The Nation Mar-03-14

Coining a Word What’s a traffic jam caused by lane closures? It’s a Christie! Steven G. Platt Racine, Wis. _________________________ Is Christie History? There are several LOL moments in Katha Pollitt’s “Christie: A Bully’s Bully” [Feb. 3]. The most delicious: “Christie has filled the place formerly occupied by John McCain: the straight-shooting Republican ‘maverick’ (a maverick being a Republican who admits the earth is probably older than 10,000 years).” Ooooo loverly! That really made my day. Robert Greene Denver _________________________ If Christie (to say nothing of McCain) is the Republicans’ idea of a “man’s man,” they’re worse off than I thought. I’m not sure how to define “man’s man,” but I am definitely sure we would not want one as president. Jeff T _________________________ As John Nichols notes [“Christie’s…

@billmckibben
Astonishing coincidence dept: last year was the 37th straight year of above average global temperatures. 
 @mychalsmith
George Zimmerman is not my priority. Fuck him. My priority is a society that treats black life as worthless and black death as spectacle.
 @brycecovert
Another 8,700 teaching jobs lost. That makes 351,200 gone since the beginning of the recession.
 @EdgeofSports
I have no problem holding all of Putin’s crimes to light, as long as it’s not a distraction from similar issues we have right here in the USA.
 @chrislhayes
“When people say they’re doing something because of the deficit, they are lying to you. Always. Full stop.”
 @janetmock
To my community, I hear you, see you and love you. Thank you for reminding me that I am not alone and I stand alongside fierce folk.…

Something’s being lost in the battle of the pre-K plans.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio won his election based in part on his proposal to fund universal pre-­kindergarten with a tax on the city’s top 1.4 percent of wage earners. Governor Andrew Cuomo has countered with his own proposal for universal pre-K, which would cost much less and—surprise!—wouldn’t require potential campaign contributors on Wall Street to pay a dollar more in taxes. Meanwhile, President Obama has reiterated his call for publicly funded pre-K accessible to all, and commentators wielding reams of data are debating the merits of the idea. 
 The benefits of Head Start to poor children diminish after the first grade, skeptics warn. The long-term gains from free pre-K for all children have been oversold, they say.…

Elizabeth Warren is not running for president. But she is doing what a candidate for president should: focusing attention on smart proposals to address challenges that for too long have been neglected, or actually made worse, by policy-makers. 
 Case in point: Warren’s postal banking proposal. “If the Postal Service offered basic banking services—nothing fancy, just basic bill paying, check cashing and small-dollar loans—then it could provide affordable financial services for underserved families, and, at the same time, shore up its own financial footing,” says the senator from Massachusetts. 
 She’s right. It really is possible to do two good things at once: address the abuse of the working poor by
payday-loan and check-cashing outfits while expanding the range of services provided by the USPS. Media outlets have called Warren’s proposal…

Rachel Kushner’s novel The Flame­throwers centers around a girl called Reno, who rides motorcycles and comes to New York City in 1975 because she wants to be an artist. She learns her way around SoHo and then travels with her artist boyfriend to Italy, where she ends up in Rome with young radicals fighting the police in the streets. The book was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the National Book Award. It’s now out in paperback. The interview has been edited and condensed.—Jon Wiener
 Jon Wiener: Reno says, “I thought art came from a brooding solitude.” Do you agree with her about that?
 Rachel Kushner: For me, art is not “brooding.” It comes from someplace that is more fun and that has a kind of electricity…

The degradation of mainstream American press coverage of Russia, a country still vital to US national security, has been under way for many years. If the recent tsunami of shamefully unprofessional and politically inflammatory articles in leading newspapers and magazines—particularly about the Sochi Olympics, Ukraine and, unfailingly, President Vladimir Putin—is an indication, this media malpractice is now pervasive and the new norm. There are notable exceptions, but a general pattern has developed. Even in the venerable New York Times and Washington Post, news reports, editorials and commentaries no longer adhere rigorously to traditional journalistic standards, often failing to provide essential facts and context; to make a clear distinction between reporting and analysis; to require at least two different political or “expert” views on major developments; or to publish opposing opinions…