Innholdsfortegnelse for July 1, 2019 i The Nation

Devil in the Details In “The Partisan” [June 3/10], Timothy Shenk calls Sean Wilentz a “meticulous historian who can back up every claim with impeccable footnotes.” But in his dealings with his colleagues to his left, Wilentz has not always been so meticulous. On the occasion of historian Howard Zinn’s death, Wilentz wrote in the Los Angeles Times that Zinn “had a very simplified view that everyone who was president was always a stinker,” but “that can’t be true…. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. You wouldn’t know that from Howard Zinn.” I would argue that last point is refuted by the fact that Zinn says the following in A People’s History of the United States: “It was Abraham Lincoln who freed the slaves.” In fact, he says it twice on…

On August 31, 2016, Jet Blue Flight 387 became the first commercial US airliner to land in Cuba in more than 55 years. When it touched down on the island, the plane became an instant symbol of a new opening in US-Cuba relations—and an economic and cultural bridge between two estranged societies seeking common ground. Since then, more than 2.2 million people have visited Cuba aboard some 13,500 flights from the United States, according to the Transportation Department. Many have gone on popular people-to-people educational tours, or “P2P,” like the ones run by The Nation—group trips authorized by then-President Barack Obama as part of his historic policy of positive engagement. Additionally, about half a million US citizens have gone to Cuba via cruise ships, which, as the Associated Press reports,…

A heat wave in early June stopped daily life across much of India. Temperatures hit as high as 123 degrees Fahrenheit in the northern state of Rajasthan. Weather officials issued a red-alert heat warning for much of the country, telling hundreds of millions of people to avoid the sun between noon and 3 pm and to sleep with a damp blanket. Extreme heat will keep getting worse in the region. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology projected in a study that if current carbon emissions are not reduced, most of South Asia—where one-fifth of Earth’s population lives—could face heat waves by 2100 that would be impossible to survive without protection. The MIT study also pointed out that “air conditioning is not currently available as a safe haven to most…

Elon Musk, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and Tesla and founder of SpaceX, wants to build a colony on Mars. Actually, make that a civilization. Why? Because sooner or later, he said, “some eventual extinction event” will wipe out human life on Earth. Your own extinction event may happen a lot sooner should you be one of the intrepid richies to make the trip (projected cost, after all the bugs are ironed out: $200,000). “The first journey to Mars is going to be really very dangerous. The risk of fatality will be high. There’s just no way around it,” Musk told the International Astronautical Congress in 2016. “It would be basically: Are you prepared to die? And if that’s OK, then you’re a candidate for going.” There won’t be a…

ON MAY 23, THE US DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE announced an 18-count indictment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for violating the Espionage Act. Although the government previously charged him with helping Chelsea Manning, then a private in the US Army, to hack military computers, the new indictment ups the ante considerably. Assange has now been charged with publishing the Manning documents on the WikiLeaks website—a far more serious matter. It’s the first time in US history that the publication of truthful information has been defined as a crime. The New York Times immediately raised an alarm: Assange’s prosecution under the Espionage Act, the paper warned in an editorial the same day, “could have a chilling effect on American journalism.… It is aimed straight at the heart of the First Amendment.” Few…

$5,000+ Anonymous (4) • William F. Benter • Elizabeth Earle • Puffin Foundation • Eugene Gabrych • Lee Halprin and Abby Rockefeller • Barbarina Heyerdahl • Lorraine Honig • Victor Martino • Ken Miller • Ulla Neuburger • Julia Ott • Joan Roache • Joe Sanberg • Steve M. Silberstein • Roy Singham • David Smiley and Lauren Kogod • Society of Environmental Journalists • Jean Stanfield • Oliver Stone • Jonathan Wallach and Linda Hanson • Steve Weiss and Linda Scott • James D. Zirin $2,500–4,999 Judith and Clifford Brunk • Fund for Constitutional Government • James W. Giddens • Hobart Guion • Collier M. Hands • Elly Kouri • Kerry Madigan • Bruce H. Mann • Krishen Mehta • Julie Schecter • Adreana M. Scussel • Lori Taylor…

