thenation--2020-05-20--The Lunacy of Global Seafood Supply Chains

Gloucester , Mass.—On a recent locked-down day , cars snaked nose-to-tail through downtown .
The destination : a seafood “ shop , ” popped up on a local commercial fishing wharf .
For those who made it in time , $ 15 bought a pound of scallops , or two pounds of haddock , fresh caught , and delivered in vacuum-sealed bags to the car window , exact change please .
For the city ’ s hard-hit fisher folk , here was a rare bit of good news .
The pandemic ’ s shuttering of restaurants has left those who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ lobster for a living without a major market .
Boats are docked , crewmembers let go , pain rippling through a web of marine-related businesses .
Something Is Happening Here is a collaboration between The Nation and Kopkind , a living memorial to radical journalist Andrew Kopkind , who from 1982–94 was the magazine ’ s chief political writer and analyst .
“ A whole big system is falling apart .
It ’ s not just the fishermen but the people who support them , ” says Donna Marshall .
Marshall heads up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ community-supported agriculture ( CSA ) program , but for local seafood .
These days her group is dropping off locally caught haddock , hake , cusk , and lobster to customers ’ doorsteps .
The work of turning whole fish into neat fillets is being done by laid-off workers from area restaurants , the only paying work they have right now .
Homegrown efforts to keep people in local fish can ’ t match the collapse of an industry ; direct-to-consumer sales are a small fraction of what fishermen sell to restaurants .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ crisis has brought to Gloucester matters .
“ You ’ re paying your neighbor ’ s mortgage , ” Marshall says .
“ This person has a family .
It ’ s not some faceless conglomerate.
” On the same day that the WHO deemed Covid-19 a pandemic , a bill was introduced in the US Senate to expand industrial fish farming .
Known as the AQUAA Act , the measure has strong support among US farmers , eager to offload a glut of soybeans , rebranded as aquafeed , into fledgling salmon @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of it as the industrial seafood supply chain : complex , convoluted , and best not viewed up close .
“ It ’ s all driving toward a high-volume , low-value global commodities market , ” says Brett Tolley , a fourth-generation fisherman turned community organizer for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance , a Gloucester-based group that advocates for fishers across the country .
Like all global supply chains right now , this one feels unstable and unsustainable .
Most of the seafood we eat in America , even in Gloucester , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from overseas .
Most of what local fishermen catch is sent elsewhere .
“ The models aren ’ t designed to feed local and regional markets , ” Tolley says .
Those famous fish sticks bearing the logo of a Gloucester fisherman ?
By the time they reach your frozen foods section , they ’ ve made an exhausting global journey , exported for processing , then reimported .
Nearly 500 commercial boats fished out of Gloucester a decade ago .
Today , there are two dozen .
This reflects both the decades-long @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that once abounded in the cold waters off Cape Ann—and ever-more-aggressive federal measures limiting who can fish and for how much .
Privatizing a natural resource has been the governing principle of fisheries management for a decade , the idea being that privatization gives people a greater stake in preservation .
Fisheries have thus been carved into slices that can be bought , sold , or traded , pricing out small fishermen and rewarding deep-pocketed investors— “ slipper skippers , ” who don ’ t fish but own the boats and the rights @ @ @ @ @ @ @ went to hell ” even before Covid-19 , says lobsterman Larry Stepanuk , who fishes between 200 and 300 lobster traps in the waters off of Rockport , Mass .
Tariffs imposed by Europe and China made lobsters prohibitively expensive .
Then came the collapse of the Chinese market , where lobsters are—or were—a coveted luxury among the burgeoning middle class .
Lobstermen , who had a bumper fall season , now have nowhere to sell their catch .
No restaurant diners tying on lobster bibs ; no cruise ships , the largest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surf ” in surf and turf .
“ To go and get ‘ bugs , ’ ” the local endearment for lobsters , “ and sell them for what they can be sold for right now would net you enough to buy a six-pack or two , ” Stepanuk says .
He spends his days painting buoys and waiting to see if he gets what he calls “ a gift ” from the president .
The entire US fishing industry was promised only $ 300 million in the $ 2 trillion stimulus package @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than any state besides Maine , is set to receive just over $ 28 million .
The size of the state ’ s haul—the third-largest allocation behind Alaska and Washington—is partly due to the strength of the lobster industry here .
But lobsterers are just one contingent in a vast workforce that depends upon the sea .
“ It could always just end up being a money grab , ” says Mark Ring of the Massachusetts Lobstermen ’ s Association .
If any of that money makes its way to Stepanuk , he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Aimee , could use a scrape and a paint .
After lobstering for 50 years , Stepanuk is practiced at weathering crises ; so is his extended community .
“ There ’ s this whole thing with mutual aid in a place like Gloucester .
You get a bucket of lobsters , I get cheaper rent .
A grocery store gives out a gift card , basically saying , ‘ Here ’ s some money for a couple of weeks.
’ It doesn ’ t seem like much , but it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ each other out.
” Something Is Happening Here is a collaboration between The Nation and Kopkind , offering scenes from a pandemic—a series of dispatches from Kopkind ’ s far-flung network of participants , advisers , guests , and friends .
Edited by Nation contributor and Kopkind program director JoAnn Wypijewski , it will appear weekly on thenation.com and kopkind.org .

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.
G loucester, M ass.—On a recent locked-down day, cars snaked nose-to-tail through downtown. The destination: a seafood “shop,” popped up on a local commercial fishing wharf. For those who made it in time, $15 bought a pound of scallops, or two pounds of haddock, fresh caught, and delivered in vacuum-sealed bags to the car window, exact change please. For the city’s hard-hit fisher folk, here was a rare bit of good news. The pandemic’s shuttering of restaurants has left those who fish, scallop, clam, and lobster for a living without a major market. Boats are docked, crewmembers let go, pain rippling through a web of marine-related businesses. Something Is Happening Here is a collaboration between The Nation and Kopkind, a living memorial to radical journalist Andrew Kopkind, who from 1982–94 was the magazine’s chief political writer and analyst.
“A whole big system is falling apart. It’s not just the fishermen but the people who support them,” says Donna Marshall. Marshall heads up Cape Ann Fresh Catch, like a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program, but for local seafood. These days her group is dropping off locally caught haddock, hake, cusk, and lobster to customers’ doorsteps. The work of turning whole fish into neat fillets is being done by laid-off workers from area restaurants, the only paying work they have right now.
Homegrown efforts to keep people in local fish can’t match the collapse of an industry; direct-to-consumer sales are a small fraction of what fishermen sell to restaurants. Still, the seaside solidarity that the crisis has brought to Gloucester matters. “You’re paying your neighbor’s mortgage,” Marshall says. “This person has a family. It’s not some faceless conglomerate.”
On the same day that the WHO deemed Covid-19 a pandemic, a bill was introduced in the US Senate to expand industrial fish farming. Known as the AQUAA Act, the measure has strong support among US farmers, eager to offload a glut of soybeans, rebranded as aquafeed, into fledgling salmon and tilapia bred in pens. Think of it as the industrial seafood supply chain: complex, convoluted, and best not viewed up close. “It’s all driving toward a high-volume, low-value global commodities market,” says Brett Tolley, a fourth-generation fisherman turned community organizer for the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, a Gloucester-based group that advocates for fishers across the country.
Like all global supply chains right now, this one feels unstable and unsustainable. Most of the seafood we eat in America, even in Gloucester, the country’s oldest seaport, comes from overseas. Most of what local fishermen catch is sent elsewhere. “The models aren’t designed to feed local and regional markets,” Tolley says. Those famous fish sticks bearing the logo of a Gloucester fisherman? By the time they reach your frozen foods section, they’ve made an exhausting global journey, exported for processing, then reimported.
