” he said. “My job isn’t to make the popular decision but to make the right decision, and the decision that saves people’s lives.” As of April 23rd, Kentucky has 3,481 confirmed cases and a hundred and ninety-one deaths from COVID-19, which puts it relatively low on the list of affected states. But Beshear’s dilemma is the same as the one facing leaders across the country. Many Americans, understandably, want to return to work. But reopening the economy would likely accelerate the spread of the virus, straining the health system, causing more deaths, and causing further economic damage. In the coming months, policymakers will be forced to navigate the complicated relationship between protecting people’s health and protecting their livelihoods.
There is no clear path for reopening the economy, and various groups have been issuing their own, competing plans. Last Friday, the governor of Minnesota announced that outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing could resume soon and that golf courses and driving ranges could reopen right away. In Texas, retail stores will be permitted to open back up for curbside shopping. But the governor of Maryland announced that restrictions there would not be lifted until there was greater access to testing, improved hospital space and equipment, and an effective contact-tracing system. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom suggested that people visiting restaurants in his state might have to have their temperatures taken before being allowed inside. On April 13th, President Trump suggested that he might force states to reopen their economies but more recently said that he would leave the question up to governors. The White House also released its own set of guidelines for how to move forward, called “Opening Up America Again.” “I think it’ll be really chaotic,” Dean Baker, the co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, told me.
Most experts, regardless of political orientation, agree on a few principles about the recovery. The first is that the longer the economy stays in its current state of shutdown, the longer it will take to get it going again, and the more protracted the economic depression that will follow. “The longer we’re shut down, the more businesses we’re going to lose, and those businesses are what’s going to create the labor demand that will soak up our unemployed workers,” Michael Strain, an economist with the American Enterprise Institute, told me. Baker added, “Some workers won’t be able to come back. There will be incredibly complicated accounting messes; all these bills haven’t been paid for two or three months. Just getting a place up and running again takes time.” The second is that the rescue programs that Congress passed in March could mitigate the damage, but only if implemented effectively, and they still won’t go far enough. (The first stage of the program, intended to help small businesses, has already run out of funds.) The third is that widespread and accessible virus testing and effective infection tracing will be needed before most people will feel confident returning to their pre-pandemic ways of life. (The guidelines released by the White House mention testing but do not address how it would become more widely available.)
Most likely, the economy will come back online through what Strain described as a “staged reopening,” with different sectors switching on at different times. “What would that look like inside a city?” Strain said. “Continuing to prevent really large crowds, maybe opening up the smaller businesses first, having fewer people inside a store at one time. Then maybe you open up the restaurants, but people are spread out.” Larger establishments, such as department stores, would follow, with the time line ideally being driven by what can be determined about the virus’s spread through aggressive testing. It is hoped that the highest-capacity venues, such as stadiums and concert halls, could reopen in the summer. Many governors have pledged to work in regional groups to insure that the transition is as smooth as possible (such plans are already under way: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Delaware recently joined together to coördinate reopening plans.) Strain also noted that even a staged reopening will work only if local leaders can be nimble in response to contagion levels. “If we’re able to do this well, what you should see is pumping the gas pedal and then hitting the brakes,” he said. Schools may reopen in September, for example, and then, if the virus spreads too quickly, close again for two weeks in October. Social-distancing rules in restaurants may have to be continually adjusted. “I think we’re likely to see the virus respond to the level of economic activity, and, if the response is more than we would like, we’re going to need to slow things down again,” he said. “But I don’t know if our system of government is up to that.”
One proposed plan, published by several of Strain’s colleagues at the American Enterprise Institute, outlines the possible phases of a staged reopening. The first is the one we are currently in, when the focus is on slowing the spread of COVID-19 by shutting down public spaces and ordering residents to shelter at home; Phase II occurs on a state-by-state basis, “when they are able to safely diagnose, treat, and isolate COVID-19 cases and their contacts.” During this phase, Scott Gottlieb, an A.E.I. fellow, and his co-authors write, “schools and businesses can reopen, and much of normal life can begin to resume.” Physical-distancing measures may still be in place; vulnerable individuals may still want to limit their contact with others; and much more stringent public-hygiene measures should be adopted in public places. The third phase suggests that physical distancing and other restrictions can be removed when widespread disease tracing, treatment, and vaccines become available. (Vaccine tests are under way, but nothing is expected for at least a year.) After that, the report suggests, we should focus on preparing for the next pandemic. The authors write, “After we successfully defeat COVID-19, we must ensure that America is never again unprepared to face a new infectious disease threat.”
