newrepublic--2020-07-14--The Dark Obsessions of QAnon Are Merging With Mainstream Conservatism

“ With or without Wayfair , child trafficking is real and happening !
!
!
” Tim Ballard , a Trump-appointed White House anti-trafficking adviser and CEO of O.U.R .
Rescue , posted to Twitter last week .
“ This is not a small thing or a conspiracy theory , ” he added , “ this is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world.
” Ballard never acknowledged that the Wayfair sex trafficking meme has no basis in fact , perhaps being careful not to alienate the constituency that drove the conspiracy theory to prominence .
Trump wanders back and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gives credence both to the mainstream claims of the ubiquity of sex trafficking and the sex trafficking conspiracy theories .
A regular QAnon talking point , for example , is that Trump is the toughest president ever on sex trafficking .
Never mind that the Trump administration is abandoning victims of trafficking—QAnon adherents aren ’ t judging him by that ( and indeed , only a vocal minority in the anti-trafficking community have criticized him for this ) .
When Trump himself sends approving signals to the Q movement , that is enough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trafficking .
He has amplified QAnon accounts from his Twitter account at least 185 times , according to Media Matters researcher Alex Kaplan , and uses hashtags that originate with such accounts , like # Obamagate or # OpenAmericaNow .
These are some of the same networks that helped drive the Wayfair conspiracy theory .
QAnon has similarly become integrated with the conservative movement as a whole .
Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn recently posted a video featuring what ’ s become a kind of pledge of allegiance to QAnon and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go one , we go all.
” A Washington Post analysis of 59 Q-sympathetic Republican congressional candidates revealed that , together , they had amassed nearly 600,000 votes as of July 1 .
Some of these figures just used a Q-related hashtag , but most , The Post reported , “ engaged with Q supporters to a greater degree , including promoting the movement or wearing Q-branded clothing.
” One , Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Green , has been supported by Representative Jim Jordan and received backing from establishment Republican PACs .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see QAnon and its supporters as a kind of political constituency that they can appeal to to get some kind of political benefit , ” Kaplan told Business Insider .
“ There is already something of a QAnon infrastructure that these candidates can tap into , whether it be QAnon hashtags or QAnon shows on YouTube.
” QAnon ’ s reach and power mean that debunking the individual conspiracy theories spread by the movement is not sufficient .
QAnon is , if nothing else , a shared story , told and retold by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also demands a response .
Sharlet and The Atlantic ’ s Adrienne LaFrance have both written about QAnon ’ s overlap with some strands of Christianity , including those which have for decades found a home on the right .
QAnon , writes LaFrance , “ may be propelled by paranoia and populism , but it is also propelled by religious faith .
The language of evangelical Christianity has come to define the Q movement .
QAnon marries an appetite for the conspiratorial with positive beliefs about a radically different and better future @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American Christian right , Sharlet recently told Bill Moyers , was already undergoing a transformation under Trump .
“ Evangelicalism might have an authoritarian streak , ” said Sharlet .
Its reverence for a supernatural God was , he believed , “ this sort of circuit breaker that prevented them from going full fascist.
” But now , “ they ’ re willing to put their money entirely on an actual person , Trump , and to build it around his personality , and to build it around this man and his capability @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not be a “ political ” movement , but it is a movement useful to politicians .
It doesn ’ t need a coherent politics for that ; its base is there for the taking , if a candidate can graft their campaign to its story .
Even if these Q-adjacent conservatives don ’ t really believe in Q , all they need to get a boost from the movement is a willingness to look as detached from the truth as the president .
They ’ ll get adoration from Q followers , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it .
Trump , too , does not need to be a Q believer to share in its paranoid style of sex trafficking politics .
At his rallies , he regularly invokes sexual violence to animate the crowd .
“ This obsession with what is done to the bodies of children by Democrats is , like the rape fantasies with which Trump has taken to lacing his rally speeches , grossly sexualized , ” observed Sharlet after Trump ’ s Tulsa , Oklahoma , rally .
“ It allows his followers to wallow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to relish the revenge they ’ ll take on those whom they imagine actually committing such horrors.
” While it ’ s important to fact-check such things , you can ’ t deflate the power of a fantasy with the truth .

“With or without Wayfair, child trafficking is real and happening!!!” Tim Ballard, a Trump-appointed White House anti-trafficking adviser and CEO of O.U.R. Rescue, posted to Twitter last week. “This is not a small thing or a conspiracy theory,” he added, “this is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world.” Ballard never acknowledged that the Wayfair sex trafficking meme has no basis in fact, perhaps being careful not to alienate the constituency that drove the conspiracy theory to prominence.
Trump wanders back and forth across the same line: He gives credence both to the mainstream claims of the ubiquity of sex trafficking and the sex trafficking conspiracy theories. A regular QAnon talking point, for example, is that Trump is the toughest president ever on sex trafficking. Never mind that the Trump administration is abandoning victims of trafficking—QAnon adherents aren’t judging him by that (and indeed, only a vocal minority in the anti-trafficking community have criticized him for this). When Trump himself sends approving signals to the Q movement, that is enough to validate his “toughness” on trafficking. He has amplified QAnon accounts from his Twitter account at least 185 times, according to Media Matters researcher Alex Kaplan, and uses hashtags that originate with such accounts, like #Obamagate or #OpenAmericaNow. These are some of the same networks that helped drive the Wayfair conspiracy theory.
QAnon has similarly become integrated with the conservative movement as a whole. Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn recently posted a video featuring what’s become a kind of pledge of allegiance to QAnon and the movement tagline, “Where we go one, we go all.” A Washington Post analysis of 59 Q-sympathetic Republican congressional candidates revealed that, together, they had amassed nearly 600,000 votes as of July 1. Some of these figures just used a Q-related hashtag, but most, The Post reported, “engaged with Q supporters to a greater degree, including promoting the movement or wearing Q-branded clothing.” One, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, has been supported by Representative Jim Jordan and received backing from establishment Republican PACs.


newrepublic--2020-07-14--Donald Trump Jr. Wages a Culture War on the Publishing Industry

Those decisions have come under intense scrutiny from employees and authors and faced public pressure campaigns and boycotts .
It seems , as I wrote last month , only a matter of time before the decision to publish a book from a prominent right-wing author will lead to a staff revolt , as happened when Hachette announced that it would be publishing a book by Woody Allen ( and then reversed course ) .
As the president ’ s son and top surrogate , Trump Jr. is a huge draw , someone practically guaranteed to sell loads of books .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ nearly 300,000 copies according to Nielsen Bookscan , though some publishing insiders I spoke to suggested that the total number of sales could be closer to 400,000 .
The book was mocked at the time of its release for containing numerous factual errors and because it was bought in bulk by the Republican National Committee—leading The New York Times to put an asterisk next to it on its bestseller list—but it would have easily made the list without help from the RNC .
Although many have speculated that Liberal Privilege was being self-published @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the book does not appear to have gone out on submission ; given Trump Jr. ’ s sales record , it would be shocking if Center Street or another conservative publisher didn ’ t pick it up .
Instead , given Trump Jr. ’ s celebrity , the decision to self-publish is a rational one .
“ As an entrepreneur , Donald Trump Jr. was comfortable taking on this project without a traditional publisher , ” Sergio Gor , who worked on Triggered and Liberal Privilege , told me over email .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ performed incredibly well .
He had a very generous offer from Center Street and left on very amicable terms .
You ’ ll likely see more authors publish outside of traditional ways , directly to the consumer , in the future.
” ( Representatives from Hachette and Center Street did not return requests for comment . )
Political books like Triggered and Liberal Privilege are rarely edited in any conventional sense , nor are they fact-checked .
( Publishers don ’ t fact-check any of their books , citing prohibitive costs ; when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for by the author . )
A publisher ’ s value in this instance comes from the fact that it assumes risk : It pays for the books to be published , distributed , and promoted .
But Trump Jr. clearly sees little risk in taking on these costs himself .
Thanks to his sizable social media following and celebrity , he doesn ’ t need help promoting the book or getting on right-leaning television and radio .
It ’ s not yet clear if the book will be available in stores , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the majority of conservative book sales happen online , particularly on Amazon .
( The pandemic means that there will be even fewer in-store sales than usual . )
Although the upfront costs of printing and distribution will have to be paid by Trump Jr.—and there will be no advance—he will get a significantly larger cut of the sales .
Trump Jr. ’ s declaration of independence from the New York publishing world might be a marketing gimmick more than anything else—a way for Trump Jr. to snub the cultural elite while leaving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Street at his convenience .
But conservatives have a long history of self-publishing .
In 1964 , three self-published books—None Dare Call it Treason , A Choice Not an Echo , and A Texan Looks at Lyndon—played an important role in that year ’ s presidential election and the growing conservative movement .
Many on the right have used a direct-to-consumer approach—including book clubs—to market and sell their ideas for decades .
During its pricing war with Hachette in 2014 , Amazon repeatedly defended itself in culture-war terms , casting self-publishing as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up to the liberal elite and employing a number of right-leaning or libertarian authors in its defense .
At the same time , increasing friction between right-leaning imprints and the other employees of generally progressive conglomerates is growing .
It ’ s unlikely that there will ever be a time when a major publisher doesn ’ t have a conservative imprint or two ( the money is just too good ) , but one could easily see Liberal Privilege as a kind of breaking point for right-wing celebrities : Why deal with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yourself , make more money , and thumb your nose at the coastal liberals , all at once ?
And if you can do that , who cares about a typo or two on the cover ?

