newrepublic--2020-04-16--What Richard Hofstadter Got Wrong

What Richard Hofstadter Got Wrong

In another journalistic life , I worked at an estimable Beltway publication covering the daily business of Congress .
One of the early directives I encountered there concerned the use of the word “ reform ” in connection with any pending legislation .
The notion of reform , I was soberly informed , was simply too charged and incendiary to pass as a description of any agenda item seeking approval from the people ’ s representatives ; the less loaded term “ overhaul ” was always and everywhere to be preferred .
Never mind that overhauls are far more ambitious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long-suffering sports fan or construction professional can tell you .
And never mind that reforms and reformers have always claimed center stage in the drama of our national politics—one can scarcely imagine the civil rights revolution , women ’ s suffrage , and Social Security ( or , on the other side of the ledger , Prohibition , jingoism , and rampant nativism ) without them .
No , the larger point here was that reform was too wild and indecorous an idea for a respectable Hill journal to grace with serious or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ speaks volumes about discursive gatekeeping in Washington—but it also stands in no small measure as a legacy of the late historian of American politics Richard Hofstadter .
Hofstadter was a deft , wide-ranging chronicler of American intellectual and political life , beginning with his landmark revisionist study , The American Political Tradition ( 1948 ) .
Across his too-short life and career , he produced indispensable monographs on American violence and the rise of social Darwinism , together with a pioneering body of analysis on the rise of the postwar American right .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ critic of the reformist impulse in American politics that Hofstadter lives on in today ’ s post-liberal order .
Hofstadter argued that the reformers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century—Populist agitators , Progressive social planners , temperance and suffrage advocates—were engaged in a panicked bid to reclaim their diminishing status in public life .
As the Protestant guardians of small-town America saw the forces of capitalist modernity overtake the world they knew , they lashed out , reasserting their waning power and prestige as defenders of an embattled cultural order .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ jeremiads , Hofstadter ’ s reading of the American Populist movement as a bigoted , nativist , and anti-Semitic insurgency , steeped in “ status anxiety , ” is arguably more influential than ever , half a century after his death in 1970 .
But as is the case with many intellectual legacies , a great deal has been lost in translation : Hofstadter envisioned reform as a prolonged revolt against modernity—not a particularly useful framework for understanding today ’ s demagogues , who , instead of trafficking in grievances about the world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new turn in plutocratic governance .
Meanwhile , Hofstadter ’ s crudest simplifications have endured : His latter-day anti-populist apostles tend to fall back on his caricatured accounts of the backward masses and their motivations , pointedly ignoring the social-democratic cast of American Populism of the Gilded Age .

In both books, Hofstadter’s dim view of populism and its legacy rests on a willful misreading of the Populist insurgency’s actual history. Far from advancing a toxic synthesis of nativist prejudice, fundamentalism, and retreatist cultural politics, many movement Populists in the nineteenth century were radical innovators, proposing measures such as public ownership of utilities, the popular ballot initiative, and the direct election of senators that would come to pass under the highbrow ministrations of the later Progressive movement. The Populist Party also proposed instituting the Subtreasury Plan—a new currency system predicated on the labor value of commodities, which got appropriated and pressed into the service of finance capital with the Progressive-era founding of the Federal Reserve in 1913.
And very much contrary to Hofstadter’s portrait of Populists as xenophobes, bigots, and racists, the movement sought to forge cross-racial coalitions of farmers and workers in the former Confederacy; it was the creation of a Colored Farmers’ Alliance in the Southern and Western states that terrified the Southern plantocracy, which then proceeded to launch the vicious reign of modern white supremacy in the South, as C. Vann Woodward documented in his 1955 work The Strange Career of Jim Crow, and as Lawrence Goodwyn showed in his magisterial 1976 study Democratic Promise. Hofstadter only managed to rouse the image of an incorrigibly racist and bigoted Populist movement by selectively culling outbursts from movement leaders such as Thomas E. Watson, Ignatius Donnelly, and Mary Elizabeth Lease. Several of these figures—Watson chief among them—embraced such ugly sentiments in the wake of Populism’s abrupt collapse after the 1896 election, and in concert with the consolidation of the white supremacist regime in the modern South. To isolate Populists as the principal source of racist reaction in the region and the country at large, as Hofstadter and his many followers have done, is very much like blaming the medical profession for the rise of the coronavirus.
In truth, the modern right was never backward-looking and mulishly anti-intellectual.
And yet amid the McCarthyist Red Scare a half-century later, Hofstadter evoked the same basic altar call of woeful rural and small-town anomie and forever-diminishing status, half-consciously expressed and palliated as racist and nativist rage and resentment in the postwar American right. Never mind that many other students of the postwar right have pointed up its affluent and modernist affinities, particularly in Sun Belt outposts of the new war and aerospace economy such as Southern California. In truth, the modern right was never backward-looking and mulishly anti-intellectual; it was, rather, Janus-faced, invoking a mythic and salvific vision of “pristine capitalism,” as historian Darren Dochuk has dubbed it, even in the booming suburbs created by massive subventions from the federal military and connected by the new Interstate Highway System (launched, by the way, by a Republican president with the national security aim of effectuating the rapid evacuation of cities in the wake of a nuclear attack on American soil).


newrepublic--2020-04-16--The Democrats’ Terrible Health Care Solution for the Newly Unemployed

Earlier this week , I received a letter whose return address immediately alarmed me .
It was from COBRA , the simultaneously awkwardly and aptly named institution through which I currently get my health insurance .
( It ’ s an acronym derived from “ Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act ” that reminds one of a dangerous snake . )
The last time COBRA had written to me it was to tell me my premiums were going up on March 1 , from $ 934.31 to $ 1038.68 per month .
That letter notified me , in the midst of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the workforce faced the possibility of near-term unemployment , that my last premium payment had fallen “ insignificantly short ” —by 68 cents .
“ Failure to pay the insignificant amount by the due date will result in the termination of your COBRA coverage , ” the letter warned .
My COBRA coverage is more expensive than my rent .
I don ’ t have my premium payment on auto-pay because I ’ m always afraid it ’ ll overdraw my account .
But I ’ d better pony up that 68 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ health insurance .
That same day that the federal government was spending postage to bill me 68 cents , House Democrats announced a new bill , the Worker Health Coverage Protection Act , to help workers who will lose their employer-sponsored health insurance as a result of being laid off or furloughed due to the pandemic .
COBRA typically allows those who lose employer-sponsored insurance along with their jobs to stay on their employer-provided plan for 18 to 36 months , but they have to pay the full price of the insurance ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Under the “ solution ” that House Democrats have put forward for the pandemic , the government would assume the costs that laid-off workers would normally have to pay , and would extend this benefit for six months following the official end of the public health emergency .
That ’ s a lot of money .
It ’ s estimated that employers in America spend $ 15,000 per household per year on health insurance coverage .
COBRA is managed by an outside administrator , which collects payments and acts as an intermediary between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In essence , what ’ s being proposed are incremental changes that will continue to bankroll the bloated private health insurance industry .
Congress tried the same thing during the last financial crisis , but only covered 65 percent of COBRA premium costs , which most people couldn ’ t afford .
This time , Congress will cover 100 percent , following to a tee instructions that the insurance industry ’ s lobbying arm sent to Congress recommending they “ provide temporary full federal subsidization of COBRA premiums , as well as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ”

In the meantime, I was due to pick up my birth control, and even though my COBRA insurance would apparently apply retroactively to Jan. 1, I needed the prescription before my plan finally went into effect, so I ended up paying for it out-of-pocket (not after many unfruitful efforts to speed up the COBRA enrollment process) without insurance, but with a coupon, making the bill a cool $175. Even though the plan didn’t become active until the very end of January, I still owed the full monthly premium amount.
And yet I’m one of the lucky few who, though it’s difficult, has managed to make paying for COBRA work for me as a temporary measure. None of my conditions are life-threatening. I don’t have a spouse or children whose COBRA premiums I would also need to cover. I was lucky enough to get a job right before the coronavirus crisis hit, that is possible to perform remotely, and—while it doesn’t include benefits because it’s a temporary position—pays me enough to write that painful $1,038 (sorry, I mean $1,038.68) check each month. I have the privilege of a family that could help me out if I really found myself in a jam.
While covering the cost of COBRA temporarily will be helpful in the short term to the 3.5 million people who had lost their jobs and employer-provided health insurance as a result of the coronavirus crisis as of April 2, less than half of the country is on employer-sponsored insurance. Moreover, the most significant job losses have occurred in industries like hospitality, food service, and retail, sectors where employers are far less likely to provide health insurance (and even then, only to full-time employees). Seventeen million people have applied for unemployment benefits since the pandemic began. At best, this bill will help a fraction of that newly-unemployed workforce.


