newrepublic--2020-04-10--Alone in the City of Sirens

Alone in the City of Sirens

In normal times , life in any city means a constant barrage of sounds : car horns , yowling cats , heated arguments from windows overhead—often over inconsequential things .
For the past few weeks , the most frequent sound heard in my Brooklyn neighborhood , like in many places across the United States , has been sirens .
Most of us have been ordered to remain inside in an effort to thwart the coronavirus pandemic .
Lately , there hasn ’ t been much else to fill the silence , beyond applause for essential workers and church bells rung @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that unintentionally emphasize the feeling that a disease is inflicting irrevocable damage upon the world .
When those daily traditions conclude , the sirens return .
Ambulances in action have existed before Covid-19 , but they rarely if ever induced the anxiety they do now .
Before this epidemic , my usual reaction to a siren was to take a second to make sure I wasn ’ t in the way and hope the person being tended to turned out all right .
Over the month of March , as “ nonessential workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leagues canceled or postponed play , as restaurants and bars were shuttered indefinitely , those sirens began to feel like the only evidence that the world hadn ’ t gone completely still .
Missing are the other sounds that used to testify to the surrounding lives being lived .
These days , I yearn for the return of construction workers , even the ones who seem to make a point of banging on anything within arm ’ s length at 7 a.m. on the dot .
I find myself remembering those strange phenomena @ @ @ @ @ @ @ city ’ s shared experience .
Think back to how New Yorkers reacted in December 2018 when a transformer explosion in Queens filled the sky with an arresting shade of blue .
An alien invasion , we joked .
It ’ s quaint in retrospect .
The apartment I live in is one street north of the Brooklyn Museum on Eastern Parkway , a boulevard still in use during the pandemic .
Though I can ’ t see the road from my second-floor apartment windows , I can hear the sirens swarming all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a mental inventory : At about 5 p.m. on April 2 , there were two , at the beginning and end of my grim afternoon shower ; three more in the next span of 20 minutes ; three minutes later , here come two more .
On the morning of April 3 , New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the statewide coronavirus death toll had risen by 562 from the previous day , to 2,935 .
During a bout of insomnia a few days later , I heard one around 3:30 a.m. , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The purpose of a siren , of course , is to warn people to make way for the helpers and allow them to traverse the city as quickly as possible .
There ’ s hardly anyone on the streets now , so it all sounds less like a warning and more like a dirge .

In an effort to be curious about my surroundings and allay the general dread that comes with each of these sirens, I searched for emergency rooms in my area. I couldn’t have told where the nearest one to me was, a month ago; I’ve been fortunate enough not to need to visit one in Brooklyn. It seemed certain that once I knew where these sirens were going, it wouldn’t feel like they were all hurtling into some great beyond. The sound would be less demoralizing to hear, or so my dumb brain thought. It seems my apartment is roughly in the middle of two clusters of medical centers. There are a few hospitals southeast of me in the lower part of the Crown Heights neighborhood: University Hospital of Brooklyn, Kings County, and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center. On the other side of Prospect Park, in Park Slope, there’s New York-Presbyterian. I have this map in my head now. But knowing where the sirens were going didn’t really put me at ease.
Whether or not it’s true, you can’t help but have the same thought: A person is dying out there.
I decided to make a go of being ruthlessly rational, a technique favored and misused by the biggest dimwits. I reminded myself that the coronavirus can’t be the cause of every siren. Some of them could be police vehicles. Maybe what I heard yesterday evening was a fire truck showing solidarity with health care workers. It’s hard to keep this game up. Since it’s not always possible to determine the source and severity of each siren while trapped inside, each instance delivers the same fear. Whether or not it’s true, you can’t help but have the same thought: A person is dying out there.
And yet if you spend a long enough time in isolation, stuck inside with the noises of your radically constricted world—your laptop, phone, and television—the noise of that constant emergency outside takes on a perverse meaning: It’s your reminder that life is still going on around you. There are other people out there, outside the quarantine. This kicks off a train of thought, rapidly building steam: There’s not just a person in the back of that ambulance; there are people trying to save that person’s life. There are loved ones in tow. There are others at some destination, waiting to provide treatment or comfort. Though they are portentous, for a brief moment these thoughts come as a strange relief. I cherish them for a moment before I realize how selfish it is to have them; before I remember the price of this knowledge.


newrepublic--2020-04-10--The Perilous Mess of Applying for Unemployment Right Now

Jonathan Canales has been working in service on and off since he was 17 , and was a chef at an Atlanta bar called Georgia Beer Garden until about a month ago .
Canales , who is 32 now , said his employers did right by the staff after closing down because of the coronavirus , quickly filing partial unemployment claims for employees at both Georgia Beer Garden and their other bar , Joystick .
Canales received his approval for benefits , $ 365 a week , about a week later .
Not too long after that , his benefits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system seemed to be working .
Except there was no money on the card .
He turned to the Georgia Department of Labor ’ s website for an answer , but found a mess .
“ You try logging on , and the user interface of it is abysmal , ” he told The New Republic .
“ And there ’ s no way for you to send them an email .
There is no direct way to contact someone other than calling them.
” When he did call , an automatic recording @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tied up , and then the line disconnected .
April came and with it another mortgage bill .
Canales said he spent hours on the phone with Wells Fargo on the last day of the month trying to apply for a mortgage forbearance , and was sent information on how to defer his payments for three months .
It ’ s a necessary pause , but Canales doesn ’ t know how he will pay the bill for three months of his mortgage without unemployment benefit .
Before the pandemic , there were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Atlanta-metro area .
“ I don ’ t know a single person that has received benefits at all , ” Canales said .
Workers in other sectors across the state and around the country have experienced similar delays while applying for unemployment , facing the same uncertainty about what the coming weeks , let alone the coming months , will look like .
In the last two weeks alone , an estimated 10 million people have filed claims nationally .
That ’ s a lot of potentially disconnected calls and empty @ @ @

As recently as August of last year, Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican who ran on a campaign of “blow[ing] up government spending” while brandishing a gun and chain saw, requested a 4 percent cut across state agencies for 2020 and a 6 percent cut for 2021. At that time, Georgia’s unemployment claims were at a near-record low. This is when times were comparatively good. If you want to understand the crisis the state finds itself in right now, you might want to start with its recent record of austerity.
Andrea Williams was a manager at a restaurant with a busy rooftop bar who filed for unemployment for 19 staff members. Williams and some of her staff were relieved to be approved for benefits but still experienced issues in actually getting the money. One of her staff members received the benefits card but said it had no money on it. Some had their benefits taxed while others did not, despite Williams filing the same claim for everyone. The income shown on Williams’s own unemployment determination letter was incorrect. Two of her staff were outright denied.
After Spencer Ellen’s employer, a popular neighborhood tapas restaurant, furloughed him on March 17, he registered for unemployment and quickly received a confirmation email. A week and a half later, Ellen received a letter saying he was not eligible for weekly payments because his reported income for the last four quarters was “$0.00.” A closed Facebook group for service workers shared similar horror stories of missing income on benefit determination letters. One post detailed a Department of Labor representative saying the letters with $0.00 earnings were a glitch without offering information about how this glitch would be solved. It feels like “everyone is making the rules up as they go along,” Ellen said.


newrepublic--2020-04-09--The Coronavirus Recession Is a Critical Test for the Labor Movement

It ’ s become increasingly common to hear people say that America has been shut down by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic .
This isn ’ t really true : Large sectors of the American workforce have been asked to function as close to normally as possible , and the rest of the country has been leaning on these workers more heavily than ever .
“ Workers who are still working in the midst of this crisis are cab drivers , they ’ re restaurant workers , they ’ re airport workers , flight attendants , ” Meghan Cohorst , spokesperson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , told me last week .
“ It ’ s all of these folks .
A lot of times these are low-wage workers , and they ’ re the only ones out there .
And I think we ’ re beginning to have a national conversation about respect for work and just compensation for work that helps keep the economy going.
” That conversation has been spurred in part by an extraordinary spike in labor action that has unfolded amid the crisis .
Instacart shoppers went on strike last week demanding hazard pay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ staged a nationwide “ sick-out ” to demand hazard pay , paid leave , and free coronavirus testing .
A group of sanitation workers in Pittsburgh and 10,000 construction workers in Massachusetts mounted strikes over the safety of their working conditions .
General Electric workers have demanded that their plants be retrofitted to produce much-needed ventilators .
There have been protests and stoppages at Amazon warehouses in New York , and walkouts have taken place at food-processing and meatpacking plants in Colorado , Illinois , and Virginia .
These and other campaigns are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only just beginning as workers in still-active industries—many of whom have been deemed essential by state governments—continue to contend with docked hours or layoffs , inadequate compensation and leave policies , and the threat of the virus itself .
The fast-food industry is among the industries still employing thousands of workers on location , as it shifts to drive-through and pickup service in compliance with state restrictions .
“ McDonald ’ s says 5 percent of their locations will get two weeks of paid sick leave , but then they leave 850,000 workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Service Employees International Union president Mary Kay Henry told me .
“ And we ’ ve heard tons of stories from fast-food workers who are deeply concerned about either transmitting or contracting the virus at work as they do the drive-through window and aren ’ t given any personal protective equipment or two weeks of paid sick [ leave ] , and their hours are being cut.
” One of those workers is Adriana Alvarez , a mom working reduced hours at a Chicago-area McDonald ’ s .
“ I mean @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knowing that we have to go to work , ” she told me this week .
“ Even though it ’ s just the drive-through , we still have that in the back of our minds , and we ’ re already living paycheck to paycheck .
So that ’ s like another stress added to our lives , basically .
And it ’ s , it ’ s a lot , to be honest .
”

