The Week USA September 16 2016

BUSINESS

BRIEFING

A POPULIST’S
REIGN OF
TERROR

Why Apple
owes the EU
$14.5 billion

p.11 Rodrigo Duterte

p.34

TALKING POINTS

Anderson’s
crusade
against porn
p.17

THE BEST OF THE U.S. AND INTERNATIONAL MEDIA

Sink or
swim

With the race tightening,
Clinton struggles to
outlast Trump

p.4

SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 VOLUME 16 ISSUE 788
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®

Contents

3

Editor’s letter
It’s understandable to feel a little exhausted by this seemingly
never-ending election season. As one political journalist put it
this week, the contest for the White House feels as if it “has been
going on since before rocks were invented.” The good news is
that with Labor Day in the rearview mirror, the finish line is truly
in sight. And later this month, voters will have perhaps the best
opportunity yet to truly take the measure of Hillary Clinton and
Donald Trump, at the first presidential debate on Sept. 26. Political scientists have long said that debates don’t move the needle
all that much—serving mostly to solidify voters’ support for their
preferred candidate. But this race has been anything but ordinary,
and even in more typical election years, the debates have led to
some surprising stumbles that hurt experienced pols and provided
openings to relative newcomers to establish their bona fides.
Richard Nixon, of course, demonstrated the importance of
optics when he showed up looking pale and sweaty to face off

against the tan and telegenic John F. Kennedy. Ronald Reagan showed how one zinger can effectively end a contest when
he landed a joke about his opponent Walter Mondale’s youth
and inexperience. Then there were the moments when candidates effectively confirmed voters’ worst suspicions about them,
as when Michael Dukakis gave a wooden response to a question about his wife being raped and murdered, or when George
H.W. Bush impatiently checked his watch after a voter’s question about the effects of the recession. Hillary Clinton reportedly understands the risk that burying Trump in policy details
could leave her looking like a know-it-all Washington wonk.
(See Talking Points.) So she’s getting advice from psychology experts on the best way to bait him into blunders. Trump has by
all accounts decided to wing it. Stay tuned: The wildest parts of
this long, strange election trip are no doubt

Carolyn O’Hara
Managing editor
yet to come.

NEWS
4 Main stories
Polls tighten as the 2016
race moves into its final
stretch; the FBI’s report
on Clinton’s server
Controversy of the week
Trump doubles down on
his hard-line immigration
positions
7 The U.S. at a glance
Fox settles with Gretchen
Carlson for $20 million;
a magnitude-5.8 tremor
shakes Oklahoma
8 The world at a glance
First face transplant
patient dies in France;
G20 summit flops

Editor-in-chief: William Falk
Managing editors: Theunis Bates,
Carolyn O’Hara
Deputy editor/International: Susan Caskie
Deputy editor/Arts: Chris Mitchell
Senior editors: Harry Byford, Alex

Dalenberg, Richard Jerome, Dale Obbie,
Hallie Stiller, Frances Weaver
Art director: Dan Josephs
Photo editor: Loren Talbot
Copy editors: Jane A. Halsey, Jay Wilkins
Chief researcher: Christina Colizza
Special projects editor: Alexis Boncy
Contributing editors: Ryan Devlin,
Bruno Maddox

6

AP (2)

10 People
Quincy Jones’ gangster
youth; the man who
created Burning Man
11 Briefing
The president of the
Philippines encourages
vigilante killings. Why he
is popular?
12 Best U.S. columns
Why it’s wrong to
conduct animal research;
time to cut aid to Israel
15 Best international
columns
Mexicans’ fury over

Trump’s visit
16 Talking points
Trump’s AfricanAmerican outreach;
handicapping the
debates; is internet porn
dangerous?

VP, publisher: John Guehl

Hillary Clinton speaks to the press aboard her campaign plane. (p. 4)

ARTS
22 Books
Tom Wolfe takes on the
theory of evolution
23 Author of the week
Ian McEwan’s womb
with a view
24 Film & Music
Soul mates and their
secret in The Light
Between Oceans
26 Television
A new
look at the
murder of
JonBenét
Ramsay

Quincy

Jones (p.10)

LEISURE
27 Food & Drink
Finding the freshest takes
on Mediterranean classics
28 Travel
Up close with Borneo’s
astonishing wildlife
29 Consumer
Helpful mobile apps for
dog owners
BUSINESS
32 News at a glance
ITT Tech abruptly shuts its
doors; August jobs report
underwhelms
33 Making money
Money lessons for college
freshmen
34 Best columns
Apple’s worry over its
$14.5B EU tax bill; how not
to close the gender pay gap

VP, marketing: Tara Mitchell
Account directors: Samuel Homburger,
Steve Mumford
Account manager: Shelley Adler
Detroit director: Lisa Budnick

Midwest director: Erin Sesto
Northwest director: Steve Thompson
Southeast director: Jana Robinson
Southwest directors: James Horan,
Rebecca Treadwell
Integrated marketing director: Nikki Ettore
Integrated associate marketing director:
Betsy Connors
Integrated marketing manager:
Caila Litman
Research and insights manager:
Joan Cheung
Marketing designer: Triona Moynihan
Marketing coordinator: Reisa Feigenbaum
Digital director: Garrett Markley
Senior digital account manager:
Yuliya Spektorsky
Digital planner: Jennifer Riddell
Chief financial officer: Kevin E. Morgan
Director of financial reporting:
Arielle Starkman
EVP, consumer marketing: Sara O’Connor
Consumer marketing director:
Leslie Guarnieri
VP, manufacturing & distribution:
Sean Fenlon
Production manager: Kyle Christine Darnell
HR/operations manager: Joy Hart
Advisers: Robert G. Bartner, Peter Godfrey
Chairman: John M. Lagana

U.K. founding editor: Jolyon Connell
Company founder: Felix Dennis

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THE WEEK September 16, 2016


4 NEWS

The main stories...

Clinton’s narrowing lead over Trump
and includes proposals to cozy up
to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin
Hillary Clinton’s poll lead over
and abandon our NATO allies.
Donald Trump continued to shrink
Clinton “has made mistakes and
this week, as both presidential camdisplayed bad judgment,” but she
paigns kicked into high gear for the
is the only “serious candidate on
nine-week, post–Labor Day sprint to
the presidential ballot.”

Election Day. The RealClearPolitics
national poll average put Clinton’s
Trump is betting “we are all
head-to-head lead over Trump at just
chumps,” said The Washington
over 3 points, 46 to 43, down from 6
Post. How else to explain his
points two weeks earlier. But several
assumption he can win “without
polls produced even better news
sharing basic information?” He
for Trump, with a four-way CNN/
ORC poll of likely voters showing
After Labor Day, more Americans pay attention to the campaign. has refused to release his health
records, his tax returns, or virtuhim ahead by 2 points, 45 to 43, and
ally any detailed policy proposals—even though he would be the
a Reuters/IPSOS poll finding him with a 1-point lead—a 9-point
oldest president ever elected, has based his entire campaign on his
swing in just two weeks. Clinton still holds an advantage in the
business success, and has no record in public office. He’s taking the
swing states, however: In RealClearPolitics’s four-way averages,
American people for “fools.”
she’s ahead in nine of the 11 key battleground races, including
Pennsylvania (by 6 points), Florida (2 points), and Ohio (3 points).
Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said the tightening What the columnists said
I’m getting a “sick, sinking feeling” about this election, said Paul
of national polls showed that voters were disturbed by revelations
Krugman in The New York Times. In their desperation to appear
regarding the former secretary of state’s private email server and
the overlap of her official duties at State and her role at the Clinton neutral, major media organizations are paying “remarkably little

Foundation. “Hillary Clinton is having a hard time being accepted attention” to Trump’s many scandals, yet insist anything Clinton
does—especially concerning the Clinton Foundation—“must be
as a truthful and honest candidate,” she said.
corrupt.” Note to journalists: Criticism of Trump doesn’t have to
Both campaigns had eventful weeks. Trump received mixed reviews be balanced out by unfairly suggesting that his opponent is equally
for refusing to significantly soften his hard-line stance on immigra- awful. Actually, reporters are just doing their jobs, said Glenn
Greenwald in TheIntercept.com. Only “Democrat partisans” see
tion (see Controversy), while Clinton came under further scrutiny
nothing fishy about the Clintons’ “pioneering merger of masafter the FBI released a trove of documents from its probe into her
home email server (see opposite page). Labor Day also marked the sive private wealth and political power.” Just because Trump is a
official start of the battle to control Congress. Although the GOP is “bigotry-exploiting demagogue” doesn’t entitle Clinton to “waltz
widely expected to retain control of the House, Democrats need to into the Oval Office free of aggressive journalistic scrutiny.”
gain only five Senate seats to reclaim the upper chamber. The closest races will likely be in Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania, “To listen to conventional wisdom, Clinton practically cannot lose
the presidential election,” said Douglas Schoen in The Wall Street
and New Hampshire.
Journal. Yet Trump is “ahead, tied, or trailing but within the margin of error” in almost all the most recent polls. The race is tightenWhat the editorials said
ing not because he’s become a stronger candidate, but because
Labor Day is when most Americans start to “get down to the serious business of choosing a president,” said The Washington Times. Clinton is becoming less and less popular—her favorability levels
have dropped to record lows. “Hillary could be blowing it,” said
Clinton’s poll slump suggests Trump’s “bluntly stated message”—
secure our borders, put America first, and rebuild the economy—is Glenn Thrush in Politico.com. She has made her campaign almost
exclusively about Trump’s unfitness for
“resonating with a growing number of
the White House, but hasn’t connected
voters.” Previously skeptical RepubliWhat next?
to voters in a personal way or made a
cans are becoming “more comfortable”
Both candidates have serious work to do, said
positive, uplifting case for why voters
with Trump as their nominee, despite

Adam Nagourney in The New York Times. Trump
should support her. Attacking Trump
his many blunders, while questions over
needs to focus all his attention and attacks on
“is not enough.”
Clinton’s greed and trustworthiness are
Clinton and resist the urge to “double down”
gathering “relevance and momentum.”
when criticized for saying something offensive.
Clinton remains the big favorite to
As for Clinton, she has to avoid complacency,
win this election, said Nate Silver in
Conservatives, Trump “does not deserve and work hard to regain the public’s trust. The
FiveThirtyEight.com. But Democrats
your vote,” said The Dallas Morning
presidential debates will also be crucial (see
are “seriously mistaken” if they think
News. This newspaper has not endorsed
Talking Points). With both candidates so widely
her leads in the swing states will
a Democrat for 75 years, but “Trump
disliked, this contest has “a volatility rarely seen
“protect her in the Electoral College.”
is no Republican and certainly no conat this stage of a campaign.” As many as 10 perState polls have basically “ebbed and
servative,” and “is not qualified to serve
cent of voters remain undecided in some polls,
flowed with her national numbers.” If
as president.” He doesn’t believe in free
said Steven Shepard in Politico.com, and others
the race continues to tighten nationmarkets and individual liberty, and has

are leaning toward third-party candidates. That
ally, her leads in the swing states will
an “authoritarian streak” that should
means this race “is likely to be a roller-coaster
evaporate—and Clinton could be in
“horrify limited-government advoride” right up to Nov. 8.
serious trouble.
cates.” His foreign policy is incoherent,
THE WEEK September 16, 2016

Illustration by Howard McWilliam.
Cover photos from Newscom, Getty, Newscom

Newscom (2)

