The_Week_USA_-_November_23_2019

MAIN STORIES BRIEFING TALKING POINTS OMINOUS The history of Calling out RESULTS FOR blowing the ‘cancel THE GOP whistle culture’ p.5 Democrat p.11 p.16 Barack Andy Beshear Obama THE BEST OF THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA In hot pursuit Is the impeachment inquiry closing in on Trump? p.4 Naresh Jariwala* NOVEMBER 15, 2019 VOLUME 19 ISSUE 950 WWW.THEWEEK.COM ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS

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Contents 3 Editor’s letter It is admittedly a peculiar time to envy our cousins in the United paigning, speeches, and debates, we’re still three months away Kingdom, torn asunder as they are by Brexit. The Brits’ national division is as deep and rancorous as ours, and when they sever from the Iowa caucuses; after that, we will be engulfed in nine their unfettered economic access to the 27 nations and 500 mil- lion people in the European Union, the rift will be permanent. more months of primary and general-election politicking, with But here’s what I envy: When Parliament recently voted to hold a new election to determine whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson the two parties spending as much as $10 billion to carpet-bomb has enough popular support to go ahead with his Brexit plan, it set a date of Dec. 12. Johnson and his adversaries will have six us with ads. As the Brits might say, A bit excessive, don’t you weeks in total to campaign before the citizens decide their na- tion’s future. How very reasonable—especially when compared think? It’s also admirable that the British treat their prime minis- with the U.S.’s permanent presidential campaign. ter with no great deference, but rather as a hired public servant On the day he took office in 2016, President Trump officially filed to set up his re-election campaign and soon began fund- to be held to account. Every week, the PM must go before Par- raising. A stampede of two dozen Democratic candidates began jumping into the race in mid-2017. After six months of cam- liament for Question Time, during which rivals and adversar- ies demand that he or she explain and defend his or her policies. There’s plenty of wit in the exchanges, and sharp, even insult- ing language. It’s a fine spectacle, and for the PM, a humbling one. In the U.S., it would be considered disrespectful to speak to any president this way; we have turned our presidents into kings. Given why we declared independence from William Falk Britain, that’s a bit ironic, don’t you think? Editor-in-chief NEWS Naresh Jariwala* Editor-in-chief: William Falk Democrat Andy Beshear claims victory in Kentucky governor’s race. (p.5) 4 Main stories Managing editors: Theunis Bates, AP, Getty More evidence of quid pro ARTS LEISURE Mark Gimein quo in President Trump’s Deputy editor/International: Susan Caskie Ukraine scandal; what the 22 Books 26 Food & Drink Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell Democrats’ Election Day How the ultrarich really Three restaurants helmed Senior editors: Alex Dalenberg, wins mean for 2020 are different: They pay by culinary couples Danny Funt, Michael Jaccarino, Dale Obbie, lower taxes Zach Schonbrun, Hallie Stiller 6 Controversy of the week 27 Travel Art director: Dan Josephs Were the Republican tax 23 Author of the week Orcas, humpbacks, and Photo editor: Loren Talbot cuts an economic flop? Timothy Egan’s spiritual penguins in Antarctica Copy editors: Jane A. Halsey, Jay Wilkins walk from Canterbury Researchers: Joyce Chu, Alisa Partlan 7 The U.S. at a glance to Rome 28 Consumer Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin, Smugglers cut holes in Board games to take you to Bruno Maddox southern border wall; 24 Art & Film the Alhambra, or to Mars 462 inmates in Oklahoma Painter Lari Chief sales and marketing officer: given a second chance Pittman’s BUSINESS Adam Dub complex states SVP, marketing: Lisa Boyars 8 The world at a glance of being 32 News at a glance Executive account director: Sara Schiano Cartel gunmen slaughter McDonald’s CEO ousted Midwest sales director: John Goldrick an American family in 25 Television over consensual relationship; Southeast director: Jana Robinson Mexico; toxic smog Olivia Uber loses $1.2 billion West Coast executive director:Tony Imperato chokes New Delhi Colman Integrated marketing manager: gives a royal 33 Making money Lindsay LaMoore 10 People turn in The The soaring stock market Research and insights manager: Joan Cheung Keira Knightley’s second Crown defies doomsayers Programmatic revenue and ad operations thoughts on success; Lin- director: Isaiah Ward Manuel Miranda’s big- Keira 34 Best columns Digital planner: Maria Sarno money problem Knightley U.S. companies return to Davos in the Desert; what Chief executive officer: Sara O’Connor 11 Briefing (p.10) the 1950s were really like Chief operating & financial officer: When whistleblowers Kevin E. Morgan risk career suicide for the Director of financial reporting: public good Arielle Starkman Consumer marketing director: 12 Best U.S. columns Leslie Guarnieri How President Trump HR manager: Joy Hart can win again in 2020; Operations manager: Cassandra Mondonedo the new era of cyberwar Chairman: Jack Griffin 14 Best international Dennis Group CEO: James Tye columns Why violent protests U.K. founding editor: Jolyon Connell have erupted in Chile Company founder: Felix Dennis 16 Talking points Barack Obama vs. Visit us at TheWeek.com. cancel culture; Elizabeth For customer service go to www Warren’s Medicare for All .TheWeek.com/service or phone us plan; Trump quits NYC at 1-877-245-8151. Renew a subscription at www .RenewTheWeek.com or give a gift at www.GiveTheWeek.com. THE WEEK November 15, 2019

4 NEWS The main stories... Trump’s ‘no quid pro quo’ defense crumbles What happened check. “The gun, which we can all see President Trump’s insistence that there was smoking, is in fact smoking.” “no quid pro quo” involved in pressuring Yes, Trump’s behavior with Ukraine was Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his “self-serving and reckless,” said The son was directly contradicted by one of his Wall Street Journal. The question now own allies this week, scrambling Repub- is whether it justifies removing a duly licans’ defenses of the president ahead of elected president from office. President the first public impeachment hearings. In Clinton had clearly committed a crime a sworn statement to Congress, European when he was impeached for lying under Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland ad- oath. But the Senate ultimately decided mitted that he told a top Ukrainian official his offense wasn’t serious enough for that military aid “would likely not occur” removal. The investigations Trump asked until Ukraine publicly announced the in- for never materialized, and aid to Ukraine vestigations sought by Trump. The White House withheld $391 million in security Sondland: A ‘refreshed’ memory led to new testimony. was ultimately released. “The impeach- ers have the burden of showing why this aid approved by Congress ahead of the shouldn’t all be left to the judgment of American voters in 2020.” July 25 phone call, in which Trump pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “do us a favor” by investigating the Bidens and a conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not the Russians, hacked the 2016 election. The aid was released in September, two days after Congress was informed that a whistleblower had complained about what Trump said during the call. Naresh Jariwala* What the columnists said Republicans can no longer defend Trump on the merits, so they’re “throwing up smokescreens,” said Aaron Rupar in Vox.com. Trump defenders like Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul have taken to attacking the anonymous CIA whistleblower who “sounded the Sondland had previously stated that there were “never” any pre- alarm” on Ukraine as a Democratic flunky. Disgracefully, the presi- conditions for aid. But he updated his testimony, saying that read- dent’s son Donald Trump Jr. publicly named someone he believes ing the subsequent testimony from U.S. diplomat Bill Taylor had to be the whistleblower on social media, putting that person’s “refreshed” his memory. Democrats began to release transcripts safety at risk. But “even if it turned out that the whistleblower was of closed-door testimony from witnesses, including Sondland and a Trump-hating Democratic partisan,” it wouldn’t matter. “Sworn Taylor, who told lawmakers he’d been given a “clear understand- testimony and evidence released by the White House have already ing” that U.S. military aid depended on Ukraine investigating established that his central allegations are true.” Biden. Several witnesses sought by the House, including Energy Rather than whine about the process, Republicans should defend Secretary Rick Perry and former National Security Adviser John Trump on the merits, said Andrew McCarthy in NationalReview Bolton, have refused to testify. .com. Polls show that nearly half the country already supports The House of Representatives plans to hold the first public hear- impeachment and removal, and public hearings are still to come. Trump’s defenders should argue that neither Ukrainian nor U.S. ings on Wednesday, after voting 232 to 196 along party lines to authorize formal impeachment hearings. No Republicans voted for interests were harmed by delaying aid to Ukraine, and that the the measure, and only two Democrats voted against it. Republicans attempted quid pro quo never happened. Therefore, Trump’s ac- tions “do not rise to the level of an said the vote proved that the impeach- impeachable offense.” Republicans ment inquiry is hopelessly partisan. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who What next? need to mount a “substantive defense” previously said evidence of an explicit Vulnerable Senate Republicans are bracing for of the president. quid pro quo would be “very disturb- “impeachment pain,” said T.A. Frank in Vanity ing,” angrily told reporters that he would Fair.com. Senators facing tough re-election Good luck with that, said Max Boot not even read transcripts of Sondland’s fights, like Susan Collins of Maine and Joni Ernst in The Washington Post. Republicans testimony. “I’ve written the whole pro- of Iowa, are in a no-win situation. Independents keep climbing out onto increasingly cess off,” Graham said. “I think this is a increasingly support impeachment, with a nar- farther limbs to defend the president, bunch of BS.” row majority now in favor, a reversal from just only to watch them get sawed off. What the editorials said a few weeks ago. “Staying loyal to Trump may First, the whistleblower report was lose them voters in the middle, while turning “hearsay.” Then, it was “no quid pro So much for “no quid pro quo,” said the against him will lose them voters in the Repub- quo.” Now, Republicans are admit- New York Daily News. Sondland’s up- lican base.” It’s unclear if anything could loosen ting that there actually was a quid dated testimony “demolishes any remain- “Trump’s hold on his political base,” said Ste- pro quo, but it doesn’t matter because ing doubt” that the Trump administra- phen Collinson in CNN.com. A recent Monmouth Trump didn’t get what he wanted. tion withheld congressionally approved poll showed that 62 percent of Trump supporters Memo to the GOP: “Attempted crimes are still against the law.” Dead- military aid from Ukraine in order to say they can’t think of anything the president extort political favors to boost Trump’s could do to lose their support. “I’m pretty sure enders like Sen. Graham have stopped reelection. Republicans can’t write off how it’s likely to end,” said Republican Senate trying to make sense altogether, plug- Sondland as a hostile whistleblower or Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “If it were ging their ears and shouting “blah- Deep State apparatchik. He’s a Trump today, I don’t think there’s any question it would blah-blah and yadda-yadda-yadda.” Newscom loyalist and GOP megadonor who got his not lead to removal.” At this point, “I almost feel sorry for ambassador’s job by writing a $1 million President Trump’s partisans.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019 Illustration by Howard McWilliam. Cover photos from AP, Alamy, Reuters

...and how they were covered NEWS 5 Democrats celebrate big wins on Election Day What happened The Democratic takeover in Virginia “is Republicans suffered stinging defeats in a shock,” said the Roanoke, Va., Times, Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvania this “but not that much of one.” The state week as suburban voters in traditionally has been trending blue for a decade, and conservative districts swung to Democrats Democrats haven’t lost a statewide elec- in statewide and local races widely seen tion since 2009. And the party faithful as referendums on national politics and shouldn’t be too gleeful over this win. President Trump’s popularity. In Virginia, While many voters here loathe the presi- voters overturned Republican majorities in dent, “it’s entirely possible Democrats both chambers of the General Assembly, will nominate someone who is equally awarding Democrats total control over the unpopular, just in different ways.” legislative and executive branches for the What the columnists said first time since 1993. In Kentucky, Repub- lican Gov. Matt Bevin refused to concede Beshear: Winning over suburban voters in Kentucky Clearly, the “suburbs are the new Flori- da,” said Alice Stewart in CNN.com. In after his Democratic challenger, Attorney General Andy Beshear, notched a slim 5,100-vote lead; Trump car- Kentucky, Democrat Beshear demonstrated “tremendous support in ried the state by 30 percentage points in 2016. And in Pennsylvania, suburban areas in which Republicans typically thrive.” In northern Naresh Jariwala* a swing state that Trump won in 2016, Democrats triumphed in the Virginia, “a suburb of the swamps of Washington,” Republicans Philadelphia suburbs of Delaware, Chester, and Bucks counties, areas were wiped off the map. And while Reeves did win GOP-stronghold that in some cases have been GOP strongholds since the Civil War. counties outside Jackson, Miss., he did so “with narrower margins than in years past.” The results should serve as “a wake-up call” to Bevin, who has called for a vote recanvass, closely aligned himself Trump that his message is not playing well outside rural America. with President Trump during the campaign, hammering national Democrats for their efforts to impeach him. At a rally with Bevin on Kentucky’s gubernatorial election shouldn’t be mistaken for a the eve of the election, Trump conceded the implications of defeat in referendum on Trump, said Nathan Gonzales in RollCall.com. a local race that had been so prominently nationalized, saying that Bevin was a badly damaged candidate, having pushed an unpopular Bevin’s loss would send “a really bad message” beyond Kentucky. overhaul of the state’s Medicaid program—which would have insti- “You can’t let that happen to me,” he said, “and you can’t let that tuted work requirements for able-bodied adults and thrown 95,000 people off the rolls—and called teachers striking for modest pay happen to your incredible state.” Meanwhile in Mississippi’s gu- bernatorial race, Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves beat Democratic raises “ignorant” and “selfish.” Moreover, the GOP won “the five Attorney General Jim Hood 52 percent to 47 percent, a narrower- other statewide offices” that were on the ballot, “four of them by more than a dozen points.” Trump’s “last-minute push” probably than-expected victory in an open-seat election. saved Bevin from an even more humiliating loss. What the editorials said It “wasn’t a blue wave but a tsunami that swept over Virginia,” These election results will have national Republicans worrying about said the Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch. Democrats now enjoy “what kind of damage they might suffer as a result of standing by “almost absolute power over Virginia government,” giving them their man” through the impeachment process, said Julian Zelizer in the ability to draw new maps for congressional and state legislative CNN.com. After all, the GOP’s “love for Trump” was never “about districts after the 2020 election. They can also push through bills the man but, rather, the party” and his ability to deliver it victories. If Republican leaders sense that Trump is hurting, rather than help- that stood no chance when Republicans controlled the General Assembly: repealing the state’s right-to-work laws; raising the mini- ing, “the intense partisanship that has been central to protecting him on Capitol Hill” could evaporate. And Virginia’s and Kentucky’s mum wage to $15; and toughening firearms laws by mandating results are just the sort of “numbers that can move them.” universal background checks. It wasn’t all bad QJoyciline Jepkosgei had a simple goal in mind when she QWhen a Wisconsin first-grader lost a tooth while playing a QRob the lonely royal albatross has ran the New York City Marathon this week. “My focus was to dodgeball-like game at recess, and finally found love. Each year for the then lost that lost tooth, he was past decade, the 35-year-old bird has finish the race,” said the Kenyan certain the Tooth Fairy would pass returned to his New Zealand colony him over. Principal Curt Angeli during breeding season with hopes athlete. The 25-year-old holds the made sure that didn’t happen. He of finding a mate. And each year, the wrote a letter to the Tooth Fairy on albatross was left alone. Amused world record in the women’s half- school stationery, verifying “that scientists considered taking bets on there is definitely a gap in [the stu- his chances, and even mulled creat- marathon but had never com- dent’s] teeth that was not there this ing a Tinder profile for the poor bird. morning” and so the fairy should But this year Rob met his match. peted in a 26.2-mile race before. pay up. “I just figured I would The lucky lady, who has not been make it look as official as possible,” identified by name, has a checkered At the 20-mile mark, she was just said Angeli, “in case the Tooth history herself. Still, said ecologist Fairy was suspicious.” The letter Hoani Langsbury, “She’s a success- behind four-time champion Mary worked:The next morning, the boy ful breeder. She’ll know what to do.” found a dollar under his pillow. Keitany. Then, with about 3 miles left, Jepkosgei pulled ahead and won, crossing the finish line in 2 hours, 22 minutes, and 38 seconds—the second-fastest performance on the course for women. “I didn’t have any pres- AP, Reuters sure at all,” she said of the run. “I A dazzling debut didn’t actually know I could win.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019

6 NEWS Controversy of the week The economy: Has Trump helped or hurt? Welcome to “‘The Greatest Economy in steady pace, said The Wall Street Journal in American History!’” said Catherine Rampell an editorial, with 80.3 percent of prime-age in The Washington Post. That, at least, is how workers being employed, the highest ratio President Trump tweet-greeted last week’s since 2007, and an African-American jobless news that the U.S. economy grew at an annu- rate of 5.4 percent, “a new low since records alized rate of 1.9 percent in the third quarter. have been kept.” Once upon a time, under President Obama, “Unemployment isn’t falling for everybody,” Trump tweeted that a 1.9 percent growth rate said Andrew Van Dam in The Washington portended “deep trouble for the economy!”... Post. Thanks to Trump’s reckless trade war so was he right then or is he right now? The with China, which was supposed to help truth is that most economists think 2 percent American workers, the U.S. manufactur- ing sector actually shrank over two straight growth will now be typical for the U.S., but Manufacturing: Still struggling it’s “way lower than you’d expect given the quarters this year, putting it technically in recession. Investment massive fiscal stimulus policymakers have been pumping into in new factories and offices plunged by an alarming 15.3 per- the economy.” Government spending has surged under Trump, cent in the third quarter, and unemployment is actually rising in with the annual deficit now nearing $1 trillion. Trump promised that the GOP’s $2 trillion tax cut in 2017 would boost growth to manufacturing-dependent states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and “4 percent, 5 percent, and even 6 percent.” Instead, corporations Pennsylvania—which of course are vital to Trump’s reelection Naresh Jariwala* have largely used the windfall they got from having their tax rate chances. Mining jobs are down, and so are exports. Trade-war cut from 35 percent to 21 percent to buy back shares, rather than uncertainty is making even nonmanufacturing companies skit- investing it in equipment and workers. The numbers don’t lie, said tish about new investment, said Robert Samuelson, also in The Washington Post. Yet the only policy proposal we hear from the Greg Ip in The Wall Street Journal. Trump’s “tax cut has under- delivered,” which can only be good news for the Democratic candi- White House is the “monstrously bad idea” of more tax cuts. dates seeking to replace him and reverse it. Trump’s trade war isn’t the only cause of corporate jitters, said Paul Untrue, said Stuart Varney in FoxBusiness.com. Even at 1.9 per- Krugman in The New York Times. Businesses are afraid to invest cent, our economy is growing “far more vigorously than any other because they see that “Trump and his team are very strange people industrial democracy’s,” as most of Europe slides toward a reces- who have no idea what they’re doing.” Trump’s grand promise sion. Our stock market is hitting record highs, and U.S. stocks have to bring back the old U.S. economy has clearly failed, said Derek gained more than $10.5 trillion in value since Donald Trump’s Thompson in TheAtlantic.com. But “a very different economy,” election, benefiting everyone with a 401(k) or a pension fund. (See fueled by technology firms, service-sector jobs, and consumer Making Money.) Meanwhile, “the wages of lower-paid workers spending continues to chug along. The reality is that Trump is “too are rising faster than any other group’s.” Job growth continues at a stuck in the past to help the economy, and too weak to destroy it.” Only in America Good week for: U.S. to exit Paris Getty climate deal QA Puerto Rican man was Becoming a nudist, after The New York Times published “Wear asked by CVS employees Clothes? Then You’re Part of the Problem,” a column blaming the The Trump administration to show his “immigration apparel industry for contributing to climate change. The piece calls formally notified the United papers” before buying cold on citizens to keep repairing their garments or buy second-hand Nations this week that it medicine. José Guzmán clothes, and to wash everything in cold water and air-dry it. will withdraw from the Paris Payano, a student at Indiana’s climate agreement, making Purdue University, says he Astronauts, with news that a spacecraft carrying cookie the U.S. the first of nearly repeatedly explained to the dough and a zero-gravity oven is on its way to the International 200 countries to leave it. The pharmacy chain’s staff that Space Station. “Fresh-baked food could have psychological and 2015 agreement outlines Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, physiological benefits for crew members,” said NASA. steps to limit global warming but they rejected both his to 2 degrees Celsius above Puerto Rican driver’s license Rebirth, after the director of a new film announced that a CGI pre-industrial levels, and the and his passport as valid version of James Dean—dead since 1955—will play a major role. “We Obama administration set a forms of ID. A CVS spokes- searched high and low for the perfect character,” said director Anton target of cutting U.S. emis- woman apologized. Ernest, “and after months of research, we decided on James Dean.” sions 13 to 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. The QA New York state high Bad week for: White House gave notice on school football coach was sus- the first day that the accord’s pended for winning a game Skeptics, after new data revealed that last month was the hottest complicated rules allow the by too many points. Plainedge October globally ever recorded. Temperatures were 1.24 degrees U.S. to begin a withdrawal; it High School defeated South Fahrenheit warmer than the average from 1981 to 2010. would take effect the day after Shore High 61-13, a violation the 2020 presidential election. of a “lopsided scores policy.” British reserve, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson kicked off his Every Democratic presidential Suspended coach Rob Shaver election campaign by comparing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to candidate has pledged to re- pointed out that South Shore ruthless Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The socialist Corbyn hates the join the accord if elected, and was previously undefeated, wealthy, Johnson said, “with a relish and a vindictiveness not seen 24 states plus Puerto Rico said and that opposing coach Phil since Stalin persecuted the kulaks.” they would continue honoring Onesto said he had “no issue the deal’s goals. with how the game went.” Self-awareness, when Donald Trump Jr., the wealthy son, heir, and namesake of the real estate magnate and U.S. president, told THE WEEK November 15, 2019 Fox News that “I wish my name were Hunter Biden” so “I could go abroad and make millions off of my father’s presidency.”