Alvarez says she’s hopeful that the crisis encourages more of her co-workers to organize in the aftermath. “I feel like now it’s a little clearer for people to see and realize what a union could actually do,” she said. “I’ve got a lot of ladies who heard about the first $15 and were skeptical, but that signed the petition that we did before this whole thing started and they shut everything down. But now I feel like they’re thinking about, ‘What’s gonna happen if I don’t get paid?’ I’m hoping it’s definitely on their mind, and I’m definitely here to remind them.”
The efforts of the Fight for $15 movement, as well as many of the other labor actions that have emerged in the past few weeks, are only partially a product of this unusual moment. There’s been a dramatic upswing in direct labor action for several years now, a trend that encompasses not only the original Fight for $15 campaign but a string of large teachers’ strikes across the country and a variety of other work stoppages. “I think that what’s happening right now in America and has been happening over the last couple of years is the recognition that we need solidarity more than ever before,” Sarah Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said. “And the fact of the matter is that the people who have been fighting to make a $15 minimum wage are the people who are saving America right now. The people who are cleaning our buildings and picking up our trash and stocking the shelves at our grocery stores. These are the people that we cannot live without.”
Much of the working world breathed sighs of relief after President Trump dialed back his push to fully reopen the American economy by Easter. But the administration’s economic rhetoric from last month—which could well return if Trump’s optimism about the state of the response is revived—revealed a potential willingness to put workers on the front lines of this national emergency at even greater risk in the months to come. Asked what the SEIU’s response to the administration and state leaders prematurely lifting work closures would be, Henry implied that the union would take action.


newrepublic--2020-04-09--I Tried to Get Tested for Coronavirus in a Major City. It Was a Maze of Dead Ends.

I currently live in Salt Lake City , but I ’ m originally from the New Mexico side of the Navajo Nation and still have cultural connections and citizen connections there—I ’ m still voting there .
There are coronavirus outbreaks there now , in my small community of Naschitti , but I wasn ’ t there when I caught it .
It ’ s likely that I was exposed when I was traveling in early March on a business trip from Salt Lake to Washington , D.C. , and New York City .
I flew back to Salt Lake @ @ @ @ @ @ @ office that week , all regular hours .
I went to my workout and did everything I normally do routine-wise .
After my workout , I came home and I felt ill .
I was feeling it in my throat .
I had body aches in my lower back , a neck ache .
Then it started going into fever .
And then body chills , and then I started coughing a dry cough .
Later , I started to get the tightness in my chest .
I was concerned , so I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Utah , and that hotline was just a mess .
It was just not available or responsive .
The hotline referred me to Intermountain Health Care in Salt Lake City , which referred me to ConnectCare , an app where you can talk to providers over the phone or FaceTime .
I tried to get through there but couldn ’ t because it was overloaded .
There were at least 10 people ahead of me each time .
And each time I had to pay a $ 60 co-pay just to talk to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ got to talk to one .
The next day , I remember waking up chilly and heated .
I was like , shit , I ’ m scared—not even just scared , but the anxiety of it was like , What is it that I have ?

I FaceTimed her during that period. I was bedridden. I was sweating. I thought maybe I had pneumonia. I’ve never felt this sick before. Usually it’s the stomach flu, and it’s two to three days and I’m over it. But this was totally different. I’ve never sweated like that. She broke down on me when she saw me, and I broke down with her. She’s just being a mom, being concerned for me. I love her. She keeps up with me daily.
After the first five days, I started to feel better. My temperature started to go down. I started cleaning my apartment, started cooking. By the time day 13 arrived, more tests had come through, and that’s when the CDC relaxed its guidelines for testing, so more testing and labs were available. That Monday, I was alerted that the University of Utah’s lab was testing 1,500 people per day, so I felt this was a chance to see what I have. By that time, I still had a sensitive chest and the dry cough. I called in to the University of Utah, talked to the provider. I waited a long time to get through. Luckily the physician’s assistant gave me the order to get tested. I got screened that day. Same as the flu, they stick that Q-tip in your nose. And they were nervous because I had that order, but they were just looking at me because my symptoms had largely subsided. But I had my order. Give me the test. I did the drive-through, the whole protocol. At the end of it, I tested positive for Covid-19.
I’ve been drinking sage. And while my family never came up, I know that they prayed for me and had ceremony. I really appreciate that and love that they cared for me in that spiritual realm. I’m privileged to come from that knowledge system.


newrepublic--2020-04-09--The Profound Simplicity of Bernie Sanders’s Vision

Bernie Sanders was always demanding too much , the argument went .
“ What he ’ s proposing is very much pie in the sky , ” Joe Biden , now the unopposed Democratic nominee , said at the start of March .
“ If you promise the moon and you can ’ t deliver the moon , then that ’ s going to be one more indicator of how we just can ’ t trust each other , ” Sanders ’ s 2016 opponent , Hillary Clinton , told Ellen DeGeneres this February .
The refrain of How will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health care , free tuition , green jobs—became so familiar during debates and nightly news hits that it bordered on absurd .
At best , that contention—that Sanders ’ s vision of a less apocalyptic future for everyone required to work for a living was so far-fetched that Democrats shouldn ’ t pursue it—was a profound failure of imagination and a cowardly preemptive compromise in a political landscape already defined by so much senseless inequality and despair .
At worst , it was the logical rejoinder of the same wing of the Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reform and rushed to deregulate Wall Street in the 1990s .
Though neither of Sanders ’ s bids for the presidency succeeded , they exposed in their course the smallness and callousness of that Democratic elite , and broke their chokehold on the party , even if only for fleeting moments .
As he fell further and further behind in the race in the weeks after Super Tuesday , Sanders and his supporters often said that the campaign had nevertheless won the ideological battle .
While right now that is a thin consolation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true : In primary exit polls and other surveys , large blocs of the public have said they support Medicare for All , labor unions , a $ 15 minimum wage , and other major tenets of Sanders ’ s campaign .
And even beyond policy specifics , one of the most moving aspects of Sanders ’ s presidential run , at least to me , was its unwavering commitment to demanding far more than the ruling class has said that working people deserve .
Underlying every one of the Vermont senator ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ belief—somehow simultaneously humble and utopian—that every single person is owed a living .
The concept of entitlement has been cast about as a pejorative for some time .
It ’ s been used as racist rhetorical poison against “ welfare queens , ” and more recently on a wide-scale level to disparage a generation who entered adulthood during a ruinous recession , with unprecedented levels of student debt and miserable job prospects , and occasionally dared to question their lot .
( It ’ s also no coincidence that “ entitlement program ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social safety net measures that the Democratic Party , save Sanders , was consistently willing to send to the chopping block . )
Entitled people , we ’ re told , assume that certain comforts are automatically due to them even before they prove their worth , and the Sanders campaign seized that idea with gusto for the working class .
The belief that every person is entitled to the components of a decent life , including housing , health care , education , and civic inclusion , galvanized more than 13 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this year .
As Jacobin ’ s Shawn Gude wrote in 2015 , “ The discourse of entitlement is a discourse of rights , of human agents claiming what ’ s theirs instead of asking permission from the powerful .
”

The concept of entitlement has been cast about as a pejorative for some time. It’s been used as racist rhetorical poison against “welfare queens,” and more recently on a wide-scale level to disparage a generation who entered adulthood during a ruinous recession, with unprecedented levels of student debt and miserable job prospects, and occasionally dared to question their lot. (It’s also no coincidence that “entitlement program” is a policy term for all the social safety net measures that the Democratic Party, save Sanders, was consistently willing to send to the chopping block.) Entitled people, we’re told, assume that certain comforts are automatically due to them even before they prove their worth, and the Sanders campaign seized that idea with gusto for the working class. The belief that every person is entitled to the components of a decent life, including housing, health care, education, and civic inclusion, galvanized more than 13 million primary voters in 2016 and 7 million this year. As Jacobin’s Shawn Gude wrote in 2015, “The discourse of entitlement is a discourse of rights, of human agents claiming what’s theirs instead of asking permission from the powerful.”
In his Wednesday speech announcing the suspension of his campaign, Sanders said as much. “If we don’t believe that we are entitled to health care as a human right, we will never achieve universal health care,” he said. “If we don’t believe that we are entitled to decent wages and working conditions, millions of us will continue to live in poverty.” We’re also, I would argue, entitled now and in the future to politicians who run their campaigns as honorably as Sanders—who don’t implore us to settle for less than what we’re owed, or rationalize their fealty to Wall Street and the rich as simply the way things are done. Sanders’s two presidential campaigns were unprecedented in that they were financed almost exclusively through individual small donations, which came primarily from fast food workers, teachers, nurses, and service sector employees, or the very people who see, as The New York Times put it, “no evidence of a booming economy” in their lives.


