thenation--2020-04-15--John Prine Taught Us New Ways to Listen

John Prine Taught Us New Ways to Listen

John Prine returned to his hometown , Maywood , Illinois , in 1968 .
He was drafted a few years earlier , during the height of the Vietnam War , but avoided combat , instead serving in West Germany fixing trucks .
He returned to his day job as a mailman , but his mind was elsewhere .
Prine loved music ; he ’ d had his dad mail him his guitar while he was in the Army , and he and his buddies would stay up late singing their favorite songs .
He had his own ideas too .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ kid , but it was on his mail route that he really started doing what he would go on to do for the rest of his life , better than nearly anyone else who did it .
“ You just had time to be quiet and think , and that ’ s where I would come up with a lot of songs , ” he later told the Chicago Tribune .
“ If the song was any good I could remember it later and write it down.
” The songs were good .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ movement of the 1960s , but the singular power of his style was also due to his careful attention to an earlier source .
“ I ’ m kind of based in country music , ” he told Studs Terkel in a radio interview , recalling his family sitting in the kitchen on Saturday nights and tuning in to the Grand Ole Opry .
The gallows humor and wordplay in Prine ’ s work made it country ; the surreal imagery and willingness to confront taboo subjects were his own .
The “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ review by Roger Ebert called him , would go on to acclaim rarely extended to country songwriters .
By the next century , Prine had won not just two Grammys but also a PEN America award .
Bob Dylan once commented on Prine ’ s “ Proustian existentialism , ” to which Prine responded , “ I can ’ t even pronounce that !
” It never quite works to compare songs to writing on a page , but Prine ’ s backstory makes an analogy irresistible : His songs are like letters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ telling stories in the third person , sometimes conveying messages in the second person but always delivered with an intimacy that reflects the ways people really communicate .
Many of his songs , like “ Hello in There ” and “ Pretty Good , ” both from his classic 1971 self-titled debut album , center on moments of human contact—or the lack thereof .
They sound more like a correspondence with the listener than works of literature .
In an irony that would not have escaped his notice , it was a condition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ contact that led to Prine ’ s untimely death .
He died of complications from Covid-19 on April 7 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville .
He had already beaten cancer twice , a 1996 surgery on his neck dropping his already gruff voice an octave .
He leaves behind one of the most formidable bodies of work in American music , and that ’ s what he set out to do .
“ If I wanted to be a poet , I ’ d write poetry , ” he once said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what poetry is .
I ’ m not writing poetry , I ’ m writing song lyrics.
” Prine ’ s epistolary style and his sharp eye for the vicissitudes of everyday life emerged fully formed on his debut album , recorded after his friend Steve Goodman took fellow Army veteran Kris Kristofferson to see him at a Chicago club called the Earl of Old Town .
It includes some of Prine ’ s best-known work , which grew from his years in the military and the postal service .
“ Hello in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loneliness in old age , came from his observation of the residents of a nursing home on his mail route .
Another , “ Your Flag Decal Won ’ t Get You Into Heaven Anymore , ” looked back with anger on the Vietnam War .
“ I wrote that one when I was a mailman , ” he told Terkel .
“ I was delivering Reader ’ s Digest , and they put out an issue one month that gave everybody a free American flag decal .
And that was just about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this talk going on about the silent majority and everything.
” Richard Nixon ’ s claims of a unified silent majority , referring to the reputed conservatism of the American masses , took place alongside his frequent appeals to the country music audience .
During an address at the Grand Ole Opry in 1973 , he drew a direct connection : Prine proved Nixon wrong .
On songs like “ Flag Decal ” and “ Sam Stone , ” the story of a heroin-addicted veteran , he spoke with the voice of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He would continue to do so , without breaking from the tradition Nixon tried to claim .
While some of the highest-profile folkies of the previous generation , like Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon , were moving in an upscale direction , with jazz harmonies and LA session musicians , Prine played it closer to the vest .
The early ’ 70s albums Sweet Revenge and Common Sense sound more akin to the outlaw country coming out of Texas in those years than to the archetype of the confessional folk singer .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Steve Goodman , of “ You Never Even Called Me by My Name , ” the self-described “ perfect country and western song ” that became a hit for David Allan Coe in 1975 .
After a couple of verses of heartbroken pining , a spoken interlude notes that the song has lacked any references to “ mama or trains or trucks or prison or gettin ’ drunk.
” The final verse ties them all together .
Prine declined to put his name on the song , for fear of causing offense to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s the kind of joke you can only tell about something you love .
Prine closed out the 1970s and kicked off the ’ 80s with Pink Cadillac and Storm Windows , the former recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis and the latter at Muscle Shoals in Sheffield , Alabama , both sites where canonical American music was born decades ago .
They were attempts at putting his songwriting in a commercial context , inching closer toward contemporary country and fashionably retro rock ’ n ’ roll ; both had covers emblazoned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a neatly trimmed mustache , hair slicked back , in an open blazer .
But even in the shiniest packaging , he was a little too eccentric for stardom .
He never recorded for a major label again .
By the mid- ’ 80s , Prine had made the same move being taken at the time by alternative rock , founding an independent label , Oh Boy Records .
It took him a moment to reconnect to his audience , but he did with 1991 ’ s The Missing Years , produced by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Heartbreakers .
Featuring contributions from Bruce Springsteen , Bonnie Raitt , and Epstein ’ s boss , it won a Grammy for best contemporary folk album .
Ironically , it was one of his less folky recordings , placing him nearer to the heartland rock that had become commercially viable by the early 1990s and the burgeoning Americana style that would come to be called alt-country .
In 1999 , In Spite of Ourselves , a collection of duets with female vocalists , took Prine back to the country songs he grew up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He followed it up with a sequel , For Better , or Worse , and a 2007 duet album with bluegrass singer Mac Wiseman with a title that could serve as a manifesto : Standard Songs for Average People .
For a songwriter with such an impressive body of work , Prine shone doing renditions of other writers ’ songs .
Among the last he recorded is an odd one , a version of Stevie Wonder ’ s 1984 hit “ I Just Called to Say I Love You , ” a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ final album , 2018 ’ s The Tree of Forgiveness .
Even for Wonder ’ s biggest fans—and I happen to count myself among them—the song can come across as corny , with its syrupy synthesizers and blunt declarations of love .
You ’ re more likely to hear it at the drugstore than to put it on at home .
But hearing it in Prine ’ s voice , you discover what you may have overlooked .
What seemed overly earnest and straightforward reveals itself to be wry and self-effacing at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ testament not only to the brilliance of a deceptively simple song but also to Prine ’ s powers of observation , his ability to find depths in the ordinary and everyday that the rest of us tend to miss .
Like many of his own best songs , it takes the form of delivering a message .
No special occasion , nothing much to say .
Just wanted to talk .
It was always good to hear from him .