newrepublic--2020-04-16--Trump Finds His Own Dumb Endless War

Trump Finds His Own Dumb Endless War

Experts differ on the appropriate way to acknowledge an Air Force fighter jet flyover .
Saying “ thank you , ” however loudly , doesn ’ t seem sufficient ; the planes are very far away and moving very quickly , after all , and generate an ear-splitting wake of raw noise .
While the Air Force Thunderbirds flew over Las Vegas on Saturday in what the secretary of the Air Force called a “ salute to the first responders , health providers & the entire Nation # inthistogether , ” a simple “ you ’ re welcome ” doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ response , either .
Thunderbirds commander Lt. Col. John Caldwell said the purpose of the mission was for the broader public , essential employees and inessential employees and newly minted un-employees and everyone else , to notice that the flyover was happening .
“ We want Las Vegas residents to look up from their homes and enjoy the display of American resolve and pride , ” Caldwell said , “ while keeping front-line coronavirus responders in their hearts during this unprecedented time in our nation.
” The basic message seemed clear at last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do .
In the absence of any sense of progress or even directed movement , and under the immense pressure of various glaring contradictions and increasingly undeniable institutional collapse , American national life first spiderwebbed and then exploded into little episodic shards .
The pebbled remains of it can not be readily pieced back together ; no edge really seems to fit with any other , or is even identifiable as having once comprised any particular part of the now completely broken whole .
All of it came from the same shattered thing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its own : a thank-you flyover from a squadron of F-16 ’ s over an empty city ; the president reading a long list of CEO ’ s names in the White House ’ s rose garden for reasons that are not immediately clear ; a man tearfully telling a Fox News reporter that Michigan must be opened for business so he can buy lawn-care products ; pallets of hoarded hand sanitizer hauled out of a personal storage facility by agents of the state ; impossibly obtuse celebrities singing John Lennon ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social media ; a couple thousand people dying the same way , of the same virus , every single day .
Every president shapes the broader cultural moment he presides over , but the greatest and bleakest and most singular achievement of Donald Trump ’ s presidency has been his total absorption into that moment , and vice versa : the nation at large now experiences and engages with things more or less as Trump himself does .
Trump didn ’ t invent this fragmentation , although he ’ s surely done his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of steepening precarity and endless war and relentless grinding political failure created the conditions necessary for someone like Trump to get nominated and elected ( and quite possibly re-elected ) .
More crucially , though , the past 20 years also helped create Trump ’ s uniquely cynical , uniquely credulous worldview .
Nothing connects , nothing is really related to anything else beyond the sort of anxious and amorphous grievance that Trump ’ s favorite news shows sell ; nothing seems to bind yesterday ’ s events to today ’ s , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s .
Trump is certainly not the first purebred dunce to occupy the Oval Office , but it ’ s hard to imagine any previous president being as obviously overmatched and confounded by the basic day-to-day continuity of it .
Trump ’ s world resets every morning at the moment when he first turns on the television .
He reacts to what he finds there , every day , like a cornered animal ; he doesn ’ t take any kind of lesson from any of it , because he doesn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind of experience .
It ’ s why he is not really anything like a full person , but it is also why he is , and how he has been , president .
Every single day , the sprawling and metastatic pandemic that he has willfully and childishly botched and only grudgingly ever addressed reasserts itself , and every day , as his stormy moods move him and as the day ’ s media coverage directs him , Trump takes a different tack on it .
That response may reflect some political @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Every day is a new fragment of an endless blundering present , and tomorrow will be both different and the same .
He has lived this way all his life .

Presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden was also happy to grant Trump the status he sought (“Trump keeps saying that he’s a wartime president. Well, start to act like one.”), but urged him to be responsible with it. This reflex to be the reasonable partner drew the same response from Republicans that it did when Democrats hopped onboard with George W. Bush’s vicious and imbecilic foreign wars. Without missing a beat, they accused the Democrats of being disloyal to the point of being Objectively Pro-Coronavirus. “In a prebuttal to Biden’s criticisms,” Politico reported, “Trump’s campaign Monday accused the Democrat of ‘undermining Americans’ confidence in the federal government’s response to a global pandemic and preying upon Americans’ fears.’”
The grim theatricality of all this—Republicans careening wild-eyed and slavering from one conflict to another, Democrats trailing on behind with their polite concerns—is grimmer still when one pauses to note, as the major players very rarely do, that our sprawling set of millennial “forever wars” are still very much in the process of being lost. It has been years since those wars were big national news, but they go on in large part because the very idea of ending them somehow became conflated with defeat, and is therefore unthinkable. The abstract horror of effectively endless, obviously pointless violence and suffering happening somewhere over the horizon has become, over time, something that both parties chose over the more urgently unpleasant acknowledgment of its criminal futility. Trump has been a wartime president, in the most literal sense, for every moment that he has been president. It just hasn’t really suited him to acknowledge it, until now, apropos of a conflict that entails massive human sacrifice but no accompanying militaristic pomp.
The administration has responded to this metastatic pandemic with weird lies and distracting interpersonal feuds between unpleasant and territorial men.
Trump himself was quick to drop the basic war framing not long after floating it—the guy just loves to drop things—but his partisans have been a little more stubborn. It is clear that a public health crisis is different from a war, and it is equally clear that neither Trump nor the hollowed-out administrative state he’s created has what it takes to do the urgent and difficult work necessary to prepare for either challenge. The administration has responded to this metastatic pandemic in the way that it responds to everything—with weird lies and distracting interpersonal feuds between unpleasant and territorial men and a proliferation of cheesy scandals, but not with anything that could really be called a coordinated federal response. The failure of the state has been total, and deeply bizarre to observe—fragmented, chaotic, grudging, insufficient, and multiply overwhelmed in its response to vulnerable people and small businesses, queasily servile to the nation’s most powerful economic forces and richest individuals. Things get worse every day and look likely to do so for some time, but that continuum—let alone the concept of consequences—is something Trump himself just cannot comprehend.


newrepublic--2020-04-16--Trump Can’t Lie His Way Out of This One

Trump Can’t Lie His Way Out of This One

On Tuesday , in the midst of a rant against the World Health Organization , Donald Trump actually said , “ It would have been so easy to be truthful.
” Richard Nixon in his speeches would often ridicule “ the easy political path.
” But Trump goes even further than Tricky Dick , since he never seems to be able to bring himself to take easy street to the truth .
The only mystery surrounding Trump ’ s mendacity is whether he knows that he ’ s lying or whether he is trapped inside his own world of alternative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his lies either because they are too inconsequential or because they would require too much effort to disprove .
Voters , for example , would have to know something about the events in Salem , Massachusetts , in 1692 , or the more recent history of McCarthyism to be able to debunk Trump , the Martyr , every time he wails that he is a victim of a historical “ witch hunt.
” Trump ’ s lies about Covid-19 are both more serious and more politically devastating .
Sure , Trump can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that cutting off its funding also jeopardizes the continuing effort against Ebola in Africa .
But when it comes to matters at home regarding the virus , Americans are paying keen attention .

On Tuesday, in the midst of a rant against the World Health Organization, Donald Trump actually said, “It would have been so easy to be truthful.”
Richard Nixon in his speeches would often ridicule “the easy political path.” But Trump goes even further than Tricky Dick, since he never seems to be able to bring himself to take easy street to the truth. The only mystery surrounding Trump’s mendacity is whether he knows that he’s lying or whether he is trapped inside his own world of alternative facts.


That Are

Then I became this stupid , trilling thing : what I desired was to become obscene .
All the things @ @ @ @ @ then fell away in the long struggle between winter and spring .
And then there @ @ @ @ @ of my soul .
It had different aspirations .
What form does it take without @ @ @ @ @ a hideous new way , and as patient as a mountain .
The soul is @ @ @ @ @ So when I say stupid , I simply offer meaninglessness .
And when I say @ @ @ @ @ a leaving off of past sound .
And when I am obscene , I am @ @ @ @ @ .
And so on and so on , with things that are .

Then I became this stupid, trilling thing:
what I desired was to become obscene.
All the things I had loved up to then
fell away in the long struggle between winter and spring.
And then there was my body, inside of my soul.
It had different aspirations.
What form does it take without the soul?
Helpless in a hideous new way,
and as patient as a mountain. The soul is an innocent before it.
So when I say stupid, I simply offer meaninglessness.
And when I say trilling, I only mean a leaving off of past sound.
And when I am obscene, I am shorn of all expository passages.
And so on and so on, with things that are.


newrepublic--2020-04-17--Blessed Are the Rich

Blessed Are the Rich

If the scriptures punched into me anything , it ’ s that the future is a torso in a bag , hidden in prison before summoned to be true .
Space-sex , where has your winter gone ?
Today we lust after younger gravities .
Sudden February in New York City too hot and royal blue .
Like a comet ’ s coma .
Robot-blood .
And the collective cerebrum in tech plants a bramble of code : cellular fruit to get there first— one of the exoplanets , the news outlets say , must be awash in water : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cobalt .
A hole diluting .
Wet .
For what ?
Flagpole ?
A NASA emoji .
Signs of alien life are now more probable than ever .
There ’ s no geometry to language , but in America , alien borders me and everyone and I love .
Shoot-shoot .
Skirting my street , elm branches aglow with plastic bags : wings .
Dirt-bound .
So faint a verve of dead light , dead meat .
Familiar footsteps ... the uninterpreted world signals smoke in the distance : no , no .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ with our ape-skull , I want to be thankful .
Eggshell in space .
Milk-toothy ache ; small dwarf— Trappist-1 .
The Ultra-cool , our astro-monk .
Solar Sister , so tell us—how to , how to disassemble our fragile empire without ballooning the glottal-bleat system for another .
The red moon in our mouth wreaks havoc .
That debt .
The digits of home .

If the scriptures punched into me anything, it’s that the future
is a torso in a bag, hidden in prison
before summoned to be true. Space-sex, where has your winter gone?
Today we lust after younger gravities.
Sudden February in New York City too hot and royal blue.
Like a comet’s coma. Robot-blood.
And the collective cerebrum in tech plants a bramble
of code: cellular fruit to get there first—
one of the exoplanets, the news outlets say, must be awash in water:
H2O slapping its weeping waves around a cobalt. A hole diluting.
Wet. For what? Flagpole? A NASA emoji.
Signs of alien life are now more probable than ever.
There’s no geometry to language, but in America, alien
borders me and everyone and I love. Shoot-shoot.
Skirting my street, elm branches aglow
with plastic bags: wings. Dirt-bound. So faint a verve of dead light, dead meat.
Familiar footsteps ... the uninterpreted world
signals smoke in the distance: no, no. Fact that assaults us.
In coalition with our ape-skull, I want to be thankful.
Eggshell in space. Milk-toothy ache; small dwarf—
Trappist-1. The Ultra-cool, our astro-monk.
Solar Sister, so tell us—how to, how to
disassemble our fragile empire without ballooning
the glottal-bleat system for another.
The red moon in our mouth
wreaks havoc. That debt. The digits of home.


newrepublic--2020-04-17--Could Hunter Biden Cost His Father the Election?

