thenation--2020-04-13--JFK, Bob Dylan, and the Death of the American Dream

On March 27 , Bob Dylan released on the Internet “ Murder Most Foul , ” his first new song in nearly a decade .
Delivered in the aging , tender , and cracking voice familiar to fans who caught his recent global tour , the song unfolds like an epic poem about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22 , 1963 , and the music , culture , and mystery that still surround one of the most shocking events in American history .
“ This is an unreleased song that we recorded a while back that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wrote on his website early that Friday morning .
“ Stay safe , stay observant and may God be with you.
” As I ’ ve listened to the song , over and over , during these last traumatic weeks , I ’ ve come to see “ Murder Most Foul ” as Dylan ’ s gift to the world at another terrible moment in our history , when our leaders have failed us and we are living through a calamity that seems to have no end .
Like Kennedy ’ s murder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s utter failure to protect the people in 2020 is a collapse of biblical proportions .
President Trump ’ s slow , cowardly , and stupendously foolish response to Covid-19 has allowed this nation to become the epicenter of the outbreak , and surpassed George W. Bush ’ s monumental blindness to the drowning of New Orleans in 2005 .
With hundreds of thousands of people in mortal danger and millions without jobs , health care , or hope , the country faces an existential crisis comparable to the Civil War , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ War II , the horror that unfolded after 9/11 , and the terrifying future of climate change .
High water ’ s rising , we ’ re up to our necks , and the specter of death is stalking the land : the perfect setting for a Bob Dylan song .
What we hear in “ Murder Most Foul ” is the weary voice of a Nobel laureate who ’ s closing in on his 80s , walking us through our trials and tribulations as only a great poet can do .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a mournful violin , a piano , and a smattering of drums that blend together in a lovely , bluesy dirge perfectly fitting to the times and our shattered emotions .
Clocking in at over 17 minutes , “ Murder Most Foul ” is the longest song Dylan has ever recorded , just surpassing “ Highlands , ” his wry commentary about aging on the Grammy-winning Time Out of Mind , released in 1997 .
On April 8 , “ Murder Most Foul ” became Dylan ’ s first-ever No .
1 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ achievement for such a lengthy composition .
The effect of the song , with its pointed lyrics about treachery and betrayal , are similar to the sound Dylan captured in 2012 on Tempest , his last album of original songs .
Some of the phrasing also reflects his recent forays into the American songbook of Frank Sinatra that transformed his shows over the past decade into intimate , Paris-style cabarets .
Yet there is little joy to be heard in this recording , where the subject is dark and unfathomable : President Kennedy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sacrificial lamb ” by unseen men seeking to collect “ unpaid debts ” who killed “ with hatred and without any respect.
” Backed by the melancholy chords of his piano , Dylan takes us through the terrible images of the Zapruder film of the assassination that he ’ s seen “ thirty three times , maybe more ” ( “ It ’ s vile and deceitful—it ’ s cruel and it ’ s mean / Ugliest thing that you ever have seen ” ) .
But , contrary to some of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about it , the point of the song is not to publicize JFK conspiracy theories or take us on a nostalgia tour of the 1960s .
Like many of his songs , his message is much deeper , and far more profound .
At its most essential level , “ Murder Most Foul ” marks the collapse of the American dream , dating from that terrible day in Dallas , when a certain evil in our midst was revealed in ways not seen for a hundred years—a day that , for Dylan , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is forever seared into our collective memory .
The murder and the hidden machinations behind it , he tells us , robbed us of Kennedy ’ s brain , a symbol for the positive , forward-looking American spirit that he represented , and “ for the last fifty years they ’ ve been searching for that.
” And this is the outcome : Second , the song is a reminder of the beauty of our music and culture .
It ’ s a tribute to the artists , obscure and famous , who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ times , and who continue to lift us up as we brave this new world of Covid-19 , social distancing , and the death of thousands by government failure and incompetence .
In “ Murder Most Foul , ” that music becomes the counterpoint , the juxtaposition , to the horror and chaos of both JFK ’ s very public death and today ’ s global pandemic .
( To get inside its structure , listen to Laura Tenschert ’ s beautifully narrated podcast about the song on her London-based show , Definitely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from murder to music by conjuring up Wolfman Jack , the legendary disk jockey celebrated in the film American Graffiti , who represents the ghosts of all those DJs from New Orleans , Memphis , Chicago , and New York who introduced him to the secrets of American music when he was a kid in Hibbing , Minnesota , growing up near Highway 61 in the aftermath of World War II .
Starting with the Beatles , whose joyous music would “ hold your hand ” soon after the assassination , the names @ @ @ @ @ @ @ through : Sometimes the music and the culture seem to emanate through the voice of Kennedy himself , who could have heard Wolfman Jack on the radio during his years as a senator , when he was hanging out in Hollywood and Las Vegas with Peter Lawford , Frank Sinatra , and other friends and family of his wealthy , ambassador father .
“ Murder Most Foul ” references so many musicians that Dylan experts have posted on Spotify a stream of songs that he identifies .
There are the Rolling Stones ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( “ Mystery Train ” ) Bo Diddley , Jelly Roll Morton , B.B .
King ( “ play Lucille ” ) , Patsy Cline , Nat King Cole , Don Henley , Glenn Frey , Stevie Nicks , Miles Davis , and the dozens of artists who covered “ Stella by Starlight ” from the 1944 Hollywood classic The Uninvited .
And on and on , mixed with images from old movies , famous songs , and legendary figures from the American past—Birdman of Alcatraz , Bugsy Siegel , Pretty Boy Floyd @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Down in the Boondocks for Terry Malloy ” ) .
Dylan even makes a few allusions to his own songs , including “ Blood in My Eyes , ” a cover , from his 1993 album World Gone Wrong , of a song by the Mississippi Sheiks , a 1930s African American string band that was led by a former slave fiddler , and “ Dignity , ” a rollicking favorite from his 2008 Tell Tale Signs bootleg about a time when “ the soul of the nation is under the knife.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by , you hear the music and culture that America experienced from the time of the Depression to our current era .
The contrast between the culture of Dylan ’ s musical past and the Trump-stricken country of today is summarized in his take on Kennedy ’ s plea to the nation , turned upside down : These are old , familiar themes for Dylan .
That cash is the money that “ doesn ’ t talk , it swears ” from his 1965 song “ It ’ s Alright Ma ( I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which also contains the immortal line , as applicable now as it was then , that “ even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.
” And it ’ s the same tainted cash that “ will never buy back your soul ” from his bitter critique of the military-industrial complex in “ Masters of War , ” his famous antiwar ballad from 1963 .
