#James Traub

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“Liberalism always finds itself beleaguered at a moment of radical polarization,” journalist and historian James Traub writes in his deft and thoughtful biography of Hubert Humphrey to be published next month. While the right wing has organized around the destruction of liberalism and the far left denounces liberals as gutless sellouts, Traub argues that studying the life of Humphrey—the late mayor of Minneapolis, senator, and vice president—is instructive, cautionary, and inspiring. His thesis is correct on all three counts. Despite the powerful position of liberals in government, including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, liberalism has descended to a cultural nadir. Unpopular and misunderstood among the authoritarian right and socialist left, liberals must defend themselves against the self-contradictory accusations that they are intent on “destroying America,” in the words of Donald Trump and his right-wing media acolytes and that they are cowardly guardians of the status quo who, to quote independent presidential candidate Cornel West, offer nothing but “self-righteousness against Donald Trump.”

[Washington Monthly]

[mauriciomeschoulam]

Ucrania, la OTAN y misiles sobre Polonia

No sucedió, afortunadamente. Pero si algo quedó claro entre el martes y el miércoles pasados, es que no es imposible que la guerra en Ucrania escale y que, si eso llega a suceder, estaríamos ante un territorio desconocido con varios escenarios de alto riesgo en frente. Es natural: en la medida en que esta guerra se siga prolongando, y en la medida en que cada parte se atrinchera en sus posiciones, las posibilidades de negociación disminuyen, se permite crecer a una espiral de violencia que solo asciende y se alimenta una dinámica que se sale de las manos de todas las partes. Son las circunstancias las que les obligan a responder de modos que quizás no desearían o que su cálculo indicaría erróneos. Revalore esta situación de la semana: la Prensa Asociada (una fuente suficientemente confiable) reporta que un funcionario de inteligencia estadounidense acaba de decir que “misiles rusos” cruzaron hacia Polonia—país miembro de la OTAN—explotaron y mataron a dos ciudadanos inocentes. Una situación así, comprensiblemente, activa todos los miedos, todas las respuestas imaginarias, todos los cálculos—los fríos y los mucho más reactivos—no solo en las mentes de una audiencia global apanicada, sino en la de seres humanos que tienen la toma de decisiones en sus manos. Van unos comentarios al respecto.

Repliegue ruso de Kherson, nueva estrategia: líneas de defensa y bombardeos masivos

Como sabemos, las derrotas rusas se han venido encadenando. Inicialmente, el ejército ruso tuvo que abandonar la zona de Kiev ante su incapacidad para tomar la capital y se concentró en el este y el sur del país. Posteriormente Rusia tuvo varias semanas de lentas y dolorosas victorias, pero victorias, al fin y al cabo, lo que le permitió asegurar una quinta parte del territorio ucraniano y enfocarse en una estrategia de fragmentación y asfixia del país. Pero en septiembre, sobrevinieron dos ofensivas ucranianas paralelas que arrebataron a Moscú el control del noreste y le presionaron fuertemente en el sur, en la capital provincial de Kherson. Ante la imposibilidad de conservar siquiera ese sitio militar y políticamente valioso, Moscú lo abandonó sin defenderlo hace unos días. Ese fue un dolorosísimo repliegue táctico del Kremlin—puesto que se abandona la capital de uno de los sitios que apenas hace unas semanas Moscú anexó a la Federación Rusa, sin mencionar las críticas internas en Rusia contra su ejército y ya contra el propio Putin—en aras de una nueva estrategia mayor.

Esta estrategia consiste de:

1. Intentar ya no perder más territorio. Reforzar nuevas líneas de defensa atrás, en todas las zonas del sur y del este ucranianos que siguen en poder de Rusia, enviando ahí a las decenas de miles de tropas que Moscú ha venido reclutando y preparando estas semanas.

2. Resistir los largos meses de invierno que dificultarán las nuevas contraofensivas ucranianas.

3. Bombardear masivamente a las ciudades ucranianas y su infraestructura civil con el fin de, justo en pleno invierno, golpear la moral ucraniana y su capacidad de resistencia y así, finalmente orillar a Kiev a negociar bajo términos aceptables para Moscú.

Prolongación y riesgos de escalada

La anterior estrategia se topará, naturalmente, con el ímpetu, hasta ahora inquebrantable, de Ucrania por no solo resistir los bombardeos, sino por recuperar cada palmo de su territorio. Entre ese ímpetu, los reajustes que pueda hacer Rusia y las propias condiciones climáticas en el terreno, no podemos esperar otra cosa que la continuación de esta guerra durante, al menos, varios meses más.

A esto debemos sumar que, por ahora, no parece haber voluntad de las partes para negociar. Cada una de ellas considera que es posible extraer más de la otra mediante la prolongación de las hostilidades. Según estudios de opinión, 9 de cada 10 ucranianos se opone a conceder siquiera una pulgada de territorio a Rusia (Instituto Sociología Kiev, 2022). Pero no solo eso, su ejército hasta hoy, está demostrando que sus deseos de reconquista son viables. Del otro lado, Putin no cuenta, hasta ahora, con una estrategia de salida que no implique obligar a Kiev a negociar bajo términos que sean aceptables para Moscú.

Estas circunstancias alimentan la espiral ascendente de violencia, la lógica acción-reacción que fuerza a las partes a seguir adelante, y, por tanto, la cual mantiene las puertas abiertas a escaladas mayores.

La OTAN: un ataque a uno, equivale a un ataque a todos los miembros

El martes pasado vimos una muestra de un evento enteramente plausible: un bombardeo masivo de Rusia contra ciudades e infraestructura civil ucraniana, el mayor hasta la fecha. De pronto, declaraciones de “un funcionario de inteligencia estadounidense” que indicaban que, al parecer, un par de misiles rusos, habrían caído en territorio polaco matando a dos personas. Dado que un ataque contra un miembro podría interpretarse como un ataque a todos y cada uno de los países de la alianza, los protocolos de la OTAN fueron inmediatamente activados. El gobierno polaco convocó a reuniones de emergencia y puso a su ejército en estado de alerta. A pesar de que el Pentágono actuó con suma cautela y declaró que no entraría en especulaciones hasta no tener evidencia clara de lo sucedido, el presidente Biden comenzó consultas con diversos aliados. Se convocó a una reunión urgente en Bruselas para analizar la situación. Y claro, el pánico cundió en medios y redes en todo el planeta. ¿Se trataba de un accidente o de un ataque deliberado? Rusia declaraba con ahínco que el Kremlin no tenían nada que ver con el evento; “una provocación”, decían. Zelensky, en cambio, afirmaba que claramente Moscú estaba arrastrando a la OTAN al conflicto con toda intención.

Al final, las autoridades de Polonia y la OTAN declararon que, si bien el misil que cayó era de “fabricación rusa” (los cuales existen en el arsenal ucraniano), el origen no estaba en Rusia, sino probablemente en el escudo defensivo ucraniano. La crisis se desactivó.

Pero en este punto, solo con fines analíticos, le propongo imaginar que, siendo un evento plausible, la dirigencia de la OTAN hubiese determinado que, en efecto, el que cayó en Polonia era uno de los misiles que Rusia había enviado como parte de su bombardeo masivo de aquel día.

Los escenarios

Bajo ese supuesto, la OTAN habría tenido que definir velozmente si se habría tratado de un mero accidente (un misil ruso simplemente se desvió de su trayectoria, cosa que pasa frecuentemente en guerras de la actualidad), o bien, un ataque intencional (que quizás quiso dar la apariencia de un accidente pero que en realidad no lo fue).

La OTAN habría tenido que responder ante el hecho—sí o sí—buscando, probablemente, un equilibrio, entre enviar un poderoso mensaje a Putin sin, al mismo, tiempo, escalar las hostilidades hacia una situación incontrolable. Ello dependería por supuesto, del análisis de la intencionalidad de los hechos. Dependiendo de todo ello, el rango de respuestas podría correr entre, al menos, las siguientes, o una combinación de ellas (hay varias más que no menciono):

1. Un incremento de sanciones y aislamiento diplomático contra Rusia.

2. La decisión de, ahora sí, decretar una zona de exclusión aérea sobre el cielo ucraniano, zona que tendría que ser impuesta por parte de la OTAN, elevando el riesgo de enfrentamiento directo con aviones rusos. 3. Un ataque de represalia por parte de la OTAN, convencional y limitado, contra tropas rusas en Ucrania.

4. Un ataque de represalia por parte de la OTAN, probablemente también limitado, pero en contra de territorio ruso. Esta sería una respuesta recíproca, considerando que, en el supuesto que estoy planteando, Rusia habría atacado territorio OTAN.

5. O bien, la decisión de, finalmente, activar la presencia de tropas de la OTAN en territorio ucraniano, orillando con ello al arrastre de sus países miembros al conflicto de manera directa.

Todos esos escenarios conllevan escalamiento en distintos grados. La mayor probabilidad sería, sin duda, que se optaría por las respuestas que provocaran el menor escalamiento posible. Pero es indispensable considerar que dentro de la OTAN (y al interior de sus países miembros) existen muy diversas posturas. Hay países que son fronterizos con Rusia o con Ucrania, que se encuentran realmente temerosos de la expansión del conflicto, y que están intentando presionar todo el tiempo por respuestas más firmes y de fuerza contra Putin. Hay otros actores, como Macron o como el propio Biden, que están intentando hacer todo cuanto esté en sus manos por evitar una mayor escalada.

