George Packer's Blog, page 172

America’s Overperforming Olympic Distance Runners

How many caps did Galen Rupp wear during the men’s marathon race on Sunday morning, as a light rain fell in Rio, along with most of his rivals and doubters? It was hard to tell with all the poorly timed NBC commercial breaks, such as the one that prevented viewers from seeing when the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge dropped those last few runners still nipping at his heels, with about four miles to go, or the one that aired right when Rupp finally fell back to third place for good. But six is probably a safe estimate. Rupp kept changing his hats at hydration stations. Were they packed with cooling gel? Chilled in ice water? Few beyond Rupp and his coach—the divisive but effective Alberto Salazar, Nike’s dark wizard of track and field—know for sure. (Reports surfaced in June of 2015 that Salazar had been accused of urging some of his athletes to use banned substances. Rupp, however, has never been caught doping and has never been sanctioned.)

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
How to Save Olympic Track for Its Fans
The Mystery of Ryan Lochte
Life After Usain Bolt

Trump’s Anti-Science Campaign

Over the past few months, we’ve seen Donald Trump lower, again and again, the bar for political discourse. All the while, though, he’s been lowering the scientific bar, too. In May, for instance, while speaking to an audience of West Virginia coal miners, Trump complained that regulations designed to protect the ozone layer had compromised the quality of his hair spray. Those regulations, he continued, were misguided, because hair spray is used mainly indoors, and so can have no effect on the atmosphere outside. No wonder Hillary Clinton felt the need to include, in her nomination speech, the phrase “I believe in science.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

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Why “New Trump” Isn’t So New
What Are Donald Trump, Roger Ailes, and Steve Bannon Really Up To?
A Year Without Oliver Sacks

The Babies Are Dying in Aleppo

Last month, four newborns in incubators fought for their lives in a small hospital in Aleppo, the besieged Syrian city. Then a bomb hit the hospital and cut off power—and oxygen to the incubators. The babies suffocated. In a joint letter to President Obama this month, fifteen doctors described the infants’ deaths: “Gasping for air, their lives ended before they had really begun.” The doctors are among the last few in the eastern part of Aleppo, the historic former commercial center where a hundred thousand children are now trapped.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Refugee Olympians in Rio
Who Bombed the Istanbul Airport?
Former Ambassador Robert Ford on the State Department Mutiny on Syria

Making Bicycles in Detroit Is an Uphill Ride

In 1896, the Detroit Wheelmen opened an ornate new clubhouse, complete with an auditorium and a bowling alley. The Detroit Free Press called it “the most modern club house of any cycling organization in the west.” Its forty-thousand-dollar cost (about $1.1 million today) was paid for by the club’s four hundred and fifty members, who included John and Horace Dodge, the co-owners of Evans & Dodge Bicycle Company, one of more than three hundred U.S. manufacturers during the bike boom of the eighteen-nineties.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

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An Economic Moment, Frozen in Time
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Donald Trump and an Even Cruder G.O.P. Debate

Does Henry Kissinger Have a Conscience?

Last March, when President Obama travelled to Argentina to meet with the country’s new President, Mauricio Macri, his public appearances were dogged by protesters who noisily demanded explanations, and apologies, for U.S. policies, past and present. There are few countries in the West where anti-Americanism is as vociferously expressed as in Argentina, where a highly politicized culture of grievance has evolved in which many of the country’s problems are blamed on the United States. On the left, especially, there is lingering resentment over the support extended by the U.S. government to Argentina’s right-wing military, which seized power in March of 1976 and launched a “Dirty War” against leftists that took thousands of lives over the following seven years.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Henry Kissinger’s Tactical-Nuclear Shadow
Argentina’s Culture of Corruption
Scenes from the Copa América Championship

How to Save Olympic Track for Its Fans

During the Rio Olympics, Malcolm Gladwell and Nicholas Thompson have been discussing the track-and-field events. Part 1, on Caster Semenya and Olympic economics, can be read here. Part 2, on Usain Bolt and Mo Farah, is here. Part 3 is below.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Mystery of Ryan Lochte
Life After Usain Bolt
Ryan Lochte’s Perfect Summer Scandal

Fu Yuanhui Teaches China to Relax at the Olympics

By official count, there are twenty-eight sports, three hundred and six events, and twenty-four hundred and eighty-eight available medals at this year’s Rio Olympics. The more than eleven thousand participating athletes represent two hundred and six countries, which duke it out over sixteen days in a ritualized display of prowess that is as pricey as it is purposeless. There’s pro-forma talk of sportsmanship and international coöperation, but even the opening ceremony’s Parade of Nations lays bare the tribalism in us all: what counts here is the flag and the flash of gold. For the Chinese government, which in recent years has made no secret of its desire to promote China’s supremacy on the world’s most conspicuous athletic stage, the Olympics are closer to a gladiatorial contest than a sporting event. The task is to bring the motherland glory, and glory comes exclusively in one color.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
A Cartoonist Travels in China: Xiamen and Leaving China
A Cartoonist Travels in China: Changsha
A Cartoonist Travels in China: Wuhan

Twenty-Five Years After the Failed Soviet Coup

In August, 1991, a small group of hard-liners in the Soviet government staged a coup aimed at halting the popular anti-Communist, pro-freedom tide stirred by Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika. On their orders, tanks surrounded the “White House,” the seat of the government of Russia (then a constituent part of the Soviet Union), which was led by Boris Yeltsin, the newly elected President. Tens of thousands of Muscovites rushed to the White House, to rally around Yeltsin and defend Russian freedom against the Communist putsch. Three days later, the putschists suffered a spectacular defeat.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, August 16th
Donald Trump Is the Gift to Hillary Clinton That Keeps On Giving
The Very Strange Writings of Putin’s New Chief of Staff

Twenty-five Years After the Failed Soviet Coup

In August, 1991, a small group of hard-liners in the Soviet government staged a coup aimed at halting the popular anti-Communist, pro-freedom tide stirred by Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika. On their orders, tanks surrounded the “White House,” the seat of the government of Russia (then a constituent part of the Soviet Union), which was led by Boris Yeltsin, the newly elected President. Tens of thousands of Muscovites rushed to the White House, to rally around Yeltsin and defend Russian freedom against the Communist putsch. Three days later, the putschists suffered a spectacular defeat.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Daily Cartoon: Tuesday, August 16th
Donald Trump Is the Gift to Hillary Clinton That Keeps On Giving
The Very Strange Writings of Putin’s New Chief of Staff

Why “New Trump” Isn’t So New

Politico ran a good headline on Friday morning: “Regretful Trump Pivots 107 Days Late.” The word “pivot” referred to Trump’s appearance in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, where he did indeed express regret about some of the things he has said during his Presidential campaign. He also condemned bigotry. A hundred and seven days is the time that had elapsed between when Trump wrapped up the Republican nomination and when he gave the speech in Charlotte. Some observers hailed this as an important moment.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
What Are Donald Trump, Roger Ailes, and Steve Bannon Really Up To?
What Do People Mean When They Say Donald Trump Is Racist?
Song of the Summer: “Bawitdaba,” by Kid Rock