Political books like Triggered and Liberal Privilege are rarely edited in any conventional sense, nor are they fact-checked. (Publishers don’t fact-check any of their books, citing prohibitive costs; when it is done, fact-checking is paid for by the author.) A publisher’s value in this instance comes from the fact that it assumes risk: It pays for the books to be published, distributed, and promoted. But Trump Jr. clearly sees little risk in taking on these costs himself. Thanks to his sizable social media following and celebrity, he doesn’t need help promoting the book or getting on right-leaning television and radio. It’s not yet clear if the book will be available in stores, but that may not matter, as the majority of conservative book sales happen online, particularly on Amazon. (The pandemic means that there will be even fewer in-store sales than usual.) Although the upfront costs of printing and distribution will have to be paid by Trump Jr.—and there will be no advance—he will get a significantly larger cut of the sales.
Trump Jr.’s declaration of independence from the New York publishing world might be a marketing gimmick more than anything else—a way for Trump Jr. to snub the cultural elite while leaving the door open to return to Center Street at his convenience. But conservatives have a long history of self-publishing. In 1964, three self-published books—None Dare Call it Treason, A Choice Not an Echo, and A Texan Looks at Lyndon—played an important role in that year’s presidential election and the growing conservative movement. Many on the right have used a direct-to-consumer approach—including book clubs—to market and sell their ideas for decades. During its pricing war with Hachette in 2014, Amazon repeatedly defended itself in culture-war terms, casting self-publishing as a way for the little guy to stick up to the liberal elite and employing a number of right-leaning or libertarian authors in its defense. At the same time, increasing friction between right-leaning imprints and the other employees of generally progressive conglomerates is growing.
It’s unlikely that there will ever be a time when a major publisher doesn’t have a conservative imprint or two (the money is just too good), but one could easily see Liberal Privilege as a kind of breaking point for right-wing celebrities: Why deal with the hassle when you can do it all yourself, make more money, and thumb your nose at the coastal liberals, all at once? And if you can do that, who cares about a typo or two on the cover?


newrepublic--2020-07-14--A Window of Possibility on Self-Managed Abortion

As the regulation of mifepristone and misoprostol is not based in medical science , it is more honestly understood as a response to campaigns against legal abortion , meant to limit access .
Another legal challenge to the FDA restrictions on mifepristone , filed by the ACLU on behalf of a physician based in Kauai , Hawaii , argues that the restriction requires people seeking a medication abortion to travel such distances that it has made abortion inaccessible .
In addition to the FDA guidelines , 33 states require a physician to dispense the drug , according to the Kaiser @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ban abortion by telehealth altogether .
When access is limited this way , the need for people to obtain medication outside of clinics goes up .
“ Self-managed abortion is sometimes positioned as a work-around or ‘ last resort ’ for a future scenario in which abortion access is severely limited , ” writes Megan K. Donovan , senior policy manager for the Guttmacher Institute .
But this idea is flawed for a number of reasons , she continues .
For many people , that future scenario is their current reality .
Others @ @ @ @ @ @ @ options are available to them .
Self-managed abortion is legal in all but five states .
Despite this , people have been criminalized for obtaining the medication on their own , prosecuted under “ fetal harm ” laws , Jill Adams , executive director of If/When/How , a legal reproductive justice nonprofit , told Mother Jones in January .
Prosecutors have also used people ’ s browser search histories and text messages to make such cases against them .
It ’ s a cycle that sustains itself : The stigma and the unnecessary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Combine that hostile environment to legal abortion with the pandemic , and the obstacles only compound one another—but also reveal how arbitrary they are .
As the coronavirus spread across the United States this spring , more and more medical providers shifted to telehealth out of necessity , something the Department of Health and Human Services supported , because to require someone to come in person to obtain care was itself a health risk .
As with all things impacted by this pandemic , the risk is unequally shared .
“ Covid-19 is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country , but nowhere more so than in communities of color and Indigenous communities , ” said Monica Simpson , executive director of SisterSong , in a statement .
“ Because of long-standing disparities in access to and quality of health care and other manifestations of structural racism , Black and Brown people are more likely to have preexisting health conditions that increase the likelihood of severe illness and death from Covid-19.
” Suspending the abortion restriction is one way to help reduce that racial inequality in health care .
In deciding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrote in his opinion released Monday , his court will look to the recent Supreme Court decision in June Medical Services , which affirmed its earlier decision in Whole Women ’ s Health , both concerning abortion access , defining what constitutes an “ undue burden ” people face in obtaining an abortion .
While that fight winds on , the judge has in effect expanded abortion access .
This decision to temporarily lift the FDA restrictions could itself help disprove the predictions of dire outcomes made by opponents of legal abortion .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to either the court or reproductive health care , nevertheless they have been used to fuel the fight against bodily autonomy .
To live free of them for a moment , thanks in part to the coronavirus , is an unexpected unburdening .

Combine that hostile environment to legal abortion with the pandemic, and the obstacles only compound one another—but also reveal how arbitrary they are. As the coronavirus spread across the United States this spring, more and more medical providers shifted to telehealth out of necessity, something the Department of Health and Human Services supported, because to require someone to come in person to obtain care was itself a health risk.
As with all things impacted by this pandemic, the risk is unequally shared. “Covid-19 is causing devastating consequences in every corner of the country, but nowhere more so than in communities of color and Indigenous communities,” said Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, in a statement. “Because of long-standing disparities in access to and quality of health care and other manifestations of structural racism, Black and Brown people are more likely to have preexisting health conditions that increase the likelihood of severe illness and death from Covid-19.” Suspending the abortion restriction is one way to help reduce that racial inequality in health care.
In deciding this legal challenge, District Judge Chuang wrote in his opinion released Monday, his court will look to the recent Supreme Court decision in June Medical Services, which affirmed its earlier decision in Whole Women’s Health, both concerning abortion access, defining what constitutes an “undue burden” people face in obtaining an abortion. While that fight winds on, the judge has in effect expanded abortion access. This decision to temporarily lift the FDA restrictions could itself help disprove the predictions of dire outcomes made by opponents of legal abortion. Though their medical opinions are not relevant to either the court or reproductive health care, nevertheless they have been used to fuel the fight against bodily autonomy. To live free of them for a moment, thanks in part to the coronavirus, is an unexpected unburdening.


newrepublic--2020-07-14--The Tragic Politicization of Hagia Sophia

Last Friday , the Turkish Council of State overturned the 1934 ruling that had allowed Hagia Sophia , Istanbul ’ s soaring cathedral-turned-mosque , to be converted into a museum .
Minutes later , President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan decreed that the Great Mosque of Ayasofya ( its other name ) will open for Muslim prayer in late July this year , righting what he framed as an 85-year-old legal injustice .
Hagia Sophia happens to be Turkey ’ s most popular tourist attraction .
Erdoğan has been hinting at doing this since 2018 , so it wasn ’ t exactly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Turkey ’ s Constitution since its founding in the 1920s , but the ( clearly politically motivated ) court decision is only the latest installment in the Justice and Development Party ’ s broader campaign to promote Islam in Turkish public life .
Erdoğan says he wants to raise “ a pious generation ” by introducing religion into schools , having texts like Pinocchio rewritten , and firing tens of thousands of teachers .
To do this , he exploits a loophole in the state ’ s secularity rule that allows him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Diyanet ) , which administers and promotes Hanafi Sunni Islam in public life and will now control Hagia Sophia .
No one faith , let alone one sect , can claim total ownership of this particular building , however .
Appalled Christians have noted that Islam itself was only founded in the seventh century , several hundred years after the cathedral was first built .
Muslims have retorted , echoing the Turkish State Council ’ s finding , that Sultan Mehmed II , who conquered the city in 1453 , won it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his waqf as a mosque forever .
It was a church for the first millennium of its life , then a mosque for almost as long ( though not quite ) .
It ’ s been a museum for less than a century .
Who has the strongest claim : the constructor , the conqueror , or the founders of the secular , modern Turkish state ?
Complicating things yet further , Erdoğan said , “ The revival of Hagia Sophia is the harbinger of freedom of Al-Aqsa and the footsteps of Muslims @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” referring to the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem , the third-holiest site in Islam ( known as the Temple Mount to Jews ) , and suggesting that the Hagia Sophia is just the first domino in a longer chain of triumphs for Islam in the region .
Whether he meant to gesture toward an actual pan-Muslim insurrection or not , his speech still hit home .
Erdoğan seeks to divide that which is literally fused together in the architecture of Hagia Sophia .
Like many very old places of worship around the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for example , or the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus , Syria , dedicated first to John the Baptist and then to the martyr Husayn ibn Ali—Hagia Sophia is a jewel of blended origin .
The Emperor Constantius II began building the first church in A.D. 360 , on a site historians think was once a pagan temple .
That wooden basilica soon burned down , and then its replacement burned down , too ( riots were not infrequent in Istanbul ’ s history ) .
The third building project began in 532 under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Hagia Sophia was finished in 537 .