Even after restrictions begin to lift, the economic crisis will probably be unlike anything the U.S. has seen in several decades. On April 14th, the International Monetary Fund published a report predicting that the current period will be the beginning of the “worst recession since the Great Depression, and far worse than the Global Financial Crisis.” Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, said that, while the U.S. government had taken some steps toward alleviating the damage, it hasn’t done nearly enough. She compared the response of American leaders to that of leaders in Denmark, who swiftly implemented a program to replace workers’ lost wages so that they could remain connected to their employers and could be summoned back again easily once it was deemed safe; the U.S. version, an emergency loan fund called the Paycheck Protection Program, has, so far, been riddled with implementation problems and has left many businesses that are in serious need without access to funds. “They’re getting what they need to survive the lockdown,” Shierholz said, referring to workers in Denmark. “So workers aren’t facing the trauma of job loss, which research shows can be very long-lasting, and can have effects on kids.” She went on, “We didn’t do what Denmark did. We chose not to. So we are going to be in a worse position, and we are not going to have as quick of a recovery.”


newyorker--2020-04-25--Donald Trump’s Debt to China

Donald Trump’s Debt to China

Earlier this week , the right-leaning commentator Walter Russell Mead published a column in the Wall Street Journal arguing that Donald Trump ’ s best chance of being reëlected in November is to run against China .
“ With the economy in shambles and the pandemic ravaging the country , making the election a referendum on China is perhaps Mr. Trump ’ s only chance to extend his White House tenure past January 2021 , ” Mead wrote .
This strategy would enable Trump to exploit a coronavirus-related distrust of China , Mead added , and it would create problems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also go beyond , Hunter Biden ’ s business ties to the Middle Kingdom .
Plenty “ of other senior Democrats have made money ( in China ) , supported trade policies that gave away too much without holding Beijing accountable , or praised China ’ s government in ways that would make painful viewing in a campaign ad today , ” Mead said .
The column sounded cynical , but it didn ’ t come out of nowhere .
Trump ’ s campaign has already released an ad highlighting Hunter Biden ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Trump said last weekend that if Joe Biden was elected foreign countries such as China and Mexico would “ own ” him .
On Thursday , Secretary of State Mike Pompeo upped the ante , blaming China for the global COVID-19 death toll .
In an interview with Fox News ’ Sean Hannity , he said , “ China caused an enormous amount of pain , loss of life , and now a huge challenge for the global economy and the American economy , as well , by not sharing the information @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senator Tom Cotton , a Republican from Arkansas and a longtime China hawk , called for a big military buildup in East Asia .
“ The Chinese Communist Party will try to exploit the world ’ s weakness in the wake of a virus it unleashed , ” Cotton claimed on Thursday .
“ We can not allow it to succeed.
” With criticisms of Trump ’ s handling of the pandemic growing and new opinion polls showing him trailing Biden in several key battleground states , we are sure to see more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ China campaign strategy would also present a number of problems for Trump , beginning with the fact that Hunter Biden ’ s investment partnership isn ’ t the only American business that received funding from Chinese entities .
In 2012 , the Bank of China , a commercial bank owned by the Chinese state , provided more than two hundred million dollars in loans to a New York office building that Trump co-owns , Politico reported on Friday .
The loans will come due in 2022 , “ in the middle of what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” the timely article noted .
The building in question is 1290 Avenue of the Americas , which is located between West Fifty-first and West Fifty-second Streets .
The majority owner of the building is Vornado Realty Trust , a big real-estate company that is run by the veteran developer Steven Roth .
In 2007 , the Trump Organization acquired a thirty-per-cent stake in the Sixth Avenue building and also in separate Vornado development , in San Francisco .