As soon as Joe Biden reclaimed his position as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination , the right set its sights once more on his son Hunter .
Two days after Biden ’ s South Carolina victory , Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin announced that he would soon subpoena the first witness in a Republican Senate probe into Hunter Biden ’ s work for the Ukrainian gas utility Burisma .
Conservatives seized on the news with undisguised glee .
The day after Super Tuesday , Trump said he ’ d make Hunter “ a major issue in the campaign .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ time , ” and Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum asked Kellyanne Conway if we could expect to hear “ a lot more about investigations into the Biden family.
” Conservative pundits had been banging on about Burisma for months , but they are now ramping up their focus on Hunter ’ s ties to the D.C. consultancy Blue Star Strategies , which allegedly lobbied the State Department on behalf of Burisma and other political groups in Ukraine .
One of the founders of Blue Star , a former Clinton administration official named Sally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the board of a national security think tank .
While their connection is nothing nefarious , Republicans seem to be preparing to use it to run the same playbook they wielded against Hillary Clinton—portraying a mundane ethics issue as evidence that the Democratic candidate is irredeemably embedded in the Washington establishment .
Biden may emerge unscathed .
He has much higher favorability ratings than Clinton , and he will be running this fall against a toxic incumbent who has just botched a pandemic response .
But if conservatives can paint Biden as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be able to eat away at his core message : that his election would represent a return to the politics of integrity .
As long as Johnson ’ s Senate probe produces a steady drip of revelations , conservative outrage will lead to damaging news cycles in the mainstream media .
Eventually , those stories will cloud out the facts , and the only thing voters will remember is that Hunter did shady stuff somewhere , at some time .
Trump , of course , has done far worse ( his own sons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 100 million in real estate since 2016 ) , but he excels at shifting the blame onto others , and his sons are already playing offense .
In March , Don Jr. challenged Hunter to a debate to “ talk about who profited off of whose public service.
” With a pandemic spreading through the country and both their fathers sheltering from infection , this race may soon devolve into an election fought by proxy , one son against the other .

As soon as Joe Biden reclaimed his position as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, the right set its sights once more on his son Hunter. Two days after Biden’s South Carolina victory, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin announced that he would soon subpoena the first witness in a Republican Senate probe into Hunter Biden’s work for the Ukrainian gas utility Burisma. Conservatives seized on the news with undisguised glee. The day after Super Tuesday, Trump said he’d make Hunter “a major issue in the campaign. I will bring that up all the time,” and Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum asked Kellyanne Conway if we could expect to hear “a lot more about investigations into the Biden family.”
Conservative pundits had been banging on about Burisma for months, but they are now ramping up their focus on Hunter’s ties to the D.C. consultancy Blue Star Strategies, which allegedly lobbied the State Department on behalf of Burisma and other political groups in Ukraine. One of the founders of Blue Star, a former Clinton administration official named Sally Painter, had previously served with Hunter on the board of a national security think tank. While their connection is nothing nefarious, Republicans seem to be preparing to use it to run the same playbook they wielded against Hillary Clinton—portraying a mundane ethics issue as evidence that the Democratic candidate is irredeemably embedded in the Washington establishment.


newrepublic--2020-04-17--Essential Jobs, Disposable Workers

Essential Jobs, Disposable Workers

For many conservatives , there ’ s something bordering on romantic about the current minimum wage .
It ’ s not a lock into poverty , it ’ s a rite of passage .
“ You can ’ t just knock out the entry level of the economy , ” Wall Street Journal editor James Freeman said in July .
“ You don ’ t want to disrupt that natural , healthy process of young people , unskilled people , coming into the workforce , gaining experience , moving up.
” In 2013 , spooked by the rising momentum of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Business host Charles Payne put it more bluntly .
“ When we start talking about a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour , what we ’ re trying to say is that mediocrity should be rewarded , ” he said in response to a fast food worker walkout over wages .
This ugly disregard for minimum-wage workers is just one consequence of a vast and increasing divide between the two ends of the workforce , which has now been thrown into sharp relief by the pandemic .
The coronavirus outbreak in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but the economic backdrop for it was an explosion of low-wage work , or the kind of work that used to be called “ unskilled.
” Of course , in our current time of crisis , much of that same work has been swiftly reclassified .
“ Jobs that people formerly considered not very valuable—grocery clerks , janitors , delivery people , and truck drivers—are now essential to our survival , ” Arne Kalleberg , a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of the book @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Rich Democracies , told The New Republic .
Kalleberg ’ s research has traced the troubling rise of job polarization—or the growth of both highly paid knowledge work and precarious , low-wage service sector jobs , with little in the middle—since the 1970s .
Even as the official unemployment rate in the U.S. reached a historic low in the years following the Great Recession , a significant share of new jobs created were low-wage positions with few or no benefits and little job security .
A Brookings Institution report released late last @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers between the ages of 18 and 64 , or more than 53 million people , were low-wage hourly workers .
“ They are not only students , people at the beginning of their careers , or people who need extra spending money , ” Brookings researchers Martha Ross and Nicole Bateman wrote , a subtle rebuttal to conservative claims about how these jobs are held by teenagers looking for a little extra cash .
“ A majority are adults in their prime working years , and low-wage work is the primary way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Much of that labor force has now been tasked during the pandemic with keeping stores open and stocked , delivering food and mail , and caring for the sick and vulnerable , and is , as a result , at heightened risk for contracting the coronavirus .
Earlier this week , The Washington Post reported that at least 41 grocery store workers had died of the virus .
Worse still is that workers in these and other low-wage jobs often lack access to benefits like paid leave and health insurance , and many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ t providing sufficient protective equipment , such as masks and gloves , as they work during the pandemic .

For many conservatives, there’s something bordering on romantic about the current minimum wage. It’s not a lock into poverty, it’s a rite of passage. “You can’t just knock out the entry level of the economy,” Wall Street Journal editor James Freeman said in July. “You don’t want to disrupt that natural, healthy process of young people, unskilled people, coming into the workforce, gaining experience, moving up.” In 2013, spooked by the rising momentum of the Fight for $15, Fox Business host Charles Payne put it more bluntly. “When we start talking about a minimum wage of $15 an hour, what we’re trying to say is that mediocrity should be rewarded,” he said in response to a fast food worker walkout over wages.
This ugly disregard for minimum-wage workers is just one consequence of a vast and increasing divide between the two ends of the workforce, which has now been thrown into sharp relief by the pandemic. The coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. is an unexpected and catastrophic development, but the economic backdrop for it was an explosion of low-wage work, or the kind of work that used to be called “unskilled.” Of course, in our current time of crisis, much of that same work has been swiftly reclassified. “Jobs that people formerly considered not very valuable—grocery clerks, janitors, delivery people, and truck drivers—are now essential to our survival,” Arne Kalleberg, a sociologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of the book Precarious Lives: Job Insecurity and Well-Being in Rich Democracies, told The New Republic.


newrepublic--2020-04-17--A New Home in a Country Shuttered by a Pandemic

Of that first group , Aizenman said , “ Right now their rent may be covered by refugee programs , but that clock is ticking .
They ’ re going to have a roof over their head and their urgent needs are going to be met , but they ’ re not getting that normal beginning to launch them .
But those are just the basics , she added : “ When this all ends , it ’ s going to take some time to get them job ready .
They need a social [ security number ] , they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t get bank accounts.
” It also doesn ’ t help that refugees whose travel is coordinated by the United Nations ’ International Organization for Migration ( IOM ) —which is the majority—are required to pay the organization back .
The issues aren ’ t just with work , though .
A lot of what the VOLAGs and their affiliates do is to simply get refugees used to the U.S. , practically and culturally .
This is much more difficult in a country that is mostly shut down due to a pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ food pantries ?
How do you walk there ?
” said Alicia Wrenn , senior director of resettlement and integration at HIAS , which was founded in 1881 as The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and is one of the nine large VOLAGs in the U.S. “ Somebody would normally explain how to use the bus .
They would actually take them to the metro and ride with them.
” In this way , much of the early resettlement process relies on interaction and shared community spaces .
As stay-home orders and social distancing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apart , all of that is now much harder , at a time when recent arrivals need that support more than ever .
In some cases , this has caused friction between refugees and local resettlement groups , whose hands are somewhat tied by the crisis .
Mumtaz Sharzad worked with U.S. military and civilian contractors in Afghanistan for five years before receiving an SIV in early March .
Typically , travel is arranged by the IOM , but Mumtaz feared that the U.S. would set up border closures as the virus spread @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and his pregnant wife .
“ I was living with my family , my father , my brothers , my sisters , my wife .
So I spent all the money I got each month from my job on my family , ” he said .
“ When I bought the tickets , I borrowed some money from relatives.
” Now in Maryland , he is vexed by the various systems governing his new life .
“ We have Medicaid , but we don ’ t know how to use it , how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , because no one is telling us , ” he said .
The day before we spoke , he said he had horrible chest pains and called his case manager , but she told him they weren ’ t allowed to come into clients ’ homes during the pandemic .
After a couple Google searches , he discovered 911 ; paramedics told him that he was experiencing extreme stress .