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.
John Prine returned to his hometown, Maywood, Illinois, in 1968. He was drafted a few years earlier, during the height of the Vietnam War, but avoided combat, instead serving in West Germany fixing trucks. He returned to his day job as a mailman, but his mind was elsewhere. Prine loved music; he’d had his dad mail him his guitar while he was in the Army, and he and his buddies would stay up late singing their favorite songs. He had his own ideas too. He wrote a few tunes as a kid, but it was on his mail route that he really started doing what he would go on to do for the rest of his life, better than nearly anyone else who did it. “You just had time to be quiet and think, and that’s where I would come up with a lot of songs,” he later told the Chicago Tribune. “If the song was any good I could remember it later and write it down.”
The songs were good. Prine was inspired by the countercultural folk movement of the 1960s, but the singular power of his style was also due to his careful attention to an earlier source. “I’m kind of based in country music,” he told Studs Terkel in a radio interview, recalling his family sitting in the kitchen on Saturday nights and tuning in to the Grand Ole Opry. The gallows humor and wordplay in Prine’s work made it country; the surreal imagery and willingness to confront taboo subjects were his own. The “singing mailman,” as an early review by Roger Ebert called him, would go on to acclaim rarely extended to country songwriters. By the next century, Prine had won not just two Grammys but also a PEN America award. Bob Dylan once commented on Prine’s “Proustian existentialism,” to which Prine responded, “I can’t even pronounce that!”
It never quite works to compare songs to writing on a page, but Prine’s backstory makes an analogy irresistible: His songs are like letters. They are personal dispatches, sometimes telling stories in the third person, sometimes conveying messages in the second person but always delivered with an intimacy that reflects the ways people really communicate. Many of his songs, like “Hello in There” and “Pretty Good,” both from his classic 1971 self-titled debut album, center on moments of human contact—or the lack thereof. They sound more like a correspondence with the listener than works of literature.
In an irony that would not have escaped his notice, it was a condition that has led us to limit human contact that led to Prine’s untimely death. He died of complications from Covid-19 on April 7 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He had already beaten cancer twice, a 1996 surgery on his neck dropping his already gruff voice an octave. He leaves behind one of the most formidable bodies of work in American music, and that’s what he set out to do. “If I wanted to be a poet, I’d write poetry,” he once said in an interview. “I know what poetry is. I’m not writing poetry, I’m writing song lyrics.”
Prine’s epistolary style and his sharp eye for the vicissitudes of everyday life emerged fully formed on his debut album, recorded after his friend Steve Goodman took fellow Army veteran Kris Kristofferson to see him at a Chicago club called the Earl of Old Town. It includes some of Prine’s best-known work, which grew from his years in the military and the postal service. “Hello in There,” a heart-wrenching description of loneliness in old age, came from his observation of the residents of a nursing home on his mail route. Another, “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” looked back with anger on the Vietnam War. “I wrote that one when I was a mailman,” he told Terkel. “I was delivering Reader’s Digest, and they put out an issue one month that gave everybody a free American flag decal. And that was just about the same time that there was all this talk going on about the silent majority and everything.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Richard Nixon’s claims of a unified silent majority, referring to the reputed conservatism of the American masses, took place alongside his frequent appeals to the country music audience. During an address at the Grand Ole Opry in 1973, he drew a direct connection:
…the peace of the world for generations, maybe centuries to come, will depend not just on America’s military might, which is the greatest in the world, or our wealth, which is the greatest in the world, but it is going to depend on our character, our belief in ourselves, our love of our country, our willingness to not only wear the flag but to stand up for the flag. And country music does that.
Prine proved Nixon wrong. On songs like “Flag Decal” and “Sam Stone,” the story of a heroin-addicted veteran, he spoke with the voice of the silenced, refusing to be spoken for. He would continue to do so, without breaking from the tradition Nixon tried to claim. While some of the highest-profile folkies of the previous generation, like Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon, were moving in an upscale direction, with jazz harmonies and LA session musicians, Prine played it closer to the vest. The early ’70s albums Sweet Revenge and Common Sense sound more akin to the outlaw country coming out of Texas in those years than to the archetype of the confessional folk singer. Current Issue View our current issue
Prine was even the co-writer, with Steve Goodman, of “You Never Even Called Me by My Name,” the self-described “perfect country and western song” that became a hit for David Allan Coe in 1975. After a couple of verses of heartbroken pining, a spoken interlude notes that the song has lacked any references to “mama or trains or trucks or prison or gettin’ drunk.” The final verse ties them all together. Prine declined to put his name on the song, for fear of causing offense to his fellow country fans. But it’s the kind of joke you can only tell about something you love.
Prine closed out the 1970s and kicked off the ’80s with Pink Cadillac and Storm Windows, the former recorded at Sun Studios in Memphis and the latter at Muscle Shoals in Sheffield, Alabama, both sites where canonical American music was born decades ago. They were attempts at putting his songwriting in a commercial context, inching closer toward contemporary country and fashionably retro rock ’n’ roll; both had covers emblazoned with glamour shots of Prine, with a neatly trimmed mustache, hair slicked back, in an open blazer. But even in the shiniest packaging, he was a little too eccentric for stardom. He never recorded for a major label again.
By the mid-’80s, Prine had made the same move being taken at the time by alternative rock, founding an independent label, Oh Boy Records. It took him a moment to reconnect to his audience, but he did with 1991’s The Missing Years, produced by Howie Epstein of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Featuring contributions from Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, and Epstein’s boss, it won a Grammy for best contemporary folk album. Ironically, it was one of his less folky recordings, placing him nearer to the heartland rock that had become commercially viable by the early 1990s and the burgeoning Americana style that would come to be called alt-country. In 1999, In Spite of Ourselves, a collection of duets with female vocalists, took Prine back to the country songs he grew up listening to on the Grand Ole Opry. He followed it up with a sequel, For Better, or Worse, and a 2007 duet album with bluegrass singer Mac Wiseman with a title that could serve as a manifesto: Standard Songs for Average People.
For a songwriter with such an impressive body of work, Prine shone doing renditions of other writers’ songs. Among the last he recorded is an odd one, a version of Stevie Wonder’s 1984 hit “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” a digital single released after Prine’s final album, 2018’s The Tree of Forgiveness. Even for Wonder’s biggest fans—and I happen to count myself among them—the song can come across as corny, with its syrupy synthesizers and blunt declarations of love. You’re more likely to hear it at the drugstore than to put it on at home. But hearing it in Prine’s voice, you discover what you may have overlooked. What seemed overly earnest and straightforward reveals itself to be wry and self-effacing at the same time. It’s a testament not only to the brilliance of a deceptively simple song but also to Prine’s powers of observation, his ability to find depths in the ordinary and everyday that the rest of us tend to miss. Like many of his own best songs, it takes the form of delivering a message. No special occasion, nothing much to say. Just wanted to talk. It was always good to hear from him.


thenation--2020-04-15--Health Care Workers Are Being Fired for Speaking Out About a Lack of Supplies

The darkness of the Covid-19 crisis has inspired a profound outpouring of appreciation for workers .
Each evening , hundreds of thousands of people bang on pots and pans to thank health care workers ; they buy them meals , send them masks .
The appreciation goes beyond just health care workers : across the country , people are cheering on striking Amazon and Instacart workers fighting for better labor protections and asking how they can help support grocery workers and others who are keeping the trains running and the streets clean .
At the same time , the crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s disastrously anemic systems for supporting and protecting those workers .
So workers are rising up to demand change—change that could go far beyond responding to the ongoing emergency and dramatically reshape workplace relations .
One powerful example is the struggle of doctors , nurses , and health care workers who have been fired or disciplined for telling the truth about health and safety conditions .
It might seem like an important but narrow fight , affecting a relatively small group of essential workers .
But if we learn the right lessons , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ point the way to fundamental change in employer/employee relations for all American workers .
From the beginning of this crisis , health care workers have been sounding the alarm about inadequate preparation for the pandemic , a shameful lack of personal protective equipment , and heartbreaking conditions inside hospitals , nursing homes , and health centers .
While the public has responded with an outpouring of support and gratitude , far too many employers have reacted with anger and censure .
A doctor in Washington state was fired for posting on social media @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his hospital .
A nurse on the Jersey Shore was fired after taking the day off to do his duty as a union official ; he was representing a coworker in a disciplinary hearing over social media posts about the crisis .
And a nurse in New York City was fired after telling her boss she felt anxious treating patients with coronavirus without the proper equipment .
These and many other stories are just beginning to reach the public as brave workers continue to search out ways to spread the word about dangerous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hunker down at home , desperately consuming the news , reading through the lines of President Trump ’ s dangerously out-of-touch press conferences , these health care workers have become a primary source of real , truthful information about what is happening on the front lines of this pandemic .
They continue to provide this information—to the press , on social media—even as they work round-the-clock to save as many lives as they can while somehow staying healthy themselves .
So it is all the more unconscionable that they would be fired for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safety issues .
Unconscionable—but not uncommon .
The vast majority of workers in America are “ at will ” employees who can be fired at any time , without notice , and without a reason .
As a result , workers often feel forced to choose between submitting to intolerable working conditions—late-night shifts and early hours , harassment from customers and superiors—and not having a job at all .
Unions have long been the source of job protections for workers who speak out about unsafe conditions , fighting for and winning just-cause protections @ @ @ @ @ @ @ care workers , and the vast majority of workers across the country , do not have such protections .
Over the past two years , workers and elected officials have begun working together to win legislation that would require bosses to have a “ just cause ” to fire someone , regardless of whether or not they are in a union .
The WHO Ignores Taiwan .
The World Pays the Price .
More in this series Here in New York City , we have been working with fast-food workers who have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to protect people in the sector from unfair firings .
Legislators in Philadelphia granted similar protections to parking-lot attendants last year .
And at the national level , Senator Bernie Sanders made just-cause protections a centerpiece of his workers ’ rights platform .
At a hearing held by the New York City Council on just cause legislation for fast-food workers in February ( which feels like years ago now ) , we heard from Yeral Martinez , who was fired from his job at Chipotle in October 2019 , the day after he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He tried to contest his dismissal , explaining to managers that he was entitled to paid sick time ( a right that fast-food workers helped us win in New York City in 2013 ) .
The manager shrugged and said she didn ’ t need any reason to fire him .
Before he lost his job , Martinez was living in a shelter with his wife and son .
They had been about to move to an apartment but were unable to meet the income requirements after Martinez was fired .
After @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nurses who are facing discipline or the loss of their jobs for sharing their stories , I announced “ just cause ” legislation to protect health care and hospital workers , modeled on our bill for fast-food workers .
Our legislation would make clear that speaking honestly about health and safety conditions is not a just cause to fire someone .
But why stop with health care and fast-food workers ?
Just recently , when Amazon workers on Staten Island walked out to protest inadequate safety equipment and policies to keep warehouse workers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fired Chris Smalls , one of the lead organizers .
It didn ’ t matter that organizing a labor union is protected in the workplace ; they fired him anyway .
( Community organizations and unions are mobilizing to try to get Smalls his job back , but it shouldn ’ t have been this easy for Amazon to punish him for speaking out . )
No matter whether you are a doctor , a fast-food worker , or an Amazon worker , if you are an “ at will ” employee , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we act boldly in the wake of this crisis , we could change that by ending “ at will ” employment throughout the American economy .
In most European countries , all employees are protected from unfair firing with “ just cause ” policy .
After the pots and pans and cheers have subsided , let ’ s pay an enduring tribute to the essential workers bravely facing this crisis by making sure that they can ’ t be fired based purely on the whim—or bruised egos—of their bosses .
And let ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can be , either .