The new stone basilica was designed by Greek geometers, and its warm, glowing interior looks like an act of God. When it was done, Justinian said, “Solomon, I have outdone thee!” The central dome is 55.6 meters tall. Marble arches in green and white and purple scatter outward from the center, studded with gold mosaic. Until it was outdone by Seville Cathedral in 1520, Hagia Sophia was the largest cathedral in the world.
Over the years it has been controlled by different regimes, which each contributed to its interior decoration (including doing necessary repairs), creating a stunning historic and religious mosaic. Crusaders turned it into a Roman Catholic church in 1204, but it reverted to an Eastern Orthodox church in 1261, when the city returned to Byzantine rule. When the Ottoman Empire gained Constantinople in 1453, Mehmed II the Conqueror held his first Friday prayers in the temple and converted it into a mosque. Thus it remained until 1931, when it closed, before the new Republic of Turkey reopened it as a secular museum in 1935. Today, 3.3 million people visit it each year.
Hagia Sophia’s eclectic design makes it a part of the mixed, elegant character of the city where it resides. What we now call Istanbul (formerly Byzantium and Constantinople) has been Thracian-, Greek-, and Roman-ruled and home to Jews, Muslims, and Christians, the pious and the irreligious alike. Due to its crucial spot on trade routes, the place we now call Turkey has for centuries been at the center of cultural exchange between East and West, less a borderland than a supercharged, cross-pollinated cultural zone where all kinds of art forms and ideas have melded. As a result, Istanbul boasts a cosmopolitan culture characterized by influences from all over the world—the greatest example of which is Hagia Sophia itself.


newrepublic--2020-07-14--Throw the Bums Out

Throw the Bums Out

While our federal government ’ s catastrophic and ongoing failure to prepare for or mitigate the pandemic rightfully earns most of the blame for the explosion of cases , an exclusive focus on the federal response obscures the total extent of our national failure .
Our federalist system may deny governors all the resources the federal government can marshal , but it still gives them plenty of power .
Most American states have resources small nations can only dream of , and most governors have as much power as the heads of any number of foreign governments .
If it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government would simply not be containing Covid-19 ( and I certainly think it was clear ) , it was the responsibility of governors like Cuomo to try to contain it themselves .
Instead , for the first few weeks of the crisis , from February , when the state ’ s first confirmed case was reported , through March 15 , when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that schools would close , Cuomo did almost nothing useful .
Hospital capacity would be increased later ; the state would ramp up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got started—started !
—many months later , and only at the discretion of local governments .
In the meantime , for no clear reason , the state Department of Health essentially stopped communicating with the New York City Department of Health .
The mayor would dither on closing schools until the governor made it absolutely clear that it was something only he had the power to do .
Cuomo would similarly resist issuing a shelter-in-place order because he didn ’ t like the term .
As the virus exploded in jails and prisons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the most vulnerable incarcerated people .
In late March , by which point scientists had a decent working knowledge of how and where the virus spreads , a state directive sent tens of thousands of infected people back into nursing homes .
None of that is on the poster Cuomo released Monday , though the poster does include a rendering of the state-branded hand sanitizer he unveiled to great fanfare in early March .
( The state , Cuomo announced , would produce “ up to 100,000 gallons per week.
” In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sanitizer produced elsewhere .
The facility would , inevitably , have its own Covid-19 outbreak by mid-April .
It would be another month before the Department of Corrections could tell reporters that everyone incarcerated in state facilities would be given masks .
This is what New York was spending resources on while other nations were successfully carrying out the sorts of interventions that actually limited coronavirus spread .
Including the state hand sanitizer on the poster is a bit like bragging about your state ’ s early cultivation of the herbs and flowers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other nations were producing and distributing antibiotics . )
If America ’ s coronavirus crisis ended today , we could safely declare that New York had among the worst responses on the planet , with nearly 400,000 confirmed cases and more deaths than all but four other countries .
It is hard to figure out why a governor and mayor who presided over that catastrophe have not been embarrassed into resigning .
It is not remotely the end of the pandemic .
Cuomo can at least brag that he eventually got his state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ level , after stumbling through the unmanageable months .
Governors across the South and West have no excuse for their own numbers .
They reopened without doing any of the things the countries that have successfully contained the coronavirus did .
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis both opened bars while the virus was spreading at rates their meager contract-tracing systems simply couldn ’ t handle .
Now , we are living with the predictable consequences .
And yet , even as the situation spirals out of control , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ DeSantis resigning .
Abbott adopted Cuomo ’ s strategy of simply going on TV constantly , to act as a comforting and commanding presence during the crisis he is very much responsible for exacerbating .
It worked a bit more effectively for Cuomo , but Abbott ’ s decline in popularity has not exactly been commensurate with his state ’ s growth of Covid-19 cases : A Dallas Morning News poll has Abbott ’ s favorability dropping from 61 percent in April all the way down to … 54 percent .
His numbers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a bit worse , as “ 48 % now approve of the way he ’ s handling the virus , compared with 40 % who disapprove.
” Texas , meanwhile , has had more confirmed cases of Covid-19 than Iran .
DeSantis ’ s poll numbers are much worse , and it seems possible both he and Abbott will sink lower still in the estimation of their constituents .
But they won ’ t face voters again until 2022 .
Is our only recourse to negligence and misfeasance on this staggering scale truly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the bums out ?

While our federal government’s catastrophic and ongoing failure to prepare for or mitigate the pandemic rightfully earns most of the blame for the explosion of cases, an exclusive focus on the federal response obscures the total extent of our national failure. Our federalist system may deny governors all the resources the federal government can marshal, but it still gives them plenty of power. Most American states have resources small nations can only dream of, and most governors have as much power as the heads of any number of foreign governments. If it was clear by March that the federal government would simply not be containing Covid-19 (and I certainly think it was clear), it was the responsibility of governors like Cuomo to try to contain it themselves.
Instead, for the first few weeks of the crisis, from February, when the state’s first confirmed case was reported, through March 15, when New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that schools would close, Cuomo did almost nothing useful. Hospital capacity would be increased later; the state would ramp up its own testing later; contact tracing got started—started!—many months later, and only at the discretion of local governments.
In the meantime, for no clear reason, the state Department of Health essentially stopped communicating with the New York City Department of Health. The mayor would dither on closing schools until the governor made it absolutely clear that it was something only he had the power to do. Cuomo would similarly resist issuing a shelter-in-place order because he didn’t like the term. As the virus exploded in jails and prisons, he dragged his feet on clemency for the most vulnerable incarcerated people. In late March, by which point scientists had a decent working knowledge of how and where the virus spreads, a state directive sent tens of thousands of infected people back into nursing homes.


newrepublic--2020-07-15--The Strategic Blunders of the Conservative Legal Movement

Despite this , his role in Bostock largely shocked and angered the conservative legal movement .
“ Justice Scalia would be disappointed that his successor has bungled textualism so badly today , for the sake of appealing to college campuses and editorial boards , ” Carrie Severino , the president of the Judicial Crisis Network , said after the Bostock ruling .
“ This was not judging , this was legislating—a brute force attack on our constitutional system.
” Her organization is a key player in the right-wing judicial-confirmation juggernaut , and most of its budget comes from anonymous six- @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 10 million to back Gorsuch ’ s confirmation .
Presumably , these donors care less about the technicalities of textualism than the results to which the philosophy leads , which usually line up with conservative political causes .
As I noted at the time , the ruling in Bostock ruptured the basic pact between social conservatives and the Republican Party over the past few decades .
In exchange for large-scale electoral and political support , GOP candidates were supposed to defend religious liberty and stand athwart the sexual revolution—or at least install @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them .
Many of them used the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Antonin Scalia ’ s death to justify their support for Donald Trump in 2016 .
Then they saw the nominee who filled that vacancy write one of the most sweeping judicial victories for LGBTQ rights in American history .
“ This decision , and the majority who wrote it , represents the end of something , ” Missouri Senator Josh Hawley said in a floor speech after Bostock came down .
“ It represents the end of the conservative legal movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as we know it .
After Bostock , that effort , as it has existed up to now , is over .
I say this because if textualism and originalism give you this decision , if you can invoke textualism and originalism in order to reach such a decision—an outcome that fundamentally changes the scope and meaning and application of statutory law—then textualism and originalism and all of those phrases don ’ t mean much at all.
” His comments reflect a deeper divide on the right about the future of the movement @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hawley , New York Post columnist Sohrab Ahmari , and Harvard University law professor Adrian Vermeule have argued that conservatives should embrace illiberalism to reverse their defeats in the culture wars .
Their many critics , such as National Review ’ s David French , note that this strategy makes little sense when the American public largely disagrees with them , their grip on the apparatus of state may be fleeting , and their abandonment of liberalism is more likely to backfire than succeed .
Fueling this debate was Chief Justice John Roberts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a spoiler for would-be conservative victories this term .
He sided with the court ’ s liberals in June Medical Services v. Russo to strike down a Louisiana law that would have closed all but one of the state ’ s abortion clinics .
In Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California , he made the same alliance to quash the Trump administration ’ s efforts to rescind the DACA program .
Many court-watchers believe he is part of the reason why the court has largely avoided Second Amendment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the court ’ s votes on accepting and declining cases usually aren ’ t public .
A recurring theme in right-wing criticism of Roberts is that he ’ s guided not by the law , but by complaints from liberal politicians and legal commentators .
“ It is all too apparent that Roberts can be cowed by the Democrats ’ frequent and noisy threats to pack the courts or otherwise poison their credibility and legitimacy with the public , ” National Review ’ s Dan McLaughlin wrote last month .
“ By caving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more of them.
” This criticism , whether intentionally or not , often ends up adopting the same attacks on the court ’ s legitimacy that it claims to abhor .
And it ’ s not liberals who are out of sync with the public on abortion rights , Dreamers , and LGBTQ rights .
Fears of Roberts turning to the center , to say nothing of being liberal , are still overblown .
“ He is a conservative justice , ” Jonathan Adler , a Case Western Reserve University law professor , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than anything else , he is a judicial minimalist who seeks to avoid sweeping decisions with disruptive effects.
” As Adler notes , this does not explain all of Roberts ’ s rulings over the years .
The chief justice infamously wrote the majority opinion in Shelby County v. Holder , which struck down a key Voting Rights Act provision and opened the door to a wave of voter suppression across the South .
( This was the capstone on Roberts ’ s long career of working to undermine the VRA , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Reagan Department of Justice . )
He can be willing to move mountains if it will structurally tilt American democracy in Republicans ’ favor .
But Roberts ’ s judicial minimalism works well as a general rule , especially after this term .
The chief justice found himself outside the majority in only a handful of the major cases this term .
In Ramos v. Louisiana , he joined Justice Samuel Alito ’ s dissent from a ruling that required unanimous jury verdicts to find a defendant guilty .
That ruling , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crushing burden on the courts and criminal justice systems ” in two states that had used non-unanimous jury verdicts to convict defendants .
And in McGirt , the Muscogee ( Creek ) Nation ruling , Roberts warned that the majority ’ s ruling had “ profoundly destabilized the governance of eastern Oklahoma.
” ( It did not . )