What happened


... and how they were covered

NEWS 5

Clinton on the defense after FBI email report
What happened

“Yet soldiers and sailors are routinely prosecuted and punished for equivalent or even lesser acts,” said David French in
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton faced
NationalReview.com. You can believe that it was a coincirenewed scrutiny of her judgment and honesty this week, afdence that Clinton’s emails were wiped away just weeks
ter the FBI released a detailed report on its investigation into
after she received a subpoena from the House committee

her use of private email as secretary of state. The heavily
investigating the Benghazi attacks, or that she maintained
redacted 58-page report—which includes notes from
her private server for “convenience” and not to evade
Clinton’s interview with investigators—reinforced FBI
scrutiny. But the fact remains that she kept clasdirector James Comey’s assertion that Clinton and
sified information on an unclassified system that
her staff were “extremely careless” with sensitive
was less secure than Gmail, and that “her behavinformation. It revealed that Clinton told investiior contains the elements of a federal crime.”
gators that she considered emails about planned
drone strikes “routine,” and that she didn’t
Trump routinely criticizes Clinton for lacking
realize emails marked “(C)” were confidential,
“the mental and physical stamina” needed to be
Unable to escape her server woes
assuming the letter merely signified an alphabetpresident—an attack her supporters have called
izing system. At least 39 times in her FBI interview,
sexist and insulting, said Mark Hemingway in WeeklyStandard
Clinton she said she couldn’t recall specific email exchanges, and
.com. But whether Trump had good reason to launch such a line of
partly blamed a concussion and a blood clot in her head she suffered in late 2012. The report noted that a contractor deleted an ar- attack is now irrelevant, because Clinton herself has told the FBI
that a concussion and a blood clot impaired her ability to rememchive of her emails after having an “oh s--t” moment, having been
ber vital government business. Or perhaps she was just “using
instructed by Clinton aides months earlier to permanently destroy
her health problems as a convenient excuse to explain her illegal
the emails. The deletion came three weeks after House lawmakers
actions.” Either way, it’s doubtful she’s fit for the presidency.
demanded that all of Clinton’s emails be saved. Meanwhile, many
of the devices used by the former secretary of state—including
11 BlackBerrys, and several iPads and phones—have gone missing; Clinton has been stereotyped as “a conniving politician who will

one aide told agents he destroyed two Clinton smartphones by “hit- do what it takes to obtain power,” said Jeff Stein in Vox.com. But
the inquiry “points to just the opposite conclusion.” It suggests
ting them with a hammer.”
she didn’t grasp the dangers of a “homebrew server and didn’t
sweat the details about what happened to discarded BlackBerrys”
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump pounced on
and other minutiae—she was, after all, busy running U.S. foreign
the report, saying, “After reading these documents, I really don’t
understand how she was able to get away from prosecution.” Clin- policy. In other words, “Clinton wasn’t a tech-savvy manipulator
ton’s campaign said it was “pleased” by the report’s release, saying of State Department protocol who gamed the system for her own
good. She barely understood what the protocol was.”
it showed why the Justice Department had cleared the former
secretary of state of any wrongdoing.
The real scandal is that “Clinton was allowed to spend her four
What the columnists said
years as secretary of state off the grid,” said William McGurn in
The Wall Street Journal. “No one in government stopped her”
This report is “an almost complete exoneration of Clinton,” said
from doing as she pleased, including mixing State Department and
Kevin Drum in MotherJones.com. Granted there are “bits and
pieces that might show poor judgment on Hillary’s part,” especially Clinton Foundation business. When IT officers expressed security
the initial decision to use private email. But it wasn’t prohibited and concerns about the server, her aides warned them never to speak
her predecessors at State had used similar setups—documents show of it again. Then Comey took the rare step of publicly squelching
prosecution, pre-empting the Justice Department—whose job it is
that Colin Powell did in fact advise Clinton to use private email to
to indict or not—“and any hope for accountability.” No wonder
avoid having all her communications become public records. At
voters think the system is rigged.
bottom, “there’s remarkably little here.”

AP, UNH (2)

It wasn’t all bad
QAshton White just kicked a hole
in the glass ceiling. The seventhgrader from Wicksburg, Ala.,
recently made her debut as kicker
on her high school’s otherwise allmale football team. Ashton started
playing with the Panthers after
their coach, Josh Cox, noticed her
powerful punt on the soccer field.
In this season’s opening game
against Geneva County, she kicked
six of seven extra points, helping
her team to a 56-26 win. Ashton
says she’s determined to raise her
game even higher. “I want to make
a 40-yarder by 10th grade.”

QRobert Morin worked for nearly 50 years at the University

of New Hampshire’s library, where his colleagues knew him
as a frugal man. He drove a ’92 Plymouth, rarely bought new
clothes or went out, and ate frozen dinners. His coworkers
finally discovered what Morin, who died last year at 77, had
been doing with his money when the university last week
announced that the
librarian had left his
estate—all $4 million
of it—to the school.
Morin’s life savings

will now be used to
fund scholarships and
renovations. “The feeling around here,” said
school spokeswoman
Erika Mantz, “has been
just kind of awe.”
Morin and the library he loved

QIn 1936, Elisabeth Davis took a
job as a secretary at Culver Academies, a prep school in Indiana.
She liked the work so much that,
eight decades later, she’s still
there. The 99-year-old recently
marked her 80th anniversary at
Culver, where she is in charge of
faculty members’ personnel files.
The great-grandmother of five
uses old-fashioned penmanship
and a typewriter to complete her
tasks. “I never had a computer,”
she says. “Why should I learn all
that technology?” Davis doesn’t
think she’ll stop working anytime
soon. “If there comes a time, I
will. But I don’t feel like retiring.”
THE WEEK September 16, 2016


6 NEWS

Controversy of the week

Trump: Doubling down on immigration
law to get rid of the bad guys, and only then offer
So much for the “pivot,” said Eugene Robinson in The
legalization to those who meet our terms.
Washington Post. After Donald Trump’s visit to Mexico last week,
where he did “his best to sound sober and statesmanlike” in
You’re trying to make Trump sound reasonable,
a meeting with President Enrique Peña Nieto, it looked
said Timothy Egan in NYTimes.com. His speech was
as though Trump’s promised “softening” on immigraactually one of “the darkest visions of the American
tion had finally arrived. Later that day, however, the
experience that any major-party nominee has ever
old Trump resurfaced with a vengeance in Phoenix.
given.” Trump not only denigrated and threatened the
At a raucous rally for supporters, the GOP nominee
“lawn cutters, Sheetrock hangers, fruit pickers, or nanreiterated his pledge that our southern border will
nies we see in every community,” he called for cutting
be secured by an “impenetrable, physical, tall, powback on legal immigration, admitting only those who
erful, beautiful” wall, while also promising to hire
meet his standards for “merit, skill, and proficiency.”
5,000 new border patrol agents and create a “special
That would have ruled out most of the Irish, Italian,
deportation task force.” On “day one” of his presiA tale of two cities
Scandinavian, and Jewish immigrants who came to
dency, Trump shouted, his administration will start
the U.S. over the past 150 years out of desperation and hope for a
deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes in this
country—a number Trump wildly inflated to 2 million. Once these better life. During his trip to Mexico, Trump proved he’s “a cow“criminal aliens” are gone, as well as an estimated 4.5 million who ard,” said Peter Beinart in TheAtlantic.com. What kind of straighttalking tough guy calls Mexicans “terrific” and showers them with

have outstayed their visas, Trump will apparently turn his attencompliments when he’s within their borders, then breaks out the
tion to the remaining 6 million illegal immigrants, who may or
harsh rhetoric the minute he’s safely back in the U.S.?
may not be given a path to legalization.

Only in America
QAn Indiana school district

has proposed eliminating
naming a valedictorian because it promotes “unhealthy
competition” among students.
Greater Clark School District
superintendent Andrew Melin
said students seeking the honor often choose classes that
will boost their GPA. To avoid
that, he wants to honor the top
10 percent of all graduates.
QCalifornia State University,

Los Angeles is now offering segregated housing for
African-American students
so they can avoid “racially
insensitive remarks” and other
“microaggressions.” The new
“black living” community is
being created in response to
the Black Students Union’s
demand for a “safe space.” A
growing number of colleges,
including the University of

California, Berkeley, are setting aside special housing for
students of color.
THE WEEK September 16, 2016

That’s the behavior of a candidate with “a fatal flaw,” said John
Fund in NationalReview.com. When Trump first announced he
was “softening” his harsh immigration stance and flew to Mexico
to meet with Peña Nieto, it made Democrats very nervous. Would
he finally give wavering, Republican-leaning centrist voters the
assurances they need to take a chance on Trump? But then at the
rally in Arizona, he couldn’t help but throw “red meat” to his
angry, roaring acolytes. With a golden opportunity to show he can
be presidential, Trump decided he’d rather look tough and strong,
which he thinks means belligerent and bigoted. “If Donald Trump
loses in November, it will be because he simply lacks the selfdiscipline to reach voters beyond his base.”

Good week for:
Intolerants, after Ohio’s Kent State University opened the coun-

try’s first entirely gluten-free campus cafeteria, because officials
didn’t want students with celiac disease to feel “singled out.”
Coded messages, after Brazilian researchers revealed that
Renaissance painter Michelangelo secretly included dozens of hidden images of female reproductive organs and pagan fertility symbols in painting the Sistine Chapel, to show his irritation with the
Catholic Church’s male-dominated culture.
Having a taco, after “Latinos for Trump” founder Marco
Gutierrez inspired widespread hilarity by warning that if the border
isn’t walled off, “you’re gonna have taco trucks on every corner.”
That would require 3.2 million taco trucks, The Washington Post
estimated, or about 300 times the number of Starbucks stores.

Bad week for:
Men in black, after ISIS leaders banned referees from soccer
matches in its Syrian stronghold because they uphold the rules of
FIFA and not sharia.
Landmarks, after a group of vandals at an Oregon state park
deliberately destroyed an iconic sandstone formation known as the
Duckbill, telling a witness their friend had recently broken his leg
climbing on it and that it was “a safety hazard.”
Civilization as we know it, after experts in robotics warned
that by the year 2050 humans will be having sex with cyborgs—
and may prefer them to other humans. “Sexbots would always
be available and could never say no,” said researcher Joel Snell of
Kirkwood College. “Robotic sex may become addictive.”

Zika bill fails again
in Congress
As Congress returned from
a seven-week recess, Senate
Democrats this week blocked
a $1.1 billion emergency funding bill to fight the Zika virus,
citing provisions that Republicans had attached that would
cut funding for Planned
Parenthood. Lawmakers
have been under pressure
to address the spread of the
mosquito-borne virus, which
can cause devastating birth
defects. Mosquitoes carrying the virus have already
infected at least 56 people in
southern Florida. Health officials say they are concerned

that the virus could continue
to spread in the southeastern
U.S., where peak mosquito
season does not end until
November. Lawmakers now
expect the anti-Zika funding
to become part of stopgap
measures that Congress must
pass by Sept. 30 to avoid a
government shutdown.

AP

Trump’s Phoenix speech sounded “threatening,” said Rich Lowry
in Politico.com, but “beneath the bombast” this was actually one
of the more substantive and sensible speeches on immigration
we’ve ever heard from a presidential nominee. Prioritizing border
security and the deportation of criminal aliens makes a lot of sense,
as does Trump’s insistence that U.S. immigration policy serve the
interests of America and its workers, not the welfare of foreigners.
Trump’s earlier promises to deport all 11.5 million illegal immigrants were never more than fantasy, said Charles Krauthammer
in The Washington Post. Out of political necessity, he has found
his way to “the only immigration solution” that makes any sense:
Secure the borders first, aggressively enforce current immigration


The U.S. at a glance ...
Minneapolis
Cold case closed: A 27-year-old cold case
that led to the creation of a national sex

offenders registry was finally solved this
week, after a
man led police
to the body
of 11-year-old
Jacob Wetterling. Danny
Heinrich, 53,
later admitted in court to
abducting, sexJacob’s parents
ually assaulting, and murdering the boy. Jacob was
cycling home from a video store in 1989
with his younger brother and a friend
when they were stopped by a masked
gunman. The man ordered the other two
boys to run; Jacob was never seen again.
Heinrich was one of the first people
questioned in Jacob’s disappearance,
and last October was arrested on
child pornography charges. He
agreed to lead police to Jacob’s
body as part of a plea deal
allowing him to avoid state
murder charges. He instead
pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and faces up
to 20 years in prison. In 1994,
Congress passed a law named
after Jacob that requires states
to establish sex offender registries.

AP, Newscom, David Bitton/The News Press/AP, AP

Pawnee, Okla.
Fracking quake: Oklahoma state regulators shut down more than three dozen
oil and gas
wastewater
disposal
wells this
week, after
a record
magnitude5.8 earthquake shook
Cleaning up after the temblor
the state.
Officials declared a state of emergency
in the small town of Pawnee, roughly
55 miles northwest of Tulsa and near
the quake’s epicenter. Although some
buildings were damaged by the temblor,
which was felt as far away as Texas and
Illinois, no serious injuries were reported.
Oklahoma has experienced a sharp
uptick in seismic activity in recent years;
there were 890 earthquakes measuring
3.0 or higher in the state last year, up
from just two in 2008, before the state’s
fracking boom. Scientists say that the
hydraulic fracturing industry’s method of
disposing of wastewater—injecting it into
ultradeep disposal wells—could be causing the quakes.

Xenia, Ohio

Brock Turner released: The ex–Stanford
University swimmer whose relatively
light sentence for sexually assaulting an
unconscious woman on campus drew
national outrage was released from jail
last week, after serving half of his sixmonth term. Following his early release
for good behavior from California’s
Santa Clara County Jail, Brock Turner,
21, was registered as a sex offender at
the sheriff’s office near his parents’ Ohio
home. He is now under three years of
supervised probation. Turner was found
guilty in March of three felony accounts
stemming from the January 2015 sexual
assault. A prosecutor argued that he
should serve six years; Judge Aaron
Persky opted for county jail time and
probation, citing Turner’s show of “sincere remorse” and the “severe impact”
a state prison term would have on the
young athlete. Persky is currently the
subject of a recall effort.

Washington, D.C.
Georgetown’s slavery apology: Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic
institution of higher learning in the U.S.,
pledged last week to atone for its historical role in the slave trade, and extended
preferential admissions consideration to
the descendants of more than 270 slaves
that the university sold in 1838.
University President John DeGioia said

Georgetown would offer a formal apology for its actions, form an institute for
the study of slavery, and erect a public
memorial to the slaves whose labor benefited the institution. Founded by Jesuit
priests in 1789, the college relied for
decades on plantations in Maryland to
finance its operations. The 1838 sale of
272 men, women, and children generated
$115,000, or the equivalent of $3.3 million today; many of those slaves were
sent to Louisiana plantations. The “original evil that shaped the early years of
the republic was present here,” DeGioia
said. “We must acknowledge it.”