newrepublic--2020-04-09--The Socially Distanced Protester

The Socially Distanced Protester

Much of the emotional power of a march or demonstration comes from being there .
Successful labor organizing likewise depends in part on the intimacy and convenience of people working near one another .
Can you trust that your colleagues will risk their jobs for a strike when , as with many gig workers , you ’ ve never met ?
Is it logistically possible to organize when social distancing measures prevent you from gathering in person ?
On Episode 5 of The Politics of Everything , hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk with Micah Sifry , the author @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Internet Hasn ’ t Transformed Politics ( Yet ) , about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting political participation .
Digital platforms can help us communicate—and even rally—but at what cost to our privacy , not to mention our enthusiasm ?
It ’ s hard to imagine a swarm of heart icons on a screen inspiring lasting political commitment .
Who does virtual protest leave out , or leave cold ?
Later in the show , Josephine Livingstone and Alex Shephard , both staff writers at The New Republic , discuss what our @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us about how we process a crisis .
If top 10 lists are the measure , Contagion may be the ultimate pandemic movie … but there is a case to be made for Jaws .
• The change in how we do politics will be lasting , Micah Sifry writes : “ We are entering a new era , of politics without bodies , of empty auditoriums and virtual voting .
”

Much of the emotional power of a march or demonstration comes from being there. Successful labor organizing likewise depends in part on the intimacy and convenience of people working near one another. Can you trust that your colleagues will risk their jobs for a strike when, as with many gig workers, you’ve never met? Is it logistically possible to organize when social distancing measures prevent you from gathering in person? On Episode 5 of The Politics of Everything, hosts Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene talk with Micah Sifry, the author of The Big Disconnect: Why the Internet Hasn’t Transformed Politics (Yet), about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting political participation. Digital platforms can help us communicate—and even rally—but at what cost to our privacy, not to mention our enthusiasm? It’s hard to imagine a swarm of heart icons on a screen inspiring lasting political commitment. Who does virtual protest leave out, or leave cold?
Later in the show, Josephine Livingstone and Alex Shephard, both staff writers at The New Republic, discuss what our entertainment choices during the lockdown can tell us about how we process a crisis. If top 10 lists are the measure, Contagion may be the ultimate pandemic movie … but there is a case to be made for Jaws.


newrepublic--2020-04-09--The Planet Can’t Afford a Coronavirus Feud

Today , climate specialists give us the next 10 years to reduce global emissions by at least 45 percent if we are to prevent catastrophic heating .
The next U.S. president , consequently , must be prepared to move quickly and aggressively toward decarbonizing the planet .
At home , this means pursuing the aspirational goals outlined in the Green New Deal ; abroad , it means joining forces and working collaboratively with China—regardless of differences on other policy matters .
This prospect is a lot less extreme than some politicians currently make it out to be .
The U.S. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Union over nuclear proliferation during the Cold War .
And in all the recent anti-China clamor here , we ’ ve paid too little attention to the progressive environmental vision Beijing has been developing .
Given the smog that continues to assail China ’ s skies , and the country ’ s unremitting appetite for coal , it ’ s perhaps understandable that we ’ ve overlooked the environmental remediation planning going on today in Beijing .
But read , for instance , the 20-page program for building an “ ecological civilization , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ side with the recent House resolution on the Green New Deal .
The common ground is stunning .
The goals they share include : reducing and eventually eliminating pollution and greenhouse gases ; expanding renewable energy resources ; upgrading power grids to “ smart grid ” ; requiring all new buildings to meet strict energy-efficient standards ; guaranteeing universal access to clean water ; promoting organic and sustainable farming ; afforesting or reforesting large tracts of land ; and developing new-energy vehicles , affordable public transit , and a nationwide network of high-speed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of China , you think this is just rhetoric , remember that the country currently invests more annually than any other country in renewable energy development , has the world ’ s most extensive high-speed rail network , is the largest manufacturer of and market for e-vehicles , and in 2019 afforested an additional 6.73 million hectares of land .
Of course , there is much China and the U.S. can and should do on their own .
And some competitiveness , in fact , can be a spur to innovation .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scale of the problem beg for cooperation .
Leading scientists from the two countries should be collaborating on how best to suck carbon dioxide out of the air ( carbon dioxide removal , or CDR ) , how to store renewable but intermittent energy like wind and solar affordably and effectively , and how to reform agriculture and ensure the global food supply against severe heat waves and droughts .
Energy experts and policymakers from the two countries should be drawing on China ’ s recent experience in implementing and managing a carbon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a global carbon pricing system .
And oceanographers , engineers , and economists addressing the vulnerability of coastal cities like New York , Philadelphia , Miami , Beijing , Shanghai , and Guangzhou should be collaborating on flood-adaptation techniques and technology .
The U.S. president—in an act of global leadership—might even propose the establishment of a U.S.-China Climate Change Commission , along the lines of the California-China Climate Institute at the University of California , Berkeley , where climate scientists , researchers , economists , and policymakers from the two countries come together @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of goodwill between the two countries where there ’ s been so little of late .
And perhaps that goodwill would seed collaboration and constructive negotiations in other critical areas .
The lesson that the present discord over the coronavirus pandemic teaches us is not that collaborating with China on global warming can ’ t work .
Presidents Obama and Xi showed that it can .
It ’ s rather that , in facing a global crisis like climate change , we are better served by a president who is capable of , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with others , whatever the differences separating us may be .

Given the smog that continues to assail China’s skies, and the country’s unremitting appetite for coal, it’s perhaps understandable that we’ve overlooked the environmental remediation planning going on today in Beijing. But read, for instance, the 20-page program for building an “ecological civilization,” issued in 2015, side by side with the recent House resolution on the Green New Deal. The common ground is stunning. The goals they share include: reducing and eventually eliminating pollution and greenhouse gases; expanding renewable energy resources; upgrading power grids to “smart grid”; requiring all new buildings to meet strict energy-efficient standards; guaranteeing universal access to clean water; promoting organic and sustainable farming; afforesting or reforesting large tracts of land; and developing new-energy vehicles, affordable public transit, and a nationwide network of high-speed rail. If, in the case of China, you think this is just rhetoric, remember that the country currently invests more annually than any other country in renewable energy development, has the world’s most extensive high-speed rail network, is the largest manufacturer of and market for e-vehicles, and in 2019 afforested an additional 6.73 million hectares of land.
Of course, there is much China and the U.S. can and should do on their own. And some competitiveness, in fact, can be a spur to innovation. But there are areas where the urgency and scale of the problem beg for cooperation. Leading scientists from the two countries should be collaborating on how best to suck carbon dioxide out of the air (carbon dioxide removal, or CDR), how to store renewable but intermittent energy like wind and solar affordably and effectively, and how to reform agriculture and ensure the global food supply against severe heat waves and droughts. Energy experts and policymakers from the two countries should be drawing on China’s recent experience in implementing and managing a carbon trading system to deliberate the appropriateness of a global carbon pricing system. And oceanographers, engineers, and economists addressing the vulnerability of coastal cities like New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou should be collaborating on flood-adaptation techniques and technology. The U.S. president—in an act of global leadership—might even propose the establishment of a U.S.-China Climate Change Commission, along the lines of the California-China Climate Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, where climate scientists, researchers, economists, and policymakers from the two countries come together.
Such cooperation might generate some amount of goodwill between the two countries where there’s been so little of late. And perhaps that goodwill would seed collaboration and constructive negotiations in other critical areas. The lesson that the present discord over the coronavirus pandemic teaches us is not that collaborating with China on global warming can’t work. Presidents Obama and Xi showed that it can. It’s rather that, in facing a global crisis like climate change, we are better served by a president who is capable of, and dedicated to, finding common ground with others, whatever the differences separating us may be.


Don’t Mourn. Organize.

