Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 863

New York City's Original 'Get Tough' Police Comissioner Is Returning to the Force

Then Los Angeles police chief William Bratton (L) stands next to an unidentified officer as people take part in a May Day protest march for immigrant rights in downtown Los Angeles in this May 1, 2009 file photo. (REUTER/MARIO ANZUONI)

Former New York City Police chief William Bratton is coming back to take his old job again, replacing Ray Kelly as Commissioner under soon-to-be-Mayor Bill DeBlasio, 
    

'The Daily Show' Uses Miley Cyrus To Make an Evil Hedge Fund Scandal Go Viral

Comedy Central

Perhaps proving the longtime adage that the satirical show is as much (if not more) a source of "real news" as traditional networks, last night's Daily Show set about covering a shocking, if rather dry, financial scandal—and taking the rest of the media to task for ignoring it.

The story, first revealed by Bloomberg this fall, concerns Blackstone, a private equity firm that "sounds like it should be an evil wizard's castle," and Codere, a Spanish gaming operator. In brief, Blackstone profited from a corrupt loan deal with Codere as part of a credit-default swaps, which Jon Stewart likened to a mobster insurance scam in Goodfellas—except that "in Goodfellas it was illegal. In the financial world it is above board."

"How much coverage has this incredibly egregious behavior gotten on the 24-hour financial news networks?" Stewart asked financial correspondent Samantha Bee. "Uh... zero," Bee responded.

So she trekked to The New York Times' headquarters and met with Pulitzer-winning business journalist Gretchen Morgenson, who kindly explained that "there's sort of a rule that if you can't describe it in 10 seconds, it's not something [reporters] want to cover." Morgenson tried a 10-second summary and ran swiftly out of time. Bee was more economical with her language: "Rich-ass [censored] want all the money for themselves." The Times reporter wasn't amused.

Next stop: Buzzfeed's business team, which pitched Bee a handful of ways to cover the story so that the site's massive audience could better comprehend it, like, "Disney Princesses Explain the Blackstone Story" or "The Blackstone Credit Default Deal Is Just Like Ross and Rachel from Friends." (Neither of which are so farfetched, really.)

No dice. "What I needed was a local newsman, some catastrophic weather, and this story would be everywhere," a frustrated Bee concluded.

That promptly failed. So instead, she opted to put the story on YouTube and make it go viral the only way she knew how: a parody of Miley Cyrus's "Wrecking Ball" (possibly with some kittens for good measure). 

"These are the kind of shady deals that got us into the recession in the first place!" a distraught Bee cried over the pop sheen of Cyrus's anthem. "Are you listening now?" 

       

Five Best Thursday Columns

Associated Press

Jonathan Chait at Daily Intelligencer on racism in the Obama era. Chait questions a National Review column by former GOP congressional nominee Quin Hillyer. In his column, Hillyer refers to President Obama as "utterly unembarrassed, utterly undeterred from any assertion of power he thinks he can get away with, tradition and propriety and the Constitution be damned. The man has no shame, no self-doubt, not a shred of humility." Chait responds, "Hillyer finds nothing uncomfortable at all about wrapping himself in a racist trope. He is either unaware of the freighted connotation of calling a black man uppity, or he doesn’t care." Perhaps this is because "Republicans, by a 60-40 margin, now believe discrimination against whites has grown to be a larger problem than discrimination against minorities." Fox News political analyst Brit Hume responds, ".@QuinHillyer finds that to some liberals, there are things one simply cannot say about a black man. i.e. Pres. Obama." The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn tweets, "One of the best things @jonathanchait has ever written — and that's saying something." Hillyer himself responds in another column for National Review. 