By all appearances , the Vornado stake has been one of Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bank of China played a significant role in its success .
“ The debt stems from a $ 950 million refinancing deal in 2012 , to which the Bank of China chipped in $ 211 million , ” the Politico article said .
“ Vornado ’ s federal financial disclosures show it and the other owner of 1290 Avenue of the Americas—Trump—are still indebted from the 2012 deal.
” To be sure , there is no suggestion in the Politico story that the Chinese bank supplied this large sum of money specifically to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t officially entered politics in 2012 , and the Chinese institution also participated in other American real-estate deals around the same time .
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal from 2013 , the Bank of China was “ already one of the largest foreign lenders to commercial real estate in the U.S. , helping finance prestige properties.
” The Journal story said that the Chinese bank extended the 2012 loan to Vornado intending to package it into mortgage bonds , which it could then sell to other investors at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Trump , through his thirty-per-cent stake in the building on Sixth Avenue , has benefitted personally from a big Chinese investment , one that is still in place .
The Politico article linked to a filing from Vornado to the Securities and Exchange Commission , which shows that the nine-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar loan carries an annual yield of 3.34 per cent and is due in November , 2022 .
“ There are definitely legitimate questions that are raised by Hunter Biden ’ s actions , ” Robert Maguire , the research director for Citizens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told Politico .
“ They are not even in the same ballpark as the conflict of interest questions raised by President Trump ’ s continued relationship with his own company.
” Whether Trump ’ s businesses received more loans from state-owned Chinese banks—or other investors with ties to foreign governments—is unknown because Trump refuses to release his complete tax returns and other financial records .
The “ financial disclosure law did not require him to disclose any business loans he had not personally guaranteed , ” Walter Shaub , a former head of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ establishes standards for the executive branch , wrote on Twitter on Friday .
“ So , who knows who else he owes money ?
I ’ ll tell you who : The lenders who have him in their grip.
” We do know that Trump-family companies have done business with Chinese entities on other occasions , too .
In 2017 , a Trump-branded golf resort in Dubai hired two Chinese firms to do construction , McClatchy reported .
And , since Trump has been in the White House , the Chinese government has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s businesses .
Relative to the size of the two-hundred-and-eleven-million-dollar loan in 2012 , these dealings were minor , but they confirm the essential truth that Trump , despite his rhetoric , is a participant and a beneficiary of the global economic system that he blames for the gutting of the American middle class .
The Chinese financial investments that end up funding Trump ’ s office buildings and similar high-end developments are the mirror image of the trade deficit that has cost the United States , and Trump-supporting regions in particular , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sends money across the Pacific to pay for goods manufactured in China , then China uses a lot of that money to make dollar-denominated investments in real estate and other sectors , and purchase U.S. Treasury bonds .
Trump won ’ t dwell on any of this during the campaign , of course .
But , the next time he brings up Hunter Biden or starts railing against the Chinese government , somebody should ask him about his debt to China .

Earlier this week, the right-leaning commentator Walter Russell Mead published a column in the Wall Street Journal arguing that Donald Trump’s best chance of being reëlected in November is to run against China. “With the economy in shambles and the pandemic ravaging the country, making the election a referendum on China is perhaps Mr. Trump’s only chance to extend his White House tenure past January 2021,” Mead wrote. This strategy would enable Trump to exploit a coronavirus-related distrust of China, Mead added, and it would create problems for Democrats which would include, but also go beyond, Hunter Biden’s business ties to the Middle Kingdom. Plenty “of other senior Democrats have made money (in China), supported trade policies that gave away too much without holding Beijing accountable, or praised China’s government in ways that would make painful viewing in a campaign ad today,” Mead said.
The column sounded cynical, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. Trump’s campaign has already released an ad highlighting Hunter Biden’s connection to a Chinese bank, and Trump said last weekend that if Joe Biden was elected foreign countries such as China and Mexico would “own” him. On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo upped the ante, blaming China for the global COVID-19 death toll. In an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, he said, “China caused an enormous amount of pain, loss of life, and now a huge challenge for the global economy and the American economy, as well, by not sharing the information they had” about the virus. Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas and a longtime China hawk, called for a big military buildup in East Asia. “The Chinese Communist Party will try to exploit the world’s weakness in the wake of a virus it unleashed,” Cotton claimed on Thursday. “We cannot allow it to succeed.”