the face looks unquestionablyhuman, the update tells you,eyes have moved from sidesto front of the head, ears rightwhere they should be and youwander your fingers alongtheir possibilities, wonderingwhat human means? they sayinhumane for the centuriesyour ancestors were cutfrom bellies, their earshung around men’s necks,their eyes backed into the skullor swallowed whole so goldwould grow inside another’s gut,or else they were burnedso no man could tastesuch wealth, inhumane,for the women sownback to back by men,their bellies growing awayso when they pushed,they’d show what body parttears first, the stitch or skin,inhumane, for a man taking youwithout consent, for allthe taken women, but what’smore human than suchviolation, from Latin,humanus, “of man,” how canyour unborn child,unquestionably,come from this?…

ACROSS 1 Jerry and Carol translated Spanish poet (6,5) 7 and 27 Exclude that subatomic particle (6) 9 Split part of simple average (5) 10 Mother is able to take bread back for island native (9) 11 A Roman cavorts wildly in traveling accommodations (5,8) 13 Fashionable goddess, backing away from the subcontinent (6) 15 A bunch of smart people clothing our group with red neckties, say (8) 17 A Simpson Christmas, lacking Yankee independence (4,4) 19 One way of getting around fate: reversing direction and taking time (6) 22 Foreign lad’s crown site! (7,6) 25 Social rap involved headgear (6,3) 26 Flip formula for formic acid to get booze (5) 27 See 7A 28 At first, keep less healthy with healthy animal that appears in five other places in the…

Advocates for children and civil rights who have not yet given up on the struggle to break down the walls of racial isolation in our public schools may want to take a good hard look at former vice president and current presidential contender Joe Biden’s shameful record on school segregation. Despite his recent effort to allay concerns about that record, it cannot be expunged or easily forgiven. In an education-policy proposal released by his campaign on May 28, Biden spoke briefly about encouraging diversity by giving grants and guidance to school districts that are willing to pursue it. But he said nothing to disown his long history as a fierce opponent of school busing and a scathing critic of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. “We’ve…

The similarities between the personal and political styles of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are so powerful as to feel supernatural. Yet the likenesses are structural as much as they’re stylistic. Both men rule as aspiring autocrats in increasingly illiberal democracies, and in this respect, each is a cause as well as a symptom of the same degenerative disease that afflicts the political cultures of the United States and Israel. The most obvious similarity is that both leaders give every evidence of having engaged in criminal behavior. For Trump, ignoring the law has always been his MO; for Bibi, it’s the result of his unquenchable lust for power. To save themselves from prosecution, both peddle wild conspiracy theories about witch hunts driven by ideology, lawlessness, ambition, and—when it comes in…

A PIONEERING GAY WRITER IN THE HEADY 1980S. A LAUREATE OF THE ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE, A LITERary circle so rarefied that its members are known as les immortels. A radical champion of art for art’s sake who withdrew to a 14th-century château to live among the paintings and the pictures that were the only sources of meaning he ever seemed to recognize. These are all descriptions that might once have captured the essence of Renaud Camus. A His trademark was fearlessness, as evinced in his 1979 autobiographical novel, Tricks, which recounts in unsparing detail a string of nonchalant homosexual encounters the narrator has in nightclub bathrooms and grimy apartments on both sides of the Atlantic. “I put saliva in my ass, kneeled on both sides of him, and brought his penis,…

Dear reader, I’ve proudly served as The Nation’s editor for the past 25 years, and throughout that time, I’ve been so thankful to have the support of an incredible community. On the following pages, you will see the names of 15,000 donors who have backed our journalism over the past year. Our editorial independence is guaranteed by their assistance, and our journalism simply would not be possible without it. The need for a strong, independent press is absolutely critical to those of us who care about the direction of our democracy at this moment. In the past year, The Nation has reported from the front lines of the climate crisis, examined the threat Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court presents to reproductive rights, advocated the possibilities of a foreign…