“Right now their rent may be covered by refugee programs, but that clock is ticking.”
Of that first group, Aizenman said, “Right now their rent may be covered by refugee programs, but that clock is ticking. They’re going to have a roof over their head and their urgent needs are going to be met, but they’re not getting that normal beginning to launch them.” But those are just the basics, she added: “When this all ends, it’s going to take some time to get them job ready. They need a social [security number], they need a state I.D. They can’t get bank accounts.” It also doesn’t help that refugees whose travel is coordinated by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM)—which is the majority—are required to pay the organization back.
The issues aren’t just with work, though. A lot of what the VOLAGs and their affiliates do is to simply get refugees used to the U.S., practically and culturally. This is much more difficult in a country that is mostly shut down due to a pandemic. “Where are [local] food pantries? How do you walk there?” said Alicia Wrenn, senior director of resettlement and integration at HIAS, which was founded in 1881 as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and is one of the nine large VOLAGs in the U.S. “Somebody would normally explain how to use the bus. They would actually take them to the metro and ride with them.” In this way, much of the early resettlement process relies on interaction and shared community spaces. As stay-home orders and social distancing guidelines force more and more of us apart, all of that is now much harder, at a time when recent arrivals need that support more than ever.
In some cases, this has caused friction between refugees and local resettlement groups, whose hands are somewhat tied by the crisis. Mumtaz Sharzad worked with U.S. military and civilian contractors in Afghanistan for five years before receiving an SIV in early March. Typically, travel is arranged by the IOM, but Mumtaz feared that the U.S. would set up border closures as the virus spread and decided to buy tickets for himself and his pregnant wife. “I was living with my family, my father, my brothers, my sisters, my wife. So I spent all the money I got each month from my job on my family,” he said. “When I bought the tickets, I borrowed some money from relatives.”


newrepublic--2020-04-17--The Hard Truth About Antibody Tests

The Hard Truth About Antibody Tests

As President Donald J. Trump made moves this week to open the economy back up , public health officials warned that there are still not enough coronavirus tests available to make that possible .
They cautioned that American health infrastructure—from testing and treating to contact tracing and monitoring those in self-quarantine—needs to be firmly established before gently easing restrictions .
One public health tool that could speed the return to normalcy is serological tests—blood tests that measure antibodies to the virus , in theory determining who may have developed immunity .
The blood test has been called “ the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distancing , ” “ a potential game changer , ” the “ first step ” or the “ key ” to getting back to normal .
The question is whether we ’ re anywhere close to being able to produce reliable forms of these tests—and whether we even know enough about the virus and immunity in general to be able to draw broad conclusions from them .
Standard coronavirus tests check for active virus particles in the nose and throat , in effect determining who is currently sick and at risk of passing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quick , relatively simple finger-prick or blood draw , serological tests can identify people who have already mounted an immune response to the coronavirus—regardless of whether they became ill but have now recovered , or perhaps showed mild or no symptoms at all .
These tests look for antibodies that the body creates , often after symptoms have eased—sometimes as long as two weeks after the infection .
Serological tests are important for a number of reasons .
Researchers can conduct serological surveys to get a better picture of how and where the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knowing how many children had the virus would affect where and when schools are reopened .
Getting a clearer idea of how many people have had the virus is also important in calculating transmission and mortality rates .
The tests could help identify hot spots , allowing officials to ramp up testing and contact tracing in hard-hit areas , while easing restrictions in places that seem to be doing okay .

This month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted four emergency authorizations for serological tests. Not all tests need to be authorized by the FDA. A month ago, the agency released guidelines for effective serological testing procedures to aid any company in devising their own tests—part of the FDA’s relaxed rules to encourage the rapid creation of tools quickly in the face of the pandemic.
One such test was developed by Boston Heart Diagnostics. Normally, the company uses blood tests to assess risk for heart disease, liver issues, and signs of diabetes so that patients can make different dietary decisions. Patrick Noland, president of the company, said they have little of that work right now, since patients are avoiding non-emergency visits to their doctors. The company changed direction after the FDA issued guidance last month for developing serological tests. “We realized that, wow, we’ve got everything we need to run Covid antibodies, and immediately started doing that,” Noland told me. They developed and tested their assay, and brought it to market three weeks later. Noland likened their unexpected shift to Dyson, the vacuum cleaner company, switching to ventilator manufacturing. Their Massachusetts lab is also New York State–certified, and they can do 4,800 tests a day, he said.
But serological tests are not a silver bullet. First of all, some tests may not be accurate; researchers and companies creating the tests have struggled to get blood samples from patients who had confirmed cases of the virus, in order to check the accuracy of their serological tests. British officials ordered more than four million serological tests in March that turned out to be faulty; now, working tests may not be available in the United Kingdom until next month. In addition, many of the same issues with testing for the active virus apply to the serological tests, with supply shortages, overstretched laboratories, and a lack of personal protective equipment for the health workers conducting the tests. And some experts worry that tests rushed to the market for commercial consumption and unauthorized by the FDA could create even bigger problems—especially in the case of false positives, which could lead people to believe they are now immune to the virus when they are not.


newrepublic--2020-04-17--How Drugs Made American Warfare

How Drugs Made American Warfare

In 1971 , the year President Richard Nixon declared war on drugs , “ wherever they are in the world , ” the House Select Committee on Crime found that , between 1966 and 1969 , the Pentagon had distributed 225 million doses of speed to active-duty troops in Vietnam .
“ We had the best amphetamines available , ” one veteran recalled , “ and they were supplied by the U.S. government.
” Doled out “ like candies , ” is how another put it .
In just four years , the Army alone popped more uppers than all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ War II combined .
With Dexedrine , the standard issue “ pep pill , ” almost twice as potent per milligram as the Greatest Generation ’ s “ bennies , ” Forrest Gump wasn ’ t the only all-American supersoldier bounding invincibly through hellfire in ‘ Nam .
Those still habituated to sleep got by on milder stimulants .
Many young Vietnamese women sold glasses of “ Saigon tea , ” which often contained regular tea , to lonely U.S. grunts .
Outside the bars and brothels , the patriotic choice would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expedience that had secured new shelf-life in the kitchens of Golden Age consumers .
Protected for decades by the U.S. government , Big Tobacco stocked military rations with specially designed cigarette four-packs .
And for caffeinated refreshment in the oppressive heat , there was always Coca-Cola .
Centrally-planned WWII mobilization had underwritten the company ’ s dizzying overseas market conquests .
And while 1971 ’ s “ I ’ d Like to Buy the World a Coke ” ad beamed anti-war harmony from a literal hilltop , executives made sure to keep shipping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s “ trees and honey bees ” in napalm and Agent Orange .
Weed helped some G.I.s take the edge off .
Heroin—trafficked primarily by anti-communist CIA assets in Hong Kong and the Golden Triangle , or else by U.S. soldiers—was cheap and pure enough to smoke .
Nixon blamed these illicit depressants for a defeat he knew was inevitable .
( His “ public enemy number one ” speech came just four days after the New York Times began releasing the Pentagon Papers . )
But sanctioned substance abuse in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ultimately more destructive .
“ Everyone in Vietnam drank like fish , ” an infantry private observed , “ and every chance you got you drank yourself silly.
” By 1971 , Nixon himself had entered a racist , booze-addled spiral of desperation and paranoid rage .
Killer High : A History of War in Six Drugs is Peter Andreas ’ s attempt to work backwards from the half-century prohibition disaster that followed—to understand how “ war made drugs , and drugs made war , ” long before there was such a thing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Diversely sourced and well-narrated , it explores the messy psychological dimensions of that ancient “ drugs-war relationship.
” But Andreas ’ s headiest insights deal with the material logic of empire .
All contemporary “ major powers , ” Andreas writes , “ have at various times , in various ways , and to varying degrees , relied on drugs and drug revenue to carry out their state-making and war-making objectives.
” In that sense , neither the immense chemical might of the U.S. military industrial complex nor its escalating fixation on drugs @ @ @ @ @ @

Andreas covers lots of battlefield in this relentlessly captivating, 266-page march of a survey, from Persia to Peru, imperial Japan to medieval Scandinavia, the rise of Mesopotamian grain agriculture to the fall of the Berlin Wall. But Killer High is “necessarily selective.” The West towers over Andreas’s lineup of “state-building projects” in the global south. Aside from an offhand, critical reference to the “doped-up child soldiers” trope, Africa is virtually absent. Andreas rationalizes some of these choices—he excludes psychedelics because they are “niche rather than mass-produced drugs”—but one also suspects he’s avoided their implications for his argument.
The protagonists of Andreas’s hazy chronology are the book’s six titular “war drugs,” each of which receives a dedicated chapter. There’s a brief social prehistory and physiological breakdown. Then Andreas traces the drug through the blood stains of martial history. Alcohol, the “oldest mass-consumption drug,” comes first. The Sumerian goddess Ninkasi presided over the making of both beer and war. In his sovereign Code, the conquering Babylonian King Hammurabi delineated 20 different types of brew. Nicotine is next to rival alcohol’s “addictive relationship to war.” Less than a hundred years after tobacco’s discovery by Spanish colonizers, Samurai knights were carrying ornate pipes, not unlike those that heralded conflict and inaugurated peace on the plains of North America. Caffeine is “the world’s most popular mind-altering drug”; opioids, “the focus of the world’s first true ‘drug war.’” The book’s only synthetic invention, amphetamines, coincides with the industrialization of warfare. And finally, as we advance through the American Century, “no drug has been a target of more war than cocaine.”
Some readers might feel disoriented by the constant temporal skips and shifting geopolitical circumstances. But structuring the book around discrete substances allows Andreas to distill their essence, those attributes that render them “especially exploitable” for specific modes of warfare. He notes, for instance, how distilled spirits, an innovation of Islamic science, gave “compact, concentrated, and durable form” to European colonial ambition during the Age of Exploration. By mixing rum and sugar from their Caribbean plantations with bacteria-infested water and scurvy-preventing lime juice, the British stumbled onto a recipe for 18th century naval dominance—and for an early progenitor of the cocktail. Logistically superior to cigars while delivering a sharper buzz than pipe tobacco, the cigarette had undeniable military advantages, particularly after the advent of mechanized rolling. In Afghanistan as in Mexico, poppy happens to grow well in war-torn peripheral regions with immediate economic needs and deep historical grievances.