With criticisms of Trump’s handling of the pandemic growing and new opinion polls showing him trailing Biden in several key battleground states, we are sure to see more of these diversions. But adopting a China campaign strategy would also present a number of problems for Trump, beginning with the fact that Hunter Biden’s investment partnership isn’t the only American business that received funding from Chinese entities. In 2012, the Bank of China, a commercial bank owned by the Chinese state, provided more than two hundred million dollars in loans to a New York office building that Trump co-owns, Politico reported on Friday. The loans will come due in 2022, “in the middle of what could be Trump’s second term,” the timely article noted.
The building in question is 1290 Avenue of the Americas, which is located between West Fifty-first and West Fifty-second Streets. The majority owner of the building is Vornado Realty Trust, a big real-estate company that is run by the veteran developer Steven Roth. In 2007, the Trump Organization acquired a thirty-per-cent stake in the Sixth Avenue building and also in separate Vornado development, in San Francisco. By all appearances, the Vornado stake has been one of Trump’s most successful investments, and the Bank of China played a significant role in its success. “The debt stems from a $950 million refinancing deal in 2012, to which the Bank of China chipped in $211 million,” the Politico article said. “Vornado’s federal financial disclosures show it and the other owner of 1290 Avenue of the Americas—Trump—are still indebted from the 2012 deal.”
To be sure, there is no suggestion in the Politico story that the Chinese bank supplied this large sum of money specifically to curry favor with Trump. He hadn’t officially entered politics in 2012, and the Chinese institution also participated in other American real-estate deals around the same time. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal from 2013, the Bank of China was “already one of the largest foreign lenders to commercial real estate in the U.S., helping finance prestige properties.” The Journal story said that the Chinese bank extended the 2012 loan to Vornado intending to package it into mortgage bonds, which it could then sell to other investors at a profit. In an update to its story, Politico wrote that on Friday evening the Bank of China issued a statement saying it did do a securitization and “has not had any ownership interest in that loan since late November 2012.”
But the fact remains that Trump, through his thirty-per-cent stake in the building on Sixth Avenue, has benefitted personally from a big loan from China, whoever owns it now. The Politico article linked to a filing from Vornado to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which shows that the nine-hundred-and-fifty-million-dollar loan carries an annual yield of 3.34 per cent and is due in November, 2022. “There are definitely legitimate questions that are raised by Hunter Biden’s actions,” Robert Maguire, the research director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told Politico. “They are not even in the same ballpark as the conflict of interest questions raised by President Trump’s continued relationship with his own company.”
Whether Trump’s businesses received more loans from state-owned Chinese banks—or other investors with ties to foreign governments—is unknown because Trump refuses to release his complete tax returns and other financial records. The “financial disclosure law did not require him to disclose any business loans he had not personally guaranteed,” Walter Shaub, a former head of the Office of Government Ethics, which establishes standards for the executive branch, wrote on Twitter on Friday. “So, who knows who else he owes money? I’ll tell you who: The lenders who have him in their grip.”
We do know that Trump-family companies have done business with Chinese entities on other occasions, too. In 2017, a Trump-branded golf resort in Dubai hired two Chinese firms to do construction, McClatchy reported. And, since Trump has been in the White House, the Chinese government has issued numerous trademarks to Ivanka Trump’s businesses.
Relative to the size of the two-hundred-and-eleven-million-dollar loan in 2012, these dealings were minor, but they confirm the essential truth that Trump, despite his rhetoric, is a participant and a beneficiary of the global economic system that he blames for the gutting of the American middle class. The Chinese financial investments that end up funding Trump’s office buildings and similar high-end developments are the mirror image of the trade deficit that has cost the United States, and Trump-supporting regions in particular, millions of jobs. The United States sends money across the Pacific to pay for goods manufactured in China, then China uses a lot of that money to make dollar-denominated investments in real estate and other sectors, and purchase U.S. Treasury bonds.