The U.S. at a glance... NEWS 7 Oklahoma Milwaukee New York City Acid attack: A white man told a Latino Uncaged: Oklahoma, the state with the U.S. citizen to “go back to your coun- Subpoena upheld: A fed- try” before throwing battery acid in his eral court rejected President highest incarceration rate in the U.S., face outside a Mexican restaurant this Trump’s effort to block week. Mahud Villalaz, 42, who left Peru his accounting firm released 462 prison inmates this week in 19 years ago, says a stranger asked him, from turning over eight “Why did you come here and invade my years of personal and the largest country?” before splashing him with a corporate tax returns container of acid, causing second-degree to Manhattan prosecu- single-day burns on his face and third-degree burns tors this week. Trump on his neck. Police arrested Clifton attorney Jay Sekulow Fighting subpoena commuta- Blackwell, 61, who’s under investiga- said the Supreme Court tion for a possible hate crime after a should hear an appeal, noting, “The tion of surveillance camera captured the assault. issue raised in this case goes to the heart Villalaz says Blackwell confronted him of our republic.” Trump’s lawyers have sentences in for parking too close to a bus stop, and argued he has absolute immunity from after Villalaz moved his truck, Blackwell state and federal criminal investigation— U.S. history. continued to berate him on the sidewalk an immunity his lawyers say would in the heavily Latino neighborhood. extend even to shooting someone on An addi- “This anger toward people from other Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Judges, countries is being fed by our president,” though, said they were not convinced tional 65 Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett said. that this case differs from the Supreme Court precedent ordering President Leaving prison in Taft, Okla. inmates in Washington, D.C. Nixon to supply a grand jury with White Oklahoma’s Russian contacts: During the 2016 cam- paign, then-candidate Donald Trump House tapes. However, in its total prison population of 26,000 are urged aides to “get the emails” through decision the court sidestepped any sources they had, newly released tes- the question of presidential scheduled for release. Voters passed a timony from the Mueller report reveals. immunity, saying that since Trump’s deputy campaign manager, Rick ballot initiative in 2016 to change simple Gates, told investigators that retired the subpoena was served not on Gen. Michael Flynn, a Trump adviser, Trump but on his accountants, drug possession and low-level property volunteered to use his Russian contacts to “compliance does not require the pursue 33,000 emails deleted by Hillary president to do anything at all.” crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Clinton from a private server. Gates also testified that Trump aides appeared Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a to know in advance about email drops from Russian hackers and WikiLeaks. In bill this year retroactively adjusting sen- addition, Gates described how Trump’s Naresh Jariwala*fired campaign manager, Paul Manafort, tences for inmates already serving time secretly advised Trump through Election Day and was the first to push the theory for non-violent crimes—a move that will that Ukraine, not Russia, was behind the DNC email hack. The findings were in save Oklahoma taxpayers about unreleased portions of the report made by special counsel Robert Mueller, which a $11.9 million. The prisoners judge made public last week in response to a Freedom of Information request. released have already served an average of three years behind bars—but some faced much, much longer sentences. “It feels amazing to be on the other side of the fence,” said one woman who was released after a 2018 drug conviction that originally came with a 15-year sentence. Washington, D.C. Mueller’s last case: Roger San Diego Stone lied repeatedly to Loophole: Mexican smugglers have found Congress about his they can get people and drugs through efforts to get informa- President Trump’s bor- tion about stolen der wall with easily avail- emails that would able power tools, The damage Hillary Washington Post reported Clinton’s campaign Easier to cross than to build last week. Using $100 “because the truth cordless saws, gangsters can hack through one of the wall’s steel-and-concrete bol- looked bad for Donald lards in minutes, border agents told the Post. Trump has touted the new barriers Trump,” a federal ‘It ain’t pretty.’ as “Rolls-Royce” quality and “virtually impenetrable.” Asked about the smug- prosecutor asserted glers, he said the barriers could be “very easily fixed. You put the chunk back this week at the trial of Trump’s longtime in.” Agents in California and Texas also reported smugglers using ladders to scale adviser. Charging Stone with false state- the three-story-high barriers. The Trump administration has completed 76 miles of ments, obstruction, and witness tamper- new barriers, with 158 miles more under construction. Officials said they’re plan- ing, prosecutors opened their case by ning to install electronic sensors that can detect the vibrations of sawing. outlining evidence that Stone sought to gain WikiLeaks’ help for Trump’s cam- paign. Prosecutors say that Stone called Trump right after two separate releases of emails—and then tried to contact WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange just minutes after one of those calls with Trump. In August, Stone emailed Trump strategist Steve Bannon, “I do know how to win, but it ain’t pretty,” and told cam- paign chair Paul Manafort that he had an idea “to save Trump’s ass.” Stone’s AP (4) attorney said his client exaggerated his WikiLeaks contacts to seem important. THE WEEK November 15, 2019

8 NEWS The world at a glance... Niagara Falls, Ontario London Iron ship moves: A wrecked iron Barr backlash: British officials were taken aback by scow that has been wedged against the Trump administration’s request that they help rocks at the top of Niagara Falls it investigate American intelligence agencies, British for 101 years has been dislodged, media reported last week. Attorney General William and it could plunge over the 167- Barr is overseeing a criminal investigation foot drop. The 80-foot vessel has into the origins of the FBI’s investigation of Seeking allies’ help Russian interference in the 2016 presidential been a tourist attraction since 1918, when a rope connecting the election. U.S. intelligence concluded unequivocally that Russian Will the scow go over the edge? scow to a tugboat snapped during hacks and covert social media campaigns were aimed at helping a dredging operation. It got stuck a President Trump win the election; some commentators have specu- third of a mile from the falls’ edge, forcing the daring rescue of two lated that Barr wants to discredit that conclusion. “They are basi- trapped crew members. “I thought it would be there for all time,” cally asking, in quite robust terms, for help in doing a hatchet job said David Adames of the Niagara Parks Commission. A powerful on their own intelligence services,” one diplomat told Independent storm with 50 mph winds wrenched the wreck free on Halloween .co.uk. Barr has also asked Italy and Australia to investigate. night and pushed it some 160 feet downriver. Officials said it could be stuck where it is now for years or move again at any time. Manresa, Spain Gang rapists acquitted: Protests broke out in Spain this week after five men were acquitted of raping an unconscious 14-year- old girl at a party in an abandoned warehouse. The court said the attack did not meet Spain’s legal definition of rape, which requires that a perpetrator use violence or intimidation. That didn’t occur in this case, because the victim was unconscious from drugs and alcohol. The five were convicted instead on the lesser charge of sexual abuse and received sentences of 10 to 12 years in prison. The ruling recalled a 2016 case, in which five men were convicted of abuse rather than rape because the victim could not prove that the gang that surrounded her in Pamplona had used violence. The Supreme Court overruled that verdict this summer and found the men guilty of rape. Naresh Jariwala* La Mora, Mexico AP, Getty, Reuters, AP, Reuters Americans massacred: Suspected drug cartel gunmen killed nine members of an American-Mexican fam- ily, including six children, in an ambush near the U.S. border this week. The group, members of a Mormon offshoot that settled in Mexico in 1944, were traveling from their family ranch in Sonora to the neighboring state of Chihuahua when one of their three cars broke down. Gang members attacked the car that fell behind, killing Rhonita Miller and her four children, includ- ing 8-month-old twins; they then set the car alight. An Mourning the victims ambush on the other cars killed two women and two boys ages 3 and 11. Eight children survived that attack. Mexican officials said the gunmen may have mistaken the SUVs for those of a rival cartel. President Trump tweeted an offer to send the U.S. Army to help Mexico “wage WAR on the drug cartels.” Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador declined it. La Paz, Bolivia Rio de Janeiro Morales clings on: Opposition leaders called on Bolivian President Censoring arts: President Jair Evo Morales to resign this week as protests over his disputed elec- tion win entered their third week. Morales was declared winner of Bolsonaro’s government has been the Oct. 20 vote by just over 10 percentage points, but observers and activists suspect his vote total was massaged so he could avoid closing publicly funded art exhibi- a runoff against runner-up Carlos Mesa. Opposition tions, movies, and plays that criticize leader Luis Fernando Camacho flew to La Paz this week with a resignation letter for Morales, but his government or Brazil’s former The stars of Abrazo officials wouldn’t let him leave the airport because military dictatorship. This week, an Morales supporters had massed outside. The Organization of American States is auditing official burst into a Rio de Janeiro theater during the staging of the vote. Morales, in power since 2005, was allowed to run for an unprecedented a children’s play, Abrazo, about a fictional dictatorship in which fourth term after a court ruling that the hugging is outlawed, and shut it down, saying the performers Did he rig the vote? opposition says was corrupt. were in breach of contract. “We’re not going to persecute anyone, but Brazil’s changed,” Bolsonaro said at a conservative forum last month. “We won’t support certain types of works with public money. That’s not censorship. That’s preserving Christian values, treating youth with respect, recognizing families.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019

The world at a glance... NEWS 9 Oslo Tehran American racist deported: An American white supremacist was detained in Norway this week just hours before he was to speak Step toward nukes: Continuing its incremental viola- at an international far-right conference in Oslo. Greg Johnson, who promotes a “white genocide” conspiracy theory through his tions of the 2015 international nuclear deal, Iran said Counter-Currents Publishing group, was to address the Scandza Forum, a network that promotes anti-Semitic and racist views. this week that it would begin injecting uranium gas “He stands for and communicates an extreme right-wing ideol- ogy,” police spokesman Martin Bernsen said. “There’s a danger into more than 1,000 centrifuges, a process that that it can result in violence.” In a 2012 blog post, Johnson wrote that he had “respect” for Anders Breivik, the Norwegian far-right can produce enriched uranium suitable for use terrorist who killed 77 people—most of them teenagers—in 2011. Johnson said authorities had misrepresented his views on Breivik in a nuclear weapon. Iranian officials said the and that he does not condone violence. Johnson was deported to Hungary, where he has a residence permit. uranium would be enriched only to 4.5 per- Rouhani cent fissile purity—90 percent is required for Karbala, Iraq Rage against Iran: Iraqis upset at Tehran’s influence over their warhead-grade fuel—and President Hassan Rouhani suggested government attacked Iranian symbols this week, torching the head- quarters of political parties linked to Iran and throwing firebombs that the step was reversible and was meant to press the U.S. to at the Iranian consulate in Karbala. “Free, free Iraq,” they shouted. “Iran, get out, get out.” In Baghdad, some 200,000 protesters called lift sanctions. President Trump in 2018 pulled the U.S. out of the for the fall of the Iran-friendly, graft-addled government, and many hurled shoes at posters of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali pact—which limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanc- Khamenei. The mostly young protesters are largely Shiites, which tions relief—even though Iran was in compliance with its obliga- undercuts Iran’s claim that it speaks for Iraq’s Shiite majority. They want tions. When the U.S. begins “living up to their commitments,” to scrap the corrupt political system that allocates power along ethnic Rouhani said, “then we will stop feeding gas to the centrifuges.” and sectarian lines and replace it with a presidential system. Over the Naresh Jariwala*Kabul past month, at least 250 protest- ers have been killed in clashes with War crimes: Afghan paramilitary forces trained and backed by Attacking the Iranian consulate police and pro-government militias. the CIA have committed war crimes, Human Rights Watch said last week. In a 53-page report that followed a two-year investiga- tion, the group said the units carried out executions of civilians, launched bloody attacks on medical facilities, and ordered indis- criminate airstrikes—all violations of international law. The CIA said that unlike the Taliban, it conducts its operations “under a robust system of oversight.” The U.S. military provides the para- militaries with intelligence and air support, and CIA contractors and Army Rangers often patrol with them. Since President Trump loosened the rules of engagement for U.S. forces in Afghanistan two years ago, civilian deaths from airstrikes have soared, from 142 in 2016 to at least 579 so far this year. New Delhi Toxic air: Authorities in India’s capital declared a public health emergency this week as thick smog choked residents and flights were canceled because of low visibil- ity. Schools were shuttered and parents told to keep children indoors. Pollution in New Delhi is literally off the charts, with the air Into the haze quality index at the upper limit of 999; the normal range is 0 to 50. Breathing that air has the same health effect as smoking 50 cigarettes a day, said med- ical experts. “Delhi has turned into a gas chamber,” said the city’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal. Scientists say the haze is caused by a combination of harvest-time crop burning, car exhaust, smoke from Diwali fireworks, and stagnant weather conditions that have trapped those airborne pollutants over the city. Aceh, Indonesia Flogged for adultery: An Indonesian imam who helped draft ultrastrict adultery laws for the province of Aceh has been pub- licly whipped with a rattan cane for violating them. Mukhlis bin Muhammad, a 46-year-old member of the Aceh Ulema Council, was caught with a married woman in a parked car and received 28 lashes last week, while the woman got 23. He was also kicked off the council. “This is God’s law,” said Husaini Wahab, Newscom, Reuters (2), Getty the deputy mayor of Aceh Besar district. “Anyone must be flogged if proven guilty.” Aceh adopted sharia in 2005, the only province in Indonesia to do so, and the laws apply to Muslims and non- Muslims alike. Mukhlis: Receiving his punishment THE WEEK November 15, 2019

10 NEWS People Miranda’s life as a rich man Lin-Manuel Miranda has more money than he knows how to spend, said Sathnam Sanghera in The Times (U.K.). Thanks to his Broadway smash Hamilton, Miranda, 39, is estimated to earn roughly $105,000 a week in royalties as the sole author of the biographical musical about the nation’s first treasury secretary. The native Manhattanite’s initial splurge was on a family car, his first ever, and he recently bought his wife a first edition of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick for her birthday. “It’s funny—I’ve met other composers who have hits, and they all have the eccen- tricity that wealth has allowed them to have,” he says. “You know, Andrew Lloyd Webber famously has art falling off his walls, and he has a couple of theaters—I’m never going to buy a theater! You go to Stephen Sondheim’s house—he’s got puzzles; he’s a puzzle guy. Alan Menken, composer of The Little Mermaid, has a torto- rium [a heated habitat for his seven tortoises]. I’m in the market for an eccentricity.” Miranda still lives in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Washington Heights, where he grew up and which inspired his first Broadway musical, In the Heights. “I think honestly the biggest leap was the first production of In the Heights, because I went from being a substitute teacher to a Broadway com- poser,” he said. “I’ll never make a leap that big again in my life.” Naresh Jariwala* How ‘mattress girl’ changed her mind Why Knightley regrets her success Emma Sulkowicz’s mattress-carrying protest art performance at Keira Knightley was embarrassed when she became a star in Columbia University helped launch the movement against sexual Hollywood blockbusters, said Robbie Collin in The Daily Telegraph assault, said Sylvie McNamara in TheCut.com. But she’s recently (U.K.). Her parents were both members of a left-wing theater com- gone on “a political journey” that’s raising eyebrows among old pany in London, and it was always assumed that she would make progressive allies. Sulkowicz has been regularly attending parties her career on the stage. But at 17, she found herself being cast in with many of the same right-leaning journalists who mocked her the first Pirates of the Caribbean. “I remember telling my mates viral art piece, while immersing herself in the conservative National that I was doing a film based on a Disney theme-park ride,” Knight- Review and books by traditional-masculinity guru Jordan Peterson. ley, now 34, remembers. “They laughed and said, ‘Well, that’s your Sulkowicz says she’s still an advocate for sexual assault survivors career over then!’” The film led to a series of roles in highly success- but now believes she became “a figurehead for something I didn’t ful films, and an Oscar nomination. But Knightley’s global celebrity really understand” and is exploring conservative thought. “I wasn’t came at a heavy price, as she was stalked by paparazzi. “The value interested in listening to other points of view,” Sulkowicz says. “I of photographs of any famous young women at the time went up think I got to a point where I was literally just straight up hating if they were of a very negative nature,” she says, referring to the men.” Her journey started when she met a man on the dating app frenzy around Britney Spears. The paparazzi tried to provoke her Tinder who turned out to be an archconservative. At first, she was into fits of anger—and one even tried to run her off the road. “I disgusted, but later found that “he was actually way more fun to told them I was going to kill somebody; they said they’d get more talk to than any other person I matched with.” The two are just money if I did.” Knightley now avoids the exposure that comes with friends now, but the experience made her more open-minded and big-budget pictures. “If I was presented with the script for Pirates of curious. “I’m a human,” she says, “and humans can change.” the Caribbean today, I’d be wrong to do so, but I’d probably say no.” Q President Trump cited Trump’s “divisive rhetoric,” “enabling of my addiction.” Now devoted to Christianity, Newscom, AP (2) was received warmly conspiracy theories,” and mockery of a dis- West asked colleagues not to have pre- abled reporter. Yet the celebration, attended marital sex while they worked on the album. by the cham- by more than 1,000 Nats fans, was largely “I just thank God for saving me physically, pion Washington positive. “America fell in love with Nats base- mentally, spiritually,” he said. Nationals one ball,” said Trump, who followed with a quip: week after their “That’s all they wanted to talk about—that Q The Cleveland Browns released safety fans drowned and impeachment.” Jermaine Whitehead this week after he him in boos threatened to kill hecklers following an em- at a World Series game. Addressing Nats Q Kanye West praised God last week for barrassing loss. The four-year pro returned to fans on the White House lawn, catcher Kurt helping him kick his “full-on pornography the locker room and saw Twitter users mock- Suzuki donned a red “Make America Great addiction.” Speaking about the religious ing his tackling, including getting run over Again” hat, earning a hug from a grateful transformation that inspired his new gospel- during a Denver Broncos touchdown. “Imma Trump. Ryan Zimmerman, the longtime face rap album, Jesus Is King, West said his porn kill you,” Whitehead, 26, told one fan during of the franchise, thanked Trump for making habit began when his father left out a copy his tantrum. He called two people “cracker,” the U.S. “the greatest country to live in the of Playboy when West was 5. “It’s affected including analyst Dustin Fox, and gave out world.” At least seven players were absent, almost every choice I made for the rest of my the address of the Browns’ practice facility including relief pitcher Sean Doolittle, who life,” he said. When his mother died in 2007, while daring a fan to come fight him. When West said, other people might have drowned Whitehead warned one critic, “Don’t get shot themselves in drugs. “I drowned myself in at,” the fan replied, “You’d probably miss.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019

