Tag Archives: Politics & Opinion

The New York Times Magazine – Dec 24, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (December 22, 2023):

He Was My Role Model. My Mentor. My Supplier.

A portrait of Lonnie in a car looking into the camera.

Decades after I left hustling to become a writer, why did I seek out the man who drew me into that world?

By Mitchell S. Jackson

O.G. rings me in the a.m. to say he’s just touched down in Phoenix. It’s the day before he said he’d arrive, and while there was a time when I’d treat the seeming opacity of his plans as par, the call’s a minor surprise. He asks for my address and tells me he can drop by as soon as he grabs his rental car. “Cool,” I say, as if the call ain’t ramped my pulse, as if my crib is presentable for guests. It isn’t. So I shoot out of bed and get to cleaning and straightening the first floor, going so far as to light a candle. It’s been umpteen years since I’ve seen O.G. — Lonnie’s his name — and God forbid he judge me anything less than hella fastidious.

In Jordan, a Sprawling Palestinian Diaspora Looks Towards Gaza

The story of 2.3 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan has been shaped by generations of war and exile.Photographs

by MOISES SAMAN

How Do You Make a Movie About the Holocaust?

A photo illustration of various stills from movies about the holocaust collaged together.

With “The Zone of Interest,” Jonathan Glazer is just the latest director to confront the problem.

Poetry makes nothing happen, W.H. Auden said in 1939, when words must have seemed especially impotent; but cinema is another matter. For several decades after the end of the Second World War, what’s come to be seen as its central catastrophe — the near-total destruction of the European Jews — was consigned to the status of a footnote. The neglect was rooted in guilt: Many nations eagerly collaborated in the killing, while others did nothing to prevent it. Consumed by their own suffering, most people simply didn’t want to know, and a conspiracy of silence was established.

The Economist Magazine – December 23, 2023 Preview

Holiday double issue

The Economist Magazine (December 20, 2023): The latest issue features the ‘Holiday double issue’; On safari in south Sudan – The planet’s biggest conservation project is in its least developed nation; Global warming and wine – New vineyards are popping up in surprising places; old ones are enduring; Penguins and prejudice in America – When two male penguins hatched an egg in Central Park, they set off an enduring controversy; China’s new love of the beach – China’s beach culture is a microcosm of society…

The US Navy confronts a new Suez crisis

Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping threaten global trade

For the world to prosper, ships must reach their ports. They are most vulnerable when passing through narrow passages, such as the Strait of Malacca or the Panama Canal. So a recent surge of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, the only southern conduit into the Suez Canal, poses a grave threat to global trade. The Houthis, militants in Yemen backed by Iran, have fired over 100 drones and missiles at ships linked to more than 35 countries, ostensibly in support of the Palestinians. Their campaign is an affront to the principle of freedom of navigation, which is already at risk from the Black Sea to the South China Sea. America and its allies must deal firmly with it—without escalating the conflict in the Middle East.

Economists had a dreadful 2023

Mistaken recession calls were just part of it

Spare a thought for economists. Last Christmas they were an unusually pessimistic lot: the growth they expected in America over the next calendar year was the fourth-lowest in 55 years of fourth-quarter surveys. Many expected recession; The Economist added to the prognostications of doom and gloom. This year economists must swap figgy pudding for humble pie, because America has probably grown by an above-trend 3%—about the same as in boomy 2005. Adding to the impression of befuddlement, most analysts were caught out on December 13th by a doveish turn by the Federal Reserve, which sent them scrambling to rewrite their outlooks for the new year.

Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine – January 2024

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HARPER’S MAGAZINE – JANUARY 2024: This issue features ‘Behind the Iron Curtain’ – Caviar, counterculture, and the cult of Stalin reborn; A Life in Psychedelics; Sex and Grue in Ancient Rome, and more…

Behind the New Iron Curtain

Caviar, counterculture, and the cult of Stalin reborn

by Marzio G. Mian,Translated by Elettra Pauletto

Russia has become, to observers in the West, a distant, mysterious, and hostile land once again. It seems implausible, in the age of social media, that so little should be known about the country that has shattered the international order, but the shadows surrounding Russia have only grown since the days of the Soviet Union. Of course, it is one thing to observe the country from the outside; it is another to try to understand how Russians experience the war and react to sanctions from within, and what they hope the future holds. If Russia seems to have become…

The Museum of Broken G.I. Joes

When soldiers come home

by Matt Farwell

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Dec 25, 2023

A colorless New York City street exists above a psychedelic alternate reality.

The New Yorker – December25, 2023 issue: The new issue‘s cover features “The Flip Side” – The annual Cartoons & Puzzles Issue, inhabitants of a colorless New York coexist with their doppelgängers in a topsy-turvy reality.