In that sense , “ Murder Most Foul ” may have been written for Trump ’ s America , but it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that began in the era before Trump , when militarism and empire dominated our foreign policy and killer drones became the weapons of choice for Democrats and Republicans alike .
And , in Dylan ’ s mind , the nightmare of today dates back to November 1963 and Kennedy ’ s death .
And that ’ s where my story picks up , because Dylan ’ s JFK story— “ history told through a radio station , ” as Neil Young put it—is the story of my generation as well .
I first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most foul ” one morning in Tokyo , when my dad walked into my room as the shocking news came through the shortwave static of his Sony transistor radio .
The president , our beloved JFK , had been shot in Dallas just a few hours ago , and was dead .
“ Assassinated ?
Assassinated ?
” my mother said , over and over , as we tried to absorb the brutal facts of the terrible event .
I was all of 12 years old , and was shocked to the core @ @ @ @ @ @ @ baby boomers , I looked to Kennedy an an idol .
He was the young , vibrant leader who personified everything positive and hopeful about the country I had come to love from afar while spending my boyhood in Japan and South Korea , where my missionary parents went as relief workers after World War II .
He was the spirit behind America ’ s exciting space program and the inspiration for thousands of young men and women who enlisted in the Peace Corps and the War on Poverty to help make the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was the moment I realized that something was seriously wrong with the land of my birth .
Up to that point , America , to my innocent eyes , was a benevolent place , a land of abundance that produced sturdy , well-made cars like the Plymouth station wagon my father loved to drive .
The election victory of the boyish , exuberant Kennedy in November 1960 only solidified my faith .
Through the radio , I listened excitedly to his call to send Americans to the moon .
I even wrote him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was thrilled beyond measure when I received a response from his assistant , Kenneth O ’ Donnell , that included a signed photograph of the president .
But with his sudden death , the old , familiar America I knew suddenly vanished , only to be replaced by something sinister , unexplained and mysterious .
Most shocking was the blatant nature of the crime , which Dylan recalls in “ Murder Most Foul ” : The details of the assassination and the accused killer as they unfolded in the Japanese newspapers I read @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know more .
Like Dylan , I pored over the Zapruder film stills when they were published in Life magazine .
I read everything I could about the event in the school library , scouring every issue of Time and Newsweek when they came out .
In the months that followed , the news was especially bad from Vietnam , which I had visited with my family in March 1963 .
By 1964 , President Lyndon Johnson was escalating the war , pummeling the country with bombs and napalm , and by 1965 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thousands in Da Nang , “ the horror ” later spelled out in Apocalypse Now by Marlon Brando was in full force .
That was the time of Freedom Summer and the murders by the Ku Klux Klan of three young civil rights workers in Mississippi .
We had already begun our terrifying lurch into the dark and lunatic decade of assassinations : In addition to JFK in 1963 there was Medgar Evers , then Malcolm X in 1965 , and Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy in 1968 .
America was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nation ’ s soul had indeed been “ torn away.
” But , through it all , there was one constant : the music , especially the rock and roll , jazz , and folk I was hearing on the radio .
I was introduced to Bob Dylan by Pete Seeger , who came to play at my American school in Tokyo during his world tour in 1964 .
After zipping through a repertoire of folk songs and civil rights anthems , Seeger told us of a new talent in New York City @ @ @ @ @ @ @ amazing songs.
” He then picked up his 12-string and sang “ A Hard Rain ’ s A- Gon na Fall , ” Dylan ’ s powerful , apocalyptic song from the days of the Cuban missile crisis .
I was stunned by the soaring words ; I ’ d never heard anything like that before , not from the Beatles , not from the Kingston Trio , not from Johnny Cash , not from anybody .
That magnificent song , which Patti Smith performed so movingly at Dylan ’ s Nobel Prize @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for everything that was to come from the gifted singer from Hibbing .
His songs seemed perfectly tuned to my surroundings , even in Japan .
I ’ ll never forget first hearing “ All Along the Watchtower , ” with its haunting line , “ Two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl.
” It was 1968 , and Japanese citizens were protesting , often ferociously , the US military ’ s use of bases in Japan to attack Vietnam .
From my house in Tokyo looking out at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war planes landing and taking off from a US airbase far to the west .
Dylan ’ s music was ominous—and a fitting soundtrack to what I was living through .
His music has remained closely attuned to the American zeitgeist well into the 21st century .
On September 11 , 2001 , Dylan released Love and Theft , a searing blend of rock and blues perfect for our new , dark era .
Its highlight was “ High Water ( For Charley Patton ) , ” a tribute to the Great Mississippi @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blues riffs it generated .
It included these chilling lines , which we later heard echoed by Bush himself in his hunt for the 9/11 perpetrators : Dylan ’ s eye for the truth came home to me one night in 2014 , when I took my daughter Roxanne to see him at Constitution Hall in DC .
It was the day after Michael Brown Jr. , an 18-year-old black man , was fatally shot by a white cop in Ferguson , Missouri , and most of us were raw with shock and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a slow and melodic “ Blowin ’ in the Wind ” that brought tears to my eyes .
His perennial question , “ How many deaths will it take ’ til we know / That too many people have died ?
” resonated deeply , just as it did when it was released during the civil rights movement in 1962 .
I had a similar experience last year that illustrated the power he can hold over an audience .
On December 8 , I went to The Anthem in DC for what would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his “ Never Ending Tour ” was cut short by the coronavirus .
Midway through his set , I watched with astonishment as the audience sat silent and spellbound through two songs : “ Lenny Bruce , ” a loving tribute to the radical comedian ( “ the best friend you never had ” ) and “ Girl From the North Country , ” his touching , prayerful song to a long-lost love from his days growing up in Minnesota .
I have never seen a rock and roll crowd so quiet , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was a moving tribute to our last true American troubadour .
It ’ s with that voice , breaking with emotion , that Bob Dylan , during the pandemic of the century , has dropped this song about Kennedy , the end of the American dream , and the music that has defined and consoled us all these years .
Those lines , summoning the spirit of the blues and another execution long ago , are the sign of a master songwriter at work .
All the songs and musicians he mentions are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that “ old weird America ” from Harry Smith ’ s Anthology of American Folk Music , which Dylan drank from when he was just starting out , an America that ’ s disappeared in the maw of endless war and free-market capitalism that mark the Trump era and the year of the coronavirus .
Viewed through that lens , “ Murder Most Foul ” is a shout-out to the great music Dylan heard as a youth on the airwaves , learned in the coffeehouses , bars , and concert halls of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and London—and then passed on to us .
It ’ s the music that , in his eyes , defined the America where “ faith , hope , and charity ” were our guideposts—the music that helped us defeat fascism , create the New Deal , face down systemic racism , and build the New Frontier that Kennedy never saw .