Nearly 500 commercial boats fished out of Gloucester a decade ago. Today, there are two dozen. This reflects both the decades-long collapse in groundfish stocks—the cod and haddock that once abounded in the cold waters off Cape Ann—and ever-more-aggressive federal measures limiting who can fish and for how much. Privatizing a natural resource has been the governing principle of fisheries management for a decade, the idea being that privatization gives people a greater stake in preservation. Fisheries have thus been carved into slices that can be bought, sold, or traded, pricing out small fishermen and rewarding deep-pocketed investors—“slipper skippers,” who don’t fish but own the boats and the rights to the catch. 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 price went to hell” even before Covid-19, says lobsterman Larry Stepanuk, who fishes between 200 and 300 lobster traps in the waters off of Rockport, Mass. Tariffs imposed by Europe and China made lobsters prohibitively expensive. Then came the collapse of the Chinese market, where lobsters are—or were—a coveted luxury among the burgeoning middle class. Lobstermen, who had a bumper fall season, now have nowhere to sell their catch. No restaurant diners tying on lobster bibs; no cruise ships, the largest purchaser of processed tails, the “surf” in surf and turf. Current Issue View our current issue
“To go and get ‘bugs,’” the local endearment for lobsters, “and sell them for what they can be sold for right now would net you enough to buy a six-pack or two,” Stepanuk says. He spends his days painting buoys and waiting to see if he gets what he calls “a gift” from the president.
The entire US fishing industry was promised only $300 million in the $2 trillion stimulus package. Massachusetts, which harvests more lobsters than any state besides Maine, is set to receive just over $28 million. The size of the state’s haul—the third-largest allocation behind Alaska and Washington—is partly due to the strength of the lobster industry here. But lobsterers are just one contingent in a vast workforce that depends upon the sea. “It could always just end up being a money grab,” says Mark Ring of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association.
If any of that money makes its way to Stepanuk, he plans to invest in maintenance—his wooden boat, the Aimee, could use a scrape and a paint. After lobstering for 50 years, Stepanuk is practiced at weathering crises; so is his extended community.
“There’s this whole thing with mutual aid in a place like Gloucester. You get a bucket of lobsters, I get cheaper rent. A grocery store gives out a gift card, basically saying, ‘Here’s some money for a couple of weeks.’ It doesn’t seem like much, but it’s a huge thing, helping each other out.”
Something Is Happening Here is a collaboration between The Nation and Kopkind, offering scenes from a pandemic—a series of dispatches from Kopkind’s far-flung network of participants, advisers, guests, and friends. Edited by Nation contributor and Kopkind program director JoAnn Wypijewski, it will appear weekly on thenation.com and kopkind.org.


thenation--2020-05-20--We Should Take Women’s Accusations Seriously. But Tara Reade’s Fall Short.

I would vote for Joe Biden if he boiled babies and ate them .
He wasn ’ t my candidate , but taking back the White House is that important .
Four more years of Trump will replace what remains of our democracy with unchecked rule by kleptocrats , fascists , religious fanatics , gun nuts , and know-nothings .
The environment ?
Education ?
Public health ?
The rights of voters , workers , immigrants , people of color , and yes , women ?
Forget them .
And not just for the next four years : A Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decades .
I can not believe that a rational person can grasp the disaster that is Donald Trump and withhold their support from Biden because of Tara Reade .
I would say this even if I had no problems with Reade ’ s account—after all , Biden will be running against Trump , who has been accused of sexual misconduct by 25 women and has confessed to “ grab [ bing ] them by the pussy ” on tape .
( I ’ ll leave it to others to explain why the writer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ summer that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s was a one-day story , while Reade has been all over the news for weeks . )
Fortunately , I may not have to sacrifice morality to political necessity .
When I started writing this piece too many long days ago , Trumpies , Berners , and many feminists alike supported Reade ’ s allegation , first made public on March 25 on Katie Halper ’ s podcast , that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when she was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I was on the fence .
I wrote , “ I ’ d like to know more ” on Twitter and Facebook and was reviled as a feminist hypocrite—interestingly enough , mostly by men .
It was also mostly men who demanded that I sign on immediately to # IBelieveTara .
I take women ’ s accusations very seriously , but there have always been reasons to be skeptical about this one .
To believe Reade , you have to believe that Biden put her up against a wall and penetrated her with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moment in a hallway in the Capitol complex , where she says she was looking for him to give him his gym bag .
This corridor , which she can ’ t precisely identify , is a public space .
( Her lawyer said he assaulted her in “ a semi-private area like an alcove.
” ) Indeed , Reade told Megyn Kelly that before she caught up with Biden , he was talking to another person .
It was the middle of a workday .
To believe Reade , you have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Here are some of the difficulties I have with Reade ’ s accusation : She has changed her story—not just added to it , as her defenders claim , but altered it over and over .
She has said she was essentially forced out , given one month to find a new job , but she has also said she left to follow her boyfriend to the Midwest , to pursue a career as an actress , and because she loved Russia and hated imperialism .
Her former colleague in Biden ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the time her employment was terminated because of a health issue she had .
She tweeted positively about Biden , aka “ my old boss , ” and retweeted or liked tweets praising Biden for his work against sexual violence .
Asked about her pro-Biden tweets , she said they came from an old account that had since been hacked .
Her supporters say it ’ s not uncommon for women who have been harassed or assaulted to speak about the perpetrator favorably in public after the incident .
Okay , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hacked ?
In 2018 , she wrote absurdly adulatory pieces for Medium about , of all people , Vladimir Putin ( “ President Putin ’ s obvious reverence for women , children and animals , and his ability with sports is intoxicating to American women ” ) .
She later deleted them and now says that she lost faith in Putin when she learned of Russia ’ s decriminalization of domestic violence—but she had retweeted and liked a tweet from Chelsea Handler about the new Russian law a year before .
She also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a novel .
( There is nothing novelistic about them .
They are straightforward opinion pieces . )
She told Megyn Kelly her quasi-erotic gushing over Putin ’ s irresistibility to women was supposed to be humorous .
It is hard to believe she is a Russian spy , as some have claimed .
She ’ s a terrible writer , and her pieces were self-published and pretty much invisible .
Surely the Russians can find better uses for their Moscow gold .
To me , the Putin pieces are of interest because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some kind of mental instability .
Reade ’ s claim of supposed “ retaliation ” by Biden ’ s office exists in so many versions I got a headache trying to keep them straight .
In 2019 , she was interviewed by The Union , her local Nevada County , Ca.
, newspaper , as one of a group of women , including former Nevada state assemblywoman Lucy Flores , who came forward to complain about unwanted touching by Biden .
Reade told The Union that she was deprived of certain duties , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ultimately pushed out of her job because she complained about Biden ’ s handsiness and refused to serve drinks at a fundraiser after a staffer told her Biden “ liked her legs.
” Who was responsible for her problems in the office ?
The title of her Medium essay , “ Powerful Men and the Women They Choose to Destroy , ” certainly seems to blame Biden , although the narrative itself is confusing .
But she has also blamed his staff and said that Biden may not have known about her office @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when she left her job .
She told Megyn Kelly that when she encountered him in the Senate hallway just before the alleged assault , “ he remembered my name.
” That sounds as if she didn ’ t expect him to know who she was .
Her account of filing a sexual harassment complaint is similarly bewildering .
Granted , the alleged harassment and assault took place 27 years ago , but much of her story sounds as if she is revising and improvising as objections come up .
She first called @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then said she never used the term sexual harassment ( “ I chickened out ” ) and may only have filled out an “ intake form.
” Where is that document ?
Biden asked the National Archives and the Senate Secretary ’ s office to release whatever they had ; the National Archives said the document would be held by the Senate , and the Senate said releasing documents would violate confidentiality .
Reade has called on Biden to open his papers at the University of Delaware , which are closed until two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He has declined to do so , saying the document would not be there and a search would set off a fishing expedition .
But even if the complaint were found , it would tell us nothing about the alleged assault , because she has said she didn ’ t include it in whatever paperwork she filed , or didn ’ t file .
The best reason to believe Reade is her corroborators .
But if you examine their accounts closely , each of them falls short .
Reade said she told her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assault and her mother urged her to go to the police .
She said her mother called in anonymously to Larry King , and a video of that call has indeed come to light—but her mother mentioned only that her daughter had been working for a “ prominent senator ” and had “ problems ” that she couldn ’ t get help for ( “ out of respect ” for her boss , the mother said , she didn ’ t want to go to the press ) .
Reade ’ s brother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Post , said nothing about assault ; having spoken to the left-wing journalist Nathan Robinson , a fervent Reade partisan , he texted the Post a few days later and said he now remembered Biden putting “ his hands under her clothes.
” Lorraine Sanchez , who worked with Tara Reade from 1994 to 1996 , said Reade told her about sexual harassment but not assault .
An anonymous friend says Reade told her she was harassed in 2006 or 2007 .
No mention of assault .
A 1996 affidavit has recently surfaced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reade told him she had been sexually harassed when she worked in Biden ’ s office .
No mention of assault .
Two friends come closest to corroborating the assault .