newrepublic--2020-04-17--Samantha Irby Is All Grown Up

Samantha Irby Is All Grown Up

A man once complimented Samantha Irby ’ s back during sex .
Flattered , she gave it an exfoliating treatment , which unfortunately scraped the skin raw .
The next time Irby ’ s suitor knocked on her door “ bearing nothing but lidded eyes and a throbbing erection , ” he was alarmed by the inflamed torso he ’ d admired before .
“ Good ol ’ thermometer dick , ” Irby writes , a preacher circling around to the moral of her sermon : “ reminding me that no good deed goes unpunished and you should never do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” This misanthropic apothegm is from Irby ’ s new book Wow , No Thank You , which debuted at the top of the New York Times ’ s paperback nonfiction best sellers list two weeks ago .
It ’ s Irby ’ s third collection of essays , although they all read more like beautifully edited blogs .
Irby ’ s career as a writer began on MySpace , but it was the Blogspot site BitchesGottaEat that made her name .
She wrote about her life there at length , blurring the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Irby kept that site running from 2009 to 2014 , as it gained a cult readership and eventually yielded a “ blog-to-book ” publishing success story .
Irby ’ s writing mixes recent anecdotes with stories from her difficult early life .
The bare bones are important to know .
She was a very poor kid in Evanston , Illinois , and her parents died when she was a teenager .
By then she had been caring for her mother , who had multiple sclerosis , for a long time .
That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bear at such a tender age , but it was not accompanied by practical life lessons .
Nobody explained to young Samantha what a credit score was or how to get one , and after dropping out of college she began adult life about as unprepared as it is possible to be .
This is why the adult Samantha spends her paycheck on fancy candles and expensive makeup .
That ’ s the backdrop to Irby ’ s long-running prose sitcom .
The comedy derives from the scrapes our wise-cracking heroine gets herself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job at the pet hospital and braves the dating scene .
Sex , memory , money complexes , intestinal distress : Those are the signature Irby motifs , and they blend to make both her best jokes and saddest stories .
For example , the essay “ Sorry I Shit on Your Dick ” from the 2013 collection Meaty is a joint investigation into digestive problems and romance , an adventure along the searing knife-edge of humiliation .
Samantha survives .
She learns that her “ bowels are hella unpredictable .
You have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advance , like peking duck .
”

It’s a much more grown-up book, and less sad than her others. Instead of complaining about sex with horrible men, Irby now grumbles affectionately about her granola-hippie spouse and the healthy snacks she buys. Where once she wrote odes to “Re-wearing Gross Panties With the Hardened Crotch,” now Irby has to remember not to swear in front of the children. For the longtime fan of Irby’s work, it’s a genuine pleasure to read about the safe and happy place she has found herself, even though the disasters were so fun to read.
The culture has changed, too. Irby’s frankness about her body and her refusal to pile it with shame felt radical when Meaty first came out. That book opens with a list of her perceived physical imperfections, like “insanely large mons pubis,” and “yellow foot bottoms.” It also contains some paragraphs about Irby’s weight that probably wouldn’t get published today, so far has America’s tolerance dropped for listening to people criticize fat women—which is ironic considering how important Irby has been to that change.
In its heyday, BitchesGottaEat was connected both to the fat acceptance movement online and to a thriving community of women bloggers inventing new ways to write about women’s bodies and minds. The influence of the bloggers who made wild comedy out of their vaginas and made fun of idiots on diets has been long-lasting. It’s more of a style—irreverent, almost cheesy sometimes, unrestrained—than a set of values. Many of these blogs weren’t edited, of course, which is probably why Irby’s site still hosts a pretty offensive post titled “I Tried to Fuck a Midget.”


newrepublic--2020-04-17--The Pandemic Is Christmas for Anti-Labor Ghouls

Given the enormity of our current crisis , it can feel difficult to imagine what life will look like on the other side of the coronavirus .
Calls to return to “ normal ” have rang out from every possible source—whether phased in and packaged as “ moderate ” or death cult tributes to free markets—despite the fact that normal before all this was was still incredibly bad .
But on one end of possibility , we have the option of things getting worse than what was “ normal ” under the already cruel former status quo .
And that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brokers and the wealthy are rooting for .
The Beige Book is an update issued eight times every year by the Federal Reserve , offering an overview of the nation ’ s present economic situation .
In the latest edition , issued Wednesday , it stated that , “ many businesses expected heightened slack in the labor market going forward , eliminating any prior upward pressure on wage and price growth.
” It ’ s a dire prediction , but also a trickle-down fantasy about how wages “ grow.
” There is nothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the current labor crisis .
Instead , the same people and institutions that have long conspired to keep workers broke and scrambling will see new opportunities to advance their agenda .
They always do .
Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia , son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia , has sought to roll back paid leave and prevent gig workers from accessing critical federal funds ; Scalia also sat on memos that would have required employers to provide PPEs to their workers and made it easier for small business owners to cut @ @ @ @ @ @ @ family leave in a crisis that has so far claimed the lives of over 30,000 Americans .
Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin joined Face the Nation earlier this week to declare that the $ 1,200 stimulus checks should last people for ten weeks , making it clear what kind of living he thinks millions of regular people are owed : You can see the same thing happening beyond the White House—using the crisis to justify the things executives and politicians would have just done anyway .
Dr. Anne Klibanski , the CEO @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care provider in Massachusetts , denied hazard pay requests by her nurses and doctors .
State leaders like Minnesota ’ s Democratic Governor Tim Walz rolled back collective bargaining agreements as part of a series of emergency measures in the state , and raised alarm among unions about a precedent that might open the door for red states to further dig the foundation out from under organized labor .
In Virginia , Democratic Governor Ralph Northam proposed pushing back a scheduled minimum wage bump .
Throughout the media industry , furloughs , pay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by venture capital owned outlets , with some trying to make the measures permanent—Sports Illustrated recently fired longtime writer Grant Wahl without severance after Wahl refused to accept a 30 percent pay cut that would extend beyond the pandemic .
Thanks to the work of unions like the Writers Guild of America East unit at Vox , some of the worst of these measures have been delayed or avoided , but , unfortunately , these cases have proven rare .

Steve Mnuchin thinks Americans can live on $1,200 for 10 weeks. pic.twitter.com/GrS0ON4gcm — Brianna Westbrook (@BWestbrookAZ8) April 15, 2020
You can see the same thing happening beyond the White House—using the crisis to justify the things executives and politicians would have just done anyway. Dr. Anne Klibanski, the CEO of Partners Healthcare, the largest health care provider in Massachusetts, denied hazard pay requests by her nurses and doctors. State leaders like Minnesota’s Democratic Governor Tim Walz rolled back collective bargaining agreements as part of a series of emergency measures in the state, and raised alarm among unions about a precedent that might open the door for red states to further dig the foundation out from under organized labor. In Virginia, Democratic Governor Ralph Northam proposed pushing back a scheduled minimum wage bump. Throughout the media industry, furloughs, pay cuts, and layoffs have been favored by venture capital owned outlets, with some trying to make the measures permanent—Sports Illustrated recently fired longtime writer Grant Wahl without severance after Wahl refused to accept a 30 percent pay cut that would extend beyond the pandemic. Thanks to the work of unions like the Writers Guild of America East unit at Vox, some of the worst of these measures have been delayed or avoided, but, unfortunately, these cases have proven rare.
These are not mistakes or gaffes. President Trump printing his name on those relief checks and rolling out Mnuchin to tell the recipients they need to stretch them for two-and-a-half months is a clear message. They are laying out their grift and anti-labor operations brazenly because they feel they can. On the other side of the pandemic, whenever that day arrives, the labor fights that were already uphill climbs—the push for a $15 minimum wage, Medicare for All—will become even steeper because of what is happening right now. They will also be more necessary than ever.


newrepublic--2020-04-17--To Protect and Serve, or Pilfer and Steal?

A few hours after the initial searches , Jessop and Ashjian told the court , Kumagai returned alone to Jessop ’ s house while his wife was home alone and said he needed to search it a second time .
From there , they allege that Kumagai went into the bedroom , where the officers had previously observed that Jessop kept a collection of rare coins , purportedly valued at $ 125,000 .
Kumagai spent several minutes alone in the bedroom , making this second sweep , and then left after saying his investigation was finished .
According to their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 275,000 from their searches , including the the coin collection , creating a discrepancy with the police inventory sheet the officers filed later that night , which stated that the officers had only seized $ 50,000 in cash .
No charges were filed against Jessop and Ashjian , though the city and officers say they avoided charges by agreeing to become informants and forfeiting the $ 50,000 .
In their reply brief for the court , the officers and the city “ categorically deny ” that any theft took place .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jessop may be exaggerating the coin collection ’ s existence and value .
They also note that the plaintiffs didn ’ t bring a lawsuit until two years later , after Kumagai was arrested in 2015 for what the city describes as “ an unrelated incident.
” In that incident , federal prosecutors said that Kumagai told a suspected drug dealer in 2013 that he could shield him from a federal investigation and get him registered as a confidential informant in exchange for a $ 40,000 bribe .
Kumagai eventually pleaded guilty to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prison sentence .
Whether the thefts really happened , however , doesn ’ t actually matter at this point in the litigation .
When public officials ask a court to dismiss a lawsuit against them on qualified-immunity grounds , courts always assume that the plaintiff ’ s allegations are factual when considering the request .
It ’ s unsurprising that the officers and the city want to strenuously insist that they didn ’ t do what the plaintiffs claim they did .
But it ’ s also irrelevant as a factor for judges @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there ’ s a factual dispute—and there often is—that ’ s what the trial , which the officers are trying to avoid , is supposed to untangle .
The Supreme Court ’ s test for qualified immunity hinges on whether the officers ’ alleged actions were not just unconstitutional , but “ clearly established ” as unconstitutional at the time .
Courts typically rely on federal court opinions to determine this .
In the Jessop case , both the district court and the Ninth Circuit found no clear precedent to establish that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a search .
The Ninth Circuit ’ s survey of cases found only an unpublished Fourth Circuit case from 2004 that found it would be unconstitutional to not return seized property and a Ninth Circuit case from 2017 on impounding vehicles without a warrant .
That ’ s not enough for a consensus , the panel found .