Briefing NEWS 11 Blowing the whistle Whistleblowers who hold public servants to account are protected by law—but they often suffer consequences anyway. What’s a whistleblower? ‘The truth will rescue me.’” Assigned to It’s a government employee who reports the World Trade Center investigation, fraud, waste, crimes, or threats to public Turner noticed a Tiffany crystal globe on safety. The origin of the term is uncertain, a colleague’s desk. After finding out that but it’s probably a reference to police- FBI employees claimed it as a “souvenir” men or referees who blow whistles when from Ground Zero, Turner reported they see a crime or foul play. As far back them. The story became a national as 1778, the Founding Fathers called embarrassment for the FBI, yet rather reporting official misconduct a “duty,” than receive pats on the back, Turner commending 10 sailors and Marines for says, she was treated like a “snitch” and alerting Congress to the Navy’s abuse of later fired. Last year, four high-ranking British prisoners. But the term “whistle- officials at the Environmental Protection blower” wasn’t applied to this kind of Agency flagged rampant wasteful spend- truth telling until the 1970s. It was during ing by their administrator, Scott Pruitt, that tumultuous decade that military ana- Mark Felt: As ‘Deep Throat,’ he exposed Nixon. who paid $43,000 for a soundproof lyst Daniel Ellsberg disclosed the Pentagon phone booth for Pruitt’s office. The four Papers, which revealed the Vietnam War’s false premises. A year were reassigned, demoted, or placed on leave without pay. Naresh Jariwala* later, The Washington Post broke the Watergate scandal, thanks to leaks from “Deep Throat” (who turned out to be disgruntled FBI What about the Ukraine whistleblower? Associate Director Mark Felt). To encourage such truth tellers to In August, a CIA officer working at the White House filed an come forward, Congress passed the Whistleblower Protection Act official whistleblower complaint to the intelligence community’s of 1989, which outlined a process for federal employees to report inspector about a July 25 phone call President Trump made to misconduct and challenge retaliation they might face for doing so. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. That complaint led Despite that law, whistleblowers often pay a steep price for report- to the impeachment inquiry now underway in the House. In ing misdeeds by superiors, said Mandy Smithberger of the Project response, Trump branded the White House whistleblower a “spy,” on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan organization. “One has accused him of “treason,” and suggested he be treated the way to go in with the assumption,” she said, “that it’s career suicide.” traitors were “in the old days.” Republican defenders of the presi- dent have reportedly made an educated guess at his identity in an What safeguards exist? effort to portray him as a Democratic partisan. Under the law, the Federal law protects whistleblowers from being fired, demoted, motivations of whistleblowers are irrelevant, and many do have or reassigned as a form of punishment. But those protections are axes to grind; what matters is whether what they report is true. void if whistleblowers fail to follow protocol and file their com- plaint through official channels—generally, with a federal agency’s What if he’s identified? inspector general. Among those who did not qualify for whistle- Whistleblowers are guaranteed the right to anonymity within the blower status are Chelsea Manning, who disclosed a massive trove process, but that protection is thin. If Trump or his allies manage of military secrets to WikiLeaks in 2010; Edward Snowden, who to figure out the identity of the whistleblower, there’s no law bar- revealed the National Security Agency’s ring them from naming him publicly. global surveillance programs in 2013; There are other loopholes in the protec- and Reality Winner, who leaked a U.S. The ‘SOB’ fired by Nixon tions as well: If Trump orders that the intelligence report about Russia’s elec- A. Ernest Fitzgerald was long known as “the whistleblower be fired, the Intelligence tion interference efforts in 2017. Since patron saint of government whistleblowers,” Community Whistleblower Protection they leaked information to the media, or, alternatively, “the most hated man in the Air Act does not empower the inspector all were charged with crimes under the Force.” A financial manager in the Air Force, general to force the CIA to rehire him. 1917 Espionage Act. That law “is blind Fitzgerald appeared before Congress in 1968 In 1982, after whistleblower A. Ernest to the difference between whistleblowers to discuss the purchase of a fleet of Lockheed’s Fitzgerald sued President Richard and spies,” said Jameel Jaffer, head of C-5A transport planes. Superiors told him to Nixon for wrongful termination, the the Knight First Amendment Institute. gloss over the rising costs of the plane, but Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that presi- If indicted under the Espionage Act, an Fitzgerald did not, informing astonished legis- dents can’t be sued for monetary dam- employee in the intelligence agencies is lators the planes were running $2 billion over ages, even if they’ve broken the law. prohibited from arguing that a leak was budget. Fitzgerald said he was merely “commit- (A dissenting opinion said the court made in the public interest. ting truth.” In an Oval Office tape revealed later, had placed the president “above the President Nixon admitted he had instructed law.”) The whistleblower also won’t Where does the law fall short? an aide to “get rid of that son of a bitch.” be able to sue if he’s publicly identified Even if whistleblowers follow all proce- Fitzgerald was stripped of his duties, sent off and suffers adverse consequences, such dures, their legal protection can prove to to study cost overruns on an Air Force bowling as damage to his career or continu- be more theoretical than real. More than alley in Thailand, and finally had his position ing death threats. Trump’s threats are one-third of government whistleblowers eliminated. After three years of fighting the “absolutely shocking,” said whistle- responding to a 2010 survey said they government in court, he finally had his position blower attorney David Colapinto. “If faced threats or punishments. “I thought reinstated. That case underscored the need for the identity of the whistleblower is what all whistleblowers think,” former formalized whistleblower protections. unmasked against that person’s will, AP FBI agent Jane Turner said. “I thought, then retaliation is sure to follow.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019

12 NEWS Best columns: The U.S. How Trump New battleground-state polls “ought to deliver a bracing shock to Dem- It must be true... could win ocrats,” said Jonathan Chait. Despite national polls that show several again Democrats with big leads over President Trump, a New York Times poll I read it in the tabloids of six critical swing states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Jonathan Chait North Carolina, and Arizona—show that Trump is “highly competi- QA long-distance runner tive” there. Joe Biden leads Trump by only 2 or 3 percent in these states, who put the slogan “Jesus NYMag.com and Trump actually beats Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. That’s Saves” on his race bib right: “However broadly unpopular Trump may be, at the moment he had his life saved by a is right on the cusp of victory.” He could lose the popular vote by mil- man named Jesus. Tyler lions and still win in the Electoral College. Democrats who think they Moon was competing at a can win over working-class, swing-state voters by making a sharp turn 10-mile event in Minnesota to the left are living in “la-la land.” About 75 percent of “those who when he suffered a heart would vote for Biden over Trump, but Trump over Warren, say they attack. Fortunately, nurse would prefer a more moderate Democratic nominee to a more liberal Jesus Bueno was running one.” Yet the Democrats’ primary race has elevated the far-left Warren behind him and was able to while creating doubts about Biden, who is blocking other centrists from perform CPR until paramed- gaining traction. Democrats may yet beat Trump, but “the party should ics arrived. In the hospital, look at its position a year before the election with real fear.” Moon was stunned to learn that his rescuer was named The coming It may be hard to believe, said Walter Russell Mead, but as the U.S. con- Jesus. The message on his era of flict with China heats up, we may soon feel nostalgia for “the simpler race bib, Moon said, “is cyberwar problems of the Cold War.” The global struggle with the Soviet Union pretty fitting after everything was shaped by the possibility of mutual annihilation by nuclear-tipped that happened.” Walter Russell Mead ICBMs. “The resulting ‘balance of terror’ kept the Cold War cold.” But in the 21st century, China will bring far greater economic power to the QA pet The Wall Street Journal global competition than the Soviets did, and if serious conflict erupts, café in the weapon of choice is likely to be cyberwar. Cyberweapons “can dev- China has astate their targets, crashing power grids and transportation networks, caused paralyzing financial systems, and destroying the functionality of any- an uproar thing from hospitals to government offices.” An attack can be mounted among ani- by proxies and be hard to trace, making a counterattack more problem- mal rights atic. Neither side has much incentive to agree to cybercontrol treaties: activists Limits on information technology would be difficult if not impossible to by dyeing enforce, and both nations will have enormous economic and national- dogs black security incentives to develop ever more sophisticated digital capability. and white All that makes cyberwar a real possibility. Terrible as it was, “the Cold so they look like pandas. War took place in less dangerous times.” Candy Planet Pet Café owner Naresh Jariwala* Lu Yunning said he draws Preaching President Trump has appointed a “shameless religious grifter” as the about 70 visitors a day to the gospel White House’s adviser to faith-based groups, said Bonnie Kristian. Tele- see his six chow-chow pup- of Trump vangelist Paula White belongs to the “prosperity gospel” movement, pies, which now look like which teaches that God will reward those who demonstrate their faith pandas; for $280, he’ll dye Bonnie Kristian with worldly success, money, health, and happiness. Conveniently, this customers’ dogs the same often means sending a check to preachers like White, who’s been mar- way. “We wanted something TheWeek.com ried three times and lives in an opulent mansion. An “offering” of $75 novel,” Lu said. The animal or more, White’s website says, “WILL release you from your past and rights group PETA urged align your future for [God’s] blessing!” Prosperity gospel is a perversion travelers to avoid his shop of basic Christian teachings, in which God becomes “a divine vend- in Chengdu, saying Lu “ex- ing machine.” It also preys on the desperate and vulnerable. Polling ploits animals for a money- has shown those making $10,000 a year or less are twice as likely to grabbing gimmick.” believe in prosperity gospel than those making $35,000 to $50,000. Trump has borrowed from the same fraudulent playbook. “He prom- QA man in Nebraska tried ises his base a newly great America bristling with strong farms and reli- to open a checking account able factory jobs.” But both sectors have gone into decline as a result using a fake $1 million of his disastrous policies. White “is a perfect fit for this presidency”: bill—and then argued with Like Trump, she is a grifter who specializes in “giving desperate people bank tellers when they told false hope for personal gain.” him that it wasn’t real. The counterfeiter became indig- Viewpoint “It may be risky to impugn the worthiness of old age, but I’ll take my cane to nant when tellers refused anyone who tries to stop me. Those who feel that it’s a welcome respite from to accept the bill, grabbed it back, and walked out. the passions, anxieties, and troubles of youth or middle age are either very lucky or toweringly rea- Police are now attempting to identify the man from sonable. Yes, we should live as long as possible, barring illness and infirmity, but, when it comes to surveillance video, suspect- ing he was swindled himself the depredations of age, let’s not lose candor along with muscle tone. The goal, you could say, is to into believing the bill was Reuters real. The highest denomina- live long enough to think: I’ve lived long enough.” Arthur Krystal in The New Yorker tion of any bill ever printed by the U.S. Mint for general circulation was $10,000. THE WEEK November 15, 2019

Best columns: Europe NEWS 13 UNITED KINGDOM Abusive constituents are chasing female lawmak- convicted over threats to her family. “Politics has ers out of Parliament, said Frances Perraudin and become a hostile environment for women, in which Hounding Simon Murphy. So far, 18 women legislators— we are harassed, demeaned, and threatened,” said women out of including current and former cabinet members— Mandu Reid of the Women’s Equality Party. The Parliament have chosen not to run in next month’s election. ruling Conservative Party’s lurch to the right has They say that the Brexit debate and Prime Minister also alienated its moderate female members, while Frances Perraudin Boris Johnson’s rhetoric have created a toxic and anti-Semitism turns off moderate Labour women. and Simon Murphy dangerous work environment. One of those leaving, Women are leaving the House of Commons far Amber Rudd, who quit her post as secretary of state faster than men, typically having “spent a decade The Guardian for work and pensions in September, said Johnson’s less in Parliament than retiring male MPs.” Sarah use of terms such as “surrender” and “betrayal” Wollaston, a Conservative turned Liberal Democrat, FRANCE over Brexit could incite violence. One opposition said, “Why would you put up with all that abuse, if Labour Party lawmaker was targeted by a neo-Nazi at the same time you’re unhappy about the direction America’s who planned to kill her; another has seen six people of travel?” For many women, it’s just not worth it. foie gras fixation The country of “hormone-laced beef” and “chlo- of hormone-loaded American beef and the U.S. rinated chicken” is on a crusade against foie gras, retaliated by slapping steep tariffs on European Hélène Menal said Hélène Menal. Animal-rights groups last week goods such as foie gras and truffles. But French persuaded the New York City Council to bar the farmers do feel sympathy for Ariane Daguin. The 20minutes.fr product from stores and restaurants, claiming that daughter of a famous French chef, she relocated force-feeding geese and ducks to create an extra- to the U.S. to found gourmet food purveyor fatty liver is cruel. Farmers in Gers, the region in D’Artagnan, which sells some fine U.S.-made foie southwestern France that produces the world’s gras. And they fear that the ban is bad for the in- finest foie gras, at first reacted with befuddlement. dustry’s image. “This is a big publicity stunt for the “Fine, more for the rest of us,” said one. The ban animal lobby,” said Marie-Pierre Pé, head of the doesn’t actually affect the French at all—France foie gras producers’ association. How can France hasn’t exported foie gras to the U.S. for 20 years, fight back against the “anthropomorphism” that ever since the European Union banned the import pretends a goose is equal to a person? Naresh Jariwala* Germany: Gas pipeline leaves Ukraine in the cold Thanks to the Danes, the disastrous ensured that Nord Stream 2 will not Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline be operational until after this winter. from Russia to Germany will soon be So when Russia’s current transit con- completed, said Zbigniew Kuzmiuk in tract with Ukraine ends on Dec. 31, Poland’s WPolityce.pl. After a two-year Moscow will have to negotiate a new review process, Denmark last week ap- deal in order to fulfill its obligations proved the laying of 91 miles of pipes in to European customers. The Krem- its territorial waters—the final stage of lin wants a one-year contract, while the 765-mile-long energy project. Nord Kiev “needs a long-term contract to Stream 2, which runs under the Baltic guarantee transit revenue for the next Sea close to the existing Nord Stream 10 years.” Let the “gas war” begin. pipeline, will double the amount of Rus- sian natural gas coming into Europe by Despite Nord Stream 2’s political the northern route to 3.9 trillion cubic On board a pipe-laying ship in the Baltic Sea drawbacks, Germans had good feet a year. It will also make the Euro- reason to support it, said Konrad pean Union–bound pipelines that currently run through Ukraine, Schuller in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany). They Poland, and Slovakia virtually obsolete. If Russia stops exporting will get transit fees and jobs by having the gas flow through gas to Europe through this southern route, Ukraine alone will Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania and on to the rest of Europe. lose more than $2 billion a year in transit fees. Moscow has pre- Germany will also get crucial leverage over Russia, which needs viously used those pipelines to bully its neighbor, shutting off gas partners. If Europe doesn’t provide them, President Vladimir to Ukraine and only turning it back on when customers further Putin will turn to China, “and you lose all influence.” Still, we west complained of shortages. Now there will be nothing to stop shouldn’t downplay the dangers. Russia has already gobbled up Russia from halting the flow of gas to Ukraine at will. This proj- Ukraine’s province of Crimea, and it has been supporting a sepa- ect, wholly owned by Russia’s state energy giant Gazprom, can ratist war in eastern Ukraine for five years. Now it can escalate only threaten Europe’s “foreign and security policy.” that war “without risking the destruction of its export lines.” Reuters Ukraine doesn’t blame Denmark, said Sergey Fursa in Ukraine’s Yet Ukraine is not alone, said Isabelle Labeyrie in RadioFrance Gazeta.ua. In fact, we’re grateful. Russia would have completed .fr. The U.S. has threatened sanctions against companies in- Nord Stream 2 eventually by going around Danish waters. Had volved in building the pipeline—both Russian and European— the Danes caved earlier, or said they’d never grant approval, the and the EU is drawing up new rules that would require Russia Ukrainian pipelines would likely already be “scrap metal.” But by to transit at least some of its gas through Ukraine. The “eco- deliberately extending its dithering, “small but proud Denmark” nomic and geopolitical battle is just beginning.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019

14 NEWS Best columns: International Chile: An uprising against inequality The very foundations of Chilean soci- officers. Interior Minister Gonzalo ety are starting to crumble, said Rocío Blumel said such violence “strikes at Montes in El País (Spain). It started on the soul of our country.” Unions have Oct. 18—“a date that will go down in now joined the protests. Taxi driv- history”—when students took to the ers blocked streets in the capital last streets of Santiago to protest a 4-cent week, while a threatened strike by oil hike in the subway fare. Soon, those company workers could halt traffic demonstrations exploded into furious in the rest of the country. Already, cries against inequality and the soaring economic losses are upwards of cost of living. Scores of subway stations $2 billion. This “serious loss of pub- and government buildings were set on lic order” could lead to anarchy, said fire, and hundreds of supermarkets and La Tercera (Chile) in an editorial. businesses looted. Near-nightly riots led The “scenes of young people loudly President Sebastián Piñera to call out Police detain an anti-government protester in Santiago. insulting the military and police” and the army, a horrifying development in violating curfews are appalling in- a country that only emerged from military dictatorship in 1990. dications that “respect for authority” has been eroded. “Citizens Not every protest has been destructive—late last month, more must not lose sight of the crucial importance of the rule of law.” Naresh Jariwala* than 1 million Chileans peacefully marched through the capital Once this period of unrest is over, there will be much work to be for a rally against inequality and police brutality. But with more done in “families and schools” to “reinforce vital ideas of civic than 20 people dead, some 2,000 injured, and thousands detained life”—the most important being respect for governing institutions. after three weeks of chaos, “neither the government nor the op- position” knows how to calm the anger. The center-right Piñera But our institutions have failed our youth, said Patricio Silva replaced his cabinet and offered new social perks, including a Rojas in La Nación (Chile). Chile has the worst inequality in the 20 percent rise in pensions, but that didn’t stop the demonstra- developed world, with the richest 20 percent earning nine times tions. “There’s a malaise,” says political scientist Daniel Mansuy, more than the poorest 20 percent. The old military dictatorship “and the people don’t feel represented by anything or anyone.” cemented that divide by creating hybrid public-private education, health, and pension systems, which give the rich—who can pay There’s no letup, said F. Escobar in La Cuarta (Chile). In Santia- more—better benefits and opportunities. It’s not enough to just go’s central Plaza Baquedano, protesters last week hurled Molotov “condemn criminality”; we must take these protests as a clarion cocktails at the police, severely burning the faces of two women call to build a more just society. We need “a new social pact.” AUSTRALIA Tourism Australia has unveiled a new campaign clichéd, and groan-inducing,” why not go all out? “founded on the lamest of puns,” said Charles Let’s watch Dame Edna Everage, that purple-haired Still selling Purcell. “Australia: Come Live Our Philausophy.” drag persona of comedian Barry Humphries, a Crocodile Set aside the fact that the awkward portmanteau “skydive onto Rottnest Island before taking a Dundee cliché can’t be translated into other languages. The pro- selfie with a quokka.” How about getting TV chef motional videos and posters use hackneyed images Kylie Kwong to “prepare cordon bleu meals using Charles Purcell and slogans to showcase our laid-back lifestyle, Vegemite as the main ingredient”? Former rugby such as “Shoes optional,” and “A stranger is a star Nick “The Honey Badger” Cummins—the The Age mate you haven’t met yet.” The tourism board is quintessential Aussie bloke who was last year’s fea- trying to replicate the wildly successful campaign tured hunk on The Bachelor Australia—could lead INDIA from the 1980s that featured Paul Hogan—star of tour buses through our cities, dropping bon mots Crocodile Dundee—g’daying his heart out as he such as “tough as woodpecker lips.” And we can’t Foreigners told Americans he’d throw “another shrimp on the disappoint the tourists once they arrive: We’ll all invited, but barbie” for them. Fine. If we’re going to be “crass, have to become living stereotypes. not Indians Our government’s decision to invite an inter- visit “eroded rather than enhanced” the credibility Reuters Editorial national delegation into Kashmir has backfired of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nation- spectacularly, said The Hindu. The Indian part of alist government. The European politicians were The Hindu the mostly Muslim region—divided for decades all from right-wing, anti-immigrant parties, making between Pakistani and Indian control—has been on it look as if they’d been chosen for their presumed THE WEEK November 15, 2019 lockdown since August, when New Delhi revoked hostility to Muslims. By their own admission, they its autonomy and split it into two territories run were given little access to Kashmiri locals. And at directly by federal authorities. Internet and cell- least one European lawmaker—Nicolaus Fest of phone services were shut down for months, and the Alternative for Germany party—said it was thousands of Kashmiri political leaders, journalists, unfair of New Delhi to bar Indian opposition and activists are still being held in detention. So the politicians from visiting Kashmir to assess the situ- invitation to more than 20 members of the Euro- ation on the ground. Rather than staging “heavily pean Parliament should have been a “positive step” scripted photo opportunities,” Modi should work to “pave the way for more openness.” Instead, the on improving the “grim” conditions for Kashmiris.

