Innehållsförteckning för July 4-11, 2016 från The Nation

@thenation.com Bern On vs. Bern Out Katha Pollitt’s assertion that “feminism is a distraction” to Senator Sanders is probably truer than Bernie would like to admit [“Why Didn’t Bernie Get Me?,” May 23/30].  But Pollitt’s critique of the Sweet Bern was focused only on domestic issues. While each of these is important, they are also inseparable from the broader—and often unexamined—gender-justice issues. It would be very valuable to have a national candidate who put gender-justice issues at the forefront of foreign as well as domestic policy. Those countries where women have quality access to educational, political, and economic power tend to be, simply, better places to live. Sustainable birth rates, stronger economies, muted militarism, and well-educated children tend to develop within societies to the degree that they approach gender justice.…

My first gay bar was Crowbar in Manhattan’s East Village. Like all great gay bars, it was a dump: dark and crowded, with low ceilings and a shitty sound system. It was off Tompkins Square Park and Avenue B, back when the park was still a place to which you’d go to buy drugs. It smelled like mildew, urine, cheap vodka, and Designer Imposters body spray. It’s long since gone—made extinct, like too many wonders, by gentrification and Giuliani—but for a hot moment in the 1990s, it was the single most fabulous place in the galaxy. Dance moves were invented there. People went in, and when they came out, they weren’t just drunk—they were different people. That’s how powerful its juju was. Before the ’80s were hijacked by hipsters in…

Once upon a time, when media institutions felt the need to kowtow to conservative pressure, they did so quietly. Whether they thought a rightward tilt would earn them more money, or quiet the baying hounds who constantly “worked the refs” from the right-wing sidelines, the media would always pretend that nothing had changed. Today, however, many media outlets—particularly the cable-news channels—announce the move with pride. And I don’t mean Fox News, whose bias has been transparent from day one. I mean MSNBC and CNN. MSNBC, the network that used to “Lean Forward,” is now running advertisements with the half-joking tagline “People might start accusing us of leaning too far to the right.” And on May 1, CNN president Jeff Zucker told reporters from The Wall Street Journal that the network…

Blood is on my mind today. Forty-nine people: 49 bodies moving to the beat of the music, 49 hearts pulsing with joy on a dance floor. But the bullets, shot at high velocity from an assault weapon, put a stop to all that life, all that revelry. This could have happened in any club in the United States on any Saturday night, but this was a gay club in Orlando on a Saturday night in June. Pride Month. And this could have been any other mass shooting in America—there have been 126 this year alone—but the perpetrator was Omar Mateen, a security guard who, his father told news sources, became angered by the sight of two men kissing. Every time I hear about a mass shooting, my mind reels with…

The massacre in Orlando, Florida, will haunt us for a long time. The worst mass shooting in modern American history took place at Pulse, a gay nightclub where patrons were enjoying “Latin Night” and also celebrating Pride Month. Forty-nine people were killed and another 53 wounded. Mostly Latino and LGBT, the dead include Franky Jimmy Dejesus Velazquez, a professional jíbaro dancer from Puerto Rico who at age 50 was the oldest victim, as well as Akyra Monet Murray, 18, the youngest. Murray had just graduated from high school and was looking forward to starting college on a full basketball scholarship. In between are 47 other beloved human beings—healthcare workers, veterans, cancer survivors, mothers, brothers, students, retail workers, girlfriends, boyfriends—whose loss is breaking someone’s heart right now. Around the world, in…

Nine years ago, a Harvard law professor dreamed up a new concept: a government agency devoted solely to protecting consumers from unscrupulous financial companies, the way the Consumer Product Safety Commission protects us from faulty microwaves. Today, Elizabeth Warren’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is in full effect, and has already netted Americans about $10 billion in remedies from banks since it started its watch. One financial product remains in the shadows, however, preying on consumers: payday lending. The very same CFPB just announced rules to regulate the industry, proposing that lenders be required to verify whether customers have any chance of repaying what they borrow and limiting how many times a borrower can roll over loans while accruing interest and fees. But the CFPB’s powers are also limited—it can’t…

Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt (R) $60,550 ☎ (202) 224-5721 Alaska Rep. Don Young (R) $55,650 ☎ (202) 225-5765 Ohio Rep. Steve Chabot (R) $54,100 ☎ (202) 225-2216 Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R) $52,250 ☎ (202) 225-5431 Texas Rep. Pete Sessions (R) $51,650 ☎ (202) 225-2231 South Dakota Sen. John Thune (R) $44,155 ☎ (202) 224-2321 Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson (R) $43,750 ☎ (202) 225-5531 Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt (R) $43,749 ☎ (202) 225-4876 Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers (R) $41,400 ☎ 202) 225-4601 Minnesota Rep. John Kline (R) $40,750 ☎ (202) 225-2271 Georgia Rep. Sanford Bishop (D) $40,650 ☎ (202) 225-3631 California Rep. Ken Calvert (R) $40,550 ☎ (202) 225-1986 Oregon Rep. Greg Walden (R) $37,250 ☎ (202) 225-6730 Missouri Rep. Sam Graves (R) $37,100 ☎ (202) 225-7041 Wisconsin Rep. Paul…

In “Muhammad Ali for Congress” (July 22/29, 1978), The Nation praised the boxer’s just-concluded 12-day visit to the Soviet Union. As editor Carey McWilliams observed: “Ali was an excellent unofficial ambassador for this country…. He was tactful and shrewd and set an example other famous American visitors might well follow.” The heavyweight champion had praised the Soviet Union for providing free medical care, low rent, and full employment. “I’m not a politician,” he said, “but if this is a show to deceive me they’re putting on a great show nationwide.” “Why doesn’t he run for Congress?” McWilliams wondered. “He is a Moslem and it is time that Congress had a member of that faith.” In office, Ali would “be a notably effective spokesman, not merely for blacks but for other…