In their reply brief for the court, the officers and the city “categorically deny” that any theft took place. The brief strongly implies without stating outright that Jessop may be exaggerating the coin collection’s existence and value. They also note that the plaintiffs didn’t bring a lawsuit until two years later, after Kumagai was arrested in 2015 for what the city describes as “an unrelated incident.” In that incident, federal prosecutors said that Kumagai told a suspected drug dealer in 2013 that he could shield him from a federal investigation and get him registered as a confidential informant in exchange for a $40,000 bribe. Kumagai eventually pleaded guilty to accepting $20,000 and received a two-year prison sentence.
Whether the thefts really happened, however, doesn’t actually matter at this point in the litigation. When public officials ask a court to dismiss a lawsuit against them on qualified-immunity grounds, courts always assume that the plaintiff’s allegations are factual when considering the request. It’s unsurprising that the officers and the city want to strenuously insist that they didn’t do what the plaintiffs claim they did. But it’s also irrelevant as a factor for judges to consider in qualified-immunity cases. If there’s a factual dispute—and there often is—that’s what the trial, which the officers are trying to avoid, is supposed to untangle.
The Supreme Court’s test for qualified immunity hinges on whether the officers’ alleged actions were not just unconstitutional, but “clearly established” as unconstitutional at the time. Courts typically rely on federal court opinions to determine this. In the Jessop case, both the district court and the Ninth Circuit found no clear precedent to establish that the Fourth Amendment barred officers from stealing during a search. The Ninth Circuit’s survey of cases found only an unpublished Fourth Circuit case from 2004 that found it would be unconstitutional to not return seized property and a Ninth Circuit case from 2017 on impounding vehicles without a warrant. That’s not enough for a consensus, the panel found.


newrepublic--2020-04-18--Donald Trump’s Coronavirus Death Cult Takes to the Streets

“ LIBERATE MINNESOTA !
” “ LIBERATE MICHIGAN !
” “ LIBERATE VIRGINIA , and save your great 2nd Amendment .
It is under siege !
” These Friday tweets from President Donald Trump condemning coronavirus restrictions by Democratic governors came less than a day after a press briefing that seemed to end a week-long rhetorical standoff with the states .
At Monday ’ s briefing , Trump had claimed “ total authority ” over the nation ’ s coronavirus response , prompting pushback from governors like New York ’ s Andrew Cuomo .
“ We have a constitution , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t have a king ; we have an elected president.
” On Thursday , Trump essentially conceded this—first in a phone call where he reassured governors that they would be ” calling their own shots , ” and then at his briefing , where he finally released a set of recommendations , not orders , outlining when lifting state restrictions might be advisable .
Having lost that battle , Trump is pivoting to what he does best—inflaming his base , both to build public pressure on governors to open their state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an economic downturn made necessary by the administration ’ s initial failure to monitor and contain the virus .
His allies in the conservative press are lending him a hand .
In a Wednesday interview , Fox News ’ Tucker Carlson accused New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy , whose stay at home order and ban on large gatherings led to the breakup of a funeral earlier this month , of violating the Constitution .
“ The Bill of Rights , as you well know , protects Americans ’ right—enshrines their right—to practice their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ congregate together to assemble peacefully , ” Carlson said .
“ By what authority did you nullify the Bill of Rights in issuing this order ?
” Bemused , Murphy replied that he “ wasn ’ t thinking of the Bill of Rights ” when the state took action to suppress the virus ’ spread , a response now being pilloried on conservative websites .
The next day , Fox ’ s Andrew Napolitano pronounced Murphy guilty of “ felony of misconduct of office , ” called for his impeachment , and voiced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ restrictions .
“ The sooner we take our freedoms back , the less likely the government will be able to continue doing this , ” he said .
“ If we don ’ t take our freedoms back , they might not come back.
” The long list of Fox personalities amping up attacks on the way officials have responded to the coronavirus crisis includes Laura Ingraham , who brought Dr. Phil on her show Thursday to compare coronavirus ’ human toll to the deaths caused by car accidents and smoking .
On @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rush Limbaugh added his denunciations of the shutdowns and suggested those critical of comparing the coronavirus pandemic to lesser influenza outbreaks were elements of a conspiracy aimed at taking Trump down .
“ All of that designed to keep the U.S. economy floundering , ” he said .
“ All of that is about doing that Robert J. Mueller and the whistleblower and Adam Schiff on Ukraine failed to do .
All of this , politically , is about completing the dream of getting Donald Trump—and that ’ s why good news is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , reasonable , rational comparisons are taboo .
”

But the impulses animating the right’s coronavirus backlash are being refracted strangely—and in ways that aren’t necessarily promising for libertarians.
But the impulses animating the right’s coronavirus backlash are being refracted strangely—and in ways that aren’t necessarily promising for libertarians. “The government” that Fox’s Napolitano and others are assailing for having stripped away the freedoms of law-abiding conservatives is a rhetorical amalgamation of Democratic state governments, not Trump’s federal government. The president, in fact, is now a rebel and a hero, egging patriots against state and local authorities who were long seen as the more appropriate loci of power on the pre-Trump right. The Tea Party inveighed against the growth of the national debt and government spending, particularly on unemployment benefits and food stamps for Americans supposedly lazier and less upstanding than they were. Now, with precisely the same self-regard and sense of personal entitlement, nervous voices on the right are insisting the feds should spend and do more to either reopen the economy or cover workers in the interim. They happen to be right this time around, but there are reasons to be wary of the about-face.
One of the appointees to the White House’s task force on reopening the economy is Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who has proposed having the government pay 80 percent of workers’ wages, up to the national median wage, until the coronavirus crisis has passed. Hawley is the most prominent figure in a growing faction of conservative nationalists—a cadre of Trump-inspired voices on the right for a bigger, more theocratic, and more xenophobic government; loudly against globalization and the Chinese regime. It is hard to imagine a crisis that might better facilitate their rise, but only time will tell if they’re able to successfully take advantage of it.
For now, the right’s reaction to coronavirus restrictions raises concerns closer to the ground. As public health experts have long said, and as the administration has effectively admitted in its new guidelines, reopening the economy and returning to something like normalcy won’t be a single event commanded by the president but a long, halting process that will play out differently in different places and for different sectors of American life. The next several months, and likely the next year or more, will demand strong coordination at multiple levels of government, responsible communication from public figures, and patience from the public. The president has botched the first two and is working on eroding the third. Fortunately, a Gallup poll released this week shows most people are still worried about rushing the country back to life. Moreover, 81 percent of Americans—including 69 percent of Republicans—believe they will be slow to return to normal activities even when restrictions are lifted. But if our assessments of the coronavirus protests draw anything at all from the example of the Tea Party, it should be an understanding that a small, loud minority can do a great deal to undermine policy and damage public sentiment.


A Shot in Hell

I had been in Las Vegas for two days before I looked up the site of the deadliest mass shooting in American history and realized that it had occurred in the open lot across the boulevard from my hotel .
On October 1 , 2017 , just after country star Jason Aldean took the stage for a finale at the annual Route 91 Harvest music festival , a 64-year-old man armed with 22 military-pattern semiautomatic rifles fired 1,100 rounds into the concert grounds from an upper floor of the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel , as audience members ducked for cover @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fire a single round with every pull of the trigger .
To increase the rate of fire on the 14 AR-15s he was using , all of which he ’ d purchased legally , the killer affixed “ bumpstock ” attachments to them .
This accessory enables a shooter to “ bumpfire ” a semiauto rifle , meaning that every time you depress the trigger , the weapon ’ s natural recoil from firing pushes the trigger back against your finger and causes the weapon to fire again—a deadly perpetual motion that simulates @ @ @ @ @ @ @ automatic ” action .
In 10 minutes , the shooter killed 58 concertgoers and injured more than 500 , before he shot himself in the head with a revolver .
In the three years since the Las Vegas Strip massacre , the Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco , Firearms and Explosives ( ATF ) has broadened its definition of machine guns—which in the United States have been regulated into scarcity—to include these “ bump-stock–type devices , ” mandating that anyone in possession of such a device must have surrendered or destroyed it by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ City , where pot is legal and people can walk the street with alcoholic beverages in to-go cups , remains “ a haven of machine gun tourism , ” as Bebe Noyes—a.k.a .
Machine Gun Bebe—told me when I visited Machine Guns Vegas , where Noyes works as a gun restorer and range safety officer .
Regulations have not and will not prevent machine-gun enthusiasts or the merely machine-gun curious from dropping hundreds of dollars at special ranges to fire these weapons , including those no mere civilian would ordinarily have the opportunity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Burgers , Gunship Helicopters , The Vegas Machine Gun Experience , and Battlefield Vegas .
Machine Guns Vegas , which caters to gun novices with package deals tailored to specific demographics , is one of the oldest and best-known .
There ’ s the “ Femme Fatale Experience , ” in which you can shoot off pink M4s and MP5s for around an hour for $ 110 , and “ The Gamers Experience , ” which includes full auto assault rifles that are ubiquitous in virtual first-person–shooter games ( $ 190 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offers a “ Shotgun Wedding ” deal ( $ 690 ) , as well as a “ Brass and Ass ” bachelor party promotion ( $ 180 per person ) that after the shooting takes your entourage to a nearby strip club .
The $ 499 “ Just Divorced ” experience , exclusively for women shooters , bills itself as “ the only way to celebrate your freedom from the ball and chain.
” The Machine Guns Vegas indoor range is a gray box , squat and nondescript .
Inside , the music @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a bro-heavy sports bar , except for the intimidating panoply of weapons spotlighted on the brick walls and the swag shop selling pithy T-shirts .
A jacketed rifle round is captioned JUST THE TIP , I PROMISE .
For the ladies , there ’ s a tank top that reads GUNS AND ROSÉ .
Beyond that , on another table , MGV-branded shot glasses are laid out for sale , including some designed to look like shotgun shells .
The check-in desk is graced by a large sign : GUESTS WHO HAVE CONSUMED @ @ @ @ @ @ @ EXCEPTIONS .