Technology NEWS 15 Entertainment: Apple gets in the director’s chair Apple is trying “to buy its way into the worst of the lot; “there’s an extra Hollywood,” said Lucas Shaw and sense of sadness watching a TV series Mark Gurman in Bloomberg Business- that so spectacularly wastes a cast as week. The iPhone maker long resisted talented as the one on The Morning “the messy business of producing Show.” But the unfunny anachro- movies and TV shows.” But as “the nisms of Dickinson, a teen comedy rise of Netflix and Spotify” coincided about Emily Dickinson, gives it a run with declines in iPhone sales, Apple’s for its money, unless you “relish the strategy shifted. It hired two television chaos of twerking in long dresses.” executives, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, to essentially build a stu- Look, “no shows are easy,” said Josef dio from scratch. To do that, it’s letting Adalian in NYMag.com. Yes, Apple them spend extraordinary amounts is taking lumps for The Morning on content—including $250 million The dystopic drama See is part of Apple’s initial lineup. Show. There’s been plenty of nega- on just one drama, The Morning tive gossip about Apple from Holly- Show, starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. It’s wood, because let’s face it, “many in Hollywood are wary of also funding projects from NBA star Kevin Durant, director their new corporate masters.” Netflix, Amazon, and the newly Naresh Jariwala* M. Night Shymalan, and Oprah Winfrey. “Apple’s enormous AT&T-owned HBO have already blown up a lot of the business. size, $100 billion cash hoard, and fat profit margins,” allow it to Now one more giant company is jumping in, “So, of course, charge less for all this than competitors can, said Tripp Mickle some in the town are viewing Apple with suspicion.” Despite and Joe Flint in The Wall Street Journal—the new Apple TV+, the reviews, The Morning Show may still wind up as one of the which debuted last week, costs subscribers only $4.99 a month. most-watched shows of the year. “The company has seen its And with a new iPhone, iPad, or Mac, it’s free for a year. major media moves questioned before, only to end up proving skeptics wrong.” In the long term, what Apple is trying to do is “The new streaming service opens with just nine TV shows and keep consumers loyal to its whole ecosystem—music, books, the films,” said Kelly Lawler in USA Today—and even worse, the TV app, and more. And Apple is in a strong position to do that. few shows it’s offering “have the uniting factor of being rather Says one network exec, “Would I rather be at Apple than ABC? bland and generic.” The most expensive and anticipated one is One hundred times out of 100.” Innovation of the week Bytes: What’s new in tech Apple TV+ As board Giuliani’s cybersecurity fumble their Saturday night at home” with friends. games But by withdrawing from social media, they have Rudy Giuliani went to an Apple store to also “lose opportunities to make important made a unlock his phone less than a month after he social connections.” Programs that treat teens come- was named President Trump’s cybersecurity for anxiety and depression are working with back, adviser, said Rich Schapiro in NBCNews.com. kids on initiating text messages, speaking up in closets Giuliani sought out the Apple store in down- group chats, posting selfies, and leaving com- have town San Francisco in 2017 after “he had for- ments, and also helping teens cope with “the been gotten the passcode” to his iPhone “and en- dread of being left ‘on read,’ when someone filling tered the wrong one at least 10 times.” While has clearly read your text but not answered.” up with stacks of boards. Now one it’s a headache well known to many people, company wants to replace them experts say Giuliani’s handling of the situation Google joins the wearables race with a digital tabletop console, said “calls into question his understanding of basic James Holloway in NewAtlas.com. security measures” and shows that a member Google agreed to buy the fitness-tracking The company, appropriately named of “the president’s inner circle” is easy prey company Fitbit, bolstering its hardware busi- Last Gameboard, is raising funds for hackers. To gain access, an Apple em- ness and filling a gap in its product lineup of for a device that combines “the ployee had to erase the phone and set it up smartphones, laptops, and smart speakers, said social and tactile aspects of board again as new. Said E.J. Hilbert, a former FBI Gerrit De Vynck in Bloomberg.com. Google gaming with some of the added cybersecurity professional, “There’s no way he already “provides a wearable operating system benefits of video games.” The should be going to a commercial location to called Wear OS for other companies to use” 15.6-by-15.6-inch multitouch LCD ask for that assistance.” but did not have a smartwatch of its own. screen can read data and interact Fitbit, meanwhile, has sold 100 million devices with real physical pieces through Social media help for teens but “has been struggling to compete with embedded radio-frequency identi- Apple and others in the smartwatch market.” fication tags. The console can also, “Psychologists have a new directive for That’s why Google was able to scoop it up it “via a network connection, allow anxious teens: Post selfies on Instagram and for $2.1 billion, just over half its valuation in gamers to play against each other Snapchat,” said Andrea Petersen in The Wall 2015. “The deal is sure to attract regulatory at different locations.” Eventually, Street Journal. Kids with anxiety disorders scrutiny,” however, particularly regarding how Last Gameboard hopes to become a often “worry excessively about posting the Google plans to use the data that 27 million platform for trying out games, with ‘right’ picture or comment, count the number active Fitbit users have shared. “its own dedicated games library.” of likes on their posts, or negatively compare THE WEEK November 15, 2019

16 NEWS Talking points Noted Obama: Scolding the ‘cancel culture’ Left Q The Department of Young people should heed “bigoted or backward” views. We’re not the Health and Human Ser- vices says it is ending an Barack Obama’s warnings bullies; “we’re trying to push back against the Obama-era rule prohibit- ing organizations receiv- about “militant wokeness,” bullies.” Hashtag campaigns like #BlackLives ing federal grants from discriminating on the basis said John Daniel Davidson Matter and #MeToo are really no different from of sexual orientation and gender. The rule change, in TheFederalist.com. In a the “picket signs and petitions” used by previous affecting organizations collectively receiving about speech at his foundation last generations. It’s disappointing to see Obama so $500 billion annually in grant money, will enable week, Obama admonished worked up over this, said Jacob Bacharach any faith-based organiza- tion to refuse to hire gay young activists for thinking the in TheOutline.com, but “not surpris- or transgender people or to work with people who way to create change “is to be ing.” Naïve confidence that he don’t share its religion. as judgmental as possible could kill political opponents The Wall Street Journal about other people” and with kindness crippled his pres- Q The number of Ameri- cans who donated to char- to call them out on social idency, yet Obama still clings ity fell from 66 percent in 2000 to 53 percent in 2016. media. In an ambigu- to the fantasy that progres- Researchers attributed that sharp drop, which became ous world, the former sives would achieve more much steeper after the Great Recession in 2008, president said, denounc- if only they were more to economic insecurity and declining affiliation with ing both adversaries and courteous. organized religion. insufficiently woke allies ‘Casting stones,’ said Obama, won’t create change. The real victims of cancel MarketWatch.com is a mistake. “If all you’re Naresh Jariwala* Q Nearly 40 percent of doing is casting stones,” Obama said, “you’re culture are not powerful bullies, said Jonathan American farm income in 2019 will come from the probably not going to get that far.” Obama is Zimmerman in The Philadelphia Inquirer. All federal government. Farm- ers will collect $33 billion right, said Chris Cillizza in CNN.com, but you of us are now prisoners of a culture in which “a in aid, including payments to offset China’s retaliatory have to wonder if perpetually outraged “cancel single errant phrase can render you a pariah.” tariffs in the ongoing trade war. The farm bailout will culture acolytes” are listening. For them, there A 2018 survey found that 54 percent of college cost more than double the 2009 auto bailout. are only good people “who agree with me on students think it’s dangerous to share unpopular Axios.com all things,” and bad people who must be fired, opinions—for good reason. Take Andi Moritz, a Q President Trump’s re- shamed, and shunned. Bryn Mawr freshman in 2016 who made the mis- election campaign has held at least 15 contests offering take of asking on Facebook if other students were supporters the chance to win “VIP travel” and “an Obama sounds like a cranky Boomer to me, said going to a nearby Trump rally. She was cyber- epic meal” with Trump in exchange for a donation. Ernest Owens in The New York Times. What bullied into dropping out of college—“in other But the campaign hasn’t announced any winners, people of Obama’s generation so blithely dismiss words, she was canceled.” That’s just wrong. and wouldn’t respond to requests to prove the as “cancel culture” are young people who are “The only thing that will keep cancel culture meals had occurred. objecting to being marginalized by people with going is for the rest of us to keep quiet about it.” Popular.info Medicare for All: Warren’s plan to pay for it THE WEEK November 15, 2019 Elizabeth Warren thinks that she can pay for even though the Congressional Budget Office Getty, AP Medicare for All without having to “soak the estimates increased IRS enforcement would only middle class,” said Russell Berman in TheAtlantic raise $35 billion. In an insult to our intelligence, .com. Under pressure to explain how she would Warren insists that her magical plan will insure all fund universal health care without raising taxes for 330 million Americans by raising taxes only on ordinary Americans, the Democratic presidential billionaires, said Noah Rothman in Commentary candidate has released a detailed plan that lays Magazine.com. “If you believe that 607 Ameri- the burden on corporations and the wealthy. War- cans alone can finance this package, Warren also ren’s plan calls for $20.5 trillion in new spending has a Green New Deal to sell you.” over the next 10 years to replace almost all private health insurance with a government-run, single- “Warren’s plan is a campaign prop first, and payer system in which consumers would have no a policy document second,” said Eric Levitz premiums, no deductibles, and no co-payments. To in NYMag.com. Her aim is “to neutralize the pay for it, Warren would impose an array of new ‘middle-class tax hike’ talking point” and dare taxes, including a 6 percent tax on assets above the naysayers to come up with a better idea for $1 billion, a tax on financial transactions, and a providing universal coverage, which should be the levy that transfers what employers now spend on ultimate goal. Warren’s plan is politically clever, health insurance to the government. said Ross Douthat in The New York Times, but she’s still trapped. Her earlier plans for universal Warren “may as well have said Mexico is going child care and taking on corporate monopolies to pay” for Medicare for All, said Philip Klein in are popular. She adopted Medicare for All only WashingtonExaminer.com. Warren’s plan falls because it became a liberal litmus test, but the far short of the $34 trillion that the liberal Urban “potent fear” 150 million Americans have of los- Institute has estimated a plan like hers would ing their existing health insurance probably makes cost, which she papers over with $7 trillion in it a big liability no matter what. “No sane Demo- “phantom savings.” For instance, she proposes crat should want it as the centerpiece of their to raise $2.3 trillion by going after tax dodgers, national campaign.”

Talking points NEWS 17 Trump: Officially a ‘Florida Man’ Wit & Wisdom “Donald Trump and York City’s is nearly “At first we want life to New York City used 4. Florida has no state be romantic; later, to to be a perfect match,” or local income taxes, be bearable; finally, to be understandable.” said Stephen Collinson and no estate taxes Poet Louise Bogan, quoted in in CNN.com. “Both either. There’s a politi- The New Yorker were brash, outspoken, cal advantage, too, said “Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in greenback-worshipping Errol Louis in CNN looking outward together tabloid icons obsessed .com. Florida is “a true in the same direction.” with building taller, swing state.” Trump Writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, quoted in shinier skyscrapers.” No carried its 29 electoral HarpersBazaar.com longer. The president votes in 2016 “by a “Curiosity is the one thing has officially registered slim 1.2 percent mar- invincible in Nature.” the Mar-a-Lago Club Mar-a-Lago: Is there an early-bird special? gin.” Barack Obama Explorer and writer Freya in Palm Beach, Fla., as won it in 2008 and Stark, quoted in National his primary domicile rather than Trump Tower 2012. By designating Florida as his home, Trump Geographic Traveler in Manhattan. A source said Trump was mov- may gain a slim, yet decisive, edge. “Happiness is a way station between too much ing “for tax purposes,” while a miffed Trump and too little.” attributed his decision to having “been treated Trump was “never a New Yorker” anyway, said Naresh Jariwala* Playwright Channing very badly by the political leaders of both the Peter Mehlman in TheAtlantic.com. The Queens Pollock, quoted in the city and the state,” who’ve sought his tax returns boy born with a silver spoon in his mouth “prob- Associated Press and investigated his business. It might just be that ably never waited in line for a movie,” rode the “One need not be a chamber to be haunted. Trump has recognized he’s become “a conserva- subway, or “felt the thrill of beating everyone to One need not be a house. The brain has corridors tive skunk in a liberal town.” a cab in the rain.” Wealth insulated him from the surpassing material place.” city’s glorious tumult. “He lived in the greatest Poet Emily Dickinson, quoted in AL.com Trump surely didn’t become the most famous city in the world and missed out on everything”— “The spirit of liberty is “Florida Man” of all to get more sunshine, said and now he will live the same sheltered existence the spirit that is not too Elliot Hannon in Slate.com. His “perma-tan is in Florida. He’ll “hole up at Mar-a-Lago” and sure it is right.” impervious to cloudy weather, though rain may never rush to catch an early-bird special or sit Judge Learned Hand, quoted in The Wall Street Journal be another matter.” No, the president relocated around the pool, bragging about his grandkids. In “I want my children for the same reason that thousands of other New the unlikely event he does venture out in public, to have all the things I couldn’t afford.Then I want Yorkers go south: to dodge taxes. New York’s he’ll run into hordes of ex–New Yorkers. They’ll to move in with them.” top state tax rate is nearly 9 percent, and New be sure to tell him what they think of him. Actress and comedian Phyllis Diller, quoted in Parade.com Social media: Should political ads be banned? Poll watch Getty Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s decision to ban politi- in a recent TV ad? Does Trump’s total include cal advertising on his platform is “one small step jobs lost because of his policies? As for banning Q46% of Americans think by @jack, one giant leap for tweetkind,” said political ads outright, how does Facebook define that President Trump Kara Swisher in The New York Times. Social “political”? Is an ExxonMobil ad political? deliberately withheld U.S. media has become a “cesspool” of lies leveraged What about one from a liberal citizens’ group military aid to Ukraine to by dishonest politicians and foreign intelligence urging people to vote? And there’s the money to pressure that country to services to manipulate and polarize the U.S. elec- consider, said Laura Forman in The Wall Street investigate his political torate, as Russia did during the 2016 presidential Journal. Zuckerberg claims that “ads from politi- rival Joe Biden. 31% do campaign. Dorsey acknowledged that paid ads on cians” will represent only 0.5 percent of total not think Trump withheld social media can rapidly microtarget misleading revenue in 2020, equating to about $423 million. aid for that reason, and information to voters on a massive scale—a pow- But ads from politicians comprise only a slice of 24% aren’t sure. If it’s erful tool that “today’s democratic infrastructure the $2.8 billion in expected U.S. digital political proven that Trump did may not be prepared to handle.” So rather than ad spending next year. No CEO wants to turn engage in a quid pro quo, try to police these paid messages, he’s banning down that kind of revenue. 47% say it’s an impeach- them from his site. It was “a bold and epic poke” able offense, while 31% at Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who on the Twitter’s ad ban “is already a mess,” said Will say it’s not. same day said he’d continue to accept paid politi- Oremus in OneZero.Medium.com. Along with cal ads even if they contained outright lies. campaign ads, the company says it will prohibit The Economist/YouGov “issue ads” pertaining to politicized topics like Actually, Facebook’s position is “not unreason- climate change, taxes, health care, immigration, THE WEEK November 15, 2019 able,” said Siva Vaidhyanathan, also in The New and national security. But what about ads selling York Times. It would be impossible for a global SUVs, beef, or “single-family homes in sprawl- platform with 2.8 billion users “posting in more ing suburban neighborhoods?” Those, too, have than 100 languages” to police the truth of politi- political import. In the end, Twitter’s ban will cal ads, whose claims are inherently subjective. Is actually tilt the playing field in favor of “capital- it true or false that President Trump has created ism and consumerism,” and against liberal activ- 500,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs, as he claimed ists challenging the status quo.

THE WEEK | SPECIAL REPORT: VETERANS civilian life. Some have recruiters who are veterans themselves; in one survey, 64 per- cent of vets said that meeting a recruiter who was also a veteran was a key consider- ation in choosing an employer. Major com- panies such as Southwest Airlines, consult- ing firm Booz Allen Hamilton, Walgreens, Boeing, and The Home Depot now have specific policies and initiatives in place for hiring veterans, and onboarding programs to help them navigate corporate life. Many of these companies place a premium on the worldview the military helps nurture and have a workplace culture that, as one major company’s military recruiter puts it, “aligns with the military’s core values.” Are there high-level opportunities? For sure, though it may take going back to Both government school for, say, a graduate degree such as an and industry prize MBA or further training in a field like user experience. Veterans in “high demand” are military values. Naresh Jariwala* Veterans: Good for business 72 percent more likely to have completed How to turn your military experience into a an MBA. For those with the right background, there are significant fulfilling civilian career career opportunities in IT. Corporate chief information officer, Will my military skills translate to civilian life? with a median salary of $167,200, is a particularly veteran-heavy Yes, very much so. Veterans have been trained to be both excellent team players and strong leaders. Many vets leave the military with position, according to CNN.com. “There is a reason why people strong technical skills useful in the civilian life, plus an unmatched ability to work under pressure. Think of your military skills as use the expression ‘military-grade technology,’” military recruiter civilian skills, with the added bonus of being able to work under tight time constraints in rapidly changing situations. “I was in Nick Swaggert told CNN. Managers who advise sales teams on charge of 25 to 50 personnel, and we provided internet for the Army,” Marquel Walker, now a civilian IT manager, told the career government contracts are also in high demand, especially if they site TheMuse.com. “We would go to a base or any kind of new infrastructure—say, in the middle of the woods—and I would come have 20 years of military contacts. Top-ranking service members up with planning and procedures.” Managers say the “soft skills” that veterans also bring, such as integrity and attention to detail, are are also finding success on corporate boards, thanks to the National just as important as technical abilities, and many managers say these skills are especially difficult to find among their applicants. Association of Corporate Directors’ Battlefield to Boardroom pro- How do I explain what I did in the military? gram. To date, the association has helped more than 200 retired First, familiarize yourself with corporate terminology. HR profes- admirals and generals attain board positions in private and public sionals, many of whom are unfamiliar with the military, often strug- gle to understand the roles and responsibilities service members hold companies across the United States. during their careers. And even if HR reps think they know some- thing about being, say, a first sergeant, they still may not be able to What about starting my own company? identify a parallel position in their own workplace. To help yourself get ahead, learn to “civilianize” your language so that you can There’s a long tradition of military veterans building powerful civil- clearly explain your role in terms that people looking to hire you ian technology companies; Hewlett Packard founder Bill Hewlett can easily understand. That includes writing your résumé in a way worked in electronics as an Army officer. In recent years, a number that’s consistent with what companies are used to seeing. Refer to of organizations have sprung up to help veterans create startups. your “platoon” as your “team.” If you’re a medic, consider “health- Bunker Labs is an incubator that offers new veteran-owned busi- care specialist.” For help matching your military expertise to civilian nesses a free accelerator program, co-working space, mentorships, jobs, check out Military.com’s useful Military Skills Translator. and pitch events. Headquartered in Chicago, with 27 chapters around the country, it’s helped more than 370 startups, such as What kinds of companies tend to hire vets? Philly Esports, a creator of video-gaming tournaments. Often Bunker Labs turns for help to other veterans; “It’s the most power- Veterans are in demand across a range of industries—information ful alumni group in the country,” Bunker Labs CEO Todd Connor technology, health care and pharmaceuticals, financial services, told Fast Company. engineering, and manufacturing. Within those industries some com- panies have especially well-developed pipelines for transition into How do I begin the transition? Newscom The Defense Department’s mandatory Transition Assistance Program will help you get started, but you’ll need to do a fair amount of legwork on your own. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce runs a program called Hiring Our Heroes that’s definitely worth using. It offers a 12-week corporate fellowship program that provides ser- vice members professional training and on-the-job experience with veteran-friendly companies. Start networking—reach out to people in your desired career and ask if they’d be willing to meet for an informational interview. Even if their company doesn’t have a job available, they can provide important information and possibly fur- ther connections. If you are considering a federal job, the Feds Hire Vets site is a good place to turn to for resources to start your search. 18 | THE WEEK November 15, 2019