One is an anonymous woman who met Reade when they both worked on the Hill .
Last year she corroborated Reade ’ s claim that Biden had touched her neck and shoulders but , said the friend , there was nothing sexual in it , which is what Reade also said at the time .
When Reade claimed assault this March , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and said she had kept Reade ’ s confidences because “ it just wasn ’ t my place.
” In other words , she lied for her friend .
The second corroborator is Lynda LaCasse , Reade ’ s neighbor in the mid- ’ 90s .
In an interview with Rich McHugh of Business Insider , LaCasse says Reade told her about the assault in 1995 or ’ 96 , but admits she had forgotten about it until Reade reminded her : When interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now !
, LaCasse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Tara “ told me about the allegations .
And I said , “ Oh , yes , I remember that.
” ) .
But when asked about her own support for Biden , she said something a little strange : “ It ’ s a difficult thing .
I ’ ve always supported him .
And I just have to keep supporting him now .
And it ’ s a little bit harder now , after this allegation.
” That certainly sounds as if the allegation was new information , not something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she just needed to have her memory jogged .
I Believe Tara Reade .
And You Should , Too .
Are these friends telling the truth ?
It ’ s hard to say .
Memory is a funny thing , and these conversations would have happened more than 20 years ago .
However , the anonymous friend says she didn ’ t just withhold part of the story but confirmed something that she knew was false .
And it does seem odd that the thing LaCasse says she had forgotten is the most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ piece that was added just this year and the only reason we are talking about Reade now .
Why did Reade come forward when she did ?
Why not when she accused him of handsiness in 2019 ?
She has blamed the media—the sharp remark of a journalist at the The Union shut her down .
She has also said she reached out to the campaigns of Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren , but no one responded .
Reade is a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders , and it may be relevant that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ media—The Katie Halper Show , The Intercept , Current Affairs , Democracy Now !
—just as Biden was emerging as the presumptive nominee .
On Super Tuesday she responded to a tweet from The Intercept ’ s Ryan Grim .
Grim tweeted , “ A head-to-head Biden v Sanders contest will force voters to take a close look at Biden again .
That went very badly for him last time.
” Reade responded , “ Yup .
Timing… wait for it….tic toc.
” That certainly sounds as if Reade was being strategic about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( Reade told Kelly she was referring to the survivors ’ advocacy organization Time ’ s Up , which she hoped would find her a lawyer .
But why would she allude to that in response to a tweet about Super Tuesday ? )
In any case , it is hard to ignore the political usefulness of Reade to the Sanders camp .
In fact , Reade has been useful to a lot of people : Bernie supporters , Trump supporters , people who want revenge for Christine Blasey Ford ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think # MeToo is a pack of crazy women , people who think feminists are hypocrites in the pocket of the Democratic Party .
Do plenty of famous , powerful men molest less-powerful women ?
Of course .
# MeToo has made us all aware of that .
Many studies show that most women who say they have been sexually assaulted are telling the truth .
However , when you ’ re dealing with actual individuals , it isn ’ t good enough to go with generalities .
( As Susan Faludi clearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ canard . )
Otherwise , you get arguments like those of the feminist philosopher Kate Manne , who writes in The Nation that Biden is “ the type ” of man who would sexually assault Reade , because he has “ a demonstrated history of handsiness.
” That ’ s like saying a man accused of armed robbery is “ the type ” because he was in the habit of shoplifting .
Touching women , invading their space , commenting on their bodies , looking them up and down are all regrettably common @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s generation ; impulsively assaulting a staffer in a public hallway , not so much .
Both behaviors may spring from “ the same sense of privileged male entitlement , ” but they are different in kind .
Manne takes my colleague Joan Walsh to task for writing in a recent opinion piece that there is “ no evidence ” that Biden sexually assaulted Reade .
Reade ’ s accusation is itself evidence , Manne writes , “ though there remains room to disagree on its strength or probative value.
” I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understand that at all .
Allegations should lead to further investigation , but they are not evidence on their own .
If I allege that my business partner cheated me or my doctor committed malpractice , that is not evidence that they did so .
It is just my claim .
Evidence is what I bring to support my allegation , not the allegation itself .
To say otherwise is to argue that everyone accused rightly starts out with one strike against them .
After all , someone accused them .
Smoke , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evidence for an accusation is a brick , and there ’ s something the matter with each of them , do you have a wall or just a pile of bricks ?
I think you have a pile of bricks .
It is possible that Reade endured some form of sexual harassment while working for Biden : the handsiness mentioned by many women , for example .
The assault ?
The retaliation ?
Little evidence , and no proof .
Her supporters compare her favorably to Christine Blasey Ford , who waited even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party when they were both in high school .
Democrats believed Ford , they say , and doubt Reade for political reasons .
There may be some truth to the claim that Democrats were eager to believe Ford and are reluctant to believe Reade , and it may even be true that some find Ford more credible because , unlike Reade , she has led a solidly middle-class life of professional accomplishment and respectability .
But it ’ s also true that Ford did not change @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took a polygraph test , and had four sworn affidavits from people she told about the incident plus her therapist ’ s notes .
As I write , Reade ’ s story seems to be falling apart .
PBS NewsHour has posted an article based on interviews with 74 Biden staffers , who spoke highly of their boss and his respectful and enlightened behavior toward women .
One staffer , who had worked with Reade , said her office problems had to do with her poor performance at the task they shared , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the drinks request would never have happened because Biden , in a move that seems unusual for that era , did not want women to do such menial tasks .
More than 50 said that as staffers they had never attended fundraisers and some mentioned an office policy barring most staffers from campaign work .
( “ ‘ Never would have happened , ’ said Melissa Lefko , who was a staff assistant in Biden ’ s office during the time Reade was there .
‘ We all knew there was a very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reporters investigated the hallway where the assault is alleged to have happened and determined that there was no “ semi-private area like an alcove , ” as her lawyer claimed , where Biden could have assaulted Reade unseen .
An article in Politico portrays Reade as a manipulative , dishonest user who exploited acquaintances and kind people who tried to help her over the years , and who always spoke proudly of her time working for Biden .
Of course , liars can be raped , users can be raped , people who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ raped .
But it is an intentional misreading to say , as some have claimed , that the article slams Reade for being poor .
Very few poor people trick veterinarians into billing others for medical care for their pet horse .
We may never get to the bottom of this to everyone ’ s satisfaction .
I certainly won ’ t be holding my breath waiting for the journalists who ran with this story on very little evidence to climb down , let alone apologize .
On Twitter , Biden is still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be .
Meanwhile , Reade and her supporters have made it harder for the next woman who claims to have been sexually harassed , assaulted or raped .
False claims are rare , as I mentioned earlier , but they loom large in the public imagination .
People still remember Tawana Brawley , who was not , as she claimed , raped by a gang of white men , including police officers , over four days in the woods in upstate New York—and that was 33 years ago .
Here ’ s what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you believe Tara Reade—and I ’ m betting that the case for believing her is going to get weaker rather than stronger as the weeks go by—you should vote for Joe Biden if he is the nominee .
And he is almost sure to be the nominee , despite the best efforts of some Sanders supporters to use Reade to force Biden to step aside .
Moreover , there is nothing hypocritical about feminists supporting Biden .
We have a perfect right to support the candidate who will be better for women and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ send us back to the 1950s .
It is the only intelligent thing to do .
Not only is Tara Reade ’ s claim far from proven , weighing the personal against the political is what voters do all the time .
Black Virginians stuck with Governor Ralph Northam despite his blackface scandal .
Were they hypocrites ?
I doubt that was the only time Americans have had to swallow their pride and support a politician who , whatever his faults , served their interests .
I realize Democrats and those to their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Al Franken was hustled out of the Senate , after all , on the basis of far less serious—but better attested—allegations than Reade ’ s .
But this time we need to take a leaf from the evangelicals , who enthusiastically support Donald Trump and don ’ t give a hoot that 25 women have accused him of various kinds of misconduct or that he paid hush money to a porn star .
They don ’ t care about his dishonest finances , either , or his still-unrevealed income taxes or indeed anything @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about is what Donald Trump will do for their issues : install Supreme Court justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade , for starters .
Whether or not you feel in your bones that Tara Reade is telling the truth , the evidence is just not there .
We do not have the luxury of sitting out the election to feel morally pure or send a message about sexual assault and # BelieveWomen .
That will not help women at all .
Or anyone else .