Now is the time , he seems to be saying , to bring back that faith and do everything we can to keep it .
As Dylan knows only too well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in an instant .
“ Play the Blood Stained Banner , ” he sings as he closes out the song , in a reference to the last flag of the Confederates who ripped the country apart during the Civil War ; “ play Murder Most Foul.
” As I look out on the abandoned and frightened streets of my city and sense the fear and tension rippling through the country , I can only say : “ Yes , and play a song for me too , Mr. Bob Dylan .
”

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Wolfman Jack, he’s speaking in tongues
He’s going on and on at the top of his lungs
Play me a song, Mr. Wolfman Jack
On March 27, Bob Dylan released on the Internet “Murder Most Foul,” his first new song in nearly a decade. Delivered in the aging, tender, and cracking voice familiar to fans who caught his recent global tour, the song unfolds like an epic poem about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, and the music, culture, and mystery that still surround one of the most shocking events in American history.
“This is an unreleased song that we recorded a while back that you might find interesting,” Dylan wrote on his website early that Friday morning. “Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you.” As I’ve listened to the song, over and over, during these last traumatic weeks, I’ve come to see “Murder Most Foul” as Dylan’s gift to the world at another terrible moment in our history, when our leaders have failed us and we are living through a calamity that seems to have no end. Like Kennedy’s murder in 1963, the federal government’s utter failure to protect the people in 2020 is a collapse of biblical proportions.
President Trump’s slow, cowardly, and stupendously foolish response to Covid-19 has allowed this nation to become the epicenter of the outbreak, and surpassed George W. Bush’s monumental blindness to the drowning of New Orleans in 2005. With hundreds of thousands of people in mortal danger and millions without jobs, health care, or hope, the country faces an existential crisis comparable to the Civil War, the Great Depression of the 1930s, World War II, the horror that unfolded after 9/11, and the terrifying future of climate change. High water’s rising, we’re up to our necks, and the specter of death is stalking the land: the perfect setting for a Bob Dylan song. More on Dylan Bob Dylan, Nobel Laureate in Ashtray-Binding David Hajdu Bob Dylan’s ‘Tempest’: A Q&A with Greil Marcus Jon Wiener
What we hear in “Murder Most Foul” is the weary voice of a Nobel laureate who’s closing in on his 80s, walking us through our trials and tribulations as only a great poet can do. It’s set to a bowed bass, a mournful violin, a piano, and a smattering of drums that blend together in a lovely, bluesy dirge perfectly fitting to the times and our shattered emotions. Clocking in at over 17 minutes, “Murder Most Foul” is the longest song Dylan has ever recorded, just surpassing “Highlands,” his wry commentary about aging on the Grammy-winning Time Out of Mind, released in 1997. On April 8, “Murder Most Foul” became Dylan’s first-ever No. 1 hit on the the Billboard charts—a phenomenal achievement for such a lengthy composition. 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 effect of the song, with its pointed lyrics about treachery and betrayal, are similar to the sound Dylan captured in 2012 on Tempest, his last album of original songs. Some of the phrasing also reflects his recent forays into the American songbook of Frank Sinatra that transformed his shows over the past decade into intimate, Paris-style cabarets. Yet there is little joy to be heard in this recording, where the subject is dark and unfathomable: President Kennedy “being led to the slaughter like a sacrificial lamb” by unseen men seeking to collect “unpaid debts” who killed “with hatred and without any respect.”
Backed by the melancholy chords of his piano, Dylan takes us through the terrible images of the Zapruder film of the assassination that he’s seen “thirty three times, maybe more” (“It’s vile and deceitful—it’s cruel and it’s mean / Ugliest thing that you ever have seen”). But, contrary to some of the hot takes you may have read about it, the point of the song is not to publicize JFK conspiracy theories or take us on a nostalgia tour of the 1960s. Like many of his songs, his message is much deeper, and far more profound. Current Issue View our current issue
At its most essential level, “Murder Most Foul” marks the collapse of the American dream, dating from that terrible day in Dallas, when a certain evil in our midst was revealed in ways not seen for a hundred years—a day that, for Dylan, myself, and others of our generation is forever seared into our collective memory. The murder and the hidden machinations behind it, he tells us, robbed us of Kennedy’s brain, a symbol for the positive, forward-looking American spirit that he represented, and “for the last fifty years they’ve been searching for that.” And this is the outcome:
I said the soul of a nation been torn away
And it’s beginning to go into a slow decay
And that it’s thirty-six hours past judgment day.
Second, the song is a reminder of the beauty of our music and culture. It’s a tribute to the artists, obscure and famous, who’ve taken us through the hard times, and who continue to lift us up as we brave this new world of Covid-19, social distancing, and the death of thousands by government failure and incompetence. In “Murder Most Foul,” that music becomes the counterpoint, the juxtaposition, to the horror and chaos of both JFK’s very public death and today’s global pandemic. (To get inside its structure, listen to Laura Tenschert’s beautifully narrated podcast about the song on her London-based show, Definitely Dylan.)
Dylan makes the leap from murder to music by conjuring up Wolfman Jack, the legendary disk jockey celebrated in the film American Graffiti, who represents the ghosts of all those DJs from New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago, and New York who introduced him to the secrets of American music when he was a kid in Hibbing, Minnesota, growing up near Highway 61 in the aftermath of World War II. Starting with the Beatles, whose joyous music would “hold your hand” soon after the assassination, the names of dozens of musicians and singers float through:
Play Oscar Peterson and play Stan Getz
Play Blue Sky, play Dickey Betts
Play Art Pepper, Thelonious Monk
Charlie Parker and all that junk
All that junk and All That Jazz
Sometimes the music and the culture seem to emanate through the voice of Kennedy himself, who could have heard Wolfman Jack on the radio during his years as a senator, when he was hanging out in Hollywood and Las Vegas with Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, and other friends and family of his wealthy, ambassador father.
Play John Lee Hooker play Scratch My Back
Play it for that strip club owner named Jack
Guitar Slim—Goin’ Down Slow
Play it for me and Marilyn Monroe
Play please, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
Play it for the First Lady, she ain’t feeling that good.
“Murder Most Foul” references so many musicians that Dylan experts have posted on Spotify a stream of songs that he identifies. There are the Rolling Stones (Altamont), The Who, Elvis (“Mystery Train”) Bo Diddley, Jelly Roll Morton, B.B. King (“play Lucille”), Patsy Cline, Nat King Cole, Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Stevie Nicks, Miles Davis, and the dozens of artists who covered “Stella by Starlight” from the 1944 Hollywood classic The Uninvited. And on and on, mixed with images from old movies, famous songs, and legendary figures from the American past—Birdman of Alcatraz, Bugsy Siegel, Pretty Boy Floyd, On the Waterfront (“Play Down in the Boondocks for Terry Malloy”).