Naresh Jariwala*

20 NEWS Health & Science Globalcities could be wiped out by rising seas Rising seas will leave some of the world’s est prediction, southern Vietnam would Tidal flooding in Mumbai: It could get worse. great cities uninhabitable by 2050 and all but disappear into the sea. Mumbai, affect three times more people than pre- India’s financial capital and home to spot as to the degree of danger,” study viously thought, a new study has found. some 20 million people, and Shanghai, co-author Benjamin Strauss tells The Researchers at U.S. science organization one of the world’s economic engines, Washington Post, “and that’s what we’ve Climate Central say that unless carbon could be wiped out. The reason behind been striving to improve.” emissions are significantly cut, land areas the sharp upward revision is that previ- where 150 million people now live will be ous research used data from satellites below the high-tide mark by the middle not equipped to differentiate between of the century. And if climate change and the actual ground level and the tops of sea level rise accelerate, up to 340 mil- trees and buildings, so land elevation lion people could be threatened by tidal estimates worldwide were off by about flooding at least once a year—more than 6½ feet. The new research used artificial triple previous estimates. Asia would be intelligence to compensate for those hit especially hard. Under the more mod- misreadings. “We’ve had a huge blind Our ancestors’ wetland home is now salt flats.Naresh Jariwala* began experiencing strange symptoms after merely passengers in remote-controlled cars taking antibiotics in 2011. He became had lower levels of the hormone, suggest- Cradle of humanity found? Getty, Alamy, University of Richmonddepressed and suffered memory loss; on one ing that it was the learning and driving that occasion, despite not having drunk a drop, they enjoyed. The research may sound like Researchers claim to have traced the “home- he was pulled over by police and found to a stunt, but it’s part of a wider exploration land” of modern humanity to Botswana. have a blood alcohol level 2.5 times the of how complex tasks such as driving affect “We have known for a long time that mod- legal limit. Eventually, researchers con- the brain, with the ultimate aim of devising ern humans originated in Africa,” senior cluded he had auto-brewery syndrome, better treatments for depression and anxi- author Vanessa Hayes, from the Garvan which occurs when fungi or bacteria in ety. The rat brain “is an appropriate model Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, the gut convert carbohydrates from food for the human brain, since it has all the tells The Guardian. “What we hadn’t into ethanol. The condition usually affects same areas and neurochemicals,” co-author known until this study was where exactly.” people with diabetes, obesity, or Crohn’s Kelly Lambert tells NBCNews.com, “just Hayes’ team based their conclusion on an disease, but can occur in otherwise healthy smaller, of course.” analysis of 1,217 samples of mitochondrial people. “These patients have the exact DNA from people living in southern Africa same implications of alcoholism: the smell, Health scare of the week today, along with geological, archaeological, the breath, drowsiness, gait changes,” lead Trans fats and dementia and fossil evidence. They posit that about author Fahad Malik, from the University of 200,000 years ago, our ancestors settled Alabama, tells CNN.com. “The only dif- Researchers have known for years about near a huge lake system—now sprawling ference here is [they] can be treated by anti- the link between trans-fatty acids and heart salt flats—in northern Botswana that was fungal medications.” Malik and his team disease, stroke, and diabetes. Now they’ve starting to break apart. That would have believe the man’s antibiotics likely changed found that high levels of trans fats are created a vast wetland brimming with life. his gut biome, allowing fungi to grow in the also tied to a heightened risk of dementia, After 70,000 years, changes in rainfall gastrointestinal tract. Following treatment, reports The New York Times. Cheap, indus- opened up corridors of vegetation in the he is now symptom-free. trially produced trans fats are used as taste surrounding desert, enabling humans to and texture enhancers in many processed migrate, first to the northeast and later to Rats behind the wheel foods, including margarine, cakes, and the southwest. The analysis has been criti- frozen pizzas. To examine this glop’s con- cized by some geneticists. They say mito- Scientists have taught rats how to drive— nection to dementia, researchers in Japan chondrial DNA cannot be used to pinpoint an experiment that could improve our followed 1,628 men and women, all age 60 geographical origins in this way, and that understanding of mental illness in humans. or older and with no sign of the disease, for lineages in other regions should have been A team at the University of Richmond in 10 years. They measured the participants’ included in the study. Virginia created makeshift ratmobiles by blood levels of the most common trans fat, fitting plastic containers onto electrified sets elaidic acid, and analyzed their diets. After An in-body brewery of wheels. The rats steered the vehicles by controlling for factors such as high blood touching different parts of a copper wire, pressure and diabetes, the researchers found A North Carolina man has been diagnosed and were rewarded with Froot Loops when that the quarter of the group with the high- with a rare condition that causes his body they drove forward. est levels of trans fats were 50 percent more to brew alcohol. The unnamed man, 46, After months of train- ing, the rats became likely to develop dementia than the relatively adept driv- quarter with the lowest. Senior ers and seemed to enjoy the experience: author Toshiharu Ninomiya, Tests of their feces from Kyushu University, says showed increased the observational study cannot levels of a hormone prove cause and effect. But he that combats stress. adds that given what we know Notably, rats that were about trans fats, “it would be better to try to avoid them as much as possible.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019

Pick of the week’s cartoons NEWS 21 Naresh Jariwala* For more political cartoons, visit: www.theweek.com/cartoons. THE WEEK November 15, 2019

22 ARTS Review of reviews: Books Book of the week Warren and Sanders: Flag bearers for the cause possible light. You wouldn’t know that when reading some mainstream coverage of The Triumph of Injustice: established fact, said Robert VerBruggen in the authors’ findings, said Tyler Cowen in How the Rich Dodge Taxes NationalReview.com. Within days of their MarginalRevolution.com. “I hope The New and How to Make Them Pay book’s publication, “the debunking came York Times is properly upset at being ‘had.’” from everywhere.” Even Jason Furman, the by Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman former head of President Obama’s Council The critics miss the larger picture, said of Economic Affairs, questioned how Saez Edward Hadas in Reuters.com. By taking (Norton, $28) and Zucman could justify not counting as into account such factors as sales taxes income the federal aid that poor families and payroll taxes, Saez and Zucman show The rich really are paying less than their receive in tax credits and food stamps. that the progressive tax system of our fair share, said David Leonhardt in The Though anyone attempting to quantify how nation’s midcentury boom years has been New York Times. In the “most important income and tax burdens are distributed has entirely leveled, so that almost all working book on government policy that I’ve read to make assumptions open to debate, Saez Americans—except the lucky billionaires— in a long time,” economists Emmanuel Saez and Zucman made choices at every step of pay roughly 28 percent of their income and Gabriel Zucman offer shocking find- the way that cast billionaires in the worst toward taxes. That’s entirely at odds with ings based on their analysis of decades of Naresh Jariwala* what Americans considered just in the tax data. Per their calculations, America’s 1950s, and whatever can be argued about wealthiest 400 households now pay an over- the numbers at the margins, “the situation all tax rate of just 23 percent—less than the will only reverse when the public mood middle class, the working class, or virtually shifts again.” Some of the authors’ pro- any other income group in the country. If posed remedies—such as an international you want to know where Elizabeth Warren treaty to ban tax havens—are sensible, said and Bernie Sanders got their ideas about Steven Pearlstein in The Washington Post. inaugurating a wealth tax on billionaires, But their proposed 75 percent top income look no further. Both Democratic presiden- tax rate and 3 percent wealth tax would tial candidates tapped Saez and Zucman to be politically and economically damaging. help shape their campaign proposals. “This is the rhetoric of class war that most Americans don’t want.” But don’t accept the authors’ findings as Novel of the week The Beautiful Ones burst out of their sockets with impatience” Getty as they awaited the first words from the The Man Who Saw Everything by Prince (Spiegel & Grau, $30) Purple One himself. We then get 20 pages, accompanied by reproductions of his hard- by Deborah Levy (Bloomsbury, $26) As a window on its to-decipher handwritten text, that describe enigmatic author, growing up in 1960s and ’70s Minneapolis. Deborah Levy’s eighth novel “confirms Prince’s posthumous Mostly, he talks about his parents, two her rare, and ever more relevant, vision,” memoir “may not stylish, strong-willed people whose divorce said Rachel Donadio in The Atlantic. satisfy fans’ wildest sent preteen Prince Rogers Nelson shuttling Levy often tells stories about characters dreams,” said Jem between various households. But there the navigating life in history’s shadow, and Aswad in Variety. narrative stops—and the hundreds of pages here, in her “most stylistically complex But “it delivers much, of sundries that follow, while “charming,” novel yet,” she toggles between decades much more than don’t rate as memoir. By the end, a reader while following Saul Adler, a historian we had any right has to wonder whether the book repre- whom we meet in 1988 at the moment to expect.” Three sents, “despite its best intentions, a col- he’s knocked down by a car on London’s months before his lection of mostly white publishing people Abbey Road, just before his girlfriend April 2016 death from an overdose, Prince ending up in control of part of this black dumps him for being too vain. Though began working with Paris Review editor artist’s legacy.” Saul moves on, Levy begins hinting Dan Piepenbring on what he hoped would that his mind has been rattled by the be the biggest music book ever written— The Beautiful Ones “does manage to pierce incident, said Fernanda Eberstadt in The a work so powerful it might end racism in through some of the mystery Prince pur- New York Times. His subsequent stay America. Because he had time to write only posefully cultivated around himself,” said in East Berlin, where he sleeps with his two dozen pages, The Beautiful Ones is Tanya Ballard Brown in NPR.org. Drafts translator’s sister, is punctuated by odd not that book. But by combining personal of the songs “1999” and “Kiss” offer clues visions of the future. Later, in 2016, the snapshots, lyric sheets, transcripts of con- to his writing process, and Piepenbring’s very same car strikes Saul at the same versations, and Piepenbring’s musings, it account of their conversations shows spot, leaving him near death and with an proves so revealing that “it’s hard to imag- that Prince dreamed of ways to empower even shakier hold on reality. Levy, “one ine anyone being disappointed.” African-Americans economically and of the most intellectually exciting writers politically. Better yet, we see a refreshingly in Britain today,” offers few clues on how Don’t expect more than “a very fine scrap- human side of him. “Prince maybe wasn’t a to read Saul’s experience, except a the- book,” said Carl Wilson in Slate.com. By tortured artist in those early days, as I had matic one. “Yes, Saul sees everything— the end of Piepenbring’s whopping 43-page imagined. It looked like he had a ball.” in part because he’s seen it all before— introduction, “my eyeballs were ready to but he understands nothing.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019

Naresh Jariwala*

Naresh Jariwala*

The Book List ARTS 23 Best books...chosen by Gene Weingarten Author of the week Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post is the only person to twice win the Pulitzer Timothy Egan Prize for feature writing. His new book, One Day, finds the extraordinary in the ordinary by chronicling the events of a single date picked from a hat: Dec. 28, 1986 It takes stamina to chase answers to life’s big questions, The People v. Clarence Darrow by Geoffrey escapees to get their story out to the world. said Tom Keogh in Crosscut Cowan (1993). My grandfather once was co- Warning: Some of your assumptions about .com. Timothy Egan found counsel to Darrow in a murder trial. Grandpa sel- Franklin Roosevelt may be challenged. that out two years ago, when dom talked about the case or his famous mentor, in a moment of spiritual crisis and this magnificent book suggests why. Darrow Low on the War by David Low (1941). he decided to trek 1,200 miles was a brilliant defender of civil liberties, a sup- Cartoonist David Low was well known in his by foot from Canterbury, porter of labor unions, a fierce opponent of tyr- day. His early wartime work, compiled here, was anny. As this book establishes, he also happened powerful, prescient, and blistering. After Hitler England, to be a deeply dishonest man, willing to break and Stalin invaded Poland as part of a cynical to Rome. laws and betray friends to burnish his image. pact between men who despised each other, Faithful Cath- Low has them cordially meeting, Stanley and olics have Burr by Gore Vidal (1973). A riveting histori- Livingstone–style, over the body of a dead Polish traversed the cal novel about America’s most notorious man, soldier. “The scum of the Earth, I believe?” says same route, Burr opens with Vidal’s brief obituary of the Hitler. “The bloody assassin of the workers, I known as the country’s third vice president: a compendium of presume?” says Stalin. Via Franci- jaw-dropping ambitions and achievements and gena, since predations and outrages. From that moment, it is Rise to Greatness by David Von Drehle (2012). the Middle Ages, and Egan, an a book you cannot abandon. Also, it has a mar- By all means, read Doris Kearns Goodwin’s extra- author and journalist, chose velous snap ending. I love snap endings. ordinary Team of Rivals. But you already knew to follow their example, to about that Lincoln book. This one you may have sort out, at 62, his conflict- 1944 by Jay Winik (2015). Winik is a serious missed. It’s an elegant account of the events of ing feelings about the church historian whose books read like thrillers. His 1862, the year the republic was in its greatest peril, he’d been raised in. He had magical collision of style and substance works and of how our greatest president made some of cause for doubts: His mother beautifully here. 1944 focuses on World War II’s the wisest decisions ever made by any leader. had just confessed her own most critical year, following, among other things, reservations on her deathbed; the desperate efforts of two concentration-camp The Mueller Report (2019). Sorry, but you another family member was really need to read this before the next election. once sexually abused by a Naresh Jariwala* priest. But he wanted to enter- Also of interest...in forgotten women tain the claims of faith on his walk, not bury them. “I wanted Where the Light Falls The Queens of Animation to shake away my cynicism, my skepticism,” he says, “and by Nancy Hale (Library of America, $26) by Nathalia Holt (Little, Brown, $29) just be open for once to this 2,000-year-old, compressed In most rankings of our great fiction Walt Disney Studios, “an enterprise story of spirituality.” writers, “Nancy Hale has been woe- associated with pliant storybook fully overlooked,” said Noor Qasim princesses,” turns out to have been a Egan’s excellent new book, in TheParisReview.org. This collection decent place to work for women of A Pilgrimage to Eternity, is the gathers 25 of her short stories, many the 1930s and ’40s, said Margaret place to learn what conclu- published by The New Yorker when Talbot in The New Yorker. This sions he reached, said Mary Hale was one of the magazine’s most prolific con- “sprightly” group portrait of some behind-the- Ann Gwinn in The Seattle tributors. Though her fiction tends to focus on the scenes talents paints a suspiciously rosy picture. Times. But a reader can also concerns of upper-crust, WASP-y women, “Hale’s Still, each of its pioneering subjects is worth expect to find a charming prose is so compelling I hardly care.” These tales knowing. Mary Blair, an “exuberantly imagina- travelogue and a surprisingly are “rich, delightful, and often strange,” and tive” artist who put in 34 years at Disney, “left comprehensive history of the “nearly always end abruptly, as if on an inhale.” the strongest imprint on animation, and on me.” church, both the good and the bad. Along the way, Egan Monster, She Wrote Big Sister, Little Sister, Red Sister visits secluded shrines and bunks in monasteries. At one (Quirk, $20) by Jung Chang (Knopf, $30) point, while visiting the crypt of Santa Lucia Filippini, he The Washington Post, Ruth Fremson The editors of this anthology “deserve “As high-powered family sagas go, finds reason to believe in the a standing ovation,” said Danielle that of China’s Soongs takes some possibility of miracles. Still, Trussoni in The New York Times. Lisa beating,” said Jonathan Fenby in the the current state of his faith Kröger and Melanie Anderson have Financial Times. In this compulsively isn’t easily described, other dug up the work of many forgotten told story, sisters Ei-ling, Ching-ling, than to say he got what he female writers who were pioneers of and May-ling live out a 20th-century wanted from the journey. speculative, gothic, and horror fiction. Shirley fairy tale as prominent representatives of three “We are all spiritual human Jackson and other familiar trailblazers make sides of the Chinese national character. One beings. Yet we suffer from appearances, but so, too, does Charlotte Riddell, became vice chair of the People’s Republic; one malnutrition of the soul; we an early ghost-story master. We also encounter became Madame Chiang Kai-Shek. And though don’t feed our appetite for current greats dabbling in the genre, “shaping it in all three were less power players than symbols, that,” he says. “But I feel like I their own image.” they’re “no less intriguing for that.” finally did. I’m sated.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019

24 ARTS Review of reviews: Art & Film Exhibit of the week tapestries, but also Lari Pittman: “complex states of Declaration of agitated being.” Independence Pittman’s later work “settles into a Hammer Museum, Los more self-reflective, Angeles, through Jan. 5 “Lari Pittman is having a calmer stance,” said retrospective, and it’s about Robyn Tisman in time,” said John Dorfman Arteviste.com. Still, in Art & Antiques. The Pittman’s Flying Carpet With a Waning Moon Over a Violent Nation (2013) “close looking is Los Angeles native has been rewarded,” because “incredibly productive” for decades, and in with death seemed to concentrate his mind. his technique is meticulous. And don’t his “dense, busy” paintings and drawings His work, which had previously felt dis- imagine that he has lost his political bite, “he has been distilling the experience of jointed, “launched into the stratosphere,” said William Poundstone in LacmaOnFire being alive in contemporary culture, hold- and he has never let up since. Pittman .Blogspot.com. In 2013’s Flying Carpet ing up a mirror to the external and internal “makes the queerest paintings around”: In With a Waning Moon Over a Violent chaos of modern life, in all its sorrow and an era when the only painters being widely Nation, a jewel-toned 10-by-30-foot canvas, joy.” The influential UCLA art professor celebrated were macho neo-expressionists, several phases of a waning moon appear as also never stops innovating. For this largest he embraced the decorative language of a if seen through portholes—or are those gun exhibition of his career, “the only sense in countergroup, the Pattern and Decoration sights? Upon closer inspection, the viewer Naresh Jariwala* which the word ‘retrospective’ seems not to movement, in a way that felt like an asser- notices a series of black nooses and bullet Courtesy of Regen Projects, Wilson Webb, Warner Bros. Pictures fit is that Pittman is so artistically dynamic, tion of his homosexuality. His canvases holes worked into the pattern and compre- at age 68, that one hardly thinks in terms of became “decorative in the extreme,” though hends a subversive double meaning: The looking backward.” not lighthearted. Instead, he often created term “carpet” doesn’t just refer to a home dark, flat backgrounds and packed them furnishing, it’s also a bombing pattern. For a Still, it’s hard to ignore his personal turning with iconography: painted eggs, blue-and- long time, Pittman has played such devastat- point, said Christopher Knight in the Los white porcelains, silhouetted figures, pills, ing tricks without much mainstream recogni- Angeles Times. In 1985, a home intruder and invented cityscapes that are “gloomy yet tion. “The Hammer’s exemplary show will shot him twice in the gut, and that brush enticing.” His paintings suggest carpets or help remedy that.” Marriage Story Doctor Sleep Directed by Noah Baumbach ++++ (R) The new sequel ++++ to The Shining A couple’s separation “suffers from a turns bitter. bit of an iden- tity crisis,” said A.A. Dowd in In Noah Baumbach’s new divorce drama, AVClub.com. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson “remind us why they’re in such high Adapted from McGregor as Danny demand,” said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. Stephen King’s Though one has an ongoing Star Wars gig A union destined not to last and the other has played a Marvel super- 2013 sequel to his own classic horror hero, “they don’t need special effects or made the lists at the request of a mediator high-concept premises to work their spell trying to help them through separation, as novel, Doctor Sleep feints at caring about on an audience.” They’re “superb perform- Nicole, an actress, wishes to move across the ers, attentive, generous, versatile, and able country with their young son, while Charlie, an alcoholic named Danny Torrance, who to register minute shifts of feeling and a theater director, can’t imagine leaving New understanding on their admittedly well- York. As the attorney representing Nicole, as a boy was witness to his father’s mur- proportioned features.” Here, their talents Laura Dern is “almost diabolically shrewd,” anchor a powerful portrait of a modern offering sisterly reassurances while escalat- derous rampage at the Overlook Hotel. divorce that devolves from amicable to toxic ing the legal battle. Her principal opponent, once lawyers get involved. With the possible a shark-like Ray Liotta, answers in kind. Danny, played here by Ewan McGregor, exception of The Squid and the Whale, And yet it remains Driver and Johansson a 2006 Oscar nominee, it’s the best film who move this domestic tragedy to “a even has a part to play in saving a new Baumbach has made. place beyond thinking, where raw emo- tion becomes an entropic, hurricane swirl.” generation of telepathic kids from a An opening montage ensures that we feel That Marriage Story manages at times to the story’s tragedy, said Stephanie Zacharek be funny seems “a near miracle”—given new evil force: a cult of vampires led in Time. Johansson’s Nicole and Driver’s that “every moment feels ripped from raw, Charlie are listing what they love about each miserable reality,” said Nick Schager in by a “seductively malevolent” Rebecca other as we watch flashbacks. But they’ve TheDailyBeast.com. “If you’ve never been through a divorce, it’ll scare the hell out of Ferguson. But a return to the Overlook is you. And if you have, it’ll break your heart.” inevitable, and once there, this R-rated picture reveals itself to be “just another franchise extension”—all too eager to restage Stanley Kubrick’s iconic imagery. Until then, you might admire director Mike Flanagan’s work here for “the deli- cate filigree of its world building,” said Justin Chang in the Los Angeles Times. “Beneath the movie’s slick surfaces, there is also an insistent, pulsing humanity— an understanding of the deep emotional underpinnings of King’s fiction.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019