NEWS 7

New York City
Fox settles with Carlson: Fox News
moved this week to put an end to the
sexual harassment scandal that has plunged the
company into turmoil,
agreeing to pay former
anchor Gretchen Carlson
$20 million to settle
her lawsuit against exCEO Roger Ailes. The
company apologized in
a statement “for the fact
that Gretchen was not
Carlson: Payout
treated with the respect
and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve.” Although Carlson, 50,
did not name Fox as a defendant in her

suit against Ailes, 76, whom she accused
of sabotaging her career for rebuffing his
sexual advances, Fox’s parent company
will bear the entire cost of the settlement.
Ailes, who denies all of the allegations
against him, received a $40 million severance package when
he resigned in July. During a
Fox-commissioned investigation following Carlson’s suit, at
least 20 women at the company
reportedly came forward to make
allegations that they had been sexually
harassed by Ailes.

Tallahassee, Fla.
Trump’s pay-to-play? Donald Trump
defended himself this week against political pay-to-play allegations, denying there
was anything
improper about
a $25,000 gift to
a political group
linked to Florida
Attorney General
Pam Bondi,
who was at the
time considerBondi and Trump
ing whether to
open a fraud investigation against Trump
University. The 2013 donation, made by
the Donald J. Trump Foundation, violated federal rules that prohibit charities
from donating to political candidates;

Trump failed to disclose the gift to the
IRS, reporting that the money had been
given to an unrelated group with a similar
name, a misattribution Trump blamed
on a clerical error. Trump paid the IRS
a $2,500 penalty this year after reports
about the donation surfaced. Bondi has
said that she personally solicited a donation from the GOP presidential candidate,
but Trump insisted that the two never
spoke about the fraud investigation,
which Bondi’s office ultimately dropped.
THE WEEK September 16, 2016


8 NEWS

The world at a glance ...

London
Extremist imam jailed: Radical Muslim
cleric Anjem Choudary, a thorn in the
side of British authorities for decades,
has been sentenced to 5½ years in jail
for encouraging support of ISIS in a
series of inflammatory YouTube lectures. Choudary, 49, was a leader of
al-Muhajiroun, a now banned Islamist
Choudary: ISIS supporter
group that police suspected was the
driving force behind the 2005 London bombings, which killed
52 people. One of the two men who hacked British soldier Lee

Rigby to death in London in 2013 had attended protests organized
by Choudary. Scotland Yard counterterrorism head Dean Haydon
said the hate preacher had spent years “as spokesman for the
extremists, saying the most distasteful of comments but without
crossing the criminal threshold”—until he began praising ISIS.

Oslo
King defends immigrants: Norway’s King
Harald V sought to counter rising antiimmigrant rhetoric in the country this week
with an impassioned speech defending the
diversity of Norwegian society. “Norwegians
are girls who love girls, boys who love boys,
and girls and boys who love each other,” said
Harald, 79. “Norwegians believe in God,
Harald
Allah, the universe, and nothing.” He noted
that his own grandparents arrived in the country a century ago
from Denmark and England. “We are—despite our differences—
one people.” Norway’s center-right government attempted to
deport many asylum seekers earlier this year, after thousands of
Syrians crossed into the country from Russia on bicycles.

Amiens, France
Face transplant death: Isabelle Dinoire, the Frenchwoman who
received the world’s first partial face transplant, has died of cancer
at age 49. Dinoire suffered terrible injuries during a 2005 suicide
attempt, when she took an overdose of sleeping
pills and her dog tried to revive her by gnawing at
her face. That year, she was given a new nose, lips,
and chin from a brain-dead donor, but the immunosuppressant drugs she took to stop her body from

rejecting the transplant left her especially vulnerable
to cancer. Dinoire’s immune system nearly rejected
the transplant twice, and she struggled to accept the
look of her new face. “It’s not [the donor’s], it’s not
Dinoire in 2006
mine, it’s somebody else’s,” she said.

Rio de Janeiro
Legalizing gambling: Eager to raise tax revenues, Brazilian lawmakers are working on a plan to legalize gambling, 70 years after
all casinos in the country were shut down. Illegal gambling is a
$6.3 billion industry in Brazil, and legislators want to tap that revenue as the nation suffers its most severe economic downturn since
the 1930s. “It would be one of the most significant events in gaming history if Brazil opens up to the gambling sector,” said William
Hill, one of the U.K.’s largest firms of
bookmakers. Critics say casinos will
fuel corruption and money laundering, particularly in politics—more
than half of Brazil’s lawmakers are
under investigation for various kickback schemes. But President Michel
Temer, who took office officially last
week after his predecessor, Dilma
Rousseff, was impeached, has shown
support for legalization.
An illegal lottery ticket
THE WEEK September 16, 2016

Montevideo, Uruguay
Gitmo protest: Former
Guantánamo Bay detainee Abu
Wa’el Dhiab has gone on a hunger strike to protest conditions of
his resettlement in Uruguay. Dhiab, 44, had run a food-importing
business based in Kabul before he was arrested in Pakistan in

2002 on suspicion of ties to al Qaida. The Syrian national was
transferred to the U.S. prison camp in Guantánamo but was
never charged with any crime, and after many hunger strikes,
during which he was force-fed, the U.S. released him to Uruguay
in 2014 on condition that he stay in that country. Dhiab violated
those terms by going to Venezuela earlier this year, trying to make
arrangements to reunite with his family in Turkey, but he was
deported back to Uruguay. Dhiab and the five other ex-detainees
resettled there say they aren’t getting enough financial support
and are isolated without their families.

AP, Newscom (3)

Mexico City
Answering Trump: Mexico may consider revoking a series of bilateral treaties with the U.S. if Donald Trump is elected president and
pulls America out of NAFTA. Opposition lawmaker Sen. Armando
Ríos Piter has proposed a bill that would let Mexico impound U.S.bound funds if a President Trump were to seize remittances from
Mexicans in the U.S. to pay for his planned border wall. The legislation also states that Mexico could cancel treaties, including the
1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which transferred to the U.S.
the territory covering all of Texas, California, Nevada, and Utah,
and parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Wyoming.
“This is the first step toward establishing a public policy about how
Mexico should react in the face of a threat,” Ríos Piter said.


The world at a glance ...
Rome
More babies, please: Italy is holding its first Fertility Day this
month, encouraging citizens to make more babies, but the government has yanked its advertising campaign for the event after widespread accusations of sexism. Italians on social media said the ads
blame women for the country’s low birth

rate and seek to shame them into procreating. One poster, showing a woman
holding up a rapidly draining hourglass,
says “Beauty has no age. But fertility
does.” Many commenters said it reminded
them of the propaganda of fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini, who exhorted women
to have many children for the fatherland.
Italy’s birth rate stands at an all-time low
Shaming the childless?
of 1.35 children per woman.

NEWS 9

Hangzhou, China
G20 summit flops: The leaders
of the world’s 20 most powerful
countries came together for a
summit in Hangzhou this week,
but the meeting was marred
by misunderstandings and outbursts of pique. Host China
had shut down factories around
Putin and Obama: Glare-off
Hangzhou and encouraged residents to leave town to ensure blue skies and little traffic for
the visiting bigwigs. But the event did not go smoothly. When
President Obama’s plane landed, Chinese security guards got
into a shouting match with U.S. officials over who should
drive the rolling airstairs to the aircraft, forcing Obama to
disembark from a little-used exit at the rear of Air Force One.
“This is our country—this is our airport,” one Chinese official said.
The summit produced few firm results. No progress was

made on two major trade pacts under discussion China, and
the U.S. agreed to ratify the United Nations’ Paris climate
change accord, which set up a framework for dozens of countries to slash their greenhouse-gas emissions. Obama met with
Russian President Vladimir Putin for 90 minutes to talk about
resolving the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine—where the two
powers are backing rival combatants—producing a photo of
the two men locking eyes in an icy stare. Obama said afterward that “gaps of trust” had prevented any breakthrough.
Nor was any progress made on the status of the South China
Sea, where China is laying claim to islands also claimed by
five of its U.S.-allied neighbors.

Screenshot, AP, Getty, AP

Vientiane, Laos
Obama pledges aid: President Obama promised $90 million in aid
to Laos this week to clear unexploded ordnance left behind from
a covert U.S. bombing campaign during the Vietnam War. “Given
our history here, I believe that the United States has a moral obligation to help Laos heal,” Obama said during a visit to the country, the first by a sitting U.S. president. The CIA led the bombing
campaign, which from 1964 to 1973 saw more than 2 million
tons of explosives dropped on Laotian villages and suspected
North Vietnamese supply routes. That is more than “we dropped
on Germany and Japan, combined, in all of World War II,” said
Obama. Some 80 million cluster bombs failed to detonate, and lie
scattered across Laotian fields and forests; the bombs have killed
some 20,000 Laotians over the years.
Libreville, Gabon
Election in question: At least
six people have been killed and
hundreds arrested in Gabon after
riots erupted over claims that the

country’s presidential election
last month was fixed. According
An injured Ping supporter
to official results, President Ali
Bongo defeated opposition leader Jean Ping by a tiny margin of
some 5,000 votes. European Union observers recommended a
recount, saying there was an “obvious anomaly” in Bongo’s home
province, which recorded an implausible 99.93 percent turnout,
with 95 percent of that vote cast for Bongo. Nationwide turnout
averaged 59 percent. Bongo says he has no authority to order a
recount. Justice Minister Séraphin Moundounga resigned over
Bongo’s intransigence, saying he believes the government is not
acting in the country’s best interest.

Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan
Nomadic Olympics: The second-ever World Nomad Games opened
in Kyrgyzstan last week, in a ceremony featuring flaming horse
riders and actor Steven Seagal—a cult figure in the former Soviet
Union—dressed as a Kyrgyz warrior. The event is dedicated to the
ethnic sports of Central Asia, including archery, wrestling, and
competitive yurt building, which is judged on speed and stability.
Many events take place on horseback,
such as kok-boru, a violent form of
polo using a goat carcass that mounted
players must heave up onto the horse.
A U.S. team made up of cowboys from
Wyoming competed in kok-boru this
year; they lost all three of their games.
“The good thing about the goat is the
feast afterwards,” said U.S. team capPolo, but with a dead goat

tain Creed Garnick. “It’s not wasted.”
THE WEEK September 16, 2016


10 NEWS

People

Quincy’s gangster roots
Quincy Jones has had some wild experiences
during his long life, said Stephen Smith in The
Guardian (U.K.). The legendary music producer,
83, has played Vegas with Frank Sinatra, vacationed on David Bowie’s yacht, and, as the son
of a carpenter employed by the Chicago mob,
hung out with some of the city’s most notorious
gangsters. “All I saw were dead bodies, tommy
guns and stogies, and piles of money in back rooms,” Jones says.
“I had my hand nailed to a fence with a switchblade when I was 7.
When you’re a kid, you want to be what you see, and I wanted to
be a gangster till I was 11.” But then Jones discovered music, and
went on to produce some of the industry’s biggest hits—notably
Michael Jackson’s Thriller. Jones spent a lot of time with Jackson,
who would come to the studio with chimpanzees, parrots, and
his snake, Muscles. “I didn’t like that. The snake used to wrap
itself around my leg. Man, I didn’t like that at all. It would crawl
across the console. One day I said, ‘Where’s Muscles?’ and we went
downstairs and Muscles was in the parrot cage. He had just eaten
the parrot and his head got stuck in the bars of the cage.”

The man who created Burning Man

QThe lawyer for Chris Brown says the al-

legations that led to the rapper’s arrest
last week were “not just false, but fabricated.” Model Baylee Curran, 25, said
she was visiting Brown’s Tarzana,
Calif., mansion and admiring one
of his friends’ diamond necklaces
when the man allegedly yelled at
her to get away from the jewelry.
Brown then entered the room, she
claims, “pulled out his gun and said,
‘I’m getting so sick of you people,’
pointed the gun at me, [and told me] to
get the f--- out.” Curran left and called
911; police arrived and surrounded
the house, where Brown remained
for some 14 hours while authorities
THE WEEK September 16, 2016

The night writer
Lionel Shriver is out of sync with the rest of the world, said Alex
Clark in The Guardian (U.K.). The American novelist, who now
lives in London, likes to write from the afternoon until 10 p.m.,
then go for a run through the empty streets of the city, have supper after midnight, and go to bed around 4 a.m. “The main problem with this routine,” says Shriver, “is all these people who want
to do things in the morning.” Lunch invitations are “a catastrophe.
I have a rule against lunch, and I break that rule maybe once or
twice a year, only for professional emergencies.” She tries to
fend off other early birds, with mixed success. “U.K. tradesmen
in particular have a thing about showing up at 8 a.m.; they like

to get their work done super early and knock off at 2 in the afternoon.” The rest of the working world is shocked to find her still
asleep in the middle of the day, assuming it means she’s indolent.
“The disapproval is unbelievable. Even from delivery people. If I
scramble into my robe and hustle downstairs at 10:30 a.m.—and
they probably got up at 5—the contempt drips off them. I have
to stop myself from saying, ‘You don’t understand, I’m not some
layabout. I actually have a job. I just keep different hours.’”

secured a search warrant. Brown’s attorney,
Mark Geragos, says “nothing was found that
corroborated [Curran’s] statement”—including any “gun or guns.” Geragos released a
text Curran allegedly sent to a friend shortly
before she called the police, in which she
calls Brown a “freak” and says, “I’m going to
set him up and call the cops and say he tried
to shoot me.” Released on a $250,000 bond,
Brown, 27, is due to be arraigned on assault
charges on Sept. 20.
QRihanna and Drake are apparently an

item. The singers seemed to confirm their
rumored romance this week by getting inked
with matching tattoos depicting a camouflage shark—his on the forearm, hers on
the ankle—likely representing a stuffed toy
Drake gave Rihanna last month. Longtime
friends and collaborators, the couple ramped

up speculation about their relationship
at last week’s MTV Video Music Awards,
where Drake, 29, introduced Rihanna, 28, as

“someone I’ve been in love with since I was
22 years old.” Days later the couple kissed
onstage at his concert in Miami. “If it was
up to him,” an insider tells Eonline.com, “he
would marry her tomorrow.”
QChevy Chase this week checked into a
Minnesota rehab facility for an alcohol problem. The former Saturday Night Live star,
72, entered Hazelden Addiction Treatment
Center in Minnesota for what his publicist,
Heidi Schaeffer, calls “a tune-up,” TMZ.com
reports. Chase has struggled with substance
issues throughout his career. He has two
movie projects due out, The Christmas
Apprentice, just wrapped, and Dog Years,
currently being filmed with Burt Reynolds.