Dylan even makes a few allusions to his own songs, including “Blood in My Eyes,” a cover, from his 1993 album World Gone Wrong, of a song by the Mississippi Sheiks, a 1930s African American string band that was led by a former slave fiddler, and “Dignity,” a rollicking favorite from his 2008 Tell Tale Signs bootleg about a time when “the soul of the nation is under the knife.” As the names and the titles fly by, you hear the music and culture that America experienced from the time of the Depression to our current era.
The contrast between the culture of Dylan’s musical past and the Trump-stricken country of today is summarized in his take on Kennedy’s plea to the nation, turned upside down:
Don’t ask what your country can do for you
Cash on the barrel head, money to burn
Dealey Plaza, make a left hand turn
I’m going to the crossroads, gonna flag a ride
That’s the place where Faith, Hope, and Charity died.
These are old, familiar themes for Dylan. That cash is the money that “doesn’t talk, it swears” from his 1965 song “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” which also contains the immortal line, as applicable now as it was then, that “even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.” And it’s the same tainted cash that “will never buy back your soul” from his bitter critique of the military-industrial complex in “Masters of War,” his famous antiwar ballad from 1963.
In that sense, “Murder Most Foul” may have been written for Trump’s America, but it’s also the America of the forever wars that began in the era before Trump, when militarism and empire dominated our foreign policy and killer drones became the weapons of choice for Democrats and Republicans alike. And, in Dylan’s mind, the nightmare of today dates back to November 1963 and Kennedy’s death. And that’s where my story picks up, because Dylan’s JFK story—“history told through a radio station,” as Neil Young put it—is the story of my generation as well.
I first learned about Kennedy’s “murder most foul” one morning in Tokyo, when my dad walked into my room as the shocking news came through the shortwave static of his Sony transistor radio. The president, our beloved JFK, had been shot in Dallas just a few hours ago, and was dead. “Assassinated? Assassinated?” my mother said, over and over, as we tried to absorb the brutal facts of the terrible event. I was all of 12 years old, and was shocked to the core. Related Article Bob Dylan’s Top Ten Protest Songs Peter Rothberg
Like so many of my fellow baby boomers, I looked to Kennedy an an idol. He was the young, vibrant leader who personified everything positive and hopeful about the country I had come to love from afar while spending my boyhood in Japan and South Korea, where my missionary parents went as relief workers after World War II. He was the spirit behind America’s exciting space program and the inspiration for thousands of young men and women who enlisted in the Peace Corps and the War on Poverty to help make the world a better place. His murder was the moment I realized that something was seriously wrong with the land of my birth.
Up to that point, America, to my innocent eyes, was a benevolent place, a land of abundance that produced sturdy, well-made cars like the Plymouth station wagon my father loved to drive. The election victory of the boyish, exuberant Kennedy in November 1960 only solidified my faith. Through the radio, I listened excitedly to his call to send Americans to the moon. I even wrote him a fan letter from Korea, and was thrilled beyond measure when I received a response from his assistant, Kenneth O’Donnell, that included a signed photograph of the president.
But with his sudden death, the old, familiar America I knew suddenly vanished, only to be replaced by something sinister, unexplained and mysterious. Most shocking was the blatant nature of the crime, which Dylan recalls in “Murder Most Foul”:
The day that they blew out the brains of the king
Thousands were watching, no one saw a thing
It happened so quickly—so quick by surprise
Right there in front of everyone’s eyes
Greatest magic trick ever under the sun
Perfectly executed, skillfully done.
The details of the assassination and the accused killer as they unfolded in the Japanese newspapers I read were mystifying, and I wanted to know more. Like Dylan, I pored over the Zapruder film stills when they were published in Life magazine. I read everything I could about the event in the school library, scouring every issue of Time and Newsweek when they came out. In the months that followed, the news was especially bad from Vietnam, which I had visited with my family in March 1963. By 1964, President Lyndon Johnson was escalating the war, pummeling the country with bombs and napalm, and by 1965, when US Marines landed by the thousands in Da Nang, “the horror” later spelled out in Apocalypse Now by Marlon Brando was in full force. Related Article Bob Dylan and Nostalgia of Patriarchy Richard Goldstein
That was the time of Freedom Summer and the murders by the Ku Klux Klan of three young civil rights workers in Mississippi. We had already begun our terrifying lurch into the dark and lunatic decade of assassinations: In addition to JFK in 1963 there was Medgar Evers, then Malcolm X in 1965, and Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy in 1968. America was coming apart at the seams. The nation’s soul had indeed been “torn away.” But, through it all, there was one constant: the music, especially the rock and roll, jazz, and folk I was hearing on the radio.
I was introduced to Bob Dylan by Pete Seeger, who came to play at my American school in Tokyo during his world tour in 1964. After zipping through a repertoire of folk songs and civil rights anthems, Seeger told us of a new talent in New York City “who’s writing the most amazing songs.” He then picked up his 12-string and sang “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” Dylan’s powerful, apocalyptic song from the days of the Cuban missile crisis.
I was stunned by the soaring words; I’d never heard anything like that before, not from the Beatles, not from the Kingston Trio, not from Johnny Cash, not from anybody. That magnificent song, which Patti Smith performed so movingly at Dylan’s Nobel Prize ceremony in 2016, set the stage for everything that was to come from the gifted singer from Hibbing.
His songs seemed perfectly tuned to my surroundings, even in Japan. I’ll never forget first hearing “All Along the Watchtower,” with its haunting line, “Two riders were approaching and the wind began to howl.” It was 1968, and Japanese citizens were protesting, often ferociously, the US military’s use of bases in Japan to attack Vietnam. From my house in Tokyo looking out at the Kanto Plain, I could spot American war planes landing and taking off from a US airbase far to the west. Dylan’s music was ominous—and a fitting soundtrack to what I was living through.
His music has remained closely attuned to the American zeitgeist well into the 21st century. On September 11, 2001, Dylan released Love and Theft, a searing blend of rock and blues perfect for our new, dark era. Its highlight was “High Water (For Charley Patton),” a tribute to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and the songs and blues riffs it generated. It included these chilling lines, which we later heard echoed by Bush himself in his hunt for the 9/11 perpetrators:
Judge says to the High Sheriff,
“I want him dead or alive
Either one, I don’t care”
High water everywhere.