Television ARTS 25 Movies on TV The Week’s guide to what’s worth watching Monday, Nov. 11 The Gift: The Journey of Johnny CashNaresh Jariwala* Star Wars finds a new hero in The Mandalorian. The Reader The Man in Black is as magnetic and haunting as Kate Winslet won an Oscar ever in this well-wrought biographical documen- Pariah: The Lives and Deaths of Sonny Liston playing a German woman tary from filmmaker Thom Zimny. Cash’s voice Sonny Liston might be best remembered as the whose affair with a teen- dominates, in song and archival interviews, as Goliath toppled by a young Muhammad Ali ager offers no hint that the film progresses from his Arkansas childhood in 1964. This documentary tells the full story. he will one day watch her and the woodshop accident that killed his brother Raised in poverty and introduced to boxing in being tried for Nazi war to a career marked by early success, addiction, prison, Liston earned more insults than praise crimes. (2008) 10 p.m., the an artistic peak at Folsom Prison, and lasting when he knocked out Floyd Patterson to win Movie Channel redemption. Available for streaming Monday, his title. But he remains one of boxing’s most Nov. 11, YouTube enigmatic figures—ranked by experts as among Tuesday, Nov. 12 the best ever despite evidence that he threw his Clerks The Mandalorian rematch with Ali. When he died in 1970, police Kevin Smith’s low-budget Even at $10 million an episode, this new Star blamed an overdose while others suspected a indie classic captured the Wars series has the look of money well spent. mob hit. Friday, Nov. 15, at 9 p.m., Showtime slacker zeitgeist in the pop Disney tapped Iron Man director Jon Favreau culture–laced banter of two to oversee the centerpiece in the launch of the Other Highlights cynical retail employees. studio’s streaming service, and he’s come through Battle of Midway: The True Story (1994) 8 p.m., Cinemax with a visually stunning spin-off. The title charac- The pivotal June 1942 naval engagement is revis- ter, played by Game of Thrones’ Pedro Pascal, is ited using rare footage and the reminiscences Wednesday, Nov. 13 a gunslinging bounty hunter who hides behind his of dive-bombing pilot Dusty Kleiss. Monday, The Seven Samurai helmet while navigating a lawless universe. Gian- Nov. 11, at 8 p.m., Smithsonian Poor farmers recruit a group carlo Esposito, Gina Carano, Nick Nolte, and of samurai to defend them Carl Weathers co-star. Available for streaming 2019 Country Music Awards against an impending raid Tuesday, Nov. 12, Disney+ It’ll be a night crowded with stars as the slated list by bandits in a masterful of performers only begins with Kacey Musgraves, epic from Akira Kurosawa. Forky Asks a Question Willie Nelson, Chris Stapleton, Maren Morris, (1956) 12:30 a.m., TCM Forky is so much more than trash. Fresh off his Thomas Rhett, and Dolly Parton. Wednesday, star turn in Toy Story 4, the lovable spork with Nov. 13, at 8 p.m., ABC Thursday, Nov. 14 the pasted-on eyes gives Disney’s streaming ser- The Deer Hunter vice another major launch product. In a series of The Man in the High Castle Vietnam tests three friends animated shorts, Forky will ask a simple ques- The alt-history series’ final season sets up a show- from a steel town and tion, such as “What is love?” “What is money?” down between resistance fighter Juliana Crain wins in Michael Cimino’s or “What is cheese?” It will fall to his Toy Story and the leader of the American Reich. Available Oscar-winning war epic. comrades to supply answers. Available for for streaming Friday, Nov. 15, Amazon Prime With Robert De Niro, streaming Tuesday, Nov. 12, Disney+ Christopher Walken, and Meryl Streep. (1978) The Preppy Murder: Death in Central Park 4:55 p.m., Showtime A three-night documentary series looks back on the other Central Park crime that shook 1980s Friday, Nov. 15 New York City. In August 1986, after 18-year-old Groundhog Day Jennifer Levin was found strangled in the park, Bill Murray blithely carries suspicion quickly fell on a handsome 20-year-old a mind-bending romantic who was soon dubbed the Preppy Killer. Robert comedy about a jaded TV Chambers didn’t escape prison, but his circus trial weatherman who keeps became a case study in how money, fame, and reliving the same day in connections can warp justice. Begins Wednesday, a podunk town. Andie Nov. 13, at 9 p.m., AMC and SundanceTV Macdowell co-stars. (1993) Disney+, Sophie Mutevelian 6:15 p.m., Epix Colman: A queen and her corgis Show of the week Saturday, Nov. 16 The Crown Dog Day Afternoon A botched Brooklyn bank All hail, Olivia Colman. As this acclaimed drama robbery triggers a tense series about Queen Elizabeth enters Season 3, extended standoff in a Oscar’s reigning Best Actress assumes the lead Sidney Lumet gut-punch role in a planned peaceful succession that ends featuring a riveting Al Claire Foy’s fine run as the young monarch. Pacino. (1975) 8 p.m., TCM Colman, who won her Oscar playing an earlier ruler, leads an entirely new cast stepping in to Sunday, Nov. 17 re-create the lives of the Windsors from 1964 Girl With a Pearl Earring through 1977. Tobias Menzies will be the new Scarlett Johansson plays a Prince Philip and Helena Bonham Carter the Dutch maid who becomes new Princess Margaret. Expect a steadier mar- the subject of one of riage for the queen but no end of national drama. Johannes Vermeer’s most Available for streaming Sunday, Nov. 17, Netflix famous paintings. (2004) 9:45 p.m., Movieplex • All listings are Eastern Time. THE WEEK November 15, 2019

26 LEISURE Food & Drink Critics’ choice: Culinary couples who are generating sparks Gado Gado Portland, Ore. Naresh Jariwala*Wherewithall’s Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark complimentary bites, such as charred broc- To cook the way Thomas Pisha-Duffly colini with Pleasant Ridge cheese, boost the does “requires chutzpah and skill,” said Cory Dewald, Ellen Silverman/The New York Times/Redux, Newscomand Beverly Kim received their first Jamesbargain, as does the $45 wine pairing. You Benjamin Tepler in Portland Monthly. At Beard Award, had a third child, and opened can even get veggies with dessert: Think the cheerful new strip-mall restaurant he a second restaurant. About that last item: black-raspberry tart with peapod ice cream. runs with his wife, Mariah, the onetime The follow-up to Parachute, their Michelin- 3472 N. Elston Ave., (773) 692-2192 New Englander draws from memories of his starred Korean-American restaurant, Indonesian grandmother’s cooking, his trav- Wherewithall is every bit as sensational, République Los Angeles els in Southeast Asia, and “his own twisted offering a freewheeling four-course prix fixe Six years in, Walter and Margarita Manzke mind” to create an ever-changing menu that’s a steal at $65. In a space just doors “have perfected the template for the all- unlike any other. The combination “makes away from Parachute in family-friendly day modern American restaurant,” said for the most exciting eating in the city right Avondale, Clark handles kitchen duties Bill Addison in the Los Angeles Times. At now.” Even for weekend brunch, Pisha- while Kim and their infant son, Bowie, any time of day, the couple’s castle-like, Duffly’s cooking is “unremittingly play- manage the house. On the frequently two-story Hancock Park storefront “grati- ful,” jumping from Dungeness crab omelet changing menu, recent highlights included fies many palates and persuasions.” Long noodle soup to the Cap’n Crunch–covered Norwegian trout in a sherry glaze, “gor- queues form in the morning for Margarita’s pandan waffle puffs to Singaporean kaya geous in color and flavor,” and a “stand- pastries—croissants, kouign amann, dan- toast: pandan jelly spread over palm-sugar out” Iberico pork collar, served with a side ishes topped with sliced O’Henry peaches— bread with a soft-cooked egg, soy sauce, of caramelized arrowhead cabbage. Several as well as such “precision-engineered” com- and maple syrup. Dinnertime might bring fort foods as the croque madame. At lunch, pork and blood sausage corn dogs with the the menu “embodies an only-in–Los Angeles house condiment the couple calls hoisinaise. pluralism,” from the signature-level kim- Or maybe a fairly traditional take on chee fried rice to the dry-aged cheeseburger. coconut-braised beef short rib rendang, “a “Don’t forget to look up,” as daylight dish with enough umami to launch a lunar favors the spectacular dining space, built by lander into orbit.” Bring a willingness to Charlie Chaplin in 1929. Come evening, the explore, and you’ll get why Gado Gado is restaurant “achieves an elegant, gymnastic our staff’s choice as 2019’s rising star. 1801 leap” into formal service, and Walter excels N. César E. Chávez Blvd., (503) 206-8778 at seasonal California cuisine, such as Santa Barbara spot prawns in ponzu or pork belly Wherewithall Chicago with apples. Because the place does it all, “I Talk about stress management, said Phil wind up recommending République more Vettel in the Chicago Tribune. In a recent than any other restaurant in the city.” 624 two-month span, spouses Johnny Clark S. LaBrea Ave., (310) 362-6115 Cocktails: The perfect martini? Peter Luger: A blistering review rocks an iconic steakhouse Arguments about how to make a martini Last week, the New York Times’ restaurant critic may never end, said M. Carrie Allan in “spoke a truth few had dared say before: Peter The Washington Post. Author Robert Luger Steak House is bad,” said Josh Barro in Simonson sampled hundreds while writ- NYMag.com. To every American who has ever be- ing his excellent new book, The Martini lieved in the transcendence of a perfectly prepared Cocktail, though, and he’s arrived at a porterhouse, the zero-star review that Pete Wells worthy personal ideal. Note the propor- slapped on the 132-year-old Brooklyn institution tion of vermouth. While many mar- was an attack on a creed. Luger, after all, has for tini drinkers of the recent past favored decades been the epitome of a restaurant where all minimal vermouth, and today’s cocktail that matters is the meat—and where anyone who complains about the sky-high prices and gruff service just doesn’t get it. Wells’ write- connoisseurs often insist up did nick Luger for several ancillary failings, such as “mealy” fries and a shrimp on a 50/50 split, Simon- cocktail that “has always tasted like cold latex.” But, crucially, he also judged the son’s ‘My martini’ recipe quality of the steaks as just OK—and not what they used to be. “This is inexcusable at calls for quotients that are a time when excellent steak is ubiquitous, if you are willing to pay for it.” solidly in between: But no two steaks are ever the same; that’s the nature of the art, said Robert Sietsema in Eater.com. Even so, when I take a bite of a Luger porterhouse, “This is phenomenal!” Combine 2¼ oz gin, ¾ oz Dolin still jumps to mind. Sure, the dining experience is bare bones at best, but “the miracle dry vermouth, and 1 dash orange is that Luger is as good as it is, since the place could go on existing based on tourists bitters in a mixing glass filled with alone.” We critics need to steer diners to the truly worthy, though, and Luger “doesn’t ice and stir until very cold, about even come close to being an essential New York restaurant experience,” said Ryan 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled Sutton, also in Eater.com. So many other establishments now make a better steak, cocktail glass. Express lemon twist and—“this is key”—at those places, “the rest of the food is actually good.” over the surface of the drink and drop it into the glass. THE WEEK November 15, 2019

Travel LEISURE 27 This week’s dream: Getting pampered on our southernmost continent When I packed my bags for Antarctica, A Ponant cruise ship rests off Antarctica’s coast. turn, there was a helpful guide offering “I expected to suffer,” said Aislyn tips about the wildlife or geology while Greene in Afar. And because I had read saltwater that numbed my face during our gently keeping us on course.” about the journeys of polar explor- bumpy Zodiac ride to Brown Bluff Beach. ers like Ernest Shackleton, who spent There, under a warm sun, we wandered Each night we saw whales—“a Disney- 497 days at sea trapped in pack ice, “I under basalt cliffs among countless gentoo like spectacle of orcas with their calves, wanted to suffer.” No such luck, though. and Adélie penguins, which waddled along and humpbacks nosing up to feed.” At My 11-day luxury expedition with the snowy byways “as busy and fascinating as one point, I thought the ship had hit French cruise line Ponant was completely the streets of New York.” On another day, an iceberg, but it was just our captain serene from the moment I was relieved we hiked the alien landscape of Deception anchoring to an ice floe so that we could of my luggage and handed a hot towel Island, an active volcano. “At every point all hop out, make snow angels, and and a glass of champagne. Once the where we could take a potentially deadly take selfies. Returning to the ship, I was 132-cabin Le Boréal had departed from Naresh Jariwala* almost disappointed that we hadn’t con- Ushuaia, Argentina, “the evening passed fronted a Shackleton-level crisis. Months in a blur of bubbles, French cheese, and later, though, I realized how incredible new acquaintances.” the experience had been. “The fact that someone like me—who, let’s face it, is a In the morning, the breakfast buffet included little soft—was able to travel to this fear- a table “practically sagging under the weight some, unforgiving, magnificent continent in of French pastries.” The onboard baker utter safety and comfort is something of a had clearly been busy. No doubt the mas- miracle. And it’s because of all those people seuse would be, too, and “as I chewed my who suffered before me. So forgive me, chocolate croissant, I couldn’t help but Ernest. And thank you.” wonder: When would the misery begin?” Ponant (en.ponant.com) offers 11-day The worst discomfort I felt was a slap of icy Antarctica voyages from $9,183. Hotel of the week Getting the flavor of... A monument to rock America’s annual elk migration New Jersey’s game-changing megamall Seminole Hard Rock “Animal migrations are the most epic form of “Don’t call it a mall,” said Lois Weiss in the Hotel & Casino travel,” said Andrea Sachs in The Washington New York Post. American Dream—a new com- Post. Whatever your own grandest journey, it plex outside New York City that now ranks as “Everybody is talking about can’t compare with the spectacle tens of thou- America’s second-largest shopping center—would the giant guitar hotel, and sands of elk are creating right now in Wyoming, rather be known as an entertainment com- we don’t blame them,” said Colorado, and New Mexico as they descend from plex. “And, by golly, is it wildly entertaining.” Connie Ogle in the Miami mountains to lowlands. Mating season makes fall Because less than half its space is devoted to its Herald. A decade in the mak- a dramatic time for onlookers, because the bulls 450 stores, the rest will house our hemisphere’s ing, the icon rises 450 feet guard their harems by bugling loudly and wres- biggest indoor amusement park, a DreamWorks above South Florida’s flat tling one another with their massive antlers. The water park, an aquarium, a concert venue, two terrain, making it visible for best place to see northwestern Wyoming’s 11,000- mini-golf courses, a 16-story indoor ski slope, miles—and that’s before head herd is the National Elk Refuge, which and a garden full of rabbits. Two attractions—an night falls and light beams stretches between Jackson and Kelly. Try the ice rink and the Nickelodeon theme park—have representing the strings scenic pullouts along Highway 89, or the view- opened in advance of the official Dec. 5 unveil- shoot into the sky. The build- ing platform at the visitor center in Jackson Hole. ing. The complex, which sits next to an NFL ing anchors a Hard Rock Some elk settle farther north, in Yellowstone and stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., and is opening casino complex with a con- Grand Teton national parks, while more than years behind the original schedule, “has a lot of cert venue and a huge pool 30,000 Rocky Mountain elk spread out in several hurdles to overcome,” said Richard Kestenbaum ringed by stylishly furnished herds across the Upper Rio Grande area of south- in Forbes.com. But it’s promising, because “it cabanas with butler service. ern Colorado and northern New Mexico. turns out you can get a lot for $5 billion.” “We are leaving our homes, jobs, and families to spend Last-minute travel deals the rest of our lives here.” Studio Ponant/Laureen Robert, AP seminolehardrockhollywood Alaska for the whole family The world by bicycle A holiday in Jamaica .com; doubles from $249 Families who book select 2020 Book by Nov. 27 to save up to Half Moon, a beachside resort Alaska cruises with National $600 a couple on 2020 group in Jamaica, is offering a Thanks- Geographic this month can tours with Sojourn Bicycling. A giving special on select suites. save up to half off on one or six-day trip through Portugal Through Nov. 18, book a four- two children up to age 22. Full- costs $4,300 per cyclist, but night stay through Dec. 21 and price rates start at $4,420 per you can also choose multi-day you’ll receive $100 in resort adult for either of two six-day journeys through Nova Scotia, credit each day. Suites start at adventures. Oregon, Chile, and more. $670 a night. nationalgeographic.com gosojourn.com halfmoon.com THE WEEK November 15, 2019

28 LEISURE Consumer The 2020 BMW M8: What the critics say Automobile Jalopnik.com When you drive a BMW 8 series, “you’ll “It ain’t cheap to be the king.” An entry- be the star wherever you show up.” The level 8 series starts at $88,000, the M8 at automaker’s top-of-the-line grand tourer $133,000, and for the M8 Competition and was recently resurrected after a 20-year its 617 hp V-8, you’ll need $146,000. But hiatus, and it’s “one hell of a coupe,” with every model packs the best eight-speed “huge power, surprising grace,” and a automatic around as well as the best all- body so appealing that it won our 2019 wheel-drive system: No power is directed to Design of the Year. Now the lineup has the front wheels except when truly needed. been extended to include a convertible, a longer four-door Gran Coupe, and, finally, Car and Driver A Bavarian über-coupe, from $133,000 the M8—the top dog from a performance perspective. The M8 turns out to have For many buyers, an M850i might do, suspicion is that most buyers will head been absolutely worth the wait: This car because that $111,000 model is “almost ex- straight to the top of the pile, which isn’t a “accelerates with ferocity” and “chews up actly as good at being an 8 series.” Only on bad place to be.” and spits out one curve after another.” the track, where the M8 feels “much more at home,” do differences show. Still, “our The best of...the new board games Photosynthesis Azul Naresh Jariwala*Wingspan Pandemic Legacy: Terraforming Mars Season 1 Photosynthesis is Inspired by Moorish art, The hottest game of This challenging-yet- “absolutely perfect” Azul is another easy-to- the year was designed This twist on Pan- rewarding game puts for luring in folks new learn, award-winning by an amateur bird- demic’s cooperative up to five players in to the world of modern game in which up to watcher, and “it’s a mar- strategy classic tasks control of corpora- board games. Players four players win points vel.” Up to five players two to four players with tions that compete to grow trees for timber, by placing decorative compete to attract and limiting the spread of turn the Red Planet strategizing as the sun tiles in various patterns. cultivate bird species four viruses. But in this green—and inhabitable. circles the board. “You Beautiful and beauti- in varied habitats. The heightened version, the Though the gameboard can revel in competitive fully simple, it’s a new playing cards feature rules change whenever is ugly, the gameplay meanness as your shad- “instant classic” among hand-drawn scientifi- the pathogens mutate— generates “a tight, ows smother your oppo- gateway board games. cally accurate images of changes that carry over tense experience the nent’s ill-laid shrubs.” 170 birds. to subsequent games. whole way through.” $40, nextmovegames.com $30, target.com $60, stonemaier-games.com $69, zmangames.com $46, amazon.com Source: ArsTechnica.com Source: PopularMechanics.com Source: PasteMagazine.com Source: TheWirecutter.com Source: Kotaku.com Tip of the week... And for those who have Best websites... How to choose a new TV everything... For eco-friendly, guilt-free travel Q LCD vs. OLED: There really are only two Most of us Q TripZero.com is a travel service that will types of TVs. Most use LCD (liquid crystal have no use offset the carbon footprint of any trip you display), though you’ll see variations such as for uranium book at no cost to you. The company, work- QLED and LED LCD. The alternative is OLED ore, but that’s ing in partnership with Expedia, takes a (organic light-emitting diode); those “always beside the commission when you book with any of the have the better picture, and a higher price.” point. “Did you hotels in its network and uses that money to Q Screen size: A 65-inch screen is as big know that you fund projects such as reforestation in Kenya as you need if you’ll be sitting 8 feet away, can just...buy and wind turbines in Indiana. though 43 inches is a better bedroom size. it online, and Q OffCents.com makes it easy to calculate Never buy a screen bigger than the distance it’s perfectly legal?” just how many pounds of carbon-dioxide you’ll sit from it. That’s because it’s all uranium-238, a your flight to Maui or road trip through the Q Screen resolution: Most TVs sold today nonfissile isotope that (unlike uranium-235) Southwest will add to the atmosphere.The have 4K resolution—four times the detail of can’t be used to make a nuclear bomb. It’s service gives you the option of purchasing an old 1,080-pixel HD TV. Don’t buy an 8K set still a radioactive metal, but one that decays carbon offsets by contributing to wind farms, yet, because there’s no compatible content. at a ridiculously slow rate and doesn’t pose forest protection, or methane-capture proj- Q Refresh rate: Seek a refresh rate of 120 Hz serious health risks as long as you don’t eat ects taking place at landfills and cattle farms. or higher—up to 240 if you’re a sports it. The best-seller on Amazon comes from Q Glooby.com, a startup, aims to let you watcher or play video games. Images Scientific Instruments, which also— compare prices on flights and hotels while Q Price: For an OLED, expect to spend about conveniently—sells a Geiger counter. “One seeing how they rank for fuel efficiency and $3,000, but “there are many good 4K TVs in package of uranium, please!” sustainability. The service is expected to be the $500 range.” resume late this month. $40, amazon.com Source: The Washington Post Source: Afar Source: PopularMechanics.com THE WEEK November 15, 2019