This article appears in the June 15/22, 2020 issue.
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I would vote for Joe Biden if he boiled babies and ate them. He wasn’t my candidate, but taking back the White House is that important. Four more years of Trump will replace what remains of our democracy with unchecked rule by kleptocrats, fascists, religious fanatics, gun nuts, and know-nothings. The environment? Education? Public health? The rights of voters, workers, immigrants, people of color, and yes, women? Forget them. And not just for the next four years: A Trump victory will lock down the courts for decades. I cannot believe that a rational person can grasp the disaster that is Donald Trump and withhold their support from Biden because of Tara Reade.
I would say this even if I had no problems with Reade’s account—after all, Biden will be running against Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by 25 women and has confessed to “grab[bing] them by the pussy” on tape. (I’ll leave it to others to explain why the writer E. Jean Carroll’s claim last summer that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s was a one-day story, while Reade has been all over the news for weeks.)
Fortunately, I may not have to sacrifice morality to political necessity. When I started writing this piece too many long days ago, Trumpies, Berners, and many feminists alike supported Reade’s allegation, first made public on March 25 on Katie Halper’s podcast, that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when she was a staffer in his Senate office. I was on the fence. I wrote, “I’d like to know more” on Twitter and Facebook and was reviled as a feminist hypocrite—interestingly enough, mostly by men. It was also mostly men who demanded that I sign on immediately to #IBelieveTara.
I take women’s accusations very seriously, but there have always been reasons to be skeptical about this one. To believe Reade, you have to believe that Biden put her up against a wall and penetrated her with his fingers on the spur of the moment in a hallway in the Capitol complex, where she says she was looking for him to give him his gym bag. This corridor, which she can’t precisely identify, is a public space. (Her lawyer said he assaulted her in “a semi-private area like an alcove.”) Indeed, Reade told Megyn Kelly that before she caught up with Biden, he was talking to another person. It was the middle of a workday. To believe Reade, you have to believe Biden would take that risk.
Here are some of the difficulties I have with Reade’s accusation: Current Issue View our current issue
She has changed her story—not just added to it, as her defenders claim, but altered it over and over. She has said she was essentially forced out, given one month to find a new job, but she has also said she left to follow her boyfriend to the Midwest, to pursue a career as an actress, and because she loved Russia and hated imperialism. Her former colleague in Biden’s office told CNN that she told him at the time her employment was terminated because of a health issue she had. She tweeted positively about Biden, aka “my old boss,” and retweeted or liked tweets praising Biden for his work against sexual violence. Asked about her pro-Biden tweets, she said they came from an old account that had since been hacked. Her supporters say it’s not uncommon for women who have been harassed or assaulted to speak about the perpetrator favorably in public after the incident. Okay, but do those women also say they were hacked? 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
In 2018, she wrote absurdly adulatory pieces for Medium about, of all people, Vladimir Putin (“President Putin’s obvious reverence for women, children and animals, and his ability with sports is intoxicating to American women”). She later deleted them and now says that she lost faith in Putin when she learned of Russia’s decriminalization of domestic violence—but she had retweeted and liked a tweet from Chelsea Handler about the new Russian law a year before. She also said that her pieces were part of a novel. (There is nothing novelistic about them. They are straightforward opinion pieces.) She told Megyn Kelly her quasi-erotic gushing over Putin’s irresistibility to women was supposed to be humorous. It is hard to believe she is a Russian spy, as some have claimed. She’s a terrible writer, and her pieces were self-published and pretty much invisible. Surely the Russians can find better uses for their Moscow gold. To me, the Putin pieces are of interest because they are so bizarre as to suggest some kind of mental instability.
Reade’s claim of supposed “retaliation” by Biden’s office exists in so many versions I got a headache trying to keep them straight. In 2019, she was interviewed by The Union, her local Nevada County, Calif., newspaper, as one of a group of women, including former Nevada state assemblywoman Lucy Flores, who came forward to complain about unwanted touching by Biden. Reade told The Union that she was deprived of certain duties, placed in a windowless office, and ultimately pushed out of her job because she complained about Biden’s handsiness and refused to serve drinks at a fundraiser after a staffer told her Biden “liked her legs.”
Reade said she spoke to U.S. Senate personnel about her concerns. Word got back to Biden’s office. “My life was hell,” Reade said. “This was about power and control.” “I couldn’t get a job on the Hill,” she added.
Who was responsible for her problems in the office? The title of her Medium essay, “Powerful Men and the Women They Choose to Destroy,” certainly seems to blame Biden, although the narrative itself is confusing. But she has also blamed his staff and said that Biden may not have known about her office troubles and may not even have known when she left her job. She told Megyn Kelly that when she encountered him in the Senate hallway just before the alleged assault, “he remembered my name.” That sounds as if she didn’t expect him to know who she was.
Her account of filing a sexual harassment complaint is similarly bewildering. Granted, the alleged harassment and assault took place 27 years ago, but much of her story sounds as if she is revising and improvising as objections come up. She first called it a sexual harassment complaint, and then said she never used the term sexual harassment (“I chickened out”) and may only have filled out an “intake form.” Where is that document? Biden asked the National Archives and the Senate Secretary’s office to release whatever they had; the National Archives said the document would be held by the Senate, and the Senate said releasing documents would violate confidentiality. Reade has called on Biden to open his papers at the University of Delaware, which are closed until two years after he leaves public life. He has declined to do so, saying the document would not be there and a search would set off a fishing expedition. But even if the complaint were found, it would tell us nothing about the alleged assault, because she has said she didn’t include it in whatever paperwork she filed, or didn’t file.
The best reason to believe Reade is her corroborators. But if you examine their accounts closely, each of them falls short. Reade said she told her mother, now deceased, about the assault and her mother urged her to go to the police. She said her mother called in anonymously to Larry King, and a video of that call has indeed come to light—but her mother mentioned only that her daughter had been working for a “prominent senator” and had “problems” that she couldn’t get help for (“out of respect” for her boss, the mother said, she didn’t want to go to the press). Reade’s brother, when first interviewed by The Washington Post, said nothing about assault; having spoken to the left-wing journalist Nathan Robinson, a fervent Reade partisan, he texted the Post a few days later and said he now remembered Biden putting “his hands under her clothes.” Lorraine Sanchez, who worked with Tara Reade from 1994 to 1996, said Reade told her about sexual harassment but not assault. An anonymous friend says Reade told her she was harassed in 2006 or 2007. No mention of assault. A 1996 affidavit has recently surfaced in which Reade’s ex-husband says Reade told him she had been sexually harassed when she worked in Biden’s office. No mention of assault.
Two friends come closest to corroborating the assault. One is an anonymous woman who met Reade when they both worked on the Hill. Last year she corroborated Reade’s claim that Biden had touched her neck and shoulders but, said the friend, there was nothing sexual in it, which is what Reade also said at the time. When Reade claimed assault this March, the friend corroborated that, too, and said she had kept Reade’s confidences because “it just wasn’t my place.” In other words, she lied for her friend.
The second corroborator is Lynda LaCasse, Reade’s neighbor in the mid-’90s. In an interview with Rich McHugh of Business Insider, LaCasse says Reade told her about the assault in 1995 or ’96, but admits she had forgotten about it until Reade reminded her:
McHugh: When did this come on your radar again? LaCasse: Just recently. Tara called me and said, “Oh my gosh, this Joe Biden thing is coming up again.” I said, “Oh my God, that.” I had forgotten about it.
When interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, LaCasse seemed to say she always remembered it (Tara “told me about the allegations. And I said, “Oh, yes, I remember that.”). But when asked about her own support for Biden, she said something a little strange: “It’s a difficult thing. I’ve always supported him. And I just have to keep supporting him now. And it’s a little bit harder now, after this allegation.” That certainly sounds as if the allegation was new information, not something she always remembered, or about which she just needed to have her memory jogged. Tara Reade’s Allegations Investigating Tara Reade’s Claims Doesn’t Violate Due Process Sarah Nesbitt and Sage Carson The Troublesome Tara Reade Story Joan Walsh I Believe Tara Reade. And You Should, Too. Kate Manne
Are these friends telling the truth? It’s hard to say. Memory is a funny thing, and these conversations would have happened more than 20 years ago. However, the anonymous friend says she didn’t just withhold part of the story but confirmed something that she knew was false. And it does seem odd that the thing LaCasse says she had forgotten is the most shocking piece of the story, the piece that was added just this year and the only reason we are talking about Reade now.