Dylan’s eye for the truth came home to me one night in 2014, when I took my daughter Roxanne to see him at Constitution Hall in DC. It was the day after Michael Brown Jr., an 18-year-old black man, was fatally shot by a white cop in Ferguson, Missouri, and most of us were raw with shock and anger. Dylan closed the show with a slow and melodic “Blowin’ in the Wind” that brought tears to my eyes. His perennial question, “How many deaths will it take ’til we know / That too many people have died?” resonated deeply, just as it did when it was released during the civil rights movement in 1962.
I had a similar experience last year that illustrated the power he can hold over an audience. On December 8, I went to The Anthem in DC for what would be Dylan’s last performance before his “Never Ending Tour” was cut short by the coronavirus. Midway through his set, I watched with astonishment as the audience sat silent and spellbound through two songs: “Lenny Bruce,” a loving tribute to the radical comedian (“the best friend you never had”) and “Girl From the North Country,” his touching, prayerful song to a long-lost love from his days growing up in Minnesota. I have never seen a rock and roll crowd so quiet, so awed, so stilled. It was a moving tribute to our last true American troubadour.
It’s with that voice, breaking with emotion, that Bob Dylan, during the pandemic of the century, has dropped this song about Kennedy, the end of the American dream, and the music that has defined and consoled us all these years.
Take me to the place Tom Dooley was hung
Play St. James Infirmary in the court of King James
If you want to remember, better write down the names
Play Etta James too, play I’d Rather Go Blind
Those lines, summoning the spirit of the blues and another execution long ago, are the sign of a master songwriter at work. All the songs and musicians he mentions are signposts of that America he once knew, that “old weird America” from Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, which Dylan drank from when he was just starting out, an America that’s disappeared in the maw of endless war and free-market capitalism that mark the Trump era and the year of the coronavirus.
Viewed through that lens, “Murder Most Foul” is a shout-out to the great music Dylan heard as a youth on the airwaves, learned in the coffeehouses, bars, and concert halls of Minneapolis, New York City, Cambridge, and London—and then passed on to us. It’s the music that, in his eyes, defined the America where “faith, hope, and charity” were our guideposts—the music that helped us defeat fascism, create the New Deal, face down systemic racism, and build the New Frontier that Kennedy never saw. Now is the time, he seems to be saying, to bring back that faith and do everything we can to keep it.
As Dylan knows only too well, that vision can be snuffed out in an instant. “Play the Blood Stained Banner,” he sings as he closes out the song, in a reference to the last flag of the Confederates who ripped the country apart during the Civil War; “play Murder Most Foul.” As I look out on the abandoned and frightened streets of my city and sense the fear and tension rippling through the country, I can only say: “Yes, and play a song for me too, Mr. Bob Dylan.”


thenation--2020-04-13--Undercounting Covid-19 Deaths Is a Deadly Mistake

The Covid-19 pandemic seems to be approaching the peak of its first wave in the United States , and the scale of the human tragedy is staggering .
As of Sunday night , there were 22,115 confirmed deaths , the most of any country in the world .
In New York alone , there were 9,385 confirmed deaths .
But these numbers , often accompanied in media accounts by confident charts , create a false impression of certainty .
Few if any countries in the world are testing for Covid-19 in a way that would capture every infected person .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of undercounting .
This is a fast-spreading disease .
Some of the undercounting is due to the fact that there are currently only sufficient resources to test those who have a credible need for medical attention .
This makes it easier for some governments to implement testing slowly and selectively to keep the death count low .
Italian journalist Ferdinando Giugliano , writing at Bloomberg , notes , “ As hospitals become overcrowded , patients are being asked to stay at home until they display the most serious symptoms .
Many will die @ @ @ @ @ @ @ may not even be counted as Covid-19 cases unless they ’ re tested post-mortem.
” Can Obama Unite the Democrats Behind Biden ?
China Is Going to Be a Republican Wedge Issue Usually when social scientists measure the impact of a pandemic , they like to look at the number of excess deaths above what would be statistically normal .
This calculation is difficult to arrive at until a pandemic is over , but there are ways to get a rough estimate if you look at the mortality rate of the last few @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is currently being done in Italy .
As Giugliano reports , “ Last week , two researchers from northern Italy made this point forcefully when looking at Nembro , a small town near Bergamo that has been very severely hit by the outbreak .
Writing in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera they found there had been 158 deaths in the town in 2020 so far , as opposed to 35 on average in the previous five years .
They noted that Nembro had only counted 31 deaths from Covid-19 , which looks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are correct , then the number of undetected Covid-19 cases in Nembro is roughly three or four times higher than the detected cases .
Of course , in the future epidemiologists will refine these numbers , since they will have a better sense of how many deaths there were because the medical system was overwhelmed , meaning that people with curable ailments were not treated .
But these deaths also should be considered as part of the toll of Covid-19 , even if the disease itself wasn ’ t the main culprit .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that in the United States , as in Italy , there are Covid-19 deaths that aren ’ t tabulated in the official numbers .
On April 7 , Gothamist looked at the excess death numbers in New York and concluded that the average of 245 Covid-19 deaths per day from the previous week needs to be supplemented by excess death numbers that are almost as large .
As the news site reported , “ Another 200 city residents are now dying at home each day , compared to 20 to 25 such deaths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a spokeswoman for the medical examiner ’ s office .
And an untold number of them are unconfirmed.
” The City of New York said it would change its counting protocol in response to the Gothamist report to include probable Covid-19 deaths .
It ’ s crucial to get a more accurate Covid-19 death count not just for medical reasons but also for political ones .
There is an active push by the right-wing media to argue that the official numbers are too high .
On April 8 , The Washington Post @ @ @ @ @ @ @ News , Tucker Carlson and analyst Brit Hume argued that the death toll may be exaggerated because people who are dying of other causes but have the coronavirus are being classified as coronavirus deaths.
” This logic was rejected by Dr. Deborah Birx , the White House coronavirus response coordinator .
As a press briefing on Wednesday , Birx noted , “ Those individuals will have an underlying condition , but that underlying condition did not cause their acute death when it ’ s related to a Covid infection .
In fact , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ minimizing of the death count is partially an attempt to protect the Trump administration from criticism .
It is also motivated by a desire to end the lockdown as soon as possible and restart the economy .
Trump is currently torn between the conflicting advice of medical experts like Birx ( who argue it is too soon to end the lockdown ) and right-wing media outlets like Fox News ( who argue that the government has over-reacted to the pandemic ) .
Unfortunately , Trump seems to be leaning away from the medical @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a Twitter post with the hashtag # FireFauci , a reference to top medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and leading advocate of maintaining the lockdown for as long as necessary .