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30 Best properties on the market This week: Homes with art studios 1 W Somerset, Calif. Set on 20 acres in California Gold Country, this two-bedroom home overlooks its own grapevines from a wisteria-covered patio. The house features exposed beams, stonework, a wood- stove, and an art studio with a wall of windows. The property has multiple outbuildings, a pool, a bocce court, mature trees, 6 acres of wine grapes, and access to a bass pond. $959,500. Bruce Renfrew, California Outdoor Properties, (650) 773-1863 Naresh Jariwala* 6 1 4 5 2 3 2 X Santa Fe This four-bedroom house, built in 2000, offers painterly views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Inside are antique painted French beams, arched stone columns, wood and stone floors, antique doors, stained glass, a master suite with attached office, and a separate in-law apartment. Outside on 7.7 acres are a rose garden, a guesthouse, and a freestanding art studio with a bathroom. $1,395,000. Ricky Allen, Sotheby’s International Realty, (505) 982-6207 3 X Sarasota, Fla. Built in 2014 in Craftsman style, this four-bedroom home reflects the surrounding architecture of the city’s downtown historic dis- trict. The house features high ceilings, built-ins, a master suite with morning bar, and a fourth-floor art- ist’s studio with recessed and natural lighting. Outside are a screened porch, a lush courtyard, and a full studio apartment above the garage. $1,184,900. Betsy Sublett and Kelly Mooney, Coldwell Banker Residen- tial Real Estate, (941) 284-8483 THE WEEK November 15, 2019

Best properties on the market 31 4 X Newport, R.I. Three 18th-century homes were combined to create the four-bedroom, single- family John Townsend House. The renovated structure has a new heat- ing system and bathrooms and features an exposed- beam kitchen with French doors opening on a screened porch, and an art studio with oversize windows and wide-plank floors. The lot, with land- scaped backyard, is close to the harbor, shipyard, and Washington Square. $1,995,000. Michelle Kirby, Gustave White/ Sotheby’s International Realty, (401) 848-6714 Naresh Jariwala* Steal of the week 5 S Pawling, N.Y. New York architect Gene Futterman built this 6 S Columbus, Ohio In two-bedroom contemporary home featuring an artist-friendly 1949, Ohio artist Sterling bonus room with skylights and French doors leading to the patio. Smith had this home and a Other details include an open floor plan, high ceilings, a dual separate art studio built on stone fireplace, and a sunken living room with built-ins. The 38- his 7-acre wooded property acre wooded property is near a nature reserve, the Appalachian in the Usonian-style Rush Trail, and Cranberry Mountain. $575,000. Margaret Harrington Creek Village. Preserved in and Christina Abad, Douglas Elliman Real Estate, (914) 572-7395 its original design, the five-bedroom, early-midcentury-modern house has been recommended for the National Register of Historic Places. The property features a pond and landscaping created by Smith. $425,000. Jason Hottle, Modern Columbus Realty, (614) 626-5689 THE WEEK November 15, 2019

32 BUSINESS The news at a glance The bottom line #MeToo: McDonald’s CEO ousted over affair Q More homeowners are McDonald’s fired its chief executive, Steve “Easterbrook had to go,” said the staying home. The average house is being lived in for Easterbrook, this week after the board Chicago Tribune in an editorial. It 13 years before hitting the market, five years longer than learned he had been having a relationship doesn’t matter that the relationship was in 2010. That’s led to a short- age of housing inventory: with an employee, said David Yaffe-Bellany consensual. As CEO, Easterbrook was There are now 12.5 homes for sale per 1,000 house- in The New York Times. Though the relation- the boss to every McDonald’s employee. holds, the lowest number on record in 37 years. ship was consensual, “the #MeToo era has “The reason nonfraternization policies The Wall Street Journal brought new scrutiny to a wide range exist” is because any workplace Q Microsoft tested a four-day of workplace misconduct,” and romance between a supervisor and workweek in Japan and saw sales per employee rise the board said Easterbrook, who a subordinate is “susceptible to 40 percent compared with a year earlier. The number is divorced, had violated com- Easterbrook: Violated policy abuse.” It’s tough enough for of pages printed out fell pany policy. The move could have someone to have a relation- by 59 percent, electric- ity consumption dropped been motivated by “pressure facing McDonald’s” ship “with the person responsible for his or her 23 percent, and 94 percent of employees were satisfied over its handling of sexual harassment cases at its paycheck.” It also raises the question of fairness with the program. franchises, which are the subjects of 23 complaints toward other employees. McDonald’s did the The Washington Post filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. But right thing in immediately replacing Easterbrook Q Apple pledged $2.5 billion Naresh Jariwala* in loans, grants, and invest- “changing attitudes about romance in the work- with another senior executive, Chris Kempczinski. ments to combat California’s housing crisis, joining Face- place” have also led more companies to enact Bosses should “have the power to enforce their book and Google, which each recently pledged $1 billion. strict “nonfraternization” rules for executives. organizations’ priorities,” not to violate them. NPR.org Uber: Slowing growth fails to satisfy Wall Street Facebook wants to Reuters, AP be FACEBOOK Q Warren Buf- Wall Street punished Uber after the “number of new customers com- fett’s Berkshire ing to the app and overall bookings” fell below expectations, said Kate With federal regulators Hathaway has Conger in The New York Times. The ride-hailing company last week on its trail, Facebook a net income of reported a loss of $1.2 billion, better than some analysts had expected announced it will $52 billion this and a big improvement over its “horror show” $5.2 billion loss in the undergo a makeover— year, making previous quarter. Uber promised to reach profitability “if it excluded of its logo, said Mike it the most various costs” by 2021, but that’s not soon enough for investors, who Snider in USA Today. profitable have “become more skeptical of money-burning technology companies.” The social media giant, public facing growing anti- company in Juul: Altria’s $12.8 billion headache trust scrutiny, said this the world. week it is rebranding Saying it “did not anticipate the outbreak of vaping-related lung dis- as FACEBOOK, all caps, It’s sitting on a cash pile ease,” tobacco giant Altria last week took a $4.5 billion write-down to represent the parent of $128.2 billion, up from on its $12.8 billion investment in Juul, said Angelica LaVito in CNBC company that owns $23 billion a decade ago. .com. Less than a year after purchasing the 35 percent stake in the Facebook, Instagram, e-cigarette startup, Altria has had to deal with the massive fallout from and WhatsApp. “If you Bloomberg.com vaping deaths and “federal investigations into the company’s market- want to go deeper into ing practices.” Several states have banned all e-cigarette sales, while the the company’s design Q Some 31 percent of U.S. Trump administration announced plans to remove flavored e-cigarettes choices, Facebook has credit card holders pay from the market until they are FDA approved. an entire page devoted their balance each month, to the explanation,” the highest share since the Walgreens: Biggest private equity buyout in history? which includes insights American Bankers Associa- into its “rounded cor- tion began keeping track in Walgreens has been holding “preliminary discussions with some of ners” and “custom 2008. the world’s largest private equity firms” about taking the drugstore typography” with multi- chain private, said Greg Roumeliotis and Mike Spector in Reuters colored letters. The cor- Axios.com .com. If successful, the talks, which were revealed this week, would porate jargon didn’t get result in the largest private equity buyout in history. Such a deal would many takers. “Moving Q UPS estimates it will require several investment funds to work together on the acquisition of to all caps is on brand, handle 1 million return pack- Walgreens, which has a market value of $55 billion. Many of the firms considering FACEBOOK ages per day in December, “have pushed back on the idea,” concerned over the business prospects is now mostly about a record pace it expects of the chain, which is already loaded down with $16.8 billion in debt. shouting online,” will continue into the new suggested one critic year. Returns season is Trade war: U.S. importers pay record tariffs (naturally, on Twitter). predicted to peak on Jan. 2 Many others noted that with 1.9 million packages, a “The U.S. collected a record $7 billion in import tariffs” in one month, Facebook seems to 26 percent increase from the said Josh Zumbrun in The Wall Street Journal. Records released last have lost the plot. The previous year. week show $5 billion in tariff revenue coming to the U.S. Treasury Tonight Show account in September from importers of Chinese goods, out of a total $7 bil- tweeted: “Because that CNN.com lion in levies for the month. The U.S. took in more than $70 billion in was everyone’s big- tariffs in the first nine months of 2019. That money was paid by the gest complaint with THE WEEK November 15, 2019 U.S. companies that bought the goods. One executive in the apparel Facebook—the logo.” industry, which has been hit especially hard, called it “a massive expan- sion of taxation on American employers and consumers.”

Making money BUSINESS 33 Markets: Stocks soar despite economy’s headwinds “Here we are again, folks—the stock been the S&P 500’s strongest sector. market is back at record highs,” said But the most recent jump goes well Brian Sozzi in Yahoo.com. Never beyond that. It’s “driven by so-called mind the wild tweets from President value stocks, solid companies avail- Trump about his trade war with able at historically low valuations.” China, or the decelerating global They have been on the rise since hit- economy, or the slowing corporate ting a low point relative to tech and earnings, or the recession warn- other growth stocks near the end of ings. “Mr. Market says who gives a the summer. damn?” Year-to-date, the S&P 500 is up 21 percent and last week set a “Investors are breathing sighs of new record high, 3,046.77, after the relief,” said Gunjan Banerji in The Federal Reserve announced a third Wall Street Journal. Many compa- interest-rate cut. This October rally nies have projected lower earnings. “has stumped many seasoned pros on Wall Street pros puzzle over the market’s rise. “All of us came into the earnings Wall Street,” who are still “in awe as season with very low expectations,” to how bad earnings reports from Caterpillar and FedEx could one stock strategist says. But about 75 percent of the companies Naresh Jariwala* be overlooked along with a U.S. manufacturing recession.” Per- in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings have beaten expecta- haps FOMO—or fear of missing out—is bringing back investors tions. The earnings season “has highlighted the strength of the off the sidelines, “and now the bulls look primed to sit back U.S. economy” compared with others around the world. “Bear- and watch.” ish investor sentiment and stock prices are both unusually high these days,” but, surprisingly, that’s usually a recipe for more The market is truly roaring mainly thanks to five stocks, said gains, said Daren Fonda in Barron’s. Despite the records set in Robert Burgess in Bloomberg.com. Apple, Microsoft, Visa, recent days, research shows that nearly one-third of consum- Mastercard, and Oracle “account for half of the S&P 500 tech ers expect stocks to decline over the next year—more than the sector, which has surged 30.2 percent this year.” Take that sec- percentage who are bullish. Going back to 1987, in the eight tor out, and the S&P is up 14 percent—still strong, “but noth- previous instances when investors have viewed new market highs ing special when compared with the returns in the rest of the with such skepticism, “the S&P has seen gains over the next year world.” True, said Peter Wells in the Financial Times, tech has every single time.” The median one-year return: 14.3 percent. Getty What the experts say as the flights themselves. But LAX is also test- Charity of the week ing out a two-tier pricing strategy. If you want End-of-the-year tax checklist to take a standard UberX, Lyft, or taxi, hop on As wildfires burn across California, the shuttle. “But if you call an Uber Black car the California Community Foundation Now is the time to make moves to lower your or Uber SUV,” which are more expensive, you (calfund.org) is stepping up its efforts to tax bill, said Laura Saunders in The Wall Street can get picked up at the terminal. “Uber Black provide immediate and long-term aid. Its Journal. Many filers are still getting used to was already about twice the cost of UberX, Wildfire Relief Fund is issuing grants to the new rules following the 2017 tax overhaul. and the price gap may only grow.” support those whose homes or belong- At the top of many tax advisers’ to-do lists: ings have been destroyed. Grants will “Check your withholding or estimated taxes.” Airline credit cards improve be used to help rebuild homes, give One more late-in-the-year project: setting up financial assistance, provide mental- a solo 401(k) if you are self-employed. These With better bonuses and new perks, airline health and case-management services, plans have higher contribution limits than credit cards are getting a much-needed make- and give medical supplies to people other tax-advantaged retirement accounts— over, said Eric Rosen in Bloomberg.com. After affected. In September, CCF pledged an generally $56,000 a year. You can fund your getting left in the dust by rewards cards in re- extra $11 million to support the long- solo 401(k) for 2019 until Oct. 15, 2020. “But cent years, airline-sponsored plastic is making term recovery of communities affected the plans must usually be set up by Dec. 31, “an aggressive bid to attract” travelers. The by the Camp, Woolsey, and Hill Fires. 2019, even if contributions come later.” United Explorer card from Chase now earns Since 2003, the charity has granted more two miles for every dollar spent at hotels and than $22 million for wildfire relief and Two-tier pickups for airport Ubers restaurants on top of “airline-specific perks has invested millions more in education, like free checked bags.” Delta’s Reserve card health, housing, and immigration proj- “Is there a good solution to the Uber crunch from American Express caters more to the fre- ects in Los Angeles. at airports?” asked Josh Barro in New York quent flier—it is “adding access to Amex’s ex- magazine. Because ride-hailing companies like cellent Centurion lounges and boosting earning Each charity we feature has earned a Uber and Lyft require each driver to find “a bonuses” to three points per dollar—for a fee four-star overall rating from Charity specifically assigned passenger, rather than of $550 per year. But the Blue Delta SkyMiles Navigator, which rates not-for-profit picking up whichever passenger the driver American Express is “attractive enough for organizations on the strength of their finds first,” congestion is at an all-time high. relatively new and infrequent travelers,” waiv- finances, their governance practices, More airports have now started to move Uber ing foreign transaction fees and earning two and the transparency of their operations. pickups to locations far from the terminals. points per dollar on restaurants. Four stars is the group’s highest rating. At Los Angeles International, for instance, to hail an Uber you first need to take a shuttle THE WEEK November 15, 2019 bus—with some wait times reportedly as long

34 Best columns: Business Saudi Arabia: U.S. companies return to the kingdom The Saudi conference nicknamed trouble delivering on his promise to “Davos in the Desert” returned last “wean the kingdom off oil,” said week—and so did many of the Wall Varsha Koduvayur in CNN.com. Street A-listers who boycotted it a Human rights abuses “have marred year ago, said Mohamad Bazzi in Saudi Arabia’s image and heightened The Guardian. Executives and politi- reputational risks for investors.” The cal leaders shunned last year’s lavish issues go well beyond Khashoggi. investment summit in Riyadh, “which “Foreign direct investment to Saudi took place only weeks after” Saudi Arabia cratered after the crown agents murdered the journalist Jamal prince’s so-called anti-corruption Khashoggi. But their return to the roundup in 2017,” when he impris- Future Investment Initiative this year oned many of the country’s most signals that “Saudi Arabia is open for prominent business figures in the business, and U.S. firms don’t want to A glitzy conference brings investors back to Saudi Arabia. Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh and made miss out.” Executives from JPMorgan them sign away big chunks of their Chase, Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, and SoftBank, as well as wealth. All the “glitz and glamour” of this conference at the very Steve Mnuchin, the U.S. treasury secretary, and Jared Kushner, same hotel won’t make investors forget that. Naresh Jariwala* President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, were among the 300 speakers from 30 countries. The big draw was the planned The major tech firms did stay away, said Theodore Schleifer in initial public offering of a small piece of the world’s most profit- Vox.com. But the snubs from the industry mainly show “just how able company, Saudi Aramco, “the state-owned oil monopoly” sensitive tech leaders are to media crises.” Ultimately, a few CEOs that finally got the green light to launch from Crown Prince not showing up for a conference matters less “than the fact that Mohammed bin Salman. Silicon Valley companies like SAP and Amazon Web Services con- tinue to expand in Saudi Arabia.” This would have been the per- “The IPO is a cornerstone of Prince Mohammed’s Vision 2030 fect time for the world to hold the Saudis to account, said David plan to make the Saudi economy ready for the post-oil era,” Andelman in NBCNews.com. The kingdom desperately “needs said Matthew Martin in Bloomberg.com, but the $2 trillion deep pockets to fund Aramco’s future,” but no one was willing to valuation the prince originally wanted for Aramco has already question “the conduct—past or present—of the crown prince.” been knocked down to between $1.6 trillion and $1.8 trillion. The U.S. will “keep looking the other way” as long as the king- Many investment bank analysts think it’s worth substantially dom maintains its 2017 pledge to pay $350 billion for American less. Aramco has to “contend with the strengthening move- arms over 10 years. “Call it a quid pro quo, or simply business as ment against climate change” and automakers’ accelerating shift usual.” Once again, the Saudis have been able to use their vast oil away from the internal combustion engine. So far, MBS has had wealth to buy critical friendships, starting with Donald Trump’s. The 1950s People on both sides of the political aisle are “waxing needed a second income even if it defied the gender were not nostalgic for the 1950s,” said Noah Smith. “Many roles of the day”—and the women who did work really great on the right wish for a return to the country’s conser- had little chance for fulfilling careers. The “good old vative mores and nationalist attitudes, while some on factory jobs” were often hard and dangerous. And Noah Smith the left pine for the era’s high tax rates, strong unions, Americans spent more time working: 2,264 hours a and lower inequality.” But most objective measures year in 1952, compared with 1,707 today. And what Bloomberg.com show that things are much better now. At the end of did workers call home? The average floor area of the 1950s, “more than half of black Americans lived a single-family house in 1950 was 983 square feet, below the poverty line.” Many people now remem- the size of a one-bedroom apartment today. Yes, the ber the decade as a time when a single breadwinner 1950s were a decade of progress and hope, but “the could provide for a family. But “a third of women point of progress and hope is that things get better worked in the ’50s, showing that many families later.” And they did. Airbnb lets My vacation was ruined when I stumbled into a flophouse. We weren’t the only ones who fell for scammers nationwide Airbnb scam, said Allie Conti. About the trap. I found four similar accounts managed by off the hook 10 minutes before my friends and I were set to dubious “couples” offering nearly 100 fake listings check into a Chicago rental listed by a couple in eight cities. I spoke with other travelers who’d Allie Conti named Becky and Andrew, I received a phone call had similar experiences with the same hosts. One from a man saying “our planned visit wouldn’t found an apartment that was “just beds,” then Vice.com be possible,” because of a plumbing emergency. got charged a $950 cancellation fee that Airbnb “Apologetic, he promised to let us stay in another wouldn’t refund. When renters complained, often property he managed.” But there “we discovered “hosts would turn around and claim that the rent- AP what looked more like a flophouse than someone’s ers themselves were scammers.” Airbnb knows such home.” The next day, we got a text from the man scams exist, yet continues to let hosts operate under saying “the plumbing in the original rental hadn’t aliases, “setting up a system that allows scammers been fixed,” but new tenants were moving into our like mine to thrive.” THE WEEK November 15, 2019