Why did Reade come forward when she did? Why not when she accused him of handsiness in 2019? She has blamed the media—the sharp remark of a journalist at the The Union shut her down. She has also said she reached out to the campaigns of Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, but no one responded. Reade is a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders, and it may be relevant that her story came out in the pro-Sanders media—The Katie Halper Show, The Intercept, Current Affairs, Democracy Now!—just as Biden was emerging as the presumptive nominee. On Super Tuesday she responded to a tweet from The Intercept’s Ryan Grim. Grim tweeted, “A head-to-head Biden v Sanders contest will force voters to take a close look at Biden again. That went very badly for him last time.” Reade responded, “Yup. Timing… wait for it….tic toc.”
That certainly sounds as if Reade was being strategic about how and when she released her accusation. (Reade told Kelly she was referring to the survivors’ advocacy organization Time’s Up, which she hoped would find her a lawyer. But why would she allude to that in response to a tweet about Super Tuesday?) In any case, it is hard to ignore the political usefulness of Reade to the Sanders camp. In fact, Reade has been useful to a lot of people: Bernie supporters, Trump supporters, people who want revenge for Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against Brett Kavanaugh, people who think #MeToo is a pack of crazy women, people who think feminists are hypocrites in the pocket of the Democratic Party.
Do plenty of famous, powerful men molest less-powerful women? Of course. #MeToo has made us all aware of that. Many studies show that most women who say they have been sexually assaulted are telling the truth. However, when you’re dealing with actual individuals, it isn’t good enough to go with generalities. (As Susan Faludi clearly established, #BelieveAllWomen is a right-wing canard.) Otherwise, you get arguments like those of the feminist philosopher Kate Manne, who writes in The Nation that Biden is “the type” of man who would sexually assault Reade, because he has “a demonstrated history of handsiness.” That’s like saying a man accused of armed robbery is “the type” because he was in the habit of shoplifting. Touching women, invading their space, commenting on their bodies, looking them up and down are all regrettably common, especially among men of Biden’s generation; impulsively assaulting a staffer in a public hallway, not so much. Both behaviors may spring from “the same sense of privileged male entitlement,” but they are different in kind.
Manne takes my colleague Joan Walsh to task for writing in a recent opinion piece that there is “no evidence” that Biden sexually assaulted Reade. Reade’s accusation is itself evidence, Manne writes, “though there remains room to disagree on its strength or probative value.” I’m sorry, I don’t understand that at all. Allegations should lead to further investigation, but they are not evidence on their own. If I allege that my business partner cheated me or my doctor committed malpractice, that is not evidence that they did so. It is just my claim. Evidence is what I bring to support my allegation, not the allegation itself. To say otherwise is to argue that everyone accused rightly starts out with one strike against them. After all, someone accused them. Smoke, meet fire.
If every piece of evidence for an accusation is a brick, and there’s something the matter with each of them, do you have a wall or just a pile of bricks? I think you have a pile of bricks. It is possible that Reade endured some form of sexual harassment while working for Biden: the handsiness mentioned by many women, for example. The assault? The retaliation? Little evidence, and no proof. Her supporters compare her favorably to Christine Blasey Ford, who waited even longer to come forward with her accusation that Brett Kavanaugh assaulted her at a party when they were both in high school. Democrats believed Ford, they say, and doubt Reade for political reasons. There may be some truth to the claim that Democrats were eager to believe Ford and are reluctant to believe Reade, and it may even be true that some find Ford more credible because, unlike Reade, she has led a solidly middle-class life of professional accomplishment and respectability. But it’s also true that Ford did not change her story, testified under oath, took a polygraph test, and had four sworn affidavits from people she told about the incident plus her therapist’s notes.
As I write, Reade’s story seems to be falling apart. PBS NewsHour has posted an article based on interviews with 74 Biden staffers, who spoke highly of their boss and his respectful and enlightened behavior toward women. One staffer, who had worked with Reade, said her office problems had to do with her poor performance at the task they shared, answering mail from constituents. Another said the drinks request would never have happened because Biden, in a move that seems unusual for that era, did not want women to do such menial tasks. More than 50 said that as staffers they had never attended fundraisers and some mentioned an office policy barring most staffers from campaign work. (“‘Never would have happened,’ said Melissa Lefko, who was a staff assistant in Biden’s office during the time Reade was there. ‘We all knew there was a very hard line there.’”) NewsHour reporters investigated the hallway where the assault is alleged to have happened and determined that there was no “semi-private area like an alcove,” as her lawyer claimed, where Biden could have assaulted Reade unseen.
An article in Politico portrays Reade as a manipulative, dishonest user who exploited acquaintances and kind people who tried to help her over the years, and who always spoke proudly of her time working for Biden. Of course, liars can be raped, users can be raped, people who skip out on the rent can be raped. But it is an intentional misreading to say, as some have claimed, that the article slams Reade for being poor. Very few poor people trick veterinarians into billing others for medical care for their pet horse.
We may never get to the bottom of this to everyone’s satisfaction. I certainly won’t be holding my breath waiting for the journalists who ran with this story on very little evidence to climb down, let alone apologize. On Twitter, Biden is still a rapist, and perhaps always will be. Meanwhile, Reade and her supporters have made it harder for the next woman who claims to have been sexually harassed, assaulted or raped. False claims are rare, as I mentioned earlier, but they loom large in the public imagination. People still remember Tawana Brawley, who was not, as she claimed, raped by a gang of white men, including police officers, over four days in the woods in upstate New York—and that was 33 years ago.
Here’s what I do know: Whether or not you believe Tara Reade—and I’m betting that the case for believing her is going to get weaker rather than stronger as the weeks go by—you should vote for Joe Biden if he is the nominee. And he is almost sure to be the nominee, despite the best efforts of some Sanders supporters to use Reade to force Biden to step aside. Moreover, there is nothing hypocritical about feminists supporting Biden. We have a perfect right to support the candidate who will be better for women and their rights than the one who will send us back to the 1950s. It is the only intelligent thing to do. Not only is Tara Reade’s claim far from proven, weighing the personal against the political is what voters do all the time. Black Virginians stuck with Governor Ralph Northam despite his blackface scandal. Were they hypocrites? I doubt that was the only time Americans have had to swallow their pride and support a politician who, whatever his faults, served their interests.
I realize Democrats and those to their left care deeply about their principles. Al Franken was hustled out of the Senate, after all, on the basis of far less serious—but better attested—allegations than Reade’s. But this time we need to take a leaf from the evangelicals, who enthusiastically support Donald Trump and don’t give a hoot that 25 women have accused him of various kinds of misconduct or that he paid hush money to a porn star. They don’t care about his dishonest finances, either, or his still-unrevealed income taxes or indeed anything detrimental about him. What they care about is what Donald Trump will do for their issues: install Supreme Court justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade, for starters.
Whether or not you feel in your bones that Tara Reade is telling the truth, the evidence is just not there. We do not have the luxury of sitting out the election to feel morally pure or send a message about sexual assault and #BelieveWomen. That will not help women at all. Or anyone else.


thenation--2020-05-20--Religious Fundamentalists Are Making the Pandemic Worse

This spring , the novel coronavirus pandemic has raised the issue of the relationship between the blindest kind of religious faith and rational skepticism—this time in two countries that think of themselves as polar opposites and enemies : Supreme Leader Ali Khameini ’ s Iran and Donald Trump ’ s America .
On the US side of things , New Orleans pastor Tony Spell , for instance , has twice been arrested for holding church services without a hint of social distancing , despite a ban on such gatherings .
His second arrest was for preaching while wearing an ankle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at least one of his church members .
The publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin ’ s famed Origin of the Species , arguing as it did for natural selection ( which many American evangelicals still reject ) , might be considered the origin point for the modern conflict between religious beliefs and science , a struggle that has shaped our culture in powerful ways .
Unexpectedly , given Iran ’ s reputation for religious obscurantism , the science-minded in the 19th and 20th centuries often took heart from a collection of Persian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quatrains , ” attributed to the medieval Iranian astronomer Omar Khayyam , who died in 1131 .
Edward FitzGerald ’ s loose translation of those poems , also published in 1859 , put Khayyam on the map as a medieval Muslim free-thinker and became a century-and-a-half-long sensation in the midst of heated debates about the relationship between science and faith in the West .