As the The Daily Beast reports , “ Over the weekend , the president picked up the phone and began dialing various close advisers and associates to ask them their opinion on how soon he should ‘ open ’ the U.S. economy and call for Americans to start resuming business as usual , according to three people familiar with the conversations.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ asked , “ What do you think of Fauci ?
” If we are at the peak of the pandemic , the number of deaths should start declining in the next few weeks .
As that happens , the drumbeat to end the lockdown will get louder .
The danger is that a premature end of the lockdown will cause a new surge of infections .
Politically , it ’ s imperative for anyone who wants a sane response to the pandemic to make the case for keeping the timing of the lockdown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rather than Trump ’ s inner circle of ideologues and grifters .
In order to do that , it will be crucial not to minimize the death count .
Keeping tabs on the approximate number of excess deaths is an essential tool in making these decisions .
Publicizing the actual magnitude of the death count is disheartening work , since it makes a bad situation seem even worse .
But the crisis requires honesty .
Armed with an accurate sense of the number of lives at stake , the public is much more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ too hasty reopening of the economy .

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.
Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
Get The Nation’s Weekly Newsletter Fridays. The best of the week. Email By signing up, you confirm that you are over the age of 16 and agree to receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Fridays. The best of the week.
Thank you for signing up for The Nation’s weekly newsletter.
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Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine?
The Covid-19 pandemic seems to be approaching the peak of its first wave in the United States, and the scale of the human tragedy is staggering. As of Sunday night, there were 22,115 confirmed deaths, the most of any country in the world. In New York alone, there were 9,385 confirmed deaths.
But these numbers, often accompanied in media accounts by confident charts, create a false impression of certainty. Few if any countries in the world are testing for Covid-19 in a way that would capture every infected person. Both China and Iran have been accused of undercounting.
This is a fast-spreading disease. Some of the undercounting is due to the fact that there are currently only sufficient resources to test those who have a credible need for medical attention. This makes it easier for some governments to implement testing slowly and selectively to keep the death count low.
Italian journalist Ferdinando Giugliano, writing at Bloomberg, notes, “As hospitals become overcrowded, patients are being asked to stay at home until they display the most serious symptoms. Many will die in their houses or nursing homes and may not even be counted as Covid-19 cases unless they’re tested post-mortem.” More From Jeet Heer The Indigenous Roots of Robbie Robertson’s Rock and Roll Revolution August 14, 2023 Why Does This Racist Keep Getting Silicon Valley Money? August 11, 2023 When Phallocrats Go Limp August 4, 2023
Usually when social scientists measure the impact of a pandemic, they like to look at the number of excess deaths above what would be statistically normal. This calculation is difficult to arrive at until a pandemic is over, but there are ways to get a rough estimate if you look at the mortality rate of the last few years. Just this sort of research is currently being done in Italy.
As Giugliano reports, “Last week, two researchers from northern Italy made this point forcefully when looking at Nembro, a small town near Bergamo that has been very severely hit by the outbreak. Writing in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera they found there had been 158 deaths in the town in 2020 so far, as opposed to 35 on average in the previous five years. They noted that Nembro had only counted 31 deaths from Covid-19, which looks like an underestimate.”
If these figures are correct, then the number of undetected Covid-19 cases in Nembro is roughly three or four times higher than the detected cases. Of course, in the future epidemiologists will refine these numbers, since they will have a better sense of how many deaths there were because the medical system was overwhelmed, meaning that people with curable ailments were not treated. But these deaths also should be considered as part of the toll of Covid-19, even if the disease itself wasn’t the main culprit. 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 Current Issue View our current issue
There’s every reason to believe that in the United States, as in Italy, there are Covid-19 deaths that aren’t tabulated in the official numbers. On April 7, Gothamist looked at the excess death numbers in New York and concluded that the average of 245 Covid-19 deaths per day from the previous week needs to be supplemented by excess death numbers that are almost as large. As the news site reported, “Another 200 city residents are now dying at home each day, compared to 20 to 25 such deaths before the pandemic, said Aja Worthy-Davis, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office. And an untold number of them are unconfirmed.”
The City of New York said it would change its counting protocol in response to the Gothamist report to include probable Covid-19 deaths.
It’s crucial to get a more accurate Covid-19 death count not just for medical reasons but also for political ones. There is an active push by the right-wing media to argue that the official numbers are too high. On April 8, The Washington Post reported that “Tuesday night on Fox News, Tucker Carlson and analyst Brit Hume argued that the death toll may be exaggerated because people who are dying of other causes but have the coronavirus are being classified as coronavirus deaths.”
This logic was rejected by Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator. As a press briefing on Wednesday, Birx noted, “Those individuals will have an underlying condition, but that underlying condition did not cause their acute death when it’s related to a Covid infection. In fact, it’s the opposite.”
This minimizing of the death count is partially an attempt to protect the Trump administration from criticism. It is also motivated by a desire to end the lockdown as soon as possible and restart the economy.
Trump is currently torn between the conflicting advice of medical experts like Birx (who argue it is too soon to end the lockdown) and right-wing media outlets like Fox News (who argue that the government has over-reacted to the pandemic).
Unfortunately, Trump seems to be leaning away from the medical experts. On Sunday, he retweeted a Twitter post with the hashtag #FireFauci, a reference to top medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and leading advocate of maintaining the lockdown for as long as necessary.
As the The Daily Beast reports, “Over the weekend, the president picked up the phone and began dialing various close advisers and associates to ask them their opinion on how soon he should ‘open’ the U.S. economy and call for Americans to start resuming business as usual, according to three people familiar with the conversations.” During these phone calls, Trump repeatedly asked, “What do you think of Fauci?”
If we are at the peak of the pandemic, the number of deaths should start declining in the next few weeks. As that happens, the drumbeat to end the lockdown will get louder. The danger is that a premature end of the lockdown will cause a new surge of infections.
Politically, it’s imperative for anyone who wants a sane response to the pandemic to make the case for keeping the timing of the lockdown in the hands of medical professionals, rather than Trump’s inner circle of ideologues and grifters.
In order to do that, it will be crucial not to minimize the death count. Keeping tabs on the approximate number of excess deaths is an essential tool in making these decisions. Publicizing the actual magnitude of the death count is disheartening work, since it makes a bad situation seem even worse. But the crisis requires honesty. Armed with an accurate sense of the number of lives at stake, the public is much more likely to oppose any push for a too hasty reopening of the economy.


thenation--2020-04-13--After Bernie: A Live Debate

After Bernie: A Live Debate

Bernie ’ s out : Senator Sanders suspended his campaign last week , ending many progressives ’ hopes of having @ @ @ @ @ in the presidential election .