From the roof of the mess hall, two prison guards at the adams county correctional cen-ter watched in astonishment as dozens of protesting prisoners kicked and pulled at the gates below. Deborah Temple was working her regular shift at the sprawling Mississippi prison, but Catlin Carithers, 24, a member of the emergency-response team, had been called in when the protests began. Now, as the shouting below grew louder, Carithers handed Temple a gas canister and showed her how to use it. Suddenly, dozens of inmates burst through the fence. Others commandeered a ladder and climbed to another roof in the compound. An order crackled over the radio: Deploy the gas. Carithers heaved a canister into the yard. “That is when all hell broke loose,” Temple says. The prisoners who’d occupied…

IN THE SAME WAY THAT CERTAIN PEOPLE are always conscious of being looked at—thespians of everyday life—certain books are aware of being read. Crafted but self-conscious, these books luxuriate under the reader’s eye, ready for examination. And some go further still, tautly anticipating their readers’ responses. Private Citizens (HarperCollins; $14.99), the debut by Tony Tulathimutte, is one such novel, hyperaware of its embodiment. The novel opens with its four protagonists—Cory, the devout activist; sick, sad Henrik; washed-up party girl Linda; and the rageful Will—on a trip to the beach: A little crowded. But this weather. So nice. Days like this you have to have fun or you’ll hate yourself when you’re older. So the prologue ends. Who’s speaking? For now, let’s call it the authorial voice, though we all know…

$277M Money spent by the NRA and its affiliates in 2010 99 TO 1 How much that 2010 spending by the NRA and its affiliates exceeded that of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the most active gun-control nonprofit in the country 143 Number of bills for which the NRA lobbied in 2015 “None of the funds made available for…the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.” Language added to the CDC’s budget appropriation in 1996 by Arkansas Congressman Jay Dickey at the behest of the NRA. Turn the page to see how the NRA has shaped public opinion over the last 20 years.…

The National Rifle Association has evolved from a sporting club promoting marksmanship to one of the most ferocious lobbying organizations in American politics. Last year, the NRA spent over $3.6 million on lobbying, and far more than that funding pro-gun politicians and publicity campaigns. That kind of money buys a lot of influence, most noticeable in the GOP’s increasingly rightward shift on guns over the past 20 years. 29% of Republicans believe that stricter gun laws would reduce deaths from mass shootings. Among Democrats, 79% support this view. 32% of Republicans believe that stricter gun laws would reduce accidental gun deaths; in 1993, 61% of Republicans shared this view. The percentage of Democrats who feel likewise has held steady over the past two decades at roughly 75%. 76% of Republicans…

After mass shootings like the one in Orlando, Florida, the share price of major gun companies like Sturm Ruger and Smith & Wesson tends to soar. The companies fan the fears of increased regulation, and buyers rush to stock up on weapons before sweeping gun-control laws are passed in the wake of each new tragedy. (Tragically, of course, their fears are always unwarranted.) These purchases bolster the cycle of violence by feeding the gun industry, which has a powerful anti-regulation lobbying arm, and by putting more weapons in the homes of Americans. 320% Gains enjoyed by investors in Sturm Ruger and Smith & Wesson since 2010 $551.1 million Sturm Ruger’s net sales in 2015—twice as much as the company saw in 2010 8.5% Increase in the share price of Sturm…

7/2009 Contract is activated for 10 years, beginning with a four-year base period. 2/2010 Monitor Review: One of two systemic failures and 19 of 44 deficiencies are related to medical care. 7/2010 Monitor Review: Nine of 13 repeat deficiencies and six of 12 new deficiencies are related to medical care. 1/2011 Questionable Death: Lucio Gonzalez Perez, 33. 3/2011 Monitor Review: One repeat deficiency and five of seven new deficiencies are related to medical care. 4/201 Questionable Death: Hilario Cabrera-Trejo, 60. 3/2012 Monitor Review: One repeat deficiency and eight of 17 new deficiencies are related to medical care. 5/2012 Riot: Officer Catlin Carithers is killed in a protest over medical care that turned violent. An official urges the BOP to close the prison, but is overruled. 1/2013 Monitor Review: One repeat…

Kill ’Em and Leave Searching for James Brown and the American Soul. By James McBride. Spiegel & Grau. 256 pp. $28. Like theologians and astronomers, biographers can sometimes deduce a great deal about things they can’t observe directly by watching their effects on visible phenomena. The Christian apostle Paul conceived of his God, “however invisible,” as “there for the mind to see in the things that He has made.” Over the past several decades, scientists have made celebrated discoveries about unseeable planets by measuring the impact of their gravity on the stars they orbit. And now James McBride, the novelist, memoirist, and musician, has set out to understand the late James Brown—to see the “real” James Brown—through the effects of his life on some of the people who were deeply…

ACROSS 1 Evil supplier of money running game (9) 6 Prickly ones perform in front of Charles I (5) 9 Sanufactures? (5) 10 Parts of roles are to be seen again and again, all right? (9) 11 Teacher embracing punk-rock pest… (9) 12 …was totally into comeback of new-wave band Letterhead (5) 13 Lodge at a workplace where blood flows east of Long Island (4,2) 14 Middleman’s break with bank employee, taking time off twice (8) 17 Slice of cantaloupe can pierce a sweet dessert (5,3) 19 They can be crazy burdens in the absence of leadership (6) 23 At start of retreat, I went first and got angry (5) 25 Environmentally sensitive merger initiated with Cunningham’s contemporary business (1-8) 26 Cowmen agitated to host 11 after end of welfare…