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy.
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The darkness of the Covid-19 crisis has inspired a profound outpouring of appreciation for workers. Each evening, hundreds of thousands of people bang on pots and pans to thank health care workers; they buy them meals, send them masks. The appreciation goes beyond just health care workers: across the country, people are cheering on striking Amazon and Instacart workers fighting for better labor protections and asking how they can help support grocery workers and others who are keeping the trains running and the streets clean.
At the same time, the crisis has cast in sharp relief America’s disastrously anemic systems for supporting and protecting those workers. So workers are rising up to demand change—change that could go far beyond responding to the ongoing emergency and dramatically reshape workplace relations.
One powerful example is the struggle of doctors, nurses, and health care workers who have been fired or disciplined for telling the truth about health and safety conditions. It might seem like an important but narrow fight, affecting a relatively small group of essential workers. But if we learn the right lessons, and if we organize, it could point the way to fundamental change in employer/employee relations for all American workers.
From the beginning of this crisis, health care workers have been sounding the alarm about inadequate preparation for the pandemic, a shameful lack of personal protective equipment, and heartbreaking conditions inside hospitals, nursing homes, and health centers. While the public has responded with an outpouring of support and gratitude, far too many employers have reacted with anger and censure.
A doctor in Washington state was fired for posting on social media about the shortage of N95 masks in his hospital. A nurse on the Jersey Shore was fired after taking the day off to do his duty as a union official; he was representing a coworker in a disciplinary hearing over social media posts about the crisis. And a nurse in New York City was fired after telling her boss she felt anxious treating patients with coronavirus without the proper equipment. Current Issue View our current issue
These and many other stories are just beginning to reach the public as brave workers continue to search out ways to spread the word about dangerous conditions. As the majority of us hunker down at home, desperately consuming the news, reading through the lines of President Trump’s dangerously out-of-touch press conferences, these health care workers have become a primary source of real, truthful information about what is happening on the front lines of this pandemic. They continue to provide this information—to the press, on social media—even as they work round-the-clock to save as many lives as they can while somehow staying healthy themselves.
So it is all the more unconscionable that they would be fired for ringing the alarm bell about health and safety issues.
Unconscionable—but not uncommon. The vast majority of workers in America are “at will” employees who can be fired at any time, without notice, and without a reason. As a result, workers often feel forced to choose between submitting to intolerable working conditions—late-night shifts and early hours, harassment from customers and superiors—and not having a job at all. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Unions have long been the source of job protections for workers who speak out about unsafe conditions, fighting for and winning just-cause protections in their contracts. But many health care workers, and the vast majority of workers across the country, do not have such protections.
They should.
Over the past two years, workers and elected officials have begun working together to win legislation that would require bosses to have a “just cause” to fire someone, regardless of whether or not they are in a union. COVID-19 A Survival Guide for the Coronavirus Economy Joelle Gamble The WHO Ignores Taiwan. The World Pays the Price. Wilfred Chan Undercounting Covid-19 Deaths Is a Deadly Mistake Jeet Heer
Here in New York City, we have been working with fast-food workers who have been organizing with 32BJ SEIU to pass legislation to protect people in the sector from unfair firings. Legislators in Philadelphia granted similar protections to parking-lot attendants last year. And at the national level, Senator Bernie Sanders made just-cause protections a centerpiece of his workers’ rights platform.
At a hearing held by the New York City Council on just cause legislation for fast-food workers in February (which feels like years ago now), we heard from Yeral Martinez, who was fired from his job at Chipotle in October 2019, the day after he called out sick due to back pain. He tried to contest his dismissal, explaining to managers that he was entitled to paid sick time (a right that fast-food workers helped us win in New York City in 2013). The manager shrugged and said she didn’t need any reason to fire him. Before he lost his job, Martinez was living in a shelter with his wife and son. They had been about to move to an apartment but were unable to meet the income requirements after Martinez was fired.
After hearing the stories of the doctors and nurses who are facing discipline or the loss of their jobs for sharing their stories, I announced “just cause” legislation to protect health care and hospital workers, modeled on our bill for fast-food workers. Our legislation would make clear that speaking honestly about health and safety conditions is not a just cause to fire someone.
But why stop with health care and fast-food workers?
Just recently, when Amazon workers on Staten Island walked out to protest inadequate safety equipment and policies to keep warehouse workers safe, the company turned around and fired Chris Smalls, one of the lead organizers. It didn’t matter that organizing a labor union is protected in the workplace; they fired him anyway. (Community organizations and unions are mobilizing to try to get Smalls his job back, but it shouldn’t have been this easy for Amazon to punish him for speaking out.)
No matter whether you are a doctor, a fast-food worker, or an Amazon worker, if you are an “at will” employee, you can quickly become expendable. If we act boldly in the wake of this crisis, we could change that by ending “at will” employment throughout the American economy. In most European countries, all employees are protected from unfair firing with “just cause” policy.
After the pots and pans and cheers have subsided, let’s pay an enduring tribute to the essential workers bravely facing this crisis by making sure that they can’t be fired based purely on the whim—or bruised egos—of their bosses.
And let’s make sure that no one else can be, either.


thenation--2020-04-15--Locked Down and Cast Out: Europe’s Migrants Navigate the Pandemic