Ross Douthat at The New York Times on "our hopeless conversation about race." Chait uses the recent film 12 Years a Slave in his column to make his point, which Douthat thinks is a mistake: "When you watch a film in which black people are kidnapped, sold as chattel, whipped and beaten ... and otherwise treated as subhumans in law and custom both, the gap between that kind of structural racism and the kind of structural racism that manifests itself in differential arrest and prosecution rates, wealth and income gaps ... could actually seem much, much larger than it did before you watched the worst realities of slavery depicted on screen. … a fruitful conversation about race in America, then, would require both sides to somehow pick a different starting point." But Douthat allows that Chait is correct in his point "that conservatives often have a blind spot about race, both where their movement’s history is concerned and when it comes to reckoning with the present-day burdens imposed on African Americans." The Washington Post's Ezra Klein tweets, "I’m convinced by both @jonathanchait’s post on slavery’s echoes and @DouthatNYT’s rebuttal." 

Alex Roarty at National Journal argues Obamacare is costing Democrats white women. "Democrats have a big problem with one of their most crucial constituencies — white women," Roarty writes. Especially blue-collar white women: according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 50 percent of them have a "very unfavorable" view of Obamacare. "While Democrats might ultimately be able to sell voters on a 'fix it, don’t repeal it' approach to Obamacare, the data show they’ve still got a lot more work to do," he argues. Townhall editor Conn Carroll tweets this line: "Remarkably, only 16 percent of blue-collar white women have a favorable view of Obamacare." The Washington Post's liberal columnist Greg Sargent responds, "I'm going to keep saying this, but disapproval does not translate into support for the GOP position of repeal."  

Kevin Glass at The Federalist on the "wonk gap." "Ever since President Obama endorsed a federal minimum wage hike in his State of the Union speech, progressives have lined up in lockstep support," Glass explains. But "in the late 1980s, The New York Times advocated for an abolition of the minimum wage." And so the "wonk gap has caused people like [liberal New York Times columnist] Paul Krugman to actually turn away from 'study, empirical analysis, and informed debate.' The intertwining of the left-wing intelligentsia with the Democratic Party has compromised the ability of many of these writers to actually think critically and accept that their opposition is also motivated by a genuine desire to do good and backed up with empirical evidence," Glass argues. ThinkProgress writer Zach Beauchamp tweets, "Interesting @KevinWGlass critique of economists and, er, people like me. Liberal writers should read."

Vauhini Vara at The New Yorker on the lower middle class. The Hamilton Project defines lower-middle-class families as those "with annual incomes between $15,000  (roughly the federal poverty level for a two-person household) and $60,000," Vara writes. "Many of these lower-middle-class families are still struggling to get by. ... All told, more than 30 percent of lower-middle-class people receive food stamps, unemployment benefits, welfare, or other benefits." This "reframes how we think about the people who access government benefits. Many of them, it turns out, are married, college educated, and working." 

       

The GOP's How-to-Talk-to-Women Training Won't Solve Its Biggest Problem

Todd Akin in happier times. (AP)

A Republican congressman from Virginia has launched an internal campaign to block the House caucus from supporting gay candidates. House Republican leadership is running a program to train candidates on how not to offend women voters. These are signs that the internal GOP war between economic conservatives and social ones is just getting underway.

Virginia Rep. Randy Forbes isn't tightly tied to the Tea Party, but his extreme social conservatism is unquestionable. According to Politico, Forbes "waged a lengthy crusade to convince his colleagues and the [NRCC] brass they shouldn’t back some gay candidates," several sources said, though Forbes himself vaguely denied it. Forbes has been prominently featured at events hosted by several socially conservative or anti-gay organizations, including the American Family Association. "In recent years, Republicans have slowly tried to make inroads with the gay community," Politico notes, as gay marriage becomes more broadly accepted. Forbes' effort, however robust, moves that internal fight into the spotlight.

The party's tension over its relationship with women is more urgent. In 2012, conservative Rep. Todd Akin became the party's nominee for the Senate in Missouri — and ultimately lost after making baffling comments about pregnancy and rape. Now, according to another Politico report topped with a picture of Akin, House leaders are explicitly training members in how to talk about the issues. The NRCC is "meeting with top aides of sitting Republicans to teach them what to say — or not to say — on the trail, especially when their boss is running against a woman." One staffer summarized the effort for Politico: “Let me put it this way, some of these guys have a lot to learn."

