Innehållsförteckning för January 28/February 4, 2019 från The Nation

Fuzzy Math As a taxpayer, I’m appalled by the Pentagon’s inability to pass the full audit mandated by law. Dave Lindorff’s stunning article “Exposing the Pentagon’s Massive Accounting Fraud” [Jan. 7], which describes how the Defense Department can’t account for some $21 trillion in funds since 1999, should move Congress not only to freeze the department’s budget but also to open an official investigation. In the meantime, The Nation must continue to pursue the matter, including its FOIA request for the Navy’s financial statement. Kudos to Lindorff and The Nation for bringing this shocking fraud to light. ROBERT LADENDORFLOS ANGELES Lindorff’s story about the unaccountably strange financial practices at the Pentagon is important, especially within the larger context of military funding. History’s most expensive semantic coup was certainly achieved in…

47 Average age of a new member of Congress 90% Percentage of Republican House members who are white men 102 Number of House members who are women (89 of them Democrats) 21% Percentage of seats (House and Senate) held by persons of color 96 Number of seats (House and Senate) held by military veterans 2 Number of Muslim women ever elected to Congress—both of whom are serving their first terms now: Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) 1 Number of US senators “not affiliated with any religion”: Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)…

Last month, Politico asked how Elizabeth Warren could “avoid a Clinton redux—written off as too unlikable before her campaign gets off the ground.” The piece (written by a woman, sigh) ran the day the Massachusetts senator announced she was “exploring” a run for the White House. No time to lose, apparently, when it comes to setting the narrative. A supersmart ambitious Democratic woman? Aroint thee, witch! Because what is likability if not a deference to men—with a self-deprecating smile? A likable woman doesn’t talk too loud or too much. She doesn’t take up too much space, isn’t too sexy or too dowdy, and gracefully eludes confrontation. In short, she doesn’t demand anything that men would rather keep for themselves, be it political power or sexual autonomy or the right to…

Thousands are missing in the country’s drug war—many of them seized by government security forces. ONE NIGHT LAST MARCH, JESSICA MOLINA WAS AWAKE IN BED, recovering from surgery at her home in the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, when she heard pounding at her front door. Her husband, José Daniel Trejo García, a car mechanic, slept through the noise and didn’t stir until Mexican Marines in full combat gear burst into the couple’s bedroom. “They entered in a completely straight line, as if it was an operation,” Molina recalls. “There were around six who came into the bedroom, and 11 in all in the house.” A red laser dot appeared on Trejo García’s forehead as a Marine trained his weapon on him. Molina says she heard the Marines say…

Donald Trump will be held to account in 2019. The prospect that the president and his associates will face serious congressional oversight, and that this scrutiny will provide vital checks and balances for the remainder of his disastrous presidency, is no longer in doubt. The voters settled that question in November, when they swept Trump’s Republican allies out of the House committee chairmanships they had co-opted in the service of a legally and morally indefensible president. Representative Elijah Cummings, who will now take control of the powerful House Oversight Committee, got it exactly right when he said, “Voters made clear they wanted transparency, integrity, honesty, but they wanted something else: accountability.” Of course, there is good reason to demand that the new Democratic-controlled House send the right policy signals by…

Dear Liza, I’m a single mom of four who lives in California and works 25 hours a week. Three of my children have flourished in the school system here. My 16-year-old, however, has made me think twice about public schools and their ridiculous rules. My daughter is a beautiful soul with tons of creativity. She is respectful and smart, but she has never done well in school. In elementary school, I was told she was hyper and fidgety. In middle school, she was teased, and in high school, the bullying started. She’s now a junior with extreme anxiety about school. Over the years, I’ve learned how to calm her down in the morning, but she’s often late to class. I’ve talked with the school about the bullying and her anxiety.…