Much will be written , in the weeks , months , and years ahead , about how much Sanders was able to achieve in the road ’ s final stretch .
Many will argue that socialism has been significantly destigmatized across an important share of the American electorate .
We will hear reminders that a $ 15 minimum wage , free college , and other ideas deemed radical and unrealistic just a few short years ago , are now central to mainstream policy conversation .
Some will point out that self-styled moderates and figures in the Democratic establishment , even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ All plan , have been pushed by the discourse surrounding it into support for dramatically expanding public health insurance in America through schemes that resemble the universal health care regimes in place across Europe .
And so on .
The reply from Sanders will be that none of it is enough .
And this , more than anything else about him and his movement that has been scrutinized—the behavior of some of his supporters , his clumsiness navigating some of the precepts of contemporary identity politics , his personal and political stubbornness , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particulars that the last few hectic weeks in American policymaking have rendered laughable—lies at the heart of the antipathy his Democratic critics have for him .
The thing that rankles the most is the insistence that liberal self-satisfaction is a critical obstacle to progress , which , at this point in the country ’ s trajectory , should be made in a sprint rather than a shuffle .
His most dedicated and vocal backers are those unwilling to believe we ’ ll make our way out of our current political situation with grateful @ @ @ @ @ @ @ those with the temerity to suggest American liberals have wasted time and political capital confusing the mere appearance of nuance and complexity for intelligence and moral rectitude .
The last Democratic president urged his party to embrace the audacity of hope .
For him , hope was an airy thing : a feeling rooted in the faith that our future can be built on reason and goodwill alone .
But offering real hope to the American people is a material project .
Hope depends upon the deconstruction of an economic system that leaves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the resources and capacity to make it through today and a privileged few free to build themselves a better tomorrow .
Sanders has carried many to this realization , but a new generation of progressives enraged and heartbroken by the last administration and the last 20 years of American life have also carried him , and it is impossible to imagine his campaign would have been as successful without the support of activists and organizers who will fight on long after this election ends .
Nevertheless , for all of his accomplishments and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ short .
His efforts were undergirded by a familiar theory : the notion that the working class , the politically disaffected , and the reliably left-wing could be galvanized by a progressive agenda in such great numbers that they would sweep away the existing political order .
But the barriers to participation for Americans at the margins of politics are significant and not entirely structural .
Most people , even in the best of times , want to vote for a candidate they believe can succeed .
For the majority of the Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ President Trump in November—that candidate was Joe Biden , and his campaign was backed by a coalition of voters that included not only suburbanites but a broad swath of working-class Democrats .

The reply from Sanders will be that none of it is enough. And this, more than anything else about him and his movement that has been scrutinized—the behavior of some of his supporters, his clumsiness navigating some of the precepts of contemporary identity politics, his personal and political stubbornness, his impatience for questions about pay-fors and particulars that the last few hectic weeks in American policymaking have rendered laughable—lies at the heart of the antipathy his Democratic critics have for him. The thing that rankles the most is the insistence that liberal self-satisfaction is a critical obstacle to progress, which, at this point in the country’s trajectory, should be made in a sprint rather than a shuffle. His most dedicated and vocal backers are those unwilling to believe we’ll make our way out of our current political situation with grateful deference toward established leadership and complacency; those with the temerity to suggest American liberals have wasted time and political capital confusing the mere appearance of nuance and complexity for intelligence and moral rectitude.
But offering real hope to the American people is a material project.
The last Democratic president urged his party to embrace the audacity of hope. For him, hope was an airy thing: a feeling rooted in the faith that our future can be built on reason and goodwill alone. But offering real hope to the American people is a material project. Hope depends upon the deconstruction of an economic system that leaves too many Americans wondering if they have the resources and capacity to make it through today and a privileged few free to build themselves a better tomorrow. Sanders has carried many to this realization, but a new generation of progressives enraged and heartbroken by the last administration and the last 20 years of American life have also carried him, and it is impossible to imagine his campaign would have been as successful without the support of activists and organizers who will fight on long after this election ends.
Nevertheless, for all of his accomplishments and victories, Sanders did ultimately come up short. His efforts were undergirded by a familiar theory: the notion that the working class, the politically disaffected, and the reliably left-wing could be galvanized by a progressive agenda in such great numbers that they would sweep away the existing political order. But the barriers to participation for Americans at the margins of politics are significant and not entirely structural. Most people, even in the best of times, want to vote for a candidate they believe can succeed. For the majority of the Democratic electorate—justifiably preoccupied with the task of defeating President Trump in November—that candidate was Joe Biden, and his campaign was backed by a coalition of voters that included not only suburbanites but a broad swath of working-class Democrats.


newrepublic--2020-04-08--Bernie Sanders’s Gift to the Democratic Party

Hope—sometimes desperate hope—sustains all presidential campaigns .
Even when a candidate withdraws in the face of daunting electoral odds , as Pete Buttigieg , Amy Klobuchar , and Elizabeth Warren did more than a month ago , there is always the hope of another White House bid sometime in the future , or a spot on the ticket as vice president .
As a kid in Brooklyn , Bernie Sanders was a die-hard fan of the Dodgers , who rallied their supporters , as they lost season after season , with the slogan “ Wait ’ til next year.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and although Sanders is perhaps the most passionate Brooklyn Dodgers fan left in politics , he knows that for him , a 78-year-old senator with a heart condition , there is no next year .
In late April 2015 , when the Vermont independent announced his first presidential bid , he felt compelled to stress , “ I think people should be a little bit careful underestimating me.
” Sanders was right , of course , and all the politicians and pundits who scoffed at him , myself included , were wrong @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not , as it turns out , a ticket to oblivion , nor is disdaining the backslapping rituals of traditional politics a formula for automatic defeat .

But Sanders, as a student of history, also knew that Debs needed liberal Democrats to translate his left-wing vision into reality. Although Debs died a despondent and broken man in 1926 (never regaining his health after being imprisoned during World War I), his ideas played a role in the dramatic expansion of governmental protections for the poor, the working class, and labor unions during Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.
Now Sanders—who over his career won about eight times more presidential votes than Debs ever did—is in a similar position with Joe Biden. In a world where the personal is political, it matters that these two ancient mariners like each other from their days in the Senate, despite their differences in temperament and outlook.
There are many Bernie true believers who thought that Sanders should stay in the race through the June primaries, scrapping for every delegate in an effort to put his imprint on the party platform. But bludgeoning the Biden forces into grudging compromises in a likely-to-be-ignored party platform is not shrewd politics in normal times. And these are decidedly not normal times.


newrepublic--2020-04-08--The Amateurs and Yes-Men in Trump’s Army of Judges

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is generally considered to be the second most powerful court in America .
By virtue of its location in the nation ’ s capital , it hears more high-profile cases involving government power than any other federal appeals court in the country .
In recent months , D.C .
Circuit panels have upheld the House ’ s effort to subpoena President Donald Trump ’ s tax returns , rejected its effort to compel impeachment testimony from a former White House counsel , and signed off on the first federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That prominence ( as well as the scarcity of abortion-rights cases that it hears ) makes it a common stepping stone for future Supreme Court justices .
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas , Ruth Bader Ginsburg , and Brett Kavanaugh all served on the D.C .
Circuit before joining the high court ; Bill Clinton also nominated Justice Elena Kagan to it in his second term , but he left office before the Senate acted .
Merrick Garland , Barack Obama ’ s ill-fated nominee to replace Antonin Scalia , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the time .
Even Scalia himself had previously served on the D.C .
Circuit .
Trump ’ s latest nominee for the influential court is Judge Justin Walker , who currently serves as a federal trial judge in Kentucky .
Walker is an unusual nominee for the D.C .
Circuit by any metric : The 37-year-old nominee has been a federal judge for less than six months and graduated from law school just over a decade ago .
His nomination speaks volumes about the trajectory of the conservative legal movement—and of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ era .
It ’ s worth noting that federal judges need not follow a certain career or life path to the bench .
Kagan , for instance , had never served as a federal or state judge before Obama nominated her to the Supreme Court in 2010 .
At the same time , she had amassed a wealth of experience elsewhere—most notably as the U.S. solicitor general , which represents the federal government before the Supreme Court , and as dean of Harvard Law School .
By the time Obama nominated her , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ community : After Scalia ’ s death in 2016 , top Obama adviser David Axelrod said the justice had privately lobbied him in 2009 to help send Kagan to the Supreme Court whenever he got the opportunity .

Third, and perhaps most importantly, he is a team player for the conservative legal movement. Walker gave more than one hundred interviews during Kavanaugh’s confirmation process in 2018, where he touted his former boss’s record and defended him from early critics on the right. Writing in The Federalist that July, Walker assured readers that Kavanaugh “has by far the strongest, most consistent, most fearless record of constitutional conservatism of any federal court of appeals judge in the country.” That loyalty did not waver after Christine Blasey Ford publicly said that Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in high school. In a Fox News interview, he derided Senate Democrats’ efforts to investigate her account as a “farce.”
His own nomination is likely to be a major clash in the Senate, and the conservative legal movement’s network of well-funded organizations are gearing up for the fight. The prospective D.C. Circuit judge is “living proof that in America, where you come from doesn’t limit what you can achieve,” Mike Davis of the Article III Project claimed in an effusive Townhall column published one day before the White House’s announcement. “With the nomination of Judge Justin Walker to the D.C. Circuit, President Trump has kept his promise to drain the D.C. swamp and appoint judges in the mold of the late-great Justice Scalia.”
Indeed, Walker is the grim culmination of legal conservatives’ approach to judicial nominations. It would be naïve at this point to expect Trump and McConnell to advance would-be judges who don’t fit their ideological vision for the courts. So consider instead the trend line that goes from Reagan-era D.C. Circuit picks like Scalia and Robert Bork, who were both leading originalist scholars and experienced civil servants, to a 37-year-old relative neophyte who has all the right social connections and says or writes little beyond what the people who choose judges want to hear. If Walker is truly the best nominee that the conservative legal movement can offer, then it’s a more damning critique of their ranks than any liberal could muster.