Individual Republicans have continued to give Democrats plenty of ammunition about being insensitive to women’s issues. … Yet Republican incumbents appear eager to avoid the mistakes of some of their predecessors.

Rep. Scott Rigell, who won his Virginia seat last time by about 1,000 votes and is running against a Democratic woman next year, said he wants to focus on economic issues, not social issues.

And that's the tension. It's the debate within the party between the traditional establishment — business interests, moderate-right social conservatives — and the far-right activists comprised of Tea Partiers and more extreme social conservatives. Republicans have increasingly been forced to pick sides, as we've noted, thanks to the rupture that emerged in the wake of the government shutdown. Republicans largely held together during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles, when extreme candidates tanked the party's ability to retake the Senate, but the fissure became unavoidable during the government shutdown. When the far-right flirted with federal debt default — putting those business interests at risk — the war to shape the Republican Party was on. And the battlefield will be the 2014 primaries.

The business-focused Chamber of Commerce, which historically deferred from getting involved in primaries, has begun to weigh in, like in Alabama in November, when it successfully backed a less-extreme candidate for the House. The Associated Press reports the Chamber will also run ads in Idaho and West Virginia to help Republican primary candidates that are willing to put the business agenda ahead of the social one.

As the Republican Party is well aware, one of the main reasons that it lost multiple Senate races in 2010 and 2012 is that social conservatives and the Tea Party activists with whom they often overlap are energized and vocal. Forbes' internal advocacy in some ways mirrors the campaign of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz against Obamacare — a last ditch, futile effort that is nonetheless worrisome for the party because of the loud support he's likely to engender. The Republicans ignored its split over the last two election cycles because it wasn't worth risking the fury of the base. With 2014 looming, it clearly feels it can't ignore the tension once again.

       

Twitter Finally Appoints a Woman to Its Board of Directors

AP

Twitter's Board of Directors is no longer 100 percent men, after the company announced the appointment of former publishing CEO Marjorie Scardino to its ranks. The announcement, of course, was published to Twitter: 
 

We're pleased to welcome @marjscar to our board of directors.

— Twitter (@twitter) December 5, 2013

According to the company's SEC filing, Scardino's appointment is effective immediately and she will remain on the board at least through 2014.

In 1997, Dame Marjorie — she's American by birth, but is now a British citizen — became the first woman at the top of a FTSE 100 company as CEO of Pearson,  a position she left in October of last year. 

Following widespread criticism for the company's near-complete lack of women in upper leadership roles,  the company started a search for a female addition to its board earlier this year. As expected, that appointment followed Twitter's IPO in November.
    

'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' Trailer: All the Bad Guys Are Here

There's a lot going in the first official trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Marc Webb's follow up to 2012's surprisingly great reboot of the not-long-dead superhero franchise. Will this make for one epic flick or one mess of a movie? Time will tell. For now, the Internet is getting to work on dissecting this thing. 

One of the questions we've had about this movie since fine actors kept getting cast in the roles of villains, is just what main threat will Peter Parker be facing in this film? Though Webb has said the main villain is Jamie Foxx's glowing Electro, the trailer makes it seem like the bigger threat involves the wily machinations of Parker's supposed friend Harry Osborn, played by the creepy/sexy Dane DeHaan, and his family's company Oscorp. Harry, of course, is one incarnation of the Green Goblin, who shows up with face obscured in the trailer. His father, Norman, has also been the Green Goblin, though from what we see in the trailer, Chris Cooper looks pretty sickly in that role. One image floating around the net has suggested that DeHaan is indeed the Goblin, though DeHaan has obviously been coy about it. 

But then there's Paul Giamatti's Rhino: 

And Electro: 

Just how big Webb is making this world is of specific note, as Sony has floated the idea of a larger Spidey universe. 

As for the rest of the trailer, people have gone to work finding more hidden nuggets. The Playlist pointed out that a reader thinks he or she may have spotted Shailene Woodley, whose role as Mary Jane Watson was cut from the film. 

