The Nation July 27/August 3, 2020

A Family Legacy Re “The Outrage Must Not End” by Elie Mystal [June 29/July 6]: I recall growing up in the 1960s and ’70s in central Texas and hearing conversations about equality, the NAACP, and civil rights. My father believed in speaking out for what was right. He taught his children the same. On June 9 my 16-year-old granddaughter and I went to downtown Atlanta to protest police brutality disproportionately against people of color—and not just brutality but death. Her protesting and standing up for equality with me has made civil rights a family legacy, one that I hope all my grandchildren pass on to their children. We must have the sincere belief that all people are entitled to live without the fear of being targeted because of the color…

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or go to TheNation.com/StartMakingSense to listen today. STACEY ABRAMS MARGARET ATWOOD CHARLES M. BLOW SHERROD BROWN NOAM CHOMSKY GAIL COLLINS MIKE DAVIS ELIZABETH DREW BARBARA EHRENREICH DANIEL ELLSBERG FRANCES FITZGERALD ERIC FONER THOMAS FRANK HENRY LOUIS GATES JR. MICHELLE GOLDBERG AMY GOODMAN CHRIS HAYES MARGO JEFFERSON DAVID CAY JOHNSTON NAOMI KLEIN RACHEL KUSHNER VIET THANH NGUYEN NORMAN LEAR GREIL MARCUS JANE MAYER BILL MCKIBBEN WALTER MOSLEY JOHN NICHOLS LAWRENCE O’DONNELL LAURA POITRAS KATHA POLLITT ROBERT REICH JOY REID FRANK RICH ARUNDHATI ROY BERNIE SANDERS ANNA DEAVERE SMITH EDWARD SNOWDEN REBECCA SOLNIT MARGARET TALBOT CALVIN TRILLIN KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL YANIS VAROUFAKIS JOAN WALSH AMY WILENTZ GARY YOUNGE…

Let’s face it. We’re on a Covid-19 Republican death march heading into the rest of the summer and fall. We cannot wait for January 2021 to shift course. Our lives depend on disruption now. Indeed, our survival hinges on making it impossible for our leaders to ignore us: We have to shift the political terrain ourselves. We have to be the earthquake. We simply cannot “live with” the virus—as the Trump administration suggests—nor simply accept the hundreds of thousands of cases coming over the next six months. There are tactics like the ones we used years ago in ACT UP to fight HIV/AIDS—like swarming institutions from New York’s City Hall and the New York Stock Exchange to the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the offices…

On June 29, Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the Supreme Court’s liberal justices to defend abortion rights in a case called June Medical Services v. Russo. That surprise ruling followed his decision to temporarily uphold the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and his decision to uphold gay and transgender rights under the Civil Rights Act. Even in the big end-of-term decision in which he sided with conservatives, Roberts ruled that the president could fire the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but he did not rule that the CFPB was unconstitutional, as conservatives had hoped. Is Roberts becoming a moderate? Is he turning into another “failed conservative,” like former justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, and Anthony Kennedy, three Republican appointees who ended up siding with…

1.5M Number of people in the US who are cared for in nursing homes 54K Minimum number of nursing home residents and employees who have died from Covid-19 in the US, as of June 30 43% Share of US Covid-19 deaths that took place in nursing homes by the end of June 24% Share of nursing home workers who were tested or presumed positive for Covid-19 in New York state from March to early June 24 Number of states in which the majority of Covid-19 deaths are linked to nursing homes $13 Median hourly pay of a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home 70% Share of nursing homes in the US that are for-profit…

The coronavirus crisis has pushed state and local governments to the edge of a budget cliff; some have already started their tumble into the abyss. State tax revenue dropped by almost 50 percent in April compared to a year earlier as businesses shuttered and people delayed paying taxes. Meanwhile, these governments are spending vastly more to meet residents’ increased health and economic needs. The hole left by a loss in revenue coupled with higher spending is going to be very, very deep. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities projects that the recession caused by the pandemic will create a $615 billion shortfall over this fiscal year and the next. The most difficult year will be 2021, as states face a $315 billion deficit. That’s worse than in 2010, the…