No obstante, prevalece y crece cada día la convicción de que solo la fuerza es capaz de disuadir a un rival como Putin. Posturas como las de Biden han recibido fuertes críticas pues, tanto con Rusia como con China, según se indica, muestran falta de determinación y, por tanto, invitan al rival a comportarse agresivamente.

Un escenario como el que describo, podría obligar, incluso a alguien como esos actores, a responder con una medida de fuerza, la cual a su vez, podría recibir contrarrespuestas por parte de Moscú, alimentando la espiral y activando justamente la dinámica que se busca evitar.

La conclusión obvia, y no simple de procesar, por supuesto, es que no se debe permitir que esta guerra opere, se prolongue y crezca bajo su vida y dinámica propias. Se necesita intervenir. Ya se ha intentado y se ha fracasado. Sin embargo, la conclusión de que no merece la pena seguirlo intentando, es insuficiente. Leo decenas de textos que argumentan en contra de cualquier clase de negociaciones o, como la llama James Traub en Foreign Policy: “diplomacia prematura”. Entiendo esos argumentos con todo detalle. El problema, no obstante, es que su análisis parte de eventos y supuestos históricos distintos a los actuales y se asume que lo ocurrido en guerras pasadas aplica casi de modo automático a una situación actual en la que múltiples partes se encuentran nuclearmente armadas. No es el caso. Lo de Polonia, el martes, fue una advertencia que se tiene que escuchar.

IG: @mauriciomesch

TW: @maurimm

19 de noviembre, 2022

[1337wtfomgbbq]

James baked as hell: So Niki... how you doin'?

Niki baked as hell: Sehr gur.

Niki: Gur.

Niki: Gurgurguuurrrr.

Niki: Ich bin eine Traube.

Niki: ICH BIN EINE TAUBE!!!

James: ???

[01courtreporter]

True Believer by James Traub | Hachette Book Group

Hachette Book Group

[whileiamdying]

Jane Birkin, Singer, Actress and Fashion Inspiration, Dies at 76

She was a lithe beauty of 1960s European film, a famous musical collaborator and lover of Serge Gainsbourg, and the namesake of elegant Hermès handbags.

By Constant Méheut and Alex Traub

Constant Méheut reported from Paris. Published July 16, 2023 Updated July 17, 2023, 11:53 a.m. ET

Jane Birkin, who helped define chic female sexuality of the 1970s as an actress in arty and erotic European movies and in her relationship — equal parts romantic and artistic — with the singer Serge Gainsbourg, died on Sunday in Paris. Ms. Birkin, who later became known for inspiring one of the best known lines of luxury handbags, was 76.

Her death was confirmed by President Emmanuel Macron of France, who called her “a French icon” in a message on Twitter. The French news media reported that Ms. Birkin had been found dead at her home but that the cause was not immediately known.

The child of a famously beautiful actress and a socially connected British naval officer, Ms. Birkin led a life guided by many happy accidents.

While she was on a flight in 1984, a plastic bag in which she was keeping her possessions broke, leading her to complain aloud that Hermès did not make a bag that could fit all her things. The man sitting next to her happened to be Jean-Louis Dumas, the chairman and head designer of Hermès. The company released the Birkin bag line the same year — in just the large size she had requested.

Standard Birkin bags now sell for $10,000, and the difficulties of obtaining one — given a complex manufacturing process and a deliberately rationed supply to boutiques — have given the bag the cachet of exclusivity.

Her relationship with Mr. Gainsbourg began just as fortuitously, in 1968. She was in her early 20s, her first marriage having fallen apart, when, without particular renown as an actress and without speaking a word of French, she managed to be cast in a French movie, “Slogan,” starring Mr. Gainsbourg.

The two fell in love, but Ms. Birkin did not see a way to remain long in France. Then, dining out one night, she had a chance encounter with the French director Jacques Deray, got hired to act in a movie of his, stayed in the country and solidified her relationship with Mr. Gainsbourg.

She lived in France for the rest of her life, and her engagement with Mr. Gainsbourg and his music proved equally enduring.

The most notable product of their collaboration and romance was their 1969 hit recording of Mr. Gainsbourg’s song “Je t’aime… moi non plus” (“I Love You… Me Neither”).

In the song, a duet, Mr. Gainsbourg speaks of sex in a low, conversational voice as Ms. Birkin confesses her love in suggestive murmurs and moans and the high-pitched singing of an ingénue.

The song was condemned by the Vatican and banned in several countries and by the B.B.C. television network. But it sold millions of copies.

Nearly 50 years later, in 2018, Ms. Birkin was still singing music by Mr. Gainsbourg, by then on a world tour of orchestral versions of his songs.

“If I am singing in Argentina in two weeks’ time,” she told The Guardian, “it is because of ‘Je t’aime.’”

Jane Mallory Birkin was born in London on Dec. 14, 1946, to Judy Campbell, an actress who gained renown for performing for British troops with Noël Coward during World War II, and Cmdr. David Birkin of the Royal Navy.

In 2021, her father’s exploits during World War II were recounted in “A Dangerous Enterprise,” a book by Tim Spicer, a former British military officer. Commander Birkin’s duties included navigating boats on moonless nights across the English Channel to bring to safety Allied spies, stranded airmen and escaped prisoners of war who had found themselves in France.

Ms. Birkin, at 18, married the British composer John Barry, known for arranging the trademark theme to James Bond movies, and they had a daughter, Kate. At 20, Ms. Birkin appeared in Michelangelo Antonioni’s hit 1966 movie, “Blow Up,” an erotic tale of a London fashion photographer. She played a fashion model — the credits listed her as only The Blonde — and gained some attention for a risqué nude scene.

“Had it all worked out with John Barry, I would never have been curious to know what was going on anywhere else,” Ms. Birkin told The Guardian in 2017. “I would have just gone on being his wife. I would have been delighted. But because he went off with someone else, and I was left with Kate, I had to find a job quite fast.”

That led to her audition for “Slogan.”

The movie that kept her in France was “La Piscine” (“The Swimming Pool”), starring Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. (It found unexpected renewed popularity in the United States in 2021.) A sun-soaked film of sex and jealousy with many shots of scantily clad actors, the movie proved to be an effective showcase for Ms. Birkin’s long-limbed beauty.

Her romance with Mr. Gainsbourg captivated the French public. She was the young doe-eyed expat, he the aging but still virile artistic genius. The relationship lasted for more than a decade, ending when she left him in the early 1980s for the French film director Jacques Doillon. Mr. Gainsbourg died in 1991 at 62.

Though Ms. Birkin would later speak self-deprecatingly about her role as Mr. Gainsbourg’s muse, she embraced becoming “the keeper of the Gainsbourg flame,” as The New York Times labeled her in 2018.

She described to The Times connections between the music he wrote for her and work by classical composers like Chopin and Brahms.

“I would have thought that he was probably France’s most modern writer,” she said. “He invented a new language, he cut words in two like Cole Porter.”

Ms. Birkin released “Oh! Pardon tu dormais…,” her first album of her own songs written in English, in 2021. “The results are an emotional tour de force from an artist who has never gotten her musical due outside of France,” the music writer Ben Cardew wrote in a review for Pitchfork.

Ms. Birkin also continued to act, including in films by Agnès Varda and plays by Patrice Chéreau. She was also popular in France as an activist for women’s and L.G.B.T.Q. rights as well as for her British accent when speaking French, which the French found endearing.

“The most Parisian of the English has left us,” the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, wrote in a message on Twitter on Sunday. “We will never forget her songs, her laughs and her incomparable accent.”

Ms. Birkin had a mild stroke in 2021 and had recently canceled a series of concerts because of health issues.

She is survived by two daughters, one with Mr. Gainsbourg and the other with Mr. Doillon: the singer-actresses Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon, each of whom has, like their mother, inspired designers and followers of fashion. Her other daughter, Kate Barry, a photographer, died at 46 in 2013 in a fall from a window of her fourth-floor Paris apartment.

Ms. Birkin discovered that her romantic separation from Mr. Gainsbourg did not dim their collaboration. He kept writing new songs intended for her until he died.

After their breakup, “you could talk back to him for once,” she told The Guardian. “You were not just his creation any more.”

Guy Trebay contributed reporting from New York.