When French president Emmanuel Macron announced that his country would be going into a lockdown to halt the spread of Covid-19 , Diakité knew there would be trouble .
The sweeping measures , announced in the speech in mid-March , would mean draconian restrictions on people ’ s leaving their homes and the shuttering of many public institutions and businesses .
Some 100,000 officers were to be deployed to enforce the lockdown .
For Diakité and the many thousands of undocumented migrants like him living in France , the implications were more grave than for most French residents .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ common , ” he said in a phone interview .
“ This has created even more fear among the undocumented .
There are comrades who haven ’ t left their homes for more than two weeks for fear of running into the police.
” An encounter with the police brings fear of being detained or deportation .
Accusations of racial profiling and police violence against migrants are commonplace .
Those with jobs in industries that are still operating—such as in cleaning , food delivery , or security—feel unsafe traveling to and from work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Europe who are homeless or live in overcrowded accommodation , “ social distancing ” is not an option .
Immigrants Are Bearing the Brunt of the Coronavirus Crisis “ It ’ s not easy to be locked down in the center , ” said Marie Polard , a spokesperson at the Red Cross .
The charity manages 25 accommodation centers for asylum seekers , home to around 7,000 people , in Wallonia , the French-speaking part of Belgium .
There are sometimes 600 people in a center , and up to 12 to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been canceled , including homework clubs and language classes .
“ It ’ s especially difficult for the kids , ” she said .
The most notable difference , though , has been the absence of any new residents .
Such centers have not had any new referrals since mid-March when Belgium ’ s Federal Immigration Office closed its services due to the coronavirus outbreak .
Unable to register their claim , recently arrived asylum seekers have nowhere to go .
“ That is a big question : ‘ Where are all those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ A lot of people are probably in the streets.
” Alexis Andries , director of programs for Doctors of the World ( DOTW ) in Belgium , said the situation risks increasing the number of homeless people at the time when people are supposed to be indoors .
Like many charities acting as a lifeline to migrants unable to access state support , DOTW has had to decrease its services , relying on telephone consultations where possible ; many of the charity ’ s volunteer doctors are over 65 and thus most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they are no longer working .
The loss of volunteer-led organizations worries medical groups in neighboring Germany , too .
Although the country ’ s approach of vigorous virus testing and tracking has been widely praised , medical NGOs are nevertheless concerned about the hundreds of thousands of people without medical insurance or facing other barriers to receiving care .
Many health care charities have partly or fully ceased operations , leaving those without insurance to wait until their illnesses deteriorate and they can access emergency care—adding more pressure still to the already @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make it to a hospital , another danger looms .
“ Social services are required by law to inform immigration authorities if an undocumented migrant seeks medical treatment coverage , ” Stephanie Kirchner , a spokesperson at DOTW Germany , explained .
“ This doesn ’ t apply to emergencies , but of course it ’ s always a matter of definition what counts as an emergency .
Undocumented migrants can risk deportation if they go to the doctor.
” More than 40 health organizations have called on the government to ensure access @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fearing that otherwise it will be impossible to successfully contain the outbreak .
While Italy has been deeply ravaged by the outbreak , a significant concentration of cases are in the country ’ s north .
“ In the south of Italy , we are not experiencing a health crisis , we are in an economic crisis.
” Richard Braude , a member of Arci Porco Rosso in Palermo , Sicily , told The Nation .
The small community support group offers legal advice , food distribution , and other support to migrants—mainly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ economic consequences of the lockdown are particularly dire .
“ People are calling us not because people are sick from the virus , but because people are hungry.
” Braude said .
“ There was a big community of Africans already on the economic knife edge , and now it ’ s tipped.
” Around half of Italy ’ s agriculture workforce are migrants , and in Sicily workers are often from Africa .
Even those with papers face exploitative labor conditions , and live in informal settlements where social distancing and hygiene @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have offered financial support to families and workers hurt by the crisis , but the cash remains inaccessible to many migrants for lack of legal documents .
Those attempting to reach Italy face new complications .
While migrants ’ journeys across the Mediterranean were always perilous , claiming more than 19,000 lives since 2013 , search-and-rescue systems at the national and European levels have been weakened considerably over the past two or three years , and with the outbreak of Covid-19 , the operations of private NGOs in the Mediterranean have all but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ staff now working in Italy ’ s hospitals .
There has been a drop in the number of migrants making the crossing over recent weeks , but as the weather warms , that trend is not expected to hold .
“ We can not exclude more arrivals in the coming weeks , ” said Carlotta Sami of the UNHCR in Italy .
“ Recently , 150 people were saved by the only ship still operating in the Mediterranean .
We hope they can disembark in Malta or Italy.
” Italy has since declared @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the risk of Covid-19 transmission and announced that it would not allow any search and rescue boats to dock there .
The ship , and its 150 passengers , have now been unable to disembark for over a week .
Like Italy , Greece acts as first port of call for many undocumented migrants entering the European Union ( EU ) .
Similarly , a combination of EU policies , domestic pressures , and years of economic turmoil have meant that basic rights for migrants have long been out of reach .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ served to “ radically exacerbate an already problematic situation , ” says Eleni Takou , deputy director of HumanRights360 .
The impact of the current situation has been worsened by various measures implemented by the New Democracy government since it took power last summer , including restricting access to health care for newly arrived asylum seekers .
Even more drastic was the decision to completely suspend asylum claims during the month of March , as part of efforts to deter migrants from Syria and elsewhere arriving from Turkey .
While the suspension is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apply , the asylum service has closed down because of Covid-19 .
Thousands of people are in legal limbo .
“ People without documents—because they lacked access to the asylum service or because their claim was rejected—are hiding in order to avoid arrest , and this is very worrying in terms of access to public health , ” Takou said .
Her NGO is advocating for a “ tolerance status , ” asking Greek authorities to suspend arrests and detentions during the Covid-19 outbreak .
“ Health should come before legal status.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ north of Athens , are in “ hygienic quarantine ” because of several confirmed Covid-19 cases .
A lack of space , hygiene facilities , or adequate health services already made life difficult before the lockdown .
“ Where things are very very bad is on the islands , ” Takou said .
“ Social distancing can only be perceived as a bad joke in hot spots like Moria , where people live in tents , in the mud , in horrible hygiene conditions.
” The refugee camp on Moria was built for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 20,000 inhabitants , almost half of whom are children .
NGOs are calling for the “ decongestion ” of the islands , something that has taken on even greater importance during the pandemic .
Several European countries had agreed to take unaccompanied children from the island—a promise now stalled by the outbreak .
While governments including Britain and Spain have extended visas and released people from immigration detention centers , Portugal has gone above and beyond what its neighbors have been willing to offer .
On March 28 , the center-left government announced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ claim , including for asylum , would be automatically considered to have regularized status for the next three months .
The decree grants people in this position full access to health care and social security , and allows them to work and rent .
Cyntia de Paula , director of Casa Do Brasil , a group representing Portugal ’ s largest foreign community , praised this “ very positive decision.
” “ This measure is positive and places Portugal as one of the few countries in Europe with policies to include immigrants during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There are outstanding uncertainties about people who are left out , what happens when the temporary permits expire , and how the measures will be implemented .
Nonetheless , the move was hailed as significant at a time when anti-migrant discourse and legislation is on the rise in Europe .
“ We are a country of migrants , ” said Amnesty Portugal ’ s director Pedro Neto , citing his country ’ s histories of emigration to help explain this positive measure .
Neto offered the Portuguese government “ a big thank @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But with it , he added a plea : “ Decreeing is not enough .
The government has to provide means for this to happen .
”