“You want to aim low on the target with that one,” she advised. She loaded the gun, cycled the action, and handed it over to me. I squeezed the trigger of the pistol, as I have countless times in my life, and it responded with a defiance I had not experienced, the muzzle trying to fly up with each round I loosed. Just as I was getting a feel for the kick, the ammunition ran out. “Not bad,” Alvarez said. She pulled the paper target in for inspection. From a mere 15 feet or so, my 20 rounds had crept up the length of the target, with no identifiable grouping. Still, I had placed all my shots somewhere in the target, and Alvarez said that made me an above-average shooter.
I tried the MP5 submachine gun, a favorite of police around the world. Then came the Draco, an AK-47–patterned machine pistol, whose recoil made an impression in my shoulder that lasted for three days. I sampled a Saiga full-auto shotgun, which was surprisingly easy to aim and fire; a SAW, which I was grateful not to have to clean after the session; and the “Noisy Cricket,” a comically shortened variation on the military M4. (“It’s like the M4 and Draco had a baby,” Del Sol had told me earlier.) I can’t speak for others, but the usual pleasures that I derive from shooting sports—being outdoors, learning the arms’ mechanical workings, clearing my mind with a relaxed focus on the target—weren’t present at the range. Machine guns offer neither Zen nor hunting prowess. They’re relentlessly loud and powerful until they run out of ammunition, which doesn’t take long. Wielding that kind of noise and violence is either fun to you or it isn’t. For most seekers of a Vegas full-auto “experience,” an hour is enough experience for a lifetime.
Having fired AR-15s for two decades, I felt weird standing around while a diminutive attendant loaded the weapon and cycled the charging handle for me. But by any measure of safety, it was much harder to make a fatal mistake on this firing line than on any conventional range. “We provide a Disneyland excursion for our guests,” Noyes had boasted. The line conjured childhood memories of plinking away in a Frontierland shooting gallery as I adjusted my just-bought coonskin hat. As then, there was only so much damage you could do here. For all the weapons’ force and din, machine-gun tourism felt like the theme-park revival of a celebrated but culturally dead practice.


newrepublic--2020-04-20--Merritt Wever Is Too Good For Run

Merritt Wever Is Too Good For Run

Run , a new HBO series masterminded by the director of Fleabag ’ s inaugural stage run , Vicky Jones , has an intriguing , sexy premise : Ruby Richardson , a housewife with two children , has maintained a curious pact with her ex-boyfriend , Billy Johnson , for the last 17 years .
If the ex-lovers text each other the word “ RUN , ” they are to head immediately to New York for a train trip across America , deciding after seven days whether they want to be together , or part ways and never speak again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is presumably meant to be 2020 minus the pandemic , both of them are thoroughly unhappy .
Billy ( Domhnall Gleeson ) is a motivational speaker with a minor drinking problem ; Ruby ( Merritt Wever ) once had dreams of being an architect , and now does not appear to dream of much at all .
When we first meet her , in her car outside a Target , she is talking to her husband on the phone in a sweet , supplicating voice , her face at odds with the “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ emerging from her mouth as if the audio and image were not synching .
Seconds later , Ruby gets the fateful text , the soundtrack leaping as if this is the beginning of a horror movie .
In her eyes , it is a chance to end the stifling horror of her daily life .
There is a pleasant , loony tension in the earliest episodes of Run , a kind of fizzing combination of excitement and unease .
The sheer stupidity of everyone ’ s decisions , in light of the fact @ @ @ @ @ @ @ much a relic of the recent past as sex with distant exes , gives the pilot in particular a jolt of electricity : Ruby and Billy , who have not laid eyes on each other since college , are amazed to learn that they are capable of such insanity , and equally amazed to learn that they still want to jump each others ’ bones .
Gleeson and Wever have such immediate and astounding chemistry that I ended up Googling “ Domhnall Gleeson Merritt Wever relationship ?
” less than halfway through the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ characters had retired to separate bathrooms on the train to masturbate .
The actors bring a lived-in quality to the relationship , a shorthand that feels convincingly like the singular , invented patois of two people who were once in love .
It made me think of something the director Celine Sciamma said last month , in an interview with The Independent : “ A relationship is about inventing your own language , ” she insisted .
“ That ’ s what you mourn for when you ’ re losing someone you love @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to speak with anybody else.
” If reuniting has allowed Billy and Ruby to rekindle their shared language , it has also served to demonstrate that both lovers are kooks .
Picture , if you dare , the person you were either dating or in love with at the tender age of 19 , and then think of blowing up your life to join them on an AmTrak train for seven days : It is , as ideas go , unhinged , a sign that both participants are at best desperate , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There is tremendous scope for a two-handed comedy-cum-psychodrama in the series ’ premise—an extremely perverse version of The Trip , if both Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon were incredibly depressed and also very , very horny for each other .
That Run chooses to swerve off the tracks into another genre altogether , eventually turning into a crime caper , is a pity .
The show becomes a thing that ’ s neither fish nor fowl , not quite erotic enough or funny enough to be a hot , raunchy rom-com , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thrilling .
The result feels like at least a partial waste of two characters whose unfurling psychic damage is more interesting than any of Run ’ s convoluted twists .
Ruby , in particular , is fascinating for the fact that she has left behind two children , an act that is seen as uniquely upsetting and transgressive when the parent who is fleeing is the mother ; her dissatisfaction is not the hip brand of ennui that appears in so many New-York-set dramedies about young , well-dressed people , but a force @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s face , softer and less angular than most actresses ’ , registers hurt the way fresh snow registers footprints .
“ I thought seeing you again would make me happy , ” she tells Billy , in one of numerous arguments , “ but it just makes me sad .
”

Run, a new HBO series masterminded by the director of Fleabag’s inaugural stage run, Vicky Jones, has an intriguing, sexy premise: Ruby Richardson, a housewife with two children, has maintained a curious pact with her ex-boyfriend, Billy Johnson, for the last 17 years. If the ex-lovers text each other the word “RUN,” they are to head immediately to New York for a train trip across America, deciding after seven days whether they want to be together or part ways and never speak again. At this moment, in what is presumably meant to be 2020 minus the pandemic, both of them are thoroughly unhappy. Billy (Domhnall Gleeson) is a motivational speaker with a minor drinking problem; Ruby (Merritt Wever) once had dreams of being an architect and now does not appear to dream of much at all. When we first meet her, in her car outside a Target, she is talking to her husband on the phone in a sweet, supplicating voice, her face at odds with the “I love you” that’s emerging from her mouth as if the audio and image were not synching.
Seconds later, Ruby gets the fateful text, the soundtrack leaping as if this is the beginning of a horror movie. In her eyes, it is a chance to end the stifling horror of her daily life. There is a pleasant, loony tension in the earliest episodes of Run, a kind of fizzing combination of excitement and unease. The sheer stupidity of everyone’s decisions, in light of the fact that recklessness and spontaneity are currently as much a relic of the recent past as sex with distant exes, gives the pilot in particular a jolt of electricity: Ruby and Billy, who have not laid eyes on each other since college, are amazed to learn that they are capable of such insanity and equally amazed to learn that they still want to jump each others’ bones. Gleeson and Wever have such immediate and astounding chemistry that I ended up googling “Domhnall Gleeson Merritt Wever relationship?” less than halfway through the episode; three minutes later, both characters had retired to separate bathrooms on the train to masturbate. The actors bring a lived-in quality to the relationship, a shorthand that feels convincingly like the singular, invented patois of two people who were once in love. It made me think of something the director Celine Sciamma said last month, in an interview with The Independent. “A relationship is about inventing your own language,” she insisted. “That’s what you mourn for when you’re losing someone you love. This language you’re not going to speak with anybody else.”