Avowed atheist Clarence Darrow , the famed defense attorney at the 1925 “ monkey trial ” of a Tennessee educator who broke state law by teaching evolution , was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He often quoted it in his closing arguments , observing that for Khayyam the “ mysticisms of philosophy and religion alike were hollow and bare.
” To be fair , some religious leaders , including Pope Francis and Iraq ’ s Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani , have followed the most up-to-date science , as Covid-19 spread globally , by supporting social-distancing measures to deal with the virus .
When he still went by the name of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and lived in Buenos Aires , the pope earned a high school chemical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knows something about science .
Indeed , the Catholic Church in Brazil has impressively upheld the World Health Organization ’ s guidelines for dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic , defying the secular government of far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro , that country ’ s Donald Trump .
Brazil ’ s president has notoriously ignored his nation ’ s public health crisis , dismissed the coronavirus as a “ little flu , ” and tried to exempt churches from state government mandates that they close .
The archbishop of the hard-hit city of Manaus in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , publicly complained that Brazilians are not taking the virus seriously enough as it runs rampant in the country .
Church authorities worry about the strain government inaction is putting on Catholic hospitals and clinics , as well as the devastation the disease is wreaking in the region .
Here , we witness not a dispute between religion and science but between varieties of religion .
Pope Francis ’ s Catholicism remains open to science , whereas Bolsonaro , although born a Catholic , became an evangelical and , in 2016 , was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jordan River .
He now plays to the 22 percent of Brazilians who have adopted conservative Protestantism , as well as to Catholics who are substantially more conservative than the current pope .
While some US evangelicals are open to science , a Pew Charitable Trust poll found that they , too , are far more likely than the nonreligious to reject the very idea of evolution , not to speak of the findings of climate science ( action on which Pope Francis has supported in a big way ) .
In the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ religious leaders have failed the test of reasoned public policy in outrageous ways .
Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne , railing at “ tyrannical government , ” refused to close his mega-church in Florida until the local police arrested him in March .
He even insisted that church members in those services of 500 or more true believers should continue to shake hands with one another because “ we ’ re raising up revivalists , not pansies.
” As he saw it , his River Tampa Bay Church was the “ safest place ” around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ salvation.
” Only in early April did he finally move his services online , and it probably wasn ’ t to protect the health of his congregation either .
His insurance company had cancelled on him after his arrest and his continued defiance of local regulations .
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis muddied the waters further in early April by finally issuing a statewide shelter-in-place order that exempted churches as “ essential services.
” Then , after only a month , he abruptly reopened the state anyway .
DeSantis , who had run a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had risen on Donald Trump ’ s coattails , has a sizeable evangelical constituency and , in their actions , he and Pastor Howard-Browne have hardly been alone .
It tells you all you need to know that , by early May , more than 30 evangelical pastors had died of Covid-19 across the Bible Belt .
Two Epicenters of the Pandemic In the Muslim equivalent of the Bible Belt , the clerical leader of Iran , Ali Khamenei , stopped shaking hands and limited visits to his office in early February , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 41st anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Republic go forward unimpeded .
Then , on February 24 , he also allowed national parliamentary elections to proceed on hopes of entrenching yet more of his hard-line fundamentalist supporters—the equivalent of America ’ s evangelicals—in Iran ’ s legislature .
Meanwhile , its other religious leaders continued to resist strong Covid-19 mitigation measures until late March , even as the country was besieged by the virus .
Deputy Minister of Health Iraj Harirchi caught the spirit of the moment by rejecting social-distancing measures in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outbreak in his country , only to contract Covid-19 himself and die of it .
The virus initially exploded in the holy city of Qom , said to have been settled in the eighth century by descendants of the Prophet Muhammad .
It ’ s filled with a myriad of religious seminaries and has a famed shrine to one of those descendants , Fatima Masoumeh .
In late February , even after government officials began to urge that the shrine be closed , its clerical custodians continued to call for pilgrims to visit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ brass latticework around Fatima Masoumeh ’ s tomb and sometimes kiss it , a classic method for passing on the disease .
Its custodians ( like those American evangelical pastors ) continued to believe that the holiness of the shrine would protect the pilgrims .
They may also have been concerned about their loss of income if pilgrims from all over the world stopped showing up .
Despite having a theocratic government in which clerics wield disproportionate power , Iran also has a significant and powerful scientific and engineering establishment that looks at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of them are also devout Shiite Muslims .
In the end , as the virus gripped the country and deaths spiked , the scientists briefly won and the government of President Hassan Rouhani instituted some social-distancing measures for the public , including canceling Friday prayers and closing shrines in March , though—as in Florida—those measures did not last long .
In this way , as the United States emerged as the global epicenter of the pandemic , so Iran emerged as its Middle Eastern one .
Call it an irony of curious affinity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problem .
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif blamed the Trump administration ’ s sanctions and financial blockade of the country for the government ’ s weak response , since the Iranians had difficulty even paying for much-needed imported medical equipment like ventilators .
Indeed , the US government has also had Iran kicked off global banking exchanges and threatened third-party sanctions against any companies doing business with it .
President Trump , however , denied that the United States had blockaded medical imports to that country , a statement that was technically true , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The full range of US sanctions had indeed erected a formidable barrier to Iran ’ s importation of medical equipment , despite attempts by the European Union ( which opposes Trump ’ s maximum-pressure campaign against Iran ) to allow companies to sell medical supplies to Tehran .
Still , as with Trump ’ s policies in the United States ( including essentially ignoring the virus for months ) , Iranian government policy must be held significantly responsible for the failure to stem the coronavirus tide , which by early May had , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than 100,000 cases and some 7,000 deaths ( numbers which will , in the end , undoubtedly prove significant undercounts ) .
Whether in America or Iran , fundamentalist religion ( or , in the US case , a Trumpian and Republican urge to curry favor with it ) often made for dismally bad public policy during the first wave of Covid-19 .
Among other things , it encouraged people , whether in religious institutions in both countries or in American anti-shutdown protests , to engage in reckless behavior that endangered not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the conflict in each country between defiant pastors or mullahs and scientists on this issue should bring to mind the culture wars of the early 20th century and the place of the Iranian poetry of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam in what was then largely a Western debate .
That makes those poems worthy of reconsideration in this perilous moment of ours .
As I wrote in the introduction to my new translation of the Rubáiyát : Some of the appeal of this poetry to past millions came from the dim view it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ robust religious obscurantism .
The irreverent Mark Twain once marveled , “ No poem had given me so much pleasure before.… It is the only poem that I have ever carried about with me ; it has not been from under my hand for 28 years.
” Thomas Hardy , the British novelist and champion of Darwin , wove its themes into some of his best-known fiction .
Robert Frost wrote his famous ( and famously bleak ) poem “ Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Night ” with Khayyam ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kerouac modeled Sal Paradise , the unconventional protagonist of his novel On the Road , on his idea of what Khayyam might have been like .
Although compilers have always attributed those poems to that great astronomer and mathematician of the Seljuk era , it ’ s clear that they were actually written by later Iranian figures who used Khayyam as a “ frame author , ” perhaps for fear of reaction to the religious skepticism deeply embedded in the poetry ( in the same way that the Thousand and One Nights tales @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Baghdad over centuries were all attributed to Scheherazade ) .
The bulk of those verses first appeared at the time of the Mongol invasion of Iran in the 1200s , a bloody moment that threw the region into turmoil and paralysis just as Covid-19 has brought our world to an abrupt and chaotic halt .
As if the war ’ s urban destruction and piles of skulls weren ’ t enough , historians have argued that the Mongols , who opened up trade routes from Asia into the Middle East , also inadvertently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pestis bacillus that would cause the bubonic plague , or the Black Death , a pandemic that would wipe out nearly half of China ’ s population and a third of Europe ’ s .
A 15th century scribe in the picturesque Iranian city of Shiraz would , in fact , create the first anthology of quatrains entitled The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam , many composed during Mongol rule and the subsequent pandemic .
The dangers of what we would now call religious fundamentalism , as opposed to an enlightened spirituality , were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turn to theology for comfort during a disaster , those quatrains urged instead that all of us be aggressively here and now , trying to wring every last pleasure out of our worldly life before it abruptly vanishes : The poetry ridicules some religious beliefs , using the fantasies of astrology as a proxy target for the fatalism of orthodox religion .
The authors may have felt safer attacking horoscopes than directly taking on Iran ’ s powerful clergy .
