George Packer's Blog, page 193

Bernie Sanders’s Philosophical Victory

The news that Bernie Sanders will appear alongside Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Tuesday shouldn’t surprise anyone, except perhaps the most deluded “Bernie or bust” types. For months now, the Vermont senator has been declaring that he will do everything he can to defeat Donald Trump in November’s election, which is clearly a coded way of saying that he will endorse the Democratic candidate when he feels that the time is right.

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Related:
Daily Cartoon: Friday, July 8th
Airbnb-Tenant Reviews of the Candidates
Is Donald Trump Losing It?

The Rise of Theresa May and the Decline of British Politics

The story of how Theresa May, the United Kingdom’s Home Secretary, became the presumptive Prime Minister is one of tragi-farcical, politico-comic self-destruction. It has played out with slapstick speed since the morning after the nation voted to leave the European Union, two and a half weeks ago, and the Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, who had campaigned against Brexit, said that he would resign rather than preside over it. At the time, Cameron figured that he’d stick around until November, and there was an assumption in many quarters that he’d be succeeded by Boris Johnson, an M.P. and the former mayor of London, who likes to preen about how disorderly he is. But on Monday, standing in front of 10 Downing Street, Cameron said that Britain would “have a new Prime Minister in that building behind me by Wednesday evening,” and that it would be May, who had his support. She might have been on the job even sooner than that, except that, this being Britain, taking power still involves a visit to the palace, and the Queen is out of town.

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Related:
How the N.B.A.’s Salary Cap Favors Talent-Rich Teams
Elizabeth II, the Brexit Queen
Boris Johnson and the Crisis of British Leadership

Serena Williams, Andy Murray, and a Political Wimbledon

Serena Williams has become so synonymous with dominance that it can be hard not to take her for granted, her power so obvious that it can be strangely hard to see. She is called a force of nature, or considered superhuman, or accorded the divine right of queens. I have done this myself; I have talked about her as if she were a Greek goddess.

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Related:
The Unexpected Challenge: Roger Federer’s Wimbledon Quarterfinal Victory
Marcus Willis’s (Very) Brief Wimbledon Fairy Tale
Can John McEnroe Help Milos Raonic Win Wimbledon?

The Suit That Couldn’t Be Copied

About two years ago, I became interested in the garments of Davide Taub, the head cutter for Gieves & Hawkes, a house in London at which Alexander McQueen apprenticed, and which has a reputation for designs that are both elegant and daring. A cutter is the equivalent of a designer, and Taub is considered by some to be the finest cutter on Savile Row. I had come across his work on his blog, where he posts images of his more ambitious clothes and their construction. There are images of an alpaca-wool greatcoat whose collar, when upturned, evokes a tulip, and another called the Barrel-Back Overcoat, which, when Taub is shown wearing it, makes him appear large and mysterious and from a different era.

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Related:
Tyler, the Creator’s Fashion Statement
Rent the Met: Costume Institute Edition
The Appeal of the Coachella Way of Life

After Dallas, The Future of Black Lives Matter

The least disputable measure of a bad week is any seven-day period that requires a body count at the end of it. Seven Americans in three different cities died in high-profile incidents this week, all of them captured, at least partially, on video and disseminated by social media. Taken in sum, the deaths of Alton Sterling, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Philando Castile, near St. Paul, Minnesota; and Officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Michael J. Smith, Brent Thompson, and Patrick Zamarripa, in Dallas, Texas; seem like installments in a macabre serial: “The Purge” recast as a reality show. There are common threads here: the surfeit of guns in American society, the chasm between law enforcement and many African-Americans, the ways in which social media have transformed the public into a nation of eyewitnesses.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Obama and Trump After Dallas
“Our Country Is Better Than That”: Two Responses to Tragedy
A Week of Gun Violence Does Nothing to Change the N.R.A.’s Message

Obama and Trump After Dallas

In the midst of tragedy—as in Baton Rouge, in Minnesota, and, now, in Dallas—there is always the human instinct to grasp for words and images that might help construct a barrier against internal despair and social chaos. Maybe we can find that strength in the poise of Diamond Reynolds, just seconds into her nightmare, recounting the outrageous assault against her boyfriend, Philando Castile, even as he bleeds to death next to her in the front seat and a gun is pointed in her direction. Maybe we can find it in a photograph taken at the anti-violence rally in Dallas of a black protester holding a sign reading, “No Justice, No Peace”; he is flanked by two smiling police officers, one white, one black. And now, on Sunday morning, we watch police officers and citizens of Dallas, black and white, grieving together over the senseless murder of five officers.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
“Our Country Is Better Than That”: Two Responses to Tragedy
A Week of Gun Violence Does Nothing to Change the N.R.A.’s Message
The Horrific, Predictable Result of a Widely Armed Citizenry

To Catch a Graffiti Artist

On the afternoon of May 4th, a passerby on Brunswick Street, a bohemian strip in northeast Melbourne, Australia, noticed another man tagging shop fronts with graffiti stickers. Displeased, he asked the man to stop and then, when the man continued, began filming his actions with a mobile phone. This led to an argument and a tussle. When the passerby got the tagger in a headlock, he accidentally butt-dialled his sister. She heard sounds of a struggle on the other end of the line and called the police.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
A New York City Settlement on Surveillance of Muslims
Before Gentrification, a City Covered in Graffiti
The New Must-Have for Luxury Buildings: Graffiti

How the N.B.A.’s Salary Cap Favors Talent-Rich Teams

Welcome to the Week in Business, a look at some of the biggest stories in business and economics.

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Related:
Editing Kevin Durant
Elizabeth II, the Brexit Queen
Boris Johnson and the Crisis of British Leadership

“Our Country Is Better Than That”: Two Responses to Tragedy

“We are hurting,” David Brown, the chief of the Dallas Police Department, said at the beginning of a press conference on Friday morning. “Our profession is hurting. The Dallas officers are hurting. We are heartbroken. There are no words to describe the atrocity that occurred to our city. All I know is that this must stop—this divisiveness between our police and our citizens.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Silence and Violence of the N.R.A.
The Horrific, Predictable Result of a Widely Armed Citizenry
Three Terrible Days of Violence

A Week of Gun Violence Does Nothing to Change the N.R.A.’s Message

In the language of today’s National Rifle Association, “an armed society is a polite society.” The aphorism, borrowed from the science-fiction author Robert Heinlein, is the inspiration for one of the N.R.A.’s most popular T-shirts, which bears the word “COEXIST,” spelled out in brightly colored ammo cartridges and guns. To promote the shirt ($17.99), the N.R.A. store says that Heinlein’s quote “emphasizes the independent, tolerant nature of gun owners in a fun and thought-provoking way.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Obama and Trump After Dallas
“Our Country Is Better Than That”: Two Responses to Tragedy
The Horrific, Predictable Result of a Widely Armed Citizenry