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When French president Emmanuel Macron announced that his country would be going into a lockdown to halt the spread of Covid-19, Diakité knew there would be trouble.
The sweeping measures, announced in the speech in mid-March, would mean draconian restrictions on people’s leaving their homes and the shuttering of many public institutions and businesses. Some 100,000 officers were to be deployed to enforce the lockdown.
For Diakité and the many thousands of undocumented migrants like him living in France, the implications were more grave than for most French residents. “Identity checks have become more and more common,” he said in a phone interview. “This has created even more fear among the undocumented. There are comrades who haven’t left their homes for more than two weeks for fear of running into the police.”
An encounter with the police brings fear of being detained or deportation. Accusations of racial profiling and police violence against migrants are commonplace. Those with jobs in industries that are still operating—such as in cleaning, food delivery, or security—feel unsafe traveling to and from work. And for the many migrants across Europe who are homeless or live in overcrowded accommodation, “social distancing” is not an option. Related Article Immigrants Are Bearing the Brunt of the Coronavirus Crisis Cinthya Santos Briones, The Nation and Magnum Foundation
“It’s not easy to be locked down in the center,” said Marie Polard, a spokesperson at the Red Cross. The charity manages 25 accommodation centers for asylum seekers, home to around 7,000 people, in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium. There are sometimes 600 people in a center, and up to 12 to a room. All nonessential activities have been canceled, including homework clubs and language classes. “It’s especially difficult for the kids,” she said.
The most notable difference, though, has been the absence of any new residents. Such centers have not had any new referrals since mid-March when Belgium’s Federal Immigration Office closed its services due to the coronavirus outbreak. Unable to register their claim, recently arrived asylum seekers have nowhere to go.
“That is a big question: ‘Where are all those people?’” Polard added. “A lot of people are probably in the streets.” Current Issue View our current issue
Alexis Andries, director of programs for Doctors of the World (DOTW) in Belgium, said the situation risks increasing the number of homeless people at the time when people are supposed to be indoors. Like many charities acting as a lifeline to migrants unable to access state support, DOTW has had to decrease its services, relying on telephone consultations where possible; many of the charity’s volunteer doctors are over 65 and thus most at risk of the virus, so they are no longer working. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
The loss of volunteer-led organizations worries medical groups in neighboring Germany, too. Although the country’s approach of vigorous virus testing and tracking has been widely praised, medical NGOs are nevertheless concerned about the hundreds of thousands of people without medical insurance or facing other barriers to receiving care.
Many health care charities have partly or fully ceased operations, leaving those without insurance to wait until their illnesses deteriorate and they can access emergency care—adding more pressure still to the already overstretched hospitals.
For those that do make it to a hospital, another danger looms. “Social services are required by law to inform immigration authorities if an undocumented migrant seeks medical treatment coverage,” Stephanie Kirchner, a spokesperson at DOTW Germany, explained. “This doesn’t apply to emergencies, but of course it’s always a matter of definition what counts as an emergency. Undocumented migrants can risk deportation if they go to the doctor.”
More than 40 health organizations have called on the government to ensure access to tests and treatment for everyone, fearing that otherwise it will be impossible to successfully contain the outbreak.
While Italy has been deeply ravaged by the outbreak, a significant concentration of cases are in the country’s north. “In the south of Italy, we are not experiencing a health crisis, we are in an economic crisis.” Richard Braude, a member of Arci Porco Rosso in Palermo, Sicily, told The Nation. The small community support group offers legal advice, food distribution, and other support to migrants—mainly from West and North Africa—on whom the economic consequences of the lockdown are particularly dire.
“People are calling us not because people are sick from the virus, but because people are hungry.” Braude said. “There was a big community of Africans already on the economic knife edge, and now it’s tipped.”
Around half of Italy’s agriculture workforce are migrants, and in Sicily workers are often from Africa. Even those with papers face exploitative labor conditions, and live in informal settlements where social distancing and hygiene are impossible to maintain. Italian authorities have offered financial support to families and workers hurt by the crisis, but the cash remains inaccessible to many migrants for lack of legal documents.
Those attempting to reach Italy face new complications. While migrants’ journeys across the Mediterranean were always perilous, claiming more than 19,000 lives since 2013, search-and-rescue systems at the national and European levels have been weakened considerably over the past two or three years, and with the outbreak of Covid-19, the operations of private NGOs in the Mediterranean have all but ceased, with much of their medical staff now working in Italy’s hospitals.
There has been a drop in the number of migrants making the crossing over recent weeks, but as the weather warms, that trend is not expected to hold. “We cannot exclude more arrivals in the coming weeks,” said Carlotta Sami of the UNHCR in Italy. “Recently, 150 people were saved by the only ship still operating in the Mediterranean. We hope they can disembark in Malta or Italy.”
Italy has since declared its ports “unsafe” because of the risk of Covid-19 transmission and announced that it would not allow any search and rescue boats to dock there. The ship, and its 150 passengers, have now been unable to disembark for over a week.
Like Italy, Greece acts as first port of call for many undocumented migrants entering the European Union (EU). Similarly, a combination of EU policies, domestic pressures, and years of economic turmoil have meant that basic rights for migrants have long been out of reach. The outbreak of Covid-19 in Greece has only served to “radically exacerbate an already problematic situation,” says Eleni Takou, deputy director of HumanRights360.
The impact of the current situation has been worsened by various measures implemented by the New Democracy government since it took power last summer, including restricting access to health care for newly arrived asylum seekers. Even more drastic was the decision to completely suspend asylum claims during the month of March, as part of efforts to deter migrants from Syria and elsewhere arriving from Turkey. While the suspension is now over and in theory people can apply, the asylum service has closed down because of Covid-19. Thousands of people are in legal limbo.
“People without documents—because they lacked access to the asylum service or because their claim was rejected—are hiding in order to avoid arrest, and this is very worrying in terms of access to public health,” Takou said. Her NGO is advocating for a “tolerance status,” asking Greek authorities to suspend arrests and detentions during the Covid-19 outbreak. “Health should come before legal status.”
Ritsona and Malakasa, two overcrowded camps north of Athens, are in “hygienic quarantine” because of several confirmed Covid-19 cases. A lack of space, hygiene facilities, or adequate health services already made life difficult before the lockdown.
“Where things are very very bad is on the islands,” Takou said. “Social distancing can only be perceived as a bad joke in hot spots like Moria, where people live in tents, in the mud, in horrible hygiene conditions.” The refugee camp on Moria was built for 3,000 people, but currently has over 20,000 inhabitants, almost half of whom are children. NGOs are calling for the “decongestion” of the islands, something that has taken on even greater importance during the pandemic. Several European countries had agreed to take unaccompanied children from the island—a promise now stalled by the outbreak.
While governments including Britain and Spain have extended visas and released people from immigration detention centers, Portugal has gone above and beyond what its neighbors have been willing to offer. On March 28, the center-left government announced that anyone who had a pending immigration claim, including for asylum, would be automatically considered to have regularized status for the next three months. The decree grants people in this position full access to health care and social security, and allows them to work and rent.
Cyntia de Paula, director of Casa Do Brasil, a group representing Portugal’s largest foreign community, praised this “very positive decision.”
“This measure is positive and places Portugal as one of the few countries in Europe with policies to include immigrants during the Covid-19 response,” she said.
There are outstanding uncertainties about people who are left out, what happens when the temporary permits expire, and how the measures will be implemented. Nonetheless, the move was hailed as significant at a time when anti-migrant discourse and legislation is on the rise in Europe.
“We are a country of migrants,” said Amnesty Portugal’s director Pedro Neto, citing his country’s histories of emigration to help explain this positive measure. Neto offered the Portuguese government “a big thank you” for taking this stance.
But with it, he added a plea: “Decreeing is not enough. The government has to provide means for this to happen.”


