Innehållsförteckning för August 13/20, 2018 från The Nation

Donald Trump, that self-described “very stable genius,” delivered a remarkably unhinged performance in his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin after their Helsinki summit. Trump used the global stage to savage Democrats and to attack the Mueller investigation and his own intelligence officials, while once more boasting about his election victory. Putin, clearly pleased to be accorded Trump’s public respect, noted that as “major nuclear powers, we bear special responsibility for maintaining international security.” Not surprisingly, Trump’s remarks triggered a furious reaction. Former CIA director John Brennan called them “treasonous.” The liberal activist group MoveOn echoed the charge. Republican Senator John McCain called it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi suggested that Trump’s behavior “proves” that the Russians…

Dear Liza, I just hosted this guy for six days. He spoke at a conference I helped organize. He didn’t say “Thank you” to me, either publicly or privately. His politics are right on—we believe in the same things and dislike the same people—but he was a total boor. He would walk into my kitchen in the morning and grunt—not even a “Good morning”! He never acknowledged any of my work, the great conference, or the amazing woman who delivered the other plenary lecture. He talked nonstop and alienated almost every person who came into contact with him. He will never get an invite back here—ever. And yet he complains bitterly about his career and being treated like shit. He is over 60. Is it too late for him? Should…

This is where we stand: A few months ago, a president who lost the popular vote introduced a “zero tolerance” policy on undocumented immigrants. In order to implement it, his attorney general—a man with a known history of racism—began detaining and prosecuting all immigrants and asylum-seekers who unlawfully crossed the southwestern border. Armed agents forcibly separated immigrant parents from their children, some as young as 3 months old, and redesignated them as unaccompanied minors. The children were put in chain-link cages, foster homes, tent camps, and detention centers. Some of the parents were deported without their kids. Others were pressured to give up their asylum claims in exchange for getting their children back. At least one asylum-seeking father committed suicide. The administration did not keep proper records about the children…

IN EARLY MAY, DOZENS OF ENVIRONMENTAL, LABOR, AND TRIBAL LEADERS in Washington State, as well as representatives from organizations working on the economic and political needs of communities of color—about 60 of which have coalesced into a group called Front and Centered—gathered in Seattle’s Wing Luke Museum, in the heart of the city’s old International District, for a reception highlighting the Protect Washington Act. Enjoying chicken skewers, egg rolls, grilled mushrooms, lemongrass tofu, and locally produced Steak House wines, the attendees were in a celebratory mood. The various participants, who came together in an Alliance for Jobs and Clean Energy, had spent more than a year hashing out the language of the act, otherwise known as Initiative 1631, a hugely ambitious attempt to tackle both climate change and economic inequity…

351 Nicaraguans killed as the result of a government crackdown on protests between April 19 and July 10, according to the Nicaraguan Association for Human Rights; previously, the country boasted the lowest homicide rate in Central America 5 Nicaraguan news channels taken off the air for covering the protests in April $157 Average monthly wage of a Nicaraguan factory worker—the lowest in Central America 5% Reduction in social-security payments to retirees under the reforms that President Daniel Ortega announced on April 16 but rescinded six days later in hopes of quelling the unrest 96% Proportion of the GDP belonging to the private sector in Nicaragua, a socialist country…

Not many private individuals have been of greater public service, to the United States and the world, than Seymour Myron Hersh. Certainly, no journalist can match his record for the kinds of scoops that—until recently, anyway—have helped to preserve our democracy. Hersh, who, at 81, has just published a memoir simply called Reporter, has single-handedly broken more stories of genuine world-historical significance than any reporter alive (or dead, perhaps). His book is perfectly titled, because—and I say this in admiration—a reporter is all Hersh is. Well, maybe he’s a good husband or father or a decent tennis player, but you won’t learn anything about that in his book. Hersh’s only interest in his 50-plus years of reporting has been to get “the story.” He does not care that he sometimes…

In June, thousands of people in Jordan took to the streets to protest shrinking government subsidies and proposed tax hikes—measures implemented at the behest of the International Monetary Fund, which extended credit to the economically beleaguered nation as it strains to host some 1.3 million Syrian refugees. One month later, protesters in Haiti shut down the capital, Port-au-Prince, after the government there announced that it was increasing fuel prices in order to gain access to $96 million in loans and grants from international donors, including the IMF and the World Bank. Embassies shuttered and airlines canceled flights as Haitians—6 million of whom live on less than $2.25 per day—organized rallies and burned tires. The unrest prompted the Haitian prime minister to cancel the price hikes and eventually resign, but the…

