Innehållsförteckning för February 11, 2019 från The Nation

Military-Industrial Complexity In his fine editorial comment “Democratizing Foreign Policy” [Jan. 14/21], Evan Hill has daringly suggested that informed progressive public opinion might have a significant role to play in shifting the focus of US policy away from one of “endless, costly, worldwide conflict.” Unmentioned, though, in this tidy description of the possibility of actual peacemaking by our government is any discussion of the elephant in the room: the immense leverage of the Department of Defense and associated lobbyists in maintaining the perpetual war economy for the sake of their own power and existence. It seems obvious that any realistic discussion of reaching for the tantalizing lure of a world at peace would need to include conversations about how to deal with the elephant. So let’s talk about it! CARL…

Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal has been defeated in Parliament by a devastating majority of 230; Labour’s vote of no confidence in the government has predictably failed; and the Brexit project has run aground on its own contradictions, leaving the country hurtling without a plan toward March 29—at which point, deal or no deal, Britain will leave the European Union unless an extension is requested and granted. May’s Plan B merely offers tweaks to appease the right wing of her own party, as well as vague promises regarding workers’ rights and the environment to entice Labour. For its part, the Labour Party has proposed an amendment that would give Parliament a vote on whether to negotiate a much softer Brexit with a permanent customs union, as well as a…

It’s tough to keep up with the daily barrage of atrocities at our southern border. That’s on purpose. We’re not meant to absorb the details, as though we’re tracking some benign policy debate. We’re meant to experience the feeling of crisis, driven by a vaguely defined threat that requires extreme action by an unchecked power. So let’s just pause, here at the midway point of Donald Trump’s administration, and tally a portion of the damage done, just over the past six months, in the name of the supposed crisis at our southern border. At this writing, we are four weeks into the longest shutdown of the federal government in our history. Hundreds of thousands of civil servants and their families are facing life-altering ordeals as they go without a paycheck.…

PRAMILA JAYAPAL WAS SPEED-WALKING THROUGH THE LONGWORTH HOUSE OFFICE BUILDing early on January 3, aiming to visit as many of the Democratic women newly elected to the House of Representatives as possible before the end of the day. It wasn’t going to be easy, since there were 35 of them—and even more progressive activists lining the hallways hoping for a chance to talk with her. “I love your new bill!” one young man called out to Jayapal, referring to the Medicare for All legislation she’s still drafting. Five minutes later, two California Indivisible activists flagged her down, promising to keep their new representatives on board the Medicare for All train. Jayapal, the representative for the Seventh District in Washington State and the new co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC),…

ACROSS 1 Ford, say, to write and attempt a trade (9)  6 Picciotto? Picciotto comprehends what is being discussed (5) 9 Hiss and evil glare (5) 10 Carry on—I’m retreating to be protected by barber (9)  11 Best sellers crush 24 (3,6)  12 Debilitated after having finally spent small change (5)  13 Princess or fashion designer (4) 14 Multinational clothing retailer a pair of educators have inherited from older relatives, perhaps? (4-2-4)  18 Funnyman Charles is welcoming short visitors from outer space? (6,4) 19 Dance with terrible pest (4) 22 Like Yeats, Murdoch and Waugh, at last (5)  24 Segregation ruined 11 (9)  26 Don’t stop to look back at musical instrument capturing interest (4,5)  27 Knife a god (5)  28 North country on the Arabian Peninsula is an island?…

As the second anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration approached, this is what happened over the course of just one 72-hour period: The damage done by the longest government shutdown in the history of the republic deepened, as 800,000 federal workers went without pay, with many lining up at soup kitchens or registering their children for free or low-cost school meals; the new speaker of the House proposed delaying the State of the Union address until the crisis that Trump said he was proud to provoke could be resolved; the president responded not by negotiating, but by effectively canceling a visit to US troops in Afghanistan by the speaker and members of Congress; Trump’s nominee for attorney general said he couldn’t rule out jailing reporters for doing their jobs; senators raced…