thenation--2020-04-15--The Light At the End of the Coronavirus Tunnel

Let me quote a Trumpian figure from long ago , Henry Ford .
That ’ s right , the bigot who created the Ford Motor Company ( and once even ran for president ) .
Back in 1916 , in an interview with a Chicago Tribune reporter , he offered this bit of wisdom on the subject of history : As it happened , Napoleon Bonaparte died only 42 years before Henry Ford was born and I ’ m not sure he tried to cross anything except a significant part of Russia ( unsuccessfully ) .
My suspicion : Ford @ @ @ @ @ @ @ associative fashion we ’ ve become used to in the age of Trump , of Julius Caesar ’ s famed crossing of the Rubicon almost 2,000 years earlier .
But really , who knows or cares in a world in which “ bunk ” has become the definition of history—a world in which Donald Trump , in news conference after news conference , is the only person worth a tinker ’ s dam ( or damn ) ?
In fact , call Ford a prophet ( as well as a profiteer ) because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1947—I was three then , but you already knew I was mighty old , right ?
—we find ourselves in a moment that couldn ’ t be bunkier .
We now have a president who undoubtedly doesn ’ t know Nero—the infamous fiddling Roman emperor ( although he was probably playing a cithara ) —from Spiro—that ’ s Spiro Agnew , Richard Nixon ’ s vice president who lived god knows how long ago .
In fact , Agnew was the crook who fell even before his president was shown the door .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ After all , even yesterday ’ s history is water through the gate , if not under the bridge , and in these glory days of Donald Trump , who cares ?
Not him , that ’ s for sure .
A President Who Deserves the Medal of Honor ?
All of this is my way of introducing a vivid piece of imagery that our president snatched out of the refuse pile of history and first used in late March .
It was a figure of speech he ’ s repeated since that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media commentary—hardly a bit of it—it deserved .
Nor did The Donald get the praise for it he deserved .
Henry Ford would have been deeply proud of him for bunking , as well as debunking , history in such a fashion .
We ’ re talking about a president who couldn ’ t get a historical fact right if he tried , which he has absolutely no reason to do .
After all , in early March , facing the coronavirus , he admitted that he had no idea anyone had ever @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he spoke at a news conference about mobilizing military personnel to deal with the modern equivalent of the flu pandemic of “ 1917 : ” He was , of course , referring to the catastrophic “ Spanish flu ” of 1918 in which his own grandfather died , but no matter .
Truly , no matter .
After all , that must have been 1,000 years ago in a past beyond the memory of anyone but a very stable genius .
Under the circumstances , what difference could a year make ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ image I referred to above .
At his March 24th coronavirus briefing , speaking of scary death counts to come ( or perhaps , given what I ’ m about to mention , I should use that classic Vietnam-era phrase “ body counts ” ) , President Trump offered an upbeat glimpse into the future .
His exact words were : Ah , yes , the light at the end of the tunnel .
Such a bright , hopeful , and striking image that others among his supporters and administration figures promptly ran @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grim coronavirus figures from New York state , for instance , Fox News ’ s Laura Ingraham said : And Admiral Brett Giroir , the administration ’ s coronavirus testing coordinator , chimed in : A week later when things had grown far worse than he predicted , the president added , “ We ’ re going to have a very tough two weeks ” before the country sees the “ light at the end of the tunnel.
” Now , historically speaking , here ’ s the strange thing : You could @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , his advisers , or media sources of any kind—of where , historically speaking , that striking image had come from .
In official Washington , perhaps the sole echo of its ominous past lay in the sardonic response of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi .
“ The light at the end of the tunnel , ” she said , “ may be a train coming at us.
” Or , as a friend commented to me , maybe it was light from a refrigerated truck like the ones New York hospitals are now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bodies from the pandemic .
History ?
Yes , there actually is a history here , even if it ’ s from a past so distant that no one , not even a president with a “ very , very large brain , ” seems to remember it .
And yet few who lived through the Vietnam War would be likely to forget that phrase .
It was first used , as far as we know , in 1967 when the war ’ s military commander , General William Westmoreland , returned to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ United States was fighting in a wildly destructive manner was successfully coming to an end , the proof being that “ light ” he spotted “ at the end of the tunnel.
” ( He later denied using the phrase . )
That memorably ill-chosen metaphor would become a grim punch line for the growing antiwar movement of the era .
So let ’ s say that there ’ s a certain grisly charm in hearing it from the president who skipped that war , thanks to fake bone spurs , and has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as having been his skill in avoiding sexually transmitted diseases , or STDs , in various home-front sleep-arounds .
He once even claimed to radio personality Howard Stern that he should have gotten “ the Congressional Medal of Honor ” for doing so .
( “ It ’ s Vietnam .
It is very dangerous .
So I ’ m very , very careful , ” he told Stern , speaking of those STDs . )
In any case , to have picked up that metaphorical definition of failure from the Vietnam era @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first claimed the coronavirus was nothing , then a “ new hoax ” of the Democrats , then easy to handle , before declaring himself a “ wartime president ” ( without the necessary tests , masks , or ventilators on hand ) .
In some sense , President Trump has been exhibiting the sort of detachment from reality that American presidents and other officials did less openly in the Vietnam years .
And for this president , Covid-19 could indeed prove to be the disease version of a Vietnam War .
Given @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unchallenged light at the end of the tunnel metaphor , I thought it might be worth mentioning a few other choice phrases from the Vietnam era that the president could wield at future news conferences .
Take , for instance , President Nixon in his 1971 State of the Union Address : Or the classic description by an anonymous US major of the retaking of the town of Ben Tre in the wake of the Tet Offensive of 1968 : “ It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.
” Or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with General Westmoreland , there ’ s always his 1967 National Press Club speech highlighting progress in the war : “ We have reached an important point when the end begins to come into view.
” Give Donald Trump credit .
He seems to be leading the richest , most powerful country on the planet in an ill-equipped , ill-organized , ill-planned battle ( though not in any normal sense a war ) against the pandemic from hell .
Whether or not it ends in a Vietnam-style helicopter evacuation from that hell ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remains to be seen , but at least the imagery chosen so far has been unnervingly apt , though next to no one in our increasingly bunkable world even noticed .
Still , in a Trumpian spirit , let ’ s take the president and his team at their word for a moment .
Let ’ s consider what glimmer of grim hope might be discovered in that light they claim to see flickering at the end of the coronaviral tunnel—at least when it comes to twenty-first-century American war .
Let ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black Death of the 14th century that ended feudalism , it ’ s at least reasonable to assume that whenever it finally disappears ( if it goes at all ) , Covid-19 will indeed have ended something on this planet of ours .
Imagine an American future ( more than 100,000 body bags worth of it ) in which the global economy has been thoroughly cracked open and the Pentagon and the US military , perhaps the most powerful institutions in 21st-century America , find themselves among the wounded and the crippled .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the USS Theodore Roosevelt , that the coronavirus is likely to run riot through the closed ranks of that military , filling some of those very body bags .
What , then , of the conflicts our 21st-century “ warriors ” have been fighting from Afghanistan to Iraq to Somalia and beyond , those never-ending post-9/11 wars of terror ( officially , of course , “ on terror ” ) ?
Will our troops , trainers , advisers , and military contractors soon find themselves in what may be little short of pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that might involve ?
One thing crosses my mind , at least : that such wars will become too dangerous to fight and that , sooner or later , American troops might simply leave Covid-19 battle zones for home .
Such possibilities aren ’ t in the headlines yet , although reports of the first tiny evacuations—of Green Beret units—from such pandemic battlegrounds are just beginning to pop up and the first US trainers in Iraq seem to have been withdrawn ( “ temporarily ” ) due to the spread of the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ true that these initial small steps seem like anything but the equivalent of the final dramatic evacuation from the US embassy in Saigon in 1975 as North Vietnamese troops moved into town .
Still , with the first tiny evacuations seemingly underway , my question is : Could the coronavirus turn out , in some strange fashion , to be a grim , death-dealing peacemaker for Americans ?
The United Nations of diseases ?
Is it possible that , on the hotter , more imperiled planet to come , the hundreds of American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a historically unprecedented fashion and all those troops , as well as the forever wars that go with them , could be part of our past , not our future ?
Could a post-coronavirus planet be one on which the US military and the national security state were no longer the sinkholes for endless trillions of taxpayer dollars that could have been spent so much more fruitfully elsewhere ?
Could there , in other words , be just the faintest glimmer of light at the end of this tunnel from hell or is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the distant future ?