52K Immigrants currently detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement 6 Number of immigrant children who have died in federal custody since September 24 Immigrants who have died in ICE custody under the Trump administration 900 Transgender migrants booked into detention centers since 2015 200 Immigrant-detention facilities in the US 103% Increase in ICE’s budget since 2003 3 Democratic presidential candidates calling unequivocally for the abolishment of ICE: New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, former Alaska senator Mike Gravel, and Wayne Messam, the mayor of Miramar, Florida…

Dear Liza, I’m a 22-year-old man who recently graduated from college. I’ve been blessed with a supportive family and their financial stability. My future looks like it’s coming up roses! So why don’t I believe it is? I see the state of the world with this administration, the inevitability of Congress failing to address climate change, and the further politicizing of our courts. What’s the point of anything? So I can spend maybe 60 to 70 years watching my country be dismantled and ruined? The seas rising and people suffering? Why the hell should I be rushing to embrace this abomination of a future? —Miserable Millennial Dear Millennial, Do not embrace this future. Reject it emphatically! Neither this administration nor (in my opinion) the political dominance of the right will…

With the release of Ava DuVernay’s Netflix miniseries When They See Us, which tells the story of the Central Park Five in haunting detail, former prosecutor Linda Fairstein is facing fresh scrutiny for her role in the wrongful conviction of the teenagers, all of whom were exonerated after spending years in prison for assault. In 1989, Fairstein, then Manhattan’s lead sex-crimes prosecutor, oversaw the hours-long interrogation of the boys, all black or Hispanic, in which she barred them from seeing their parents or lawyers and—as the series highlights—coerced them into making false confessions. The outcry began as soon as the series was made public. Fairstein, who had become a mystery novelist, deleted her Twitter account amid a #CancelLindaFairstein campaign. A few days later, her longtime US publisher, Dutton, announced that…

LAST NOVEMBER, AN EXTRAORDINARY COALITION OF GROUPS FROM ACROSS THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM helped push Florida’s Amendment 4, which restores voting rights for the nearly 1.4 million Floridians with felony convictions in their past, across the electoral finish line. Constitutional amendments need at least 60 percent support to become law in Florida. In the final tally, Amendment 4, which allows all felons except those convicted of murder or sex offenses to apply for restoration of their voting rights upon completion of their sentence, got nearly 65 percent backing—1 million more votes than any political candidate received in the state’s elections that year. Florida voters—across racial, economic, and party lines—came out in favor of reenfranchisement. “The idea of second chances, it resonated with people. People could connect to that. People were going…

Throughout our nearly 155-year legacy, The Nation has consistently shown that ideas matter, championing causes often dismissed as radical or marginal at the time, only to be embraced by the mainstream years and sometimes decades later. I’m immensely proud of that history and look forward to continuing it as the magazine’s new editor. Our times need few things more than honest, enterprising, and fearless journalism. I’m so grateful for the generous donors who make that journalism possible. In so many ways, you are The Nation. We couldn’t publish without you, nor could we be as fearless or ambitious without your financial and moral support driving us forward.…

Melii’s official introduction to the world was “Icey,” a self-indulgent, unapologetic love letter to herself. The up-tempo trap track, which dropped in March of 2018, is a ruthless combination of insolence and bravado that puts the Harlem rapper’s spiky rhyming front and center. “These bitches don’t like me/Their baby daddy keep me icy,” she rumbles, her voice low, flagrant, and caustic. The then-21-year-old had only a few songs and covers to her name at that point. After dropping out of Manhattan’s Edward A. Reynolds West Side High School in 2015 (the same school that hip-hop artist A$AP Rocky once attended), Melii worked with local managers and released her DIY efforts directly to the Internet. Her first real break came in 2017, when she unleashed a remix of Cardi B’s “Bodak…