[honeyleesblog]

June 27 ZODIAC

They are incredibly delicate, have an abnormally evolved feeling of equity, and strongly experience everything around them. They need an amicable climate to accomplish joy. Polite and serene individuals, they need to stay away from all errors and questions. They experience things a ton intellectually, have incredible instinct, and show an inclination for otherworldly turn of events, as well as a yearning to help humankind. Lovely, amicable, they appreciate home life, yet are great at difficult work. They have a profoundly evolved creative mind and their personality is eccentric. They are close to home individuals, albeit reckless. They will generally believe a great deal, which frequently neutralizes them. They have close to zero familiarity with the characters of others and their attitude is trusting, cherishing, prepared to do profound sentiments. Be that as it may, they are very unsteady in character, they appreciate extravagance and solace. Moreover, they are significantly affected by the other gender, which at times doesn't function admirably. In affection, they will frequently track down stresses, and they can begin their exotic life very early. They experience explosions of desire and negative emergencies. His body isn't extremely safe. Being conceived today carries with it the chance of gastric sicknesses that increment with age. They generally make progress in the second piece of their life. The first is typically brimming with ineffective endeavors. June 27 ZODIAC 

 On the off chance that your birthday is June 27, your zodiac sign is Disease June 27 - character and character character: cautious, kindhearted, keen, extreme, unfortunate, inconsistent calling: artist, bricklayer, driver tones: dark, yellow, child blue stone: peridot creature: turtle plant: Jacaranda tree fortunate numbers: 1,12,34,36,47,59 very fortunate number: 24 Occasions and observances - June 27 Mestizo Day, in Brazil Columnist's Day, in Venezuela Miniature, Little and Medium Ventures Day Scholar's Day, in Argentina Global Day of Deafblindness, proclaimed as a recognition for the introduction of Helen Keller. Recognition Day to the Survivors of Psychological warfare, in Spain. June 27 Big name birthday events. Who was conceived that very day as you? 1900: Magda Entrance, Peruvian essayist (f. 1989). 1904: Alberta Vaughn, American entertainer (d. 1992). 1905: Lev Kassil, Russian essayist (d. 1970). 1906: Erich Traub, German researcher and virologist (d. 1985). 1907: John McIntire, American entertainer (d. 1991). 1908: Joao Guimaraes Rosa, Brazilian essayist (d. 1967). 1908: Charles Leslie Stevenson, American rationalist (d. 1979). 1914: Robert Aickman, English essayist (d. 1981). 1914: Giorgio Almirante, Italian government official (d. 1988). 1914: Carlos Pareja Paz Soldდ¡n, Peruvian legal adviser (d. 1943). 1915: John Gregory Hawkes, English botanist (d. 2007). 1915: Hდ©ctor Calegaris, Argentine mariner. 1917: Joao Murდ§a Pires, Brazilian botanist (d. 1994). 1919: Manuel Ballester Boix, Spanish physicist (f. 2005). 1919: Marდ­a del Socorro Blanc Ruiz, Mexican legal advisor and lawmaker (d. 2009). 1920: Fernando Riera, Chilean soccer player and mentor (d. 2010). 1922: Silvia Pineiro, Chilean entertainer (f. 2003). 1924: Rodrigo Fernდ¡ndez-Carvajal, Spanish teacher and legal adviser (f. 1997). 1926: Eloy Linares Mდ¡laga, Peruvian student of history (d. 2011). 1927: Gracia Barrios, Chilean painter. 1927: Sway Keeshan, American entertainer (d. 2004). 1927: Cecilio Valverde Mazuelas, Spanish legal advisor and lawmaker (f. 2001). 1928: James Lincoln Collier, American columnist. 1929: William Afflis, American grappler and soccer player (d. 1991). 1929: Modesto Llamas Gil, Spanish craftsman. 1929: Peter Maas, American columnist (d. 2001). 1929: Raდºl Spirits Adriasola, Chilean government official (f. 1999). 1930: Augusto Olivares, Chilean columnist (d. 1973). 1930: Ross Perot, American government official and money manager. 1931: Restituto Cabrera Flores, Peruvian specialist and progressive (f. 1967). 1931: Martinus JG Veltman, Dutch physicist, 1999 Nobel Prize victor for physical science. 1932: Anna Moffo, American soprano (d. 2006). 1932: Magali Noდ«l, Turkish-French entertainer and artist (d. 2015). 1932: Josდ© Fდ©lix Pons, Spanish columnist (f. 2013). 1934: Peter Shaw Ashton, English botanist and moderate. 1934: Alberto Bevilacqua, Italian producer (d. 2013). 1934: Robert Rosen, American researcher (f. 1998). 1936: Lucille Clifton, American writer (d. 2010). 1936: Ricardo Ffrench-Davis, Chilean business analyst. 1937: Jesდºs Hermida, Spanish columnist and moderator (d. 2015). 1937: Vladimir Herzog, Brazilian columnist (d. 1975). 1938: Kathryn Beaumont, English entertainer and artist. 1939: Nilton Cდ©sar, Brazilian artist lyricist. 1939: Rahul Dev Burman, Indian writer (d. 1994). 1939: Sergio Karakachoff, Argentine legal advisor, writer and lawmaker (d. 1976). 1940: Silvia Santelices, Chilean entertainer. 1941: Josდ© Luis Cea Egana, Chilean legal advisor. 1941: Krzysztof Kieვ›lowski, Clean producer (d. 1996). 1941: Alfonso Nდºnez Lapeira, Colombian legislator. 1942: Bruce Johnston, American performer, of the band The Ocean side Young men. 1942: Antonio Munguდ­a, Mexican soccer player. 1943: Henriette Bichonnier, French author. 1943: Carlos Mejდ­a Godoy, Nicaraguan performer and arranger. 1943: დ?ngel Parra, Chilean vocalist lyricist (d. 2017). 1944: Josდ© Jorge Gonzდ¡lez, Uruguayan soccer player (d. 1991). 1947: Cდ©sar Antonio Santis, Chilean TV have. 1949: Rafael Chirbes, Spanish author (d. 2015). 1949: Dierdre Snijman, South African botanist. 1949: Francisco Serrano, Mexican artist. 1949: Vera Wang, American skater and architect. 1950: Eulogio Dდ­az del Corral, Spanish author and craftsman. 1950: Julio Fraile Merino, Spanish scientist. 1951: Mary McAleese, Irish legislator and president. 1953: Marco Abbondanza, Italian specialist and ophthalmologist. 1954: Juan Burgos Ladrდ³n de Guevara, Spanish law specialist. 1954: Pilar Cisneros, Peruvian writer. 1955: Isabelle Adjani, French entertainer and vocalist. 1955: Fernando Araდºjo Perdomo, Colombian legislator. 1956: Larry Christiansen, American chess player. 1956: Scott Cunningham, American author (d. 1993). 1956: Ted Run down, American minister. 1957: Gabriella Dorio, Italian competitor. 1957: Geir Ivarsoy, Norwegian PC researcher (d. 2006). 1957: Carlos Monti, Argentine writer. 1958: Jim Cartwright, English dramatist and entertainer. 1958: Juan Caballero Lora, Peruvian soccer player. 1958: Guillermo Fernდ¡ndez Vara, Spanish legislator. 1958: Lisa Germano, American performer, of the groups OP8 and Eels. 1958: Magnus Lindberg, Finnish arranger and piano player. 1958: Eduardo Osorio, Mexican author. 1959: Francisco Bonet Serrano, Spanish footballer. 1959: Dan Jurgens, American author and artist. 1959: Imprint Williams, English entertainer, comic and moderator. 1960: David Cholmondeley, English blue-blood. 1960: Craig Hodges, American b-ball player. 1960: Axel Rudi Pell, German guitarist. 1961: Malდ­ Guzmდ¡n, Uruguayan author of kids' writing. 1962: Michael Ball, English entertainer and vocalist. 1962: Adriდ¡n Chდ¡vez, Mexican soccer player. 1962: Ollanta Humala, Peruvian legislator and military man, neoliberal leader of his country. 1962: Tony Leung, entertainer from Hong Kong. 1964: Throw Individual, American b-ball player. 1965: Juanjo Artero, Spanish entertainer. 1965: Pablo Bengoechea, Uruguayan soccer player. 1965: Trifon Ivanov, Bulgarian footballer. 1966: JJ Abrams, American movie producer. 1966: Gabriel Abrines, Spanish b-ball player. 1966: Fabiდ¡n Carrizo, Argentine footballer. 1966: Paul Martin, Peruvian entertainer. 1966: Mercedes Paz, Argentine tennis player. 1966: Juliდ¡n Weich, Argentine TV have. 1967: Sofდ­o Ramდ­rez Hernდ¡ndez, Mexican lawmaker. 1968: Miqui Puig, Spanish performer, of the band Los Sencillos. 1968: Milva Gauto, Paraguayan TV and radio personality. 1968: Hდ©ctor Sandarti, Guatemalan entertainer and guide living in Mexico. 1969: Santi Amodeo, Spanish movie producer. 1969: Javier Crowns, Spanish comedian. 1969: Alessandro Esseno, Italian author. 1969: Chiqui Fernდ¡ndez, Spanish entertainer. 1969: Draco Rosa performer of Puerto Rican beginning. 1970: Andy Chango, Argentine performer. 1970: Cecily von Ziegesar, American writer. 1971: Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah, Nepalese lord. 1971: Jason Cropper, American guitarist, of the band Weezer. 1971: Jo Ice, author and English sitter. 1971: Marcelino Garcდ­a Alonso, Spanish cyclist. 1971: Serginho, Brazilian soccer player. 1972: Vდ­ctor Cancino, Chilean soccer player. 1973: Gustavo Campagnuolo, Argentine footballer. 1973: Olve Eikemo, Norwegian performer, of the groups Unfading and Old Memorial service. 1973: Francisca Gavilდ¡n, Chilean entertainer. 1973: George Hincapie, American cyclist. 1973: Gonzalo Lდ³pez-Gallego, Spanish movie producer. 1973: Cristina Mazas, Spanish lawmaker. 1974: Christian Kane, vocalist and American entertainer. 1974: Markus Zberg, Swiss cyclist. 1975: Asier Etxeandდ­a, Spanish entertainer and vocalist. 1975: Tobey Maguire, American entertainer. 1975: Esteban Suდ¡rez, Spanish soccer player. 1975: Bianca Del Rio, American cross dresser, entertainer and originator. 1976: Leigh Nash, American vocalist, of the band Sixpence No worse off. 1976: Wagner Moura, Brazilian entertainer. 1977: Dan Andriano, American bassist, of the band Soluble Triplet. 1977: Manuel Feijდ³o, Spanish entertainer and screenwriter. 1977: Galo Ghigliotto, Chilean author. 1977: Raდºl Gonzდ¡lez, Spanish soccer player. 1977: Arkadiusz Radomski, Clean footballer. 1977: Danijel ვ ariე‡, Bosnian handball player. 1977: Agustდ­n Torres Ibarrola, Mexican lawmaker. 1978: Malik Allen, American b-ball player. 1978: Inaki Bea Jauregi, Spanish footballer. 1979: Fabiano Lima Rodrigues, Brazilian soccer player. 1979: Lauren Michelle Slope, American model and entertainer. 1979: Fabrizio Miccoli, Italian footballer. 1980: Hugo Campagnaro, Argentine footballer. 1980: Allan Davis, Australian cyclist. 1980: Leandro Garcდ­a Spirits, Uruguayan b-ball player. 1981: Rubდ©n Castro, Spanish soccer player. 1981: Martina Garcდ­a, Colombian entertainer. 1981: Clდ©ber Santana,

