Новости за 09.10.2020

This has probably been Joe Biden’s best week since Super Tuesday. Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is imploding, Biden’s lead is expanding (by 10.2 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight’s poll of polls), and he appears to have a sizable advantage in key swing states. Georgia and Texas may very well be in play. Kamala Harris’s performance in Wednesday’s vice presidential debate, which was fine, has already been forgotten, subsumed by the usual flood of Trump news. Biden can simply sit back and... Читать дальше...

Much attention has rightly been paid to the millions of people whose loss of employment this year also meant a loss of health insurance, a terrible thing to happen at any time but especially during a pandemic. The flip side of the story is that health insurance is often terrible and expensive even for those who do have it. The Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual survey of employer-provided health insurance, published this week, found that premiums for family plans reached $21,342 this year, 4 percent... Читать дальше...

The first time Mariah Carey sang on television in her whistle register—the very tippy-top of the human vocal range, higher than a falsetto—was during a performance of “America the Beautiful” at Game One of the 1990 NBA finals, around the time she released her first single, “Vision of Love.” When a singer sings this high, the epiglottis closes over the larynx, making the mechanics impossible to film with a medical camera and therefore beyond scientific study. The sound is a little otherworldly... Читать дальше...

It’s been a week since we learned that the president and first lady both tested positive for Covid-19, right after appearing at a series of possible superspreader events, including the largely mask-free feting of Amy Coney Barrett in the White House Rose Garden and a high-dollar fundraiser at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. While Melania sequestered in the White House to wait out her quarantine (and conveniently avoid a burgeoning scandal over some leaked audiotapes), Donald began what... Читать дальше...

Donald Trump has, for most of the pandemic, merely abetted the spread of the coronavirus—through what has alternately been called “misinformation,” incompetence, and “stupidity.” His indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, led to the death of former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, and an outdoor fete for Supreme Court appointee Amy Coney Barrett appears to have infected dozens of Republican senators and administration officials. Now, with one month to go before the election, he seems intent on becoming a superspreader himself. Читать дальше...

A man writes a book. It is, he feels, “a kind of outpouring,” written from the same impulse “that makes him sing or try to go to bed with all beautiful ladies.” But then the critics blame the book for not being great.