Getty, Newscom, AP

Thirty years ago, Larry Harvey and some friends gathered round a
burning wooden figure at an impromptu party on San Francisco’s
Baker Beach, said Tim Bradshaw in the Financial Times. That
spontaneous gathering has gradually morphed into Burning Man,
a festival in the Nevada desert where over 70,000 ravers and hedonists congregate to put on experimental performance art, ingest
mind-altering substances, and party. In honor of the original event,
on the Saturday night of the festival the revelers come together to
witness the symbolic burning of the effigy, known as “the Man.”
Harvey, who remains the festival’s “chief philosophic officer,” says
the burning has a real cathartic impact. “Everyone feels like they’re
one with everyone else. That’s called transcendence.” Despite his
unorthodox views, Harvey sees the “safe space” ideals of today’s

college-age leftists as contrary to Burning Man’s exploratory ethos.
“Have you noticed what’s happening with student politics now?
It’s all hugging one another and receding into cuddle puddles.” Nor
is he perturbed by the growing number of Burners who complain
the event is being taken over by rich Silicon Valley nerds—some of
whom spend up to $20,000 for a VIP spot in the desert. “We’re
not the Occupy movement,” he says. “Civilization and commerce
have always gone hand in hand. We’re an international city, for
God’s sake. You don’t whistle that up out of nothing.”


Briefing

NEWS 11

The Philippines’ populist strongman
President Rodrigo Duterte has encouraged a wave of vigilante killings across his nation. Why is he so popular?

AP

What’s Duterte doing?

But Duterte won a five-way race in a
landslide, with nearly 40 percent of the
Since he took office at the end of
votes to Roxas’ 23 percent.
June, President Rodrigo Duterte has
unleashed the police and vigilante hit
How are people responding?
squads against suspected drug dealThe most recent poll—showing a

ers. “My order is shoot to kill you,” he
91 percent approval rating—was comsaid. “I don’t care about human rights,
pleted just a week after he took office,
you’d better believe me.” In just two
so it doesn’t reflect the wave of killings
months, more than 1,900 people have
that followed. But anecdotal evidence
been summarily executed in the streets.
indicates that Duterte’s kill-them-all
Most of them were suspected low-level
strategy is both effective and popudrug dealers, but some were bystanders
lar. Fearing for their lives, more than
caught in the crossfire; the youngest was
half a million suspected drug dealers
a 5-year-old. Duterte, 71, has not only
and users have surrendered to police
thumbed his nose at the Philippines’ rule
in the past few weeks. The political
of law, he has also threatened those who
mainstream, though, is horrified by the
criticize his tactics. He’s fired thousands
street shootings. “This is like anarchy,”
of government workers, saying they were
Duterte: ‘I don’t care about human rights.’
said Sen. Antonio Trillanes.
all corrupt, and pledged to fill the jobs
with his own loyalists. He has already insulted the U.S. ambasWhat is his policy toward the U.S.?
sador, and warned President Obama not to question the wave of
killings, adding, “Son of a bitch, I will swear at you.” As a result, Duterte resents the Philippines’ history as a former U.S. colony,
occupied from 1898 to 1946. (See box.) A self-described socialist,

Obama cancelled a meeting with Duterte planned for this week.
he wears his anti-Americanism like a badge of honor, pointedly
meeting with envoys from Japan and China before those from the
How did he come to power?
U.S. He called U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg “this gay ambasFor 22 years, he was mayor of Davao City, in Mindanao, a
Philippine island plagued by a long-running Islamic insurgency. A sador, son of a whore” after Goldberg criticized him for his recent
trash-talking populist who says he hates career politicians, Duterte comments on the rape and murder of an Australian missionary,
which occurred while Duterte was mayor of Davao. “I was angry
was known in Davao City for his blatant womanizing, and for
his success in fighting crime. When he took office in 1988, Davao because she was raped, that’s one thing,” Duterte had said. “But
was the murder capital of the Philippines, but now it is one of the she was so beautiful, the mayor should have been first. What
country’s safer cities. He accomplished that feat by living up to his a waste.” He has brushed aside U.S. criticism of the killings on
nickname, “The Punisher.” Death squads loosely aligned with city his watch, saying, “Why are you Americans killing black people
there, shooting them down when they
authorities roamed the streets on bicyare already on the ground?”
cles, shooting suspected drug dealers on
How Duterte’s resentment started
sight. Hundreds of people were killed,
Duterte has said he still feels “hatred” for the
Will he abandon the alliance?
but the crime rate dropped, and Duterte
U.S. for a 2002 incident in Davao, while he was
No. Duterte has said he wants closer
was elected seven times.
mayor. An American treasure hunter named
economic ties with China, the counMichael Meiring, who sometimes joked he was
try’s second-largest trading partner,
How did he become president?
with the CIA, was charged with possession of
after Japan and before the U.S. Yet

The campaign this spring was bitter.
explosives after a metal box in his hotel room
the U.S. is still the Philippines’ largOutgoing President Benigno Aquino,
blew up, tearing one of his legs off. Philippine
est source of foreign investment, and
who had presided over five years of
officials said FBI officials snatched Meiring from
Duterte doesn’t want to jeopardize
economic growth, endorsed Whartonthe hospital in the night and flew him out of the
that inflow. He has also conceded that
educated investment banker Manuel
country. Duterte was furious, saying Meiring
the U.S. is his country’s only major
Roxas to succeed him. But Duterte
was a criminal suspect, possibly a spy or a
military ally—at a time when China
painted the little-known Roxas as part
terrorist, and that the U.S. had no right to viois pressing claims to islands in the
of the corrupt establishment and said
late Philippine sovereignty by removing him.
South China Sea that the Philippines
that the Philippines under Aquino
Meiring had frequently traveled to areas where
considers its own. Last month, Duterte
was becoming a “narco state.” He
Islamic separatists were active, possibly as part
said he would abide by a defense pact
pointed to evidence that Mexico’s
of a U.S. campaign against the Abu Sayyaf, a
signed by his predecessor that allows

fearsome Sinaloa cartel was using the
rebel gang of kidnappers operating from the
U.S. forces to operate from Philippine
Philippines as a transit shipment point,
jungle that recently swore allegiance to ISIS. In
territory. But he’s also made it clear
and bemoaned his country’s rampant
the Philippines, it’s widely believed Meiring was
he doesn’t feel that he owes the U.S.
abuse of methamphetamines, marketed
conducting bombings that could be blamed on
anything in return for its military prothere mixed with caffeine and known as
the rebel group, to increase pressure on the
tection. “I am no American puppet,”
shabu. The drug has devastated many
Philippine government to permit greater U.S.
he said this week. “I am the president
Manila neighborhoods, where some of
involvement. Meiring died in 2012 without ever
of a sovereign country, and I am not
the local police are in the pay of drug
explaining why he was in the Philippines and
answerable to anyone except the
gangs. An alarmed Aquino told voters to carrying a bomb.
Filipino people.”
“remember how Hitler came to power.”
THE WEEK September 16, 2016


Best columns: The U.S.

the Trump movement here to stay? asked Jonathan Tobin. If the
Will Trumpism IsRepublican
presidential nominee triumphs in November, his unique
brand of populist, white-identity nativism could well develop into a
last after
formidable force for years to come. But if, as many expect, he comes
short, there’s little to suggest Trumpism has any staying power. In
the election? up
recent weeks, “Trump wannabes” have been badly beaten in primary
Jonathan Tobin
races by establishment Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio in
CommentaryMagazine.com Florida, Arizona Sen. John McCain, and House Speaker Paul Ryan in
Wisconsin. In each race, Trump failed to endorse or work for the candidates who claimed him as an inspiration, because he’s only concerned
with his own success. His supporters, in turn, only care about electing Trump. The former reality-TV star isn’t running on any coherent,
workable platform other Republicans can adopt; instead, he embodies
an attitude—“a primal urge” to “stick it to the powers that be,” including the Republican establishment, liberals, and the media. Do his supporters believe he’ll do everything he says? No. They just like how he
says it. But if the celebrity leader fails in his bid for the White House,
his movement will fall apart. “Trumpism without Trump is an illusion.”

a scientist who spent decades conducting research on monkeys, said
The immorality As
John Gluck, I once believed that “intentionally harming animals” was
justified by what we learned. But after witnessing the terrible suffering
of animal
we inflicted, I now believe animal research is immoral. In fact, we need
to examine whether we should stop the research that scientists are still
research
conducting on 70,000 laboratory primates in the U.S. In my own work,
John Gluck

The New York Times

Cutting off
aid to
Israel
Jeff Jacoby

The Boston Globe

Viewpoint

we separated young monkeys from their families and others of their
kind, putting them in isolated, soundproof cages that were lit 24 hours
a day. We then measured “how their potential complex and intellectual
lives unraveled” under these awful conditions—in effect, driving them
insane. As we observed these intelligent primates suffer, I began to see
them as individuals with personalities and feelings, not just objects yielding data, and “it became harder and harder for me to argue that the
importance of my work always outweighed the pain I caused.” Besides,
what we learned about animals in cages had limited relevance to mental
illness in people. In recent decades, we have banned research that causes
harm to humans—even if it produces useful information. “There is no
ethical argument that justifies not doing the same for animals.”
“I support Israel, which is why I don’t support U.S. aid to Israel,” said
Jeff Jacoby. How is that possible? For decades, the prevailing Zionist
view has been that military aid from Washington, which now amounts
to $3.1 billion a year, is “the most tangible manifestation of American
support” and a cornerstone of the U.S.-Israel alliance. In reality, the Jewish state boasts a booming economy and doesn’t need our charity. Plus,
all that American largesse “comes with strings attached”—and might
actually be making Israel weaker. The U.S. stipulates that Jerusalem

must spend 75 percent of each year’s assistance in the U.S., essentially
subsidizing American defense contractors instead of bolstering its own
thriving arms industry. What’s more, numerous Israeli military experts
argue that an overreliance on U.S.-made jets and missile systems may be
skewing their country’s defense focus toward air power at the expense of
ground strategies crucial to fighting terrorists. The aid also enables the
U.S. to exert pressure on Israeli decision making, thus complicating our
alliance. “Israel is healthy enough to stand on its own two feet, and it
should be a matter of pride for it to do so.”

“I don’t wish I was a Baby Boomer. I don’t pine to be a member of Generation X.
I can say this much for sure, though: Being a Millennial is the worst. Why?
Because even though many of us are adults now, the world is still talking down to us. Millennials
are actually pretty grown-up now. Many of us have graduated from college. Lots of us are engaged,
married, or expecting a first or second child. We might live at home, choose not to get married, or
participate actively in the sharing economy, but none of these decisions means a stunted state of
growth or intellect—just an evolving culture and worldview.”
Jeva Lange in TheWeek.com
THE WEEK September 16, 2016

It must be true...

I read it in the tabloids
QA 63-year-old Japanese man
used his black-belt karate
skills to fight off a snarling
black bear. Atsushi Aoki was
fishing in a mountain stream
when the 6-foot animal suddenly charged him, biting
him and mauling him. Aoki

clambered to his feet and
adopted a karate stance. “I
thought, ‘I kill him or he kills
me,’” said the martial arts
expert. He delivered several
quick punches to the bear’s
eyes, causing it to retreat.
Bleeding from his head,
arms, and legs, the fisherman hobbled back to his car
and “drove himself to the
hospital,” said a police officer.
“He even remembered to
grab the fish he had caught.”
QTom Hiddleston
and Taylor Swift have
broken up, after the
British actor insisted
that she stop treating him “like a
glorified escort,”
said RadarOnline
.com. Hiddleston,
35, grew sick of flying all over the world
to appear at the pop
star’s side in paparazzifriendly public displays of affection,
which Swift, 26,
meticulously choreographed. But a source
said his complaints “infuriated” Swift, who thinks
Hiddleston should be grateful
for all the “free press” he
received.