Can Crosswords Be More Inclusive?

Drawing of a man with a crossword head.

The puzzles spread from the United States across the globe, but the American crossword today doesn’t always reflect the linguistic changes that immigration brings.

By Natan Last

Root around in the alphanumeric soup of the U.S. visa system for long enough and you’ll discover the EB-1A, sometimes known as the Einstein visa. Among the hardest permanent-resident visas to obtain, it is reserved for noncitizens with“extraordinary ability.” John Lennon got a forerunner of it, in 1976, after a deportation scare that could have sent him back to Britain. (His case, which spotlighted prosecutorial discretion in immigration law, forms the legal basis for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or daca.) Modern-day recipients include the tennis star Monica Seles and—in a tasteless bit of irony—the Slovenian model Melania Knauss, in 2001, four years before she became Melania Trump. 

The World’s Fastest Road Cars—and the People Who Drive Them

A Bugatti Chiron Super Sport near the companys factory in Molsheim France.

“Hypercars” can approach or even exceed 300 m.p.h. Often costing millions of dollars, they’re ostentatious trophies—and sublime engines of innovation.

By Ed Caesar

A Bugatti Chiron Super Sport, near the company’s factory, in Molsheim, France. The car, which has lusciously curved side panels, has been produced in a limited run of five hundred. Although its engine is as big as a Shetland pony, the interior is eerily quiet.

Return to New York City

Return to New York City

Revisiting old haunts leads to revelations about “real life.”

By Julia Wertz

The New York Times Magazine – Dec 17, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (December 15, 2023):

The Failed Promise of Police Body Cameras

U.S. taxpayers spent millions to fund what was supposed to be a revolution in accountability. What went wrong?

Provocative Sex Is Back at the Movies. But Are We Ready for It?

Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor in “Fair Play.”

After an awkward MeToo hiatus, ‘May December’ and other films are showing​ intimacy in messy, complicated ​ways again.

By ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN

Is the Way Men Talk About Fashion About to Undergo Another Sea Change?

How two “grown dirtbags” are reshaping men’s wear.

By T.M. BROWN

Previews: The Economist Magazine – Dec 16, 2023

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The Economist Magazine (December 14, 2023): The latest issue features ‘The media and the message’ – Journalism and the 2024 presidential election; ‘Can you have a healthy democracy without a common set of facts?; Iran’s regime is weaker than it looks, and therefore more pliable, and more…

Can you have a healthy democracy without a common set of facts?

America’s presidential election is a test of that proposition

Journalists should not spend much of their time writing about journalism. The world is more interesting than the inky habits of the people who report on it. But this week we are making an exception, because the discovery and dissemination of information matters a lot to politics. Don’t take our word for it: “A popular government,” wrote James Madison in 1822, “without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.” Were Thomas Jefferson offered a choice between a government without newspapers and newspapers without a government, he said that he would choose the press (though that is probably going a bit far).

Iran’s regime is weaker than it looks, and therefore more pliable

America should deter it from escalating the Gaza war, but also engage with it

Twelve months ago Iran was reeling from protests sparked by the death in custody of a young woman who had been arrested for showing too much hair. Its theocratic regime was increasingly isolated, as Arab states forged closer ties with its enemy, Israel. The economy was a mess, adding to popular anger at Iran’s ageing supreme leader and inept president. The Islamic Republic had not seemed so vulnerable in decades.

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Dec 18, 2023

Olimpia Zagnolis “Let There Be Lights”

The New Yorker – December18, 2023 issue: The new issue‘s cover features Olimpia Zagnoli’s “Let There Be Lights” – The artist discusses strands of brilliance amid dark days.

All the Carcinogens We Cannot See

A grid of cells multiplying.

We routinely test for chemicals that cause mutations. What about the dark matter of carcinogens—substances that don’t create cancer cells but rouse them from their slumber?

By Siddhartha Mukherjee

In the nineteen-seventies, Bruce Ames, a biochemist at Berkeley, devised a way to test whether a chemical might cause cancer. Various tenets of cancer biology were already well established. Cancer resulted from genetic mutations—changes in a cell’s DNA sequence that typically cause the cell to divide uncontrollably. These mutations could be inherited, induced by viruses, or generated by random copying errors in dividing cells. They could also be produced by physical or chemical agents: radiation, ultraviolet light, benzene. One day, Ames had found himself reading the list of ingredients on a package of potato chips, and wondering how safe the chemicals used as preservatives really were.

The Troubled History of the Espionage Act

SECRET stamped atop the United States emblem.

The law, passed in a frenzy after the First World War, is a disaster. Why is it still on the books?