newrepublic--2020-04-08--Gig-Working Through the Apocalypse

Gig-Working Through the Apocalypse

Last May , Postmates notified Darren Lyn in an email that it had “ updated ” its payment structure .
From that point on , he found , a given delivery job no longer came with a $ 4 minimum guarantee .
Soon after , Lyn , a nursing student who generally works 35 to 40 hours every week driving food and goods around Miami for multiple gig platforms , received a message from Uber Eats informing him it would also be adjusting his pay rate .
Since first getting into gig work in 2016 , Lyn told The New @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decline drastically , ” adding that things have gotten even tighter during the coronavirus crisis .
Working normal hours over a week in mid-March , screenshots show that , with tips , he made around $ 220—clocking him , even before factoring in driving expenses , well below Florida ’ s minimum wage of $ 8.56 per hour .
The law permits this because gig companies classify Lyn as an “ independent contractor , ” and in the United States , labor protections generally only extend to those classified as an “ employee.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which was historically written to exclude workers of color in sectors like farm work and domestic work , varies between statutes and in common law .
But at least in theory , employees have legal protections around wages and overtime , collective action , and benefits like workers ’ compensation and unemployment insurance .
These protections reflect a sentiment , codified in the 1914 Clayton Act , that “ the labor of a human being is not a commodity ” —that workers are not essentially interchangeable and that the workforce is different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ oil or wheat or copper .
But today , with gig companies at the vanguard , major businesses are challenging this premise with the backing of conservative politicians across the country .
And the pandemic sweeping the nation has only brought their worldview into starker relief : More than a century after the U.S. labor regime began to take form , the idea that concern for the well-being of workers transcends the amoral logic of the market feels more like a quaint aspiration than a description of the world as it is .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ seismic shift ” in the structure of the American economy in recent decades , as more businesses have found ways to operate outside the bounds of U.S. employment law .
As former Obama labor official David Weil documented in his 2014 book , The Fissured Workplace : Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can Be Done to Improve It , businesses have increasingly placed their workers at arm ’ s length , spinning the purchase of human labor—once a messy , worldly matter with attendant responsibilities—into something like a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an “ entrepreneur , ” as Postmates might put it ) .
Businesses , under pressure from investors and enabled by technologies that allow them to monitor work from afar , are essentially trying to “ have it both ways , ” according to Weil : controlling work done on their behalf while evading the obligations that come with being an employer .
Where , perhaps , a tech business once employed its own janitors , now it contracts the work to an outside vendor .
Where a delivery company once hired its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ individual “ entrepreneurs ” to do the work instead .

While honing this system, gig companies have launched formidable campaigns to convince the public that they have innovated the bold new future of work. For the most powerful of these businesses, the “strategy all along has been to ignore the law while amassing the money and political power to change it,” Ken Jacobs, chair of the University of California, Berkeley, Labor Center, told The New Republic. Uber, for example, frequently flouts local laws and has generally gotten away with it (or been penalized in ways that don’t pose a serious challenge to its fundamental structure). Gig companies have also made effective use of mandatory arbitration agreements to make it difficult for workers who challenge their classification status to take their grievances to court. And at the state and federal level in the United States, app-based gig companies, with the help of other industries anxious to roll back regulations, have advanced policies to effectively or explicitly deny their workers the protections of basic employment law.
Misclassification allegations run rampant throughout the U.S. economy, but “gig companies have done us a favor by making this issue front and center” by “so directly and so clearly thumbing their nose at any responsibility toward their workers,” said Rebecca Smith, the director of work structures at the National Employment Law Project. While the argument that labor reforms would pose an existential threat to a business are nothing new (and while it’s not uncommon for these platforms to compensate executives on the order of tens of millions of dollars annually), it is true that the model is distinctly fragile. Uber, for example, is not profitable. In fact, it lost $8.5 billion in 2019. Thus far, the company and its ilk, buoyed by a seemingly endless stream of venture capital support, have worked to drive out market competition by subsidizing relatively cheap services and taking constant losses. “Workers are squeezed in the middle of that,” said University of Washington historian Margaret O’Mara. Many of these businesses are “reluctant to spend any more on their workforce because their bottom line is precarious as it is.”
But the anti-regulatory zeal runs deeper than a desire for profits. Many of these platforms’ leaders see themselves not as service industry titans, but as visionary technologists, their worldviews of a piece with a prevailing Silicon Valley ethos characterized by a libertarian skepticism toward government. When Uber’s “co-founders were standing on the street corner in San Francisco unable to get a cab and said ‘Man, we gotta fix this problem—let’s be ballers and get black cars to pick us up on demand,’” said O’Mara, “they were not thinking about … worker classification and the Department of Labor.” In the grand vision, workers were to be little more than an input. During his time as Uber’s CEO, Travis Kalanick, as the journalist Mike Isaac reported, referred to the company’s fleet of drivers as “supply.”


newrepublic--2020-04-08--Planned Parenthood Is the Real Star of Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Across the United States , institutions calling themselves Crisis Pregnancy Centers advise their clients not to pursue abortion , but instead either to parent or surrender their child for adoption .
As two doctors put it in their 2018 peer-reviewed article “ Why Crisis Pregnancy Centers Are Legal but Unethical , ” these institutions “ strive to give the impression that they are clinical centers , offering legitimate medical services and advice , yet they are exempt from regulatory , licensure , and credentialing oversight that apply to health care facilities.
” In fact , these are religious propaganda stations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to nefarious extremes .
It ’ s an outrageous situation , but when one such clinic appears in the new movie Never Rarely Sometimes Always , the mood is quiet and sad , not angry .
When the Christian lady from the center tells 17-year-old Autumn ( Sidney Flanigan ) that her fetus ’ s heartbeat is “ the most magical sound you will ever hear , ” her client says nothing , just turns her head away from the ultrasound monitor and toward the wall .
Quiet gestures and prolonged silences are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the third movie by Eliza Hittman ( available to rent for an astonishing $ 19.99 via Amazon ) .
Autumn works in a supermarket with her cousin and is unhappily pregnant .
Beyond that , we know almost nothing about her .
We simply tag along with Autumn and her sympathetic cousin Skylar ( Talia Ryder ) as they travel from Pennsylvania to New York City in search of an abortion not conditional upon parental consent .
The pair have nowhere to stay .
Although New York by night is sometimes shockingly beautiful—they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bathed in flickering blue lights—the dangers they encounter are pedestrian and inevitable .
A drunk guy in a suit with his shirt untucked slides his hand into his trousers on the otherwise empty subway they ’ re using as shelter .
A college-aged young man begs and whines for them to join him at a “ bar downtown.
” To top it all off , at dawn , these trembling-lipped teenagers have to face down a horde of chanting Catholics outside Planned Parenthood ’ s door .
It ’ s a three-day Odyssey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ telos , and interludes on Greyhounds and subway platforms in between .

Flanigan manages to position her face so that it is masklike and placid but obviously concealing fathoms of pain. Meanwhile, a gentle and sparse soundtrack from the avant garde songwriter Julia Holter refrains from plucking at our heartstrings, keeping the tone of Never Rarely Sometimes Always from veering into melodrama. Fans of art about women’s pain will also thrill to a small but affecting turn here from singer Sharon Van Etten as Autumn’s mom. (Van Etten also contributed to the soundtrack.)
The absence of melodrama in Never Rarely Sometimes Always is an achievement, considering that we watch Autumn try to self-induce abortion and pierce her own nose. Each of these distressing scenes is shot over Autumn’s shoulder, focused on her reflection in the mirror as she does things like punch herself hard in the stomach.
The dramatic core of Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a scene that deploys the title’s four words in a questionnaire administered by a counselor at the Planned Parenthood clinic. She is one of a series of women medics who tell Autumn the truth, and their everyday heroism seems to glow off the screen like light beside the evangelical pro-lifers’ banal evil. Part of her job is to ask Autumn what kind of sex she has been having, and if anybody is doing things to her that she doesn’t want them to, and that’s where the four words come in.


newrepublic--2020-04-08--Don’t Look For Patient Zeros

Don’t Look For Patient Zeros

On March 30 , the New York Times flagship podcast , The Daily , released an episode titled “ New Jersey ’ s Patient Zero.
” What followed was a wrenching and compassionate story about New Jersey ’ s first confirmed coronavirus patient , who was identified in the story by name .
Early that morning , the show ’ s host , Michael Barbaro , promoted that day ’ s episode as “ the story of what one hospital , in N.J. , learned from its patient zero back in early March.
” Yet not everyone was pleased by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the patient tweeted back , “ Hi , Michael .
I really appreciate your hard work .
One thing is that I am not a patient zero.
” As cases of the coronavirus have mounted over the last month , the term “ patient zero ” has begun popping up with astounding regularity .
Sources from CNN to the BBC , The Washington Post to People , the New York Post to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo , have reported on supposed “ patient zeros , ” nearly all of the stories identifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This pattern has also spread beyond traditional sources of media .
One fake news website ran an article titled , “ COVID-19 : Chinese Health Authorities Confirm Patient Zero ‘ Had Sex With Bats , ’ ” which was promptly shared on social media some 30,000 times .
The Daily Show called Donald Trump the “ patient zero ” of a looming “ pandumbic.
” Such rhetoric can be dangerous : What might happen if a reader or a listener decided to enact some form of revenge on one of these “ patient @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Reporting from Kenya has shown that the woman labeled that country ’ s “ patient zero ” has been subjected to relentless online bullying .
The immediate and widespread use of this phrase has prompted some criticism , on social media and in the broader media sphere .
Andrew Lipman , an environmental historian , tweeted at Michael Barbaro , “ You know that ‘ patient zero ’ is a myth , right ?
Journalists really need to avoid that phrase.
” Helen Jenkins , an infectious disease epidemiologist , told Journalist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is highly stigmatizing and often wrong anyway.
” And a historian of medicine named Richard A. McKay wrote an essay for The Conversation arguing that “ patient zero ” stories often give “ expression to communal fears about dangerously reckless behaviour .
On the surface , these stories seem motivated by science .
Scratch a little deeper , though , and you will often uncover a desire to assign blame.
” McKay should know—he literally wrote the book on the history of the term and idea of “ patient zero.
” Likely in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ changed the title of the “ patient zero ” episode on its website .
But it is not so easy to undo the harm that comes with the label “ patient zero.
” Understanding the history of this phrase and the context in which it arose shows how much damage it has done , the lives it has affected , and the complicity of so many in positions of power who unthinkingly perpetuated it .