[jewishbookworld]

Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy by James Traub

Judah Benjamin: Counselor to the Confederacy by James Traub

Jewish Lives A moral examination of one of the first Jewish senators, confidante to Jefferson Davis, and champion of the cause of slavery Judah P. Benjamin (1811–1884) was a brilliant and successful lawyer in New Orleans, and one of the first Jewish members of the U.S. Senate. He then served in the Confederacy as secretary of war and secretary of state, becoming the confidant and alter ego of…

[votenet-blog]

The Atlantic Politics & Policy Daily: ‘No’ Problem

The Atlantic Politics & Policy Daily: ‘No’ Problem

Source: The Atlantic

Andrew Harnik / AP

Written by Elaine Godfrey (@elainejgodfrey), Maddie Carlisle (@maddiecarlisle2), and Olivia Paschal (@oliviacpaschal)

Today in 5 Lines

When asked by a reporter on Wednesday whether Russia was still targeting the U.S., President Trump answered, “no.”White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later clarified Trump’s response, saying the “no” was in…

[leguin]

by request, some of the most interesting articles/reviews/obituaries of 2021:

“all work and no play” by sam adler bell | dissent magazine

“honoring a water warrior: how harry williams fought for paiute water rights in owens valley” by jeanine pfeiffer | kcet

“shitty men du jour: france’s literary #metoo” by madison mainwaring | the baffler

“where does it end?” by samuel stein | the baffler

“‘the water is coming’: florida keys faces stark reality as the seas rise” by oliver milman | the guardian

review of kevin richard martin’s return to solaris by jared dix | the quietus

“understanding the horror of slavery is impossible. but a simple cotton sack can bring us closer.” by rebecca onion | slate

“kip kinkel is ready to speak” by jessica schulberg | huffington post

“the anti-trans lobby’s real agenda” by jules-gill peterson

“did james plymell need to die?” by leah sottile | high country news

“big and slow” by elisa gabbert | real life

“a world where george floyd and ma’khia bryant would still be here is a world without police” by mariame kaba and andrea j. ritchie | newsone

“between a rock and a god place: rural oregon’s war on the homeless” by theo witcomb | the baffler

“lost and unfounded: will kafka’s work survive the distorted representations made in his name?” by judith butler | jewish currents

“celebrate the good news of the crab“ by daniel lavery | the chatner

“’i’m taking back what’s mine‘: the many lives of thandiwe newton” by diana evans | vogue

“i have one of the most advanced prosthetic arms in the world - and i hate it” by britt h. young | input mag

“‘their spirits were trapped in those masks’“ by avi steinberg | topic

“gay stories for straight allies” by huw lemmy | utopian drivel

“the memory war” by katie heaney | the cut

“built trades” by andrew yamakawa elrod | phenomenal world

“the internet is rotting” by jonathan zittrain | the atlantic

“do no harm: the complex ethics of portraying suicide” by jess mcallen | the baffler

“how the personal computer broke the human body” by laine nooney | vice

“community service: inside the native tribe transforming justice” by abacki beck | bitchmedia

“when ‘foundation’ gets the blockbuster treatment, isaac asimov’s vision gets lost” by julian lucas | the new yorker

“gary bettman & the nhl are who we thought they were” by sean gentille | the athletic

“iohan gueorguiev, ‘bike wanderer’ of the wilderness, dies at 33″ by alex traub | the new york times

“the dying art of the blockbuster film trailer” by merryana salem | kill your darlings

“vanishing: a bond across centuries” by daniel hudon | the revelator

“loving lies” by bill adair | airmail

[skonnaris]

Books I’ve Read: 2006-2019

Alexie, Sherman - Flight

Anderson, Joan - A Second Journey

                          - An Unfinished Marriage

                          - A Walk on the Beach

                          - A Year By The Sea

Anshaw, Carol - Carry the One

Auden, W.H. - The Selected Poems of W.H. Auden

Austen, Jane - Pride and Prejudice

Bach, Richard - Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Bear, Donald R - Words Their Way

Berg, Elizabeth - Open House

Bly, Nellie - Ten Days in a Madhouse

Bradbury, Ray - Fahrenheit 451

                        - The Martian Chronicles

Brooks, David - The Road to Character

Brooks, Geraldine - Caleb’s Crossing

Brown, Dan - The Da Vinci Code

Bryson, Bill - The Lost Continent

Burnett, Frances Hodgson - The Secret Garden

Buscaglia, Leo - Bus 9 to Paradise

                         - Living, Loving & Learning

                         - Personhood

                         - Seven Stories of Christmas Love

Byrne, Rhonda - The Secret

Carlson, Richard - Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Carson, Rachel - The Sense of Wonder

                          - Silent Spring

Cervantes, Miguel de - Don Quixote

Cherry, Lynne - The Greek Kapok Tree

Chopin, Karen - The Awakening

Clurman, Harold - The Fervent Years: The Group Theatre & the 30s

Coelho, Paulo -  Adultery

                           The Alchemist

Conklin, Tara - The Last Romantics

Conroy, Pat - Beach Music

                    - The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son

                    - The Great Santini

                    - The Lords of Discipline

                    - The Prince of Tides

                    - The Water is Wide

Corelli, Marie - A Romance of Two Worlds

Delderfield, R.F. - To Serve Them All My Days

Dempsey, Janet - Washington’s Last Contonment: High Time for a Peace

Dewey, John - Experience and Education

Dickens, Charles - A Christmas Carol

                             - Great Expectations

                             - A Tale of Two Cities

Didion, Joan - The Year of Magical Thinking

Disraeli, Benjamin - Sybil

Doctorow, E.L. - Andrew’s Brain

                         - Ragtime

Doerr, Anthony - All the Light We Cannot See

Dreiser, Theodore - Sister Carrie 

Dyer, Wayne - Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

                     - The Power of Intention

                     - Your Erroneous Zones

Edwards, Kim - The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

Ellis, Joseph J. - His Excellency: George Washington

Ellison, Ralph - The Invisible Man

Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Essays and Lectures

Felkner, Donald W. - Building Positive Self Concepts

Fergus, Jim - One Thousand White Women

Flynn, Gillian - Gone Girl

Follett, Ken - Pillars of the Earth

Frank, Anne - The Diary of a Young Girl

Freud, Sigmund - The Interpretation of Dreams

Frey, James - A Million Little Pieces

Fromm, Erich - The Art of Loving

                       - Escape from Freedom

Fulghum, Robert - All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Fuller, Alexandra - Leaving Before the Rains Come

Garield, David - The Actors Studion: A Player’s Place

Gates, Melinda - The Moment of Lift

Gibran, Kahlil - The Prophet

Gilbert, Elizabeth - Eat, Pray, Love

                            - The Last American Man

                            - The Signature of All Things

Ginsburg, Ruth Bader - My Own Words

Girzone, Joseph F, - Joshua

                               - Joshua and the Children

Gladwell, Malcom - Blink

                              - David and Goliath

                              - Outliers

                              - The Tipping Point

                              - Talking to Strangers

Glass, Julia - Three Junes

Goodall, Jane - Reason for Hope

Goodwin, Doris Kearnes - Team of Rivals

Graham, Steve - Best Practices in Writing Instruction

Gray, John - Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

Groom, Winston - Forrest Gump

Gruen, Sarah - Water for Elephants

Hannah, Kristin - The Great Alone

                          - The Nightingale

Harvey, Stephanie and Anne Goudvis - Strategies That Work

Hawkins, Paula - The Girl on the Train

Hedges, Chris - Empire of Illusion

Hellman, Lillian - Maybe

                         - Pentimento

Hemingway - Ernest - A Moveable Feast

Hendrix, Harville - Getting the Love You Want

Hesse, Hermann - Demian

                            - Narcissus and Goldmund

                            - Peter Camenzind

                            - Siddhartha

                            - Steppenwolf

Hilderbrand, Elin - The Beach Club

Hitchens, Christopher - God is Not Great

Hoffman, Abbie - Soon to be a Major Motion Picture 

                          - Steal This Book

Holt, John - How Children Fail

                  - How Children Learn

                 - Learning All the Time

                 - Never Too Late

Hopkins, Joseph - The American Transcendentalist

Horney, Karen - Feminine Psychology

                        - Neurosis and Human Growth

                        - The Neurotic Personality of Our Time

                        - New Ways in Psychoanalysis

                        - Our Inner Conflicts

                        - Self Analysis

Hosseini, Khaled - The Kite Runner

Hoover, John J, Leonard M. Baca, Janette K. Klingner - Why Do English Learners Struggle with Reading?