Our readers think this may be Shailene Woodley in the Spider-Man 2 trailer. Thoughts? http://t.co/BxhpDVkH74 pic.twitter.com/dT0mfFnCPi

— ThePlaylist (@ThePlaylist) December 5, 2013

Also there's just some good old fashioned subliminal advertising. 

Amazing Spider-Man 2 trailer subliminal messaging. pic.twitter.com/jfMcmNwBdt

— Matt Patches (@misterpatches) December 5, 2013

Meanwhile, outside of all the hubbub, dreamboats Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone still seem to be lovely and charming and winning as Peter and Gwen Stacy. So there's that. 

       

Reports: American Citizen Fatally Shot in Benghazi

A man walks near a charred vehicle at the entrance of the U.S. Conulate, in Benghazi, Libya, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013. (AP)

An American teacher working in Benghazi, Libya, was shot and killed there this morning, according to multiple media reports, citing Libyan officials. The male teacher worked at International School Benghazi and was reportedly shot while exercising at the school in the morning. 

NBC confirmed the shooting with the head of the International School Benghazi's board of directors, Adel Mansour. An unnamed school official identified the slain teacher to CBS as Ronald Smith,  who taught chemistry. The U.S. Embassy in Libya has not commented on the shooting, or confirmed any of the reported details. According to Reuters, no one has claimed responsibility for the shooting

While there are few details available on the attack at this point, the story will no doubt resonate with that of the infamous 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in the same city. The Benghazi compound attacks left four Americans dead, including U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens. 

       

Israeli Actress Cast as Wonder Woman, Will Be in 'Batman vs. Superman'

Associated Press

Despite beating around the bush as to whether Wonder Woman would appear in the upcoming, Batman-featuring Man of Steel sequel, Warner Bros. has cast Gal Gadot, an up and coming Israeli actress, in the coveted part. 

Gadot—who was Miss Israel 2004 and a member of the Israeli Army—is perhaps best known for appearing in three Fast and the Furious movies, but aside from that she's not broadly known, so choosing her is more along the lines of choosing Henry Cavill for Superman as opposed to, say, Ben Affleck for Batman. Perhaps that's for the best: because Gadot is not well known, it will make it hard for the crew to face some of the handwringing that came with the announcement of Affleck's part in the franchise. Variety broke in November that she was being considered for the part. 

Wonder Woman, of course, is a character that fans have longed to see on the big screen even though adaptations of her story have long lingered in development hell. Even though she'll likely be third fiddle in a movie that is known as Batman vs. Superman, just getting her on screen is a step in the right direction. 

       

‘Her’ Is the Surprise Big Winner with the National Board of Review

Warner Bros.

Two big surprises kicked off the National Board of Review’s award announcement, as Spike Jonze’s futuristic/romantic/intellectual hybrid Her was declared the year’s best film. It’s not Jonze’s first brush with NBR favor – they named his Being John Malkovich the best film of 1999 (tied with Topsy-Turvy) and were one of the  few awards bodies to recognize Where the Wild Things Are, with a Top 10 placement. This is his first Best Director citation from the group, however.

As with their counterparts at the New York Film Critics Circle, NBR success doesn’t automatically guarantee Oscar frontrunner status. But the NBR winner has at least gotten a Best Picture nomination in each of the last dozen years, and has only missed twice in the past 25. So this is a very, very good sign for a film that is currently trying to force a place for itself in a year-end conversation dominated by late-breaking films like American Hustle (yesterday’s NYFCC winner and completely absent here), The Wolf of Wall Street, and Inside Llewyn Davis.

Best Film: Her

Top 10 Films:

12 Years a Slave Fruitvale Station Gravity Inside Llewyn Davis Lone Survivor Nebraska Prisoners Saving Mr. Banks The Secret Life of Walter Mitty The Wolf of Wall Street

Considering the glut of major, late-breaking contenders in this race, there are some surprises here. Which, in and of itself, isn’t that surprising. The NBR is the organization that threw a Top 10 citation at The Bucket List. So while mentions for films like Lone Survivor and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty won’t necessarily launch those films into the middle of the Oscar race, it might provide enough of a publicity boost to get voters to see them and consider them for tech categories. Ditto Prisoners, which might wrangle a Supporting Actor campaign for Jake Gyllenhaal yet.