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nation believes that helping readers stay informed about the impact of the coronavirus crisis is a form of public service. For that reason, this article, and all of our coronavirus coverage, is now free. Please subscribe to support our writers and staff, and stay healthy. This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.
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Let me quote a Trumpian figure from long ago, Henry Ford. That’s right, the bigot who created the Ford Motor Company (and once even ran for president). Back in 1916, in an interview with a Chicago Tribune reporter, he offered this bit of wisdom on the subject of history:
Say, what do I care about Napoleon? What do we care about what they did 500 or 1,000 years ago? I don’t know whether Napoleon did or did not try to get across and I don’t care. It means nothing to me. History is more or less bunk. It’s tradition. We don’t want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker’s dam is the history we make today.
As it happened, Napoleon Bonaparte died only 42 years before Henry Ford was born and I’m not sure he tried to cross anything except a significant part of Russia (unsuccessfully). My suspicion: Ford may have been thinking, in the associative fashion we’ve become used to in the age of Trump, of Julius Caesar’s famed crossing of the Rubicon almost 2,000 years earlier. But really, who knows or cares in a world in which “bunk” has become the definition of history—a world in which Donald Trump, in news conference after news conference, is the only person worth a tinker’s dam (or damn)?
In fact, call Ford a prophet (as well as a profiteer) because so many years after he died in 1947—I was three then, but you already knew I was mighty old, right?—we find ourselves in a moment that couldn’t be bunkier. We now have a president who undoubtedly doesn’t know Nero—the infamous fiddling Roman emperor (although he was probably playing a cithara)—from Spiro—that’s Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s vice president who lived god knows how long ago. In fact, Agnew was the crook who fell even before his president was shown the door. But why linger on ancient history? After all, even yesterday’s history is water through the gate, if not under the bridge, and in these glory days of Donald Trump, who cares? Not him, that’s for sure.
A President Who Deserves the Medal of Honor?
All of this is my way of introducing a vivid piece of imagery that our president snatched out of the refuse pile of history and first used in late March. It was a figure of speech he’s repeated since that didn’t get the kind of media commentary—hardly a bit of it—it deserved. Nor did The Donald get the praise for it he deserved. Henry Ford would have been deeply proud of him for bunking, as well as debunking, history in such a fashion. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
We’re talking about a president who couldn’t get a historical fact right if he tried, which he has absolutely no reason to do. After all, in early March, facing the coronavirus, he admitted that he had no idea anyone had ever died of the flu. Weeks later, he spoke at a news conference about mobilizing military personnel to deal with the modern equivalent of the flu pandemic of “1917:”
We’ll be telling them where they’re going. They’re going into war, they’re going into a battle that they’ve never trained for. Nobody’s trained for, nobody’s seen this, I would say since 1917, which was the greatest of them all. Current Issue View our current issue
He was, of course, referring to the catastrophic “Spanish flu” of 1918 in which his own grandfather died, but no matter. Truly, no matter. After all, that must have been 1,000 years ago in a past beyond the memory of anyone but a very stable genius. Under the circumstances, what difference could a year make?
Which brings me to the bunkable historical image I referred to above. At his March 24th coronavirus briefing, speaking of scary death counts to come (or perhaps, given what I’m about to mention, I should use that classic Vietnam-era phrase “body counts”), President Trump offered an upbeat glimpse into the future. His exact words were:
There’s tremendous hope as we look forward and we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Ah, yes, the light at the end of the tunnel. Such a bright, hopeful, and striking image that others among his supporters and administration figures promptly ran with it. Speaking of the then-latest grim coronavirus figures from New York state, for instance, Fox News’s Laura Ingraham said:
If that trend does hold, it’s really good news about when this nightmare actually peaks, and then we start seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
Surgeon General Jerome Adams added,
What the president, in my mind, is doing is trying to help people understand that there is a light at the end of this tunnel.
And Admiral Brett Giroir, the administration’s coronavirus testing coordinator, chimed in:
There are beginning to be indicators that we are getting ahead of this—that there’s light at the head of the tunnel.
A week later when things had grown far worse than he predicted, the president added, “We’re going to have a very tough two weeks” before the country sees the “light at the end of the tunnel.”
Now, historically speaking, here’s the strange thing: You could barely find a hint—whether from Donald Trump, his advisers, or media sources of any kind—of where, historically speaking, that striking image had come from. In official Washington, perhaps the sole echo of its ominous past lay in the sardonic response of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “The light at the end of the tunnel,” she said, “may be a train coming at us.” Or, as a friend commented to me, maybe it was light from a refrigerated truck like the ones New York hospitals are now using to store the overflow of dead bodies from the pandemic.
History? Yes, there actually is a history here, even if it’s from a past so distant that no one, not even a president with a “very, very large brain,” seems to remember it. And yet few who lived through the Vietnam War would be likely to forget that phrase. It was first used, as far as we know, in 1967 when the war’s military commander, General William Westmoreland, returned to Washington to declare that the conflict the United States was fighting in a wildly destructive manner was successfully coming to an end, the proof being that “light” he spotted “at the end of the tunnel.” (He later denied using the phrase.) That memorably ill-chosen metaphor would become a grim punch line for the growing antiwar movement of the era.
So let’s say that there’s a certain grisly charm in hearing it from the president who skipped that war, thanks to fake bone spurs, and has talked about his own “Vietnam” as having been his skill in avoiding sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs, in various home-front sleep-arounds. He once even claimed to radio personality Howard Stern that he should have gotten “the Congressional Medal of Honor” for doing so. (“It’s Vietnam. It is very dangerous. So I’m very, very careful,” he told Stern, speaking of those STDs.)
In any case, to have picked up that metaphorical definition of failure from the Vietnam era seems strangely appropriate for a president who first claimed the coronavirus was nothing, then a “new hoax” of the Democrats, then easy to handle, before declaring himself a “wartime president” (without the necessary tests, masks, or ventilators on hand). In some sense, President Trump has been exhibiting the sort of detachment from reality that American presidents and other officials did less openly in the Vietnam years. And for this president, Covid-19 could indeed prove to be the disease version of a Vietnam War.
Given his success so far with that largely unchallenged light at the end of the tunnel metaphor, I thought it might be worth mentioning a few other choice phrases from the Vietnam era that the president could wield at future news conferences. Take, for instance, President Nixon in his 1971 State of the Union Address:
We have gone through a long, dark night of the American spirit, but now that night is ending.
Or the classic description by an anonymous US major of the retaking of the town of Ben Tre in the wake of the Tet Offensive of 1968: “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” Or, should the president want to stick with General Westmoreland, there’s always his 1967 National Press Club speech highlighting progress in the war: “We have reached an important point when the end begins to come into view.”
Give Donald Trump credit. He seems to be leading the richest, most powerful country on the planet in an ill-equipped, ill-organized, ill-planned battle (though not in any normal sense a war) against the pandemic from hell. Whether or not it ends in a Vietnam-style helicopter evacuation from that hell (or even from the White House) remains to be seen, but at least the imagery chosen so far has been unnervingly apt, though next to no one in our increasingly bunkable world even noticed.
Peace in the Dark?
Still, in a Trumpian spirit, let’s take the president and his team at their word for a moment. Let’s consider what glimmer of grim hope might be discovered in that light they claim to see flickering at the end of the coronaviral tunnel—at least when it comes to twenty-first-century American war.
Let’s start with the obvious: Like the Black Death of the 14th century that ended feudalism, it’s at least reasonable to assume that whenever it finally disappears (if it goes at all), Covid-19 will indeed have ended something on this planet of ours. Imagine an American future (more than 100,000 body bags worth of it) in which the global economy has been thoroughly cracked open and the Pentagon and the US military, perhaps the most powerful institutions in 21st-century America, find themselves among the wounded and the crippled.
Let’s imagine, as with the USS Theodore Roosevelt, that the coronavirus is likely to run riot through the closed ranks of that military, filling some of those very body bags. What, then, of the conflicts our 21st-century “warriors” have been fighting from Afghanistan to Iraq to Somalia and beyond, those never-ending post-9/11 wars of terror (officially, of course, “on terror”)? Will our troops, trainers, advisers, and military contractors soon find themselves in what may be little short of pandemic wars?
Can you even imagine what that might involve? One thing crosses my mind, at least: that such wars will become too dangerous to fight and that, sooner or later, American troops might simply leave Covid-19 battle zones for home. Such possibilities aren’t in the headlines yet, although reports of the first tiny evacuations—of Green Beret units—from such pandemic battlegrounds are just beginning to pop up and the first US trainers in Iraq seem to have been withdrawn (“temporarily”) due to the spread of the coronavirus in that country.
It’s true that these initial small steps seem like anything but the equivalent of the final dramatic evacuation from the US embassy in Saigon in 1975 as North Vietnamese troops moved into town. Still, with the first tiny evacuations seemingly underway, my question is: Could the coronavirus turn out, in some strange fashion, to be a grim, death-dealing peacemaker for Americans? The United Nations of diseases? Is it possible that, on the hotter, more imperiled planet to come, the hundreds of American bases still scattered around the globe in a historically unprecedented fashion and all those troops, as well as the forever wars that go with them, could be part of our past, not our future?
Could a post-coronavirus planet be one on which the US military and the national security state were no longer the sinkholes for endless trillions of taxpayer dollars that could have been spent so much more fruitfully elsewhere? Could there, in other words, be just the faintest glimmer of light at the end of this tunnel from hell or is that still darkness I see stretching into the distant future?