Janouch, Gustav - Conversations with Kafka

Jefferson, Thomas - Crusade Against Ignorance

Jong, Erica - Fear of Dying

Joyce, Rachel - The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy

                       - The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Kafka, Franz - Amerika

                      - Metamophosis

                      - The Trial     

Kallos, Stephanie - Broken For You  

Kazantzakis, Nikos - Zorba the Greek

Keaton, Diane - Then Again

Kelly, Martha Hall - The Lilac Girls

Keyes, Daniel - Flowers for Algernon

King, Steven - On Writing

Kornfield, Jack - Bringing Home the Dharma

Kraft, Herbert - The Indians of Lenapehoking - The Lenape or Delaware Indians: The Original People of NJ, Southeastern New York State, Eastern Pennsylvania, Northern Delaware and Parts of Western Connecticut

Kundera, Milan - The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Lacayo, Richard - Native Son

Lamott, Anne - Bird by Bird

                         Word by Word

L’Engle, Madeleine - A Wrinkle in Time

Lahiri, Jhumpa - The Namesake

Lappe, Frances Moore - Diet for a Small Planet

Lee, Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird

Lems, Kristin et al  - Building Literacy with English Language Learners

Lewis, Sinclair - Main Street

London, Jack - The Call of the Wild

Lowry, Lois - The Giver

Mander, Jerry - Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television

Marks, John D. - The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind         Control

Martel, Yann - Life of Pi

Maslow, Abraham - The Farther Reaches of Human Nature

                              - Motivation and Personality

                              - Religions, Values, and Peak Experiences

                             - Toward a Psychology of Being                            

Maugham. W. Somerset - Of Human Bondage

                                        - Christmas Holiday

Maurier, Daphne du - Rebecca

Mayes, Frances - Under the Tuscan Sun

Mayle, Peter - A Year in Provence

McCourt, Frank - Angela’s Ashes

                          - Teacher man

McCullough, David - 1776

                                - Brave Companions

McEwan, Ian - Atonement

                      - Saturday

McLaughlin, Emma - The Nanny Diaries

McLuhan, Marshall - Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man

Meissner, Susan - The Fall of Marigolds

Millman, Dan - Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Moehringer, J.R. - The Tender Bar

Moon, Elizabeth - The Speed of Dark

Moriarty, Liane - The Husband’s Sister

                         - The Last Anniversary

                         - What Alice Forgot

Mortenson, Greg - Three Cups of Tea

Moyes, Jo Jo - One Plus One

                       - Me Before You 

Ng, Celeste - Little Fires Everywhere

Neill, A.S. - Summerhill

Noah, Trevor - Born a Crime

O’Dell, Scott - Island of the Blue Dolphins

Offerman, Nick - Gumption

O’Neill, Eugene - Long Day’s Journey Into Night

                            A Touch of the Poet

Orwell, George - Animal Farm

Owens, Delia - Where the Crawdads Sing

Paulus, Trina - Hope for the Flowers

Pausch, Randy - The Last Lecture

Patchett, Ann - The Dutch House

Peck, Scott M. - The Road Less Traveled

                         - The Road Less Traveled and Beyond

Paterson, Katherine - Bridge to Teribithia

Picoult, Jodi - My Sister’s Keeper

Pirsig, Robert - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Puzo, Mario - The Godfather

Quindlen, Anna - Black and Blue

Radish, Kris - Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral

Redfield, James - The Celestine Prophecy

Rickert, Mary - The Memory Garden

Rogers, Carl - On Becoming a Person

Ruiz, Miguel - The Fifth Agreement

                     - The Four Agreements

                     - The Mastery of Love

Rum, Etaf - A Woman is No Man

Saint-Exupery, Antoine de - The Little Prince

Salinger, J.D. - Catcher in the Rye

Schumacher, E.F. - Small is Beautiful

Sebold, Alice - The Almost Moon

                       - The Lovely Bones

Shaffer, Mary Ann and Anne Barrows - The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Shakespeare, William - Alls Well That Ends Well

                                   - Much Ado About Nothing

                                   - Romeo and Juliet

                                   - The Sonnets

                                   - The Taming of the Shrew

                                   - Twelfth Night

                                   - Two Gentlemen of Verona

Sides, Hampton - Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin

Silverstein, Shel - The Giving Tree

Skinner, B.F. - About Behaviorism

Smith, Betty - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Snyder, Zilpha Keatley - The Velvet Room

Spinelli, Jerry - Loser

Spolin, Viola - Improvisation for the Theater

Stanislavski, Constantin - An Actor Prepares

Stedman, M.L. - The Light Between Oceans

Steinbeck, John - Travels with Charley

Steiner, Peter - The Terrorist

Stockett, Kathryn - The Help

Strayer, Cheryl - Wild

Streatfeild, Dominic - Brainwash

Strout, Elizabeth - My Name is Lucy Barton

Tartt, Donna - The Goldfinch

Taylor, Kathleen - Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control

Thomas, Matthew - We Are Not Ourselves

Thoreau, Henry David - Walden

Tolle, Eckhart - A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

                      - The Power of Now

Towles, Amor - A Gentleman in Moscow

                       - Rules of Civility

Tracey, Diane and Lesley Morrow - Lenses on Reading

Traub, Nina - Recipe for Reading

Tzu, Lao - Tao Te Ching

United States Congress - Project MKULTRA, the CIA's program of research in behavioral modification: Joint hearing before the Select Committee on Intelligence and the ... Congress, first session, August 3, 1977

Van Allsburg, Chris - Just a Dream

                                - Polar Express

                                - Sweet Dreams

                                - Stranger

                                - Two Bad Ants

Walker, Alice - The Color Purple

Waller, Robert James - Bridges of Madison County

Warren, Elizabeth - A Fighting Chance

Waugh, Evelyn - Brideshead Revisited

Weir, Andy - The Martian

Weinstein, Harvey M. - Father, Son and CIA

Welles, Rebecca - The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood

Westover, Tara - Educated

White, E.B. - Charlotte’s Web

Wilde, Oscar - The Picture of Dorien Gray

Wolfe, Tom - I Am Charlotte Simmons

Wolitzer, Meg - The Female Persuasion

Woolf, Virginia - Mrs. Dalloway

Zevin, Gabrielle - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Zusak, Marcus - The Book Thief

[tomorrowusa]

The national response to the coronavirus pandemic has been short-sighted and incoherent; in the face of crisis the nation has become more polarized rather than less. And now the killing of George Floyd and the violent response to the subsequent demonstrations have shown that American policing is shot through with racism and brutality. President Donald Trump is determined to pour salt into every fresh wound. America now seems exceptional almost entirely in a pejorative sense.

James Traub, author and nonresident fellow at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, writing at the journal Foreign Policy.

Under Donald Trump the United States has gone from a “shining city upon a hill” to more of a toxic waste dump in terms of how the rest of the world views us. Donald Trump is doing his best to turn the US into what he himself would call a “shithole country”.

[bigyack-com]

When Department Stores Were Theater

After the hundreds of jobs going poof and the thus-far inadequate discounts, the saddest thing about the closure of Barneys New York is that its signature naughty window displays will recede even further in collective memory.A Hail Mary campaign earlier this year imploring shoppers to go inside even as the store declared bankruptcy (“STRUT STRUT STRUT STRUT STRUT STRUT”) was but a faint echo of the era when subversive tableaus of papier-mâché public figures, found objects, condoms on Christmas trees and the occasional scampering vermin mesmerized crowds, offended cardinals and even sold some clothes.But “we’re in a post-window-display world,” said Simon Doonan, the Barneys O.G. window dresser, in a telephone interview, noting the “impenetrable facade” of Dover Street Market, heir apparent to the luxury avant-garde. Its New York entrance has only small, high apertures above pedestrian eye level.“In the old days, window displays were the primary form of marketing — fashion was the same as butcher shops and fishmongers,” he said. “Now, if you’re waiting till someone walks past your store, you’ve lost the fight.”Indeed, the bustling new Nordstrom on 57th Street dispenses with traditional boxed-in display windows entirely, replacing them with a shallow, wavy facade that John Bailey, a spokesman, assured would be festooned with red and white lights come Black Friday. The facade is “an interactive viewing experience for customers walking by,” he wrote in an email, “connecting the shopping experience in store to the energy of the city.” (And the energy of customers’ phones.) A young employee at the central help desk said elliptically that “our windows are our customer service.”Gather ’round, children, and let Auntie Alexandra tell of when department stores, now mostly glassy, anodyne places you go to exchange online purchases, used to put on a show. Sometimes more entertaining than the theater.First, though, a quick gallop through what remains of New York’s holiday windows in 2019, and the hopeful cornucopias within.At the doomed Barneys flagship on 61st Street, there was of course bubkes, just signs reading: “Everything Must Be Sold! Goodbuys, then Goodbye.” Inside on the fifth floor, female customers were listlessly flipping shoes to glance at the soles and calculate the markdown, as if with muscle memory from the much-lamented warehouse sale. Four creaky flights up, the power lunch spot Fred’s, named for Fred Pressman, Barneys’ charismatic chairman who died in 1996, was full — even as a worker held a headless naked mannequin steady by her neck on a hand truck, waiting for the elevator to go down, down, down.A few blocks away preens Bergdorf Goodman, the beautiful princess whose holding company, Neiman Marcus, muscled recently into the Hudson Yards, like a watchful mother-in-law moving into the guest cottage. There are no old-school windows at the gleaming new Neiman, being that it’s high up off the dirty street in a mall (and incidentally charging kids $72 per head for breakfast with Santa). But at Bergdorf, David Hoey, the store’s senior director of visual presentation, and his team have gamely produced a concept called Bergdorf GoodTimes. Literally gamely. Like, filled with actual games.One window was captioned “Queen’s Gambit” (chess); another, “Jackpot!” (pinball); another, “Winner Take All” (casino — perhaps a dry subconscious commentary on the high-stakes state of retail). Around the corner, a life-size board game, “Up the Down Escalator,” was dotted with fictional gift cards, coin of the online-shopping realm.Mr. Hoey’s sophisticated, colorful creations did not seem intended for little ones — and anyway those were scampering around across the street, splashing in small pools and peering into mirror-glass “sky lenses” outside the Fifth Avenue Apple store. Paging Dr. Lacan!Further east on 59th and Lexington Avenue, dear old Bloomingdale’s was flagrantly violating several of the decorative precepts set out by Mr. Doonan in his seminal 1998 book, “Confessions of a Window Dresser: Tales From a Life in Fashion.” Specifically: “do remember that technology is boring” and “don’t incorporate sex.”If Bergdorf is rolling the dice on the future of the department store — eroded perhaps irrevocably by Amazon’s mighty, corrosive flow — Bloomie’s is searching the stars. Not the celebrities whose daffy effigies used to populate Mr. Doonan’s windows, mostly with enthusiastic cooperation (Madonna, Magic Johnson, Norman Mailer, Prince, Queen Elizabeth), but a lavish commingling of astronomy and astrology titled Out of This World.Robots were placing ornaments on a tree and sitting at a synthesizer ready to play the carol of your choice at the push of a button. Google Nest, a sponsor, was poised to turn on the tree, the lights; the fire. And astronauts were floating in a “3, 2, 1, Gift Off,” or was it a “GIF Off?” Female mannequins embodying various figures of the zodiac were outfitted like go-go dancers, all pearls and feathers and curvature: propped up against each other on a pedestal as a recording played of John Legend singing, incongruously, “Christmas in New Orleans.” Inside, on the main floor, one embodying Cancer the Crab hung upside down from the ceiling: eyes closed, suspended over a hoop, hand-claws splayed, rotating slowly. Her bared, inverted legs conjured less the #MeToo era than the infamous “meat grinder” photo of the June 1978 Hustler magazine that feminists used to protest on Manhattan sidewalks.

