Новости за 02.03.2021

Marches and mobs in Washington, D.C., have been much on the minds of Americans of late. So, too, for James Weldon Johnson in 1930, when the longtime secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People crafted the poem “St. Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day.” First published that year in a private printing of only 200 copies and then in 1935 to a larger audience, Johnson’s remarkable six-page creation warrants our reading now as the FBI pursues hundreds of... Читать дальше...

In 2013, Jose Luis Vaello-Madero moved back to Puerto Rico. He had lived and worked in New York since 1985. His wife had already moved back to the island for medical reasons; now he would join her there to help take care of her. By then, he had developed health problems as well. And so, like millions of other Americans, he sought and received benefits under the Supplemental Security Income program that his taxes had helped fund over the years.

The morning after the 2016 election, in a tidy, scenic park along the Hudson River, I met up with Sarah Marchando, a plaintiff in a class action suit against the city of New York alleging constitutional rights violations in the enforcement of anti-prostitution laws. We chose the place because it seemed the police were less likely to bother her there. “It has been to a point where I have come home from Rikers Island and caught a case less than two days later,” she had told me in an interview, describing... Читать дальше...

Last September, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who relishes undermining subordinate local politicians and interjecting himself into the management of his state’s largest city, complained about how dirty New York City was getting. Residential garbage collection had slowed, due to Department of Sanitation budget cuts, while residential trash had increased, now that hundreds of thousands of people were spending all day, every day, at home.

When Merrick Garland testified last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee to be confirmed as attorney general, he offered, among other things, that he was committed to showing “respect” for “the professionalism of [the Justice Department]’s career employees,” and that one of his principal priorities would be to protect these employees from partisan interference. This was not surprising. As a class, career officials have been simultaneously lionized and infantilized over the last four years. Читать дальше...

My morning newspapers were so transfixed by Sunday night’s vindictive speech by the president who lost reelection in November that they neglected to take note of Sunday night’s historic remarks by the president who’s running the country right now. Perhaps it was just a matter of early Sunday print deadlines, but I observe with interest that USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, and Axios didn’t post their stories about Biden’s remarks online until this morning.

Ten years ago, Donald Trump gave a speech at CPAC that electrified his fans and teased a future run for the presidency. On Sunday, he did it again. An extraordinary decade in American politics and American life perfectly bookended. Somehow, despite all that’s happened, we’re back where we started—wondering what Trump will do next. But it’s the wrong question, and Trump knows it. His rise as a political figure depended first upon Republican ambivalence and then upon their willingness to embrace... Читать дальше...