thenation--2020-04-14--WWE’s Reckless Approach to Covid-19

WWE’s Reckless Approach to Covid-19

There is something ugly as sin happening in the carnivalesque world of professional wrestling , or more specifically World Wrestling Entertainment , the top dog in the industry .
Run by 74-year-old billionaire Friend-of-Trump Vince McMahon , WWE has decided to resume live programming this week in the midst of the coronavirus , instead of doing safer bulk pretapings .
The reasons for doing so appear to be dicey as hell .
The owners say that they are doing it for America .
Their actual motives are much more suspect .
ESPN has some sort of murky partnership with WWE @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as if it ’ s a legit sport , and never looking at the dark side of the business .
The network uncritically ran WWE ’ s justification for going back to live programming : We believe it is now more important than ever to provide people with a diversion from these hard times .
We are producing content on a closed set with only essential personnel in attendance following appropriate guidelines while taking additional precautions to ensure the health and wellness of our performers and staff .
As a brand that has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , WWE and its Superstars bring families together and deliver a sense of hope , determination and perseverance .
What propagandistic nonsense , or , to use a word from McMahon ’ s youth , “ malarkey.
” The actual reason WWE is changing to live programming , as reported by actual-wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer , is to fulfill contractual requirements to the USA and Fox networks to broadcast only three pretaped shows per year .
This decision is driven by McMahon ’ s eternal efforts to keep his stock artificially inflated with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he ’ s concerned that the contracts with USA and Fox could be reopened if he doesn ’ t deliver the goods .
Even more fitting for this scandal-ridden company is that the decision to go to live-event programing comes after news this weekend that an unnamed on-air personality has tested positive for Covid-19 .
The company was quick to assert that this employee infected nobody , never had contact with anyone , and that everything was completely fine—nothing to see here .
But there ’ s no reason to take anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s care for his workforce is legendarily abhorrent , with a staggering death toll among its stars over the decades due to drugs , suicide , and one in-ring disaster .
If any other sport had WWE ’ s body count , there would be congressional panels decrying its existence .
In addition , McMahon is taking advantage of Florida ’ s lax laws concerning Covid-19 , enacted by their blithering goon of a governor , Ron DeSantis .
WWE will be filming its live shows in the corrupt sinkhole of Orlando @ @ @ @ @ @ @ essential business ” label from the friendly Florida government .
It would be difficult to imagine anywhere more dangerous outside of New York for WWE to set up shop .
As Alex Nazaryan of Yahoo News tweeted , “ Florida now has twice as many coronavirus cases ( 20,601 ) as South Korea ( 10,537 ) .
About 30 million more people live in South Korea than in Florida.
” It ’ s difficult to imagine a more rancid and more dangerous cross-pollination than that of Trump , DeSantis , and the WWE @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that McMahon announced that WWE would be doing live tapings in Florida , former Trump cabinet official Linda McMahon ’ s ( former WWE executive and Vince ’ s spouse , of course ) committed her Trump reelection PAC to spending $ 18.5 million in Florida in 2020 .
When Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings was asked about WWE ’ s maintaining live tapings , he said , “ Originally , they were not deemed an essential business .
With some conversation with the governor ’ s office regarding the governor ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business.
” Then , late Monday night , it was revealed that last Thursday DeSantis signed an executive order deeming all “ employees at a professional sports and media production with a national audience—including…athletes , entertainers , production team , executive team , media team ” as essential .
This all stinks to high hell .
When you strip it all away , a billionaire Trump backer gets an anti-labor sweetheart deal at the behest of a Trump-lickspittle of a governor .
It is a microcosm of a corrupt system in a state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will continue , without crowds and with the illusion that just the three to seven people in the ring are present , their bodies all over one another like a frat party of germs .
The reality is that when one considers the tech crew and medical professionals on-site , it ’ s more likely to be dozens in attendance and in close quarters at a time when social distancing is the difference between life and death .
Even the announce team , which could easily fulfill their duties at a remote location @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Orlando to take care of business .
And again , this is all happening after someone in the company tested positive for Covid-19 .
This is a scandal , and the powder-puff WWE journalism from mainstream outlets is not nearly sufficient to hold McMahon ’ s feet to the fire .
The one positive to all of this is the possibility that maybe now , at long last , professional wrestlers will see the value in organizing themselves into a union .
The matches may be scripted , but there is nothing fake @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and now coronavirus risks that come with being part of Vincent Kennedy McMahon ’ s traveling circus .

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There is something ugly as sin happening in the carnivalesque world of professional wrestling, or more specifically World Wrestling Entertainment, the top dog in the industry. Run by 74-year-old billionaire Friend-of-Trump Vince McMahon, WWE has decided to resume live programming this week in the midst of the coronavirus, instead of doing safer bulk pretapings. The reasons for doing so appear to be dicey as hell. The owners say that they are doing it for America. Their actual motives are much more suspect.
ESPN has some sort of murky partnership with WWE, interviewing its sports entertainers on SportsCenter as if it’s a legit sport, and never looking at the dark side of the business. The network uncritically ran WWE’s justification for going back to live programming:
We believe it is now more important than ever to provide people with a diversion from these hard times. We are producing content on a closed set with only essential personnel in attendance following appropriate guidelines while taking additional precautions to ensure the health and wellness of our performers and staff. As a brand that has been woven into the fabric of society, WWE and its Superstars bring families together and deliver a sense of hope, determination and perseverance.
What propagandistic nonsense, or, to use a word from McMahon’s youth, “malarkey.” The actual reason WWE is changing to live programming, as reported by actual-wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, is to fulfill contractual requirements to the USA and Fox networks to broadcast only three pretaped shows per year. This decision is driven by McMahon’s eternal efforts to keep his stock artificially inflated with smoke and mirrors. According to insiders, he’s concerned that the contracts with USA and Fox could be reopened if he doesn’t deliver the goods.
Even more fitting for this scandal-ridden company is that the decision to go to live-event programing comes after news this weekend that an unnamed on-air personality has tested positive for Covid-19. The company was quick to assert that this employee infected nobody, never had contact with anyone, and that everything was completely fine—nothing to see here. But there’s no reason to take anything WWE says at face value. McMahon’s care for his workforce is legendarily abhorrent, with a staggering death toll among its stars over the decades due to drugs, suicide, and one in-ring disaster. If any other sport had WWE’s body count, there would be congressional panels decrying its existence.
In addition, McMahon is taking advantage of Florida’s lax laws concerning Covid-19, enacted by their blithering goon of a governor, Ron DeSantis. WWE will be filming its live shows in the corrupt sinkhole of Orlando, where McMahon has received an “essential business” label from the friendly Florida government. It would be difficult to imagine anywhere more dangerous outside of New York for WWE to set up shop. As Alex Nazaryan of Yahoo News tweeted, “Florida now has twice as many coronavirus cases (20,601) as South Korea (10,537). About 30 million more people live in South Korea than in Florida.”
It’s difficult to imagine a more rancid and more dangerous cross-pollination than that of Trump, DeSantis, and the WWE. Sure enough, the same day that McMahon announced that WWE would be doing live tapings in Florida, former Trump cabinet official Linda McMahon’s (former WWE executive and Vince’s spouse, of course) committed her Trump reelection PAC to spending $18.5 million in Florida in 2020. Current Issue View our current issue
When Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings was asked about WWE’s maintaining live tapings, he said, “Originally, they were not deemed an essential business. With some conversation with the governor’s office regarding the governor’s order, they were deemed an essential business.”
Then, late Monday night, it was revealed that last Thursday DeSantis signed an executive order deeming all “employees at a professional sports and media production with a national audience—including…athletes, entertainers, production team, executive team, media team” as essential. This all stinks to high hell. When you strip it all away, a billionaire Trump backer gets an anti-labor sweetheart deal at the behest of a Trump-lickspittle of a governor. It is a microcosm of a corrupt system in a state of profound decay.
Now the matches will continue, without crowds and with the illusion that just the three to seven people in the ring are present, their bodies all over one another like a frat party of germs. The reality is that when one considers the tech crew and medical professionals on-site, it’s more likely to be dozens in attendance and in close quarters at a time when social distancing is the difference between life and death. Even the announce team, which could easily fulfill their duties at a remote location, are being told to fly to Orlando to take care of business. And again, this is all happening after someone in the company tested positive for Covid-19.
This is a scandal, and the powder-puff WWE journalism from mainstream outlets is not nearly sufficient to hold McMahon’s feet to the fire. The one positive to all of this is the possibility that maybe now, at long last, professional wrestlers will see the value in organizing themselves into a union. The matches may be scripted, but there is nothing fake about the real-life injuries, painkiller addictions, and now coronavirus risks that come with being part of Vincent Kennedy McMahon’s traveling circus.