Razzle-Dazzle in the Mezzanine

Mr. Doonan had called from Los Angeles, where he was, among other activities, promoting a monograph to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Maxfield, the boutique there. This even though when he was in the window-dressing business, “I was very anti-anniversary and I vetoed all of them. They just made the company seem old and boring. It looks dusty.”Though I agree 100 percent and moreover think the ascription of significance to particular numbers is as ridiculous as astrology, it also happens to be the 40th anniversary of a seismic and undersung event in department-store history: when the performer Elaine Stritch was the M.C. of an elaborate fashion show at Liberty of London, the emporium known for its fine fabrics. (Many women in those years still sewed household clothes from patterns.)Arranged by Peter Tear, then Liberty’s head of marketing and publicity, and choreographed by Larry Fuller of “Evita,” the show somehow managed to cross-promote the low-tar Silk Cut cigarette with a silk congress happening in London. Concordes were deployed with top models on board. Cocktails were concocted by the Café Royal down the road. Fifty-odd designers contributed special outfits for the occasion, including Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Yves Saint Laurent.Another was David Emanuel, who, with his wife and partner, Elizabeth, would design the show’s bridal gown (and later Princess Diana’s).“People gasped,” he said, remembering the Liberty event on a crackly trans-Atlantic phone line. “They were aching for ‘larger than life.’” Mr. Emanuel described Stritch — subject of my recently published biography, “Still Here” (hey, it’s the selling season) — in a sequined tuxedo jacket, singing among other numbers “Falling in Love Again” à la Marlene Dietrich to the enraptured ladies who lunch who had paid five quid admission apiece for the show, which ran thrice daily over the course of a week. “It has more punch and pulchritude packed into its 51 minutes than most West End musicals twice as long,” one newspaper commented.Mr. Doonan theorized that Liberty, fighting a dainty, twin-set image, had taken inspiration from what the storied retailer Marvin Traub was doing then at Bloomingdale’s. “The whole thing was that the store was the stage — the razzle-dazzle of flash and pizazz and lo and behold, there’s a swimwear fashion show with Pat Cleveland coming down the escalator,” he said. “Every day was ‘curtain up!’ at Bloomingdale’s.”Truly, what could be more of an ultimate fantasy set than the department store of yore, with its infinite “costumes,” props and built-in risers, its endless potential for comedy, dance, drama and even horror? Florenz Ziegfeld’s pre-code movie “Glorifying the American Girl,” showcasing his Follies, starts in one. The heroic airman in “The Best Years of Our Lives” returned to work as a soda jerk in another; ennobled by the theater of war, he chafed at his diminishment in the feminine one of trade.Barbra Streisand gamboled through Bergdorf in 1965 for her TV special, trying on fur coats and hats, spritzing perfume and singing a Fanny Brice-ish medley of “Second Hand Rose” and “Brother Can You Spare a Dime” to funny and glamorous effect. James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim’s “Twilight Zone”-inflected broadcast musical, “Evening Primrose,” was set in a department store called Stern’s, and featured a poet played by Anthony Perkins remaining after-hours, giddy at the idea of the creativity that his solitude, enhanced by all the products he needs, will stimulate. At one point he stands on an escalator belting, “I’m here! I’m here!” foreshadowing the famous anthem in Goldman and Sondheim’s own “Follies” taken up late in life by Stritch. (Later a young woman he discovers there sings of remembering snow: “Soft as feathers/ Sharp as thumbtacks.” She had been left there, in Hats, as a child by her preoccupied mother, but now with climate change the lyric sounds like prescient ecological lament.)Even after the fiasco of Andrew McCarthy at Philadelphia’s Wanamaker’s (R.I.P.) in “Mannequin” 20 years later, and the slow creep of the suburban mall, there was yet another remake of “Miracle on 34th Street.”“Where did Auntie Mame go when she lost all her money?” Mr. Doonan reminded. “Selling roller skates at Macy’s.”It’s hard to imagine, though not impossible, that department stores will remain important sites of commerce and culture much longer. But the largest one in the city is not about to go quietly. At Macy’s, which takes up an entire block, there is a jumble of every sort of window.There are old-fashioned windows devoted to the story of Virginia O’Hanlon, the little girl who wrote to The New York Sun in 1897 asking if there was still a Santa Claus. Around the corner, there are high-tech windows giving voice to a little girl who wants to be Santa Claus. And around another corner: still other windows filled simply with giant Barbies. Being female in the early 21st century is nothing if not a series of mixed messages, but this attempt to empower seemed already antiquated; if Mr. Doonan were still working on windows, surely he would have gone straight for Mx. Claus?The ghost of Barneys yet to come is at Saks Fifth Avenue, which has licensed its former rival’s name, and where windows have been themed with glittering corporate efficiency to the international blockbuster “Frozen 2.” This may delight the tourists, but city dwellers remembering the craft and chance and silliness of the old holiday extravaganzas — when the designers and the famous people and the window dressers were all sticking pins in each other, and the audiences crowded four-deep on the pavement for the free sideshow — will probably be left cold. Source link Read the full article

[bigtickhk]

What Was Liberalism?: The Past, Present, and Promise of a Noble Idea by James Traub https://amzn.to/2oWshxJ

The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy by Robert Kuttner https://amzn.to/2oNkRN0

[semipartisansam]

Immigration And The Left

Immigration And The Left

A thoughtful liberal – columnist and author James Traub – sticks his head above the parapet and dares to give his own side some counsel:

The Swedes have a word, “asikstkorridor,”which translates as “opinion corridor” and describes all those things considered incorrect not only to say but to think. One of those taboos, as I discovered when I visited Sweden at the height of the refugee crisis in…

[damascususa-blog]

Jewish Boycott

The movement to boycott Israel is very strong on college campuses, and growing.  It has even been introduced by Representatives Omar and Tlaid in Congress.  The information below is very telling.

Jewish BoycottA short time ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Muslim World to boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people. In response, Meyer M. Treinkman, a pharmacist, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows:

"Any Muslim who has Syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich. He should not even try to find out whether he has Syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew. 

If a Muslim suspects that he has Gonorrhea, he must not seek diagnosis, because he will be using the method of a Jew named Neissner. "

A Muslim who has heart disease must not use Digitalis, a discovery by a Jew, Ludwig Traube.

Should he suffer with a toothache, he must not use Novocaine, a discovery of the Jews, Widal and Weil.

If a Muslim has Diabetes, he must not use Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew. If one has a headache, he must shun Pyramidon and Antypyrin, due to the Jews, Spiro and Ellege.

Muslims with convulsions must put up with them because it was a Jew, Oscar Leibreich, who proposed the use of Chloral Hydrate.

Arabs must do likewise with their psychic ailments because Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew.

Should a Muslim child get Diphtheria, he must refrain from the Schick" reaction which was invented by the Jew, Bella Schick.

"Muslims should be ready to die in great numbers and must not permit treatment of ear and brain damage, work of Jewish Nobel Prize winner, Robert Baram.

They should continue to die or remain crippled by Infantile Paralysis because the discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine is a Jew, Jonas Salk.

"Muslims must refuse to use Streptomycin and continue to die of Tuberculosis because a Jew, Zalman Waxman, invented the wonder drug against this killing disease.