Astronomers know that the heavenly bodies , far from dictating the fate of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their future position easy to predict and so bear little relationship to the lives of complex and unpredictable human beings ( just as , for instance , you could never have predicted that American evangelicals would opt to back a profane , womanizing , distinctly of-this-world orange-faced presidential candidate in 2016 and thereafter ) : Wars and pandemics choose winners and losers and—as we ’ re learning all too grimly in the world of 2020—the wealthy are generally so much better positioned to protect themselves from catastrophe than the poor .
To its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ both the Trump administration and the Iranian religious leadership ) took the side of the latter , pointing out that religious fatalism and superstitions like astrology are inherently supportive of a rotten status quo in which the poor are the first to be sacrificed , whether to pandemics or anything else : In our own perilous times , right-wing fundamentalist governments like those in Brazil and the United States , as well as religious fundamentalist ones as in Iran , have made the coronavirus outbreak far more virulent and dangerous by encouraging religious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s curve could only be flattened by social distancing .
Their willingness to blithely set aside reason and science out of a fatalistic and misguided faith in a supernatural providence that overrules natural law ( or , in Donald Trump ’ s case , a fatalistic and misguided faith in his own ability to overrule natural laws , not to speak of providence ) has been responsible for tens of thousands of deaths around the world .
Think of it as , in spirit , a fundamentalist version of genocide .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are clear , as many churches and mosques depend on contributions from congregants at services for the livelihood of imams and pastors .
Their willingness to prey on the gullibility of their followers in a bid to keep up their income stream should be considered the height of hypocrisy and speaks to the importance of people never surrendering their capacity for independent , critical reasoning .
Though you might not have noticed it on Donald Trump ’ s and Ali Khameini ’ s planet , religion seems to be in the process of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world .
A third of the French say that they have no religion at all and just 45 percent consider themselves Catholic ( with perhaps only half of those being relatively committed to the faith ) , while only 5 percent attend church regularly .
A majority of young people in 12 European countries claim that they now have no religion , pointing to a secular future for much of the continent .
Even in peculiarly religious America , self-identification as Christian has plunged to 65 percent of the population , down 12 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 26 percent of the population now disavows having a religion at all .
In post-pandemic Iran , don ’ t be surprised if similar feelings spread , given how the religious leadership functionally encouraged the devastation of Covid-19 .
In this way , despite military threats , economic sanctions , and everything else , Donald Trump ’ s America and Ali Khameini ’ s Iran truly have something in common .
In the United States , where it ’ s easier to measure what ’ s happening , evangelicals , more than a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bush was first elected president in 2000 , are 16 percent of it two decades later .
Given the unpredictable nature of our world ( as the emergence of Covid-19 has made all too clear ) , nothing , secularization included , is a one-way street .
Religion is perfectly capable of experiencing revivals .
Still , there is no surer way to tip the balance toward an Omar Khayyam–style skepticism than for prominent religious leaders to guide their faithful , and all those in contact with them , into a new wave @ @ @ @

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This spring, the novel coronavirus pandemic has raised the issue of the relationship between the blindest kind of religious faith and rational skepticism—this time in two countries that think of themselves as polar opposites and enemies: Supreme Leader Ali Khameini’s Iran and Donald Trump’s America.
On the US side of things, New Orleans pastor Tony Spell, for instance, has twice been arrested for holding church services without a hint of social distancing, despite a ban on such gatherings. His second arrest was for preaching while wearing an ankle monitor and despite the Covid-19 death of at least one of his church members.
The publication in 1859 of Charles Darwin’s famed Origin of the Species, arguing as it did for natural selection (which many American evangelicals still reject), might be considered the origin point for the modern conflict between religious beliefs and science, a struggle that has shaped our culture in powerful ways. Unexpectedly, given Iran’s reputation for religious obscurantism, the science-minded in the 19th and 20th centuries often took heart from a collection of Persian poems, the Rubáiyát, or “quatrains,” attributed to the medieval Iranian astronomer Omar Khayyam, who died in 1131.
Edward FitzGerald’s loose translation of those poems, also published in 1859, put Khayyam on the map as a medieval Muslim free-thinker and became a century-and-a-half-long sensation in the midst of heated debates about the relationship between science and faith in the West. Avowed atheist Clarence Darrow, the famed defense attorney at the 1925 “monkey trial” of a Tennessee educator who broke state law by teaching evolution, was typical in his love of the Rubáiyát. He often quoted it in his closing arguments, observing that for Khayyam the “mysticisms of philosophy and religion alike were hollow and bare.” 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
To be fair, some religious leaders, including Pope Francis and Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, have followed the most up-to-date science, as Covid-19 spread globally, by supporting social-distancing measures to deal with the virus. When he still went by the name of Jorge Mario Bergoglio and lived in Buenos Aires, the pope earned a high school chemical technician’s diploma; he actually knows something about science. Indeed, the Catholic Church in Brazil has impressively upheld the World Health Organization’s guidelines for dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, defying the secular government of far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro, that country’s Donald Trump. Brazil’s president has notoriously ignored his nation’s public health crisis, dismissed the coronavirus as a “little flu,” and tried to exempt churches from state government mandates that they close. The archbishop of the hard-hit city of Manaus in the Amazon region has, in fact, publicly complained that Brazilians are not taking the virus seriously enough as it runs rampant in the country. Church authorities worry about the strain government inaction is putting on Catholic hospitals and clinics, as well as the devastation the disease is wreaking in the region.
Here, we witness not a dispute between religion and science but between varieties of religion. Pope Francis’s Catholicism remains open to science, whereas Bolsonaro, although born a Catholic, became an evangelical and, in 2016, was even baptized as a pastor in the Jordan River. He now plays to the 22 percent of Brazilians who have adopted conservative Protestantism, as well as to Catholics who are substantially more conservative than the current pope. While some US evangelicals are open to science, a Pew Charitable Trust poll found that they, too, are far more likely than the nonreligious to reject the very idea of evolution, not to speak of the findings of climate science (action on which Pope Francis has supported in a big way).
Death in the Bible Belt
In the United States, a variety of evangelical religious leaders have failed the test of reasoned public policy in outrageous ways. Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, railing at “tyrannical government,” refused to close his mega-church in Florida until the local police arrested him in March. He even insisted that church members in those services of 500 or more true believers should continue to shake hands with one another because “we’re raising up revivalists, not pansies.” Current Issue View our current issue
As he saw it, his River Tampa Bay Church was the “safest place” around because it was the site of “salvation.” Only in early April did he finally move his services online, and it probably wasn’t to protect the health of his congregation either. His insurance company had cancelled on him after his arrest and his continued defiance of local regulations.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis muddied the waters further in early April by finally issuing a statewide shelter-in-place order that exempted churches as “essential services.” Then, after only a month, he abruptly reopened the state anyway. DeSantis, who had run a Facebook group dominated by racist comments and had risen on Donald Trump’s coattails, has a sizeable evangelical constituency and, in their actions, he and Pastor Howard-Browne have hardly been alone.
It tells you all you need to know that, by early May, more than 30 evangelical pastors had died of Covid-19 across the Bible Belt.
Two Epicenters of the Pandemic
In the Muslim equivalent of the Bible Belt, the clerical leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, stopped shaking hands and limited visits to his office in early February, but he let mass commemorations of the 41st anniversary of the founding of the Islamic Republic go forward unimpeded. Then, on February 24, he also allowed national parliamentary elections to proceed on hopes of entrenching yet more of his hard-line fundamentalist supporters—the equivalent of America’s evangelicals—in Iran’s legislature. Meanwhile, its other religious leaders continued to resist strong Covid-19 mitigation measures until late March, even as the country was besieged by the virus. Deputy Minister of Health Iraj Harirchi caught the spirit of the moment by rejecting social-distancing measures in February while downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak in his country, only to contract Covid-19 himself and die of it.
The virus initially exploded in the holy city of Qom, said to have been settled in the eighth century by descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. It’s filled with a myriad of religious seminaries and has a famed shrine to one of those descendants, Fatima Masoumeh. In late February, even after government officials began to urge that the shrine be closed, its clerical custodians continued to call for pilgrims to visit it. Those pilgrims typically touch the brass latticework around Fatima Masoumeh’s tomb and sometimes kiss it, a classic method for passing on the disease. Its custodians (like those American evangelical pastors) continued to believe that the holiness of the shrine would protect the pilgrims. They may also have been concerned about their loss of income if pilgrims from all over the world stopped showing up.