Obituaries 35 The producer who lived a Hollywood fairy tale The gonzo journalist who wrote the lives Robert Tanned, toned, and Goldwyn-Mayer producer Irving of showbiz legends Evans fueled by mountains Thalberg. Shearer thought him a of cocaine, Robert dead ringer for her late husband On the page and in life, Nick 1930–2019 Evans was the and insisted he play Thalberg in Tosches was gleefully unre- the Lon Chaney biopic Man of strained. In his early career archetypal Hollywood producer. a Thousand Faces (1957). After as a music critic, he often an unremarkable acting career, reviewed LPs without open- It’s show business lore that when “Evans went back to fashion and made a fortune when Revlon ing the shrink Evans’ housekeeper brought him bought Evan-Picone,” said The Guardian (U.K.). Intent on Nick wrap, instead his breakfast each morning—black becoming a producer, he began buying the rights Tosches writing gonzo to hot novels, and his vision soon caught the atten- coffee and cheesecake—it would tion of execs at Gulf & Western, the conglomerate 1949–2019 explorations that had recently bought debt-laden Paramount. of whatever include a note with the name of Hollywood was shocked by the 36-year-old was on his mind. A 1970 the woman sharing his bed, just novice’s hiring, said the Los Angeles Times, but review of a Black Sabbath Evans silenced the doubters by taking Paramount record for Rolling Stone in case he’d forgotten it. But for all his high liv- “from last place to No. 1 among the major stu- made no mention of the dios.” His personal excesses eventually proved music but did feature an ing, what Evans cared about most was spinning his downfall: Evans became a industry pariah imaginative description after an ex-girlfriend—a cocaine trafficker—was of a satanic sex ritual. He cinematic gold. After taking over production charged in the 1983 murder of Roy Radin, an later traded fiction for fact, investor in Evans’ 1984 flop The Cotton Club. writing vibrant and deeply at faltering Paramount Pictures in 1966, Evans Still, Evans made a brief comeback as a producer researched biographies of in the 1990s and in 2002 narrated an acclaimed pop culture figures such as rolled the dice on up-and-coming talent and risky documentary about his exploits, The Kid Stays in rock ’n’ roll wild man Jerry the Picture. His final Twitter post was a kiss-off Lee Lewis, crooner Dean scripts, backing films such as Rosemary’s Baby, to his critics: “I bet your ass I’ve done more in the Martin, and boxer Sonny last month than you in your entire life.” Liston. When his Martin bio, Chinatown, and The Godfather that were critical 1992’s Dino, was honored with a British literary prize, as well as commercial successes. “We went for Tosches embarked on a three- Naresh Jariwala* day bacchanal in London. original,” Evans said. “We fell on our asses on He was eventually escorted onto his return flight to New some of them, but we also touched magic.” York by one of his publisher’s security men, wearing only a Born in New York City to a homemaker mother dinner jacket and dress shirt, and dentist father, Evans spent his teens “chasing having lost his pants and the (and catching) Broadway showgirls” and acting $1,300 awards check. in radio shows, said The Washington Post. At age 20, he became a partner in Evan-Picone, a He was born in Newark, N.J., women’s clothing line co-founded by his brother, to parents who owned a bar, and was on a sales trip in Los Angeles when he said The New York Times. was spotted lounging beside a Beverly Hills pool “College was never a consid- by Norma Shearer, the widow of legendary Metro- eration,” and Tosches drifted through jobs, including The lifelong dissident who exposed Soviet abuse snake hunter for the Miami Serpentarium, before taking Vladimir Vladimir Bukovsky from Moscow University for up writing in the late 1960s. Bukovsky and other Soviet dis- attacking the USSR as a doomed His first book, 1977’s Country, sidents were subjected “illegal society.” Bukovsky was celebrated the hard-living 1942–2019 to a diabolical Catch- arrested for the first time in 1963, stars of early country music. for possession of banned books, More debauchery followed in 22. State doctors insisted that their said The New York Times. While 1982’s Hellfire, which opens imprisoned, he went on 20 hunger with Jerry Lee Lewis trying denunciations of the communist strikes and was force-fed through to smash his Lincoln through his nose with oversize tubes the gates of Elvis Presley’s system were a symptom of paranoia, that cracked the cartilage. After Graceland mansion. his release in a prisoner swap, and if they rejected the diagnosis, Bukovsky was asked at a press conference how Tosches “did not trouble the many political prisoners remained in the USSR. best-seller lists” until Dino, they were locked up in asylums and He replied “280 million”—the entire population. said The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). He admired Martin, injected with psychotropic drugs. For Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Bukovsky he wrote, for being a “tried to galvanize opposition” to Russian auto- menefreghista—Italian for his campaigning against oppression, crat Vladimir Putin, said The Daily Telegraph one who simply does not (U.K.). He ran for the Russian presidency in give a damn. Tosches saw Bukovsky earned 12 years in prisons and psychiat- 2007 but was disqualified by the Kremlin. Seven something of himself in his years later, British police raided his home and subject. “Writing is a racket,” ric hospitals, during which he purloined 150 pages found child pornography on his laptop. Bukovsky he said. “Sincerity is a racket. insisted it had been planted by Moscow to dis- Everything’s a racket.” of psychiatric records exposing this mistreatment credit him; his trial was indefinitely postponed in 2018 because of his ill health. In his final years, THE WEEK November 15, 2019 of political prisoners. Smuggled to the West in Bukovsky lived almost as a recluse. “When you meet someone for the first time,” he once wrote of 1971, the pages triggered worldwide outrage, and his life after prison, “you inevitably view them as a future witness in your future trial.” the KGB eventually abandoned the practice. After the U.S. mediated his release in 1976, Bukovsky settled in Cambridge, England, where he continued his battle with the Kremlin and spoke of the hor- rors of captivity. “Time could crawl with agonizing slowness,” he said. “It would seem as if a whole Everett Collection, Newscom year had gone by, but no, it was still the same old month, and no end was in sight.” Born in the Urals town of Belebei, Bukovsky was “an inveterate dissident,” said The Washington Post. He was expelled from high school for edit- ing an unauthorized magazine and later booted

36 The last word Inside China’s ‘re-education’ camps More than a million Muslims are jailed in China’s gulags, said journalist David Stavrou in Haaretz Magazine. One refugee from Xinjiang province describes the torture, rape, and dehumanization she witnessed. TWENTY PRISONERS LIVE in one in Kazakhstan as soon as she received small room. They are hand- an exit visa, but one never arrived. cuffed, their heads are shaved, every move is monitored by ceiling “At the end of 2016, the police cameras. A bucket in the corner of the began arresting people at night, room is their toilet. The daily routine secretly,” Sauytbay related. “It was begins at 6 a.m. They are learning a socially and politically uncertain Chinese, memorizing propaganda period. Cameras appeared in every songs, and confessing to invented public space; the security forces sins. They range in age from teenag- stepped up their presence. At one ers to elderly. Their meals are meager: stage, DNA samples were taken cloudy soup and a slice of bread. from all members of minorities in the region and our telephone SIM cards Torture—metal nails, fingernails were taken from us.” pulled out, electric shocks—takes place in the “black room.” Punish- Naresh Jariwala* “In January 2017, they started ment is a constant. The prisoners are Sauytbay: ‘I knew I would die, and I could not accept this.’ to take people who had relatives forced to take pills and get injections. abroad,” Sauytbay says. “They came It’s for disease prevention, the staff to my house at night, put a black tells them, but in reality they are the sack on my head, and brought me to human subjects of medical experi- a place that looked like a jail. I was ments. Many of the inmates suffer interrogated by police officers, who from cognitive decline. Some of the wanted to know where my husband men become sterile. Women are rou- and children were, and why they had tinely raped. gone to Kazakhstan. At the end of the interrogation I was ordered to This is life in China’s re-education tell my husband to come home, and camps, as reported in rare testimony I was forbidden to talk about the provided by Sayragul Sauytbay (pro- interrogation.” nounced Say-ra-gul Saut-bay, as in “bye”), a teacher who escaped from Sauytbay had heard that in similar China and was granted asylum in Sweden. ‘Ishe fell victim to China’s suppression of cases people who returned to China had Few prisoners have succeeded in getting been arrested immediately and sent to a out of the camps and telling their story. every sign of an isolationist thrust in the camp. With that in mind, she broke off Sauytbay’s testimony is even more extraor- northwestern province of Xinjiang. A large contact with her husband and children after dinary, because during her incarceration she number of camps have been established her release. She was repeatedly taken in for was compelled to be a teacher in the camp. in that region over the past two years, as nocturnal interrogations and falsely accused China wants to sell its camps to the world part of the regime’s struggle against what of various offenses. “I had to be strong,” as places of educational programs and it terms the Three Evils: terrorism, separat-she says. “Every day when I woke up, I vocational retraining, but Sauytbay is one ism, and extremism. According to Western thanked God that I was still alive.” of the few people who can offer credible, estimates, between 1 million and 2 million firsthand testimony about what really goes of the province’s residents have been incar- N NOVEMBER 2017, I was ordered to on in the camps. cerated in camps during Beijing’s campaign report to an address in the city’s sub- of oppression. urbs, to leave a message at a phone I met with Sauytbay three times, once in As a young woman, Sauytbay completed number I had been given, and to wait for Ellinor Collin for Haaretz a meeting arranged by a Swedish Uighur medical studies and worked in a hospital. the police.” After Sauytbay arrived at the association and twice, after she agreed to Subsequently, she turned to education designated place and left the message, four tell her story to Haaretz, in personal inter- and was employed in the service of the armed men in uniform arrived, again cov- views that took place in Stockholm and state, in charge of five preschools. Even ered her head, and bundled her into a vehi- lasted several hours, all together. Sauytbay though she was in a settled situation, she cle. Following an hour’s journey, she arrived spoke only Kazakh, and so we communi- and her husband had planned for years to in an unfamiliar place that she soon learned cated via a translator. During most of the leave China with their two children and was a “re-education” camp, which would time we spoke, she was composed, but at move to neighboring Kazakhstan. But the become her prison in the months that fol- the height of her recounting of the horror, plan encountered delays, and in 2014 the lowed. She was told she had been brought tears welled up in her eyes. authorities began collecting the passports there in order to teach Chinese and was of civil servants, Sauytbay’s among them. immediately made to sign a document that She is 43, a Muslim of Kazakh descent, Two years later, just before passports from set forth her duties and the camp’s rules. who grew up in Mongolküre County, near the Chinese-Kazakh border. Like hundreds the entire population were confiscated, her “I was very much afraid to sign,” Sauytbay of thousands of others, most of them husband was able to leave the country with recalls. “It said there that if I did not fulfill Uighurs, a minority ethnic Turkic group, the children. Sauytbay hoped to join them my task, or if I did not obey the rules, I THE WEEK November 15, 2019

The last word 37 would get the death penalty. The document Naresh Jariwala*Sauytbay says she witnessed medical proce- SAYRAGUL SAUYTBAY’S STORY took a stated that it was forbidden to speak with dures being carried out on inmates with no surprising turn in March 2018, when Getty the prisoners, forbidden to laugh, forbidden justification. She thinks they were done as with no prior announcement she was to cry, and forbidden to answer questions part of human experiments that were carried informed that she was being released. Again from anyone. I signed because I had no out in the camp systematically. “The inmates her head was covered with a black sack, choice, and then I received a uniform and would be given pills or injections. They again she was bundled into a vehicle, but was taken to a tiny bedroom with a con- were told it was to prevent diseases, but the this time she was taken home. At first the crete bed and a thin, plastic mattress. There nurses told me secretly that the pills were orders were clear: She was to resume her were five cameras on the ceiling—one in dangerous and that I should not take them.” former position as director of five pre- each corner and another one in the middle.” schools in her home region of Aksu, and “The pills had different kinds of effects. she was instructed not to say a word about The other inmates, those who weren’t bur- Some prisoners were cognitively weakened. what she had been through. On her third dened with teaching duties, endured more Women stopped getting their period and day back on the job, however, she was fired stringent conditions. “There were almost men became sterile.” (That, at least, was a and again brought in for interrogation. She 20 people in a room of 16 square meters widely circulated rumor.) was accused of treason and of maintaining [172 square feet],” she says. “There were ties with people abroad. The punishment cameras in their rooms too, and also in the A re-education camp in Xinjiang for people like her, she was told, was re- corridor. Each room had a plastic bucket for education, only this time she would be a a toilet. Every prisoner was given two min- The fate of the women in the camp was regular inmate in a camp and remain there utes a day to use the toilet, and the bucket particularly harsh, Sauytbay notes: “On for a period of one to three years. was emptied only once a day. The prison- an everyday basis the policemen took the ers wore uniforms and their heads were pretty girls with them, and they didn’t come “I was told that before being sent to the shaved. Their hands and feet were shackled back to the rooms all night. The police camp, I should return home so as to show all day, except when they had to write. had unlimited power. They could take my successor the ropes,” she says. “At this Even in sleep they were shackled, and they whomever they wanted. There were also stage I hadn’t seen my children for 2½ years, were required to sleep on their right side— cases of gang rape. In one of the classes I and I missed them very much. Having anyone who turned over was punished.” taught, one of those victims entered half already been in a camp, I knew I would die an hour after the start of the lesson. The there, and I could not accept that.” Sauytbay had to teach the prisoners—who police ordered her to sit down, but she just were Uighur or Kazakh speakers—Chinese couldn’t do it, so they took her to the black Sauytbay decided that she was not going and Communist Party propaganda songs. room for punishment.” back to a camp. “I said to myself that if I There were specified hours for learning was already fated to die, at least I was going propaganda songs and reciting slogans Tears stream down Sauytbay’s face when to try to escape. It was worth my while to from posters: “I love China,” “Thank you she tells the grimmest story from her time take the risk because of the chance that I to the Communist Party,” “I am Chinese,” in the camp. “One day, the police told us would be able to see my children. There and “I love Xi Jinping”—China’s president. they were going to check to see whether were police stationed outside my apartment, Sauytbay estimates that there were about our re-education was succeeding, whether and I didn’t have a passport, but even so, I 2,500 inmates in the camp. The oldest per- we were developing properly. They took tried. I got out through a window and fled son she met was a woman of 84; the young- 200 inmates outside, men and women, and to the neighbors’ house. From there I took est, a boy of 13. “There were schoolchil- told one of the women to confess her sins. a taxi to the border with Kazakhstan, and dren and workers, businessmen and writers, She stood before us and declared that she I managed to sneak across. In Kazakhstan nurses and doctors, artists and simple peas- had been a bad person, but now that she I found my family. My dream came true. I ants who had never been to the city.” had learned Chinese she had become a bet- could not have received a greater gift.” ter person. When she was done speaking, The camp’s commanders set aside a room the policemen ordered her to disrobe and But the saga did not end there: Immediately for torture, Sauytbay relates, which the simply raped her one after the other, in after her emotional reunion with her fam- inmates dubbed the black room because it front of everyone. While they were raping ily, she was arrested by Kazakhstan’s secret was forbidden to talk about it explicitly. her, they checked to see how we were react- service and incarcerated for nine months for “There were all kinds of tortures there. ing. People who turned their head or closed having crossed the border illegally. Three Some prisoners were hung on the wall and their eyes, and those who looked angry or times she submitted a request for asylum, beaten with electrified truncheons. There shocked, were taken away and we never and three times she was turned down; she were prisoners who were made to sit on a saw them again. It was awful. I will never faced the danger of being extradited to chair of nails. I saw people return from that forget the feeling of helplessness, of not China. But after relatives contacted several room covered in blood. Some came back being able to help her. After that happened, media outlets, international organizations without fingernails.” it was hard for me to sleep at night.” intervened, and in the end she was granted asylum in Sweden. On one occasion, Sauytbay herself was punished. “One night, about 70 new “I will never forget the camp,” Sauytbay prisoners were brought to the camp,” says. “I cannot forget the eyes of the prison- she recalls. “One of them was an elderly ers, expecting me to do something for them. Kazakh woman who hadn’t even had time They are innocent. I have to tell their story, to take off her shoes. She spotted me as to tell about the darkness they are in, about being Kazakh and asked for my help. She their suffering.” begged me to get her out of there, and she embraced me. I did not reciprocate her Excerpted from an article that originally embrace, but I was punished anyway. I was appeared in Haaretz Magazine. Used with beaten and deprived of food for two days.” permission. THE WEEK November 15, 2019

38 The Puzzle Page Crossword No. 527: Child’s Play by Matt Gaffney The Week Contest 12345 6789 10 11 12 This week’s question: Scientists have identified the world’s loudest bird: the male white bellbird of the 13 14 15 16 Amazon rain forest, which has a squawk as loud as a pile driver. In its mating ritual, the male bellbird shouts 17 18 19 its thunderous song directly into the face of a female. If there were a book about the bellbird’s dating strategy, 20 21 22 what could it be titled? Last week’s contest: A Chinese hitman hired to murder a 23 24 25 26 27 businessman’s competitor hired another assassin to do the job. After a series of other attempts to subcontract the 28 29 30 killing, which never occurred, five men were convicted of attempted murder. Please come up with the name of a 31 32 33 34 movie about this tale of outsourcing assassins. THE WINNER: “Slay It Forward” 35 36 37 38 Janine Witte, New Hope, Pa. SECOND PLACE: “Six Degrees of Assassination” 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Dorinda Palmisano, Massapequa, N.Y. THIRD PLACE: “Hit Takes A Village” 47 48 49 50 51 Corinne Duerkop, Land O’ Lakes, Wis. For runners-up and complete contest rules, please go to 52 53 54 Naresh Jariwala* theweek.com/contest. How to enter: Submissions should be emailed to contest 55 56 @theweek.com. Please include your name, address, and daytime telephone number for verification; this week, 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 type “Bird song” in the subject line. Entries are due by noon, Eastern Time, Tuesday, Nov. 12. Winners will appear 64 65 66 on the Puzzle Page next issue and at 67 68 69 theweek.com/puzzles on Friday, Nov. 15. In the case of identical or similar entries, ACROSS 55 Drescher of The Nanny 19 Longtime Law & the first one received gets credit. HMRS 1 Art class substances 56 Ikea’s country Order: SVU actor 6 Mr. Malek 57 Fittingly parachuting WThe winner gets a one-year 21 Isn’t truthful with subscription to The Week. 10 ___ 500 (NASCAR race birds on the “P” page, 23 Radiologist’s named for a sponsor) in P.D. Eastman’s 1971 Sudoku classic The Alphabet technique, briefly 13 Picture made with tiles Book 24 Beatty in Rudy Fill in all the 15 Contemptible 59 More sore 25 Night, poetically boxes so that 16 Be in the red 64 Partner of parks 26 Indicate each row, column, 17 Someone who really 65 Refusal to lose 27 Tiny bird and outlined 66 Medium strength? 29 Structure seen at square includes needs to get a clue 67 “Well done!” all the numbers 18 What the lion is licking, 68 Stats for Anthony Chichén Itzá from 1 through 9. Rendon 30 2001 drama directed on the “L” page in 69 Letters sung slowly Difficulty: Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An instead of quickly by Michael Mann hard Amazing Alphabet in a controversial 33 Tiny bit Book new version of “The 36 Dancing With the Stars Find the solutions to all The Week’s puzzles online: www.theweek.com/puzzle. 20 Solution for contacts Alphabet Song”—and 22 Buckwheat or barley, that start our theme co-host Andrews ©2019. All rights reserved. e.g. entries 37 Michael of Saturday The Week (ISSN 1533-8304) is published weekly with an additional issue in 23 What the “M” stands October, except for one week in each January, June, July, and September. for in 2018’s P is for DOWN Night Live The Week is published by The Week Publications, Inc., 155 East 44th Street, 22nd fl., Pterodactyl: The Worst 1 Baseball bosses, 38 Virgil at the O.K. Corral New York, NY 10017. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional Alphabet Book Ever briefly 39 Country club instructor mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to The Week, PO Box 27 Create, as a web 2 Grinning-and-crying 40 Like short movies, back 37252, Boone, IA 50037-0252. One-year subscription rates: U.S. $150; Canada $180; 28 Payback emoji’s message all other countries $218 in prepaid U.S. funds. Publications Mail Agreement 29 Soul mate 3 Put into practice in the day No. 40031590, Registration No. 140467846. Return Undeliverable Canadian 31 Proposition 4 French water 41 Amends for sin Addresses to P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6. 32 Pizzazz 5 Squashes, maybe 44 Manx or Devon rex, The Week is a member of The New York Times News Service, The Washington 34 Where some docs work 6 Item in a museum Post/Bloomberg News Service, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services, and 35 What “N” stands for, in 7 Stratford’s river e.g. subscribes to The Associated Press. Lois Ehlert’s 1989 book 8 Marathon unit 45 “Here’s how I view it,” Eating the Alphabet 9 ___-advised (foolish) 39 They have 53 sens. online 42 1970s title role for Valerie 10 Meadow of northern 46 ___ Spiegel (German 43 Corrosive substance New Jersey 47 Little outfit newsmagazine) 49 Craft with knots 11 Like a golfer who 48 Show off your pipes 52 Stalin’s predecessor starts the round with a 50 Zones 53 This creature, whose double bogey 51 ___ culture name means “egg 53 Take responsibility thief,” is the “O” in Jerry 12 Some like them hot 54 Sweaters, sometimes Pallotta’s The Dinosaur 14 Surname in a Chinese 56 iPhone helper Alphabet Book 58 “That’s awful news!” restaurant chain 60 Bad actor 61 Traveler’s stop 62 The Name of the Rose novelist Umberto 63 Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, e.g. THE WEEK November 15, 2019 Sources: A complete list of publications cited inThe Week can be found at theweek.com/sources.

Animal Magic Grey Cat EHRMAN NEEDLEPOINT KITS Suzanne Gyseman’s animals are charming, whimsical and fun and they make wonderful needlepoint designs. In our busy world stitching one of these canvases is a great way to unwind. Like reading a book you can do it at a pace to suit yourself and with only one simple stitch involved you don’t need to be an expert to get started. Owl Badger Naresh Jariwala* The kits come complete with all Tabby Cat the 100% pure new All designs measure 15”x 15” and are wool required, a printed on 10 holes to the inch canvas. needle, a simple instruction booklet $97.00 each and the 100% cotton canvas with the design printed in color. There is also a color chart as an additional guide if needed. Ehrman TAPE STRY Toll Free Order Line: 888.826.8600 www.ehrmantapestry.com