George Packer's Blog, page 182

America’s Dirtiest Boat Races

Every July, tens of thousands of speedboat-racing enthusiasts descend on DePue, Illinois, a tiny village that sits at the elbow of the Illinois River, a hundred miles southwest of Chicago. Around the edges of the town’s namesake lake, these fans set up to watch some two hundred competitors participate in one of the premier events in American outboard racing: the Lake DePue National Championship Boat Races. For four days, the normally quiet shorelines of Lake DePue are transformed into a party, a theme park, and a celebration of boating as sport. This year’s festivities began Wednesday.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Volkswagen Settlement: How Bad Management Leads to Big Punishment
Poisoned Landscapes
What Can China Achieve with Cap-and-Trade?

How Progressive Was Hillary Clinton’s Acceptance Speech?

Just hours before Hillary Clinton delivered her speech accepting the Democratic nomination for President at the Party’s Convention, on Thursday night, two veterans of Bill Clinton’s Administration—the pollster Stan Greenberg and the economist Joseph E. Stiglitz—appeared at an event organized by the Roosevelt Institute, a liberal think tank. The title of the session, which was held at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel, was “How to Win on the Economy in 2016.” Greenberg presented some interesting data about two possible ways to frame her domestic-policy agenda, which includes raising the minimum wage, eliminating tax breaks for hedge funds, guaranteeing paid family leave, and encouraging corporations to invest for the long term.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Photos from the Democratic National Convention: The Final Night
Live-Drawing Hillary’s Historic Convention
Daily Cartoon: Friday, July 29th

Hillary Clinton’s Night at the Convention

“More than a few times, I’ve had to pick myself up and get myself back in the game,” Hillary Clinton said Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention, in Philadelphia, in a strong speech that attempted to explain not just what she had done in her life but why—“what to make of me,” as she put it. She has had low points; this night won’t be one of them. She officially became her Party’s nominee for President, and although she spoke movingly about what that might mean to children in the future, at times she seemed almost unaware of how important her success was, on a personal level, to most of the delegates in the hall. They were on her side; they wanted to hear her and they wanted her to win in November. There were times when her rhythm seemed off, or at least set to a different beat than that moving the crowd. But in the end they found each other.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Photos from the Democratic National Convention: The Final Night
Live-Drawing Hillary’s Historic Convention
Daily Cartoon: Friday, July 29th

Hillary’s Night

“More than a few times, I’ve had to pick myself up and get myself back in the game,” Hillary Clinton said Thursday night at the Democratic National Convention, in Philadelphia, in a strong speech that attempted to explain not just what she had done in her life but why—“what to make of me,” as she put it. She has had low points; this night won’t be one of them. She officially became her Party’s nominee for President, and although she spoke movingly about what that might mean to children in the future, at times she seemed almost unaware of how important her success was, on a personal level, to most of the delegates in the hall. They were on her side; they wanted to hear her and they wanted her to win in November. There were times when her rhythm seemed off or, at least, set to a different beat than that moving the crowd. But in the end they found each other.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Trump and Russia: Even Historians See No Precedent
What the Kremlin Makes of Donald Trump
The Power of “Love” in Politics

Can an Addiction Memoir Help Us Understand Wall Street?

In January of 2014, a Times Op-Ed by Sam Polk, a former derivatives trader who worked on Wall Street between 2003 and 2010, went viral. Occupy Wall Street protesters had been evicted from Zuccotti Park two years before, and the phrase “the one per cent” had become a part of public discourse. No major banker responsible for the crisis had been sent to jail, and Polk seized on the moment both to personally atone and to deliver the insider’s diagnosis of Wall Street that the public had been waiting for. “Ever see what a drug addict is like when he’s used up his junk?” Polk wrote. “He’ll do anything—walk 20 miles in the snow, rob a grandma—to get a fix. Wall Street was like that.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Wall Street Women: Harassed and Power-Hungry
Goldman Sachs E-Mails Flagged by the Compliance Department
Why Banks Don’t Play It Safe, Even When It Costs Them

Trump and Russia: Even Historians See No Precedent

Three U.S. senators huddled worriedly last night amid the crush of Democrats in the corridors of the Wells Fargo Center, the site of their national Convention. Leaning in closely, in hopes that no one would overhear, one urgently complained to the others that Hillary Clinton’s campaign wasn’t doing enough to counter the bizarre statements made that morning by Donald Trump.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Hillary’s Night
How the Republican Establishment Lost to Trump on Russia
What the Kremlin Makes of Donald Trump

How the Republican Establishment Lost to Trump on Russia

One of the main arguments made by prominent Republicans who have refused to back Donald Trump is that endorsing the candidate means embracing everything he stands for and says.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Trump and Russia: Even Historians See No Precedent
What the Kremlin Makes of Donald Trump
Other Recent Campaign Promises to Russia

What the Kremlin Makes of Donald Trump

Why Vladimir Putin would prefer Donald Trump rather than Hillary Clinton in the White House is not hard to parse. Yes, Putin and Trump have exhibited a certain affinity for each other—Putin has called Trump a “very colorful, talented person,” and Trump has returned the favor, declaring Putin “a leader, unlike what we have in this country”—and they share a political style that reveres strength, elevates cynicism to a virtue, and plays loose with the truth. But, for Putin and those around him, the best thing about Trump is simply that he is not Clinton.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Hillary’s Night
Trump and Russia: Even Historians See No Precedent
How the Republican Establishment Lost to Trump on Russia

The Power of “Love” in Politics

Early on in his speech at the Democratic National Convention, in Philadelphia, on Monday evening, Cory Booker, the junior senator from New Jersey, drew attention to the pointed choice that William Penn, the founder of the Pennsylvania Colony, made in naming the city. “Today we gather here again in this city, in this City of Brotherly Love, to reaffirm our values before our nation and the whole world,” he declared.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Hillary’s Night
Trump and Russia: Even Historians See No Precedent
Daily Cartoon: Thursday, July 28th

Tim Kaine Takes Back Faith for the Democrats

Donald Trump does not much talk about his faith, in God or anyone else, and so, as if obeying a pendular logic, the Democratic Party has begun to display its own. “When was last Dem Convention that showed video of a prayer circle and an amen?” one reporter wondered on Twitter on Tuesday night. There was more to come. A video showed President Obama singing “Amazing Grace” in his eulogy in Charleston, and the delegates held up their arms, like they were in church. As Lenny Kravitz performed, a swaying church choir occupied the stage behind him. Most meaningful, the Party last night nominated for Vice-President the Jesuit-inspired Virginia senator Tim Kaine.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Hillary’s Night
Trump and Russia: Even Historians See No Precedent
The Power of “Love” in Politics