Despite this, his role in Bostock largely shocked and angered the conservative legal movement. “Justice Scalia would be disappointed that his successor has bungled textualism so badly today, for the sake of appealing to college campuses and editorial boards,” Carrie Severino, the president of the Judicial Crisis Network, said after the Bostock ruling. “This was not judging, this was legislating—a brute force attack on our constitutional system.” Her organization is a key player in the right-wing judicial-confirmation juggernaut, and most of its budget comes from anonymous six- and seven-figure donations. JCN reportedly spent $10 million to back Gorsuch’s confirmation. Presumably, these donors care less about the technicalities of textualism than the results to which the philosophy leads, which usually line up with conservative political causes.
As I noted at the time, the ruling in Bostock ruptured the basic pact between social conservatives and the Republican Party over the past few decades. In exchange for large-scale electoral and political support, GOP candidates were supposed to defend religious liberty and stand athwart the sexual revolution—or at least install judicial nominees who would do it for them. Many of them used the Supreme Court vacancy caused by Antonin Scalia’s death to justify their support for Donald Trump in 2016. Then they saw the nominee who filled that vacancy write one of the most sweeping judicial victories for LGBTQ rights in American history.
“This decision, and the majority who wrote it, represents the end of something,” Missouri Senator Josh Hawley said in a floor speech after Bostock came down. “It represents the end of the conservative legal movement, or the conservative legal project, as we know it. After Bostock, that effort, as it has existed up to now, is over. I say this because if textualism and originalism give you this decision, if you can invoke textualism and originalism in order to reach such a decision—an outcome that fundamentally changes the scope and meaning and application of statutory law—then textualism and originalism and all of those phrases don’t mean much at all.”


newrepublic--2020-07-15--Why Is Biden Clinging to the Dream of Green Factories?

Just about everyone seems to want a green recovery from the coronavirus and its economic upheaval .
Rishi Sunak—Britain ’ s Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer—has pledged to decarbonize Britain ’ s housing stock through investments in energy efficiency and building upgrades .
Right-wing Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has started talking up the “ green shoots ” of economic recovery from the coronavirus , calling his country the world ’ s most attractive market for clean energy .
The European Commission has pledged a Green Deal , in step with an array of new climate commitments from Germany ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s nice to see Joe Biden trying to keep pace .
In a speech Tuesday , Biden championed several of the more ambitious recommendations from the Sanders-Biden unity task force on climate , having fused them into his now $ 2 trillion climate plan and “ Build Back Better ” agenda .
Biden pledged to make the power sector net-zero by 2035 , and get the rest of the economy there by 2050 .
He ’ ll set aside 40 percent of clean energy and infrastructure investments for communities living on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ development .
The plan further pledges to create an office of environmental justice within the Department of Justice .
He described a Climate Conservation Corps , along the lines of a plan proposed by Washington Governor Jay Inslee in his primary run .
The centerpiece of Biden ’ s revamped climate plan is green manufacturing and construction : building a network of 500,000 electric charging stations while retrofitting 4 million commercial buildings and 2 million homes ; building 1.5 million new units of private and public housing ; installing 500 million solar panels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ candidate hopes to put 1 million people to work manufacturing electric vehicles , with “ American workers racing to dominate the global market ” for clean energy , as he said Tuesday , as part of an effort to “ reinvigorate domestic manufacturing.
” While it ’ s a big and ambitious plan relative to what Democrats have offered historically , we might have hoped for more .
Egregiously , there ’ s still no timeline for getting the country off of fossil fuels , leaving U.S. producers largely free to dig up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they please , wherever they please .
The driving logic of the plan isn ’ t unique to Biden by any means : that we ’ ll simply build enough clean power to displace its fossil fueled counterparts .
In his speech , Biden touted his experience overseeing the $ 90 billion invested in renewables as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 .
But that story should also be seen as a cautionary tale : Making clean energy cheaper and more widely available—as the ARRA undoubtedly did—is not in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coal , oil and gas along the timeline the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends .

For understandable reasons, images of a thriving economy in the United States tend to take its postwar period as their reference point: a booming manufacturing economy, staffed by men working their way toward the middle class, one day on the line at a time, driving home on highways to single-family homes. Accordingly, Biden plans to tackle the climate and economic crises now facing us by putting lots of people to work making lots of stuff and dominating global export markets.
Yet after decades of the U.S. passing the buck on climate policy and clean energy development, the world’s most cutting-edge expertise on green manufacturing simply exists elsewhere, in factories halfway around the world that in many cases employ relatively few people. So if a central goal of the next decade is to deploy as much clean energy as quickly as possible, the most rapid and equitable route forward means that many components of America’s new green economy will not be Made in America.
There’s still plenty of room for genuine U.S. leadership, and even for the U.S. to make more things domestically. Millions of new union jobs and a robust social safety net—the things people remember fondly about the decades after World War II—aren’t mutually exclusive with clean energy imports. But tackling the climate crisis on any sort of reasonable timeline will require a more collaborative style of U.S. leadership than the one suggested by hawkish and competitive Cold War imagery. Furthermore, it will mean accepting the fact that green jobs won’t all be in manufacturing, construction, installation, or other male-dominated fields. Lots of sorely needed work is already low-carbon, in addition to being chronically underfilled and underpaid—teaching, nursing, and other care jobs, for starters.


newrepublic--2020-07-15--Deb Haaland’s Plan to Embarrass Jair Bolsonaro

Support from the White House is one of the last things President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has going for him , politically .
His administration ’ s dismissive and callous response to the Covid-19 pandemic is among the worst in the world .
After presiding over a drastic spike in deforestation the last two years , his administration was forced this month by divestment threats from 32 international financial institutions to issue a 120-day ban on any fires in the Amazon rainforest .
Meanwhile , fading political support has driven the president to negotiate with the political parties and corrupt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fate of Dilma Rousseff and a fleeting possibility with Bolsonaro ’ s immediate predecessor Michel Temer—has once again entered the national conversation .
And Bolsonaro recently tested positive for the coronavirus he has so frequently belittled .
Congresswoman Deb Haaland , a Democrat from New Mexico , is working on something in the House of Representatives that could further undermine Bolsonaro ’ s administration in particularly embarrassing fashion .
Last July , the White House designated Brazil as a major non-NATO ally , a category that includes South Korea , Australia , Argentina @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it much easier for Brazil to purchase U.S. weapons and defense equipment .
It ’ s precisely the sort of international recognition that Brazil craves and one of the few accomplishments the Bolsonaro administration can point to in international affairs .
Earlier this week , however , the Brazilian press reported that Haaland is preparing a floor amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would revoke Brazil ’ s designation as a major non-NATO ally .
While the matter has received relatively little attention in the U.S. , the implications both for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contains could be huge .
In the time since she assumed office—only days after Bolsonaro ’ s inauguration—Haaland has emerged as perhaps the most persistent American governmental thorn in the side of the Bolsonaro administration .
As one of the first two Native American women in Congress , Haaland has consistently emphasized the intrinsic link between protecting indigenous rights and climate justice—not just on a national , but on a global level .
Last March , Haaland argued in a Washington Post op-ed with Joênia Wapichana , the first indigenous Brazilian woman elected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that both Bolsonaro and Trump were threatening the environment through their encroachments on indigenous rights : “ The regressions undertaken by the Trump and Bolsonaro governments are overwhelming and underscore the need for solidarity between indigenous peoples and our allies in North and South America.
” When I reached out to her office about the amendment being reported in the Brazilian press , Haaland pointed to the Bolsonaro administration ’ s dismissal of the coronavirus threat .
“ Even after being diagnosed with Covid-19 , Bolsonaro fails to take this virus seriously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by failing to provide them with adequate funding to address this pandemic .
It ’ s an attack on human rights , ” the congresswoman told me via email .
“ The United States should not align itself with a leader who time and again puts his people at risk , destroys the environment , and violates human rights.
” Were the amendment to pass , it could prove game-changing in Brazilian politics .
Among other possible effects , it could , like the divestment campaign , curb Bolsonaro ’ s more destructive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its inhabitants , who have been a particular target of the Bolsonaro administration and its rapacious approach to development .
But even though the amendment is unlikely to become official policy , it may still have an effect .
The proposal represents a frontal assault on one of the vanishingly few diplomatic coups the Bolsonaro government has managed to produce .
It is thus tangible evidence Brazilian progressives can point to when asserting that Bolsonaro ’ s anti-democratic tendencies are not producing lasting results .
If voters can be persuaded that Bolsonaro ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is actually holding the country back , his political prospects will falter .