According to Shilts, Dugas had single-handedly spread HIV to hundreds of other gay men as he jetted across the country; the journalist wrote that the flight attendant was the person responsible for introducing AIDS into North America, and that, to a large extent, he’d done so deliberately. Shilts’s portrayal was captivating—Dugas was a beautiful, blond sociopath who continued having unprotected sex long after receiving his diagnosis. “He would have sex with you, turn up the lights in the cubicle, and point out his Kaposi’s sarcoma lesions,” Shilts wrote. “‘I’ve got gay cancer,’ he’d say. ‘I’m going to die and so are you.’”
PATIENT ZERO AND THE MAKING OF THE AIDS EPIDEMIC by Richard A. McKay University of Chicago Press, 400 pp., $35.00
Yet, as McKay writes in his impeccably researched book, it’s unclear if Dugas ever actually said this. It is clear, however, that Dugas—who died in 1984—was not responsible for introducing AIDS into the continent. But because of And the Band Played On, he became a posthumous pariah, a symbol of contagion and evil and the dangers of promiscuity. Newspapers around the world reported that Dugas was the “patient zero” who caused the American epidemic. The first was the New York Post: “The Man Who Gave Us AIDS.” Soon, another paper in New York ran the headline, “The Monster Who Gave Us AIDS,” while the National Review labeled him “the Columbus of AIDS.” A few years later, a roguishly beautiful Jeffrey Nordling portrayed Dugas in the HBO adaptation of And the Band Played On, laughing haughtily at the idea of infecting “thousands of men all over the world, whose faces I cannot even remember.”
In fact, the term “patient zero” was based on a typo. McKay reveals that it originated from an epidemiological study, conducted by researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of early AIDS cases in southern California. The CDC researchers asked these patients to report their sexual contacts so that the scientists could “discover the source of the current outbreak.” Two-thirds of the men in the study reported more than a thousand lifetime partners, but most could only remember a handful. But, to the researchers’ delight, one man—Case 57—had kept a small address book in which he recorded dozens of his sexual contacts; he provided the researchers with 72 names. Case 57 was Gaétan Dugas, and he was the only man in the study who wasn’t from California, so, as the researchers prepared their study for publication, they labeled him “Patient O”—short for “Out[side]-of-California.” Yet at some point, possibly because of secretarial error, “Patient O” became “Patient 0.” Soon, this would become “Patient Zero.” When, in 1984, this study was published, the researchers placed “Patient 0” in the center of a cluster diagram, with lines radiating out from him to sexual contacts like a sun; this further entrenched the incorrect notion that this one man, Dugas, was the source of AIDS.


newrepublic--2020-04-08--Does Big Oil Need Big Government to Survive?

One hot morning in 1931 , rural townspeople awoke to the sound of an invading army : The government had sent some 800 mounted troops to impose martial law and enforce state-mandated production orders .
This wasn ’ t some Stalinist horror show .
It was East Texas , where the Texas Railroad Commission was pioneering a model that—in different forms—would keep the world ’ s oil industry running for nearly a century .
Today , members of that same three-member , currently GOP-controlled body are considering a return to its roots—not imposing martial law , but again curtailing oil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It may be one of the few things that can save America ’ s oil and gas producers , and potentially the world itself , from catastrophe .
Since the oil price crash in March , outgoing Republican TRC Commissioner Ryan Sitton has been mulling the possibility of prorating oil : i.e.
, placing limits on its supply with the ultimate aim of bringing prices back up .
Last month , OPEC and Russia ( a shaky collaboration known as “ OPEC+ ” ) failed to agree on a supply cut to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , even under normal conditions , can spell disaster for U.S.-based producers sensitive to even modest price swings .
But in this case , the problem was exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic .
Signs for a Russia-OPEC deal this week have been more optimistic .
Sources inside OPEC , though , told Reuters on Tuesday that any such cuts—which Trump has claimed could amount to some 15 percent of global supplies—will depend on curbing oil supplies outside of OPEC+ , namely in Canada , Brazil , and the United States .
Sitton has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ energy ministers as well as the Secretary-General of OPEC about that possibility , and was invited to attend that body ’ s meeting in Vienna this summer .
If he goes , it will be the first time someone in his position has done so since 1988 .
Like the virus itself , collapsing demand for oil has spread fast .
Globally , demand has dropped by an astonishing 30 percent as economies grind to a halt amid shutdown measures , in an oil market that was already oversupplied .
Stores of oil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in recent weeks , some drillers have even dealt with negative fuel prices , wherein they have to pay pipeline operators to ingest their product .
As Amy Westervelt has tracked at Drilled News , the federal government has been trying to throw all manner of supports at the industry it recognizes is failing : The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has pledged expedited cost-recovery approval for energy infrastructure ; the administration proposed new rules rolling back fuel efficiency standards , which the car industry didn ’ t want but the oil and gas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has effectively suspended enforcement .
These are long-standing priorities for a fossil-fuel-friendly GOP , being pushed through under the cover of a chaotic news cycle .
But they may not be enough to turn things around for an industry facing its deepest crisis in 100 years .

Like the virus itself, collapsing demand for oil has spread fast. Globally, demand has dropped by an astonishing 30 percent as economies grind to a halt amid shutdown measures, in an oil market that was already oversupplied. Stores of oil worldwide are filling up fast, and in recent weeks, some drillers have even dealt with negative fuel prices, wherein they have to pay pipeline operators to ingest their product. As Amy Westervelt has tracked at Drilled News, the federal government has been trying to throw all manner of supports at the industry it recognizes is failing: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has pledged expedited cost-recovery approval for energy infrastructure; the administration proposed new rules rolling back fuel efficiency standards, which the car industry didn’t want but the oil and gas industry pushed; the Environmental Protection Agency has effectively suspended enforcement. These are long-standing priorities for a fossil-fuel-friendly GOP, being pushed through under the cover of a chaotic news cycle. But they may not be enough to turn things around for an industry facing its deepest crisis in 100 years.
Sitton can’t remedy this situation single-handedly, of course. He would need the support of at least one other commissioner. His colleagues, Christi Craddick and Wayne Christian, have said they support stabilizing oil markets broadly but have yet to take a position on proration. Both, however, caution enacting such a policy would be a heavy lift. The TRC, Christian argued in a late-March statement, “has not prorated oil in over forty years; we do not have staff at the agency with experience in this process and our IT capabilities to handle this process are limited at best.” The last TRC meeting, scheduled for late March, was canceled amid the Covid-19 shutdown. The next one will be held virtually on April 14 and may yield more clarity as to where Christian and Craddick stand. Democratic TRC candidate Chrysta Castañeda, formerly the lawyer for T. Boone Pickens—who has a nonzero chance of taking Sitton’s seat in November—has signaled her support of exploring production controls, too. Even if the TRC does agree to cuts, Texas still represents just over 40 percent of U.S. oil production.


newrepublic--2020-04-08--How Hydroxychloroquine Became Conservative Media’s Coronavirus Miracle Drug

President Trump ’ s championing of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential miracle cure for Covid-19—despite a lack of clinical trials and a lengthy list of side effects , such as cardiac arrest—has become one of the most controversial aspects of his administration ’ s response to the coronavirus outbreak .
“ What do you have to lose ?
” he said at his Saturday press briefing .
“ Take it.
” It has led to shortages , hospitalizations , and at least one accidental death .
And his position is being repeated all over conservative news .
After @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by mainstream media and Democrats , Fox News host Sean Hannity has recently cast himself as a medical expert , referring to himself as “ Dr .
Hannity.
” By limiting New Yorkers ’ ability to access hydroxychloroquine , Hannity wrote on Fox News ’ s website , Governor Andrew Cuomo “ is creating a much bigger crisis in his state ’ s hospital system by denying New Yorkers THE CHOICE ( in consultation with their doctors ) to take this potentially life-saving medication.
” Hannity is just one of many figures on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The media watchdog Media Matters found that Fox News has been breathlessly evangelizing the drug to its elderly audience : 109 times over a three-day period in late March .
The network also has the ear of the president , literally , creating a dangerous feedback loop .
The Washington Post reported on Monday that “ Fox host Laura Ingraham and two doctors who are regular on-air guests in what she dubs her ‘ medicine cabinet ’ visited the White House last Friday for a private meeting with Trump to talk up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on hydroxychloroquine has divided his administration .
A number of his advisers , most notably Rudy Giuliani , are cheerleaders for it .
But others have urged caution .
Over the weekend , economic adviser Peter Navarro and Anthony Fauci , the country ’ s top infectious disease expert , squabbled over its efficacy during a meeting of the administration ’ s coronavirus task force , per an Axios report .
After Fauci told Navarro that there was only “ anecdotal ” evidence that the drug was effective in treating the coronavirus , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of studies—none of which , it should be noted , were double-blinded , the “ gold standard ” for accuracy—Navarro said , “ That ’ s science , not anecdote .
”