Trump won’t dwell on any of this during the campaign, of course. But, the next time he brings up Hunter Biden or starts railing against the Chinese government, somebody should ask him about the 2012 loan from the Bank of China.
This column has been updated to reflect amendments made to the original Politico report.


newyorker--2020-04-24--“Bad Education,” Reviewed: HBO's Narrow Dramatization of a Real School Scandal on Long Island

HBO ’ s “ Bad Education , ” coming out on Saturday , is a dramatization of a real-life school-district scandal that occurred on Long Island .
I took note of the scandal when it first unfolded , in the early two-thousands , because I graduated from the institution at its center , Roslyn High School , three decades earlier ( though my family connection to the town was already long over ) .
What ’ s fascinating and significant about the film , which is written by Mike Makowsky and directed by Cory Finley , is that it takes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s idiosyncrasies ( “ Bad Education ” doesn ’ t dwell on local curiosities ) but at the traits that Roslyn shares with more or less every prosperous suburb in America .
It ’ s a story of aspirations and dreams , of the striving for wealth and the perpetuation of its privileges , and of the systems by which that process of heightened stratification , of upward mobility for those already on top , is sustained .
It ’ s also a movie that exemplifies the unchallenged movie convention of distilling a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with its own specific emotional orientation , that fit together so precisely and so tightly that , rather than exploring its implications , it seals them out .
The title is ironic , inasmuch as the movie ’ s starting point is the very idea of a good education .
It begins with a virtual rally , a public meeting where Bob Spicer ( Ray Romano ) , the head of the school board , trumpets to a joyful audience the news that Roslyn ’ s schools have been ranked fourth in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ standardized-test scores and the large number of students admitted to Ivy League schools , and he attributes the success to the district ’ s superintendent , Frank Tassone ( Hugh Jackman ) , who , after grooming and primping himself in the men ’ s room , heads down the corridor and enters the auditorium to cheers .
In other words , from the start , the movie ’ s subject isn ’ t education as such but its markers of success—ones that Tassone is driven to optimize .
Tassone is lauded within @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s educational standing , but he is also involved in a criminal scheme : skimming millions of dollars from the budget for his personal use , along with district ’ s business manager , Pamela Gluckin ( Allison Janney ) .
The school board and the network of parents , thrilled with the schools ’ successes , have never paused to look closely at the administrators ’ practices .
The drama of “ Bad Education ” is sparked when a student journalist , Rachel Bhargava ( Geraldine Viswanathan ) , is assigned to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about the school ’ s expensive new construction project , the Skywalk .
But when she asks Tassone for a quote , he—ever the educator—encourages her to take her assignment seriously .
After that , she starts to dig , and what she discovers proves consequential .
( That ’ s not how the scandal was , in fact , revealed .
A student journalist did bring the story to public attention , but the investigation that was involved was much more limited in scope—though it also , to some extent , took @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a public school-board meeting . )
The movie sets out its drama bit by bit , leaving crumbs of information about Tassone ’ s crimes like a trail—but with signposts and winks to the wise , indicating that , even if the school board and the community went along blissfully unaware of the misdeeds , the filmmakers are no dupes and stay a step ahead of these characters .
Keeping close to Tassone , even in scenes of privacy and intimacy , they nonetheless never show what he knows of , and what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own misdeeds .
Their sense of character is subordinated to their desire to turn up the right cards at the right moment .
“ Bad Education ” dramatizes how the school system can be instrumentalized to protect and perpetuate wealth and success—as in scenes of a mother urging Tassone to get her son , a third-grader , into an accelerated program , lest the child ’ s entire life be ruined , and another of a sixth-grader telling him of her plans and dreams : “ to get all A ’ s and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mom.
” The center of the film , however—in effect , the movie ’ s deeply embedded master plot—is a far-reaching and long-range one , also centered on the district ’ s parents , who are seconded and abetted by Tassone on the subject : they , and he , emphasize ( albeit in very brief scenes , with lines of dialogue dropped in like drumbeats ) the connection between the reputation of the town ’ s schools and the market value of local real estate , and they consider themselves to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ratings of their schools and , thus , the value of their homes .