Support from the White House is one of the last things President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has going for him, politically. His administration’s dismissive and callous response to the Covid-19 pandemic is among the worst in the world. After presiding over a drastic spike in deforestation the last two years, his administration was forced this month by divestment threats from 32 international financial institutions to issue a 120-day ban on any fires in the Amazon rain forest. Meanwhile, fading political support has driven the president to negotiate with the political parties and corrupt powerbrokers he once categorically rejected. Impeachment—the fate of Dilma Rousseff and a fleeting possibility with Bolsonaro’s immediate predecessor, Michel Temer—has once again entered the national conversation. And Bolsonaro recently tested positive for the coronavirus he has so frequently belittled.
Congresswoman Deb Haaland, a Democrat from New Mexico, is working on something in the House of Representatives that could further undermine Bolsonaro’s administration in particularly embarrassing fashion. Last July, the White House designated Brazil as a major non-NATO ally, a category that includes South Korea, Australia, Argentina, and Kuwait. The designation makes it much easier for Brazil to purchase U.S. weapons and defense equipment. It’s precisely the sort of international recognition that Brazil craves and one of the few accomplishments the Bolsonaro administration can point to in international affairs. Earlier this week, however, the Brazilian press reported that Haaland is preparing a floor amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would revoke Brazil’s designation as a major non-NATO ally. While the matter has received relatively little attention in the United States, the implications for both Brazil and the global carbon sink it contains could be huge.


newrepublic--2020-07-16--The Truth About Trump’s Evangelical Support

The modern evangelical movement was born in the late nineteenth century at a moment of tremendous turmoil .
Americans were recovering from the horrors of the Civil War and the conflicts over Reconstruction , struggling through turbulent economic contractions , wrestling with the impact of massive immigration , and confronting novel ideas about the evolution of humans from monkeys .
At that time a handful of white men crafted a new version of Christianity .
Billy Sunday , whom Du Mez credits for championing a “ muscular ” style of Christianity , became their most popular spokesman .
Sunday gained @ @ @ @ @ @ @ base runner for the Chicago White Stockings .
A few years later , he converted to evangelicalism and abandoned the ballpark for the revival tent .
By the early twentieth century , his meetings filled the largest auditoriums in the country .
His shows were raucous and entertaining .
He had graduated , he boasted , “ from the University of Poverty and Hard Knocks.
” He paced as he preached , jumped around , waved his arms , and screamed at the devil .
Although he claimed to be a common man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he gained the backing of wealthy business leaders , including the Rockefellers .
They loved how he blended theology , patriotism , and a defense of Gilded Age capitalism .
Sunday demanded that Americans make the United States a Christian nation , an effort that remains central to evangelicalism , as Whitehead and Perry illustrate .
To Sunday and his followers , this meant reducing immigration , maintaining Jim Crow segregation , and pushing back against the women ’ s movement .
“ The black man is entitled to civic equality @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ social equality , ” and certainly not interracial marriage .
He worried that foreigners with their strange religions were contaminating the country .
“ They call us the ‘ melting pot , ’ ” Sunday harangued .
“ Then it ’ s up to us to skim off the slag that won ’ t melt into Americanism and throw it into hell.
” He also fought against a rising feminism .
The future depended on teaching the “ frizzle-headed , fudge-eating , ragtime flapper ” to conform to Victorian gender roles .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ allies faced a new threat .
The Roosevelt administration was expanding the power of the state and extending civil liberties to racial and ethnic minorities .
Sunday fumed that if Americans allowed New Deal liberalism to flourish , “ the rugged individualism of Americanism must go.
” These changes convinced the evangelist that he was living in the end times and that the apocalypse was imminent .
Jesus was coming back in judgment , and the United States would have to account for its actions .
If Billy Sunday were still the face @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the 2016 election might not seem so surprising .
But in the wake of World War II , a new generation of leaders led by Billy Graham took charge of evangelicalism , and they distanced themselves from the overt bigotry of an earlier era .
Aiming to grow their influence and power , they worked to make their movement more mainstream and respectable .
They earned advanced degrees from prestigious universities , launched new centrist magazines , including Christianity Today , and opened academically rigorous seminaries for training ministers .
Rather than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they emphasized transforming hearts .
Rather than treat women as inferior , they stressed that women were equal before God , just different in function .
They encoded racism and sexism into their movement but made it appear more benign .
They knew that in order to expand evangelicalism , they needed to muzzle the most extreme racists and nativists .
They also kept up the fight against New Deal liberalism , linking faith with free-market capitalism .
For the next half-century , evangelicals claimed allegiance to a timeless , biblical morality , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ penetrating the nation ’ s major centers of power—including politics , media , and education .
Du Mez ’ s brilliant and engaging Jesus and John Wayne traces how evangelicals used their power to protect patriarchy over the last few generations .
Trump ’ s victory , she writes , was “ the culmination of evangelicals ’ embrace of militant masculinity , an ideology that enshrines patriarchal authority and condones the callous display of power , at home and abroad.
” By this account , the Jesus at the center of their lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but a vengeful warrior Christ .
Across chapters ranging from “ John Wayne Will Save Your Ass ” to “ Holy Balls , ” Du Mez peppers her text with entertaining ( and sometimes horrifying ) examples .
In 1973 , Marabel Morgan published The Total Woman , giving Christians an alternative vision of womanhood to that trumpeted by Betty Friedan and the new feminism .
Wives , she insisted , should be docile , submissive , and beautiful .
The book inspired one Christian woman to greet her husband at the front @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few years later , evangelicals concerned about the sexual revolution began publishing their own P.G.-rated sex manuals .
They all agreed that God wanted married Christians to have good sex , but they varied in their approach—some authors believed oral sex was acceptable , others thought it was always an abomination .
During this era , evangelicals cared little about abortion .
Most believed that the use of birth control was appropriate within marriage , and early-term abortions were just another form of birth control .
But as feminists made expanding reproductive rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evangelicals starting framing the procedure as “ an assault on women ’ s God-given role , on the family , and on Christian America itself.
” Seeking a president who would advocate for their understanding of gender roles , they rallied behind the divorced Ronald Reagan over the “ masculinity challenged ” Sunday School teacher Jimmy Carter .
The former governor , who dressed like a cowboy , was “ perfectly cast for his role as hero of the Religious Right .
”

In the 1930s, Sunday and his allies faced a new threat. The Roosevelt administration was expanding the power of the state and extending civil liberties to racial and ethnic minorities. Sunday fumed that if Americans allowed New Deal liberalism to flourish, “the rugged individualism of Americanism must go.” These changes convinced the evangelist that he was living in the end times and that the apocalypse was imminent. Jesus was coming back in judgment, and the United States would have to account for its actions.
If Billy Sunday were still the face of the evangelical movement, the results of the 2016 election might not seem so surprising. But in the wake of World War II, a new generation of leaders led by Billy Graham took charge of evangelicalism, and they distanced themselves from the overt bigotry of an earlier era. Aiming to grow their influence and power, they worked to make their movement more mainstream and respectable. They earned advanced degrees from prestigious universities, launched new centrist magazines, including Christianity Today, and opened academically rigorous seminaries for training ministers. Rather than take on civil rights legislation directly, they emphasized transforming hearts. Rather than treat women as inferior, they stressed that women were equal before God, just different in function. They encoded racism and sexism into their movement but made it appear more benign. They knew that in order to expand evangelicalism, they needed to muzzle the most extreme racists and nativists. They also kept up the fight against New Deal liberalism, linking faith with free-market capitalism.
For the next half-century, evangelicals claimed allegiance to a timeless, biblical morality, while battling to spread their ideas by penetrating the nation’s major centers of power—including politics, media, and education. Du Mez’s brilliant and engaging Jesus and John Wayne traces how evangelicals used their power to protect patriarchy over the last few generations. Trump’s victory, she writes, was “the culmination of evangelicals’ embrace of militant masculinity, an ideology that enshrines patriarchal authority and condones the callous display of power, at home and abroad.” By this account, the Jesus at the center of their lives is not the peacemaker of the gospels but a vengeful warrior Christ.