The fact that many of these figures—Trump, Hannity, and Ingraham foremost among them—spent months downplaying the virus is also driving them to push this unproven drug. The president’s repeated claims that the virus was a “hoax” will be a feature of campaign ads all the way to November. By embracing a fringe “cure,” conservatives are trying to outflank their critics and depict themselves as being more serious about treating the coronavirus than people who are urging restraint.
Conservatives reacted with outrage when Twitter deleted tweets from Ingraham, Giuliani, and Charlie Kirk advocating for the use of the drug. Hannity and others on the right have tried to make Cuomo and Fauci into villains for withholding a potential lifesaver. For the president and his allies, the coronavirus is akin to a false flag, a deliberate effort by the left to destroy the economy and sink the president’s reelection chances. The country could open for business if only the pesky experts and liberals could stop hating the president for one second.
If hydroxychloroquine does end up being a miracle drug—and it is already being used at the front lines of the fight against Covid-19, in emergency situations where desperate measures make sense—figures like Hannity will claim that the president’s critics have blood on their hands. That wouldn’t be the case, of course—like most people, they’re following medical advice in an ever-shifting crisis, while Fox News is recklessly pushing a drug whose effects aren’t known. Hannity and Ingraham have already spent most of the year lying about the coronavirus. There’s no reason to think they’ll stop now.


newrepublic--2020-04-08--Stop Panicking About Joe Biden

Stop Panicking About Joe Biden

In truth , Biden does display a presidential level of empathy for the sick , the suffering , and the fearful .
At the end of an otherwise forgettable town meeting that was livestreamed to families and children on Sunday night , Biden offered moving words about loss and tragedy : “ A lot of people are hurting .
A lot of people will be hurt when this is over .
And we ’ ve got to make them whole .
We can .
We can .
That ’ s what we do in the United States.
” That moment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the handful of up-for-grabs-in-November voters who were watching , it was a reminder that Biden actually does feel their pain .
Unlike Bill Clinton , Biden reacts to tragedy not with a bite-your-lower-lip act but rather with the hard-earned emotion of a man who has lost a great deal in life .
What the Democrats fretting about Biden ’ s lackluster TV performances fail to understand is that virtually every presidential candidate spends weeks—sometimes months—wandering in the wilderness after wrapping up the nomination .
After the tension of the early primaries , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there is a de facto nominee .
Suddenly , the only one surefire way to make news is to announce a vice-presidential running mate .
And that banner headline is traditionally reserved for the days leading up to the convention or for the convention itself .
Since the last two contested Democratic presidential races stretched on into June , many partisans forget the disadvantages that come with ending nomination fights too soon .
Barack Obama in 2008 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 both had a strong rationale to keep campaigning until the conclusion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cycles , it was easy to go from celebrating their nominations to launching the intense speculation about their running mates .

That moment may not be headline material. But for the handful of up-for-grabs-in-November voters who were watching, it was a reminder that Biden actually does feel their pain. Unlike Bill Clinton, Biden reacts to tragedy not with a bite-your-lower-lip act but rather with the hard-earned emotion of a man who has lost a great deal in life.
What the Democrats fretting about Biden’s lackluster TV performances fail to understand is that virtually every presidential candidate spends weeks—sometimes months—wandering in the wilderness after wrapping up the nomination. After the tension of the early primaries, everything comes to a grinding halt once there is a de facto nominee. Suddenly, the only one surefire way to make news is to announce a vice-presidential running mate. And that banner headline is traditionally reserved for the days leading up to the convention or for the convention itself.
Since the last two contested Democratic presidential races stretched on into June, many partisans forget the disadvantages that come with ending nomination fights too soon. Barack Obama in 2008 and Hillary Clinton in 2016 both had a strong rationale to keep campaigning until the conclusion of the primaries. In both election cycles, it was easy to go from celebrating their nominations to launching the intense speculation about their running mates.


newrepublic--2020-04-07--The Shock Doctrine Came for Bail Reform

The Shock Doctrine Came for Bail Reform

Cuomo got his wish .
The budget passed on Thursday significantly scaled back money bail reform , meaning that more New Yorkers merely charged with criminal offenses would languish in jail if they couldn ’ t afford to make bond .
At the same time as the coronavirus threatened to overwhelm Rikers , along with other jails and prisons across the state , Cuomo was ensuring those cells would remain filled with people too poor to purchase their release , unable to take the precautions the governor reminded viewers of each day .
“ As we ’ ve said before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effective at what the virus does , ” the governor said at his Sunday briefing .
“ It ’ s an effective killer .
People who are very vulnerable must stay isolated and protected.
” Money bail wasn ’ t completely eliminated by the 2019 reform measures : Courts were still permitted to set bail for people accused of violent felonies , and those who could not pay would remain incarcerated while awaiting trial .
The fundamental premise of bail—that ability to pay determined who it was “ safe ” to release—remained in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ community bail funds had made that inequality plain , as Nick Pinto recently reported in this magazine , and that inequality would persist even had the reforms not been rolled back this month .
Still , as a decarceration measure , bail reform was working .
The state ’ s jail population had dropped by 30 percent , according to the Vera Institute for Justice , down to 14,983 the month reform took effect from 21,406 at the same time the previous year .
It could grow again now by thousands .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the changes just pushed through expand courts ’ ability to deny bail .
Fifteen new kinds of offenses were added to the bail-eligible list , including a catch-all category , “ Any felony or class A misdemeanor involving harm to an identifiable person or property committed while charges are pending on another felony or class A misdemeanor involving harm to an identifiable person or property.
” It was a way of returning misdemeanors , including property crimes that don ’ t physically harm actual people , to the bail-eligible list .
“ Remanding @ @ @ @ @ @ @ never been done in New York , ” Scott Levy , chief policy counsel for the Bronx Defenders , told Slate ahead of the vote .
As much of a compromise as bail reform was in the first place , leaving some activists even more attuned to the ways criminal justice reform can often fall short , the rollback fight has played out at a full-throated , panicked volume .
In the winter , in cop-friendly tabloids and pro–law enforcement social media groups , those seeking to preserve money bail attempted to link @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to people newly released due to reform .
Then , as Covid-19 infections exploded in the city and public defenders and activists demanded the release of those sitting unprotected in jail , the anti-reformers won out , thanks to Cuomo ’ s budget strong-arming .
“ We are the only state in the country that in the middle of this public health crisis has decided to increase the number of people who are incarcerated in jails , ” said Nick Encalada- Malinowski of the community-based organization Vocal-NY .

Money bail wasn’t completely eliminated by the 2019 reform measures: Courts were still permitted to set bail for people accused of violent felonies, and those who could not pay would remain incarcerated while awaiting trial. The fundamental premise of bail—that ability to pay determined who it was “safe” to release—remained in the law. Years of work by community bail funds had made that inequality plain, as Nick Pinto recently reported in this magazine, and that inequality would persist even had the reforms not been rolled back this month.
Still, as a decarceration measure, bail reform was working. The state’s jail population had dropped by 30 percent, according to the Vera Institute for Justice, down to 14,983 the month reform took effect from 21,406 at the same time the previous year. It could grow again now by thousands. In seeking to placate bail reform opponents, the changes just pushed through expand courts’ ability to deny bail. Fifteen new kinds of offenses were added to the bail-eligible list, including a catch-all category, “Any felony or class A misdemeanor involving harm to an identifiable person or property committed while charges are pending on another felony or class A misdemeanor involving harm to an identifiable person or property.” It was a way of returning misdemeanors, including property crimes that don’t physically harm actual people, to the bail-eligible list. “Remanding people for misdemeanors is something that has never been done in New York,” Scott Levy, chief policy counsel for the Bronx Defenders, told Slate ahead of the vote.
As much of a compromise as bail reform was in the first place, leaving some activists even more attuned to the ways criminal justice reform can often fall short, the rollback fight has played out at a full-throated, panicked volume. In the winter, in cop-friendly tabloids and pro–law enforcement social media groups, those seeking to preserve money bail attempted to link what they mischaracterized as a crime wave to people newly released due to reform. Then, as Covid-19 infections exploded in the city and public defenders and activists demanded the release of those sitting unprotected in jail, the anti-reformers won out, thanks to Cuomo’s budget strong-arming. “We are the only state in the country that in the middle of this public health crisis has decided to increase the number of people who are incarcerated in jails,” said Nick Encalada- Malinowski of the community-based organization Vocal-NY.