QA Chinese college is
rationing restroom water to
stop students from getting
flush-happy when they go
to the toilet. Each student at
Kunming Health Vocational
College will be assigned 650
gallons of water per month
on a preloaded card that
must be swiped before flushing on campus. If they go
over the quota, they’ll have
to pay charges. The goal is to
cut down on water wastage,
but some students worry the
quota could have a nasty
side effect. “Won’t this encourage students not to flush
the toilet?” asked one critic.

Getty

12 NEWS



14 NEWS
GERMANY

Far right
embraces
a culture war

Hannah Beitzer

Süddeutsche Zeitung

GREECE

Trapped
in a spiral
of misery
Editorial

Dimokratia

Best columns: Europe
The populists are on the march, said Hannah
Beitzer. The Alternative for Germany party, or
AfD, this week shot ahead of Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats in local
elections in the eastern state of MecklenburgVorpommern. The AfD took second place behind
the center-left Social Democrats, with the Christian
Democrats suffering their worst ever result in the
state. Pundits tried to rationalize the upset by pointing to economic factors—the state’s high unemployment and low salaries—but the truth is staring us
all in the face. This is “a culture war.” Just look
at the slogans on AfD supporters’ banners, such

as “Lying press” and “USA war criminal No. 1.”
Look at the billboards plastered all over the state,
telling people to vote AfD “so that Germany won’t
be destroyed.” This is a rebellion against modern
German politics and modern life itself. It is antiAmerican, anti-foreigner, and anti-feminist. When

AfD leaders talk about “our children,” they mean
the white ethnic German children of straight married couples, “not the children of single mothers
and absolutely not refugee children.” They long
for the Germany of 50 years ago, “when men were
men, women were women, and non-Germans were
just guest workers” with no intention of staying.

Greece’s creditors are strangling the country,
said Dimokratia. This “nightmare of austerity” seems to have no end: The left-wing Syriza
government, elected expressly in 2015 to end the
vicious cuts, signed a third memorandum with
international creditors last year, and those creditors’ demands are coming in waves. Just when we
have barely adapted to eking out some kind of
existence, another round of benefit cuts and tax
hikes hits pensioners and wage earners alike. Our
unemployment rate is at nearly 24 percent, the
highest in the European Union, and the slump is
comparable only to America’s Great Depression
in the 1930s. Yet rather than trying to stimulate

growth, the creditors are sucking all life out of the
economy—we simply don’t have the money to pay
for anything other than food and rent. “Families
are destroyed” as some desperate Greeks commit
suicide and many more “lose all hope.” Pessimism
is, in fact, our only rational position, since even the
latest International Monetary Fund report tells us
“that it will be another 44 years before the unemployment rate drops to 10 percent.” The report,
of course, fails to mention the IMF’s own role
in bringing this calamity upon us. Our creditors

“have sentenced an entire country and its people
to death.” With that strategy, they won’t see much
return—and neither will generations of Greeks.

until 2017. “Bookmakers reckon
The sky did not fall, said Jeremy
there is a 40 percent chance that
Warner in The Daily Telegraph.
Britain will not leave the EU before
The dreaded Brexit economic shock
2020.” This delay is bad for the
is here, but it has hit Europe, not
U.K.’s long-term economic health,
the U.K. In the buildup to the June
as few companies want to invest
referendum on Britain’s membership
here while our trade relationships
in the European Union, scaremonare still in flux. Already, “growth
gers in the Remain camp warned
in business credit has markedly
of apocalyptic consequences should
slowed,” and “planned investment
voters choose Leave. But now, nearly
is being reined in.” Job growth is
three months after Britons opted
now more in low-paid or contract
to exit the bloc, economic data is
labor, as firms plug gaps without
trickling in and the U.K. looks to be
committing to permanent hires.

“in much better shape than generally anticipated.” Yes, the pound has Britain has yet to suffer economic fallout from leaving the EU. And the pain of the real Brexit, of
course, is still to come.
suffered a sharp devaluation. But
manufacturing output surged in August—sterling’s depreciation
There is a way to pull back from the EU “that doesn’t knacker
made our exports more affordable for buyers in the U.S., China,
the British economy; it just involves breaking many of the promEurope, and the Middle East—and British consumers spent the
summer on a shopping spree. While the British economy sails on ises made by Vote Leave,” said Stephen Bush in NewStatesman
.com. We could maintain untrammeled access to the single Eu“as if nothing has happened,” Europe’s “continues to stagnate.”
ropean market—the world’s largest trading bloc—if we agreed
Both France and Italy showed no growth in this year’s second
quarter, and now even the data from Germany is starting to look to keep visa-free access to the U.K. for European citizens. But
many Britons voted Leave precisely because they wanted to stop
grim. Voters were right to want out of this failed experiment.
Polish and Romanian job seekers moving to the U.K. For now,
Prime Minister May favors a “best-of-both-worlds deal” that
“Those who are pleasantly surprised by Brexit’s consequences
combines single-market access with controls on EU immigration,
should bear in mind that it has not yet happened,” said The
said Jon Henley in The Guardian. But such an agreement would
Economist. Before the referendum, Prime Minister David Cameron said his government would begin the process of withdrawal embolden Euroskeptic parties in Germany, France, Italy, and the
Netherlands to seek their own exits, and would fatally weaken
immediately in the case of a Leave vote. Instead, he quit and left
the job to his successor, Theresa May, who says the complex pro- the EU. The deal that Britain wants and the deal the EU is willing
to accept will likely be two very different things.
cess of negotiating Britain’s untangling from the bloc won’t start
THE WEEK September 16, 2016

Newscom

United Kingdom: Were Brexit fears overhyped?


Best columns: International

NEWS 15

Mexico: Fury over president’s meeting with Trump
mind that Pa Nieto probably did
Mexico is humiliated, said Rẳl Ronot mean to betray Mexico: His
dríguez Cortés in El Universal. Donald
behavior “was treasonous.” I know
Trump, the Republican candidate for
how serious that charge is, but it
U.S. president and a man who has
fits. “The biggest threat that Mexico
smeared Mexican immigrants as raphas faced in decades found a willing
ists, criminals, and drug dealers, visited
tool in Enrique Peña Nieto.”
our capital last week as a personal
guest of President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Trump’s visit “has caused an unDuring a joint press conference with
precedented public clamor against
our president, Trump did not offer a
the president,” said Héctor Aguilar
single word of apology for his antiCamin in Milenío. Pa Nieto’s apMexican insults, “the minimum reproval rating, already below 20 perquired from this incomprehensible, uncent because of surging corruption
worthy, and useless” visit. Only when
Peña Nieto might be regretting his invite to Trump.
and crime, could sink into single
the trip was over did Peña Nieto stand

digits, “plunging his presidency into uncertainty.” Mexicans have
up for Mexico’s honor. Trump told the American media that the
started hoisting the flag upside down in public squares, a sign of
subject of his planned wall along the southern U.S. border didn’t
come up during the meeting, leading Peña Nieto to write on social repudiation of the government. Some are “calling for a march
to demand Peña Nieto’s resignation.” I can’t remember a time of
media that he had explicitly informed Trump that Mexico would
such “virulence against the president,” nor of such a “resurgence
not pay for the wall. Then Trump, speaking in Phoenix, shouted
that Mexicans will pay for the wall even though they don’t know of Mexican nationalism and anti-gringo pride.”
it yet. So there we have it: Without getting anything in return,
Yet aren’t we being a bit hypocritical? said Carlos Heredia ZuPeña Nieto “gave the gringo psychopath a meeting and a photo
bieta in El Universal. It’s easy to slam Peña Nieto for failing to
op,” legitimizing him as a statesman.
stand up for undocumented Mexicans living in the U.S. But have
we ever done anything for them? Trump plans to expel poor
It’s not just Mexicans who are agog at Peña Nieto’s “gigantic
Mexicans, but “we expelled them first” with our violent crime,
stupidity,” said Jesús Silva-Herzog Márquez in Reforma. The
measly wages, political corruption, and lack of social mobility.
whole world is wondering, “What the hell was he thinking in
It’s time to reach out to Mexicans in America, to invite their chillending the presidential palace to boost the campaign of the
country’s worst enemy?” Our president actually excused Trump’s dren and grandchildren here, to take advantage of their knowledge of English. “Trump wants to erect more barriers between
inexcusable racism as a “misunderstanding” that “pained
our two countries.” We need to “break them down.”
Mexicans”—as if “the problem were our sensitivity.” Never

PAKISTAN

The U.S. has

formed an axis
with India
Jalees Hazir

The Nation

UZBEKISTAN

What happens
when there’s
no successor?
Alexei Malashenko

Newscom

Vedomosti (Russia)

It’s now clear that India is “an enlisted member
of the hegemonic U.S.-led cabal,” said Jalees
Hazir. For more than half a century, India has
boasted about its role in founding the Non-Aligned
Movement—a 120-strong group of nations that
is not formally allied with or against any major
power bloc. But last week, India and the U.S.
signed a defense deal that will greatly increase Indian access to U.S. technology and contact between
the two nations’ militaries. Coming on the heels of
India’s designation as a “major defense partner”
of the U.S., the agreement exposes New Delhi’s
“multipolar pretensions” as a lie. This public em-

brace of America should help Russia and Iran “see
through India’s deceptive engagement with them.”
As for Pakistan, we know what’s in store. The new
alliance will “speed up the hybrid war against Pakistan in the garb of ‘stabilizing Afghanistan’ and
‘countering terrorism.’” Assisted by the “puppet
government in Afghanistan,” the U.S. and India are
working to destabilize our borderlands and launch
terrorist attacks throughout Pakistan. So what will
our prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, do about it? So
far, he has behaved like a “certified pawn of the
empire.” Only Pakistan’s military is “alive to the
threat we face” from a U.S.-backed India.

Uzbekistan’s dictator for the past quarter-century died last week and there’s no designated
successor—but don’t panic, said Alexei Malashenko. If President Islam Karimov gave the former
Soviet republic nothing else during his 26 years
in power, he gave it stability. Uzbekistan’s party
elite, business leaders, and clans “are interested in
preserving the stability that ensures their tranquil
existence.” So they may follow in the footsteps
of another ex-Soviet state, Turkmenistan: After its
strongman, Saparmurat Niyazov, died suddenly
in 2006, his personal dentist emerged seemingly
out of nowhere to continue the cult of personality

at the top. Or Uzbekistan’s various familial clans
could choose a compromise candidate as president
but shift power toward the legislature. The danger
lies in the third, least likely possibility: a battle for
power in which one faction tries to harness the

country’s Islamist militants. But because the terrorist group Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which
has struggled for years to establish an Islamic state
in this Muslim country, has recently declared allegiance to ISIS, it would be extraordinarily foolish of
any clan to ally itself with Islamism. Instead, we’re
likely to see “one authoritarian ruler replace another.” Hail to the new chief, whoever he may be.
THE WEEK September 16, 2016


Noted
QDonald Trump’s campaign has seven policy
proposals listed on his
website, totaling 9,000
words. Hillary Clinton’s
campaign has 65 policy
fact sheets, with detailed
proposals totaling 112,735
words.
Associated Press

Q When it touched down
last week as a Category 1
storm, Hurricane Hermine
was the first hurricane to
hit Florida in 11 years.
USA Today

QBefore passing a new
voter ID law in 2013, North
Carolina Republican officials asked the board of
elections for “a breakdown

of the 2008 voter turnout
by race and type of vote
(early and Election Day)”
and a breakdown by race
of “registered voters in
your database that do not
have a driver’s license
number,” recently released
records show. State Republican consultant Carter
Wrenn said the GOP was
trying to suppress black
votes “because they vote
Democrat,” so the effort
was “political,” not racist.
The Washington Post

QWith gas
prices down
40 percent
from two
years ago,
Americans
took to
the roads
in record
numbers
this summer. In June,
drivers burned more than
405 million gallons of gas
a day—the highest amount

in U.S. history.
NPR.com

QOver the past 12 years,
the number of Americans
who say they use marijuana on a daily or near-daily
basis has jumped from
3.9 million to 8.4 million,
or from 1.9 percent of the
U.S. population to 3.5 percent, according to a new
study in Lancet Psychiatry.
TheGuardian.com
THE WEEK September 16, 2016

Talking points
Trump: His ‘outreach’ to African-Americans
voting for him. In fact,
When Donald Trump came
“black America includes
to Detroit this week to
doctors, painters, welders,
engage in “African-American
farmers, and even former
outreach,” said Rochelle
White House staffers
Riley in the Detroit Free
turned adjunct professors
Press, “he sat in a black
like me.” As a Republican
church for the first time