The inclusion of Fruitvale Station is the most intriguing, particularly because the NBR could have easily thrown it in with the Top 10 Indies (listed below). That they included it at the grown-ups table indicates an enthusiasm for the film that could very easily translate into bigger successes throughout the season. I’ve been saying for months that Harvey Weinstein’s best horse to back this year is Fruitvale and its star Michael B. Jordan. In light of The Butler, August: Osage County, and Philomena all coming up empty here, I wonder if Harvey might get an idea.

Best Director: Spike Jonze, Her.

Best Actor: Bruce Dern, Nebraska. With Robert Redford winning at NYFCC and Dern here, it’s looking good that we could have a Great Gatsby reunion in Best Actor this year. (And maybe Leo can get an invite for Wolf of Wall Street, too.) As expected, Michael B. Jordan got Best Breakthrough Actor instead, so NBR could have their cake and eat it, too.

Best Actress: Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks. So no sweep for Cate Blanchett. This is a good pick-up, for Thompson’s nomination chances. She’s been tearing it up on the publicity circuit, so if there’s a dark horse in the Oscar race, it may well be her.

Best Supporting Actor: Will Forte, Nebraska. I’m still not sure I’m getting what others are in this performance, but Best Supporting Actor, beyond Jared Leto and Michael Fassbender, is still a fairly wide-open race for nominations, and Forte is suddenly looking as solid as anyone else.

Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, Fruitvale Station. There’s a phenomenon where Oscar winners (especially those who came from out of nowhere) get a follow-up nomination shortly thereafter, for a performance that’s maybe not as flashy/impressive/memorable, but it kind of backs up the win as not a fluke. I always think of Charlize Theron’s North Country nomination that way. Or Marisa Tomei’s In the Bedroom nomination, which at the time felt very much like “SEE? Jack Palance didn’t just read the wrong name! She’s quite good!” Anyway, that’s what this Fruitvale nod for Octavia feels like.

Best Animated Film: The Wind Rises.

Best Documentary: Stories We Tell

Best Foreign Language Film: The Past

Best Original Screenplay: Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Wolf of Wall Street

Breakthrough Actor: Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station

Breakthrough Actress: Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue Is the Warmest Color

Best Ensemble: Prisoners

Top 5 Foreign Films:

Beyond the Hills Gloria The Grandmaster A Highjacking The Hunt

Top 5 Documentaries

20 Feet from Stardom The Act of Killing After Tiller Casting By The Square

Top 10 Independent Films

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints Dallas Buyers Club In a World… Mother of George Much Ado About Nothing Mud The Place Beyond the Pines Short Term 12 The Spectacular Now
       

Only the Bible Can Save Mark Pryor From Obamacare

Mark Pryor

"I'm not ashamed to say that I believe in God, and I believe in His word," says Sen. Mark Pryor in his new campaign ad. Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat widely seen as one of America's most vulnerable congressional incumbents, spends the entirety of the 30-second ad holding a Bible in front of the camera, and outlining how the Bible (and presumably, not Barack Obama) guides his every move. "Neither political party is always right," Pryor says.

"This is my compass, my North Star," Pryor adds, as he waves his Bible between his body and the camera. "It gives me comfort and guidance to do what’s best for Arkansas.” The ad was first obtained by ABC's KATV, and later posted to the senator's YouTube channel. 

There is nothing new — or shameful — about politicians discussing their faith in the course of their political work. Almost everyone, including Barack Obama, does it strategically. Pryor's Bible ad is apparently an attempt to soften the tone of what promises to be a bitter 2014 campaign around Christmas time. But it's doubtful that Pryor's primary intent is to praise the virtues of God.

Pryor, who supported the Affordable Care Act, is already fighting against a dramatic approval rating drop in the deeply religious state, coinciding with the disastrous roll-out of the Healthcare.gov exchange site. And as The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week, the senator's Republican challenger Rep. Tom Cotton is going hard against the conservative Democrat's record of supporting Obamacare.