newrepublic--2020-07-16--The Ethical Dilemma of My Parents’ Death Wish

The grandparenting hiatus ended on Memorial Day .
Cases were declining in Allegheny County for consecutive weeks around the end of May , and there was a rumor that a “ phase green ” limited reopening was imminent .
I ’ d given up fighting with my parents about seeing the kids a few weeks earlier , allowing outdoor , socially distanced meetings for an hour or two in the garden .
I lost my temper after catching my mother breaking the rules of engagement , hugging my two-year-old son and furtively looking up at me to see if she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to see it as somehow getting one over on me instead of tempting fate .
She listened and nodded as I tried not to raise my voice , our roles reversed from two decades ago when she would catch me with burnt roaches in cargo shorts pockets or a whiskey bottle clanging around in a backpack on the way to a party .
I didn ’ t sleep well that night , and I didn ’ t think of much else for the next couple of days .
Then I picked up the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wanted to see their grandchildren they were allowed to do so .
That if they were willing to accept that this was potentially putting them at risk of catching a disease that would almost surely kill at least one of them—in addition to diabetes , my father has a paralyzed diaphragm from years of smoking—then I didn ’ t feel right stopping them .
I wasn ’ t even sure why I did it .
Though I wasn ’ t thinking of much else , like many of the decisions I ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t exactly deliberate or rational .
It seemed to come from exasperation more than anything else , kind of like the time early in the social isolation period when I bought my first package of ice cream cones in a decade during a panic attack at the grocery store .
This situation presumably won ’ t last forever .
But I find myself haunted by how much any resolution depends on our decayed institutions to address what has become an existential problem .
The consensus seems to be that we ’ ll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that ’ s far from guaranteed , and anyway there ’ s no consensus on its likely effectiveness .
Meanwhile , the virus will rage on as our societal infrastructure collapses around it , taking its toll on families inside and outside of hot zones .
With every sign of the impending flood—of millions of people forcing themselves back to work to avoid eviction ; of millions of unemployed abandoned by their government—I ’ m reminded of the Haitian proverb about the leaky roof that can fool everyone except for the rain .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ it through , it ’ s on us .
Everyone should wear a mask , and wash their hands , and stay at home .
But it is impossible to expect everyone to follow suit , not only because some people will cheat for selfish reasons but because we are human beings who aren ’ t meant to live cut off from the people we love .
There ’ s a fairly effective argument both for and against my granting my parents ’ wishes to see the kids , and it is the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sleeping as much .
How do I live with myself if I deny them memories with their grandchildren ?
Then again , how do I live with myself if my indulgence leads to an illness ?
We took a driving vacation to the Delaware beaches at the end of June .
Around the same time that we started allowing my parents to see the kids , we were also faced with the decision to either cancel our rental or still take our trip .
Perhaps because of the momentary weakness brought on by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pittsburgh , we barely had any coronavirus cases relative to our population size , let alone deaths—we stayed the course .
I warned my parents about my concerns but didn ’ t feel right denying them their vacation .
They ’ d been going to Delaware beaches in cheap coastal rentals since they were kids , and despite the increasing difficulty of trudging through the sand on reconstructed knees and with aging backs , it ’ s important to them .
We took precautions , of course .
Masks in public except by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ families , no restaurants , cooking at home .
Essentially , the trip was meant to be an extension of the small social circle and adequate isolation tactics we ’ d implemented in Pittsburgh , but with a six-hour drive in between .
The week overlapped with July Fourth weekend , a detail that we ’ d tragically overlooked .
Starting at the middle of the week we noticed more cars , more noise , more fold-out chairs on the beach .
One day , as the beach got more crowded , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , asking her if she wanted me to take the kids so she could head back to the house .
She declined and kept her distance from the people around us .
If wearing a mask and taking other precautions is like wearing a seatbelt , by Friday it had become increasingly clear that we were among a handful of drivers wearing their seatbelts , stuck in the middle lane of the Autobahn .

This situation presumably won’t last forever. But I find myself haunted by how much any resolution depends on our decayed institutions to address what has become an existential problem. The consensus seems to be that we’ll have a vaccine next year, but that’s far from guaranteed, and anyway there’s no consensus on its likely effectiveness. Meanwhile, the virus will rage on as our societal infrastructure collapses around it, taking its toll on families inside and outside of hot zones. With every sign of the impending flood—of millions of people forcing themselves back to work to avoid eviction; of millions of unemployed abandoned by their government—I’m reminded of the Haitian proverb about the leaky roof that can fool everyone except for the rain.
If we’re going to make it through, it’s on us. Everyone should wear a mask, and wash their hands, and stay at home. But it is impossible to expect everyone to follow suit, not only because some people will cheat for selfish reasons but because we are human beings who aren’t meant to live cut off from the people we love. There’s a fairly effective argument both for and against my granting my parents’ wishes to see the kids, and it is the primary reason I haven’t been sleeping as much. How do I live with myself if I deny them memories with their grandchildren? Then again, how do I live with myself if my indulgence leads to an illness?
We took a driving vacation to the Delaware beaches at the end of June. Around the same time that we started allowing my parents to see the kids, we were also faced with the decision to either cancel our rental or still take our trip. Perhaps because of the momentary weakness brought on by things feeling somewhat normal for a second—in Pittsburgh, we barely had any coronavirus cases relative to our population size, let alone deaths—we stayed the course. I warned my parents about my concerns but didn’t feel right denying them their vacation. They’d been going to Delaware beaches in cheap coastal rentals since they were kids, and despite the increasing difficulty of trudging through the sand on reconstructed knees and with aging backs, it’s important to them.


newrepublic--2020-07-16--Cities Are Becoming Climate Death Traps

Cities Are Becoming Climate Death Traps

Climate change is making heat waves longer , hotter , and more deadly .
Scientists estimate that 80 percent of record-breaking heat waves would not have occurred without human-caused warming due to greenhouse gas emissions .
And urban areas , in particular , face special risk of heat deaths because of the heat island effect , in which dark pavement , roofs , and concrete absorb additional heat , making temperatures much hotter than the reported weather in any given city .
In the U.S. , heat deaths have more than doubled in Arizona in the last 10 years .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ hit while storms left residents in the D.C. and New York City metro areas without power .
Power outages can be deadly in a heat wave because without air conditioning , many people can ’ t cool off .
In two heat deaths in a 2018 Arizona heat wave , the deceased were found indoors with a broken air conditioning unit that they couldn ’ t afford to fix .
“ Some people won ’ t use their air conditioning because they ’ re afraid of the bills , ” Patricia Solís , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Resilience at Arizona State University , told National Geographic .
“ They think they ’ re OK without it , but that ’ s how people die.
” “ There are huge policy gaps in the U.S. with respect to extreme heat protections , ” Rachel Licker , a senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists , told me .
“ We found that without real action on climate change , by midcentury more than 250 cities across the U.S. are projected to experience 30 or more days with a heat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ includes many cities that historically haven ’ t experienced this level of extreme heat.
” Low-income communities are especially vulnerable .
A 2020 study in Environmental Research Letters found that residents in low-income census tracts were less likely to use air conditioners when temperatures got hot .
Heat wave exposure also disproportionately affects communities of color that have faced housing discrimination .
Researchers at Portland State University and the Science Museum of Virginia found that urban neighborhoods denied municipal services during the mid-twentieth century are now the hottest areas in 94 percent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a labor issue , as well .
“ One of the most urgent needs is an enforceable heat health standard for all workers from the [ Occupational Safety and Health Administration ] , ” said Constible .
The current rule “ has too much wiggle room for employers.
” Licker pointed to the proposed Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act of 2019 , which has yet to get out of the House Committee on Education and Labor , as a potential solution .
The bill , sponsored by Democratic Representative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ after Asuncion Valdivia , a California farmworker who died of a heat stroke in 2004 after picking grapes for 10 hours in 100 degree weather .
The U.S .
Postal Service has also received criticism for its role in workers ’ heat deaths , for example in a troubling report from HuffPost this past week .
But killer heat is a worldwide phenomenon .
In Europe , heat waves killed as many as 70,000 in 2003 and more than 1,500 last year .
Good heat wave adaptation measures—such as handing out water at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the elderly , and opening air-conditioned shelters for residents—likely contributed to the substantial reduction in deaths from 2003 to 2019 .
Accurate weather forecasting also allowed for greater preparedness .
Still , just 5 percent of European households are air conditioned and scientists estimate that three degrees Celsius of warming could kill an additional 86,000 people each year in the EU .
While China and Japan are used to some sweltering-hot summers , record-breaking heat waves have nevertheless proved deadly .
Consecutive heat waves in 2018 and 2019 in Japan hospitalized tens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doesn ’ t use excess mortality to calculate heat-related deaths like Europe does , which means that , as in the U.S. , these numbers may be huge undercounts .
In China , extreme heat combines with poor air quality to produce harmful ozone .
Scientists estimate that three degrees of global warming could kill an additional 30,000 people each year in China .