newrepublic--2020-04-20--The Problem With Heroizing Healthcare Workers Like Me

The Covid-19 crisis also reveals how healthcare workers are closer to workers in the food , delivery , and agricultural industries than we are to CEOs and business owners .
The struggle for safe work environments , hazard pay , and healthcare coverage by Amazon , Whole Foods , and Instacart employees are shared by healthcare workers who are denied these provisions by our hospital administrations .
Nurses in New York City who have held protests share much in common with postal service workers , teachers , Detroit bus drivers , and Verizon employees , all of whom are organizing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ By investing in these causes , we can change the material conditions that have caused us to be labeled heroes .
Public empathy is important and valued at a time like this .
If not for it , our suffering would be more ignored , and we ’ d feel more burned out and demoralized .
Healthcare workers , however , need the type of solidarity that grounds itself in labor struggles , that appreciates the connectivity between us and other workers across the country , and that understands that we are paralyzed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our political systems .
When Chris Smalls , an Amazon warehouse worker , led an organized strike for better worker safety at the facility on Staten Island , he was fired .
When Travis Watkins , a mechanic at General Motors , reported to his co-workers that management was not informing employees of a possible Covid-19 outbreak , he was fired .
When Dr. Ming Lin , an emergency medicine physician , advocated on social media for better protections at a Seattle hospital he worked in , he was fired .
The threats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abstract political spheres ; they are more imminently within our workplaces .
Public energy should then re-focus on worker struggles and collective action .
In Philadelphia , healthcare workers and activists are demanding the re-opening of Hahnemann Hospital , a facility that was shut down late last year by its multi-millionaire owner , Joel Freedman , to make room for lavish condominiums .
When an overwhelming number of patients began to strain surrounding hospitals because of Covid-19 , he began negotiations with city officials for its re-opening , but then walked out after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the city could not afford .
Similarly , nurses and staff at Provident Hospital in South Side Chicago are protesting a sudden shut-down of its Emergency Department at a time when poor black Americans are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic .
In other parts of the country , workers at General Electric are protesting the company to make ventilators , employees at an American Axle plant in Michigan walked out after the company failed to disclose that one of its workers tested positive for the coronavirus , and activists in New York are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ programs in hard-hit communities .
Engels ’ s assertions could not be truer today than they were more than a century ago : The death of healthcare workers on the frontlines of this crisis is a kind of murder , one that demands sweeping change .
As our government and employers fail us , community activists are organizing grassroots movements to advocate for workers ’ needs .
The ideological challenge is to move away from pedestalized martyrdom and toward action that ensures protected and healthy lives for all .
The truth is , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We just want to be safe .

The Covid-19 crisis also reveals how health care workers are closer to workers in the food, delivery, and agricultural industries than we are to CEOs and business owners. The struggle for safe work environments, hazard pay, and health care coverage by Amazon, Whole Foods, and Instacart employees are shared by health care workers who are denied these provisions by our hospital administrations. Nurses in New York City who have held protests share much in common with postal service workers, teachers, Detroit bus drivers, and Verizon employees, all of whom are organizing for economic justice and better safety. By investing in these causes, we can change the material conditions that have caused us to be labeled heroes.
Public empathy is important and valued at a time like this. Without it, our suffering would be ignored even more, and we’d feel more burned out and demoralized. Health care workers, however, need the type of solidarity that grounds itself in labor struggles, that appreciates the connectivity between us and other workers across the country, and that understands that we are paralyzed by our employers as much as by our political systems. When Chris Smalls, an Amazon warehouse worker, led an organized strike for better worker safety at the facility on Staten Island, he was fired. When Travis Watkins, a mechanic at General Motors, reported to his co-workers that management was not informing employees of a possible Covid-19 outbreak, he was fired. When Dr. Ming Lin, an emergency medicine physician, advocated on social media for better protections at a Seattle hospital he worked in, he was fired. The threats to worker safety are not only in abstract political spheres; they are more imminently within our workplaces.
Public energy should then refocus on worker struggles and collective action. In Philadelphia, health care workers and activists are demanding the reopening of Hahnemann Hospital, a facility that was shut down late last year by its multimillionaire owner, Joel Freedman, to make room for lavish condominiums. When an overwhelming number of patients began to strain surrounding hospitals because of Covid-19, he began negotiations with city officials for its reopening but then walked out after demanding $1 million per month that the city could not afford. Similarly, nurses and staff at Provident Hospital in South Side Chicago are protesting a sudden shutdown of its Emergency Department at a time when poor black Americans are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. In other parts of the country, workers at General Electric protested to urge the company to make more ventilators, employees at an American Axle plant in Michigan walked out after the company failed to disclose that one of its workers tested positive for the coronavirus, and activists in New York are organizing tenant rent strikes and mutual aid programs in hard-hit communities.


newrepublic--2020-04-20--American Foreign Policy Is Not Ready for Climate Change

Into this gloomy muddle comes Andrew Bacevich , professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University , author of the bestselling books The Limits of Power and Breach of Trust , conservative Catholic and liberal darling , trenchant critic of American militarism , and president of a new Washington think tank , the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft .
Although his latest book , The Age of Illusions : How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory , does not overtly address climate change until its closing pages , it offers a thoroughgoing critique of the post–Cold War elite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ view , has led to the mess we now find ourselves in .
( I should add that I know Bacevich professionally , and we serve together on two different advisory boards , Veterans for Peace and the Notre Dame International Security Center . )
Bacevich sees the United States ’ victory in the Cold War as a windfall that turned out to be a curse , comparing it to winning the lottery .
In the decades since 1989 , he argues , American society has been undermined by the vices of undisciplined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a planetary scale , ” hubris , greed , reckless military adventurism , a “ new conception of freedom ” de-emphasizing moral responsibility , and an unbalanced system of governance giving undue power and status to the president have all led to an unjust redistribution of wealth , foreign policy disasters like the invasion of Iraq , an alienated and disaffected electorate , and the election of Donald Trump .
Ecumenical in its criticisms , blaming both Republicans and Democrats , both voters and their elected representatives , The Age of Illusions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power in the 1990s may have been the very moment of its undoing .
This will sound familiar to Bacevich ’ s readers : It more or less reprises the argument he ’ s been making since 2004 , in countless essays and several books , most persuasively in The Limits of Power .
What sets this new book apart is how Bacevich foregrounds the question of what American foreign policy means .
The Age of Illusions begins with a quote from the fictional Harry “ Rabbit ” Angstrom , the protagonist of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Without the Cold War , what ’ s the point of being an American ?
” This is the riddle that motivates Bacevich ’ s book , a puzzle Bacevich argues has yet to be solved .
How do we understand ourselves as a nation , in the world , without a clear sense of a mission or an antithesis against which to define ourselves ?
In attempting to answer this question , The Age of Illusions swerves from a purely historical argument into autobiographical , even literary , territory , particularly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through line : While reprising his well-polished argument about the end of the Cold War being a self-defeating victory , Bacevich discusses not only relevant moments from his own life , such as his combat tour in Vietnam , his early retirement from the military , and his growing unease with American hegemony in the 1990s , but also moments from the life of his coeval Donald J. Trump .
Political turning points such as the electoral defeat of George H.W .
Bush and the gay rights milestone of Obergefell v. Hodges are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Don , two baby boomers born within 13 months of each other , as we follow them from the hazy idylls of the ’ 50s to the strife of the ’ 60s to the decades of hubris and greed that characterize , for Bacevich , post–Cold War America .
And as Bacevich tracks his own late-stage transition from professional soldier to public intellectual , Trump comes more and more to occupy center stage , turning The Age of Illusions into something different and more interesting than it purports to be .

THE AGE OF ILLUSIONS: HOW AMERICA SQUANDERED ITS COLD WAR VICTORY by Andrew Bacevich Metropolitan Books, 256 pp., $27.00
Bacevich sees the United States’ victory in the Cold War as a windfall that turned out to be a curse, comparing it to winning the lottery. In the decades since 1989, he argues, American society has been undermined by the vices of undisciplined success. “Unconstrained corporate capitalism operating on a planetary scale,” hubris, greed, reckless military adventurism, a “new conception of freedom” de-emphasizing moral responsibility, and an unbalanced system of governance giving undue power and status to the president have all led to an unjust redistribution of wealth, foreign policy disasters like the invasion of Iraq, an alienated and disaffected electorate, and the election of Donald Trump. Ecumenical in its criticisms, blaming both Republicans and Democrats, both voters and their elected representatives, The Age of Illusions argues that the seeming apex of American power in the 1990s may have been the very moment of its undoing.
ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE: THE PENTAGON’S PERSPECTIVE ON CLIMATE CHANGE by Michael T. Klare Metropolitan Books, 304 pp., $30.00
This will sound familiar to Bacevich’s readers: It more or less reprises the argument he’s been making since 2004, in countless essays and several books, most persuasively in The Limits of Power. What sets this new book apart is how Bacevich foregrounds the question of what American foreign policy means. The Age of Illusions begins with a quote from the fictional Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom, the protagonist of John Updike’s Rabbit novels: “Without the Cold War, what’s the point of being an American?” This is the riddle that motivates Bacevich’s book, a puzzle Bacevich argues has yet to be solved. How do we understand ourselves as a nation, in the world, without a clear sense of a mission or an antithesis against which to define ourselves?
In attempting to answer this question, The Age of Illusions swerves from a purely historical argument into autobiographical, even literary, territory, particularly through the book’s uncanny double through line: While reprising his well-polished argument about the end of the Cold War being a self-defeating victory, Bacevich discusses not only relevant moments from his own life, such as his combat tour in Vietnam, his early retirement from the military, and his growing unease with American hegemony in the 1990s, but also moments from the life of his coeval Donald J. Trump. Political turning points such as the electoral defeat of George H.W. Bush and the gay rights milestone of Obergefell v. Hodges are woven into the life stories of Andy and Don, two baby boomers born within 13 months of each other, as we follow them from the hazy idylls of the ’50s to the strife of the ’60s to the decades of hubris and greed that characterize, for Bacevich, post–Cold War America. And as Bacevich tracks his own late-stage transition from professional soldier to public intellectual, Trump comes more and more to occupy center stage, turning The Age of Illusions into something different and more interesting than it purports to be.