Despite having a theocratic government in which clerics wield disproportionate power, Iran also has a significant and powerful scientific and engineering establishment that looks at the world differently, even if some of them are also devout Shiite Muslims. In the end, as the virus gripped the country and deaths spiked, the scientists briefly won and the government of President Hassan Rouhani instituted some social-distancing measures for the public, including canceling Friday prayers and closing shrines in March, though—as in Florida—those measures did not last long.
In this way, as the United States emerged as the global epicenter of the pandemic, so Iran emerged as its Middle Eastern one. Call it an irony of curious affinity. Superstition was only part of the problem. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif blamed the Trump administration’s sanctions and financial blockade of the country for the government’s weak response, since the Iranians had difficulty even paying for much-needed imported medical equipment like ventilators. Indeed, the US government has also had Iran kicked off global banking exchanges and threatened third-party sanctions against any companies doing business with it.
President Trump, however, denied that the United States had blockaded medical imports to that country, a statement that was technically true, but false in any other sense. The full range of US sanctions had indeed erected a formidable barrier to Iran’s importation of medical equipment, despite attempts by the European Union (which opposes Trump’s maximum-pressure campaign against Iran) to allow companies to sell medical supplies to Tehran.
Still, as with Trump’s policies in the United States (including essentially ignoring the virus for months), Iranian government policy must be held significantly responsible for the failure to stem the coronavirus tide, which by early May had, according to official figures, resulted in more than 100,000 cases and some 7,000 deaths (numbers which will, in the end, undoubtedly prove significant undercounts).
A Rubáiyát World
Whether in America or Iran, fundamentalist religion (or, in the US case, a Trumpian and Republican urge to curry favor with it) often made for dismally bad public policy during the first wave of Covid-19. Among other things, it encouraged people, whether in religious institutions in both countries or in American anti-shutdown protests, to engage in reckless behavior that endangered not just themselves but others. Ironically, the conflict in each country between defiant pastors or mullahs and scientists on this issue should bring to mind the culture wars of the early 20th century and the place of the Iranian poetry of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam in what was then largely a Western debate.
That makes those poems worthy of reconsideration in this perilous moment of ours. As I wrote in the introduction to my new translation of the Rubáiyát:
The message of the poems…is that life has no obvious meaning and is heartbreakingly short. Death is near and we might not live to exhale the breath we just took in. The afterlife is a fairy tale for children.… The only way to get past this existential unfairness is to enjoy life, to love someone, and to get intimate with good wine. On the other hand, there is no reason to be mean-spirited to other people.
Some of the appeal of this poetry to past millions came from the dim view it took of then- (as now) robust religious obscurantism. The irreverent Mark Twain once marveled, “No poem had given me so much pleasure before.… It is the only poem that I have ever carried about with me; it has not been from under my hand for 28 years.” Thomas Hardy, the British novelist and champion of Darwin, wove its themes into some of his best-known fiction. Robert Frost wrote his famous (and famously bleak) poem “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Night” with Khayyam’s quatrains in mind. Beat poet Jack Kerouac modeled Sal Paradise, the unconventional protagonist of his novel On the Road, on his idea of what Khayyam might have been like.
Although compilers have always attributed those poems to that great astronomer and mathematician of the Seljuk era, it’s clear that they were actually written by later Iranian figures who used Khayyam as a “frame author,” perhaps for fear of reaction to the religious skepticism deeply embedded in the poetry (in the same way that the Thousand and One Nights tales composed in Cairo, Aleppo, and Baghdad over centuries were all attributed to Scheherazade). The bulk of those verses first appeared at the time of the Mongol invasion of Iran in the 1200s, a bloody moment that threw the region into turmoil and paralysis just as Covid-19 has brought our world to an abrupt and chaotic halt.
As if the war’s urban destruction and piles of skulls weren’t enough, historians have argued that the Mongols, who opened up trade routes from Asia into the Middle East, also inadvertently facilitated the westward spread of the Yersina pestis bacillus that would cause the bubonic plague, or the Black Death, a pandemic that would wipe out nearly half of China’s population and a third of Europe’s.
A 15th century scribe in the picturesque Iranian city of Shiraz would, in fact, create the first anthology of quatrains entitled The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam, many composed during Mongol rule and the subsequent pandemic. The dangers of what we would now call religious fundamentalism, as opposed to an enlightened spirituality, were trumpeted throughout those poems:
In monasteries, temples, and retreats
they fear hellfire and look for paradise.
But those who know the mysteries of God
don’t let those seeds be planted in their hearts.
While some turn to theology for comfort during a disaster, those quatrains urged instead that all of us be aggressively here and now, trying to wring every last pleasure out of our worldly life before it abruptly vanishes:
A bottle of Shiraz and the lips of a lover, on the edge of a meadow—
are like cash in hand for me—and for you, credit toward paradise.
They’ve wagered that some go to heaven, and some to hell.
But whoever went to hell? And whoever came back from paradise?
The poetry ridicules some religious beliefs, using the fantasies of astrology as a proxy target for the fatalism of orthodox religion. The authors may have felt safer attacking horoscopes than directly taking on Iran’s powerful clergy. Astronomers know that the heavenly bodies, far from dictating the fate of others, revolve in orbits that make their future position easy to predict and so bear little relationship to the lives of complex and unpredictable human beings (just as, for instance, you could never have predicted that American evangelicals would opt to back a profane, womanizing, distinctly of-this-world orange-faced presidential candidate in 2016 and thereafter):
Don’t blame the stars for virtues or for faults,
or for the joy and grief decreed by fate!
For science holds the planets all to be
A thousand times more helpless than are we.
Wars and pandemics choose winners and losers and—as we’re learning all too grimly in the world of 2020—the wealthy are generally so much better positioned to protect themselves from catastrophe than the poor. To its eternal credit, the Rubáiyát (unlike both the Trump administration and the Iranian religious leadership) took the side of the latter, pointing out that religious fatalism and superstitions like astrology are inherently supportive of a rotten status quo in which the poor are the first to be sacrificed, whether to pandemics or anything else:
Signs of the zodiac: You give something to every jackass.
You hand them fancy baths, millworks, and canals—
while noble souls must gamble, in hopes of winning their nightly bread.
Who would give a fart for such a constellation?
In our own perilous times, right-wing fundamentalist governments like those in Brazil and the United States, as well as religious fundamentalist ones as in Iran, have made the coronavirus outbreak far more virulent and dangerous by encouraging religious gatherings at a time when the pandemic’s curve could only be flattened by social distancing. Their willingness to blithely set aside reason and science out of a fatalistic and misguided faith in a supernatural providence that overrules natural law (or, in Donald Trump’s case, a fatalistic and misguided faith in his own ability to overrule natural laws, not to speak of providence) has been responsible for tens of thousands of deaths around the world. Think of it as, in spirit, a fundamentalist version of genocide.
The pecuniary motives of some of this obscurantism are clear, as many churches and mosques depend on contributions from congregants at services for the livelihood of imams and pastors. Their willingness to prey on the gullibility of their followers in a bid to keep up their income stream should be considered the height of hypocrisy and speaks to the importance of people never surrendering their capacity for independent, critical reasoning.
Though you might not have noticed it on Donald Trump’s and Ali Khameini’s planet, religion seems to be in the process of collapsing, at least in the industrialized world. A third of the French say that they have no religion at all and just 45 percent consider themselves Catholic (with perhaps only half of those being relatively committed to the faith), while only 5 percent attend church regularly. A majority of young people in 12 European countries claim that they now have no religion, pointing to a secular future for much of the continent. Even in peculiarly religious America, self-identification as Christian has plunged to 65 percent of the population, down 12 percent in the past decade, while 26 percent of the population now disavows having a religion at all.
In post-pandemic Iran, don’t be surprised if similar feelings spread, given how the religious leadership functionally encouraged the devastation of Covid-19. In this way, despite military threats, economic sanctions, and everything else, Donald Trump’s America and Ali Khameini’s Iran truly have something in common. In the United States, where it’s easier to measure what’s happening, evangelicals, more than a fifth of the population when George W. Bush was first elected president in 2000, are 16 percent of it two decades later.
Given the unpredictable nature of our world (as the emergence of Covid-19 has made all too clear), nothing, secularization included, is a one-way street. Religion is perfectly capable of experiencing revivals. Still, there is no surer way to tip the balance toward an Omar Khayyam–style skepticism than for prominent religious leaders to guide their faithful, and all those in contact with them, into a new wave of the pandemic.