I’d like to back Trump in
ever,” awkwardly swaying
November, but I’d like to
to the music. But “nobody
know his specific proposals
was fooled.” After months of
for continuing the nation’s
speaking to almost entirely
progress. “There is in fact a
white audiences, the GOP
Interesting music you have there.
lot to lose.”
nominee visited Great Faith
Ministries, run by televangelist bishop Wayne
“It’s the world’s worst-kept secret” that Trump’s
Jackson. The two engaged in a question-andso-called African-American outreach isn’t aimed
answer session that was scripted in advance, and
at black voters, said Jason Sattler in USAToday
then an unusually sedate Trump read a speech.
He called for “a civil rights agenda for our time” .com. He’s really courting conservative-leaning,
that ensures the right to a quality education, jobs, college-educated whites who are uncomfortable
voting for a racist who made his name in national
and “the right to live in safety and in peace.”
politics by calling the first black president a
Did he really think that black voters—who now
give him close to zero percent support in national foreign-born traitor. “White voters can tell themselves whatever fables they want to justify suppolls—“could be so easily swayed”?
porting him,” said Jennifer Rubin in The Wash“I do give Mr. Trump credit for making the trip,” ington Post. But Trump can’t erase a 30-year
history of housing discrimination in his real estate
said former Bush-Cheney adviser Ron Christie
empire or decades of offensive rhetoric about

in The New York Times. But it’s clear he doesn’t
women, blacks, Hispanics, and Muslims. People
grasp that “there is no such monolithic entity
who pull the lever for him would empower “a
known as ‘the African-American community.’”
man who would do more to stir animosity and
Trump constantly pushes the view “that most
division among Americans than anyone ever
blacks are doing badly and live in crime-infested
elected to the presidency.”
neighborhoods,” and have “nothing to lose” by

The debates: A potential game changer
“Circle Sept. 26 on your calendar,” said Chris Cillizza in WashingtonPost.com. On that Monday
night, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will
face off in the first general-election debate—and
“it’s going to be must-see TV.” Last week the
moderator lineup for the three debates was
announced: NBC’s Lester Holt will oversee the
first clash; ABC’s Martha Raddatz and CNN’s
Anderson Cooper will host the second; Chris Wallace from Fox News, the third. And unless the
polls shift dramatically, Trump will go into that
first debate needing a “major moment” to turn his
campaign around. He might just go “bananas.”
Clinton is taking no chances, said Patrick Healey
and Matt Flegenheimer in The New York Times.
The Democratic nominee has buried herself in
briefing papers, and studied a “forensic-style
analysis” of the Republican primary debates. Her
team has consulted “psychology experts to help

create a personality profile of Trump,” agonized
for weeks over who should play the brash billionaire in mock debates, and even consulted
his estranged ghostwriter for tips on how to get
under his skin. They worry that expectations for
Trump are so low that if he makes no disastrous
mistakes, he will be deemed the winner. Trump

is taking a more relaxed approach, said Gabriel
Debenedetti in Politico.com. Rather than “digging
through policy binders,” he has been practicing
attack lines with his senior advisers, including
former Fox News chief Roger Ailes and former
New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Trump
may not even bother with a mock debate, relying
instead on the freewheeling style that worked for
him in the primaries. “You can prep too much for
those things,” he said last week. “You can sound
scripted or phony.”
Most of the pressure is on Clinton, said Glenn
Thrush in Politico.com. She knows she may face
“deeply personal charges and insults” from Trump
and can’t afford to come off as stiff, robotic, and
unlikable. “One false or cringe-inducing answer”
to questions about her email server or the Clinton
Foundation could give Trump a big boost. The
debates are Trump’s “best (and likely last) chance
to influence the course of this election,” said
Lanhee Chen in CNN.com. Rather than trying
to match Clinton “policy for policy,” he needs to
frame her as “untrustworthy and out of touch”

and prove he “has the temperament to be president.” If he can possibly accomplish both goals, he
may just “make this election competitive again.”

AP, Newscom

16 NEWS


Talking points
Internet porn: When men can’t stop
tweeting sexual images of himself with porn
If anyone doubts the dangers of poraddiction, and implies the internet was at
nography addiction, consider Anthony
fault instead of his own bad behavior.
Weiner, said Pamela Anderson and
Compulsive behavior is usually rooted
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in The
in psychological issues, said Elizabeth
Wall Street Journal. The disgraced
Brown in Reason.com. “But Ameriex-congressman’s “repeated, selfcans have a soft spot for holding
sabotaging sexting” shattered his
media responsible—Photoshop begets
career and his marriage to Hillary
anorexia, Grand Theft Auto causes
Clinton aide Huma Abedin, a sad lesantisocial behavior, etc.” So even
son in “pornography’s corrosive effects
though people have cheated on spouses,
on a man’s soul.” With the internet
sent ill-advised sexual communications,
bringing sexual imagery and adulterous

“and gotten off on exhibitionism for
temptations into every home, “this is a
centuries,” it’s now fashionable to blame
public hazard of unprecedented seriousinternet porn.
ness.” The American Psychological Association reports pornography consumption
Sophisticates may scoff, but “porn is
rates between 50 and 99 percent
Anderson, Boteach
absolutely a problem for some people
among men, and many men report
that constant online sexual behavior leads to a loss and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise,” said
Mollie Hemingway and Rich Cromwell in The
of interest in their wives and girlfriends. Children
Federalist.com. Instantaneous access to hard-core,
raised amid “wall-to-wall digitized sexual imaggraphic videos has left many men unmotivated to
ery,” meanwhile, are growing up as “the crack
do the hard work of real relationships; it’s easier
babies of porn”—incapable of real intimacy. We
for them to stay home and masturbate to searchmust teach kids that sex is beautiful when it’s an
able fantasies. One of the more interesting Reddit
expression of love, and that “porn is for losers.”
communities is NoFap, which has 200,000 users
“who abstain from porn and masturbation and
This diatribe is nothing but “sex-shaming finger
help each other do the same.” Members report
wagging,” said Amy Zimmerman in TheDaily
Beast.com. Anderson’s screed is particularly “sur- the joy of finding “real-life women attractive
again for the first time in years.” You don’t have
real” coming from an ex–Baywatch star who
adorned more Playboy covers than anyone in his- to be religious to see that when sex becomes

tory. In her discussion of Weiner, she conflates his anonymous and disembodied, “darkness arises.”

Trump’s rise: Are Democrats to blame?

Getty

“Did Democrats cry wolf?” asked Frank Bruni
in The New York Times. Political commentators
on both the Left and Right have been warning
for months that Donald Trump’s bigotry, nativism, and volatile personality make him a unique
threat to the country—yet the tightness of the polls
suggests many voters aren’t convinced. Maybe
it’s because they’ve heard it all before. Four years
ago, many liberals denounced the mild-mannered
Republican nominee Mitt Romney as a “bloodsucking capitalist vampire whose indictment of
Obamacare was ipso facto proof of his racism.” In
2008, John McCain was portrayed as a “combustible hothead who couldn’t be allowed anywhere
near the nuclear codes.” When hyperbolic invective like this is deployed against decent politicians,
how do you convince Republican voters that this
year’s nominee truly poses a “much greater, graver
danger”? Liberals have often portrayed opponents “as not just wrong but evil,” said PascalEmmanuel Gobry in TheWeek.com. So as voters
hear them hyperventilating about Trump, they’re
asking, “Why should we trust you this time?”
“Liberals may be accused of many sins, but
enabling Trump is not one of them,” said Jonathan Chait in NYMag.com. We have been warning

for decades that Republicans were using “racial
coding” to appeal to whites, and “descending
into unhinged, knee-jerk, anti-intellectual reaction.” They can’t blame us just because we’ve been
proved right. It’s pretty rich of conservatives to

claim Republicans were “blinded to Trump’s inadequacies” by extreme rhetoric, said Jonathan Bernstein in BloombergView.com. The Right accused
President Clinton of being “a drug-running
murderer and a likely communist”; attacked John
Kerry’s service record in Vietnam; and declined for
years to disown racist allegations that President
Obama wasn’t a U.S. citizen. It’s Republicans who
“are responsible for Trump.”
Voters aren’t actually ignoring Trump’s deficiencies, said Aaron Blake in WashingtonPost.com.
He’s the most unpopular presidential candidate in
history: 44 percent of Americans think he is a racist, and 59 percent that his campaign appeals to
bigotry. Trump is competitive only because we live
“in a highly partisan country”—in which majorparty nominees are almost guaranteed 40 percent
of the vote—and because Hillary Clinton is almost
as unpopular as he is. “In another universe with
even a modestly more popular Democratic candidate,” this race would be long over.

NEWS 17
Wit &
Wisdom
“Work isn’t to make
money; you work to
justify life.”
Marc Chagall, quoted in
Bustle.com

“The best things in life
are free. The second best
things are very, very
expensive.”
Coco Chanel, quoted in the

Financial Times

“To delight in war is a
merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime
in the statesman.”
George Santayana, quoted in
The Wall Street Journal

“Cocaine is God’s way of
saying that you’re making
too much money.”
Robin Williams, quoted in
NYMag.com

“Truth uttered before its
time is always dangerous.”
Mencius, quoted in
The Economist’s Twitter feed

“If God wanted us to vote,
He would have given us
candidates.”
Jay Leno, quoted in the Utica,
N.Y., Observer-Dispatch

“Whoever fights monsters
should see to it that in
the process he does not
become a monster.”
Friedrich Nietzsche, quoted in

The New York Times

Poll watch
QDuring George W.
Bush’s final year in office,
in 2008, 49% of Americans considered themselves to be “thriving.”
Now 55.4% do. Among
black Americans, the
“thriving” percentage
rose from 46.8% in 2008
to 59.7% in 2010, but has
now dropped back to
53.2%.
Gallup

Q73% of U.S. adults
read at least one book
in the past year, up from
72% in 2015. 65% read a
print book, 28% read an
e-book, and 14% listened
to an audiobook.
Pew Research Center
THE WEEK September 16, 2016


18 NEWS

Technology

Commercial space travel: SpaceX’s fiery setback
cargo bound for the International Space StaA spectacular explosion on a Florida launchtion. Meanwhile, Tesla and SolarCity are
pad just threw a wrench into the ambitions
both said to be facing cash crunches and
of two Silicon Valley billionaires: SpaceX
mechanical setbacks, even as Musk sets everCEO Elon Musk and Facebook’s Mark
bolder goals, like rolling out a $35,000 Tesla
Zuckerberg, said Samantha Masunaga and
sedan by next July. “The problem for Musk
Jim Puzzanghera in the Los Angeles Times.
in 2016 is, the bolder the goals become, the
A 604-ton Falcon 9 rocket built by Musk’s
faster the crashes and glitches are coming.”
aerospace firm SpaceX was engulfed in
flames last week during a prelaunch engine
Let’s not forget that “spaceflight is an inhertest at Cape Canaveral. Both the rocket and
ently dangerous and tricky business,” said
its cargo, which included a satellite that
Jeff Spross in TheWeek.com. And to be fair,
Facebook planned to use to beam internet
The massive fireball that destroyed the rocket SpaceX boasts a 93 percent launch success
to remote villages in sub-Saharan Africa,
were destroyed in the blast, which was “loud enough to be heard rate, comparable to 95 percent for the rest of the commercial
space industry. This year was shaping up to be a banner year
40 miles away.” Fortunately, no one was injured, but the cause
of the explosion is still unclear, and SpaceX’s plans for nine more for the firm, with eight successful takeoffs. Five of those used
SpaceX’s pioneering reusable booster technology, which will help
rocket launches this year are now on hold—as is Zuckerberg’s
make its bargain price tag of $60 million per launch even cheaper.
dream of connecting more of the developing world.

That SpaceX bounced back so quickly from its 2015 accident
Is Elon Musk “stretched too thin?” asked Kevin Kelleher in Time with such successes “is probably an indication that it’ll weather
.com. The brash, 45-year-old entrepreneur, who also runs the elec- this setback as well.” But who is left footing the bill when a private rocket blows up? asked Sonali Basak in Bloomberg.com.
tric car company Tesla and the clean energy firm SolarCity, is almost ludicrously ambitious. He has vowed to send an unmanned Some of the world’s biggest insurance firms, including AIG and
Allianz SE, now offer commercial space policies. The Facebook
mission to Mars within two years, and to send humans to the
satellite itself was backed by a policy worth almost $300 milRed Planet by 2025. But lofty goals on an accelerated timetable
lion. But there’s one hitch: It may only have been covered for a
might be the reason SpaceX has now had two high-profile actrue launch accident, rather than prelaunch. You can be sure that
cidents in just 15 months: Another Falcon 9 rocket disintegrated
“Mark Zuckerberg is not amused” by Musk’s latest mishap.
shortly after launch in June 2015, destroying $110 million in

A “seriously
intimidatinglooking”
robotic tractor has been
drawing
crowds at
Iowa’s annual Farm Progress Show,
said George Dvorsky in Gizmodo
.com. Unlike a conventional tractor, this futuristic piece of farm
equipment—called the Autonomous
Concept Vehicle—doesn’t have a
cabin for a driver. Instead, the tractor, built by agricultural equipment
firm Case IH, finds its way using
built-in cameras, radar, and GPS. A
farmer can program and control the
machine using an app on a tablet
computer, and once the tractor gets
its orders, it sets to work “without

any further human intervention.”
The bot can operate day or night,
and is designed to plant seeds and
harvest crops, among other tasks.
Because of legal concerns, such as
the fact that the self-driving tractor
will sometimes cross public roads
while moving between fields, experts
say it will likely be years before the
machine appears on an actual farm.
THE WEEK September 16, 2016

Bytes: What’s new in tech
Samsung recalls explosive phone
“Samsung’s nightmare scenario is happening,”
said Rob Price in BusinessInsider.com. The
South Korean electronics giant is recalling its
new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7,
after reports that the device may catch fire
while charging. Samsung has shipped more
than 2.5 million Note 7s since the phone
debuted last month, with the waterproof,
large-screen device selling for more than
$800 in the U.S. But Samsung halted sales
last week after receiving at least 35 reports of
exploding phones worldwide. The company is
now working on exchange programs for the
10 countries where the Note 7 has been released. The recall comes at an especially painful time for Samsung, with rival Apple having
unveiled the latest iPhone models this week.