Dozens of Democrats are angling to be considered as presidential prospects for 2020. When a party has a long list of contenders, the candidates seek to distinguish themselves. The more lamentable among them focus on raising money, but the best place their faith in big ideas. Put Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley in the latter camp. He just issued the “Blueprint for a ‘We the People’ Democracy,” an ambitious document in which he lists the following goals: • Pass a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling. • Give shareholders a voice in corporate political spending, and give citizens the legal standing to sue corporations if the FEC fails to enforce election laws. • End partisan gerrymandering by requiring that independent commissions redraw district lines. • Abolish the…

THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN BEGAN LONG BEFORE the midterms ended. Reporters have already started covering the gaggle of Democrats (20? 30?) said to be “looking at” a run. Pollsters and pundits are already handicapping the horse race, brandishing polls that mostly register name recognition. The scramble for campaign money and talent is now well under way. More interesting for voters, the Democratic campaign is starting off with an “ideas primary,” with potential candidates competing on reform proposals and messages, seeking to hone their distinctive appeal. This cycle’s ideas primary is already fierce. Trump’s calamitous presidency has exacerbated racial and nativist divisions, while utterly failing to deal with the toxic legacy of endless wars, growing inequality, pervasive corruption, and existential threats like climate change. The Bernie Sanders insurgency in 2016 proved…

Miriam “Midge” Maisel has always been a woman who arranges things—and in case we’ve forgotten, the second-season premiere of Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel reminds us. The first moments of the episode are a gorgeous homage both to Hello, Dolly! and to the splendor of a 1958 department store: We swoop past the lovingly confected window displays of B. Altman’s and into the building, beyond the gleaming makeup counters and down the mail chute to the frenetic nerve center of the telephone switchboard, where, as usual, Miriam (Rachel Brosnahan) is doing her job—and everyone else’s. Meanwhile, courtesy of the soundtrack, the legendary yenta Dolly Levi reminds us of the feeling of soaring triumph—the emotional armor of hypercompetence—that comes with being “a woman who arranges things: like furniture, and daffodils, and…

ACROSS 1 A bit of zesty sex with, um, a deer maybe? That’s almost certain to end badly for someone (4-3,4)  7 and 29 Invert the second number and letter—that is one way to look smart (3,3) 9 High-born snob lectures participant (5) 10 Vessel protecting North Carolina, formerly, with lack of interest (9) 11 Snarled: “Another Kennedy coming after $1,000” (7) 12 Fill with happiness and marvel at exquisite cargo (5) 14 Tailor names one measurement (6) 15 Tense about pros messing up travel document (8) 18 Satellite conveying a coach’s cookie (8) 20 Someone harmed Victor and Timothy (6) 23 Excellent purse is ruined (5) 25 Small cut of meat infused with, for instance, liqueur (4,3) 27 Julia, a gangster in the early days (9) 28 Decapitate Venetian…

Norman Birnbaum, who died on January 4 at age 92, was a valuable friend of this magazine. Upon hearing the news of his passing, Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel said, “Last August, I sent Norman a birthday greeting, and we corresponded about his health, his memoirs, and the large absence in his life left by his dear friend—and former Nation editorial-board member—Marcus Raskin’s death. In his letter to me, Norman wrote: ‘It is impossible for me to imagine my life without The Nation.’” For those of us who have worked with Norman, it’s hard to imagine The Nation without him. He contributed articles, editorials, and reviews to our pages for an astounding six decades. We envy the students who regularly imbibed his wisdom at the Georgetown University Law…

Back in 2011, The Onion’s now-defunct TV series ran a sketch in which then–CIA director Leon Panetta bestowed a “medal of intelligence commendation” on “the Overlord,” Mark Zuckerberg, for inventing the “single most powerful tool for population control” the agency had ever enjoyed. These days, Facebook is fulfilling the predictions of even its most dystopian satirists; the only thing The Onion got wrong was the CIA’s competence. According to a devastating investigation last December by The New York Times, Facebook is running a de facto spy agency—not for the US government, but for anyone willing to purchase its data. Among the recent revelations: Facebook sells the names of its users’ “friends” without consent and allows certain corporations to read and delete private messages. It also sells the names and contact…