New York Magazine - USA (2019-11-11)

36 newyork| november11–24, 2019

WeWillReturnto PaperBallots

“Rightnow,if thereis a hack,if it

wastherightstate ina close

election,theentirefederal

election,youwouldn’t knowthe

result.Elevenstatesdon’t have

fullbackuppaperballots.There

aresomecountiesinFloridathat

don’t havebackuppaperat all.

AllofNew Jerseydoesn’t havea

backuppaperballot.Now, it’s

onethingif ina governor’s race

ora senator’s raceyouhavetodo

it over.Butwhat areyougoingto

doabouta presidentialrace?”

—AMYKLOBUCHAR

AmericaWillBecomea Banana

Republic

THEINVESTIGATIONthatproducednopros-

ecutionwasjust thebeginningofa very bad

yearforAmericanaccountabilityandfunction-

inggovernment.Thepresidentrefusedtocoop-

eratewithsubpoenas,heheldupmilitary aidto

get dirt onJoeBiden,andfora fewdayslast

summer,Oregonlookedlike a failed state.

Unabletopreventitsgovernmentfromimpos-

ingrestrictionsoncarbonemissionsthrough

theformalpoliticalprocess,theRepublican

membersofOregon’sstatesenatefledthestate

todenytheDemocratsa supermajority quo-

rum.GovernorKate Brownrespondedby

orderingstatepolicetorounduptherogueleg-

islators.TheNorthwest’sright-wingmilitia

communityrespondedbypromisingtoprotect

therenegadeRepublicansfromBrown’s jack-

bootedthugs.OregonDemocratsfolded;cli-

mateactiondiedsothat a functionalstategov-

ernmentmightlive.

Thisis a previewof thingsto come.Thetension

betweenour constitutional order andthe

demandsoftheclimatecrisisaren’tgoingany-

where.As bothpartisanandurban-ruralpolar-

izationdeepen,thecompositionoftheU.S.Sen-

atewillvery likelyawardpermanentvetopower

tothemostconservativeelementsinAmerican

society. TheRepublicanPartycouldeasilyretain

controloftheupperchamberthroughoutthe

comingdecade—evenif it perenniallylosesthe

popularvoteinpresidentialelections.Unableto

passambitiousclimatelegislationat thefederal

level,deep-bluestateswitheconomiccloutlike

Californiawillpushtheenvelopeontheirown

authority. WhentheTrumpifiedjudiciary cracks

downon(blue)states’rights,it willbeDemocrats’

turn to override the verdict of the formal political

system. The nullification crisis will begin. The

ensuing conflict may be uncivil. —ERIC LEVITZ

We Will Abandon Hope of Avoiding

“Catastrophic” Warming

DOING SO would require halving emissions

by 2030, though we’re still adding to them.

LachlanMurdoch’sFoxNewsWillBe

Worse Than His Dad’s

“ Lachlan Murdoch admonished

Shep Smith for bucking the pro-

Trump line and told him to dial

it back—something that even

Roger Ailes wouldn’t do.

Without Smith, they’ve dropped

that veneer of journalism and

have fashioned themselves into

a giant torpedo that will be

aimed at whatever is standing

of our society at that point.”

— ANGELO CARUSONE, president of Media

Matters for America

Surrogates Will Be Retired

IT IS, in the end, a bit weird, class-wise, to pay

someone else to carry your baby. Much more

comfortable to get a Ziploc bag to do it.

At Some Point, We’re Going to Start

to Think It’s Weird That No One Is

Having Sex

MAR 22

The Mueller
investigation
ends.

MAR 21

Russian
hackers
target
European
polling
machines
ahead of E.U.
elections.

MAR 26

“I am pissed

off,” Sean

Hannity says

on air, about

the end of the

Mueller

investigation,

whichhe

considered an

injustice.

MAR 25

Global carbon

emissions hit a

record high in

2018, the IEA

announces.

MAR 26

Anartificial

wombis used

tosavean

extremely

premature

baby.

MAR 27



The number

of Americans

reporting no

sex in the

past year

grows to 23

percent.

source:general

socialsurvey



Theteenbirth

ratehits17.4

per1,000

females.

sourceresearch:pewcenter

1940

0

20

40

60

80

100

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2018

96.3

BABY-BOOMYE ARS 61.8

54.1 41. 5

17. 4

1989

19%

23%

0

50 %

40

30

20

10

1998 2008 2018

Nosex Monthlysex Weekly or more

PHOTOGRAPHS: DAVID CROTTY/PMC (MURDOCH)