But killer heat is a worldwide phenomenon. In Europe, heat waves killed as many as 70,000 in 2003 and more than 1,500 last year. Good heat wave adaptation measures—such as handing out water at train stations, asking people to check on the elderly, and opening air-conditioned shelters for residents—likely contributed to the substantial reduction in deaths from 2003 to 2019. Accurate weather forecasting also allowed for greater preparedness. Still, just 5 percent of European households are air conditioned and scientists estimate that three degrees Celsius of warming could kill an additional 86,000 people each year in the EU.
While China and Japan are used to some sweltering-hot summers, record-breaking heat waves have nevertheless proved deadly. Consecutive heat waves in 2018 and 2019 in Japan hospitalized tens of thousands and killed hundreds. Japan doesn’t use excess mortality to calculate heat-related deaths like Europe does, which means that, as in the U.S., these numbers may be huge undercounts. In China, extreme heat combines with poor air quality to produce harmful ozone. Scientists estimate that three degrees of global warming could kill an additional 30,000 people each year in China.
Meanwhile, the impact of extreme heat on the global south remains underreported in Western media. Since developing countries tend to lack the cooling infrastructure present in North America and East Asia, regions in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan could soon face regular summer heat waves that are impossible to survive. A recent Tokyo Institute of Technology study shows that heat-related deaths in Jakarta are expected to increase by 15 times by 2060. And while some regions of Africa are used to heat waves as a regular occurrence, the heat island slums of large cities such as Nairobi can create fatal conditions. A 2017 John Hopkins study found that temperatures in Kibera, one of the largest “slum” settlements in Nairobi, were typically 5 to 10 degrees higher than the official weather report.


newrepublic--2020-07-16--Why it’s Harder Than Ever to Make it in Hollywood

But despite the boom times in Beverly Hills , the working stiffs of L.A. who keep the apps stocked with thousands of hours of new content every year find themselves in a surprisingly precarious position .
“ There has been an explosion in the number of shows that exist , ” says Brian Tanen , the showrunner behind Hulu ’ s Love , Victor .
“ Because of that explosion , there ought to be an explosion in the number of jobs that exist .
But it isn ’ t that simple.
” Just as in every industry disrupted by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ area code , Hollywood finds itself in a new status quo , one that ’ s forced the proletariat of writers , actors , and key grips into a never-ending hunt for their next job .
And this perpetual hustle only promises to grow more frantic the longer Covid-19 maintains its grip on the nation ’ s throat .
At the year ’ s outset , simmering tensions over the discrepancy between how most television laborers are compensated for their work on streaming platforms versus what they can make creating cable and broadcast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Contracts that govern the minimum compensation for writers , actors , and directors were all due for renegotiation .
Studio heads , fearful of a repeat of the Writers Guild of America ’ s 100-day work stoppage that began in the fall of 2007 ( a labor action that cost California ’ s economy an estimated $ 2.1 billion ) , reportedly had begun digging in for another long disruption .
There was talk that executives had a plan to stretch out their existing stockpile of unscripted shows , foreign rights , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ streams even as the talent supply ran dry .
Adding to their urgency was the WGA ’ s successful campaign to disentangle its membership from the so-called big four talent agencies last year , a seismic shift in the business that seemed to signal the union ’ s willingness to play hardball .
And then , of course , the novel coronavirus landed .
Production screeched to a halt in March , and nobody knows when it will fully resume .
For producers , the disruption comes with a significant silver lining : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ writers and other laborers to strike for a better split has all but evaporated .
“ The pandemic softened things , ” Sonja Warfield , a longtime TV writer , said when I spoke to her in late May .
“ People are more amenable to figuring it out.
” However much pain a strike could have caused the handful of conglomerates that dominate Hollywood pales in comparison to what the pandemic has already wrought .
Meanwhile , the widespread protests elicited by the police murder of George Floyd have reinvigorated long-stalled conversations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s workforce and the programming it produces reflect the diversity of its audience .
Actor Meera Rohit Kumbhani told me she is hopeful that public pressure will force executives “ to start hiring more diverse writers , diverse actors , diverse directors—because the people want it , not because they ’ re following some inclusivity rider.
” The work-stoppage forced by the pandemic may even create the space for those concrete changes to actually be made .
“ If production has paused , then there ’ s going to be a pause in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said .
“ When things start up again , people are going to want to hear diverse stories.
” Other writers and actors I spoke with were warier about the future , pointing to the less righteous alterations to industry standards ushered in by the pandemic .
Hollywood ’ s creative workers fear studios will eventually seek to make these provisional retrenchments permanent once business conditions return to something like normal .
The shifting of writers ’ rooms to Zoom in the past few months has led to numerous assistants—whose entry-level jobs represent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for aspiring writers—having their pay cut .
Actors have been asked to self-tape auditions , a change that many observers fear will deter casting directors from giving talent they ’ re not already familiar with a shot at the big time .
Sarah Peters , who spent June in one of the virtual writers ’ rooms , is alarmed by what these changes may portend .
“ How many jobs are we eliminating ?
” she wonders .
“ Especially lower-level jobs in all departments , if we ’ re like , ‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ need the P.A.
, we don ’ t need camera assistants—we did it during coronavirus !
’ Who ’ s going to be able to afford to work in the entertainment industry after this ?
” To understand why Hollywood ’ s current convulsions are so foreboding to the industry ’ s laboring class , it ’ s important to recognize that getting by in the television business has always looked a lot more like gig work than a nine-to-five job .
Aside from studio suits , everyone on a TV set is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the more limited a series order , the less money your average script coordinator or makeup artist gets to work on it .
Before the onset of the streaming era , a huge number of television jobs still came from broadcast shows that ran 22 episodes every season , a volume that required nine months of shooting .
That meant writers like Sonja Warfield , who worked on Will & Grace in the early 2000s , would typically staff on one show per year , with the time left over reserved for polishing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pilot .
By the end of that decade , season orders of only 13 episodes became common thanks to prestige cable dramas like Mad Men and Breaking Bad , the idea being that film-like production value and drama could only be achieved through a more concentrated form of storytelling .
Once Netflix and Amazon got into the original content game , in 2013 , their ambivalence toward the traditional television model led to episode orders dropping yet again .
Today , many shows receive only six- or eight-episode orders , requiring writers ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ few months .
“ The game has changed , ” said the writer Kimberly Ndombe .
“ You have to be able to jump around .
There are more shows to staff on , but I think it ’ s harder to make a living .
”

“You used to be able to buy a house off one episode of NCIS,” one writer joked to me.
From the actor’s perspective, meanwhile, Hollywood is as unforgiving to aspiring performers as it’s ever been. What’s changed is that even the sort of journeymen actors who once made up the backbone of the TV business are increasingly finding themselves in the crosshairs of corporate cost-cutters. “The bottom has just fallen out,” says Mark Haskell Smith, a writer and producer who’s been working in the industry since the late 1990s. Rates for talent are typically negotiated by their agents based on a “quote,” which is calibrated to how much the actor has previously been paid for similar roles. Now, says Smith, even if an actor books a job, “the streaming services are saying, ‘We won’t honor your last quote. Here’s what we’re paying, take it or leave it.’” Michael Patrick Lane, whose turns on Sun Records and Dynasty have led to a regular stream of smaller film parts, is nevertheless still struggling to find stability. “It’s such a balance of understanding the math and the logic so that you’re not too hard on yourself, but still giving in just enough, when all hope is lost, to be delusional enough to keep going.”
For nonwhite and queer actors, that calculus can feel even more oppressive. “You look and you realize it’s a small pool of us working, and that small pool is being recycled,” says Donzell Lewis. Even as Issa Rae, Sandra Oh, and Oscar Isaac have become Hollywood fixtures in recent years, many actors with similar backgrounds but a limited reel find themselves still being sidelined into token roles. “I’ve been a part of so many rooms where I’m in a table read, and I look around, and I’m the only person of color there,” Kumbhani says. “I’m immediately like … am I here because of some inclusivity requirement? It’s a shitty feeling to have.”
A UCLA report last year found that whites were cast in an astounding 70 percent of all roles on streaming shows in the 2016–2017 season, while across broadcast, cable, and streaming, around 55 percent of roles featured men. That same season, GLAAD found that under 5 percent of characters on broadcast TV were LGBTQ. That number rose all the way to 10 percent in the most recent season. Even so, the newfound visibility of queer characters on TV does not necessarily translate to more queer actors getting work (as is made clear by the still regular occurrence of cisgender actors being cast as transgender characters). Those numbers underlie what Lewis calls the “realities of making it as a queer actor,” particularly as a queer actor of color. “I don’t think you have to be gay to play gay roles,” he says. “But until my opportunity is equal to that of straight actors, I do have a problem with it. The equity is not there.”


newrepublic--2020-07-16--The Democrats’ Baffling Silence as Millions of Americans Lose Their Health Insurance