Google gets in Uber’s lane
“Alphabet and Uber are inching closer to a
showdown,” said Daisuke Wakabayashi and
Mike Isaac in The New York Times. Google’s
parent company is expanding a carpooling
program through its navigation app Waze
that could eventually challenge established
ride-hailing services. Waze Carpool matches
drivers and riders “already headed in the
same direction.” For now, the pilot program

is only being offered to employees of companies near Google’s headquarters in Mountain
View, Calif. But Waze plans to expand to San
Francisco, where Uber is based, this fall. It’s
another sign of the “intensifying competition” between the Silicon Valley rivals. Uber
is working furiously to overtake Google’s efforts on autonomous vehicles, with plans to
offer rides in self-driving cars in Pittsburgh
within weeks.

Pokémon Go’s short life span
Mobile app fads are getting shorter, if Pokémon Go is any indication, said Hayley
Tsukayama in The Washington Post. The
enhanced-reality app took the world by storm
this summer, but just two months after its
launch, tech journalists are “declaring the
game all but dead.” A report last week found
that fewer people are playing the game every
day and that players are devoting ever less
time to the app. Google search trends show
that interest in Pokémon Go peaked in July,

dropping by half by August. It took FarmVille,
“another game that seemed to be everywhere
all at once,” months to register a similar decline. But Pokémon Go is hardly a failure. The
game has earned $400 million worldwide and
is currently the top-grossing app in the U.S.

Reuters, Case IH

Innovation of the week


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20 NEWS

Health & Science

The Milky Way’s ‘dark twin’

actually seen dark matter; its existence is
predicated on the theory that without its
gravitational effect, stars and other celestial objects would drift apart rather than
clump together in galaxies. Dragonfly 44
isn’t the first dark galaxy astronomers
have discovered, but it’s the only one
comparable in size to the Milky Way. “We
thought we had sort of figured out what
the relationship is between galaxies and
dark matter,” the study’s lead author,
Pieter van Dokkum, tells CNN.com. “This
discovery turns that on its head. It means
we don’t understand, kind of fundamentally, how galaxy formation works.”

Surviving life on ‘Mars’

An artist’s model of Lucy: Lots of bone breaks

Lucy’s fatal fall
Anthropologists have learned a great deal
from Lucy, the fossilized 3.2 million–yearold hominid discovered in Ethiopia in
1974. Now they think they know how
the 3-foot-tall, bipedal female kicked the
bucket: by falling out of a tree. It was
previously assumed that the many breaks
and fractures in Lucy’s bones were the
natural result of the fossilization process.
But after taking high-resolution CT scans
of the bones, researchers saw evidence of
greenstick fractures, which typically only

affect living bone. When they then created
a 3-D model of Lucy’s shattered humerus
and showed it to 10 orthopedic surgeons,
nine of them concluded she had suffered a
compound fracture, most likely from putting out her hand to break a fall. Scientists
calculated that the force needed to produce
the breaks and fractures was consistent
with a 45-foot drop; since the bones show
no signs of healing, they deduced the injuries must have been fatal. Though some
paleontologists dispute the findings, arguing that most fossils have similar levels of
bone damage, the study’s lead author, John
Kappelman, insists the evidence is compelling. “I have taught this fossil since I was
a grad student in the 1980s,” Kappelman
tells NationalGeographic.com. “I knew
these fractures were there—I just never
thought to ask what had caused them.”
THE WEEK September 16, 2016

When most people imagine a trip to Hawaii,
they don’t envision spending 12 months
inside a 1,000-square-foot dome on the
side of a volcano. But six volunteers with
NASA emerged last week after doing
exactly that, to help the space agency prepare for an eventual crewed expedition to
Mars. The human experiment—the second
longest of its kind after a 520-day Russian
“mission”—was designed to simulate what
life would be like for astronauts during
an extended stay on the Red Planet. The
crew had to put up with austere amenities, freeze-dried food, and a frustrating

20-minute communications delay with the
outside world. On the few occasions they
were allowed to leave the isolated, solarpowered dome, they had to don a spacesuit.
The six volunteers, who celebrated their
release by gorging on pizza and fresh fruit,
said the biggest challenges had been avoiding
boredom and getting along with one another
in such a confined space. “It is kind of like
having roommates that are always there,”
mission commander Carmel Johnston tells
BBC.com. “You can never escape them.”
But the crew also expressed confidence that
astronauts could cope with the psychological
challenges of such a long expedition. NASA
already has plans for two more simulated
missions, each lasting eight months.

How your dog
understands you
Man’s best friend may
understand us better
than we thought.
Groundbreaking new
research has found
that dogs process
words and intonation using separate
parts of the brain—
the same way
humans do, reports

That smudge is the dark galaxy.

Physicists hope to discover other dark
galaxies, to increase their understanding of one of the most puzzling building
blocks of the universe.

The Washington Post. Scientists trained
13 dogs of various breeds to lie still in an
MRI machine. The pooches then listened
to a trainer reciting positive phrases (such
as “good dog”) as well as meaningless
ones (like “however”), in both a neutral
tone and a happy, “attaboy” tone. The
scans showed that the dogs processed the
meaningful words with the left side of their
brain—the same hemisphere humans use
to process language—and intonation with
the right side. Furthermore, the canines’
dopamine “reward centers,” which respond
to things like food or being petted, weren’t
activated by meaningless phrases spoken
in a positive tone of voice or by encouraging words spoken in a flat tone. “Dogs not
only tell apart what we say and how we
say it,” says Attila Andics, the study’s lead
researcher, “but they can also combine the
two, for a correct interpretation of what
those words really mean.”

Health scare of the week
Zika causes deafness

Children whose mothers were infected
with the Zika virus while pregnant are at
risk not only for brain damage but also
for hearing loss. A Brazilian study involving 70 infants diagnosed with Zika-related
microcephaly—a severe birth defect that
leads to underdeveloped brains—found that
6 percent of the babies suffered permanent
sensorineural hearing loss, Reuters.com
reports. The study’s authors recommended
that all infants whose mothers were
exposed to the mosquito-borne virus during pregnancy be routinely screened for
delayed or progressive hearing loss, even
if they showed no symptoms at birth.
To prevent the transfusion of Zikainfected blood to pregnant women, the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
last week advised blood banks across
the nation to screen donated blood for
the virus.

Screenshot, AP, Newscom

Astronomers have spotted a “dark twin”
of the Milky Way, a discovery that blows
apart their already patchy understanding of dark matter. Located 300 million
light-years from Earth, Dragonfly 44 is
about the same size as our own galaxy,
but contains a tiny fraction of its stars.
Only about 0.1 percent of the newly discovered galaxy is made up of ordinary,
visible matter like stars—100 times less
than the Milky Way. The rest apparently

consists of dark matter, the elusive, mysterious substance that astrophysicists
believe makes up 80 percent of the matter in the universe. Scientists have never


Pick of the week’s cartoons

For more political cartoons, visit: www.theweek.com/cartoons.

NEWS 21

THE WEEK September 16, 2016


ARTS
Review of reviews: Books
tive utterances. Then he turns to Chomsky,
who in 1957 proposed that all languages
share certain structural characteristics,
indicating that the human brain is wired
for language. A dispute about Chomsky’s
theory erupted a decade ago, but “every
part” of the account we get in this book is
wrong again. “Somewhere in his mission to
tear down the famous, Wolfe has forgotten
how to think.”

Book of the week
The Kingdom of Speech
by Tom Wolfe
(Little, Brown, $26)

Tom Wolfe’s very short new book is both
“a gas to read” and “a little bit bonkers,”
said Charles Mann in The Wall Street
Journal. Taking a harshly skeptical look at
prevailing theories about the origin of language, the 85-year-old author of The Right
Stuff and The Bonfire of the Vanities paints
Charles Darwin and the linguist Noam
Chomsky as frauds who’ve hoodwinked us
all into accepting that language is a product of the impersonal forces of evolution
rather than an innovation wholly attributable to human ingenuity. “WTF?” I wrote
in a page margin at about this point. Sure,
I laughed out loud at the “gleeful” insults
Wolfe flings at Darwin and Chomsky, both
of whom are portrayed as elitist twits.
But neither of those two hugely influential
thinkers ever denied the role of human
ingenuity in language’s story. Wolfe simply
imagines he has an argument with them,
then imagines he wins it.

Novel of the week
The Nix
by Nathan Hill
(Knopf, $28)

Nathan Hill, the most buzzed-about
new novelist of the fall, is clearly “the
real thing,” said Dan Cryer in Newsday.
Hill’s “great, sprawling feast of a debut

novel” manages to be “both darkly
satirical and uproariously funny” as it
spins a decades-long story around a boy
abandoned by his mother at age 11. Sam
Andresen-Anderson is a sad-sack assistant professor when he’s yanked back
to that traumatic memory by breaking
news about a woman arrested for throwing stones at a right-wing presidential
candidate. It’s Sam’s long-lost mom, a
onetime ’60s radical, and soon Sam is
coaxed into writing a tell-all about her
so he won’t have to repay a big advance
for the novel he’s failed to write. A third
of this 600-page doorstop could have
been pared away without harm, said
Ron Charles in The Washington Post. Hill,
40, falls prey to “that strain of gigantism
unique to novelists who fear this will be
their only shot.” Even so, “there’s no
denying” what a “brilliant, endearing”
writer he is. “If there’s an excess of The
Nix, it’s an excess of wily storytelling.”
THE WEEK September 16, 2016

The secret to language’s origins?

The New Journalism pioneer “doesn’t even
understand the theory he so despises,”
said Jerry Coyne in The Washington Post.
When he tries to cut the legs out from
under the theory of evolution itself, the

ostensible evidence he offers is wrong four
times over. There’s never a chance he’d correctly present the evolutionists’ hypotheses
about language: that the brainpower necessary to conceive of complex language developed gradually over time, and that language too developed gradually, from primi-

The Hero’s Body
by William Giraldi
(Liveright, $26)

Think of this often
fascinating memoir
as “the work of
an admirable man
striving mightily to
make sense of his
past and almost
succeeding,” said
Michael Lindgren
in The Washington
Post. William
Giraldi, a novelist
and critic, grew up
in a working-class New Jersey town where
the cult of machismo was so strong that
when he was 15, he was propelled by his
anxiety about being a bookish weakling
into a short, steroid-boosted career in
competitive bodybuilding. But while he
eventually recognized the hazards of that
masculine ethos, his stoic single father never
abandoned it, and at 47, the older Giraldi

was racing a motorcycle down a winding
road when he skidded, crashed, and died.
The author wisely links his father’s story
with his own, yet unfortunately never finds
the crowning insight that would “vault his
account into the ranks of the sublime.”

At least Chomsky was due for a toppling,
said Caitlin Flanagan in The New York
Times. Ever since he took a public stand
against the U.S. war in Vietnam, he has
been a saint of the Left and inspired countless lesser professors to waste their time
playing public intellectual, as Wolfe’s scathing summary reminds us. “But what, Lord,
does this have to do with the topic of language?” Not much, “thank God,” because
colorful diversions are what’s best in The
Kingdom of Speech, which is otherwise just
“a short book by a big author on a dull
subject.” Wolfe has left behind so much
stylish writing, though, that he can rest
assured that in a century Chomsky will not
be nearly as widely read. “In the long run,
the kingdom belongs to him.”
Giraldi “does some of his best writing”
when he’s focused on the gym, said David
McGlynn in the Los Angeles Review of
Books. He argues for bodybuilding as a
rigorous art form, even as he shows an ear
for the humorously arcane conversations
it spawns. And when he opens the book’s
second half by recounting his father’s May

2000 death, he makes his younger self
appear “heart-wrenchingly inconsolable.”
But “it’s also here that the memoir begins
to grind,” as Giraldi slows the narrative,
revs up his language, and leans hard on
quotations from dead white male writers.
He’s supposed to be telling us what experience has taught him about masculinity, but
the plot “effectively stops when Giraldi
is 25, before the masculine codes he’d
learned as a boy can truly affect how he’ll
live as a man.”
But grief leaves us all grasping for words
to express what we feel, said Gordon
Marino in The Wall Street Journal. In The
Hero’s Body, “a gifted writer has certainly
found the right words,” fully honoring his
father’s memory. Why does a man catapult
around hairpins at triple-digit speeds? asked
Michael Ian Black in The New York Times.
To feel immortal, for one—“which may be
the point of the hero after all. To be venerated. To be remembered.”