Muslim doctors must discard all discoveries and improvements by dermatologist Judas Sehn Benedict, or the lung specialist, Frawnkel, and of many other world renowned Jewish scientists and medical experts. "In short, good and loyal Muslims properly and fittingly should remain afflicted with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Heart Disease, Headaches, Typhus, Diabetes, Mental Disorders, Polio Convulsions and Tuberculosis and be proud to obey the Islamic boycott."

Oh, and by the way, don't call for a doctor on your cell phone because the cell phone was invented in Israel by a Jewish engineer.

Meanwhile I ask, what medical contributions to the world have the Muslims made?"

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000; that is ONE BILLION TWO HUNDRED MILLION or 20% of the world's population.   They have received the following Nobel Prizes: Literature: 1988 - Najib Mahfooz Peace: 1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat1990 - Elias James Corey1994 - Yaser Arafat:1999 - Ahmed Zewai Economics: (zero) Physics: (zero) Medicine: 1960 - Peter Brian Medawar1998 - Ferid Mourad TOTAL: 7 SEVEN The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000; that is FOURTEEN MILLION or about 0.02% of the world's population.   They have received the following Nobel Prizes: Literature: 1910 - Paul Heyse1927 - Henri Bergson1958 - Boris Pasternak1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon1966 - Nelly Sachs1976 - Saul Bellow1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer1981 - Elias Canetti1987 - Joseph Brodsky1991 - Nadine Gordimer World Peace: 1911 - Alfred Fried1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser1968 - Rene Cassin1973 - Henry Kissinger1978 - Menachem Begin1986 - Elie Wiesel1994 - Shimon Peres1994 - Yitzhak Rabin Physics: 1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer1906 - Henri Moissan1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson1908 - Gabriel Lippmann1910 - Otto Wallach1915 - Richard Willstaetter1918 - Fritz Haber1921 - Albert Einstein1922 - Niels Bohr1925 - James Franck1925 - Gustav Hertz1943 - Gustav Stern1943 - George Charles de Hevesy1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi1952 - Felix Bloch1954 - Max Born1958 - Igor Tamm1959 - Emilio Segre1960 - Donald A. Glaser1961 - Robert Hofstadter1961 - Melvin Calvin1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman1965 - Julian Schwinger1969 - Murray Gell-Mann1971 - Dennis Gabor1972 - William Howard Stein1973 - Brian David Josephson1975 - Benjamin Mottleson1976 - Burton Richter1977 - Ilya Prigogine1978 - Arno Allan Penzias1978 - Peter L Kapitza1979 - Stephen Weinberg1979 - Sheldon Glashow1979 - Herbert Charles Brown1980 - Paul Berg1980 - Walter Gilbert1981 - Roald Hoffmann1982 - Aaron Klug1985 - Albert A. Hauptman1985 - Jerome Karle1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach1988 - Robert Huber1988 - Leon Lederman1988 - Melvin Schwartz1988 - Jack Steinberger1989 - Sidney Altman1990 - Jerome Friedman1992 - Rudolph Marcus1995 - Martin Perl2000 - Alan J. Heeger Economics: 1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson1971 - Simon Kuznets1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow1975 - Leonid Kantorovich1976 - Milton Friedman1978 - Herbert A. Simon1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein1985 - Franco Modigliani1987 - Robert M Solow1990 - Harry Markowitz1990 - Merton Miller1992 - Gary Becker1993 - Robert Fogel Medicine: 1908 - Elie Metchnikoff1908 - Paul Erlich1914 - Robert Barany1922 - Otto Meyerhof1930 - Karl Landsteiner1931 - Otto Warburg1936 - Otto Loewi1944 - Joseph Erlanger1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser1945 - Ernst Boris Chain1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller1950 - Tadeus Reichstein1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman1953 - Hans Krebs1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann1958 - Joshua Lederberg1959 - Arthur Kornberg1964 - Konrad Bloch1965 - Francois Jacob1965 - Andre Lwoff1967 - George Wald1968 - Marshall W Nirenberg1969 - Salvador Luria1970 - Julius Axelrod1970 - Sir Bernard Katz1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman1975 - Howard Martin Temin1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow1978 - Daniel Nathans1980 - Baruj Benacerraf1984 - Cesar Milstein1985 - Michael Stuart Brown1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]1988 - Gertrude Elion1989 - Harold Varmus1991 - Erwin Neher1991 - Bert Sakmann1993 - Richard J. Roberts1993 - Phillip Sharp1994 - Alfred Gilman1995 - Edward B. Lewis1996- Lu RoseIacovino TOTAL: 129! The Jews are NOT promoting brainwashing children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non-Muslims.  The Jews don't hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants.  There is NOT one single Jew who has destroyed a church.   There is NOT a single Jew who protests by killing people. The Jews don't traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels. Perhaps the world's Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems. Muslims must ask 'what can they do for humankind' before they demand that humankind respects them.

Regardless of your feelings about the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians and Arab neighbors, even if you believe there is more culpability on Israel 's part, the following two sentences really say it all:   'If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel."

Benjamin Netanyahu: General Eisenhower warned us. It is a matter of history that when the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death camps he ordered all possible photographs to be taken, and for the German people from surrounding villages to be ushered through the camps and even made to bury the dead.   He did this because he said in words to this effect: 'Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.'  

Recently, the UK debated whether to remove The Holocaust from its school curriculum because it 'offends' the Muslim population which claims it never occurred.   It is not removed as yet. However, this is a frightening portent of the fear that is gripping the world and how easily each country is giving into it.  It is now more than 65 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. Now, more than ever, with Iran, among others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.   This e-mail is intended to reach 400 million people. Be a link in the memorial chain and help distribute this around the world. How many years will it be before the attack on the World Trade Center 'NEVER HAPPENED' because it offends some Muslim?

[bountyofbeads]

The 1619 Project https://nyti.ms/2Hjvu0L

The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. It aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.

"We asked 16 writers to bring consequential moments in African-American history to life. Here are their poems and stories:"

Published August 14, 2019 | "1619 Project" New York Times | Posted August 16, 2019 |

⬤ August 1619

A poem by Clint Smith

In Aug. 1619, a ship arrived in Point Comfort, Va., carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans, the first on record to be brought to the English colony of Virginia. They were among the 12.5 million Africans forced into the trans-Atlantic slave trade, their journey to the New World today known as the Middle Passage.

Over the course of 350 years,

36,000 slave ships crossed the Atlantic

Ocean. I walk over to the globe & move

my finger back & forth between

the fragile continents. I try to keep

count how many times I drag

my hand across the bristled

hemispheres, but grow weary of chasing

a history that swallowed me.

For every hundred people who were

captured & enslaved, forty died before they

ever reached the New World.

I pull my index finger from Angola

to Brazil & feel the bodies jumping from

the ship.

I drag my thumb from Ghana

to Jamaica & feel the weight of dysentery

make an anvil of my touch.

I slide my ring finger from Senegal

to South Carolina & feel the ocean

separate a million families.

The soft hum of history spins

on its tilted axis. A cavalcade of ghost ships

wash their hands of all they carried.

Clint Smith is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University and the author of the poetry collection “Counting Descent,” as well as a forthcoming nonfiction book, “How the Word Is Passed.” Photo illustration by Jon Key. Diagram: Getty Images.

⬤ March 5, 1770

A poem by Yusef Komunyakaa

In 1770, Crispus Attucks, a fugitive from slavery who worked as dockworker, became the first American to die for the cause of independence after being shot in a clash with British troops.

African & Natick blood-born

known along paths up & down

Boston Harbor, escaped slave,

harpooner & rope maker,

he never dreamt a pursuit of happiness

or destiny, yet rallied

beside patriots who hurled a fury

of snowballs, craggy dirt-frozen

chunks of ice, & oyster shells

at the stout flank of redcoats,

as the 29th Regiment of Foot

aimed muskets, waiting for fire!

How often had he walked, gazing

down at gray timbers of the wharf,

as if to find a lost copper coin?

Wind deviled cold air as he stood

leaning on his hardwood stick,

& then two lead bullets

tore his chest, blood reddening snow

on King Street, March 5, 1770,

first to fall on captain’s command.

Five colonists lay for calling hours

in Faneuil Hall before sharing a grave

at the Granary Burying Ground.

They had laid a foundering stone

for the Minutemen at Lexington

& Concord, first to defy & die,

& an echo of the future rose over

the courtroom as John Adams

defended the Brits, calling the dead

a “motley rabble of saucy boys,

negroes & mulattoes, Irish

teagues & outlandish jacktars,”

who made soldiers fear for their lives,

& at day’s end only two would pay

with the branding of their thumbs.

Yusef Komunyakaa is a poet whose books include “The Emperor of Water Clocks” and “Neon Vernacular,” for which he received the Pulitzer Prize. He teaches at N.Y.U. Photo illustration by Jon Key. Boston Massacre: National Archives. Attucks: Getty Images.

⬤ 1773

A poem by Eve L. Ewing

In 1773, a publishing house in London released “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” by Phillis Wheatley, a 20-year-old enslaved woman in Boston, making her the first African-American to publish a book of poetry.

Pretend I wrote this at your grave.

Pretend the grave is marked. Pretend we know where it is.

Copp’s Hill, say. I have been there and you might be.

Foremother, your name is the boat that brought you.

Pretend I see it in the stone, with a gruesome cherub.

Children come with thin paper and charcoal to touch you.