Forty-six years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide, Robin Marty, a writer and reproductive-rights activist, has published a book helping readers plan for its demise. Handbook for a Post-Roe America emerged from a Twitter thread that Marty wrote after the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was long seen as the fifth vote on the Court protecting Roe. Now that Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh has replaced Kennedy, Roe is more vulnerable than ever. If—or, as Marty argues, when—the Court overturns the ruling, some 22 states will almost instantly criminalize abortion, forcing countless pregnant women to travel hundreds of miles to receive care or face prosecution in their home state. —Glyn Peterson GP: Now that the Supreme Court no longer has the votes to uphold…

The Gannett Company, owner of USA Today, the Detroit Free Press, and more than 100 other newspapers, is seeking to purchase Gizmodo Media Group, a network of sites that includes The Onion and former Gawker Media mainstays Deadspin and Jezebel. Over the decades, Gannett has earned a reputation for buying up media outlets, cutting their staffs, and liquidating some of their assets. But now, as Bloomberg’s Brooke Sutherland put it, “the hunter has become the hunted.” Digital First Media, the news appendage of Alden Global Capital, is attempting a hostile takeover of Gannett to the tune of $1.4 billion. While Gannett may emphasize profits over Pulitzers, Digital First’s reputation is much, much worse. Its acquisition of Gannett would be “a waking nightmare for anyone who cares about newspapers,” proclaimed The…

Anthony PowellDancing to the Music of TimeBy Hilary SpurlingAlfred A. Knopf. 480 pp. $35 A Dance to the Music of Time is a series of novels, spanning some 1.1 million words, that describes close to six decades in the life of its narrator, Nick Jenkins. It took the English novelist Anthony Powell, who created the character as a fictional alter ego, a quarter of a century to write, and its 12 volumes trickled into print between 1951 and 1975, at the rate of roughly one every two years. Despite its intimidating length, there’s something to be said for not reading Dance piecemeal but all at once, lest the more fleeting of Powell’s 400-odd characters lose definition and one ends up, five volumes in, wondering who on earth Horace Isbister is.…

380K Number of federal workers who have been furloughed 450K Number of federal workers who are working without pay 10% Percentage of TSA agents who were “not able to report to work” on January 21 “due to financial limitations” 33% Percentage of federal contract workers who earn less than $15 an hour $0 Guaranteed back pay for the estimated 1 million federal contract workers who are not working due to the government shutdown 0 Number of paychecks that Trump and members of Congress have missed since the shutdown began…

In 2018, Portland, Oregon, made history by levying the world’s first tax penalty on companies that pay their CEOs more than 100 times their median wage. The city now imposes a 10 percent surtax on firms that surpass that level; the tax rises to 25 percent on firms with pay gaps exceeding 250 to 1. Portland officials have shared the preliminary results for 2018. Out of 337 corporate returns processed, 153 companies had to pony up. Abercrombie & Fitch had the widest gap between the CEO and median worker pay, at 3,431 to 1. The initiative has raised $2.4 million, with another $1 million or so expected once the remaining returns are processed. The city plans to spend the money on affordable housing and other pressing local needs. A few…

‘‘I can’t keep up,” a friend complained to me recently, when the news broke that the FBI had opened an inquiry into whether Donald Trump was an agent of Russia. Who could blame her? As the Mueller investigation slowly unfolds, each day brings a fresh scandal for the president. It’s impossible to keep track. The frustration is exacerbated by social media, where snippets of information, devoid of history or context, contribute to the chaos. How can anyone maintain sanity? The answer, I think, lies in reading fiction. Stories help us see the world through the eyes of others: We see what they see; we’re provoked or inspired or amused; we take sides or withhold judgment—but in the end, we find order in disorder. We make sense of the world around…

HIWAIDA ELARABI, A LONGTIME HEALTH EDUCATOR WITH A MASTER’S degree from Brandeis University, has lived and worked in the United States since 1997. For 16 of those years, she was with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, working with refugee and immigrant communities to help them successfully access and navigate the state’s health-care system. More recently, she’s been working as a member of the support staff for students at an online university. In 2015, shortly after starting that job, Elarabi—who hails from the city of Wad Medani in southeast Sudan—decided to follow through on a long-standing dream of running a restaurant, so she took out loans and opened a chicken-wing joint in her hometown of Brighton, Massachusetts. When the New England Patriots were playing, she’d put the game on TV,…