newrepublic--2020-04-07--Drag Trump Over the Coals

Drag Trump Over the Coals

Congress is out of session and out of town until late April , even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to exact a mounting death toll and inflict significant economic damage on the public .
Federal lawmakers are already considering another round of legislative relief when they return , perhaps by filling the many voids in their last attempt .
Some are also considering a more farsighted proposal : establishing a 9/11-style commission to study America ’ s response to the outbreak and determine exactly what went so calamitously wrong .
At least four proposals are currently circulating among House members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since the actual building is largely desolate .
They range from a bill by California ’ s Adam Schiff , a Democrat , that would essentially replicate the 9/11 Commission ’ s structure and powers , to a proposal by Illinois ’ s Rodney Davis , a Republican , that would not allow the commission to issue subpoenas for documents and testimony .
Bipartisan teams of lawmakers have floated other versions that fall somewhere in the middle .
Speaker Nancy Pelosi also said last week she would support establishing a select committee to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carolina ’ s Jim Clyburn .
That committee , however , would be more forward-looking than a commission .
“ We ’ re not going to be looking back on what the president may or may not have done back before this crisis hit , ” he said in a CNN interview on Sunday .
“ The crisis is with us.
” At the same time , Pelosi indicated that she would prefer that any proposed commission pass with bipartisan support .
Last month , I suggested three subjects of inquiry for any @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States failed so badly on coronavirus testing in January , February , and March ; why the U.S. public health system wasn ’ t better prepared for the pandemic ’ s arrival ; and whether Congress took the right steps to alleviate the social and economic fallout that the pandemic itself—and efforts to contain it—would have on the nation .
Since then , a few additional issues have arisen where a commission ’ s scrutiny and judgment would be welcomed .
Such a body should be armed with all of the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Commission—and nothing less .

The White House’s reluctance to use the Defense Production Act also demands rigorous scrutiny. The Korean War–era law allows the president to commandeer national industries to produce vital goods during an emergency. Trump, framing it as a last-resort measure, resisted invoking the act in full by noting that companies had already taken voluntary steps to accelerate production. The New York Times found last week that not only is the law actually used more often than a college dorm’s microwave—some 300,000 times a year by the Pentagon alone, apparently—but that it’s also mainly invoked to grease the skids at defense and security contractors. That raises questions about whether the law should be revised to better fit modern demands and challenges.
In addition, there are many unresolved questions about how these resources—mask, ventilators, drugs, and so on—are actually allocated when they’re obtained. Governors across the country have complained that the lack of federal coordination means they’re all essentially bidding against each other, against hospitals, and even against foreign countries in a race to obtain necessary supplies. The administration’s efforts seem like an intentional attempt to avoid blame for shortfalls, telling the states that they should work harder to obtain what they need. After Surgeon General Jerome Adams compared the crisis to World War II mobilization and told the states to “be Rosie the Riveter,” Washington Governor Jay Inslee quipped, “Can you imagine if Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, ‘We’ll be right behind you, Connecticut. Good luck building those battleships?’”
To make matters worse, there is a strong reason to fear intentional mismanagement of federal resources by Trump and his associates. The Washington Post reported last week that some Republican-led states have received more than they asked for from the national stockpile, while some Democratic-led states complained that what they got fell far short of their requests. “The president knows Florida is so important for his reelection, so when DeSantis says that, it means a lot,” an unnamed White House aide told the Post. “He pays close attention to what Florida wants.” Trump himself fueled concerns by telling reporters that he wanted governors to be “appreciative” of his efforts, then using boilerplate praise from Democratic governors in campaign ads.


newrepublic--2020-04-07--How the Republican Party Took Over the Supreme Court

Kavanaugh went on from the Clinton investigation to work as a GOP lawyer in the trenches in the Florida election recount dispute in 2000 .
Victorious there , he took a position in the White House Counsel ’ s Office under George W. Bush , where he gave special attention to the crucial party task of filling the courts with Republican nominees .
When he married a longtime Bush aide , Kavanaugh entered the Bush family ’ s inner circle .
He became staff secretary to the president in 2003 .
And that summer the president nominated him to serve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit , often thought of as the second most powerful court in the country .
As a judge , Kavanaugh did not disappoint in conservative legal circles .
Instead , on the most hotly political issues , he displayed an uncanny sense for taking positions designed to appeal to the GOP base while simultaneously triangulating against political opposition from liberals .
Three equally indispensable things propelled Judge Kavanaugh to the top of President Trump ’ s Federalist Society-vetted list in 2018 .
The first was Kavanaugh @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He had doggedly maneuvered for the role for at least two decades .
The second was Kavanaugh ’ s critiques of the regulatory state , which the GOP donor class found deeply appealing .
Third was Don McGahn , Trump ’ s White House counsel .
In Marcus ’ s rendition , McGahn was a party loyalist like Kavanaugh , who made filling the courts with Republican appointees his first priority .
McGahn aimed to cement his legacy in the White House by securing the Supreme Court post for Kavanaugh , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beloved former clerk to Justice Kennedy .
McGahn reasoned that Kennedy might be more likely to resign if Kavanaugh was likely to be his replacement .
In Marcus ’ s story , the most striking thing about the confirmation process that ensued was its ever-escalating partisan logic .
Chuck Schumer , the Senate minority leader , announced instantly , “ I ’ m going to fight this nomination with everything I ’ ve got.
” Democrats complained that Kavanaugh had been a hatchet man for George W. Bush , and that he had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ serve on the D.C .
Circuit .
They charged that Republicans were denying them full access to documents from Kavanaugh ’ s years in the Bush White House .
But the Democrats had , to begin with , very few tools with which to fight the nomination .
The Republicans had a narrow but decisive two-vote advantage in the Senate , and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had made judicial confirmations a priority .
( “ The thing that will last the longest is the courts , ” he said . )
As one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seemed to have brought “ a FOIA request to a knife fight.
” Meanwhile , another story line was unfolding .
On July 5 , four days before Kavanaugh ’ s appointment , Christine Blasey Ford reached out to her Democratic congresswoman , Anna Eshoo , and to a Washington Post tip line .
Ford said that Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her more than three decades before , while the two were in high school .
Three weeks later , at Eshoo ’ s suggestion , Ford shared her story with Senator @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Judiciary Committee .
Feinstein promised to keep the story confidential .
For the next six weeks , rumors of Ford ’ s story circulated without being disclosed to Judiciary Committee staff or the FBI for formal investigation .
Word of some kind of sex assault allegation soon reached Schumer and Nancy Pelosi .
Inevitably , the story hit the internet on September 12 , on the eve of the crucial Judiciary Committee vote .

We should expect the court to be more useful in classically conservative political projects for basic structural reasons. The justices can make it exceedingly hard for the other branches to enact laws that set in motion the machinery of the state. As far back as the 1890s, for example, the court singlehandedly held back a federal income tax for two decades. In the coming years, the court may return to the business of reviewing tax policy if it strikes down a wealth tax. By contrast, almost no one thinks that the court will ever review the constitutionality of reducing or repealing a tax. The asymmetry is telling. The Supreme Court can effectively obstruct the growth of government all by itself. But it has great difficulty initiating and sustaining governmental action, at least without powerful and mobilized allies in the other branches.
These limits on the court’s power mean that Cohen greatly overestimates the capacity that the Warren court had to remake the world for the better. Cohen describes the court as “an architect” of American social life, drawing up “blueprints for the nation.” Those blueprints, he contends, very nearly laid down a right to welfare for the poor and needy at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s. But the court would almost certainly not have been able to administer rights to welfare without the willing compliance of the political branches. Cohen sees the court as having been one vote away from ordering the equalization of funding to public schools in “all fifty states.” But such an order would have touched off myriad evasion efforts in state and local governments, just as Brown v. Board triggered decades of massive resistance to integration. The 25 state supreme courts that have issued equality mandates for school finance have not been able to eliminate unequal funding, and the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court would not have been able to do so either.
In Cohen’s telling, conservative decisions on criminal procedure greased the wheels for the mass incarceration state. But harsh sentencing laws like the Rockefeller Drug Laws and the onset of the war on crime preceded the court’s rollback of Warren court–era criminal procedure decisions. The court had little authority over things like sentencing statutes, mandatory minimum sentences, prosecutorial discretion, and police tactics. When Warren court justices made it more difficult to prosecute criminal defendants, the other branches of government could and did respond by ratcheting up sentences and increasing the size and aggressiveness of the police force. Liberal decisions like the famous Miranda case, requiring a statement of rights to those arrested, often made criminal prosecutions easier, not harder, by prompting suspects to talk. Scholars of mass incarceration spend little time on the court, because they know that it lacked not only the will but also the institutional capacity to stop the nationwide social and political crisis of criminal justice. In an era in which political constituencies on both sides of the aisle were pressing for more aggressive use of the criminal justice system, and in which the Congressional Black Caucus and the nation’s black mayors and prosecutors largely went along, it is implausible to see the court as leading rather than following.