That ’ s the crucial story of “ Bad Education , ” the big , American story of the educational escalator that ’ s reserved for those born into privilege .
The dramatic crux of the film involves the efforts of Tassone and the board to have the school ’ s annual budget approved by the district ’ s parents .
It ’ s treated like a political campaign involving strategizing and spin ; Tassone boosts his own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ energy-sucking shmoozes that keep parents and teachers alike on his side .
Yet there ’ s nothing in the film about the actual bureaucracy , the larger-scale politics , or the statewide framework involved in the dependence of local schools on funding , through property taxation , or about the personnel , the facilities , and the programs that distinguish Roslyn ’ s schools from those of neighboring towns—and the very use of that wealth to perpetuate wealth , to leverage the cost of public education into the future earnings of the children @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s nothing about the over-all educational system , nationwide , that creates and maintains the very idea of “ good ” schools and “ good ” educations through the perpetuation and the exacerbation of inequality , no question of who gets a “ good ” education and who a “ bad ” one .
Whatever it is that distinguishes Roslyn ’ s schools remains in the dark—and so does the ability and experience by which Tassone develops its reputation .
What are the class sizes ?
What ’ s the ethnic composition of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relationship of student journalists to the school ’ s administrators , the school ’ s liberal and open-minded environment , is itself part of the story—one that ’ s left out . )
In the movie ’ s view , Tassone is a divided personality , whose brazen venality is balanced by a real talent for shaping the district ’ s educational policies—though those , again , go completely unexplained .
Tassone the gifted and devoted educator and Tassone the embezzler are left utterly unconnected , and the movie has little interest in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for wealth is linked to a sense of resentment , depicted in a couple of quick scenes in which he compares his own relatively meagre earnings to the great wealth of the parents whose children he ’ s boosting into their future .
( Gluckin , too , complains briefly about her pay . )
But , above all , the filmmakers link Tassone ’ s drive for wealth , surely and directly , to another element of his identity : he ’ s a closeted gay man , and his financial abuses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to create for himself the domestic life that society at large has denied him .
This story line is discerning and poignant—all the more so in regard to a subplot involving the consequences of living in the era before gay marriage—but it , too , merely drops into and out of the action .
He ’ s a flawed hero whose heroism is taken for granted and left vague .
In omitting the wider-scale practicalities that give a superintendent , and a school district such as Roslyn ’ s , such remarkable educational @ @ @ @ @ @ @ essence of their story .
The style of the performances that Finley elicits from his remarkable cast further confines the film in a narrow , simplistic , and step-wise mode of storytelling .
Closeups and expressions merely and solely signify : a feigned smile is obviously feigned , a gaze is heavy with foreboding , a look is bewildered , a pause indicates awareness , a glance is shaped like a question mark , a cordial tone of voice drips with menace , an innocuous one cuts like a blade .
The control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Viswanathan , whose comedic gifts were revealed in the 2018 comedy “ Blockers , ” displays a preternatural air of calm virtuosity .
“ Bad Education ” is a notably accomplished film—but its very accomplishment raises the matter of what it actually achieves .
The movie illustrates , above all , how psychological movies can remain impersonal , how issue-oriented ones can be apolitical : it ’ s what happens when talented filmmakers answer questions before asking them .

HBO’s “Bad Education,” coming out on Saturday, is a dramatization of a real-life school-district scandal that occurred on Long Island. I took note of the scandal when it first unfolded, in the early two-thousands, because I graduated from the institution at its center, Roslyn High School, three decades earlier (though my family connection to the town was already long over). What’s fascinating and significant about the film, which is written by Mike Makowsky and directed by Cory Finley, is that it takes a serious look not at Roslyn’s idiosyncrasies (“Bad Education” doesn’t dwell on local curiosities) but at the traits that Roslyn shares with more or less every prosperous suburb in America. It’s a story of aspirations and dreams, of the striving for wealth and the perpetuation of its privileges, and of the systems by which that process of heightened stratification, of upward mobility for those already on top, is sustained. It’s also a movie that exemplifies the unchallenged movie convention of distilling a complex story into information snippets, each with its own specific emotional orientation, that fit together so precisely and so tightly that, rather than exploring its implications, it seals them out.