The brown paper bagIs almost the greatest invention in the worldThe brown paper bag with handlesIs * Alexander Graham BellThank you thank you thank youWhere would we be without youAs our big bad villain * Attention Deficit DisorderPlowing dust with my fingerFeeling what we areFlicking it away * HollywoodSmoothly wrapsHollywoodSoothingly warps * I love the creakOf my cane bendingAnd the twangStraight back * A spatAlways starts out with a kissAnd ends with a high fiveAren’t we lucky * NatureDoes this rock countHow about the sun smilingIn my hair * PrehistoryThe French army wanted to talkIn the darkWithout making a sound…

ACROSS 1 Highest-ranking mountain? That’s a laugh! (5) 4 A university kicks final examinations? (9) 9 Start work with a joke, no? (5,2) 10 Old town is opposed to major Republican funder dropping $1,000 (7) 11 Recordings of our cousins running around, stripped nude (10) 12 978-0991245260 for Kosman and Picciotto’s latest recycling bins (4) 13 Hearing to bring an action against this woman’s bar offering (5) 15 Leaked: Democrat torn (7) 18 Stein, Ben: mostly a piece of work (4,3) 19 Proztific Hungarian composer (5) 21 Like part of a Cartesian plane (4) 22 One place to put options when dealing with “noble savage” (2,3,5) 26 Train worker managed outside mail in error (7) 27 Get cozy with laid-back breakfast choice containing a piece of lox (7) 28 Sense…

Is it worth fighting Brett Kavanaugh? Let’s start here: Don’t assume Judge Kavanaugh’s confirmation is a done deal. Since 1968, seven Supreme Court nominees from both parties—representing 35 percent of the open seats—have failed. Those are pretty interesting odds, especially in a Senate that may change hands in January. Seemingly inevitable Supreme Court nominations fall by the wayside for all kinds of reasons. With Kavanaugh, there’s already the strange story of his running up overwhelming personal debt for baseball tickets, and his sudden bailout by unnamed individuals. A judge that desperate to impress his pals may have other bad habits. Then there are the Kavanaugh memos—reams of them from his days as staff secretary in the George W. Bush White House post-9/11—that were never disclosed during his first confirmation to…

The Nation has published an open letter, co-signed by more than 20 prominent figures, appealing to US officials to set a new course in our country’s relations with Russia as well as to fortify our elections against both unlawful intrusions and official policies of voter suppression. Timed to mark President Trump’s attendance at the NATO summit and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the letter encourages robust public debate and points a way forward for improving diplomatic relations between the two countries. The open letter ends with a directive for policy-makers and officeholders: “No political advantage, real or imagined, could possibly compensate for the consequences if even a fraction of US and Russian arsenals were to be utilized in a thermonuclear exchange. The tacit pretense that the worsening of…

DONALD TRUMP’S VENOMOUS ATTACKS ON the press—as an enemy of the people, purveyors of fake news, a failing institution—have taken their toll. Journalists are denounced at political rallies, trolled on social media, and subjected to racist and misogynistic taunts. Such assaults, together with the unforgiving financial climate in which they operate, have made journalists feel under siege like never before. One result has been the development of a siege mentality. As they mobilize to defend themselves, have journalists lost their capacity for self-analysis and self-criticism? Self-acclaim more often seems the rule. National news organizations have adopted grand slogans like “Democracy dies in darkness” (The Washington Post) and “The truth demands our attention” (The New York Times). Top journalism watchdogs—the Columbia Journalism Review, WNYC’s On the Media, CNN’s Reliable Sources—rarely take…

@thenation.com Reader Interventions Re The Nation’s July 16/23 special issue, “Needed: A New Foreign Policy”: Truer words were never written. But there’s a puzzling aspect here as well. The one issue that has mobilized Americans politically today—immigration reform—appears only as a minor point. The growing inequality among nations, which is the ultimate cause of the immigration problem, is presented as an aspect of economic growth, or as a blot on our humanitarian values, and it’s both. But shouldn’t it be front and center? Only international measures can deal with it; Trump is so strikingly oblivious to its causes. PETER MARCUSE SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. Thank you for the valuable insights in your special foreign-policy issue. As someone who has worked alongside a few of the authors to press community and labor…