One of the many things that made the United States uniquely vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic is the relationship between health care and employment in this country .
About half of all Americans have employer-provided insurance ; if you don ’ t , you are left to a mass of overlapping state and federal programs , though depending on where you live , you might find none of them overlap with you .
It has been clear from the start that this patchwork health care nonsystem would cause unique problems fighting the coronavirus , and people are undoubtedly dead directly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic , the twin crises of Covid-19 and gaps in insurance are compounding each other : A new report from Families USA suggests that more than five million people have lost their insurance already ; another report , from the Urban Institute , predicts another 10 million will lose their coverage by the end of the year .
It is easy to look at any issue plaguing America , from the coronavirus and health care to crumbling schools or roads , and say that the Republicans are standing in the way of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there ’ s another dynamic at play with health care .
It plainly doesn ’ t matter very much to our leaders—whether it ’ s Nancy Pelosi or Donald Trump—whether people have insurance and whether they get health care .
Once a government gets used to a situation where tens of millions of people don ’ t have health insurance , which has always been the case in the U.S. , how do we get our leaders to care when another five or 10 million are added to that number ?
Once you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t get to have health care , as if they ’ re just part of the scenery , why would another five million people at risk of financial ruin or death spur action ?
The Trump administration ’ s response to the health insurance crisis has been predictably nonexistent .
The Los Angeles Times noted Tuesday that the Trump administration has not made any sort of push to stem the loss of health insurance , with no effort to encourage people to sign up for Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage , for example @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Kaiser Family Foundation , told the paper that this is because the ACA is such a “ political football , ” adding , “ what you ’ d normally think would be good government simply isn ’ t happening.
” Expecting Republicans to practice good government is like expecting a dog to practice good hygiene .
On the Democratic side , there has been a range of proposals , but none that have been advocated for very forcefully .
The Heroes Act , a $ 3 trillion stimulus bill passed by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ survive whole in the Senate , would fully subsidize Cobra , the program that allows laid-off workers to keep their employer-provided insurance .
This usually comes at a laughably unaffordable cost , as employees must pay both their portion and the employer ’ s portion of the premium , but the Democratic bill would pay insurers to make it free for ex-employees instead .
The left-wing criticism of this is that it provides a huge giveaway to insurers , who charge far more than they need to in premiums to rake in massive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ insurance to laid-off people .
( And , of course , many employer-sponsored insurance plans are too expensive for people to use even if their premiums are paid , because of high deductibles and co-insurance . )
That ’ s all true , but put that aside for a moment and think strategically .
Even if making Cobra free for ex-workers were the best possible thing Democrats could get out of the Senate , why roll it into this bill that will never pass ?
Minimizing the loss of health insurance is among @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , along with controlling the spread of disease , providing economic relief , and preventing a wave of evictions .
( Not on the list : getting bailout funds to lobbyists . )

One of the many things that made the United States uniquely vulnerable to the coronavirus pandemic is the relationship between health care and employment in this country. About half of all Americans have employer-provided insurance; if you don’t, you are left to a mass of overlapping state and federal programs, though depending on where you live, you might find none of them overlap with you. It has been clear from the start that this patchwork health care nonsystem would cause unique problems fighting the coronavirus, and people are undoubtedly dead directly because of these problems. Months into the pandemic, the twin crises of Covid-19 and gaps in insurance are compounding each other: A new report from Families USA suggests that more than five million people have lost their insurance already; another report, from the Urban Institute, predicts another 10 million will lose their coverage by the end of the year.
It is easy to look at any issue plaguing America, from the coronavirus and health care to crumbling schools or roads, and say that the Republicans are standing in the way of progress, which they are. But there’s another dynamic at play with health care. It plainly doesn’t matter very much to our leaders—whether it’s Nancy Pelosi or Donald Trump—whether people have insurance and whether they get health care. Once a government gets used to a situation where tens of millions of people don’t have health insurance, which has always been the case in the U.S., how do we get our leaders to care when another five or 10 million are added to that number? Once you have accepted that some people don’t get to have health care, as if they’re just part of the scenery, why would another five million people at risk of financial ruin or death spur action?


newrepublic--2020-07-15--The Self-Cancellation of Bari Weiss

The Self-Cancellation of Bari Weiss

What is the biggest media story of the last five years ?
The decimation of local news at the hands of private equity , Google , and Facebook ( and the subsequent loss of tens of thousands of jobs ) would certainly get a lot of votes .
The murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi Arabian government is another leading contender .
Newsroom eruptions in the wake of # MeToo and the protests following the murder of George Floyd , and the subsequent reckoning with racism and sexism in media have rapidly changed the industry .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ is Donald Trump , who has declared the news media the “ enemy of the people.
” It would be a stretch to add the resignation of a 36-year-old New York Times opinion editor to this list .
But that is what Atlantic writer Caitlin Flanagan did on Tuesday , tweeting that Bari Weiss ’ s departure from the paper of record was “ the biggest media story in years.
” The story , though , wasn ’ t really Weiss ’ s departure , but the 1,500-word resignation letter she posted on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ makes repeated allegations of extensive harassment and claims that the Times adheres to a “ new orthodoxy ” that ’ s evangelized on social media .
“ Twitter is not on the masthead of The New York Times .
But Twitter has become its ultimate editor , ” she wrote .
“ Intellectual curiosity—let alone risk-taking—is now a liability at the Times.
” The notion that the Times has succumbed to a woke mob has been percolating for a while but has accelerated since James Bennet resigned under duress after publishing an op-ed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ troops to be sent in to quell unruly protests against police brutality .
( Bennet and others at the Times have acknowledged serious problems with Bennet ’ s management of the opinion page . )
Weiss wants to frame her resignation as a consequence of this supposed hostile takeover—that she ’ s a free thinker cast out by an intolerant , illiberal regime .
But her letter , while long on invective ( and just plain long ) , is short on evidence , and what she ’ s done instead amounts to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peers for driving her out .
It ’ s a rhetorical mode that many of her fellow travelers in the “ Intellectual Dark Web ” are familiar with .
At an all-staff meeting following the Times ’ publication of the Cotton op-ed in June , Weiss tweeted that a “ civil war ” was raging inside the paper : on one side , the paper ’ s besieged over-40 staffers , who believe in free inquiry and free speech ; on the other , under-40 staffers who believe in “ safetyism , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of people to feel emotionally and psychologically safe trumps what were previously considered core liberal values , like free speech.
” It was a bold accusation and a self-serving one .
For most of her career , Weiss has warned about the politically correct masses streaming out of college campuses every year .
Now those masses had breached the walls of the most important journalistic organization in the country .
But there was one problem : A large number of Times staffers tweeted back that Weiss was mischaracterizing both the meeting they were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no “ civil war , ” nor a generational conflict .
What was happening was , instead , very normal , even banal : “ an editorial conversation.
” But Weiss ’ s resignation letter triples down on her narrative .
She appears to reference pushback against her “ civil war ” characterization when she laments being publicly called a “ liar ” by other Times employees .
That is one of many allegations against her co-workers .
She says she was called a “ Nazi ” and a “ racist , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her , and that some posted “ ax emojis ” next to her name on Slack .
“ There are terms for all of this : unlawful discrimination , hostile work environment , and constructive discharge .
I ’ m no legal expert .
But I know that this is wrong , ” Weiss continues .

These are serious charges. The implication is that the Times did not protect her because it was cowed by the mob—though there is little evidence provided. But Weiss goes further, suggesting that she was bullied for her commitment to “Wrongthink” and that a tepid commitment to intellectual diversity resulted in her being shunned by her colleagues, both publicly and privately. Weiss insists that many Times employees live in fear and message her privately “about the ‘new McCarthyism’ that has taken root at the paper of record.” Being a centrist at the Times, she says, now requires “bravery.”
The Times, of course, is hardly an organ of the woke left. The editorial page that Weiss is leaving employs a number of conservative voices—David Brooks, Ross Douthat, Bret Stephens—as well as a great many that could fairly be described as centrist. Though Weiss’s letter appears to be largely focused on that opinion page, the paper’s news division is regularly criticized on Twitter for credulously reporting on the Trump administration. This has occasionally resulted in social media–driven controversy—as happened when the paper published the headline “Trump Urges Unity Vs. Racism” following two racially motivated mass shootings. But those instances are relatively rare. “I don’t believe our role is to be the leaders of the opposition party,” Times executive editor Dean Baquet told the Columbia Journalism Review last summer. In spite of those controversies, the Times’ approach to political journalism has not changed: Few would accuse its reporters of being members of the resistance, let alone beholden to the mercy of the woke left.
Weiss is convinced she was targeted for her “centrist” beliefs, but a great deal of the criticism she has received has been about specific flaws with her writing. She has been critiqued for her uncritical glamorizing of right-wing YouTube celebrities, for citing a fake Twitter account as evidence of the illiberalism on college campuses, and for her hypocrisy on the subject. (As an undergraduate at Columbia, Weiss targeted Muslim professors, claiming that they were antisemitic. Shortly after Weiss was hired by the Times, The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald wrote: “It’s truly amazing: Weiss now postures as some sort of champion of free thought on college campuses. Yet her whole career was literally built on ugly campaigns to attack, stigmatize, and punish Arab professors who criticize Israel.”)