The title is ironic, inasmuch as the movie’s starting point is the very idea of a good education. It begins with a virtual rally, a public meeting where Bob Spicer (Ray Romano), the head of the school board, trumpets to a joyful audience the news that Roslyn’s schools have been ranked fourth in a national evaluation. He boasts about rising standardized-test scores and the large number of students admitted to Ivy League schools, and he attributes the success to the district’s superintendent, Frank Tassone (Hugh Jackman), who, after grooming and primping himself in the men’s room, heads down the corridor and enters the auditorium to cheers. In other words, from the start, the movie’s subject isn’t education as such but its markers of success—ones that Tassone is driven to optimize.
Tassone is lauded within the community for improving the town’s educational standing, but he is also involved in a criminal scheme: skimming millions of dollars from the budget for his personal use, along with district’s business manager, Pamela Gluckin (Allison Janney). The school board and the network of parents, thrilled with the schools’ successes, have never paused to look closely at the administrators’ practices. The drama of “Bad Education” is sparked when a student journalist, Rachel Bhargava (Geraldine Viswanathan), is assigned to write what she calls a puff piece about the school’s expensive new construction project, the Skywalk. But when she asks Tassone for a quote, he—ever the educator—encourages her to take her assignment seriously. After that, she starts to dig, and what she discovers proves consequential. (That’s not how the scandal was, in fact, revealed. A student journalist did bring the story to public attention, but the investigation that was involved was much more limited in scope—though it also, to some extent, took place in plain sight, including at a public school-board meeting.)
The movie sets out its drama bit by bit, leaving crumbs of information about Tassone’s crimes like a trail—but with signposts and winks to the wise, indicating that, even if the school board and the community went along blissfully unaware of the misdeeds, the filmmakers are no dupes and stay a step ahead of these characters. Keeping close to Tassone, even in scenes of privacy and intimacy, they nonetheless never show what he knows of, and what he does in regard to, his own misdeeds. Their sense of character is subordinated to their desire to turn up the right cards at the right moment.
“Bad Education” dramatizes how the school system can be instrumentalized to protect and perpetuate wealth and success—as in scenes of a mother urging Tassone to get her son, a third-grader, into an accelerated program, lest the child’s entire life be ruined, and another of a sixth-grader telling him of her plans and dreams: “to get all A’s and become a cardiothoracic surgeon, like my mom.” The center of the film, however—in effect, the movie’s deeply embedded master plot—is a far-reaching and long-range one, also centered on the district’s parents, who are seconded and abetted by Tassone on the subject: they, and he, emphasize (albeit in very brief scenes, with lines of dialogue dropped in like drumbeats) the connection between the reputation of the town’s schools and the market value of local real estate, and they consider themselves to be in competition with nearby towns to boost the ratings of their schools and, thus, the value of their homes.
That’s the crucial story of “Bad Education,” the big, American story of the educational escalator that’s reserved for those born into privilege. The dramatic crux of the film involves the efforts of Tassone and the board to have the school’s annual budget approved by the district’s parents. It’s treated like a political campaign involving strategizing and spin; Tassone boosts his own popularity with a variety of time-consuming and energy-sucking shmoozes that keep parents and teachers alike on his side. Yet there’s nothing in the film about the actual bureaucracy, the larger-scale politics, or the statewide framework involved in the dependence of local schools on funding, through property taxation, or about the personnel, the facilities, and the programs that distinguish Roslyn’s schools from those of neighboring towns—and the very use of that wealth to perpetuate wealth, to leverage the cost of public education into the future earnings of the children of current high earners. There’s nothing about the over-all educational system, nationwide, that creates and maintains the very idea of “good” schools and “good” educations through the perpetuation and the exacerbation of inequality, no question of who gets a “good” education and who a “bad” one.