By Amy Davidson Sorkin

In March, 1940, Edmund Carl Heine, a forty-nine-year-old American automobile executive, reached an understanding with a company then known as Volkswagenwerk GmbH. Heine, who immigrated to the United States from Germany as a young man, had spent years at Ford, first in Michigan and then in its international operations in South America and Europe, landing finally in Germany. In 1935, two years after the Nazi regime came to power, Ford fired him, for reasons that are unclear. Heine next signed on with Chrysler, in Spain, but the Spanish Civil War was tough on the car business. And so he was out of a job again.

The New York Times Magazine – Dec 10, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (December 8, 2023):

Michael Stipe Is Writing His Next Act. Slowly.

A black-and-white portrait of Michael Stipe.

How do you reinvent yourself after being a global superstar? The former R.E.M. frontman is still figuring that out.

By Jon Mooallem

When Michael Stipe was little, his parents called him Mr. Mouse. He was a scurrier. As soon as he could stand, he ran, and when he ran, he ran until he face-planted. His mother would deposit him in a baby walker, but if Stipe scrambled as fast as he could and hit the threshold of a doorway with a running start, he could topple the walker and eject himself onto the floor. Then he’d spring to his feet and run away.

The Border Where Different Rules Apply

When detained by the U.S. Coast Guard at sea, even children fleeing violence have no right to asylum — and often face an uncertain fate.

By Seth Freed Wessler

Tcherry’s mother could see that her 10-year-old son was not being taken care of. When he appeared on their video calls, his clothes were dirty. She asked who in the house was washing his shirts, the white Nike T-shirt and the yellow one with a handprint that he wore in rotation. He said nobody was, but he had tried his best to wash them by hand in the tub. His hair, which was buzzed short when he lived with his grandmother in Haiti, had now grown long and matted. He had already been thin, but by January, after three months in the smuggler’s house, he was beginning to look gaunt. Tcherry told his mother that there was not enough food. He said he felt “empty inside.”

Previews: The Economist Magazine – Dec 9, 2023

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The Economist Magazine (December 7, 2023): The latest issue features Israel and Palestine: how to get to peace – For there to be any hope, both Israelis and Palestinians need new leaders; What if Trump stumbles? – And what might happen if Trump dropped out; Make or break for renewables – Supply-chain dysfunction, rising interest rates and protectionism are making life tough; Our books of the year – This year’s picks transport readers to mountain peaks, out to sea and back in time

Israel and Palestine: How peace is possible

A peace process can go wrong in many ways, but a real possibility exists that it could go right

How to stop over-medicalising mental health

What the world could learn from Britain’s flawed approach

A messy contest is coming to a head behind Donald Trump

Our poll tracker sheds light on that competition. It may yet matter

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Dec 11, 2023

A delivery man pushes packages across a roof toward a chimney.

The New Yorker – December11, 2023 issue: The new issue‘s cover features Barry Blitt’s “Special Delivery” – The artist discusses holiday shopping and his prized Popeye punching bag.

What Happened When the U.S. Failed to Prosecute an Insurrectionist Ex-President

Trump looking at a statue of Jefferson Davis.

After the Civil War, Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, was to be tried for treason. Does the debacle hold lessons for the trials awaiting Donald Trump?

By Jill Lepore

Jefferson Davis, the half-blind ex-President of the Confederate States of America, leaned on a cane as he hobbled into a federal courthouse in Richmond, Virginia. Only days before, a Chicago Tribune reporter, who’d met Davis on the boat ride to Richmond, had written that “his step is light and elastic.” But in court, facing trial for treason, Davis, fifty-eight, gave every appearance of being bent and broken. A reporter from Kentucky described him as “a gaunt and feeble-looking man,” wearing a soft black hat and a sober black suit, as if he were a corpse. He’d spent two years in a military prison. He wanted to be released. A good many Americans wanted him dead. “We’ll hang Jeff Davis from a sour-apple tree,” they sang to the tune of “John Brown’s Body.”

The Inside Story of Microsoft’s Partnership with OpenAI

A robot made out a computer keyboard.

The companies had honed a protocol for releasing artificial intelligence ambitiously but safely. Then OpenAI’s board exploded all their carefully laid plans.

By Charles Duhigg

At around 11:30 a.m. on the Friday before Thanksgiving, Microsoft’s chief executive, Satya Nadella, was having his weekly meeting with senior leaders when a panicked colleague told him to pick up the phone. An executive from OpenAI, an artificial-intelligence startup into which Microsoft had invested a reported thirteen billion dollars, was calling to explain that within the next twenty minutes the company’s board would announce that it had fired Sam Altman, OpenAI’s C.E.O. and co-founder. It was the start of a five-day crisis that some people at Microsoft began calling the Turkey-Shoot Clusterfuck.