But that doesn ’ t mean the fight is over @ @ @ @ @ , join historian Matt Karp , political scientist Daniel Schlozman , journalist Kate Aronoff , @ @ @ @ @ spokesperson for Justice Dems , as they discuss the history and future of movement and @ @ @

Bernie’s out: Senator Sanders suspended his campaign last week, ending many progressives’ hopes of having a standard-bearer for our issues in the presidential election. But that doesn’t mean the fight is over.
Tonight at 6 ET, join historian Matt Karp, political scientist Daniel Schlozman, journalist Kate Aronoff, and moderator Waleed Shahid, spokesperson for Justice Dems, as they discuss the history and future of movement and electoral organizing.


thenation--2020-04-13--Freezing Jail Cells, Broken Showers, and Covid-19

John Martinez has been feeling ill for days—though not from the novel coronavirus that has been making others around him sick .
Martinez , who asked to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisals , is in custody at the Manhattan Detention Complex ( MDC ) , otherwise known as “ the Tombs , ” a fortress-like municipal jail just south of Canal Street .
More than two weeks ago , Martinez said , he and other men inside the Tombs were moved into new “ quarantine ” quarters in the jail after they were exposed to a corrections officer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In order to do this , they report , the MDC has opened up sections of the facility previously designated as uninhabitable .
“ The fumes in here are crazy , ” Martinez recalled telling the captain when he was moved to his new quarters .
“ We can ’ t go to our cells and go to sleep in this , there ’ s a chance we might not even wake up.
” Martinez said that the captain replied , “ Well , if you die , then have one of your @ @ @ @ @ @ @ [ Department of Correction ] .
That ’ s not my problem.
” In late March , The Nation reported that men inside the MDC had begun showing symptoms of Covid-19 but the facility had taken few measures to protect anyone inside .
The news was yet more evidence that prisons are likely to become—as some already are—incubators for major coronavirus outbreaks , and that the MDC , with its 900 beds , is a prime candidate for a Covid-19 eruption .
The MDC is New York City ’ s central booking facility @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the majority of people in the jail haven ’ t been convicted of a charge but are , rather , being held simply because they can not make bail .
While Rikers Island , the city ’ s most notorious jail , has gained significant attention for the reports of Covid-19 sweeping through its staff and detainee populations , the city ’ s other jails have been largely overlooked .
Just two weeks ago , for instance , Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to release 300 people serving sentences for misdemeanors or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he has made few comments about the MDC .
The Nation spoke with eight people incarcerated within the MDC about conditions there .
The men report that there are sick corrections officers , or COs , and inmates alike .
The New York City Department of Correction ( DOC ) could neither confirm nor deny cases of Covid-19 at the MDC specifically .
However , the DOC acknowledged that it ’ s safe to assume that the novel coronavirus has entered every jail in the city .
Despite the threat posed by the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the Tombs these last few weeks .
Legal aid organizations , including the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society , have managed to secure the release of 18 people within the complex , all of whom were being held on civil charges , and many of whom were considered to be in high-risk categories because of their age or underlying medical conditions .
But for most of those incarcerated in the MDC aren ’ t going anywhere .
“ Everyone in here is unmoneyed and unrepresented , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has been incarcerated in the Tombs since December 10 , 2019 .
“ We ’ re here for either being in contempt of court or willfully not paying a violation.
” He added , “ With the conditions in here being like they are , trust me , if we had the money to pay , any of us would pay it in one day , ” Conditions at the facility have been degrading for years , which is why the City announced in 2018 that the MDC would be demolished and replaced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on March 6 , conditions took another turn for the worse when a flood caused extensive damage throughout much of the complex .
The men report that the new conditions are squalid .
“ There is dirt and grime everywhere .
It ’ s black—dark black .
You can run your hand through it on any surface and leave a streak in the black .
And it smells like mold , ” said O ’ Neil .
He and the seven others added that the ventilation system is broken , causing them to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coughing fits .
All the people held at the MDC interviewed by The Nation report that the unit smells like it has just been painted , despite the dirt and dust .
“ We ’ ve been inhaling fumes from the paint , ” said Daniel Scott , who also asked that his name be changed to avoid reprisal from correction officers .
“ We felt lightheaded and dizzy.
” The DOC confirmed that several housing units were repainted after the March 6 flood in an effort to make them habitable and said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ additional concern to the men is their inability to wash themselves—a crucial means of preventing the spread of the virus .
“ We weren ’ t able to even shower the first three days we were here , ” said Scott .
The reason , he said : The showers were broken .
“ Some of us , including me , tried to use the sinks in our cells to shower , ” said Kelvin Williams , using a pseudonym to avoid reprisals .
The sinks , however , were mostly broken , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scarce .
‘ The Only Plan the Prison Has Is to Leave Us to Die in Our Beds ’ The WHO Ignores Taiwan .
The World Pays the Price .
More in this series “ I remember a captain saying , ‘ You guys are lucky : You have the last box of soap in the building , ’ ” recalled Marvin Harris , a 28-year-old man from Brooklyn and yet another person who asked not to be identified by his real name for fear of blowback .
Moreover , the broken sinks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of water for men outside of mealtimes , when correction officers bring in refillable containers .
The men describe the water as non-potable and full of rust .
The “ water is completely brown , ” said Williams .
“ You definitely can ’ t drink it.
” According to the DOC , there are no places where people in custody are housed where they do not have access to sinks , soap ( including their own personal bars ) , and water .
But eight men with whom The Nation spoke said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ongoing problem .
“ We have to keep fighting for water , ” said Scott .
“ Sometimes they won ’ t give us water for an extended period , like nine hours when we ’ re locked in for the night… .
And with the virus you know we need to stay hydrated.
” Phillip Desgranges , a senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union and member of the New York City Bar Association ’ s Task Force on Mass Incarceration , described reports about conditions inside the MDC @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that “ they may be considered a constitutional harm , ” which means that the conditions inside parts of the MDC may be so bad that they constitute a violation of the inmates ’ constitutional rights , specifically the Eighth Amendment ’ s protections against cruel and unusual punishment .
“ We take the safety and well-being of those in our custody seriously and we are investigating these claims , ” says Peter Thorne , the deputy commissioner of public information at the DOC .
“ The DOC is doing everything we can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our custody amid the broader Covid-19 crisis .
We have made tremendous efforts to increase social distancing throughout our facilities , and escalated our hygiene and sanitation protocols in accordance with guidance from the city ’ s Department of Health.
” Nonetheless , conditions inside the MDC continue to deteriorate .
When The Nation last spoke to Martinez , in early April , he reported that the heating had gone off for reasons that the COs could not explain , and the unit had become freezing cold .
