Innehållsförteckning för April 13, 2020 från The Nation

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or go to TheNation.com/ StartMakingSense to listen today. STACEY ABRAMS MARGARET ATWOOD CHARLES M. BLOW SHERROD BROWN NOAM CHOMSKY GAIL COLLINS MIKE DAVIS ELIZABETH DREW BARBARA EHRENREICH DANIEL ELLSBERG FRANCES FITZGERALD ERIC FONER THOMAS FRANK HENRY LOUIS GATES JR. MICHELLE GOLDBERG AMY GOODMAN CHRIS HAYES MARGO JEFFERSON DAVID CAY JOHNSTON NAOMI KLEIN RACHEL KUSHNER VIET THANH NGUYEN NORMAN LEAR GREIL MARCUS JANE MAYER BILL MCKIBBEN WALTER MOSLEY JOHN NICHOLS LAWRENCE O’DONNELL LAURA POITRAS KATHA POLLITT ROBERT REICH JOY REID FRANK RICH ARUNDHATI ROY BERNIE SANDERS ANNA DEAVERE SMITH EDWARD SNOWDEN REBECCA SOLNIT MARGARET TALBOT CALVIN TRILLIN KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL YANIS VAROUFAKIS JOAN WALSH AMY WILENTZ GARY YOUNGE…

On March 12, CNN ran a startling chyron after a congressional briefing on the rapid spread of Covid-19. “Health officials tell lawmakers only about 11,000 people tested for virus in U.S.; South Korea testing about 10K per day,” it read, as the visibly shocked hosts pressed their guests for an explanation. The actual figure is even higher. “South Korea has been on average testing 12,000 patients a day—about as many as the U.S. has managed to test over the last two weeks,” the Los Angeles Times reported on March 14. By that time, the government of President Moon Jae-in had tested 261,335 people. Many of the tests were conducted at sites where citizens could be served in their cars, a process that has been highly praised by residents. “The drive-through…

Every high-profile controversy discloses a deeper reality, and the one involving Woody Allen and the off-again, on-again publication of his memoir is no different. There is the despised celebrity and then the despised many, who have no power and for whom a sex accusation or conviction may make their very existence criminal. There is one damned book and then the damned many, banned by the thousands by state and federal prison authorities. There is one attention-seeking crowd of private censors and then the crowd working less noisily, organizing morality campaigns to remove books from school, university, and public libraries. Every year the American Library Association puts out a Top 10 Most Challenged Books list. In 2017 the list included Sex Is a Funny Word, a sex ed book, challenged because…

In a matter of weeks, the unthinkable has become the new normal. The Schengen Agreement, which guarantees free movement among 26 European nations, has withered. Trans atlantic air links are shutting down. Many countries are trying to close themselves off from their neighbors. Maybe all of this is warranted. But in these terrifying times, we must not lose our ability to parse what’s necessary from what’s politically convenient. For example, the US-Mexico border has essentially been sealed, and all those attempting to claim asylum are being turned back with no right to a court hearing, no attempt to investigate whether they are fleeing for their lives. This has long been the dream of Stephen Miller, a hardline policy adviser to President Trump; now it’s our reality. The administration insists that…

BETSY PINGREE HAS BEEN LIVING WITH FRIENDS FOR FREE BECAUSE she can’t afford an apartment while finishing her dissertation on the precarious conditions of migrant laborers in the 20th century. Standing with fellow graduate-student workers at Boston College who are demanding recognition of their union, she acknowledged the irony. Like many in her cohort on this leafy Catholic campus in the Boston area, she works as many as 60 hours a week on her research and teaching. She earns a stipend of $22,600 a year; the average one-bedroom apartment in Boston costs $11,000 more than that. She used to live with her husband, a disabled veteran, who helped support her with his government payments. Now that he works out of state, she can’t pay her own rent. On March 10,…

you’re a little too good at speaking on my behalfat the holiday dinner I sit between youmy mother, her husband, reproductioneverywhere and wonder why we passor do we pass? for what? lumpen, wifeishI know when they ask now tell uswhat’s been going on at work they can’t listen.only men have jobs. why do I care. even thoughwe agreed on this tactic in the car on the way thereor after we fucked in the bed my sister grew up innext door to a brass headboard I leaned againstas a child and had bad dreams about touching myselfor being touched as I came, it still feels horrible. I love to talkI really love to talk I like to appear as a person…