Pretend it drizzles and a man in an ugly plastic poncho

circles the Mathers, all but sniffing the air warily.

We don’t need to pretend for this part.

There is a plaque in the grass for Increase, and Cotton.

And Samuel, dead at 78, final son, who was there

on the day when they came looking for proof.

Eighteen of them watched you and they signed to say:

the Poems specified in the following Page, were (as we verily believe)

written by Phillis, a young Negro Girl, who was but a few Years since,

brought an uncultivated Barbarian from Africa

and the abolitionists cheered at the blow to Kant

the Negroes of Africa have by nature no feeling that rises above the trifling

and the enlightened ones bellowed at the strike against Hume

no ingenious manufacturers amongst them, no arts, no sciences

Pretend I was there with you, Phillis, when you asked in a letter to no one:

How many iambs to be a real human girl?

Which turn of phrase evidences a righteous heart?

If I know of Ovid may I keep my children?

Pretend that on your grave there is a date

and it is so long before my heroes came along to call you a coon

for the praises you sang of your captors

who took you on discount because they assumed you would die

that it never ever hurt your feelings.

Or pretend you did not love America.

Phillis, I would like to think that after you were released unto the world,

when they jailed your husband for his debts

and you lay in the maid’s quarters at night,

a free and poor woman with your last living boy,

that you thought of the Metamorphoses,

making the sign of Arachne in the tangle of your fingers.

And here, after all, lay the proof:

The man in the plastic runs a thumb over stone. The gray is slick and tough.

Phillis Wheatley: thirty-one. Had misery enough.

Eve L. Ewing is the author of “1919,” the “Ironheart” series, “Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side” and “Electric Arches.” She is a professor at the University of Chicago.

⬤ Aug. 30, 1800

Fiction by Barry Jenkins

In 1800, Gabriel Prosser, a 24-year-old literate blacksmith, organized one of the most extensively planned slave rebellions, with the intention of forming an independent black state in Virginia. After other enslaved people shared details of his plot, Gabriel’s Rebellion was thwarted. He was later tried, found guilty and hanged.

As he approached the Brook Swamp beneath the city of Richmond, Va., Gabriel Prosser looked to the sky. Up above, the clouds coalesced into an impenetrable black, bringing on darkness and a storm the ferocity of which the region had scarcely seen. He may have cried and he may have prayed but the thing Gabriel did not do was turn back. He was expecting fire on this night and would make no concessions for the coming rain.

And he was not alone. A hundred men; 500 men; a thousand men had gathered from all over the state on this 30th day of August 1800. Black men, African men — men from the fields and men from the house, men from the church and the smithy — men who could be called many things but after this night would not be called slaves gathered in the flooding basin armed with scythes, swords, bayonets and smuggled guns.

One of the men tested the rising water, citing the Gospel of John: “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.” But the water would not abate. As the night wore on and the storm persisted, Gabriel was overcome by a dawning truth: The Gospel would not save him. His army could not pass.

Gov. James Monroe was expecting them. Having returned from his appointment to France and built his sweeping Highland plantation on the periphery of Charlottesville, Monroe wrote to his mentor Thomas Jefferson seeking advice on his “fears of a negro insurrection.” When the Negroes Tom and Pharoah of the Sheppard plantation betrayed Gabriel’s plot on a Saturday morning, Monroe was not surprised. By virtue of the privilege bestowed upon him as his birthright, he was expecting them.

Gabriel Prosser was executed Oct. 10, 1800. Eighteen hundred; the year Denmark Vesey bought his freedom, the year of John Brown’s and Nat Turner’s births. As he awaited the gallows near the foot of the James River, Gabriel could see all that was not to be — the first wave of men tasked to set fire to the city perimeter, the second to fell a city weakened by the diversion; the governor’s mansion, James Monroe brought to heel and served a lash for every man, woman and child enslaved on his Highland plantation; the Quakers, Methodists, Frenchmen and poor whites who would take up with his army and create a more perfect union from which they would spread the infection of freedom — Gabriel saw it all.

He even saw Tom and Pharoah, manumitted by the government of Virginia, a thousand dollars to their master as recompense; a thousand dollars for the sabotage of Gabriel’s thousand men. He did not see the other 25 men in his party executed. Instead, he saw Monroe in an audience he wanted no part of and paid little notice to. For Gabriel Prosser the blacksmith, leader of men and accepting no master’s name, had stepped into the troubled water. To the very last, he was whole. He was free.

Barry Jenkins was born and raised in Miami. He is a director and writer known for his adaptation of James Baldwin’s “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “Moonlight,” which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Photo illustration by Jon Key. House: Sergey Golub via Wikimedia. Landscape, right: Peter Traub via Wikimedia.

⬤ Jan. 1, 1808

Fiction by Jesmyn Ward

In 1808, the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves went into effect, banning the importation of enslaved people from abroad. But more than one million enslaved people who could be bought and sold were already in the country, and the breaking up of black families continued.

The whisper run through the quarters like a river swelling to flood. We passed the story to each other in the night in our pallets, in the day over the well, in the fields as we pulled at the fallow earth. They ain’t stealing us from over the water no more. We dreamed of those we was stolen from: our mothers who oiled and braided our hair to our scalps, our fathers who cut our first staffs, our sisters and brothers who we pinched for tattling on us, and we felt a cool light wind move through us for one breath. Felt like ease to imagine they remained, had not been stolen, would never be.

That be a foolish thing. We thought this later when the first Georgia Man come and roped us. Grabbed a girl on her way for morning water. Snatched a boy running to the stables. A woman after she left her babies blinking awake in their sack blankets. A man sharpening a hoe. They always came before dawn for us chosen to be sold south.

We didn’t understand what it would be like, couldn’t think beyond the panic, the prying, the crying, the begging and the screaming, the endless screaming from the mouth and beyond. Sounding through the whole body, breaking the heart with its volume. A blood keen. But the ones that owned and sold us was deaf to it. Was unfeeling of the tugging the children did on their fathers’ arms or the glance of a sister’s palm over her sold sister’s face for the last time. But we was all feeling, all seeing, all hearing, all smelling: We felt it for the terrible dying it was. Knowed we was walking out of one life and into another. An afterlife in a burning place.

The farther we marched, the hotter it got. Our skin grew around the rope. Our muscles melted to nothing. Our fat to bone. The land rolled to a flat bog, and in the middle of it, a city called New Orleans. When we shuffled into that town of the dead, they put us in pens. Fattened us. Tried to disguise our limps, oiled the pallor of sickness out of our skins, raped us to assess our soft parts, then told us lies about ourselves to make us into easier sells. Was told to answer yes when they asked us if we were master seamstresses, blacksmiths or lady’s maids. Was told to disavow the wives we thought we heard calling our names when we first woke in the morning, the husbands we imagined lying with us, chest to back, while the night’s torches burned, the children whose eyelashes we thought we could still feel on our cheeks when the rain turned to a fine mist while we stood in lines outside the pens waiting for our next hell to take legs and seek us out.

Trade our past lives for new deaths.

Jesmyn Ward is the author of “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” which won a National Book Award. She was a 2017 MacArthur fellow. Photo illustration by Jon Key. Landscape: Peter Traub via Wikimedia.

⬤ July 27, 1816

A poem by Tyehimba Jess

In 1816, American troops attacked Negro Fort, a stockade in Spanish Florida established by the British and left to the Black Seminoles, a Native American nation of Creek refugees, free black people and fugitives from slavery. Nearly all the soldiers, women and children in the fort were killed.

They weren’t headed north to freedom —

They fled away from the North Star,

turned their back on the Mason-Dixon line,

put their feet to freedom by fleeing

further south to Florida.

Ran to where ’gator and viper roamed

free in the mosquito swarm of Suwannee.

They slipped out deep after sunset,

shadow to shadow, shoulder to shoulder,

stealthing southward, stealing themselves,

steeling their souls to run steel

through any slave catcher who’d dare

try stealing them back north.

They billeted in swamp mud,

saw grass and cypress —

they waded through waves

of water lily and duckweed.

They thinned themselves in thickets

and thorn bush hiding their young

from thieves of black skin marauding

under moonlight and cloud cover.

Many once knew another shore

an ocean away, whose language,

songs, stories were outlawed

on plantation ground. In swampland,

they raised flags of their native tongues

above whisper smoke

into billowing bonfires

of chant, drum and chatter.

They remembered themselves

with their own words

bleeding into English,

bonding into Spanish,

singing in Creek and Creole.

With their sweat

forging farms in

unforgiving heat,

never forgetting scars

of the lash, fighting

battle after battle

for generations.

Creeks called them Seminole

when they bonded with renegade Creeks.

Spaniards called them cimarrones,

runaways — escapees from Carolina

plantation death-prisons.

English simply called them maroons,

flattening the Spanish to make them

seem alone, abandoned, adrift —

but they were bonded,

side by side,

Black and Red,

in a blood red hue —

maroon.

Sovereignty soldiers,

Black refugees,

self-abolitionists, fighting

through America’s history,

marooned in a land

they made their own,

acre after acre,

plot after plot,

war after war,

life after life.

They fought only

for America to let them be

marooned — left alone —

in their own unchained,

singing,

worthy

blood.

Tyehimba Jess is a poet from Detroit who teaches at the College of Staten Island. He is the author of two books of poetry, “Leadbelly” and “Olio,” for which he received the 2017 Pulitzer Prize. Photo illustration by Jon Key. Cypress: Ron Clausen via Wikimedia