“ The COs get upset @ @ @ @ @ @ @ left , we steal the sheets that they were given to double up , ” Martinez said .
“ And they say , ‘ Oh no , you can ’ t do that , you can ’ t do that.
’ And we say ‘ Yo , man , it ’ s freezing in here.
” The COs ’ answer ?
“ Well , you ’ ll just have to deal with that .
You just have to deal with that .
”

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.
Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month!
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John Martinez has been feeling ill for days—though not from the novel coronavirus that has been making others around him sick. Martinez, who asked to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisals, is in custody at the Manhattan Detention Complex (MDC), otherwise known as “the Tombs,” a fortress-like municipal jail just south of Canal Street. More than two weeks ago, Martinez said, he and other men inside the Tombs were moved into new “quarantine” quarters in the jail after they were exposed to a corrections officer who was sick with the virus. In order to do this, they report, the MDC has opened up sections of the facility previously designated as uninhabitable.
“The fumes in here are crazy,” Martinez recalled telling the captain when he was moved to his new quarters. “We can’t go to our cells and go to sleep in this, there’s a chance we might not even wake up.”
Martinez said that the captain replied, “Well, if you die, then have one of your family members take it up with the [Department of Correction]. That’s not my problem.”
In late March, The Nation reported that men inside the MDC had begun showing symptoms of Covid-19 but the facility had taken few measures to protect anyone inside. The news was yet more evidence that prisons are likely to become—as some already are—incubators for major coronavirus outbreaks, and that the MDC, with its 900 beds, is a prime candidate for a Covid-19 eruption.
The MDC is New York City’s central booking facility for people awaiting trial. This means that the majority of people in the jail haven’t been convicted of a charge but are, rather, being held simply because they cannot make bail. While Rikers Island, the city’s most notorious jail, has gained significant attention for the reports of Covid-19 sweeping through its staff and detainee populations, the city’s other jails have been largely overlooked. Just two weeks ago, for instance, Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to release 300 people serving sentences for misdemeanors or nonviolent felonies on Rikers Island, but he has made few comments about the MDC.
The Nation spoke with eight people incarcerated within the MDC about conditions there. The men report that there are sick corrections officers, or COs, and inmates alike. The New York City Department of Correction (DOC) could neither confirm nor deny cases of Covid-19 at the MDC specifically. However, the DOC acknowledged that it’s safe to assume that the novel coronavirus has entered every jail in the city. Current Issue View our current issue
Despite the threat posed by the virus, few people have been discharged from the Tombs these last few weeks. Legal aid organizations, including the New York Civil Liberties Union and the Legal Aid Society, have managed to secure the release of 18 people within the complex, all of whom were being held on civil charges, and many of whom were considered to be in high-risk categories because of their age or underlying medical conditions. But for most of those incarcerated in the MDC aren’t going anywhere.
“Everyone in here is unmoneyed and unrepresented,” said Christopher O’Neil, who has been incarcerated in the Tombs since December 10, 2019. “We’re here for either being in contempt of court or willfully not paying a violation.” He added, “With the conditions in here being like they are, trust me, if we had the money to pay, any of us would pay it in one day,” 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
Conditions at the facility have been degrading for years, which is why the City announced in 2018 that the MDC would be demolished and replaced with a new facility. Then, on March 6, conditions took another turn for the worse when a flood caused extensive damage throughout much of the complex.
The men report that the new conditions are squalid.
“There is dirt and grime everywhere. It’s black—dark black. You can run your hand through it on any surface and leave a streak in the black. And it smells like mold,” said O’Neil. He and the seven others added that the ventilation system is broken, causing them to breathe in irritating dust that stirs up coughing fits. All the people held at the MDC interviewed by The Nation report that the unit smells like it has just been painted, despite the dirt and dust.
“We’ve been inhaling fumes from the paint,” said Daniel Scott, who also asked that his name be changed to avoid reprisal from correction officers. “We felt lightheaded and dizzy.” The DOC confirmed that several housing units were repainted after the March 6 flood in an effort to make them habitable and said that the paint is nontoxic.
Of additional concern to the men is their inability to wash themselves—a crucial means of preventing the spread of the virus.
“We weren’t able to even shower the first three days we were here,” said Scott. The reason, he said: The showers were broken.
“Some of us, including me, tried to use the sinks in our cells to shower,” said Kelvin Williams, using a pseudonym to avoid reprisals. The sinks, however, were mostly broken, he said. And soap has become scarce. COVID-19 ‘The Only Plan the Prison Has Is to Leave Us to Die in Our Beds’ Rosa Schwartzburg The WHO Ignores Taiwan. The World Pays the Price. Wilfred Chan
“I remember a captain saying, ‘You guys are lucky: You have the last box of soap in the building,’” recalled Marvin Harris, a 28-year-old man from Brooklyn and yet another person who asked not to be identified by his real name for fear of blowback.
Moreover, the broken sinks in the cells are the only source of water for men outside of mealtimes, when correction officers bring in refillable containers. The men describe the water as non-potable and full of rust. The “water is completely brown,” said Williams. “You definitely can’t drink it.”
According to the DOC, there are no places where people in custody are housed where they do not have access to sinks, soap (including their own personal bars), and water.
But eight men with whom The Nation spoke said that access to fresh water remains an ongoing problem. “We have to keep fighting for water,” said Scott. “Sometimes they won’t give us water for an extended period, like nine hours when we’re locked in for the night…. And with the virus you know we need to stay hydrated.”
Phillip Desgranges, a senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union and member of the New York City Bar Association’s Task Force on Mass Incarceration, described reports about conditions inside the MDC as “very worrisome.” He added that “they may be considered a constitutional harm,” which means that the conditions inside parts of the MDC may be so bad that they constitute a violation of the inmates’ constitutional rights, specifically the Eighth Amendment’s protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
“We take the safety and well-being of those in our custody seriously and we are investigating these claims,” says Peter Thorne, the deputy commissioner of public information at the DOC. “The DOC is doing everything we can to safely and humanely house people in our custody amid the broader Covid-19 crisis. We have made tremendous efforts to increase social distancing throughout our facilities, and escalated our hygiene and sanitation protocols in accordance with guidance from the city’s Department of Health.”
Nonetheless, conditions inside the MDC continue to deteriorate. When The Nation last spoke to Martinez, in early April, he reported that the heating had gone off for reasons that the COs could not explain, and the unit had become freezing cold.
“The COs get upset because some of the guys that have left, we steal the sheets that they were given to double up,” Martinez said. “And they say, ‘Oh no, you can’t do that, you can’t do that.’ And we say ‘Yo, man, it’s freezing in here.”
The COs’ answer? “Well, you’ll just have to deal with that. You just have to deal with that.”