@thenation.com Making the Case I agree with Elie Mystal on the capture of the Supreme Court by conservatives, a “full-scale heist… in broad daylight,” but I have a different perspective on the path to reform [“Re-Forming the Court,” March 16/23]. As a lawyer, I’m hesitant to ask for a big remedy until I’ve made my case, and we haven’t yet effectively made our case about the court’s capture to the American people. Step one, educate people about the 80 (yes, 80) 5-4 partisan decisions that the Roberts Five have rendered that gave victories to big Republican donor interests. They may know the big four cases—Citizens United, Shelby County, Friedrichs/Janus, and Heller—but they don’t know the pattern. Five to four decisions should happen rarely, partisan 5-4 decisions more rarely still; 80…

80% Reduction since 2018 in the CDC’s budget for combating global disease outbreaks 45 Days between China’s first suspected Covid-19 case and its reporting to the World Health Organization 43 Days between the WHO’s declaration of a public health emergency and the White House’s declaration of a national emergency 7 Days between the UK’s chief scientific adviser advocating a herd immunity approach and Prime Minister Boris Johnson closing social venues across the country 2 Days between President Trump’s claim that the US had the coronavirus under “tremendous control” and his statement that he’s “always known…this is a pandemic”…

With more than 550,000 homeless people in the United States already and millions of workers now without income, the coronavirus epidemic has become a crisis for tenants as well as for public health. To prevent illness and avoid mass displacement, housing advocates and city council members across the country are pushing for a freeze on evictions until the crisis is over. On March 18, President Trump said the Department of Housing and Urban Development would suspend all evictions and foreclosures at least through April. Two days later, New York state announced a 90-day moratorium on evictions. Los Angeles put forward its own plan to temporarily ban evictions, and San Francisco halted evictions resulting from coronavirus-related nonpayment. But activists say these efforts aren’t enough, calling instead for a nationwide suspension of…

The bailouts are coming. As the coronavirus brings economic activity grinding to a halt, industries are flocking to the federal government with palms outstretched. An airline industry trade organization has already asked for nearly $60 billion. Those companies are likely to get something: President Trump has already said, “We don’t want airlines going out of business.” Yet the last time we bailed them out, after 9/11, we handed the industry billions of dollars in loans and grants while requiring very little in return. This time we have to demand concessions for our money. The companies that get taxpayer bailouts should be required to keep employees and contractors on their payrolls and leave union contracts and benefits intact. In the early 2000s, airlines laid off tens of thousands of workers, many…

Liza Feather stone Dear Liza, My wife’s coronavirus anxiety is through the roof and has taken the form of desperate stockpiling. Our teenage sons and I gape in disbelief at the supplies coming in the back door daily. Twenty boxes of Pop-Tarts—really??? My wife is a lauded author and professor, and the transformation over the past few weeks has been startling. She says to me, exasperated after I make a snarky comment, “Can’t you have a little compassion?” I know it’s difficult to trust Mike Pence or the Centers for Disease Control after it has been starved of funding by Donald Trump. But is there any better way to figure out what to do? —Involuntary Hoarder Dear Involuntary, You’ve nailed the root of the problem: With no confidence that our…

In the aftermath of 9/11, many Americans were only too happy to exchange some of their fundamental rights for the promise of security, especially if the ones losing their rights were other Americans. It was OK, for instance, for George W. Bush’s administration to create the Transportation Security Administration and for it to “keep us safe” by racially profiling Muslims—or, really, any person brown enough to be perceived as Muslim. It was OK for the government to suspend habeas corpus for the people detained at Guantánamo Bay. The thing is, once rights and liberties are taken away, even if they’re only “suspended” in response to an emergency, those rights and liberties are extremely hard to claw back. Just look at the establishment of warrantless surveillance under Section 215 of the…

ACROSS 1 Eastern yogi, originally in Asian capital, had a meal before beginning to read our message for Nation cryptic solvers (3,3,5) 7 Taken is given a little more than three stars? (7) 8 Macho guys, lacking source of French, ultimately stand corrected (7) 10 and 4 Joy follows an Oscar-winning movie director (3,3) 11 Strangely, Eric showed up first with our message for Nation cryptic solvers (11) 13 Fade in where Sue garbled our message for Nation cryptic solvers (3,11) 16 Suffers from endless story introducing rental company with thanks—that’s our message for Nation cryptic solvers (5,2,5) 21 Song about union leader flipping over our message for Nation cryptic solvers (2,6) 22 Reason backward to capture green chess piece (6) 25 Investigating naked bird (5) 26 Pagan hero dancing where…