Getty

22


The Book List
Best books...chosen by John Lahr
John Lahr, a New Yorker theater critic, won a 2014 National Book Critics Circle

Award for Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, a biography of Tennessee Williams. Lahr’s
latest book, Joy Ride: Show People & Their Shows, is now available in paperback.
Elia Kazan: A Life by Elia Kazan (Da Capo,
$33). All the forces in American show business
and politics come together in Kazan. An outsider’s rage stoked his furious energy and rapacity. Nobody else in the 20th century had Kazan’s
career on stage or screen, and no memoirist has
left a deeper, more unabashed witness to the
brilliant tumult and barbarity of his time.

Herzog by Saul Bellow (Penguin, $17). Bellow’s
protagonist, a letter-writing fanatic who is at
once a whirlwind of lucidity and mental collapse,
is himself a gorgeous brainstorm. The panache
of Bellow’s word horde, his hilarity, his penetration and organization—all combine in one awesome feat of imagination that perfectly captures
America’s postwar deliriums.

Lives of the Poets: A Selection by Samuel
Johnson (Oxford, $25). Johnson is my literary
hero. He was the first to attempt to bring the
artist’s life and work together in order to suggest
the synergy between them. This book is a masterpiece of criticism: erudition and wit served up
with the memorable sonorous music of Johnson’s
neoclassical prose.

The Temptation to Exist by E.M. Cioran
(Arcade, $15). Whenever I need to provoke
myself to think against received opinion,
Cioran’s acid thoughts and pyrotechnical turns
of phrase do the trick. Cioran, a professional
heretic, takes the bitter with the sour; he turns

doubt into a philosophical star turn. Hilarious,
scurrilous, shrewd, his bons mots challenge the
mind and the heart.

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
(Penguin, $14). Still one of the great visionary
tomes about America’s political system and its
manners. The restlessness, loneliness, spiritual
fundamentalism, gravity, even fundamentalist
itch are all brilliantly dissected, along with predictions about the Civil War as well as the Cold
War. A thrilling, monumental work.

The London Encyclopaedia (Macmillan, $33
as an e-book). My secret pleasure and always at
my elbow. As an expat who has lived in London
for 41 years, I still feel like I’m on holiday, and
this book, with its history of the streets, the statues, and other locales, brings London alive in a
whole new way.

Paul Kolnik, Urszula Soltys

Also of interest...in America’s ailing heartland
Hillbilly Elegy

Riverine

by J.D. Vance (Harper, $28)

by Angela Palm (Graywolf, $16)

This best-selling memoir delivers a
sobering message, said Emily Esfahani
Smith in The Wall Street Journal. The
author, a National Review contributor who works in Silicon Valley, grew
up in a family whose problems with
violence, addiction, and defeatism he attributes
to their Appalachian background. J.D. Vance
got out thanks to the advice of a grandmother
who once lit her husband on fire. In the world
he escaped, it’s not distant elites who make life a
struggle. “It’s because of culture.”

“Angela Palm has arrived,” said Beth
Kephart in the Chicago Tribune.
A child of Indiana who grew up in
an impoverished town frequently
flooded by the Kankakee River, she
favors ripe metaphors and braided
narratives, and her first book—a memoir—“has
seeped into my blood and left me messy inside.”
Often, Palm’s focus is on the first boy she loved,
a neighbor who grew up to murder a local couple when he was 19. Her unique style and bold
assertions “paralyze easy judgment.”

The Risen

I Will Send Rain

by Ron Rash (Ecco, $26)

by Rae Meadows (Henry Holt, $26)

Ron Rash’s new murder mystery is
one of his “strongest, most evocative
novels to date,” said Gina Webb in
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In a small town outside Asheville,
N.C., the remains of a teenage girl
are discovered decades after her disappearance,
and attention falls on two brothers who spent a
carefree summer with her 46 years before. One
brother is now a doctor, the other the town drunk,
and in the gripping story that unfolds, false memories abound and “there are no innocent victims.”

In her new novel about a fracturing
family in Dust Bowl–era Oklahoma,
Rae Meadows “creates a haunting
portrait of the unimaginable,” said
Cecily Sailer in The Dallas Morning
News. Dust storms roll in one after
another during a blistering heat wave, forcing
crows to make their nests from barbed wire and
inspiring a cuckolded husband to dream of a biblical flood. “We know life for this family may get
worse before it gets better”; the power of their
imaginations prevents their giving up.

ARTS 23
Author of the week
Ian McEwan
Britain’s leading novelist is

currently enjoying a short
vacation from reality, said
Decca Aitkenhead in The
Guardian (U.K.). Ian McEwan,
who has been widely celebrated for the meticulous
verisimilitude he achieved
in novels like
Atonement
and Amsterdam, has
created for
his latest
work a narrator who’s
a fetus, and
an erudite one at that. This
unborn homunculus is a regular listener to public radio
broadcasts, which explains
his political outlook. But he
has immediate concerns too,
like the fact that his mother
is carrying on an extramarital affair with his uncle and
that the pair are plotting his
father’s murder. The first line
of Nutshell—“So here I am,
upside down in a woman”—
came to McEwan even
before he’d hit on the book’s
concept. “The idea struck me
as so silly,” he says, “that I
just couldn’t resist it.”
Early on, McEwan considered pushing the absurdity

even further, said Lewis
Jones in The Telegraph
(U.K.). “I had it in mind, in my
earliest drafts, that it’s Shakespeare who’s talking, about
to be reborn,” he says. “But
I didn’t want to get bogged
down in rebirth. And it would
be quite a stretch to write as
well as Shakespeare.” The
plot does borrow from the
Bard, though. Like Hamlet,
the protagonist is a thinker
much occupied by existential
questions but thoroughly
incapable of taking action.
McEwan, 68, has been aware
since he started that the book
could ruffle some feathers. “I
just thought, I’m going to get
such a kicking for this,” he
says. “But the more I thought
that, the more I enjoyed it.
I was committed from the
first sentence. I just had so
much fun.”
THE WEEK September 16, 2016


Review of reviews: Film & Music

The Light
Between
Oceans
Directed by Derek
Cianfrance
(PG-13)

++++
A childless couple
find a baby in an
unmanned rowboat.

White Girl
Directed by
Elizabeth Wood
(Not rated)

++++
A pretty college student
chooses a dangerous path.

which is all some viewers will
The new romantic tearjerker
care about, said Ty Burr in The
starring Michael Fassbender
Boston Globe. But Vikander’s
and Alicia Vikander does more
Isabel soon suffers two miscarthan touch the heart, said Brian
riages, and when a storm drives
Truitt in USA Today. “It rips

ashore a dinghy carrying a baby
the darn thing out, stomps on it,
girl, she insists the couple raise
and then throws it overboard.”
the child as their own. The secret
Though “gorgeously shot” and
can’t last, of course, and the next
expertly acted, the movie proves
hour “concerns the slow closing
“a very tough watch,” because
A love story as big as its stars
of the trap.” From there, the
it subjects its main characters
movie “sabotages its best intentions” by adding too
to so much anguish. The leads, who are also a
many twists, said Stephen Holden in The New York
couple offscreen, play a World War I veteran and
the soul mate he meets on his way to his new life as Times. Still, it remains a notch above literary claptrap, in part because it “never wavers in its commita lighthouse keeper on a remote Australian island.
ment to examine what it means to raise a child.”
The pair’s early love scenes are “intensely moving,”
in it.” Unfortunately, “its idea
Add a new title to “the canon
of drama is to have all of its
of great dramas cut from the
characters make a bunch of
good-girl-gone-bad cloth,” said
haphazardly bad decisions,” said
Joey Nolfi in Entertainment
Jesse Hassenger in AVClub.com.
Weekly. In this daring drama

Saylor’s Leah is a “coked-out
from a first-time director,
bore,” like everyone around her
Homeland’s Morgan Saylor
except the dealer, a bore who
plays a college student who cuts
doesn’t snort cocaine. “What
loose during a summer in New
makes White Girl’s depravity
York City, indulging in drugs
Saylor’s selfish risk-taker
worthwhile is Leah’s dawning
and sex and creating unexpected
awareness of the food chain she’s been born into,”
trouble for the Puerto Rican dealer she takes as a
said Jen Yamato in TheDailyBeast.com. She is both
lover. She’s an “immeasurably unlikable character,”
victim and exploiter, an avatar of the culture’s less
a young woman eager to grow up but dependent
empowered gender but its most privileged skin color.
on Daddy’s financial support. Her defining feature
For Saylor, it’s “a fearless star turn.”
is her cluelessness, and the movie “shoves our face

M.I.A.

De La Soul

Britney Spears

AIM

And the Anonymous Nobody

Glory

++++

++++

++++

If M.I.A.’s fifth album is
truly her farewell, “it’s
a much warmer one
than we might have
anticipated,” said Craig
Jenkins in New York
magazine. The Britishborn Sri Lankan rapper,
whose breakout hit, “Paper Planes,” tucked
four gun blasts into its refrain, has always
relished her role as a provocateur. But
AIM’s accessible blend of hip-hop, dancehall, dubstep, and Eastern textures “serves
as a reminder of her gifts as a purveyor of
vital pop music.” The mood, though hardly
devoid of revolutionary consciousness,
“verges on bubbly.” Too many tracks, however, deliver only “clutter and noise,” evidence of M.I.A.’s lack of focus even on the
album she says will be her last, said Harriet
Gibsone in The Guardian (U.K.). While
“Swords” is a “sparse and slick” fusion of

clanging metal, the “kazoo-like caw” on
“Bird Song” gets old quick. Consider AIM
a final eruption of “inventive, sometimes
incoherent” ideas. “Apt, perhaps, that an
artist so vehemently punk bows out with an
album so stubbornly hers.”

“This sounds like the
kind of record De La
Soul has always had
in it,” said Ryan Bray
in AVClub.com. To
create its first album
in 12 years, the iconic
New York hip-hop
trio put aside its feud with Warner Music
and turned to Kickstarter for funding. The
result—“a genre mashup” that folds in
contributions from 2Chainz, Usher, Snoop
Dogg, and David Byrne—is the group’s
“most lively affair yet.” De La’s backing
band enables unexpected excursions into
art rock and psychedelic space pop, and
the entire 17-track set “bristles with creative rebirth.” To my ears, said Tim Sendra
in AllMusic.com, it’s “a bit of a confused
mess.” Even the best of the left-field collaborations, the Afropunk-infused “Snoopies,”
feels “a bit too contrived.” Still, De La’s
Dave and Posdnuos are pros, and on this
record’s most straightforward tunes, their
“laid-back golden-age rap style” sounds as

fresh as it did in 1989. Strip away Nobody’s
failed experiments, and “there’s a really
good hip-hop album left at the core.”

Finally, Britney Spears
“sounds like she’s having fun again,” said
Maura Johnston in
The Boston Globe. On
her first album in three
years, the 34-year-old
former pop princess
has mostly stopped chasing musical trends
and focused on her strengths: “a snakeslither voice, always-on sexiness, and an
ability to stretch vowels far beyond their
natural breaking point.” Glory feels like a
return to the buoyant dance pop of 2003’s
In the Zone, which produced the single
“Toxic.” It’s tailor-made for Spears’ ongoing
gig at a Las Vegas casino. The songs are
“all come-ons and promises of pleasure,”
little more, said Jon Pareles in The New
York Times. On that score, Spears “strives
mightily to be one-dimensional.” But her
vocals, though still processed, are “far
less obviously robotic” than they’ve been.
Spears “sounds more involved, more present, than she has in a decade.” In places,
this Britney “recalls the flirty singer, with
the knowing scratch in her little-girl voice,
who conquered 1990s pop.”

THE WEEK September 16, 2016

Davi Russo, FilmRise

24 ARTS


English Grammar
Boot Camp
Taught by Professor Anne Curzan
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

LECTURE TITLES
1.

Why Do We Care about Grammar?

2.

Prescriptivism: Grammar
Shoulds and Shouldn’ts

3.

Descriptivism: How Grammar Really Works

4.

Re Phrasing

5.

Fewer Octopuses or Less Octopi?

6.

Between You and Your Pronouns

7.

Which Hunting

8.

A(n) Historical Issue

9.

Funnest Lecture Ever

10. Going, Going, Went
11. Object Lessons
12. Shall We?
13. Passive Voice Was Corrected
14. Only Adverbs
15. No Ifs, Ands, or Buts
16. However to Use However
17. Squirrels and Prepositions
18. Stranded Prepositions
19. The Dangers of Danglers

Learn the Real Rules
of English Grammar
Grammar! For many of us, the word triggers memories of fingerwagging schoolteachers, and of wrestling with the ambiguous and
complicated rules of using formal language. In fact, most of the
grammar “rules” you think you know are not really rules at all, which
is why there is often debate over common grammar issues.
In English Grammar Boot Camp, linguist and popular Great
Courses professor Anne Curzan of the University of Michigan takes
you on an enjoyable exploration of the essential aspects of English
grammar. These 24 spirited and accessible lectures offer you a
comprehensive core training—a linguistic “boot camp,” by which
we mean a thorough immersion in all of the key elements of English
grammar and usage, in their most immediate, practical application.
This mastery will enable you to use English more competently and
confidently in every context.

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20. Navigating the Choppy Paragraph
21. What Part of Speech is Um?
22. Duck, Duck, Comma, and Duck
23. Its/It’s Confusing
24. Trending Language

English Grammar Boot Camp
Course no. 2222 | 24 lectures (30 minutes/lecture)

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