Whatever it is that distinguishes Roslyn’s schools remains in the dark—and so does the ability and experience by which Tassone develops its reputation. What are the class sizes? What’s the ethnic composition of the town? (Even the actual relationship of student journalists to the school’s administrators, the school’s liberal and open-minded environment, is itself part of the story—one that’s left out.) In the movie’s view, Tassone is a divided personality, whose brazen venality is balanced by a real talent for shaping the district’s educational policies—though those, again, go completely unexplained. Tassone the gifted and devoted educator and Tassone the embezzler are left utterly unconnected, and the movie has little interest in the former.
Tassone’s drive for wealth is linked to a sense of resentment, depicted in a couple of quick scenes in which he compares his own relatively meagre earnings to the great wealth of the parents whose children he’s boosting into their future. (Gluckin, too, complains briefly about her pay.) But, above all, the filmmakers link Tassone’s drive for wealth, surely and directly, to another element of his identity: he’s a closeted gay man, and his financial abuses are depicted as stemming from his desire to create for himself the domestic life that society at large has denied him. This story line is discerning and poignant—all the more so in regard to a subplot involving the consequences of living in the era before gay marriage—but it, too, merely drops into and out of the action. He’s a flawed hero whose heroism is taken for granted and left vague. In omitting the wider-scale practicalities that give a superintendent, and a school district such as Roslyn’s, such remarkable educational leeway, the movie leaves out the essence of their story.
The style of the performances that Finley elicits from his remarkable cast further confines the film in a narrow, simplistic, and step-wise mode of storytelling. Closeups and expressions merely and solely signify: a feigned smile is obviously feigned, a gaze is heavy with foreboding, a look is bewildered, a pause indicates awareness, a glance is shaped like a question mark, a cordial tone of voice drips with menace, an innocuous one cuts like a blade. The control of the performances is nonetheless impressive, and Viswanathan, whose comedic gifts were revealed in the 2018 comedy “Blockers,” displays a preternatural air of calm virtuosity. “Bad Education” is a notably accomplished film—but its very accomplishment raises the matter of what it actually achieves. The movie illustrates, above all, how psychological movies can remain impersonal, how issue-oriented ones can be apolitical: it’s what happens when talented filmmakers answer questions before asking them.


newyorker--2020-04-24--Trump Advises States Facing Bankruptcy to Borrow Millions from Their Dads

WASHINGTON , D.C. ( The Borowitz Report ) —Days after the Senate Majority Leader , Mitch McConnell , advised cash-strapped states to declare bankruptcy , Donald J. Trump added that they could avoid such a filing by borrowing millions from their dads .
“ These states need to get on the phone with their dads and explain the mess they ’ ve gotten themselves into , ” Trump said .
“ Their dads might give them a royal chewing out , but the old men will come through with the cash.
” Detailing his plan to return the states to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dads can bring the money into the states in a briefcase , or a bag of casino chips .
Whatever ’ s easiest.
” If , however , their dads “ won ’ t cough up the dough , ” Trump told the states that bankruptcy is “ no big deal.
” “ You can file for bankruptcy four , five , six times , ” he said .
“ It works out very strongly and powerfully , and everything will be nice.
” Trump expressed his surprise that it had never occurred @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for money .
“ Sometimes it feels like I have to do everything around here , ” he complained .

WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Borowitz Report)—Days after the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, advised cash-strapped states to declare bankruptcy, Donald J. Trump added that they could avoid such a filing by borrowing millions from their dads.
“These states need to get on the phone with their dads and explain the mess they’ve gotten themselves into,” Trump said. “Their dads might give them a royal chewing out, but the old men will come through with the cash.”
Detailing his plan to return the states to solvency, Trump said, “Their dads can bring the money into the states in a briefcase, or a bag of casino chips. Whatever’s easiest.”
If, however, their dads “won’t cough up the dough,” Trump told the states that bankruptcy is “no big deal.”
“You can file for bankruptcy four, five, six times,” he said. “It works out very strongly and powerfully, and everything will be nice.”
Trump expressed his surprise that it had never occurred to the states to ask their dads for money. “Sometimes it feels like I have to do everything around here,” he complained.